Objective To evaluate the role of contrast enhanced CT (CECT) scanning in the diagnosis and treatment planning of some rare liver tumors. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the CECT imaging features of 10 cases with rare tumors of the liver proved by surgical pathology in 8 cases or by liver biopsy in 2 cases, with correlation of relevant clinical manifestations, laboratory results and surgical findings. Results Three cases were histopathologically proved to be benign, and 7 cases were malignant. On CT images, the liver lesions were mixed cystic solid in 5 cases, totally solid in the other 5. Eight cases demonstrated heterogeneous enhancement, while 2 cases of liver lymphoma had no enhancement. The anatomic relationship of tumors to intrahepatic vasculature, the compression and infiltration of neighboring abdominal structures were accurately delineated by CT as compared with findings at operation. Clinical manifestations and laboratory findings were not useful for the qualitative diagnosis of rare liver tumors, except for hepatocellular carcinoma. Conclusion CECT is very useful for the detection of rare liver tumors and the fine depiction of local extent of these tumors. When correlated with clinical and laboratory information, it helps to differentiate rare liver tumors from hepatocellular carcinoma. But its role in the characterization of rare liver tumors is limited.

Objective To investigate the value of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the assessment of bile duct complications after cholecystectomy. Methods Fifty patients of having bile duct complications after cholecystectomy underwent MR imaging and had some positive manifestations. The indication for cholecystectomy was symptometic cholelithiasis in all cases. MR imaging was performed with a 1.5 T clinical imager including all of the sequences of: ①T1 weighted imaging (T1WI) was performed in transverse and coronal plane before and after gadolinium enhanced. ②T2 weighted imaging (T2WI) was performed in transverse plane. ③A true fast imaging with steady state precession sequence (True fisp) was performed in coronal plane. ④MR cholangiopancreatography was also obtained. Results The bile duct complications after cholecystectomy including: 22 cases of cholelithiasis, 15 cases of chronic cholangitis with or without bile duct abscess. Bile duct strictures or abruption at the confluence of hepatic and common bile duct in 6 and 3 cases respectively. Tumors of bile duct or pancreas in 9 cases. The other complications after cholecystectomy including bile leak with choleperitonitis and/or biloma and acute pancreatitis.Conclusion MR imaging was a valuable method for the assessment of bile duct complications after cholecystectomy. MR imaging could assess the etiology of bile duct complications. If there were bile duct obstruction, MR imaging could assess the location and the severe of obstruction. For bile duct or pancreatic tumors, MR imaging could assess the areas of tumor infiltration and resection and was helpful to select treatment methods. Before lapatoscopic cholecystectomy, the overall and careful imaging assessment for bile duct and gallbladder and its adjacent hepatic tissue and pancreas so to avoid missing the relative tumors.

Objective To investigate Fascin expression in human lung cancer tissues and its clinical significance.Methods Immunohistochemistry was performed in 62 patients with different histological types and clinical stages of lung cancer and 92 cases with other malignant tumors.Fascin positive rate in each group was calculated and the differences of pathological characters between the two groups were analyzed.Results Fascin expression in lung cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in normal lung tissues(P ＜ 0.05),its expression varied by different clinical stage of lung cancer tissue differentiation.As differentiation degree decreased,Fascin positive rate increased.Fascin expression was independent with age,sex,smoking history(P ＞ 0.05).Fascin expression had no significant difference between lung cancer group and other tumor group(P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Fascin expression raising might be common in malignant tumors.Fascin expression in lung tissues indicated the possibility of lung cancer.In lung tissue,high expression of Fasein was a sign of poor differentiation and malignant status of lung cancer.

Objective To investigate the value of early?phase enhancement ratio combined with peripheral vascular diameter in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions using 3.0 T dynamic contrast?enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE?MRI). Methods Sixty seven cases of patients (35 with malignant lesions and 32 with benign lesions in the breasts) were retrospectively analyzed. Their diagnoses were confirmed by surgery and pathology and all the patients underwent breast MRI plain scan and DCE?MRI in the two weeks before surgery. Lesion ROIs were drawn and time?signal intensity curves in the DCE?MRI were generated. Early?phase enhancement rate, time to peak, early?phase enhancement ratio, numbers of tumor vessel within 3 cm of the lesion and diameter of the largest vessel were recorded. Mann?Whitney U test was used to compare the difference of DCE?MRI between benign and malignant lesions, and the ROC curve was used to evaluate the efficiency of early?phase enhancement rate, early?phase enhancement ratio and vascular diameter in differentiating benign and malignant lesions. Results With breast malignant lesions, the medians of time to peak, early?phase enhancement rate, early?phase enhancement ratio, numbers of tumor vessel and vascular diameter were 2.2 s, 176.0%, 100.0%, 4 and 2.96 mm respectively, while with benign lesions of these parameters were 4.7 s, 113.3%, 81.9%, 0 and 0.00 mm respectively, and the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05).When early?phase enhancement rate was used for differential diagnosis of breast benign and malignant lesions, the area under the ROC curve was 0.702 and the sensitivity and specificity were 82.86%and 56.25%with a threshold of 120.0%. When early?phase enhancement ratio was used, the area under the ROC curve was 0.854 and the sensitivity and specificity were 94.29% and 68.75% with a threshold of 86.0%. When peripheral vascular diameter was used, the area under the ROC curve was 0.896 and the sensitivity and specificity were 74.29%and 84.38% with a threshold of 2.78 mm. When early?phase enhancement ratio was combined with peripheral vascular diameter, the area was 0.925 and the sensitivity and specificity were 97.14% and 62.50%. Conclusion In the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions under DCE?MRI, early?phase enhancement ratio combining with peripheral vascular diameter has improved sensitivity.

Objective Frozen section(FS)and touch imprint cytology(TIC)were common methods for intraoperative evaluation of sentinel lymph node(SLN)biopsy in breast cancer,with low sensitivity when used separately.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the value of combination of these two techniques.Methotis This study included 400 sentinel nodes from 150 patients with breast cancer.352 sentinel nodes were bisected along the long axis.Each sectioned surface of SLN was imprinted onto the surface of a slide and was analyzed by cytologist;meanwhile SLN were analyzed with intraoperative FS.The other 48 SLN were only analyzed with intraoperative PS due to their small size.Results of intraoperative P3 and TIC were compared with final pathology.Results Eighty-nine positive SLN from 55 patients were identified by final pathology.The specificity of FS and TIC were both 100%.According to the number of SLN.the sensitivity of TIC and FS was 71.9%(64/89)and 83.1%(74/89),respectively(P＞0.05).The sensitivity of TIC compared with FS was 96.6%(86/89),significantly higher than that of TIC and FS separately(both P＜0.001).According to the number of patients,the sensitivities of TIC and FS were 80.0%(44/55)and 81.8%(45/55),respectively(P＞0.05).The sensitivity of TIC compared with FS was 94.5%(52/55).significantly higher than that of TIC and FS separately (both P＜0.001).Conclusion Combination of FS and TIC for the intraoperative diagnosis of SLN biopsy in breast cancer was reliable,with hish sensitivity and specificity,and could avoid the second axillary operation efficiently.

Objective To explore the clinicopathological characteristics of lupus nephritis (LN) with antinucleosome antibody (AnuA).Methods Data of 481 patients with biopsy-proven LN in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from 2004 to 2011 were analyzed retrospectively.The patients were divided into two groups:AnuA-positive group (76 patients) and AnuA-negative group (405 patients).The clinical manifestations,laboratory examinations,histopathologic classes of LN,disease activity measured by SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI) of two groups were investigated and compared.Results There were 15 male patients in positive group (15/76,19.74％) with mean age of (27.99±10.88) years and 45 patients in negative group (45/405,11.11％) with mean age of (31.15±12.15) years respectively,which showed that male patients were more common in positive group (P＜0.05).Incidences of oral ulcer,fever,anemia,low complement and positive anti-dsDNA antibody were higher in positive group (P＜0.05).Percentage of diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis (class Ⅳ ) and pathological activity index (AI) in positive group were higher compared to negative group (all P＜0.05),while no significant differences of other pathological types,chronic index (CI) and SLEDAI were found between two groups.Conclusion LN patients with positive AnuA have special clinicopathological characteristics and AnuA may be used as a promising biomarker for the proliferative LN.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a subgroup of HCCs. We aimed to establish nomograms for predicting the survival of solitary HCC patients after hepatectomy. METHODS: A total of 538 solitary HCC patients were randomly classified into training and validation sets. A Cox model was used to identify predictors of overall survival (OS) in the training set. A nomogram was generated based on these predictors and was validated using the validation set. RESULTS: Tumor size, microvascular invasion, and major vascular invasion were significantly associated with OS in the training set. Nomograms were developed based on these predictors in the multivariate analysis. The C-index was 0.75 for the OS nomogram and 0.72 for the recurrence-free survival nomogram. Compared to the index of conventional staging systems for predicting survival (0.71 for Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer, 0.66 for the seventh American Joint Committee on Cancer, 0.68 for Cancer of the Liver Italian Program, and 0.70 for Hong Kong Liver Cancer), the index of the OS nomogram was significantly higher. Moreover, the calibration curve fitted well between the predicted and observed survival rate. Similarly, in the validation set, the nomogram discrimination was superior to those of the four staging systems (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The nomograms demonstrated good discrimination performance in predicting 3- and 5-year survival rates for solitary HCCs after hepatectomy.
Calibration ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Hepatectomy* ; Hong Kong ; Humans ; Joints ; Liver ; Liver Neoplasms ; Multivariate Analysis ; Nomograms* ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate

Brain metastasis is a common and serious complication of breast cancer, which is commonly associated with poor survival and prognosis. In particular, the treatment of brain metastasis from triple-negative breast cancer (BM-TNBC) has to face the distinct therapeutic challenges from tumor heterogeneity, circulating tumor cells (CTCs), blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood-tumor barrier (BTB), which is in unmet clinical needs. Herein, combining with the advantages of synthetic and natural targeting moieties, we develop a "Y-shaped" peptide pVAP-decorated platelet-hybrid liposome drug delivery system to address the all-stage targeted drug delivery for the whole progression of BM-TNBC. Inherited from the activated platelet, the hybrid liposomes still retain the native affinity toward CTCs. Further, the peptide-mediated targeting to breast cancer cells and transport across BBB/BTB are demonstrated in vitro and in vivo. The resultant delivery platform significantly improves the drug accumulation both in orthotopic breast tumors and brain metastatic lesions, and eventually exhibits an outperformance in the inhibition of BM-TNBC compared with the free drug. Overall, this work provides a promising prospect for the comprehensive treatment of BM-TNBC, which could be generalized to other cell types or used in imaging platforms in the future.

Objective: To understand the possible transmission route of a family cluster of COVID-19 in Zhengzhou and the potential infectivity of COVID-19 in incubation period, and provide scientific evidence for the timely control of infectious source and curb the spread of the epidemic. Methods: Epidemiological investigation was conducted for a family cluster of COVID-19 (8 cases) with descriptive epidemiological method, and respiratory tract samples of the cases were collected for the nucleic acid detection of 2019-nCoV by RT-PCR. Results: Two primary cases, which occurred on 31 January and 1 February, 2020, respectively, had a common exposure history in Wuhan. The other six family members had onsets on 30 January, 31 January, 1 February (three cases) and 3 February, 2020. Conclusions In this family cluster of COVID-19, six family members were infected through common family exposure to the 2 primary cases. Five secondary cases had onsets earlier than or on the same day as the primary cases, indicating that COVID-19 is contagious in incubation period, and the home isolation in the early phase of the epidemic might lead to the risk of family cluster of COVID-19.

The liver has a complex cellular composition and a remarkable regenerative capacity. The primary cell types in the liver are two parenchymal cell populations, hepatocytes and cholangiocytes, that perform most of the functions of the liver and that are helped through interactions with non-parenchymal cell types comprising stellate cells, endothelia and various hemopoietic cell populations. The regulation of the cells in the liver is mediated by an insoluble complex of proteins and carbohydrates, the extracellular matrix, working synergistically with soluble paracrine and systemic signals. In recent years, with the rapid development of genetic sequencing technologies, research on the liver's cellular composition and its regulatory mechanisms during various conditions has been extensively explored. Meanwhile breakthroughs in strategies for cell transplantation are enabling a future in which there can be a rescue of patients with end-stage liver diseases, offering potential solutions to the chronic shortage of livers and alternatives to liver transplantation. This review will focus on the cellular mechanisms of liver homeostasis and how to select ideal sources of cells to be transplanted to achieve liver regeneration and repair. Recent advances are summarized for promoting the treatment of end-stage liver diseases by forms of cell transplantation that now include grafting strategies.
Humans ; Liver/surgery* ; Hepatocytes/transplantation* ; Stem Cells/metabolism* ; Liver Diseases/surgery*