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Background: Peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) is an alternative to central venous cannulation. This study aimed to identify factors associated with first-attempt success rate in children undergoing PICC insertion. Methods: This retrospective study included pediatric patients who underwent PICC placement at the Children’s Hospital of Zhejiang (1/2020-12/2020). The successful puncture was defined as smooth blood return and insertion of the guide wire. Clinical data were collected, and factors associated with first-attempt success were identified by logistic regression analyses. Results: The final analysis included 640 children (360 males, 56.2%). Successful puncture at the first attempt was achieved in 380 (59.4%) patients. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that being uncooperative after sedation (OR = 2.745, 95%CI: 1.028 - 7.331, P = 0.044), being cooperative after sedation (OR = 0.318, 95%CI: 0.128–0.791, P = 0.014), target vein depth (0.5 - 1 vs. ≤ 0.5: OR = 1.715, 95%CI: 1.081–2.720, P = 0.022; 1.1-1.5 vs. ≤ 0.5: OR = 3.036, 95%CI: 1.166 - 7.903, P = 0.023; > 1.5 vs. ≤ 0.5: OR = 10.453, 95%CI: 2.366 - 46.139, P = 0.002), target vein diameter (2.0 - 2.9 vs. ≤ 2: OR = 0.313, 95%CI: 0.180 - 0.545, P < 0.001; ≥ 3 vs. ≤ 2: OR = 0.122, 95%CI: 0.055 - 0.272, P < 0.001), and 3F catheter specification (vs. 1.9F: OR = 2.057, 95%CI: 1.069 - 3.958, P = 0.031) were independently associated with puncture failure at the first attempt. Conclusions: The degree of cooperation, target vein diameter and depth, and catheter specification were independently associated with the first-attempt success rate.

Aberrant expression of long noncoding RNA cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2B antisense RNA 1 (CDKN2B-AS1) has been detected in human colorectal cancer (CRC). This study aimed to investigate the role of CDKN2B-AS1 and the underlying mechanism in human CRC. Gain- and loss-of-function assays were performed to explore the role of CDKN2B-AS1 in the malignant behavior of HCT116 and SW480 CRC cells in vitro and in vivo. RNA pull-down assay was conducted to identify the target of CDKN2B-AS1 in CRC cells. The physical and functional interactions between CDKN2B-AS1 and the target were examined. CDKN2B-AS1 inhibited CRC cell proliferation and migration while promoting apoptosis in vitro via activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinases (MEK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)/p38 signaling. CDKN2B-AS1 bound to mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inactivator dual-specificity phosphatase 1 (DUSP1) in CRC cells. In contrast to CDKN2B-AS1, DUSP1 promoted CRC cell proliferation, suppressed apoptosis and inactivated MEK/ERK/p38 signaling in CRC cells. Furthermore, CDKN2B-AS1 overexpression attenuated DUSP1 expression in normal colonic myofibroblasts and CRC cells. Overexpression of DUSP1 effectively countered the activation of MEK/ERK/p38 signaling induced by CDKN2B-AS1 overexpression or further blocked MEK/ERK/p38 signaling suppressed by CDKN2B-AS1 silencing. In the mouse xenograft model, CDKN2B-AS1 suppressed CRC growth, whereas DUSP1 promoted CRC growth. CDKN2B-AS1 induced cell apoptosis while suppressing EMT (epithelial–mesenchymal transition), whereas DUSP1 suppressed cell apoptosis while inducing EMT in CRC, as evidenced by the alterations in the protein levels of apoptosis and EMT markers in tumor tissue samples. CDKN2B-AS1 regulates CRC cell growth and survival by targeting MAPK inactivator DUSP1.

Early recurrence (ER) of rectal mucinous adenocarcinoma (MAC) has yet to be defined. We therefore explored risk factors for ER and constructed a predictive nomogram.A total of 145 rectal MAC patients undergoing radical surgery were included. The minimum P value method was used to determine the optimal cut-off point to discriminate between ER and late recurrence (LR). Risk factors for ER were determined by a logistic regression analysis, and a predictive nomogram was constructed.A total of 62 (42.8%) patients developed tumor recurrence. The optimal time to define ER was 12 months. A pre-treatment tumor distance from the anal verge ≤ 7 cm, pathological N stage, lymphovascular invasion, tumor deposits, and time to recurrence ≤ 12 months were significantly associated with a poor post-recurrence survival in patients with recurrence. A pre-treatment serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level 10 ng/ml, pre-treatment tumor distance from the anal verge ≤ 7 cm, pathological N + stage, perineural invasion, and tumor deposits were identified as independent risk factors associated with ER. A nomogram predicting ER was constructed (C-index 0.870).The pre-treatment serum CEA level, pre-treatment tumor distance from the anal verge, pathological N + stage, perineural invasion, and tumor deposits were significantly predictive of ER for rectal MAC patients.

Purpose To assess the role of the expression levels of FOXK family members, FOXK1 and FOXK2, in predicting response to neo-chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) and prognosis in locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). Methods A total of 256 LARC patients who underwent NCRT and radical resection between 2011 and 2017 were enrolled in the present study. The patients were divided into a training dataset (n=169, 2011-2015) and a validation dataset (n=87, 2016-2017). Tumor tissues were collected before NCRT and post-surgery and were used for immunohistochemical analysis. Results Oncomine database analysis revealed that FOXK1 and FOXK2 were overexpressed in most cancers especially in colorectal cancer. Additionally, overexpression of FOXK1 and FOXK2 was associated with poorer prognosis by the R2 database. In both our training and validation datasets, the expression of FOXK1 and FOXK2 was lower in the pathological complete response (pCR) group compared with the non-pCR group (P

The aim of this study was to identify hub genes associated with metastasis and prognosis in melanoma. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) was performed to screen and identify hub genes. ROC and K-M analyses were used to verify the hub genes in the internal and external data sets. The risk score model and nomogram model were constructed based on the IHC result. Through WGCNA, the three hub genes, SNRPD2, SNRPD3, and EIF4A3, were identified. In the external data set, the hub genes identified were associated with the worse prognosis (TCGA, SNRPD2, P ≤ 0.02 ; SNRPD3, P = 0.12 ; EIF4A3, P = 0.11 ; GSE65904, SNRPD2, P = 0.04 ; SNRPD3, P = 0.10 ; EIF4A3, P < 0.01 ; GSE19234, SNRPD2, P < 0.01 ; SNRPD3, P < 0.01 ; EIF4A3, P < 0.01 ). In the GSE8401, we found that the hub genes were highly expressed in the metastasis compared with the nonmetastasis group (SNRPD2, 988.5 ± 47.83 vs. 738.4 ± 35.35 , P < 0.01 ; SNRPD3, 502.7 ± 25.7 vs. 416.4 ± 23.88 , P = 0.02 ; EIF4A3, 567.6 ± 19.56 vs. 495.2 ± 21.1 , P = 0.01 ). Moreover, the hub genes were identified by the IHC in our data set. The result was similar with the external data set. The hub genes could predict the metastasis and prognosis in the Chinese MM patients. Finally, the GSEA and Pearson analysis demonstrated that the SNRPD2 was associated with the immunotherapy. The three hub genes were identified and validated in MM patients in external and internal data sets. The risk factor model was constructed and verified as a powerful model to predict metastasis and prognosis in MM patients.

Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the role of colony-stimulating factor 2 (CSF2) in chemotherapy resistance, prognosis, and immune response and to identify its possible mechanisms underlying drug resistance. Methods Drug-resistant cell lines were obtained by successively increasing drug concentration. RNA-Seq was performed to screen hub genes. CSF2 expression was analyzed via immunohistochemistry. Moreover, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) dataset, and R2 platform were used to explore the correlations among CSF2 expression, prognosis, and immune response. Results RNA-Seq indicated that microRNAs in cancer, P53 signaling pathway, and cell cycle were associated with FOLFOX chemotherapy resistance. Protein-protein interaction (PPI), molecular complex detection (MOCDE), and qRT-PCR analysis verified CSF2 as the hub gene in chemotherapy resistance. Moreover, CSF2 expression was lower in the normal tissue than in the cancerous tissue (P

The purpose was to explore the effect of the WeChat platform health management and refined continuous nursing model on life quality of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) after PCI. 100 AMI patients treated in the cardiovascular medicine of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from June 2018 to June 2019 were selected as the study subjects and randomly divided into research group and reference group, with 50 cases in each group. The reference group received routine nursing after PCI, while the research group received WeChat platform health management and continuous refined nursing. There were no significant differences in sex ratio, age, BMI, complications, education level, and residence between the two groups of patients ( P > 0.05 ). The MPR values of patients in the two groups after intervention were significantly higher than those before intervention ( P < 0.05 ), and the MPR value in the research group after intervention was significantly higher than that in the reference group ( P < 0.05 ). The SF-36 scores of patients in the two groups after intervention were significantly higher than those before intervention ( P < 0.001 ), and the SF-36 score in the research group after intervention was higher than that in the reference group ( P < 0.001 ). The emotional, physical, and economic dimensions of patients in the research group after intervention were significantly lower than those in the reference group ( P < 0.001 ). The HAMA and HAMD scores of patients in the research group after intervention were significantly lower than those in the reference group ( P < 0.001 ). The nursing satisfaction score of patients in the research group was significantly higher than that in the reference group ( P < 0.001 ). The total incidence of complications of patients in the research group after intervention was significantly lower than that in the reference group ( P < 0.05 ). The WeChat platform health management and refined continuous nursing model can effectively improve the medication compliance of patients after PCI, improve the life quality, alleviate depression and anxiety, and reduce postoperative complications, with a definite effect, which is worthy of promotion and application.

BACKGROUND The well-differentiated rectal neuroendocrine tumors (RNETs) can also have lymph node metastasis (LNM). Large multicenter data were reviewed to explore the risk factors for LNM in RNETs. Further, we developed a model to predict the risk of LNM in RNETs. METHODS In total, 223 patients with RNETs from the Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, and the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University were retrospectively enrolled. Logistic regression analysis was performed to study the factors affecting LNM, and recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) was performed to stratify the risk of LNM. RESULTS Among the 223 patients diagnosed with RNETs, the incidence of LNM was 10.8%. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses revealed that tumor size, World Health Organization (WHO) grade, and depth of tumor invasion were independent risk factors for LNM (p

Supplementary Material

Background This study aimed to evaluate the role and the underlying mechanisms of Forkhead box A1 (encoded by FOXA1) in colon cancer. Methods We analyzed FOXA1 mRNA and protein expression in colon cancer tissues and cell lines. We also silenced FOXA1 expression in HCT116 and SW480 cells to evaluate the effects on cell proliferation, cell cycle, migration, and invasion by using MTT, colony formation, flow cytometry, and the Transwell assay, respectively. Results FOXA1 immunostaining was higher in colon cancer tissues than adjacent healthy tissues. FOXA1 mRNA and protein expression was significantly increased in human colon cancer cells compared with a normal colonic cell line. FOXA1 expression was also significantly higher in colorectal cancer tissues from TCGA data sets and was associated with worse prognosis in the R2 database. FOXA1 expression was negatively correlated with the extent of its methylation, and its knockdown reduced proliferation, migration, and invasion, and induced G2/M phase arrest in HCT116 and SW480 cells by suppressing the phosphatase and tensin homolog/Akt signaling pathway and inhibiting epithelial–mesenchymal transition. Conclusion FOXA1 may act as an oncogene in colon cancer tumorigenesis and development.

The goal of this research was to decipher the biological functions and mechanism of long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 200 (LINC00200) in gastric cancer (GC). In this study, our data confirmed that LINC00200 expression was up-regulated in GC tissues and its high expression was correlated with the poor differentiation of GC tissues and lymph node metastasis of the patients. In vitro experiments indicated that, the overexpression of LINC00200 facilitated the proliferation of GC cells, constrained their apoptosis, and increased the IC50 of oxaliplatin (Oxa), whereas knockdown of LINC00200 exhibited the opposite effects. Additionally, we demonstrated that LINC00200 could bind to E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1), and the up-regulation of LINC00200 expression enhanced the binding between E2F1 and RAD51 promoter, hence promoting RAD51 transcription, while knockdown of LINC00200 inhibited the transcription of RAD51. In conclusion, LINC00200 may recruit E2F1 to the RAD51 recombinase (RAD51) promoter region, thereby up-regulating the expression of RAD51 and enhancing the chemoresistance of GC cells to Oxa. Our data suggested that LINC00200 could probably be a promising target for treating GC.

Background To evaluate the impact of age on the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). Method LARC patients undergoing NCRT and radical surgery from 2011 to 2018 were divided into young ( Result A total of 901 LARC patients were analyzed. The young group was associated with poorly differentiated tumors, more metastatic lymph nodes, higher perineural invasion, and a lower tumor regression grade (P = 0.008; P P P = 0.003). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that age P = 0.044), tumor size (HR = 0.538, P P = 0.036), and post-NCRT CEA level (HR = 0.877, P = 0.001) were significantly associated with pCR. Predictive nomograms and decision curve analysis demonstrated that the predictive ability of models including the age group was superior to that of models excluding the age group. Higher CD133 expression was more common in young LARC patients. Conclusion Young patients with LARC were associated with lower pCR rates following NCRT. The ability of the predictive model was greater when based on the age group. Young LARC patients were associated with a higher CD133+ tumor stem cell burden, which contributed to the lower pCR rates.

The aim of this study was to explore the most powerful systemic inflammation marker of survival in locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) patients and construct prognostic nomograms. A total of 472 LARC patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) and radical surgery from 2011 to 2015 were included. The optimal cutoff points for the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII); and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte (PLR), and monocyte-to-lymphocyte (MLR) ratios were calculated and determined by using the X-tile program. The cut-off values were 797.6. 2.3, 169.5, and 0.4, respectively. Cox regression analysis demonstrated that higher pathological TNM stage, the AJCC tumor regression grade, and the NLR level were significantly associated with increased overall survival and disease-free survival. High NLR level (≥ 2.3) was associated with higher pre-NCRT CA19–9 levels, lower hemoglobin, larger tumor size, and more lymph nodes retrieved (p = 0.012, p = 0.024, and p

Background FOLFOX chemotherapy is one of the most commonly used treatments for colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. However, the efficacy and tolerance of FOLFOX therapy varies between patients. The purpose of this study was to explore hub genes associated with primary chemotherapy-resistance and to explore the possible mechanisms involved from non-European patients. Methods A weighted gene co-expression network was constructed to identify gene modules associated with chemotherapy resistance in mCRC from China. Results A Gene Array Chip was used to detect mRNA expression in 11 mCRC patients receiving preoperative FOLFOX chemotherapy. The immune response was associated with chemotherapy-resistance in microarray data. Through the use of WGCNA, we demonstrated that the crucial functions enriched in chemotherapy-resistance modules were cell proliferation, MAPK signaling pathways, and PI3K signaling pathways. Additionally, we identified and validated FBXW4 as a new effective predictor for chemotherapy sensitivity and a prognostic factor for survival of CRC patients by using our own data and GSE69657. Furthermore, a meta-analysis of 15 Gene Expression Omnibus–sourced datasets showed that FBXW4 messenger RNA levels were significantly lower in CRC tissues than in normal colon tissues. An analysis of the data from the R2: Genomics Analysis and Visualization Platform showed that low FBXW4 expression was correlated with a significantly worse event- and relapse-free survival. Gene set enrichment analysis showed that the mechanism of FBXW4-mediated chemotherapy resistance may involve the DNA replication signal pathway and the cell cycle. Conclusion FBXW4 is associated with chemotherapy resistance and prognosis of CRC probably by regulating DNA replication signaling pathways and the cell cycle.

Medical entity recognition, a basic task in the language processing of clinical data, has been extensively studied in analyzing admission notes in alphabetic languages such as English. However, much less work has been done on nonstructural texts that are written in Chinese, or in the setting of differentiation of Chinese drug names between traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. Here, we propose a novel cascade-type Chinese medication entity recognition approach that aims at integrating the sentence category classifier from a support vector machine and the conditional random field-based medication entity recognition. We hypothesized that this approach could avoid the side effects of abundant negative samples and improve the performance of the named entity recognition from admission notes written in Chinese. Therefore, we applied this approach to a test set of 324 Chinese-written admission notes with manual annotation by medical experts. Our data demonstrated that this approach had a score of 94.2% in precision, 92.8% in recall, and 93.5% in F-measure for the recognition of traditional Chinese medicine drug names and 91.2% in precision, 92.6% in recall, and 91.7% F-measure for the recognition of Western medicine drug names. The differences in F-measure were significant compared with those in the baseline systems.

Supersonic shear imaging (SSI) is a relatively new technique to measure the elasticity of target tissues based on the shear wave propagation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of SSI in discriminating nonfibrotic nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) from the less severe nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), NASH with fibrosis, and the normal liver, as well as the relationship between various NAFLD pathologic or biochemical findings and SSI liver elasticity. Rabbits with NAFLD of different degrees were subjected to SSI for liver elasticity measurement. Plasma was collected for biochemical examinations, and liver tissues were harvested for pathologic assessment. Results showed that liver elasticity of rabbits with nonfibrotic NASH was significantly different from that of rabbits with simple steatosis, borderline, NASH with fibrosis, and normal liver (P<0.05) and the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of SSI for predicting nonfibrotic NASH and NASH with fibrosis were 0.997 and 0.967, respectively, and the optimal cutoff values were 10.17 kPa and 12.82 kPa, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that only fibrosis and inflammation were the independent factors affecting liver elasticity of NAFLD (P≤0.001), while inflammation, steatosis, and ballooning degeneration were all independently related to liver elasticity in rabbits without fibrosis (P<0.01). In addition, alanine aminotransferase was the only biochemical factor independently related to liver elasticity (P≤0.001). Our results indicate that SSI can effectively identify nonfibrotic NASH in rabbits based on the difference in liver elasticity and the difference is related to the various pathologic changes, including fibrosis, inflammation, steatosis, and ballooning degeneration.

The speckle characteristics of a broad-area edge-emitting semiconductor laser diode (BAEELD) in continuous wave emission regime are investigated experimentally. Performed measurements aim to assess the dependence of the speckle characteristics on spatial region of emitted light field, driving current and case temperature of BAEELD. When BAEELD operates at operating current of 550 mA and at 24 °C, the speckle in different regions from the broad-area field are measured by three different experimental configurations, including direct measurement, rotating the BAEELD, and gathering all emission by the collimating lens or two mirrors. The correlations between the speckle patterns of different regions of the broad-area field are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the speckle images measured are correlated although the BAEELD operates at different operating currents and case temperatures.

CES-2 (carboxylesterase-2) belongs to the carboxylesterase gene family, which plays crucial roles in lipid mobilization and chemosensitivity to irinotecan. However, its role in chemosensitivity to oxaliplatin (L-OHP) remains unclear. Herein, L-OHP-resistant cells (HCT-116L and RKOL) were established by increasing the concentration of L-OHP. The results showed that CES2 expression was upregulated in L-OHP-resistant tissues and cells lines (both P 0.01). Low expression of CES2 correlated with a better survival, and the results were further confirmed in the R2 platform: a biologist friendly web-based genomics analysis and visualization application. Downregulation of CES2 suppressed cell proliferation, induced apoptosis and reversed L-OHP resistance by medicating the PI3K signaling pathway in L-OHP-resistant cells. However, both PI3K inhibitor (LY294002) and activator (IGF-1) could not medicate CES2 expression. These findings indicated that CES2 may be utilized as a novel biomarker and therapeutic target for L-OHP resistance in CRC treatment.

Apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide-like 3B (APOBEC3B) is known as a source of mutations in multiple cancers. Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (GEP-NENs) are a group of heterogeneous tumors. However, the expression and significance of APOBEC3B in GEP-NENs remains unclear.A total of 158 cases of GEP-NENs, including 78 cases of biopsy or endoscopic submucosal dissection resection specimens and 83 cases of surgical resection specimens were collected in this study. The cases were grouped according to tumor classification grade, including 42 cases of neuroendocrine tumors G1 (NET G1), 36 cases of NET G2, 36 cases of NET G3, 44 cases of neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC). All of the 158 tumors were immunohistochemically studied using a polyclonal antibody against APOBEC3B. We evaluated APOBEC3B expression in GEP-NENs and investigated the relationships among the immunoreactivity of APOBEC3B, clinical and pathologic features, such as age, sex, tumor site, Ki67 cell proliferation index, and lymph metastasis.A total of 33 cases (78.6%) of NET G1 showed high expression of APOBEC3B. A total of 28 cases (77.8%) of NET G2 demonstrated high expression of APOBEC3B. In NET G3 and NEC cases, the positive rates were 52.8% and 2.3%, respectively. The expression of APOBEC3B in NETs was significantly higher than that in NECs, NET G1 and NET G2 were higher than NET G3, and the difference was statistically significant. APOBEC3B high expression cases have lower lymph node metastasis rate, lower Ki67 cell proliferation index.In this study, APOBEC3B is highly expressed in GEP-NETs and is a predictor of lymph node metastasis in NET G3 and NEC cases. These findings might provide new insights into the biological mechanisms of GEP-NENs tumorigenesis and progression.

The paracetamol-water (PA–H2O) complexes formed by hydrogen bonding interactions were investigated at the MP2/6-311++G(d,p) level. Six PA–H2O complexes possessing various types of hydrogen bonds (H–bonds) were characterized by geometries, energies, vibrational frequencies. Natural bond orbital (NBO), quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) and the localized molecular orbital energy decomposition analysis (LMO-EDA) were performed to explore the nature of the hydrogen-bonding interactions in these complexes. The intramolecular H–bond formed between the methylene and carbonyl oxygen atom of paracetamol is retained in most of complexes. The H–bonds in PW1 and PW6 are stronger than other H–bonds, moreover, the researches show that both the hydrogen bonding interaction and structural deformation play important roles for the relative stabilities of PA–H2O complexes.

Correct tip location is crucial for a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) to maximize the effects of central venous infusion. However, it is difficult to place the tip in a correct location in neonates because of the unreliable estimated length by surface landmark. Therefore, we evaluated the feasibility and safety of an improved intracavitary electrocardiogram (IC-ECG) technique in guiding PICC placement in neonates based on the ratios of P/R wave amplitudes on IC-ECG. The results showed that all of the 32 neonates whose PICCs had been successfully placed and correct tip position verified by chest radiography acquired qualified P wave on IC-ECG. The average ratio of P/R wave amplitude was 0.6 ± 0.1, with a range of 0.4 to 0.8. The 49 neonates who received IC-ECG-guided PICC catheterization showed higher success rates of correct PICC tip position on the first attempt than traditional, predetermined length estimation on surface landmark (93.9% vs 62.5%, χ = 18.01, P < .001). No significant complications occurred in the studied neonates. Based on these findings, IC-ECG-guided tip placement appears to be a promising approach in improving the success rate of tip location when placing a PICC in neonates.

A motionless despeckle element based on Mie scattering and Brownian motion of suspended particles is proposed, which is achieved by filling a light pipe with diluted milk in laser projection systems. The Brownian motion of the milk fat particles leads to the superposition of the intensity of the instantaneous scattered light within the integration time of the human eye, which causes a reduction in laser speckle contrast because of temporal averaging intensity. Experimental results show that the speckle contrast mainly depends on the concentration of the suspended fat particles, and can be reduced down to 3.94% at the fat particle concentration of approximately 7.0 ×10-4 μm-3.

Overexpression of Frizzled-7 (FZD7) has been associated with tumor invasion and distant metastases, but little is known about the relationship between FZD7 expression and prognosis in colon cancer.A total of 114 patients with colon cancer between June 2010 and December 2010 were enrolled in this study. The expression of FZD7 in cancerous and adjacent non-cancerous tissues was determined by immunohistochemistry, and the association between FZD7 expression and patient's clinicopathological characteristics was explored. The correlation between FZD7 expression and prognosis of colon cancer patients was analyzed using the Oncomine database and R2.FZD7 expression levels were significantly higher in colon cancer tissues compared with adjacent non-cancerous tissues (P 0.001). High expression of FZD7 was significantly associated with metastatic or recurrent disease in colon cancer (P = 0.010). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that colon cancer patients with high expression of FZD7 had a significantly poorer OS (P = 0.013) and DFS (P = 0.010). Cox regression demonstrated that the expression of FZD7 was an independent prognostic factor for DFS (HR = 6.647, P = 0.023). A meta-analysis from the Oncomine database demonstrated that FZD7 mRNA levels were significantly higher in colorectal cancer tissues than in normal colorectal tissues, and FZD7 high expression was associated with a significantly poorer event and relapse-free survival time by analyzing the data from the R2: Genomics Analysis and Visualization Platform.Overexpression of FZD7 was associated with poor survival in patients with colon cancer. Our data suggest that FZD7 expression could be an effective prognostic biomarker for colon cancer.

Esophageal cancer is one of the most common cancer and leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) has become a novel optical tool of choice for imaging tissue architecture and cellular morphology based on two-photon excited fluorescence and second harmonic generation. In this study, we used MPM to image microstructure of human normal esophagus, carcinoma in situ, and early invasive carcinoma in order to investigate the morphological change of tissue structure during the early phase of tumor progression. The diagnostic features such as the appearance of cancerous cells, the absence of the basement membrane were extracted to distinguish between normal and cancerous esophagus tissue. The infiltration depth during tumor progression was determined by the appearance of cancerous cells. The significant change of layer structure between cancerous tissue and normal esophagus was described. We also quantitatively described the differences of morphology between normal and cancerous cells. These results correlated well with the corresponding histological findings. With the advancement of clinically miniaturized MPM and the multi-photon probe, combining MPM with standard endoscopy will therefore allow us to make a real-time in vivo diagnosis of early esophageal cancer at the cellular level.

Esophageal cancer is one of the most common malignancies of the gastrointestinal cancers and carries poorer prognosis than other gastrointestinal cancers. In general practice, the depth of tumor infiltration in esophageal wall is crucial to establishing appropriate treatment plan which is established by detecting the tumor infiltration depth. Connective tissue is one of the main structures that form the esophageal wall. So, identification of tumor cells infiltrating into connective tissue is helping for detecting the tumor infiltration depth. Our aim is to evaluate whether multiphoton microscopy (MPM) can be used to detect tumor cells infiltrating into connective tissue in the esophageal cancer. MPM is well-suited for real-time detecting morphologic and cellular changes in fresh tissues since many endogenous fluorophores of fresh tissues are excited through two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second harmonic generation (SHG). In this work, microstructure of tumor cells and connective tissue are first studied. Then, morphological changes of collagen fibers after the infiltration of tumor cells are shown. These results show that MPM has the ability to detect tumor cells infiltrating into connective tissue in the esophageal cancer. In the future, MPM may be a promising imaging technique for detecting tumor cells in esophageal cancer.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is devastating because of its aggressive lymphatic spread and clinical course. It is believed to occur through low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (LGIN), high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HGIN), and intramucosal invasive cancer (IMC) before transforming to submucosal cancer. In particular, these early lesions (LGIN, HGIN and IMC), which involve no lymph node nor distant metastasis, can be cured by endoscopic treatment. Therefore, early identification of these lesions is important so as to offer a curative endoscopic resection, thus slowing down the development of ESCC. In this work, spectral information and morphological features of the normal esophageal mucosa are first studied. Then, the morphological changes of LGIN, HGIN and IMC are described. Lastly, quantitative parameters are also extracted by calculating the nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio of epithelial cells and the pixel density of collagen in the lamina propria. These results show that multiphoton microscopy (MPM) has the ability to identify normal esophageal mucosa, LGIN, HGIN and IMC. With the development of multiphoton endoscope systems for in vivo imaging, combined with a laser ablation system, MPM has the potential to provide immediate pathologic diagnosis and curative treatment of ESCC before the transformation to submucosal cancer in the future.

Most applications of multi-photon microscopy (MPM) in biology and medicine focus on high-resolution imaging of physiology, morphology and cell–cell interactions in intact tissues or live animals. In this paper, our aim is to assess whether MPM has the ability to provide comparable information for stained histology slides and to identify inflammatory fibroid polyp (IFP) tissue sections without H&E staining.A tissue section without H&E staining was examined using a multi-photon microscope consisting of a mode-locked Ti: sapphire femtosecond laser (Mira 900-F; Coherent, Inc.) and a commercial laser scanning microscope (LSM 510 META; Carl Zeiss, Inc.) with a Plan-Neofluar 40×/0.75 objective. Large area images and a series of optical sectioning images were obtained using an optional fine-focusing stage (HRZ 200; Carl Zeiss, Inc.).MPM images showed the main characteristics of IFP that corresponded well with H&E microscopic results, such as a typical onion skin arrangement of reticular fibers around thin-walled blood vessels, and short spindle cells intermixed with abundant inflammatory cells. A series of optical sectioning images displayed morphological structure of tissue sections at different depths.MPM has the ability to provide comparable results to H&E staining. Its capability of optical sectioning can present the morphological structure of different optical sectioning planes, making MPM an alternative for those cases where the sample is very thick or cannot be stained.

Esophageal cancer is a common malignancy with a very poor prognosis. Successful strategies for primary prevention and early detection are critically needed to control this disease. Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) is becoming a novel optical tool of choice for imaging tissue architecture and cellular morphology by two-photon excited fluorescence. In this study, we used MPM to image microstructure of human normal esophagus, carcinoma in situ (CIS), and early invasive carcinoma in order to establish the morphological features to differentiate these tissues. The diagnostic features such as the appearance of cancerous cells, the significant loss of stroma, the absence of the basement membrane were extracted to distinguish between normal and cancerous esophagus tissue. These results correlated well with the paired histological findings. With the advancement of clinically miniaturized MPM and the multi-photon probe, combining MPM with standard endoscopy will therefore allow us to make a real-time in vivo diagnosis of early esophageal cancer at the cellular level.

Laser speckle degrades image quality in laser displays. The speckle contrast needs to be correctly evaluated in designing laser displays. In this paper, a moving small diffuser for speckle reduction is set up for laser projection display system. We demonstrate the effect of the projection lens on speckle contrast under the scenarios of free-space and image geometry measurement with different configurations. The results show the speckle contrast in free-space geometry is measured as about 74.16% without projection lens and 60.74% with projection lens for the static diffuser, which are reduced to 2.75% when the diffuser moves for both with and without projection lens. In the imaging geometry, the moving diffuser reduces the speckle contrast from 83.22% to 9.61% without projection lens, and from 98.7% to 36.59% with projection lens.

Esophageal cancer is one of the most common cancer and leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) has become a novel optical tool of choice for imaging tissue architecture and cellular morphology based on two-photon excited fluorescence and second harmonic generation. In this study, we used MPM to image microstructure of human normal esophagus, carcinoma in situ, and early invasive carcinoma in order to investigate the morphological change of tissue structure during the early phase of tumor progression. The diagnostic features such as the appearance of cancerous cells, the absence of the basement membrane were extracted to distinguish between normal and cancerous esophagus tissue. The infiltration depth during tumor progression was determined by the appearance of cancerous cells. The significant change of layer structure between cancerous tissue and normal esophagus was described. We also quantitatively described the differences of morphology between normal and cancerous cells. These results correlated well with the corresponding histological findings. With the advancement of clinically miniaturized MPM and the multi-photon probe, combining MPM with standard endoscopy will therefore allow us to make a real-time in vivo diagnosis of early esophageal cancer at the cellular level.

There have two ways to observe speckle, free space and image space. We introduced the factors impact speckle contrast in a speckle characterization system and established an equivalent relation between image space speckle characterization and free space speckle characterization, validating the equivalent relation through experiments. The experimental results show that if the equivalent relation come into existence, the speckle contrast measured in image space match well with it in free space. At last we have discussed the speckle in a projection system with a rough surface inside and given the compound speckle measuring method.