Smooth muscle hamartoma was first described by Stokes in 1923 as the disease characterized by increase of well-defined bundles of smooth muscle fibers in the dermis. It can be either congenital or acquired. Acquired ones are aften in association with Becker's nevus. We present a case of acquired smooth muscle hamartoma that did not show any pigmentation or hair growth.
Dermis ; Hair ; Hamartoma* ; Muscle, Smooth* ; Nevus ; Pigmentation

No abstract available.
Keratosis, Seborrheic* ; Poroma* ; Scalp*

Endothelin-1 (ET-1) has been characterized as a potent vasoconstrictor secreted by the endothelium, and play a major role in the regulation of vascular tone. It has been also known to participate in inflammatory reactions. The production of ET-1 by macrophages during infection and inflammation is related to tissue perfusion and leukocyte extravasation. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of IL-8/CXCL8, as a major inflammatory chemokine, for ET-1 expression in macrophges. Expression of ET-1 mRNA in mouse peritoneal macrophages (PeM phi) was weaker than that in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY). However, expression of IL-8/CXCL8-induced ET-1 mRNA in PeM phi was much more stronger than that in SHR and WKY VSMCs. Maximum expression of ET-1 mRNA was observed at 50 ng/ml dose of IL-8/CXCL8 and occurred at 2 h after addition of IL-8/CXCL8. Expression of ET-1 by IL-8/CXCL8 was dependent on NF-kappaB activation and ERK1/2 phosphorylation. Baicalein, a 12-lipoxygenase (LO) inhibitor, inhibited the expression of IL-8/CXCL8-induced ET-1 mRNA. This inhibitory action of baicalein was mediated via ERK1/2 inactivation. Induction of 12-LO mRNA by IL-8/CXCL8 and expression of ET-1 mRNA by 12-LO metabolite, 12(S)-HETE were also detected. The expression of IL-8/CXCL8-induced ET-1 mRNA was not detected in PeM phi transfected with 12-LO siRNA. These results suggest that IL-8/CXCL8 can act as one of main inducers of ET-1 in vascular inflammatory reactions, and ET-1 expression by IL-8/CXCL8 is related to 12-LO pathway in PeM phi.
Animals ; Arachidonate 12-Lipoxygenase ; Endothelin-1 ; Endothelium ; Flavanones ; Inflammation ; Leukocytes ; Macrophages ; Macrophages, Peritoneal ; Mice ; Muscle, Smooth, Vascular ; NF-kappa B ; Perfusion ; Phosphorylation ; Rats ; Rats, Inbred SHR ; RNA, Messenger ; RNA, Small Interfering

OBJECTIVE: According to the increase of older people, the need for effective methods to maintain or improve cognitive functions in the elderly has increased. These cognitive enhancing methods may contribute to the prevention of elderly cognitive decline by aging and dementing illness as well. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of multistrategic memory training with the metamemory concept on cognitive functions in the normal health elderly in Korea. METHODS: The program used in this study was developed by psychiatrists and psychologists in accordance with Korean situations. We applied the training program to the community-dwelling elderly with subjective memory complaints. Twenty participants were randomly received the intervention with 20 non-treatment controls. This program consisted of 10 sessions and was administered once a week. We examined the effects of this memory training for verbal memory, visuospatial memory, working memory, and verbal fluency ability by repeated ANOVA. RESULTS: There were significant improvements in Word List Short-term Delayed Free and Cued Recall, Word list Long-term Delayed Free and Cued Recall and visuospatial recognition memory. Performance improvements in visuospatial span forwards and the Categorical Fluency Test were also significant. These improvements were still significant after adjusting for depression improvement exact categorical fluency. CONCLUSION: This study shows that multistrategic memory training with the metamemory concept may improve memory ability and other cognitive functions which are not trained and that these improvements may be achieved by pure cognitive training effects.
Adult ; Aged ; Aging ; Depression ; Humans ; Memory ; Memory, Short-Term ; Psychiatry

Sebaceous trichofolliculoma is a rare appendageal tumor that usually present as a solitary tumor mainly on the nose. Histologically it shows a large, irregularly shaped, centrally located cavity lined by squamous epithelium and radially arranged pilosebaceous follicles connected to the cavity. We describe a case of sebaceous trichofolliculoma in an 86-year-old woman who presented with asymptomatic skin-colored papule on her nose.
Aged, 80 and over ; Epithelium ; Female ; Humans ; Nose

"To evaluate whether different qualifications of a cytologic diagnosis of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) predict a greater or lesser likelihood of tissue diagnosis of uterine cervix, we compared different cytologic qualifications of ASCUS with the tissue diagnosis. One hundred twenty-two con- secutive Papanicolaou smears showing ASCUS in women who had undergone cervical biopsy within nearest 30 days were collected. The 122 smears were qualified as ""favor reactive (25%), favor low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) (24%), favor squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) (16%), favor high grade squa- mous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) (16%), and not otherwise specified (19%). Squamous intraepithelial or invasive lesion was pathologically confirmed by cervical biopsy in 13% of the favor reactive, 27% in favor LSIL, 70% in ""favor SIL, 75% in favor HSIL, and 35% in not otherwise specified smears. There were significant associations between the favor reactive smear and the benign biopsy finding and between the favor SIL smear and the biopsy showing a squamous intraepithelial or more severe lesion. Nevertheless, rnost of favor LSIL smears exhibit reactive process in tissue biopsy. Conclusively, qualified ASCUS stratifies women into different risk groups for SIL. The cytopathologist should make the cytologic diagnosis of ASCUS, favor LSIL circumspectly."
Biopsy ; Cervix Uteri ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Papanicolaou Test ; Venous Thrombosis*

A national sample survey of medical students about their perception and evaluation on medical study, career plan, and medical care system was conducted in December 1997 through January 1998. About 10% of all the medical students in 32 medical schools that had students from freshman to senior in November 1997 were systematically sampled for a questionnaire survey. Out of 1,386 students, 1,233(89.0%) had responded and 12 of them were excluded from the analysis because of incomplete response. This report is the second part of the study regarding career plan of students after graduating from medical school. Criteria of medical students for choosing specialty of medicine are professional reward and personal interest. Among the respondents, 92.2% plan to choose clinical medicine, 2.5% basic medical sciences, and 4.8% special areas of medicine such as health administration, medical engineering, forensic medicine, medical education, and health economics. If it is guaranteed that they will be a professor after training, 8.8% of them want to study special areas of medicine, and 7.3% basic medical sciences. The students who had admitted to a medical school after obtaining bachelor's degree were more prone to choose clinical medicine than other students. The most common reason for not choosing basic medical sciences was lower income than clinician. Among the students who want to be a clinician, 92.2% want to be a specialist and the preferred specialties were internal medicine 36.0%, orthopedics 9.0%, general surgery 7.7%, psychiatry 7.5%, and pediatrics 5.7%. Comparing with the findings of 1983 study, the proportions of students who want to major internal medicine and minor subjects were markedly increased and that of general surgery increased slightly while that of pediatrics was decreased. The places of work that the students prefer in the future were university hospital 43.2% (10% point increase from the finding in 1983), general hospital 37.1% and private practice 9.4% (10% point decrease from the finding in 1983). It was noticeable that some of the students want to be a medical missionary and health administrator. The students prefer their university hospital most for post-graduate training and the reason is only because it is their alma mater. One can anticipate from these findings that it will be very difficult to get basic medical scientists and primary physicians in the future.
Administrative Personnel ; Clinical Medicine ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Education, Medical ; Forensic Medicine ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Internal Medicine ; Missions and Missionaries ; Orthopedics ; Pediatrics ; Private Practice ; Reward ; Schools, Medical* ; Specialization ; Students, Medical* ; Workplace

Small bowel diverticulum, although not common and usually asymptomatic, can give rise to unexpected problems such as malabsorption, perforation, obstruction and bleeding. Bleeding from a diverticulum is often sudden and massive, therefore requiring emergency operation. We report herein a case of a 75-year-old man who presented with massive bleeding from multiple jejunal diverticula. He had been diagnosed with hypertensive end stage renal disease and treated with hemodialysis since 14 years previously. He was admitted with both hematemesis and hematochezia, and treated conservatively at first. However, bleeding continued and the anemia did not improve despite blood transfusions. An gastroduodenofiberscope and selected angiography revealed no bleeding focus. An emergency laparotomy was performed and multiple jejunal diverticula, distributed from 15 to 60cm distal to the ligament of Treitz, were found. A segment of the jejunum containing all diverticula was resected and end to end anastomosis was performed. A histologic examination revealed some dilated blood vessels in the submucosa of the diverticulum, which was compatible with the findings of the angiodysplasia. Based on these findings, we suggest that angiodysplasia was the cause of bleeding from the jejunal diverticula in this case.
Aged ; Anemia ; Angiodysplasia* ; Angiography ; Blood Transfusion ; Blood Vessels ; Diverticulum* ; Emergencies ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; Hematemesis ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Jejunum ; Kidney Failure, Chronic* ; Laparotomy ; Ligaments ; Renal Dialysis

A total of 150women with singleton pregnancies who were delivered between 37 and 42weeks gestation had ultrasound scans on elective cesarean section day. The biparietal diameter(BPD), head circumference(HC), abdominal circumference(AC) and femur length(FL) were measured in all cases. Equations of estimated fetal body weight(BWT) for Korean term fetuses using AC alone, BPD/AC, AC/FL, HC/AC/FL, BPD/AC/FL, BPD/HC/AC/FL were made by stepwise multiple regression analysis and were compared with foreign equations such as Campbell(AC), Shepard(BPD/AC), Hadlock I(AC/FL), Hadlock II(HC/AC/FL), Hadlock III(BPD/AC/FL), and Hadlock IV(BPD/HC/AC/FL). The results were as follows. 1. The equations of BWT by sonographic measurement were Equation1 (AC) logeBWT=6.105936+0.005957X(AC) (R=0.876) Equation2 (BPD,AC)logeBWT=6.53614548+0.00004963X(ACXBPD) (R=0.929) Equation3 (AC,FL) logeBWT=6.25336442+0.00751602X(FL)+0.00005155X(ACXFL) (R=0.950) Equation4(HC,AC,FL) logeBWT=6.39631346+0.00004823X(ACXFL)+0.00002023X(FLXHC) (R=0.953) Equation5(BPD,AC,FL) logeBWT=5.99934074+0.00871394X(BPD)+0.00005132X(ACXFL) (R=0.960) 2. When BPD, AC and FL were measured, the addition of HC didn,t affected to accuracy of EFW 3. The best results of all equations were obtained with our equation 5(Mean error=2.36gm, Mean absolute error=96.39gm, Mean deviation + SD(%)=0.07+0.37) and among foreign equations, the best results were with Hadlock III equation(Mean error=18.35gm, Mean absolute error=107.82gm, Mean deviation + SD(%)=-0.46+0.42) 4. The equations using AC/FL (our equation 3, Hadlock I) are more accurate than those using BPD/AC (our equatione 2, Shepard) when utilizing two parameters. Therefore, equation using AC/FL is recommended when the BPD is unobtainable at term or labor 5. The percentage of cases in which the EFW was within +5% and +200gm of the actual birth weight was highest at our equation 5 for 82% and 89%, Hadlock IV equation for 79%, 88%. 6. Our equations had relatively an equal tendency to under- and overestimate fetal weight, but foreign equations, especially Campbell and Hadlock II equations tended to underestimate. 7. Analysing according to actual birth weight, our all equations gave the most accurate estimates of fetal weigh for birth weight group between 3000-3499gm, but for birth weight group above 3500gm, that was not. At birthweight group above 3500gm, the equations depend on femur length are more accurate than the equations independ on fumr length.
Birth Weight ; Cesarean Section ; Female ; Femur ; Fetal Weight* ; Fetus ; Head ; Pregnancy ; Ultrasonography

This study was conducted to evaluate the health hazards and to develop diagnostic methods of glass fiber workers. We examined 40 male glass fiber workers (exposure group) and 57 male non-glass fiber workers (reference group) with a questionnaire, physical examination, chest x-ray and pathological examination in Mar, 1997. Also we examined 65 male glass fiber workers (exposure group) and 42 male non-glass fiber workers (reference group) with the same methods also we did some energy-dispersive x-ray analyses with a scanning electron microscopic examination in Sep. 1997. Most of the clinical symptoms were significantly more frequent among the exposure group than the reference group. Coughing (32.5%), itching of the nose (30.0%), irritation of eyes (27.5%), irritation of the nose (25.0%) and sputum (22.5%) were the major symptoms among the exposure group in Mar. 1997. Only itching of the nose was significantly more frequent in Sep. 1997. No cases of pneumoconiosis were observed among the groups and there were no differences in chest abnormalities between the exposure group with the reference group on both examinations. The prevalence of dermatosis among the exposure group was 20.0% (8 cases) and the cumulative prevalence was 72.5% (29 cases) in Mar. 1997. The prevalence of dermatosis among the exposure group was 23.1% (15 cases) and the cumulative prevalence was 58.5% (38 cases) in Sep. 1997. Onset of dermatosis among the exposure group was most frequent within one month after handling. The frequent sites of skin lesions were the hands and arms on both examinations. Glass fiber induced skin lesions can be diagnosed by the scotch tape method or KOH mount and then can be examined under the light, polarizing and phase-contrast microcopies. Glass fibers can be identified by some energy-dispersive x-ray analyses with a scanning electron microscopic examination.
Arm ; Cough ; Glass* ; Hand ; Humans ; Male ; Nose ; Physical Examination ; Pneumoconiosis ; Prevalence ; Pruritus ; Questionnaires ; Skin ; Skin Diseases ; Sputum ; Thorax