“
“Background: Up to 60% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD) patients can present airway hyperresponsiveness. However, it is not known whether the peripheral lung tissue also shows an exaggerated response to agonists Sapanisertib in COPD. Objectives: To investigate the in vitro mechanical behavior and the structural and inflammatory changes of peripheral lung tissue in COPD patients and compare to nonsmoking controls. Methods: We measured resistance and elastance at baseline and after acetylcholine (ACh) challenge of lung strips obtained from 10 COPD patients and 10 control subjects.

We also assessed the alveolar tissue density of neutrophils, eosinophils, macrophages, mast cells and CD8+ and CD4+ cells, as well as the content of alpha-smooth muscle actin-positive cells and elastic and collagen fibers. We further investigated whether changes in in vitro parenchymal mechanics correlated to structural and inflammatory parameters and to in vivo pulmonary MK-2206 in vivo function. Results: Values of resistance after ACh treatment and the percent increase in tissue resistance (%R) were higher in the COPD group (p <=

0.03). There was a higher density of macrophages and CD8+ cells (p < 0.05) and a lower elastic content (p = 0.003) in the COPD group. We observed a positive correlation between %R and eosinophil and CD8+ cell density (r = 0.608, p = 0.002, and r = 0.581, p = 0.001, respectively) SBE-β-CD order and a negative correlation between %R and the ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 s to forced vital capacity (r = -0.451, p < 0.05). Conclusions: The cholinergic responsiveness of parenchymal lung strips is increased in COPD patients and seems to be related to alveolar tissue eosinophilic and CD8 lymphocytic inflammation and to the degree of airway obstruction on the pulmonary function test. Copyright

(C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel”
“The minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy (MIVAT) for thyroid benign nodules and central neck dissection (CND) for papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) have been applied, presently, we attempted to perform video-assisted selective lateral neck dissection (VASLND) for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

Twenty-six consecutive PTC patients with unilateral tumor (size < 4.0 cm) and suspected lymph node metastasis at level III, IV, or IIa were included from March 2009 to January 2012.

VASLND was successfully performed in all 26 PTC patients. The mean operative time was 46 min (range 26-75 min) on VASLND. No major complications occurred. Average postoperative hospital stay was 3.6 days (range 2-8 days). The mean number of removed nodes was 7.3 (range4-12) in central neck and 8.3 (range 3-21) in lateral compartment. Positive yield amounted to a mean value of 2.6 (range 0-5) and 3 (range 0-6), respectively. No persistent or recurrent disease was observed in any patient during a follow-up period. The cosmetic result was excellent.