Objective To assess the quality of the published randomized controlled trials published in Journal of Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (JBUTCM), Acta Universitatis Traditionis Medicalis Sinensis Pharmacologiaeque Shanghai (AUTMSPS), Journal of Guangdong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (JGUTCM), and Journal of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (JCUTCM) from 2000 to 2005. Method Guided by the Cochrane Center hand-searching guidelines, we searched 24 volumes (111 issues) of the four journals. The data were extracted according to the principles of clinical epidemiology and consolidated standards of reporting trials (CONSORT), as well as an evaluation scale for randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The data were managed by descriptive analysis and uniformity test. Results There were 365 RCTs. The diagnostic criteria were reported in 297 trials (81.37%). The inclusion and exclusion criteria were reported in 143 trials (39.18%) and 132 trials (36.16%), perspectively, None mentioned the estimation of sample size. The randomization and allocation concealment were reported in 70 trials (19.18%) and 9 trials, perspectively. The baseline data were described in 292 trials (80.00%). Blinding was mentioned in 35 trials (9.59%).Withdrawal occurred in 20 trials (5.48%). Informed consent was acquired in 2 trials. Adverse drug reactions were described in 97 trails (26.58%). Conclusion There are deficiencies in the reporting of these RCTs, Most of the trials do not describe the randomization, only a few trials use the allocation concealment and blinded method, no description of comparability of baseline data, most of the trials do not report the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and none estimate the sample size. These problems indicate that it is necessary to improve the quality of clinical research in Chinese medicine and pharmacology.
The Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) is often used to calculate the radiation dose during computed tomography (CT) scans. However, the physical calculation process of the model is complicated, the input file structure of the program is complex, and the three-dimensional (3D) display of the geometric model is not supported, so that the researchers cannot establish an accurate CT radiation system model, which affects the accuracy of the dose calculation results. Aiming at these two problems, this study designed a software that visualized CT modeling and automatically generated input files. In terms of model calculation, the theoretical basis was based on the integration of CT modeling improvement schemes of major researchers. For 3D model visualization, LabVIEW was used as the new development platform, constructive solid geometry (CSG) was used as the algorithm principle, and the introduction of editing of MCNP input files was used to visualize CT geometry modeling. Compared with a CT model established by a recent study, the root mean square error between the results simulated by this visual CT modeling software and the actual measurement was smaller. In conclusion, the proposed CT visualization modeling software can not only help researchers to obtain an accurate CT radiation system model, but also provide a new research idea for the geometric modeling visualization method of MCNP.
ObjectiveTo explore the differential diagnosis value of airspace consolidation in thoracic CT between organizing pneumonia (OP) and acquired community pneumonia (CAP).MethodsA retrospective study was taken by retrieving the patients CT database from October 2010 to August 2016. Fifty-six consecutive patients with OP and 99 consecutive patients with CAP whose CT showed airspace consolidation were enrolled and their clinical characteristics and radiological characteristics were analyzed.ResultsThe percentage of patients whose CT image showed various amount of air bronchogram (ABG) with different shapes is higher in OP group than that in CAP group (87.5% and 72.7% respectively, χ2=4.558, P=0.033). The median and interquartile range amount of ABG in the OP patients were significantly higher than those in CAP group [4 (ranged from 2 to 8) and 2 (ranged from 0 to 4) respectively, z=3.640, P=0.000]. Morphologically, 58.9% of the OP patients showed entire air bronchogram (EABG) on the thoracic CT, significantly higher than that in CAP group (21.2%) (χ2=22.413, P=0.000). Interrupted ABG was found in 26.3% of CAP patients, while 16.1% of OP patients shared same features and the difference was not statistically significant (χ2=2.125, P=0.148). Traction bronchiectasis and ground glass opacity (GGO) were more likely to be found in the OP patients rather than CAP patients with 26.8% and 39.3% respectively, while they were found in 1.0% and 11.1% in the CAP patients (P<0.05). Reversed halo sign was found only 1.0% of the CAP patients, significantly lower than that in OP group, 26.8% (χ2=25.671, P=0.000). Pleural effusion and bronchial wall thickening were more commonly found in the CAP group with 56.6% and 35.4% respectively. By multivariate logistic analysis, EABG (OR=5.526, P=0.000), traction bronchiectasis (OR=21.564, P=0.010), GGO (OR=4.657, P=0.007) and reversed halo sign (OR=13.304, P=0.023) were significantly associated with OP, while pleural effusion (OR=0.380, P=0.049) and bronchial wall thickening (OR=0.073, P=0.008) were significantly associated with CAP. Other features in thoracic CT coexisting with ABG all reach significance statistically between the OP and CAP group (all P<0.05).ConclusionsAirspace consolidation in thoracic CT may be valuable for the differential diagnosis between OP and CAP. EABG is more commonly found in OP patients than in CAP patients. When EABG exists or ABG coexists with traction bronchiectasis, GGO and reversed halo sign, a diagnose of OP should be considered.
ObjectiveTo compare the clinical effects of segmentectomy and lobectomy for ≤2 cm lung adenocarcinoma with micropapillary and solid subtype negative by intraoperative frozen sections.MethodsThe patients with adenocarcinoma who received segmentectomy or lobectomy in multicenter from June 2020 to March 2021 were included. They were divided into two groups according to a random number table, including a segmentectomy group (n=119, 44 males and 75 females with an average age of 56.6±8.9 years) and a lobectomy group (n=115, 43 males and 72 females with an average of 56.2±9.5 years). The clinical data of the patients were analyzed.ResultsThere was no significant difference in the baseline data between the two groups (P>0.05). No perioperative death was found. There was no statistical difference in the operation time (111.2±30.0 min vs. 107.3±34.3 min), blood loss (54.2±83.5 mL vs. 40.0±16.4 mL), drainage duration (2.8±0.6 d vs. 2.6±0.6 d), hospital stay time (3.9±2.3 d vs. 3.7±1.1 d) or pathology staging (P>0.05) between the two groups. The postoperative pulmonary function analysis revealed that the mean decreased values of forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume in one second percent predicted in the segmentectomy group were significantly better than those in the lobectomy group (0.2±0.3 L vs. 0.4±0.3 L, P=0.005; 0.3%±8.1% vs. 2.9%±7.4%, P=0.041).ConclusionSegmentectomy is effective in protecting lungs function, which is expected to improve life quality of patients.
ObjectiveTo explore the predictive value of CT signs of mixed ground-glass nodules in the pathological subtype and differentiation of lung adenocarcinoma. MethodsThe clinical data of 66 patients with mixed ground-glass nodules pathologically diagnosed as invasive adenocarcinoma (IAC) in the Second Department of Thoracic Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University from May to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed, including 20 males and 46 females, aged 35-75 years. The CT findings were analyzed before operation, and the lesion profile was cut after operation to distinguish the ground-glass and solid components, and the pathological results of different positions were obtained. According to the postoperative pathological results, the patients were divided into a low-risk group (containing adherent type and no components of micropapillary subtype and solid subtype, n=16), a medium-risk group (containing niple or acinar type and no components of micropapillary subtype and solid subtype, n=38), and a high-risk group (containing micropapillary or solid subtype, n=12). The relationships between CT features and the pathological subtype and degree of differentiation were analyzed and compared. ResultsIn 66 patients with IAC, the infiltration degree of solid components was greater than that of ground-glass components. When the solid component ratio (CTR) was≥25% (sensitivity 90.2%, specificity 64.0%, P=0.005), and the average CT value was＞?283.95 HU (sensitivity 82.9%, specificity 64.0%, P=0.000), the histological grade was more inclined to medium and low differentiation. The CTR, Ki-67, average CT value and histological grade of IAC in the medium- and high-risk groups were higher than those of nodules in the low-risk group. ConclusionThe infiltration degree of solid components is higher than that of ground-glass components in IAC mixed ground-glass nodules. The pathological subtype, Ki-67 expression and histological grade of lung adenocarcinoma can be predicted according to its CT characteristics, which has important clinical significance for determining the timing of surgery.
Objective To evaluate the clinical radiological features combined with circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the diagnosis of invasiveness evaluation of subsolid nodules in lung cancers. Methods Clinical data of 296 patients from the First Hospital of Lanzhou University between February 2019 and February 2021 were retrospectively included. There were 130 males and 166 females with a median age of 62.00 years. Patients were randomly divided into a training set and an internal validation set with a ratio of 3 : 1 by random number table method. The patients were divided into two groups: a preinvasive lesion group (atypical adenomatoid hyperplasia and adenocarcinoma in situ) and an invasive lesion group (microinvasive adenocarcinoma and invasive adenocarcinoma). Independent risk factors were selected by regression analysis of training set and a Nomogram prediction model was constructed. The accuracy and consistency of the model were verified by the receiver operating characteristic curve and calibration curve respectively. Subgroup analysis was conducted on nodules with different diameters to further verify the performance of the model. Specific performance metrics, including sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy at the threshold were calculated. Results Independent risk factors selected by regression analysis for subsolid nodules were age, CTCs level, nodular nature, lobulation and spiculation. The Nomogram prediction mode provided an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.914 (0.872, 0.956), outperforming clinical radiological features model AUC [0.856 (0.794, 0.917), P=0.003] and CTCs AUC [0.750 (0.675, 0.825), P=0.001] in training set. C-index was 0.914, 0.894 and corrected C-index was 0.902, 0.843 in training set and internal validation set, respectively. The AUC of the prediction model in training set was 0.902 (0.848, 0.955), 0.913 (0.860, 0.966) and 0.873 (0.730, 1.000) for nodule diameter of 5-20 mm, 10-20 mm and 21-30 mm, respectively. Conclusion The prediction model in this study has better diagnostic value, and is more effective in clinical diagnosis of diseases.
Lung adenocarcinoma has become the most common type of lung cancer. According to the 2015 World Health Organization histological classification of lung cancer, invasive lung adenocarcinoma can be divided into 5 subtypes: lepidic, acinar, papillary, solid, and micropapillary. Relevant studies have shown that the local lobectomy or sublobectomy is sufficient for early lepidic predominant adenocarcinoma, while lobectomy should be recommended for tumors containing micropapillary and solid ingredients (≥5%). Currently, the percentage of micropapillary and solid components diagnosed by frozen pathological examination is 65.7%, and the accuracy of diagnosis is limited. Therefore, to improve the accuracy of diagnosis, it is necessary to seek new methods and techniques. This paper summarized the characteristics and rapid diagnosis tools of early lung adenocarcinoma subtypes.
Objective To highlight the characteristics of acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia ( AFOP) . Methods The clinical, radiological and pathological data of two patients with AFOP were analyzed, and relevant literature was reviewed. Results Two male patients with the age of 48 years and 43 years presented with fever, cough, dyspnea and chest pain. The chest CT scan revealed multiple, bilateral, patchy consolidation distributing in peripheral areas in one case and consolidation in the middle lobe of the right lung and a little pleural effusion in another case. Two patients were diagnosed initially as community acquired pneumonia, but antibiotic treatment was ineffective. After the transbronchial lung biopsy and computed tomography guided percutaneous lung biopsy, pathological examination revealed there were numerous fibrin and organizing tissue in the alveoli without pulmonary hyaline membrane, which were consistent with AFOP. The patients showed significant clinical and radiological improvement after corticosteroid therapy. One patient was stable and the other one died of respiratory failure because of relapse during dose reduction of corticosteroids. Conclusions Patients of AFOP were misdiagnosed as pneumonia easily. Treatment with corticosteroids could be effective to some patients. If the antibiotic treatment was ineffective to the patient with fever and consolidation in the lungs, AFOP should be considered in the differential diagnosis.
ObjectiveTo investigate the radiomics features to distinguish invasive lung adenocarcinoma with micropapillary or solid structure. MethodsA retrospective analysis was conducted on patients who received surgeries and pathologically confirmed invasive lung adenocarcinoma in our hospital from April 2016 to August 2019. The dataset was randomly divided into a training set [including a micropapillary/solid structure positive group (positive group) and a micropapillary/solid structure negative group (negative group)] and a testing set (including a positive group and a negative group) with a ratio of 7∶3. Two radiologists drew regions of interest on preoperative high-resolution CT images to extract radiomics features. Before analysis, the intraclass correlation coefficient was used to determine the stable features, and the training set data were balanced using synthetic minority oversampling technique. After mean normalization processing, further radiomics features selection was conducted using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator algorithm, and a 5-fold cross validation was performed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were depicted on the training and testing sets to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the radiomics model. ResultsA total of 340 patients were enrolled, including 178 males and 162 females with an average age of 60.31±6.69 years. There were 238 patients in the training set, including 120 patients in the positive group and 118 patients in the negative group. There were 102 patients in the testing set, including 52 patients in the positive group and 50 patients in the negative group. The radiomics model contained 107 features, with the final 2 features selected for the radiomics model, that is, Original_ glszm_ SizeZoneNonUniformityNormalized and Original_ shape_ SurfaceVolumeRatio. The areas under the ROC curve of the training and the testing sets of the radiomics model were 0.863 (95%CI 0.815-0.912) and 0.857 (95%CI 0.783-0.932), respectively. The sensitivity was 91.7% and 73.7%, the specificity was 78.8% and 84.0%, and the accuracy was 85.3% and 78.4%, respectively. ConclusionThere are differences in radiomics features between invasive pulmonary adenocarcinoma with or without micropapillary and solid structures, and the radiomics model is demonstrated to be with good diagnostic value.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the role of surgical resection on synchronous multiple pulmonary nodules identified difficultly in clinics.MethodsThe clinical data of 97 patients with synchronous multiple pulmonary nodules who received surgical resection between 2012 and 2019 in Hunan Cancer Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. There were 72 males and 25 females, aged 58.1±9.0 years. Among these patients, there were 78 patients with ipsilateral and 19 patients with bilateral pulmonary nodules. Clinicopathological parameters between main nodules and secondary nodules were evaluated. Perioperative morbidity was also assessed.ResultsThe operation was successfully completed on all patients for the ipsilateral and bilateral lesions. Totally, 71.1% of mian lesions was mostly removed by lobectomy, and the completion rate of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) was 69.1% (67/97); 80.4% of secondary lesions were mostly removed by wedge resection, and the completion rate of VATS was 71.1% (69/97). The incidence of grade 3 or higher complications after unilateral or bilateral surgery was 12.8% and 5.3%, respectively. Postoperative pathology confirmed that the main lesions were malignant in 65 patients (67.0%), mainly adenocarcinoma (63.1%), of which 43.1% were in the stage Ⅰ; 32 patients were benign, mainly tuberculoma (56.3%). There were 29 patients of malignant secondary lesions, 67 benign, and 1 both benign and malignant; the pathological agreement rate of primary and secondary lesions was 54.6% (lung cancer metastases in the lung and all the benign). When the primary lesion was malignant with its diameters of <3 cm, 3-<5 cm, 5-7 cm, >7 cm, the metastatic rate of secondary lesions was 42.5%, 15.8%, 20.0%, 0, respectively. When the primary lesion was malignant with lymph node metastasis, the probability of the secondary lesion being a metastatic tumor was higher than that without lymph node metastasis (46.7% vs. 30.0%, P>0.05). When the primary lesion was malignant and the primary and secondary lesions were located in the same lobe, the secondary lesions were more likely to metastasize (54.5%), while when they were located on different lobes on the same side or different sides, the secondary lesions were more likely to be benign (58.1%, 72.7%), and the possibility of metastasis was small ( 32.6%, 9.1%). When the primary lesion was benign and clinical differential diagnosis was difficult, the secondary lesion was benign.ConclusionFor synchronous multiple pulmonary nodules, the diameter of the primary lesion is large, the metastatic rate of secondary lesions tends to decrease. In ipsilateral synchronous multiple pulmonary nodules, especially with node metastasis, the risk of metastatic nodule increases. Bilateral surgical resection does not significantly increase the perioperative morbidity.