SUMMARY Melanoma of the ear canal is extremely rare; due to its hidden area, most would present late in their history. We present the first case reported, of a black pigment foreign body mimicking a melanoma in the external auditory canal. A 14 year old Chinese male presented with right sided otalgia and itch. Otoscopic examination revealed an irregular black naevus in the right auditory canal. An intraoperative excision showed a black pigment foreign body giant cell reaction. Clinicians should be aware of the possibility of a foreign body granuloma of the ear canal that might mimic a melanoma.
Melanoma ; Foreign Bodies

Objective: To describe the prevalence of food allergy in Asian patients with allergic rhinitis. Study Design: A non-randomized prospectively collected patients over a three year period, with complaints of nose congestion, rhinorrhea and/or nasal discharge. Results: There were 435 patients enrolled, 213 children and 222 adults. The children group had a high prevalence of allergen specific IgE to Dermatophagoides pteryonysinus (70%), Dermatophagoides farina (69%), and Blomia tropicalis (55%); followed by dogs (32%), cats (19%) and cockroaches (19%). In the children food allergy category, the top three allergens were egg white (54%), milk (31%) and soya bean (13%). The adult group had results of Dermatophagoides pteryonysinus (71%), Dermatophagoides farina (72%), and Blomia tropicalis (59%); the adult food allergy category, the top 3 allergens were egg white (13%), milk (6%) and soya bean (5%). There was a statistically significant difference in the child and adult group for Dust, D. pteryonysinus, D. farina, B.tropicalis, egg white, wheat, gluten and soya bean. In the age specific child groups, there was an increased in egg food allergy levels, with a peak at the age of five-nine years old and decreasing thereafter (p=0.04). In the children group, the mean Total Nasal Symptom Score (TNSS) was 10.3 (range of 7 to 13); the adult group was similar, with a mean TNSS of 9.8 (range 5 to 12). Conclusion: The prevalence of food allergy in paediatric patients with allergic rhinitis is fairly high and should be considered when treating these children.

The prevalence of typhoid in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) highlands region increased rapidly in the mid-1980s, and now remains endemic. In this study ribotyping has been used to examine the number and types of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi strains present during the 1977-1996 period. The ribotyping banding pattern results were based on Cla I and Eco RV digests. The 57 PNG isolates were divided into 11 different ribotypes. Comparison of ribotypes using coefficient of similarity values revealed a diverse group of ribotypes. Several strains appear to be endemic in PNG For instance, ribotypes 1, 2 and 3 were most commonly found among PNG isolates and isolates with these ribotypes have been cultured over a period of at least 11 years (1985-1996). Ribotype 3 was also observed in isolates from Malaysia and Thailand. Also found in PNG were ribotypes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16 and 17. The ribotyping suggests that serovar Typhi strains present in PNG include unique strains of serovar Typhi and also strains that are common to other countries.
Salmonella enterica ; Papua New Guinea ; Ribotyping ; Ribotype ; 1980s

<p>OBJECTIVETo evaluate the use of homologous gene quantitative PCR (HGQ-PCR) as a method for non-invasive diagnosis of Down syndrome and for prevention of the birth of Down syndrome children.p><p>METHODSHGQ-PCR, which can directly detect the additional copy of chromosome 21 by comparing simultaneously amplified two highly homologous genes, i.e. the human liver-type phosphofructokinase located on chromosome 21 critical region of Down syndrome (PFKL-CH21) and the human muscle-type phosphofructokinase located on chromosome 1 (PFKM-CH1), was performed in 38 clinically diagnosed Down syndrome patients and 178 normal controls.p><p>RESULTSThe ratios of PFKM-CH1/PFKL-CH21 products were 1.40 +/- 0.367 (mean +/- SD) and 0.46 +/- 0.21 (mean +/- SD) for disomy 21 and trisomy 21, respectively. The difference between these two groups was statistically significant (P<0.001).p><p>CONCLUSIONThis approach has proven to be a practical and direct method for the detection of trisomy 21 and may also be applied to the detection of the extra piece of 21q involved in translocation-type of Down syndrome.p>
Chromosomes, Human, Pair 1 ; genetics ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 21 ; genetics ; Down Syndrome ; diagnosis ; genetics ; Female ; Humans ; Phosphofructokinases ; genetics ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Pregnancy ; Prenatal Diagnosis ; methods ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sensitivity and Specificity

<p>OBJECTIVETo investigate the frequency and pattern of RP1 point mutations in Chinese retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients and to examine their effects on the development of RP.p><p>METHODSConformation sensitive gel electrophoresis (CSGE) and direct DNA sequencing were used to determine sequence alterations occurring in the entire coding region of the RP1 gene in 101 Chinese RP patients in Hong Kong.p><p>RESULTSR677X was detected in one RP patient. A nonpathogenic nonsense mutation, R1933X, was identified in three normal individuals and one patient with Stargardt disease. The frequency of RP1 mutations among all RP patients in this study is 1/101. R677X is expected to lead to large disruptions of the encoded protein. Additionally, 10 more missense alterations in the RP1 gene were identified in the subjects of this study. Apart from M479I whose pathogenicity can not be determined currently, other sequence changes are just polymorphisms of the RP1 gene.p><p>CONCLUSIONThe nonpathogenicity of R1933X indicates that the C-terminal 224 residues of RP1 protein may be not critical for RP1. Recently, a C-termnal truncating mutation, Y1053(1 bp del), was reported to occur in an RP patient. Thus RP can be caused by lack of the region of RP1 protein after codon 1052 but before 1933. To confirm such a proposition, a large genotyping study is necessary and is likely to reveal more RP causative mutations and uncover more sequence alterations different from those of other ethnic groups.p>
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; China ; DNA ; chemistry ; genetics ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Eye Proteins ; genetics ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mutation ; Mutation, Missense ; Retinitis Pigmentosa ; genetics

<p>OBJECTIVETo test the frequency and pattern of rhodopsin (RHO) mutations in Chinese retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients and to evaluate their effects in the pathogenesis of RP.p><p>METHODSGenomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples of 100 Hong Kong Chinese RP patients. Sequence variants of the entire coding exons of the RHO gene were tested using PCR, conformation sensitive gel electrophoresis and DNA sequencing.p><p>RESULTSTotally six nucleotide changes were identified, among which three were silent mutations, two missense mutations and one deletion mutation. P347L was found in one RP proband and her three children who also had RP. P327(1 bp del) was novel and detected in a late-onset RP patient of 53 years. Her 26-year-old daughter, also carrying the identified mutation, had no RP phenotypes except for the mottled retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) revealed by fundal examination. Neither of the two mutations was detected in normal controls.p><p>CONCLUSIONTwo patients had disease-causing mutations in the RHO gene, thus RHO mutations cause about 2.0% (95% confidence interval: 0.2%-7.0%) of all RP among Chinese in Hong Kong. A highly conserved C-terminal sequence QVS(A)PA was altered due to P347L and thereby resulting in an aberrant subcellular localization of rhodopsin. Loss of all six phosphorylatable residues at the C-terminus and the highly conserved C-terminal sequence QVS(A)PA may occur because of P327(1 bp del). To elucidate the predominant biochemical defects in such mutant, transgenic mice and transfected culture cells carrying P327(1 bp del) would be of greatest value.p>
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; China ; DNA ; chemistry ; genetics ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Testing ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Point Mutation ; Retinitis Pigmentosa ; genetics ; pathology ; prevention & control ; Rhodopsin ; genetics ; Sequence Deletion

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of non-coding transcripts which are greater than 200 nucleotides in length and have a variety of biological functions. Studies have found that lncRNAs play an important role in the development of gastrointestinal cancers and can affect tumor cell growth, angiogenesis, metastasis and drug resistance. This paper has reviewed lncRNAs associated with gastrointestinal cancers and explored their roles in the occurrence, diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal cancers.
Animals ; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms ; genetics ; metabolism ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Humans ; RNA, Long Noncoding ; genetics ; metabolism

Radiopharmaceutical dynamic imaging typically necessitates intravenous injection via the bolus method. However, manual bolus injection carries the risk of handling errors as well as radiological injuries. Hence, there is potential for automated injection devices to replace manual injection methods. In this study, the effect of micro-bolus pulse injection technology was compared and verified by radioactive experiments using a programmable injection pump, and the overall bubble recognition experiment and rat tail vein simulation injection verification were performed using the piezoelectric sensor preloading method. The results showed that at the same injection peak speed, the effective flushing volume of micro-bolus pulse flushing (about 83 μL/pulse) was 49.65% lower than that of uniform injection and 25.77% lower than that of manual flushing. In order to avoid the dilution effect of long pipe on the volume of liquid, the use of piezoelectric sensor for sealing preloading detection could accurately predict the bubbles of more than 100 μL in the syringe. In the simulated injection experiment of rat tail vein, when the needle was placed in different tissues by preloading 100 μL normal saline, the piezoelectric sensor fed back a large difference in pressure attenuation rate within one second, which was 2.78% in muscle, 17.28% in subcutaneous and 54.71% in vein. Micro-bolus pulse injection method and piezoelectric sensor sealing preloading method have application potential in improving the safety of radiopharmaceutical automatic bolus injection.
Animals ; Rats ; Radiopharmaceuticals/administration & dosage*

Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is an important basis for the diagnosis of arrhythmia and myocardial infarction. In order to further improve the classification effect of arrhythmia and myocardial infarction, an ECG classification algorithm based on Convolutional vision Transformer (CvT) and multimodal image fusion was proposed. Through Gramian summation angular field (GASF), Gramian difference angular field (GADF) and recurrence plot (RP), the one-dimensional ECG signal was converted into three different modes of two-dimensional images, and fused into a multimodal fusion image containing more features. The CvT-13 model could take into account local and global information when processing the fused image, thus effectively improving the classification performance. On the MIT-BIH arrhythmia dataset and the PTB myocardial infarction dataset, the algorithm achieved a combined accuracy of 99.9% for the classification of five arrhythmias and 99.8% for the classification of myocardial infarction. The experiments show that the high-precision computer-assisted intelligent classification method is superior and can effectively improve the diagnostic efficiency of arrhythmia as well as myocardial infarction and other cardiac diseases.
Humans ; Electrocardiography ; Heart Diseases ; Myocardial Infarction/diagnostic imaging* ; Algorithms ; Electric Power Supplies

Lung adenocarcinoma has become the most common type of lung cancer. According to the 2015 World Health Organization histological classification of lung cancer, invasive lung adenocarcinoma can be divided into 5 subtypes: lepidic, acinar, papillary, solid, and micropapillary. Relevant studies have shown that the local lobectomy or sublobectomy is sufficient for early lepidic predominant adenocarcinoma, while lobectomy should be recommended for tumors containing micropapillary and solid ingredients (≥5%). Currently, the percentage of micropapillary and solid components diagnosed by frozen pathological examination is 65.7%, and the accuracy of diagnosis is limited. Therefore, to improve the accuracy of diagnosis, it is necessary to seek new methods and techniques. This paper summarized the characteristics and rapid diagnosis tools of early lung adenocarcinoma subtypes.