Background:
The incidence of superior vena cava syndrome has been increasing in hemodialysis patients with the widespread use of dialysis catheters. Although endovascular intervention remains the ...primary choice for treatment, the long-term patency rate is not optimistic. Occlusive lesions are often encountered that cannot be opened using this intervention. Therefore, we chose to present this case involving a pericardial patch used to reconstruct the superior vena cava in the treatment of catheter-associated chronic superior vena cava occlusion.
Methods:
Here, we report a case of facial swelling and severe bilateral pleural effusion secondary to superior vena cava occlusion in a 41-year-old woman. An endovascular venous intervention was attempted initially but failed. Finally, we adopted a procedure using the pericardium as a patch to reconstruct the superior vena cava, maintaining most of the original anatomical structure.
Results:
This patient’s facial swelling and bilateral pleural effusion disappeared after the operation. In addition, her symptoms of coughing and dyspnea were relieved. The Brescia-Cimino fistula in her left forearm functioned well.
Conclusion:
The use of a pericardial patch to reconstruct the superior vena cava is a reliable approach in patients who are not candidates for endovascular treatment.
To investigate the clinicopathological features, immunophenotype, and differential diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the rete testis.
Four adenocarcinoma cases of the rete testis diagnosed at West China ...Hospital, Chengdu, China (3 cases, including 2 consultation cases) and the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China (1 case) between January 2009 and December 2017 were included. Their clinical, morphologic and immunohistochemical features were analyzed using histological analysis and immunohistochemical staining. Related literature was reviewed to reveal the characteristics of this tumor.
The 4 patients' age range was 26-64 years. The maximum diameters of the tumors were 3.0 and 4.5 cm in 2 cases, respectively. On gross examination, adenocarcinomas of the rete testis appeared as a solid, white to gray or tan to yellow mass that raised at the hilum of the testis. Microscopically, all tumors showed multiple histologic patterns, including corded/trabecular (4/4), glandular, nested, sarc
OBJECTIVETo retrospectively analyze the results of treatment outcome by surgery combined with 125I brachytherapy and correlative factors of adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC). METHODSIn the study, 75 ...patients with primary ACC of oral and maxillofacial region were treated by surgery combined with 125I seeds brachytherapy. Radical resection or subtotal resection was applied for the tumor. The brachytherapy treatment planning system was used to create implant plans with the prescribed dose of 60 Gy to 120 Gy. The 125I seeds were implanted intraoperatively or postoperatively. The regular follow-up was required. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to assess the tumor control rate and the patients' survival rates. Meanwhile, the Cox regression analysis was used to find out the prognostic factors. RESULTSLocal control rates at the end of 3 and 5 years were as follows: T1-T2, 92.2% and 82.0%; T3-T4, 82.6% and 82.6%; and overall, 90.0% and 78.8%. The disease-free survival rates were 74.9% and 54.3%, respectively. The overall
One hundred twenty six doubled-haploid (DH) rice lines were evaluated in nine diverse Asian environments to reveal the genetic basis of genotype x environment interactions (GEI) for plant height (PH) ...and heading date (HD). A subset of lines was also evaluated in four water-limited environments, where the environmental basis of G x E could be more precisely defined. Responses to the environments were resolved into individual QTL x environment interactions using replicated phenotyping and the mixed linear-model approach. A total of 37 main-effect QTLs and 29 epistatic QTLs were identified. On average, these QTLs were detectable in 56% of the environments. When detected in multiple environments, the main effects of most QTLs were consistent in direction but varied considerably in magnitude across environments. Some QTLs had opposite effects in different environments, particularly in water-limited environments, indicating that they responded to the environments differently. Inconsistent QTL detection across environments was due primarily to non- or weak-expression of the QTL, and in part to significant QTL x environment interaction effects in the opposite direction to QTL main effects, and to pronounced epistasis. QTL x environment interactions were trait- and gene-specific. The greater GEI for HD than for PH in rice were reflected by more environment-specific QTLs, greater frequency and magnitude of QTL x environment interaction effects, and more pronounced epistasis for HD than for PH. Our results demonstrated that QTL x environment interaction is an important property of many QTLs, even for highly heritable traits such as height and maturity. Information about QTL x environment interaction is essential if marker-assisted selection is to be applied to the manipulation of quantitative traits.
Abstract Objective To investigate secondhand smoke exposure (SHS) of children at home and the prevalence of parental smoking after implementation of the new tobacco control law in Macao. This study ...explored whether the smoking ban in public places in Macao has decreased the prevalence of smoking or led to increased SHS exposure of children at home. As smokers cannot smoke in public places any more, they may smoke at home more frequently; a displacement effect of smoke-free legislation. Study design Cross-sectional survey. Methods This study surveyed 337 fathers and 538 mothers. Questions from a subset of key questions from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (2nd edition) were applied to assess the SHS exposure of children and the prevalence of parental smoking since the smoking ban. A classification tree analysis was used to analyse the factors increasing SHS exposure of children. Results The prevalence of SHS exposure in children at home was 41.3%. The prevalence rates of paternal and maternal smoking were 43.7% and 3.8%, respectively. Compared with data reported by the Health Bureau of Macao SAR in 2011, the prevalence of parental smoking and the prevalence of SHS exposure of children at home have not decreased since the smoking ban. Analysis of the factors increasing the prevalence of SHS exposure of children indicated that fathers with an education level below high school were more likely to contribute to this increase, compared with fathers with a high school education or more (48.2% vs 32.4%, respectively). In addition, fathers represented the majority of smokers at home, accounting for 92.0% of 415 smoking parents. The prevalence of paternal smoking (82.0%) in the group of children with SHS exposure was much higher than that in the unexposed group (16.7%, Chi-squared test = 367.199, P = 0.000). The SHS exposure of children increased consistently with the decrease in paternal education level. This was consistent with the increasing prevalence of paternal smoking as paternal education level decreased. SHS exposure was most common among children whose fathers had an education level below high school and whose mothers were aged ≤29 years (75.0%). Conclusions This study did not find any decline in the prevalence of parental smoking after the smoking ban. These parents were more likely to smoke at home after the ban, leading to more frequent SHS exposure for their children.
Arrays of well‐aligned, ca. 4.7 mm long carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are grown in a simple, safe, and cost‐effective manner using an efficient Al2O3/Fe catalyst prepared by an ion‐beam assisted deposition ...technique (see figure). Importantly, the as‐synthesized CNT arrays with lengths ranging from 500 μm to 1.5 mm are conducive to spinning, and CNT fibers spun from such long CNT arrays show remarkably improved tensile strength.
Adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) of the lung is a heterogeneous disease that is composed of both adenocarcinoma components (ACC) and squamous cell carcinoma components (SCCC). Their genomic profile, ...genetic origin, and clinical management remain controversial.
Resected ASC and metastatic tumor in regional lymph nodes (LNs) were collected. The ACC and SCCC were separated by microdissection of primary tumor. The 1021 cancer-related genes were evaluated by next-generation sequencing independently in ACC and SCCC and LNs. Shared and private alterations in the two components were investigated. In addition, genomic profiles of independent cohorts of adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas were examined for comparison. We have also carried out a retrospective study of ASCs with known EGFR mutation status from 11 hospitals in China for their clinical outcomes.
The most frequent alterations in 28 surgically resected ASCs include EGFR (79%), TP53 (68%), MAP3K1 (14%) mutations, EGFR amplifications (32%), and MDM2 amplifications (18%). Twenty-seven patients (96%) had shared variations between ACC and SCCC, and pure SCCC metastases were not found in metastatic LNs among these patients. Only one patient with geographically separated ACC and SCCC had no shared mutations. Inter-component heterogeneity was a common genetic event of ACC and SCCC. The genomic profile of ASC was similar to that of 170 adenocarcinomas, but different from that of 62 squamous cell carcinomas. The incidence of EGFR mutations in the retrospective analysis of 517 ASCs was 51.8%. Among the 129 EGFR-positive patients who received EGFR-TKIs, the objective response rate was 56.6% and the median progression-free survival was 10.1 months (95% confidence interval: 9.0–11.2).
The ACC and SCCC share a monoclonal origin, a majority with genetically inter-component heterogeneity. ASC may represent a subtype of adenocarcinoma with EGFR mutation being the most common genomic anomaly and sharing similar efficacy to EGFR TKI.
•The adenocarcinoma component and squamous cell carcinoma component of adenosquamous carcinoma share a common clonal origin.•High incidence of trunk EGFR and TP53 mutation were noted in adenosqumous cell carcinoma, while the overall genomic profile of adenosqumous cell carcinoma is more similar to adenocarcinoma than squmous cell carcinoma.•EGFR-TKIs should be the standard first-line therapy for advanced stage adenosquamous carcinoma with EGFR mutation.
Systemically administered tumor-targeted Salmonella has been developed as an anticancer agent, although its use could be limited by the potential induction of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha ...)-mediated septic shock stimulated by lipid A. Genetic modifications of tumor-targeting Salmonella that alter lipid A and increase safety must, however, retain the useful properties of this bacteria. We report here that disruption of the Salmonella msbB gene reduces TNF alpha induction and increases the LD sub(50) of this pathogenic bacteria by 10,000-fold. Notwithstanding this enormous difference, Salmonella retains its tumor-targeting properties, exhibiting tumor accumulation ratios in excess of 1000:1 compared with normal tissues. Administration of this bacteria to mice bearing melanoma results in tumors that are less than 6% the size of tumors in untreated controls at day 18. Thus, the antitumor activity previously demonstrated using tumor-targeting Salmonella with normal lipid A is retained. Lipid modification of tumor-specific bacterial vectors provides a means for reducing septic shock and further suggests that the antitumor activity of these bacteria may be independent of TNF alpha .
In situ
high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments and micromechanics-based finite element simulations have been conducted to examine the lattice-strain evolution in metallic-glass-matrix ...composites (MGMCs) with dendritic crystalline phases dispersed in the metallic-glass matrix. Significant plastic deformation can be observed prior to failure from the macroscopic stress–strain curves in these MGMCs. The entire lattice-strain evolution curves can be divided into elastic–elastic (denoting deformation behavior of matrix and inclusion, respectively), elastic–plastic, and plastic–plastic stages. Characteristics of these three stages are governed by the constitutive laws of the two phases (modeled by free-volume theory and crystal plasticity) and geometric information (crystalline phase morphology and distribution). The load-partitioning mechanisms have been revealed among various crystalline orientations and between the two phases, as determined by slip strain fields in crystalline phase and by strain localizations in matrix. Implications on ductility enhancement of MGMCs are also discussed.
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