No abstract available.
Animals ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Intestines* ; Rats*

No abstract available.
Calcium Pyrophosphate* ; Calcium* ; Knee Joint* ; Knee*

A 21-year-young man had an episode of myalgia and chilling 3 days prior to hospital admission. He had consumed common doses of acetaminophen for one day, and was presented in the sauna room for an hour. On the next morning, he complained of dyspnea and was admitted. He presented in rhabdo-myolysis and acute renal failure with increased up-take in the proximal muscles by (99m)Tc-MPD bone scan. He was treated by hemodialysis and discharged on the twenty-eighth hospital day. Rhabdomyolysis has the variable causes. The causes of this case are two, the first cause is common doses of acetaminophen. But, there is no reports for rhabdomyolysis by common doses of acetaminophen only. However, we should consider that acetaminophen is a contributing factor in this case. The second cause is viral infection. Our patient had myalgia and chilling prior to hospital admission. Heat- stroke is well known cause of rhabdomyolysis. The mechnisms for rhabdomyolysis in this disease are hypovolemia, total body potassium deficit, and increased variable cytokines. Sauna, the last cause of our rhabdomyolysis case may have the same mechanisms with heatstroke. Our case had two causative factors, common doses of acetaminophen and sauna. These factors might be cooperated in our case of rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure.
Acetaminophen* ; Acute Kidney Injury ; Cytokines ; Dyspnea ; Heat Stroke ; Humans ; Hypovolemia ; Muscles ; Myalgia ; Potassium ; Renal Dialysis ; Rhabdomyolysis* ; Steam Bath* ; Stroke

Odontoblasts are responsible for the formation and maintenance of dentin. They are known to synthesize unique gene products including dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP). Another unique genes of the cells remain unclear. OD314 was isolated from the odontoblasts/pulp cells of rats and partially characterized as an odontoblast-enriched gene (Dey et al., 2001). This study aimed to elucidate the biological function of OD314, relating to odontoblast differentiation and dentinogenesis. After determining the open reading frame (ORF) of OD314 by transient transfection analysis using green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression vector, mRNA in-situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western analysis were performed. The results were as follows: 1. In in-situ hybridization, OD314 mRNAs were expressed in odontoblasts of developing coronal and root pulp. 2. OD314 was a novel protein encoding 154 amino acids, and the protein was mainly expressed in cytoplasm by transient transfection analysis. 3. Mineralized nodules were associated with multilayer cell nodules in the culture of human dental pulp cells and first detected from day 21 using alizarin-red S staining. 4. In RT-PCR analysis, OD314, osteocalcin (OC) and DSPP strongly expressed throughout 28 days of culture. Whereas, osteonectin (ON) mRNA expression stayed low up to day 14, and then gradually decreased from day 21. 5. Western blots showed an approximately 17 kDa band. OD314 protein was expressed from the start of culture and then increased greatly from day 21. In conclusion, OD314 is considered as an odontoblast-enriched gene and may play important roles in odontoblast differentiation and dentin mineralization.
Amino Acids ; Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Cytoplasm ; Dental Pulp ; Dentin ; Dentinogenesis ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Odontoblasts ; Open Reading Frames ; Osteocalcin ; Osteonectin ; Rats ; RNA, Messenger ; Transfection

BACKGROUND: Antibody screening for donated blood is not yet being performed in Korea. Positive rate of irregular antibodies in Korean patients or blood donors has been thought to be much lower than that of foreign contries. We studied to know the actual frequency of irregular antibodies in blood donors with history of parturition using gel card, which was recently introduced in the field of blood banking and considered to be easy to standardize and sensitive to detect irregular antibodies. METHODS: 706 samples were collected from four blood centers in Seoul for 4 months. Antibody screening and identification were done by two kinds of Gel Card (DiaMed-ID corp, DiaMed, Murten, Switzerland) such as Nacl/Enzyme and LISS/Coombs' card. Adsorption- elution test was done in samples of which we could know the antibody specificity. RESULTS: Irregular antibodies were identified in 24 cases among 706 samples, therefore the overall frequency was 3.4% (95% CI: 3.4% +/- 1.3%). Only 4 cases, however, showed positive reaction in both enzyme and Coombs' phase, therefore frequency of clinically significant antibodies was 0.57% (95% CI: 0.57% +/- 0.55%). The identified irregular antibodies were anti-Lea (8 cases), Anti-Rh (3 cases) and Anti-P1 (1 case). Adsorption-elution test showed positive reaction only in 3 cases with anti-Rh antibodies. CONCLUSION: Considering that blood donors with history of parturition comprize just little proportion of total donors in Korea and frequency of irregular antibody is relatively lower than that of foreign countries in same group (0.57% vs 3.8%), it can be concluded that antibody screening be not urgent problem in Korean blood donation program.
Antibodies ; Antibody Specificity ; Blood Banks ; Blood Donors* ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Parturition* ; Seoul ; Tissue Donors

BACKGROUND: Genes for ABO and Rh phenotypes were recently identified. Although ABO genotyping don't find wide application in hospital transfusion services, it can play an important role in paternity and forensic investigation. In case of Rh system, however, DNA typing may find several practical applications such as prenatal determination of fetal Rho(D) genotype. METHODS: 64 blood samples for ABO genotyping were collected from blood donors (34 A, 30 B) and 18 samples for D genotyping (10 D+, 8 D-). To distinguish A, B and O alleles, we analyzed nucleotide positions 261 and 803 using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). PCR products containing nucleotide position 261 were restricted with KpnI and BstEII. Rh genotyping was done by two sets of primers, one set for both RhD and RhCcEe gene amplification, and the other set for RhD only. RESULTS: The frequencies of ABO genotypes found in Korean blood donors were as follows: in the phenotype A group, AO=79% and AA= 21%; and in the phenotype B group, BO=93% and BB=7%. Of 18 blood samples for D genotytping, 10 were typed as RhD positive and 8 as RhD negative, showing full agreement with serological typing. CONCLUSION: ABO and D genotyping can be used when RBCs suitable for serological phenotyping are not available. Futhermore, these will be useful as a supplemental test to solve the problem of blood group typing caused by weak ABO and Rh phenotype.
Alleles ; Blood Donors ; DNA Fingerprinting ; Gene Amplification ; Genotype ; Humans ; Paternity ; Phenotype ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length

BACKGROUND: All donated bloods collected by the Korean Red Cross Blood Centers are tested for anti-HCV (Hepatitis C Virus) antibody by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kits made in Korea. EIA test has sustaining problem of false positivity in spite of great progress in manufacturing kits. So, many healthy donors have been reported as being infected with HCV and excluded from next donation. METHODS: Among blood samples of 2,040,151 donors which were tested by two kinds of EIA kits (DONG-A HCV 3.0 and LG HCD 3.0) from 16 blood centers during 12 months, repeatably reactive samples, total 6,851 samples, were supplementally tested by LG HCD CONFIRM immunoblot test. RESULTS: Positive, indeterminate and negative rate in immunoblot tests were 39%, 9%, and 12% respectively among 6,851 repeatably reactive samples. Estimated true positive rate of anti-HCV antibody in Korean blood donors was 0.13%, showing geographical difference between 0.03% and 0.46%. Of EIA repeatably reactive samples, 28% showed greater than 5 signal to cutoff (S/C) ratio and most of them (94%) was revealed to be positive. CONCLUSION: True positive rate of EIA test results is so low that it would be necessary to increase the confidence of such results by immunoblot tests.
Blood Donors* ; Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Korea ; Red Cross ; Tissue Donors

BACKGROUND: Serologic assay for the detection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg) have been used routinely in the screening of blood donors in Korea since 1973. However some investigators have reported the presence of HBV DNA in HBsAg negative blood. So this study is designed to determine the detection rate of HBV DNA according to various patterns of HBV markers in Korean blood donors. METHODS: The presence of HBV DNA in plasma from 469 donors was determined by polymerase chain reaction using commercial kit (Bioneer HBV Detection Kit, Bioneer Corp., Chungbuk, Korea). 289 donors showing all negative results by donor screening tests and 120 donors showing positive results only in HBsAg test and 60 donors showing abnormal result only in alanine aminotransferase (ALT) test (> or =65 IU/L) were included in this study. Other markers for HBV infection such as anti-HBsAb, anti-HBcAb, HBeAg were also tested. RESULTS: 65 (54%) of 120 donors with positive for HBsAg and 5 (1.7%) of 289 donors without abnormal results in screening tests and 3 (5.0%) of 60 donors with elevated ALT were found to have HBV DNA in their plasma. Among 54 cases showing HBsAg-positive/HBeAg-positive, 52 cases (96%) were found to have HBV DNA. HBV markers in 5 cases showing HBsAg-negative/HBV DNA-positive were as follows: 2 (1.3%) among 159 cases showing anti-HBs-positive/anti-HBc-negative and 1 (20%) among 5 cases showing anti-HBs-negative/anti-HBc-positive and 1 (1.8%) among 55 cases showing anti-HBs-positive/anti-HBc-positive and 1 (1.5%) among 65 cases showing no viral markers. 3 cases with HBV DNA among elevated ALT groups were positive only in anti-HBs test. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that serological markers for HBV infection are insufficient to guarantee the safety of donated blood. To improve the safety, it may be suggested that (1) donors with history of viral hepatitis or with history of HBsAg positivity shoud be indefinitely deferred from donation, (2) blood collected from donors who have showed HBsAg positive result at previous donation shoud be discarded, (3) HBsAg-negative /anti-HBs-negative /anti-HBc-positive blood should be discarded, (4) ALT screening should be continuously done because it could screen out HBsAg-negative /HBV DNA-positive blood irrespective of anti-HBc result, (5) HBV detction kit that can also detect HBV mutant shoud be developed, (6) governmental support for HBV vaccination program shoud be done especially for recruits.
Alanine Transaminase ; Antigens, Surface ; Biomarkers* ; Blood Donors* ; Chungcheongbuk-do ; DNA ; Donor Selection ; Hepatitis B e Antigens ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens* ; Hepatitis B virus* ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Plasma ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Research Personnel ; Tissue Donors ; Vaccination

BACKGROUND: Since the introduction of anti-HCV assay, post-transfusion hepatitis (PTH) by Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) was remakably reduced. Recently, based on the estimation of HCV seroincidence rate in blood donors, an investigator insisted that alanine aminotransferase (ALT) test be discontinued as a surrogate marker. This study was designed to determine the HCV seroincidence in Korean blood donors. METHODS: HCV seroincidence was calculated using repeat donors who had donated repeatedly during the 26 months from Nov. 1994 through Dec. 1996. To calculate the person-years according to ALT value, the computer database of the Korean National Red Cross (KNRC) was used in which results for anti-HCV by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) were filed up. To count the true incidence cases, who were defined as donors showing seroconversion by confirmatory test in two successive donation, seroconverted donors by EIA were individually reconfirmed whether they were true seroconverters. Finally, projected impact on HCV risk of discontining of ALT screening was calculated by using two important value previously known, such as periods of seroconversion window for anti-HCV and ALT preconversion window. RESULTS: HCV seroincidence was estimated to be 13.79/100,000 person-years. Seroincidences according to the ALT groups were as follows; 13.22 in the normal ALT group (< or = 64 IU/L), 34.15 in the elevated group (65-130 IU/L), 87.13 in the highly elevated group (> or =131 IU/L). By this study, investigators also could find seroconverted donors, whose result for anti-HCV by immunoblot was positive at the first donation and changed to negative by EIA at the next donation, as many as 100 donors. Among these falsely seroconverted persons, 16% of donors showed elevated ALT value. 8 units per 1 million donations were estimated to be discarded only by abnormal results of ALT testing in Korea. CONCLUSION: HCV seroincidence in Korean donors was 2.8 times as high as in American donors. HCV seroincidence calculated by this study seems to be somewhat lower than true rate because of the problem of summing-up the person-years. Considering that higher seroincidence results in more donors in seroconversion window phase, donor selection by careful history taking should be re-emphasized to reduce the seroincidence rate in Korean blood donation program.
Alanine Transaminase ; Biomarkers ; Blood Donors* ; Donor Selection ; Hepacivirus ; Hepatitis ; Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Incidence ; Korea* ; Mass Screening ; Red Cross ; Research Personnel ; Tissue Donors

BACKGROUND: Only 39% was the positive predictive value of anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody test done by Korean Red Cross. Supplemental enzyme immunoassay (EIA) by another EIA kit may be also effective for reporting the more correct result to donors, instead of expensive supplemental immunoblot test. METHODS: All repeatedly reactive blood samples by EIA from 16 regional blood centers were retested for anti-HCV antibody by Abbott IMx HCV kit and LG HCD CONFIRM immunoblot kit. Presence of viral RNA was also confirmed using Amplicor HCV TEST kit from 180 samples, which were proportionately selected according to supplemental EIA and Immunoblot results. RESULTS: Of 2,211 repeatedly reactive samples, 909 samples (41%) were reactive and 1,302 (59%) samples were non-reactive with IMx HCV kit. 81% of reactive samples also showed positive pattern on the LG HCD CONFIRM strips and 79% of 1,302 samples showed negative pattern. RNA positivity was estimated 66% and 17% in Abbott IMx HCV positive and negative samples respectively, and 72%, 6%, 20% in LG HCD CONFIRM positive, indeterminate and negative samples respectively. CONCLUSION: HCV RNA positivity in positive samples by Abbott IMx HCV or LG HCD CONFIRM was not statistically significant (z=0.57 < 1.96, alpha=0.05). RNA detection rate by Abbott IMx HCV or LG HCD CONFIRM among HCV RNA positive samples, which was estimated as 73%, 70% respectively, was also statistically insignificant (z=0.375 < 1.96, alpha=0.05). So, it seems to be a good and economical practice that donors are notified of anti-HCV antibody results after supplemental EIA test using Abbott IMx HCV kit.
Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques* ; Red Cross ; RNA ; RNA, Viral ; Tissue Donors*