Synthetic genes encoding the gag p24 and the part of the envelope protein gp41 of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) were cloned and overexpressed as fusion proteins in Escherichia coli, using an expression vector carrying 77 promoter and the poly-histidine leader sequence. The overexpressed p24 fusion protein was purified by centrifugation, Ni-affinity chromatography and CM-sepharose chromatography The overexpressed gp41 fusion protein was purified by centrifugation, C4 chromatography and DEAE-sepharose chromatography. The purified fusion proteins showed a high level of purity and immunoreactivity in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and western blot analysis. These results suggest that this prokaryotic expression-purification method is suitable for obtaining a large amount of the viral antigen which may be useful for screening of antibodies to HIV-1 in human blood samples.
Antibodies ; Blotting, Western ; Centrifugation ; Chromatography ; Clone Cells ; Electrophoresis ; Escherichia coli ; Genes, Synthetic ; HIV* ; HIV-1* ; Humans* ; Mass Screening

BACKGROUND: Obesity is known to influence on physical, mental, functional health problems but there have been no study of relationship between body mass index (BMI) and quality of life (QOL) in Korean elderly. METHODS: A total of 216 elderly who had been attending two geriatric welfare facilities in Seoul answered the Korean version of obesity-related quality of life (KOQOL) questionnaire. Height, weight, waist circumference were measured. Body fat (%) was measured with HTM20 by impedance technique. Sociodemographic and medical factors were interviewed. QOL was assessed using KOQOL (ver.1) after excluding two sexual life related questions and one work related question. The total score is 48 points. The higher is the score, the poorer is the QOL. RESULTS: In multivariable analysis, BMI, age, history of diabetes mellitus, history of osteoarthritis were associated with KOQOL score. Especially, BMI was significantly associated with KOQOL score after adjusting for waist circumference, body fat (%) (P = 0.002). CONCLUSION: The more BMI increases, the worse the obesity related QOL is in Korean ambulatory elderly.
Adipose Tissue ; Adult ; Aged ; Body Mass Index ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Electric Impedance ; Humans ; Obesity ; Osteoarthritis ; Quality of Life ; Waist Circumference ; Surveys and Questionnaires

A basic problem in evaluating upper urinary tract gross hematuria is the large number of diagnostic possibilities. The causation may be suspected after the initial history and physical examination, and can be confirmed with appropriate studies. We have retrospectively studied of 60 patients who confirmed upper urinary tract hematuria through the cystoscopy in period from Oct. 1971 to Dec. 1987. We have performed relatively precise clinical studies such as urinalysis, urine culture, urine cytology, blood clotting disorders, intravenous pyelography, renal arteriography and others and then we have obtained following results. 1. Disease distributions Calculous disease 12 cases (20.0%) Malignant disease 11 cases (18.3%) Vascular disease 7 cases (11.7%) Glomerulonephropathy 4 cases ( 6.6%) Unexplained hematuria 2l cases (35.0%) etc. 2. Cystoscopy, intravenous pyelography and renal arteriography are valuable essential procedures for diagnosis of upper urinary tract bleeding. 3. Cystoscopy, intravenous pyelography and angiography will bring the percentage of patients with a clear diagnosis up to about 70 per cent, especially excretory urography and cystoscopy must always be done.
Angiography ; Blood Coagulation ; Cystoscopy ; Diagnosis* ; Hematuria* ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Physical Examination ; Retrospective Studies ; Urinalysis ; Urinary Tract* ; Urography ; Vascular Diseases

A 26-year old woman had tender erythematous grouped papules and plaque(10 cm in diameter) with underlying deep seated rodules on the right shoulder for 2 years. A biopsy specimen showed vascular tufts composed of endothelial cells in the mid and lower dermis, which was diagnostic of acquired tufted angioma. After 4-months of cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen, most of the lesions had disappeared as well as her subjective symptom.
Adult ; Biopsy ; Cryotherapy* ; Dermis ; Endothelial Cells ; Female ; Hemangioma* ; Humans ; Nitrogen ; Shoulder

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy(ESWL) is becoming treatment of choice for most upper tract calculi, and especially EDAP made piezoelectric E. S. W. L. can treat kidney, upper ureter and lower ureter stones. We present the results of 245 consecutive treatments performed between May, 1987 and February, 1988 with piezoeletric shock wave lithotriptor. 1. The oldest patient was age of 78 and the youngest patient was age of 15 and there was no contraindication due to other systemic disease. 2. No anesthesia were required and only narcotics were given for pain that induced from shock wave, but one, 18 years old female with renal stone was treated with ketamine. 3. Response rate revealed that complete response was 174 cases (71%), partial response was 63 cases (25.7%) and non-response was 8 cases (3.3%). 4. In complete response cases, average requirement of shock wave storages were noted that renal stone was 323, upper ureter stone was 562 and lower ureter stone was 377 and then the shock wave storage was increase depend upon the location of the stone, such as kidney, lower ureter stone and upper ureter stone in priority. 5. Staghorn calculi, multiple renal stones, caliceal diverticular stones, renal stones with migration into the ureter while treatment, impact ureter stones, ureter stones with larger than 2.5 cm and obesity were poor response factors. 6. We adopted push up (9 cases), double J stent (6 cases), stone basket (6 cases), URS.(2 cases) and nephrostomy (1 cases) as auxiliary procedure. 7. Chemical composition of treated stones were that calcium oxalate and phosphate mixed stone8 were 50.6%, calcium oxalates 33.5%, struvites 10.5%, uric acid 3.9% and calcium phosphate 1.3%. 8. We experienced 11 cases (4.4%) of complications: 5 cases of stone street, 3 cases of post ESWL flank pain, 1 case of high fever, 1 case of sepsis and 1 case of perirencal hematoma. 9. As a result, we suggest that we should consider stone size, location, situation of patient and history of stone surgery for good effectiveness from treatment with E.S.W.L.
Adolescent ; Anesthesia ; Calcium ; Calcium Oxalate ; Calculi ; Female ; Fever ; Flank Pain ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Ketamine ; Kidney ; Lithotripsy* ; Narcotics ; Obesity ; Oxalates ; Sepsis ; Shock* ; Stents ; Ureter ; Uric Acid ; Urinary Calculi ; Urolithiasis*

No abstract available.
Cholesteatoma* ; Facial Paralysis*

Objectives: Ovarian suppression using Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH)-agonist in premenopausal women with breast cancer has been known to improve disease-free survival and overall survival. However, long-term effect of ovarian suppression on lipid metabolism has not been studied yet. In this retrospective cohort study, we aimed to investigate cholesterol changes during medical ovarian suppression. Methods: and Materials: We reviewed medical records and blood test results of 152 women who have been diagnosed as breast cancer and started GnRH-agonist every 12 weeks therapy for more than 24 weeks in Asan Medical Center between 2018.1.1 and 2020.12.31. Patients who had previously diagnosed dyslipidemia or diabetes, or newly received lipid-lowering agents during study period were excluded from the cohort. Age at diagnosis and preoperative Body Mass Index (BMI) were investigated as baseline demographics. Generalized additive mixed model was applied to analyze the relationship between duration of GnRH-agonist and cholesterol changes. Results: The age was distributed as 42.5±5.2 years old (mean±SD), and preoperative BMI was 23.0±3.6 kg/m2 (mean±SD). Duration of GnRH agonist therapy ranged from 5.6 to 37.7 months, with mean of 19.3. Total cholesterol was 171 mg/dL before starting GnRH-agonist, whereas 181 mg/dL on last check, which was significantly higher than initial value (p=0.03). Duration of GnRH-agonist did not affect total cholesterol level until 19.3 months, while significantly increased by 1.8 mg/dL for each month thereafter (p=0.011). There was no significant effect of age, preoperative BMI and GFR on total cholesterol. Conclusion While long-term use of GnRH-agonist is applied, patients should be monitored for dyslipidemia after 19 months of treatment and lipid-lowering agents may be considered especially when indicated.

BACKGROUND: There are only a few studies regarding the causes of treatment failure for tuberculosis. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the causes of intractable tuberculosis. METHODS: M.tuberculosis, differentiated MOTT (Tycobacterium Other Than Tuberculosis) were isolated, and the RFLP (Restriction fragments length polymorphisms) pattern was analyzed from 204 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and 53 suffering from neck tuberculosis. The IL-1β, IL-12, *1 IFNγ and *2 TNFαblood levels were measured. All patients were regularly followed for 18 months after treatment. RESULTS: There was no correlation between the RFLP patterns of M.tuberculosis treatment failure. From the 204 cases, 31.9% were intractable. The characteristics of patients with intractable tuberculosis were old age, being male and recurrent cases. The causes of treatment failure were identified as follows ; a decrease in the IL-12(59.4%) concentration, drug resistant strain(54.7%), irregular medication(15.4%), MOTT(6.2%) and a heavy infection(4.6%). The causes of all cases of intractable tuberculosis could be investigated. The IL-12 concentration in the blood was significantly lower in the intractable cases, where it disclosed a maximum sensitivity(64.7%) and specificity(75.4%) at 165.0 pg/ml. Most of the 53 cases on neck node tuberculosis were treated successfully. Therefore, we were unable to analyze the cause of treatment failure. CONCLUSION: A decrease in the blood IL-12 concentration and drug resistant strains were identified as the most significant causes of treatment failure for tuberculosis. In Korea, infection by clusters were prevalent, but no difference in the clinical course between clusters and non-clusters could be found.
Humans ; Interleukin-12 ; Korea ; Male ; Neck* ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Treatment Failure* ; Tuberculosis* ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

No abstract available.
Carcinoma, Transitional Cell* ; Humans* ; P-Glycoprotein* ; Urinary Bladder*

We report a case of alopecia areata in a 32-year-old man that developed during the course of cyclosporine therapy following kidney transplantation. Cyclosporine has been reported to be of value in the treatment of alopecia areata. It would therefore appear unlikely that alopecia areata would develop in our patient while he was undergoing cyclosporine therapy. To our knowledge, this is a rare case report of alopecia areata in a patient taking cyclosporine in Korean dermatologic literature.
Adult ; Alopecia Areata* ; Alopecia* ; Cyclosporine* ; Humans ; Kidney Transplantation