Ectopic Cervical Thymoma Excised through a Transcervical Approach Combined with Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery: A Case Report

Ectopic cervical thymoma (ECT) is a rare tumor. We present a case of 56-year-old woman with an ECT in the anterior neck that was correctly diagnosed preoperatively. The patient had no symptoms of myasthenia gravis or other immune disorders, and the tumor was not invading any adjacent structures. We performed tumor resection and thymectomy through a transcervical approach using video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery with a multi-access single port. To our knowledge, this is a novel combined technique for the resection of an ECT.     

Binding specificity of Fusobacterium nucleatum to human erythrocytes, polymorphonuclear leukocytes, fibroblasts, and HeLa cells

Eighteen strains of Fusobacterium nucleatum were studied with respect to their adherence to human erythrocytes, polymorphonuclear leukocytes, fibroblasts, and HeLa cells. Four types of adherence were found: 1) sugar-sensitive adherence 2) amino acid-sensitive adherence 3) unknown adherence 4) weak adherence. There was no obvious correlation between the patterns of hemagglutination and adherence to other cells. The results indicate not only a complex network of bacterial receptors on human cells, but also a variety of types of bacterial adherence as expressed by the selectivity of the bacterial binding to specific cell surfaces.