[Diagnostic contributions to the tympanometric study of malignant nasopharyngeal processes]

Extensive studies in areas of high prevalence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma have demonstrated that the most frequent site of origin is Rosenmuller's fossa. Even a small tumour may cause changes in the lumen of the orifice of the Eustachian tube either because of compression or because of a growth of the tumour directly into the lumen of the tube. This causes various wellknown disorders which are frequent initial signs and symptoms of the disease. Initially, subjective symptoms and signs are not accompanied by objective pathological findings except for a pathological tympanogram. The present method of tympanometric examination offers the possibility of detection of several initial stages of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and combined with nasopharyngoscopy proves to be a very useful complementary examination to serology, biopsy and molecular-biological methods.