BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is a disease of unknown etiology. Disturbances in lipid metabolism have been suggested as a possible pathogenetic mechanism. OBJECTIVE: The study was performed to investigate the blood lipid, lipoprotein and apolipo-protein levels and their difference according to family history in Korean psoriasis patients. METHODS: Blood samples from seventy three psoriasis patients and twenty three normal persons were measured for total ciolesterol(TC), VLDL-cholesterol(VLDL-C), LDL-cholesterol(LDL-C), HDL-cholesterol(HDL-C), lipoprotein(a) (LPA), triglyceride(TG), apolipoprotein A-I(APO-AI), and apolipoprotein B(AFO-B). Psoriasis patients were divided according to their family history of psoriasis. RESULTS: Compared to ccntrols, TC, LDL-C, LPA, TG, APO-B were significantly elevated in psoriasis patients. Mean varues of LPA and APO-B in psoriasis group were above normal range. VLDL-C were significasitly elevated only in female patients. There was a tendency for psoriasis patients with family history to have higher values than those without family history. CONCLUSION: TC, LDL-C, L,PA, TG, APO-B was increased in psoriasis, especially in the patients with family history, cornpared to control. It is recommended that we must pay attention to the possible risk for the development of cardiac or cerebral vascular disease in psoriasis patients, especially in the presence of family history of psoriasis.
Apolipoproteins ; Apolipoproteins B ; Female ; Humans ; Lipid Metabolism ; Lipoprotein(a) ; Lipoproteins* ; Psoriasis* ; Reference Values ; Vascular Diseases

BACKGROUND: Oral etretinate treatment is associated with the changes in serum lipid concentration and the elevation of serum liver enzymes. In Korea, chronic degenerative diseases like diabetes and hypertension are increasing and the prevalences of HBsAg and chronic liver diseases are much higher than those in western countries. Therefore these changes in serum lipids and liver enzymes during etretinate treatrment are important in Korea as risk factors for atherosclerosis and aggravation of preexisting liver diseases. OBJECTIVE: We tried to observe the sequential pattern, frequency, severity, and relationship between pretreatment value and posttreatment values in the changes of serum lipids and liver enzymes in patients with psoriasis luring etretinate treatment. METHODS: Fourty-one patients with psoriasis were studied during etretinate treatment with the starting dose of 0.5-1.0mg/kg/day. The levels of serum triglyceride, serum cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, and sGOT, sGPT was repeatedly determined until the 16th week of etretinate treatment. RESULTS: l. In serum triglyceride and cholesterol, the average of concentrations in each treatment period was usually higher than pretreatment value during the 16 weeks of treatment, but no sequential pattern of changes was observed 2. The number of patients with the maximum of posttreatment values higher than the normal limit were 12(29.3%) in triglyce side, 6(14.6%) in cholesterol, 0 in sGOT, and 5(12.5%) in sGPT. The number of patients with the minimum of posttreatment values lower than the normal limit were 15(36.6%) in HDL-cholesterol. 3. In serum cholesterol, patients with an abnormal pretreatment value are more prone to elevation above the normal limit duriing etretinate treatment than patients with a normal pretreatment value. CONCLUSION: In patients with psoriasis the increases in serum triglyceride, serum cholesterol, sGOT, sGPT and the decrease in HDL-cholesterol were occurred frequently during etretinate treatment. Therefore monitoring of serum lipid concentration and serum liver enzyme levels on a regular basis during etretinate treatment is essential for its safe use in patients with psoriasis, es- pecially in cases of long term etretinate treatment.
Acitretin* ; Alanine Transaminase ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; Atherosclerosis ; Cholesterol ; Etretinate* ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Korea ; Liver Diseases ; Liver* ; Prevalence ; Psoriasis* ; Risk Factors ; Triglycerides

Actinic reticuloid is a rare, chronic photosensitivity dermatosis with clinical and histologic femtures resembling a cutaneous T cell lymphoma. Phototesting in these patients typically reveals extreme sensitivity to UVB, to UVA, and sometimes to visible light. has site of lymphomatoid histologic appearance, actinic reticuloid is now regarded as a histologic arant of chronic actinic dermatitis, which is the spectriam of several photosensitivity dermatosis, delet to its benign course and transition to or from other photosensitivity dermatosis. We present a case of actinic veticuloid in 58-year-old male, who has severely edematous infiltrated lichenified erytherratous patches on sun-exposed skin, lynptmatoid histologic features with selective T cell infiltrat,ion, and selective photosensitivity to UV.
Actins* ; Humans ; Light ; Lymphoma, T-Cell, Cutaneous ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Photosensitivity Disorders ; Skin ; Skin Diseases

A 34-year-old woman presented with several intensely pruritic erythematous serpiginous thread-like skin lesions which began as a small papule on the epigastrium 4 months prior to her visit and was migrating to the left chest area. The laboratory examination showed eosinophilia and the total serum IgE level was slightly increased. Histopathologic examination revealed a pustular burrow in the epidermis with a larva-like cystic lesion apart from the burrow in the epidermis. The patient was treated with topical 10 % albendazole cream 3 times daily for 1 week without recurrence for 22 months up to now. We thought this was a rare case which was confirmed by a skin biopsy showing larva in the epidermis.
Adult ; Albendazole ; Biopsy ; Eosinophilia ; Epidermis ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; Larva ; Larva Migrans* ; Recurrence ; Skin ; Thorax

Leiomyoma is rare. Most of patients present with urinary tract infection, hematuria, dyspareunia, or complaint of mass. A case of leiomyoma on urethrovaginal septum in a 36 years old female was presented. The presenting symptom was a protruding mass at the anterior vaginal wall The mass was removed surgically and confirmed as a leiomyoma pathologically.
Adult ; Dyspareunia ; Female ; Hematuria ; Humans ; Leiomyoma* ; Urinary Tract Infections

Purpose: Internuclear ophthalmoplegia (INO) is an eye movement disorder caused by a lesion of the medial longitudinal fasciculus. It typically manifests bilaterally and is commonly caused by multiple sclerosis. We report a case of pediatric unilateral INO, which is rare in the pediatric population.Case summary: A 14-year-old female, with a history of traumatic head injury 9 days previously, presented with diplopia, nausea and vomiting for the past 5 days. Her ophthalmic examination revealed severely impaired adduction of the right eye and abduction nystagmus in the left eye. Orbital computed tomography showed no evidence of orbital wall fracture or muscle impingement. However, an magnetic resonance imaging of her brain demonstrated an infarct in the right paramedian midbrain, leading to a diagnosis of unilateral INO. Diplopia and impaired adduction of the right eye resolved completely 7 weeks after the trauma. Conclusions Demyelinating diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, account for most of the pediatric INO cases. Although most of these cases are bilateral, this reports highlights a pediatric case of unilateral INO following head injury, which is an uncommon occurrence in this age group.

PURPOSE: Although it is well known that surgical treatment has been gold standard in most cases of ureteral stricture, but its effect was not satisfactory. The development of balloon catheters and advances in endourology offer attractive alternative management compared to surgery in the treatment of urethral strictures. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of balloon dilatation as an alternative treatment in the management of benign ureteral stricture. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed the records of 32 patients, treated during the last 5 years for benign ureteral stricture disease. Balloon dilatation of benign ureteral strictures were performed in a percutaneous antegrade(10 patients) or retrograde(22 patients) fashion followed by placement of a 6 Fr. stent for 6-8 weeks. The underlying diseases or conditions of the benign ureteral stricture were tuberculous ureteritis in 15, surgery to ureter in 8, iatrogenic cause in 5, and primary cause in 4. RESULTS: The over-all rate of succesful management of benign ureteral stricture diseases using endoscopic techniques was 75 percent. The significant complications were not observed in all patients. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the result of our experiences, we suggest the use of balloon dilatation as the initial treatment method in benign urethral stricture.
Catheters ; Constriction, Pathologic* ; Dilatation* ; Humans ; Stents ; Ureter* ; Urethral Stricture

No abstract available.
Chondromatosis, Synovial* ; Knee Joint* ; Knee* ; Osteoarthritis*

The conventional sugical procedure for hydrocele, eversion of sac (with or without partial excision of sac), still remains the most popular one for hydrocele. The new technique is an easy, quick and simple operation. And it avoids postoperative complications. A clinical observation was made on 14 patients of hydrocele who were admitted to the Department of UroIogy, Han-Il. Hospital during the 12 months period from May, 1989 to April, 1990 and surgically treated by `window procedure` with good results.
Humans ; Postoperative Complications

PURPOSE: In order to compare stone metabolic risk factors in recurrent stone formers, we researched lithogenic factors according to sex and age. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed stone metabolic studies on recurrent stone formers (77 men, 33 women) and grouped them according to age; under 40 (n=38), from 40 to 59 (n=56) and over 60 (n=16). We evaluated excretion rate differences of lithogenic and inhibitory constituents such as volume, sodium, uric acid, calcium, oxalate, and citrate from 24-hour urine samples, and calcium, sodium, uric acid, phosphate, potassium, and chloride from serum samples. We analyzed the incidence of stone metabolic risk factors between the age groups and the sexes. RESULTS: The most common detectable risk factor in all groups of recurrent stone formers was hypocitraturia. This finding was more remarkable in males aged under 60. The incidence of hypocitraturia was higher in males and in the younger group, whereas hypercalciuria was more frequent in the elder group. CONCLUSIONS: The most important cause of urolithiasis was hypocitraturia in recurrent stone formers, and this was apparent in males aged under 60.
Calcium ; Citric Acid ; Humans ; Hypercalciuria ; Incidence ; Male ; Potassium ; Risk Factors* ; Sodium ; Uric Acid ; Urolithiasis