Qualitative and Quantitative Evaluation of Some Vocal Function Parameters Following Fitting of a Prosthesis

The insertion of a prosthesis and restoration with pectoralis major myocutaneous flaps for patients subjected to total pharyngolaryngectomy is a technique now universally accepted; however the literature on the subject is lacking. Our study considers 10 patients subjected to total pharyngolaryngecto-my and restoration with pectoralis major myocutaneous flaps who were fitted with vocal function prostheses and a control group of 50 subjects treated with a total laryngectomy without pectoralis major myocutaneous flaps and who were fitted with vocal function prostheses. Specific qualitative and quantitative parameters were compared. The quantitative measurement of the levels of voice intensity and the evaluation of the harmonics-to-noise ratio were not statistically significant (p > 0.05) between the two study groups at either high- or low-volume speech. On the contrary, statistically significant differences were found (p < 0.05) for the basic frequency of both the low and the high volume voice. For the qualitative analysis seven parameters were established for evaluation by trained and untrained listeners; on the basis of these parameters the control group had statistically better voices.     

Hyperpolarized 83Kr MRI of lungs

Hyperpolarized (hp) ⁸³Kr (spin I = 9/2) is a promising gas-phase contrast agent that displays sensitivity to the surface chemistry, surface-to-volume ratio, and surface temperature of the surrounding environment. This proof-of-principle study demonstrates the feasibility of ex vivo hp ⁸³Kr magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of lungs using natural abundance krypton gas (11.5% ⁸³Kr) and excised, but otherwise intact, rat lungs located within a custom designed ventilation chamber. Experiments comparing the ⁸³Kr MR signal intensity from lungs to that arising from a balloon with no internal structure inflated to the same volume with krypton gas mixture suggest that most of the observed signal originated from the alveoli and not merely the conducting airways. The ⁸³Kr longitudinal relaxation times in the rat lungs ranged from 0.7 to 3.7 s but were reproducible for a given lung. Although the source of these variations was not explored in this work, hp ⁸³Kr T₁ differences may ultimately lead to a novel form of MRI contrast in lungs. The currently obtained 1200-fold signal enhancement for hp ⁸³Kr at 9.4 T field strength is found to be 180 times below the theoretical upper limit.     

Micro－FTIR法研究肺癌细胞组织内蛋白质二级结构

采用Ｍｉｃｒｏ－ＦＴＩＲ法研究了不同程度的肺癌细胞组织内蛋白质二级结构的变化，获得了肺癌的恶性程度与表征蛋白质二级结构的α螺旋与β折叠两者之比值的关系。     

Assessment of in vitro vs. in vivo lung structure using hyperpolarized helium-3 diffusion magnetic resonance imaging

The purpose of this study was to assess the properties of a model system for hyperpolarized He-3 (HHe) diffusion MR imaging created from the lungs of New Zealand white rabbits by drying the lungs while inflated at constant pressure. The dried lungs were prepared by sacrificing the animal, harvesting the lungs en bloc and dehydrating the lungs for several days using dry compressed air. In four rabbits, the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of HHe gas was measured in vivo and, within 1 week, in vitro in the dried lungs. To assess long-term repeatability, in vitro ADC values were measured again 3 months later. Dried lungs from four additional rabbits were imaged twice on the same day to assess the short-term repeatability of ADC measurements, and tissue samples from these lungs were then removed for histology. In vivo and in vitro ADC maps showed similar features and similar distributions of ADC values; mean in vivo and in vitro ADC values differed by less than 12%. The in vitro mean ADC values were highly reproducible, with no more than 5% difference between measurements for the short-term repeatability and less than 17% difference between measurements for the long-term repeatability. Histological samples from the dried lungs demonstrated that the lung structure remained intact. These results suggest that the dried lungs are a useful and inexpensive alternative to human or in vivo animal studies for HHe diffusion MR sequence development, testing and optimization.     

Diagnostic performance of apparent diffusion coefficient and quantitative kinetic parameters for predicting additional malignancy in patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer

Purpose

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of an apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and quantitative kinetic parameters in patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer.

Materials and Methods

We enrolled 169 lesions in 89 patients with breast cancer who underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). Comparisons between benign and malignant lesions were performed for lesion type (mass or nonmass-like enhancement), size (≥ 1 cm or < 1 cm), ADC, kinetic parameters and the presence of a US correlate.

Results

There were 63 benign and 106 malignant lesions. The mean size and initial peak enhancement of the benign lesions were significantly lower than those of malignant lesions (P < 0.001 for both). The ADC of the benign lesions was significantly higher than that of malignant lesions (1.42 × 10^− 3 mm²/sec vs. 1.04 × 10^− 3 mm²/sec; P < 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for predicting malignancy was 0.87 for the combined parameters of size, ADC, and initial peak enhancement, which was higher than those of each parameter.

Conclusions

Combination of quantitative kinetic parameters and ADC showed higher diagnostic performance for predicting malignancy than each parameter alone for the evaluation of patients with breast cancer.     

Magnetic resonance imaging of the thoracic cavity using a paused 3DFT acquisition technique

A new pulse sequence designed for magnetic resonance imaging of the entire thoracic cavity is described. This sequence, called 3DPAUSE, is a rapid three-dimensional Fourier transform (3DFT) sequence with periodic pauses for breathing and additional rf pulses after each pause to restore the magnetization to steady-state before data acquisition resumes. Cardiac motion artifacts are effectively removed by signal averaging. Respiratory motion artifacts are removed by breath hold. Image artifacts caused by an inadequate number of pauses or by inappropriate placement of the pauses within a scan are shown, and ways to avoid these artifacts are discussed. 3DPAUSE provides the ability to acquire three-dimensional arrays in the thoracic cavity with minimal artifacts from respiratory and cardiac motions in a clinically reasonable time.     

Indoor radon and lung cancer: a case-control study

Lung-cancer risk to the general population from indoor radon remains controversial, although studies of radon exposure have established that radon decay products have been a cause of lung cancer among miners.

For the case group of patients, suffering from lung cancer, and the control group distributions of the number of homes with high indoor levels of radon were compared with the log-normal distribution, the empirical frequency distribution of the control group obeyed the theoretical log-normal distribution.

Using the ratio of frequencies of the case group to the control groups, or the relative frequencies, an association between the relative frequencies and indoor radon concentrations was found, and a positive correlation coefficient was obtained, thus enabling the rate of lung cancer to be estimated for certain indoor radon concentrations.

The significant difference between the mean radon levels for the case sample and the control led to the conclusion that patients with lung cancer lived in homes with radon concentrations which were significantly higher than those of Osijek’s inhabitants for the control sample.     

Green synthesis of Ag/Fe3O4 nanoparticles using Mentha extract: Preparation,characterization and investigation of its anti-human lung cancer application

In this study, silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were decorated on the surface of magnetic nanoparticles in an eco-friendly pathway applying Mentha extract as reducing/stabilizing agent. The morphological and physicochemical features of the prepared Ag/Fe₃O₄nanocomposite were determined using several advanced techniques. Hence, our protocol is green and advantageous in terms of- i) biochemical modified biocompatible nanocomposite; ii) nanomaterial providing high surface area and larger number reactive sites; iii) very simplistic synthetic procedure; vi) very low load of metal in the composite and v) high yield in short time. In the medicinal part, the anticancer properties of Ag/Fe₃O₄ nanocomposite against lung cancer cell lines were determined. The free radical for the antioxidant effects was DPPH. The IC₅₀ of Ag/Fe₃O₄ nanocomposite was 200 µg/ml in the antioxidant test. The IC₅₀ of the Ag/Fe₃O₄ nanocomposite were 183, 176, 169, and 125 µg/mL against lung cancer (NCI-H661, NCI-H1975, NCI-H1573, and NCI-H1563) cell lines, respectively. In addition, the current study offer that Ag/Fe₃O₄ nanocomposite could be a new potential adjuvant chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agent against cytotoxic cells.     

纳米金-卟啉复合传感阵列快速识别肺癌患者呼气中的有机小分子

合成了小粒径纳米金作为卟啉保护剂,以纳米金-卟啉化合物和p H指示剂共同构建6×6传感阵列,将其用于可视化检测12种肺癌患者呼出气体中的有机小分子(OSMs),设置了3个浓度梯度且每个样品重复5次.实验结果显示,纳米金的引入可显著提高阵列的稳定性和灵敏度;聚类分析结果表明,5次平行实验的结果优先聚为一簇,结构相似的目标物随后聚在一起;差谱图显示该方法对不同种类、不同浓度的OSMs具有良好的定性及半定量分析能力.该方法可快速识别OSMs且具有肺癌筛查的潜在应用前景.     

Analysis of breath samples for lung cancer survival

Analyses of exhaled air by means of electronic noses offer a large diagnostic potential. Such analyses are non-invasive; samples can also be easily obtained from severely ill patients and repeated within short intervals. Lung cancer is the most deadly malignant tumor worldwide, and monitoring of lung cancer progression is of great importance and may help to decide best therapy. In this report, twenty-two patients with diagnosed lung cancer and ten healthy volunteers were studied using breath samples collected several times at certain intervals and analysed by an electronic nose. The samples were divided into three sub-groups; group d for survivor less than one year, group s for survivor more than a year and group h for the healthy volunteers. Prediction models based on partial least square and artificial neural nets could not classify the collected groups d, s and h, but separated well group d from group h. Using artificial neural net, group d could be separated from group s. Excellent predictions and stable models of survival day for group d were obtained, both based on partial least square and artificial neural nets, with correlation coefficients 0.981 and 0.985, respectively. Finally, the importance of consecutive measurements was shown.