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Objectives: Bronchoscopy is frequently performed for patients suspected of having lung cancer; however, we sometimes fail to make a definitive diagnosis, resulting in additional invasive testing. Many studies indicate that microRNAs (miRs) are abnormally expressed in cancers. We examined the diagnostic value of 4 miRs (miR-21, miR-31, miR-182, and miR-183) extracted from liquid-based cytology (LBC) samples and validated whether they were diagnostically useful.Methods: We collected 18 surgically resected tissue samples and 136 LBC specimens obtained during bronchoscopic examination at Hiroshima University Hospital. We extracted RNA from these samples and compared the expression of 4 miRs by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction.Results: We confirmed that expression of the 4 miRs was significantly higher in cancer tissues than in tumor-adjacent normal tissues. We examined the expression of these miRs in 125 (cancer cases, 83; noncancer cases, 42) of 136 cytologic samples. Expression of all 4 miRs was significantly higher in patients with lung cancer than in those without lung cancer. Among samples judged as benign or indeterminate, levels of these miRs were also significantly higher in patients with lung cancer than in those without lung cancer.Conclusions: The analysis of miR expression in LBC samples might be helpful for primary lung cancer diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nailfold capillary abnormalities are typically observed in patients with systemic sclerosis and are also often found in patients with polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM). Nailfold capillary abnormalities in some patients with PM/DM were found to improve with immunosuppressant treatment. However, the short-term changes in nailfold capillaries and their associations with disease activity have not been established yet. Additionally, there have been no reports on whether nailfold capillary abnormalities can change during the progression of malignant tumours. A man in his 60s with anti-transcriptional intermediate factor 1γ (anti-TIF-1γ) antibody-positive DM complicated with small cell lung carcinoma was treated with prednisolone (PSL) 70 mg, carboplatin (CBDCA) and etoposide (VP-16). His nailfold capillary abnormalities improved rapidly, and the tumour size decreased with treatment. Although chemotherapy was continued, abnormalities in the nailfold capillaries gradually recurred. The worsening of the capillary abnormalities prompted us to examine computed tomography scans, which showed the recurrence of lung cancer. After switching to second-line chemotherapy, the change in the nailfold capillary abnormalities was again in a parallel course with the disease status of lung cancer. Changes in nailfold capillaries may be useful not only for the diagnosis but also for the evaluation of the recurrence of malignant tumours with DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]