ObjectiveTo discuss whether central lymph node dissection (CLND) should be performed for papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) patients. MethodsThe related domestic and foreign literatures were retrieved, the necessity of CLND and the risk of recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) injury in CLND were reviewed, and the application value of intraoperative nerve monitoring (IONM) in CLND were analyzed. Results① CLND can reduce the recurrence rate of PTC, improve postoperative survival rate, ease the difficulty of reoperation, and help to clarify tumor stage. ② CLND can increase the risk of RLN injury. ③ Application of INOM can decrease the risk of RLN injury. ConclusionsThe application of IONM during CLND effectively decrease the risk of RLN injury for surgeons, especially low seniority surgeons, and improve the survival quality and the prognosis. This combination will promote the implementation of routine CLND therapeutic strategy in thyroid cancer patients.
ObjectiveTo investigate the succession model for hyperthyroidism and thyroid carcinoma secondary to nodular goiter in iodine deficiency area. MethodsA total of 216 specimens of goiter patients from iodine deficiency area were collected in the former 3rd hospital of Norman Bethune Medical College from January 1980 to December 1994. Twentyfour heteroploid samples were selected by the method of Hedley with Flow cytometry (FCM) analysis. Paraffin-embedded tissues from the same position were used to perform immunohistochemical staining for proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), laminin (LN), factor Ⅷ related antigen (FⅧ-RAg), and p53. The proliferative activity, stroma change, and angiogenesis were observed. ResultsPCNA label index (PCNA-LI) and proliferation index (PI) consistent in 24 heteroploid samples with PCNA staining were significantly higher value. PCNA positive cells were mainly distributed over nonfollicular parenchymatous structures, small follicles, and multilayered structures with large bubbly follicles. Destroyed basement membrane and necrosis were found by LN staining in PCNA positive position with vigorous reproductive capacity. Combining FⅧ-RAg staining with LN staining, interstitial proliferation and angiogenesis were obvious in follicular epithelial cells with vigorous reproductive capacity, providing nutrition and superior environment for them. ConclusionsThe reproduction of thyroid follicular epithelial cells, interstitial proliferation, and angiogenesis are all involved in tuberosis and hyperthyroidism, forming precancerous lesion, which suggest the succession model of goiter in iodine deficiency area.
Forced oscillation technique (FOT) is an active method to test pulmonary function, which can derive the mechanical characteristics of the respiratory system with liner system identification theory by pushing in an oscillation air signal and measuring the changes of output pressure and flow. A pulmonary function determination system was developed based on the FOT in this paper. Several critical technologies of this determination system were analyzed, including the selection criteria of oscillation air generator, pressure and flow sensor, the signal design of oscillation air generator, and the synchronous sampling of pressure and flow data. A software program on LabVIEW platform was set up to control the determination system and get the measuring data. The performance of sensors and oscillation air generator was verified. According to the frequency response curve of the pressure, the amplitude of driving signal to the oscillation air generator was corrected at the frequency range between 4~40 Hz. A simulation experiment was carried out to measure the respiratory impedance of the active model lung ASL5000 and the results were close to the setting values of the model lung. The experiment testified that the pulmonary function determination system based on FOT had performance good enough to provide a tool for the in-depth research of the mechanical properties of the respiratory system.
ObjectiveTo research the relevancy between the amplitudes of EMG signal of recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) during thyroidectemy with the movement of vocal cords after operation by applying the intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) and verify the proper warning criterion. MethodsFrom April 2013 to October 2013, 130 patients (214 nerves at risk) underwent complex thyroidectomy with the application of IONM. According to the degree of amplitude changing on different sites of RLN (proximal site and distal site) before closing incision, all the patients were divided into 10 groups. Every patient's vocal cords movement after operation by laryngoscopy and simulated the neural function in real time were compared. ResultsSeven patients got abnormal movement of vocal cords, the corresponding amplitudes of the EMG signal of RLN were in the range between 0 to 50%, 1 case from Group 6 (40%≤Rp/Rd<50%), 1 case from Group 8 (20%≤Rp/Rd<30%), 1 case from Group 9 (10%≤Rp/Rd<20%), 4 cases from Group 10 (0≤Rp/Rd<10%), and there's no permanent RLN palsy. ConclusionThe final amplitude of RLN decrease below 50%R1 would probably lead to vocal cords' abnormal movement, and when it decrease below 30%R1, the possibility of abnormal movement would increase; 50% decrease of EMG amplitude can be used as a warning criterion to prevent nerve function damage.
To achieve continuously physiological monitoring on hospital inpatients, a ubiquitous and wearable physiological monitoring system SensEcho was developed. The whole system consists of three parts: a wearable physiological monitoring unit, a wireless network and communication unit and a central monitoring system. The wearable physiological monitoring unit is an elastic shirt with respiratory inductive plethysmography sensor and textile electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes embedded in, to collect physiological signals of ECG, respiration and posture/activity continuously and ubiquitously. The wireless network and communication unit is based on WiFi networking technology to transmit data from each physiological monitoring unit to the central monitoring system. A protocol of multiple data re-transmission and data integrity verification was implemented to reduce packet dropouts during the wireless communication. The central monitoring system displays data collected by the wearable system from each inpatient and monitors the status of each patient. An architecture of data server and algorithm server was established, supporting further data mining and analysis for big medical data. The performance of the whole system was validated. Three kinds of tests were conducted: validation of physiological monitoring algorithms, reliability of the monitoring system on volunteers, and reliability of data transmission. The results show that the whole system can achieve good performance in both physiological monitoring and wireless data transmission. The application of this system in clinical settings has the potential to establish a new model for individualized hospital inpatients monitoring, and provide more precision medicine to the patients with information derived from the continuously collected physiological parameters.