No abstract available.
Lymphoma*

Manganese is an essential element in the body. It is mainly diposited in the liver and to a lesser degree in the basal ganglia of the brain and eliminated through the bile duct. Rapid turnover of manganese in the body makes it difficult to evaluate the manganese exposure in worker, especially in those with irregular or intermittent exposure, like welder. Therefore, conventional biomarkers, including blood and urine manganese can provide only a limited information about the long-term or cumulative exposure to manganese. Introduction of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) made a progress in the assessment of manganese exposure in the medical conditions related to manganese aculmulation, e. g., relaxation time on MRI due to its paramagnetic property, resulting in high signal intensity(HSI) on T1-weighted image(T1WI) of MRI. Manganese deposition int he brain, therefore, can be visualized as an HSI in the globus pallidus, the substantia nigra, the putamen and the pituitary. Clinical and epidemiologic studies regarding the MRI findings in the cases of occupational and non-occupational manganese exposure were reviewed. Relationships between HSI on T1WI of MRI and age, gender, occupational manganese exposure, and neurological dysfunction were analysed. Relationship between biological exposure indices and HSI on MRI were also reviewed. Literatures were reviewed to establish the relationships between HSI, manganese deposition in the brain, pathologic findings, and neurological dysfunction. HSI on T1WI of MRI reflects regional manganese deposition in the brain. This relationship enables an estimation of regional manganese deposition in the brain by analysing MR signal intensity. Manganese deposition in the brain can induce a neuronal loss in the basal ganglia but functional abnormality is supposed to be related to the cumulative exposure of manganese is relatively too short to reflect the long-term cumulative exposure of manganese in the brain, use of brain MRI for the assessment of exposure in a group of workers seems to be hardly rationalized, while it can be a useful adjunct for the evaluation of manganese exposure in the cases with suspected manganese-related health problems.
Basal Ganglia ; Bile Ducts ; Biomarkers ; Brain* ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Globus Pallidus ; Liver ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Manganese* ; Neurons ; Putamen ; Relaxation ; Substantia Nigra

No abstract available.
Korea* ; Orientia tsutsugamushi* ; Rickettsia*

PURPOSE: We investigated the direct labeling method of antibody with 99mTc and 188Re and examined the stability and function of these labeled compounds in in vitro and in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Disulfide bond of nonspecific human IgG was reduced to -SH group by 2-mercaptoethanol. Stannous ion was used to reduce 99mTc and 188Re. The stability of 99mTc-IgG and 188Re-IgG was estimated upto 24 hrs. Biodistribution was evaluated in abscess bearing rats at 4 and 24 hr post-injection of 99mTc or 188Re labeled IgG. RESULTS: The number of -SH group per reduced IgG molecule was 2.34. The labeling yield of 99mTc-IgG and 188Re-IgG were 90% and 95%, respectively. The stability of 99mTc-IgG at 1, 4, 6 and 24 hr was 91%, 83%, 78%, 7% and that of 188Re-IgG, high uptake was found on kidney, blood, stomach and abscess (9.42+/-0.68, 1.43+/-0.24, 0.86+/-0.18, 0.72+/-0.10 %ID/g, respectively). The uptakes at 24 hr were kidney, abscess, stomach, and blood in descending order. In case of 188Re-IgG, high uptake at 4 hr post injection appeared on kidney, blood, abscess and stomach (3.92+/-0.62, 1.32+/-0.08, 0.88+/-0.01, 0.26+/-0.06, respectively). The upatkes at 24 hr were kidney, abscess, blood abd stomach in descending order. The abscess to blood uptake ratio of 99mTc-IgG was 0.5 at 4 hr and 2.02 at 24 hr and that of 188Re-IgG was 0.67 and 1.29. CONCLUSION: 99mTc-IgG and 188Re-IgG and 188Re-IgG canbe labeled efficiently with direct labeling method. However, 99mTc-IgG and 188Re-IgG, labeled with direct method, was unstable. Further study in needed to enhance the stability of the antibody labeling.
Abscess ; Animals ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Kidney ; Mercaptoethanol ; Rats ; Stomach

We studied three patients in whom otorrhea occurred without bacterial infection following ventilation tube (VT) insertion. These patients took oral steroids since the conventional therapy was not effective; however, the oral steroids produced temporal effect since sticky otorrhea occurred when the oral steroids were stopped. We collected ear discharge from each patient and consulted the pathologist about histopathologic findings of it. We identified the predominant eosinophilic infiltration at specimen. We tried to relate this type of otitis media with eosinophilic otitis media (EOM) and treated the patients with intratympanic steroid injection.
Bacterial Infections ; Dexamethasone ; Ear ; Eosinophils ; Humans ; Middle Ear Ventilation ; Otitis ; Otitis Media ; Polymethacrylic Acids ; Steroids ; Ventilation

We report a case of disseminated cutaneous metastatic carcinoma from stomach carcinoma in a 66-year-old male who complained chiefly of widespread cutaneous nodules. He had been admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine for stomach carcinoma. A radiological examination revealed a diffuse stomach wall thickening from the fundus to the antrum, and enlargement of paraaortic and pericaval lymph nodes during an abodominal CT scan. The clinical findings manifested above may suggest cutaneous metastasis from stomach carcinoma. A histological examination of the skin and stomach biopsies showed atypical cells with pleomorphic, hyperchromatic nuclei and bubble-like cytoplasm, which are consistent with poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. Immunohistochemical stainings showed that these cells were positive for epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and low molecular weight cytokeratin.
Adenocarcinoma ; Aged ; Biopsy ; Carcinoembryonic Antigen ; Cytoplasm ; Humans ; Internal Medicine ; Keratins ; Lymph Nodes ; Male ; Molecular Weight ; Mucin-1 ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Skin ; Stomach* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

The hyperimmunoglobulin E syndrome is a primary immunodificiency disorder characterized by recurrent staphylococcal infections and markedly elevated serum IgE level. Clinical features are coarse face and severe infections of the skin-furunculosis or chronically pruritic dermatitis and sinopulmonary tract infection from infancy by coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureus, or Candida albicans etc. The patients's serum IgE level is elevated but the basic immunologic pathogenesis not fully understood. We have experienced a case of hyperimmunoglobulin E syndrome in a 26/12-year-old who had suffered from recurrent staphylococcal pneumonias and abscesses and chronically pruritic dermatitis from 1 month of age with elevated serum IgE level. A brief review of the related literature is presented.
Abscess ; Candida albicans ; Coagulase ; Dermatitis ; Immunoglobulin E ; Pneumonia, Staphylococcal ; Staphylococcal Infections ; Staphylococcus aureus

Twenty-nail dystrophy is an idiopathic nail dystrophy in which all twenty nails are uniformly and simultaneously affected with excess longitudinal ridging and loss of lustre. The pathogenesis is controversial, and the treatment is unsuccessful. It is thought to have a self-limiting and reversible nature when it develops in childhood, but in adults, it is unusual and exists persistently. We re-port here two cases of adult patients with dystrophy of all twenty nails, whose ages were 58 and 55. The disease had been present for one year and may be associated with alopecia areata in the 58 year old and an idiopathic condition in the 55 year old. Negative results were obtained on mycological studies. Biopsies taken from the nail bed revealed marked hyperkeratosis consistent with nail dystrophy.
Adult ; Alopecia ; Alopecia Areata ; Biopsy ; Humans

No abstract available.
Dysgerminoma* ; Female ; Ovary* ; Pregnancy*

BACKGROUND: All though the cause of alopecia areata is not known, many studies have recenty focused on the autoimmunity of alopecia areata. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to detect autoantibodies against hair follicular antigens and compare the autoantibody level before and after treatment of alopecia areata. METHODS: We collected serum from: (a) 7 alopecia areata patients with good therapeutic responses, (b) 5 alopecia areata patients with poor therapeutic responses (c) 5 normal control people. First, we detected the antigens of hair follicles with SDS-PAGE. Secondly we reacted the antigens with the patients' and normal control serums by Western blotting. RESULTS: The follicular antigens were seen in the range of 44kD-57kD. Autoantibodies obviously apparent in patients of alopecia areata but not in the normal control. High concentrations of were Autoantibodies against follicular antigens seemed to be present in the patients with good therapeutic responses and as they had been treated well, the level of autoantiboies has decreased. Autoantibodies, however, were present in small amounts and were almost an changed between before and after treatment in the patients with poor therapeutic responses except for one case. CONCLUSION: There are kinds of autoantibodies against hair follicles in the serums of alopecia areata patients, and the titers of antibodies may be correlated with therapeutic responses.
Alopecia Areata* ; Alopecia* ; Antibodies ; Autoantibodies* ; Autoimmunity ; Blotting, Western ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Hair Follicle* ; Hair* ; Humans