No abstract available.
Infant, Newborn ; Humans

Foreign body (FB) ingestion of children is a common pediatric emergency requiring medical attention. Pediatric emergency physicians and gastroenterologists often encounter nervous and distressed situations, because of children presenting with this condition in the common clinical practice. When determining the appropriate timing and indications for intervention, physicians should consider multiple patient- and FB-related factors. The utilization of a flexible endoscopy is considered safe and effective to use in these cases, with a high success rate, for the effective extraction of FBs from the gastrointestinal tract of a child. Additionally, a Foley catheter and a magnet-attached Levin tube have been used for decades in the case of FB removal. Although their use has decreased significantly in recent times, these instruments continue to be used for several indications. Using a Foley catheter for this purpose does not require special training and does not necessarily require sedation of the patient or fluoroscopy, which serve as advantages of utilizing this method for foreign object retrieval. An ingested magnet or iron-containing FB can be retrieved using a magnet-attached tube, and can be effective to retrieve an object from any section of the upper gastrointestinal tract that can be reached. Simple and inexpensive devices such as Foley catheters and magnet-attached tubes can be used in emergencies such as with the esophageal impaction of disk batteries if endoscopy cannot be performed immediately (e.g., in rural areas and/or in patients presenting at midnight in a facility, especially in those without access to endoscopes or emergency services, or in any situation that warrants urgent removal of a foreign object).
Catheters ; Child ; Eating ; Emergencies ; Endoscopes ; Endoscopy ; Esophagus ; Fluoroscopy ; Foreign Bodies ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Methods ; Upper Gastrointestinal Tract ; Urinary Catheterization

In order to evaluate the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections in terminally failing hearts, we screened the explanted hearts of transplantation recipients for the presence of HBV DNA and HCV RNA. DNA and RNA extractions were taken from explanted failing hearts (N=7) and normal hearts (N=). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and in situ PCR of HBV or reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and in situ RT-PCR of HCV were performed. The positivity of HBV in failing hearts was 63% (17/27) and it was 50% (3/6) in normal hearts in PCR. There was no significant difference in the positivity of HBV DNA between failing and normal hearts. The positivity of HCV in failing hearts was 18.5% (5/27) and it was 16.7% (1/6) in normal hearts in nested RT-PCR. There was no significant difference in the positivity of HCV RNA between failing and normal hearts. HCV was very rarely observed in explanted terminally failing hearts and HBV was frequently found in both explanted failing hearts and normal hearts. We concluded that these viruses have little direct causal relationship with the development of heart failure.
DNA ; Heart Failure ; Heart* ; Hepacivirus ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans* ; Mass Screening* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence ; RNA

Dendritic cell (DC)s are protessional antigen presenting cells and they have been used for antitumor immunotherapy or cell vaccines. However therapy using DC is restricted because the number of DC available from tissue is very low. Flt3 ligand (FL) has been known as a hematopoietic growth factor that increases proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells and progenitor cells, and recently it showed inducibility of dendritic cell (DC)s and signiticant antitumor effects in vivo. Thus FL will be frequently used for DC induction and antitumor immunotherapy in future. Here we constructed FL plasmid and studied its in vivo effect. FL plasmids were made by cloning of partial FL cDNA into pcDNA3 plasmid, and gene expression and protein producibility of FL plasmid were confirmed in Renca cells transfected with FL plasmid. Mice were injected with FL plasmid (100ug/mouse) three times and 20 days later mouse spleens were harvested for staining and RT-PCR. There were lots of blastogenic cells in the spleen of mice treated with FL plasmid. FL plasmid also induced DEC205, IL-12 and GM-CSF gene expression in mouse splenocyte. All these data suggest FL plasmid may be used for induction of DC and antitumor therapy as DNA adjuvant.
Mice ; Animals

Tamoxifen is a nonsteroidal triphenylethylene delivative that has been widely used in the treatment of breast cancer. tamoxifen is indicated for the adjuvant treatment of breast cancer in women following total mastectomy or segmental mastectomy, breast irradiation and chemotherapy. tamoxifen has been shown to have significant benificial effect in the treatment of breast cancer patient as hormonal therapy. However ,there is mounting evidence that tamoxifen may affect other hormon sensitive organs, including the uterus and ovaries. An increased risk of endometrial polyps, endometrial hyperplasia and adenocarcinoma has been reported in tamoxifen treated women. We have met cases of endometrial polyp and endocervical polyp which were associated with tamoxifen use, after modified radical mastectomy for infilterating ductal carcinoma of breast . So we report these cases with the brief review of literatures.
Adenocarcinoma ; Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Carcinoma, Ductal ; Drug Therapy ; Endometrial Hyperplasia ; Female ; Humans ; Mastectomy, Modified Radical ; Mastectomy, Segmental ; Mastectomy, Simple ; Ovary ; Polyps* ; Tamoxifen* ; Uterus

No abstract available.
Candidiasis*

Korea is now classified as an area of intermediate endemicity for hepatitis B virus (HBV), due to the implementation of universal HBV vaccination and national preventive programs for HBV infection. A national program of HBV vaccination was launched in Korea in 1988 for school-going children and was listed on a vaccination guideline in 1991. In 1995, universal vaccination for newborn infants was started for the prevention of perinatal HBV transmission. The prevalence of HBsAg among Korean middle school students has shown marked decreased from 3.2% in the late 1990s to 0.44% in 2007. HBsAg positivity in preschool children was 0.9% in 1995, decreased to 0.2% in 2007 by national prevention program of hepatitis B vertical transmission, launched in 2002. Vaccine failure rate of HBV immunoprophylaxis is 4.2% by this program. The infected children should be monitored per 6-12 months interval. Lamivudine and interferon are approved therapies for children with chronic hepatitis B in immune-clearance phase in Korea.
Child ; Child, Preschool ; Collodion ; Hepatitis B ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; Hepatitis, Chronic ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Interferons ; Korea ; Lamivudine ; Prevalence ; Vaccination

Iron overdose is one of the most common, potentially fatal intoxication in children. We rescued a 3-year-old girl who ingested about 20 iron tablets(110 mg/kg of elemental iron) with early endoscopic intervention. The stomach showed diffusc hemorrhagic gastritis with large amount of retained corrosive iron material. Removal of iron tablets was performed successfully by gastroscope with condom attached on its tip and she recovered completely without any sequelae. The severity of the endoscopic findings even in the early stage and the uneventful clinical recovery in our patient strongly support that this approach could be tried before traditional methods. We think that gastroscopy can be both diagnostic and therapeutic tool in acute drug intoxication in children, because of its safety and easy, rapid availability.
Child* ; Child, Preschool ; Condoms ; Female ; Gastritis ; Gastroscopes* ; Gastroscopy ; Humans ; Iron* ; Stomach ; Tablets*

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Foreign body (FB) removal is a common indication of therapeutic endoscopy in children. The trend is becoming wider and more rational in application. The spectrum of upper gastrointestinal FB's in children during a recent 2 year period was reviewed in Taegu, Kyungbook Province in order to obtain a the consensus of recent trend of indications and techniques of endoscopic FB removal in children. METHODS: Esophagogastroscopy was performed on 78 children who had been referred to 3 University Hospitals in Taegu for FB ingestion from Oct. 1996 to Sep. 1998. RESULTS: Age between 1~2 year was the peak age group; 22 cases (28%). Male to female ratio was 1.9:1. Thirty four cases (44%) were in the esophagus, 44 cases (56%) in the stomach. The majority (49%) of the FB's were coins, 26 of 34 esophageal FB's and 12 of 44 gastric FB's. Others were 14 sharp/pointed objects, 12 big/long objects, 7 toxic objects, etc. In 67 children (86%) the FB was successfully removed and spontaneous passage through the pylorus was observed in 9 children. CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic FB removal can be performed safely and effectively in children with minimal or no complications by an experienced endoscopist. Proper arrangement should be conducted with consideration to the property of FB's, expected complication, and the possibility of an emergency situation.
Child* ; Consensus ; Daegu* ; Eating ; Emergencies ; Endoscopy ; Esophagus ; Female ; Foreign Bodies* ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Korea* ; Male ; Numismatics ; Pylorus ; Stomach ; Upper Gastrointestinal Tract*

Since the introduction of flexible fiberoptic endoscope in clinical medicine from the early 1970s, the size of the caliber has become gradually so smaller and more functional as to be available in children and even in newborn infants. And the indications of gastrointestinal endoscopy have been extended not only to the diagnosis and evaluation of gastrointestinal diseases, but also to the effective management. Foreign body removal is one of the most important indications of therapeutic endoscopy in children. We have successfully removed foreign bodies in 3 newborn infants, using flexible endascope (0; 7.9 mm) without general anesthesia. They were one Nelaton catheter and two DeLee suction catheters which had been incidentaly broken during neonatal routine care in a delivery room. In the case of DeLee suction catheter ingestion, the end of the broken plastic bulb was snared and withdrawn carefully not to injure the esophageal mucosa by its sharp edge. All of the newborn infants got well thereafter and were discharged without any complications. We could avoid the general anesthesia and laparotomy by using flexible endoscope, and these 3 therapeutic endoscopic cases of newborn infants are the youngest patients reported so far. We hereby emphasize that foreign body can be removed easily and safely with routine gastrointestinal endoscope even in newborn infants.
Anesthesia, General ; Catheters ; Child ; Clinical Medicine ; Delivery Rooms ; Diagnosis ; Eating ; Endoscopes ; Endoscopes, Gastrointestinal ; Endoscopy ; Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal ; Foreign Bodies* ; Gastrointestinal Diseases ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Laparotomy ; Mucous Membrane ; Parturition* ; Plastics ; SNARE Proteins ; Suction