Case report: MRI changes of the inner ear in an MD patient with suspected immune dysfunction

ObjectivesThe primary objective of this study was to present the progressive changes from labyrinthitis to endolymphatic hydrops (EH) demonstrated in the inner ear MRI of a patient with MD and suspected immune dysfunction.PatientThis 31-year-old male was diagnosed with MD and suspected autoimmune diseases.InterventionsImmunosuppressants and biological agents.Main outcomes measuresInner ear MRI images.ResultsChanges in the patient’s progress revealed that inner ear immune and inflammatory changes might induce EH, which may eventually turn into MD.ConclusionThis case is the first documented case of MRI revealing progressive changes from inflammatory response to endolymphatic hydrops in the inner ear. It shows the correlation between MD and inflammation visually. It is of great significance to reveal the pathogenesis of MD to further assist in the guidance of treatment decision making

Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension

Despite the distortion of speech signals caused by unavoidable noise in daily life, our ability to comprehend speech in noisy environments is relatively stable. However, the neural mechanisms underlying reliable speech-in-noise comprehension remain to be elucidated. The present study investigated the neural tracking of acoustic and semantic speech information during noisy naturalistic speech comprehension. Participants listened to narrative audio recordings mixed with spectrally matched stationary noise at three signal-to-ratio (SNR) levels (no noise, 3 dB, -3 dB), and 60-channel electroencephalography (EEG) signals were recorded. A temporal response function (TRF) method was employed to derive event-related-like responses to the continuous speech stream at both the acoustic and the semantic levels. Whereas the amplitude envelope of the naturalistic speech was taken as the acoustic feature, word entropy and word surprisal were extracted via the natural language processing method as two semantic features. Theta-band frontocentral TRF responses to the acoustic feature were observed at around 400 ms following speech fluctuation onset over all three SNR levels, and the response latencies were more delayed with increasing noise. Delta-band frontal TRF responses to the semantic feature of word entropy were observed at around 200 to 600 ms leading to speech fluctuation onset over all three SNR levels. The response latencies became more leading with increasing noise and decreasing speech comprehension and intelligibility. While the following responses to speech acoustics were consistent with previous studies, our study revealed the robustness of leading responses to speech semantics, which suggests a possible predictive mechanism at the semantic level for maintaining reliable speech comprehension in noisy environments

Adrenal Gland Metastasis of Breast Invasive Mucinous Carcinoma: A Rare Case Report and Review of Literature

The adrenal gland is a frequent site for metastasis, and the majority of the metastatic lesions of the adrenal gland normally originate from lung cancer, colon cancer, renal cell carcinoma, and melanoma. However, adrenal gland metastasis from breast invasive mucinous carcinoma is extremely rare. This report described a rare case of right adrenal gland metastasis in a 48-year-old female, who was diagnosed with breast invasive mucinous carcinoma and underwent right modified radical mastectomy with axillary lymph node dissection 5 years previously. A mass located on the right adrenal gland was detected during a routine examination 2 months ago. The patient was asymptomatic and adrenal gland MRI revealed a mass in the right adrenal gland. Definitive preoperative diagnosis failed to be established. Right adrenal gland laparoscopic adrenalectomy was performed and the diagnosis of adrenal gland metastasis of breast carcinoma was confirmed by pathological and immunohistochemical examination, especially ER, PR, GATA3, and HER-2. The patient remained in good condition by the time of writing

Efficient Tumor Accumulation, Penetration and Tumor Growth Inhibition Achieved by Polymer Therapeutics: The Effect of Polymer Architectures

To obtain high tumor-specific accumulation, strong tumor penetration and low off-target uptake, we developed a series of polymer therapeutics with different architectures, including random, block, and brush-like structure, based on the classic N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide polymers. The influence of polymer architecture on biological properties such as cellular uptake, blood clearance, and biodistribution have been investigated. Besides small micelles whose sizes were determined by polymer architectures, large aggregates formed by micelle aggregation could also be observed. Although they had different architectures, the drug release rate, endocytic pathways and cellular uptake level of various conjugates have been proved to be identical. The polymer architecture of various conjugates lay great impact on the blood clearance, biodistribution and tumor growth inhibition. We assumed that the differences in in vivo biological properties were coordinately caused by the different size of the small aggregates and the formation and stability of large aggregates for different conjugates. Even though the reason was still unclear, the results inspired us that only by diblock conjugates with improved cellular uptake can we realize tumor specific accumulation, deep penetration, and efficient tumor inhibition