Non-sentinel lymph node (NSLN) status prediction with molecular biomarkers may make some sentinel lymph node (SLN) positive breast cancer patients avoid the axillary lymph node dissection, but the available markers remain limited. SLN positive patients with and without NSLN invasion were selected, and genes differentially expressed or fused in SLN metastasis were screened by next-generation RNA sequencing. Six candidates (all ER/PR+, HER2−, Ki-67 <20 %) with metastatic SLNs selected from 305 patients were equally categorized as NSLN negative and positive. We identified 103 specifically expressed genes in the NSLN negative group and 47 in the NSLN positive group. Among them, FABP1 (negative group) and CYP2A13 (positive group) were the only 2 protein-encoding genes with expression levels in the 8th to 10th deciles. Using a false discovery rate threshold of <0.05, 62 up-regulated genes and 98 down-regulated genes were discovered in the NSLN positive group. Furthermore, 10 gene fusions were identified in this group with the most frequently fused gene being IGLL5. The biomarkers screened in present study may broaden our understanding of the mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis to the lymph nodes and contribute to the axillary surgery selection for SLN positive patients.

Objective. Large-scale studies on the characteristics and management of abdominal trauma in megacities in China are lacking. The aim of this study was to analyze and present the clinical patterns and treatment status of abdominal trauma in regional medical centers. Methods. Cases of abdominal trauma treated at seven medical centers in Beijing from 2010 to 2021 were collected. Clinical information about age, sex, injury cause, geographic distribution, abbreviated injury scale/injury severity score (AIS/ISS) value, injury-hospital time, preoperative time, surgically identified organ injuries, type of surgery, causes of reoperation and 90-day mortality was included in this study. Clinical characteristics, treatment methods, and short-term prognoses (90-days survival) were compared between blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) and penetrating abdominal trauma (PAT) cases. Non-normally distributed data are described as medians (IQR), and the Mann-Whitney U test was performed; qualitative data were analyzed using the X2 test. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were performed by the Cox proportional hazards model. Results. A total of 553 patients (86.98% male) with a median age of 36.50 (27.00-48.00) years were included. The BAT group had a significantly higher proportion of serious injury (P=0.001), lower initial hemoglobin level (P=0.001), and a lower laparoscopy surgery rate (P=0.044) compared to the PAT group. Additionally, more BAT cases were from the area around Beijing (P=0.008) and a longer injury-regional hospital time (10.47 (5.18-22.51) hours vs. 7.00 (3.80-15.38) hours, P=0.001). In the hollow viscus injury subgroup, the BAT group had a significantly longer injury-regional hospital time and preoperative time compared to the PAT group (injury-regional hospital time: 10.23 (6.00-21.59) hours vs. 7.07 (3.99-13.85) hours, P=0.002; preoperative time: 3.02 (2.01-5.58) hours vs. 2.81 (1.85-3.63) hours, P=0.047). The overall 90-day mortality was 11.9%, and longer injury-regional hospital time (HR: 1.01, 95% CI: 1.00-1.02, P=0.008), receipt of ICU treatment (HR: 4.69, 95% CI: 2.54-8.65, P=0.001), and severe ISSs (ISS > 25 vs. ISS < 16, HR: 2.78, 95% CI: 1.38-5.601, P=0.004) had a worse impact on survival. Conclusion. More patients with BAT were transferred to higher-level hospital, leading to significantly longer prehospital and preoperation time. In the subgroup of hemodynamically stable individuals, more patients with BAT experienced hollow viscus injuries. For those patients, aggressive diagnostic laparoscopic exploration may be beneficial. Patients with longer injury-regional hospital intervals, the need for ICU care, and higher injury severity scores (ISSs) suffered from worse prognoses.

Purpose Breast cancer patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery may require a second operation if positive margins persist but current intraoperative methodologies often lack real-time and comprehensive assessments of tissue margins. This study addresses this critical gap by introducing a novel approach to enhance margin assessment in breast surgery. Methods A total of 252 fresh tissue blocks from 199 patients with different types of breast lesions were scanned with a customized swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) system, and the OCT features of normal, benign, and malignant breast tissues, were systematically analyzed. Results The qualitative analysis results revealed that adipose tissue has high penetration depth and a typical honeycomb pattern, whereas fibrous tissue has the brightest grayscale values and a bundle-like structure. The lobular area appears as a dark region, and dilated ducts present a distinct tubular structure on B-scan images. Adenosis results in bright areas, fibroadenoma results in typical contour structures, phyllodes tumors present lobular structures, invasive carcinomas present a stellate pattern and low penetration depth, and mucinous carcinoma cancer cells are clearly visible within the low-scattering mucin. Conclusions Importantly, we provide comparative OCT and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) histology images for less common conditions, such as phyllodes tumors, intraductal papillomas, and mucinous carcinoma. For the first time, we established an 3D OCT-histopathology library with a large field of view and systematically analyzed the multidimensional features. This work strongly supports the feasibility of using OCT technology intraoperatively in surgery. Additionally, the OCT-histopathology library can help pathologists better understand and identify tissue features, thereby enhancing diagnostic efficiency.

Rapid, label-free and depth-resolved imaging of atopic dermatitis (AD) at high resolution has long been a challenge due to current dermoscopes are limited by inadequate resolution, sensitivity and the lack of three-dimensional (3D) imaging capability. Herein, we present promising optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) collaborative multi-parameter image processing algorithms (OCT/OCTA) that have been developed for long-term, dynamic longitudinal investigation of subtly changes in tissue structure during the dynamic development of AD, especially in the microvascular network. The OCT image demonstrated a ‘roller-coaster’ trend in skin thickness throughout the progression of dermatitis, initially exhibiting an increase and subsequently a decrease. Moreover, the OCTA image enabled the discernment of a displacement of the superficial vascular plexus to deeper layers as the severity of AD increased. Furthermore, the results of the quantitative analysis of vascular multiparametric features at different stages, including vessel diameter, length, and density, also demonstrated a positive correlation with the severity of AD. Overall, the full-cycle dynamic changes in skin thickness and depth-resolved vascular alterations during the progression of dermatitis can be effectively predicted using OCT/OCTA, which can inform more targeted AD diagnosis and treatment strategies. Furthermore, this method has the potential to assess therapeutic drug efficacy by capturing microvascular and structural responses across different stages of treatment. The presented methods have the potential to provide new insight into the monitoring of long-term vascular and tissue structure responses before and after therapeutic intervention in a range of AD-related skin diseases.

The liver hemodynamic changes caused by portal hypertension (PH) are closely related to various complications such as gastroesophageal varices and portosys-temic shunts, which may lead to adverse clinical outcomes in these patients, so it is of great clinical significance to find treatment strategies with favorable clinical efficacy and low risk of complications. To study the clinical efficacy of total laparoscopic splenectomy (TLS) for PH and its influence on hepatic hemodynamics and liver function. Among the 199 PH patients selected from October 2016 to October 2020, 100 patients [observation group (OG)] were treated with TLS, while the remaining 99 [reference group (RG)] were treated with open splenectomy (OS). We observed and compared the clinical efficacy, operation indexes [operative time (OT) and intraoperative bleeding volume], safety (intraperitoneal hemorrhage, ascitic fluid infection, eating disorders, liver insufficiency, and perioperative death), hepatic hemodynamics (diameter, velocity, and flow volume of the portal vein system), and liver function [serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and serum total bilirubin (TBil)] of the two groups. The OT was significantly longer and intraoperative bleeding volume was significantly lesser in the OG than in the RG. Additionally, the overall response rate, postoperative complications rate, and liver function indexes (ALT, AST, and TBil) did not differ significantly between the OG and RG. The hepatic hemodynamics statistics showed that the pre- and postoperative blood vessel diameters in the two cohorts did not differ statistically. Although the postoperative blood velocity and flow volume reduced significantly when compared with the preoperative values, there were no significant inter-group differences. TLS contributes to comparable clinical efficacy, safety, hepatic hemodynamics, and liver function as those of OS in treating PH, with a longer OT but lesser intraoperative blood loss.

The most important steps in thyroid surgery include distinguishing benign from malignant lesions and identifying the parathyroid glands. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides technical support for intraoperative guidance owing to its real-time, three-dimensional imaging capability. Benign and malignant diagnoses can be confirmed with intraoperative frozen sections; however, current approaches are time-consuming and labor-intensive and do not allow comprehensive, nondestructive tissue assessments. This study aimed to explore the use of OCT for imaging the thyroid tissue by verifying its clinical feasibility and qualitatively analyzing the OCT imaging characteristics of pathological thyroid glands. A customized swept-source OCT (SS-OCT) system was used to collect OCT data corresponding to the pathologies of 61 freshly excised tissue blocks containing either benign or malignant lesions from 45 patients. The OCT images were highly consistent with the H&E histological images, verifying the feasibility of OCT in producing suitable images for analysis. The OCT-derived characteristics of the thyroid tissue were as follows: normal thyroid follicles presented with regularly arranged honeycomb structures; follicular nodular disease (FND) was characterized by heterogeneous nodules composed of follicles of different sizes, with multiple nodules also differing in size and consisting of varied reticular structures and a focally solid appearance; lymphocyte aggregation led to a gray‒black appearance in Hashimoto's thyroiditis tumors; and papillary thyroid carcinoma lesions were characterized by a heterogeneous texture and a low penetration depth. These results demonstrate the imaging capabilities of OCT for thyroid tissue with different pathological conditions and its broad prospects for clinical application.