Chest radiographic characteristics of community-acquired Legionella pneumonia in the elderly / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Legionella is an important community-acquired pneumonia pathogen. Although the elderly are especially susceptible to Legionella, few studies have looked at comparative radiographic features of Legionella pneumonia in this population. The aim of this study was to explore the chest radiographic characteristics of community-acquired Legionella pneumonia in the elderly.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Serial chest radiographs obtained in 34 patients hospitalized with serologically proven Legionella pneumonia were retrospectively reviewed. Chest X-ray features of an aged group of ≥ 65 years were assessed and compared with a non-aged group of <65 years old with regard to initial patterns and distributions of pulmonary abnormalities, accompanying signs, and progression.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The most common initial presentation was a patchy alveolar infiltrate involving a single lobe, most often the lower lobe. There was no middle or lingular lobe involvement in the aged group patients, but bilateral pleural effusion was significantly more common in this group. In the aged group patients, radiographic progression following adequate therapy, despite a clinical response, was more often noted and the radiographs were less likely to have returned to the premorbid state at discharge, but the differences were not significant between the two groups.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The discrepancy between imaging findings and clinical symptoms seems more prominent in community-acquired Legionella pneumonia in the elderly.</p>

Analysis of detecting value of ultrasound and the clinic-pathological features of axillary metastasis in breast cancer / 中华外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVES</b>To evaluate the value of ultrasound (US) in predicting axilla status and to investigate the clinic pathologic characters in the axillary node metastasis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From June 2012 to June 2013, 323 female primary breast cancer patients who received both axilla ultrasound and pathology examinations were reviewed retrospectively. The features of axillary nodes including diameter, longitudinal-transverse axis ratio, cortical thickness and blood flow grade were used to evaluate axillary status. US accuracy of axillary node metastasis was analyzed correlated with the final pathology results. The clinical and histological features associated with axillary node metastasis was analyzed by χ² test.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The proportions of Luminal A-like, Luminal B-like, human epidermalgrowth factor receptor-2 positive and triple negative breast cancer were 11.1% (36/323), 58.5% (189/323), 13.3% (43/323) and 17.0% (55/323) . The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of axilla US in the diagnosis of nodal metastasis were 35.6% (46/129), 98.9% (181/183), 95.8% (46/48) and 68.6% (181/264). Axillary lymph node metastasis had statistically significant correlation with menopausal status and clinical tumor size (χ² = 4.337, 11.100; P = 0.037, 0.001).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Standardized ultrasound is the basic way to evaluate axilla status. Sentinel lymph node biopsy should be done to acquire accurate preoperative staging of axilla when US shows no signs of metastasis. Axillary lymph node metastasis is significantly related to menopausal status and clinical tumor size, but not significantly related to subtype classification of primary breast cancer.</p>

Color Doppler imaging feature of localized Castleman disease / 中华超声影像学杂志

Objective To summary the color Doppler imaging feature of localized Castleman disease.Methods From January 1997 to November 2011,32 localized Castleman diseases which were proved by pathology were analyzed.Results Round-like,hypoechoic,hypervascular lesions were showed in 23 hyalinevascular type lesions,2 of them with calcium,3 of them with structure liked lymph node hilum.Round-like,hypoechoic,hypervascular lesions or normal lymph node were showed in 5 plasma- type lesions and 4 mixed type lesions.Conclusions When round like,hypoechoic,hypervascular lesion is found by ultrasonography,Castleman should be considered.Calcium or lymph nod hilum-like structure is special finding in diagnosis of Castleman disease by ultrasonography.

Effect of Interleukin-17 on neutrophil apoptosis / 北京大学学报(医学版)

Objective: To study the effect of Interleukin(IL)-17 on neutrophil apoptosis and try to explain the possible mechanism involved. Methods: Neutrophils isolated from healthy donors were incubated in enriched RPMI 1640 cell culture medium at 37 ℃ in 5% carbon dioxide. Subgroups were incubated with IL-17, heat-denatured IL-17 (X-IL-17), dexamethasone (DEX), or buffer alone. Apoptosis was assessed by morphologic changes, by detecting DNA strand breaks. Production of proapoptotic protein Bax by neutrophils was evaluated by immunocytochemistry. Results: At the time of neutrophil incubation, neutrophils in the control subsets exhibited morphologic evidence of apoptosis. A steady rise in apoptosis index (AI) was noted, with (1.54?0.08)% for 0 h, (11.48?1.80)% (compared with 0 h, P0.05) for 0 h, (20.47?6.22)% ( compared with control 12 h, P0.05).Neutrophils apoptosis was accompanied by DNA fragmentation. In all groups, the increasing of Bax immunoreactivity was strongly related with more apoptotic neutrophils (r=0.932, P