The attitude toward the use of autopsies affects the incidence of performance of the procedure. In foreign countries, many studies on this subjects have been conducted. However, in Korea, no study has been reported. We hypothesized that the general university students may be negative, whereas the medical college students may have positive attitude toward the use of autopsies. In contrary to our hypothesis, there existed only a little difference for the attitude toward conducting an autopsy between the general university students and the medical students. Both groups had positive attitudes toward autopsy. When the medical students become medical doctors, the main reason for not requesting patients to be conducted an autopsy is that their family members may feel offended. These results show that the low incidence of autopsy cases in Korea is caused not by the attitude of the general population, but by the attitude of medical doctors. Thus, we should make every effort to increase the incidence of autopsy by educational programs and discussions about autopsy and death.
Autopsy* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Students, Medical

AmpFlSTR Profiler PlusTM PCR amplification system is highly efficient commercial DNA profiling system that are used by many institute for forensic individual identification. During the population study of 128 true Korean families (626 persons) with 9 loci of AmpFlSTR Profiler PlusTM PCR amplification system, we found unusual homozygous genotype at the D8S1179 locus in 4 families that is hard to explain with the Mendel's hereditary principles. The genotyping results suggest possibility of presence of non-amplified alleles due to deletion of one allele or polymorphism of primer-binding site. So we designed a new pair of primers of D8S1179 locus from GenBank data (GenBank Accession No. G08710). The newly designed primers amplified alleles that are not amplified with AmpFlSTR Profiler PlusTM PCR amplification system and all homozygous genotypes are typed to heterozygous genotype. We sequenced alleles of family members who have non-amplified alleles and we found G to A transition at the position of 147th base of GenBank sequence.
Alleles* ; Databases, Nucleic Acid ; DNA Fingerprinting ; Genotype ; Humans ; Point Mutation* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction

Ki-1 monoclonal antibody is a well known marker for Reed-Sternberg cells in Hodgkin's disease, but also occasionally reacts with activated lymphoid cells of either benign or malignant nature. Recently, Ki-1 antibody positive Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, usually of large cell and/or polymorphous type, has been reported in the lymph nodes, skin, soft tissue, and stomach, but not in the bone. We report a case of multifocal primary bone lymphoma in a seven-year old body involving the left shoulder and right frontal bone, which proved to be a large cell, polymorphous lymphoma, helper T-cell type expressing Ki-1 antigen.
Child ; Male ; Female ; Humans

The lungs are constructed to carry out their cardinal function, the exchange of gases between inspired air and the blood. Because of air pollution and smoking, primary respiratory infections, such as bronchitis, bronchopneumonia, and other forms of pneumonia, are commonplace in clinical and pathologic practice. Malignancy of the lungs has risen steadily in incidence. So review of diseases of lung is necessary to remind pathologic aspect of lungs.
Air Pollution ; Bronchitis ; Bronchopneumonia ; Gases ; Incidence ; Lung* ; Pneumonia ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; Smoke ; Smoking

Cytophagic histiocytic panniculitis is a rescently described histiocytic disorder. It is characterized by the presence of fever, pancytopenia, and subcutaneous nodules resulting from the infiltration of lympho-histiocytes in the dermis and subcutaneous adipose tissue. The characteristic findings is presence of bean-bag histiocytes containing phagocytized red blood cells, lymphocytes, and platelets. We experienced two cases of cytophagic histiocytic panniculitis with hard and erythematous subcutaneous nodules. These skin lesions exhibited infiltration of the subcutaneous tissue by large, benign histiocytes with cytophagic features. Hemophagocytic histiocytes were observed in the cervical lymph node in case 1, and bone marrow in case 2. One patient is alive, while the other one died with hemorrhagic complications.

In parentage testing DNA profiles are used to link the alleged father with paternity by matching their patterns. The probative value of a match is often calculated by multiplying together the estimated frequencies with which each particular VNTR or STR pattern occurs in a reference population. When this calculating method applies to the motherless case of paternity disputes, a calculation must usually be based on types determined for the child and the alleged father. In such case, the first consideration is to exclude a man from paternity of a child when the man did not have the child's paternal allele at some loci, or if the paternal allele cannot be determined, when the man had neither of the child s alleles. The second is to evaluate the DNA evidence when a man is not excluded by the paternal allele. This work is to provide theories of paternity analysis with three approach methods for the motherless case, and to evaluate their efficiency compared to the trio case when the man tested is not excluded. Consequently, the motherless case offers lower probability exclusion and questionable cumulative paternity index than those of the trio case as being typed with 14 STR loci(CSF1PO, TH01, TPDX, vWA, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, D16S539, FGA, D21S11, FES/FPS, F13A1, D18S80, D17S5). Since the motherless case in paternity disputes is less efficient for paternity exclusion of the child, the use of genetic maker systems with the higher value of mean exclusion chance(MEC) and exact levels of the relative probability of paternity must be of importance considered in the analysis of such deficiency cases.
Alleles ; Child ; Dissent and Disputes ; DNA ; Fathers ; Humans ; Paternity*

The four tetrameric STRs loci(HUMvWA31, HUMTHO1, HUMF13A1, HUMFES/FPS) were studied to confirm the allele frequency distribution and to see whether these results can be used for identity and paternity testing in a population o Koreans using multiplex PCR and laser-fluorescence detection method. In the Korean population (n=227), 8 alleles with their relative frequency range of 0.002-0.249 are detected in the HUMvWA31 locus, 6 alleles with those of 0.007-0.500 in 6 alleles with those of 0.004-0.434 in the HUMFES/FPS locus. The highest observed heterozygosity is found at the locus HUMvWA31(0.8077), with those of the lociively. All loci meet Hardy-Weinberg expectations ; there are good agreements between observed and expected heterozygosity, number of observed genotypes. Pairwise comparisons between loci show allelic independence for all the 4 loci. The power of discrimination (PD) determined for the locus HUMvWA31 is 0.933, that for the HUMTHO1 is 0.836, 0.798 for HUMF13A1, and 0.844 for the HUMFES/FPS ; the combined power of discrimination for the quadruplex is 0.9997. Thus, these allelic frequency distribution can be used to construct the database of the multiplex PCR-based DNA profile in the Korean population. The calculated parameter, "combined power of discrimination(PD)" show the informativeness of these loci for the determination of identity and relatedness of individuals.
Alleles ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; DNA ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Microsatellite Repeats* ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Paternity

The HUMACTBP2 locus was investigated to collect population genetic data in the Korean population and to evaluate the applicability for the forensic field. An Automatic fluorescent-based sequencer (377 automatic DNA sequencer, ABI) was used to detect amplified fragments of the HUMACTBP2 locus electrophoresed on 4% denaturing polyacrylamide sequencing gels. ACTBP2 allelic ladder consisting of different sizes of 18 alleles was constructed and employed as an internal size standard in combination with a GS-350 size standard for precision of allele-band sizing. By utilizing different fluorescent dyes, both the allelic ladders and samples were able to be analyzed in the same lane by 99% orecision of allele-band sizing. Among the Korean population (n=224), 26 alleles in the range of 239-313 bp are determined. allele No. 6 is found 45 times (0.100) which is mostly frequent, and the rest of allele is distributed with their relative frequency of 0.002-0.100. The comparison between observed and expected numbers of homozygous and heterozygous individuals confirms that ACTBP2 locus is in the state of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium among the Korean population. The heterozygosity is 0.9389+/-0.0034(93.89%), and the power of discrimination(PD) and power of exclusion(PEX) are calculated to be 0.991(99.1%)and 0.890(89.0%), respectively, showing the high informativeness for individual identification. Thus, these results mean that the HUMACTBP2 locus can effectively be used for the forensic application.
Alleles ; DNA ; Fluorescent Dyes ; Gels ; Genetic Variation*

Angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia(AFLNH) was first described in 1956 by Castleman et al. It was initially reported as a solitary mediastinal mass but multicentric and extranodal disease is now well known. Histologically two distinct variants, e.g. the hyaline vascular type and the plasma cell type, of AFLNH are recognized. And the plasma cell type is typically associated with clinical syndrome consisting of fever, anemia, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate and polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia. Recently, we experineced three cases of AFLNH. Histologically, two cases were hyaline vascular type, that were presented as a right supraclavicular mass of 49-year-old female, and as an anterior mediastinal mass of 53-year-old female. The remaining one case was plasma cell type that was presented as a left axillary mass of 63-year-old male. The former two cases showed typical features of hyaline vascular type but in case 1, exuberant proliferation of hyalinized vessels of capillary size was characteristic feature. The latter case of plasma cell type characteristically showed clinical syndrome consisting of fever, hypoalbuminemia, polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia. All cases were presented as a single mass and they were well after surgical excision.
Female ; Humans

We report an autopsy case of amniotic band syndrome exhibiting microcephaly, asymmetric encephalocele, microphthalmia, nasal deformity, cleft lip and palate accompanied by left maxillary and zygomatic bone deformities. The amniotic membrane of the placenta was also attached to the herniated brain. The twenty-year-old primigravid mother had no history of taking drug, irradiation, infection or trauma before or during pregnancy.
Pregnancy ; Female ; Humans