In patients with steady-state bronchiectasis in Guangzhou, P. aeruginosa is the most common organism causing heightened airway inflammation and poor lung function. PPM isolation or colonisation should be suspected in case of longer duration of symptoms, multilobar bronchiectasis, frequent exacerbation and cystic bronchiectasis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to diagnose microvascular invasion in patients with solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from pre-operative CT imaging. Methods: 102 patients with solitary HCC who underwent curative hepatectomy were retrospectively included in our study. The pre-operative 3-phase CT imaging and laboratory data for the 102 patients were reviewed. Tumour size, tumour margin, peritumoral enhancement and a-fetoprotein level were assessed. Surgical pathology was reviewed; tumour differentiation, liver fibrosis score and microvascular invasion were recorded. Results: The histopathological results revealed that 50 HCCs were positive and the other 52 were negative for microvascular invasion. Univariate analysis revealed that tumour size (p50.036), higher Edmondson-Steiner grade (p50.047) and non-smooth tumour margin (p,0.001) showed statistically significant associations with microvascular invasion. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that non-smooth tumour margin had a statistically significant association with microvascular invasion only (p,0.001). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the non-smooth tumour margin in the prediction of microvascular invasion were 66%, 86.5%, 82.5% and 72.6%, respectively. Conclusion: Non-smooth tumour margin in pre-operative CT had a statistically significant association with microvascular invasion. More aggressive treatment should be considered in HCC patients with suspected positive microvascular invasion. Hepatic resection is a potentially curative treatment modality for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) [1][2][3][4]. Histopathological vascular tumour invasion is a well-known major prognostic factor for patients with HCC who have undergone hepatic resection or liver transplantation [5][6][7][8]. Iwatsuki et al [9] reported that microvascular and macrovascular invasions were associated with a 4.4-and 15-fold increased risk of recurrence, respectively, for patients who had undergone liver transplantation. Because microvascular tumour invasion has a significant impact on recurrence and prognosis, preoperative diagnosis of microvascular invasion is needed.Radiological detection of microvascular tumour invasion may facilitate the pre-operative prediction of a patient's prognosis. Many researchers have tried to elucidate microvascular invasion based on pre-operative imaging studies, including CT during hepatic angiography, dynamic MRI and superparamagnetic iron oxideenhanced MRI [10][11][12][13]. However, radiological findings suggestive of microvascular invasion in pre-operative CT have not yet been well established. The purpose of our study was to diagnose microvascular invasion in patients with solitary HCC from pre-operative triphasic CT findings. Methods and materials PatientsApproval for retrospective study was obtained from our institutional review board. Between January 2007 and December 2009, 153 patients with HCC who underwent elective curative hepatectomy in our institution were...

Minor cultural adaptations were made to the wording of LCQ-MC. No other difficulties were found during the translation process, with all items easily adapted to acceptable Mandarin Chinese. The questionnaire was not changed in terms of content layout and the order of the questions. In cognitive debriefing interviews, participants reported that the questionnaire was acceptable, relevant, comprehensive and easy to complete. The LCQ-MC showed good concurrent validity, internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Responsiveness was shown by significant changes in LCQ-MC scores between steady state, the first exacerbation and following 2-week antibiotic treatment (both interval changes, P < 0.01) CONCLUSION: The LCQ-MC is a valid, reliable and responsive instrument for determining cough-specific health status in Chinese bronchiectasis patients.