Determination of cadmium induced acute and chronic reproductive toxicity with Raman spectroscopy.

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the toxic heavy metals which is confirmed to be related to male sterile. Here, confocal Raman spectroscopy was employed to detect biomolecular composition and changes in testis under acute and chronic Cd treatment. Specific Raman shifts associated with mitochondria, nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and cholesterol were identified which were distinguishing among groups undergoing different Cd treatment times. Supporting evidences were provided by conventional experimental detections. The relevant biochemical parameters, pathological changes, and protein expression related to testosterone synthesis were all changed and consistent with Raman spectrum information. In conclusion, confocal Raman spectroscopy presents a reliable data and provides a novel method which is expected to be a promising strategy in reproduction toxicity research.

Huge abdominal and perineal aggressive angiomyxoma: A misdiagnosed case report and literature review.

Aggressive angiomyxoma (AA) is a distinctive soft tissue tumor with a high risk of local recurrence. Clinicians must be aware of this rare tumor pre-operatively. Excision is the preferred method of AA treatment. The case report presents a case of a 36-year-old woman who was difficulty in walking due to a non-painful tumor in the abdomen and perineum. She was misdiagnosed as abdomen neurofibroma for more than 10 years, and an operation was performed in 1997. However, the tumor was incompletely resected because its huge volume accompanies with extensive infiltration and bleeding. The tumors in her abdomen and perineum were growing gradually, and the latter became a large lump which impeded her daily life. In 2008, the perineal tumor was incompletely resected, which weighed 10725 g. The severe hemorrhage had been ceased by Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone treatment. She is alive till now. Details of the history and operative procedures are presented. An AA diagnosis was made by microscopy immunohistochemically. Long-time misdiagnosis and improper treatment are the important reasons for making it impossible to be radically resected. Pathological and immunohistochemical examination are important for avoiding misdiagnosis. For this case, there is a remaining tumor in her abdomen. A special project including further follow-up and treatment will be taken out.

Development and validation of a predictive model for penile cancer based on the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database and multi-center cases.

PURPOSE: Penile cancer (PC) is a great impact on the quality of life and psychological status of patients. This study aimed to construct nomograms using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database to predict overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) in patients with penile cancer (PC). METHODS: Patients were divided into a training cohort (n = 634) and a validation cohort (n = 272) in a 7:3 ratio. Independent risk factors influencing the prognosis of PC were screened using univariate and multivariate Cox analyses, and models for predicting PC were developed. Data from 203 patients with PC in four tertiary hospitals in Gansu Province from 2012 to 2021 were externally validated. RESULTS: Univariate analysis and multivariate analysis showed revealed that the OS-related factors were age, grade, T stage, N stage, M stage and tumor size (p < 0.05); the CSS-related factors were age, mode of surgery, T stage, N stage, M stage and tumor size (p < 0.05). The C-indices of the OS and CSS nomograms in the training cohort were 0.743 [95% confidence interval (CI) (0.714-0.772)] and 0.797 (0.762-0.832), respectively. The C-indices of the OS and CSS nomograms in the internal validation cohort were 0.735 (0.686-0.784) and 0.755 (0.688-0.822), respectively, and those in the external validation cohort were 0.801 (0.746-0.856) and 0.863 (0.812-0.914), respectively. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, calibration curves, and survival curves all demonstrated good predictive performance of the nomograms. CONCLUSION: The nomograms for PC were developed using the SEER database. The accuracy and clinical usefulness of the model were validated through a combination of internal and external validations.

Melamine-induced infant urinary calculi: a report on 24 cases and a 1-year follow-up.

Melamine has been the main factor leading to infant urinary calculi occurring on a rather wide scale in China in 2008, which were the results of a rapid aggradation of metabolites such as cyanuric acid diamide, cyanuric acid, etc., causing uric acid stone to accumulate. Here, we present a report on 24 infants who were admitted to our department, their ages ranging from 3 to 10 months. All of these infants had a confirmed history of having been fed with the "Sanlu" brand milk powder, which contained excessive levels of melamine, with the highest being 2,563 mg/kg. The diagnosis, medical treatment and follow-up by ultrasonography at 1, 3, 6, 12 months were reported. 22 cases of these infants were rehabilitated after medical treatment and 1 infant underwent pyelolithotomy for relieving an obvious ureter obstruction. No recurrence was found in these babies thereafter. Another infant died from rapidly worsening renal failure. Therefore, this series of cases have demonstrated that melamine contained in the "Sanlu" milk powder was the main cause of these urinary stones. Urine alkalinization and stone liberalization were the most effective treatments. Fast diagnosis and treatment of acute obstructive urolithiasis may prevent the development of acute renal failure, which is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates.

[Expression and significance of GST-Pi and HIF-1alpha in bladder carcinoma].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Multidrug resistance plays an important role in chemotherapy failure of bladder cancer, but its mechanism is unclear. Hypoxia in tumors is generally associated with chemoresistance. However, the correlation of nuclear transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) to multidrug resistance transporter glutathione-S-transferase-Pi (GST-Pi) has not been investigated. This study was to explore the expression and significance of GST-Pi and its correlation to HIF-1alpha in bladder carcinoma by tissue microarray. METHODS: A tissue microarray containing 119 cases of bladder carcinoma and 6 cases of normal bladder tissue was built up. The expression of GST-Pi and HIF-1alpha was detected by SABC immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: In the 119 cases of bladder carcinoma, the positive rate of HIF-1alpha was 57.9%, the positive rate of GST-Pi was 67.2%. The positive rate of HIF-1alpha in G3 grade bladder carcinoma was 64.6%. Their expression was closely related to pathologic grade, clinical stage, and postoperative relapse after adjuvant chemotherapy (P<0.01). HIF-1alpha expression was positively related to GST-Pi expression (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Overexpression of HIF-1alpha may be related to hypoxia. Co-expression of HIF-1alpha and GST-Pi is a object index for judging differentiation and chemoresistance of bladder cancer.

[Intravesial instillation of recombination interferon-alpha and pirarubicin in the prophylaxis of local recurrence after resection of the superficial bladder cancer].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Superficial transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of urinary bladder tends to recur after transurethral surgery. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha)and pirarubicin (THP) on decreasing postoperative recurrence of superficial bladder cancer. METHODS: Recombinant IFN-alpha and THP has been used in clinical study. One week After operation, 68 patients were prospectively enrolled and divided into two groups randomly: IFN-alpha plus THP group and THP group. The protocols of chemoimmunoprophylaxis include 8 weekly and 10 monthly instillation of 3 x 10(7) IU IFN-alpha plus 40 mg THP in 40 ml 5% glucose via catheter. RESULTS: The follow-up period ranged from 6 to 32 months (median 18.2 months). The cytoscopy and cytology with cold cup biopsies had been carried out every 3 months for 2 years. Recurrence after instillation of IFN-alpha combining THP was observed in only 4 cases (12.1%), bladder irritation was found in 4 cases, fatigue in 3 cases, and rash in 1 case as well. Among the 35 cases in THP group, recurrence was found in 8 cases (22.8%), bladder irritation in 5 cases, fatigue in 3 cases. IFN-alpha plus THP yielded better effect than THP alone (P< 0.05),especially in grade 3 and stage PT1 bladder cancer. CONCLUSIONS: IFN-alpha working in coordination with THP would be an effective remedy to prevent the recurrence of bladder cancer. The intravesical IFN-alpha plus THP appears to be more effective against recurrence than THP alone. Further study is needed for side-effect and popularization in such way.