Objective: To observe the effects of acupoint thread-embedding therapy and low-carbohydrate diet therapy on obese patients with food addiction. Methods: Sixty-five eligible patients were randomized into a thread-embedding group of 33 cases and a diet group of 32 cases to respectively receive 12-week treatment. Before treatment, after treatment and at 6-month follow-up, the two groups were observed and compared in terms of body mass (BM), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), body mass index (BMI), body fat rate (BFR), basal metabolic rate (BMR) and Yale food addiction scale version 2.0 (YFAS 2.0). Results: At the end of treatment, there were no significant differences in the general efficacy, and the improvements in BM, BMI, WC, HC, WHR and BFR between the thread-embedding group and diet group (all P>0.05). At follow-up, the thread-embedding group showed more significant improvements in all the aforementioned indicators compared with the diet group except HC (all P<0.05). At the end of treatment and follow-up, BMR and YFSA 2.0 had more significant improvements in the thread-embedding group than in the diet group (all P<0.05). Conclusion: Acupoint thread-embedding therapy can produce significant efficacy in treating obese patients with food addiction; it can improve the food addiction state and work better in maintaining the efficacy compared with low-carbohydrate diet therapy.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the value of CT using different equipment and scanning methods in preoperative localization of insulinoma and to investigate the possible causes that might influence the detection ratio on CT. METHODS: A total of 47 patients with insulinomas confirmed by operation and pathologic examination from 1990 were collected, and the related clinical information and imaging data of CT were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: The diagnostic accuracy for conventional CT with conventional enhancement scanning, spiral CT with pancreatic phase scanning, and multislice spiral CT with dual phasic enhancement scanning were 35.3%, 57.1%, and 81.3%, respectively, and the overall diagnostic accuracy of CT was 57.4%. The diagnostic accuracy of multislice spiral CT was greater than that of conventional CT (P<0.01). For the 2 phases of dual phasic imaging, arterial phase and portal phase had a detective rate of 75.0%and 62.5%, respectively. None of the main clinical information was related to the detection ratio on CT. The detection rate of lesions with diameter of > or =1.5 cm was significantly higher than that of <1.5 cm (76.2%vs. 42.3%). Typical appearance of the lesions on CT was isoattenuation on plain scanning, and enhanced considerably after contrast enhancement. CONCLUSION The size of lesion is the major factor that influences the detection of insulinoma on CT. Multislice spiral CT with dual phasic enhancement scanning has a relatively high detection rate and is recommended for preoperative localization of insulinoma.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Insulinoma ; diagnostic imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pancreatic Neoplasms ; diagnostic imaging ; Preoperative Period ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, Spiral Computed ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; methods ; Young Adult

BACKGROUNDThe NASG gene has been confirmed as a tumor-suppressor gene candidate related to nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) by previous studies. We further investigated the expression and the role of NASG in the homogeneous tissue cells by microdissecting the samples of tissue from human NPC, and introduced a new way to study the expression of specific genes in tumor tissue.

METHODSThe RNAlater reagent was used to preserve the samples of tissue from the nasopharynx of NPC patients. The samples were microdissected to harvest the homogeneous tissue cells and then total RNA was isolated from them. The antisense RNA (aRNA) was amplified from the total RNA by "in vitro transcription (IVT)". We investigated NASG expression in the homogeneous tumor cells of NPC (22 samples) and compared it with that in the pure epithelial pillar cells of normal nasopharyngeal (10 samples) by semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (sqRT-PCR).

RESULTSThe high quality total RNA could be harvested from the microdissected homogeneous tissue cells of the nasopharynx, then sufficient aRNA was derived from it. NASG gene expression was identified using aRNA by sqRT-PCR and showed that there was significant difference between the average value of case groups and that of control group (t = -5.275, df = 30, P < 0.001). The NASG gene in the subgroups WHOII tended to express lower levels than those in the subgroup WHOIII although this difference was not statistically significant (t = -1.584, df = 20, P = 0.129 > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSMicrodissection was an effective method to obtain the homogeneous tissue cells of nasopharyngeal tissue (including the samples of NPC and non-NPC) in our study. Sufficient aRNA from amplifying total RNA could be used in sqRT-PCR to analyse the expression of NASG in the pure tissue cells. NASG should be a tumor-suppression gene candidate regarding to NPC.

Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Humans ; Male ; Microdissection ; Middle Aged ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; genetics ; Nasopharynx ; metabolism ; RNA ; analysis ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

Purpose To analyze the morphological charac-teristics of papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC)patients with NTRK gene fusion in order to provide more important morpholog-ic evidences for molecular detection.Methods A retrospective collection of 790 cases PTC was conducted.Then the patients with NTRK gene fusion were selected.The histopathological fea-tures of PTC patients with NTRK gene fusion were compared with those of classical PTC.Results Nine cases(1.1%)of NTRK fusion positive PTC were detected,including 2 cases of NTRK1 and 7 cases of NTRK3 gene fusion.The main his-topathological features were follicular subtypes,with tumors ex-hibiting multinodular infiltration or"jumping"infiltration.The cytoplasm was associated with hyaline change.The cell morphol-ogy was slight irregularity.Conclusion The incidence of NTRK fusion is low in PTC and it tends to occur in the young group.Follicular subtype is the main characteristic histopatholo-gy,with mild tumor cells.But the ability of the invasion and metastasis is strong.Therefore,NGS detection should be per-formed for early intervention and prolonging the survival of PTC patients.

Humans ; Thyroid Cancer, Papillary ; Carcinoma, Papillary/surgery* ; Thyroid Neoplasms/surgery*