Giant retroperitoneal lipoma presenting with abdominal distention:A case report and review of the literature

BACKGROUND Retroperitoneal lipomas are extremely rare tumors and tend to be large in size(>10 cm)when diagnosed,causing various clinical manifestations.Preoperative diagnosis of retroperitoneal lipomas is difficult.There is a lack of relevant information about the management and prognosis of these benign tumors due to limited reports.CASE SUMMARY A 53-year-old woman who complained about progressive abdominal distention and aggravating satiety was referred to the gynecological outpatient department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital.Computerized tomography(CT)revealed an immense mass with fat density,measuring 28.6 cm×16.6 cm in size.Adjacent organs,including the intestinal tract and uterus,were squeezed to the right side of the abdomen.An exploratory laparotomy was performed with suspicion of liposarcoma.Intraoperatively,a giant yellowish lobulated mass was found occupying the retroperitoneum and it was removed by tumor debulking.Postoperative histopathological results confirmed the diagnosis of retroperitoneal lipoma.CONCLUSION Retroperitoneal lipoma is a very rare condition and is difficult to differentiate from well-differentiated liposarcoma.Radiographic investigations,especially CT and magnetic resonance imaging,are important for preoperative diagnosis.Surgical resection is the fundamental treatment,which is difficult due to its size and relation to neighboring structures.

Effect of maternal pregestational diabetes mellitus on congenital heart diseases

Background The increasing population of diabetes mellitus in adolescent girls and women of childbearing age contributes to a large number of pregnancies with maternal pregestational diabetes mellitus.Congenital heart diseases are a common adverse outcome in mothers with pregestational diabetes mellitus.However,there is little systematic information between maternal pregestational diabetes mellitus and congenital heart diseases in the offspring.Data sources Literature selection was performed in PubMed.One hundred and seven papers were cited in our review,includ-ing 36 clinical studies,26 experimental studies,31 reviews,eight meta-analysis articles,and six of other types.Results Maternal pregestational diabetes mellitus poses a high risk of congenital heart diseases in the offspring and causes variety of phenotypes of congenital heart diseases.Factors such as persistent maternal hyperglycemia,oxidative stress,polymorphism of uncoupling protein 2,polymorphism of adiponectin gene,Notch 1 pathway,Nkx2.5 disorders,dysregula-tion of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1,and viral etiologies are associated with the occurrence of congenital heart diseases in the offspring of mothers with pregestational diabetes mellitus.Treatment options including blood sugar-reducing,anti-oxidative stress drug supplements and exercise can help to prevent maternal pregestational diabetes mellitus from inducing congenital heart diseases.Conclusions Our review contributes to a better understanding of the association between maternal pregestational diabetes mellitus and congenital heart diseases in the offspring and to a profound thought of the mechanism,preventive and therapeutic measurements of congenital heart diseases caused by maternal pregestational diabetes mellitus.

Bimetallic chalcogenides for electrocatalytic CO_(2)reduction

Electrocatalytic CO_(2)reduction reaction(CO_(2)RR)converts CO_(2)into valuable chemical fuels,which can effectively alleviate global warming and energy crisis.However,limited by its slow reaction rate and low product selectivity,it is urgent to design efficient,cheap,safe,and highly selective CO_(2)RR electrocatalysts.Owing to the advantages of adjustable electronic structure,abundant active sites,low cost,environmental friendliness and excellent electrochemical performance,bimetallic chalcogenides have aroused great interest.Here,we briefly summarized different bimetallic oxides and sulfides for electrocatalytic CO_(2)RR in the past five years.In addition,different hybridizations formed between metal atoms,including intermetallic compounds,heterostructures and metal doping,were generalized.Their positive effects on CO_(2)RR catalytic selectivity and activity were deeply uncovered.Besides,we also put forward some views about the future research directions and perspectives in CO_(2)RR field.This review aims to provide a reference for the rational design of bimetallic chalcogenides towards electrocatalytic CO_(2)reduction.