BACKGROUND: Ischemic preconditioning reduces the infarct size and the severity of arrhythmia in a post-ischemic reperfused heart although the detailed mechanism is unknown. In the ischemic heart, a large amount of catecholamine is released from the adrenergic nerve terminal and this aggravates cell destruction and arrhythmia. In this study, the possibility for ischemic preconditioning to inhibit the release of endogenous catecholamine from the ischemic heart was tested to investigate the probable cardioprotective mechanism of ischemic preconditioning. METHODS: In the isolated, Langendorff perfused rat hearts, we observed the protective effect of ischemic preconditioning against post-ischemic reperfusion injury, and measured the amount of catecholamine released into coronary effuent. In addition, we observed the effect of catecholamine depletion on reperfusion injury in non-preconditioned and preconditioned hearts. RESULTS: During the reperfusion(20min) after ischemia(30min), the cardiac function was markedly depressed with the development of severe contracture. In the heart preconditioned by three sequential episodes of 5min ischemia and 5min reperfusion, the reperfusion contracture decreased significantly and the cardiac function was almost recovered to normal after 20min reperfusion. The release of lactate dehydrogenase was also decreased in the preconditioned heart. The release of endogenous catecholamine was abruptly increased immediately after the reperfusion and the release was exponentially decreased throughout the reperfusion period. THe pattern of catecholamine release was much different from that of lactate dehydrogenase release. In the preconditioned heart, the release was significantly decreased to about half of that in non-preconditioned t\heart. Endogenous catecholamine depletion by reserpine treatment did not affect the post-ischemic functional recovery in both non-preconditioned and preconditioned hearts. CONCLUSION: It is suggested from these results that ischemic preconditioning inhibis the release of endogenous catecholamine during ischemic period, which may be partly related to cardioporotective effect of preconditioning in ischemic and reperfused heart.
Animals ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Contracture ; Heart* ; Ischemia ; Ischemic Preconditioning* ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase ; Rats* ; Reperfusion ; Reperfusion Injury ; Reserpine

PURPOSE: This study was aimed to determine the relationship between osteopontin(OPN) and osteoclast, especially focused on whether ostecolast could produce osteopontin or not. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Osteoclasts were isolated from the giant cell tumor of proximal tibia and seeded on the 13 mm round cover slip resided in 24 multi-well plates for culture. After 2 days, osteclasts on the cover slip were fixed with cold acetone for 3 minutes and immunocytochemistry was done with rabbit osteopontin antibody. For in situ RT-PCR, osteoclasts on the cover-slips were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde for 4 hours and were treated to pepsin. PR-PCR was done and the PCR producst were stained with anti-digoxigenin-AP. RESULTS: Osteopontins were found on the surface of the osteoclast by immunocytochemistry, and intense osteopontin mRNAs were found by in situ RT-PCR. CONCLUSION: We have identified that osteoclast could synthesize the osteopontin, and confirmed that in situ RT-PCR was a very useful method in expressing small amount of mRNA in case of mixed cell culture. Further study was needed to identify the action of the osteopontin produced by the osteoclast.
Acetone ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Giant Cell Tumors ; Immunohistochemistry ; Osteoclasts* ; Osteopontin* ; Pepsin A ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA, Messenger ; Tibia

Eosinophilic gastroenteritis is characterized by peripheral eosinophilia, eosinophilic infiltration of the bowel and gastrointestinal symptoms. The disease may affect any area of the gastrointestinal tract. Various manifestations are present, corresponding to the predominant layer of the eosinophilic infiltration. We experienced a case of eosinophilic gastroenteritis presenting as protein-losing enteropathy in a 36-year old male patient with acute upper abdominal pain and watery diarrhea. He showed peripheral eosinophilia, hypoalbuminemia, penile., thigh and ankle edema. The patient was treated with oral corticosteroid, and supportive care such as parenteral albumin, fluid and electrolytes. Almost all symptoms resloved within 1 week. The present report concerns a case of eosinophilic gastroenteritis associated with protein loss. Cases, of eosinophilic gastroenteritis with protein-losing enteropathy are not common. To our knowledge, no case has reported in Korea. So we report this case with brief review of the literature.
Abdominal Pain ; Adult ; Ankle ; Diarrhea ; Edema ; Electrolytes ; Eosinophilia ; Eosinophils* ; Gastroenteritis* ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Hypoalbuminemia ; Korea ; Male ; Protein-Losing Enteropathies ; Thigh

No abstract available.
Leg* ; Skin*

There are substantial evidence suggesting that DNA content of tumors may provide the prognostic information with independent significances. With the advent of computer and video technology, image analysis becomes a practical method of measuring DNA that also makes it possible to classify cells. Among the patients who were operated and diagnosed as bone tumor at Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Korea University Hospital, from March 1992 to March 1995, we evaluated 19 cases by image cytometry and studied them. Among 19 case, 4 cases were fibrous dysplasia, 2 cases chondroma, 3 cases osteosarcoma, 2 cases chondrosarcoma, and 8 cases were metastatic bone tumors. Total benign tumors were 6 cases and malignant tumors were 13 cases. All benign tumors were diploid and all malignant tumors but one metastatic tumor were aneuploid. As a result, DNA quantitation by image analysis is effective in the differential diagnosis of malignancy in bone tumor. It seems that DNA quantitation will be used on the evaluation of tumor staging and prognosis by further clinical study.
Aneuploidy ; Chondroma ; Chondrosarcoma ; Clinical Study ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Diploidy ; DNA ; Humans ; Image Cytometry ; Korea ; Methods ; Neoplasm Staging ; Orthopedics ; Osteosarcoma ; Prognosis

With the development of antenatal diagnostic tools such as ultrasonography, some congenital anomalies or diseases can be detected in early fetal life. Routine serial antenatal check-ups have made it possible to predict the prognosis of these problems, and a few life-threatening single anatomic malformations have been treated by open fetal surgery. The experience of fetal surgery revealed that the human fetus appears to heal without any scarring. In contrast to adult animals, the response to tissue injury in the fetus is conspiciously devoid of acute inflammation. Indeed, the absence of neutrophils is perhaps the most consistent observation in fetal wounds and seems to be followed by absent or scanty fibroblast infiltration, which results in healing with sparse and well organized collagen deposition. Actually, the amount and quality of the collagen deposition were decided by the fibroblasts which infiltrated the wound. It is well known that fetal wounds have sparse collagen deposition, however, the mechanisms are still unclear. This study was designed to evaluate the role of fibroblast activity in the differences of the scar formation between the fetus and neonate. Fibroblast activity such as the cell growth rate, the amount of collagen synthesis and the synthesized collagen types of fetus(IUP 18-22 weeks) was compared with that of neonate. The amount of collagen synthesis was measured by H-proline uptake and the amount of collagen type III was measured by Western blot using antihuman procollagen type III. The cell growth rate as determined by cell proliferation from the initial cell count of 5x10(5) to cell confluence was 3.6 x 10(6) in the fetal fibroblasts compared to 2.5x10(6) in neonatal fibroblasts. Fetal fibroblast synthesize 16.9 x 10(4) cpm of collagen and neonatal fibroblasts synthesize 2.7 x 10(4) cpm of collagen. The synthesized amount of type III collagen was 2.1x10(4) ug/ml, and 1.5x10(4) ug/ml by fetal and neonatal fibroblasts, respectively. In conclusion, fetal fibroblasts grow faster and synthesize a smaller amount of collagen, but produce more type III collagen than neonatal fibroblasts.
Adult* ; Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Count ; Cell Proliferation ; Cicatrix ; Collagen Type III ; Collagen* ; Fetus* ; Fibroblasts* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Inflammation ; Neutrophils ; Prognosis ; Ultrasonography ; Wounds and Injuries

BACKGROUND: Suction auto epidermal graft for the treatment of stable vitiligo has become popular clinically. In general, depigmented epidermis is removed by liquid nitrogen freezing for preparation of the recipient site. There have been some problems with the nitrogen freezing method, uneven repigmentation, appearance of Koebner's phenomenon on normal colored skin around the graft site, scar formation on recipients sites. In our view these resulted in unwanted damage to the dermis and epidermal and skin appendageal melanocytes of normal skin by freezing. OBJECTIVE: To introduce a method to remove the depigmented epidermis of recipient site with minimal unwanted damage to melanocytes and dermal tissue. METHODS: Using Ellman surgitron, irradiation equipment of 3.8MHz frequency the depigmented epidermis was removed with a blade electrode under rated electric power around 10 watts depending on the thickness of the epidermis. Operating mode was fully filtered current for minimal charring and destruction of tissue through pure micro-smooth cutting. RESULTS: In the case of removal of the epidermis with Ellman surgitron, oozing and inflammation decreased markedly compared with those applied with liquid nitrogen. And it was confirmed histopathologically that there was no significant unwanted destruction of healthy tissue. Moreover, the electrode of Ellman surgitron is designed to be apt to trace the margin of depigmented lesion. And Ellman surgitron features a continuously linear intensity setting for precise, predictable control to minimize tissue destruction and charring. So we were able to remove the epidermis of the shallow lesion looking like a pseudopod and of the thinnest part of the body like eyelid also. And we grafted normal epidermis successfully on the depigmented lesion. CONCLUSION: The removal of depigmented epidermis by radio-frequency gave satisfactory results in the suction auto epidermal graft by overcoming the defects shown as depigmented epidermis which were removed by liquid nitrogen freezing. And this method made patients comfortable because of less pain, a one day operation procedure and good results.
Cicatrix ; Dermis ; Electrodes ; Epidermis* ; Eyelids ; Freezing ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Melanocytes ; Nitrogen ; Skin ; Suction* ; Transplants* ; Trout ; Vitiligo

No abstract available.
Hepatitis B virus* ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis*

Perigraft seroma is uncommon complication of polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE) grafts applied as an arteriovenous shunt for hemodialysis. It is a collection of clear, sterile fluid confined to nonsecretory fibrous pseudomembrane, most commonly localized around the middle and distal portion of graft. The possible etiologic factors of perigraft seroma include poor graft incorporation, mechanical graft damage caused by alcohol and povidone-iodine, intraoperative streching of the graft, variations in quality control at the time of manufacture and contributing factors such as anemia and coagulopathy in uremia. The best strategy for management of perigraft seroma is not clear. spiration or drainage alone is not effective, and some authors advocate graft removal. We report a case of perigraft seroma around arterial end of PTFE graft along with a brief review of the literatures.
Anemia ; Drainage ; Humans ; Polytetrafluoroethylene ; Povidone-Iodine ; Quality Control ; Renal Dialysis* ; Seroma* ; Transplants ; Uremia

Fine needle aspiration biopsy cytology (FNA) for diagnosis of a variety of breast tum- ors has been proven to be a simple, safe, and cost saving diagnostic methodology with high accuracy. Cytologic specimens from 1,029 fine needle aspirations of the breast during last 3-year period were reviewed and subsequent biopsies from 107 breast lesions were reevaluated for cytohistological correlation. FNA had a sensitivity of 81.6% and a specificity of 98.3%. One out of 107 cases bio- psied revealed a false positive result (0.9%) and the case was due to misinterpretation of apocrine metaplastic cells in necrotic backgound as malignant cells. A false negative rate was 8.4% (9 of 107 cases biopsied). Six of 9 false negative cases were resulted from insufficient aspirates for diagnosis, and remaining three of 9 false negative cases revealed extensive necrosis with no or scanty viable cells on smears. The results indicate that for reducing false positive and false negative rates of FNA, an experienced cytopathologist and a proficient aspirator are of great importance.
Adenoma, Pleomorphic ; Aspirations (Psychology) ; Biopsy ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Breast ; Carcinoma, Adenoid Cystic ; Carcinoma, Mucoepidermoid ; Child* ; Cost Savings ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Necrosis ; Needles ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Urinary Tract Infections* ; Urinary Tract* ; Vesico-Ureteral Reflux*