[Lateral Sinus Thrombosis--A Rare Complication of an Acute Mastoiditis or Infected Cholesteatoma]. / Die Sinusvenenthrombose--eine seltene Komplikation der akuten Mastoiditis und des Cholesteatoms.

BACKGROUND: Lateral sinus thrombosis (LST) is a rare but threatening complication of an acute mastoiditis or infected cholesteatoma. Currently only very few papers are available in the literature dealing with the systematic investigation of patients with suspected LST. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the clinical, intraoperative and therapeutic findings of patients with particular disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: For this retrospective study the clinical records of 7 patients which were admitted for a suspected LST were evaluated. All patients underwent mastoidectomy with exposition of the lateral sinus and investigating of its blood flow. RESULTS: A LST was confirmed in 4 patients, 3 patients had a phlebitis. Patients with a LST presented additional symptoms beside otalgia, i. e., dizziness, cephalgia, meningism, deafness of the affected ear, and facial nerve paresis. Postoperative MRI scans revealed a recanalization of the sinus in all cases. Although immediate surgery, 2 patients developed a 2-staged brain abscess in the cerebellum. CONCLUSION: Clinical symptoms of the SVT are unspecific. In cases of an acute mastoiditis, neurological signs might be pathognomonic and can direct to a LST. Therapeutic concepts comprise intravenous antibiotics and operative elimination of disease. The exposition of the lateral sinus should be performed in any mastoidectomy for a LST in order to scrutinize its blood flow. In case of a thrombosis additional anticoagulative therapy might be indicated. To exclude a 2-staged brain abscess control MRI scans 7 through 14 days postoperatively are recommended.

Widely tunable optical delay generator.

We propose and demonstrate a method for quasi storage of light based on periodic spectral filtering realized in the time domain by amplitude modulation using frequency-to-time conversion. The delay can be tuned in a wide range by changing the frequency of an electrical modulation signal. In our experiments, the delay of single 2.5 ps pulses varied by 66 pulse widths. The technique works equally well for more complex optical data packets. Contrary to known approaches, the method has a very large spectral bandwidth and can be implemented by either fiber or integrated solutions using existing technologies. Because of the large bandwidth, fractional delays up to several tens of thousands of pulse widths can be achieved potentially for subpicosecond pulses, which is a tremendous value regarding the implementation simplicity.