Objective: To evaluate the anti-mycobacterial activity of Melia azedarach L. (M. azedarach) and Lobelia chinensis Lour. (L. chinensis) extracts against the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis).
Methods: The anti-M. tuberculosis activity of M. azedarach and L. chinensis extracts were evaluated using different indicator methods such as resazurin microtiter assay (REMA) and mycobacteria growth indicator tube (MGIT) 960 system assay. The M. tuberculosis was incubated with various concentrations (50–800 mg/mL) of the ex-tracts for 5 days in the REMA, and for 4 weeks in MGIT 960 system assay.
Results: M. azedarach and L. chinensis extracts showed their anti-M. tuberculosis ac-tivity by strongly inhibiting the growth of M. tuberculosis in a concentration-dependent manner in the REMA and the MGIT 960 system assay. Particularly, the methanol extract of M. azedarach and n-hexane extract of L. chinensis consistently exhibited their effects by effectively inhibiting the growth of M. tuberculosis in MGIT 960 system for 4 weeks with a single-treatment, indicating higher anti-M. tuberculosis activity than other extracts, and their minimum inhibitory concentrations were measured as 400 mg/mL and 800 mg/mL, respectively.
Conclusions: These results demonstrate that M. azedarach and L. chinensis extracts not only have unique anti-M. tuberculosis activity, but also induce the selective anti-M. tuberculosis effects by consistently inhibiting or blocking the growth of M. tuberculosis through a new pharmacological action. Therefore, this study suggests the potential of them as effective candidate agents of next-generation for developing a new anti-tuberculosis drug, as well as the advantage for utilizing traditional medicinal plants as one of effective strategies against tuberculosis.

No abstract available.

Clinical characteristics of 336 infants referred for chromosomal study during neonatal period from Jan. 1985 to Dec. 1994 to the cytogenetic laboratory of St. Mary's Hospital, Catholic University Medical College were reviewed. Karyotypes were analysed from peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures and G-banding was carried out. A thorough survey of the clinical reasons for chromosomal analysis, prevalence of chromosomal abnormalities in each disease category, and the patterns of chromosomal aberrations were done. The results were as follows, 1) Down syndrome was the most common indication for chromosome analysis in the newborn period, consisting of 37.8 % of all cases referred. Other indications included skeletal anomaly, multi-organ anomalies, cleft lip/palate, ambiguous genitalia, odd looking face, gastrointestinal anomaly, central nervous system anomaly, and Turner syndrome. 2) Overall in 42.9 percent of cases referred, chromosomal abnormalities was found. 3) 1'he percentage of final diagnosis in suspected Down syndrome was 85.0 #96. Overall, of the non-Down syndrome cases, 16.7 96 was given a definitive diagnosis of chromosomal abnomality. In each disease category, 57.1 % of suspected Turner syndrome and 37.2 % of multi-organ anomalies had been proved having chromosomal abnormalities. The percentages of chromosomal aberrations in isolated odd looking face, ambiguous genitalia, and skeletal anomaly were relatively low, around 5 %. None of the newborns referred because of cleft lip/palate, congenital anomalies of gastrointestinal tract or central nervous system had abnormal karyotype. 4) 95.1 % of all cases diagnosed to have chromosomal abnormality had autosomal aberrations, the remainder 4.9 % had sex chromosomal aberrations. 5) Trisomy 21 was the most common numerical aberrations of autosomes, consisting of 87.5 % and trisomy 18, trisomy 13, and mosaicism was 7.1 %, 3.6 96 and 1.8 % of total. 6) 90.7 % of Down syndrome were due to trisomy 21, the rest being translocation (7.4 %) and mosaicism (1.9 %).
Abnormal Karyotype ; Central Nervous System ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Cytogenetics ; Diagnosis ; Disorders of Sex Development ; Down Syndrome ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn* ; Karyotype* ; Lymphocytes ; Mosaicism ; Prevalence ; Trisomy ; Turner Syndrome

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Body lateropulsion with falling to one side is a well-known clinical feature of stroke in the posterior circulation. Body lateropulsion as an isolated or predominant manifestation of a pontine stroke has not previously been reported. To elucidate the possible mechanisms of patients presenting with body lateropulsion as an isolated or predominant symptom of isolated pontine infarction. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Between May 2004 and February 2006, out of 134 admitted patients with an isolated pontine stroke we identified 8 consecutive patients (6.0%) in the Keimyung University Stroke Registry who had body lateropulsion as the main presenting symptom. RESULTS: All lesions were localized to the paramedian tegmentum just ventral to the 4th ventricle. All except 1showed a uniform pattern of body lateropulsion, in which the direction of falling was away from the side of infarct. In 2 patients, body lateropulsion was the sole clinical manifestation, whereas the other patients had other neurological signs. All but 1 had contraversive tilting of the subjective visual vertical (SVV). In all cases, the direction of SVV tilt corresponded to the direction of body lateropulsion. The mean net tilt angle was 6.1 CONCLUSION: Based on the known anatomy of ascending vestibular pathways, the SVV tilting, and MRI findings, body lateropulsion probably results from damage to the graviceptive pathway ascending through paramedian pontine tegmentum.
Humans ; Infarction* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Pons ; Stroke

Abdominal actinomycosis is very rare infectious disease and seldom reported as a cause of abdominal mass. This disease is diagnosed by pathologic findings and culture result but it is very difficult to differentiate with other granulomatous illammatory disease, diverticular disease, malignancy, etc. The radiologic findings were non-specific and CT scan revealed the inflammatory mass with multiple small abscesses and fibrous change. The treatment of choice for actinomycosis is medical treatment with penicillin but surgical intervention may be needed when complication such as obstruction, fistula formation, abscess formation develop. We report a patient with abdominal actinomycosis that presented with transverse colonic obstruction and severe abdominal wall inflammation. This patient had no past operative history but got intrauterine contraceptive devices during last 10 years. We treated this patient by surgical resection and antibiotic therapy.
Abdominal Wall ; Abscess ; Actinomycosis* ; Colon* ; Colon, Transverse ; Communicable Diseases ; Fistula ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Intrauterine Devices ; Penicillins ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

This study was conducted to determine the correlation between weighted needle pinprick sensory threshold(PPT) and sensory nerve conduction tests. The subjects were 53 healthy controls, 31 diabetic patients without peripheral neuropathic symptoms(DM) and 36 diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathic symptoms(DN). PPT was measured on the index and little fingers, bilaterally, as well as under the lateral malleolus, bilaterally. In electrophysiologic assessment the left and right median, ulnar and sural nerves were studied. Each mean PPTs was high in order of controls, DM and DN. Age adjusted PPT was significantly different among three groups on right little finger(p<0.05) and left malleolus(p<(0.05), but not significantly different between DN and DM on other sites. Each sensory nerve conduction velocity and amplitude was statistically significantly different among three groups(p<0.05). Correlations of PPT with sensory nerve conduction velocity and amplitude were statistically significant on each site and ranged from -0.4203(left malleolus) to -0.5649(right index finger) and from -0.3897(left index finger) to -0.6200(right index finger), respectively. When electrophysiological study is not feasible, measurement of PPT may be helpful for the assessment of peripheral sensory neurological function.
Fingers ; Humans ; Needles* ; Neural Conduction* ; Sensory Thresholds* ; Sural Nerve

The clinical studies were performen on 304 patients with heart disease who had been received corrective heart surgery at Kosin Medical Center from July, 1984 to December, 1991. The results were as follows: 1) Out of 304 patients, 162 cases (53.3%) were male and 142 cases (46.7%) were female and sex ratio was 1.15:1. 35 cases (11.5%) had clinical cyanosis and 269 cases (88.5%) had no evidence of cyanosis. 2) As age distribution of patients, under 2 years, 3~5 years, 6~10 years, 11~15 years, 16~18 years consist of 22.0%, 26.0%, 29.0%, 16.1% and 6.9%, respectively. 3) As disease distribution, out 304 patients, ventricular septal defect (57.9% of all) was the most common disease, and then atrial septal defect (13.2%), tetralogy of Fallot (11.2%), patent ductus arteriosus (9.9%) and pulmonic stenosis (5.3%), in their order. 4) As sex distribution of each disease, ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect and tetralogy of Fallot were more common in male and patent ductus arteriosus and pulmonic stenosis were more common in female. 5) The most frequent cardiac anomaly associated with ventricular septal defect and atrial septal defect was pulmonic stenosis. In the case of subarterial ventricular septal defect, aortic insufficiency was associated in 13.3%. 6) Respiratory problems (11.3%), tricuspid regurgitation (9.5%), arrhythmia (6.2%) and congestive heart failure (5.8%) were the major complications after surgery. 7) Case fatality reat was 4.4%. Mortality rate in ventricular septal defect, tetralogy of Fallot and tricuspid atresia were 1.7%, 20.6% and 100%, respectively, Majority (75.0%) of expired patients were died within 24 hours after sugery and the cause of death was hypoxia due to low cardiac output syndrome.
Age Distribution ; Anoxia ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Cardiac Output, Low ; Cause of Death ; Cyanosis ; Ductus Arteriosus, Patent ; Female ; Heart Diseases* ; Heart Failure ; Heart Septal Defects, Atrial ; Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular ; Heart* ; Humans ; Male ; Mortality ; Pulmonary Valve Stenosis ; Sex Distribution ; Sex Ratio ; Tetralogy of Fallot ; Thoracic Surgery ; Tricuspid Atresia ; Tricuspid Valve Insufficiency

OBJECTIVE: In the previous study, we compiled the differentially expressed genes during early folliculogenesis.1 Objective of the present study was to identify downstream target genes of transcription factors (TFs) using bioinformatics for selecting the target TFs among the gene lists for further functional analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: By using bioinformatics tools, constituent domains were identified from database searches using Gene Ontology, MGI, and Entrez Gene. Downstream target proteins/genes of each TF were identified from database searches using TF database (TRANSFAC(R) 6.0) and eukaryotic promoter database (EPD). RESULTS: DNA binding and trans-activation domains of all TFs listed previously were identified, and the list of downstream target proteins/genes was obtained from searche of TF database and promoter database. Based on the known function of identified downstream genes and the domains, 3 (HNF4, PPARg, and TBX2) out of 26 TFs were selected for further functional analysis. The genes of wee1-like protein kinase and p21WAF1 (cdk inhibitor) were identified as potential downstream target genes of HNF4 and TBX2, respectively. PPARg, through protein-protein interaction with other protein partners, acts as a transcription regulator of genes of EGFR, p21WAF1, cycD1, p53, and VEGF. Among the selected 3 TFs, further study is in progress for HNF4 and TBX2, since wee1-like protein kinase and cdk inhibitor may involved in regulating maturation promoting factor (MPF) activity during early folliculogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: Approach used in the present study, in silico analysis of downstream target genes, was useful for analyzing list of TFs obtained from high-throughput cDNA microarray study. To verify its binding and functions of the selected TFs in early folliculogenesis, EMSA and further relevant characterizations are under investigation.
Computational Biology ; Computer Simulation* ; DNA ; Gene Ontology ; Maturation-Promoting Factor ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Protein Kinases ; Transcription Factors* ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

No abstract available.

Cerebral venous infarction is associated with a wide variety of clinical symptoms and signs, which may often delay appropriate diagnosis. Unilateral vestibular deficit as a presenting sign of cerebral venous infarction has rarely been reported. We report a patient with cerebral venous infarction who had severe prolonged vertigo, vomiting, occipital headache, positive head thrust testing, and unilateral caloric weakness as main clinical features. Although the patient had occipital headache, overall symptoms and signs closely mimicked those of acute peripheral vestibulopathy.
Diagnosis ; Head Impulse Test ; Headache ; Humans ; Infarction* ; Vertigo ; Vestibular Neuronitis ; Vomiting