Objective To investigate the relationship between positive peritoneal exfoliated cancer cells and the clinicopathological features of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma before any invasive treatment.Methods Of the 92 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent laparotomy,ascites fluid was collected in the patients with peritoneal ascites; and peritoneal lavage fluid was collected in those patients without peritoneal ascites.Then,shedded cancer cells in these fluid samples were detected.Results The positive rates of peritoneal cancer cells were associated with the TNM stage,tumor location and tumor size.The positive detection rate of cancer cells in TNM stage Ⅲ and Ⅳ was significantly higher than stage Ⅰ and Ⅱ (38.1％ vs 8.0％ ; P =0.0005).The positive detection rate was higher in tumors located closer to the surface (P =0.0 002),and with larger diameter (P =0.00 007).Conclusion Peritoneal cancer cells were significantly correlated with tumor stage,tumor location and size in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Objective This study investigated a method to rapidly inactivate tumor cells on surgical instruments intraoperatively.Methods Tumor cells were collected by immersing and washing the surgical instruments in 37 ℃ saline.The precipitation was collected by low speed centrifugation and then was cultured to harvest the tumor cells.The tumor cells were immersed in saline and distilled water of different temperatures for different duration of time.Inverted microscopy was used to investigate the changes in morphology.Results After immersion in 55 ℃ distilled water for 60 seconds,the tumor cells were swollen,the cell membranes disappeared,the sizes of the nuclei were reduced,the chromatin was condensed,and some cells lysed and separated from each other.Additionally,these tumor cells floated in the culture medium and lacked any living cells adhering to the walls of the bottle.In the group of tumor cells treated with 55 ℃ saline for 60 seconds,there were no obvious morphological changes of the tumor cell or nucleus.Conclusion The intraoperative immersion of surgical instruments in 55 ℃ distilled water for 60 seconds could completely inactivate tumor cells.

Objective:To analyze plaque characteristics of non-culprit coronary lesions with cholesterol crystals in patients with acute myocardial infarction(AMI) by using optical coherence tomography(OCT). We also investigated the potential association between cholesterol crystals with plaque rupture and healed plaque at non-culprit segment.Methods:This study was a retrospective cohort study. Between January 2017 and December 2017, patients with AMI who underwent 3-vessel OCT imaging were included in this study. Patients were divided into two groups according to the presence or absence of cholesterol crystals at the non-culprit lesions. All patients underwent coronary angiography and OCT examination, and non-culprit plaque characteristics were compared between the two groups. The generalized estimating equation log-binomial multirariate regression model was used to assess the relationship between non-culprit lesions with cholesterol crystals and plaque rupture and plaque healing. The follow-up data collection ended in October 2023. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were plotted, and log-rank tests were used to compare the cumulative incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events between the two groups.Results:A total of 173 AMI patients were included (aged (56.8±11.6) years; 124 men (71.7%)). Among 710 non-culprit lesions identified by OCT, there were 102 (14.4%) in cholesterol crystals group and 608 (85.6%) in non-cholesterol crystals group. Compared with non-culprit lesions without cholesterol crystals, those with cholesterol crystals had smaller minimum lumen diameter, severer diameter stenosis, and longer lesion length (all P<0.01). The prevalence of plaque rupture (17.6% (18/102) vs. 4.9% (30/608), P=0.001) and thin-cap fibroatheroma (31.4% (32/102) vs. 11.5% (70/608), P<0.01) was higher in the cholesterol crystals groups than in the non-cholesterol crystals group. In addition, vulnerable plaque characteristics such as (44.1% (45/102) vs. 25.8% (157/608), P<0.01), macrophages were more frequently observed in non-culprit lesions with cholesterol crystals. The generalized estimating equation log-binomial multivariate regression analyses showed that non-culprit cholesterol crystals were positively correlated with healed plaque ( OR=1.583, 95% CI: 1.004-2.495, P=0.048). Conversely, cholesterol crystals were not associated with plaque rupture ( OR=1.632, 95% CI: 0.745-3.576, P=0.221). The follow-up time was 2 142 (1 880, 2 198) days. Non-culprit cholesterol crystals were not related to the major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with AMI (log-rank P=0.558). Conclusions:Among AMI patients, non-culprit lesions with cholesterol crystals presented with severer luminal stenosis and increased plaque vulnerability. The presence of non-culprit cholesterol crystals was associated with rather than plaque rupture.