• Title/Summary/Keyword: Laboratory medicine

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Conventional Ultrasonography and Real Time Ultrasound Elastography in the Differential Diagnosis of Degenerating Cystic Thyroid Nodules Mimicking Malignancy and Papillary Thyroid Carcinomas

  • Wu, Hong-Xun;Zhang, Bing-Jie;Wang, Jun;Zhu, Bei-Lin;Zang, Ya-Ping;Cao, Yue-Long
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.935-940
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    • 2013
  • Background: To evaluate the diagnostic utility of conventional ultrasonography and real time ultrasound elastography in differentiating degenerating cystic thyroid nodules mimicking malignancy from papillary thyroid carcinoma. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed conventional ultrasonographic and elastographic characteristics of 19 degenerating cystic thyroid nodules mimicking malignancy in 19 patients, with 30 surgically confirmed PTCs as controls. Based on size, the nodules had been grouped into less than 10mm (group A) and greater than 10 mm (group B). We evaluated conventional parameters and elasticity pattern. Color-scaled elastograms were graded as to stiffness of nodules using an elasticity pattern from I (soft) to IV (stiff). Results: Degenerating cystic thyroid nodules were similar to PTCs in conventional ultrasonographic findings, but the former frequently showed oval to round in shape (group A, 69.2% vs 18.8%, P=0.017; group B, 66.7% vs 7.14%, P=0.017) and punctuate hyperechoic foci (group A, 61.5% vs 0, P<0.001; group B, 50% vs 0, P<0.001). On real time ultrasound elastography, 7 of 13 degenerating cystic thyroid nodules in group A were pattern I, 5 were pattern II, 1 was pattern III. One degenerating cystic thyroid nodule in group B was pattern II, 5 were pattern III. The area under the curve for elastography was 0.98 in group A (sensitivity 92.3%, specificity 100%, P = 0.002), and 0.88 in group B (sensitivity 16.7%, specificity 100%, P = 0.014). Conclusions: As a dependable imaging technique, elastography helps increase the performance in differential diagnosis of degenerating cystic thyroid nodule and malignancy.

Evaluation of the Genetic Relationship among Ten Chinese Indigenous Pig Breeds with Twenty-six Microsatellite Markers

  • Li, Changchun;Wang, Zhigang;Liu, Bang;Yang, Shulin;Zhu, Zhengmao;Fan, Bin;Yu, Mei;Zhao, Shuhong;Li, Kui
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.441-444
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    • 2004
  • The genetic diversities and relationships of 10 Chinese indigenous pig breeds and three exotic pig breeds have been evaluated using 26 microsatellites recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization & the International Society of Animal Genetics (FAO-ISAG). The allele frequencies, genetic heterozygosity (H) and polymorphism information content (PIC) have been calculated. The results showed that genetic diversity of Chinese indigenous pig breeds is higher than that of the introduced pig breeds. The clustering of 10 breeds is generally consistent with their geographical distribution.

Necrotic enteritis in a captive mute swan (Cygnus olor) in the breeding season

  • Lee, Hae Rim;Koo, Bon-Sang;Jeon, Eun-Ok;Han, Moo-Sung;Min, Kyung-Cheol;Lee, Seung Baek;Bae, Yeonji;Kim, Jung-Ho;Mo, In-Pil
    • Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.137-141
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    • 2014
  • A captive mute swan (Cygnus olor) in the brooding period was found dead without any specific signs. On necropsy, the entire digestive tract was severely necrotized with loosely adherent pseudomembranes, and Clostridium perfringens (CP) colonies isolated from the intestinal contents were identified as CP type A by polymerase chain reaction. Microscopically, the intestine and the liver were necrotized and intralesional bacterial clusters were observed. In this case, there were no other mortalities, so the condition of a single bird, in particular, stress from incubation effort, could act as the predisposing factor for necrotic enteritis. In this study, we report a unique case of necrotic enteritis associated with incubation in a captive mute swan.

Comparison of chlorpyrifos resistance in Culex pipiens pipiens (Diptera: Culicidae) collected from Northern and Southern Tunisia

  • DAABOUB, Jabeur;TABBABI, Ahmed;BEN CHEIKH, Raja;LAAMARI, Ali;FERIANI, Mohamed;BOUBAKER, Chokri;BEN JHA, Ibtissem;BEN CHEIKH, Hassen
    • Entomological Research
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    • v.48 no.5
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    • pp.400-404
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    • 2018
  • In this study, we investigated resistance to the organophosphates chlorpyrifos in Tunisian populations of Culex pipiens pipiens. Three field populations were collected from Northern and central Tunisia between 2003 and 2005 and used for the bioassays tests. Our results registered moderate and high levels of resistance to chlorpyrifos which ranged from 33.8 to 111. The chlorpyrifos resistant populations were highly resistant to propoxur indicated an insensitive acetylcholinesterase 1 (AChE 1). The highest frequency of AChE 1 resistant phenotypes (64%) was recorded in the most resistant population (sample # 1). Bioassays conducted in the presence of synergists showed that not esterases were involved as the resistance mechanism to chlorpyrifos. However, CYP450 was partly involved in the resistance of the most resistant sample (# 1). Starch electrophoresis showed that three esterases were present in studied samples: A2-B2, A4-B4 and B12. Results are discussed in relation to the selection pressure caused by insecticide treatments.

The Probiotic Lactobacillus Prevents Citrobacter rodentium-Induced Murine Colitis in a TLR2-Dependent Manner

  • Ryu, Seung-Hyun;Park, Jong-Hyung;Choi, Soo-Young;Jeon, Hee-Yeon;Park, Jin-Il;Kim, Jun-Young;Ham, Seung-Hoon;Choi, Yang-Kyu
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.26 no.7
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    • pp.1333-1340
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    • 2016
  • The main objective of this study was to investigate whether Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) ameliorated the effects of Citrobactor rodentium infection in Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) knockout (KO) and TLR4 KO mice, as well as in wild-type C57BL/6 (B6) mice. TLR2 KO, TLR4 KO, and B6 mice were divided into three groups per each strain. Each group had an uninfected control group (n = 5), C. rodentium-infected group (n = 8), and LGG-pretreated C. rodentium-infected group (n = 8). The survival rate of B6 mice infected with C. rodentium was higher when pretreated with LGG. Pretreatment with LGG ameliorated C. rodentium-induced mucosal hyperplasia in B6 and TLR4 KO mice. However, in C-rodentium-infected TLR2 KO mice, mucosal hyperplasia persisted, regardless of pretreatment with LGG. In addition, LGG-pretreated B6 and TLR4 KO mice showed a decrease in spleen weight and downregulation of tumor necrosis factor alpha, interferon gamma, and monocyte chemotactic protein 1 mRNA expression compared with the non-pretreated group. In contrast, such changes were not observed in TLR2 KO mice, regardless of pretreatment with LGG. From the above results, we conclude that pretreatment with LGG ameliorates C. rodentium-induced colitis in B6 and TLR4 KO mice, but not in TLR2 KO mice. Therefore, LGG protects mice from C. rodentium-induced colitis in a TLR2-dependent manner.