ABSTRACT
Objective:To analysis of clinical and imaging characteristics of pulmonary cryptococcosis.Methods:The clinical and imaging characteristics of 113 patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis who were admitted to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine from January 2014 to March 2019, were retrospectively analyzed.Results:Among 113 patients, 74 cases (65.5%) were males, and 71 cases (62.8%) were at a age of 40-60 years. The imaging manifestations showed a nodular-infiltrating patchy mixed type ( n=44,38.9%), accompanied by halo sign ( n=48, 42.5%) and bronchial air sign ( n=48, 42.5%). All patients were treated with fluconazole and the follow-up at 3 months after discharge showed their conditions were all improved. Subgroup analysis showed that patients with complications had older average age [(54.28±10.64)y vs. (46.52±12.12)y, t=-5.05, P<0.001], longer hospital stay [(10.42±6.11)d vs. (7.09±5.63)d, t=-4.28, P=0.007], lower white blood cell count [(6.02±2.16)×10 9/L vs. (6.96±2.29)×10 9/L, t=2.44, P=0.027]. The symptomatic group had fewer male patients [56.2% (45/80) vs. 87.9% (29/33), χ 2=19.54, P<0.001], and imaging was more likely to show infiltrative patchy [32.5%(26/80) vs. 9.1%(3/33), χ 2=18.25, P=0.031]. There was no significant difference in clinical and imaging manifestations between antigen positive group and antigen negative group(all P>0.05). Conclusions:Most of the patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis are middle-aged men, and have nodular-infiltrating patchy mixed type in imaging; the complications would prolong the length of hospital stay.
ABSTRACT
Tendon/ligament injury is one of the most common impairments in sports medicine. The traditional treatments of damaged tissue repair are unsatisfactory, especially for athletes, due to lack of donor and immune rejection. The strategy of tissue engineering may break through these limitations, and bring new hopes to tendon/ligament repair, even regeneration. Silk is a kind of natural biomaterials, which has good biocompatibility, wide range of mechanical properties and tunable physical structures; so it could be applied as tendon/ligament tissue engineering scaffolds. The silk-based scaffold has robust mechanical properties; combined with other biological ingredients, it could increase the surface area, promote more cell adhesion and improve the biocompatibility. The potential clinical application of silk-based scaffold has been confirmed by in vivo studies on tendon/ligament repairing, such as anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament, achilles tendon and rotator cuff. To develop novel biomechanically stable and host integrated tissue engineered tendon/ligament needs more further micro and macro studies, combined with product development and clinical application, which will give new hope to patients with tendon/ligament injury.