Progressing subglottic and tracheobronchial stenosis in a patient with CHARGE syndrome diagnosed in adulthood

AbstractA 33-year-old woman was admitted for a pseudocroup-like cough and wheezing after general anesthesia. Several months ago, she had undergone cardiac re-operation and turbinectomy, both of which had involved difficult intubations. Bronchoscopy indicated a pin-hall-like subglottic stenosis; therefore, emergency tracheotomy was performed. Six years later, a computed tomography scan demonstrated progressive stenosis of the entire circumference of the trachea and main bronchi. She died at 40 years. Her autopsy revealed marked tracheobronchial stenosis. She had many medical histories that had gone undiagnosed and had been clinically ill with only heart defects. She did not have coloboma but had microphthalmos, atresia choanae, retarded growth development, and deafness; thus, we diagnosed CHARGE syndrome that refers to multiple congenital anomalies, including airway abnormalities, which can lead to secondary complications such as traumatic stenosis after intubation. Physicians should have knowledge of this rare disease and should pay special attention to potential airway problems

Effects of hydrogen ion irradiation on zinc oxide etching

Mechanisms of zinc oxide (ZnO) etching by hydrocarbon plasmas were investigated both experimentally and theoretically with the use of a mass-selected ion beam system and first-principle quantum mechanical (QM) simulation based on the density functional theory. The mass-selected ion beam experiments have shown that the sputtering yield of ZnO increases by a pretreatment of the ZnO film by energetic hydrogen (H) ion injections prior to heavy ion bombardment, suggesting that chemically enhanced etching of ZnO by hydrocarbon plasmas is closely related to hydrogen storage and/or formation of damage in the ZnO layer by energetic hydrogen injections. In this study, the effects of hydrogen storage in ZnO are examined. First-principle QM simulation of ZnO interacting with H atoms has shown that H atoms in ZnO form hydroxyl (OH) groups (or partially convert ZnO to ZnOH), which results in the weakening or breaking of the Zn-O bonds around H atoms and thus makes the ZnO film more prone to physical sputtering. The formation of hydroxyl groups in ZnO is also expected to occur in ZnO etching by hydrocarbon plasmas and increase its sputtering yields over those by inert-gas plasmas generated under similar conditions.H. Li et al., Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A 35, 05C303 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1116/1.498271

Hydrogen effects in hydrofluorocarbon plasma etching of silicon nitride: Beam study with CF+, CF2+, CHF2 +, and CH2F+ ions

Tomoko Ito and Kazuhiro Karahashi, Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A 29, 050601 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1116/1.361098

Sputtering yields and surface chemical modification of tin-doped indium oxide in hydrocarbon-based plasma etching

Sputtering yields and surface chemical compositions of tin-doped indium oxide (or indium tin oxide, ITO) by CH+, CH3+, and inert-gas ion (He+, Ne+, and Ar+) incidence have been obtained experimentally with the use of a mass-selected ion beam system and in-situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It has been found that etching of ITO is chemically enhanced by energetic incidence of hydrocarbon (CHx+) ions. At high incident energy incidence, it appears that carbon of incident ions predominantly reduce indium (In) of ITO and the ITO sputtering yields by CH+ and CH3+ ions are found to be essentially equal. At lower incident energy (less than 500eV or so), however, a hydrogen effect on ITO reduction is more pronounced and the ITO surface is more reduced by CH3+ ions than CH+ ions. Although the surface is covered more with metallic In by low-energy incident CH3+ ions than CH+ ions and metallic In is in general less resistant against physical sputtering than its oxide, the ITO sputtering yield by incident CH3+ ions is found to be lower than that by incident CH+ ions in this energy range. A postulation to account for the relation between the observed sputtering yield and reduction of the ITO surface is also presented. The results presented here offer a better understanding of elementary surface reactions observed in reactive ion etching processes of ITO by hydrocarbon plasmas.H. Li et al., Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A 33, 060606 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1116/1.492712

Mechanism of SiN etching rate fluctuation in atomic layer etching

A. Hirata et al., Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A 38, 062601 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1116/6.000025

Tracheoesophageal Fistula Closed by Chemoradiotherapy in Lung Cancer

A 45-year-old man complaining of cough, dyspnea, and difficulty in swallowing was referred to our hospital. Chest CT scan showed a mediastinal mass compressing the trachea. He was diagnosed with poorly differentiated lung carcinoma by percutaneous needle biopsy. Bronchoscopy and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed a tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF). Long-lasting febrile neutropenia made it impossible to continue chemotherapy, but a course of radiotherapy (total 61 Gy) was completed. The next endoscopy revealed closure of the TEF. Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) has been reported to close TEF in esophageal cancer, but the risk of a CRT-induced worsening of the fistula has dissuaded physicians from using CRT to treat TEF in lung cancer patients. CRT may serve as a palliative treatment for TEF in lung cancer as well as esophageal cancer

Identification of Characteristic Genomic Markers in Human Hepatoma HuH-7 and Huh7.5.1-8 Cell Lines

The human hepatoma-derived HuH-7 cell line and its derivatives (Huh7.5 and Huh7.5.1) have been widely used as a convenient experimental substitute for primary hepatocytes. In particular, these cell lines represent host cells suitable for propagating the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in vitro. The Huh7.5.1-8 cell line, a subline of Huh7.5.1, can propagate HCV more efficiently than its parental cells. To provide genomic information for cells' quality control, we performed whole-genome sequencing of HuH-7 and Huh7.5.1-8 and identified their characteristic genomic deletions, some of which are applicable to an in-house test for cell authentication. Among the genes related to HCV infection and replication, 53 genes were found to carry missense or loss-of-function mutations likely specific to the HuH-7 and/or Huh7.5.1-8. Eight genes, including DDX58 (RIG-I), BAX, EP300, and SPP1 (osteopontin), contained mutations observed only in Huh7.5.1-8 or mutations with higher frequency in Huh7.5.1-8. These mutations might be relevant to phenotypic differences between the two cell lines and may also serve as genetic markers to distinguish Huh7.5.1-8 cells from the ancestral HuH-7 cells

Streptomycin-Dependent Exhibition of Cytokine-Inducing Activity in Streptomycin-Dependent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strain 18b

Peritoneal exudate cells of mice were stimulated with a streptomycin-dependent Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain, 18b. Gamma interferon production by natural killer cells depending on interleukin-12 and interleukin-18 was induced only in the presence of a high dose of streptomycin. This study suggested the requirement of active bacterial metabolism for this host response

The impact of multidisciplinary approaches on the outcomes of olfactory neuroblastoma treated with postoperative radiotherapy

Abstract Background We investigated the outcomes of postoperative radiation therapy for olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB) and our cross‐departmental collaboration to enhance the effectiveness of cancer treatment. Methods We retrospectively evaluated 22 patients with ONB who underwent postoperative radiotherapy after tumor resection. En bloc resection was performed; pathology specimens were prepared in coronal sections; and irradiation fields were determined after discussion with radiation oncologists, head and neck surgeons, and pathologists. Results The overall survival and local control rates were 95.5% and 100%, respectively, at a median 37‐month follow‐up. The 3‐ and 5‐year disease‐free survival (DFS) rates were 64.4% and 56.3%, respectively. Of the 22 patients, 9 (8 Kadish C and 1 Kadish B) had disease recurrence. Of the nine patients, five had positive margins and two had closed margins; cervical lymph node recurrence occurred in six, and distant metastasis with or without cervical lymph node recurrence occurred in three. DFS analysis of risk factors showed no statistically significant differences, but positive margins were a significant recurrence factor in multivariate analysis. Conclusions The local control rate of ONB treated with postoperative radiation therapy was 100%. This may be attributed to cross‐departmental cooperation between head and neck surgeons, pathologists, and radiation oncologists, which resulted in accurate matching of CT images for treatment planning with the location of the tumor and positive margins. Longer follow‐up periods are required to evaluate the effectiveness of our strategy