Spectral CT for preoperative diagnosis of N2 station lymph node metastasis in solid T1 non-small cell lung cancer.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the diagnostic value of spectral CT for the preoperative diagnosis of N2 station lymph nodes metastasis in solid T1 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHOD: For this retrospective study, dual-phase contrast agent-enhanced CT was performed in patients with NSCLC from September 2019 to June 2023. Quantitative spectral CT parameters measurements were performed by 2 radiologists independently. Logistic regression analysis and Delong test were performed. RESULTS: 60 NSCLC patients (mean age, 62.85 years ± 8.49, 44men) were evaluated. A total of 121 lymph nodes (38 with metastasis) were enrolled. There was no significant difference in the slope of the spectral Hounsfield unit curve (λHu) on arterial phase (AP) or venous phase (VP) between primary lesions and metastatic lymph nodes (P > 0.05), but significant difference in VP λHu between primary lesions and non-metastatic lymph nodes (P < 0.001). The CT40KeV, λHu, normalized iodine concentration (nIC), normalized effective atomic number (nZeff) measured during both AP and VP were lower in metastatic lymph nodes than in non-metastatic lymph nodes (all P < 0.05). Short-axis diameter (S) of metastatic lymph nodes was higher than non-metastatic lymph nodes (P < 0.001). Area under the curve (AUC) for S performed the highest (0.788) in diagnosing metastatic lymph nodes. When combined with VP λHu, VP nZeff, AUC increased to 0.871. CONCLUSION: Spectral CT is a complementary means for the preoperative diagnosis of N2 station lymph nodes metastasis in solid T1 NSCLC. The combined parameters have higher diagnostic efficiency.

An advanced treatment process for 3-high wastewater discharged from crude oil storage tanks.

The wastewater discharged from crude oil storage tanks (WCOST) contains high concentrations of salt and metal iron ions, and high chemical oxygen demand (COD). It belongs to "3-high" wastewater, which is difficult for purification. In this study, WCOST treatments were comparatively investigated via an advanced pretreatment and the traditional coagulation-microfiltration (CMF) processes. After WCOST was purified through the conventional CMF process, fouling occurred in the microfiltration (MF) membrane, which is rather harmful to the following reverse osmosis (RO) membrane unit, and the effluent featured high COD and UV254 values. The analysis confirmed that the MF fouling was due to the oxidation of ferrous ions, and the high COD and UV254 values were mainly attributable to the organic compounds with small molecular sizes, including aromatic-like and fulvic-like compounds. After the pretreatment of the advanced process consisting of aeration, manganese sand filtration, and activated carbon adsorption in combination with CMF process, the removal efficiencies of organic matter and total iron ions reached 97.3% and 99.8%, respectively. All the water indexes of the effluent, after treatment by the advanced multi-unit process, meet well the corresponding standard. The advanced pretreatment process reported herein displayed a great potential for alleviating the MF membrane fouling and enhanced the lifetime of the RO membrane system in the 3-high WCOST treatment.

Design, synthesis, biological activity evaluation of 3-(4-phenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-1H-pyrazole derivatives as potent JAK 2/3 and aurora A/B kinases multi-targeted inhibitors.

In this study, a series of 3-(4-phenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-1H-pyrazole derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their biological activities. Upon performing kinase assays, most of the compounds exhibited potent inhibition against JAK2/3 and Aurora A/B with the IC50 values ranging from 0.008 to 2.52 µM. Among these derivatives, compound 10e expressed the most moderate inhibiting activities against all the four kinases with the IC50 values of 0.166 µM (JAK2), 0.057 µM (JAK3), 0.939 µM (Aurora A), and 0.583 µM (Aurora B), respectively. Moreover, most of the derived compounds exhibited potent cytotoxicity against human chronic myeloid leukemia cells K562 and human colon cancer cells HCT116, while compound 10e expressed antiproliferative activities against K562 (IC50=6.726  µM). According to western blot analysis, compound 10e down-regulated the phosphorylation of STAT3, STAT5, Aurora A, and Aurora B in a dose-dependent manner in K562 and HCT116 cells. Cell cycle analysis revealed that compound 10e inhibited the proliferation of cells by inducing cell cycle arrest in the G2 phase. The molecular modeling suggested that compound 10e could maintain a binding mode similar to the binding mode of AT9832, a common JAK 2/3 and Aurora A/B kinases multi-target kinase inhibitor. Therefore, compound 10e might be a potential agent for cancer therapy deserving further research.

Correlations between tumor stroma characters and dynamic enhanced MDCT findings in nodular pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate correlations between tumor stroma characters and dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomographic (CT) findings in nodular pulmonary adenocarcinoma. METHODS: Thirty-three patients with nodular pulmonary adenocarcinoma underwent dynamic contrast-enhancement CT scan before surgery. CT findings include wash-in, wash-out, and distribution of enhancement. The proportion of invasive and noninvasive stroma in tumor was calculated. RESULTS: Invasive and noninvasive stroma proportion in tumor was correlated positively with wash-in and wash-out enhancement, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor stroma proliferation may explain the pathologic basis of CT dynamic enhancement and be a useful prognostic factor of pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

Relationship between peripheral lung cancer and the surrounding bronchi, pulmonary arteries, pulmonary veins: a multidetector CT observation.

AIM: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between peripheral lung cancer and the surrounding pulmonary vessels and bronchi using contrast-enhanced multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) and to analyze associated factors such as pathology types, stage, size, density, and location of peripheral lung cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 93 patients with solitary peripheral lung cancers underwent contrast-enhanced MDCT before thoracotomy were enrolled. Multiplanar reconstruction, maximal intensity projection, and volume rendering were used for demonstrating the patterns of the tumor-bronchi (Br), tumor-pulmonary artery (PA) and tumor-pulmonary vein (PV) relationship, respectively. Five subtypes were identified: Type1 (Br1, PA1 and PV1), Br, PA, or PV was erupted at the edge of nodule; Type2 (Br2, PA2, and PV2), erupted at the center of nodule; Type3 (Br3, PA3 and PV3), penetrated through the nodule; Type4, (Br4, PA4 and PV4), contacting the nodule but stretched or encased; Type5 (Br5, PA5, and PV5), contacting the nodule but smoothly compressed. RESULTS: Both bronchi and PA were interrupted in 70 (Type 1+2); both narrowed in 9 (Type 3+4). The bronchi and PA changes surrounding the lung cancer had positive relations (χ(2)=12.3918, r=0.7524, P<.01). Br1 and PA1 were more often seen in the group of solid, ≥2.0 cm, and Stage II-IV focal lesions, while Br2 and PA2, more often in the group of part-solid, non-solid, <2.0 cm, and Stage I focal lesions. PV2 was more often seen in the part-solid and non-solid focal lesions group, while PV (4+5), more often in solid focal lesions group. CONCLUSION: MDCT can demonstrate and subtype relationships among peripheral lung cancer and the bronchi, pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins. This can be the basis for further clinical research and differential diagnosis.

High sensitive detection of cancer cell with a folic acid-based boron-doped diamond electrode using an AC impedimetric approach.

An electrochemical impedance method at a fixed frequency (10Hz) is used to detect folate receptor-rich cancer cells with the interaction between folic acid immobilized on gold nanoparticles deposited on boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode surface and its receptor over-expressed on cancer cell membrane without additional labeling. Experimental results have shown that the BDD electrode modified with folic acid can clearly denote folate receptor-rich cancer cells, such as HeLa cells, at a concentration down to 10 cells mL(-1). The high sensitivity of BDD electrode is resulted from the change of field effect and surface charge density of BDD after cancer cells attachment. The BDD electrodes can be regenerated with 0.1M citric acid/glycine/HC1 at pH 3.0 and used seven times again. Therefore, electrochemical technique with BDD electrode has been introduced for cancer cells detection and a simple method to detect folate receptor-rich cancer cells without additional labeling has been developed.