Deceleration Capacity—A Novel Measure for Autonomic Nervous System in Patients with Vasovagal Syncope on Tilt-table Testing / 华中科技大学学报（医学）（英德文版）

This study was to investigate the changes of autonomic nerve function and hemodynamics in patients with vasovagal syncope (VVS) during head-up tilt-table testing (HUT).HUT was performed in 68 patients with unexplained syncope and 18 healthy subjects served as control group.According to whether bradycardia,hypotension or both took place during the onset of syncope,the patients were divided during the test into three subgroups:vasodepressor syncope (VD),cardioinhibitory syncope (CI) and mixed syncope (MX) subgroups.Heart rate,blood pressure,heart rate variability (HRV),and deceleration capacity (DC) were continuously analyzed during HUT.For all the subjects with positive responses,the normalized low frequency (LFn) and the LF/HF ratio markedly decreased whereas normalized high frequency (HFn) increased when syncope occurred.Syncopal period also caused more significant increase in the power of the DC in positive groups.These changes were more exaggerated compared to controls.All the patients were indicative of a sympathetic surge in the presence of withdrawal vagal activity before syncope and a sympathetic inhibition with a vagal predominance at the syncopal stage by the frequency-domain analysis of HRV.With the measurements ofDC,a decreased vagal tone before syncope stage and a vagal activation at the syncopal stage were observed.The vagal tone was higher in subjects showing cardioinhibitory responses at the syncopal stage.DC may provide an alternative method to understand the autonomic profile of VVS patients.

BRAF(V600E) mutation is not a positive predictor for distant metastasis in sporadic papillary thyroid carcinoma / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>BRAF(V600E) mutation is correlated with local aggressive clinicopathological features in papillary thyroid carcinoma; yet the relationship between this genetic variation and distant papillary thyroid carcinoma metastasis was unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether BRAF(V600E) is predictive for distant metastasis in the Chinese population.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One hundred and seven patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma were enrolled in this study, including 43 patients with distant metastasis and 64 patients without. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to detect BRAF(V600E) mutation, while immunohistochemistry was performed to detect vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression. The associations between distant metastasis and BRAF(V600E) mutation, and VEGF expression as well as local clinicopathological factors were determined.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 28.6% of the patients in the distant metastasis group harbored BRAF(V600E) mutation, which was significantly lower than in the without distant metastasis group (68.8%, P < 0.001). BRAF(V600E) mutation was negatively correlated with positive VEGF expression (P = 0.001). Furthermore, 52.2% of the patients with distant metastasis exhibited VEGF expression, compared with 25.0% of those without. Higher levels of VEGF expression were also observed in the distant metastasis group. Tumor size, extra-thyroid invasion, and BRAF(V600E) mutation were independent predictors for distant metastasis according to multivariate analysis (odds ratios were 2.8, 12.4, and 0.3; 95% CI 1.483-5.334, and 2.950-52.407, 0.100-0.890; P = 0.002, 0.001, and 0.030, respectively). BRAF(V600E) mutation was negatively correlated with distant metastasis in adult subgroup analysis (P = 0.005) but was not an independent parameter.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>BRAF(V600E) mutation is predictive for distant metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma but not positively. VEGF may be involved in the pathogenesis of distant metastasis.</p>

Invasive capacity of differentiated thyroid carcinoma in pediatric and adolescent patients / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To summarize the invasion features of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) in pediatric and adolescent patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The clinical data of 32 DTC cases (≤18 years old) were retrospectively analyzed for the invasive capacity of DTC in terms of age and gender.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Bilateral (P=0.023), multifoci (P=0.037), and extrathyroid invasions (P=0.041) were more often in patients younger than 12 years old.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>DTC in pediatric and adolescent patients tend to have a more aggressive pattern, especially in patients younger than 12 years.</p>