BACKGROUND: A fully automated enzyme-immunoassay (EIA) analyzer, Enzymun System, ES-300 (Boehringer Mannheim, Germany) uses streptavidin technology and performs single test or panels of up to 12 tests per run. We evaluated the results of ES-300 for anti-HCV by comparing the results with microplate-EIA, radioimmunoassay (RIA), and confirmatory test. METHODS: Total 79 sera (51 positive, 24 negative, 4 indeterminate results confirmed by Lucky HCD Confirm) were analysed. ES-300 with Enzymun-Test(R) Anti-HCV (Boehringer Mannheim, Germany) and microplate-EIA (Green Cross Center Innotest HCV 3.0(R)) were used. Fifty one sera were examined additionally by 2nd-generation RIA method, NANBDINE 125C(General Biologicals Corp., R.O.C.). And all results were compared to the results of Lucky HCD Confirm. RESULTS: The overall concordance rate of ES-300 and Innotest(R) was 72/79 (91.1%). The results of Lucky HCD Confirm on seven discrepant samples were five negative and two indeterminate. The results of ES-300 and NANBDINE 125C showed concordance rate of 90.2%. The sensitivity and specificity of ES-300 with regard to Lucky HCD Confirm were 94.5%, and 87.5%, respectively, and that of Innotest(R) were 98.2% and 66.7%, respectively. Clear distinction of positive and negative results by signal/cut off ratio was available in both EIAs. The positive predictive values of ES-300 and Innotest(R) were 94.5%, and 87.1%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: ES-300 showed relatively good results in sensitivity and positive predictive value with regard to confirmatory test. In EIA-positive persons, however, follow-up study would be necessary for reliable evaluation of HCV infection.
Humans ; Radioimmunoassay ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Streptavidin

BACKGROUND: In unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO), the obstructed kidney is characterized by interstitial fibrosis and an increase in transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1. Interstitial expression of TGF-beta1 is important in tublointerstitial fibrosis. The objectives of this study is to make new ribbon-type antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) for TGF-beta1 which are resistant to exonuclease and to examine the effcets of TGF-beta1 on reducing tubulointerstitial fibrosis of the kidney. METHODS: We introduced a new ribbon-type antisense ODN for TGF-beta1 in rats using the UUO model to block interstitial fibrosis by tail vein injection. A combination of one antisense sequences for TGF-beta1 was adopted to construct a large antisense molecule with a loop and stem. Artificial viral envelope (AVE)-type hemagglutinating virus of Japan (HVJ)-liposomes were used as a vector system for the delivery of antisense ODN. RESULTS: The levels of TGF-beta1 mRNA was decreased more in the cultured mesangial cells treated with ribbon-type antisense ODN than in that of a linear-type antisense ODN for TGF-beta1. TGF-beta1 mRNA was increased markedly in the interstitium of untreated obstructed kidneys. Northem analysis revealed that the levels of TGF-beta1 mRNA were decreased in the obstructed kidneys treated with antisense ODN. The fibrosis of the obstructed kidneys treated with ribbon-type antisense ODN was dramatically less than that of the untreated group. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that the introduction of new ribbon-type antisense ODN for TGF-beta1 may be a potential therapeutic maneuver for preventing interstitial fibrosis.
Animals ; Fibrosis ; Kidney ; Mesangial Cells ; Oligodeoxyribonucleotides* ; Rats ; RNA, Messenger ; Sendai virus ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; Transforming Growth Factors ; Ureter* ; Ureteral Obstruction* ; Veins

PURPOSE: It was suggested that immunogenic region of E7 proteins of human papillo- mavirus (HPV) type 16 encompass casein kinase (CK) II phosphorylation site and the resulting negative charge may affect the various biologic function of E7 protein. This study was undertaken to analyze the change of antigenic characteristics of HPV type 16, E7 oncoprotein according to phosphorylation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We produced two monoclonal antibodies (VD6 and IB10) which showed different reactivities to E7 proteins expressed from bacteria or extracted from CaSki cell. These reaction were analyzed by Western blotting. Also the antigenic sites estimation of these antibodies using nested deletion sets was done. On the basis of above experiments, we performed in vitro phosphorylation assay using CK II and its specific inhibitor, DRB (5, 6-dichloro-l-beta-D-ribofuranosylbenzimidazole), to analyze the IB10 reactivity to E7 oncoproteins according to phosphorylation. RESULTS: In Westem blot analysis, VD6 and IB10 antibodies reacted strongly to bacterially expressed E7 protein. But using E7 extracted from CaSki cell, VD6 reacted to 2.0 kDa E7 protein whereas IB10 showed weak reactivity. The antigenic sites estimation of these antibodies showed that antigenic site of VD6 was located in amino terminal region and that of IB10 in the middle portion in the range of approximate amino acid 25-45. The antigenic site of IB10 might contain the possible phosphorylation sites (Ser-31, 32) in E7. Considering this, the different reactivities of IB10 to E7 proteins expressed in bacteria and extracted from CaSki cell might be due to phosphorylation. In in vitro phosphorylation assay using CK II, the phosphorylation of E7 increased according to reaction time. And this phosphorylation reduced the reactivity of IB10 to E7 protein whereas the reactivity of VD6 did not change. Also the reactivity of IB10 to E7 protein increased in a dose dependent manner with CK II specific inhibitor, DRB treated CaSki cell extracts. CONCLUSION: These result showed the antigenecity is affected by the degree of phosphorylation of E7 protein.
Antibodies ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Bacteria ; Blotting, Western ; Casein Kinases ; Cell Extracts ; Dichlororibofuranosylbenzimidazole ; Human papillomavirus 16 ; Humans* ; Oncogene Proteins ; Phosphorylation* ; Reaction Time

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the criterion-related concurrent validity of two standardized auditory-perceptual assessments and the Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) for measuring dysphonia severity in patients with vocal cord paralysis (VCP). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Total 210 patients with VCP and 236 normal voice subjects were asked to sustain the vowel [a:] and to read aloud the Korean text “Walk”. A 2 second mid-vowel portion of the sustained vowel and two sentences (with 26 syllables) were recorded. And then voice samples were edited, concatenated, and analyzed according to Praat script. Two standardized auditory-perceptual assessment (GRBAS and CAPE-V) were performed by three raters. RESULTS: The VCP group showed higher AVQI, Grade (G) and Overall Severity (OS) values than normal voice group. And the correlation among AVQI, G, and OS ranged from 0.904 to 0.926. In ROC curve analysis, cutoff values of AVQI, G, and OS were < 3.79, < 0.00, and < 30.00, respectively, and the AUC of each analysis was over .89. CONCLUSION: AVQI and auditory evaluation can improve the early screening ability of VCP voice and help to establish effective diagnosis and treatment plan for VCP-related dysphonia.
Acoustics* ; Area Under Curve ; Diagnosis ; Dysphonia* ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; ROC Curve ; Vocal Cord Paralysis* ; Vocal Cords* ; Voice ; Voice Quality

BACKGROUND: 4-1BB mediated costimulatory signal is a recently identified immunotherapeutic strategy for treating autoimmune diseases without depressing the immune response. In this study, we investigated the expression of 4-1BB and 4-1BBL on the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and we assessed whether the serum levels of soluble (s) 4-1BB and s4-1BBL in the patients with Graves' disease (GD) and compared them with normal subjects. METHODS: Expression of 4-1BB and 4-1BBL on PBMC of GD patients was determined by flow cytometry. The concentrations of s4-1BB and s4-1BBL were assessed in the sera of GD patients by performing ELISA. RESULTS: 4-1BB was constitutively expressed on naive CD4+ and CD8+ T cells of the GD patients and this was increased by stimulation. 4-1BBL was also expressed on the antigen-presenting cells such as CD19+ B cells, monocytes and dendritic cells in GD patients. The serum levels of s4-1BB and s4-1BBL were significantly higher in GD patients than those in controls, and these levels were significantly correlated with the serum levels of thyroid-binding inhibitory immunoglobulin and free T4. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that effector T cells of GD patients can be activated through the 4-1BB-mediated costimulatory signal. Elevated s4-1BB and s4-1BBL levels in the sera of GD patients may affect modulation of the clinical course in GD patients.
Antigen-Presenting Cells ; Autoimmune Diseases ; B-Lymphocytes ; Dendritic Cells ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Flow Cytometry ; Graves Disease ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins ; Monocytes ; T-Lymphocytes

The idiopathic hypereosinophlic syndrome (HES) is a disease defined by three diagnostic criteria, first, sustained blood eosinophilia is greater than 1,500/mm3 present for longer than 6 months, second, other apparent etiologies for eosinophilia must be absent, including parasitic infection and allergic disease, third, patients must have signs and symptoms of organ involvement. It is associated with cytotoxic granule proteins released by mature eosinophils. HES mainly affects cardiovascular, neurologic, pulmonary system, liver and spleen while low incidence of gastrointestinal involvement is found, and the development of severe complications such as intestinal obstruction after peritonitis or intestinal perforation is extremely rare. We have experienced a case of HES involving hepatic and digestive system, 39 year old man patient who was operated due to intestinal obstruction that was followed by HES, so we report this case with a review of the literature.
Adult ; Digestive System ; Eosinophilia ; Eosinophils ; Humans ; Hypereosinophilic Syndrome* ; Incidence ; Intestinal Obstruction* ; Intestinal Perforation ; Liver ; Peritonitis ; Spleen

OBJECTIVES: The molecular mechanisms underlying attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) remain unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the genetic susceptibility loci for ADHD in Korean children with ADHD. We performed a case-control and a family-based genome-wide association study (GWAS), as well as genome-wide quantitative trait locus (QTL) analyses, for two symptom traits. METHODS: A total of 135 subjects (71 cases and 64 controls), for the case-control analysis, and 54 subjects (27 probands and 27 unaffected siblings), for the family-based analysis, were included. RESULTS: The genome-wide QTL analysis identified four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs7684645 near APELA, rs12538843 near YAE1D1 and POU6F2, rs11074258 near MCTP2, and rs34396552 near CIDEA) that were significantly associated with the number of inattention symptoms in ADHD. These SNPs showed possible association with ADHD in the family-based GWAS, and with hyperactivity-impulsivity in genome-wide QTL analyses. Moreover, association signals in the family-based QTL analysis for the number of inattention symptoms were clustered near genes IL10, IL19, SCL5A9, and SKINTL. CONCLUSION: We have identified four QTLs with genome-wide significance and several promising candidates that could potentially be associated with ADHD (CXCR4, UPF1, SETD5, NALCN-AS1, ERC1, SOX2-OT, FGFR2, ANO4, and TBL1XR1). Further replication studies with larger sample sizes are needed.
Adolescent* ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Humans ; Interleukin-10 ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Quantitative Trait Loci ; Sample Size

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate acoustic (acoustic voice quality index, AVQI) and auditory-perceptual evaluation (grade, rough, breathy, asthenic, strained; GRBAS and consensus auditory-perceptual evaluation of voice; CAPE-V) as a predictor of voice recovery after laryngeal microsurgery (LMS) in patients with vocal polyp. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 68 patients with vocal polyp participated in this study. Voice samples were analyzed for AVQI by Praat and auditory-perceptual ratings were performed by three speech language pathologists. Voice handicap index-10 (VHI-10) was evaluated by patients themselves. RESULTS: Decreased AVQI, VHI-10, overall severity (OS), and increased smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS) values were measured and statistically significant changes were noted after LMS. The ratio of Grade 0 and Grade 1 was increased. AVQI was correlated with CPPS, Grade, and OS, but not with VHI-10. The voice recovery of pedunculated polyp appeared in all vocal polyp sizes after LMS, but statistically significant differences were found only in small and medium sizes. After LMS of sessile polyps, AVQI, VHI-10, and OS decreased whereas CPPS increased; however, statistically significant difference was confirmed only in VHI-10 and OS. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed the following results: AVQI [cutoff=5.5, sensitivity=61.8%, specificity=76.5%, area under the curve (AUC)=0.712], CPPS (cutoff=5.0, sensitivity=89.7%, specificity=48.5%, AUC=0.743), VHI-10 (cutoff=13.0, sensitivity=77.9%, specificity=89.7%, AUC=0.893), Grade (cutoff=2.0, sensitivity=70.6%, specificity=69.1%, AUC=0.728), and OS (cutoff=51.0, sensitivity=86.8%, specificity=66.2%, AUC=0.833). CONCLUSION: Acoustic and auditory-perceptual variables showed significant positive changes and predicted recovery of voice. In this study, we believe that the acoustic and auditory-perceptual evaluations.
Acoustics* ; Consensus ; Humans ; Microsurgery* ; Polyps* ; ROC Curve ; Voice Quality ; Voice*

Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of unvoiced segments on the cepstral analysis in patients with vocal cord paralysis (VCP).Subjects and Method A total 302 subjects (173 subjects with VCP and 129 normal voice subjects) participated in this study. The sustained vowel /a/ 2 seconds and one sentence of ‘Sanchaek’ were edited, and analyzed by Praat script. The cepstral analyses were performed using sustained vowel (SV), continuous speech (CS), and extracted continuous speech (EXT) samples. The auditory-perceptual (AP) rating was also completed by three raters. Results: First, there were significant differences in all variables except low-to high spectral ratio(L/H ratio)_EXT between two groups. Second, cepstral peak prominence (CPP), smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS), and L/H ratio showed significant differences in SV, CS, and EXT samples. Third, cepstral measurements were highly correlated with the AP ratings. Finally, the level of discrimination of dysphonia estimated from CPP and CPPS gotten from SV and CS values was more than area under the curve (AUC) of 0.941. AUC of 0.880 or more was also found in EXT. Conclusion In this study, we confirmed that both CS and EXT are highly predictive of pathologic speeches. Further study will also need to be validated for a more diverse group of voice disorders.

BACKGROUND: Tumor angiogenesis is considered to be essential for tumor growth and progression. Recently, new technology for counting microvessels using antifactor-VIII-related antigen antibody, which recognizes endothelial cells, has been developed. In order to evaluate whether tumor angiogenesis can be used as an independent prognostic factor in advanced gastric carcinomas. We counted tumor microvessels, and we investigated the relationship between microvessel count and progression of a gastric carcinoma, by using a multivariate analyses. METHODS: Seventy (70) patients with advanced gastric carcinomas who had undergone a gastrectomy at Gyeongsang National University Hospital from January 1990 to December 1994 were evaluated by staining with a monoclonal antibody against F-VIII RAg. Microvessel counts were determined by immunohistochemical staining of a monoclonal antibody against F-VIII RAg, which was localized to the vascular endothelium. The correlation between the microvessel count (the mean number of microvessels in the three areas of highest vascular density at 200 times magnification) and the prognosis was studied. RESULTS: The microvessel counts ranged from 2 to 99.8, and the mean was 26. The microvessel counts were significantly higher in patients with recurrence than in those without recurrence. In patients who had undergone a curative operation, the survival time in the hypervascular group was significantly shorter than that in the hypovascular group. Multivariate analysis indicated that the microvessel count was an independent prognostic factor in patients with a gastric carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS: Microvessel count may be a good prognostic indicator and may be useful as a predictor for recurrence in patients with a gastric carcinoma.
Endothelial Cells ; Endothelium, Vascular ; Gastrectomy ; Humans ; Microvessels ; Multivariate Analysis ; Prognosis ; Recurrence