The present study was carried out to find a simple and safe in. vitro test for phtotoxic drugs. Authors selected two strains of Salmonella typhimurium(TA98 and TA102) which have been used in Ames test for the detsction of mutagenecity af various chemical substances. Both strains are genuine products of genetic enzineering. The etrain TA98 should be highly vulnerable to ultraviolet radition because it lacks normal I)NA excision repair gene. The strain TA102 was chosen as control since it maintained the DNA repair gene. These strains were subjected to increasing dosea of UVA with or without pretreatment of 8 methoxypsoralsn(8-MOP) which is a prototype of photatoxic druge. The authors made use of a perforated stain-less steel template which provided a simple and eosy monitoring of ultraviolet irradiation effects i.e. clear zones due to inhibition of the atrains could be determined. By using this methad, the authors acquired the following results .' I. 8-MOP alone exerted no inhibition on both strains at concentration upto 100mg /ml. 2. UVA irradiation alone showed no growth inhibition at dose upto 5J/cm. 3. UVA irradiation after pretreatment with 8 MOP resulted varying growth inhibition in proportion to irradiation doses. 4. Authors found a suitable concentration of 8-MOP for this test is 10pg/ml. With this ccncentrstion, minimal phatatoxic dose of UVA were O.l J/cm for the strain TA98 and 1.0J/cm for the strain TA102 respectively.
Dermatitis, Phototoxic ; DNA Repair ; Methoxsalen ; Salmonella ; Steel

A 21-year-old male suffered from generalized anhidrosis and heat intolerance for about 15 years. Other clinical features included multiple angiokeratoma on the back, scrotum and extremities, together with ocular involvement. The electronmicroscopic studies of the skin demonstrated laminated intracytoplamic inclusions in the endothelial cells, pericytes of dermal vessels, fibroblasts and eccrine glandular cells. a Galactosidase assay of leukocytes from the patient and his uncle showed nearly absence of the activity,
Angiokeratoma ; Endothelial Cells ; Extremities ; Fibroblasts ; Galactosidases ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Hypohidrosis* ; Leukocytes ; Male ; Pericytes ; Scrotum ; Skin ; Young Adult

Cystic teratoma on the floor of the mouth is infrequent disease and known as congenital origin. Teratoma has no sex distribution. Treatrnent of the cystic teratoma is completely surgical excision and recurrence is rare. The authors have experienced a case of cystic teratoma on the floor of the mouth in neonate. We reported this case with review of literatures.
Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Mouth* ; Recurrence ; Sex Distribution ; Teratoma*

This study was done for the evaluation of correlation among skin test reactivity, total serum IgE and RAST level in 202 atopic disease patients, who weie composed of 165 patients with allergic rhinitis, 22 patients with bronchial asthma, 11 patients with urticaria and 4 patients with atopic dermetitis. The results were as follows: 1. The sex ratio of male to female of 202 pat,ients with atopic disease was 1.3:1(114:88) and patients with age grciup of 2nd and 3rd decades occupied 64.9%. 2. The positive reactivity of the skin scratch test in general was 62.9%. The positive ratio was highest in 2nd and 3rd decades, 76.5% and 63.8% respectirely. The positive ratio was decreased as the age of patients increased. 3. The individual allergens which showed higher positive reaction in skin scratch test were D. farinae, house dust, cat hair, cockroach and Trichophyton ii descending order. In group allergens, the house dust groups consisted 45.5% of positiv. reaction of total number of the positive allergens. The positive ratio of aeroallergen was 84.5% whereas that of foods was only 11.5%. 4. The positive ratio of house dust group was 45.0% of total patients. 5. 41.1% of patients showed positive reactivity to two or more allegens while 21.8% was positive to single allergen. The most frequent combinations were 2 to 4 allergens(95.2%). 6. The mean of total serum IgE level in 63 patients who were poitiie skin scratch test was 470.5 IU/ml. 81.0% of these patients showed high serum IgE level. 7. As the positive reactivity of skin scratch test was increased, the mean level of total serum IgE was elevated(r=0.919). 8. A highly significant correlation was existed between the mear size of D. farinae scratch test reactions and the level of specific IgE to D. farinae(r=0.977).
Allergens ; Animals ; Asthma ; Cats ; Cockroaches ; Dust ; Female ; Hair ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E* ; Male ; Rhinitis ; Sex Ratio ; Skin Tests ; Skin* ; Trichophyton ; Urticaria

BACKGROUND: As co-factors of metalloenzymes, zinc(Zn) and copper(Cu) have a considerable effect on nearly all the metabolism that takes place in organs of the body, including the skin. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate zinc and copper status in alopecia areata patients. METHODS: We measured serum levels of zinc and copper in 30 cases of alopecia areata patients and 10 normal individuals by atomic absorption spectrometry. Furthermore, we studied the significance of the ratio between serum levels of the two metals. RESULTS: The serum levels of zinc were significantly lower in alopecia areata patients than in healthy controls. The serum levels of copper were slightly lower in alopecia areata patients than in healthy controls. Ratios of Cu/Zn were slightly higher in alopecia areata patients than in healthy controls. But their differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: We suggest that a serum Zn assay should be included in the chemical assessment of patients with alopecia areata.
Absorption ; Alopecia Areata* ; Alopecia* ; Copper* ; Humans ; Metabolism ; Metals ; Skin ; Spectrum Analysis ; Zinc*

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess the outcome of subtotal colectomy on patients with a diagnosis of chronic constipation. METHODS: A retrospective review of 11 consecutive patients who underwent subtotal colectomy between January 1990 and July 1999 was undertaken. Preoperative testings included complete history and physical examination, anorectal manometry, videodefecography, and colonic transit studies. RESULTS: The 11 patients consisted of 5 men and 6 women, with a mean age of 44 (range, 25~62) years. The most common symptom was inability to defecation and mean duration of this symptom was 13.6 (range, 0.75~45) years. Ten patients had slow colon transit and one patient had normal colon transit with anismus. All patients were followed up for mean duration of 33 (range, 5~120) months. Mean bowel frequency was 4 times per day after colectomy. Nine patients were satisfied with the results of surgery and showed improvement in quality of life. One patient was less satisfied due to diarrhea even with several times bowel movement per day. One patient felt that the operation was not so effective due to incontinence for liquid stool and 7 bowel movement per day. Three patients frequently used antidiarrheal medication after surgery. Three patients had postoperative small bowel obstruction and were treated without surgery. CONCLUSION: Subtotal colectomy with ileorectal anastomosis produces a satisfactory functional outcome in the majority of patients with proven slow transit constipation.
Colectomy* ; Colon ; Constipation* ; Defecation ; Diagnosis ; Diarrhea ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Manometry ; Physical Examination ; Quality of Life ; Retrospective Studies

The association of Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has been still under debate. Some suggest that these two are positively correlated, whereas other studies report no relationship. We performed a systematic literature review of original studies to investigate the correlation between HT and PTC. The existing data provide inconsistent evidence favoring a causal relationship between HT and PTC. The average prevalence rate of PTC in patients with HT was 1.2% in 8 fine needle aspiration (FNA) studies of 18,023 specimens and 27.6% in 8 archival thyroidectomy studies of 9884 specimens. The risk ratio of PTC in HT specimens ranged from 0.39 to 1.00 in the FNA group (average RR 0.69) in contrast to 1.15 to 4.16 from thyroidectomy studies (average RR 1.59). Population-based fine needle aspiration biopsy studies report no relationship, whereas many of the studies using thyroidectomy specimens report a positive relationship, possibly related to selection bias. Several studies identified a few biomolecular markers, including the PI3K/Akt pathway, RET/PTC gene rearrangements, p63 protein, and loss of heterozygosity of hOGG1, that are potentially involved in neoplastic transformation from HT to PTC. So far, no causal genetic linkage has been confirmed. PTC with concurrent HT is associated with female gender, young age, less aggressive disease such as small tumor size, less frequent capsular invasion and nodal metastasis, and better outcome. However, more prospective studies with long term follow-up are needed to further elucidate this relationship and prognosis. Careful observation and follow-up of HT patients is recommended, especially those with nodular variants.
Biopsy ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Female ; Gene Rearrangement ; Genetic Linkage ; Humans ; Loss of Heterozygosity ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Odds Ratio ; Prevalence ; Prognosis ; Selection Bias ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms* ; Thyroidectomy ; Thyroiditis*