Background:
Although fine-needle aspiration cytology remains the mainstay of the preoperative workup of thyroid nodules, those with follicular proliferation still represent a diagnostic challenge. ...Real-time elastography (RTE) estimates the stiffness/elasticity of lesions and is regarded as a promising technique for the presurgical selection of thyroid nodules (including those with indeterminate cytology).
Aim:
Our aim was to verify the potential role of RTE in the presurgical diagnosis of cancer in a large cohort of consecutive patients with follicular thyroid nodules.
Patients and Methods:
One hundred two patients were submitted to conventional ultrasonography and RTE evaluation before being operated on for thyroid nodule with indeterminate cytology (54% single nodules). Tissue stiffness on RTE was scored from 1 (greatest elasticity) to 4 (no elasticity).
Results:
At conventional ultrasonography examination, the nodules (median diameter 2.2 cm) were solid (cystic areas < 10%); microcalcifications were detected in 56% of them and a hypoechoic pattern in 64%. Elasticity was high in eight cases only (score 1–2) although low in 94 (score 3–4). Cancer was diagnosed in 36 nodules (35%), being associated with microcalcifications (P < 0.0001) and inversely related to nodule diameter (P < 0.01). Malignancy was detected in 50% of the nodules with RTE score 1–2 and in 34% of those with score 3–4. Therefore, either the positive (34%) or the negative predictive value (50%) was clinically negligible.
Conclusions:
The current study does not confirm the recently reported usefulness of RTE in presurgical selection of nodules with indeterminate cytology and suggest the need for quantitative analytical assessment of nodule stiffness to improve RTE efficacy.
Novel considerations are presented on the physics, apparatus and accelerator designs for a future, luminous, energy frontier electron-hadron (
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) scattering experiment at the LHC in the thirties ...for which key physics topics and their relation to the hadron-hadron HL-LHC physics programme are discussed. Demands are derived set by these physics topics on the design of the LHeC detector, a corresponding update of which is described. Optimisations on the accelerator design, especially the interaction region (IR), are presented. Initial accelerator considerations indicate that a common IR is possible to be built which alternately could serve
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collisions while other experiments would stay on
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in either condition. A forward-backward symmetrised option of the LHeC detector is sketched which would permit extending the LHeC physics programme to also include aspects of hadron-hadron physics. The vision of a joint
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physics experiment is shown to open new prospects for solving fundamental problems of high energy heavy-ion physics including the partonic structure of nuclei and the emergence of hydrodynamics in quantum field theory while the genuine TeV scale DIS physics is of unprecedented rank.
Resistive Plate Chamber detectors are largely used in current High Energy Physics experiments, typically operated in avalanche mode with large fractions of Tetrafluoroethane (C2H2F4), a gas recently ...banned by the European Union due to its high Global Warming Potential (GWP). An intense R&D activity is ongoing to improve RPC technology in view of future HEP applications. In the last few years the RPC EcoGas@GIF++ Collaboration has been putting in place a joint effort between the ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb/SHiP and EP-DT Communities to investigate the performance of present and future RPC generations with eco-friendly gas mixtures. Detectors with different layout and electronics have been operated with ecological gas mixtures, with and without irradiation at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++). Results of these performance studies together with plans for an aging test campaign are discussed in this article.
In the last few years, an intense R &D activity on particle detectors for future HEP applications has been carried on with the aim of developing new techniques as well as studying the performance of ...already existing detectors when operated in a high rate environment. As for Resistive Plate Chamber detectors, the main challenges to face are the improvement of their detection capabilities and longevity at very high-rates, and the search for new eco-friendly gasmixtures free from greenhouse components. Results obtained in the framework of the RPC ECOGas@GIF++ Collaboration on a thin-Resistive Plate Chamber exposed at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility and operated with eco-friendly gas mixtures based on Tetrafluoropropene and Carbon dioxide will be discussed in this paper.
Results obtained by the RPC ECOgas@GIF++ Collaboration, using Resistive Plate Chambers operated with new, eco-friendly gas mixtures, based on tetrafluoropropene and carbon dioxide, are shown and ...discussed in this paper. Tests aimed to assess the performance of this kind of detectors in high-irradiation conditions, analogous to the ones foreseen for the coming years at the Large Hadron Collider experiments, were performed, and demonstrate a performance basically similar to the one obtained with the gas mixtures currently in use, based on tetrafluoroethane, which is being progressively phased out for its possible contribution to the greenhouse effect. Long term aging tests are also being carried out, with the goal to demonstrate the possibility of using these eco-friendly gas mixtures during the whole High Luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider.
Abstract The exclusive photoproduction reactions γp → J/ψ(1S)p and γp → ψ(2S)p have been measured at an ep centre-of-mass energy of 318 GeV with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated ...luminosity of 373 pb −1. The measurement was made in the kinematic range 30 < W < 180 GeV, Q 2 < 1 GeV2 and |t| < 1 GeV2, where W is the photon-proton centre-of-mass energy, Q 2 is the photon virtuality and t is the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex. The decay channels used were J/ψ(1S) → μ + μ − , ψ(2S) → μ + μ − and ψ(2S) → J/ψ(1S)π + π − with subsequent decay J/ψ(1S) → μ + μ − . The ratio of the production cross sections, R = σ ψ(2S) /σ J/ψ(1S), has been measured as a function of W and |t| and compared to previous data in photoproduction and deep inelastic scattering and with predictions of QCD-inspired models of exclusive vector-meson production, which are in reasonable agreement with the data.
Introduction:
Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G), a nonclassical major histocompatibility complex class I antigen, plays a pivotal role in immune tolerance and a paradoxical role in cancers.
Aims:
Our ...aims were to evaluate plasma soluble HLA-G (sHLA-G) concentrations and the 14-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism of the HLA-G gene in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) or Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and to assess the possible association of these parameters with PTC aggressiveness.
Methods:
Samples for the analysis of sHLA-G and +14/−14-bp HLA-G polymorphism were obtained from 121 patients with HT and 183 with PTC; 245 gender- and age-matched healthy subjects served as controls. PTC histopathological aggressiveness was defined according to the last American Thyroid Association guidelines.
Results:
Positive serum antithyroid antibody titers were observed in 22% of PTC patients and lymphocyte infiltration of thyroid parenchyma at histological examination in 21%, whereas both circulating and histological autoimmunity was detectable in 12% of PTC patients. No differences in the +14/−14-bp polymorphism frequencies were observed between the study groups. The prevalence of detectable sHLA-G was lower in healthy controls (52%) as compared with both HT (57%) and PTC (62%) patients. By stratifying the study groups according to sHLA-G level of positive subjects, significantly higher plasma sHLA-G values in PTC (42.9 ± 3.3 ng/ml; P = 0.002) and HT patients (49.1 ± 2.6 ng/ml; P < 0.002) as compared with healthy controls (8.5 ± 1.8 ng/ml) were obtained. Moreover, PTC patients with detectable plasma sHLA-G levels showed a higher aggressive behavior (P < 0.04) than those without.
Conclusions:
Although confirming the frequent association between PTC and chronic autoimmune thyroiditis, these data suggest that elevated circulating sHLA-G levels, besides an important signal of alterations of immune homeostasis, may be considered a potential, novel marker of PTC histopathological aggressiveness at diagnosis. Additional studies are needed to confirm the actual role and clinical relevance of the HLA-G complex in PTC development and progression.
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