Factors associated with health-related quality of life in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma patients undergoing radiofrequency ablation: a cross-sectional prevalence study.

PURPOSE: To explore the association of demographic characteristics, clinical symptoms and the fear of the disease progression factors with the physical and mental summary components of the health-related of life (HRQoL) of the papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) patients undergoing radiofrequency ablation (RFA). METHODS: 123 PTMC survivors undergoing RFA were enrolled in this study from October 2019 to March 2020. Demographic, clinical symptoms and the fear of the disease progression data were collected. SF-36, THYCA-QoL and FoP-Q-SF were used to evaluate the HRQoL of patients, clinical symptoms and the fear of disease progression. A multivariate regression model was performed to evaluate the association between the independent variable and the HRQoL variable. RESULTS: The average self-reported HRQoL score was 81.17 ± 15.48 for the PCS and 73.40 ± 18.03 for the MCS. The multivariate linear regression model shows that the factors related to a poorer PCS were dependent for the female patients, the symptoms of neuromuscular and the throat/mouth, the fear of disease progression; the psychological disorder, symptoms of throat/mouth, inability to concentrate were related to worse scores for the MCS. The condition that was most strongly related to a poorer HRQoL (in both PCS and MCS) was the fear of their physical health. CONCLUSIONS: The factors related to significantly worse HRQoL scores across PCS and MCS for PTMC survivors include the female gender, the symptoms of neuromuscular and the throat/mouth, the psychological disorder, inability to concentrate, and the fear of their own physical health. Identification, management, and prevention of these factors are critical to improving the HRQoL of patients.

[Factors Affecting Quality of Life of Patients Undergoing Radiofrequency Ablation for Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma].

Objective To evaluate the factors affecting health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients with thyroid papillary microcarcinoma (PTMC) after ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA).Methods The clinical data of 100 patients with PTMC who underwent reexamination after RFA in the Ultrasound Department of our center from October to December 2019 were retrospectively analyzed.Demographic information was collected.SF-36 and Thyroid Cancer-specific Health-related Quality of Life Questionnaire scales were used to assess patients' quality of life and thyroid-related specific symptoms.The SF-36 scale includes two general domains including physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS).The impacts of demographic characteristics and thyroid-related symptoms after RFA on PCS and MCS scores were further analyzed.Results Univariate analysis and correlation analysis showed that the PCS scores in quality of life of PTMC patients were related to sex, neuromuscular, voice, concentration, sympathetic nerve, and throat/mouth complaints, psychological state, sensory symptoms, scar, chills, tingling, and headache (all P<0.1);and the MCS scores were associated with education level, residence, neuromuscular, voice, concentration, sympathetic nerve, and throat/mouth complains, psychological state, sensory symptoms, scar, chills, tingling, and headache (all P<0.1).Multivariate regression analysis showed that the PCS scores were only associated with sex and the neuromuscular and throat/mouth complains and the psychological state.The regression equation was:PCS=110.367-8.025×sex-0.213×psychological state-0.280×neuromuscular complain-0.278×throat/mouth complain.In contrast, the MCS scores were only associated with the psychological state and the throat/mouth and concentration complains, with the regression equation being:MCS=91.323-0.237×psychological state-0.437×throat/mouth-0.304×concentration.Conclusions The main risk factors affecting the quality of life of PTMC patients after ultrasound-guided RFA were female gender, psychological burden, lack of attention, and symptoms in neuromuscular system and throat/mouth.Therefore, preoperative explanations should be made according to the relevant symptoms that the patients may report, and psychological interventions should be offered after RFA to improve the quality of life of PTMC patients after treatment.

Metal-metal-interaction-facilitated coordination polymer as a sensing ensemble: a case study for cysteine sensing.

A detailed investigation of the absorption and CD signals of Ag(I)-cysteine (Cys) aqueous solutions at buffered or varying pH has allowed us to suggest that coordination polymers are formed upon mixing Ag(I) and Cys bearing a Ag(I)-Cys repeat unit. The formation of the coordination polymers are shown to be facilitated by both the Ag(I)···Ag(I) interaction and the interaction between the side chains in the polymeric backbone. The former allows for an immediate spectral sensing of Cys with enantiomeric discrimination capacity with both high sensitivity and selectivity, and the contribution of the side-chain/side-chain interaction serves to guide extended sensing applications by means of modulating this interaction. With our preliminary data on the corresponding Cu(I)-Cys and Au(I)-Cys systems that exhibited similar spectral signals, we conclude that the M(I)-SR coordination polymers (M = Cu, Ag, or Au) could in general function as spectral sensing ensembles for extended applications. This sensing ensemble involves the formation of coordination polymers with practically no spectral background, thus affording high sensing sensitivity and selectivity.

Paclitaxel-loaded and A10-3.2 aptamer-targeted poly(lactide-co-glycolic acid) nanobubbles for ultrasound imaging and therapy of prostate cancer.

In the current study, we synthesized prostate cancer-targeting poly(lactide-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanobubbles (NBs) modified using A10-3.2 aptamers targeted to prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and encapsulated paclitaxel (PTX). We also investigated their impact on ultrasound (US) imaging and therapy of prostate cancer. PTX-A10-3.2-PLGA NBs were developed using water-in-oil-in-water (water/oil/water) double emulsion and carbodiimide chemistry approaches. Fluorescence imaging together with flow cytometry verified that the PTX-A10-3.2-PLGA NBs were successfully fabricated and could specifically bond to PSMA-positive LNCaP cells. We speculated that, in vivo, the PTX-A10-3.2-PLGA NBs would travel for a long time, efficiently aim at prostate cancer cells, and sustainably release the loaded PTX due to the improved permeability together with the retention impact and US-triggered drug delivery. The results demonstrated that the combination of PTX-A10-3.2-PLGA NBs with low-frequency US achieved high drug release, a low 50% inhibition concentration, and significant cell apoptosis in vitro. For mouse prostate tumor xenografts, the use of PTX-A10-3.2-PLGA NBs along with low-frequency US achieved the highest tumor inhibition rate, prolonging the survival of tumor-bearing nude mice without obvious systemic toxicity. Moreover, LNCaP xenografts in mice were utilized to observe modifications in the parameters of PTX-A10-3.2-PLGA and PTX-PLGA NBs in the contrast mode and the allocation of fluorescence-labeled PTX-A10-3.2-PLGA and PTX-PLGA NBs in live small animals and laser confocal scanning microscopy fluorescence imaging. These results demonstrated that PTX-A10-3.2-PLGA NBs showed high gray-scale intensity and aggregation ability and showed a notable signal intensity in contrast mode as well as aggregation ability in fluorescence imaging. In conclusion, we successfully developed an A10-3.2 aptamer and loaded PTX-PLGA multifunctional theranostic agent for the purpose of obtaining US images of prostate cancer and providing low-frequency US-triggered therapy of prostate cancer that was likely to constitute a strategy for both prostate cancer imaging and chemotherapy.