Schwannomas are neurogenic tumors that arise from Schwann cells of the neural sheath. They are most often benign and solitary. Ancient schwannoma is a rare variant of schwannoma with a typical characteristics of a slow growing benign tumor. A case of ancient schwannoma which originated from the lingual nerve has not been reported in the literature yet. The clinical and histological aspects of this tumor are discussed and the literature regarding this rare entity is reviewed.
Lingual Nerve* ; Neurilemmoma* ; Schwann Cells

No abstract available.
Cyclic GMP* ; Cytomegalovirus* ; Gene Expression* ; Humans*

No abstract available.
Bacterial Proteins/blood ; Endopeptidases/blood ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary/*diagnosis/drug therapy/mortality ; Liver Function Tests ; Prognosis ; Severity of Illness Index ; Survival Rate ; Ursodeoxycholic Acid/therapeutic use

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is often associated with extrahepatic autoimmune disease, and autoantibodies such as anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) or anti-smooth muscle antibody (ASA). The presence of autoantibodies may make discrimination between chronic hepatitis C with autoimmune features and type 1 autoimmune hepatitis difficult. We studied the prevalence of autoantibodies in patients with chronic HCV infection and their clinical significance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: ANA, ASA, anti-mitochondrial antibody (AMA), anti-microsomal antibody (AmA), rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-cardiolipin antibody (aCL) and lupus anti-coagulant (LA) were tested in 116 patients (80 chronic hepatitis C, 36 liver cirrhosis). Genotypes of HCV were determined in 25 patients by INNO LiPA. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of autoantibody was 65.5%. The most common autoantibody was aCL (34.5%), followed by ANA (25%), RF (18%), LA (15.5%), ASA (6.9%), anti-microsomal antibody (6%) and AMA (1%). The positive rate of either ANA or ASA was 30.2%, but both were positive in 1.7% only. There was no difference in the demographic features, biochemistry, HCV genotypes and disease status between autoantibody-positive and autoantibody-negative patients. CONCLUSIONS: Autoantibodies were commonly found in patients with chronic HCV infection. But, the presence of autoantibodies may be a non-specific finding in chronic hepatitis C infection without clinical significance.
Autoantibodies* ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Biochemistry ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Genotype ; Hepacivirus ; Hepatitis C, Chronic* ; Hepatitis, Autoimmune ; Hepatitis, Chronic* ; Humans ; Liver ; Prevalence* ; Rheumatoid Factor

Even though substantial advances have been made in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B in the past decade with the use of oral nucleos(t)ide analogues (NAs), emergence of anti-viral resistance is the most important factor in treatment failure for chronic hepatitis B. Therefore, prevention and management of antiviral resistant HBV is major challenge in the era of oral NAs therapy. Recently, several guidelines for the management of antiviral resistant HBV have been published. Herein, I will discuss how to prevent and manage antiviral resistance.
Hepatitis ; Hepatitis B ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; Plant Extracts ; Treatment Failure

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Magnetic resonance angiography is helpful noninvasive evaluation of intracranial arteries and, in some patients, may spare invasive angiography which has potentially serious complication. However, it's diagnostic value in vertebrobasilar artery disease has not yet been evaluated. METHODS: MRA and axial brain MRI of 47 patients with acute cerebellar and/or brainstem ischemia, 26 patients with middle cerebral artery territory infarction, and 40 age matched normal controls were reviewed. Patients wit potential risks of cardiac embolization were excluded. MR Angiography was performed by three dimensional time-of-flight gradient-echo technique. Th diagnosis of vessel stenosis was made only when the lumen diameter was reduced by less than 50% on 3-D images to avoid overestimation of MR angiography. RESULTS: Forty-seven patients had cerebellar and/or brainstem infarction: with signal hyperintensities in T2-weighted MRI sequences. Pons was the most common infarcted site(28/47), followed by medulla (17/47), and cerebellum (11/47). The sensitivity of MR angiography in detecting vascular occlusive lesions of vertebrobasilar artery was 57.5% (28/47) in cerebellar and/or brainstem infarction patients, while 7 of 26 (26.9%) in middle cerebral artery territory infarction, and 2 of 40 (5%) in age matched control subjects showed occlusion or stenosis. MR angiography detected vascular occlusive lesions more frequently on vertebral arteries (25/47, 53.2%) than basilar artery (13/47, 27.7%). And occlusive or stenotic lesions of vertebral arteries were ipsilateral to ischemic lesion sites in 12 of 17 patients(70.6%), There was no difference between deep small lacunar stroke and perforator occlusion in pons. Absence of flow void on axial T2W imaging was seen only in 9 of 47 patients (19.1%). CONCLUSIONS: The results in this present study suggest that MR angiography is moderately sensitive diagnostic tool in vertebrobasilar occlusive disease although it has limitation in detection of smaller branches occlusion. Except vertebral arteries occlusion, absence of flow void in axial MR imaging is not a reliable findings.
Angiography ; Arteries ; Basilar Artery ; Brain ; Brain Stem Infarctions* ; Brain Stem* ; Cerebellum ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Infarction ; Ischemia ; Magnetic Resonance Angiography* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Cerebral Artery ; Pons ; Stroke, Lacunar ; Vertebral Artery

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans ; Parotid Gland*

The precore (G1896A) and core promoter (A1762T, G1764A) mutations of the hepatitis B virus gene are known to be associated with changes in immunologic phase or the progression to complicated liver disease in adults. We analyzed these mutations in chronically HBV-infected children. Serum was collected from 37 children with chronic HBV infection from March 2005 to September 2008. HBV DNA extraction and nested PCR were followed by sequencing of the PCR products. The children were 6.7 +/- 4.6 yr old. All of 37 children had HBV genotype C. Of the cohort, 31 (83.8%) were HBeAg-positive and 6 (16.2%) were HBeAg-negative; the former group comprised 18 (48.6%) who were in the immune-tolerance phase (ITP) and 13 (35.2%) in the immune-clearance phase (ICP). Most of the patients had HBV DNA levels of > 1.0 x 10(8) copies/mL. In the ITP group, only 1 (5.5%) had core promoter mutations, and none had the precore mutation. In the ICP group, only 2 (15.4%) had core promoter mutations; the remaining 6 patients had HBV DNA levels of < 2.0 x 10(3) copies/mL and no core promoter/precore mutations. The very low incidence of the precore/core promoter gene mutation, in children, suggests that these mutations may be the result of life-long chronic HBV infection.
Adolescent ; Alanine Transaminase/blood ; Aspartate Aminotransferases/blood ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cohort Studies ; DNA, Viral/blood ; Female ; Genotype ; Hepatitis B Core Antigens/*genetics ; Hepatitis B virus/*genetics ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/immunology/*virology ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Mutation ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Sequence Analysis, DNA