Primary intratracheal schwannoma misdiagnosed as severe asthma in an adolescent: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Primary intratracheal schwannoma is an extremely rare type of benign airway tumor, especially in adolescents. The presenting symptoms are typically prolonged cough and wheezing that can be misdiagnosed as asthma in adolescent patients. CASE: A 16-year-old adolescent girl admitted to a local hospital with symptoms of an irritating cough and wheezing was diagnosed with bronchial asthma and treated with budesonide and formoterol. Over the next year, the patient's wheezing and coughing symptoms gradually worsened and the antiasthma treatment was ineffective. One week prior to this admission, the patient developed dyspnea after catching a cold and was transferred to our hospital with a diagnosis of severe asthma. However, chest computed tomography and bronchoscopy showed a mass in the trachea. Primary intratracheal schwannoma was diagnosed by biopsy. Her symptoms were relieved by endoscopic resection by electrosurgical snaring combined with argon plasma coagulation. No relapse occurred during an 18 mo follow-up. CONCLUSION: Primary intratracheal schwannoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis in adolescents with recurrent asthma-like attacks.

[Research Advances in the Diagnostic Value of Rapid On-site Evaluation in Endobronchial Ultrasound-guided Transbronchial Needle Aspiration for Lung Cancer].

Rapid on-site evaluation(ROSE),an auxiliary sampling quality evaluation technology,can be used to evaluate the adequacy and diagnostic category of samples,judge the histological type of lung cancer,and optimize the gene type of lung cancer.Applying ROSE to endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration of suspected lung cancer can improve the puncture success rate and diagnostic rate and reduce complications and puncture attempts.Rose performed via remote cytopathology technology or by trained respiratory specialists may become the future trends.

[Significance and expression of insulin-like growth factor 1 and IGF binding protein 3 in serum of patients with lung cancer].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) can strongly stimulate the proliferation of a variety of cancer cells, including lung cancer cells. This study was to discuss the possible role of IGFs in lung cancer development. We examined the expression level of IGF(1) and IGF-binding protein 3 (IGFBP(3)) in plasma of the patients with lung cancer and control subjects, and the relation of its level with clinical characteristics and biological behaviors of lung cancer was elucidated. METHODS: Seventy-eight cases with lung cancer (A group), 35 with benign pulmonary disease (B group), and 14 healthy controls (C group) were included in this study. Serum IGF(1) and IGFBP(3) levels were measured with radioimmunoassay (RIA) and immunoradiometricassay (IRMA), respectively. RESULTS: Serum IGF(1) level and IGF(1)/IGFBP(3) ratio in A group [X+/-S,(570.67+/-185.80) microg/L,(0.23+/-0.16)] were significantly higher compared with those of B group[(466.53+/-142.42) microg/L,(0.14+/-7.12E-02)] and those of C group [(427.66+/-141.19) microg/L,(0.12+/-8.2E-02)]. But there was no significance difference (P=0.060) in IGFBP(3) levels between A group [(3133.60+/-1110.30) microg/L], B group [(3694.46+/-1534.03) microg/L], and C group [(4024.67+/-1373.31) microg/L], and there was no significance in the expression of IGF(1) and IGFBP(3) between B group and C group (P >0.05). For the cases with lung cancer in pre-chemotherapy, the serum IGF(1) level was higher in patients with lymphoid node metastasis, and IGFBP(3) level of them was significantly lower than those without metastasis(P< 0.05). Serum IGFBP(3) levels were lowest in the patients with bone metastases [(1933.14+/-715.21) microg/L, P< 0.05]. Fourteen post-chemotherapy patients showed a lower IGF(1) [(480.29+/-117.93)microg/L] than those in pre-chemotherapy[(661.76+/-153.54)microg/L](P< 0.05),whereas IGFBP(3) level was in inverse to IGF(1). CONCLUSION: These results suggested that IGF(1) and IGFBP(3) play important roles in the growth of lung cancer. Serum examination of them may have potential clinical value.