Objective:To explore the clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, pathological types and prognosis of primary cervical neuroblastoma in children. Methods:The clinical data of 11 children with primary cervical neuroblastoma admitted to the Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at Shanghai Children's Hospital from April 2015 to April 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The clinical characteristics, imaging findings, pathological types, treatment methods, and outcomes of these 11 patients were examined in conjunction with a review of the literature. Results:The cohort of 11 neuroblastoma patients ranged in age from 28 days to 88 months （median age: 24 months）, including 3 males and 8 females. Among the 11 patients, 4 had tumors located in the carotid sheath area, 4 in the cervical space, and 3 in the parapharyngeal and retropharyngeal spaces. The clinical manifestations primarily included painless cervical masses and laryngeal stridor. There were 3 cases of primary cervical tumors with cervical lymph node metastasis and 1 case with bone marrow metastasis. Pathological findings revealed neuroblastoma in 8 cases and ganglionic neuroblastoma in 3 cases. In this group, 7 patients underwent surgery combined with chemotherapy, 2 patients received surgery combined with chemoradiotherapy, and 2 patients underwent surgery alone. Surgical resection was performed via a cervical approach in 7 cases, while 3 cases were treated using a transoral endoscopic approach. Additionally, one patient underwent a transoral endoscopic approach initially and a cervical approach subsequently. All patients completed their treatment and were followed up regularly, with follow-up durations ranging from 6 to 79 months （median: 34 months）. Nine patients achieved complete remission, 2 patients achieved partial remission, and none experienced disease progression. Conclusion:Primary cervical neuroblastoma exhibits a high degree of heterogeneity and presents at a younger age, primarily with cervical masses. Compared to external approaches, endoscopy-assisted transoral resection of parapharyngeal tumors offers advantages such as reduced damage to surrounding tissue and no visible neck scars, providing a new method for clinical treatment. Regular follow-up is essential for children with neuroblastoma, along with the establishment of specific disease management protocols and comprehensive care to improve survival quality.
Humans ; Female ; Male ; Neuroblastoma/surgery* ; Child, Preschool ; Infant ; Retrospective Studies ; Child ; Head and Neck Neoplasms/pathology* ; Prognosis

Background Temporal kurtosis (without frequency weighting, i.e., Z-weighted kurtosis) can evaluate noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). However, few studies have considered the function of frequency weighting (A- or C-weighted) kurtosis on NIHL. Objective To study the significance of A- and C-weighted kurtosis adjustment for equivalent sound level (L'_{EX,8 h}) in evaluating occupational hearing loss. Methods A cross-sectional survey was used to select 973 noise-exposed workers in seven industries as the subjects. The noise exposure of all workers was assessed by distributions of A-, C-, and Z-weighted kurtosis (e.g., K_A, K_C, and K_Z) and respective adjusted equivalent sound level (e.g., L'_{EX,8 h}-K_A, L'_{EX,8 h}-K_C, and L'_{EX,8 h}-K_Z). The significance of A- and C-weighted kurtosis in evaluating NIHL was evaluated by correlations between three types of L'_{EX,8 h} and NIHL, and improvement of noise-induced permanent threshold shift (NIPTS) underestimation predicted by the ISO prediction model (Acoustics—Estimation of noise-induced hearing loss, ISO 1999-2013). Results The median K_A, K_C, and K_Z were 68.33, 28.22, and 19.82, respectively. The binary logistic regression showed that L_{EX, 8 h}-K_A, L_{EX, 8 h}-K_C, and L'_{EX, 8 h}-K_Z were risk factors for NIHL (OR>1, P<0.001). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that when the outcome variable was noise-induced hearing impairment (NIHI), the areas under the curves corresponding to L'_{EX,8 h}-K_A, L'_{EX,8 h}-K_C, and L'_{EX,8 h}-K_Z were 0.625, 0.628, and 0.625, respectively. When the outcome variable was high-frequency noise-induced hearing loss (HFNIHL), the areas under the curves corresponding to L'_{EX,8 h}-K_A, L'_{EX, 8 h}-K_C, and L'_{EX,8 h}-K_Z were 0.624, 0.623, and 0.622, respectively (P<0.05). The order of underestimation improvement values predicted by L'_{EX,8 h} for NIPTS₁₂₃₄ was: L'_{EX,8 h}-K_A (4.68 dB HL)>L'_{EX,8 h}-K_C (4.38 dB HL)>L'_{EX,8 h}-K_Z (4.28 dB HL) (P<0.001). The order of underestimation improvement values predicted by L'_{EX,8 h}-K for NIPTS₃₄₆ was: L'_{EX,8 h}-K_A (7.20 dB HL)>L'_{EX,8 h}-K_C (6.83 dB HL)>L'_{EX,8 h}-K_Z (6.71 dB HL) (P<0.001). Conclusion The adjustment of A- and C-weighted kurtosis to equivalent sound level L_{EX,8 h} can effectively improve the accuracy of the ISO 1999 prediction model in NIPTS prediction, and compared with the C-weighted, the A-weighted kurtosis can improve the result of the ISO 1999 prediction model in terms of underestimating NIPTS.

Objective To investigate the effect of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor (empagliflozin, EMPA) on myocardial remodeling in a mouse uremic cardiomyopathy (UCM) model induced by 5/6 nephrectomy, through the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (PKB/AKT)/p65 signaling pathway. Methods The animals were divided into three groups: Sham group (n=6), UCM group (n=8), and UCM＋EMPA group (n=8). A UCM model was established in C57BL/6N mice using the 5/6 nephrectomy. Starting from 5 weeks post-surgery, EMPA or a placebo was administered. After 16 weeks, blood pressure, serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, 24-hour urine glucose and urine sodium were measured. Cardiac structure and function were assessed by echocardiography. Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining and Masson trichrome staining were used to observe pathological changes in the heart and kidneys. Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) staining was used to evaluate myocardial hypertrophy. The real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was used to detect the expression levels of myocardial hypertrophy- and fibrosis-related mRNAs. Western blotting was used to detect the expression levels of PI3K, AKT and p65 in myocardial tissues. Results After 16 weeks, UCM group exhibited significantly higher blood pressure, serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen than sham group (P＜0.01); UCM＋EMPA group exhibited lower blood pressure, serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, and higher 24 h urine sodium and glucose than UCM group (P＜0.05). Echocardiographic results showed ventricular remodeling in the UCM group, evidenced by left ventricular wall thickening, left ventricular enlargement, increased left ventricular mass, and decreased systolic function (P＜0.05); ventricular remodeling was alleviated (P＜0.05), though there was no significant improvement in systolic function in UCM＋EMPA group. HE and Masson stainings revealed myocardial degeneration, necrosis, and interstitial fibrosis in UCM group (P＜0.01); the myocardial pathology improved with reduced collagen deposition in UCM＋EMPA group (P＜0.01). WGA staining confirmed myocardial hypertrophy in UCM group (P＜0.01), while myocardial hypertrophy was alleviated in UCM＋EMPA group (P＜0.01). RT-qPCR results showed myocardial hypertrophy- and fibrosis-related genes (NPPA, NPPB, MYH7, COL1A1, COL3A1, TGF-β1) were upregulated in UCM group (P＜0.05), but downregulated in UCM＋EMPA group. Western blotting showed PI3K, p-AKT/AKT ratio, and p-p65/p65 ratio were increased in UCM group, but decreased in UCM＋EMPA group (P＜0.05). Conclusion EMPA can improve myocardial hypertrophy and fibrosis in the UCM mouse model, and it may play the role through inhibiting the PI3K/AKT/p65 signaling pathway.

Gastric cancer is a malignant tumor with high prevalence worldwide and limited therapeutic options.Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell(CAR-T)therapy has emerged as a promising approach for gastric cancer treatment;however,its application faces substantial challenges.This review provides comprehensive summary of the recent advances in CAR-T cell therapy for gastric cancer,systematic analysis of critical break throughs and core challenges from target discovery to clinical translation,and outlining of future perspectives.We describe the criter-ia for ideal target selection and highlight the current research landscape of major targets,including CLDN18.2 that demonstrated efficacy,and targets facing distinct challenges,including HER-2,CEA,EpCAM,and MUC1.This review also finely dissects three central barriers restrict-ing CAR-T cell efficacy,and discusses corresponding countermeasures:overcoming the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment through strategies such as local delivery,armored CAR-T cells,and combination therapies;engineering approaches including affinity modula-tion and logic-gate designs to mitigate on-target/off-tumor toxicity;and optimization of manufacturing processes and reduction of costs via early leukapheresis,rapid production platforms,and universal CAR-T cell strategies.Future multidimensional,integrative,and innovative strategies are pivotal for achieving comprehensive break throughs in CAR-T cell therapy for solid tumors.

Objective To conduct an in-depth analysis and feature extraction of the transcriptomics data of 10 types of cancers in order to realize the staging diagnosis of cancer samples.Methods The transcriptomics data of the top 10 cancers having the highest incidence were amassed from the UCSC Xena website,which comprised 4 938 samples and 59 428 genes.With the aid of variational autoencoder,we developed an incremental feature ranking and selection variational autoencoder(IFRSVAE)based on feature importance ranking and incorporating the masking algorithm and the Incremental Feature Selection(IFS).Subsequently,the performance efficiency of our IFRSVAE model was evaluated in conjunction with Random Forest(RF),Support Vector Machine(SVM),and eXtreme Gradient Boosting(XGboost),and it was also compared with other methods.Results Our research extracted 21 features for the ensuing classification.In comparison to the conventional variational autoencoder,recursive feature elimination,and Lasso regression models,the IFRSVAE model attained more favorable performance across all 3 classifiers(highest AUC value,and well performed other indicators).Notably,the IFRSVAE-RF exhibited the most outstanding performance,with an AUC value reaching 85.49%(95%CI:83.24%～87.74%).Moreover,Shapley additive explanations(SHAP)interpretable model illustrated well contributions of the features in our model.Conclusion Our developed IFRSVAE shows certain effectiveness in feature extraction.The constructed IFRSVAE-RF model demonstrates relatively good performance in the task of cancer staging diagnosis,which providing a new and referable idea for research orientation of deep-learning-based diagnostic methods for cancer staging.

Gastric cancer is a malignant tumor with high prevalence worldwide and limited therapeutic options.Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell(CAR-T)therapy has emerged as a promising approach for gastric cancer treatment;however,its application faces substantial challenges.This review provides comprehensive summary of the recent advances in CAR-T cell therapy for gastric cancer,systematic analysis of critical break throughs and core challenges from target discovery to clinical translation,and outlining of future perspectives.We describe the criter-ia for ideal target selection and highlight the current research landscape of major targets,including CLDN18.2 that demonstrated efficacy,and targets facing distinct challenges,including HER-2,CEA,EpCAM,and MUC1.This review also finely dissects three central barriers restrict-ing CAR-T cell efficacy,and discusses corresponding countermeasures:overcoming the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment through strategies such as local delivery,armored CAR-T cells,and combination therapies;engineering approaches including affinity modula-tion and logic-gate designs to mitigate on-target/off-tumor toxicity;and optimization of manufacturing processes and reduction of costs via early leukapheresis,rapid production platforms,and universal CAR-T cell strategies.Future multidimensional,integrative,and innovative strategies are pivotal for achieving comprehensive break throughs in CAR-T cell therapy for solid tumors.

The idea of disease prevention runs through the traditional medical diagnosis and treatment system,and also plays an important role in the prevention and treatment of gastric precancerous lesions.This article organically combines disease differentiation,syndrome differentiation,symptom differentiation,and constitution differentiation to form a four in one diagnosis and treatment model.Disease differentiation means identifying the name of the disease and grasping the progression stage of the disease;syndrome differentiation means combining the macroscopic and microscopic aspects to accurately grasp the pathogenesis;symptom differentiation means identifying complications and clinical problems that need to be solved urgently;constitution differentiation means predicting syn-drome type bias and disease development.This model not only enables systematic diagnosis and treatment of gastric precancerous le-sions,but also provides targeted diagnosis and treatment plans for patients,with the characteristics of comprehensiveness,full process,and personalization.Therefore,combining the four in one diagnosis and treatment model of disease differentiation-syndrome differentia-tion-symptom differentiation-constitution identification with the disease prevention theory is conducive to the early detection of gastric precancerous lesions,timely tracking of the progress of the lesions,and the adoption of correct,comprehensive,and full-process inter-vention methods to reverse gastric precancerous lesions,which can play a positive role in the diagnosis,treatment,and prevention of gastric precancerous lesions.

Phytoestrogens refer to a class of compounds in plants that can bind to and activate estrogen receptors in mammalian organisms,exerting varying degrees of protective and improvement effects on the body.Modern pharmacological studies have found that phytoestrogens have therapeutic effects on the cardiovascular system,nervous system,endocrine system,immune system,and so on.It is worth noting that the binding of phytoestrogens to estrogen receptors in the brain can produce central neuroprotective effects and improve learning and cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's pectients through multiple targeted pathways.This paper describes the research progress and related mechanisms of phytoestrogen-like monomers,Chinese herbal medicine,and compound formulations in Alzheimer's disease.The aim is to provide new drug design ideas and solutions for the effective treatment of senile dementia with traditional Chinese medicine.

Objective To analyze the correlations of D-dimer and the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) score with long-term heart failure (HF) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Methods A total of 398 patients with AMI were selected as research objects and divided into normal D-dimer group (n=309) and elevated D-dimer group (n=89) based on the D-dimer level. Cox proportional hazard model was used to analyze the risk factors for long-term HF in both groups. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the values of D-dimer, GRACE score and their combination in predicting long-term HF. According to the GRACE score and D-dimer level, 398 patients were divided into low-value group (181 patients with normal D-dimerand low GRACE score), high-value group (70 patients with elevated D-dimer and high GRACE score), and middle-value group (147 patients did not meet the conditions of the low-value and high-value groups). Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the occurrence of long-term HF in the three groups. Point-biserial analysis was used to analyze the correlation between elevated D-dimer and the occurrence of long-term HF. Results The number of patients with long-term HF in the elevated D-dimer group was 2.3 times of the normal group. D-dimer and GRACE score were independent risk factors for long-term HF in patients with AMI (P < 0.05). Both D-dimer and GRACE score had certain predictive values for the occurrence of HF at 5 years after AMI, but the predictive efficiency of GRACE score was better. The incidence of long-term HF in the high-value group was significantly higher than that in the low-value group and the middle-value group (P < 0.01). D-dimer was significantly positively correlated with the occurrence of long-term HF after AMI (P < 0.001). Conclusion Both D-dimer and GRACE score are independent risk factors for long-term HF in patients with AMI, and the two indexes have certain predictive value for the occurrence of long-term HF. Patients with both elevated indicators are high-risk groups for long-term HF.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to compare the effects of virtual adjustment on occlusal interferences in mandibular posterior single crown and three-unit bridge restorations by using the mandibular movement track and the movement parameters of a virtual articulator. METHODS: Twenty-two participants were recruited. Digital casts of the maxillary and mandibular arches were obtained using an intraoral scanner, and the jaw registration system was used to record the data of the mandibular movement track and the movement parameters of the articulator. Four kinds of restorations with 0.3 mm occlusal interferences were designed with dental design software. In particular, single crowns were designed for teeth 44 and 46, whereas three-unit bridges were designed for teeth 44-46 and 45-47, and the corresponding natural teeth were virtually extracted. Virtual adjustment of the restorations was performed using two dynamic occlusal recordings, namely, the mandibular movement track and the movement parameters of the virtual articulator. A reverse-engineering software was used to measure the root-mean-square of the three-dimensional deviation of the occlusal surfaces between natural teeth and the adjusted restorations. The differences between the two methods of virtual-occlusion adjustment were compared and analyzed. RESULTS: For the same group of restorations, the three-dimensional deviation of the mandibular movement track group were lower than those of the virtual articulator group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). For the four groups of restorations adjusted by the same method, the three-dimensional deviation of the 46-tooth single crown was the largest and the smallest three-dimensional deviation was that of the 44-tooth single crown. Statistical differences existed between the 44-tooth single crown and the other groups (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS For the occlusal design of posterior single crown and three-unit bridge, the mandibular movement track could be a more effective approach to virtual occlusal adjustment than the movement parameters of the virtual articulator.
Humans ; Mouth, Edentulous ; Occlusal Adjustment ; Jaw Relation Record ; Dental Articulators ; Software