Primary Pulmonary MALT Lymphoma on 18F-FDG and 68Ga-FAPI PET/CT.

Primary pulmonary mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma is extremely rare. We present the 18F-FDG and 68Ga-FAPI PET/CT findings in a 56-year-old woman with pathologically confirmed primary pulmonary mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma. 68Ga-FAPI PET/CT showed a higher uptake value than 18F-FDG PET/CT in the pulmonary lesion.

Incidental Detection of Choroid Plexus Metastasis From Neuroblastoma Demonstrated by 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT.

An 8-year-old girl with refractory high-risk neuroblastoma underwent 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT to evaluate the feasibility of potential 177Lu-DOTATATE therapy. The scan showed multiple foci of abnormal 68Ga-DOTATATE accumulation in the bone region, indicating the presence of bone metastases. Unexpectedly, an abnormal tracer uptake was noted in the left lateral ventricle area.

Significantly Elevated FDG Activity in Esophageal Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor of a Pediatric Patient.

A 13-year-old girl presented with dysphagia underwent contrast-enhanced CT and endoscopy. The CT revealed cervical esophageal wall thickening with heterogeneous enhancement. Microscopic examination of the biopsy specimen suggested a possible mesenchymal tumor.

18F-FDG PET/CT in a Patient With Primary Rectal Angiosarcomas and Multiple Bone Metastases.

A 54-year-old man presented with a 1-month history of pain and numbness in the right lower limb. Lumbar spine MRI revealed bone metastases. 18F-FDG PET/CT showed a soft tissue mass with increased 18F-FDG uptake in the rectum, accompanied by multiple hypermetabolic lesions in the bilateral ribs, spine, pelvis, and upper right femur.

Exploring the Efficacy and Safety of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for the Treatment of Epilepsy in Patients With Sturge-Weber Syndrome: A Pilot Study.

Background: Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS) is a rare congenital neurocutaneous disorder, often complicated by epilepsy. Approximately 50% of patients with SWS with epilepsy develop drug-resistant seizures, leaving limited treatment options. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a known therapy for refractory epilepsy, modulating neural activity to reduce seizures.

A non-inferiority randomized controlled study of Perampanel versus Oxcarbazepine monotherapy for post-stroke epilepsy.

Background: Post-stroke epilepsy (PSE) poses a significant challenge despite advances in stroke treatment. This study compares the efficacy of the novel anti-seizure medication (ASM) Perampanel with the classical ASM Oxcarbazepine in treating PSE.

Methods: This prospective randomized controlled trial recruited PSE patients from September 2022 to January 2024 across multiple hospitals.

Shouhui Tongbian Capsule ameliorates obesity by enhancing energy consumption and promoting lipolysis via cAMP-PKA pathway.

Background: The prevalence of obesity and its associated diseases has sharply increased, becoming a global health issue. White adipose tissue (WAT), responsible for lipid storage via hyperplasia and hypertrophy, and brown adipose tissue (BAT), which facilitates energy dissipation, have increasingly been recognized as critical regulators of weight loss. Shouhui Tongbian Capsule (SHTB) has traditionally been used for detoxification, weight loss, and lipid reduction, and clinical evidence supports its use for relieving constipation.

Automatic path planning for pelvic fracture reduction with multi-degree-of-freedom.

Background And Objectives: Computer-assisted orthopedic surgical techniques and robotics has improved the therapeutic outcome of pelvic fracture reduction surgery. The preoperative reduction path is one of the prerequisites for robotic movement and an essential reference for manual operation. As the largest irregular bone with complicated morphology, the rotational motion of pelvic fracture fragments impacts the reduction process directly.

UnICLAM: Contrastive representation learning with adversarial masking for unified and interpretable Medical Vision Question Answering.

Medical Visual Question Answering aims to assist doctors in decision-making when answering clinical questions regarding radiology images. Nevertheless, current models learn cross-modal representations through residing vision and text encoders in dual separate spaces, which inevitably leads to indirect semantic alignment. In this paper, we propose UnICLAM, a Unified and Interpretable Medical-VQA model through Contrastive Representation Learning with Adversarial Masking.

Clarification of the biosynthetic gene cluster involved in the antifungal prodrug echinocandin B and its robust production in engineered Aspergillus pachycristatus.

Echinocandin antifungals exhibit high efficacy against drug-resistant strains due to their unique mechanism of action. The production of their semi-synthetic precursors relies solely on microbial metabolism, leading to elevated production costs. Anidulafungin, an excellent echinocandin drug, is derived from echinocandin B (ECB), which is industrially produced by Aspergillus pachycristatus.

Global Burden of Cardiovascular Diseases and its Risk Factors, 1990-2021: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.

Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) represent a major global health challenge, necessitating up-to-date data on its burden for effective care planning and resource allocation. This study comprehensively analyzes the global, regional, and national CVD burden and associated risks from 1990 to 2021.

Methods And Results: We performed a secondary analysis of CVD burden and risk factors using the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 study.

Cell-type-specific networks during hippocampal seizures at the micro- and macroscale.

Epilepsy is a network disorder, involving neural circuits at both the micro- and macroscale. While local excitatory-inhibitory imbalances are recognized as a hallmark at the microscale, the dynamic role of distinct neuron types during seizures remain poorly understood. At the macroscale, interactions between key nodes within the epileptic network, such as the central median thalamic nucleus (CMT), are critical to the, hippocampal epileptic process.

N-acetyl-tryptophan in Acute Kidney Injury after Cardiac Surgery.

Background: Cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury is a common serious complication after cardiac surgery. Currently, there are no specific pharmacological therapies. Our understanding of its pathophysiology remains preliminary.

A whole-body imaging technique for tumor-specific diagnostics and screening of B7-H3-targeted therapies.

Background: B7-H3 or CD276 is notably overexpressed in various malignant tumor cells in humans, with extremely high expression rates. The development of a radiotracer that targets B7-H3 may provide a universal tumor-specific imaging agent and allow the noninvasive assessment of the whole-body distribution of B7-H3-expressing lesions.

Methods: We enhanced and optimized the structure of an affibody (ABY) that targets B7-H3 to create the radiolabeled radiotracer [68Ga]Ga-B7H3-BCH, and then, we conducted both foundational experiments and clinical translational studies.

Clinical Characteristics and In Vivo Confocal Microscopic Study in Candida Keratitis.

Purpose: To clarify the clinical and imaging characteristics of Candida keratitis using in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) for improved early diagnosis and management.

Methods: A retrospective study of 40 patients with Candida keratitis at Beijing Tongren Hospital from January 2015 to December 2023 was conducted. Data included demographics, risk factors, clinical assessments, lab tests, and IVCM images.

Transanal vs Laparoscopic Total Mesorectal Excision and 3-Year Disease-Free Survival in Rectal Cancer: The TaLaR Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Previous studies have demonstrated the advantages of short-term histopathological outcomes and complications associated with transanal total mesorectal excision (TME) compared with laparoscopic TME. However, the long-term oncological outcomes of transanal TME remain ambiguous. This study aims to compare 3-year disease-free survival of transanal TME with laparoscopic TME.

Manganese exposure induces parkinsonism-like symptoms by Serpina3n-TFEB-v/p-ATPase signaling mediated lysosomal dysfunction.

Manganese (Mn) is a neurotoxin that has been etiologically linked to the development of neurodegenerative diseases in the case of overexposure. It is widely accepted that overexposure to Mn leads to manganism, which has clinical symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease (PD), and is referred to as parkinsonism. Astrocytes have been reported to scavenge and degrade extracellular α-synuclein (α-Syn) in the brain.

Key glycometabolism during oocyte maturation and early embryonic development.

In recent decades, it has become increasingly clear that mammalian gametes and early embryos are highly sensitive to metabolic substrates. With advances in single-cell sequencing, metabolomics, and bioinformatics, we now recognize that metabolic pathways not only meet cellular energy demands but also play a critical role in cell proliferation, differentiation, and fate determination. Investigating metabolic processes during oocyte maturation and early embryonic development is thus essential to advancing reproductive medicine and embryology.

Associations of Short-Term Ozone Exposure With Hypoxia and Arterial Stiffness.

Background: Epidemiological studies reported associations between ozone (O) exposure and cardiovascular diseases, yet the biological mechanisms remain underexplored. Hypoxia is a shared pathogenesis of O-associated diseases; therefore, we hypothesized that O exposure may induce changes in hypoxia-related markers, leading to adverse cardiovascular effects.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate associations of short-term O exposure with hypoxic biomarkers and arterial stiffness.

The effectiveness of sequential afatinib and furmonertinib in an advanced lung adenocarcinoma with rare compound EGFR mutation (L833V/H835L).

Uncommon atypical mutations account for 10-15% of all epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activating mutations in nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Tumors harboring rare EGFR mutations show highly heterogeneous responses to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). There is insufficient clinical evidence for uncommon types of EGFR mutations, especially those with compound EGFR mutations.

The Training and Evaluation of the "Dual-Index" Screening Method for Neonatal Congenital Heart Disease: A Multi-Center Study in China.

Background: This study aimed to enhance the scope of neonatal congenital heart disease (CHD) screening by evaluating the effectiveness of training personnel in CHD screening using the "dual-index" method, combining pulse oximetry with cardiac murmur auscultation.

Methods: From 2019 to 2022, a total of 2374 screening personnel from the Xinjiang, Yunnan, Hainan, Fujian, and Anhui provinces underwent training in neonatal CHD screening using the "dual-index" method, which involves pulse oximetry and cardiac murmur auscultation. Pre- and post-training assessments were conducted using a neonatal CHD screening knowledge questionnaire, distributed through the Questionnaire Star platform, to evaluate the impact of the training.

Effect of oral potassium supplementation on urinary potassium excretion and its diagnostic value for primary aldosteronism.

Objectives: We aimed to: (1) explore the effect of oral potassium supplementation on urinary potassium excretion, and (2) evaluate the value of urinary potassium-related indicators in distinguishing primary aldosteronism (PA) from non-PA patients.

Design And Methods: A prospective study of 20 patients with hypertension and hypokalemia caused by renal potassium loss between November 2023 and April 2024 was conducted. Demographic features, 24-hour urine collection before and after potassium supplementation were all collected.

Scala tympani drill-out technique for oval window atresia with malformed facial nerve:update.

Background: In some rare cases of congenital aplasia of the oval window (OW), malformed facial nerve (FN) locations covering the most or entire OW present a challenge to hearing reconstruction, there is no a highly effective surgical hearing reconstruction methods.

Aims/objectives: To update a Scala tympani drill-out technique (SDT) for abnormal FN course covering the OW.

Material And Methods: All patients of congenital atresia of the OW was recruited between August 2014 and July 2023 in a tertiary-care center.