Objective To compare the diagnostic value of CT and diffusion-weighted imaging in extremity soft tissue tumors. Methods A total of 104 cases of extremity soft tissue tumors were examined with CT scanning and MRI. All cases were histologically proven. Then we compared the CT value of various types of tumors. The b values of diffusion were 0 and 500 s/mm2. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of a large region with no hemorrhage, necrosis, scar tissue, or calcification representing the lesion were measured. ADC values of benign tumors, malignant tumors and normal muscles were compared. Results There were 68 cases of benign tumors and 36 cases of malignant tumors. The CT findings of 45 cases and the MRI findings of 87cases were in accordance with pathological examination. The diagnosis of 59 cases by CT and 17 cases by MRI were wrong. The CT features of soft tissue tumors showed the low density masses. The features of lipoma or cyst were typical on CT. There were large differences among the different types of tumors performance on T1WI and T2WI. The ADC values of the malignant tumors were significantly lower than those of benign lesion sand muscles (P < 0.01). There was no significant difference in ADC values between benign lesions and muscles. there was significant difference between the detection level of CT and MRI (P < 0.01). Conclusion CT can clearly show soft tissue tumor lesions and to clarify their relationship and the surrounding tissue, but can not accurately characterize. MRI diffusion-weighted imaging can better differentiate benign and malignant, and speculate the histological lesions sources. MRI detection level is significantly higher than CT and more consistent with a higher degree of pathology. Thus in the preoperative diagnosis of soft tissue tumors, diffusion-weighted imaging MRI should be preferred.

Objective To investigate curative effects and prognostic factors of video-assisted thoracoscopic extended thymectomy ( VATET ) for nonthymomatous myasthenia gravis ( NTMG ) . Methods Clinical records of 43 patients with an established diagnosis of NTMG who underwent VATET from December 2009 to September 2014 were reviewed. Three-port thoracoscopic right thymectomy with resection of fat tissue in anterior mediastinum was conducted.The curative effects and prognostic factors were evaluated and analyzed with the Monden standard. Results The VATET was successfully completed in all the 43 patients.The operation time was 75-240 min (mean, 115.4 min).The intraoperative blood loss was 10-200 ml (mean, 42.2 ml). No peri-operative death occurred.Follow-ups for 4 -60 months ( mean, 36.2 months) showed 12 cases of remission, 18 cases of improvement, 10 cases of unchanged disease, and 3 cases of deterioration.The effective rate was 69.8% (30/43).Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that pathological type of thymic hyperplasia was the independent risk factor for NTMG postoperative outcomes (β=0.921,95%CI:1.866-2.811, P=0.000). Conclusion Video-assisted thoracoscopic extended thymectomy is effective in most myasthenia gravis patients.

Objective To compare the efficacy of uniportal VATS and single utility port VATS in treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax.Method From January 2013 to December 2015, we retrospectively collected clinical data of 53 patients with spontaneous pneumothorax who were treated with uniportal VATS, as study group; compared with control group: 53 patients received single utility port VATS in the same period. The clinical data was compared between the two groups, including the operation time, intraoperative blood loss, drainage time, postoperative extubation time, postoperative pain score, postoperative hospitalization and recurrence.Results All patients were successfully completed the operation, no death and serious complications occurred. There were no significant differences in intraoperative blood lose, duration of chest drainage, duration of hospital stay and incidence of serious postoperative complications between two groups (P > 0.05). Mean Visual Analogic Scale (VAS) score for 24 h post-operative pain was: (2.60 ± 0.71) for uniportal VATS and (3.38 ± 0.84) for single utility port VATS (P > 0.05), 72 h post-operative pain was: (1.30 ± 0.51) for uniportal VATS and (1.58 ± 0.62) for single utility port VATS (P > 0.05). Follow up 5 ~ 36 months, median follow up was 19 months. No recurrence occurred during follow up.Conclusions The study suggested that both surgical approaches to spontaneous pneumothorax are safe and effective. Significant differences were found for early post-operative pain between the two approaches, the uniportal way is better. It is worthy of clinical promoting.

Objective:To explore the diagnostic value of radiomics based on arterial-venous mixed images derived from dual-energy CT (DECT) data in diagnosis of cervical lymph nodes (LNs) metastasis of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC).Methods:From June 2017 to December 2018, eighty-four patients with preoperatively DECT scanning and pathologically confirmed PTC (129 non-metastatic LNs and 97 metastatic LNs) in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University were included in this study. The clinical and imaging data of all patients were retrospectively analyzed. The training cohort consisted of 62 PTC cases with 156 LNs (91 non-metastatic LNs and 65 metastatic LNs). An independent validation cohort consisted of 22 PTC patients with 70 LNs (38 non-metastatic LNs and 32 metastatic LNs). Semi-automatic LNs segmentation was conducted on arterial-venous mixed images derived from DECT using Syngo.via Frontier Radiomics software. Totally 1 226 radiomics features were extracted from arterial-venous mixed images for each LN. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was applied for radiomics features selection and signature building. The logistic regression modeling was used to construct diagnostic models based on the CT image features of LNs (model 1), the radiomics signature (model 2) and the combination of the CT image features and radiomics signature (model 3). An intuitive nomogram was plotted for model 3. The ROC curve analyses and area under the curve (AUC) were performed to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of the three models, with the performances compared using the Delong test.Results:Model 1 was developed with LNs shape, degree of enhancement, pattern of enhancement, calcification and extra nodal extension. Three arterial phase radiomics features were selected and used to establish radiomics signature using LASSO regression (model 2). Model 3 was developed with LNs size, shape, degree of enhancement and radiomics signature. In both the training and validation cohort, model 3 showed the best diagnostic performance (AUC=0.965, 0.933), followed by model 2 (AUC=0.947, 0.910), and both these two models significantly outperformed model 1 (AUC=0.850, 0.846) (training cohort, Z=4.066 and 3.758, P both<0.001; validation cohort, Z=2.871 and 1.998, P=0.017 and 0.042) respectively. Conclusion:The radiomics model based on arterial-venous mixed images derived from DECT data can realize effective diagnosis of LNs metastasis in patients with PTC; and the combination model of radiomics signature with CT image features can further improve the diagnostic accuracy.

Objective:To investigate the value of multi-parametric analysis based on dual-layer detector spectral CT (DLCT) in predicting the initial recurrence risk for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).Methods:From November 2021 to October 2022, 102 PTC patients confirmed by pathology were retrospectively collected at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University in this cross-sectional study. There were 25 males and 77 females, with an age of (42±13) years old. The initial recurrence risk assessment for PTC patients was categorized into a low-risk group (75 cases) and an intermediate-high-risk group (27 cases). Clinical data, including age, gender, body mass index, history of nodular goiter, history of Hashimoto thyroiditis, and preoperative thyroid function, were collected. Tumor morphological features, including size, location, shape, aspect ratio, the degree of thyroid capsule contact, calcification, and cystic change, were evaluated. Quantitative DLCT parameters, including iodine concentration (IC), standardized iodine concentration (NIC), effective atomic number (Z eff), standardized effective atomic number (NZ eff), electronic density (ED), CT values under different energy levels (40-200 keV, 30 keV intervals) and slope of energy spectrum curve (λ HU) both in the arterial and venous phase were measured. The differences in clinical, morphological features, and spectral CT quantitative parameters between the two groups were compared using independent sample ttest, Mann-Whitney U test, or χ2 test. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to construct three models based on clinical and morphological features, quantitative DLCT parameters and their combination, respectively. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the predictive performance of these models for the initial recurrence risk of PTC patients, and the area under the curve (AUC) was compared using the DeLong test. Results:Significant differences were found in gender, lesion long diameter, lesion short diameter and calcification between the low-risk group and intermediate-high-risk groups ( P<0.05). The arterial phase IC, arterial phase Z eff, arterial phase λ HU, arterial phase CT 40 keV, venous phase NIC and venous phase NZ eff in intermediate-high-risk group were significantly lower than those in the low-risk group ( P<0.05). The logistic regression analysis revealed that the clinical model included gender ( OR=2.895, 95% CI 1.047-8.002, P=0.040) and lesion long diameter ( OR=1.142, 95% CI 1.042-1.251, P=0.004), with an AUC of 0.720, sensitivity of 63.0%, and specificity of 78.7% in predicting the initial recurrence risk of PTC patients. The DLCT quantitative parameter model included arterial phase IC ( OR=0.580, 95% CI 0.370-0.908, P=0.017), venous phase NIC ( OR=0.077, 95% CI 0.011-0.536, P=0.010), and venous phase NZ eff ( OR=0.002, 95% CI 0.001-0.103, P=0.009), with an AUC of 0.774, sensitivity of 71.9%, and specificity of 70.0%. The AUC of the combined model was 0.857, with a sensitivity of 74.1%, and specificity of 88.0%, outperforming the clinical model ( Z=2.92, P=0.004) and the DLCT quantitative parameter model ( Z=2.07, P=0.046). Conclusion:Multi-parametric analysis based on DLCT can help predict the initial recurrence risk for PTC, and combining it with clinical and morphological features, the predictive accuracy can be improved.

From January 2014 to June 2018, 28 patients with different types of deep soft tissue injury or infection were admitted to the Affiliated Jiangyin Hospital of Medical College of Southeast University; 5 patients were admitted to the Zhengzhou First People′s Hospital. There were 24 males and 9 females, aged 18-89 (40±20) years. Disposable suction tubes with holes cut on side walls were used as self-made drainage tubes. The authors placed the self-made drainage tubes on different deep soft tissue layers and wound surfaces after debridement. The effective drainage sections of the wound surface drainage tubes were wrapped with silver ion antimicrobial functional active dressings. Bio-permeable membrane was used to close the operative area. The drainage tubes in the deep layer of wound and wound surface were connected in parallel by a tee and connected to wall-hanging medical negative-pressure suction device to conduct negative-pressure wound treatment at -20.0 to -10.6 kPa. The deep drainage tubes were usually removed or changed 4 or 5 days after surgery.The drainage tubes in the wound surface were synchronously replaced when removing or replacing he drainage tubes in the deep layer of wound. On 4 to 15 days after surgery, the deep drainage tubes were removed. On 8 to 25 days after surgery, the wound surface drainage tubes were removed. Then the treatment was changed to a conventional dressing change until the wounds were completely healed or the wound bed was ready for skin grafts or tissue flaps. The indwelling time of deep drainage tubes in this group of patients was (6.2±2.8) days, and the indwelling time of wound surface drainage tubes was (12.0±3.0) days. The wound healing time was (22±5) days, the hospital stay time was (29±7) days, and wound bacteria were reduced from 6 species and 11 strains before treatment to 3 species and 4 strains after treatment. No adverse events such as wound bleeding, irritative pain, and chronic sinus occurred during treatment. Twenty-three patients were followed up for 13 to 28 months, no treatment-related complications were observed.