Ankle sprains are among the most common injuries sustained during athletic activities and daily life. Acute ankle sprain is usually managed conservatively with functional rehabilitation but the failure of conservative treatment leads to the development of chronic ankle instability. The development of repetitive ankle sprains and persistent symptoms after injury has been termed chronic ankle instability. Acute ankle sprains and chronic ankle instability require a careful evaluation to detect other comorbidities, such as subtalar instability, osteochondral defect, peroneal tendinopathy, tarsal coalition, os trigonum, flexor hallucis longus tendinitis, calcaneus anterior process fracture, and neural injuries. For the successful treatment of acute ankle sprains and chronic ankle instability, the treatment of comorbidity lesions should be performed first.
Ankle Injuries ; Ankle* ; Calcaneus ; Comorbidity* ; Diagnosis* ; Rehabilitation ; Sports ; Talus ; Tendinopathy

OBJECTIVE: The incidence of colorectal carcinomas continues to rise in Korea due to the westernized life style. However, the precise colorectal carcinogenic mechanisms remain to be elucidated. The protein products of oncogenes and cancer suppressor genes play important roles in the carcinogenesis. The effects of the proteins are influenced by post-translational modifications as phosphorylation, acetylation, methylation, and ubiquitination. The aberrant sumoylation plays some roles in carcinogenesis. However, the expression pattern of small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO)-2/3 in the colorectal cancer has not been reported. We assessed the expression of SUMO-2/3 and evaluated the expression pattern in colorectal cancer. METHODS: The SUMO-2/3 expression was tested in one normal colon mucosal cell line and 5 colorectal cancer cell lines by Western blot. We collected 322 cases of colorectal cancer operated from January 2000 to December 2010 at Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital. We fabricated the tissue microarray and the expression of SUMO-2/3 was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. The results were analyzed with clinicopathologic parameters. RESULTS: The SUMO-2/3 was not expressed in the normal colon mucosal cell line. However, it was expressed highly in all the 5 colorectal cancer cell lines as the beta-actin. The SUMO-2/3 was expressed in 68.3% of the colorectal cancers and its expression was correlated with the pathological tumor stage stage (odds ratio, 2.89; 95% confidence interval, 1.10 to 7.55; P=0.031). CONCLUSION: The SUMO-2/3 plays some roles in carcinogenesis and progression of the colorectal cancer.
Acetylation ; Actins ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Line ; Colon ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Immunohistochemistry ; Incidence ; Korea ; Life Style ; Methylation ; Oncogenes ; Phosphorylation ; Protein Processing, Post-Translational ; Proteins ; Sumoylation ; Tissue Array Analysis ; Ubiquitin ; Ubiquitination

PURPOSE: We aimed to investigate the safety zone for Achilles tendon insertion in the posterior aspect of the calcaneus via the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) when planning for insertional Achilles tendinopathy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study included 95 patients. The MRI of midsagittal plane of the ankle joint was used to measure the proximal and distal insertion point for the Achilles tendon in the posterior aspect of the calcaneus. Patients were divided into three groups according to the proportion of the distal insertion point out of the entire calcaneal length: the proximal, middle, and distal insertion groups. RESULTS: The mean proximal and distal insertion points for the Achilles tendon were measured as 1.05 cm (0~2.11 cm) and 2.36 cm (1.60~2.93 cm), respectively. When the posterior aspect of the calcaneus was used as the reference plane, none of the patients was in the proximal insertion group, while 75 and 20 patients were in the middle and distal insertion groups, respectively. The insertion portion was longer in the distal insertion group (1.47±0.25 cm) than in the middle insertion group (1.27±0.35 cm). Statistically significant differences with respect to the length of the insertion portion were observed between the two groups (p=0.008). CONCLUSION: Removal of more than 1 cm below the superior margin of the posterior calcaneus may be dangerous. An MRI study on the Achilles tendon of patients without hindfoot deformity or tendinopathy revealed various insertional characteristics. Preoperative MRI evaluation is safer than relying solely on the simple radiological assessment when planning for insertional Achilles tendinopathy.
Achilles Tendon* ; Adult* ; Ankle Joint ; Calcaneus* ; Congenital Abnormalities* ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Tendinopathy

BACKGROUND: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) of the thyroid is the most common endocrine malignancy. High prevalence of an activating point mutation of BRAF gene, BRAFV600E, has been reported in PTC. We assessed the efficiency of peptide nucleic acid clamp real-time polymerase chain reaction (PNAcqPCR) for the detection of BRAFV600E mutation in PTC in comparison with direct sequencing (DS). METHODS: A total of 265 thyroid lesions including 200 PTCs, 5 follicular carcinomas, 60 benign lesions and 10 normal thyroid tissues were tested for BRAFV600E mutation by PNAcqPCR and DS. RESULTS: The sensitivity and accuracy of the PNAcqPCR method were both higher than those of DS for the detection of the BRAFV600E mutation. In clinical samples, 89% of PTCs harbored the BRAFV600E mutation, whereas 5 follicular carcinomas, 50 benign lesions and 10 normal thyroid tissues lacked the mutation. The mutation was associated with aggressive clinical behaviors as extrathyroid invasion (p=0.015), lymph node metastasis (p=0.002) and multiple tumor numbers (p=0.016) with statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: The PNAcqPCR method is efficiently applicable for the detection of the BRAFV600E mutation in PTCs in a clinical setting.
Carcinoma ; Factor IX ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Peptide Nucleic Acids ; Point Mutation ; Prevalence ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroid Neoplasms