PURPOSE: Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) can be used to diagnose thyroid cancer and other tumors. Although FNAB without negative pressure (FNAB−P) reduces the risk of blood contamination, FNAB with negative pressure (FNAB+P) increases the sensitivity of the biopsy results. Therefore, we performed a randomized study of FNAB with or without negative pressure to identify the better diagnostic method. METHODS: Between March 2016 and February 2017, 172 consecutive patients were enrolled to investigate >0.5 cm nodules with indeterminate or suspicious malignant features. Patients were randomly assigned to the FNAB+P group (a 50 mL syringe was used to provide negative pressure) or to the FNAB−P group (passive collection of blood in the needle's hub). The 2 methods' diagnostic adequacy and quality were evaluated using an objective scoring system. The study's protocol was registered with the World Health Organization Clinical Research Information Service (http://cris.nih.go.kr/cris, KCT0001857). RESULTS: The patients were randomly assigned to the FNAB+P group (n = 86) or the FNAB−P group (n = 86). There were no significant intergroup differences in nodule position, size, age, consistency, calcification, BRAF mutation, or pathology. Evaluation of diagnostic adequacy parameters revealed no significant differences in background blood/clot (P = 0.728), amount of cellular material (P = 0.052), degree of cellular degeneration (P = 0.622), degree of cellular trauma (P = 0.979), or retention of appropriate architecture (P = 0.487). Furthermore, there was no significant intergroup difference in the diagnostic quality (P = 0.634). CONCLUSION: This prospective randomized study failed to detect significant differences in the diagnostic adequacy and quality of FNAB with or without negative pressure. Therefore, the examiner may select whichever FNAB method they prefer.
Biopsy ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Cytological Techniques ; Humans ; Information Services ; Methods ; Pathology ; Prospective Studies ; Syringes ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; Thyroid Nodule ; World Health Organization

Intraoperative pleural lavage cytology is a diagnostic technique used to detect tumor cells and serve as a prognostic parameter for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. In the past several decades, many scholars have been dedicated to clarifying the relationships between positive intraoperative pleural lavage cytology results and postoperative survival as well as tumor recurrence and metastasis. However, the findings remained various due to the inhomogeneity of different research. It has been confirmed that a positive intraoperative pleural lavage cytology result is one of the risk factors for the prognosis of postoperative patients. This study reviewed the advances in research of intraoperative pleural lavage cytology in recent years from several aspects, including clinical significance, influencing factors and possible mechanisms.
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Cytological Techniques ; methods ; Humans ; Intraoperative Period ; Lung Neoplasms ; pathology ; surgery ; Pleura ; pathology

The brain has very high energy requirements and consumes 20% of the oxygen and 25% of the glucose in the human body. Therefore, the molecular mechanism underlying how the brain metabolizes substances to support neural activity is a fundamental issue for neuroscience studies. A well-known model in the brain, the astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle, postulates that glucose uptake and glycolytic activity are enhanced in astrocytes upon neuronal activation and that astrocytes transport lactate into neurons to fulfill their energy requirements. Current evidence for this hypothesis has yet to reach a clear consensus, and new concepts beyond the shuttle hypothesis are emerging. The discrepancy is largely attributed to the lack of a critical method for real-time monitoring of metabolic dynamics at cellular resolution. Recent advances in fluorescent protein-based sensors allow the generation of a sensitive, specific, real-time readout of subcellular metabolites and fill the current technological gap. Here, we summarize the development of genetically encoded metabolite sensors and their applications in assessing cell metabolism in living cells and in vivo, and we believe that these tools will help to address the issue of elucidating neural energy metabolism.
Animals ; Biosensing Techniques ; Brain ; cytology ; metabolism ; Cytological Techniques ; Energy Metabolism ; Humans ; Luminescent Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Time Factors

Manual examination of the peripheral blood smear (PBS) is currently performed on a fraction of samples sent for automated complete cell count. 39 children (age range 0-16.2 years) referred to a private paediatric practice during a 16-month period were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical scenarios, haematological features, laboratory-initiated PBS review, haematologist's PBS review and final diagnosis were described. Clinical indications included isolated thrombocytopenia (n = 10), unexplained bruises (n = 5), acute febrile illnesses (n = 11), anaemia (n = 8) and others (n = 5). The laboratory reviewed the PBS in 30 cases according to preset criteria and made no conclusive remarks. All slides were reviewed by a haematologist and a diagnosis was made in 27 (69%) cases, including 7 (78%) of the nine slides the laboratory did not review. The practice of laboratory-initiated PBS review requires re-evaluation. Haematologist-reviewed PBS is an important diagnostic tool for children with anaemia, bleeding disorders and acute febrile illnesses.
Adolescent ; Anemia ; diagnosis ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Contusions ; diagnosis ; Cytological Techniques ; methods ; Female ; Fever ; diagnosis ; Hematology ; methods ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Medical Oncology ; methods ; Pediatrics ; methods ; Retrospective Studies ; Thrombocytopenia ; diagnosis

Animals ; Cell Line ; Cytological Techniques ; methods ; Embryonic Stem Cells ; cytology ; Interleukin Receptor Common gamma Subunit ; genetics ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred NOD ; Mice, SCID ; Mutation

Metabolomics is emerging as a powerful tool for studying metabolic processes, identifying crucial biomarkers responsible for metabolic characteristics and revealing metabolic mechanisms, which construct the content of discovery metabolomics. The crucial biomarkers can be used to reprogram a metabolome, leading to an aimed metabolic strategy to cope with alteration of internal and external environments, naming reprogramming metabolomics here. The striking feature on the similarity of the basic metabolic pathways and components among vastly different species makes the reprogramming metabolomics possible when the engineered metabolites play biological roles in cellular activity as a substrate of enzymes and a regulator to other molecules including proteins. The reprogramming metabolomics approach can be used to clarify metabolic mechanisms of responding to changed internal and external environmental factors and to establish a framework to develop targeted tools for dealing with the changes such as controlling and/or preventing infection with pathogens and enhancing host immunity against pathogens. This review introduces the current state and trends of discovery metabolomics and reprogramming metabolomics and highlights the importance of reprogramming metabolomics.
Animals ; Biomarkers ; metabolism ; Cytological Techniques ; Humans ; Metabolomics ; methods

This study was aimed to sort the side population (SP) cells from human multiple myeloma cell lines, then detect the biological characteristics of those SP cells. After Hoechst33342 staining, intracellular Hoechst33342 fluorescence staining differences of myeloma cell lines observed by the fluorescence microscopy. The fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) technology was used to isolate SP cells and main population (MP) cells; proliferative capacity in vitro was determined by cell growth curve; the cell colony forming ability was compared by colony forming test. The CD138 expression was detected by flow cytometry. The expression of ABCG2 mRNA was detected by reverse transcription PCR; CCK-8 assay and colony forming test were used to evaluate the effect of bortezomib on the cell proliferation, vitality and colony forming ability of the two populations. The results showed that the myeloma cell lines had a small proportion of SP cells, especially, RPMI 8226 cells accounted for the highest proportion of SP cells (7.10 ± 2.69)%, which have also been confirmed under the fluorescence microscope; the proliferative activity and cell colony forming ability of SP cells were significantly higher than those of MP cells (P < 0.05). The expression levels of CD138 in SP and MP cells were not significantly different (P > 0.05). RT-PCR results showed that SP cells expressed the drug-resistance gene ABCG2, but MP cells hardly express these genes. The inhibition rate of bortezomib on SP cells was significantly lower than that on MP cells (P < 0.05), however, the difference was not significant (P > 0.05) at bortezomib 40 nmol/L. Bortezomib could reduce colony formation in the both two cell populations, but more severe reduction appeared in the MP cells. It is concluded that the myeloma cell line contain a small amount of SP cells with the cancer stem cell characteristics.
Cell Line, Tumor ; Cytological Techniques ; methods ; Humans ; Multiple Myeloma ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; cytology ; Side-Population Cells ; cytology

OBJECTIVE: To establish the diagnosis of amniotic fluid embolism with blood samples by liquid-based cytology technique and to study the validity of method. METHODS: The blood samples were collected from patients who suffered from amniotic fluid embolism. The components of amniotic fluid in blood samples were examined with blood smear by two direct smear methods (supernatant smear, sediment smear) and two liquid-based cytology methods (automatic smear, manual smear). The positive detection rate of each method was calculated. RESULTS: The positive detection rates of two liquid-based cytology methods (84.6% and 92.3%, respectively) were much higher than those of two direct methods (53.8% and 61.5%, respectively). CONCLUSION The liquid-based cytology technique could improve the positive detection rate of amniotic fluid embolism.
Amniotic Fluid ; Cytological Techniques/methods* ; Embolism, Amniotic Fluid/diagnosis* ; Female ; Humans ; Pregnancy

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to evaluate a newly-developed EASYPREP liquid-based cytology method in cervicovaginal specimens and compare it with SurePath. METHODS: Cervicovaginal specimens were prospectively collected from 1,000 patients with EASYPREP and SurePath. The specimens were first collected by brushing for SurePath and second for EASYPREP. The specimens of both methods were diagnosed according to the Bethesda System. Additionally, we performed to REBA HPV-ID genotyping and sequencing analysis for human papillomavirus (HPV) on 249 specimens. RESULTS: EASYPREP and SurePath showed even distribution of cells and were equal in cellularity and staining quality. The diagnostic agreement between the two methods was 96.5%. Based on the standard of SurePath, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of EASYPREP were 90.7%, 99.2%, 94.8%, and 98.5%, respectively. The positivity of REBA HPV-ID was 49.4% and 95.1% in normal and abnormal cytological samples, respectively. The result of REBA HPV-ID had high concordance with sequencing analysis. CONCLUSIONS: EASYPREP provided comparable results to SurePath in the diagnosis and staining quality of cytology examinations and in HPV testing with REBA HPV-ID. EASYPREP could be another LBC method choice for the cervicovaginal specimens. Additionally, REBA HPV-ID may be a useful method for HPV genotyping.
Cytological Techniques ; Humans ; Prospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Vaginal Smears

Adult ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; diagnosis ; virology ; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia ; diagnosis ; virology ; Cytological Techniques ; DNA, Viral ; analysis ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Female ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Middle Aged ; Papillomaviridae ; genetics ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; virology ; Young Adult