Five cases of pulmonary Aspergillus nodules diagnosed at surgery and by pathology in immunocompetent patients, with a literature review.

A pulmonary Aspergillus nodule is a rare subtype of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis. The diagnosis is difficult and is histological. There are only a few reports on such cases. Here, we report five cases of pulmonary Aspergillus nodules confirmed by surgery and pathology in immunocompetent patient and review the literature. Among the five patients in this group, three were females and two were males, aged 44-73 years old. Two cases had hemoptysis onset, and three cases were found to have a slow disease course on chest CT during imaging, ranging from months to years. The white blood cell count, carcinoembryonic antigen, and blood Galactomannan (GM) tests in five cases were all within normal range. Four cases had normal blood C-reactive protein, and one case had an increase. On imaging, there were two cases in the upper lobe of the right lung, two cases in the lower lobe of the left lung, one case in the upper lobe of the left lung, three cases were solitary nodular shadows, and two cases were nodular shadows with cavity formation, including one case with calcification, four cases with bronchial dilation shadows, and one case with gas containing cavity shadows. Five cases were treated with surgical resection and confirmed by histopathological examination. All five patients did not receive antifungal treatment after surgery, and there was no recurrence of Aspergillus nodules during regular follow-up.

Report 5 cases of pulmonary aspergillosis nodules confirmed by histopathology after surgical resection. Pulmonary aspergillosis nodules are a relatively rare manifestation in the spectrum of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis. This article reports five cases of pulmonary aspergillosis nodules confirmed by surgical resection and histopathological examination, all of which were patients with normal immune function, atypical clinical symptoms, varying severity, and normal Galactomannan (GM) tests. All five cases did not receive antifungal treatment after surgery, and the nodules did not recur during regular follow-up. The diagnosis of pulmonary aspergillosis nodules is difficult, and lung biopsy and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) metagenomics next generation sequencing (mNGS) may be considered. There are various treatment methods, including surgical treatment, antifungal drug therapy, and sometimes local bronchial perfusion therapy can also be considered.

Wet-Stable Lamellar Wood Sponge with High Elasticity and Fatigue Resistance Enabled by Chemical Cross-Linking.

The excessive consumption of fossil-based plastics and the associated environmental concerns motivate the increasing exploitation of sustainable biomass-based materials for advanced applications. Natural wood-derived lamellar wood sponges via a top-down approach have recently attracted significant attention; however, the insufficient compressive fatigue resistance and lack of structural stability in water limit their wide applications. Here, we report a facile chemical cross-linking strategy to tackle these challenges, by which the cellulose fibrils in the lamellas are covalently bridged to enhance their connectivity. The cross-linked wood sponges demonstrate high compressibility up to 70% strain and exceptional compressive fatigue resistance (∼5% plastic deformation after 10,000 cycles at 50% strain). The interfibrillar cross-linking inhibits the swelling of cellulose fibrils and preserves the arch-shaped lamellas of the sponge in water, endowing the wood sponge with excellent wet stability. Such highly elastic and wet-stable lamellar wood sponges offer a sustainable alternative to synthetic polymer-based sponges used in diverse applications.

An immunocompetent host with blood-disseminated Aspergillus versicolor spondylitis: a case report and literature review.

Blood-disseminated Aspergillus spondylitis in immunocompetent individuals is rare. The clinical, imaging, and pathological manifestations of this condition are not specific. Therefore, this disease is prone to misdiagnosis and a missed diagnosis. Systemic antifungal therapy is the main treatment for Aspergillus spondylitis. We report a case of blood-disseminated Aspergillus versicolor spondylitis in a patient with normal immune function. The first antifungal treatment lasted for 4 months, but Aspergillus spondylitis recurred a few months later. A second antifungal treatment course was initiated for at least 1 year, and follow-up has been ongoing. Currently, there has been no recurrence.

Lamellar Wood Sponge with Vertically Aligned Channels for Highly Efficient and Salt-Resistant Solar Desalination.

Solar-assisted interfacial evaporation is a promising approach for purifying and desalinating water. As a sustainable biomass material, wood has attracted increasing interest as an innovative substrate for solar desalination, owing to its intrinsic porous structure, high hydrophilicity, and low thermal conductivity. However, developing wood-based solar evaporators with high evaporation rates and excellent salt resistance still remains a significant challenge, owing to the absence of large pores with high interconnectivity in natural wood. Herein, by converting the honeycombed structure of natural wood into a lamellar architecture via structural engineering, we develop a flexible wood sponge with vertically aligned channels for efficient and salt-resistant solar desalination after surface coating with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The special lamellar structure with an interlayer distance of 50-300 µm provides the wood sponge with faster water transport, lower thermal conductivity, and water evaporation enthalpy, thus achieving higher evaporation performances in comparison with the cellular structure of natural wood. Noteworthy, the vertically aligned channels of the wood sponge facilitate sufficient fluid convection and diffusion and enable efficient salt exchanges between the heating interface and the underlying bulk water, thus preventing salt accumulation on the surface. Benefiting from the distinctive lamellar structure, the developed wood-sponge evaporator exhibits exceptional salt resistance even in a hypersaline brine (20 wt %) during continuous 7-day desalination under 1 sun irradiation, with a high evaporation rate (1.38-1.43 kg m-2 h-1), outperforming most previously reported wood-based evaporators. The lamellar wood sponge may provide a promising strategy for desalinating high-salinity brines in an efficient manner.

Nocardia farcinica Pneumonia with Sepsis and a Bronchial Neoplasm in a Healthy Patient: A Case Report.

There are few reports on sepsis caused by infection with Nocardia in people with normal immune function, and there is no report on bronchial tumor caused by Nocardia. This paper describes a case of Nocardia farcinica pneumonia with sepsis and a bronchial neoplasm in a healthy patient.

Idiopathic fibrous mediastinitis with refractory pleural effusion: a case report and literature review.

Fibrous mediastinitis is a rare progressive disease characterized by invasive proliferation of fibrous tissue in the mediastinum. This tissue proliferation leads to compression of the mediastinal structures in the thoracic cavity, including the pulmonary vessels, esophagus, and trachea, causing corresponding symptoms and complications such as pulmonary hypertension. In clinical practice, the diagnosis of fibrous mediastinitis is often delayed or missed because of the rarity and variable clinical manifestations of this condition. This article presents a case of idiopathic fibrous mediastinitis that manifested as pleural effusion of unknown etiology along with a review of the relevant literature.

Differential diagnosis for suspected cases of coronavirus disease 2019: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Since December 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has infected more than 12,322,000 people and killed over 556,000 people worldwide. However, Differential diagnosis remains difficult for suspected cases of COVID-19 and need to be improved to reduce misdiagnosis. METHODS: Sixty-eight cases of suspected COVID-19 treated in Wenzhou Central Hospital from January 21 to February 20, 2020 were divided into confirmed and COVID-19-negative groups based on the results of real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) nucleic acid testing of the novel coronavirus in throat swab specimens to compare the clinical symptoms and laboratory and imaging results between the groups. RESULTS: Among suspected patients, 17 were confirmed to COVID-19-positive group and 51 were distinguished to COVID-19-negative group. Patients with reduced white blood cell (WBC) count were more common in the COVID-19-positive group than in the COVID-19-negative group (29.4% vs 3.9%, P = 0.003). Subsequently, correlation analysis indicated that there was a significant inverse correlation existed between WBC count and temperature in the COVID-19-positive patients (r = - 0.587, P = 0.003), instead of the COVID-19-negative group. But reduced lymphocyte count was no different between the two groups (47.1% vs 25.5%, P = 0.096). More common chest imaging characteristics of the confirmed COVID-19 cases by high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) included ground-glass opacities (GGOs), multiple patchy shadows, and consolidation with bilateral involvement than COVID-19-negative group (82.4% vs 31.4%, P = 0.0002; 41.2% vs 17.6% vs P = 0.048; 76.5% vs 43.1%, P = 0.017; respectively). The rate of clustered infection was higher in COVID-19-positive group than COVID-19-negative group (64.7% vs 7.8%, P = 0.001). Through multiplex PCR nucleic acid testing, 2 cases of influenza A, 3 cases of influenza B, 2 cases of adenovirus, 2 cases of Chlamydia pneumonia, and 7 cases of Mycoplasma pneumoniae were diagnosed in the COVID-19-negative group. CONCLUSIONS: WBC count inversely correlated with the severity of fever, GGOs, multiple patchy shadows, and consolidation in chest HRCT and clustered infection are common but not specific features in the confirmed COVID-19 group. Multiplex PCR nucleic acid testing helped differential diagnosis for suspected COVID-19 cases.

[Application of ThinPrep cytology test in the diagnosis of lung cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the diagnostic value of ThinPrep cytology test (TCT) in lung cancer. METHODS: 353 cases of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and(or) bronchial brushing cytology (192 cases from lung cancer patients and 161 cases from benign lung disease patients) were detected with TCT and method of direct smear, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of two methods was compared. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity of TCT were 39.6% and 99.4%. And which of direct smear method were 8.3% and 100%, respectively. The sensitivity of TCT was significantly higher than that of method of direct smear in the diagnosis of lung cancer (P < 0.01). There were 71 patients who underwent BALF and bronchial brushing cytology simultaneously, the sensitivity of TCT of BALF was higher than that of bronchial brushing cytology (P < 0.05). Of the 69 cases which had both TCT and histopathological results, TCT and pathology concordance rate was 84.1%. CONCLUSION: TCT has more diagnostic value in lung cancer; BALF is more preponderant than bronchial brushing cytology by TCT in the diagnosis of lung cancer.