Treatment of Cystic-Solid Thyroid Nodules with Ultrasound-Guided Radiofrequency Ablation and Enhancement of Thyroid Function.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation and its effect on thyroid function in patients with cystic-solid thyroid nodules. Methods: We enrolled 90 patients with cystic-solid thyroid nodules and randomly assigned to either a control group (n = 37) or an observation group (n = 53). Patients in the observation group underwent ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation, while those in the control group were treated with ultrasound-guided lauromacrogol. Thyroid function was monitored, and complications were recorded for both groups, while nodule reduction rates were compared across a range of volumes and time periods. Results: One month after surgery, the observation group had a larger volume of nodules than the control group, while at 12 months, the volume of nodules in the observation group was smaller. (P < 0.05). Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine 4 (FT4), and free triiodothyronine (FT3) levels were all within normal ranges after treatment in both groups and showed no significant differences from pre-treatment levels. (P > 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the total incidence of adverse reactions in the control group (8.11%) and the observation group (5.66%) (P > 0.05). Conclusion: With a low incidence of postoperative adverse reactions, the ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation protocol in the clinical treatment of patients with cystic-solid thyroid nodules can effectively reduce the volume of solid thyroid nodules without affecting the thyroid function of patients and can achieve more ideal treatment effectiveness, and is deserving of promotion.

A microplate-based method for real-time monitoring of Saccharomyces cerevisiae viability.

Measuring the viability of the cells after chemical or physical stresses is a routine method in the determination of phenotypes in yeast. Numerous analytical techniques have been applied to the measurement of yeast cell viability, but few of them are suitable for real-time monitoring. Here we propose a microplate-based method for real-time monitoring of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell viability. This method is also suitable for high-throughput measurement.

Effect of different intermittent hypoxia patterns on interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 levels of human umbilical vein endothelial cells / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of different patterns of intermittent hypoxia on the levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) of vascular endothelial cell.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The human umbilical vein endothelial cells of the line ECV304 were used to set up the cells model. The experiment cell strains contained one control group and eight experimental groups, 1 constance normoxia group (control group), 3 different intermittent hypoxia (IH) degree groups (10% O₂ group, 1.5% O₂ group, 0.5% O₂ group with 12 times/h), 4 different IH frequency groups (40 times/h, 20 times/h, 12 times/h, 9 times/h and 6 times/h with 0.5%O2). The specimen were put into a program-controlled gas delivery system with different level and frequency of IH respectively. Then enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to examine the levels of IL-6 and IL-8.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Higher level of IL-6 and IL-8 were found in 3 different IH degree groups than in control group (F were 1961.100 and 103.855 respectively, P all < 0.001). The level of IL-6 and IL-8 was gradually increased with the decreasing of IH degree. The difference of IL-6 and IL-8 levels between each two different groups in IH degree was significant (P all < 0.05). The level of IL-6 and IL-8 groups was significantly different in severe IH exposure (F were 544.396 and 149.328 respectively, P all < 0.001 in both groups). There was a trend as the IH frequency decreased, the level of IL-6 and IL-8 was tenderly increased in 20/hour group (P < 0.05), highest in 12/hour group (P < 0.05), decreased in 9/hour group (P < 0.05), and decreased further in 6/hour group (P < 0.05) in severe IH expose. There was statistical significance between each two different frequency IH groups (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Intermittent hypoxia caused significant inflammatory reaction in vascular endothelial cells. The secreted level of IL-6 and IL-8 depended on the degree of hypoxia. There was a trend as the level of IH frequency decreased, the level of IL-6 and IL-8 gradually increased at first, and then decreased in the same way.</p>