OBJECTIVE To evaluate the role ofpreoperative ultrasonograpy in detecting cervical lymph node metastasis. METHODS Medical records between February 1998 and February 2002,consisting of 51 cases (58 sides) of well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma with cervical lymph nodes metastasis, were reviewed. Patients were divided into 2 groups: group 1,34 cervical sides with palpable cervical lymph nodes preoperatively and group 2,24 cervical sides with impalpable nodes but positive for nodal metastasis ultrasonically. All patients underwent modified neck dissection. The preoperative ultrsonographic results and preoperative pathologic findings were compared. RESULTS Of the 58 sides with positive preoperative ultrsonographic results, 53 sides had been demonstrated to have cervical lymph nodes metastasis pathologically. The sensitivity of ultraonography was 91.4 %(53/58). Four patients had developed lateral cervical recurrence during the course of the follow-up, yielding a recurrence rate of 7.5 %. Ultrasonography detected cervical lymph node believed to be uninvolved by physical examination in 39.6 % of patients. The most frequent involvement site was middle neck according to ultrasonography [71.7 %(38/53)] and level Ⅲ according to pathological findings [67.9 %(36/53)]. CONCLUSION Preoperative ultrasonograpy is a basis for detecting cervical lymph nodes metastasis in thyroid cancer patients. It can detect metastatic cervical lymph nodes and their localizations. All thyroid cancer patients should undergo preoperative ultrasonography.

Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) are a kind of stem cells with multiple differentiation potential in bone marrow.BMSCs have been widely used in tissue engineering,cell transplantation,gene therapy and organ transplantation,due to their characteristics of wide range of sources,weak immunogenicity weak,easily transfected by exogenous gene,long survival time in the host,multi-directional differentiation,etc.Cerebral ischemia is caused by neurological impairment,which is the most common cause of death and quality-of-life impairments.The clinical manifestations of the patients with cerebral ischemia are motor function failure,sensory dysfunction and abnormal mental consciousness.A large number of studies have reported that BMSCs transplantation has the therapeutic effects of body sensory and motor function recovery,and can treat ischemic stroke.BMSCs transplantation has brought new hope for the clinical treatment of ischemic cerebrovascular disease.In this paper,the recent progress in the study of BMSCs transplantation for ischemic stroke was reviewed.The mechanism,pathways,influencing factors and clinical application of BMSCs transplantation were summarized.

Objective To evaluate the clinical value of enhanced 3D-SPACE-STIR sequence MR in brachial plexus injury post-ganglionic nerve.Methods Eighteen patients with suspected brachial plexus injury were examined by routine MRI,3D-SPACE-STIR sequence and enhanced scan.The position,morphology,signal intensity of the brachial plexus injury and its relation with the proximal and distal portions of the brachial plexus were evaluated by senior radiologists.The image quality of plain and enhanced 3D-SPACE-STIR was evaluated respectively.Results The CNR of plain scan and enhanced 3D-SPACE-STIR sequence images were 32.31+2.98 and 43.66+2.78 respectively and the difference was statistically significant.Plain and enhanced 3D-SPACE-STIR sequences of supraclavicular nerves display rate were 95.0% and 96.1% respectively without having statistically significant difference.However,the subclavicular segment of the brachial plexus showed the displaying rates of 66.7% and 94.4% and the difference was statistically significant.Moreover, the background suppression effect of enhanced scan was better than that of the plain scan.Conclusion Enhanced 3D-SPACE-STIR sequence can clearly show brachial plexus injury,and its image quality is better than that of the plain scan,which can provide important imaging basis for accurate diagnosis of brachial plexus injury.

Objective To investigate the value of the reverse shock index multiplied by GlasgowComa scale score (rSIG) and serum translocator protein 18000 in the prognosis of patients with severe traumatic brain injury. Methods One hundred and fifteen patients with severe traumatic brain injury were divided into the survival group and death group. SPSS 20.0 software was used to compare the vital signs, rSIG and TSPO between the two groups, and the relationship between rSIG and TSPO was analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to predict the value of rSIG and TSPO and their combination in the prognosis of patients with severe traumatic brain injury. According to the best cut-off value of rSIG and TSPO of ROC curve, patients were divided into the rSIG ≤ 14.8 group and rSIG>14.8 group, and the TSPO ≤ 1.84 ng/mL group and TSPO>1.84 ng/mL group, and the mortality between the groups was compared. Results In 115 patients, rSIG of the survival group was significantly higher than that of the death group, and TSPO was significantly lower than that of the death group [(10.5±4.4) vs. (6.4±4.1), 1.0(0.3,1.9) ng/mL vs.3.4 (2.0, 4.6) ng/mL, P<0.01]. The ability of rSIG combined with TSPO to forecast the mortality of patients with severe traumatic brain injury is not superior to the predictive power of these two indicators alone. The serum TSPO value and 28-day mortality in the rSIG > 4.15 group were significantly higher than those in the rSIG ≤ 4.15 group. The rSIG value of the TSPO ≤ 1.84 ng/mL group was significantly higher than that of the TSPO>1.84 ng/mL group; the 28-day mortality was significantly lower than that in the TSPO>1.84 ng/mL group. The rSIG value was negatively correlated with serum TSPO value (r=-0.611, P<0.01). Conclusions rSIG value and serum TSPO value have good predictive value for the prognosis of patients with severe traumatic brain injury, and can provide certain guiding significance in clinical practice.

Consecutively hospitalized patients with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China were retrospectively enrolled from January 2020 to March 2020 to investigate the association between the use of renin-angiotensin system inhibitor (RAS-I) and the outcome of this disease. Associations between the use of RAS-I (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB)), ACEI, and ARB and in-hospital mortality were analyzed using multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models in overall and subgroup of hypertension status. A total of 2771 patients with COVID-19 were included, with moderate and severe cases accounting for 45.0% and 36.5%, respectively. A total of 195 (7.0%) patients died. RAS-I (hazard ratio (HR)= 0.499, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.325-0.767) and ARB (HR = 0.410, 95% CI 0.240-0.700) use was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality among patients with COVID-19. For patients with hypertension, RAS-I and ARB applications were also associated with a reduced risk of mortality with HR of 0.352 (95% CI 0.162-0.764) and 0.279 (95% CI 0.115-0.677), respectively. RAS-I exhibited protective effects on the survival outcome of COVID-19. ARB use was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality among patients with COVID-19.
Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists/therapeutic use* ; Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors/therapeutic use* ; COVID-19 ; Humans ; Hypertension/drug therapy* ; Renin-Angiotensin System ; Retrospective Studies