[en] We compared the ultrasound (US)-guided, fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) diagnosis, surgical pathology and isotope findings in 55 cases of thyroid surgery. Our diagnostic accuracy was the same as in other reports. Scintigraphical pattern suggesting malignancy is cold spot for Tc and hot spot for ²⁰¹Tl in delay image. When FNAB was class 1 or 2, this pattern appeared almost as an adenomatous goiter. If there were no findings of calcification and irregular wall in the ultrasound or the CT examination, class 3 cases were judged benign. Many cases were considered acceptable for a wait-and-see strategy without operation. Ultrasound and CT differential diagnosis was difficult for follicular adenoma and follicular carcinoma. However, we could make a totality diagnosis by cytology, scintigraphy, ultrasound and CT in our study. Adenomatous goiter was seen usually as hot scintigraphy of the ²⁰¹Tl delay image. If there were no findings of calcification or irregular wall in the ultrasound or CT examination, cases with hot scintigraphy of the ²⁰¹Tl delay image were almost always adenomatous goiter. This pattern was also considered acceptable for a wait-and-see strategy without operation. (author)

[en] We propose a novel bottom-up approach for the fabrication of various desired nanostructures, based on self-assembly of oligonucleotides governed by Watson-Crick base pairing. Using this approach, we designed Y-shaped, closed Y-shaped, H-shaped, and hexagonal structures with oligonucleotides. These structures were autonomously fabricated simply by mixing equimolar solutions of oligonucleotides and performing hybridization. After synthesis of the nanostructures, we confirmed their validity by agarose gel electrophoresis and atomic force microscope (AFM) visualization. We detected bands of the desired molecular sizes in the gel electrophoresis and observed the desired structures by AFM analysis. We concluded that the synthesized structures were consistent with our intended design and that AFM visualization is a very useful tool for the observation of nanostructures

[en] We investigated the pathology, age groups, blood test, CT image, isotope findings and fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) diagnosis in 92 cervical lymph node biopsies. There were 31 cases of benign causes and 61 cases of malignant cases. 18 patients had been treated for malignant disease previously. Of these 18, 17 had had a recurrence of a previous malignant disease. Eleven of the 15 cases that showed an enhancement in the CT examination were malignant. Sensitivity and specificity for malignant etiology in the gallium isotope examination were 91.4% and 37.5%. The hot spot for scintigraphy with ⁶⁷Ga was helpful for diagnosis of malignancy. In a total of 8 cases of malignant lymphoma and metastatic lymphoepithelial carcinoma, 5 cases were diagnosed as Class I or II by fine-needle aspiration biopsy. However, there was a hot spot for scintigraphy with ⁶⁷Ga in these 5 cases. Therefore, we concluded that the indications of operation in cervical lymph node biopsy are the following: elderly patients with lymphadenopathy that have shown no spontaneous regression for a long time, patients who have been treated for malignant disease previously except for class IV or V, patients who were found to have an enhancement in their CT besides a hot spot for scintigraphy, and suspicion of malignant lymphoma, a hot spot for scintigraphy but in Class I or II. We also investigated 9 cases, 4 men and 5 women aged 13-34 years, with necrotizing lymphadenitis that were correctly diagnosed by biopsy. Antibiotics were not effective in all cases. These patients were improving by taking prednisone after their biopsy. We considered a biopsy necessary in cases where it is difficult to distinguish malignant lymphoma from the effects of prednisone. (author)

[en] Twenty-eight patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma were treated with superselective intra-arterial chemotherapy with docetaxel (DOC), cisplatin (CDDP), and fluorouracil (5-FU). Twenty-seven patients obtained complete response (CR) histologically. The response rate was 100% and CR rate was 96.4%. The one patient who did not attain CR was a patient who had already received radiation therapy and surgery. By the median follow-up period of 1,815 days (range was 382-3,383 days), the survival rate was 85.8% and the organ preservation rate was 82.5%. These data suggest that the primary tumors can be controlled by superselective intra-arterial chemotherapy alone for T2 and T3 which is close to T2 and superselective intra-arterial chemotherapy with concomitant radiation therapy for most of T3 and T4a cases. For cervical lymph node metastasis, it may be dependent on the neck dissection. This therapy is believed to be useful as a treatment for the purpose of 'organ preservation · non-surgical treatment'. (author)