No abstract available.
Epidermal Growth Factor* ; Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone* ; Myoma* ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor*

BACKGROUND: The Korean Red Cross has established three nucleic acid amplification test (NAT) centers, and the organization has begun NAT screening for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) for domestic blood donors commencing from February 2005. As a result, between February 2005 and July 2006, it was found that 80 of a total of 3,481,972 donors that were screened were positive for HIV-1 as determined by the NAT. This report will describe the characteristics of the HIV-1 positive reactive donors. METHODS: We attempted to determine the number of HIV-1 positive reactive donors for each NAT center, and attempted to characterize the donors by gender, age, RNA viral load, and the distribution of HIV-1 subtype. RESULTS: Among the 80 HIV-1 positive reactive donors determined by the NAT, 57.5% of the donors were in their twenties and all but one of the donors was male. Of all of the donors, 82.5% were repeated donors and four donors showed antibody negative window periods. The average quantity of HIV-1 RNA for 78 donors was 1.12x105 copies/mL and for the four donors that showed the antibody negative window periods was 2.68x105 copies/mL. The HIV-1 subtypes of 76 cases were all B of group M. CONCLUSION: NAT screening contributes to the safety of the domestic blood supply. Therefore, it is necessary to continue to study the characteristics of the blood that was found to show HIV positivity by the NAT.
Blood Donors ; Hepacivirus ; HIV* ; HIV-1* ; Humans* ; Male ; Mass Screening* ; Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques* ; Red Cross ; RNA ; Tissue Donors* ; Viral Load

Sweet's syndrome is an uncommon reactive dermatosis characterized by fever, polymorphonuclear leukocytosis, painful erythematous cutaneous plaques and dense dermal infiltrate of neutrophils at the skin lesions. Unlike Sweet's syndrome associated with patients with malignancies, autoimmune diseases, antecedent infectons-most commonly the upper respiratory infections, it is reported to be rarely associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Here we report a rare case of young female with Sweet's syndrome and SLE presenting with high fever.
Autoimmune Diseases ; Female ; Fever ; Humans ; Leukocytosis ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic* ; Neutrophils ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; Skin ; Skin Diseases ; Sweet Syndrome*

PURPOSE: To determine the utility of HRCT in the diagnosis of chronic airflow obstruction and to correlate the morphologic abnormalities revealed by this modality with functional impairment in patients with chronic air-flow obstruction. MATERIALS AND METHODS:This study involved 80 patients with chronic airflow obstruction who underwent HRCT and a pulmonary function test. Final clinical diagnosis in these patients was determined by a chest physician on the basis of clinical features, bronchoscopy, pulmonary function test, and HRCT. In order to diagnose and determine the extent of areas of decreased attenuation revealed by HRCT (the CT score), the find-ings of HRCT were retrospectively reviewed by two radiologists, who reached a consensus. Clinical and HRCT diagnoses were then compared, and the rate of agreement between them was calculated. The relation-ship between the extent of areas of decreased attenuation revealed by HRCT and by FEV1/FVC was evaluated using Correl 's account and Student 's unpaired t-test. RESULTS: The agreement rate between clinical and HRCT diagnoses was 77.5% (62/80). The rates for bronchiec-tasis (88.9%, 24/27), emphysema (93.9%, 31/33), and bronchiolitis obliterans (100%, 6/6) were considerably higher than those for chronic bronchitis and bronchial asthma. The correlation rate between CT score and FEV1/FVC was significant in bronchiectasis (p<0.05; r: -0.76) and bronchiolitis obliterans (p<0.01; r:-0.66), but not in cases involving emphysema, bronchial asthma, or chronic bronchitis (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: HRCT is valuable in the diagnosis and prediction of physiologic impairment in patients with bronchiectasis and bronchiolitis obliterans, but has limited value in those with emphysema, chronic bronchitis or asthma.
Asthma ; Bronchiectasis ; Bronchiolitis Obliterans ; Bronchitis, Chronic ; Bronchoscopy ; Consensus ; Diagnosis* ; Emphysema ; Humans ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive* ; Pulmonary Emphysema ; Respiratory Function Tests* ; Retrospective Studies ; Thorax

Trichinellosis is one of the most widespread helminthic zoonoses. Unlike other parasitic infestation, it has been reported in advanced countries where there is a great amount of meat consumption such as Europe and America. In Korea, trichinellosis has been suspected to be prevalent for a long time, but it had not been reported up to 1997. However, three reports of human trichinellosis were published recently. An outbreak of trichinellosis caused by ingestion of raw wild boar occurred in Inje-gun, Gangwon-do, Korea, in Mar 2003. 13 people ate raw wild boar meat together, and then they had high fever, myalgia, facial edema, etc. Hematologic and biochemical examinations revealed leukocytosis, eosinophilia, and elevated AST, ALT, LDH, CPK. Muscle biopsy in rectus femoralis was performed in one index case, we detected two parasites in muscle fibers. And we measured specific antibody titers against Trichinella spiralis ES Ag in 12 patients. More than 3~4 fold higher antibody titer was noted in 11 patients compared with normal controls. We treated these cases with albendazole and steroid for 5 days.
Albendazole ; Americas ; Biopsy ; Disease Outbreaks ; Eating* ; Edema ; Eosinophilia ; Europe ; Fever ; Gangwon-do ; Helminths ; Humans ; Korea ; Leukocytosis ; Meat ; Myalgia ; Parasites ; Sus scrofa* ; Swine Diseases ; Trichinella spiralis ; Trichinellosis* ; Zoonoses

Primary achalasia is a disorder of swallowing in which the lower esophageal sphincter fails to relax. Traditional treatment methods are balloon dilatation and myotomy, but these methods have critical complications and even fatal including esophageal perforation, gastroesophageal reflux, and continuing dysphagia. Botulinum toxin, which has been used for dystonias of skeletal muscles, is presented as a new alternative treatment method for achalasia, aimed to lowering of LES pressure by Pasricha et al. They also reported that endoscopic botulinum toxin injection into LES was effective, safe, and simple method without any significant complication. We report 7 cases of primary achalasia treated with endoscopic botulinum toxin injection, who showed clinical improvement without any complication. We compared results of pre-treatment with those of post-treatment using botulinum toxin in the aspects of clinical, radiological, manometrical recording in these cases. Symptomatic improvement was shown in 4 cases(57.1%), symptom score was decreased from 7.43+/-0.53 to 4.43+/-2.51(p=0.03), The luminal diameter at esophagogastric junction increased from a mean of 3.21+/-0,99 mm to 5.14+/-0.90 mm (p=0.015), and luminal diameter at esophageal body decreased from a mean of 40.29+/-19.37 mm to 32.71+/-15.45 mm (p=0.015). In follow up manometric recording, peristaltic waves at the body were recovered in 2 cases(28.6%), gastroesophageal pressure gradient(AP) was non-significantly decreased from 6.30+/-4.0 mmHg to 3.12+/-4.47 mmHg (p=0.45). One patient complained of transient chest pain within one hour after the botulinum toxin injection, but she did not need any medication. We concluded that botulinum injection was a simple, safe, and effective therapeutic method for primary achalasia, even though further evaluatian should be performed in the much more cases and the results of long term follow-up, and cost-effectiveness of this method.
Botulinum Toxins* ; Chest Pain ; Deglutition ; Deglutition Disorders ; Dilatation ; Dystonia ; Esophageal Achalasia* ; Esophageal Perforation ; Esophageal Sphincter, Lower ; Esophagogastric Junction ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gastroesophageal Reflux ; Humans ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Phenobarbital

Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and ubiquitous environmental toxin with known harmful effects to human health. Abnormal phenotypes of keratinocytes are closely associated with their exposure to B[a]P. Resorcinol is a component of argan oil with reported anticancer activities, but its mechanism of action and potential effect on B[a]P damage to the skin is unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of resorcinol on B[a]P-induced abnormal keratinocyte biology and its mechanisms of action in human epidermal keratinocyte cell line HaCaT. Resorcinol suppressed aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) activity as evidenced by the inhibition of B[a]P-induced xenobiotic response element (XRE)-reporter activation and cytochrome P450 1A1 (CYP1A1) expression. In addition, resorcinol attenuated B[a]P-induced nuclear translocation of AhR, and production of ROS and pro-inflammatory cytokines. We also found that resorcinol increased nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) activity. Antioxidant response element (ARE)-reporter activity and expression of ARE-dependent genes NAD(P)H dehydrogenase [quinone] 1 (NQO1), heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) were increased by resorcinol. Consistently, resorcinol treatment induced nuclear localization of Nrf2 as seen by Western analysis. Knockdown of Nrf2 attenuated the resorcinol effects on ARE signaling, but knockdown of AhR did not affect resorcinol activation of Nrf2. This suggests that activation of antioxidant activity by resorcinol is not mediated by AhR. These results indicate that resorcinol is protective against effects of B[a]P exposure. The mechanism of action of resorcinol is inhibition of AhR and activation of Nrf2-mediated antioxidant signaling. Our findings suggest that resorcinol may have potential as a protective agent against B[a]P-containing pollutants.

Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation is an environmental factor that causes skin aging, and is also a major factor leading to cumulative alterations of skin structure, function and appearance. To investigate the effects of Selenium (Sel) on UV-induced skin aging, hairless mice were treated for 4 weeks with UV irradiation and topical application of Sel. Then, the effects of Sel were measured in the skin of these mice via histological analysis and Western blotting. According to the results of wrinkle formation analysis, the topical application of Sel induced a reduction in wrinkling formation in the damaged skin of the UV-irradiated mice. Additionally, our histological analysis demonstrated that the skin thickness in the Sel-treated group was less than in the UV-irradiated group. Furthermore, in an effort to investigate the mechanisms underlying the effects of Sel, the expression levels of matrix-metalloproteinase (MMP) and MAPK protein were assessed in both groups. The application of Sel induced a reduction in MMP-1 expression levels to the levels observed in the non-irradiated group. However, the expression level of MMP-9 was increased slightly in the Sel application group as compared with the vehicle application group. Additionally, the levels of ERK phosphorylation were increased by the application of Sel, but the levels of JNK and p38 were not altered by Sel treatment. These results suggest the possibility that Sel should be considered as a skin aging-protective and therapeutic drug candidate, which functions via the regulation of MMP expression levels.
Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Mice ; Mice, Hairless ; Phosphorylation ; Selenium ; Skin ; Skin Aging