Respiratory cytology in malignant lung disease – The thoracic oncologist’s perspective

Respiratory cytology continues to play a central role in the diagnosis and staging of thoracic malignancy, although over time indications have changed. Historically, sputum cytology and endobronchial brushings and washings figured prominently, but with the advent of endobronchial and endoscopic ultrasound much greater emphasis is placed on fine needle aspirates from lymph nodes. The advent of targeted sequencing panels for genomic profiling to identify driver mutations and PD-L1 directed immunotherapy means that there is a need to extract increasing amounts of diagnostic and predictive information from ever smaller amounts of diagnostic material. Recent work has demonstrated that cytology samples are well suited to delivering the information required, but in order to understand the limitations of clinical and laboratory techniques, a close working relationship between pathologist and thoracic oncologist is needed to optimise sample procurement and utilisation.     

三维CT血管造影在颅内动脉瘤夹闭术后复查中的应用

目的:评价三维CT血管造影(3D-CTA)在颅内动脉瘤夹闭术后复查中的应用价值.方法:选取我院神经外科2010年8月至2012年1月间,共42例颅内动脉瘤夹闭术后患者(45个动脉瘤),分别于动脉瘤夹闭术后5-7天,5-6个月,12个月接受三维CT血管造影(3D-CTA)和数字减影血管造影(DSA)检查,以DSA为金标准,判断CTA对动脉瘤术后残留、血管闭塞狭窄等检出的灵敏度和特异度.结果:3D-CTA发现4例瘤颈残留,1例吻合血管闭塞,28例载瘤动脉通畅,6例术中阻断的载瘤动脉不显影,61个动脉瘤夹均可清晰辨识,与DSA结果一致.3D-CTA评价瘤颈残留与载瘤动脉、吻合血管通畅的灵敏度和特异度均为100％,一致性为1.0.结论:3D-CTA检查操作简便,结果真实可靠,临床应用价值极高,能够很好的显示动脉瘤夹闭术后改变,可作为颅内动脉瘤夹闭术后长期多次随访的主要方法.     

A calcified polymeric valve for valve-in-valve applications

The prevalence of aortic valve stenosis (AS) is increasing in the aging society. More recently, novel treatments and devices for AS, especially transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) have significantly changed the therapeutic approach to this disease. Research and development related to TAVR require testing these devices in the calcified heart valves that closely mimic a native calcific valve. However, no animal model of AS has yet been available. Alternatively, animals with normal aortic valve that are currently used for TAVR experiments do not closely replicate the aortic valve pathology required for proper testing of these devices. To solve this limitation, for the first time, we developed a novel polymeric valve whose leaflets possess calcium hydroxyapatite inclusions immersed in them. This study reports the characteristics and feasibility of these valves. Two types of the polymeric valve, i.e., moderate and severe calcified AS models were developed and tested by deploying a transcatheter valve in those and measuring the related hemodynamics. The valves were tested in a heart flow simulator, and were studied using echocardiography. Our results showed high echogenicity of the polymeric valve, that was correlated to the severity of the calcification. Aortic valve area of the polymeric valves was measured, and the severity of stenosis was defined according to the clinical guidelines. Accordingly, we showed that these novel polymeric valves closely mimic AS, and can be a desired cost-saving solution for testing the performance of the transcatheter aortic valve systems in vitro.     

三维超声心动图评价不同年龄段和性别主动脉瓣二叶畸形

目的:三维超声心动图评估不同年龄段和性别主动脉瓣二叶畸形(bicuspid aortic valve malformation,BAV)的应用价值。方法:超声心动图检测我院2012年6月至2014年9月70例BAV患者,根据年龄段分为4组,≤20岁年龄组7例,21-40岁年龄组14例,41-60岁年龄组30例,≥60岁年龄组19例;根据性别分为2组,男性42例,女性28例。测量不同病例分组的主动脉窦部及升部内径、室间隔厚度、左心功能及左房横径,比较主动脉瓣狭窄、关闭不全、钙化及脱垂四个合并症发生率。结果:在心脏结构指标方面,年龄段分组室间隔厚度≥60岁年龄组12.37±1.64 mm高于≤20岁年龄组10.43±2.22 mm和21-40岁年龄组11.00±1.92 mm;左房横径41-60岁年龄组38.73±7.95 mm和≥60岁年龄组40.05±9.71 mm高于≤20岁年龄组29.86±1.86 mm。性别分组左心功能女性64.18±6.04%高于男性58.71±11.28%。在合并症发生率方面年龄段分组主动脉瓣狭窄41-60岁年龄组80%、≥60岁年龄组84%高于21-40岁年龄组50%,性别分组狭窄男性81%大于女性54%,关闭不全女性79%大于男性50%。结论:三维超声心动图诊断BAV可获得更加全面、具体、直观的诊断信息,BAV的超声表现与患者年龄段和性别密切相关。     

颅内动脉瘤开颅术后患者肺部感染的危险因素分析

目的:探讨颅内动脉瘤开颅术后发生肺部感染的危险因素。方法:回顾性分析在我院接受开颅手术治疗的211例颅内动脉瘤患者的性别、年龄、吸烟史、糖尿病史、高血压病史、Hunt-Hess分级、动脉瘤部位、动脉瘤直径、手术时机及术后肺部感染的情况,对可能导致肺感染的因素行X2检验及Logistic回归分析。结果:单因素分析显示影响颅内动脉瘤患者术后肺感染的因素主要包括年龄、吸烟、糖尿病、Hunt-Hess分级(P0.05)。多因素Logistic回归分析结果显示影响颅内动脉瘤患者开颅术后发生肺部感染的因素为吸烟和Hunt-Hess分级。结论:吸烟、高Hunt-Hess分级是影响颅内动脉瘤开颅术后发生肺部感染的独立危险因素。     

家蚕非编码RNA在神经系统中的表达分析

【目的】非编码RNA(non-coding RNA,ncRNA)在家蚕Bombyx mori发育过程中具有重要调控作用。本研究旨在探索ncRNA参与家蚕神经系统发育的分子机理。【方法】采用实时荧光定量PCR技术对22个中等长度的ncRNA及3个ncRNA的邻近编码基因在家蚕幼虫神经系统中的表达水平进行检测。【结果】8个ncRNA(包括1个C/D box snoRNA,4个H/ACA box snoRNA和3个不能归类的ncRNA)在家蚕5龄幼虫神经组织和非神经组织中均有表达,且在胸腹神经中的表达量明显高于头部神经中的表达量。其中,snoRNA Bm-51,Bm-18和Bm-86在胸腹神经中的表达量分别是头部神经中的23,5和4.7倍。进一步研究发现,这3个内含子起源的ncRNA与其宿主基因在家蚕神经系统中的表达趋势一致,宿主基因在胸腹神经中的表达量也明显高于头部神经中的表达量。【结论】本研究筛选到的在家蚕不同神经部位存在差异表达的ncRNA,特别是在胸腹神经中高表达的ncRNA可能协同其邻近编码基因,参与家蚕神经发育或神经活动过程。该结果为研究ncRNA参与家蚕神经系统发育提供了分子依据,为从非编码RNA角度探索鳞翅目害虫防治提供了新的思路。     

Insulin rapidly stimulates l-arginine transport in human aortic endothelial cells via Akt

Insulin stimulates endothelial NO synthesis, at least in part mediated by phosphorylation and activation of endothelial NO synthase at Ser1177 and Ser615 by Akt. We have previously demonstrated that insulin-stimulated NO synthesis is inhibited under high culture glucose conditions, without altering Ca²⁺-stimulated NO synthesis or insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of eNOS. This indicates that stimulation of endothelial NO synthase phosphorylation may be required, yet not sufficient, for insulin-stimulated nitric oxide synthesis. In the current study we investigated the role of supply of the eNOS substrate, l-arginine as a candidate parallel mechanism underlying insulin-stimulated NO synthesis in cultured human aortic endothelial cells. Insulin rapidly stimulated l-arginine transport, an effect abrogated by incubation with inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol-3′-kinase or infection with adenoviruses expressing a dominant negative mutant Akt. Furthermore, supplementation of endothelial cells with extracellular l-arginine enhanced insulin-stimulated NO synthesis, an effect reversed by co-incubation with the l-arginine transport inhibitor, l-lysine. Basal l-arginine transport was significantly increased under high glucose culture conditions, yet insulin-stimulated l-arginine transport remained unaltered. The increase in l-arginine transport elicited by high glucose was independent of the expression of the cationic amino acid transporters, hCAT1 and hCAT2 and not associated with any changes in the activity of ERK1/2, Akt or protein kinase C (PKC). We propose that rapid stimulation of L-arginine transport contributes to insulin-stimulated NO synthesis in human endothelial cells, yet attenuation of this is unlikely to underlie the inhibition of insulin-stimulated NO synthesis under high glucose conditions.     

Towards the improved quantification of in vivo abnormal wall shear stresses in BAV-affected patients from 4D-flow imaging: Benchmarking and application to real data

Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), i.e. the fusion of two aortic valve cusps, is the most frequent congenital cardiac malformation. Its progression is often characterized by accelerated leaflet calcification and aortic wall dilation. These processes are likely enhanced by altered biomechanical stimuli, including fluid-dynamic wall shear stresses (WSS) acting on both the aortic wall and the aortic valve. Several studies have proposed the exploitation of 4D-flow magnetic resonance imaging sequences to characterize abnormal in vivo WSS in BAV-affected patients, to support prognosis and timing of intervention. However, current methods fail to quantify WSS peak values.On this basis, we developed two new methods for the improved quantification of in vivo WSS acting on the aortic wall based on 4D-flow data.We tested both methods separately and in combination on synthetic datasets obtained by two computational fluid-dynamics (CFD) models of the aorta with healthy and bicuspid aortic valve. Tests highlighted the need for data spatial resolution at least comparable to current clinical guidelines, the low sensitivity of the methods to data noise, and their capability, when used jointly, to compute more realistic peak WSS values as compared to state-of-the-art methods.The integrated application of the two methods on the real 4D-flow data from a preliminary cohort of three healthy volunteers and three BAV-affected patients confirmed these indications. In particular, quantified WSS peak values were one order of magnitude higher than those reported in previous 4D-flow studies, and much closer to those computed by highly time- and space-resolved CFD simulations.     

Simulations of morphotype-dependent hemodynamics in non-dilated bicuspid aortic valve aortas

Bicuspid aortic valves (BAVs) generate flow abnormalities that may promote aortopathy. While positive helix fraction (PHF) index, flow angle (θ), flow displacement (d) and wall shear stress (WSS) exhibit abnormalities in dilated BAV aortas, it is unclear whether those anomalies stem from the abnormal valve anatomy or the dilated aorta. Therefore, the objective of this study was to quantify the early impact of different BAV morphotypes on aorta hemodynamics prior to dilation. Fluid-structure interaction models were designed to quantify standard peak-systolic flow metrics and temporal WSS characteristics in a realistic non-dilated aorta connected to functional tricuspid aortic valve (TAV) and type-I BAVs. While BAVs generated increased helicity (PHF>0.68) in the middle ascending aorta (AA), larger systolic flow skewness (θ>11.2°) and displacement (d>6.8 mm) relative to the TAV (PHF=0.51; θ<5.5°; d<3.3 mm), no distinct pattern was observed between morphotypes. In contrast, WSS magnitude and directionality abnormalities were BAV morphotype- and site-dependent. Type-I BAVs subjected the AA convexity to peak-systolic WSS overloads (up to 1014% difference vs. TAV). While all BAVs increased WSS unidirectionality on the proximal AA relative to the TAV, the most significant abnormality was achieved by the BAV with left-right-coronary cusp fusion on the wall convexity (up to 0.26 decrease in oscillatory shear index vs. TAV). The results indicate the existence of strong hemodynamic abnormalities in non-dilated type-I BAV AAs, their colocalization with sites vulnerable to dilation and the superior specificity of WSS metrics over global hemodynamic metrics to the valve anatomy.