Differentiation of CT scan diagnosis between minimal fat renal angiomyolipoma with sufficient blood supply and clear cell renal carcinoma

Objective： The aim of our study was to investigate the feature of minimal fat renal angiomyolipoma with sufficient blood supply using CT scans and improve the diagnosis accuracy required to differentiate it from clear cell renal carcinoma. Methods： Retrospective analysis of 24 cases of post-surgery confirmed angiomyolipoma with sufficient blood supply （total of 25 tumors） in our hospital that were used for a pathological comparison study. Results： Among the 24 patients diagnosed with angiomyolipoma, nobody had bloody urine, Of the 96 patients diagnosed with clear cell renal cancer, 14 had bloody urine （14.6%）. In our studied group, the size of angiomyolipomas with sufficient blood supply was between 1.5 cm× 2.0 cm to 8.0 cm× 10.0 cm. During CT scan analysis, twenty tumors had similar density, and five of them had higher density. Only one tumor had a few dots of calcification （4%）. Adipose tissue was not visible in 9 tumors, while 16 tumors had visible dots of adipose tissue, as visualized by CT scan. Intensive scanning indicated that all of the tumors showed a strong enhancement in the renal corticomedullary phase. Twenty tumors had significant heterogeneous enhancement in the early phase, while another set of five cases had homogenous prolonged enhancement. Nineteen patients had surgery to remove the angiomyolipomas, while six patients had single side kidney removal due to misdiagnosis for renal cancer in cases where the tumor severely compromised the renal parenchyma and sinus. All 25 cases were classified as renal angiomyolipoma by pathological analysis. Within the 96 cases of clear cell renal cancer, 64 tumors had relatively low density, 29 tumors had equal density, and 3 cases had relatively higher density. Fourteen of the tumors had calcification （14.6%）, and none of them had visualized adipose tissue. Enhanced CT scans indicated that 69 cases of renal cancer showed significant enhancement in the renal corticomedu^ary phase, which had the abnormal pattern of ＂fast-in-and-fast-out＂. Additionally, 27 cases had slow and prolonged enhancement. Conclusion： Similar to clear cell renal carcinomas, angiomyolipomas with sufficient blood supply also appear to exhibit abnormal enhancement with a pattern of＂fast-in-and-fast-out＂ during the early phase, which is easily misdiagnosed as renal cancer. It is difficult to differentiate them merely through CT scans; the key to differentiating them is to identify the adipose tissue within the tumor. Therefore, it is helpful to use thin-layer CT scans to locate the adipose tissue.

Preparation and <i>in Vitro</i>Drug Release Evaluation of Once-Daily Metformin Hydrochloride Sustained-Release Tablets

The objective of this study was to develop once-daily metformin hydrochloride sustained-release tablets (MHSRT) and evaluate their in vitro release behavior. MHSRT were prepared by the film coating method. The in vitro drug release rate of MHSRT and the commercial tablets Fortamet? made in the United States of America in water was fitted with zero order kinetic equation, and Ritger-Peppas kinetic equation in 0.1 M HCl and pH 6.8-phosphate buffer, respectively. The similarity factor f2 values of MHSRT in three different dissolution medium were 82, 80 and 74, respectively in comparison with imported Fortamet?, which were all greater than 50. The results of storage-stability showed that MHSRT were stable for at least 6 months under stress condition (40℃ ± 2℃, RH 75% ± 5%). Therefore, in this study, MHSRT were successfully prepared using optimized formulation technologies that meet mass produce. The in vitro release behavior of MHSRT was almost similar to that of imported Fortamet?.

Histological, physio-biochemical, and transcriptomic analyses reveal the potential limiting factors for successful grafting of pecan

Budding is an important grafting technique to asexually propagate pecan(Carya illinoinensis(Wangenh.)K.Koch).To determine factors that might hamper success-ful budding of the species,a representative easy-to-survive cultivar‘Pawnee’and a typical difficult-to-survive culti-var‘Jinhua’were used for comprehensive analysis.Mor-phological observation showed that cells surrounding the secretory cells or sieve tube had collapsed in‘Jinhua’but not in‘Pawnee’during grafting.‘Jinhua’might suffer more hypoxia stress than‘Pawnee’as‘Jinhua’had higher catalase,superoxide dismutase,polyphenol oxidase,pyruvate decar-boxylase(PDC),alcohol dehydrogenase(ADH)activities during grafting and contained greater levels of hydrogen per-oxide 12 days after grafting(DAG).Transcriptions of PDC and ADH were also up-regulated significantly in‘Jinhua’whereas they were not significantly affected in‘Pawnee’.Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase activities of‘Jinhua’were consistently lower than that of‘Pawnee’.Initial phenol con-tents were similar between the two cultivars.Graft-promot-ing substances,including soluble sugar,soluble protein,and gibberellin(GA)were incompletely recovered in‘Jinhua’12 DAG while fully restored in‘Pawnee’.Increased levels of trans-zeatin riboside in‘Jinhua’were much smaller than in‘Pawnee’3 DAG.The contents of indole-3-acetic acid were similar,and the dynamics of abscisic acid were the same between the two genotypes.Results suggest that hypoxia stress and shortages of sugar,protein,GA,and cytokinin during the healing process might be key factors limiting successful budding of pecan.The degree of scion-rootstock compatibility and the content of phenols might be excluded as constraints for successful budding.

High-performance Sb:SnO_2 Compact Thin Film Based on Surfactant-free and Binder-free Sb:Sn_3O_4 Suspension

Surfactant-free and binder-free antimony-doped tin oxide （ATO） transparent conducting thin films were fabricated through spin coating and rapid annealing processes, in which nanosheets were assembled into a compact structure via self-contracting high pressure. The mechanism of this compact thin film for- mation was further proposed and analyzed. The compact ATO thin film had a low root mean square （RMS） roughness of 5.03 nm. This surfactant-free and binder-free compact ATO thin film delivered low resistivity of 3.04 × 10^-2 Ω cm, stable resistivity which only increased 13% after exposing in 65% RH air for half a month, high transmittance of 92.70% at 550 nm, and high band gap energy of 4.07 eV. This effective strategy will provide new insight into the synthesis of low-cost and high-performance compact thin films.