Glomus tumor is well recognized and documented lesion which usually presents as painful dermal nodules in fingers. The tumor results from hypertrophy of a glomus, which is a normal structure of the skin, a coiled arterioyenous shunt regulating body temperature. Glomus tumor may occur at any age but is most frequent in the middle age of life. Pain, tenderness and cold sensitivity are the classic triad of symptoms. Complete surgical exision is the treatment of choice for glomus tumors. Successful removal of tumor leads to complete relief of pain and return to normal function. We report 4 cases of subungual glomus tumor successfully treated by complete exision with review of literatures.
Body Temperature ; Fingers ; Glomus Tumor ; Humans ; Hypertrophy ; Middle Aged ; Skin

Pelvic bone is complex in its shape, so we often miss to find the fractures in cases with unclear fracture line. We studied 25 patients who were suspected to have occult fractures in pelvic area. We were able to find lots of occult fractures with bone scan followed by CT scan. The results were as follows; 1. There were 31 unexpected hot spots in 25 patients in bone scan. 2. Six cases (19.3%j of new injuries were found on re-evaluation of plain film or additionally rechecked plain films. 3. Twenty-one new fractures (67.7%) were found on CT film study. 4. Total 27 additional fractures (89.1%) were found after bone scan followed CT scan. In conclusion Bone Scan followed by CT is a effective method of detecting occult fracture in pelvic area.
Fractures, Closed ; Humans ; Pelvic Bones* ; Pelvis ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed*

Acidosis ; Adult ; Anesthesia ; Anesthetics ; Cyanosis ; Dantrolene ; Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Malignant Hyperthermia ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Pentobarbital ; Succinylcholine ; Tachycardia

Herpes zoster oticus is a viral disease associated with otalgia, vesicular eruptions, facial paralysis, hearing disturbance, tinnitus, vertigo and other symptoms. Among cranial nerves, trigeminal and facial nerves are the most commonly affected in patients with herpes zoster oticus, but on rare occasions 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th cranial nerves are influenced as well. Authors ex-perienced a case of herpes zoster oticus involving glossopharyngeal nerve and vagal nerve without facial palsy in a 58-year-old male. We report this case with a review of literatures.
Cranial Nerves* ; Earache ; Facial Nerve ; Facial Paralysis* ; Glossopharyngeal Nerve ; Hearing ; Herpes Zoster Oticus* ; Herpes Zoster* ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Tinnitus ; Vertigo ; Virus Diseases

OBJECTIVES: DNA polymerase (pol) of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) includes 3 different domains such as terminal protein (TP), reverse transcriptase (RT) and RNase H. Humoral immune responses to each of these proteins have not been well documented previously, although antibody to pol was detected in serum of patients with chronic hepatitis B. We have constructed TP (amino acids 1-182), RT (amino acids 346-685) and RNase H (amino acids 690-832). METHODS: By ELISA using each protein expressed in E. coli as antigens, the corresponding antibodies were tested in serum from 40 patients with type B viral chronic liver diseases. (20 HBeAg-positive and 20 HBeAg-negative). As negative controls, sera from 3 healthy young men were used. With the mean values of the OD, which were tested 4 times per each test sample and 3 times per each control sample, we considered to be positive if the mean OD of each test sample is 2-fold or higher than that of controls. RESULTS: Five of 40 sera (12.5%) contained one or two different antibodies detectable by this method: 4 of 20 HbeAg-positive sera (20%) and 1 of 20 HbeAg-negative sera (5%). Anti-TP, anti-RT and anti-RNase H antibodies were detected in 2.5% (1/40), 10% (4/40) and 7.5% (3/40), respectively. Among 4/20 HbeAg-positive ELISA-positive sera, anti-TP, anti-RT and anti-RNase H were positive in 5% (1/20), 20% (4/20) and 10% (2/20), respectively, while 1 HBeAg-negative ELISA-positive sera were positive only for anti-RNase H. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the corresponding antibody responses to individual recombinant peptides derived from 3 domains of DNA polymerase may tend to be detected more frequently in HBeAg-positive sera than in HBeAg-negative sera from various patients with type B viral chronic liver diseases.
Adult ; Antibodies, Antinuclear/analysis* ; Biological Markers/analysis ; DNA Polymerase II/immunology* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Female ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens/analysis* ; Hepatitis B Virus/immunology* ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/immunology* ; Human ; Male ; Middle Age ; Odds Ratio ; Reference Values ; Substances: DNA Polymerase II ; Substances: Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Substances: Biological Markers ; Substances: Antibodies, Antinuclear

Antitumor effects of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) against superficial urinary bladder cancer is known to be strong when BCG is directly infused into the bladder, but its immunological mechanisms are poorly understood. These experiments were performed to elucidate the effects of intralesional or systemic administration of BCG on the antitumor activity in murine transitional cell carcinoma (MBT-2) model and on the production of cytokines by the activated splenocytes or macrophages. ...continue...
Animals ; Bacillus ; Carcinoma, Transitional Cell ; Cytokines ; Immunotherapy* ; Macrophages ; Mice* ; Mycobacterium bovis* ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* ; Urinary Bladder*

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 on the cellular metabolic activity and morphological changes on retinal pigment epithelial cells that influence the development of proliferative vitreoretinopathy. METHODS: After bovine RPE cells were isolated, they were exposed to TGF-beta1 0.1 ng/ml, 0.4 ng/ml, 0.8 ng/ml, 1.6 ng/ml and DMEM that was used only as control. After 24 hours, MTT based colorimetric assay was performed to assess the inhibition of cellular proliferation, and the cellular morphology was evaluated by inverse phase-contrast light microscope and electron microscope. RESULTS: The higher the concentration of TGF-beta1 with fetal bovine serum, the more the inhibition of the cellular proliferation in bovine RPE cells, especially at the concentration of TGF-beta1 1.6 ng/ml (P<0.05). There was no relationship between the concentration of TGF-beta1 and the cellular metabolic activity in fetal bovine serum free (P>0.05). In TGF-beta1 10 ng/ml, the bovine retinal pigment epithelial cell showed a bundle of cytoplasmic microtendon, disposed parallel to the long axis of the cell and pinocytotic like vesicle. CONCLUSIONS: TGF-beta1 has a tendency of inhibitory effect in the cellular proliferation of bovine RPE cells. We confirmed that there were some characteristics of myofibroblast transformation from RPE treated with TGF-beta1 under TEM.
Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Cell Proliferation ; Cytoplasm ; Epithelial Cells* ; Myofibroblasts ; Retinaldehyde* ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; Transforming Growth Factors* ; Vitreoretinopathy, Proliferative

Tuberous sclerosis is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by seizure, mental retardation and harmatomatous lesions in multiple organs. The renal lesions of tuberous sclerosis are multiple angiomyolipomas often associated with cysts of various sizes. A 47-year-old man who had been on hemodialysis for 12 years was admitted to our hospital because of sudden onset of right flank pain. He had polycystic kidney disease and adenoma sebaceum. Abdominal computed tomography showed an enlarged right kidney with massive hemorrhage, and renal arteriography showed massive bleeding. Immediate transarterial embolization and radical nephrectomy on the right kidney was done. Pathologic examination revealed ruptured renal angiomyolipoma, confirming that he had contiguous gene syndrome. We experienced a case of tuberous sclerosis with spontaneous rupture of renal angiomyolipoma in a hemodialysis patient with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.
Angiography ; Angiomyolipoma* ; Flank Pain ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Intellectual Disability ; Kidney ; Middle Aged ; Nephrectomy ; Polycystic Kidney Diseases* ; Polycystic Kidney, Autosomal Dominant ; Renal Dialysis ; Rupture, Spontaneous* ; Seizures ; Tuberous Sclerosis*

Double pylorus is a rare condition consisting of a double communication between gastric antrum and duodenal bulb; in most cases it is a complication of penetrating ulcer, and sometimes it is a congenital abnormality. The prevalence of this rare anomaly ranges from 0.02% to 0.13%; the male: female ratio is about 2: 1. A case of double pylorus, in 41 year-old male, was diagnosed by gastrofiberscopy and UGIS. Two ovoid and crescent pits of the pyloric canal divided by smooth thickened septum were observed endoscopically. The upper GI series showed gastroduodenal fistula connecting the leeser curve of distal antrum with the duodenal bulb. The relevant literatures on the subject were reviewed.
Adult ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Female ; Fistula ; Humans ; Male ; Prevalence ; Pyloric Antrum ; Pylorus* ; Ulcer

Endoscopic variceal ligation(EVL) is an accepted alternatives to endoscopic injection sclero- therapy(EIS) in many patients with bleeding esophageal varices. Esophageal hematoma is rare and an unusual complication after EVL or EIS. We present a patient with liver cirrhosis who developed an obstructive esophageal hematoma after EVL.
Esophageal and Gastric Varices ; Hematoma* ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Ligation* ; Liver Cirrhosis