Angioleiomyoma (AL) is a very rare benign tumor that originates from smooth muscle cells and has thick walled vessels. It may be found throughout the body but more frequently occurs in the lower extremities and rarely develops in the head and other parts of the body. This paper presents a case report of giant AL detected in a 33-year-old woman who complained of severe anemia, menorrhagia, and palpable lower abdominal mass. The patient underwent myomectomy and was diagnosed with AL based on the pathological report of mass. The effective treatment for AL is either simple hysterectomy or angiomyomectomy depending on the patient's desire to preserve fertility and symptom.
Adult ; Anemia ; Angiomyoma* ; Female ; Fertility ; Head ; Humans ; Hysterectomy ; Immunohistochemistry ; Leiomyoma ; Lower Extremity ; Menorrhagia ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle ; Uterus*

Uterine serous adenocarcinoma (USC) is rare and invasive cancer. This cancer is more often reported in the ovary, the fallopian tube, and the endometrium than uterine cervix. No matter where the tumor is located, the tumor exhibits similar histological characteristics. So when uterine cancer is proven to be serous adenocarcinoma, it is necessary to see if the tumor originated from ovary or endometrium and invaded the cervix. We report a case of a 73-year-old postmenopausal woman with USC arising near the internal os of endocervical canal, clinically misdiagnosed as uterine cervix cancer.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Aged* ; Cervix Uteri* ; Endometrium ; Fallopian Tubes ; Female ; Humans ; Ovary ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms ; Uterine Neoplasms ; Uterus

BACKGROUND/AIMS: P2/MS is known as a simple, accurate, and noninvasive marker for determination of the degree of hepatic fibrosis in patients with viral hepatitis. We aimed to validate P2/MS in patients with HCC. METHODS: Consecutive HCC patients who underwent surgical resection between June 2007 and March 2009 at Seoul National University Hospital were enrolled. Fibrosis stage was reviewed and assessed according to METAVIR scoring. P2/MS values [platelet count (109/L)]2/[monocyte fraction (%)xsegmented neutrophil fraction (%)] and other noninvasive fibrosis scoring systems were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 171 patients were included; seven patients with METAVIR F1, 31 with F2, 41 with F3, and 92 with F4. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of P2/MS was 0.804 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.681~0.927] for detection of significant fibrosis (F2-F4) and 0.769 (95% CI, 0.698~0.839) for detection of histological cirrhosis (F4). At a value < 62, P2/MS detected significant fibrosis with a specificity of 85.7% (95% CI, 42.0~99.2) and a positive likelihood ratio of 4.268 (95% CI, 0.692~26.309); and at a value > 115, P2/MS ruled out significant fibrosis with a sensitivity of 90.2% (95% CI, 84.4~94.1) and a negative likelihood ratio of 0.34 (95% CI, 0.106~0.095). P2/MS had a superior efficacy for detection of hepatic fibrosis in patients with HCC compared to the other noninvasive panels. CONCLUSIONS: P2/MS can accurately detect fibrosis in patients with HCC. Thus, P2/MS might be utilized as a noninvasive index reflecting the degree of hepatic fibrosis in HCC patients.
Aged ; Area Under Curve ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/complications/*diagnosis/pathology ; Cohort Studies ; Female ; Health Status Indicators ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis/complications/*diagnosis/pathology ; Liver Neoplasms/complications/*diagnosis/pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Monocytes/cytology ; Neoplasm Staging ; Neutrophils/cytology ; Platelet Count ; ROC Curve ; Reproducibility of Results ; Retrospective Studies ; Severity of Illness Index

Endometriosis is estrogen dependent disease in reproductive age. Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory gynecologic disease. Problems associated with endometriosis include dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, and infertility. Postmenopausal endometriosis is rare. Also, malignant transformation in endometriosis is rare. There is no report in Korea about serous adenocarcinoma arising from endometriosis after menopause. The authors present a case of serous adenocarcinoma arising from endometriosis after menopause with brief review of the literature.
Adenocarcinoma ; Dysmenorrhea ; Dyspareunia ; Endometriosis ; Estrogens ; Female ; Genital Diseases, Female ; Infertility ; Korea ; Menopause

Sparganosis is a parasitic infection caused by the plerocercoid larvae of diphyllobothroid tapeworms belonging to the genus Spirometra, as first described by Manson in 1882. The infection is transmitted by ingestion of contaminated water, frogs, and snakes, and contact between a second intermediate host and an open wound or mucus membranes. Humans are accidental hosts in the life cycle, but dogs, cats, and other mammals are definitive hosts. Once a human becomes infected, the plerocercoid larvae migrate to a subcutaneous location, where they typically develop into a painful nodule. We misdiagnosed vulva sparganosis as a Bartholin's gland abscess. The patient was a green consumer, so she may have been infected by consuming health foods. Sparganosis should be considered as a cause of soft tissue masses especially among patients who have ingested health foods.
Abscess ; Animals ; Cats ; Cestoda ; Dogs ; Eating ; Food, Organic ; Humans ; Life Cycle Stages ; Mammals ; Membranes ; Mucus ; Snakes ; Sparganosis ; Sparganum ; Spirometra ; Vulva

Endometriosis is an estrogen dependent disease in reproductive age. Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory gynecologic disease. Problems associated with endometriosis include dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, and infertility. Postmenopausal endometriosis is rare; however, postmenopausal endometriosis is infrequently associated with cancer, thus management is most important for gynecologists. We present two cases of endometriosis associated with postmenopausal women who were not receiving menopausal hormone therapy with a retrospective review of the medical records and a brief review of the literature.
Dysmenorrhea ; Dyspareunia ; Endometriosis ; Estrogens ; Female ; Genital Diseases, Female ; Humans ; Infertility ; Medical Records ; Postmenopause ; Retrospective Studies

BACKGROUND: Molecular tools for tissue profiling generally require collection of fresh frozen tissues (FFT) as sources of high-quality DNA and RNA. Nowadays, researchers carry out large-scale, multi-center studies and they request inter-institutional minimal intrinsic bias, some fundamental similarities, and the same standardized and validated procedures. METHODS: This study reports standardized quality control procedure for fresh frozen tissue of the National Biobank of Korea. RESULTS: The main procedures for quality control for FFT are as follows: records related to sample collection such as labeling of samples, transport temperature, lag time from excision of tissue to freezing, and sample size were reviewed for all fresh frozen samples. The stability of RNA and DNA in fresh frozen tissue was evaluated for 3% of collected samples and purity was assessed (ratio of the absorbance at 260 and 280 nm) as was integrity (agarose gel electrophoresis). Stained hematoxylin and eosin sections were reviewed by a pathologist to confirm the diagnosis and to assess how representative the frozen sample was. CONCLUSIONS: We introduced that the quality-control criteria for fresh frozen tissue of the NBK. We expect that this study contributes to standardization of collection, storage, and quality control of fresh frozen tissue.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; DNA ; Eosine Yellowish-(YS) ; Freezing ; Hematoxylin ; Korea ; Quality Control ; RNA ; Sample Size

Lipoma is a common benign neoplasm, but lipoma arising from the pleura is rare. Most pleural lipomas are asymptomatic and are discovered incidentally on chest radiographs. Here we report an unusual case of a pedunculated subpleural lipoma with incomplete torsion in a 29-year-old woman who presented with flank pain. On chest radiography, there was a well-defined, ellipsoidal, homogeneous, radioopaque mass in the left lower lobe. An intrathoracic tumor was suspected, and video-assisted thoracic surgery was performed to establish the final diagnosis. The resected tumor was a 10 X 5 cm sized pedunculated pleural mass. The cut surface showed a yellow, well-circumscribed mass with areas of hemorrhage. Histologically, the tumor was composed of mature adipose tissue with fibrous septae composed of fibroblasts. The outer surface of the tumor was covered by mesothelial cells. Some areas were hypercellular, and occasional mitoses were found, but neither lipoblasts nor atypical mitoses were identified.
Adipose Tissue ; Adult ; Benzeneacetamides ; Female ; Fibroblasts ; Flank Pain ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Lipoma ; Mitosis ; Piperidones ; Pleura ; Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted ; Thorax

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary malignant tumor of the human liver. However, the molecular changes and mechanisms that regulate the development and progression of HCC remain unclear. Beta-catenin is known as a multi-functional protein that acts as a regulator of the cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion system and also in the Wingless/Wnt signal transduction pathway. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of beta-catenin and its possible role in HCC. METHODS: We investigated the expression of beta-catenin, Ki-67, TP53, alpha-smooth muscle actin and CD34 by performing immunohistochemical staining for 61 specimens of HCC and their adjacent non-tumorous tissue. We also examined the relationship between the nuclear expression of beta-catenin and the clinicopathologic parameters. RESULTS: The altered expression of beta-catenin was not detected in the nontumorous liver tissue. The nuclear expression of beta-catenin was observed in approximately 16% (10/61) of the HCC specimens. Double immunohistochemical staining for beta-catenin and E-cadherin showed a close relationship between nuclear translocation of beta-catenin and the loss of the membranous E-cadherin expression. Significant correlation was found between the nuclear translocation of beta-catenin and the tumor size, tumor necrosis and the presence of microvessel invasion and intrahepatic metastasis (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This data indicates that nuclear translocation of beta-catenin could play a role in the growth and progression of HCC.
Humans ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Neoplasm Metastasis

An asymptomatic 26-year-old man was initially admitted with a suspicious mediastinal mass. On the basis of the contrast-enhanced chest CT findings, aneurysm formation involving the left cervical aortic arch associated with subaortic left innominate vein was diagnosed. The aneurysm was confirmed by MR angiography and DSA. The arch aneurysm was surgically removed. We describe this case, and review the literature.
Adult ; Aneurysm* ; Angiography ; Aorta, Thoracic* ; Brachiocephalic Veins* ; Humans ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed