Objective To evaluate the value of ~(99m)Tc-MIBI tumoraffin imaging,computed tomography(CT)and magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)in the diagnosis of recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC) after radiotherapy.Methods The ~(99m)Tc-MIBI tumoraffin imaging,CT and MRI were performed in 78 NPC postradiotherapy patients,including 38 patients with local recurrence and 40 patients with radiofibrosis confirmed by pathology and follow-up.Results The sensitivity of ~(99m)Tc-MIBI tumoraffin imaging(73.7%) was lower than that of CT(94.7%) and MRI(92.1%).The specificity of ~(99m)Tc-MIBI tumoraffin imaging(92.5%) was obviously higher than that of CT(62.5%) and MRI(67.5%).There was no significant difference in the accuracy between three imaging examination methods.The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the combination of three imaging examination methods in the diagnosis of recurrent NPC after radiotherapy were 97.4%,95% and 96.2%,respectively.Conclusion The ~(99m)Tc-MIBI tumoraffin imaging has higher specificity in the diagnosis of recurrent NPC after radiotherapy.The diagnostic accuracy may be further improved with the combination of three methods.

Objective To investigate the association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) IL-18-137G/C (rs187238) and IL-18-607A/C (rs1946518) in interleukin-18 (IL-18) gene and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV).Methods The subjects were divided into HBV-related HCC group (109 patients),chronic HBV infection group (113 patients),and healthy control group (127 patients).The polymerase chain reaction-ligase detection reaction (PCR-LDR) was used to determine the alleles and genotypes of the two SNPs IL-18-137G/C and IL-18-607A/C.The t-test and chi-square test were used for baseline data.The chi-square test was used to investigate the differences in genotype and allele frequencies across the three groups.Non-conditional logistic regression analysis was used to compare the odds ratios (ORs) and 95％ confidence intervals (CIs) for different genotypes/alleles in predicting the risk ofHBV-related HCC.Results The HBV-related HCC group showed significantly higher AA genotype and A allele frequencies of the SNP IL-18-607A/C than the healthy control group (AA genotype frequency:29.4％ vs 18.1％,x2 =4.152,P ＜ 0.05;A allele frequency:54.6％ vs 44.1％,5.169,P ＜ 0.05),which were positively correlated with the risk of HBV-related HCC (AA genotype frequency:OR =1.879,95％ CI:1.020-3.464;A allele frequency:OR =1.524,95％ CI:1.059-2.193).The chronic HBV infection group had a significantly higher A allele frequency of the SNP IL-18-607A/C than the healthy control group (54.0％ vs 44.1％,x2 =4.680,P ＜ 0.05),which was positively correlated with the risk of chronic HBV infection (OR =1.487,95％ CI:1.037-2.132).The genotype and allele frequencies of the SNP IL-18-607A/C showed no significant differences between the HBV-related HCC group and the chronic HBV infection group (P ＞ 0.05).The genotype and allele frequencies of the SNP IL-18-137G/C showed no significant differences between any two groups of the three groups (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion The AA genotype and A allele frequencies of the SNP IL-18-607A/C are positively correlated with the morbidity of HBV-related HCC,and the A allele frequency of the SNP IL-18-607A/C is positively correlated with the morbidity of chronic HBV infection.