Three dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) or intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is effective for esophageal carcinoma treatment. Compared with conventional radiotherapy, these high precision radiotherapies can significantly improve local control and overall survival. However, local recurrence is still the most common reason for treatment failure. To improve local control, increasing target dose alone is not sufficient, while concurrent chemoradiotherpy may enhance the treatment effect for esophageal carcinoma.

Crossbite of upper and lower second molars is a common malocclusion. It is difficult to treat such cases. 4 kinds of treatments according to different situations are recommended. One is a mutual elastics on the upper and lower teeth. The second method is to move upper and lower teeth by archwire lingually and bucally. The third is to extract the second molars, while the third molars drift automatically. The fourth is using mini-implant as an anchorage to move the teeth to correct position. This article evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of the 4 kinds of methods. We also discussed how to choose the appliances as well as what we should pay attention to treat this malocclusion.

Objective To compare the efficacy between three-dimensional radiotherapy (3DRT) combined with chemotherapy and radiotherapy alone for patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for 1257 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who were admitted to our hospital from July 2003 to June 2012 and met the inclusion criteria;362 patients were treated with 3DRT combined with chemotherapy (chemoradiotherapy group) and 895 patients were treated with radiotherapy alone (radiotherapy group).The short-term outcome, overall survival (OS) rate, and causes of death were analyzed.The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate survival rates, and the log-rank test was used for survival difference analysis and univariate prognostic analysis.Results The response rate was 99.1%(346/349) in the chemoradiotherapy group and 99.0%(813/821) in the radiotherapy group (P=0.397).The 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS rates were 74.0%,42.0%,and 32.9% in the chemoradiotherapy group and 65.9%,33.0%,and 23.3% in the radiotherapy group (P=0.000), and were 75.6%,43.5%,and 33.2% in the concurrent chemoradiotherapy group and 65.9%,33.0%,and 23.3% in the radiotherapy group (P=0.000).There were no significant differences in 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS rates between the concurrent chemoradiotherapy group and the sequential chemoradiotherapy group (P=0.583).The sequential chemoradiotherapy group had an insignificant increase in 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS rates compared with the radiotherapy group (P=0.065).Tumor recurrence and local control failure were the main causes of death, followed by distant metastasis.The chemoradiotherapy group had a significantly lower proportion of patients who died of local control failure than the radiotherapy group (7.4% vs.14.7%, P=0.003).Conclusions For patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, chemoradiotherapy leads to significantly improved overall survival compared with radiotherapy alone;compared with radiotherapy alone, sequential chemoradiotherapy results in an increasing trend in OS rates, while concurrent chemoradiotherapy results in significantly increased OS rates.Chemoradiotherapy can reduce the deaths due to local control failure compared with radiotherapy alone.

ObjectiveTo analyze the prognosis of 784 patients according with clinical staging of esophageal carcinoma treated with non-surgical methods,investigate the predictive value and deficiency of the clinical staging.MethodsFrom July 2003 to January 2009,784 patients with esophageal carcinoma received 3DCRT treatment.The prescribed doses ranged from 50 Gy-70 Gy with median dose of 60 Gy,1.8-2.0 Gy/fraction,1 fraction/day,5 fractions/week.65 patients received prescription dose of＜60 Gy and all the others'≥60 Gy.All the patients were divided into subgroups according to different T,N and TNM stages.Therapeutic effect was evaluated.ResultsThe follow up rate was 97.1％,503 patients were followed up for more than 3 years and 122 were followed up for more than 5 years.The 1-,3-,5-year local control rates and overall survival rates were 77.2％,54.2％,46.5％ and 69.5％,34.9％,23.9％,respectively,with median survival time of 21 months.There were significant differences of survival curves for different T stages,N stages and TNM stages.For the groups of stage Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ,the 1-,3-,5-year survival rates were 86.4％,47.6％,45.1％ ;84.7％,46.3％,36.4％ and 64.0％,30.9％,19.1％,respectively ( x2 =29.34,P =0.000).There were 752 patients with squamous cell carcinoma ( 95.9％ )and 32 patients with non-squamous cell carcinoma (4.1％ ),the median survival time were 21 and 16 months,respectively ( x2 =4.44,P =0.035 ).There were significant difference of survival rates for the subgroups whose GTV volume ≤20 cm3,20 -40 cm3,40 -60 cm3 and ＞60 cm3 (54 months,29 months,21months and 14months,x2 =68.71,P =0.000).ConclusionsThe clinical staging of esophageal carcinoma treated with non-surgical methods could predict the prognosis accurately,for patients with different pathology and GTV volumes,there were variance in the prognosis,so we advised the complement of the two factors in the draft of clinical stages.

ObjectiveTo explore the application of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWMRI) in precise radiotherapy of esophageal carcinoma.MethodsThirty-seven patients with biopsy proven esophageal cancer from March 2010 to January 2011 were included.To delineate the gross tumor volume (GTV) using CT and DWMRI images,each patient was examined by DWMRI and CT scan using the same position before radiotherapy.To compare the maximum diameters and volumes of tumor between CT and DWMRI. The tumor lengths measured by esophagogram,esophagoscope,CT and DWMRI were compared.ResultsTumor lengths under esophagogram,esophagoscope,CT and DWMRI were 5.70 cm,6.06 cm,7.97 cm and 5.79 cm respectively. The lengths between CT and esophagogram,CT and esophagoscope,CT and DWMRI had statistical significance respectively (F=4.88,P=0.003).The maximum diameters of tumor shown on CT and DWMRI were 3.79 cm and 3.81 cm respectively ( t =-0.32,P=0.751 ).The GTV were 45.75 cm3 and 38.05 cm3 in CT and DWMRI respectively (t=5.30,P =0.001 ).53 lymph nodes were assessed positive on both CT and DWMRI.DWMRI excluded 25 positive lymph nodes assesed by CT; also confirmed 15 negative lymph nodes excluded by CT,6 of which were paraesophageal lymph nodes.The addition of DWMRI information altered the clinical stage in 6 patients.ConclusionsTumor lengths measured on DWMRI and esophagogram had the optimal approximation.It was easy to find paraesophageal lymph nodes via DWMRI.With the addition of DWMRI information,the target range and clinical stage were alerted in some patients.

Objective To observe the relationship between computed tomography-gross tumor volume (GTV) and non-surgical T stage in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and the survival rates of patients with different GTVs,and to investigate the impact of GTV on the prognosis of ESCC after three-dimensional radiotherapy.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on 223 ESCC patients without lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis who were hospitalized from July 2003 to January 2009.The prescribed doses of three-dimensional radiotherapy ranged from 50-70 Gy.These patients were divided into 3 or 4 groups according to different percentile intervals of GTVs.The Spearman rank correlation analysis was used for investigating the relationship between non-surgical T stage and GTV.The Kaplan-Meier method was used for calculating survival rates,and the log-rank test was used for survival difference analysis.Results The follow-up rate was 98.2％.A total of 163 patients were followed up for at least 3 years.The median GTVs of patients with T1 +2 ESCC,T3 ESCC,and T4 ESCC were 19.31 cm3,33.69 cm3,and 41.25 cm3,respectively,exhibiting a positive correlation between non-surgical T stage and GTV (P =0.000).The 5-year survival rates were 59％,43％,and 24％ (P =0.000) in 3 GTV-based groups and were 55％,51％,31％,and 24％ (P =0.004) in 4 GTV-based groups.The primary cause of death for the patients with GTVs of ≤35 cm3 and ＞35 cm3 was failure of local control (57.9％ vs 52.1％) ; 21.9％ and 13.8％ of the patients with a GTV of ＞ 35 cm3 died of uncontrol and excessive bleeding,versus 9.4％ and 3.1％ of the patients with a GTV of ≤ 35 cm3 (P =0.046 ; P =0.029) ;2 of the patients with a GTV of ＞ 35 cm3 died of grade 5 radiation pneumonitis.Conclusions GTV is positively correlated with nonsurgical T stage in esophageal cancer patients who receive radiotherapy.The 3-level and 4-level grading of GTV can be used for prognostic evaluation,and the 3-level grading of GTV is more closely related to prognosis.The patients with a larger GTV have higher incidence of uncontrol and bleeding and risk of treatment-related death than those with a smaller GTV after radiotherapy.

Objective To investigate the long-term survival of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients of different ages after three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3 DCRT).Methods From July 2003 to September 2008,769 patients with stage Ⅰ-Ⅲ ESCC were eligible for the analysis.All patients were treated with 3DCRT.The prescribed dose was 50-70 Gy (median,60 Gy),1.8-2.0 Gy per fraction,5 fractions per week.The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate overall survival (OS) and local control (LC) rates; the log-rank test was used for survival difference analysis and univariate prognostic analysis;the Cox regression model was used for multivariate prognostic analysis.Results The follow-up rate was 98.3％.For all patients,the 1-,3-,and 5-year LC rates were 76.3％,52.8％,and 48.5％,respectively,and the 1-,3-,and 5-year OS rates were 70.1％,36.2％,and 23.0％,respectively.The 1-,3-,and 5-year OS rates were 71.2％,38.8％,and 24.9％,respectively,for patients aged 45-74 years,versus 69.6％,26.6％,and 15.4％ for patients aged 75-89 years (P =0.008).Multivariate prognostic analysis showed that age was also a prognostic factor in ESCC patients after 3DCRT.A total of 620 patients died.Patients aged 45-74 years had a significantly higher proportion of individuals that died of distant metastasis (23.9％ vs.14.2％,P =0.009),while patients aged 75-89 years had a significantly higher proportion of individuals that died of non-cancer diseases (14.1％ vs.4.9％,P=0.000).Conclusions Survival varies between ESCC patients of different ages after 3DCRT.The survival of elderly ESCC patients is poor,and the relatively high mortality from non-cancer diseases may be an important reason for poor survival.

Objective To assess the application of echocardiography in mini-invasive surgical device closure of ventricular septal defect (VSD). Methods 73 VSD patients including 35 with aneurysm formation and among them 21 with multi-defects in the aneurysm were treated by mini-invasive device closure. A closure device was positioned to the defect through parastemal mini-incision in all patients. TEE was used to monitor the whole procedure, to guide the device positioning and to evaluate the curative effect instantly after operation. All patients were evaluated by TTE one year postoperatively. Results All patients were successfully positioned closure devices by TEE guiding. 9 cases were found with trace to small amount residual shunt instantly after operation. 7 cases still had small amount residual shunt at the time of 48 hours after the operation. In the one year follow-up, 4 cases had residual shunt, but the size and volume of left ventricle were significantly reduced than those before operation, and the pulmonary artery systolic pressure was also reduced. Conclusion Echocardiography possesses an important role in preoperative indication screening, intraoperation monitoring and evaluating the curative effect postoperatively.

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Objective To study the macrophage colony-stimulating factor(M-CSF)expression levels of serum and synovial fluids from patients with spondyloarthropathy(SPA)and its contribution to the pathogen- esis of SpA.Methods Eleven SpA synovial tissue samples were compared to those from peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMC)of 10 normal subjects using a 1176 gene array.M-CSF was detected in both serum samples and synovial fluids by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).Two groups of AS subjects were tested.The first group consisted of 41 ankylosing spondylitis(AS)patients who had not been treated with bio- logics.The second group consisted of 13 subjects whose serum samples were collected before and 14 weeks af- ter initiation of infliximab.These were compared to serum samples from 28 normal subjects,and synovial fluid samples from 15 SpA patients.Results Expression of M-CSF could be detected in both serum samples and synovial fluids.The concentration of M-CSF in the group of 41 AS patients not treated with biologics correlated with the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index(BASDAI)values(r=0.41,P=0.004).Treatment of infliximab in AS patients led to a significant decrease in the values of BASDAI(P=0.000 07),but no signif- icant change in the serum M-CSF values.Conclusion M-CSF is a promising candidate for research on the mechanisms of SpA and its signaling on pathway in SpA is different from tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-?,and it may provide new basis for developing new anti-biologics for SpA.