The application of Virtual Touch tissue quantification (VTQ) in diagnosis of thyroid lesions: a preliminary study.

Objectives: Virtual Touch tissue quantification (VTQ) is a quantified ultrasound (US) acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging method that provides numerical measurements (wave-velocity values) of tissue stiffness. The purpose of this study was to detect whether VTQ could be applied to differentiate between benign and malignant thyroid lesions.

Methods: Healthy subjects' thyroid tissue and thyroid lesions were examined by VTQ to analyze their elasticity after conventional ultrasound.

Epigenetic regulation of neurogenesis in the adult mammalian brain.

Epigenetic regulation represents a fundamental mechanism to maintain cell-type-specific gene expression during development and serves as an essential mediator to interface the extrinsic environment and the intrinsic genetic programme. Adult neurogenesis occurs in discrete regions of the adult mammalian brain and is known to be tightly regulated by various physiological, pathological and pharmacological stimuli. Emerging evidence suggests that various epigenetic mechanisms play important roles in fine-tuning and coordinating gene expression during adult neurogenesis.

Fascin is a predictor for invasiveness and recurrence of urothelial carcinoma of bladder.

Objectives: To evaluate the expression of fascin in bladder urothelial carcinoma, and to analyze its association with clinicopathologic features and prognosis of urinary bladder urothelial carcinoma.

Materials And Methods: Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of fascin, Ki-67, p53, CK20, and multidrug resistance gene (MDR) in 111 bladder urothelial carcinoma and 42 normal epithelial tissues. The association between fascin expression and clinicopathologic parameters and prognostic factors on tumor recurrence was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test, and Cox proportional hazards model.