No abstract available.
Collagen* ; Humans*

Back pain is the most common symptom of ankylosing spondylitis (AS). The aggravation of back pain in AS patients is usually thought to be a flare-up of the disease activity. We report here on the case of a 31-year-old AS patient with low back pain. The lesions of this patient were unexpectedly diagnosed as metastatic spinal tumor due to cholangiocarcinoma. In a patient with AS, an acute aggravation of low back pain may be due to other pathologic conditions such as osteoporotic vertebral fracture, vertebral discitis and metastatic bone disease. Therefore, when a patient with AS presents with nonspecific low back pain, a physician should consider the above mentioned conditions.
Adult ; Back Pain ; Bone Diseases ; Cholangiocarcinoma ; Discitis ; Humans ; Low Back Pain ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Spondylitis, Ankylosing

We performed a retrospective review to evaluate the result of the management on primary vesicoureteral reflux in 36 children (59 refluxing ureters) during a 11-year period (1980 to 1990). Based upon the international classification, the vesicoureteral reflux was grade 1 in 6 cases (11.1 %). grade II in 14 (23.7 %), grade II in 13 (22.1 %), grade IV in 15 (25.4%) and grade V in 11 (18.6%) and designed to compare the risk or benefit of medical and surgical treatment as initial management for this. The group or primary medical management included with total 42 ureters and as the results of the management the reflux was completely disappeared in average 8.2 months at 22 ureters and 13 ureters were secondarily operated because of progressed reflux to recurrent urinary tract infection despite of appropriate medical treatment. The group of primary surgical management included with 3 ureters of grade III, 7 in grade IV, 7 of grade V, total 17 ureters and then 1 ureter of which was re-operated due to progressed reflux, but all reflux were cured. And we checked the 99m technetium-dimercapto-succinic acid renal scan to detect renal scars at pre-treatment in 33 ureters (22 patients) and post-treatment in 21 ureters (14 patients). As the results, the renal scars were detected in 17 ureters at pre-treatment patients. And during follow up, there were no changes of the renal scar at post-treatment in 18 ureters, but a new scar was developed in 3 ureters (grade II in I, grade IV in 2) even though having medical treatment. The radionuclide renal scan was highly sensitive to detect the scar, so should be performed.
Child* ; Cicatrix ; Classification ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Ureter ; Urinary Tract Infections ; Vesico-Ureteral Reflux*

Thymoma is the most common neoplasm in the anterior mediastinum, and extrathoracic involvement is rare. Moreover, cystic liver metastasis is extremely rare; few cases have been reported in the literature to date. We report here on a case of cystic liver metastasis of thymoma treated with surgical resection, describing the ultrasonography, CT and MRI findings.
Liver ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Mediastinum ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Thymoma* ; Ultrasonography

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of a new herbal formula (WSY-1075) in a nonbacterial prostatitis rat model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prostatitis was induced in male Wistar rats (n=32) by treatment with 17 beta-estradiol and dihydrotestosterone for 4 weeks. After the induction of prostatitis, the rats were randomly divided into one of four treatment groups: control (n=8), ciprofloxacin (n=8), WSY-1075 (100 mg/kg) (n=8), and WSY-1075 (400 mg/kg) (n=8). After 4 weeks of treatment, the prostatic proinflammatory cytokine (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin [IL]-6, and IL-8) levels and histological findings were noted. RESULTS: The ciprofloxacin and WSY-1075 treatment groups showed significantly decreased proinflammatory cytokine levels compared with the control group. Histologically, treatment with ciprofloxacin and WSY-1075 significantly suppressed the severity of prostatitis lesions compared with those in the control group. No differences in the proinflammatory cytokine levels or histologic findings were observed with the dose dependent treatment of WSY-1075. CONCLUSIONS: The new herbal formula, WSY-1075, showed effective anti-inflammatory activities in the prostate and may be useful for the clinical treatment of nonbacterial prostatitis. Our findings suggest that WSY-1075 has a beneficial effect on the prevention and treatment of nonbacterial prostatitis.
Animals ; Ciprofloxacin ; Dihydrotestosterone ; Estradiol ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Interleukins ; Male ; Prostate ; Prostatitis ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar

This study aimed to investigate whether the demographic variable-adjustment and supplementation of Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) score can improve the screening ability of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) for dementia and its subtypes. Five hundred forty-one non-demented comparison (NC) and 474 dementia (320 Alzheimer's disease [AD]; 139 non-Alzheimer's disease dementia [NAD]; and 15 mixed AD-NAD dementia) individuals living in the community were included. Education-adjusted MMSE (MMSE-edu) score showed significantly better screening accuracy for overall dementia, AD, and NAD than MMSE raw score. FAB-supplemented MMSE (MMSE-FAB) score had significantly better screening ability for NAD, but not for overall dementia and AD, than MMSE raw score alone. Additional supplementation of FAB to MMSE-edu further increased the ability for overall dementia or NAD screening, but not for AD screening. Further education adjustment of MMSE-FAB also improved its ability for overall dementia, AD, and NAD screening. These results strongly support the usefulness of education-adjustment and supplementation of frontal function assessment to improve screening performance of MMSE for dementia and its subtypes, NAD in particular.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Alzheimer Disease/complications/diagnosis ; Area Under Curve ; Dementia/complications/*diagnosis ; Demography ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neuropsychological Tests ; ROC Curve

Dactylitis is a hallmark feature of psoriatic arthritis. It is usually managed with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and oral corticosteroids. Some cases have been treated successfully with intravenous corticosteroids or some disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Recently, inflximab has been reported as an effective treatment for dactylitis that is resistant to conventional treatment. This report describes a 37-year-old man with psoriatic arthritis who had multiple dactylitis on both thumbs and great toes. He was resistant to conventional treatment but was effectively treated with infliximab. This report highlights the effectiveness of infliximab for dactylitis, and the usefulness of blood pool imaging from bone scans as a method for determining treatment response.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones ; Adult ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Antirheumatic Agents ; Arthritis, Psoriatic ; Humans ; Thumb ; Toes ; Infliximab

PURPOSE: Currently many clinicians have recommendsprostate biopsy when the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) is higher than 4.0 ng/ml. However, recently the prostate cancer detection rates werereported to be about 20% at PSA level 2.5 to 4.0 ng/ml. Therefore, an increasing amount of hospitals have recommends lowering the PSA cut off level to 2.5 ng/ml. We retrospectively evaluated the prostate cancer detection rate and pathologic characteristics of patients with PSA level of 2.5 to 4.0 ng/ml and we compared this with the patients who had PSA level in the range of 4.1 to 10.0 ng/ml. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We analyzed the data of 515 patients who received prostate biopsy in the range of PSA level 2.5 to 10 ng/ml. The clinical characteristics, cancer detection rate and pathologic findings of the biopsy were compared between the PSA 2.5-4.0 ng/ml group and PSA 4.1-10.0 ng/ml group. RESULTS: Cancer detection rates in patients who underwent biopsy were 18.1% and 22.4% at PSA 2.5 to 4.0 and 4.1 to 10.0 ng/ml, respectively. Mean Gleason scores were found 6.4+/-0.5 and 6.6+/-0.7 and high grade cancers with Gleason score 7 or more were found in 50% and 58.4% of patients with cancer with PSA 2.5 to 4.0 and 4.1 to 10.0 ng/ml, respectively. There were no significant difference between the 2 groups in cancer detection rates and pathologic findings on biopsy including mean Gleason score and high grade cancers with Gleason score 7 or more between two groups. CONCLUSION: There were no significant difference in cancer detection rates and pathologic findings between PSA 2.5-4 ng/ml group and PSA 4.1-10 ng/ml group. These results suggest that a lower PSA cutoff should be considered as an indication for prostate biopsy in the Korean population.
Biopsy ; Humans ; Neoplasm Grading ; Prostate ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Retrospective Studies

PURPOSE: We evaluated adult patients with acute epididymitis to identify the frequency of actual sexual contacts and the causative organism, and compared clinical examinations, degrees of manifested symptoms, and radiological test results. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of 65 patients older than 18 years presenting with acute epididymitis who had been treated between 2002 and 2011. Scrotal ultrasonography, urinalysis, and urine culture were performed to diagnose the acute epididymitis. Patients were divided into negative (n=45) and positive (n=20) urine culture groups. Then the latter groups were subdivided into a sexually transmitted organism (STO) culture group (n=13) and a non-STO (n=7) culture group. Data on any history of sexual contact, scrotal pain and tenderness, symptoms of urethritis (discharge, dysuria, urethral burning, or irritation), and lower urinary tract symptoms (dysuria, frequency, and urgency of urination) were obtained from all of the subjects. RESULTS: Patients in the positive urine culture group were significantly younger than those in the other group (p=0.224) and were more likely to have a history of sexual contact at least two weeks prior to onset of epididymitis (p=0.012). They had also a significantly enlarged epididymal head and significantly more severe complaints of pain or tenderness than those of latter group (p=0.348, p=0.288). However, the difference in these measures between the STO and non-STO group was not significant, except in the case of age (p=0.044). CONCLUSIONS: Patients of the positive urine culture group with acute epididymitis were significantly younger and more sexually active than the others. They also had severe pain or tenderness and an enlarged epididymal head. There was a close association between clinical symptoms, a positive urine culture, and ultrasonographic findings.
Adult ; Burns ; Dysuria ; Epididymis ; Epididymitis ; Head ; Humans ; Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms ; Male ; Medical Records ; Urethritis ; Urinalysis

PURPOSE: We retrospectively investigated the changes of prostate cancer detection rate according to patients prostate volume, age with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels of above 4.0ng/ml. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data were collected from 663 patients who underwent 10 core prostate biopsy for elevated PSA above 4.0ng/ml. The biopsy-proven cancer patient group was compared to the non-cancer patient group according to age, PSA, prostate volume and PSAD. Prostate cancer detection rate was calculated according to prostate volume (less than 40 vs 40 or more 40ml) and age (less than 60, 60-69, 70-79, 80 or more years old). Also we compared prostate cancer detection rate according to PSA levels (4-10 vs 10-20ng/ml). RESULTS: Among the 663 patients who underwent prostate biopsy, prostate cancer was detected in 134 patients (20.2%). There were no stastically difference in mean age, mean prostate volume, and mean PSAD except mean PSA (13.9 vs 11.9ng/ml) between cancer and non-cancer groups. The cancer detection rate in small prostate was significantly higher than large prostate (23.5% vs 16.0%). The cancer detection rate was significantly increased with age: from 14.5% for below 60 year-old patients to 30.3% for the 80 or more year-old patients. There was no significant difference in cancer detection rate between the two PSA groups (19.0 vs 20.5%). CONCLUSION: Prostate cancer detection rate was higher in old patients and patients with small prostate volume. The older age group and the patients with small prostate volume was considered as the important factors to decide whether biopsy of prostate is needed.
Biopsy ; Humans ; Prostate ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Retrospective Studies