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Summary Objectives The definitive diagnosis of endobronchial tuberculosis (EBTB) is challenging because the disease manifests in various non-specific ways, and acid-fast bacilli (AFB) are often undetectable by sputum smear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of real-time PCR of bronchoscopic biopsy specimens for the diagnosis of EBTB. Methods Real-time PCR amplification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in biopsy tissue from EBTB patients was performed prospectively. Diagnostic yields were compared for real-time PCR and for auramine O-stained sputum smears and bronchial brush smears. Whether diagnostic yield depended on bronchoscopic subtype of EBTB was also evaluated. Results Diagnostic yields were 4.1% (3/74) for sputum smear, 39.2% (29/74) for bronchial brush smear, and 89.2% (66/74) for real-time PCR. Real-time PCR melting curve analysis showed significantly higher yields than did AFB staining of bronchial brush smears for granular and caseating EBTB ( p Conclusions Real-time PCR detection of M. tuberculosis DNA in EBTB biopsy tissue is more sensitive than sputum smear and bronchial brush smear, including at early disease stages. This PCR method may be a useful adjunct to culture- and smear-based techniques to allow more rapid EBTB diagnosis and timelier treatment.

Background: Optimizing basic techniques in diagnostic bronchoscopy is important for improving medical services in developing countries. In this study, the optimal sequence of bronchial brushing relative to bronchial biopsy for lung cancer diagnosis was evaluated. Methods: A total of 420 patients with visible endobronchial tumors were prospectively and randomly enrolled in two groups: a pre-biopsy brushing group, receiving two brushings before biopsy; two brushings which performed afterwards; were set as self-control and compared with the pre-biopsy brushings as the intra-group comparison; and a post-biopsy brushing group, only receiving two brushings after biopsy, which were compared with the pre-biopsy brushings as the inter-group comparison. Diagnostic yield of brushing was compared before and after biopsy, and as well as for different tumor pathologies and bronchoscopic morphologies. The occurrence of treated bleeding which defined as bleeding needed further intervention with argon plasma coagulation and/or anti-coagulation drugs in two groups was also compared. Results: Only patients with a definitive cytological or histological diagnosis of lung cancer based on bronchoscopy or other confirmatory techniques were included. Patients were excluded if they had submucosal lesions, extrinsic compressions, pulmonary metastasis of extrapulmonary malignancies or uncommon non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). A total of 362 patients who met the inclusion criteria were analyzed. Diagnostic yield for pre-biopsy brushing (49.2%, 88/179) was significantly higher than for post-biopsy brushing within the same pre-biopsy brushing group (31.8%, 57/179) (P=0.007) as the intra-group comparison, and significantly higher than for post-biopsy brushing in the post group (30.6%, 56/183) (P

Background and objective: Transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) is a well-established diagnostic method that is underutilized due to the relatively high percentage of non-diagnostic samples and low success rates. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of liquid-based cytology test (LBC) on the diagnostic yield from TBNA. Methods: Ninety-seven consecutive patients who underwent TBNA due to significant mediastinal adenopathy were enrolled in the study. Each target site was aspirated four times, with the first and third aspirates being prepared for LBC and the second and fourth aspirates being reserved for conventional pick-and-smear (CPS) cytology. Results: Paired aspirates were obtained from 114 target sites, giving a total of 228 test samples from 97 consecutive patients. The overall diagnostic sensitivity of TBNA was 63.6% (56/88). The yields from small cell lung cancers were better than those from non-small cell lung cancers (P 20 mm on computed tomography were also associated with better yields than nodes with diameters of 10–20 mm (P = 0.001). The diagnostic sensitivity of TBNA was similar for each processing method—59.8% (61/102) for LBC and 64.7% (65/102) for CPS. Conclusions: LBC was not inferior to CPS with respect to diagnostic yields from TBNA, and enabled efficient pathological evaluation.

Inulinase is an enzyme that belongs to glycoside hydrolase family 32. It converts inulin into high-fructose syrups and fructoligosaccharides, both of which are widely used in pharmaceutical and food industries. In this study, the kcINU1 gene (GenBank accession number AF178979) encoding an exoinulinase was cloned from Kluyveromyces cicerisporus CBS4857 and expressed in Pichia pastoris X-33, yielding a maximum of 45.2 ± 0.6 U mL(-1) of inulinase activity of culture supernatant. The expressed inulinase was purified and characterized. The enzyme had an optimum temperature of 55 °C and an optimum pH of 4.5. It had a K m of 0.322 mM and a V max of 4317 μM min(-1) mg(-1) protein when inulin was used as a substrate. It retained nearly 90 % of the maximal activity after pre-incubation at 50 °C for 1 h or at pH ranging from 3.0 to 6.0 at 4 °C for 24 h, demonstrating that KcINU1 was stable at high temperature and low pH. Moreover, we constructed two KcINU1 mutants, Asp30Ala and Glu215Ala, by site-directed mutagenesis and confirmed via zymogram analysis that Asp-30 and Glu-215 of the enzyme were the catalytic active center. The present study has provided important information for understanding the catalytic mechanism of exoinulinase.

Many studies evaluated the correlations of CD133 expression with the clinical outcomes in patients treated with chemoradiotherapy (CRT) but yielded controversial results. This meta-analysis was performed to identify the impacts of CD133 expression on the prognosis of cancer patients treated with CRT. Electronic databases updated up to March 2014 were searched to find relevant studies. Relevant literatures without any language restrictions were searched via electronic databases as follows: Web of Science (1945 ~ 2013), the Cochrane Library Database (Issue 12, 2013), PubMed (1966 ~ 2013), EMBASE (1980 ~ 2013), CINAHL (1982 ~ 2013), and the Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) (1982 ~ 2013). STATA software was used for the current meta-analysis. Hazard ratios (HR) and its corresponding 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) were calculated. Six studies were identified with a total of 470 cancer patients treated with CRT. The meta-analysis results showed that CD133-positive patients had poorer overall survival (OS) than that of CD133-negative patients (HR = 2.13, 95 % CI = 1.20 ~ 3.07, P

This paper describes a novel method by using hierarchical structure neural network for unusual sounds recognition. Above all, it discusses the principle of the inspecting system against theft that is used in pipeline transportation. Then the paper presents the structure of neural network, the sampling and the neural network train. The system achieves inspection preventing theft and caution by sound detecting, processing and recognizing. It is attested through actual application that the system capability is stable, the correct recognition ratio attains to 100%, and the error warning ratio is below 1%. In addition, the system can be expanded according to requirement.