Carcinoid tumor of the thymus: a clinicopathologic report of two cases with a review of the literature.

Thymic carcinoid, a tumor with neuroendocrine-derived cells, is extremely rare. Its clinical and pathological features are distinct from other thymic tumors or carcinoids in other organs. The prognosis is poorer compared with other thymic tumors.

Organ preconditioning: the past, current status, and related lung studies.

Preconditioning (PC) has emerged as a powerful method for experimentally and clinically attenuating various types of organ injuries. In this paper related clinical and basic research issues on organ preconditioning issues were systemically reviewed. Since lung injuries, including ischemia-reperfusion and others, play important roles in many clinical results, including thromboembolism, trauma, thermal injury, hypovolemic and endotoxin shock, reimplantation response after organ transplantation, and many respiratory diseases in critical care.

Video-assisted thoracic surgery--the past, present status and the future.

Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) has developed very rapidly in these two decades, and has replaced conventional open thoracotomy as a standard procedure for some simple thoracic operations as well as an option or a complementary procedure for some other more complex operations. In this paper we will review its development history, the present status and the future perspectives.