Tissue transplantation is a modern medical technology which develops rapidly and raises many ethical, legal, and political issues. In Korea, many tissue transplantations are performed and many tissue banks seem to be managed. However, there are no legal regulations and standards which control these behaviors. When we discuss tissue transplantations and tissue banking, the safety of tissues, the respect for donors' autonomy, the proper operation of the tissue bank, and the fair distribution of the tissues must be taken into account. And the autonomic regulation by medical professionals must be considered. An Act that controls tissue transplantation and tissue banking must be established, and must be enforced. The Act must be in harmony with the autonomic regulation by medical professionals. The practices that may pose severe risk to human body or threat to human life must be banned, and persons who perform this kind of practices must be punished. However, if the practices remain within the acceptable range, medical professionals can do their practices legally.
Human Body ; Humans ; Korea ; Social Control, Formal ; Tissue Banks* ; Tissue Transplantation ; Transplants

No abstract available.
Dermatitis, Atopic*

No abstract available.
Urticaria*

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble, unssturated, long-chain isoprenoid an4 classic active- form found in mammalian tissue is the all-trans alcohol vitamin A (vitamin A alcohol or retinol). Vitamin A acid (VAA) represents the terminal product of vitamin A oxidation. Harris et al in 1332, first proposed the term "antikeraStinizing effect" to expression of tne effect of vitamin A on various epithelia. In 1943, Straufjord,over-enth usiastically reported tbat oral use of vitamin A also had a beneficial effect on acn . Kligman, in 1969, reported that VAA produce peeling effect and fabourable results with topically applied UAA in acne vulgaris. Many investigators reported that VAA was effective in man hyperkeratotic disorders, including psoriasis, senile comedon, verruca plana, keratosis palmaris et plantaris, plantar wart etc. Mode of actio. of VAA is unclear as yet. But, it is obserbed that continued susceptibility of skin to VAA is related to labilize lysosomes, thereby releasing prot.olytic and hydrolytic enzyme capable of inciting inflammatory reaction; VAA accelerates tum over of homey cells and converted hard keratin into soft keratin, so lessening of the coheiveness of homey cells is implied. Thus the effect of VAA in acne treatment are that VAA inhibits the formation of comedon and existing comedones tend to be extruded by the increased production of noncoherent homey cells and acceleration of the flow of cells out of the sebaceous glands. For this study, 52 patients were treated with application of topical VAA alone and 9 patients concurrently with topical VAA anl comedon extraction. The results were as follows: 1. The 43 patients treated with topical VAA alone showed significant improvement up to 70% at the end of third week. In this group, closed comedon, papules, pustules are progressively reduced during the first week but the number of open comedon transiently increased (34%) during first week of treatment, decreased after that. 2. The 9 pa.tients treated with topical VAA and co nedon extraction showed similar effect(80%) at the third week of treatment. But no sign of increase of open comedon was not shown in first week of treatment. 3. Discomfortable clinical effects such as scaling, buming, tightness were seen up to 83%, occassionally pruritus, pain edema., contact dermatitis, lichenifcation were seen.
Acceleration ; Acne Vulgaris* ; Dermatitis, Contact ; Edema ; Humans ; Keratoderma, Palmoplantar ; Lysosomes ; Pruritus ; Psoriasis ; Research Personnel ; Sebaceous Glands ; Skin ; Tretinoin ; Vitamin A ; Vitamins* ; Warts

In atopic dermatitis, genetic factor undoubtedly involved, but precise mode of tra- nsmission is not yet clear. Since the true incidence and mode af transmission requires a large scale prospective study, they are very difficult to determine. This study was performed in order to elucidate incidence and hereditary backgro- und of atpoic dermatitis in the selected and secluded urban area where relatively an inbred population lived, because of substantially less immigration from other area. Investigation of this study were carried out among infants and children under 6 year old, The results were as follows 1) A total of 516 infants and children under 6 year nld were examined (male 267, female 249) 2) The incidence of atopic dermatitis was ll.2% (58/516). 3) 67. 3% of patients with atopic dermatitis (39/58) had a family history of atopic dermitis, urticaria and asthma. 4) Frequent clinical features of these patients were pruritus (93. 1%), dry or coarse skin (85. SF), and facial and extensor involvement of the skin (82.7%). 5) Molluscum contagisum (9 cases), impetigo(7 cases, strophuius (4 cases), and.. uzticaria (2 cases), were combined. with atopic dermatitis.
Asthma ; Child ; Dermatitis ; Dermatitis, Atopic* ; Emigration and Immigration ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Infant ; Pruritus ; Skin ; Urticaria

No abstract available.
Melanoma* ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen*

No abstract available.
Intestinal Obstruction*

No abstract available.
Calcium* ; Chemotaxis* ; Neutrophils*

BACKGROUND: The differential diagnosis of clonal and reactive thrombocytosis is clinically relevant because course and treatment are different between them. Several clinical assessments and laboratory tests (degree of such as splenomegaly, duration and degree of thrombocytosis, bone marrow study, cytogenetic study, and platelet function test) are less discriminative, invasive and not commonly available. Therefore, a well discriminative, simple and convenient diagnositic assay is needed. Recently animal experiments demonstrated that recombinant IL-6 administration increased platelets counts by stimulating megakaryocyte maturation and increased hepatic CRP synthesis. So, in this study, we evaluated the usefulness of measurements of IL-6 and CRP levels to distinguish reactive thrombocytosis from clonal thrombocytosis. METHODS: Included in this study were 88 patients with marked thromobocytosis (>600 x10(9)/L) at Asan Medical Center between September, 1995 and March, 1996. The cause of thrombocytosis was determined by reviewing the medical histories. Sixteen patients had clonal thrombocytosis and 72 patients had reactive thrombocytosis. IL-6 was measured by ELISA (Quantikine(TM), R&D system, Inc., Minneapolis, USA) and CRP was assayed by rate immunonephelometry (Array 360 system, Beckman Instruments Inc., USA). RESULTS: The patients with reactive thrombocytosis had significantly higher plasma levels of IL-6 and CRP than patients with clonal thrombocytosis (p<0.01, p<0.001). In 98.6% (71/72) of the patients with reactive thromobocytosis, levels of either IL-6 or CRP were elevated, and 43.8% (7/16) of the patients with clonal thrombocytosis had both IL-6 and CRP in normal range. Of 9 patients with clonal thrombocytosis (56.2%) whose levels of either IL-6 or CRP increased, 7 patients had concomitant acute phase reaction such as infection or post operative status. There was significant correlation between IL-6 and CRP levels (r2=0.4, p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: Elevated levels of either IL-6 or CRP were consistent with reactive thrombocytosis and normal ranges of those suggested clonal thrombocytosis. So measurement of plasma IL-6 and CRP levels is a useful marker for differential diagnosis of clonal and reactive thrombocytosis. For the patients with clonal thrombocytosis who had concomitant acute phase reaction, serial measurements are recommended.
Acute-Phase Reaction ; Animal Experimentation ; Blood Platelets ; Bone Marrow ; C-Reactive Protein* ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Cytogenetics ; Diagnosis, Differential* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Interleukin-6* ; Megakaryocytes ; Plasma* ; Reference Values ; Splenomegaly ; Thrombocytosis*

Chorioangioma is the most common primary tumor of the placenta. It is widely accepted to be formed from hamartomatous proliferation of angioblastic cells in early placenta. According to groups who systematically examined the placentas with the greatest scrutiny, the incidence of chorioangioma is 1~1.2% of all placentas examined. The clinical implication of chorioangioma has been emphasized due to its high association with hydramnios, antepartum and postpartum hemorrhage, premature onset of labor, or intrauterine fetal distress or death. The authors experienced a case of a 38-year old multigravida who had undergone 4 consecutive spontaneous abortions. The fifth pregnancy was carried to 35 weeks whereupon a dead fetus was delivered. The placenta was enlarged(950 gm) with multiple protruding nodules into the fetal surface. Microscopically, the nodule was composed of many vilous structures lined by chorionic epithelium. Within these structures was proliferation of endothelial lined capillaries some of which demonstrated ectatic change.
Pregnancy ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence