No abstract available.
Female* ; Humans ; Quality of Life*

Lipomas of the heart are benign neoplasms and have rarely been described. Due to the fact that they normally cause no symptoms, diagnosis is often purely accidental. Because of the rarity of these tumors, it seems worthwhile to present an example studied at autopsy. It was associated with the sudden death of a 15-year-old boy. The tumor arose from the wall of the left ventricle and occupied the pericardial cavity, measuring 13x7x6 cm in size. The tumor was whitish-yellow, translucent, and soft. Microscopically, the tumor was composed of mature adipose tissue which extended between muscle fibers. This current case, the giant cardiac lipoma is believed to produce disturbances of the conduction system and distrubances of cardiac filling.

We describe an ovarian mucinous cystadenocarcinoma with a sarcoma-like mural nodule. In the literature, rare cases of ovarian mucinous tumors have been described which contain foci of undifferentiated carcinoma, sarcoma, and sarcoma-like nodules. The distinction between these lesions is important because of poorer prognosis of true sarcoma and anaplastic carcinoma than sarcoma-like mural nodules. This case shows different results of immunohistochemical stain for anaplastic carcinoma.

This is a case report of virilizing adrenal cortical adenoma in 22 month old male patient who was diagnosed by clinical features, endocrinological studies, radiologic studies and pathologic findings. During surgery, a 40gm well-encapsulated tumor was removed from the right adrenal gland. Histologic examination revealed no capsulr invasion and a diagnosis of adrenocortical adenoma was made. He is in well condition without the clinical or laboratory evidence of recurrence at 2 years of follow up.
Adrenal Glands ; Adrenocortical Adenoma* ; Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Recurrence

No abstract available.
Hematology* ; Humans ; Thyroid Gland*

No abstract available.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the bone mineral density(BMD) in Korean postmenopausal women. METHODS: We performed the retrospective study for 1,508 postmenopausal women who had menopause after 40 years of age and didn't take any hormonal agent before measuring bone mineral density. Spinal and femur neck BMD were measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry(DXA, Lunar Co.). RESULTS: The mean age of the study subjects was 53.7+/-5.7 years and the average BMD of the lumbar spine(L2-L4; L24) and femur neck(FN) were 0.996+/-0.173 g/cm(2) and 0.821+/-0.133 g/cm(2), respectively. Of all subjects, 44.1%(665/1,508) had osteopenia and 14.7%(222/1,508) were already osteoporotic. The prevalence of osteoporosis increased with age; 5.2% in 41-50 years of age, 15.6% in fifties, 32.5% in sixties, and 45.5% in over 70 years of age. There was no significant difference in the age-adjusted BMD between naturally menopausal women(n=828) and surgically menopausal women(n=78). The mean age at menopause of surgically menopausal women was significantly younger than that of naturally menopausal women(47.6+/-3.6 vs 49.2+/-3.5). Duration of menopause, body weight, and height were revealed to be the significant risk factors for osteoporosis. The annual bone loss rates in lumbar spine and femur neck were 1.2% and 1.1% respectively in naturally menopausal women, and 1.5% and 1.2% in surgically menopausal women. CONCLUSIONS: This study established the BMD curve and regression equation in Korean postmenopausal women according to the causes of menopause. There was no significant difference in the mean BMD and the prevalence of osteoporosis between naturally and surgically menopausal women. Duration of menopause, body weight, and height were found to be the risk factors which influence the development of the osteoporosis. So the postmenopausal women who are at increased risks of developing osteoporosis need more active interventions for preventing the osteoporotic fracture.
Body Weight ; Bone Density* ; Bone Diseases, Metabolic ; Female ; Femur ; Femur Neck ; Humans ; Menopause* ; Osteoporosis ; Osteoporotic Fractures ; Prevalence ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Spine

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of vitrification on the implantation the pregnancy of human blastocysts. METHOD: The transfer of the frozen-thawed blastocysts by the slow freezing or vitrification was performed between January 1998 and July 1999. The zygotes derives from IVF were cocultured with cumulus cells in YS medium containing 20% hFF for 5days. Two or three of the best balstocysts produced on day 5 were transferred into the uterus, and then supernumerary blastocysts were randomly divided into two groups. One was frozen by slow freezing and the other was frozen by vitrification method. The slow freezing procedure was performed in two steps (5% glycerol and 9% glycerol + 0.2 M sucrose for 10 min, respectively) using programmed freezer (-2degrees C/min to -7degrees C, 0.3degrees C and plunged into LN2). The blastocysts frozen by slow freezing were thawed at 36degrees C then removed glycerol in 7 steps. The vitrification procedure was performed in three steps (10% glycerol for 5 min, 10% glycerol + 20% ethylene glycol for 5 min, 25% glycerol + 25% ethylene glycol and directly LN2 within 1 min). The blastocysts frozen by vitrification were thawed at 20degrees C water then removed cryoprotectant in 3 steps. In each group, thawed blastocysts were cocultured with cumulus cells in YS medium containing 20% hFF for 18h and transferred into the uterus. The implantation rate was evaluated per transferred blastocysts and the pregnancy rate was evaluated per transfers. RESULTS: The survival rate of vitrified group (74.5%) was higher than slow freezing group (68.0%), but not significant. When 98 thawed blastocysts of vitrification were transferred in 40 cycles, 19 pregnancies (clinical pregnancy rate; 47.5%) were established. One miscarriage occurred in the eighth week of pregnancy (ongoing pregnancy rate; 45.0%). 7 pregnancies were ongoing, 11 pregnancies went to term, and 16 healthy infants were born. The Implantation rate was 31.6%. These results were higher than those obtained by the slow freezing (clinical pregnancy rate; 40.3%, ongoing pregnancy rate; 32.5% and implantation rate; 25.3%), but not significant. CONCLUSION: Vitrification is a simple, quick and economical method when compared to slow freezing. It will be chosen as a good method of human embryo freezing in IVF-ET programs.
Abortion, Spontaneous ; Blastocyst* ; Cumulus Cells ; Embryonic Structures ; Ethylene Glycol ; Female ; Freezing ; Glycerol ; Humans ; Infant ; Pregnancy Rate ; Pregnancy* ; Sucrose ; Survival Rate ; Uterus ; Vitrification* ; Water ; Zygote

The purpose of this study was to investigate the inhibitory role of vitamin A with respect to activation of Ito cells in fibrosis of the rat liver induced by common bile duct ligation(CBDL). The liver was examined by immunohistochemical staining for a-smooth muscle actin,the known marker of activated Ito cells, and light and electron microscopy after CBDL andCBDL with intraperitoneal injection of retinoic acid (Sigma, USA) 1 mg/Kg in 3 times per week. The results were sumrrlerized as follows: After CBDL, the bile ductules were markedly proliferated in the periportal areas extending toterminal hepatic veins. Interstitial fibrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration appeared, however,cholestasis was minimal. Retinoic acid treatment with CBDL decreased bile ductular proliferationand interstitial fibrosis compared to CBDL only. After CBDL, proliferated and activated Ito ceIs showing positive reaction in smooth muscle actin were present in the periductular andperisinusoidal areas, and areas of increased interstitial fibrosis. Activated ito cells weredecreased in number after CBDL with vitamin A treatment. Electron microscopically,intracytoplasmic fat droplets and the cytoplasmic processes of Ito cells were decreased afterCBDL. Myofibroblasts were frequently appeared in the interstitial fibrosis after CBDL. But,intracytoplasmic fat droplets of Ito cells were well preserved, and myofibroblasts were found lessfrequently after CBDL with vitamin A treatment. The results suggest that vitamin A plays an inbitory role in the activation and fibrogenesis ofIto cells after CBDL.
Rats ; Animals

No abstract available.
Humans ; Lymphoma, B-Cell* ; Psoriasis*