No abstract available.
Herpes Zoster* ; Psoriasis*

Primary intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery is a rare disease and there has been no report of any case originating from the pulmonary valve. Recently we experienced a 62 year-old female patient who had a primary intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary valve with distal metastasis. She was brought to medical attention due to exertional dyspnea facial edema productive coughing and general weakness for 1 month. Chest CT and echocardi-ography suggest an acute pulmonary thromboembolism or tumor. Exploration showed a large polypoid mass arising from the pulmonary leaflets and multiple masses on distal pulmonary arteries. We replaced the pulmonary valve and reconstructed the pulmonary artery. She received radiotherapy 1 month postoperatively and now 4 months after surgery she has begun receiving chemotherapy.
Cough ; Drug Therapy ; Dyspnea ; Edema ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pulmonary Artery ; Pulmonary Embolism ; Pulmonary Valve* ; Radiotherapy ; Rare Diseases ; Sarcoma* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Clostridium perfringens is an anaerobe responsible for a wide range of diseases in animals and humans. Symptoms associated with C. perfringens food poisoning are caused by enterotoxin expressed only during sporulation of C. perfringens. It has been known that only 6% of global C. perfringens isolates carry the enterotoxin gene. We found 2 strains of enterotoxigenic C. perfringens out of 33 strains isolated from various sources in Korea using PCR. It was also found that these two strains were both type A that were strongly associated with food poisoning by checking the presence of four major lethal toxins (a-, B-, e-, l-toxin) using PCR. These results suggest that foodborne illness caused by C. perfringens may be common in Korea and that public education is necessary to prevent contamination of foods by this organism.
Animals ; Clostridium perfringens* ; Clostridium* ; Education ; Enterotoxins* ; Foodborne Diseases ; Humans ; Korea* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction

The synthesis of histone mRNA is closely coupled with DNA replication. During the S-phase of the cell cycle, the level of histone mRNA increases over fifty fold then rapidly disappears at the start of G2-phase. The presence, therefore, of abundant quantities of histone mRNA provides a molecular marker of cycling cells. The expression of histone mRNA was investigated by in situ hybridization method in N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine (BBN) induced rat bladder tumor to determine the proliferation patterns. This method resulted in intense brown/black cytoplasmic staining of cells containing histone mRNA and extent and intensity of stain were increased in tumorigenesis (normal, simple hyperplasia, nodular or papillary hyperplasia, and transitional cell carcinoma-Ta,T1). The higher S-phase fraction indicated greater biological malignancy based on the fact that the extent and intensity of stain progressively increased with tumorigenesis.
Animals ; Carcinogenesis ; Cell Cycle ; Cytoplasm ; DNA Replication ; Histones* ; Hyperplasia ; In Situ Hybridization* ; Rats* ; RNA, Messenger* ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* ; Urinary Bladder*

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of the combination therapy of intravitreal bevacizumab injection and photodynamic therapy in neovascular age-related macular degeneration associated with large retinal pigment epithelial detachment. METHODS: A total of 13 eyes were reviewed, with 9 eyes diagnosed with definite choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and 4 eyes diagnosed with CNV or polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) becausethe exact type could not be determined. Photodynamic therapy was performed within 1 week after bevacizumab injection according to indocyanine green angiography (ICGA). Additional bevacizumab injections were performed within a 4 to 6 week interval. Additional photodynamic therapy was performed within 4 months. RESULTS: The visual acuity on final examination had improved in 3 eyes (23.1%), was maintained in 7 eyes (53.8%), and decreased in 3 eyes (23.1%). The change of the PED before and after treatment showed regression in 5 eyes (38.5%), recurrence after regression in 2 eyes (15.4%), persistence in 4 eyes (30.8%), and retinal pigment epithelial tear in 2 eyes (15.4%). The maintained or improved visual acuity rate was 66.7% (6/9) and 100% (4/4) in the CNV and CNV or PCV group, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The combination therapy in neovascular age-related macular degenerationassociated with large retinal pigment epithelial detachment is a viable alternative treatment in the stabilization and improvement of vision. However, further studies with long-term follow up and controlled studies with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor antibody monotherapy are required.
Angiography ; Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized ; Choroid ; Choroidal Neovascularization ; Endothelial Growth Factors ; Eye ; Follow-Up Studies ; Indocyanine Green ; Macular Degeneration ; Photochemotherapy ; Recurrence ; Retinal Detachment ; Retinaldehyde ; Vision, Ocular ; Visual Acuity ; Bevacizumab

Congenital anomalies of the spine are frequent and variable. Some are restricted to skeletal structures, while others involve combined neural tube defects or are associated with other multi-systemic disorders. Structural spinal anomalies can be classified according to their location: 1) the vertebral body, 2) the articular process, 3) the lamina with spinous process, 4) the pars interarticularis, 5) the facet joint, 6) the pedicle, or 7) other. Because of similarities between these congenital anomalies and (a) secondary changes involving infection or joint disease and (b) deformities resulting from trauma and uncertain tumorous conditions, significant confusion can occur during diagnosis. Moreover, since the anomalies often give rise to both functional impairment and cosmetic problems, appropriate treatment relies crucially on accurate diagnosis. The authors illustrate the pathogenesis and radiologic findings of the relatively common spinal anomalies confined to skeletal structures.
Congenital Abnormalities ; Diagnosis ; Joint Diseases ; Neural Tube Defects ; Spine* ; Zygapophyseal Joint

BACKGROUND: In several studies, failure of some of the previously developed anti-HIV-1/HIV-2 ELISA tests to detect HIV-1 group O infected blood had been reported. All of the anti-HIV-1/HIV-2 ELISA tests made by Korean manufactures have limitation in detecting HIV-1 group O infected blood. Newly developed LG Anti-HIV 1/2 Plus is the first Korean made product to overcome this limitation. METHODS: Sensitivity and specificity of LG Anti-HIV 1/2 Plus (LG Life Science, Seoul, Korea) and Enzygnost Anti-HIV 1/2 Plus (Dade Behring, Marburg, Germany) were evaluated using 82 Anti-HIV 1 positive samples, 2 Anti-HIV 1 group O positive samples, 25 Anti-HIV 2 positive samples and commercial BBI (Boston Biomedica, Inc., MA, USA)) Anti-HIV panels and 382 Anti HIV negative samples (300 healthy donors, 13 alcoholics sera, 20 end-stage renal disease sera, 20 HBsAg positive sera, 22 anti-HBs antibody positive sera, 7 anti-HCV positive sera) respectively. Seroconversion window was evaluated using 2 BBI(R) seroconversion panel. Intrapersonal and interpersonal reproducibility of the test were evaluated also. RESULTS: Sensitivity and specificity of both tests were 100%. Analysis of window period using commercial seroconversion panel showed no difference between both tests. CONCLUSION: LG Anti-HIV 1/2 Plus LISA showed excellent sensitivity and specificity in tested samples including HIV-1 group O infected sera. It can be concluded that LG Anti-HIV 1/2 Plus ELISA is capable of detecting most of the HIV-1, HIV-2 type and it could be used in screening donated blood.
Alcoholics ; Biological Science Disciplines ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay* ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; HIV ; HIV-1 ; HIV-2 ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Mass Screening ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Seoul ; Tissue Donors

Guillain-Barre syndrome is an acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculopathy characterized by progressive motor weakness, areflexia, and ascending paralysis. Guillain-Barre syndrome is extremely rare in pregnant patients, and there are no established guidelines for delivery or safest anesthetic methods. We report a Cesarean delivery in the case of a 32-year old woman who was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome 18 weeks into gestation. Tracheostomy was performed due to progressive respiratory muscle weakness and respiratory failure, and ventilator support was required in the intensive care unit. The respiratory difficulty was exacerbated by the growth of the fetus, necessitating emergency Cesarean delivery. The delivery was successfully performed under general anesthesia, and the patient recovered without neurological sequelae.
Anesthesia, General ; Cesarean Section ; Emergencies ; Female ; Fetus ; Guillain-Barre Syndrome ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Paralysis ; Polyradiculopathy ; Pregnancy ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Respiratory Muscles ; Tracheostomy ; Ventilators, Mechanical

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) occur commonly in the all living and in cycling cells. They constitute one of the most severe form of DNA damage, because they affect both strand of DNA. DSBs result in cell death or a genetic alterations including deletion, loss of heterozygosity, translocation, and chromosome loss. DSBs arise from endogenous sources like metabolic products and reactive oxygen, and also exogenous factors like ionizing radiation. Defective DNA DSBs can lead to toxicity and large scale sequence rearrangement that can cause cancer and promote premature aging. There are two major pathways for their repair: homologous recombination(HR) and non-homologous end-joining(NHEJ). The HR pathway is a known "error-free" repair mechanism, in which a homologous sister chromatid serves as a template. NHEJ, on the other hand, is a "error-prone" pathway, in which the two termini of the broken DNA molecule are used to form compatible ends that are directly ligated. This review aims to provide a fundamental understanding of how HR and NHEJ pathways operate, cause genome instability, and what kind of genes during the pathways are associated with head and neck cancer.
Aging, Premature ; Cell Death ; Chromatids ; DNA ; DNA Damage ; Genomic Instability ; Hand ; Head ; Head and Neck Neoplasms ; Humans ; Loss of Heterozygosity ; Oxygen ; Radiation, Ionizing ; Siblings

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) occur commonly in the all living and in cycling cells. They constitute one of the most severe form of DNA damage, because they affect both strand of DNA. DSBs result in cell death or a genetic alterations including deletion, loss of heterozygosity, translocation, and chromosome loss. DSBs arise from endogenous sources like metabolic products and reactive oxygen, and also exogenous factors like ionizing radiation. Defective DNA DSBs can lead to toxicity and large scale sequence rearrangement that can cause cancer and promote premature aging. There are two major pathways for their repair: homologous recombination(HR) and non-homologous end-joining(NHEJ). The HR pathway is a known "error-free" repair mechanism, in which a homologous sister chromatid serves as a template. NHEJ, on the other hand, is a "error-prone" pathway, in which the two termini of the broken DNA molecule are used to form compatible ends that are directly ligated. This review aims to provide a fundamental understanding of how HR and NHEJ pathways operate, cause genome instability, and what kind of genes during the pathways are associated with head and neck cancer.
Aging, Premature ; Cell Death ; Chromatids ; DNA ; DNA Damage ; Genomic Instability ; Hand ; Head ; Head and Neck Neoplasms ; Humans ; Loss of Heterozygosity ; Oxygen ; Radiation, Ionizing ; Siblings