Diagnosis with spiral CT imaging before gastric carcinoma surgery.

This study was carried out to study multi-slice spiral CT imaging for patients with gastric carcinoma and explore the values of multi-slice spiral CT imaging in staging prior to gastric carcinoma (GC) surgery. Forty-eight patients with GC underwent multi-slice spiral CT, and the scanning results were compared with the pathological results. The similarity of the results was observed, and the accuracy was calculated. Of 48 patients, 8 did not undergo surgery because of metastasis. In the diagnosis of the remaining 40 patients, the sensitivity of multi-slice spiral CT in the diagnosis of staging of invasive depth of GC was 77.5%; κ = 0.642 in the analysis of consistency; there was no significant difference with the pathological results (p >0.05). The overall accuracy of diagnosis for stage N was 80%. The accuracy of multi-slice CT in detecting distant metastasis of GC was 87.5%. Multi-slice spiral CT can determine and evaluate various metastases of GC. The diagnostic results obtained using multi-slice spiral CT was probably consistent with the pathological results.

Eyes in pituitary disorders.

The eye is a vital sense organ related to vision, conveying the underlying physical and mental state of well-being of an individual. Eye signs are often associated with endocrinal disorders such as exophthalmos in thyro-toxicosis. However, a thorough eye evaluation may lead to the identification of the early features that help in the diagnosis of various endocrine disorders. This is of vital importance especially in the central nervous system lesions. This is observed more in cases of pituitary mass lesions, which often present with functional hormonal alterations rather than visual symptoms. The definitive therapy has to be provided before it reaches the late stage of the disease which might lead to permanent visual disabilities. Hence, ophthalmologists, endocrinologists, neuro-radiologists and neurosurgeons need to intervene with combined efforts. In this review, we highlight the eye signs in pituitary disorders, along with a brief description of uncommon ocular-pituitary syndromes.

Different expression of sodium-iodide importer (NIS) between lactating breast and thyroid tissues may be due to structural difference of thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR).

OBJECTIVE: Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) binds TSH receptor (TSHR) on thyroid cell membranes, which will lead activation of cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate/protein kinase A signaling pathway. Through this pathway, TSHR regulates the expression of sodium-iodide symporter (NIS) to complete iodine intake. In recent studies, it is found that TSHR is widely expressed in a variety of extra-thyroidal tissues. TSHR expressions as well as distribution in normal mammary gland tissues have not been reported. The physiological mechanism of the TSHR in the extra-thyroidal tissues has also been controversial. METHODS: In this study, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were used to characterize the expression distribution of TSHR protein in lactating breast. DNA sequence of TSHR cDNA from mice lactating breast was determined and then compared with TSHR cDNA from mice thyroidal tissue. RESULTS: A 173 amino acid (AA) fragment deletion was found in the extra-cellular domain of lactating breast TSHR. The expression levels of NIS mRNA were compared between two tissues, and the level of NIS mRNA in lactating breasts was lower than the one in thyroidal tissues. CONCLUSION: The lower expression of NIS in lactating breast may be due to the 173 AA deletion in the TSHR resulting the lower binding of TSH to the TSHR. For the first time, this finding may explain the reason of the lower NIS expression in lactating breast.

Rapid analysis of pyrethroid insecticides in aquaculture seawater samples via membrane-assisted solvent extraction coupled with gas chromatography-electron capture detection.

A simple, efficient, and environmentally friendly membrane-assisted solvent extraction (MASE) method for the extraction and preconcentration of six pyrethroid insecticides from aquaculture seawater samples followed by gas chromatography-electron capture detection (GC-ECD) was successfully proposed. The operating conditions for MASE, such as the extraction solvent, solvent volume, NaCl concentration, stirring rate, extraction time, and temperature, were optimized. Compared to conventional Florisil-solid phase extraction (SPE), higher extraction recoveries (85.9% to 105.9%) of three spiked levels of the six pyrethroid pesticides in aquaculture seawater were obtained using MASE, and the RSD values were lower than 7.9%. The limits of detection (LOD, signal-to-noise ratio (S/N)=3) and quantification (LOQ, S/N = 10) were in the range of 0.037-0.166 and 0.12-0.55 µg L(-1), respectively. The results demonstrate the excellent applicability of the MASE method in analyzing the six pyrethroid pesticides in aqueous samples. The proposed method exhibited a high potential for routine monitoring analysis of pyrethroid insecticides in seawater samples.