Radiomic model for differentiating parotid pleomorphic adenoma from parotid adenolymphoma based on MRI images.

BACKGROUND: Distinguishing parotid pleomorphic adenoma (PPA) from parotid adenolymphoma (PA) is important for precision treatment, but there is a lack of readily available diagnostic methods. In this study, we aimed to explore the diagnostic value of radiomic signatures based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for PPA and PA. METHODS: The clinical characteristic and imaging data were retrospectively collected from 252 cases (126 cases in the training cohort and 76 patients in the validation cohort) in this study. Radiomic features were extracted from MRI scans, including T1-weighted imaging (T1WI) sequences and T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) sequences. The radiomic features from three sequences (T1WI, T2WI and T1WI combined with T2WI) were selected using univariate analysis, LASSO correlation and Spearman correlation. Then, we built six quantitative radiomic models using the selected features through two machine learning methods (multivariable logistic regression, MLR, and support vector machine, SVM). The performances of the six radiomic models were assessed and the diagnostic efficacies of the ideal T1-2WI radiomic model and the clinical model were compared. RESULTS: The T1-2WI radiomic model using MLR showed optimal discriminatory ability (accuracy = 0.87 and 0.86, F-1 score = 0.88 and 0.86, sensitivity = 0.90 and 0.88, specificity = 0.82 and 0.80, positive predictive value = 0.86 and 0.84, negative predictive value = 0.86 and 0.84 in the training and validation cohorts, respectively) and its calibration was observed to be good (p > 0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of the T1-2WI radiomic model was significantly better than that of the clinical model for both the training (0.95 vs. 0.67, p < 0.001) and validation (0.90 vs. 0.68, p = 0.001) cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: The T1-2WI radiomic model in our study is complementary to the current knowledge of differential diagnosis for PPA and PA.

Hyperconnection and hyperperfusion of overlapping brain regions in patients with menstrual-related migraine: a multimodal neuroimaging study.

PURPOSE: Menstrual-related migraine (MRM) results in moderate to severe intensity headaches accompanied by physical and emotional disability over time in women. Neuroimaging methodologies have advanced our understanding of migraine; however, the neural mechanisms of MRM are not clearly understood. METHODS: In this study, fourteen MRM patients in the interictal phase and fifteen age- and education-matched healthy control females were recruited. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and pulsed arterial spin labeling (PASL) MRI were collected for both the subject groups outside of their menstrual periods. Eigenvector centrality mapping (ECM) was performed on resting-state fMRI, and the relative cerebral blood flow (relCBF) was assessed using PASL-MRI. RESULTS: MRM patients showed a significantly increased eigenvector centrality in the right medial frontal gyrus compared to healthy controls. Seed-based ECM analysis revealed that increased centrality was associated with the right medial frontal gyrus's hyperconnectivity with the left insula and the right supplementary motor area. The perfusion MRI revealed significantly increased relCBF in the hyperconnected regions. Furthermore, the hyperconnection positively correlated with the attack frequency, while the hyperperfusion showed a positive correlation with the disease duration. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that menstrual-related migraine is associated with cerebral hyperconnection and hyperperfusion in critical pain-processing brain regions. Furthermore, this elevated cerebral activity is correlated with different aspects of functional impairment in MRM patients suggesting that perfusion analysis, along with whole-brain connectivity analysis, can provide a comprehensive understanding of neural mechanisms of MRM.

Circular RNA Hsa_circ_0066755 as an Oncogene via sponging miR-651 and as a Promising Diagnostic Biomarker for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) represent a class of broad and diversified endogenous RNAs that regulate gene expressions in eukaryotes. Hsa_circ_006675 has been proven as an important circRNA molecule in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), however, its function still remains elusive. This study aims to discuss the biofunctions of hsa_circ_0066755 in NPC. Methods: We detected the expression levels of hsa_circ_0066755 in NPC patients by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and the corresponding ROC curves were plotted. Functional experiments including CCK-8, colony formation, Transwell assay and Xenograft experiment were conducted. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to seek miRNAs which might have binding sites with hsa_circ_0066755. Luciferase reporter assays were finally carried out to verify the binding sites. Results: We found significant increases of hsa_circ_0066755 in the plasma and tissues of the patients. Moreover, its levels were positively correlated with clinical staging (P=0.019). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that the area under the curves (AUCs) of tissue and plasma hsa_circ_0066755 for distinguishing NPC from non-cancerous controls were 0.8537 and 0.9044, respectively. Both tissue and plasma hsa_circ_0066755 testing presented a comparable diagnostic accuracy to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Our in-vitro experiment showed that the overexpression of hsa_circ_0066755 facilitated the growth, proliferation, clone formation, invasion and migration of CNE-1 NPC cells, while its down-regulation showed completely opposite effects. The xenograft experiment showed that exogenous hsa_circ_0066755 could significantly enhance the in-vivo tumorigenic ability of CNE-1 cells. Rescue assay further confirmed hsa_circ_0066755 as a tumor facilitator by sponging miR-651. Conclusions: Collectively, this study reported for the first time that hsa_circ_0066755 played a role of oncogene in NPC and could be used as an effective diagnostic marker for NPC, and that hsa_circ_0066755 / miR-651 axis also involved in the progression of NPC.

Guiding values of multislice spiral computed tomography angiography in laparoscopic D2 radical gastrectomy of local advanced gastric carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the application values of preoperative multislice spiral computed tomography angiography (MSCTA) in laparoscopic radical resection of gastric carcinoma (GC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 108 GC patients were divided into Groups I (i.e., where preoperative MSCTA was performed; n = 60) and II (i.e., where preoperative MSCTA was not performed; n = 48). Surgery was performed by the same group of surgeons. RESULTS: Seven cases of blood vascular variation were detected in Group I during surgery, whereas four cases were detected in Group II. The operation time for Group I ([207 ± 24] min) was shorter than that for Group II ([260 ± 31] min) (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: -21.543--0.920, P = 0.044). The operation time of patients with gastric vascular anatomic variation in Group I ([189 ± 49] min) was shorter than that of patients in Group II ([257 ± 61] min) (95% CI: -99.68--3.201, P = 0.048). The differences in the number of lymph node dissection, average blood loss, eating time, complication rate, and postoperative hospital stay between the two groups was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: MSCTA before endoscopic radical resection exhibits guiding values in assessing blood vascular variations and shortening operation times.

Clinical observation of fallopian tube obstruction recanalization by ozone.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical effect of fallopian tube obstruction recanalization by ozone. METHODS: Total 116 cases of patients undergoing the fallopian tube obstruction were randomly divided into the experimental group and control group, with 58 cases in each group. All patients underwent the interventional fallopian tube recanalization. The patients in the experimental group underwent the fallopian tube perfusion by the ozone water. Meanwhile, the patients in the control group were treated with the conventional anti-inflammatory and anti-adhesion drugs. After the follow-up visit for 6 months, the pregnancy rate and fallopian tube re-occlusion rate were counted and compared between the two groups. Meanwhile, the symptoms were evaluated and compared between the two groups after the operation for two weeks. RESULTS: The success rate of fallopian tube recanalization was 93.1% (54/58), the pregnancy rate was 79.3% (46/58) and the recurrence rate was 5.2% (3/58) in the experimental group. While the success rate of fallopian tube recanalization was 91.4% (53/58), the pregnancy rate was 60.3% (35/58) and the recurrence rate was 17.2% (10/58) in the control group. Analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the recanalization success rate between the two groups (P>0.05). However, the pregnancy rate and re-occlusion rate in the experimental group were significantly lower than those of the control group (P<0.05), and the difference was statistically significant. There was no significant difference in the discomfort symptoms between the experimental group and control group (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: Fallopian tube recanalization by ozone perfusion can effectively increase the postoperative pregnancy rate and reduce the fallopian tube re-occlusion.

Association Between microRNA-125a rs12976445 C>T Polymorphism and 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG) Uptake: Clinical and Metabolic Response in Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

BACKGROUND MicroRNA-125a (miR-125a) has been involved with many diseases, such as hepatocellular carcinoma and inflammation. In this study, we aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism, including the potential regulator and signaling pathways, of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). MATERIAL AND METHODS We divided the participants into 3 groups by rs12976445 genotype and performed chi-square tests to evaluate the differences between CC and CT+TT groups for sex, age, grading, pT category, metastases, and fludeoxyglucose F18 injection (18FDG) metabolism. RESULTS We found all variables to be statistically significant. We searched the miRNA database online (www.mirdb.org) with the "seed sequence" located within the 3-prime untranslated region (3' UTR) of the target gene and then validated VEGF to be the direct gene via luciferase reporter assay system. We also established the negative regulatory relationship between MiR-125a and VEGF by studying the relative luciferase activity. We conducted real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis to study the mRNA and protein expression level of VEGF among different groups (CC=18, CT=8, TT=3) or cells treated with scramble control, miR-125a mimics, VEGF RNA, and MiR-125a inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS We validated the negative regulatory relationship between MiR-125a and VEGF and found that rs12976445 may function as a biomarker to predict metabolism of 18FDG.

Ginsenoside­Rg5 induces apoptosis and DNA damage in human cervical cancer cells.

Panax ginseng is traditionally used as a remedy for cancer, inflammation, stress and aging, and ginsenoside­Rg5 is a major bioactive constituent of steamed ginseng. The present study aimed to evaluate whether ginsenoside­Rg5 had any marked cytotoxic, apoptotic or DNA­damaging effects in human cervical cancer cells. Five human cervical cancer cell lines (HeLa, MS751, C33A, Me180 and HT­3) were used to investigate the cytotoxicity of ginsenoside­Rg5 using a 3­(4,5­dimethylthiazol­2­yl)­2,5­diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Additionally, the effects of ginsenoside­Rg5 on the apoptosis of HeLa and MS751 cells were detected using DNA ladder assays and flow cytometry. DNA damage was assessed in the HeLa and MS751 cells using alkaline comet assays and by detection of γH2AX focus formation. The HeLa and MS751 cells were significantly more sensitive to ginsenoside­Rg5 treatment compared with the C­33A, HT­3 and Me180 cells. As expected, ginsenoside­Rg5 induced significant concentration­ and time­dependent increases in apoptosis. In addition, ginsenoside­Rg5 induced significant concentration­dependent increases in the level of DNA damage compared with the negative control. Consistent with the comet assay data, the percentage of γH2AX­positive HeLa and MS751 cells also revealed that ginsenoside­Rg5 caused DNA double­strands to break in a concentration­dependent manner. In conclusion, ginsenoside­Rg5 had marked genotoxic effects in the HeLa and MS751 cells and, thus, demonstrates potential as a genotoxic or cytotoxic drug for the treatment of cervical cancer.

The value of CTPA for diagnosing acute pulmonary thromboembolism and the ensuing right ventricular dysfunction.

The value of computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) for the diagnosis of right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) subsequent to acute pulmonary embolism (PE). The ultrasonic cardiography (UCG) was used to assess RVD, one of the diagnostic criteria of PE caused hemodynamic collapse. Seventy six patients with confirmed PE were divided into massive (52 cases) and non-massive PE group (24 cases). The diagnostic criteria assessed for the imminent RVD were: (1) the ratio of axial diameters of the right and left ventricular chambers (RVd/LVd) exceeding 1, or (2) the right ventricular end-diastolic diameter measuring >30 mm. The CTPA diagnosed RVD was positive in 36 and negative in 40 cases. The RVD assessed by UCG was positive in 31 and negative in 45 cases. In comparison to UCG, the CTPA results UCG exhibited 96.77 % sensitivity 96.77 % and 86.67 specificity. The evaluated values both of these techniques were found in good agreement by the kappa value (κ) of 0.81, P < 0.001. In 52 cases of massive PE, CTPA determined RVD was positive in 34, and negative in 18 cases. In comparison, UCG diagnosed RVD was positive in 31 and negative in 21 cases. The sensitivity and specificity of CTPA results compared to those of UCG were 91.18 and 85.71 %, respectively. The estimates obtained were in good agreement as indicated by 0.88 κ value and P < 0.001. Twenty four cases of non-massive PE were RVD negative when assessed by CTPA, UCG however showed two cases positive in this group. Compared to UCG, the specificity of CTPA in evaluating RVD was 100 %. In the massive PE group, the average estimate of RVd/LVd ratio was significantly higher than 1 as analyzed by the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test (P < 0.001). The CTPA and UCG results showed a good correlation in massive PE cases. However, in non-massive PE group, results from two techniques were not correlated. The CTPA can accurately and reliably diagnose the PE and ensuing by estimating changes in the anatomical parameters of right ventricle. Hence, it can allow prompt diagnosis and an appropriate treatment leading to an improved prognosis.

[Imaging findings of non-contrast CT scan, enhancement and HRCT of pulmonary mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the imaging findings of non-contrast CT scan, enhancement and HRCT of pulmonary mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma. METHODS: All the patients with pathologically proven pulmonary MALT lymphoma underwent non-contrast CT scan, of which 7 underwent CT enhancement and 9 had HRCT. CT features of 16 patients were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Major CT signs of 16 cases were consolidations, nodules and masses, of which 11 had two or more signs and 5 had only one. Together with them, normal or dilated air bronchograms were seen in 13 cases, ground-glass opacity (GGO) in 10, interstitial changes and cysts in respective 5, partial atelectasis and mediastinal and hilar lymphoadenopathy in respective 4, pleural effusion in 2 and MALT lymphoma of tracheobronchial tree in 1. Multiple lesions were found in 12 cases and solitary lesion in 4 cases. Consolidations, greater tubercles and masses mostly had a peribronchovascular distribution. Micronodules occurred in a perilymphatic distribution, of which 8 accompanied other signs.On CT enhancement scans, greater tubercles in the trachea had mild enhancement; most of the consolidations and masses had obvious enhancement, while greater tubercles mostly mild enhancement. CT angiogram sign was found in 3 cases. CONCLUSION: Most cases with pulmonary MALT lymphoma have consolidations, greater tubercles and masses with normal or dilated air bronchograms which have a peribronchovascular distribution, together with GGO and micronodules in a perilymphatic distribution; the distinctive manifestations are obvious enhancement with CT angiogram sign. Minority cases have interstitial changes, cysts, partial atelectasis, mediastinal and hilar lymphoadenopathy, pleural effusion and MALT lymphoma of tracheobronchial tree.