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Feng Wang,1,&ast; Shu-Ting Hong,1,&ast; Ying Zhang,2 Zhen Xing,3 Yuan-Xiang Lin1 1Neurosurgery Department, the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, People’s Republic of China; 2Nuclear Medicine Department, the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, People’s Republic of China; 3Radiology Department, the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yuan-Xiang Lin, Neurosurgery Department, the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, People’s Republic of China, Tel +8613906918894, Fax +86-591-83569369, Email lyx99070@163.comPurpose: To determine the diagnostic and localization value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in patients with focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) who underwent epilepsy surgery.Methods: One hundred and eight patients with pathologically proven FCD who underwent surgery for refractory epilepsy were retrospectively analyzed. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 18F-FDG-PET/CT, and video electroencephalography. An MRI diagnosis of FCD was defined as MRI+. A PET/CT diagnosis of FCD was defined as PET/CT+.Results: MRI and PET/CT detected FCD in 20.37% and 93.52% of patients, respectively. The difference was significant. Twenty-one patients were MRI+/PET+, 80 were MRI-/PET+, six were MRI-/PET-, and one was MRI+/PET-. The MRI positivity rate was lowest in patients with FCD type IIIa (5.6%, P < 0.05). Prevalence of MRI-/PET+ was highest in patients with FCD type IIIa (88.89%, P < 0.05).Conclusion: PET/CT is superior to MRI in detecting FCD. FCD type IIIa was more likely than other types to show MRI-/PET+. This suggests that PET/CT has particular diagnostic value for FCD type IIIa patients with negative MRI findings.Keywords: focal cortical dysplasia, epilepsy, 18F-FDG-PET/CT, pathological types

Ying Zhang,1,* Li-Rong Liang,2,* Shu Zhang,1 Yong Lu,1 Yang-Yu Chen,1 Huan-Zhong Shi,1 Ying-Xiang Lin1 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine and Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100020, People’s Republic of China; 2Clinical Epidemiology and Tobacco Dependence Treatment Research Department, Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100020, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Huan-Zhong Shi; Ying-Xiang LinDepartment of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, 8 Gongti Nanlu, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100020, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/ Fax +86 10 65935208Email shihuanzhong@sina.com; bjlin666@163.comPurpose: Peripheral blood eosinophilic counts are susceptible to many factors and have variability over time. There are limited studies on association of blood eosinophilia with long-term mortality of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and these results remain controversial. Our aims were to explore the association of blood eosinophilia at index hospitalization and stability of blood eosinophilia stability over 5 years with all-cause mortality of patients hospitalized for acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD).Patients and Methods: Eight hundred twenty-nine patients hospitalized for AECOPD between 2013 and 2014 were included in this study and grouped into two groups according to blood eosinophil with 150 cells/μL used as the cutoff value to form eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic groups. Two hundred forty-one COPD inpatients with at least three blood eosinophils measured from different hospitalizations were used for analysis of longitudinally eosinophilic stability and divided into three groups according to the same cutoff value: predominantly (PE), intermittently (IE) and rarely (RE) eosinophilic groups. Cox regression analysis was used to determine the association of blood eosinophilia and all-cause mortality.Results: In patients hospitalized for AECOPD, 261 (31.5%) at baseline and 41 (17%) based on at least three measurements of blood eosinophils had increased blood eosinophils. For all-cause mortality, eosinophilic COPD patients at index hospitalization had a lower all-cause mortality compared with non-eosinophilic COPD patients (hazard ratio 0.77, 95% confidence interval 0.6– 0.99, P=0.04). In patients readmitted for AECOPD by longitudinal eosinophil stability, with the RE group used as reference, the PE group was associated with a lower all-cause mortality of AECOPD patients (hazard ratio 0.43, 95% confidence interval 0.22– 0.85, P=0.016), compared to the IE group (hazard ratio 0.72, 95% confidence interval 0.47– 1.11, P=0.133).Conclusion: Patients with increased eosinophils (using eosinophil 150 cells/μL as a cutoff value), especially predominantly increased eosinophil levels based on multiple measurements, had a lower risk of all-cause mortality. Blood eosinophilia can be used as a biomarker in hospitalized COPD exacerbations for predicting the risk of all-cause mortality.Keywords: acute exacerbation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, blood eosinophilia, mortality