A rare cause of dysphagia due to retropharyngeal foregut duplication cyst: case report and review of the literature

Background: The retropharyngeal space is a deep compartment of the head and neck region which extends from the base of the skull to the mediastinum, between the posterior pharyngeal wall and vertebral muscles, delimited laterally by carotid sheaths. Pathological processes of the retropharyngeal space are rarely encountered, generally are isolated and painless masses often cystic, and they usually originate from branchial arch anomalies, but only in rare cases, they turn out to be foregut duplication cysts. Foregut duplication cyst is rare congenital malformations arising along primitively derived alimentary tract during the first trimester in the developing embryo, mostly seen in the thorax and abdomen, with just few cases reported in the head and neck region. We report an extremely rare case of a foregut duplication cyst lined with respiratory epithelium located in the retropharyngeal space, at the level of the oropharynx, of an adult patient with dysphagia surgically treated, and we also made an analysis of the published literature about this very uncommon condition. Case presentation: A 63-year-old male patient with chronic dysphagia was diagnosed with a retropharyngeal cystic lesion, which was surgically treated. Final pathologic evaluation confirmed the diagnosis of a rare foregut duplication cyst lined with respiratory epithelium. A review of the pertaining published literature about the head and neck foregut duplication cysts was made, with a particular emphasis on retropharyngeal ones. Conclusions: Retropharyngeal foregut duplication cysts are a very rare congenital cyst of the head and neck. Clinical symptoms such as dysphagia and dyspnea should be evaluated with fibrolaryngoscopy, and CT and MRI scans are of great significance for definitive diagnosis, which should include the possibility of a foregut duplication cyst in the differential diagnosis. Surgical excision is the elective treatment for this lesion, in order to prevent complications including infection and compression symptoms or eventually malignant transformation

From site-scale to large areas monitoring of ground deformation phenomena by integration of different DInSAR techniques in Crotone Province (Southern Italy)

One of the most significant aims of this research project has been to apply SAR methods for the monitoring, the investigation and the evaluation of ground deformation phenomena in the Crotone province (Southern Italy). In detail, landslides and subsidence are the most remarkable and dangerous natural hazards in the study area, affecting people, buildings and main infrastructures. The intention was to show the potential of Differential Interferometry SAR (DInSAR) techniques for the detection and the estimation of the velocities and of the deformation of surface displacements, both on very local scale (slope scale) and on wide areas (kilometre-size extension). Such aim is achievable through the integration of DInSAR techniques along with conventional monitoring tools. The general idea of the project has been to assess the landslide hazard in selected areas of the Crotone province and to update the related landslide inventory map of the area, dated back to 2006, by means of DInSAR techniques. These goals have been reached through the comprehension and the understanding of the movements, on one hand on a very local scale (slope), and on the other hand, on a wide-area scale (the whole Crotone province). Additionally, two other case studies of subsidence, originated by different sources, have been studied with interferometry techniques, showing the suitability of such methods for other types of ground deformation. Several Multi Temporal Interferometry (MTI, Wasowski & Bovenga, 2014) approaches have been here applied, in order to investigate and analyze displacements present in the area, and the integration with “conventional” methods, such as inclinometers, piezometers and geomorphological surveys, turned out to be relevant for these purposes, providing very precise information about the nature and causes of ground deformation

Congenital Pyriform Sinus Fistula: Systematic Review and Proposal for Treatment Using a Novel Endoscopic Approach

The pyriform sinus fistula (PSF) is a congenital developmental defect of the third or fourth branchial pouch. It presents as acute inflammatory swelling of the neck with recurrent deep neck abscesses, recurrent neck cystic lesions or suppurative thyroiditis. The literature reports various surgical approaches to treat this condition in children. A systematic review of the literature related to management protocols for PSF was conducted and we report a case exemplifying treatment in our department. Traditionally, treatment for PSF has been open surgery; however, in the last few decades, the minimally invasive transoral endoscopic approach has gained in importance, demonstrating long-term outcomes comparable to open surgery and with lower morbidity, and it has now become the first-choice treatment. We further describe a case of PSF treated by a transoral endoscopic approach with electric cauterization, fibrin glue obliteration of the fistula and Polydimethylsiloxane (Vox-Implants®, Bioplasty, Geleen, The Netherlands) submucosal injection. According to the authors, application of Vox-Implants® injection, in addition to standard techniques, may be helpful to reduce fistula recurrence rate after surgery

Review of works combining GNSS and insar in Europe

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) can be combined to achieve different goals, owing to their main principles. Both enable the collection of information about ground deformation due to the differences of two consequent acquisitions. Their variable applications, even if strictly related to ground deformation and water vapor determination, have encouraged the scientific community to combine GNSS and InSAR data and their derivable products. In this work, more than 190 scientific contributions were collected spanning the whole European continent. The spatial and temporal distribution of such studies, as well as the distinction in different fields of application, were analyzed. Research in Italy, as the most represented nation, with 47 scientific contributions, has been dedicated to the spatial and temporal distribution of its studied phenomena. The state-of-the-art of the various applications of these two combined techniques can improve the knowledge of the scientific community and help in the further development of new approaches or additional applications in different fields. The demonstrated usefulness and versability of the combination of GNSS and InSAR remote sensing techniques for different purposes, as well as the availability of free data, EUREF and GMS (Ground Motion Service), and the possibility of overcoming some limitations of these techniques through their combination suggest an increasingly widespread approach

Post-failure evolution analysis of a rainfall-triggered landslide by multi-temporal interferometry SAR approaches integrated with geotechnical analysis

Persistent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) represents one of the most powerful techniques for Earth's surface deformation processes' monitoring, especially for long-term evolution phenomena. In this work, a dataset of 34 TerraSAR-X StripMap images (October 2013–October 2014) has been processed by two PSI techniques - Coherent Pixel Technique-Temporal Sublook Coherence (CPT-TSC) and Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) - in order to study the evolution of a slow-moving landslide which occurred on February 23, 2012 in the Papanice hamlet (Crotone municipality, southern Italy) and induced by a significant rainfall event (185 mm in three days). The mass movement caused structural damage (buildings' collapse), and destruction of utility lines (gas, water and electricity) and roads. The results showed analogous displacement rates (30–40 mm/yr along the Line of Sight – LOS-of the satellite) with respect to the pre-failure phase (2008–2010) analyzed in previous works. Both approaches allowed detect the landslide-affected area, however the higher density of targets identified by means of CPT-TSC enabled to analyze in detail the slope behavior in order to design possible mitigation interventions. For this aim, a slope stability analysis has been carried out, considering the comparison between groundwater oscillations and time-series of displacement. Hence, the crucial role of the interaction between rainfall and groundwater level has been inferred for the landslide triggering. In conclusion, we showed that the integration of geotechnical and remote sensing approaches can be seen as the best practice to support stakeholders to design remedial works.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

PS-driven inventory of town-damaging landslides in the Benevento, Avellino and Salerno Provinces, southern Italy

The Apennine provinces of Campania Region (southern Italy), Benevento, Avellino and Salerno, are known for their 'unstable towns' suffering periodic damage from landslides. Their identification and mapping are very challenging tasks, since boundary mapping under urban settlements is not always possible without time-consuming field analysis of building damage and/or expensive mid-term diffuse ground-surface deformation monitoring. To overcome this problem, an inventory of town-damaging landslides, guided by available Permanent Scatterers (PS) ground-deformation data, was prepared. It provides an updated tool suitable to guide future land planning and historical site restoration in the Apennine provinces of Campania Region. Our fourteen Map Sheets show active and local reactivation of suspended/dormant landslides. Overall, 356 landslides were identified, amongst which 162 were identified as flows, 101 as slides, 1 as a spreads and 92 as complex landslides. To supplement our maps, a simplified distribution analysis based on major landslide morphometric characteristics was completed

Personal experience with the remote check telehealth in cochlear implant users: from COVID-19 emergency to routine service

Purpose: To critically illustrate the personal experience with using the “Remote Check” application which remotely monitors the hearing rehabilitation level of cochlear implant users at home and further allows clinicians to schedule in-clinic sessions according to the patients’ needs. Methods: 12-month prospective study. Eighty adult cochlear implant users (females n = 37, males n = 43; age range 20–77 years) with ≥ 36 months of cochlear implant experience and ≥ 12 months of stable auditory and speech recognition level volunteered for this 12-month long prospective study. For each patient, at the beginning of the study during the in-clinic session to assess the stable aided hearing thresholds and the cochlear implant integrity and patient’s usage, the “Remote Check” assessment baseline values were obtained. “Remote Check” outcomes were collected at different times in the subsequent at-home sessions, to identify the patients that had to reach the Center. Chi-square test has been used for statistical analysis of the comparison of the “Remote Check” outcomes and in-clinic session results. Results: “Remote Check” application outcomes demonstrated minimal or no differences between all sessions. The at-home Remote Check application reached the same clinical outcomes as the in-clinic sessions in 79 out 80 of participants (99%) with high statistical significance (p < 0.05). Conclusions: “Remote Check” application supported hearing monitoring in cochlear implant users that were not able to attend the in-clinic review during COVID-19 pandemic time. This study demonstrates that the application can be a useful routine tool also for clinical follow-up of cochlear implant users with stable aided hearing

Monitoring of remedial works performance on landslide-affected areas through ground- and satellite-based techniques

Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) techniques have repeatedly proved to be an effective tool for built environments monitoring in areas affected by geological hazards. This paper describes how the Coherent Pixel Technique (CPT) approach has been successfully applied to assess the response of an unstable slope to the different phases of remedial works following a landslide event. The CPT technique was performed on 59 COSMO-SkyMed images obtained between May 2011 and August 2016 and centred on the Quercianella settlement (a small hamlet of Livorno municipality, Tuscany, Italy), where the reactivation of a dormant shallow slide had occurred in March 2011 and, hereafter, a geotechnical intervention, designed with the aim of mitigating the risks, has been conducted from August 2013, lasting thirteen months. The time series of CPT results show a deformation pattern with sudden accelerations (up to 21 mm in few months) corresponding to the beginning of the interventions, during which the area has been excavated to install a drainage well, followed by mild decelerations resulting from the stabilization of the area after the conclusion of the works. In particular, the integration of ground-based subsurface monitoring (inclinometers and piezometers) and DInSAR superficial data has provided consistent results for landslide characterization and helped defining the state of activity and the areal distribution of the sliding surface. Moreover, the performance of remedial works in the landslide-affected area has been observed, showing stabilization in the upper part of the hamlet and the ongoing movement in the lower part. The combined monitoring system also led the geotechnical company in charge of remedial works to design further stabilization works in order to preserve buildings and roads in the moving area. Therefore, the integration of remote sensing techniques and in situ instruments represents a timely and cost-efficient solution for intervention works monitoring, opening new perspectives on designing engineering solutions for the stabilization of unstable slopes

25 years of satellite InSAR monitoring of ground instability and coastal geohazards in the archaeological site of Capo Colonna, Italy

For centuries the promontory of Capo Colonna in Calabria region, southern Italy, experienced land subsidence and coastline retreat to an extent that the archaeological ruins of the ancient Greek sanctuary are currently under threat of cliff failure, toppling and irreversible loss. Gas extraction in nearby wells is a further anthropogenic element to account for at the regional scale. Exploiting an unprecedented satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) time series including ERS-1/2, ENVISAT, TerraSAR-X, COSMO-SkyMed and Sentinel-1A data stacks acquired between 1992 and 2016, this paper presents the first and most complete Interferometric SAR (InSAR) baseline assessment of land subsidence and coastal processes affecting Capo Colonna. We analyse the regional displacement trends, the correlation between vertical displacements with gas extraction volumes, the impact on stability of the archaeological heritage, and the coastal geohazard susceptibility. In the last 25 years, the land has subsided uninterruptedly, with highest annual line-of-sight deformation rates ranging between -15 and -20 mm/year in 2011-2014. The installation of 40 pairs of corner reflectors along the northern coastline and within the archaeological park resulted in an improved imaging capability and higher density of measurement points. This proved to be beneficial for the ground stability assessment of recent archaeological excavations, in an area where field surveying in November 2015 highlighted new events of cliff failure. The conceptual model developed suggests that combining InSAR results, geomorphological assessments and inventorying of wave-storms will contribute to unveil the complexity of coastal geohazards in Capo Colonna. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only