No abstract available.
Fetal Blood* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Plasma* ; Sodium*

Male urethral diverticulum is uncommon lesion, furthermore calculus formation within the male urethral diverticulum is very rare. Generally, urethral diverticula are classified as congenital and acquired. The majority of male urethral diverticula are acquired and approximately 10 to 20 per cent are congenital. Acquired urethral diverticula in the male may arise from many sources, including infection (prostatic abscess, infection of periurethral glands, hematoma or schistosomiasis), obstruction (stricture, impacted stone, Cunningham clamp or condom catheter) and trauma (instrumentation, external injury and pelvic fracture). Calculi formation is more common in the acquired diverticulum owing to stagnation of urine and infection. These calculi in the diverticulum usually are solitary and may attain considerable size with predisposing factors, 1) a ureteral or bladder calculus that is lodged in the urethra 2) urethral trauma or stricture, 3) calcification around a foreign body or hair. The treatment of urethral diverticulum combined with stone is excision of the diverticula with removal of stone. We treated two cases of urethral diverticulum combined with stone in the male, and report with review of literature.
Abscess ; Calculi ; Causality ; Condoms ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Diverticulum* ; Foreign Bodies ; Hair ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Male* ; Ureter ; Urethra ; Urinary Bladder Calculi

Herniated intervertebral disc(HIVD) of the lumbar spine has been known to be relatively uncommon in the teenager and frequently be associated with trauma. However, with the changing life style and increasing sports activities, and most of all, with the advent of new imaging modalities, the incidence seems to be increasing gradually. In order to define the characteristic pattern of HIVD of teenager in the era of MRI, and to clarify the associated lesions, such as apophyseal ring fractures, authors performed this retrospective study in 55 teenager patients with HIVD(77 discs), in which MRI was used as main diagnostic modality. The following results were obtained 1) The incidence of the HIVD in teenager was 9.6%(55 patients) of total HIVD patients(575 patients) for 4 years from December 1989 to December 1993. 2) According to MRI findings, HIVD of the teenager could be classified into 3 distinct patterns; simple HIVD, lumbar apophyseal ring fracture(LARF), and vertebral rim lesion. 3) In simple HIVD, as for the MRI classification, protruded type was most frequent type and there was no sequestered type 4) In LARF, the incidence was 14.4% of teenager's HIVD and posterocephalad margin of L5 was the most common site of involvement. 5) Exophytic bony protrusion from the posterior margin of vertebral body, which we called vertebral rim lesion, could be defined on MR sagittal view in 6 cases.
Adolescent ; Classification ; Humans ; Incidence ; Intervertebral Disc ; Life Style ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Retrospective Studies ; Spine ; Sports

Glanzmann's thrombasthenia is a rare autosomal recessive hemorrhagic disorder characterized by prolonged bleeding time, ad deficient or absent clot retraction in the presence of normal platelet count. The major underlying abnormality in this disease is grossly defective first-phase aggregation of platelet, which are unresponsive to ADP or other platelet agonists such as epinephrine, collagen, thrombin in any concentration. This disability is caused by a decrease or absence of the platelet membrans glycoprotein IIb-IIIa complex, a member of the integrin family of adhesive receptors involved in cell-cell and cell-matrix fibronectin, and vitronectin On the development of surface labeling technique, a variety of biochemical techniques such as radioimmunoassay, crossed immunoelectrophoresis and SDS-PAGE have been used to study the structure and the function of platelet membrane glycoproteins, and to detect the platelet functional defect. But all of these techniques demand a relatively large amount of homogeneous paletelet population that requires manipulation through isolation and washing procedures before analysis. In order to eliminaste such an intricate procedure, we have applied method for analyzing platelet surface components in whole blood using monoclonal antibody and flow cytometry to recognize the absence of severe reduction of platelet membrane glycoprotien llb-llla complex. Platelet analysis by flow cytometry is a successful alternative rapid diagnostic technique for Glanzmann's thrombasthenia patients as well as well as for carriers of this disease. Fow cytometry technique provides a sensitive tool for investigating platelet functional defects caused by altered expression or deficiency of platelet surface proteins.
Adenosine Diphosphate ; Adhesives ; Bleeding Time ; Blood Platelets* ; Clot Retraction ; Collagen ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Epinephrine ; Fibronectins ; Flow Cytometry* ; Glycoproteins ; Hemorrhagic Disorders ; Humans ; Immunoelectrophoresis, Two-Dimensional ; Membrane Glycoproteins* ; Membrane Proteins ; Membranes* ; Platelet Count ; Platelet Membrane Glycoproteins ; Radioimmunoassay ; Thrombasthenia* ; Thrombin ; Vitronectin

It is well known that HL-60 cell, a human promyelocytic line, is differentiated into eosinophil-like cells in the presence of butyric acid, and thus the differentiated HL-60 cells have been used as a model system to study irnmunological properties of peripheral eosinophils which are thought to be terminally differentiated. To study whether HL-60 cells alter their capability of expressing cytokines during differentiation to eosinophil-like cells, we examined TNF mRNA levels in HL-60 cells treated with butyric acid by Ribonuclease Protection Assay (RPA). HL-60 cells were incubated for 3 days in the presence of butyric acid (0.5 mM), and stimulated with PMA and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The levels of TNF mRNA decreased by 50 % and 95 % upon one and two days of post-treatment of butyric acid, respectively. The decreased pattern in TNF mRNA levels was also observed in HL-60 cells that have been treated with retinoic acid known as an inducer for differentiation of them. In accordance with these results, prominent azurophilic granules typical in eosinophils appeared in the cytoplasm of the differentiated HL-60 cells. The decreased expression of TNF mRNA was not attributable to the presence of serum, since increasing concentrations of serum had no effect. Furthermore, interleukin-5 (IL-5), which is known to be involved in activation and trafficking of eosinophils in vivo and in vitro, failed to affect TNF mRNA production when it was used in place of butyric acid. These data suggest that the differentiated HL-60 cells may have immunological resemblance to eosinophils in that they weakly produce the cytokine mRNA.
Butyric Acid ; Cytokines ; Cytoplasm ; Eosinophils ; HL-60 Cells* ; Humans ; Interleukin-5 ; Ribonucleases ; RNA, Messenger* ; Tretinoin

No abstract available.
Thorax*

BACKGROUND: Naringin, one of the flavonoids in citrus fruit peels, is known to have antioxidant and hepatotonic effects in animal studies. We evaluated the effect of naringin on 1) blood lipid profiles, 2) regression of fatty streak of aorta, and 3) liver toxicity in diet-induced hypercholesterolemic rabbits. METHODS: New Zealand White Rabbits (2.0 - 2.5 Kg) were divided to three groups; group without treatment, group treated with 100 mg/kg/d or 500 mg/kg/d naringin, and group treated with 1 mg/kg/d or 20 mg/kg/d lovastatin. They were fed on 0.25% or 1.0% cholesterol-containing diet for 8 weeks and then sacrificed. Blood samples were collected for measurement of total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglyceride, serum GOT and GPT. Aortas and livers were harvested for evaluation of fatty streak and pathologic examination. RESULTS: 1)Feeding of 1% cholesterol diet for eight weeks significantly increased the cholesterol level upto 20 folds. Neither lovastatin nor naringin did lower these marked hypercholesterolemia. But both naringin (500 mg/kg/d) and lovastatin (1 mg/kg/d) significantly reduced the area of fatty streak by 75% and 58%, respectively. Naringin was more effective in inhibition of fat infiltration into liver than lovastatin which showed hepatotoxicity as increase of serum GPT level (p=0.01). 2)Feeding of 0.25% cholesterol diet for eight weeks significantly increased the cholesterol level upto 17 folds. Total cholesterol and triglyceride levels tended to decrease by treatment with naringin (500 mg/kg/d) and lovastatin (20 mg/kg/d), but this decreases were not statistically significant. However, areas of fatty streak significantly decreased by treatment with naringin and lovastatin by 64 and 82%, respectively (p<0.05). Microscopic analysis revealed that foam cell infiltration into intima was significantly reduced by naringin and lovastatin. In contrast to lovastatin, naringin significantly reduced the level of serum GPT (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Like lovastatin, naringin has strong antiatherogenic action which may not be associated with its very mild lipid lowering action. In contrast to lovastatin, naringin does have hepatoprotective effect.
Animals ; Aorta ; Cholesterol ; Citrus ; Diet ; Flavonoids ; Foam Cells ; Hypercholesterolemia ; Liver ; Lovastatin ; Rabbits* ; Triglycerides

In the present study, we investigated the differences in the levels of expression of virulence factors between blood isolates of Candida albicans and commensal strain isolated from the oral cavities of health volunteers, and correlations between virulence factors. Blood isolates of 33 and commenal isolates of 71 were characterized by putative virulence factors such as proteinase production (PROT), an ability to adhere to epithelial cells (ADH), cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH), phospholipase production (PLASE), and hyphal transition (GERM). In PROT, ADH, CSH, and PLASE, the means of expression of blood isolates were higher compared with those of commensal isolates, however statistical significance was only shown in CSH (p=0.036). On the contrary, mean expression of GERM of blood isolates was lower than that of commensal isolates. Of relationships between virulence factors, although a negative correlation of PROT with CSH was obtained, the correlation was relatively low (r=-0.316, p=0.001). These results suggest that higher expression of CSH is a more distinguishing character in virulent blood isolates of C. albicans and that the expression of virulence factors are independent.
Candida albicans* ; Candida* ; Epithelial Cells ; Healthy Volunteers* ; Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions ; Phospholipases ; Virulence Factors ; Virulence* ; Volunteers

PURPOSE: It has been suggested in our previous study that the serum level of xanthine oxidise(XO) activity, glutathione(GSH), malonyldialdehyde(MDA) could be used as marker of oxidant stress in association with renal ischemia/reperfusion(I/R) injury. The present study was undertaken to establish the early marker of renal 1/R injury and to investigate the effect of deferoxamine on renal 1/R injury. MATERIALS AND METHOD: In Sprague-Dawley rats(male, 200-250gm, n=60), bilateral renal arteries were clamped for 60mins after pretreatment with deferoxamine(group A) or saline(group B). After 30min of bilateral renal recirculation, left nephrectomy and blood sampling in inferior vena cava were performed for in-vitro spectrophotometric study. Control animals(group C) did not undergo I/R operation. In-vivo renal function studies were performed in both group A and B with measurement of creatinine clearance rate(Ccr) at 7th day of experiments a%or renal ischmia for 60min. RESULTS: The levels of XO activity and XO type conversion ratio in renal tissue (RT) and serum(5) were measured. These levels were significantly high in group B, but were lower in group A compared to those of control group. The values of GSH(micrometer/g tissue), a scavenger of OFR, were decreased in group A (RT:0.183+/-0.019,5:0.201+/-0.029) and greatly decreased in group B(RT:0.159+/-0.009,5:0.164+/-0.022) compared to control group(RT:0.201+/-0.006,5:0.224+/-0.031). The values of MDA(nM/g tissue), a stable end product of lipid peroxidation, were increased in group A(RT:0.149+/-0.003, 5:0.058+/-0.004) compared to control group(RT:0.128+/-0.013, 5;0.055+/-0.005), but the values were significantly lower in group A compared to group B(RT:0.171+/-0.005, 5:0.070+/-0.003). Subsequent investigation was focused on the established renal function study after 1/R, which was determined using Ccr(ml/min). The Ccr in group A(2.06+/-0.03) was significantly higher compared to that of group 8(1.48+/-0.18), although it was slightly lower than in control group(2.18+/-0.05). CONCLUSIONS: From these results, it is suggested that renal I/R injury is highly correlated with the production of OFR. The levels of GSH and MDA in renal tissue and serum seem to be probable markers of oxidant stress in association with renal I/R injury. Furthermore, deferoxamine could reduce the degree of renal damage resulting from ameliorating the production of OFR following renal I/R injury.
Animals ; Creatinine ; Deferoxamine* ; Lipid Peroxidation ; Nephrectomy ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Renal Artery ; Vena Cava, Inferior ; Xanthine

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis(ADEM) and acute relapsing disseminated encephalomyelitis(ARDEM) are representative demyelination diseases that occur among young children with a fulminant onset similar to encephalitis or meningitis. The diseases often occur after some viral infection of immunization and the etiology of these diseases is considered to be an autoimmune response because of the similarity in pathologic findings to experimental allergic encephalomyelitis. Cerebral computed tomography(CT) findings of demyelination in ADEM or ARDEM show normal to low density areas in the white matter. In cerebral MRI findings, a scattered distinct high intensity lesion considered to be demyelination is observed in 72-weighted imaging even in the early stages. ADEM is usually monophasic, but recurrent episodes may occure. When ADEM is reccurent, the distinction from multiple sclerosis becomes difficult. We report here a case of acute relapsing disseminated encephalomyelitis(ARDEM) in a 9 years old male child who experence ADEM, 3 times.
Autoimmunity ; Child ; Demyelinating Diseases ; Encephalitis ; Encephalomyelitis, Acute Disseminated* ; Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental ; Humans ; Immunization ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Meningitis ; Multiple Sclerosis