Many authors asserted that the incidence of sexually transmitted disease, especially syphilis, increased recently. We examined the annual reactive rate of VDRL test in 23,886 persons who took a medical check-up for employment from March, 1978 to August, 1981 and the snnual rate of condyloma acuminatum among 91,334 dermatologic outpatients from 1976 to 1980 to estimate the recent trend in sexually transmitted disease. The overall reactive rate of VDRL test was 1.40% and the annual reactive rate is l.85% in 1978, 1.31% in 1979, 0.92% in 1980 and 4.87% in 1981. The biologic false positive rate of VDRL test was 17.5% among 126 patients in whom TPHA test was done, using TPHA test as standard. The overall rate of condyloma acuminatum patients was 0.16% and the annual rate was 0.13% in 1976, 0.21% in 1977, 0.16% in 1978, 0.15% in 1979 and 0.17% in 1980.
Employment ; Humans ; Incidence ; Outpatients ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases ; Syphilis*

BACKGROUND: Pityriasis versicolor(PV) is a superficial mycosis, theoretically unusual in children. Epidemiologic and clinical data for children with PV under 14 years were collected. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical features of PV in the young. METHOD: We included all cases of PV in patients under 14 years of age observed in our department from 1981 to 1995. All cases were diagnosed on the basis of clinical criteria and were confirmed by microscopic examination. RESULTS: From 1981 to 1995 we encountered 32 cases of PV in children, compared with 637 cases in adults; thus children represented 4.7% of all cases. The ratio of male to female was l. 7:1. Among the age groups, the incidence was the highest in the 10-14 years(43%). The monthly prevalence was the highest in August. Distribution of the lesions were the face(40.9%), neck (25%), chest(13.6%), back(11.3%), extremities(6.8%) and abdomen(2.2%). The incidence of hypopigmented lesions was 70.4% and that of hyperpigmented lesions was 29.6%. CONCLUSION: This study confirms that the face is a predilectionl site for PV in children and all facial lesions are hypopigmented. Other clinical features are variable and similar to those of adults.
Adult ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Neck ; Pityriasis* ; Prevalence ; Tinea Versicolor*

PURPOSE: To cmpare the clinical results of complex tibial plateau fractures treated by hybrid external fixation and dual plate fixation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied forty patients with Schatzker type V and VI fractures respectively and selected twenty seven patients who were followed at least one year between January 2000 and December 2005. We evaluated the clinical results in which fourteen fractures with hybrid external fixation were compared with thirteen fractures with dual plate fixation. The clinical results were evaluated according to Knee Society Clinical Rating System and the statistical analysis was performed by Student t-test. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in terms of bone union time (average union time: dual plate fixation 13.8 weeks, hybrid external fixation 14.2 weeks). The quality of osseous reduction was superior in the fractures with dual plate fixation than those with hybrid external fixation. There were significant differences in functional score (average functional score: dual plate fixation 73, hybrid external fixation 62), but not in average knee score. CONCLUSION: The hybrid external fixation can be a useful modality for treatment of complex proximal tibial plateau fractures. But the good quality of the fracture reduction by dual plate fixation may be a indicator for favorable prognosis for satisfactory knee function.
Chimera ; External Fixators ; Humans ; Knee ; Prognosis

No abstract available.
Intra-Articular Fractures* ; Tibia*

Progressive Muscular Dystrophy is a hereditary disorder characterized by progressive weakness and wasting of muscules. The etiology of muscular dystrophy is unknown, and no from of pharmacological treatment is considered effective. We report 2 cases of progressive muscular dystrophy occuring in a family, which were diagnosed by clinical findings, serum enzyme study and electromyography.
Electromyography ; Humans ; Muscular Dystrophies

PURPOSE: The goal of this in vivo study is to determine the feasibility and efficacy of suicide gene therapy using adenovirus-mediated herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) and the prodrug acyclovir (ACV) system in animal model of human prostate cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used a replication-defective adenoviral vector containing the beta-galactosidase gene (Ad-CMV-beta-gal) as a control and Adenovirus-Cytomegalovirus-Thymidine Kinase (Ad-CMV-TK) as the therapeutic vector under the trascriptional control of the CMV promoter. Transduction efficiency was assessed in vitro by infection of LNCaP and PC-3 human prostate cancer cells with Ad-CMV-beta-gal utilizing X-gal staining. TK activity in LNCaP and PC-3 cells infected with Ad-CMV-TK was determined by measuring the TK-mediated [3H]-Ganciclovir (GCV) phosphorylation. Sensitivity of LNCaP and PC-3 cells to Ad-CMV-TK in vitro was determined after infection of therapeutic vector with or without ACV. Subcutaneous tumors were established in athymic nude(nu/nu) mice with PC-3 cells, and Ad-CMV-TK/ACV sucide gene therapeutic system-induced inhibition of tumor growth in vivo was determined in separate and controlled experiments. RESULTS: The mean TK activity was significantly higher in Ad-CMV-TK-infected LNCaP and PC-3 cells than in cells infected with Ad-CMV-beta-gal that was used as a control(P<0.05). The growth of human prostate cancer cells with Ad-CMV-TK was significantly inhibited by the addition of GCV in vitro(p<0.05). In vivo experiments using PC-3 human prostate cancer animal model demonstrated that tumor volume and growth at the conclusion of experiment was significantly attenuated in the suicide toxic gene therapy (Ad-CMV-TK / ACV) group compared with Ad-CMV-TK, ACV and no treatment control groups(p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Adenovirus-mediated suicide gene therapy using HSV-TK / ACV system provides an effective therapy in an experimental human prostate cancer animal model by significantly inhibiting tumor growth.
Acyclovir ; Adenoviridae ; Animals ; beta-Galactosidase ; Genetic Therapy* ; Herpes Simplex* ; Humans ; Mice ; Models, Animal ; Phosphorylation ; Phosphotransferases* ; Prostate* ; Prostatic Neoplasms* ; Simplexvirus* ; Suicide* ; Thymidine Kinase ; Tumor Burden

Bilateral coronary artery fistula is very uncommon congenital anomaly which occupy small percentage of all congenital coronary artery fistula. About 20% of the cases associated with additional congenital heart disease. And it may cause congestive heart failure, especially severely in neonate. We experienced a case of neonate who was 1 day-old-male with bilateral coronary artery-right ventricular fistula associated with atrial septal defect and congestive heart failure. The Patient was admitted because dyspnea, cyanosis since birth. 2D ecgicardiogram and cardiac catheterization revealed that a fistulous communicating ; forming a large aneurysm, was noted from bilateral coronary artery emptied into the right ventricle, and there was oxygen step-up in right ventricle.
Aneurysm ; Cardiac Catheterization ; Cardiac Catheters ; Coronary Vessels ; Cyanosis ; Dyspnea ; Fistula* ; Heart Defects, Congenital ; Heart Failure ; Heart Septal Defects, Atrial* ; Heart Ventricles ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Oxygen ; Parturition

C-erbB-2 oncoprotein has been known to act as growth factor receptor responsible for the regulation of cellular growth, proliferation and differentiation and has been demonstrated in a number of cancers by immunohistochemical as well as matrix blotting techniques. Breast and ovarian cancer patients, whose tumor cells have amplification or overexpression of this oncoprotein, have been suggested to have worse prognosis. Yet, there are only a few studies on c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression in transitional cell carcinoma(TCC) of the bladder. The aim of this study was to examine c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression in bladder cancer to assess its potential as a useful prognostic marker in transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. Deparaffinized tumor specimens from 42 patients with TCC of the bladder and 3 normal bladder tissue specimens were utilized. C-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression was detected by immunohistochemical analysis and then correlated with conventional prognostic variables such as histologic tumor grade, stage and DNA ploidy. In addition, we related the expression of c-erbB-2 oncoprotein to indicators of cellular proliferative activities such as proliferating cell nuclear antigen(PCNA), mean number of silver nucleolar organizer regions(AgNORs) per nucleus, flow cytometric S-phase fraction(CPF) and proliferation index(PI). The incidence of c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression in Ash grade IV TCC of bladder was higher than that in Ash grade II and III (Chi-square test, p<0.05). The incidence of positive immunoreaction was higher in cases with muscle invasion and metastasis than in superficial tumors with statistical significance(p<0.05). In addition, statistical significant correlation was noted between c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression and PCNA expression rate. But there were no significant differences in c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression to DNA ploidy, PI nor SPF by flow cytometry and mean number of AgNORs per nucleus. The results of this study suggests that the c-erbB-2 oncoprotein together with other predictive parameters may serve to provide a phenotypic profile which permits more accurate forecasting of bladder cancer behavior and may prove to be useful in the future as an important guide to specific anti-tumor therapy.
Breast ; Carcinoma, Transitional Cell* ; DNA* ; Flow Cytometry ; Forecasting ; Humans ; Incidence ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Nucleolus Organizer Region* ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Ploidies* ; Prognosis ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen* ; Silver ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms ; Urinary Bladder*

No abstract available.
Cervix Uteri* ; Female ; Rhabdomyosarcoma*

No abstract available.
Malaria*