Publications by authors named "Maria Lai"

Article Synopsis
  • * Out of 357 patients, lobectomies made up 73.9% of thyroid surgeries in 2023, with lobectomy patients typically presenting with larger nodules and indeterminate cytology compared to those opting for total thyroidectomy (TT).
  • * The findings indicate that while TT patients experienced higher lymph node metastasis, the recurrence rates were similar between TT and lobectomy patients, suggesting lobectomy as a safe and effective option that aligns with more conservative surgical practices.
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Introduction: Neurocognitive impairment from inadvertent brain irradiation is common following intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). This study aimed to determine the prevalence, pattern, and radiation dose-toxicity relationship of this late complication.

Materials And Methods: We undertook a cross-sectional study of 190 post-IMRT NPC survivors.

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  • The study assesses the effectiveness of fine needle aspiration-cytology with calcitonin (FNA-CT) in diagnosing medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) in patients with thyroid nodules (TNs) who have coexisting chronic C-cell hyperplasia (CCH).
  • About half of the evaluated patients had elevated FNA-CT results, indicating potential misdiagnosis due to the presence of CCH, rather than MTC.
  • The findings suggest a need for caution in interpreting FNA-CT results in these patients to prevent unnecessary surgical procedures.
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  • The study investigates how lifestyle changes impact the risk of small vessel disease (SVD), indicated by cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMH), using retinal analysis in a cohort of 274 individuals.
  • It found that participants' health-promoting lifestyle (measured by the HPLP-II) showed improvements over one year, with a significant difference in WMH changes based on diabetes status.
  • Notably, non-diabetic individuals who improved their health responsibility saw a reduction in WMH risk, suggesting that good lifestyle choices can mitigate SVD.
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Background: Patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) expressing the androgen receptor (AR) respond poorly to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, although AR antagonists have shown promising clinical activity, suggesting these tumors are AR-dependent. cAMP responsive element binding protein (CREB)-binding protein (CBP) and p300 are transcriptional co-activators for the AR, a key driver of AR+ breast and prostate cancer, and may provide a novel therapeutic target in AR+ TNBC.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the therapeutic potential of FT-6876, a new CBP/p300 bromodomain inhibitor, in breast cancer models with a range of AR levels in vitro and in vivo.

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  • Undiagnosed diabetes is a significant global health issue, with estimates suggesting that up to 75.1% of cases remain undetected, leading to complications and high healthcare costs.
  • A study of 2,221 participants developed a digital classification model using retinal images, achieving high sensitivity (up to 99.5%) and specificity (96.2% for sensitivity in Hong Kong) for detecting diabetes across different populations.
  • The findings indicate that retinal image analysis is a fast and non-invasive method for pre-screening undiagnosed diabetes, making it a promising tool for public health initiatives worldwide.
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Hashimoto's thyroiditis is the most common cause of hypothyroidism in the iodine-sufficient areas of the world. Differentiated thyroid cancer is the most common thyroid cancer subtype, accounting for more than 95% of cases, and it is considered a tumor with a good prognosis, although a certain number of patients experience a poor clinical outcome. Hashimoto's thyroiditis has been found to coexist with differentiated thyroid cancer in surgical specimens, but the relationship between these two entities has not yet been clarified.

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Retinal vessels are known to be associated with various cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease outcomes. Recent research has shown significant correlations between retinal characteristics and the presence of cerebral small vessel disease as measured by white matter hyperintensities from cerebral magnetic resonance imaging. Early detection of age-related white matter changes using retinal images is potentially helpful for population screening and allow early behavioural and lifestyle intervention.

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A key aspect in defining cell state is the complex choreography of DNA binding events in a given cell type, which in turn establishes a cell-specific gene-expression program. Here we wanted to take a deep analysis of DNA binding events and transcriptional output of a single cell state (K562 cells). To this end we re-analyzed 195 DNA binding proteins contained in ENCODE data.

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  • Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis, are chronic conditions affecting the gastrointestinal tract, with unclear causes but potential metabolic alterations that could inform therapeutic strategies.
  • Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, researchers analyzed plasma and biopsies from IBD patients and a control group, revealing distinct metabolomics profiles between Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis.
  • Findings indicate that changes in energy metabolism and specific metabolites like lactic acid and ornithine are altered in IBD, suggesting that metabolomics could play a role in understanding disease mechanisms and advancing precision medicine.
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  • Parathyroid carcinoma is extremely rare, especially in patients with tertiary hyperparathyroidism, with only 24 documented cases.
  • A case study details a 51-year-old man with end-stage renal disease who presented with elevated calcium and parathyroid hormone levels; imaging indicated a mass in the right inferior parathyroid gland, leading to a diagnosis of tertiary hyperparathyroidism.
  • Post-surgery, histopathological examination confirmed the mass as parathyroid carcinoma, highlighting the challenges in diagnosing this condition, as it often requires surgical intervention to determine the presence of cancer.
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Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterised by many of features including problem in social interactions, different ways of learning, some children showing a keen interest in specific subjects, inclination to routines, challenges in typical communication, and particular ways of processing sensory information. Early intervention and suitable supports for these children may make a significant contribution to their development. However, considerable difficulties have been encountered in the screening and diagnosis of ASD.

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Background: Recent surveys revealed that the health status of many people from Hong Kong is far from ideal. Although non-communicable diseases are largely preventable, few relevant health promotion and disease prevention programs are available. Thus, we assessed the health indicators of Chinese adults in Hong Kong to investigate the relationship between obesity, common chronic diseases, and health-promoting lifestyle profiles to provide inspirations for decision makers in formulating targeted disease prevention and health management programs.

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Papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) is defined as a tumor with a larger diameter ≤ 1 cm and is considered having an indolent course and an excellent prognosis. Nevertheless, the incidence of lymph node metastasis in PTMC is not negligible, reaching up to 65% in some series. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of lymph node metastasis in patients with PTMC and to evaluate predictive factors for lymph node metastasis.

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  • Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) generally has a good prognosis, but up to 30% of patients experience local or distant recurrence after surgery.
  • In a study of 579 patients who had thyroidectomies, 6.2% showed recurrence, with a five-year disease-free survival rate of 94.1%.
  • Key factors influencing recurrence risk included male sex, lymph node metastasis, and tumor type, with lymph node metastases being the most significant predictor of recurrence.
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Objective: We investigated whether an automatic retinal image analysis (ARIA) incorporating machine learning approach can identify asymptomatic older adults harboring high burden of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) using MRI as gold standard.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated 180 community-dwelling, stroke-, and dementia-free healthy subjects and performed ARIA by acquiring a nonmydriatic retinal fundus image. The primary outcome was the diagnostic performance of ARIA in detecting significant WMH on MRI brain, defined as age-related white matter changes (ARWMC) grade ≥2.

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Objective- Blood-CNS (central nervous system) barrier defects are implicated in retinopathies, neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, and epilepsy, yet, the pathological mechanisms downstream of barrier defects remain incompletely understood. Blood-retina barrier (BRB) formation and retinal angiogenesis require β-catenin signaling induced by the ligand norrin (NDP [Norrie disease protein]), the receptor FZD4 (frizzled 4), coreceptor LRP5 (low-density lipoprotein receptor-like protein 5), and the tetraspanin TSPAN12 (tetraspanin 12). Impaired NDP/FZD4 signaling causes familial exudative vitreoretinopathy, which may lead to blindness.

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  • A correction has been issued for the article, which can be accessed in both the HTML and PDF formats.
  • The identified error in the original paper has been addressed and corrected.
  • Readers are encouraged to refer to the linked correction for updated information.
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  • Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), encompassing ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, leads to changes in gut microbiota composition, but it remains unclear if these changes cause or result from the inflammation.
  • A study of 183 individuals revealed significant differences in both microbial profiles and metabolites, with specific bacteria increasing and decreasing in IBD patients compared to healthy controls.
  • The findings suggest that analyzing both microbiota and metabolites together can help distinguish IBD patients from healthy individuals, indicating the importance of an inter-omics approach in exploring metabolic processes related to the disease.
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  • Angiogenesis and blood-brain barrier formation are essential for proper central nervous system (CNS) function, regulated by Wnt/Norrin ligands, Frizzled receptors, and β-catenin signalling in endothelial cells.
  • Mutations in FZD4 and NDP, crucial for signalling in the retina, are linked to familial exudative vitreoretinopathy, suggesting the importance of these proteins in vascular health.
  • The study shows that NDP triggers ubiquitination and internalization of FZD4, and inhibiting this process disrupts signalling and leads to defects in angiogenesis and the blood-CNS barrier in mice, highlighting the role of FZD4 endocytosis in vascular biology and related diseases.
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Accessory proteins in Frizzled (FZD) receptor complexes are thought to determine ligand selectivity and signaling amplitude. Genetic evidence indicates that specific combinations of accessory proteins and ligands mediate vascular β-catenin signaling in different CNS structures. In the retina, the tetraspanin TSPAN12 and the ligand norrin (NDP) mediate angiogenesis, and both genes are linked to familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR), yet the molecular function of TSPAN12 remains poorly understood.

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Breath mass spectrometry is a useful tool for identifying important compounds associated with health. However, there have been few studies that have explored human exhaled breath by full-scan mass spectrometry as a non-invasive method for medical diagnosis, which may be attributed to the difficulties resulting from multicollinearity and small sample sizes relative to a large number of product ions. In this study, breath samples from 54 chronic kidney disease patients were analyzed by selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry in the full-scan mode.

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Selected ion flow tube-mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) provides rapid, non-invasive measurements of a full-mass scan of volatile compounds in exhaled breath. Although various studies have suggested that breath metabolites may be indicators of human disease status, many of these studies have included few breath samples and large numbers of compounds, limiting their power to detect significant metabolites. This study employed a least absolute shrinkage and selective operator (LASSO) approach to SIFT-MS data of breath samples to preliminarily evaluate the ability of exhaled breath findings to monitor the efficacy of dialysis in hemodialysis patients.

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Article Synopsis
  • The DICA classification helps evaluate patients with diverticulosis and diverticular disease by predicting the risk of diverticulitis and potential need for surgery.
  • In a study of 1651 patients, it was found that higher DICA severity correlated with increased rates of diverticulitis recurrence and surgical intervention.
  • Therapy, particularly mesalazine-based treatments, showed effectiveness in preventing diverticulitis in certain DICA classifications, specifically DICA 2 patients.
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Introduction: Thyroglossal duct cyst carcinomas are extremely rare and their clinical presentation is similar to that of benign cysts. The diagnosis is based on physical examination, laboratory tests, and most importantly multiple imaging techniques (ultrasonography, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging), and fine needle aspiration cytology.

Presentation Of Case: We report a very unusual case of a tall cell variant of papillary carcinoma arising in a thyroglossal duct cyst in association with a follicular variant of papillary microcarcinoma and a tall cell variant of papillary carcinoma arising from the thyroid gland.

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