PURPOSE: Interest in peptic ulcer in children has been relatively low because the disease is rarer in children than in adults and there were restrictions in the application of endoscopy to children, but the recent development of pediatric endoscopy is activating research on pediatric peptic ulcer. Thus, this study compared the H. pylori infection rate and clinical and endoscopic findings among pediatric patients diagnosed with peptic ulcer. METHODS: We analyzed retrospectively 58 pediatric patients for whom whether to be infected with H. pylori was confirmed selected out of pediatric patients diagnosed with gastric ulcer or duodenal ulcer through upper gastrointestinal endoscopy at the Department of Pediatrics of Gachon University Gil Hospital during the period from January 2002 to December 2007. A case was considered H. pylori positive if H. pylori was detected in the Giemsa stain of tissue or the results of UBT (urea breath test) and CLO (rapid urease test) were both positive. RESULTS: Of the pediatric patients, 37 were infected with H. pylori and 21 were not. The H. pylori infection rate increased with aging and the result was statistically significant (p<0.05). However, H. pylori infection was not in a statistically significant correlation with sex, chief complaint, and gastroduodenal ulcer (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: H. pylori infection increased with aging, but was not significantly correlated with gastroduodenal ulcer. Further research may need to examine prospectively the relation between H. pylori and gastroduodenal ulcer in the Incheon area.
Adult ; Aging ; Azure Stains ; Child ; Duodenal Ulcer ; Endoscopy ; Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal ; Helicobacter ; Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Pediatrics ; Peptic Ulcer ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach Ulcer ; Urease

No abstract available.
Graves Disease* ; Hypothyroidism*

No abstract available.
Thyrotoxicosis*

BACKGROUND: Interest in pharmacist participation in the multidisciplinary intensive care team is increasing. However, studies examining pharmacist interventions in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) are limited in Korea. The aim of this study was to describe the current status of pharmacist interventions and to identify common pharmacologic problems requiring pharmacist intervention in the MICU. METHODS: Between September 2013 and August 2014, a retrospective, observational study was conducted in the 22-bed MICU at a university hospital. Data were obtained from two trained pharmacists who participated in MICU rounds three times a week. In addition to patient characteristics, data on the cause, type, related drug, and acceptance rate of interventions were collected. RESULTS: In 340 patients, a total of 1211 pharmacologic interventions were performed. The majority of pharmacologic interventions were suggested by pharmacists at multidisciplinary rounds in the MICU. The most common pharmacologic interventions were adjustment of dosage and administration (n = 328, 26.0%), followed by parenteral/enteral nutritional support (n = 228, 18.1%), the provision of drug information (n = 228, 18.1%), and advice regarding pharmacokinetics (n = 118, 9.3%). Antimicrobial agents (n = 516, 42.6%) were the most frequent type of drug associated with pharmacist interventions. The acceptance rate of interventions was 84.1% with most accepted by physicians within 24 hours (n = 602, 92.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Medication and nutritional problems are frequently encountered pharmacotherapeutic problems in the MICU. Pharmacist interventions play an important role in the management of these problems.
Anti-Infective Agents ; Humans ; Critical Care ; Intensive Care Units* ; Korea ; Nutritional Support ; Observational Study ; Pharmacists* ; Pharmacokinetics ; Retrospective Studies

This study was performed to prove the hypothesis that oncogene expressions would have the same patterns with those of cellular growth to growth factors in FRTL-5 cells. Ribonucleic acids of FRTL-5 were extracted at 15', 30', 60' and 120' after administration of growth factors to quiescent FRTL-5, and blotted to the nitrocellulose membrane. They were hybridized with radiolabelled c-fos, c-myc and beta-actin probes. Hybridized dot blots were autoradiographed and the amount of radioactivity was measured by densitometry. Densitometric readings were used as the indices of oncogene expressions. Expressions of c-fos and c-myc were more prominent in combined administrations of TSH (10 mU/ml) and IGF-I (100 ng/ml) or IgG of Graves' disease (Graves' IgG; 1 mg/ml) and IGF-I than in combined administration of TSH and Graves' IgG. IgG of primary myxedema suppressed oncogene expressions by TSH or Graves' IgG, but not by IGF-I. From the above results, it was suggested that expressions of c-fos and c-myc to growth factors would have similar patterns with those of cell growth to growth factors in FRTL-5, and the actions of TSH and Graves' IgG would be manifested through same signal transduction system, but IGF-I would be manifested by its own.
Animal ; Cell Division/drug effects/genetics ; Cell Line/cytology/physiology ; Gene Expression/drug effects/immunology ; Graves' Disease/immunology ; Growth Substances/genetics/*pharmacology ; Immunoglobulin G/pharmacology ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor I/pharmacology ; Myxedema/immunology ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos/*genetics ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc/*genetics ; RNA/analysis ; Rats ; Rats, Inbred F344 ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Thyroid Gland/cytology ; Thyrotropin/pharmacology ; Time Factors

Metronidazole is an antimicrobial agent widely used for the treatment of trichomoniasis, giardiasis, amebiasis, and anaerobic bacterial infections. It has been reported that metronidazole-induced neurotoxicity is associated with responsible lesions on brain MRI. We report 2 patients with metronidazole-induced neurotoxicity, who had no responsible lesions on brain MRI for their neurological deficits. The pathogenic mechanisms are discussed.
Amebiasis ; Bacterial Infections ; Brain ; Giardiasis ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Metronidazole

No abstract available.

Thyroid stimulating antibody which results in the development of hyperthyroidism and goiter in Graves' patients used to be measured by using rat thyroid cells, FRTL-5. However, this assay has disadvantages: decreased sensitivity due to differences in species, and fastidious culture conditions for FRTL-5 cells. Thus, we recently created stably transfected Chinese hamster ovary(CHO) cells containing the human TSH receptor(hTSHR-CHO) and developed optimal conditions for the measurement of thyroid stimulating antibody using hTSHR-CHO cells. In this study, to evaluate the clinical relevance of thyroid stimulating antibody measurement using hTSHR-CHO cells, we measured thyroid stimulating antibody activities of IgGs from Graves' disease and other thyroid disease using hTSHR-CHO cells, and compared to those of thyroid stimulating antibody assays using FRTL-5 cells. 1) The cut off value of positive thyroid stimulating antibody activity measured in hTSHR-CHO cells was 145%(above the mean +2SD) which was lower than 165% in FRTL-5 cells. The intra-assay and inter-assay variances were 3.9% to 9.0% and 12.7% to 1.6%, respectively. 2) Thyroid stimulating antibody activity was detected in 90% of patients with untreated Graves' disease when patients initially presented. Further, in patients seen initially but already under therapy, 75% had positive values if they were hyperthyroid but only 43% had IgGs with activity if they were euthyroid. Patients in clinical remission after therapy showed positive values in 23% of cases. Only 2 of 25 patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis showed weak thyroid stimulating antibody activity, none of 18 patients with nodular nontoxie goiter, 1 of 15 patients with primary myxedema, and 2 of 33 control patients with no thyroid disease. Thus, the detection frequency and specificity of the assay with hTSHR-CHO cells was excellent for this type bioassay.3) The detection frequency of thyroid stimulating antibody activity by hTSHR-CHO cells assay system(90%) was higher than that by FRTL-5 cells assay system(66%) in untreated Graves' patients. Those two activities were positively correlated with each other(r=0.52, p<0.001). However, some IgGs showed discrepancy of the thyroid stimulating antibody activity measured in hTSHR-CHO cells and in FRTL-5 cells; 56 of 87 patients were positive in both cells system, 8 of 87 were negative in both cells system, 1 of 87 was only positive in FRTL-5 cells and 22 of 87 were only positive in hTSHR-CHO cell system. Thus, 73%(22/30) of IgGs showing negative values of thyroid stimulating antibody activities in FRTL-5 cells were detected its activities in hTSHR-CHO cells system.In summary, thyroid stimulating antibody assay with hTSHR-CHO cells exhibited so excellent sensitivity and specificity that this technique should be used for clinical practice as well as basic research.
Animals ; Antibodies ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Cricetinae ; Cricetulus ; Female ; Goiter ; Graves Disease ; Humans ; Hyperthyroidism ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulins, Thyroid-Stimulating ; Myxedema ; Ovary ; Rats ; Receptors, Thyrotropin ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Thyroid Diseases ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroiditis ; Thyrotropin

We investigated the optimal condition of thyroid stimulating antibody(TSAb) assay using Chinese hamster ovary cells transfected with cDNA of human TSH receptor(TSHr-CHO) stably expressing functional TSH receptors. The extracellular cAMP responses of TSHr-CHO cells to the stimulation of bTSH or Graves' IgG were observed in three different incubation media. Stimulation indices of extracellular cAMP were higher when sucrose containing NaCl-free isotonic Hank's balanced salt solution(HBSS)(media A)was used as incubation media than those of NaCl-free hypotonic HBSS(media B) or those of NaCl containing isotonic HBSS(media C). The incubation of TSHr-CHO cells in media B caused marked increase in the basal cAMP level without concomittant fold-increase in the stimulated cAMP level at various doses of bTSH and Graves' IgG. Decreasing the stimulation indices of extracellular cAMP, use of media B failed to detect TSAb activities in two TSAb-positive Graves' IgG tested. In case of media C, extracellular cAMP responses are poor at 0.001 and 0.1U/L of bTSH and at all doses of Graves' IgG tested(0.5, 1, 5g/L). The incubation of TSHr-CHO cells in media B caused significant increase in the number of trypan blue-stained, nonviable cells(5.7+-1.5, 7.6+-1.9 and 8.5+-1.6% at 1, 2 and 3h of incubation, respectively; p<0.01) comparing to those incubated in media A or media C(about 2-3% in both media). Those decrease in the viability of TSHr-CHO cells when incubated in hypotonic incubation media may explain the decrease in the stimulation index of extracellular cAMP with the use of media B in contrast to the case of FRTL-5 cells. TSAb assay of 87 consecutive fresh Graves' patients with TSHr-CHO cells using media A detected TSAb activities in 90%(78 patients) of them, and moreover TSAb activities showed significant positive correlation with the pre-treatment serum T_3 and free T_4 levels of those patients. We conclude that TSAb assay with TSHr-CHO cells is a sensitive and physiologically relevant assay system to measure TSAb activities merely through measurements of extracellular cAMP provided that the cells are incubated in NaCl-free isotonic incubation media.
Animals ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Biological Assay ; Cricetinae ; Cricetulus ; DNA, Complementary ; Female ; Humans ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulins, Thyroid-Stimulating ; Ovary ; Receptors, Thyrotropin ; Sucrose ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyrotropin

The omphalomesenteric duct is an embryologic connection between the midgut and yolk sac, which typically disappears at 5th to 7th week of gestation. Failure of the obliteration process can lead to omphalomesenteric duct remnants. We report a case of a neonate with a patent omphalomesenteric duct fistula opening to the umbilicus presenting with meconium sprouting from the umbilical stump. Segmental resection of the ileum and end to end anastomosis were conducted. The patient was discharged on the 8th postoperative day without any complications, and no abnormalities were observed at the outpatient clinic follow-up up to 5 months after surgery. Here we describe the case and a review of the literature.