The pathologic and immunopathologic findings of 15 skin biopsies of Behcet's syndrome were studied to investigate the pathogenetic mechanism of this syndrome. The age range was 28 to 50 years; male to female ratio was 1 : 1.2. Ulceration with acute necrotizing and chronic nonspecific inflammation was present in most cases with leukocytoclastic vasculitis and perivascular lymphohistiocytic, plasmocytic infiltrations. Eight of 15 cases showed C3 deposit in the walls of venules and capillaries, one of them was associated with IgM and fibrinogen deposits. With these findings humoral factor seemed to play a main role in the pathogenesis of vasculitis observed in Behcet's syndrome, but the possibility of other mechanisms operative in complex pattern was also considered.
Female ; Male ; Humans ; Biopsy

To know the correlation between glomerular and tubulointerstitial lesion and to define the characteristics of interstitial inflammatory cell in IgA nephropathy and classified according to WHO classification and graded tubulointerstitial lesion as mild, moderate and severe. Paraffin-embedded 5u sections were stained with UCHL-l, L26 and CD68 antibodies. More than 20 fields were examined in each case under the high power microscopy and the number of positive cells were counted. There was positive correlation between the severity of glomerular and that of tubulointerstitial lesion. The mostcommoninflammatory cells in the interstitiuin were UCHL-l positive cells followed by CD68 and L26 positive cells. As the WHO grade or tubulointerstitial lesion increased, the numbers of positive cells were increased in all three groups. The proportion of UCHL-1 Positive cells were increased in cases with high WHO grade whereas that of L26 positive cells incases with severe tubulointerstitial lesion Proteinuria was correlated with the degree of inflammatory cell infiltration, especially with that of L26 positive cells.

Hyperkeratosis of the renal pelvis and ureter is a rare condition and is explained by the metaplastic change from transitional to cornified squamous epithelium. This lesion is frequently associated with, and perhaps caused by chronic urinary infection, but potentially premalignant, accompaning with carcinoma in about 10 to 20 per cent of the cases at the time of diagnosis. A case of hyperkeratosis of renal pelvis & ureter which was clinically suspected of carcinoma in a 49-year old woman with a long history of chronic pyelonephritis is presented with review of literature.
Female ; Humans

The rapid frozen section method is a means of intraoperative pathological diagnosis, first introduced by Welch in 1891 and developed as a diagnostic tool by Cullen, Wilson, MacCarty et al. This method serves useful purposes, such as determining the malignancy or benignancy of a suspected lesion, determining the adequacy of a biopsy of a suspected lesion, confirming the presence or absence of metatasis, and identifying small structures. But it bears many disadvantages, the most of which is the danger of incorrect diagnosis. We studied the indications, the limitations and the accuracy of the frozen section method and the materials studied was total cases of frozen section during recent 5 years. The ovarall accuracy of the frozen section diagnosis of 1,603 cases was 96.2% with 0.3% of false positive, 3.5% of false negative and 2.8% of incorrect histological diagnoses or grading errors the tissues submitted for frozen section were lymph node, breast, gastrointestinal tract and soft tissue in decreasing order of frequency. The false positive cases were four in number, while the false negative cases were 53, one third of which were the misdiagnoses of the presence of ganglion cells in Hirschsprung's disease.
Biopsy

Soft tissue tumor is defined as a tumor occurring in voluntary muscles, fat, fibrous tissue, along with the vessels serving these tissue and peripheral nervous system. It is difficult to make a diagnosis by conventional microscopic observation because of their pleuripotentiality and similar growth characteristics. Although their morphological findings of tumors are similar to one another, their clinical courses, treatment and prognosis are different. So early, correct diagnosis and proper treatment are neccessary. The present study is aimed to evaluate a value of immunoperoxidase staining to make definite diagnosis of soft tissue tumors and its application to surgical pathology. The material consisted of 106 cases of fibrohistiocytic tumors and malignant soft tissue tumors which are morphologically similar to malignant fibrohistiocytic tumors for 5 years period lasting from 1980 to 1984 at the Department of Pathology, Yonsei University College of Medicine. After the classificationof fibrohistiocytic tumors by the Enzinger (1983), clinical finndings were reviewed and peroxidase antiperoxidase(PAP) method with alpha1-antichymotrypsin was done in 15 cases of all fibrohistiocytic tumors. Other soft tissue tumors which were difficult to differentiate from MFH by light microscopic observation were liposarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, fibrosarcoma and malignant schwannoma. These 21 cases of tumors including MFH were stained with PAP method for alpha1-antichymotrypsin, S-100 protein and myoglobin. Results obtained were as follows: 1) The cases on study consisted of 19 cases of malignant fibrous histiocytoma, 2 dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, 45 fibrohistiocytic tumors and 11 other benign fibrohistiocytic tumors. 2) The male to female ratio was 1 : 1.8 in benign and intermediate group of fibrohistiocytic tumor, but 2.2 : 1 in malignant histiocytic tumor. 3) Most cases of benign fibrohistiocytic tumors were occurred in 4th and 5th decade of life. Intermediate and malignant fibrohistiocytic tumors were mostly found in late adult life and their mean age was 43.6 year. 4) The most common sites were trunk and both extrimities in benign fibrohistiocytic tumors(88.9%), but head, neck and lower extremities in MFH (78.9%). Two cases of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans were occurred in turnk and upper extremity. 5) The PAP stain for alpha1-antichymotrypsin was done in 15 cases of 77 fibrohistiocytic tumors which included MFH, dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, xanthoma, xanthofibroma, dermatofibroma showed variable degree of positivity to alpha1-antichymotrypsin. The positivity of alpha1-antichymotrypsin revealed no significant difference according to differentiation of the tumors, such as benign, intermediate and malignant. 6) The PAP stain for alpha1-antichymotrypsin revealed diffuse positivity in all cases of MFH and also in a case of malignant schwannoma, fibrosarcoma, liposarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma, but myoglobin and S-100 protein were negative. In three cases of leiomyosarcoma, two of rhabdomyosarcoma and three of malignant schwannoma, alpha1-antichymotrypsin, S-100 protein and myoglobin were negative, although a few positive tumor cells were present, which may the considered as metatypci differentiation. Another possibility of this discordance was loss of antigenicity by improper procedure of paraffin embedding and poor differentiation of tumor cells. In summary, PAP method for specific tumor marker is important for proper diagnosis of soft tissue tumors, and application to surgical pathology.
Adult ; Male ; Female ; Humans ; Tumor Markers, Biological

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to compare recipients' health behavior, attitude to using medicaid, medication compliance, and the changes in hospital cost and visit-day of in-patient and out-patient care between tele-care regions (TCR) and general care regions (GCR) in Korean medicaid. METHOD: The design of the study was ex-post facto comparing recipients in TCR and GCR. The sample included 625 persons in TCR and 410 persons in GCR. To collect materials, the case manager interviewed recipients of medicaid and filled out questionnaires which were analyzed through SAS/PC 9.1. RESULTS: In studying health behavior and medication, compliance was not significant. However, the attitude to using medicaid was significantly more positive in TCR than in GCR. In out-patients, the change of hospital visit-day was not significant between TCR and GCR, but TCR showed a reduction in hospital cost compared to GCR. For in-patient recipients, GCR showed a greater reduction in changes in hospital cost and visit-day compared to TCR. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study show that attitudes to using medicaid via telephone are positive and results are more effective than hospital visit consultation, and the cost of out-patient care could be reduced.
Case Management ; Compliance ; Delivery of Health Care ; Health Behavior ; Hospital Costs ; Humans ; Medicaid ; Medication Adherence ; Outpatients ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Telephone

PURPOSE: This study was to ascertain whether there are differences in health care utilization and expenditure for Type I Medical Aid Beneficiaries before and after applying Copayment. METHODS: This study was one-group pretest posttest design study using secondary data analysis. Data for pretest group were collected from claims data of the Korea National Health Insurance Corporation and data for posttest group were collected through door to-door interviews using a structured questionnaire. A total of 1,364 subjects were sampled systematically from medical aid beneficiaries who had applied for copayment during the period from December 12, 2007 to September 25, 2008. RESULTS: There was no negative effect of copayment on accessibility to medical services, medication adherence (p=.94), and quality of life (p=.25). Some of the subjects' health behaviors even increased preferably after applying for copayment including flu prevention (p<.001), health care examination (p=.035), and cancer screening (p=.002). However, significant suppressive effects of copayment were found on outpatient hospital visiting days (p<.001) and outpatient medical expenditure (p<.001). CONCLUSION: Copayment does not seem to be a great influencing factor on beneficiaries'accessibility to medical services and their health behavior even though it has suppressive effects on outpatients' use of health care.
Cost Sharing ; Delivery of Health Care ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Health Behavior ; Health Care Costs ; Health Expenditures ; Humans ; Korea ; Medicaid ; Medication Adherence ; National Health Programs ; Outpatients ; Quality of Life ; Statistics as Topic ; Surveys and Questionnaires

A Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometric method was described for the determination of quartz, mica(sericite) and feldspar(potassium feldspar) in respirable dust in Taebaek area. The results were as follows; 1) The concentration of minerals were determined from the intensity of absorption peak of quartz at 799 cm-1, sericite at 539 cm-1, and potassium feldspar at 648 cm-1 respectively. 2) The precision(C. V. %) for the quartz determination was 7.70+/-2.68 % from 10 to 200 microgram of quartz. 3) The precision for the sericite determination was 16.34+/-6.82 % from 30 to 500 microgram of serictite. 4) The precision for the potassium feldspar determination was 5.28+/-1.74 % from 30 to 500 microgram of potassium feldspar. 5) The concentration of respirable dust in Taebaek area was 4.90+/-3.29 mg/m3(0.4-93.7%), percent quartz was 1.80+/-4.14% (0.01-20.56%), percent sericite was 11.37+/-6.43% (0.00-29.69%), percent potassium feldspar was 8.15 % (n=7, 3.41-19.70%). 6) The difference of respirable coal dust, quartz, and sericite concentration in drilling, coal cutting, hauling and separating was significant respectively (p<0.05).
Absorption ; Coal ; Dust* ; Fourier Analysis* ; Minerals ; Potassium ; Quartz* ; Spectrophotometry, Infrared*

CD44 is a hyaluronic acid receptor that exists as a standard 90-kd form (CD44H) as well as several CD44 variants isoforms are produced through alternative splicing. Alternatively spliced variants of the CD44 molecule have been found to be associated with invasive and metastatic potential of cancer cells and poor prognosis in several types of carcinoma. The purpose of the present study is to define the expression of CD44H and CD44v6 in ovarian tumors and to investigate whether the expression of these molecules is associated with adverse prognosis. We evaluated the expression of CD44 isoforms in 58 ovarian tumors by means of immunohistochemistry, and correlated between CD44 expression and the histologic types, tumor grade, peritoneal implants, pseudomyxoma peritonei and FIGO stage. While the CD44H was commonly expressed in ovarian tumors, the CD44v6 was expressed in a minor proportion of serous tumors in comparison with frequent expression of v6 isoform in mucinous tumors. The CD44H expression was significantly higher in stage I/II than in stage III. However, there was no correlation between the expression of CD44 and the presence of peritoneal implants or pseudomyxoma peritonei. These results suggest that CD44H could play an important role in the adhesive function in the lower stage of the ovarian tumor and reduced expression in the higher stage might be related to the metastasis and widespread invasion of ovarian carcinoma cells.
Adhesives ; Alternative Splicing ; Female ; Hyaluronic Acid ; Immunohistochemistry ; Mucins ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Ovary ; Prognosis ; Protein Isoforms ; Pseudomyxoma Peritonei

Phacomatosis pigmentovascularis (PPV) is a rare syndrome characterized by concurrent nevus flammeus (capillary malformation) and pigmentary nevus. According to current research, the major pathophysiologic mechanism in PPV is venous dysplasia with resultant compensatory collateral channels and venous hypertension. Arterial involvement is rare. We herein report our experience on renovascular hypertension, intermittent claudication, and severe rhabdomyolysis due to diffuse stenosis of multiple arteries in a patient with PPV type IIb associated with SWS.
Arteries ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hypertension, Renovascular ; Intermittent Claudication ; Intracranial Aneurysm ; Neurocutaneous Syndromes* ; Nevus ; Port-Wine Stain ; Rhabdomyolysis* ; Sturge-Weber Syndrome* ; Vascular Diseases