Value of fine needle aspiration combined with contrast-enhanced ultrasound in differentiating solid thyroid nodules coexisting Hashimoto's thyroiditis / 中国实用外科杂志

OBJECTIVE: To study the diagnostic efficiency of the fine needle aspiration biopsy(FNA) and contrastenhanced ultrasound(CEUS) in differentiation of solid thyroid nodules coexisting Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and to determine whether combined use of both methods is helpful. METHODS: A total of 68 thyroid nodules in 62 patients were observed with CEUS and FNA before surgical excision. The diagnostic performances of FNA, CEUS and CEUS combined with FNA were compared. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in sensitivity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value among the three methods(P>0.05). The specificity was significant high in FNA group(P<0.05). CONCLUSION: FNA has high specificity in the diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis with nodule.FNA combined with CEUS could not improve the diagnostic accuracy for thyroid nodules coexisting Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

Clinical Application of Blood Product Irradiation for Hematological Purpose-Review / 中国实验血液学杂志

Abstract　　With the development of transfusion medicine and the mastery of blood transfusion diagnosis and treatment techniques, the application of irradiated blood products in our country is gradually increasing. In recent years, the proportion of blood transfused by γ-rays has been increasing. In some foreign countries, the application rate of blood irradiated by radiotherapy is as high as 95%. At present, it is still in the promotion stage in China. This article summarizes the commonly used methods of blood irradiation, including the choice of irradiation source, the core dose and common irradiation targets, compares the difference of different irradiation methods, and generalizes the common application of blood irradiation. It is proposed that in addition to TA-GVHD application, blood irradiation may have a broad prospects for cancer therapy and microbial killing.

Application Development of Blood Irradiation Indicator -Review / 中国实验血液学杂志

Transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease (TA-GVHD) is known as one of common complications of blood transfusion. The blood irradiation is generally accepted as a proven method to prevent from this disease, for the reason that it makes lymphocytes inactivated in blood products. The blood irradiation indicator provides a guarantee of proper radiation dose, thus improving the transfusion safety. Though widely used in developed countries for decades, the blood irradiation indicator is still in the initial stage in our country. In this review, the action principle, applications and applied value of the blood irradiation indicator are summarized briefly.

Rare Blood Group and its Progress of Research in Transfusion Medicine -Review / 中国实验血液学杂志

As one of key factors for transfusion reaction, rare blood group has attached lots of attention for a long time. The proportion of the people population with rare blood group is actually low, however, the improper disposition caused by human error always leads to severe medical accident, showing its undoubted importance in transfusion medicine. Recently, more research about rare blood group are reported. Therefore, this review summarizes the development of this aspect, including mainly rare blood group, the detection of blood group phenotype, and the way of transfusion for rare blood group.

Pharmacology of mangostins and their derivatives: A comprehensive review / 中国天然药物

Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana Linn.) is a well-known tropical tree indigenous to Southeast Asia. Its fruit's pericarp abounds with a class of isoprenylated xanthones which are referred as mangostins. Numerous in vitro and in vivo studies have shown that mangostins and their derivatives possess diverse pharmacological activities, such as antibacterial, antifungal, antimalarial, anticarcinogenic, antiatherogenic activities as well as neuroprotective properties in Alzheimer's disease (AD). This review article provides a comprehensive review of the pharmacological activities of mangostins and their derivatives to reveal their promising utilities in the treatment of certain important diseases, mainly focusing on the discussions of the underlying molecular targets/pathways, modes of action, and relevant structure-activity relationships (SARs). Meanwhile, the pharmacokinetics (PK) profile and recent toxicological studies of mangostins are also described for further druggability exploration in the future.

Expression of enhancer of zeste homolog 2 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its prognostic value in postoperative patients / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the expression of enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its association with the prognosis of postoperative patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Surgical specimens were obtained from 102 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma undergoing radical resection in our hospital from 1996 to 2006. Immunochemistry was employed to examine EZH2 protein expressions in the specimens, including 102 carcinoma tissue specimens, 30 adjacent tissue specimens and 30 normal esophageal tissue specimens. The expression levels of EZH2 were analyzed in relation to the clinicopathological parameters of the patients including gender, age, tumor differentiation, TNM, and lymph node metastasis. The postoperative patients were followed up to analyze the association of EZH2 expression with the clinical outcomes.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissue showed a higher EZH2 expression than the adjacent and normal esophageal tissues. EZH2 expression was higher in poorly differentiated carcinoma than in well differentiated tissue, and also higher in cases with lymph node metastasis than those without; the expression was higher in TNM stage II/III patients than in stage I patients but lower than in stage IV patients. The patients with low EZH2 expression was found to have a longer survival time than those with high EZH2 expression (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>EZH2 plays an important role in the differentiation and metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and a high EZH2 expression is associated with a poor outcome in the the postoperative patients.</p>

Quantitative and qualitative assessment of non-obstructive left main coronary artery plaques using 64-multislice computed tomography compared with intravascular ultrasound / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>There are few reports of quantitative and qualitative measuring of left main coronary artery (LMCA) plaques by multislice computed tomography coronary angiography (MSCTA), especially when compared with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) as reference standard. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of 64-MSCTA in the diagnosis of LMCA disease, and the accuracy of MSCTA in the quantitative and qualitative assessment of the LMCA lesion as compared with IVUS.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 91 patients (53 men, 38 women, mean age (64.78 +/- 9.19) years) were examined by 64-MSCTA and IVUS. Compared with the IVUS, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) of the MSCTA on the diagnosis of LMCA diseases were calculated. Also, kappa index (kappa) for the agreement between MSCTA and IVUS was calculated. Minimal lumen area (MLA), external elastic membrane cross-sectional area (EEM-CSA) and plaque burden were measured by two blinded and independent operators on MSCTA cross-sectional reconstruction and compared with the parameters measured from IVUS by manually tracing. The CT value of soft, fibrous and calcific plaques was measured using IVUS classification of the plaques.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of MSCTA for detecting LMCA plaques were 93.1%, 84.2%, 95.7%, 76.2%, respectively. Kappa index (kappa = 0.744, P < 0.001) indicated excellent agreement between MSCTA and IVUS. The Pearson index between MLA on IVUS and MLA on MSCTA was 0.815 (P < 0.01). The Pearson index of plaque burden and EEM-CSA between IVUS and MSCTA was 0.736 and 0.740 respectively (both P < 0.01). The CT value of soft plaque, fibrous plaque and calcific plaque compared with IVUS were (52.52 +/- 15.71) HU, (108.32 +/- 43.44) HU and (604.16 +/- 377.67) HU (P < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of CT value of non-calcific plaques for predicting soft plaques showed the cutpoint was 54.35 HU, with a sensitivity of 83.3% and specificity of 94.4%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Sixty-four section MSCTA is an effective diagnostic tool for the detection of LMCA plaques with higher sensitivity and specificity. The correlation of quantitative and qualitative analysis between MSCTA and IVUS was excellent. The CT value of plaques can help the diagnosis of plaque composition.</p>

Myocardial bridging detection by non-invasive multislice spiral computed tomography: comparison with intravascular ultrasound / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Invasive intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is current diagnostic standard for myocardial bridging (MB). Non-invasive multislice computerized tomography coronary angiography (MSCT) technique has provided a good anatomical view of the tunnel artery now.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 51 consecutive patients with atypical or typical angina scheduled for IVUS were enrolled in this study and MSCT was performed 7 days before IVUS. Coronary imaging was quantified using IVUS and MSCT. Four main vessels (left main artery (LMA), left anterior descending (LAD), left circumflex (LCX), right coronary artery (RCA)) were examined.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Forty-one out of 51 (80%) patients received metaprolol (25 mg) before the MSCT scan and 25 of them were current beta-blocker users. The mean heart rate was (64 +/- 3) beats per minute. A total of 51 patients underwent IVUS examination (30 with MB and 21 without MB) were chosen for this study. Twenty-eight out of 30 MB cases were correctly diagnosed by MSCT and 2 patients with MB were not detected. Comparison with IVUS, the sensitivity of detection by MSCT was 93%, specificity was 100%. The lumen diameter of the tunnel artery derived from MSCT and IVUS significantly decreased from (2.9 +/- 0.3) mm to (2.4 +/- 0.4) mm (P < 0.001) and from (3.3 +/- 0.3) mm to (2.6 +/- 0.5) mm (P < 0.001), respectively. Minimal and maximal diameters of MB derived from MSCT were significantly smaller than those from IVUS ((2.4 +/- 0.4) mm vs (2.6 +/- 0.5) mm, P < 0.05 and (2.9 +/- 0.3) mm vs (3.3 +/- 0.3) mm, P < 0.05), respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>MSCT offers a reliable non-invasive method for MB in LAD and atherosclerosis diagnosis with diagnostic accuracy comparable with invasive IVUS.</p>

Diagnostic value of multidetector spiral computed tomography in identifying the composition of coronary atherosclerotic plaques / 中华心血管病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To estimate the feasibility of 16-multidetector spiral computed tomography (16-MDCT) on detecting coronary plaques in comparison with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sixty-eight patients suspected of coronary heart diseases were examined by 16-MDCT, quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) and IVUS. Coronary stenosis was defined as lumen diameter reduction (DS) >or= 50%. Hounsfield units (HU) were used to determine different types of plaques: soft plaque (<or= 50 HU), fibrous plaque (50 - 119 HU) and calcified plaque (>or= 120 HU).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared to QCA, the sensitivity and the specificity for patients with DS >or= 50% were 91.8% (112/122) and 97.8% (556/568) respectively, the positive and negative predictive value were 90.3% (112/124) and 98.2% (556/566) respectively. In 96 plaques evaluated both by 16-MDCT and IVUS, 20 and 21 soft plaques, 37 and 36 fibrous plaques, 39 and 38 calcified plaques were identified by 16-MDCT and IVUS respectively. HU value of soft (11 +/- 36), fibrous (83 +/- 20), and calcified (292 +/- 80) plaques were significantly different (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Noninvasive 16-MDCT could correctly estimate coronary stenosis and coronary plaques compositions.</p>

Effects of perindopril on left ventricular remodeling and myocardial osteopontin expression in rats with myocardial infarction / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effects of perindopril on left ventricular remodeling and myocardial osteopontin expression in rats with myocardial infarction (MI).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Male adult SD rats were randomly divided into sham-operation group, MI-saline group and MI-perindopril group, and in the latter two groups, ligation of the left anterior descending artery was performed to establish rat models of myocardial infarction and perindopril (2 mg/kg daily) or saline was administered since the next day of MI. Four weeks later, the left ventricular diameter (LVEDD and LVESD) and left ventricular ejection fraction were estimated with echocardiography, and the left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and -/+dp/dt(max) was obtained via hemodynamic measurement, with also evaluation of the cardiac myocyte diameter and interstitial fibrosis infiltration with histological methods. Western blotting was performed to detect the expression level of myocardium osteopontin protein.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the sham-operation group, all MI rats developed significant systolic and diastolic dysfunction, as indicated by decreased LVEF, LVSP and -/+dp/dt(max), as well as increased LVEDP. MI rats showed significantly dilated left ventricles and higher ventricular weight/body weight ratio, significantly increased cardiomyocyte diameter and marked interstitial fibrosis in the non-infarction area. Perindopril treatment partially prevented cardiac dysfunction and left ventricular remodeling as indicated by the above indices. No osteopontin was detected in the myocardium of sham-operation rats, and in MI rats, high level of osteopontin expression, as detected in MI-saline group, was significantly inhibited by perindopril treatment.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Perindopril treatment can significantly inhibit left ventricular remodeling and myocardium osteopontin expression in rats with MI.</p>