Aggressive angiomyxoma is a rare, locally aggressive tumor and occurs exclusively in the pelvic and perineal regions of women. But this tumor can occur in men, and the ratio of man to woman is about 1:6. We report a case of aggressive angiomyxoma of the scrotum in a 75-year-old man. The resected mass measured 23 21 10 cm and weighed 1,150 g, and was covered with thick but intact scrotal skin. The cut surface of the mass showed pale yellow to grayish white loose and edematous fibrous tissue with focal cystic degeneration. Microscopically, the mass was composed of loosely arranged bland-looking spindle or stellate cells and variable sized blood vessels with thickened and hyalinized wall. The spindle cells were strong positive for vimentin, focal, weak positive for desmin and smooth muscle actin but negative for S-100 protein. The spindle cells were also positive for estrogen and progesterone receptors.
Actins ; Aged ; Blood Vessels ; Desmin ; Estrogens ; Female ; Humans ; Hyalin ; Male ; Muscle, Smooth ; Myxoma* ; Receptors, Progesterone ; S100 Proteins ; Scrotum* ; Skin ; Vimentin

BACKGROUND: Cine MR imaging has been found to bo a non-invasive technique in evaluation cardiac anatomy and cardiovascular function in a variety of cardiac diseases. The capability of this technique for quantatively estimating the severity of regurgitation has not been tested in newborns. The purpose of this study is to compare the degees of tricuspid regurgitation by echorcardiography with those by cine MRI, and verify the utility of MRi in evaluating tricuspid regurgitation. METHODS: Fifty-one newborns with tricuspid regurgitation were evaluated on the same day by echocardiography and cine MRI. Area and regurgitant fraction of area were estimated at four chamber view by two techniques. RESULTS: The area of tricuspid regurgitation was similar by two techniques. The correlation for the area(r=0.66, p<0.025) and the regurgitant area fraction(r=0.647, p<0.025) of tricuspid regurgitation obained by cine MRI with echocardiographic data was good. CONCLUSION: Cine MR imaging can provide quantative data estimating for evaluation of tricuspid regurgitation in newborns.
Echocardiography ; Echocardiography, Doppler* ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine* ; Tricuspid Valve Insufficiency*

No abstract available.
Infection Control* ; Seoul*

BACKGROUND: As information technology evolves rapidly computer-based surveillance systems for nosocomial infection have been developed. Well designed computerized system could provide an opportunity for improving, enlarging, and conducting hospital-wide surveillance more efficiently in the situation with limited resources. Recently, we launched a new computerized monitoring system in a hospital where digital medical information system has been operated without paper chart. METHODS: We developed a new surveillance program based on the total Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. Numerous critical medical information can be easily accessible through this system without further work. This includes major demographic data, essential information from the inpatient medical record, the laboratory information system, and the pharmacy information, Comprehensive Clinical Data Repository (CDR) system was also developed. CDR is potentially very useful to conduct a hospital-wide surveillance by integrating all the available information. RESULTS: This system consists of several programs in the EMR and the CDR environment. In the EMR system, inquiry for patients with fever, case ascertainment and registration of nosocomial infections, inquiry for patients with indwelling devices, microbiological reports, and data on antibiotic prescriptions were included. The CDR has integrated comprehensive inquiries for frequency of major pathogens in clinical isolates and their trends of antibiotic resistance, nosocomial infection rates based on the duration of the devices or hospitalization, and the history of antimicrobial usage based on defined daily dosage. Data obtained from the EMR and the CDR systems could be easily accessed by infectious diseases specialists and healthcare workers of infection control services at any place within the hospital. A new reporting system has been built up to facilitate identification of notifiable diseases among the list of diagnoses on the EMR. In addition, the "Alert" notice was designed to highlight isolation precautions for indicated cases. CONCLUSION: This new computerized surveillance program might be a valuable model to which other hospitals can refer to develop newer version of programs in the future.
Clinical Laboratory Information Systems ; Communicable Diseases ; Cross Infection ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diagnosis ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Electronic Health Records* ; Fever ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Infection Control ; Information Systems ; Inpatients ; Medical Records ; Pharmacy ; Prescriptions ; Specialization

Endometrial papillary serous carcinoma (EPSC) is a distinct variant of endometrial adenocarcinoma that histologically resembles ovarian serous papillary adenocarcinoma and has an aggressive clinical course. Usually, the tumor is diagnosed at the advanced stage. The tumor has well confused with metastatic ovarian tumor of identical histology. Diagnosis of EPSC should be considered when the cervico-vaginal smear reveals numerous papillary clusters of tumor cells with macronucleoli and psammoma bodies. Recently, we have experienced two cases of EPSC diagnosed on cervico-vaginal smears, which revealed characteristic cytologic features including numerous papillary clusters of tumor cells with macronucleoli. The cytologic diagnoses were confirmed on histologic sections.
Adenocarcinoma ; Adenocarcinoma, Papillary ; Diagnosis

The Bcl-2 protein has been shown to block apoptosis induced by a variety of stimuli. We have performed the experiments which cell death can be blocked by the bcl-2 proto-oncogene under moderate(50-100mM) or high ethanol treatment(400-600mM). As a result of morphological changes, and MTT assay, cell death was blocked by Bcl-2 under 100mM ethanol. However, the results of DNA fragmentation and RT-PCR(ICE, and CPP32), immunoblotting(CPP32, and PARP) for SK-pcDNA3 cells(vector only) and SK-Bcl-2 cells(stably expressed bcl-2 gene) were showen to be no significant differences between two cell lines. These result suggested that cell death induced by ethanol was not followed by apoptosis mechanism, and was blocked by the bcl-2 proto-oncogene with moderate ethanol.
Apoptosis ; Cell Death* ; Cell Line ; DNA Fragmentation ; Ethanol* ; Ice ; Proto-Oncogenes*

The syndromes of left atrial isomerism and right atrial isomerism, called polysplenia and asplenia syndromes, respectively, consist of congenital heart defects with disturbances in normal left right isometry, and the etiology of atrial isomerism remains unclear. Right atrial isomerism is traditionally associated with severe cardiac defects, especially complete atrioventricular septal defect, transposition of great arteries, pulmonary atresia, and total anomalous pulmonary venous return. Recently, we encountered one case of asplenia diagnosed by prenatal ultrasonography. We report a case with brief review of the literatures.
Heart Defects, Congenital ; Heterotaxy Syndrome ; Isomerism ; Pulmonary Atresia ; Scimitar Syndrome ; Transposition of Great Vessels ; Ultrasonography, Prenatal*

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the shed endometrial tissues in menstrual fluid (MF) have adhesive potentials, using human amniotic membrane (AM). METHODS: The MF from 20 patients with regular menstruation was collected with Wallace catheter by aspiration from the uterine cavity on the second or third day of the menstrual period. The AM was obtained from the placenta of term delivery without any complication. The MF was washed and diluted fivefold with Hams F-10 medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. The cell suspension was placed on either epithelial layer (EP) or extracellular matrix layer (ECM) of the AM. After 5 days of culture, the adhesion sites were observed under a stereomicroscope. For histological observation, each cultured AM was prepared for the serial paraffin section. RESULTS: The adhesion sites of endometrial tissues in MF were found both ECM (20/20) and EP (11/20) of the AM. The size of adhesion sites in each AM were highly variable from microscopic to macroscopic size. CONCLUSION: We found that the shed endometrial tissues in MF have adhesive potential to epithelial layer in addition to extracellular matrix layer of amniotic membrane. This adhesive potential may be related to pathogenesis of endometriosis. We suggest that this culture system can be useful as an in-vitro model for endometriosis.
Adhesives* ; Amnion* ; Catheters ; Endometriosis* ; Extracellular Matrix ; Female ; Humans ; Menstruation ; Paraffin ; Placenta

PURPOSE: Assessment of the diameters of the aortic arches in the human fetus may be helpful in the prenatal diagnosis of aortic arch anomalies. The purpose of this study is to construct valuable reference ranges of fetal aortic arch for various fetal growth parameters in an unselected Korean population. METHODS: A prospective, cross-sectional study was performed in 98 normal singleton fetuses between 20 and 38 weeks of gestation. The transverse aortic arch diameter (TAD) and distal aorta isthmus diameter (AID) were measured in the longitudinal view during systole. The bi-parietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC) and femur length (FL) were obtained at the same time. Ultrasound examinations were performed with a 2.0-6.0 MHz convex probe by abdominal ultrasound. RESULTS: TAD and AID as a function of gestational age (GA) was expressed by the regression equation TAD= -1.246+0.168 X GA, and AID = -1.341+0.180 X GA; TAD and AID are expressed in millimeters and GA in weeks. TAD and AID as a function of BPD was expressed by the regression equation TAD= -1.147+0.664 X BPD, and AID = -1.152+0.696 X BPD. TAD and AID as a function of HC was expressed by the regression equation TAD = -1.187+0.182 X HC, and AID = -1.350+0.198 X HC. TAD and AID as a function of AC was expressed by the regression equation TAD = -0.528+0.173 X AC, and AID = -0.533+0.183 X AC. TAD and AID as a function of FL was expressed by the regression equation TAD = -0.519+0.799 X FL, and AID = -0.601+0.860 X FL; BPD, HC, AC and FL are expressed in centimeters. Correlations were found to be highly statistically significant in relation to GA, BPD, HC, AC, and FL respectively (P<0.0001 in all). Normal mean of TAD and AID per GA, BPD, HC, AC and FL and 95% prediction limits were also defined, respectively. CONCLUSION: New reference ranges of fetal aortic arch related to other fetal bio-parameters representing fetal growth were obtained successfully. The normative date will be helpful in the prenatal accurate diagnosis of aortic anomalies and abnormal growth of fetal aortic arches in Korea.
Aorta ; Aorta, Thoracic ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Echocardiography ; Femur ; Fetal Development ; Fetus ; Gestational Age ; Head ; Humans ; Korea ; Pregnancy ; Prenatal Diagnosis ; Prospective Studies ; Reference Values ; Systole

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To report the clinical features of six patients diagnosed with cases of inferior vestibular neuritis based on abnormal vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) responses with normal caloric test results. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 62 patients presenting with dizziness. All patients underwent a battery of audiovestibular testing, including hearing tests, caloric test and VEMP test. RESULTS: Six patients were diagnosed as inferior vestibular neuritis. All patients presented with acute onset of prolonged vertigo. The pure tone audiograms and caloric test results were normal. VEMP response was absent unilaterally, and normal in the contralateral ear. CONCLUSION: Inferior vestibular neuritis should be considered in patients presenting with acute vertigo, but normal caloric responses. Comprehensive vestibular testing including VEMP is necessary.
Caloric Tests ; Dizziness ; Ear ; Hearing Tests ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Vertigo ; Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials ; Vestibular Function Tests ; Vestibular Neuronitis