Pulmonary blastoma is a rare lung tumor resembling fetal lung tissue. Pathologically the tumor can be classified to 2 groups, well-differentiated fetal adenocarcinoma(WDFA) and biphasic blastoma. WDFA has more favorable prognosis with fewer metastasis at initial presentation and fewer recurrence after treatment. We experienced a case of pulmonary blastoma in 32-year-old female patient. The patient was referred to our hospital because of abnormal mass shadow in right middle lobe. The diagnosis of pulmonary blastoma(WDFA type, Stage I T2NOMO) was confirmed after right middle lobectomy. We followed up 22 months without an evidence of recurrence.
Adult ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Lung ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Prognosis ; Pulmonary Blastoma* ; Recurrence

The c-erbB-2 gene is located on q21 of chromosome 17. The c-erbB-2 oncoprotein exhibits tyrosine kinase activity, appears to be a receptor for to yet unidentified growth factor and has been demonstrated in a number of cancers by immunohistochemical as well as matrix blotting techniques. Breast and ovarian cancer patients, whose tumor cells have amplification or overexpression or this oncoprotein, have been suggested to have worse prognosis. But there were only a few reports on c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression in prostatic carcinoma. The aim of this study was to ex- amine the c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression in pnstatic adenocarcinoma to assess its potential as a useful prognostic marker in this disease. The samples were considered immunoreactive when distinct cell membrane was slained. These staining pattern was noted exclusively in neoplastic cells and was unirormly distributed throughout the neoplastic cell population. Incidence of c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression in Gleason grade 4 and 5 prostatic adenocarcinoma is significantly higher than that in Gleason grade 1, 2 and 3(Chi-square test, p<0.05), and incidence in stage D prostatic adenocarcinoma is significantly higher than that in stage A, B and C(Chi-square test, p<0.25). But there is no significant difference of c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression according to DNA ploidy or proliferation index by flow cytometry. High proliferating cell nuclear antigen(PCNA) expression rate is not associated with c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression. The results of this study suggest that the c-erbB-2 oncoprotein together with other predictive parameters may serve to provide a phenotypic profile which permits more accurate forecasting of prostatic cancer behavior, and may prove useful in the future as an important guide for directing speciric anti-tumor therapy. To investigate these possibilities, further studies based on larger numbers or cases with complete follow up data will be needed.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Breast ; Cell Membrane ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 17 ; DNA ; Flow Cytometry ; Forecasting ; Genes, erbB-2 ; Humans ; Incidence ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Ploidies ; Prognosis ; Prostate ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases

Recently interleukin-4 (IL-4) has been suggested to be a promising therapeutic agent for the malignant tumors of both murine and human origin. The effect of IL-4 is mediated by IL-4 receptor (IL-4R), which has been shown to be expressed in many normal and tumor cell lines. We herein tested two cell lines of human renal cell carcinoma (RCC), Caki-1 and CURC-II, for the expression of IL-1R gene. On the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction study, both cell lines expressed IL-4R mRNA. The present study suggests that it would be worthwhile to investigate the anti-tumor effect of IL-4 on Caki-l and CIJRC-II, which may help to develop new therapeutic strategies for RCC using IL-4.
Carcinoma, Renal Cell* ; Cell Line* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Gene Expression ; Humans* ; Interleukin-4* ; Receptors, Interleukin-4 ; RNA, Messenger

No abstract available.
Catheters* ; Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation of Lung, Congenital* ; Fetal Therapies* ; Lung*

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Exercise is recommended for every patient with Parkinson's disease (PD). The effectiveness of two different forms of exercise for PD, Tai Chi and combined stretching-strengthening exercise, was compared. METHODS: Patients with mild-to-moderate PD were recruited to join either the combined stretching-strengthening exercise group (n=7), the Tai Chi group (n=9), or the control (nonintervention) group (n=7). Exercise was performed three times a week over a period of 8 weeks. The Tai Chi exercise was led by certified instructors based on a Tai-Chi-for-arthritis program. The combined stretching-strengthening exercise comprised folk dancing, stepping, and elastic-band exercises. The subjects' functional fitness, parkinsonian symptoms, quality of life (QoL), and depression were evaluated. RESULTS: Both exercise groups yielded better results in their overall functional fitness after the intervention. However, no improvement with exercise was found for parkinsonian symptoms, as evaluated using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. With respect to the domains of QoL, the combined stretching-strengthening exercise group fared better in the social domain of QoL, and the Tai Chi group fared better in the emotional domain, while QoL and depression worsened in the control group. The postintervention QoL was improved relative to the control condition only for the Tai Chi group. Although the exercise interventions did not have any effect on depression, the control group was associated with a significant deterioration. CONCLUSIONS: Exercise improved the functional fitness and QoL of PD patients, with Tai Chi yielding better results in QoL and favorable results in functional fitness. These findings suggest that Tai Chi could be a good exercise strategy for patients with PD.
Dancing ; Depression ; Exercise ; Humans ; Parkinson Disease* ; Quality of Life ; Tai Ji*

No abstract available.
Adenosine* ; Diagnosis* ; Radionuclide Imaging*

We report a case of spontaneous renal rupture in a 63 year-old woman as a complication of diabetes mellitus. She experienced a sudden onset of severe pain and bulging mass on the left flank. She had been suffered from diabetes mellitus for 30 years without any specific treatment, and she had no history of specific associated diseases or factors such as trauma, stone, tumor, hydronephrosis or vascular lesion of the kidney. Grossly this ruptured kidney showed a characteristic necrosis and infarcted lesions extended from papilla to cortex of the upper pole kidney and surrounding tissues of the kidney showed interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy and mononuclear cell infiltration. Microscopically the atherosclerotic medium-sized blood vessels and small vessels around the infarcted lesion also showed hyaline sclerosis. This pathologically defined spontaneous renal rupture is thought to be caused by focal renal infarction due to atherosclerosis or fat emboli-associated renovascular occlusion in diabetic patient. This report emphasizes the importance of diabetic nephropathy as a new cause of the spontaneous renal rupture in patients of diabetes mellitus.
Atherosclerosis ; Atrophy ; Blood Vessels ; Diabetes Mellitus* ; Diabetic Nephropathies ; Female ; Fibrosis ; Humans ; Hyalin ; Hydronephrosis ; Infarction ; Kidney* ; Middle Aged ; Necrosis ; Rupture ; Rupture, Spontaneous* ; Sclerosis

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the operative feasibility and safety of endoscopic thyroidectomy via bilateral axillo breast approach (BABA) compared to conventional thyroidectomy in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients. METHODS: From July 2009 to November 2010, patients underwent BABA endoscopic thyroidectomy (ET group; n=41) or conventional open thyroidectomy (OT group; n=61) for PTC. Clinical and pathologic characteristics of patients, operation time, post-operative complications, cosmetic satisfaction and thyroglobulin (TG) level were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 40.05±9.58 years (range 25~61 years) and 46.21±13.68 years (range 19~79 years) for the ET and OT group, respectively. The operative extent in the ET group did not include advanced thyroid cancer or lateral neck dissection. The size of the tumor was 0.78±0.59 cm (range 0.1~3.00 cm) and 1.54±1.05 cm (range 0.3~6.00 cm) for the ET and OT group, respectively. Extrathyroidal extension and number of retrieved lymph nodes were significantly higher in the OT group. Postoperative radioactive iodine ablation was performed on 25 patients (72.43%) in the ET group and 48 patients (78.69%) in the OT group. There was no abnormal uptake on radioactive iodine scans in the iodine-treated patients and no significant differences in postoperative off-T4 TG levels between the two groups. There were no significant differences in operative time, amount of drainage, postoperative hospitalization period, hypocalcemia, and vocal cord palsy between the two groups. Cosmetic results of ET group were rated as excellent in a 3-month postoperative questionnaire by 25 (72.43%) of 35 patients. CONCLUSION: Endoscopic thyroidectomy via the bilateral axillo breast approach can be a feasible and effective option for PTC in selected cases.
Breast* ; Drainage ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Hypocalcemia ; Iodine ; Lymph Nodes ; Neck Dissection ; Operative Time ; Retrospective Studies ; Thyroglobulin ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms* ; Thyroidectomy* ; Vocal Cord Paralysis

BACKGROUND: In Korea, the number of liver transplantation (LT) center is still changing. Many more centers are performing liver transplantations than that during the past decades. But several centers have stopped liver transplantation, while some centers have newly started performing liver transplantation. We present our initial experience in a newly built center as an example for any center that is considering performing LT. METHODS: A total of 33 consecutive adult LTs that were performed from June 2006 to October 2009 were analyzed by comparing the first 11 living donor liver transplants (LDLTs) performed with the help of an outside experienced team (group 2) with the second 11 LDLTs (group 3) and the 11 deceased donor liver transplantations (DDLTs) cases (group 1) that were independently performed in our center. RESULTS: There was no operative mortality for the donors and there were two operative mortalities for the recipients. During a mean follow-up of 27.1 months (range: 2 days~61 months), there were two cases of late mortality for the recipients. There were no re-operations and no major complications for the donors. The warm ischemic time was significantly longer in group 1 than that in groups 2 and 3. Otherwise, there was no significant difference in the operative outcomes among the three groups. CONCLUSIONS: Thorough preparation and the valuable assistance of an experienced liver transplantation team at the beginning can facilitate a more rapid learning curve and bring about good outcomes even in a small, newly established institution.
Adult ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Korea ; Learning Curve ; Liver ; Liver Transplantation ; Living Donors ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants ; Treatment Outcome ; Warm Ischemia

We have determined and analyzed the full-length cDNA sequence of a coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) Korean isolate (CVB3-Korea/97) which has been known as a general human pathogen. The whole genome contains 7,400 nucleotides and has a single large open reading frame with 6,555 nucleotides that encodes a potential polyprotein precursor of 2,185 amino acids. The genome also contains a 5' non-coding region (NCR) of 741 bases and a 3' NCR of 104 bases followed by poly(A) tail. Sequence homologies of nucleotides and deduced amino acids between the CVB3-Korea/97 strain and the prototype (Nancy strain) were 81.7% and 91.5%, respectively. The genes encoding the functional proteins including viral protease and RNA dependent RNA polymerase showed higher homology than those encoding the structural proteins. We have further analyzed the sequences of 5' NCR, VP1 and VP2 of CVB3-Korea/97, which are known as cardiovirulent determining factors at the nucleotide and amino acid levels. Although the CVB 3-Korea/97 strain was isolated from an aseptic meningitis patient without cardiomyopathy, its 234th nucleotide and 165th amino acid were uracil and Asn as same as those of other cardiovirulent strains one. However, the 155th amino acid of VR1, which closely associated with cardiovirulence, was replaced with Arg155 by single nucleoptide substitution from A2916 to T2916. Moreover, additional amino acid substitutions were observed in the flanking region of Asp155. Taken together, aminoacid(s) substitution in VP1 may play a critical role in determining cardiovirulence of the CVB3-Korea/97 strain rather than individual nucleotide replacements in the 5' NCR and/or an amino acid substitution in VP2.
Amino Acid Substitution ; Amino Acids ; Cardiomyopathies ; Clone Cells* ; Cloning, Organism* ; DNA, Complementary* ; Genome ; Humans ; Korea* ; Meningitis, Aseptic ; Nucleotides ; Open Reading Frames ; RNA Replicase ; RNA, Messenger ; Sequence Analysis* ; Sequence Homology ; Uracil