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Objective:To summarize the clinical manifestations, epidemiological features and progress of diagnosis and treatment of gout in the spinal canal.Methods:A 59-year-old male patient was admitted to the hospital due to back pain, weakness in both lower limbs, hypoaesthesia and feeling of walking and stepping on cotton for more than one month. The preoperative imaging examination showed there were space-occupying lesions in the spinal canal at the T 8, 9 level with severe canal stenosis. The patient underwent posterior T 8, 9 laminectomy decompression, debridement and T 7-T 10 pedicle screw internal fixation under general anesthesia. The thoracic spinal gout was diagnosed by postoperative pathology. Further, the following keywords, "gout", "gout of spinal canal", "gout of spine" and "intraspinal gout", were used to search in the Chinese and English databases. A total of 62 patients with intraspinal gout were retrieved. The age, gender, involved disease, history of gout or hyperuricemia, laboratory indicators and imaging data of 63 patients were collected. Results:A total of 63 patients with intraspinal gout were retrieved. The gender of one patient was unknown. The remaining patients included 54 males (87.1%, 54/62) and 8 females (12.9%, 8/62) with the ratio of male to female 6.75∶1. The average age was 52(35, 67) years (range 20-82 years) and the peak onset period was 60-79 years. Fifty-six cases (88.9%, 56/63) of all patients suffered the disease from one single site of the spine, including 26 cases in the lumbar-sacral (46.4%), 22 cases (39.3%) in the thoracic spine and 8 cases (14.3%) in the cervical spine. However, only 7 patients had the disease at more than two sites at the same time accounting for 11.1% of all patients (7/63). Fifty-three patients (91.4%, 53/58) had a history of hyperuricemia with an average duration of 8.6 years (range 3 months to 28 years). The clinical symptoms of intraspinal gout were not specific. There were 70.5% (43/61) patients had local pain and up to 98.4% (60/61) patients had varying degrees of neurological dysfunction. X-ray examinations often showed no positive results due to technical limitations. Among 41 patients with CT imaging data, 31 cases showed mid-to-high density elliptical or irregular calcifications in the spinal canal and the remaining 10 patients showed medium-low density soft tissue masses. There were 96.2% (51/53) of patients with intraspinal gout showed medium or low signal on T1WI MRI examination but without high signal or low signal on T2WI (40 cases of high signal, 13 cases of high signal or mixed signal). All 63 patients were finally diagnosed by pathological examination and 5 of them with histological features. The main pathological features included foreign body granuloma, red-stained crystal-like deposits in the cytoplasm of foreign body giant cells, birefringent spindle or needle-like crystals under polarized light microscope.Conclusion:Gout in the spinal canal is a rare condition. Dual-energy CT has high sensitivity and specificity in identifying gout and it can provide a more accurate method in diagnosis of spinal gout. However, the final diagnosis depends on postoperative pathology. If case of spinal instability or neurological dysfunction, surgery had to be performed. Hyperuricemia should be treated in order to reduce the risk of acute attacks.
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Objective: To observe vertebral three-dimensional motion characteristics of adjacent segments in patients with symptomatic L 4 isthmic spondylolisthesis (IS). Methods: Fourteen symptomatic L 4 IS patients who underwent surgery treatment (trial group) and 15 asymptomatic volunteers without back pain and other lesions of spine (control group) were recruited. There was no significant difference in gender, age, body mass index, and bone mineral density between the two groups ( P>0.05). The three-dimensional reconstruction model of lumbar spine was acquired from the thin slice CT of the lumbar spine of the subjects by combining dual-X-ray fluoroscopy imaging system with spiral CT examination. The model was matched to the double oblique X-ray fluoroscopy images captured by dual-X-ray fluoroscopy imaging system at different active positions of the lumbar spine to reproduce the three-dimensional instantaneous of lumbar spondylolisthesis at different state of motion. The motion and relative displacement of adjacent segments (L 3, 4 and L 5, S 1) of spondylolisthesis were measured quantitatively by establishing a three-dimensional coordinate system at the geometric center of the vertebral body. The results were compared with those of the control group. Results: When L 3, 4 in the control group were flexed flexion-extension, left-right twisting, and left-right bending, and when L 5, S 1 in the control group were flexed left-right twisting and left-right bending, the activity along the main axis of motion (main axis of motion) tended to increase compared with that along the corresponding coupled axis of motion (secondary axis of motion); however, this trend disappeared in the trial group, and the main and secondary movements were disordered. Because of the coronal orientation of the facet joints of L 5, S 1, the degree of motion along the main axis of motion decreased during flexion and extension, but this trend disappeared in the trial group. Compared with the control group, L 3, 4 in the trial group exhibited displacement instability in flexion-extension, left-right twisting, and left-right bending ( P0.05). Conclusion: Patients with symptomatic L 4 IS have disorders of primary and secondary movement patterns in adjacent segments, while IS showed significantly displacement instability in L 3, 4 and significantly decreased motion in L 5, S 1.
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Objective To study the characteristics of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in patients with lung cancer,gastric cancer and breast cancer.Methods Five hundred and eight patients with cancer from the First Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (256 cases with lung cancer,152 cases with gastric cancer,100 cases with breast cancer),and 50 healthy volunteers were collected.Two ml peripheral blood were obtained from these cases.The distribution of lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood was measured by flow cytometry in these cases.The data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0 software.Results The number of lymphocytes of cancer patients was decreased,the healthy volunteers was 5125,breast cancer patient was 3642,gastric cancer patient was 3178,lung cancer patient was 2895.The case of outliers of lymphocyte subsets classified based on the three kinds of cancer was 218 (85.2％,lung cancer),133 (87.5％,gastric cancer),88 (88.0％,breast cancer).The case of outliers of T-lymphocyte subsets classified based on the three kinds of cancer was 83 (32.4％,lung cancer),32 (32.0％,breast cancer),44 (28.9％,gastric cancer).The case of outliers of CD4 +/CD8 + classified based on the three kinds of cancer was 185 (72.3％,lung cancer),108 (71.1％,gastric cancer),84 (84.0％,breast cancer).The case of outliers of natural killer-lymphocyte subsets classified based on the three kinds of cancer was 32 (12.5％,lung cancer),22 (14.5％,gastric cancer),16 (16.0％,breast cancer).The case of outliers of B-lymphocyte subsets classified based on the three kinds of cancer was 38 (14.8％,lung cancer),52 (34.2％,gastric cancer),12 (12.0％,breast cancer).Compared to healthy subjects,the CD19+％ of patients with lung cancer was decreased (12.8 ± 5.0 vs.11.5 ± 5.7,t =3.006,P =0.003);the CD4 + ％ of patients with gastric cancer was decreased (39.2 ±7.7 vs.35.3 ± 7.6,t =2.315,P =0.023);the CD19 + ％ of patients with gastric cancer was decreased (12.8 ± 5.0 vs.8.9 ± 4.2,t =3.302,P =0.010);the CD8 + ％ of patients with breast cancer was increased (24.0 ± 8.1 vs.29.1 ± 13.0,t =2.019,P =0.047).Conclusion The number of lymphocytes in cancer patients is decreased,the abnormal rates of lymphocyte subsets in the three kinds of cancer patients are higher than those in healthy volunteers,the lymphocyte subsets of different kinds of cancers perform different characteristics.
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Objective To observe and compare in vivo segmental lumbar motion between symptomatic L4 isthmic spondy?lolisthesis (IS) patients and L4 degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS) patients during functional weight?bearing activities. Methods Fifteen symptomatic L4 IS patients and fifteen symptomatic L4 DS patients were recruited. Fifteen asymptomatic volunteers were en?rolled as the control group. The L4,5 vertebral segment motion of each subject was reconstructed using three?dimensional computed tomography and a solid modeling software. In vivo, lumbar vertebral motion during functional postures (flexion?extension, left?right twisting and left?right bending) was observed using a dual fluoroscopic imaging technique. The spinal function unit was divided in?to anterior and posterior segments by the isthmic cleft. Local coordinate systems were established at the vertebral body, to obtain the 6 degree?of?freedom (DOF) intervertebral range of motion (ROM) at L4,5 and the ROM between the anterior and the posterior segments of L4 IS. Results The motion of IS at L4,5 was found to be increased. The migrations along both sagittal and vertical axis were significantly larger than control group (P<0.05). During left?right twisting, the migration along sagittal axis was significantly larger than control group (P<0.05);the rotation along vertical axis was significantly larger than DS and control group (P<0.05). During left?right bending, the migration along frontal axis was significantly larger than DS and control group ( P<0.05). The inter?vertebral ROM at L4,5 showed no significant difference between DS and control group. The migration between anterior and posteri?or segments of IS L4 was larger in standing than supine (P<0.05). The relative migration along sagittal axis between anterior and posterior segments of IS L4 was significantly larger in flexion than standing (P<0.05). Conclusion A spondylolytic defect does lead to detectable instability or hypermobility in the lumbar spine compared with degenerative spondylolisthesis and normal group. From supine to standing posture, migration at isthmic cleft along sagittal and coronal axis are identified in IS spondylolithesis.