About the Authors

Tadashi Nishimura

t-nishim@naramed-u.ac.jp

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan

Hiroshi Hosoi

Affiliation Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan

Osamu Saito

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan

Ryosuke Miyamae

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan

Ryota Shimokura

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan

Toshiaki Yamanaka

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan

Tadashi Kitahara

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan

Harry Levitt

Affiliation The City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TN HH HL. Performed the experiments: TN OS RM RS. Analyzed the data: TN RS TY TK. Wrote the paper: TN HH HL.