We reoport a case of multiple basal cell carcinoma in a 51-year-old male who have taken a herb medication for right hemiplegia during 30 years. The patient had a 15-year history of the black colored, ulcerated nodules on left forehead and erythematous, protruded masses on back. Also, he had a 6-year history of black colored, ulcerated nodules on right temporal area of scalp and brownish, flat plaques on anterior chest, Biopsy specimens from lesions revealed typical histopathologic findings of the basal cell carcinoma. Wide excision with graft was done. One year later, he was expired due to lung carcinoma.
Biopsy ; Carcinoma, Basal Cell* ; Forehead ; Hemiplegia ; Humans ; Lung ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Scalp ; Thorax ; Transplants ; Ulcer

Erythromelanosis follicularis faciei et coli is a pigmentary disorder of unknown cause originally described by Kitamura et al in 1960. We describe two cases of erythromelanosis follicularis faciei et colli occured in adolescence. Clinical features of these patients were consistent with the clinical changes described in previous cases having clinical triad of erythema, hyperpigmentation and follicular papules. This pigmentary disorder may not be an uncommon disease, however it might be neglected from the concern of the dermatologists.
Adolescent ; Erythema ; Humans ; Hyperpigmentation

To investigate the human lung development and the distribution of elastic and reticular fibers during the fetal period proper, lung tissues taken from the periphery of the right lower lobes of Korean fetuses (n=49) of both sex were studied. The fetuses were the prodocts of spontaneous or therapeutic abortions and were found to have no associated lesions or anomalies at autopsy. The fetal age were estimated from crown-rump length or foot length. Paraffin sections, cut at 5-7 µm, were stained with routine hematoxylin and eosin for general structure, acid orcein and a1dehyde fuchsin for elastic fiber, and with Gomori's silver technique for reticular fiber, respectively. The lung development during fetal period proper, could be subdivided into three continuous periods according to the relation between airspaces, surrounding mesenchymal tissue, their structural changes and distribution, i.e., an early stage of the formation of conductive airways (pseudoglandular period, before 16th week of gestation), a middle stage of the development of lung parenchyma and new blood vessels (canalicular period, between 16th and 28th week of gestation), and a late stage of transition of respiratory portion to vascular organ (terminal sac stage, after 28th week of gestation). In places, secondary septa of sac or saccule formed by capillaries, capillary connective tissue, elastic and reticular fuel could be identified by the 33rd week of gestation. Elastic fibers could be noted in pleura, subepithelial areas of bronchioles and the wall of blood vessels in the late stage of pseudoglandular period. By the 28th week of gestation, elastic fibers were seen in the wall of small blood vessels or capillaries in the septal wall among the airspaces. And these fibers were observed in the tip of the secondary septa by the 33rd week of gestation but were not still completely developed in the walls of primary or secondary septa. Reticular fibers were already developed and widely distributed in fetal lung by the 10th week of gestation. These fibers were concentrated particular around the subepithelial area of bronchicoles, the airspaces and the blood vessel wall in the canalicular period. By the late stage of terminal sac period, reticular fibers formed a network along the small blood vessels in the septum of airspaces. These results indicate that primitive alveoli might be formed by the late stage of fetal period proper. The fibrous framework could partially formed by collagenous and reticular fibers during the pseudoglandular period, by addition of elastic fiber to the preformed network, and incompletely still finally by the three kinds of connective tissue fiber.
Abortion, Therapeutic ; Autopsy ; Blood Vessels ; Bronchioles ; Capillaries ; Collagen ; Connective Tissue ; Crown-Rump Length ; Elastic Tissue ; Eosine Yellowish-(YS) ; Female ; Fetus ; Foot ; Gestational Age ; Hematoxylin ; Humans ; Lung* ; Paraffin ; Pleura ; Pregnancy ; Reticulin* ; Rosaniline Dyes ; Saccule and Utricle ; Silver

BACKGROUND: It has been reported that one or more intermittent reperfusion(s) during ischemia may be beneficial to the myocardium by washing out catabolites that have accumlated during ischemia. We evaluated the effect of four cycles of ichemia (2 minutes) and reperfusion (3 miutes), i.e., preconditioning on sustained ischemia (20 minutes) and reperfusion (60 minutes) using isolated Langendorff-perfused rabbit hearts. METHODS: After a fifty-minutes recovery phase, LVP , dLVP/dt and ECG were simultaneously recorded and ultrastructure of the stunned(or risk) area of the left ventricle was examined with conventional methods. RESULTS: In the preconditioned hearts, functional parameters such as LVPP(peak pressure), LVPP recovery rate and LVEDP(end-diastolic pressure) reached to 99.6+/-4.38mmHg, 98.0+/-4.67% and 14.0+/-2.90mmHg (109.3+/-2.91mmHg, 109.4+/-1.29mmHg and 10.7+/-2.67mmHg for the controls), respectively, after 30 minutes from the onset of reperfusion and maintained as in the controls(p>0.01). In contrast, in the ischemia-reperfusion hearts, LVPP and LVPP recovery rate were significantly reduced(81.6+/-6.83mmHg and 85.7+/-5.30%;p<0.05) and LVEDP elevated(21.2+/-3.00mmHg) but dP/dtmax, heart rate and ECG patterns were not significantly different between the preconditioned and the ischemia-refusion hearts during reperfusion. Furthermore, irreversible myocardial injury was homogeneous(both subendo- and subepicardial) in the ischmia-reperfusion hearts but only focal(subendocardial) in preconditioned hearts. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that preconditioning induced by very short periods of ischemia and reperfusion may enhance recovery of the left ventricular function and delay ultrastructhral changes to a certain extent during reperfusion.
Electrocardiography ; Heart Rate ; Heart Ventricles ; Heart* ; Ischemia ; Myocardium ; Reperfusion ; Ventricular Function, Left

The E-cadherin, alpha-catenin, and beta-catenin expressions were immunohistochemically investigated in paraffin-embedded materials of 80 cases of colorectal adenocarcinomas. The staining similar to normal colorectal mucosa with preserved strong membranous staining pattern was considered normal or preserved expression. The X2 test was used to analyse the statistical correlation of cadherin/catenin expression with clinicopathologic parameters and the Breslow test for the correlation with survival length. Normal colorectal mucosa showed strong membranous expression of cadherin/catenin complex. The reduced E-cadherin, alpha-catenin, and beta-catenin expression were found in 53/80 (66.3%), 46/80 (57.5%), and 44/80 (55.5%) cases of colorectal cancers examined, respectively. There were significant correlations between E- cadherin and alpha -catenin (p=0.035), and between alpha-catenin and beta-catenin (p=0.013). The reduced E-cadherin expression was associated with histologic dedifferentiation, tumor depth, lymph node metastasis, clinical stage (p<0.05), poor clinical outcome in stage II (p=0.016) and the reduced alpha-catenin expression with lymph node metastasis and clinical stage (p<0.05). Reduced expression of two or more proteins was correlated with lymph node matastasis, histologic dedifferentiation, clinical stage, and survival (p<0.05). The present study demonstrates a significant down-regulation of E-cadherin and alpha-catenin expression in colorectal cancer is associated with tumor invasiveness, histologic dedifferentiation, lymph node metastasis, and clinical stage. These results suggest that E-cadherin and alpha-catenin may be useful markers of invasiveness, lymph node metastatic potential, and clinical stage and of value as prognostic markers in the earlier stage. Further studies are needed to confirm the prognostic value of these cadherin/catenin complex.
Adenocarcinoma* ; alpha Catenin* ; beta Catenin* ; Cadherins* ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Down-Regulation ; Lymph Nodes ; Mucous Membrane ; Neoplasm Metastasis

PURPOSE: We reviewed the treatment outcomes and prognostic factors for patients with anal canal carcinoma who were treated with curative intent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) at Severance Hospital from 2005 to 2011. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data for 38 eligible patients treated during this period were reviewed. All patients were treated with curative intent using radiotherapy (RT) with (n = 35) or without concomitant chemotherapy (n = 3). Among 35 patients who received CRT, most of the chemotherapeutic regimens were either 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) plus mitomycin C (23 patients) or 5-FU plus cisplatin (10 patients). Recurrence-free survival (RFS), colostomy-free survival (CFS), overall survival (OS), and locoregional control (LRC) rates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method and survival between subgroups were compared using the log-rank test. Cox's proportional hazard model was used for multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Over a median follow-up period of 44 months (range, 11 to 96 months), 3-year RFS, CFS, OS, and LRC were 80%, 79%, 85%, and 92%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, tumor size >4 cm was an independent predicting factor for poorer RFS (hazard ratio [HR], 6.35; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.42 to 28.5; p = 0.006) and CFS (HR, 6.25; 95% CI, 1.39-28.0; p = 0.017), while the presence of external iliac lymph node metastasis was an independent prognosticator for poorer OS (HR, 9.32; 95% CI, 1.24 to 70.3; p = 0.030). No treatment-related colostomies or deaths occurred during or after treatment. CONCLUSION: Curative intent CRT resulted in excellent outcomes that were comparable to outcomes in previous randomized trials. No severe treatment-related toxicities were observed.
Anal Canal ; Anus Neoplasms ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Chemoradiotherapy ; Cisplatin ; Colostomy ; Fluorouracil ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Mitomycin ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Proportional Hazards Models

N,N-Diethylnitrosamine (DEN) has been proved to have carcinogenic potential in the initiation or promotion stage and the transformed cells proliferate to form preneoplastic nodules which are positive for placental form of glutathione S-transferase (GST-P). E-Cadherin, a member of the cadherin family, is expressed in epithelial cells. To evaluate the role of adhesion molecules (E-Cadherin, alpha-catenin, and beta-catenin), which have not been well understood in carcinogenesis, we investigated the changes of E-cadherin, alpha-Catenin and beta-Catenins by immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting in DEN-induced hepatocarcinogenesis of rat liver. In addition, the sequential analysis of histopathology and the expression of GST-P were also examined. Immunoreactive areas for GST-P were gradually increased from early period of carcinogenesis and strong GST-P positive foci were noted in various lesions, especially in the clear cell and eosinophilic cell nodules. Immunohistochemically, the E-Cadherin expression was increased in DEN-treated preneoplastic nodules in 4 and 10 weeks and hepatocellular carcinomas displayed relatively reduced expression compared with the hyperplastic nodules. But alpha- and beta-catenin expression was increased in hyperplastic nodules and hepatocellular carcinomas. Immunoblotting studies revealed that the level of alpha-catenin (cytosol and membranous fraction) was overexpressed in hyperplastic nodules as well as hepatocellular carcinomas, which showed markedly increased expression. The membranous fraction of beta-catenin was markedly increased in 10 weeks of DEN treatment and slightly reduced in hepatocellular carcinomas. These findings suggest that during DEN-induced hepatocarcinogenesis, the clear cell and eosinophilic cell nodules expressing GST-P in their cytoplasm are early transformed cell nodules. The altered expression of E-Cadherin and catenins is closely related with tumor propagation. Loss or reduced expression of E-cadherin may play a role in the progression of late hyperplastic nodule to hepatocellular carcinoma in DEN-induced rat hepato carcinogenesis.
alpha Catenin ; Animals ; beta Catenin ; Cadherins* ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Catenins* ; Cytoplasm ; Eosinophils ; Epithelial Cells ; Glutathione Transferase* ; Glutathione* ; Humans ; Immunoblotting ; Immunohistochemistry ; Liver* ; Rats*

PURPOSE: To obtain normative data on bone mineral density of each region of interest (ROI) measured by Hologic model dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of children and adolescents. METHODS: Cross sectional results from 723 healthy Korean children and adolescents (10-20 years of age) in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys were analyzed. We used age- and sex-specific reference data for bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine, femur neck, and total body except head from Hologic DXA device as recommended by the International Society for Clinical Densitometry. RESULTS: The bone mineral density of each ROI increased with age in both boys and girls. Maximal increase in the lumbar BMD occurred between ages 11 and 12 in girls and between ages 12 and 14 in boys. However, the increases of BMD in each ROI were different. The plateaus of the lumbar spine and whole body except head BMD in girls occurred at ages 15 and 17, respectively. The plateaus of BMD in each ROI occurred at age 17 in boys. CONCLUSION: Most of the skeletal mass, including lumbar spine and total body except head, is reached before the end of the second decade. This study provides reference values for bone density of each ROI measured with DXA for children and adolescents.
Absorptiometry, Photon ; Adolescent ; Bone Density ; Child ; Femur Neck ; Head ; Humans ; Korea ; Reference Values ; Sex Characteristics ; Spine

OBJECTIVE: Transabdominal cervico-isthmic cerclage(TCIC) may increase the fetal salvage rate and pregnancy outcome in selected women when poor obstetric outcome is related to previously failed transvaginal cervical cerclage and an anatomically defective cervix. Our purpose was to evaluate the outcomes after transabdominal cervicoisthmic cerclage during pregnancy. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective review was done from patients who had been received transabdominal cervicoisthmic cerclage during pregnancy at Hanyang University Medical Center from October, 1989 to April 1997. The fetal salvage rate before and after post-conceptional transabdominal cervicoisthmic cerclage were compared and analysed. RESULTS: The seventy-eight patients had 95 successful pregnancies out of a total of 97. Thus the fetal salvage rate of TCIC during in pregnancy was 97.9 %. Of 78 patients, nineteen patients had the second succesful pregnancies and repeat cesarean deliveries after TCIC. CONCLUSION: We conclude that the transabdominal cervicoisthmic cerclage during pregnancy offers a high fetal salvage rate with a minimal complications in patients with extremely poor obstertric histories as a result of cervical incompetence, where vaginal cerclage is not warranted.
Academic Medical Centers ; Cerclage, Cervical ; Cervix Uteri ; Female ; Humans ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Outcome* ; Pregnancy* ; Retrospective Studies ; Uterine Cervical Incompetence

The gene for tyrosinase has been mapped to the long arm of chromosome 11 at 11q14-21. The gene is at least 50Kb in length and its coding region is divided into five exons. Until now several mutations of the tyrosinase gene have been identifed in patient with typical oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) who are responsible for tyrosinase negative OCA. It may be possible to determine the types of OCA by measuring the hairbulb tyrosinase activity. Hairbulb tyrosinase activity was examined in a Korean albino to determine the type of OCA. And also tyrosinase assay was carried out in normally pigmented individuals and all members of a Korean albino's family to examine the tyrosinase activities. Five exons of tyrosinase gene from a Korean albino were amplified by polymerase chain reaction. Each amplified exon segments were independently subcloned and DNA sequences of clones were determined. The results obtained were as follows : 1. A Korean albino had no measurable hairbulb tyrosinase activity and was identified as type IA (tyrosinase negative) oculocutaneous albinism. 2. Normally pigmented individuals had different ranges of hairbulb tyrosinase activity. 3. A Korean albino had two single base insertions within exon V (between 337bp and 338bp, 353bp and 354bp) of tyrosinase gene. These insertional mutations might disrupt tyrosinase function and were associated with a total lack of melanin biosynthesis.
Albinism* ; Albinism, Oculocutaneous ; Arm ; Base Sequence ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 11 ; Clinical Coding ; Clone Cells ; Exons ; Humans ; Melanins ; Monophenol Monooxygenase* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction