BACKGROUND: Ultraviolet B(UVB) light, which can cause severe damage like induction and promotion of cancer, cutaneous inflammation and immunosuppression, represents one of the most important environmental impacts for humans. Keratinocytes are natural target cells of UVB in humans. NF-kB plays a role in the cell of the immune system, where it controls the expression of various cytokines and the major histocompatibility complex gene. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of UVB on the NF-kB and AP-1 activity in cultured human keratinocytes and fibroblasts. METHODS: Keratinocyte and fibroblast cultures were produced with DMEM medium. Cells were irradiated for 100J/m, 200J/m, 300 J/m. and Nuclear proteins were extracted. AP-1 and NF-kB activities were measured by the gel shift mobility assay. RESULTS: Gel shift mobility assay. 1. The NFkB activity was increased upon UVB in a dose dependent manner in the keratinocyte. 2. Enhanced levels of AP-1 binding activity in the radiated extracts frorn human skin keratinocytes were detected. 3. The levels of GRE (glucocorticoid responsive element) binding activity were similar in both radiated and unradiated extracts from fibroblasts and keratinocytes. CONCLUSIONS: The activities of NF-aB and AP-1 are increased following stimulation of a cell with UVB irradiation. Therefore, UV induced skin tumors, abnormal cell proliferation, cutaneous inflammation and immunosuppression, may be due to these transcriptional factors.
Cell Proliferation ; Cytokines ; Fibroblasts* ; Humans* ; Immune System ; Immunosuppression ; Inflammation ; Keratinocytes* ; Major Histocompatibility Complex ; NF-kappa B* ; Nuclear Proteins ; Skin ; Transcription Factor AP-1*

Iatrogenic Cushings syndrome is caused by administration of systemic steroids for some disorders, and is clinically characterized by truncal obesity, hypertension, fatigability, amenorrhea, hirsutism, abdominal striae, edema, glucosuria and osteoporosis. We report herein a case of iatrogenic Cushings syndrome in the treatment of atopic dermatitis. The patient, a 32-year-old male, had been diagnosed with atopic dermatitis and was intermittently treated with topical and systemic steroids for 12 years. He revealed facial edema, truncal obesity and striae distensae in both the axilla and abdomen. Steroids are one of the important agents in the treatment of atopic dermatitis but care must be taken in their administration.
Abdomen ; Adult ; Amenorrhea ; Axilla ; Cushing Syndrome* ; Dermatitis, Atopic* ; Edema ; Female ; Hirsutism ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Male ; Obesity ; Osteoporosis ; Steroids ; Striae Distensae

We observed a 55-year-old man who had granuloma pyogenicum on the medial border of the right fifth toe which developed after scratching of the wound. Histopathological findings showed many newly formed capillaries that had prominant endothelial cells and showed varying degrees of dilation without appearance of epidermal collarette signs. We tried intralesional treatment with triamcinolone acetonide (10mg%, 1/week*3). After 3 sessions of treatment, the lesion dramatically regressed nearly to normal size.
Capillaries ; Endothelial Cells ; Granuloma* ; Granuloma, Pyogenic* ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Toes ; Triamcinolone Acetonide* ; Triamcinolone* ; Wounds and Injuries

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinicopathologic features and clinical outcomes of adnexal tumors in pregnancy. METHODS: After review of charts of 51 patients managed at Kyungpook National University Hospital from January 1996 to June 2002, data including clinical findings, treatments and outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: The mean age of pregnant women with adnexal tumors was 28.5 years old and the adnexal tumors were more common in nulliparous pregnant women (74.5%) than parous those. There were asymptomatic or no signs in 40 cases (78.4%), lower abdominal pain in 9 cases (17.6%), vaginal bleeding in 1 case (2.0%) and palpable mass by patient herself in 1 case (2.0%). The surgical treatments were performed at first trimester in 9 cases (19.1%), second trimester in 31 cases (66.0%) and third trimester in 7 cases (14.9%). Postoperative histopathologic diagnoses of adnexal tumors were 22 cases (43.1%) of benign cystic teratoma, 7 cases (13.8%) of functional cyst, 6 cases (11.8%) of serous cystadenoma, 4 cases (7.8%) of mucinous cystadenoma, 4 cases (7.8%) of endometrioma, 3 cases (5.9%) of parovarian cyst and 4 cases (7.8%) of malignancy including 2 cases of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma and 2 cases of mucinous tumor, borderline. The complication resulting from adnexal tumors was torsion of 6 cases (11.8%). The outcome of pregnancy was available in 30 cases, term delivery in 25 cases (83.3%), preterm delivery in 3 cases (10%) and spontaneous abortion in 2 cases (6.7%). CONCLUSION: Although the incidence of adnexal tumors with pregnancy is variable according to the reports, the detection rate is more and more increasing due to a widespread application of ultrasound. Thus, obstetricians must always consider adnexal tumors combined with pregnancy and try to minimize the complications of surgery during pregnancy to prevent adverse fetal outcome and maternal morbidity.
Abdominal Pain ; Abortion, Spontaneous ; Cystadenocarcinoma, Mucinous ; Cystadenoma, Mucinous ; Cystadenoma, Serous ; Diagnosis ; Endometriosis ; Female ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Incidence ; Mucins ; Parovarian Cyst ; Pregnancy Trimester, First ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second ; Pregnancy Trimester, Third ; Pregnancy* ; Pregnant Women ; Teratoma ; Ultrasonography ; Uterine Hemorrhage

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinicopathologic features and clinical outcomes of adnexal tumors in pregnancy. METHODS: After review of charts of 51 patients managed at Kyungpook National University Hospital from January 1996 to June 2002, data including clinical findings, treatments and outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: The mean age of pregnant women with adnexal tumors was 28.5 years old and the adnexal tumors were more common in nulliparous pregnant women (74.5%) than parous those. There were asymptomatic or no signs in 40 cases (78.4%), lower abdominal pain in 9 cases (17.6%), vaginal bleeding in 1 case (2.0%) and palpable mass by patient herself in 1 case (2.0%). The surgical treatments were performed at first trimester in 9 cases (19.1%), second trimester in 31 cases (66.0%) and third trimester in 7 cases (14.9%). Postoperative histopathologic diagnoses of adnexal tumors were 22 cases (43.1%) of benign cystic teratoma, 7 cases (13.8%) of functional cyst, 6 cases (11.8%) of serous cystadenoma, 4 cases (7.8%) of mucinous cystadenoma, 4 cases (7.8%) of endometrioma, 3 cases (5.9%) of parovarian cyst and 4 cases (7.8%) of malignancy including 2 cases of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma and 2 cases of mucinous tumor, borderline. The complication resulting from adnexal tumors was torsion of 6 cases (11.8%). The outcome of pregnancy was available in 30 cases, term delivery in 25 cases (83.3%), preterm delivery in 3 cases (10%) and spontaneous abortion in 2 cases (6.7%). CONCLUSION: Although the incidence of adnexal tumors with pregnancy is variable according to the reports, the detection rate is more and more increasing due to a widespread application of ultrasound. Thus, obstetricians must always consider adnexal tumors combined with pregnancy and try to minimize the complications of surgery during pregnancy to prevent adverse fetal outcome and maternal morbidity.
Abdominal Pain ; Abortion, Spontaneous ; Cystadenocarcinoma, Mucinous ; Cystadenoma, Mucinous ; Cystadenoma, Serous ; Diagnosis ; Endometriosis ; Female ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Incidence ; Mucins ; Parovarian Cyst ; Pregnancy Trimester, First ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second ; Pregnancy Trimester, Third ; Pregnancy* ; Pregnant Women ; Teratoma ; Ultrasonography ; Uterine Hemorrhage

Abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) is a life-threatening emergency requiring prompt treatment. In these cases, a patient cannot ventilate effectively and oliguria can occur because of the high intra-abdominal pressure (IAP). The mortality rate is very high. Treatment is abdominal decompression and secondary closure. There are very few reports of the anesthetic management of a patient with ACS. We report a 38-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with ACS at the operating room. The IAP was measured and emergency abdominal decompression and "Bogota bag" apply were performed. The respiratory and hemodynamic parameters improved after this treatment.
Adult ; Emergencies ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Intra-Abdominal Hypertension* ; Lower Body Negative Pressure ; Male ; Mortality ; Oliguria ; Operating Rooms

In order to assess the prevalence of ocular disorders of the aged patients, retrospective survey was carried out in 5,659 patients over the age of 60, who visited outpatient clinics of three hospitals (St. Mary's Hospital, Cheonnam University Hospital and Inha University Hospital) between 1989 and 1990. An analysis of data was resulted in as follow: 1. Proportion of the aged patients to total out-patients was 15%. 2. The age distributions of patients were sixties (59%), seventies (34%), over eighty (7%). 3. In the patient 60 years old and older, 36.9% of the cases had best corrected visual acuities of 0.7 or better. 4. The most prevalent ocular disorder was senile cataract (44.0%), and others included conjunctival and scleral diseases (14.9%), retinal diseases (14.4%), refractive error (9.1%), glaucoma (4.4%), and corneal diseases (3.2%). 5. The proportion of causes of blindness indicates; senile cataract (58.8%), retinal diseases (15.4%), glaucoma (6.8%), and corneal diseases (5.0%), etc. 6. The systemic disorders associated with ocular diseases were hypertension 7.0%, diabetes 5.0%, respiratory diseases 4.2%, and heart diseases 2.0%. 7. Visual acuities better than 0.4 were obtained in 87.4% of postoperative cataract surgeries in aged patients.
Age Distribution ; Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Blindness ; Cataract ; Corneal Diseases ; Glaucoma ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Middle Aged ; Outpatients ; Prevalence* ; Refractive Errors ; Retinal Diseases ; Retrospective Studies ; Scleral Diseases ; Visual Acuity

BACKGROUND: Using rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) analysis, we investigated the difference in blood hemostasis, based on the primary anesthetic agents used during general anesthesia. METHODS: Sixty-six adult patients scheduled for elective ophthalmic surgery under general anesthesia were evaluated with regard to changes in each parameter in INTEM, EXTEM, and FIBTEM analyses. The patients received intravenous anesthesia with propofol and remifentanil (TIVA group) or inhalation anesthesia with sevoflurane (SEVO group). The ROTEM tests were performed 10 min before starting anesthesia and 1 h after finishing anesthesia. The INTEM and EXTEM analyses included the clotting time (CT), clot firmness time (CFT), alpha angle (alpha), and maximum clot firmness (MCF). The FIBTEM analyzed only MCF. Maximum clot elasticity (MCE) was calculated by (MCF x 100) / (100 - MCF). The platelet component of clot strength was calculated as follows: MCE(platelet) = MCE(EXTEM) - MCE(FIBTEM). RESULTS: The preoperative and postoperative parameters (CT, CFT, alpha, and MCF) in the INTEM, EXTEM, and FIBTEM analyses were not significantly different between the two groups. The MCE(platelet) also did not show a significant difference. CONCLUSIONS: Presuming that the ophthalmic surgery had a minimal traumatic effect, we conclude that both anesthetic agents cause negligible changes in ROTEM analyses postoperatively.
Adult ; Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, General ; Anesthesia, Inhalation ; Anesthesia, Intravenous ; Anesthetics ; Blood Platelets ; Elasticity ; Hemostasis* ; Humans ; Propofol* ; Thrombelastography

Although amiodarone is a widely used and effective long-term antiarrhythmic drug, it is known to have life-threatening adverse effects, including acute hepatotoxicity. Although the occurrence of acute hepatotoxicity after amiodarone administration is rare, it can be fatal. However, this phenomenon has not been well studied. Here, we describe a 39 year old woman with atrial fibrillation and supraventricular tachycardia who developed acute toxic hepatitis within 8 days of amiodarone administration at the recommended dosage. The drug was withdrawn and the laboratory findings progressively returned to normal.
Adult ; Amiodarone* ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Atrial Fibrillation ; Drug-Induced Liver Injury* ; Female ; Humans ; Tachycardia, Supraventricular

BACKGROUND: Despite the great potential of human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) in the cardiac cell transplantation, the low graft survival still remains as one of the main obstacles in the way to its clinical application. We investigated whether pre-treatment with isoflurane can decrease apoptosis of hESC-derived CPCs under oxidative stress. METHODS: Undifferentiated hESCs were differentiated in suspension media with 20% fetal bovine serum (FBS) and 20 ng/ml of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-4 through embryoid bodies and grown onto Matrigel-coated plates for 2 or 3 weeks. To identify the differentiated CPCs, immunostaining for nonspecific transcriptional marker (Nkx2.5) was performed. The CPCs were exposed to oxidative stress induced by Fenton reaction with H2O2 and FeSO4. For anesthetic preconditioning, CPCs were exposed to isoflurane (5 vol%) in an isolated chamber. Apoptosis of CPCs was determined by TUNEL staining and detection of activated caspase-3 cell. RESULTS: hESC-derived CPCs stained with Nkx2.5 were 95 +/- 3% of total cell number. Concentration of isoflurane in the media was 1.1 mM (2.2 MAC). Pretreatment of CPCs with isoflurane showed a significantly lower TUNEL (+) ratio as well as activated caspase-3 cell number compared to control. CONCLUSIONS: Isoflurane decreased hESC-derived Nkx2.5+ CPCs apoptosis induced by oxidative stress. This result suggests that anti-apoptotic effect may play a role in the protective effect of isoflurane.
Apoptosis ; Bone Morphogenetic Proteins ; Caspase 3 ; Cell Count ; Cell Transplantation ; Embryoid Bodies ; Embryonic Stem Cells ; Graft Survival ; Humans ; In Situ Nick-End Labeling ; Isoflurane ; Oxidative Stress ; Stem Cells ; Transplants