BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Mucus hypersecretion is a major problem in inflammatory airway disease. Interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of inflammatory airway diseases. This study was designed to investigate the signal transduction mechanism and the relationship between cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and the IL-1beta-mediated MUC5AC secretion. MATERIALS AND METHOD: In cultured human airway NCI-H292 epithelial cells, the IL-1beta-mediated MUC5AC gene expression and mucin secretion were analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunoassay. To identify the signal transduction pathway of the IL-1beta-mediated MUC5AC expression, we used specific inhibitors. RESULTS: IL-1beta induced COX-2 and MUC5AC expression at the mRNA and protein levels. Mucin secretion was blocked by NS398 and resveratrol, selective COX-2 inhibitors. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) directly induced MUC5AC expression at both mRNA and protein levels in a dose-dependent manner. Cells activated by IL-1beta showed increased extracellular-regulated protein kinase (ERK) 1/2 and p38 phosphorylation. IL-1beta-induced MUC5AC gene expression and mucin secretion were blocked by PD98059, the MEK/ ERK inhibitor and SB203580, the p38 inhibitor. Furthermore, inhibition of both mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) reduced the IL-1beta-induced COX-2 expression and PGE2 synthesis. Ro31-8220, the PKC inhibitors prevented the IL-1beta-induced COX-2 expression and mucin secretion. Also Ro31-8220 inhibited the IL-1beta-mediated MAPKs phosphorylation. CONCLUSION: IL-1beta-induced MUC5AC gene expression and mucin secretion are regulated through the sequential activation of PKC-ERK/ p38-COX-2-PGE2 in the human airway NCI-H292 epithelial cells.
Cyclooxygenase 2 ; Cyclooxygenase 2 Inhibitors ; Dinoprostone ; Epithelial Cells* ; Gene Expression* ; Humans* ; Immunoassay ; Interleukin-1 ; Interleukin-1beta ; Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases ; Mucins* ; Mucus ; Phosphorylation ; Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases ; Protein Kinase C ; Protein Kinases ; RNA, Messenger ; Signal Transduction

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of "fake bad" and "fake good" patients with traumatic head injury in neuropsychological tests. METHODS: We measured subjective symptoms by SCL-90-R and objective symptoms by McBride obstacle-valuation measure. The patient was divided into three groups according to differences between subjective and objective symptoms. We also examined their intelligence, memory, clinical characteristics, using K-WAIS, K-MAS, MMPI. RESULTS: The group who overly expressed their subjective symptoms has its psychotic symptom exaggeratingly measured, so it will be helpful to be careful to such over-expressed symptoms in those who present a psychotic symptom in a clinical view-point. An K-WAIS measurement among those who exaggerated their subjective symptoms showed less value than the actual one, which weakens the reliability of this intelligent test. Rather, for that group, the result of K-MAS can be used with a confidence in the estimation of their severity of symptoms. CONCLUSION: MMPI and neuropsychological tests are helpful to understand characteristics between subjective symptoms and objective disabilities of patients with traumatic head injury.
Craniocerebral Trauma* ; Head* ; Humans ; Intelligence ; Memory ; MMPI* ; Neuropsychological Tests*

The prognoses for the gastric cancer patients treated with total gastrectomies are known to be unsatisfactory due to the low survival rates, the high frequency of postoperative mortality or morbidity, and long-term complications such as nutritional deficiency. The authors evaluated the 5-year survival rates and analyzed the prognostic factors in 557 patients with gastric cancer who underwent total gastrectomies during the period between Jan. 1987 and Dec. 1993. The overall 5-year survival rate was 49.7%, and the survival rates according to the stage were stage Ia, 92.0%; Ib, 85.5%; II 64.1%; IIIa 55.0%; IIIb 26.5%; and stage IV, 6.3%. Postoperative mortality rate was 1.1%. By using univariate analysis to evaluate the prognostic factors, factors such as age, depth of invasion, extent of lymph node metastasis (according to the Japanese rule), number of involved nodes, lymph node ratio, distant metastasis (peritoneal and/or hepatic), size of the tumor, gross type, histological type, the surgical curability and the TNM stage were found to be related with the survival of the patients. In a multivariate analysis using 11 variables, the TNM stage was the single most significant prognostic factor. Besides the TNM, depth of invasion (ratio of risk (R.R)=1.50), extent of lymph node metastasis (R.R=1.83), number of involved nodes (R.R=1.64), lymph node ratio (R.R=1.91), and peritoneal metastasis (R.R=3.11) were found to be independent prognostic factors influencing survival. It was thought that the radicality of surgery could be reflected in the number of removed nodes per specimen. In this study, the average number of removed nodes was 42.3 per case. Hence, it may be said that adequate lymphadenectomy was performed for almost all the grossly curable cancers. The 5-year survival rate in stage IV patients with tertiary node (N3) metastasis and no peritoneal or hepatic metastasis was 16.8%; in patients with peritoneal or hepatic metastasis, the survival rate was 0%. There was a significant survival difference between these two groups (p<0.05). This result suggests that the tertiary node metastasis is a potentially curable factor, and that it should be classified differently in the current TNM system. In conclusion, the overall survival rates in the patients treated with total gastrectomies were favorable compared with the results in other reports. Depth of invasion, extent of lymph node metastasis, number of involved nodes, lymph node ratio were important prognostic factors for survival after a total gastrectomy. The current TNM staging system appears to be a reasonable one, except that the probable curability of tertiary node metastasis may need to be taken into consideration.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Gastrectomy* ; Humans ; Lymph Node Excision ; Lymph Nodes ; Malnutrition ; Mortality ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm Staging ; Prognosis ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Survival Rate

A case of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma arising from a mature cystic teratoma in the right ovary of a 37-year-old woman is reported. Malignant transformation of a mature teratoma is a rare event and the commonest malignant neoplasm to develop is squamous cell carcinoma.(83%) Adenocarcinoma occurs with less frequency.(6.8%) The patient was treated by staging operation followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. After six courses of combination chemotherapy, oncological investigations, including chest X-ray, abdominopelvic CT scan and tumor markers, all revealed no evidence of recurrence.
Adenocarcinoma ; Adult ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Cystadenocarcinoma, Mucinous* ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Female ; Humans ; Mucins* ; Ovary* ; Recurrence ; Teratoma* ; Thorax ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Biomarkers, Tumor

The principle treatment for cervical esophageal cancer and hypopharyngeal cancer with esophageal invasion is radical total pharyngolaryngoesophagectomy (PLE), and it is necessary to totally reconstruct the defect of the resected organ. Stomach, small bowel, colon, a laryngotracheal flap and a pectoralis major musculocutaneous flap can all be used. We commonly use stomach because stomach has a rich blood supply and a low incidence of leakage. But in this present reported case, because previous radical subtotal gastrectomy with gastrojejunostomy had been done, we had to use colon for reconstruction. We use the left colon and left colic artery, and there were no complications. We report here on using the left colon and left colic artery to reconstruct a PLE defect for the first time in Korea.
Arteries ; Colic ; Colon* ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Gastrectomy* ; Gastric Bypass ; Humans ; Hypopharyngeal Neoplasms ; Incidence ; Korea ; Myocutaneous Flap ; Pharyngeal Neoplasms ; Stomach

There has been considerable controversy over the prognosis of mucinous gastric enocarcinoma (MGC). In this study we analyzed the clinicopathologic fferences between MGC and non-mucinous gastric carcinoma (NMGC). In addition, e relationship between mucin content and other clinicopathologic variables, cluding prognosis in MGC, was also investigated. We reviewed 2118 patients th pathologically-confirmed gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy at the partment of Surgery, Yonsei University College of Medicine, during the period tween Jan. 1987 and Dec. 1993. Among them, 130 patients had gastric carcinoma th extracellular mucin (MGC) and 1988 patients had gastric carcinoma without tracellular mucin (NMGC). We placed the MGC patients into two groups according mucin content: mucin content involving over 50% of the tumor (dominant type, = 94) and mucin content involving less than 50% of the tumor area (partial pe, n = 36). The results were as follows: MGC was more common in males than GC. The size of the tumor in MGC (mean 5.3 cm) was larger than that of NMGC ean 4.4 cm). The patients with MGC had a higher incidence of Borrmann type IV GC: 16.1%, NMGC: 9.9%), more frequent serosal invasion (MGC: 75.4%, NMGC: .6%), lymph-node metastasis (MGC: 75.4%, NMGC: 50.7%), and peritoneal tastasis (MGC: 10.0%, NMGC: 3.5%) than patients with NMGC. The patients with C were more advanced in stage at the time of diagnosis and had a worse overall -year survival rate (44.9%) than patients with NMGC (54.7%). However, the -year survival rate according to the stage of MGC was similar to that of NMGC. ere were no significant differences between the mucin content and other thologic variables, including prognosis, i.e. similar biologic behavior tween dominant type MGC and partial type MGC. In conclusion, we suggest that C was more frequently diagnosed in advanced stage than NMGC with a poorer ognosis and that it is reasonable to consider the carcinoma with mucin content volving more than 30% of the tumor area as MGC.
Adenocarcinoma/pathology ; Adenocarcinoma/metabolism ; Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous/pathology* ; Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous/metabolism* ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Human ; Male ; Middle Age ; Mucins/metabolism ; Neoplasm Staging ; Stomach Neoplasms/pathology* ; Stomach Neoplasms/metabolism*

Combined resection of the spleen during total gastrectomy for gastric cancer is usually performed to remove the lymph nodes adequately and thereby achieving surgical radicality. However there is still controversy whether a total gastrectomy combined with a splenectomy can improve the survival rate. The authors retrospectively analyzed 557 gastric cancer patients, who underwent total gastrectomy at the Department of Surgery of Yonsei University during the 7-year period between 1987 and 1993, in order to investigate the influence of combined resection of the spleen upon the patients' survival. The patients were followed until March 1996, and the rate of follow up was 90.6%. The number of cases in which the spleen was saved was 101(the spleen conservation group, SC) and the number of cases in which the spleen was resected was 431(the spleen resection group, SR). Twenty-five cases were excluded due to incomplete data. Among the 431 cases for whom splenectomy was done, 343 were cases in which spleen was the only organ removed other than the stomach (SOR). For the other 88 cases, at least 1 more organs were resected along with the stomach and the spleen(Sp combined). There were no significant differences in the clinical characteristics such as age, sex ratio, tumor size, depth of invasion, nodal stage, TNM stage and histological type between SC and SOR group. In terms of the nodes removed during operation, there was significant difference between the SC and the SOR groups. Also, the Sp combined group showed significant differences in terms of tumor size, depth, nodal stage, TNM stage, and removed nodes. The overall 5-yr survival rate for the spleen conservation group(SC, N=101) was 61.2% and the survival rates according to TNM stage were 94.0% for stage I, 94.1% for stage II, 30.0% for III, and 0.0% for stage IV. The overall 5-yr survival rate for the 343 patients with splenectomy(SOR) was 51.9%, and the survival rates according to TNM stages were 88.7% for stage I, 57.0% for II, 44.0% for III, and 10.8% for stage IV. The overall 5-yr survival rate for the 431 patients with splenectomies or with splenectomies and multiple organ resection(SR) was 48.2%, and the survival rates according to the stages were 88.2% for stage I, 60.2% for II, 41.5% for III, and 6.8% for stage IV. The overall 5-yr survival rate was higher in SC group than in the SOR or the SR groups, but there was no statistical significance to this difference (p>0.05). In a compared according to the TNM stage, the SC group showed better survival rates in the relatively early stages (I, II) than the SOR or the SR groups did; in advanced stages (III, IV), the SOR and the SR groups showed better survival rates than the SC group. However, there was no statistically significant differences in survival among the three groups. These results suggest that during a total gastrectomy, it may be better to save the spleen in early stages of gastric cancer and that it may be better to resect the spleen for adquate lymphadenectomy in grossly advanced stages. To identify statistical difference in survival, it might be necessary to perform a randomized prospective study.
Follow-Up Studies ; Gastrectomy* ; Humans ; Lymph Node Excision ; Lymph Nodes ; Retrospective Studies ; Sex Ratio ; Spleen* ; Splenectomy ; Stomach ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Survival Rate

A retrospective study of 2,603 patients with gastric cancer who underwent a gastric resection at Yonsei University Hospital from 1987 to 1994 was performed to evaluate the clinicopathological characteristics and survival rates of patients with gastric cancer. There were 1721 males and 882 females (ratio=2:1) with a mean age of 54 years (range=22~85 years). All patients underwent gastric resection with curative intent, but 199 patients (7.6%) had a palliative resection. The types of operations were a subtotal gastrectomy in 1,917 patients (73.6%) and a total gastrectomy in 686 patients (26.4%). A D2 or a more extended lymph-node dissection was performed in 2530 patients (97.2%), and only 73 patients (2.8%) had less extensive surgery. The postoperative mortality was 0.9%. The mean diameter of a tumor was 5.6 cm. The most common location of a tumor was the lower third of the stomach (49.4%). Borrmann type III (64.7%) was the most common gross type. The major histologic type was a tubular adenocarcinoma (76.3%). The overall 5-year survival rate was 66.5%. The 5-year survival rates according to the stage were 94.3% in IA, 90.5% in IB, 76.6% in II, 60.1% in IIIA, 38.7% in IIIB, and 12.9% in IV. In the univariate analysis, poor survival was closely related to increasing age, tumor location in the upper one third, larger tumor size, Borrmann type IV tumors, increasing pT and pN classifications, an advanced tumor stage, and perforance of a total gastrectomy. The multivariate analysis revealed that distant metastasis, lymph-node metastasis, depth of invasion, gross type, age, and type of resection were significant prognostic factors. In conclusion, the prognosis for gastric cancer after a gastrectomy has remarkably improved, and the most significant prognostic factors were distant metastasis, lymph node metastasis, and depth of invasion. Therefore, early diagnosis of gastric cancer and aggressive multimodal therapy, especially in patients with stage IIIB and IV tumors might improve the quality of life and the survival of the patients with gastric cancer.
Adenocarcinoma ; Classification ; Early Diagnosis ; Female ; Gastrectomy* ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Male ; Mortality ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Prognosis ; Quality of Life ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Survival Rate*

The diagnostic accuracy of the data reported in the Korean tuberculosis surveillance system (KTBS) has not been adequately investigated. We reviewed the clinical data of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) cases notified from private medical facilities through KTBS between January and June, 2004. PTB cases were classified into definite (culture-proven), probable (based on smear, polymerase chain reaction, histology, bronchoscopic finding, computed tomography, or both chest radiograph and symptoms) or possible (based only on chest radiograph) tuberculosis. Of the 1126 PTB cases, sputum AFB smear and culture were requested in 79% and 51% of the cases, respectively. Positive results of sputum smear and culture were obtained in 43% and 29% of all the patients, respectively. A total of 73.2% of the notified PTB cases could be classified as definite or probable and 81.7% as definite, probable, or possible. However, where infection was not confirmed bacteriologically or histologically, only 60.1% of the patients were definite, probable, or possible cases. More than 70% of PTB notified from private sectors in Korea can be regarded as real TB. The results may also suggest the possibility of over-estimation of TB burden in the use of the notification-based TB data.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis/isolation & purification ; Private Sector ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Severity of Illness Index ; Sputum/microbiology ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/*diagnosis/epidemiology/pathology ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND: The use of intraoperative brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) has reduced the incidence of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) after microvascular decompression (MVD). This complication occurs due to direct compressive and/or stretching injury of the cochlear nerve or to indirect compression of the perineural vasculature during cerebellar retraction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of thiopental sodium on SNHL after MVD for hemifacial spasm. METHODS: 94 hemifacial spasm patients with normal hearing function preoperatively and who underwent MVD under intraoperative BAEP monitoring were enrolled in this study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups. 52 patients were administered placebo (control group) and 42 patients were administered thiopental sodium 5 mg/kg intravenously 5 minutes before cerebellar retraction (thiopental group). The effects of thiopental on intraoperative BAEP changes and postoperative hearing functional outcomes were sought. Incidence and degree of postoperative SNHL were evaluated by pure tone audiometry threshold analysis. RESULTS: Maximal changes in intraoperative BAEP parameters did not differ between the two groups, and neither did the incidence nor degree of SNHL. In the control group, 4 transient and 4 permanent postoperative SNHL, including 2 deaf patients, occurred with an overall incidence of 15.4%. In the thiopental group, 2 transient and 1 permanent postoperative SNHL occurred, with an overall incidence of 7.1%. CONCLUSIONS: Thiopental sodium administered prior to cerebellar retraction might reduce the incidence of postoperative hearing loss.
Audiometry ; Cochlear Nerve ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Hearing* ; Hemifacial Spasm ; Humans ; Incidence ; Microvascular Decompression Surgery* ; Thiopental*