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Abstract Background and Aim A pyogenic liver abscess (PLA) is an infectious disease with high in‐hospital mortality. It has no specific symptoms and is difficult to be diagnosed early in the emergency department. Ultrasound is commonly used to detect PLA lesions of PLA, but its sensitivity can be affected by lesion size, location, and clinician experience. Therefore, early diagnosis and prompt treatment (especially abscess drainage) are crucial for better patient outcomes and should be prioritized by clinical physicians. Methods We conducted a retrospective study to compare the effect of early and late (i.e., receiving CT scanning within 48 h and >48 h after admission) adoption of nonenhanced computed tomography (CT) scanning regarding the hospitalization days and interval between admission and drainage of patients with PLA. Results This study included 76 hospitalized patients with PLA in the Department of Digestive Disease of Xiamen Chang Gung Hospital in China who underwent CT examinations from 2014 to 2021. We conducted CT scans on 56 patients within 48 h of admission and on 20 patients more than 48 h after admission. The early CT group had a significantly shorter hospitalization length compared with the late CT group (15.0 days vs. 20.5 days; P = 0.035). Besides, the median time to initiate drainage after admission was also significantly shorter in the early CT group than in the late CT group (1.0 days vs. 4.5 days; P

Photodynamic therapy emerged in the 1900s and recently, it has been developed as a novel modality for treating tumors, precancerous lesions, hypertrophic skin diseases, vascular diseases and so on. We aimed to compare the efficacy and adverse effects of surgery combined with photodynamic therapy or triamcinolone acetonide injection for keloid treatment. This self‐controlled study included nine patients with keloids. Two keloid sites were selected for each patient: one site received photodynamic therapy (PDT group) and the other site received local triamcinolone acetonide injections (TA group). All the keloids were surgically excised. The Vancouver Scar Scale and pruritus and pain scores were assessed at 3 and 6 months, respectively. At 3 and 6 months postoperatively, the pruritus and pain scores decreased significantly (P <.01) and equally in both groups (P >.05). At 6 months postoperatively, the PDT group showed the following results: complete cure, one patient; significantly effective, four patients; effective, four patients; and ineffective, no patient (efficacy, 100%). The TA group showed the following results: complete cure, one patient; significantly effective, three patients; effective, four patients; and ineffective, one patient (efficacy, 88.9%). Between‐group differences were not significant (P >.05). Hyperpigmentation was observed (n = 2) in the experimental group, whereas menstrual disorders (n = 2), local capillary dilation (n = 1) and subcutaneous atrophy (n = 1) were observed in the TA group. Photodynamic therapy and local triamcinolone acetonide are equally and highly effective in treating keloids with few side effects and when combined with surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate a low-loss terahertz waveguide based on the InAs-graphene-SiC structure. By analyzing the terahertz waveguide proposed in this paper, we can obtain that it is the characteristic of a low transmission loss coefficient (αloss ≈ 0.55 dB/m) for fundamental mode (LP01) when the incident frequency is larger than 3.0 THz. The critical radii of the inside and outside cylinders have been found for the high-quality transmission. The large inside radius and the high transmission frequency result in a flat transmission loss coefficient curve. As a strictly two-dimensional material, the double graphene surface rings perform better to improve the quality of transmission mode. These results provide a new idea for the research of the long-distance THz waveguide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]