Mushroom poisonings are potentially fatal. Most fatalities are due to the amatoxin that causes fulminant hepatic failure and acute renal failure. We report a patient who developed acute renal failure after ingesting Amanita virgineoides, which required renal replacement therapy, despite recovery of liver injury. A kidney biopsy showed acute tubular necrosis. The patient was recovered with the supportive care and temporary hemodialysis.
Acute Kidney Injury ; Amanita ; Amanitins ; Biopsy ; Humans ; Kidney ; Liver ; Liver Failure, Acute ; Mushroom Poisoning ; Necrosis ; Renal Dialysis ; Renal Replacement Therapy

Inverted papilloma is a rare form of a benign sinonasal tumor characterized by a potentially invasive nature. The lateral nasal wall represents the most common site of origin. In contrast, involvement of sphenoid sinus is exceedingly rare. The present study describes a case of a 52-years-old patient with an inverted papilloma which originated from the sphenoid sinus. The patient complained mainly of headache, ptosis and diplopia. Radiologic study revealed that the sphenoid sinus was completely occupied by the tumor. Additionally, the ethmoid sinus, cavernous sinus and intracranial fossa have been invaded by the tumor. Endoscopic sinus surgery and postoperative radiotherapy were performed. Two months after the operation, the patient has not revealed any new symptom. However, a remnant of the inverted papilloma still remains. The clinical presentation of the inverting papillomas confined to the sphenoid sinus is often non-specific and insidious, with ptosis and diplopia being predominant. The rhinologic surgeon has to rule out this condition.
Cavernous Sinus ; Diplopia ; Ethmoid Sinus ; Headache ; Humans ; Papilloma ; Papilloma, Inverted ; Sphenoid Sinus

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in pregnancies with mild and severe preeclampsia. METHODS: From January 1999 to June 2001, we studied the severity for pregnant women with pregnancy induced hypertension between 28 and 40 weeks gestation. In the mild (n=46) and severe preeclamptic women (n=28), the laboratory evaluation included liver function test, platelet counts, and serum creatinine. The systolic/diastolic (S/D) ratio of the fetal umbilical artery flow for placental resistance was measured by ultrasonographic doppler velocimetry. To detect the damage of vascular endothelial cells in all preeclamptic women, serum concentrations of VEGF were measured. RESULTS: Severe preeclampsia had more elevated liver enzymes, thrombocytopenia, high creatinine than mild preeclampsia. HELLP syndrome (hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelets) was encountered in 8/28 (28.6%) of severe preeclampsia. Fifteen out of twenty-eight cases (53.6%) in severe preeclampsia had elevated S/D ratio from 3.0 to 4.5 including 6 cases with absent end diastolic velocity, whereas 4/46 (8.7%) was elevated SD ratio (>3.0) in mild preeclampsia. Serum concentrations of VEGF were elevated in both mild (7.5+/-4.9 ng/mL, p<0.05) and severe preeclampsia (19.3+/-8.8 ng/mL, p<0.05) compared to normal pregnancy (0.5~2.1 ng/mL). CONCLUSION: The higher serum concentration of VEGF and elevated S/D ratio of umbilical artery were responsible for the changes of the resistance of placental blood flow in severe preeclampsia. Furthermore, elevated S/D ratio of umbilical artery velocity was essential as a surveillance method of fetal health status with IUGR (Intrauterine growth restriction) by vascular declination of placenta.
Creatinine ; Endothelial Cells ; Female ; Fetal Growth Retardation ; HELLP Syndrome ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced ; Liver ; Liver Function Tests ; Placenta ; Platelet Count ; Pre-Eclampsia* ; Pregnancy ; Pregnant Women ; Rheology ; Thrombocytopenia ; Umbilical Arteries ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A*

PURPOSE: Umbilical cord blood transplantation is a alternative method as new hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and has been performed clinically in indicated disease. However, it have the problems for long-term storage of cord blood in liquid nitrogen and for limited application to adult due to small amount of hematopoietic stem cell. Therefore, several centers have carried out active research for ex vivo expansion of cord blood stem cell. We investigated the hematopoietic function of cord blood plasma for development of new techniques. METHODS: We acquired the nucleated cells of cord blood from healthy infant and bone marrow from healthy donor received granulocyte-colony stimulating factor. We evaluated hematopoietic colony formation according to source of stem cell and plasma by semisolid culture medium. Three experimental groups were divided as source of plasma: group for cord plasma, group for bone marrow plasma, group for mixture of cord plasma and bone marrow plasma. RESULTS: The results were as follows: 1) The colony formation according to source of stem cell in commercialized standard semisolid culture medium showed that cord blood in the number of CFU-GM was less than bone marrow, but not significantly different in CFU-GEMM. 2) The colony formation according to source of stem cell in semisolid culture medium using experimental plasma showed that cord blood in the number of CFU-GM was more than bone marrow. There were no cytotoxic effect of plasma to experimental cells. 3) The colony formation in semisolid culture medium contained plasma according to experimental group showed that the number of CFU-GM in cord blood plasma was significantly more than bone marrow plasma in spite of different source of stem cell. Conclusions: These results suggested that cord blood might contain enough hematopoiesis to enable to perform transplantation compared with bone marrow and, also, cord blood plasma might be contributed more effective colony formation than bone marrow plasma. Therefore, we propose that it may be good to store cord blood cells with cord blood plasma in long-term storage. We will investigate the composition of hematopoietic growth factors and cytokines in cord blood plasma and the effect of cord blood plasma for ex vivo expansion of cord blood cells.
Adult ; Bone Marrow ; Bone Marrow Cells ; Cytokines ; Fetal Blood* ; Granulocyte-Macrophage Progenitor Cells ; Hematopoiesis ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Humans ; Infant ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Myeloid Progenitor Cells ; Nitrogen ; Plasma* ; Stem Cells ; Tissue Donors

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical characteristics of pregnancy induced hypertension(PIH). METHODS: Five hundred seventy-five cases of PIH and 7,702 cases of normotensive pregnancies who were delivered their infants at Wonkwang University Hospital from January, 1994 to December, 1998 were selected for the study. The data were collected by review of the hospital record and the statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square tests, and statistical significance was defined as p<0.05. RESULTS: The incidence of PIH was 7.1% of total deliveries. Among the PIH, the incidence of mild preedampsia was found in 59%, severe preeclampsia in 36%, and edampsia in 5%. The most prevalent gestational period was 38-42wks gestation in mild PIH and 33-37wks gestation in severe PIH & eclampsia. The incidence of cesarean section was significantly higher in severe PIH & eclampsia(72.2%) than in mild PIH(48.7%) and normotensive pregnancies(39.7%). The incidence of hypoalbuminemia, preterm labor, placental abruption, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and pulmonary edema were significantly higher in severe PIH & edampsia than in mild PIH and normotensive pregnancies. Compared with normotensive pregnancies or mild PIH, severe PIH & eclampsia had significantly elevated risks for low birth weight, intrauterine growth retardation, fetal distress, low apgar score, meconium stained, and neonatal deaths. CONCLUSION: The incidence of PIH is not decreasing and it still an important role in the cause of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity in Korea. So, further studies are necessary to prepare a guide for the treatment of PIH.
Abruptio Placentae ; Apgar Score ; Cesarean Section ; Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation ; Eclampsia ; Female ; Fetal Distress ; Fetal Growth Retardation ; Hospital Records ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced* ; Hypoalbuminemia ; Incidence ; Infant ; Infant, Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea ; Meconium ; Obstetric Labor, Premature ; Perinatal Mortality ; Pre-Eclampsia ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy* ; Pulmonary Edema

Sulphated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are found on the vascular endothelial surface and in the extracellular matrix in various tissue and organs, suggesting that these materials constitute a negatively charged screen restricting the movement of circulating plasma molecules. The present study was designed to elucidate the ditributional characteristics of sulphated GAGs in normal mucosa, edematous nasal mucosa and nasal polyp in order to understand their roles in the formation of the nasal polyp. Their presence in nasal mucosa was lightmicroscopically detected with the histochemical method using poly-L-lysine conjugated colloidal gold followed by silver enhancement. Sulphated GAGs in normal and edematous inferior turbinate mucosa were distributed only on the vascular endothelial surface in the superficial layer, while in the deeper layer they were found on the extracellular matrix as well as vascular endothelial surface. Their expression in normal and edematous ethmoid sinus mucosa was restricted to the glandular secretory product, but not found on the endothelial surface and subepithelial extracellular matrix. Sulphated GAGs in nasal polyp tissue are quite variable in staining intensity or distributional pattern. These results suggest that the distributional pattern of sulphated GAGs in the nasal mucosa may be regionally different and play an important roles in the regulation of the vascular permeability of nasal mucosa.
Capillary Permeability ; Ethmoid Sinus ; Extracellular Matrix ; Glycosaminoglycans* ; Gold Colloid ; Mucous Membrane ; Nasal Mucosa* ; Nasal Polyps* ; Plasma ; Silver ; Turbinates

In order to elucidate the mechanism of oxidative damage of cadimu(Cd) on culturedmouse preimplantation embyors.The embryotoxocity of Cd was examined after cultured mouse preimplantation embryoswere exposed to various concentrations of CdCl2. In addition, the protected effect of antioxidant,catalase against Cd-induced embryotoxicity was investigated.CdCl2 decreased the development of cultured mouse preimplantation embryos in dose andtime-dependent manners, and also oxidative damage was involoved in Cd-induced embryotoxicityin mouse preimplantation embryos by the prevention of catalase on Cd-induced toxicity.
Animals ; Blastocyst ; Cadmium Chloride ; Cadmium* ; Catalase ; Embryonic Structures* ; Mice

In order to elucidate the mechanism of oxidative damage of cadimu(Cd) on culturedmouse preimplantation embyors.The embryotoxocity of Cd was examined after cultured mouse preimplantation embryoswere exposed to various concentrations of CdCl2. In addition, the protected effect of antioxidant,catalase against Cd-induced embryotoxicity was investigated.CdCl2 decreased the development of cultured mouse preimplantation embryos in dose andtime-dependent manners, and also oxidative damage was involoved in Cd-induced embryotoxicityin mouse preimplantation embryos by the prevention of catalase on Cd-induced toxicity.
Animals ; Blastocyst ; Cadmium Chloride ; Cadmium* ; Catalase ; Embryonic Structures* ; Mice

Delayed hemolytic transfusion reaction occurs when the transfused red cells possess an antigen to which the patient has been previously sensitized. Red cells are destructed by an antibody not detected by compatibility testiing some time after the transfusion. Anti-E(rh") is the Rh antibody that found second most commonly after anti-D in Korea, but very seldom causes hemolytic disease. Recently we experienced a case of delayed hemolytic transfusion reaction due to anti-E(rh") in a 37-year-old woman. Three days after the transfusion, she showed a fall in hematocrit and elevation of indirect bilirubin and LDH accompanied by a positive indirect antiglobulin test. Anti-E(rh") was identified in the patient's serum by antibody screening and identification test.
Adult ; Bilirubin ; Blood Group Incompatibility* ; Coombs Test ; Female ; Hematocrit ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening

The cell cycle is composed of a series of steps which can be negatively or positively regulated by various factors. p53 gene aberrations are common in human malignancies, and recent studies suggest that in cervical carcinoma p53 function is inactivated either by complex formation wilh human papilloma virus (HPV) E6 product or by gene mutation. To study the expression of p53 gene in the cervical cancer and cervical intraepithebal neoplasia, immunohistochemistry for the p53 protein was done in the 47 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, 6 cases of adenocarcinoma and 32 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. I. The p53 protein was detected in the 31% of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (10/32 cases). 2. The p53 protein was detected in the 55% of invasive cervical cancer (29/53 cases). 3. By the histologic type of cervieal cancer, the p53 protein was detected in the 57% of squamous cell carcinoma (27/47 cases) and 33% of(2/6 cases) adenocarcinoma. The p53 protein wes more frequently detected in the squamous cell carcinoma than in the adenocarcinoma. 4. By the staging in cervical cancer, the p53 protein was detected in the 31% of stage 0, 50% of Stage Ia, 50% of stage I b, 75% of IIa and 50% of stage II b.
Adenocarcinoma ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cell Cycle ; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia ; Genes, p53 ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry* ; Papilloma ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*