Rosai-Dorfman disease is a systemic disease and its etiology is not well understood. It is very rare but established disease. We report a case of Rosai-Dorfman disease occurring in the neck and subglottis. A 18-year-old female had visited with a complaint of bilateral neck mass. Subglottic mass was also detected by flexible laryngoscopy. Lymph node excision and laryngeal microsurgery were performed. The histopathologic findings demonstrated proliferative large histiocytes with clear cytoplasm and rounded nuclei, and lymphagocytosis (emperiopolesis), which were the features of Rosai-Dorfman disease. Rosai-Dorfman disease has various clinical courses. Definitive diagnosis is needed for the appropriate management.
Adolescent ; Cytoplasm ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Histiocytes ; Histiocytosis, Sinus* ; Humans ; Laryngoscopy ; Larynx ; Lymph Node Excision ; Lymph Nodes ; Microsurgery ; Neck*

Nasopharyngeal actinomycosis is a rare clinical disease. To our knowledge, only a few other cases of nasopharyngeal actinomycosis have been reported previously, following a nasal trauma or surgical manipulation. We report a case of actinomycosis presenting nasopharyngeal mass without prior mucosal trauma. Our patient had endonasal endoscopic excision of the infected tissue and was treated with 4 weeks of oral antibiotics therapy without any evidence of recurrence. We recommend including actinomycosis in the differential diagnosis of a nasopharyngeal mass.
Actinomycosis* ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Nasopharynx ; Recurrence

Carboplatin, an advanced anticancer drug with excellent efficacy against ovarian cancer, was developed to alleviate the side effects that often occur with cisplatin and other platinum-based compounds. Our study reports the in vitro characteristics, viability, and activity of cells expressing the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene after carboplatin was conjugated with polysuccinimide (PSI) and administered in combination with other widely used anticancer drugs. PSI, which has promising properties as a drug delivery material, could provide a platform for prolonging carboplatin release, regulating its dosage, and improving its side effects. The iNOS gene has been shown to play an important role in both cancer cell survival and inhibition. Herein, we synthesized a PSI-carboplatin conjugate to create a modified anticancer agent and confirmed its successful conjugation. To ensure its solubility in water, we further modified the structure of the PSI-carboplatin conjugate with 2-aminoethanol groups. To validate its biological characteristics, the ovarian cancer cell line SKOV-3 and normal ovarian Chinese hamster ovary cells were treated with the PSI-carboplatin conjugate alone and in combination with paclitaxel and topotecan, both of which are used in conventional chemotherapy. Notably, PSI-carboplatin conjugation can be used to predict changes in the genes involved in cancer growth and inhibition. In conclusion, combination treatment with the newly synthesized polymer-carboplatin conjugate and paclitaxel displayed anticancer activity against ovarian cancer cells but was not toxic to normal ovarian cancer cells, resulting in the development of an effective candidate anticancer drug without severe side effects.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Reports of neural differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells suggest the possibility that these cells may serve as a source for stem cell-based regenerative medicine to treat neurological disorders. The purpose of this study was to generate neural cells by differentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells that isolated from human mastoid process. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) isolated from human mastoid process bone marrow during mastoidectomy for chronic otitis media surgery were characterized using fluorescence-activated cell sorter. Induction of neural differentiation from hMSCs was performed using mitogenic factors (basic fibroblast growth factor, epidermal growth factor, forskolin, isobutylmethylxanthine), and the characterization of differentiated hMSCs was performed using immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR and whole cell patch clamp technique. RESULTS: hMSCs from bone marrow of mastoid process were isolated and cultured. Differentiated cells from hMSCs expressed mRNA transcripts for neuron specific markers, TUJ1 and neurofilament proteins (NF-L, NF-M) as determined by RT-PCR, and neuron specific markers, suhc as NeuN, TUJ1, microtubule-associated protein-2 (MAP2) and glial fibrillary acidic protein by immunohistochemistry. These cells showed voltagedependent sodium currents that was blocked by tetrodotoxin. CONCLUSION: hMSCs, which were isolated from human mastoid process bone marrow, were one of the good sources for stem cell-based regenerative medicine to treat neurological disorders.
Bone Marrow ; Cell Differentiation ; Epidermal Growth Factor ; Fibroblast Growth Factors ; Forskolin ; Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Mastoid ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; Nervous System Diseases ; Neurofilament Proteins ; Neurons ; Otitis Media ; Regenerative Medicine ; RNA, Messenger ; Sodium ; Temporal Bone

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Dizziness is an illusion of environmental movement due to various causes. It is difficult to confirm the diagnosis of dizziness according to history and physical examination in restricted situation such as emergency room. The aim of this study is to find another clue for diagnosis in patients of dizziness who visited emergency room. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Author retrospectively reviewed the charts of 1,060 patients of dizziness who visited emergency room at Chonnam University Hospital from July 2004 to June 2005 and accumulated the various information such as final diagnosis, clinical feature, physical examination, present illness and past history etc. RESULTS: Average age of patients was 57. The most frequently consulted department for evaluation of dizziness was the department of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery (> 29.8%). Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) was the most frequent final diagnosis (14.4%) in all patients. But, cerebrovascular disease was the more frequent cause for dizziness in male and old age group. Whirling type dizziness was frequent in BPPV (36.8%) and spontaneous nystagmus was detected frequently in peripheral type vertigo such as vestibular neuritis (65.1%). Average age of central vertigo patients was 61.4 and other vertigo patients was 55. Patients of central vertigo visited the emergency room more frequently in the months of Dec, Jan, Feb and patient of other vertigo visited more frequently in June, July, Aug. CONCLUSION: Various specialized departments should be involved in effective and exact diagnosis of dizziness. The organized questionnaire in addition to prevalence, incidence and characteristics of dizziness may be used in finding another clue for diagnosis and managing dizzy patients helpfully.
Dizziness ; Emergencies ; Head ; Humans ; Illusions ; Incidence ; Male ; Neck ; Otolaryngology ; Physical Examination ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Retrospective Studies ; Vertigo ; Vestibular Neuronitis

OBJECTIVE: Occupational medicine specialists in the Busan, Ulsan and Kyung-Nam areas established an area-based occupational disease surveillance system and used this system to collected case information for the purpose of preventing occupational diseases METHODS: 11 hospitals participated in this system. The authors selected five main diseases, which were hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS), work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WRMSD), occupational asthma, occupational skin disease and occupational lung cancer and established their case definitions. All cases were reported on the web, and real time analysis was conducted. RESULTS: Between Apri1 2001 and April 2003, 192 cases of HAVS, 118 cases of WRMSD, 33 cases of occupational asthma, 17 cases of occupational skin disease and 17 cases of occupational lung cancer (for a total of 377 cases of these five main diseases) were reported. Most of the HAVS cases came from shipbuilding, and 172 of them (92.7 %) were associated with grinding. Of the four main types of WRMSD, carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) was the most prevalent with 46 cases and shipbuilding was also the main industry involved (83.9 %). The ergonomic risk factors involved mainly associated with the hand. In 19 (57.6 %) and 4 (12.1 %) cases of occupational asthma, the agents included isocyanate and welding fume, respectively. 64.7 % of the cases of occupational skin diseases were contact dermatitis, and organic solvents and welding fume were the main agents involved. The causative agents of occupational lung cancer included Cr, welding fume, PAH, Ni, etc. 10 (58.8 %) of the cases were diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma and 5 (29.4 %) as adenoma. CONCLUSION: This result showed that an area-based occupational disease surveillance system might provide an effective method of evaluating the prevalence of such diseases, however the Busan, Ulsan and Kyung-Nam provinces are too large to be treated as individual areas. Therefore, the authors suggest that each province should establish its own surveillance system.
Adenoma ; Asthma, Occupational ; Busan* ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Carpal Tunnel Syndrome ; Dermatitis, Contact ; Hand ; Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome ; Lung Neoplasms ; Occupational Diseases* ; Occupational Medicine ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Skin Diseases ; Solvents ; Specialization ; Ulsan* ; Welding