[en] Thyroid nodule is one of the most common endocrine diseases in the world; it occurs in 4–7% of the general population. Depending on the method of discovery, 4–8% nodules are discovered using palpation, 10–41% with ultrasound (US), and 50% through autopsy where only 20% or less of cold thyroid nodules are caused by cancerous lesions. The aim of this study was to assess US as supporting modality for thyroid scintigraphy to predict malignancy in patient with thyroid cold nodules. In a retrospective study between 2009 and 2013, we analyzed 399 subjects with cold thyroid nodule, where 39 subjects (36 women and 3 men) presented with malignant thyroid cold nodule and 19 subjects underwent US. The US showed malignancy parameters in 8 (42.11%) subjects, while the rest of the 11 (57.89%) subject were benign. Out of all the subjects who underwent US in this study, only 8 (42.11%) subjects shown malignancy characteristics in cold thyroid nodule with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). That means US parameters of malignant thyroid nodule do not always show up in malignant cold thyroid nodule

[en] Papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs) occasionally form multiple tumor foci in different sites of the same thyroid gland. However, it is controversial whether discrete nodules of PTC arise independently (multicentric occurrence) or are seeded from a single tumor via lymphatic channels (intraglandular metastasis). In order to determine the clonal origin of multiple PTCs, we examined X-chromosome inactivation patterns using a human androgen receptor gene-based assay (HUMARA) and the BRAF mutation using allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR) in 32 microdissected cancerous tissues from 14 Japanese women with multifocal PTC. All tumor foci were greater than 3 mm in size and met the criteria for microscopic classical PTC. Samples from 13 of the 14 patients were informative based on HUMARA. Tumor foci from two cases (15.4%) displayed a discordant X-chromosome inactivation pattern. Foci from the other 11 cases (84.6%) showed a concordant inactivation pattern of the X-chromosome. AS-PCR indicated that BRAF mutational status between the tumor foci was discordant in three (25%) and concordant in nine (75%) of 12 available cases. When the results of these two molecular analyses were combined, 28.6% of the cases were discordant in X-chromosome inactivation pattern and/or BRAF mutation, suggesting multicentric origin. Some of the remaining concordant cases also may be of multicentric origin. These results support a hypothesis that multicentric occurrence in multiple PTCs may be common, possibly greater than 30%. Although the exact mechanism of multicentric occurrence is still unclear, our findings contribute to the understanding the histogenesis of papillary thyroid carcinoma

[en] Unilateral invasion of the internal jugular vein (IJV) after subtotal thyroidectomy caused by local recurrence of papillary thyroid carcinoma is extremely rare. We report a case of papillary thyroid carcinoma which invades IJV with hypervascular tumor thrombus. We report a case of a 52-year-old woman with a history of previous thyroid operation who presented with a 2-month history of a painless, growing, hard, solitary mass on the left side of the neck. Clinical examination revealed also ipsilateral cervical lymphadenopathy. Radiological examination showed a necrotic and cystic mass arising from the operated area extending and invading the left jugular vein wall with hypervascular tumor thrombus. Cytological examination of the mass confirmed a papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and enlarged metastatic lymph nodes. Therefore, total thyroidectomy with left neck dissection and segmental resection of the left internal jugular vein were performed, and the tumor thrombus was cleared successfully. Invasion of IJV with hypervascular tumor thrombosis is an extremely rare condition in papillary thyroid carcinoma. Thrombosis of IJV is probably underdiagnosed. Early-stage diagnosis is important for long-term survival rates

[en] Ectopic thyroid tissue results from abnormal embryologic development and migration of the thyroid gland. True malignant transformation in ectopic thyroid tissue is extremely rare and is always diagnosed after surgical excision of the lesion by pathology examinations. There are well-documented cases of ectopic thyroid cancer while primary tumoral lesion occurs in the orthotopic thyroid, but only rare cases of ectopic PTC without any evidence of occult thyroid cancer in the orthotopic thyroid or cervical lymph nodes have been reported. We report on a 39 year old woman who was operated for a mediastinal mass. The initial diagnosis was a malignant thymic lesion, which was later confirmed to be a papillary thyroid carcinoma. Consequently, total thyroidectomy was performed and pathology report showed normal thyroid tissue with no evidence of any neoplastic involvement. Until now, only one similar case has been reported

[en] Conductive polymer composites have been applied in temperature sensing owing to its resistance response to temperature change. In this work, composites with short carbon fibers (CFs) filled in silicon rubber (SR) were 3D printed. The positive temperature coefficient (PTC) effect of the composite resistance behaved anisotropically due to the CFs’ orientation, where the PTC intensity was lower when tested along the CFs’ orientation than that along other directions. The composites owned an excellent PTC effect reproducibility at the temperature of 25 ~ 100 °C. In-situ observation shows that the CFs in the composites shifted about 2.62 ± 1.05 μm when the temperature increased from 25 °C to 80 °C. The resistance creep under isothermal aging treatment reveals that the composites could keep their resistance relatively stable at the isothermal aging of 20 ~ 80 °C. The mechanical loads could help the crept resistance to recover to its original value very quickly, which was referred to resistance memory effect (RME) in this article. CF/SR composite was finally connected into circuits as thermistor and temperature sensor, which verified a potential application for temperature sensing.

[en] Highlights: • A paraffin wax based integrated micro-gripper has been proposed for tip-replacement in AFM. • PTC and laser-based heating have been demonstrated to control the phase of the micro-gripper. • The micro-gripper has been demonstrated to pick up new AFM tips. • AFM probes with picked-up tips have been demonstrated to image samples without any artifacts in contact mode and in water. • Tip detachment has also been experimentally demonstrated. -- Abstract: Replacement of an atomic force microscope (AFM) probe is an unavoidable aspect of the instrument's use, since its tip gets blunted or contaminated with use. Here, we propose a technique to replace only the tip of the AFM probe. Significantly, the technique is compatible with all the conventional modalities and media in which AFM is operated. The proposed technique employs a paraffin wax micro-particle as an integrated adhesive microgripper. By suitably controlling the phase of this material, it is employed to pick up and detach tips, and to grip them firmly while interacting with samples. The strategy has been experimentally demonstrated to work under conditions that are most likely to affect the microgripper integrity, namely, during contact mode imaging and in water. Despite this, the obtained images are shown to be identical to that obtained in air and with conventional probes. Further, reliability studies on the microgripper revealed that its lifetime is significantly higher than that of the probe-tip. Finally, the gripper has also been demonstrated to enable detachment of the AFM tip.

[en] Published in summary form only

[en] High density polyethylene/graphite (HDPE/Gr) composites were fabricated by the melt-blending method, and displayed the enhanced positive temperature coefficient (PTC) effect and decreasing room-temperature resistivity with the addition of vanadium dioxide (VO₂). Especially, HDPE/Gr composite with 6 wt% VO₂ showed the remarkable double PTC effects and excellent reproducibility. Based on obvious two-shape structure and heating amorphous evolution of HDPE composites, the simple filler-compensated conductive networks and unique dispersion model were constructed to further understand the PTC behavior. Finally, it was concluded that the excellent double PTC effects of single polymer composites were achieved by the introduction of second filler. (paper)

[en] Distant metastases stemming from a papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) are quite rare. Here we report an exceptional case of PTC presenting with cervical lymphatic and uterine metastases. This is the first case report of a PTC with uterine involvement. A 60-year-old Chinese woman came to our hospital complaining of discomfort in the throat that she had been experiencing for about half a month. PTC and cervical lymphatic metastasis were diagnosed after ultrasound examinations. A massive heterogeneous mass was found beside the uterus during the pre-operative checkup and a diagnosis of ovarian carcinoma was suspected after a thorough case discussion. However, it proved to be a metastasis from the PTC as determined by pathological and immunohistochemical examinations after the operation. The patient declined further treatments. She was followed for 22 months with no sign of recurrence detected. In this report, an unusual case of PTC was presented. The patient had not only regional lymphatic metastasis, but also had a massive metastasis in the uterine corpus, which was initially misdiagnosed as ovarian carcinoma. This case is of interest because of its rarity and exceptionally good prognosis. The reason for the misdiagnosis was attributed to overlooking the possibility of a distant metastasis coming from a PTC. This case raises the issue that completing an iodine-131 scan before operating on patients with PTC may be warranted

[en] The incidence of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is markedly higher in women than men during the reproductive years. In vitro studies have suggested that estrogen may play an important role in the development and progression of PTC through estrogen receptors (ERs). This study aimed to investigate the expression patterns of the two main ER subtypes, α and β1 (wild-type ERβ), in PTC tissue and their clinical significance. Immunohistochemical staining of thyroid tissue sections was performed to detect ER expression in female patients with PTC (n = 89) and nodular thyroid goiter (NTG; n = 30) using the Elivision™ plus two-step system. The relationships between ER subtype expression and clinicopathological/biological factors were further analyzed. The positive percentage and expression levels of ERα were significantly higher in female PTC patients of reproductive age (18–45 years old; n = 50) than age-matched female NTG patients (n = 30), while ERβ1 exhibited the opposite pattern. There was no difference in ERα or ERβ1 expression between female PTC patients of reproductive age and those of advanced reproductive age (>45 years old; n = 39). In the female PTC patients of reproductive age, ERα expression level was positively correlated with that of Ki-67, while ERβ1 was negatively correlated with mutant P53. Furthermore, more patients with exclusively nuclear ERα expression had extrathyroidal extension (ETE) as compared with those with extranuclear ERα localization. VEGF expression was significantly decreased in female PTC patients of reproductive age with only nuclear ERβ1 expression when compared with those with extranuclear ERβ1 localization. In PTC patients of advanced reproductive age, neither ERα nor ERβ1 expression showed any correlation with that of Ki-67, mutant P53, VEGF, tumor size, TNM stage, ETE, or lymph node metastases. The differential expression patterns of the two ER subtypes between PTC and NTG indicate that ERα may be a useful immunohistochemical marker for differential diagnosis of PTC. The associations of ER subtype expression with Ki-67, mutant P53, VEGF expression and ETE in female PTC patients of reproductive age suggest that estrogen-activated ERα may mediate stimulatory effects on PTC growth and progression whereas ERβ1 has some inhibitory actions