Brush biopsies from the middle-ear (ME) and nasal mucosa were taken from a 4-year-old girl with complete situs inversus, recurrent otitis media and tonsillitis, who underwent tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy and bilateral myringotomy with insertion of ventilation tubes. Ciliary beat frequencies (CBF, Hz.) of the ME and nasal samples, measured by a photoelectric system equipped with a fiber-optic probe, were 9.5 Hz. (±1.2) and 13.7 Hz. (±4.1) respectively. These values are similar to CBF of nasal samples obtained from normal subjects. In vitro CBF assessment is a useful investigative tool for the study of mucociliary activity in the ME, as in patients suspected to have ciliary dyskinesia syndrome.

A very rare abnormality is reported of congenital absence of the right half of the nose in combination with microphthalmia, coloboma, epiphora and median cleft of the alveous.

Plasma cell neoplasms have been classified as multiple myeloma, solitary plasmacytoma and extramedullary plasmacytoma. They are usually considered as osteolytic lesions of bone except for the rare occurrence of osteosclerotic lesions. This paper describes the first reported osteosclerotic plasmacytoma of the maxillary bone and orbital floor. The difficulties in establishing a diagnosis and the relationship to other plasma cell neoplasms are discussed.

Osteosclerotic plasmacytomas are a rare variant of plasma cell tumors which usually produce osteolytic lesions rather than bony sclerosis. Sixty-eight patients with the osteosclerotic variant have appeared in the world literature, with an overall incidence of about 1 per cent in a large series of plasma cell neoplasms (Dreidger and Pruzanski, 1979). There have been only six previous cases of solitary osteosclerotic plasmacytomas reported (Morley and Schweiger, 1964; Roberts et al., 1974; Rodriguez et al. 1976; Rushton, 1965; Schneinker, 1938; Brigham Medical Review, 1961) involving spine, sternum, or rib. None have previously been reported in the head and neck area.

Plasma cell tumors have been classified into multiple myeloma, solitary plasmacytomas of bone, and extramedullary plasmacytomas. Multiple myeloma is a disseminated plasma cell malignancy characterized by the production of homogeneous immunoglobulins (whole or fragments) which appear in the serum and urine. Plasma cell tumors can also occur as solitary plasmacytomas, usually in bone, but also in soft tissue. With time, most solitary plasmacytomas develop disseminated disease with all the characteristics of multiple myeloma (Wiltshaw, 1976). Extramedullary plasmacytomas arise in soft tissue rather than bone, and primarily occur in the head and neck region. Clinically, they remain localized and less frequently develop into disseminated myeloma.

An 82-year-old man developed an uncommon type of swallowing disturbance with tetanus. Initially, he could masticate his food but could not pass it into the esophagus. The mechanism of swallowing in this patient was studied radiologically and endoscopically. The disturbance in the second stage of deglutition was associated predominantly with his advanced age and the slow clinical progress of the tetanus. The patient was cured by treating the disease.