PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the surgical treatment of incidentally detected, asymptomatic, unilateral nonfunctioning tuberculous kidney. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-three patients with incidentally detected, asymptomatic, unilateral nonfunctioning kidney, negative urine AFB culture and radiologic diagnosis of renal tuberculosis were reviewed. They were divided into three groups: surgical, medical, and observation groups. Twelve patients in the surgical group were nephrectomized at initial diagnosis. Eleven patients in the medical group received anti-tuberculous medication with isoniazid, rifampin, and pyrazinamide for 4 months. Ten patients in the observation group remained under observation. RESULTS: There was no evidence of decreased renal function or recurrence of renal tuberculosis in the surgical and medical groups. Pathologic confirmation of renal tuberculosis was obtained in all nephrectomy patients. The follow-up loss rate of the surgical group (7.7%) was lower than that of the other groups (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Nephrectomy is more acceptable than either medicine or observation. (1) Because preoperative chemotherapy was not justified in the case of negative urine AFB culture, pathologic confirmation was necessary. (2) Nephrectomy associated morbidity was quite low. (3) The follow-up loss rate of the surgical group was lower than that of the other groups. Short course anti-tuberculous medication should be administered after nephrectomy.
Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Isoniazid ; Kidney* ; Nephrectomy* ; Pyrazinamide ; Recurrence ; Rifampin ; Tuberculosis, Renal*

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to compare the differences in parenting stress, parenting attitudes, and parents' mental health between different adult attachment styles. METHODS: Forty-four parents who completed a parental education program were enrolled in our study. They completed the Korean version of the Experience of Close Relationship Revised, Korean-Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, Maternal Behavior Research Instrument, and Symptom Checklist-90-Revised. RESULTS: The avoidant attachment score positively correlated with parenting stress. The anxious attachment score showed a positive relationship with parenting stress, hostile parenting attitude, and psychopathology, but a negative association with an affectionate parenting attitude. The secure attachment group exhibited a more autonomous, affectionate parenting style and a less hostile parenting attitude and less parenting stress than the insecure attachment group. Dismissing-avoidant attachment parents reported significantly higher parenting stress scores than secure attachment parents. Preoccupied and fearful-avoidant attachment parents displayed a more hostile parenting style than secure attachment parents. Dismissing-avoidant and preoccupied parents reported a less affectionate parenting attitude than secure attachment parents. CONCLUSION: There were differences in parenting stress, parenting attitudes, and parents' mental health depending on the adult attachment style. More specific education and interventions based on parental attachment type are necessary for parents.
Adult ; Education ; Humans ; Maternal Behavior ; Mental Health ; Parenting ; Parents ; Psychopathology

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to measure the effect of a group-based parent education program on parenting stress and attitude and comparing the same according to adult attachment styles.
Adult ; Child ; Education ; Humans ; Maternal Behavior ; Mothers ; Parenting ; Parents

The main purpose of this article is to determine a method of supporting the sympathetic skin response (SSR) as a sensitive clinical test. Using a non-invasive technique the SSRs are simultaneously recorded by 4 channel EMG machine. Thirty adults (10 women and 20 men, aged 19 to 46 years), normal and healthy, participated in this experiment. Not only did the latencies recorded on both palms respond faster than those on both soles, but the amplitudes measured on the palms were also higher. From these observations, one is bound to conclude that the SSR is not a segmental response but a long systemic response. More than two channel EMG recordings are desirable to see whether or not there is a lesion in any part of the SSR's pathway. Comparing the SSRs made both on the palms and soles simultaneously is recommendable in order to increase the its sensitivity.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Electric Stimulation ; Electromyography/methods ; Female ; Galvanic Skin Response/*physiology ; Human ; Male ; Middle Age ; Skin/*innervation ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Sympathetic Nervous System/*physiology

Although ginseng (genus Panax) leaf extract contains high concentrations of bioactive constituents, its effects have been reported in few preclinical studies, and information regarding its toxicity is not sufficient to allow for its clinical use. We evaluated the genotoxicity of UG0712, which is a powdered extract of ginseng leaves. UG0712 did not increase the number of revertant colonies in 4 histidine auxotrophic strains of Salmonella typhimurium (TA100, TA1535, TA98, and TA1537) or in a tryptophan auxotrophic strain of Escherichia coli (WP2uvrA(pKM101)) at any concentration evaluated, either in the absence or presence of the metabolic activation system. There was no significant increase in the number of metaphase cells with structural or numerical aberrations in the UG0712-treated groups compared to the concurrent vehicle control at any dose, regardless of the presence of the metabolic activation system. Oral administration of the extract at doses up to 2,000 mg/kg in male mice did not increase the frequency of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes in the bone marrow, and did not result in any significant clinical signs, body weight loss, gross findings, or mortality. These results suggest that UG0712 does not act as a mutagenic or genotoxic material at the concentrations evaluated.
Administration, Oral ; Animals ; Biotransformation ; Body Weight ; Bone Marrow ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Erythrocytes ; Escherichia coli ; Histidine ; Humans ; Male ; Metaphase ; Mice ; Mortality ; Panax* ; Salmonella typhimurium ; Tryptophan

A 49-year-old woman was admitted with a three-month history of myalgia and progressive proximal and distal muscle weaknesses. Physical examination showed diffuse enlargement of the thyroid gland and mild muscle atrophy. Serum creatine kinase was slightly increased and electromyography showed a myopathic pattern. Muscle biopsy showed nonspecific myopathic changes. Serum thyroid-stimulating hormone was very low, whereas thyroxine (T4) was greatly increased as well as anti-thyroglobulin, anti-microsome, and TSH-receptor antibody. The patient's symptoms were improved during the treatment with propilthiouracil.
Biopsy ; Creatine Kinase ; Electromyography ; Female ; Graves Disease* ; Humans ; Hyperthyroidism ; Middle Aged ; Muscle Weakness ; Muscular Atrophy ; Muscular Diseases* ; Myalgia ; Physical Examination ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyrotropin ; Thyroxine

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Half of patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI) are ineligible for revascularization at diagnosis. The aim of this study was to assess the safety and feasibility of intramuscular human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cell (hUCB-MSC) therapy in patients with CLI due to atherosclerosis obliterans (ASO) or thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO). METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of eight patients (all male, median age 52 years, range 31~77) with CLI were enrolled in this phase I trial. All patients were considered ineligible for further revascularization to improve CLI. We injected 1x10(7) hUCB-MSCs per single dose intramuscularly into the affected limb. The primary end points of safety were occurrence of adverse events (procedure-related complication, allergic reaction to hUCB-MSCs, graft-versus-host disease, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events) and improvement of symptoms/clinical parameters (healing of foot ulcer, ankle-brachial index, and pain-free walking distance). Angiogenesis was measured with conventional angiography and scored by an independent reviewer. There were four adverse events in three patients. One patient, developed whole body urticaria after injection on treatment day, which disappeared after one day of antihistamine treatment. The other adverse events included diarrhea, oral ulceration, and elevation of serum creatinine level; all conditions improved without treatment. Abnormal results of laboratory parameters were not detected in any patients. Three of four ulcerations (75%) healed completely. Angiographic scores increased in three of eight patients. CONCLUSIONS: This phase I study demonstrates that intramuscular hUCB-MSC injection is a safe and well tolerated treatment for patients with end-stage CLI due to ASO and TAO.
Angiography ; Ankle Brachial Index ; Arterial Occlusive Diseases ; Atherosclerosis ; Creatinine ; Diarrhea ; Extremities ; Fetal Blood ; Foot Ulcer ; Graft vs Host Disease ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Ischemia ; Male ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; Oral Ulcer ; Oxalates ; Stem Cells ; Thromboangiitis Obliterans ; Troleandomycin ; Ulcer ; Umbilical Cord ; Urticaria ; Walking

Our study focused on the antioxidant activities of Mosidae leaf ethanol extract (MLE) and included measurements of reducing power, total phenolic compounds, DPPH radical scavenging activity, and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity. In order to determine whether or not MLE evidences any chemopreventive activities, experimental lung metastasis was induced via the i.v. inoculation of colon26-M3.1 carcinoma cells into BALB/c mice. Additionally, we attempted to characterize any possible cytotoxic effects in murine normal splenocytes and tumor cells (B16-BL6 and colon26-M3.1). The total phenolic content and reducing capacity were measured at 39 mg/100 mL and 1.24, respectively, whereas the DPPH and hydroxyl radical scavenging activities of MLE were measured to be 88.89% and 22.10%, respectively. Prophylactic i.v. treatment with MLE resulted in a dose-dependent and significant inhibition of lung metastasis. Specifically, a MLE dose of 200 ug per mouse resulted in an 88.90% inhibition of lung metastasis. For the cytotoxicity assay, MLE doses up to 100 ug/mL were not shown to affect the growth of normal murine splenocytes. Additionally, the survival of normal cells was not affected at MLE doses below 500 ug/mL. However, MLE doses up to 500 ug/mL reduced the percentage of tumor cell growth for B16BL6 (67% alive) and colon26-M3.1 (62% alive) cells.
Animals ; Ethanol ; Hydroxyl Radical ; Lung ; Mice ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Phenol

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is effective at restoring the levels of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) expression and preventing ultrastructural changes in the bladder of rats with streptozotocin- induced diabetes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nine-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were used. The experimental groups included a control group (n=6), a diabetes group (n=6), and two groups of diabetic rats treated with intraperitoneal injections of ALA (n=12) at either 50 (ALA50) or 100mg/kg/day (ALA100) for 8 weeks after the induction of diabetes. Diabetic oxidative stress was determined based on evaluation of immunohistochemical staining for 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG). The measurements of the levels of eNOS and nNOS expressions, as well as an assessment of the ultrastructural changes in detrusor smooth muscle cells were performed. RESULTS: The highest expression of 8-OHdG was observed in the diabetes group; whereas, the 8-OHdG expression in the ALA-treated groups was similar to that in the control group. Both eNOS and nNOS were constitutively expressed in the control group. The expression levels of both eNOS and nNOS proteins were higher in the diabetes group, which had experienced increased oxidative stress, than in the ALA50 and ALA100 groups. Compared with the control group, the diabetes group exhibited severe degeneration of the detrusor muscle cells. In the rats treated with ALA, the detrusor muscle cells showed mild to moderate degeneration. The mean numbers of mitochondria per smooth muscle cell in the control, diabetes, ALA50 and ALA100 groups were 12.6+/-1.5, 5.1+/-0.7, 18.3+/-0.7 and 19.3+/-1.3, respectively (p<0.01). CONCLISIONS: Our data suggest that diabetes enhanced the levels of eNOS and nNOS expressions in the bladder, and ALA inhibited the expressions of eNOS and nNOS. ALA had a protective effect against the degeneration of intracellular micro-organelles produced by diabetic oxidative damage in detrusor muscle cells. This study suggests that early treatment with ALA can reduce the damage caused by diabetic oxidative stress.
Animals ; Antioxidants ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Humans ; Injections, Intraperitoneal ; Male ; Mitochondria ; Muscle Cells ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle ; Nitric Oxide Synthase* ; Nitric Oxide* ; Oxidative Stress ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Thioctic Acid* ; Urinary Bladder*

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) can degrade a wide range of extracellular matrix components. It has been reported that MMP-9 are activated after focal ischemia in experimental animals. (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a major constituent of green tea polyphenols, is a potent free radical scavenger and reduces the neuronal damage caused by oxygen free radicals. And it has been known that EGCG could reduce the infarction volume in focal brain ischemia and inhibit MMP-9 activity. To delineate the relationship between the anti-ischemic action and the MMP-9-inhibiting action of EGCG, we investigated the effect of EGCG on brain infarction and the activity of matrix metalloproteinase-9 induced by permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (pMCAO) in ICR mice. EGCG (40 mg/kg, i.p. 15~30 min prior to MCAO) significantly decreased infarction volume at 24 hr after MCAO. GM 6001 (50 mg/kg, i.p. 15~30 min prior to MCAO), a MMP inhibitor, also significantly reduced infarction volume. In zymogram, MMP-9 activities began to increase at ipsilateral cortex at 2 hr after MCAO, and the increments of MMP-9 activities were attenuated by EGCG treatment. Western blot for MMP-9 also showed patterns similar to that of zymogram. These findings demonstrate that the anti-ischemic action of EGCG in mouse focal cerebral ischemia involves its inhibitory effect on MMP-9.
Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Brain Infarction* ; Brain Ischemia ; Brain* ; Extracellular Matrix ; Free Radicals ; Infarction ; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery* ; Ischemia ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 9* ; Matrix Metalloproteinases ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Middle Cerebral Artery* ; Neurons ; Oxygen ; Polyphenols ; Tea