BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to examine the effects of normal aging and cerebral pathology on the prospective memory and the relationships between the prospective memory and frontal lobe functions. METHODS: The subjects were 30 college students, 30 normal elderly, and 30 Parkinson's disease patients. There was no significant difference in the mean age or education level between the normal elderly and Parkinson's disease patients. The Cambridge Prospective Memory Test and the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire were administered to evaluate the prospective memory. The Seoul Verbal Learning Test and Rey Complex Figure Test were given to assess the verbal and visual episodic memories. The subjects also took the Sorting Test, the Korean-Color Word Stroop Test, and the Iowa Gambling Task to assess the frontal lobe functions. RESULTS: The results showed that the prospective memory declines with aging and pathological process. The normal elderly showed significantly lower scores on the time-based prospective memory than the event-based prospective memory, although the college students and Parkinson's disease patients did not show any differences between them. Many significant correlations were found between the prospective memory tests and frontal lobe tests in the normal elderly and Parkinson's disease patients, although only a few correlations were found in the college students. CONCLUSIONS: These quantitative and qualitative changes in the prospective memory by aging and frontal lobe dysfunction would support the de-differentiation hypothesis of aging.
Aged ; Aging ; Frontal Lobe ; Gambling ; Humans ; Iowa ; Memory ; Memory, Episodic ; Parkinson Disease ; Stroop Test ; Verbal Learning

BACKGROUND: Tandem duplication of chromosome 17p11.2-p12 including peripheral myelin protein 22 (PMP22) gene is the most frequent cause of Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1A (CMT1A). Patients carrying one extra copy of PMP22 develop CMT1A, whereas the deletion of the 17p11.2-p12 region causes hereditary neuropathy with the liability to pressure palsies (HNPP). In the present study, we established the genotyping methods of 6 microsatellite markers (D17S921, D17S9B, D17S9A, D17S4A, D17S918 and D17S122) within the 17p11.2-p12 regions by the hexaplex PCR for the genetic diagnosis of CMT1A duplication and HNPP deletion. METHODS: We established polymorphic behavior and genotyping methods of 6 microsatellite markers (D17S921, D17S9B, D17S9A, D17S4A, D17S918 and D17S122) within the duplication region. The 6 markers were amplified by hexaplex PCR reaction and analyzed by an automatic sequencing analyzer and genotyper program. RESULTS: The genotype distributions of all markers were not significantly deviated from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (P>or=0.05). When comparing the control group and CMT1A, HNPP patients group by the distribution of allele, there is no significant difference in the 5 locus except in the 1 locus (D17S921) among HNPP patients. The specificity was more than 99.9%. The sensitivity of each CMT1 and HNPP was 56.3% (40/71 pedigrees) and 72.1% (31/43 HNPP pedigrees), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The error rate for the system may be less than 0.001. According to this study, it is possible to have rapid and exact genetic diagnosis of both CMT1A and HNPP, which may be helpful for the development of personalized therapy according to genetic defects.
Alleles ; Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease ; Diagnosis* ; Genotype ; Humans ; Microsatellite Repeats* ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Myelin Sheath ; Paralysis ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Myoepithelioma is a relatively common benign tumor that exhibits various cellular morphologies. It primarily occurs in soft tissues, most commonly in the head and neck region, particularly in the salivary glands. Cases of intraosseous myoepithelioma have rarely been reported, with documented occurrences in sites such as the cranium, maxilla, iliac bone, vertebrae, tibia, and fibula. We present a rare case of intraosseous myoepithelioma involving zygomatic bone. 51-year-old male patient visited our clinic presenting zygomatic intraosseous tumor without any symptom. The patient underwent complete surgical excision involving subtotal portion of zygoma including frontal process, body and temporal process. The tumor had epithelial and spindle cell morphology and immunohistochemistry showed positive results for EMA, CK, SMA, S100, and negative results for CD34. After surgery, complete symmetry achieved, with no recurrence observed during a 1-year follow-up.

Myoepithelioma is a relatively common benign tumor that exhibits various cellular morphologies. It primarily occurs in soft tissues, most commonly in the head and neck region, particularly in the salivary glands. Cases of intraosseous myoepithelioma have rarely been reported, with documented occurrences in sites such as the cranium, maxilla, iliac bone, vertebrae, tibia, and fibula. We present a rare case of intraosseous myoepithelioma involving zygomatic bone. 51-year-old male patient visited our clinic presenting zygomatic intraosseous tumor without any symptom. The patient underwent complete surgical excision involving subtotal portion of zygoma including frontal process, body and temporal process. The tumor had epithelial and spindle cell morphology and immunohistochemistry showed positive results for EMA, CK, SMA, S100, and negative results for CD34. After surgery, complete symmetry achieved, with no recurrence observed during a 1-year follow-up.

Myoepithelioma is a relatively common benign tumor that exhibits various cellular morphologies. It primarily occurs in soft tissues, most commonly in the head and neck region, particularly in the salivary glands. Cases of intraosseous myoepithelioma have rarely been reported, with documented occurrences in sites such as the cranium, maxilla, iliac bone, vertebrae, tibia, and fibula. We present a rare case of intraosseous myoepithelioma involving zygomatic bone. 51-year-old male patient visited our clinic presenting zygomatic intraosseous tumor without any symptom. The patient underwent complete surgical excision involving subtotal portion of zygoma including frontal process, body and temporal process. The tumor had epithelial and spindle cell morphology and immunohistochemistry showed positive results for EMA, CK, SMA, S100, and negative results for CD34. After surgery, complete symmetry achieved, with no recurrence observed during a 1-year follow-up.

Myoepithelioma is a relatively common benign tumor that exhibits various cellular morphologies. It primarily occurs in soft tissues, most commonly in the head and neck region, particularly in the salivary glands. Cases of intraosseous myoepithelioma have rarely been reported, with documented occurrences in sites such as the cranium, maxilla, iliac bone, vertebrae, tibia, and fibula. We present a rare case of intraosseous myoepithelioma involving zygomatic bone. 51-year-old male patient visited our clinic presenting zygomatic intraosseous tumor without any symptom. The patient underwent complete surgical excision involving subtotal portion of zygoma including frontal process, body and temporal process. The tumor had epithelial and spindle cell morphology and immunohistochemistry showed positive results for EMA, CK, SMA, S100, and negative results for CD34. After surgery, complete symmetry achieved, with no recurrence observed during a 1-year follow-up.

Prurigo nodularis (PN) is a disease characterized by chronic itch and presence of firm nodules or papules on the skin. The underlying pathophysiology of PN is still under debate, but it has been reported to be due to synergistic neural- and immune-mediated mechanisms. In this review, the authors summarize the etiology, epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and diagnosis of PN and suggest management protocols for patients with PN despite the absence of local guidelines for PN in Korea. The prevalence of PN in Korea was reported as 0.036%, similar to that in other countries. The various etiologies of PN are known to be associated with neural sensitization and inflammation, and the related treatment targets being studied for PN include interleukin-4, 13, 31, and transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1). Understanding of predisposing factors or concomitant diseases is beneficial towards targeted management of patients with PN. In addition, it has been reported that PN is more frequently accompanied by metabolic diseases, or renal disorders compared to other inflammatory skin diseases characterized by itchiness such as atopic dermatitis or psoriasis. The clinical diagnosis of PN is generally based on three core symptoms; chronic pruritus over six weeks, firm lesions, and repeated scratching. To evaluate the severity of PN, the following objective and subjective assessments can be used: Investigator’s Global Assessment for PN or Peak Pruritus Numerical Rating Scale. We propose a localized work-up algorithm for PN. It is expected that the increased awareness of PN can facilitate its diagnosis, thereby reducing the disease burden of patients with PN.

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the reproducibility and diagnostic performance of a quantitative parameter of superb microvascular imaging (SMI) in real-time breast ultrasonography (US) for differentiating benign from malignant breast masses. Methods: Eighty-seven breast masses in 75 patients who underwent both B-mode US and SMI before US-guided core needle biopsy were included in this study. Two radiologists performed B-mode US and measured the vascular index (VI) of SMI respectively for each lesion in real time. Intraobserver and interobserver agreements were analyzed for the VI of SMI. The diagnostic performance of B-mode US using the Breast Imaging Reporting and Database System lexicon and combined use with the VI of SMI was evaluated compared to pathology. Results: The median VI of malignant masses (n=32) was significantly higher than that of benign masses (n=55) (7.6% and 2.6%, respectively; P<0.001). The intraobserver agreement for VI was excellent regardless of the pathology, size, or depth of the lesion. The interobserver agreement for VI was excellent regardless of the presence of a measurement interval. The interobserver agreement for the final diagnostic decision was improved by combining B-mode US and VI (κ=0.883) in comparison with B-mode US only (κ=0.617). Adding VI led to significant improvements in the specificity (87.2% vs. 52.7%, 83.6% vs. 49.0%), accuracy (89.7% vs. 69.3%, 84.0% vs. 65.9%) and positive predictive value (81.5% vs. 55.1%, 75.6% vs. 52.6%) of B-mode US for both observers compared with B-mode US alone (all, P=0.001). Conclusion The VI of SMI for real-time breast US is highly reproducible and leads to improved diagnostic performance for differentiating between benign and malignant breast lesions in combination with B-mode US.

The mesentery is a structure comprising a double peritoneal layer that attaches the bowel to the abdominal wall. Mesenteric disease can cause various non-specific clinical symptoms in adults and is sometimes found incidentally during unrelated diagnostic imaging studies. CT plays an essential role in the diagnosis of mesenteric disease, which can present with various radiologic features, including a solid mass, cystic mass, or local or diffuse infiltration on CT. Some mesenteric diseases present with distinctive characteristics, while others share similar findings, thereby complicating their differential diagnosis. Therefore, understanding the radiological findings of mesenteric disease is important for accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

Background: We aimed to evaluate the association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and hearing loss (HL) in light of noise exposure in Korean middle-aged adults. Methods: Subjects were 10,356 adults (4,509 males, 5,847 females) aged 40–80 years, who completed audiometric tests and laboratory examinations as part of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2010 and 2012. MetS was defined according to the National Cholesterol Education Program-Third Adult Treatment Panel (NCEP III) and International Diabetes Federation (IDF). Low-frequency HL was defined as pure tone averages >25 decibels (dB) at low frequencies (0.5, 1, and 2 kilohertz [kHz]). High-frequency HL was defined as pure tone averages >25 dB at high frequencies (3, 4, and 6 kHz). Odd ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of MetS associated with each HL type were estimated using multiple logistic regression analysis after adjusting for covariates and taking into consideration sampling weight. Results: 38.1% and 28.6% met the MetS by NCEP III and IDF criteria, respectively. Prevalence of HL was 29.3% and 63.9% for low- and high-frequency HL, respectively. MetS defined by NCEP III was associated with higher risk of high-frequency HL (OR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.05–1.73), while MetS by IDF criteria was not. The interaction by the noise exposure on the MetS and high-frequency HL was not significant (P-interaction=0.100). There was no association between MetS and low-frequency HL, regardless of applied diagnostic criteria for MetS. Conclusion Our findings suggest MetS is associated with high-frequency HL in people with exposure to noise.