Objective To investigate the present status of early diagnosis and misdiagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods A total of 50 patients diagnosed as NPC were recruited at the department of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in our hospital. The time from that patients felt discomfort to be diagnosed of NPC was determined bydifferent symptoms and signs. Furthermore , the status of misdiagnosis were also investigated. The spearmans rank correlation was used to analyze the correlation between the cancer stage and the time of confirmeddiagnosis , and the relationship between the rate of misdiagnosed and the rank of the hospital they visited. The χ2 test was then used to analyze the cancer stage with the time when they were diagnosed. Results Results indicated that the time when patients were diagnosed significantly correlated with pTNM stage (P < 0.05). Patients diagnosed in one month were most at stage Ⅱ, diagnosed in six months were stage III, and diagnosed after twelve months were stage Ⅳ(P < 0.05). Furthermore, we found that the rate of misdiagnosis of NPC was 12%. Moreover,the misdiagnosed rate was associated with the rank of the hospital patients visited. Discussion In conclusion , the present status of the early diagnosis of NPC is not optimistic. Most of the patients with NPC were misdiagnosed in basic medical institutions , especially in town or village health center. Thus, it is important to popularize the health knowledge about the secondary prevention of NPC and train the doctor in basic medical institutions.

OBJECTIVE: To observe waveform difference among cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMP) elicited with different types of air conducted sound in normal young Chinese subjects. METHOD: Twenty adult volunteers (40 ears) were recruited as research subjects including 10 males and 10 females aged between 19 and 30.500 Hz Tone Burst, 1000 Hz Tone Burst and Click were employed as stimulus for conventional air conducted sound-cVEMP (ACS-cVEMP) examinations in bilateral ears of each subject. The response rate, threshold, P1 latency, N1 latency, P1-N1 latency interval, amplitude and inter-aural asymmetry were recorded and compared among groups. RESULT: The response rate was 97.5% in 500Hz Tone Burst (39/40), 87.5% in 1 000Hz Tone Burst (35/40)and 67.5% in Click (27/40), There were no statistically significant difference between 500Hz Tone Burst and 1000Hz Tone Burst (P > 0.05) but there were statistically significant difference between click and the other groups (P < 0.05). We collected the waveform parameters (the threshold, P1 latency, N1 latency, P1-N1 latency interval, amplitude) which had statistically significant difference between 500 Hz Tone Burst and the other groups (P < 0.05). The inter-aural asymmetrys had no statistically significant differents among groups. CONCLUSION The response rate and parameter could be affected by different types of air conducted sound in normal young Chinese subjects. 500 Hz Tone Burst was the best stimulus of type what we have known.
Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Neck ; Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials ; Vestibule, Labyrinth ; physiology ; Young Adult

Objective To explore the clinical value of nodal metastatic characteristics in predicting the distant metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).Methods A total of 1 408 PTC patients who met the inclusion criteria and received initial thyroidectomy at our department from January 2006 to December 2011 were enrolled in this study.Results After a median follow-up time of 7.8 years,distant metastases developed in 46 patients.Patients with lateral neck lymph node metastasis ≥7,individual size of lateral neck lymph node metastasis ≥ 1.15 cm and the total number of cervical lymph node metastasis ≥9 were prone to higher risk of distant metastasis;the high risk group had a lower 10-year distant metastasisfree survival (78.7％ vs.98％,x2 =122.941,P ＜0.01) and a shorter distant metastasis-free survival time (99.2 M vs.122.5 M,x2 =122.941,P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions Lateral lymph node metastasis is an independent risk factor for distant metastasis in PTC patients.