Macrophages in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: A bibliometric analysis.

INTRODUCTION: The tumor microenvironment in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is densely infiltrated by macrophages. Utilizing bibliometric analysis, the characteristics, hotspots for research, and research frontiers related to macrophages in HNSCC were reviewed. METHODS: The Web of Science Core Collection database was queried for relevant articles published from 2000 to 2022. VOSviewer and CiteSpace software were utilized to evaluate and visualize macrophage-related HNSCC research trends and hotspots. RESULTS: Assessment of original articles revealed that the annual number of publications regarding the role of macrophages in HNSCC has increased steadily over the past 23 years. China produced the most articles, whereas the United States had the highest number of citations and highest H-index. Wuhan University and Oral Oncology were the most productive affiliation and journal, respectively. The paper published by Bray et al in the CA-A Cancer Journal for Clinicians in 2018 had the greatest number of citations. The keywords "expression," "cancer," and "tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs)" occurred most frequently. CONCLUSIONS: This bibliometric investigation discovered that publications about macrophages in HNSCC are steadily increasing. The majority of studies focused on macrophage polarization, macrophage markers, and inflammation in the tumor microenvironment. Furthermore, our bibliometric analysis revealed that the immunosuppressive role of tumor-associated macrophages in the tumor microenvironment and resistance to therapy in HNSCC have recently received attention.

Idiopathic subglottic stenosis with an inguinal hernia in children: A case report.

RATIONALE: Idiopathic subglottic stenosis is a fibrotic condition of unknown origin that results in blockage of the central airway in the subglottic region. It is widely acknowledged that subglottic stenosis is a relatively uncommon structural anomaly that is difficult to operate on and cure due to its anatomical location. Inguinal hernias are well-established to be prevalent in infants and youngsters. We present a case of subglottic stenosis in a child complicated with an inguinal hernia (IH). PATIENT CONCERNS: A 7-year-old female was admitted to our hospital with a 1-month history of progressive bulging in the left lower quadrant of the abdomen. She complained of no stomach discomfort, distension, or dyspnea, but her family reports that the patient usually wheezes during moderate exertion and has no family history of asthma or lung illness. However, for unclear reasons, the infant experienced shortness of breath following training. A chest CT scan was unremarkable. Below the glottis, a membranous stenosis was discovered. The stenosis beneath the glottis was discovered using dynamic laryngoscopy. DIAGNOSES: Idiopathic subglottic stenosis with an IH. INTERVENTIONS: An otorhinolaryngologist employed a carbon dioxide laser to eliminate the subglottic stenosis. Following successful intubation by the anesthesiologist, pediatric surgeons performed laparoscopic high ligation of the hernial sac. OUTCOMES: After 1 month, a repeat laryngoscopy revealed significant expansion of the subglottic stenosis, accounting for the improvement in respiratory symptoms. LESSONS: The present case raises awareness that surgeons should be more vigilant about respiratory complications in patients with an IH. Early diagnosis and treatment of respiratory illnesses are critical for patients undergoing endotracheal intubation.

Bibliometric study on the knowledge graph of immunotherapy for head and neck cancer.

Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a common malignant tumor with a significant mortality rate, especially in patients at locally advanced stage, or with recurrence and metastasis. Immunotherapy has shown remarkable breakthrough in the treatment of locally advanced cancer, recurrence and metastasis in recent years. During this time, a large number of HNSCC immunotherapy studies have been published. However, few studies employed bibliometric analysis. This work analyzes HNSCC immunotherapy trends and hotspots using bibliometric analysis to get better understanding of the current state and future direction of HNSCC immunotherapy. Methods: Relevant articles and publications about immunotherapy of HNSCC were extracted from Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Bibliometrics was used to study these publications in terms of countries/regions, institutions, authors (cited authors), journals (cited journals), references, and keywords, so as to identify research hotspots and to predict future research trends in this field. Results: A total of 1377 English articles published between 2000 and 2022 were collected. It is found that the number of articles increases rapidly from 2016. The United States has the largest number of publications (n=538), followed by China (n=407) and Germany (n=175). The institute with the highest published papers is the University of Pittsburgh (n=67). In terms of author, Robert L Ferris ranks first among the top ten cited authors. Oral Oncology (impact factor (IF) (2021) = 5.972) is the most prolific academic journal in immunotherapy of HNSCC. According to the reference cluster analysis, the research hot topic has shifted from basic research on immunotherapy of head and neck cancer to the study of prognosis. Keywords analysis also reveals that the study of patients' prognoses is at the core of immunotherapy for HNSCC. Conclusion: Currently, head and neck cancer research focus primarily on prognostic significance, cancer treatment, and poor prognosis. However, the researches on immunotherapy for head and neck malignancies is the growing trend in near future. Notably, United States has made significant contributions to this field.

COVID-19 from the perspective of otorhinolaryngology: An analysis of bibliometrics.

Background: Since it began in December 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has not been completely contained. COVID-19 has attracted the interest of nations throughout the globe. The global coronavirus outbreak has had an especially devastating effect on otolaryngology. The virus is commonly associated with otorhinolaryngological symptoms. COVID-19 research is becoming more common in otorhinolaryngology. Although various studies on covid-19-related Otorhinolaryngology manifestations have been published, there has been no bibliometric analysis of these articles concentrating on COVID-19-related Otorhinolaryngology research. Methods: Original publications on Otolaryngological symptoms on COVID-19 were extracted from the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) databases in Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) between January 2020 and May 2022. CiteSpace and VOSviewer were utilized to detect and assess the research focus and trends in this field by extracting the country/region, institution, author, journal, references, and keywords related to this topic. Results: A total of 631 journals from 97 countries were included in the total of 1,528 articles. Most of the articles on this topic were published in the United States, which had the most citations and the highest H-index. Huazhong University of Science and Technology is the institution with the largest number of articles in the research of COVID-19-related Otorhinolaryngology diseases. Claire Hopkins was the most prolific author belonging to Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. Huang CL from Jin Yin-tan Hospital received the most citations among all authors. The most cited article was Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, which was created by Huang CL. Most of the studies relating to COVID-19 and Otorhinolaryngology diseases were published in the European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology. Conclusion: COVID-related research in the field of otorhinolaryngology has been studied in terms of descriptive quantitative metrics, which show that academics from around the world are working together to combat this pandemic.

[Modification and accuracy of the STOP-Bang questionnaire for screening obstructive sleep apnea in adults].

Objective:To assess the accuracy of the STOP-Bang questionnaire（SBQ） about screening for obstructive sleep apnea（OSA） in adults, and to establish appropriate cutoffs for body mass index（BMI）, neck circumference（NC）, age, and SBQ score for this population in combination with the body size characteristics of the study subjects, and to evaluate the accuracy of the SBQ for combined screening with waist to height ratio（WHtR）. Methods:The data were collected from October, 2019 to November, 2020 at the Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, and 218 patients with suspicious OSA were included in this study, all of them completed the SBQ and underwent overnight PSG. SBQ screening and PSG were tested in a blinded concurrent manner. Using the PSG results as the gold standard, the subjects were divided into a diseased group with moderate to severe OSA and a non-diseased group based on apnea hypopnea index. According to SBQ screening results, the subjects were divided into a positive group with moderate severe OSA and negative group. And calculated in the form of four-fold table, the optimal cutoffs were determined by adjusting age, BMI, NC, and SBQ score cutoffs, and calculating the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value（PPV）, negative predictive value（NPV）, Youden index, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve（ROC）. And the modified version of SBQ was combined with WHtR for joint diagnosis to evaluate the accuracy of combined screening. Results:With all 218 patients completing the experiment, 159（72.94%） patients were in the moderate-severe group. The original SBQ had a sensitivity of 93.71%, specificity of 47.46%, PPV of 82.80%, NPV of 73.70%, Youden index of 0.41, and area under the ROC curve（AUC） of 0.71 for predicting moderate to severe OSA. When adjusting the BMI cutoff to 30 kg/m², NC cutoff to 40 cm, and age cutoff to 50 years, the modified SBQ had a sensitivity of 95.60%, specificity of 47.46%, PPV of 83.10%, NPV of 80.00%, Youden index of 0.43, and AUC of 0.72 for predicting moderate to severe OSA. When the modified SBQ score was 4 or more as the cutoff value, the highest Youden index and AUC were 0.54, 0.77 respectively. When the modified SBQ≥3 points were combined with WHtR>0.55, the highest Youden index and AUC were 0.58, 0.79 respectively. Conclusion:SBQ is effective in screening for moderate to severe OSA and better screening accuracy can be achieved by using a modified version of the SBQ（BMI>30 kg/m², NC>40 cm, age>50 years）. The maximum diagnostic accuracy can be achieved when the modified SBQ total score was 4 or more as the cutoff. Those with the modified SBQ total score=3 and WHtR>0.55 can be classified as high risk for moderate to severe OSA, and the modified version of SBQ can be a screening tool to identify moderate to severe OSA.

PDIA6 contributes to aerobic glycolysis and cancer progression in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Accumulated evidence has demonstrated that aerobic glycolysis serves as a regulator of tumor cell growth, invasion, and angiogenesis. Herein, we explored the role of protein disulfide isomerase family 6 (PDIA6) in the aerobic glycolysis and the progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). METHODS: The expression pattern of PDIA6 in OSCC tissues was determined by qPCR and western blotting. Lentivirus and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) were introduced into cells to upregulate and downregulate PDIA6 expression. CCK-8, flow cytometry, transwell, and xenotransplantation models were applied to detect cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, and tumorigenesis, respectively. RESULTS: A high expression pattern of PDIA6 was observed in OSCC tissues, which was closely associated with lower overall survival and malignant clinical features in OSCC. Compared with the control group, overexpression of PDIA6 induced significant enhancements in cell growth, migration, invasiveness, and tumorigenesis and decreased cell apoptosis, while knockdown of PDIA6 caused opposite results. In addition, overexpression of PDIA6 increased glucose consumption, lactate production, and ATP level in OSCC cells. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that PDIA6 expression was elevated in OSCC tissues, and overexpression of it promoted aerobic glycolysis and OSCC progression.

Anti-cancer effect of miR-139-3p on laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma by targeting rab5a: In vitro and in vivo studies.

BACKGROUND: Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Nowadays, as traditional treatment methods are gradually limited, the development of new treatment methods needs to be resolved. This study aimed to investigate the role of microRNA(miR)-139-3p in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma, and further explored the underlying mechanism. METHODS: In this study, we first used quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to detect the level of miR-139-3p in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma tissue. Then, TargetScan and dual luciferase reporter assay were used to explore and verify whether rab5a was a direct target of miR-139-3p. Thereafter, the expression of miR-139-3p and rab5a in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cell line SNU46 was changed by transfection with miR-139-3p mimic or rab5a-plasmid. Then, SNU46 cell proliferation, cell apoptosis, cell cycle, cell migration and cell invasion were determined using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), flow cytometry, scratch assay and Transwell assay, respectively. Finally, mouse tumor formation experiments were used to test whether miR-139-3p still exerted its role in inhibiting laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma in vivo. RESULTS: Compared with the adjacent normal tissues, miR-139-3p significantly down-regulated in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma tissue. It was confirmed by dual luciferase reporter experiment that rab5a was a direct target of miR-139-3p. Moreover, the up-regulation of miR-139-3p could effectively inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cells, and induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. In the molecular level study, we found that up-regulation of miR-139-3p inhibited the expression of rab5a in SNU46 cells. In addition, the protein and mRNA expression of factors related to cell migration, invasion, proliferation and apoptosis, such as integrin ß1, Focal adhesion kinase (FAK), paxillin, B cell lymphoma-2 (bcl-2), nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), in SNU46 cells were changed after miR-139-3p up-regulation. Consistent with the results of in vitro studies, in vivo experiments showed that miR-139-3p mimic inhibited laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma tumor growth. All the effects of miR-139-3p on laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma were reversed by rab5a over-expression. CONCLUSION: miR-139-3p could inhibit laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma by targeting rab5a both in vitro and in vivo.

Primary non-Hodgkin lymphoma of the sphenoid sinus with visual disturbance: A report of two cases.

Primary non-Hodgkin lymphoma (PNHL) of the sphenoid sinus is a rare neoplasm that poses a diagnostic challenge to clinicians. The proximity of the optical nerve and canal to the sphenoid sinus is accountable for the high incidence of visual disturbance in PNHL of the sphenoid sinus. In particular, patients whose radiologic diagnosis reveals bone destruction in the lateral wall involved with optical-nerve-canals or cavernous sinus present a high risk of rapidly developing unilateral blindness. The present study reports 2 rare cases of PNHL of the sphenoid sinus. Sudden sight loss may follow minimally invasive biopsy. In such cases, the measures that must be taken for the prevention of permanent sight loss are limited in the absence of the final pathologic diagnosis.

[Study on the factors impacting on early cochlear implantation between the eastern and western region of China].

OBJECTIVE: To describe tne regional different factors which impact on early cochlear implantation in prelingual deaf children between eastern and western regions of China. METHOD: The charts of 113 children who received the cochlear implantation after 24 months old were reviewed and analyzed. Forty-five of them came from the eastern region (Jiangsu, Zhejiang or Shanghai) while 68 of them came from the western region (Ningxia or Guizhou). Parental interviews were conducted to collect information regarding the factors that impact on early cochlear implantation. Result:Based on the univariate logistic regression analysis, the odds ratio (OR) value of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) was 5. 481, which indicated the correlation of UNHS with early cochlear implantation is significant. There was statistical difference between the 2 groups (P<0. 01). For the financial burden, the OR value was 3. 521(strong correlation) and there was statistical difference between the 2 groups (P<0. 01). For the communication barriers and community location, the OR value was 0. 566 and 1. 128 respectively, and there was no statistical difference between the 2 groups (P>0. 05). The multivariate analysis indicated that the UNHS and financial burden are statistically different between the eastern and western regions (P=0. 00 and 0. 040 respectively). CONCLUSION: The UNHS and financial burden are statistically different between the eastern reinforced in the western region. In addition, the government and society should provide powerful policy and more financial support in the western region of China. The innovation of management system is also helpful to the early cochlear implantation.

[Effects of pingyangmycin on mucous membrane of respiratory tract and its prevention].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of pingyangmycin(PYM) on the histomorphology and ultrastructure of airway mucosa from the healthy Wistar rats and explore the intervenient role of Vitamin E and Composite Salvia Miltiorrhiza (CSM) on these effects. METHODS: Thirty Wistar rats were divided randomly into four groups: Group A as control group (injection of N. S into peritoneal cavity); Group B received intracavitary injection of PYM; Group C received both intracavitary injection of PYM and tube feeding of Vitamin E; Group D received intracavitary injection of PYM and CSM. The nasal and tracheal mucosa were taken for light microscopy(LM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and scanning electron microscopy(SEM) at the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th week of the experiment. RESULTS: Edema and degeneration of epithelial cells manifested as expansion of endoplasmic reticula, swelling of mitochondria, disarrangement of mitochondrial crista, vesicula formation of mitochondria, reduction of mitochondria in part cells, mild expansion of perinuclear space and slight peripheral accumulation of nuclear chromatin could be seen in Group B at the end of the 1st week without necrosis or detachment of the cells. At the 2nd week, there were necrosis and exfoliation of epithelial cells, rupture of cell membrane, phenomena of outflow of mitochondria and endoplasmic reticula. The degree of cell damage became more seriously at the 4th week and was not recovered to normal condition even 2 weeks after stopping administration of PYM. The cell damages in Group C and D were significantly lighter than that in Group B and its occurrence were significantly postponed. The injured cells recovered definitely after stopping PYM administration and continuous application of Vitamin and CSM for another 2 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: (1) The nasal and tracheal mucosa of Wistar rats can be damaged by injection of PYM and the degree of damage which become more serious with the increase of dose. (2) Vitamin E and CSM can alleviate the damages of the respiratory mucosa from Wistar rats caused by PYM. Both drugs could be used to prevent respiratory tract mucosa from the damages induced by PYM in clinical.