[The diagnostic value of medical thoracoscopy for unexplained pleural effusion].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the endoscopic features of patients with unexplained pleural effusion, and to evaluate the diagnostic value of medical thoracoscopy. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 2380 patients with unexplained pleural effusion (1320 males and 1060 females; age 15-94 years) in Shandong Provincial Hospital from 1992 to 2011 were performed .The diagnosis was confirmed by medical thoracoscopy. RESULTS: The endoscopic findings of malignant pleural effusion mostly showed nodules of varying sizes. The nodules could be grape-like, cauliflower-like, fused into masses, or diffused small nodules . The appearance of cancerous nodules was more diversified compared to tuberculous nodules. Tuberculous pleurisy was manifested as diffuse pleural congestion and miliary changes, multiple small gray-white nodules, fibrin deposition and adhesion in the pleural cavity, pleural thickening and loculation . The pathological diagnosis was as follows: pleural metastases in 899 (37.8%), primary pleural mesothelioma in 439 (18.4%), tuberculous pleurisy in 514 (21.6%), non-specific inflammation in 226 (9.5%), empyema in 190 (8.0%), hepatic pleural effusion in 36 (1.5%) and pleural effusion of unknown causes in 76 (3.2%) cases. The diagnostic positive rate of medical thoracoscopy was 96.8%. No serious complications were observed. CONCLUSION: Medical thoracoscopy is a relatively safe procedure and has an important application value in the diagnosis of unexplained pleural effusion.

[Diagnostic value of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration in paratracheal mediastinal lesions].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the diagnostic value of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) in diagnosing mediastinal lesions. METHODS: A total of 264 patients with mediastinal lesions on chest CT at Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University between January 2010 and April 2012 were retrospectively enrolled. Their cytopathological results were difficult to be assessed by conventional bronchoscopy. There were 222 cases whose lymph nodes long axis was >1.5 cm. Among them, 174 cases underwent TBNA alone (group A) and the other 48 cases EBUS-TBNA alone (group B). The remaining 42 cases whose lymph nodes long axis was <1.5 cm belonged to group C and underwent TBNA (group C1) and EBUS-TBNA (group C2) sequentially as a combined procedure. The associations of pathologic examinations, diagnostic positive rate and complications were analyzed. RESULTS: Among 174 cases in group A, 154 cases were diagnosed with a positive diagnostic rate of 88.5%. There were 135 malignant lesions while 19 cases were diagnosed with benign diseases and 5 cases had accidental vascular injury. Among 48 cases in group B, 45 cases were diagnosed with a positive diagnostic rate of 93.8%. There were 33 malignant lesions while 12 cases were diagnosed with benign diseases. Among 42 patients in group C1, 31 cases were diagnosed by TBNA with a positive diagnostic rate of 73.8%. There were 23 malignant lesions while 8 cases were diagnosed with benign diseases and 2 cases had accidental vascular injury. Among 42 patients in group C2, 39 cases were diagnosed with a positive diagnostic rate of 92.8%. There were 30 malignant lesions while 9 cases had benign diseases. No difference existed in diagnostic positive rate between groups A and B (χ(2) = 0.621, P = 0.431) while the diagnostic positive rate in group A was much higher than group C1 (χ(2) = 5.945, P = 0.015). The difference between groups B and C2 was insignificant (χ(2) = 0.065, P = 0.320) while there was significant difference between groups C1 and C2 (χ(2) = 5.486, P = 0.019). CONCLUSION: With a low complication rate, EBUS-TBNA can yield a higher diagnostic positive rate in diagnosing small mediastinal diseases than conventional TBNA.

Expression of Yes-associated protein in non-small cell lung cancer and its relationship with clinical pathological factors.

BACKGROUND: Yes-associated protein (YAP) plays an important role in signal transduction and gene transcription regulation in normal cells, with elevated and over-expressed YAP levels observed in various malignant tumors. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of YAP in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and to study the possible relationship of YAP expression with the occurrence and development of NSCLC. METHODS: YAP expression was assessed in 40 cases of NSCLC tumor tissues by immunohistochemistry, and their protein and mRNA levels were evaluated through Western blotting and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR), respectively. Normal lung tissues obtained from the same patient were used as control. Statistical analysis was performed to correlate the YAP expression to clinical pathological factors, such as tumor type, stage and grade. RESULTS: YAP-positive expression was found in 28 (70%) of the 40 cases of NSCLC, which included 10 cases of squamous cell carcinoma (25%), 17 cases of adenocarcinoma (42.5%) and 1 case of squamous adenocarcinoma (2.5%). In the 28 YAP-positive cases, 19 cases showed lymph node metastasis and were classified in TNM stage II + III (47.5%); the other nine cases showed no lymph node metastasis (22.5%) and were classified in the TNM stage I. There was no relationship between YAP expression and patients' age, gender or tumor histological grades. However, YAP showed significant over expression in late period of T stage (P = 0.012), TNM stage (P = 0.039), and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.013), respectively. Notably, YAP-positive expression was significantly higher in adenocarcinoma than that in squamous cell carcinoma (P = 0.041). CONCLUSIONS: Over-expression of YAP was associated with NSCLC, especially lung adenocarcinoma. The high YAP expression in late period of tumor stage and lymph node metastasis may indicate that YAP expression could be an early marker for NSCLC tumorigenesis.