No abstract available.
Mediastinal Emphysema*

No abstract available.
Fingers*

No abstract available.
Acrospiroma*

No abstract available.
Caroli Disease*

Recently, the association of Th-17 cells or IL-17 with ocular inflammatory diseases such as uveitis, scleritis and dry eye syndrome was discovered. We assessed whether interleukin (IL)-17 was present in the tears of various ocular surface inflammatory diseases and the tear IL-17 concentrations were clinically correlated with various ocular surface inflammatory diseases. We measured concentrations of IL-17 in tears of normal subjects (n = 28) and patients (n = 141) with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), dry eye syndrome (DES), Sjogren syndrome (SS), Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), filamentary keratitis, and autoimmune keratitis associated with rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus. Clinical epitheliopathy scores were based on the surface area of corneal and conjunctival fluorescein staining. The mean concentrations of IL-17 in tears of patients with filamentary keratitis, GVHD, autoimmune keratitis, SS, DES, MGD, SJS were significantly higher in order than that in normal subjects. Tear IL-17 concentration was significantly correlated with clinical epitheilopathy scores in the patients with systemic inflammatory disease, while tear IL-17 was not correlated with clinical severity of the cornea and conjunctiva in the dry eye patients without any systemic inflammatory disease. Tear IL-17 is likely to correlate clinically with corneal disease severity only in the patients with systemic inflammatory disease.
Adult ; Aged ; Dry Eye Syndromes/*metabolism ; Eye Diseases/diagnosis/*metabolism ; Eyelid Diseases/metabolism ; Female ; Graft vs Host Disease/metabolism ; Humans ; Interleukin-17/*analysis ; Keratitis/metabolism ; Male ; Meibomian Glands/physiopathology ; Middle Aged ; Severity of Illness Index ; Sjogren's Syndrome/metabolism ; Stevens-Johnson Syndrome/metabolism ; Tears/metabolism

XX male has a male phenotype with testes or gonads of testicular type and a female chromosomal constitution of 46, XX with no evidence of either ovarian tissue or female genital organs. Generally, they have normal male genitalia and all are infertile. We experienced a neonate with anophthalmia, hypospadia, small penis, and normal testes, whose chromosomal analysis demonstrated 46, XX. Polymerase chain reaction revealed the existence of a sex-determining region of Y (SRY). These findings suggest that the translation of an SRY on the X chromosome led to the development of a male phenotype. We report the case with a review of the related literature.
46, XX Testicular Disorders of Sex Development* ; Anophthalmos ; Constitution and Bylaws ; Female ; Genitalia, Female ; Genitalia, Male ; Gonads ; Humans ; Hypospadias ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Penis ; Phenotype ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Testis ; X Chromosome

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of intrastromal air injection and intrastromal balanced salt solution (BSS) injection on corneal keratocyte apoptosis. METHODS: Twelve right eyes of New Zealand White rabbits were divided into an air-injected group (n=6) and a hydro-injected group (n=6). Contralateral eyes served as a control. Air or Balanced salt solution (BSS(R), Alcon, USA) was injected into the deep corneal stroma at the paracentral area to propagate into nearly the entire cornea. To reduce the intraocular pressure, anterior chamber paracentesis was performed. The animals were sacrificed 4 hours (n=6) and 24 hours (n=6) after surgery. Central cornea buttons were retrieved to stain with Hematoxylin & Eosin and TUNEL (Apoptag(R), Chemicon). The mean number of apoptotic keratocytes was counted in 24.67+/-4.04 consecutive high power field (HPF). RESULTS: The mean number of TUNEL-positive cells at 4 hours was 12.85+/-7.25/HPF and 0.25+/-0.44/HPF in air-injected and hydro-injected eyes, respectively. It was reduced to 6.25+/-4.02/HPF and 0.15+/-0.37/HPF in air-injected and hydro-injected eyes after 24 hours. The air-injected group showed significantly more TUNEL-positive cells compared with the hydro-injected or control group until 24 hours (p=0.001, p=0.001, Mann-Whitney U test). CONCLUSIONS: Intrastromal air injection induces significant apoptosis of keratocytes suggesting some damages in the peripheral cornea when used in deep lamellar keratoplasty.
Animals ; Anterior Chamber ; Apoptosis* ; Cornea ; Corneal Keratocytes ; Corneal Stroma ; Corneal Transplantation ; Eosine Yellowish-(YS) ; Hematoxylin ; In Situ Nick-End Labeling ; Intraocular Pressure ; Paracentesis ; Rabbits

OBJECTIVES: In July 2 2010, a diarrhea outbreak occurred among the workers in a company in Gyeungju city, Korea. An epidemiological investigation was performed to clarify the cause and transmission route of the outbreak. METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire survey among 193 persons, and we examined 21 rectal swabs and 6 environmental specimens. We also delegated the Daegu Bukgu public health center to examine 3 food service employees and 5 environmental specimens from the P buffet which served a buffet on June 30. The patient case was defined as a worker of L Corporation and who participated in the company meal service and who had diarrhea more than one time. We also collected the underground water filter of the company on July 23. RESULTS: The attack rate of diarrhea among the employees was 20.3%. The epidemic curve showed that a single exposure peaked on July 1. The relative risk of attendance and non-attendance by date was highest for the lunch of June 30 (35.62; 95% CI, 2.25 to 574.79). There was no specific food that was statistically regarded as the source of the outbreak. Bacillus cereus was cultured from two of the rectal swabs, two of the preserved foods and the underground water filter. We thought the exposure date was lunch of June 30 according the latency period of B. cereus. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded the route of transmission was infection of dishes, spoons and chopsticks in the lunch buffet of June 30 by the underground water. At the lunch buffet, 50 dishes, 40 spoons, and chopsticks were served as cleaned and wiped with a dishcloth. We thought the underground water contaminated the dishes, spoons, chopsticks and the dishcloth. Those contaminated materials became the cause of this outbreak.
Adult ; Aged ; Bacillus cereus/*isolation & purification ; Diarrhea/etiology ; *Disease Outbreaks ; Female ; Foodborne Diseases/*epidemiology/microbiology ; Fresh Water/microbiology ; Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections/*epidemiology/microbiology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Questionnaires ; Rectum/microbiology

No abstract available.
Copper* ; Female ; Humans ; Intrauterine Devices*

BACKGROUND: Procalcitonin (PCT) has been suggested as a marker of bacterial infection with systemic manifestation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether PCT level can be used to discriminate between the sepsis or septic shock and localized infection or non-infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a prospective study involving 71 patients who presented with fever. The final diagnosis was inflammation without infection in 16, localized infection in 25, sepsis in 15, and septic shock in 15. We compared the different parameters of infection- erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C- reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and PCT - by comparing the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of sepsis/or septic shock and localized infection/or non-infection. We also determined the predictive power of PCT in detecting sepsis. RESULTS: The median PCT concentrations were 0.85 (range, 0.747-1.57) ng/mL for non-infection, 1.28 (0.73- 2.33) ng/mL for localized infection, 2.59 (1.87-9.0) ng/ mL for sepsis, and 23.9 (23.1-126.1) ng/mL for septic shock. PCT exhibited the highest discriminative value, with an AUC of 0.889 (95% CI, 0.81-0.97), followed by IL-6 (0.779; CI, 0.65-0.90), CRP (0.642; CI, 0.51-0.78), and ESR (0.412; CI, 0.28-0.56). At a cutoff value of 1.73 ng/mL, PCT showed sensitivity of 86.5%, specificity of 75.6%, positive predictive value of 72.2%, and negative predictive value of 88.6%. CONCLUSION: The PCT concentrations could be used to help discriminate sepsis in newly admitted febrile patients.
Area Under Curve ; Bacterial Infections ; Blood Sedimentation ; Diagnosis* ; Fever* ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Interleukin-6 ; Prospective Studies ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sepsis ; Shock, Septic