We report a case of right broad ligament tumor with features of female adnexal tumor of probable wolffian origin. A 40-year-old woman presented with dysfunctional uterine bleeding. Ultrasonography revealed 1 10cm sized right parovarian solid mass. On microscopic examination, the tumor showed mixed pattern of tightly packed tubular structures and diffuse spindle cell proliferation. Immunohistochemical study demonstrated cytokeratin-and vimentin-positivity and carcino-embryonic antigen-negativity. The ultrastructural study showed prominent tubular structures, continuous basal lamina, definite junctional complex but no secretory granules or glycogen particles, favoring wolffian origin.
Female ; Humans

Since the introduction of rubella vaccination in Korea in 1982, several outbreaks of rubella have occurred. In order to examine the current seroepidemiology of rubella virus infection in Korean women of child-bearing age, the healthy university women students of Yonsei University in Seoul aged 18 approximately 26 years were chosen as a model population. A survey was carried out in the time of routine annual physical check-up. Serum specimens of 242 volunteers of healthy women university students were randomly sampled for screening rubella-specific IgG/IgM antibodies by an automated enzyme immunoassay system (Vitek System VIDAS, bioMerieux Vitek, Inc., Lyon, France). A total of 177 subjects were positive for rubella-specific IgG antibody, giving a prevalence of 73.1%. The mean +/- standard deviation of rubella-specific IgG antibody was 99.3 +/- 95.3 IU/mL. In this study, the efficiency of a vaccination was about 88%. With such a relative high proportion of susceptibility (26.9%) among university women students in child-bearing age, a extensive rubella vaccination program should be enforced to prevent possible outbreaks of congenital rubella syndrome in the future.
Adult ; Antibodies, Viral/*analysis ; Antigen-Antibody Reactions ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Human ; Immunoglobulin G/analysis/immunology ; Immunoglobulin M/analysis/immunology ; Rubella/*prevention & control ; *Students ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Time Factors ; *Universities ; *Vaccination

No abstract available.
Aorta, Thoracic* ; Humans ; Vena Cava, Superior*

PURPOSE: The necessity of professional non-MD genetic counselor has been recently emphasized in a medical field. By conducting a national survey on the demands for generic counseling and professional non-MD generic counselor, we can make a long-term master plan to execute the educational program for professional genetic counselors and indeed promote genetic counseling in Korean health care service in a systemic manner. METHODS: The survey has been conducted from September 3rd to October 4th of 2007 in a way of e-mail, telephone interview, fax, and direct contacts. It's targets were senior researchers and professors in medical and non-medical institutions, policy makers, research institutions or foundations. The survey questions consist of 16 questionnaires. RESULTS: As a result of survey, 102 of 650 people responded. 80% of respondents indicated that genetic counseling is needed as a health care service and 34% among them considered it as "the most needed". In addition, 77% of the respondents showed that, it is necessary to have a professional non-MD genetic counselor with a master degree or higher in the field of medical genetics and among them 29% thought it as "the most necessary". A 77% of respondents considered that the cost of genetic counseling should be covered by health insurance and among them, 29% answered "strongly agreed". A 56% of respondents chose the answer of "They have a plan to hire the professional non-MD genetic counselor" in their institution, and among them 71% selected "within 5 years" in terms of when to hire. Also, they tend to expect the role of the professional non-MD genetic counselor to be not only "genetic counselor" (60%), but also "researcher" (42%), "educator" (18%) and "clinical laboratory coordinator" (19%). CONCLUSION: The 102 of 650 people responded to the survey. Based upon the nationwide survey over the needs on genetic counseling in health care service and demands on the professional non-MD genetic counselor, systematic educational program for the genetic counseling, with reimbursement coverage for counseling service by health insurance should be emphasized in development of a master plan.
Administrative Personnel ; Counseling* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Delivery of Health Care ; Electronic Mail ; Foundations ; Genetic Counseling* ; Genetics, Medical ; Humans ; Insurance, Health ; Interviews as Topic

C-reactive protein(CRP) of the serurn and CSF vras quantitatively measured in patients who were diagnosed as tuberculous meningitis(19 cases), aseptic meningitis(44 cases) and control group(23 cases) in order to evaluate the diagnostic value and the possible dynarnics of CRP between serum and CSF. Following results were obtained. 1. Significant difference(p<0.005) OF CRP was observed in the initial CSF of the patients with tuberculous meningitis and aseptic meningitis. When the CRP of CSF was set above 0.4rng /dl, a sensitivity of 0 79 apd a specificity of 0.90 were obtained. 2. When the CRP in the initial serurn as compared, significant difference(p<0.0210) was also observed between the patients with tuberculous rneningitis and aseptic meningitis. However, serurn CRP were not diagnostic because of significant overlap between the tuberculous and the aseptic meningitis. 3. On follow up measurement of CRP, patients with tuberculous meningitis showed signihcant decrease in both serurn and CSF while patients with aseptic meningitis showed significant decrease only in the serum. 4. In both groups of patients with tuberculous meningitis and aseptic meningitis, CRP values in the CSF were closely correlated to those of the serum(Pearson's r=0.25326 p<0. 035, Pearson's r=0.4520 p<0.0000 respectively) Considering that the content of protein was also significantly(p<0.000) elevated in the patients with tuberculous meningitis and that the CRP ratio(Qcrp) was also significantly(p<0.0035) elevated in comparison to the controls, the increased CRP in the CSF of tuberculous meningitis is probably due to an increased simple diffusion through the blood-CSF barrier resulted from increased serurn CRP and through impairrnent of blood-CSF barrier.
Diffusion ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Meningitis, Aseptic ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tuberculosis, Meningeal

A 74-year old woman presented with partial and secondarily generalized status epilepticus lasted for 11 days. Initially her seizures consisted of only unformed visual hallucination, which progressed to formed hallucinations, and then memory disturbance and GTCs. During the period of recurrent formed visual hallucinations, T2-weighted brain MRI revealed high signal intensities in the left occipital lobe. After intravenous phenytoin loading, she did not develop any further GTCs but visual hallucinations persisted. Follow-up MRI performed after complete recovery of seizures showed complete recovery of the previous focal lesions, however, 1H-MRS showed a significant decrease of NAA in the recovered area. These features suggested the neuronal loss in the area of seizure focus, despite the complete recovery of transient focal abnormalities in MRI. This case provides a supportive evidence of neuronal damage even in focal status epilepticus, which stress the importance of early treatment and EEG confirmation of the complete seizure control after the disappearance of clinically obvious seizures.
Aged ; Brain ; Electroencephalography ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hallucinations ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Memory ; Neurons* ; Occipital Lobe* ; Phenytoin ; Seizures ; Status Epilepticus*

BACKGROUND: Recent developments of molecular biological techniques have enabled the identification of genetic abnormalities responsible for the development of familial Parkinson's disease (PD). The alpha-synuclein, a major component of Lewy body in Parkinson's disease and of non-beta-amyloid components of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease, has been identified as one of the factors associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Ala53Thr (G209A) mutation in alpha-synuclein was found in one Italian-American (Contursi) and five unrelated Greek familial PD with autosomal dominant inheritance. Efforts to find the same mutation in many other familial and sporadic PD patients were negative. However, another mutation (Ala30Pro(G88C)) of alpha-synuclein was found in one German person kindred. METHODS: We performed a genetic analysis to search for these two mutations in four unrelated Korean families with PD and 44 sporadic PD and 30 sporadic multisystem atrophy(MSA) patients. RESULTS: We did not find any mutations in the index patients of four families or in sporadic PD and MSA patients. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the possibility that the two identified point mutations do not cause Korean sporadic and familial PD or sporadic MSA. Further evaluation including whole exons associated with the alpha-synuclein gene is needed.
alpha-Synuclein* ; Alzheimer Disease ; Exons ; Humans ; Lewy Bodies ; Neurodegenerative Diseases ; Parkinson Disease* ; Plaque, Amyloid ; Point Mutation* ; Wills

A 27-year-old female patient with peripheral neuropathy and posterior column dysfunction showed severe folate deficiency in contrast to normal vitamin B12 level. Clinical manifestations improved and serum folate level rised with folate therapy. A brief review of literature was made.
Adult ; Female ; Folic Acid* ; Humans ; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases ; Vitamin B 12

Recently, subpopulations of regulatory T (Treg) cells, resting Treg (rTreg) and activated Treg (aTreg), have been discovered. The authors investigated the relationship between the change of Treg, aTreg and rTreg and autoimmune diseases. Treg cells and those subpopulations were analyzed by using the human regulatory T cell staining kit and CD45RA surface marker for 42 rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 13 systemic lupus sclerosis (SLE), 7 Behcet's disease (BD), and 22 healthy controls. The proportion of Treg cells was significantly lower in RA (3.8% +/- 1.0%) (P < 0.001) and BD (3.3% +/- 0.5%) (P < 0.01) compared to healthy controls (5.0% +/- 1.3%). The proportion of aTreg cells was also significantly lower in RA (0.4% +/- 0.2%) (P = 0.008) and BD (0.3% +/- 0.1%) (P = 0.013) compared to healthy controls (0.6% +/- 0.3%). The rTreg cells showed no significant differences. The ratio of aTreg to rTreg was lower in RA patients (0.4% +/- 0.2%) than that in healthy controls (0.7% +/- 0.4%) (P = 0.002). This study suggests that the decrement of aTreg not rTreg cells contributes the decrement of total Treg cells in peripheral blood of RA and BD autoimmune diseases. Detailed analysis of Treg subpopulations would be more informative than total Treg cells in investigating mechanism of autoimmune disease.
Adult ; Aged ; Antigens, CD4/metabolism ; Antigens, CD45/metabolism ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid/*immunology/metabolism ; Behcet Syndrome/*immunology/metabolism ; Female ; Forkhead Transcription Factors/metabolism ; Humans ; Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit/metabolism ; Leukocyte Count ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/*immunology/metabolism ; Male ; Middle Aged ; T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory/*cytology/immunology/metabolism

Neonatal lupus erythematosus is a syndrome characterized by congenital heart block and photo-distributed papulosquamous eruption, in which multi-organ involvement is not common. We report a case of neonatal lupus erythematosus with pancytopenia and transient bradycardia. The neonate was born to a mother with systemic lupus erythematosus. Both of the neonate and the mother were positive for anti Ro/SS-A antibody.
Bradycardia* ; Heart Block ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic ; Mothers ; Pancytopenia*