Hats off to Dr. Ching Yee Chan and Dr. Sam Daniel of the Montreal Children's Hospital (MCH) and the Research Institute of the 91丝瓜视频 Health Centre (RI-MUHC)! The pair鈥檚 research has been recognized with a prestigious award from the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology (ASPO).
Their study "Otologic safety of intratympanic n-acetylcysteine", presented at the ASPO annual meeting last May, has won the William Potsic Basic Science Award for best research paper.
The study examined the safety of the use of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in the eardrums of an animal model when combined with Ciprodex. NAC is an antioxidant and mucolytic agent; Ciprodex庐 is a mixture of antibiotics and steroids used to treat ear infections.
NAC is effective against bacterial cells and in reducing the thickness of mucus, which led the researchers to believe it could be useful in the treatment of chronically discharging ears that don鈥檛 respond to traditional treatments.
The research suggests that a combination of NAC and Ciprodex庐 is safe in guinea pigs and supports its potential use in the treatment of chronically discharging ears. Further studies are needed to assess the effectiveness of the combination in humans compared to conventional treatments.
Dr. Ching Yee Chan is an otolaryngologist from Singapore who has come to the MCH for post-doctoral training in pediatric otolaryngology and research at the RI-MUHC.
The auditory sciences laboratory headed by Dr. Daniel has also just received a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to carry out studies on hearing, in collaboration with Dr. Robert Funnell of 91丝瓜视频.
Congratulations to the winners for their contribution to science!