Increased melanin pigmentation following ultraviolet irradiat.ion is due to increasing tyrosinase activity and multiplicatian of functioning melanocytes. After UV-irradiation, the size of melanocytes increases, and melanocyte dendrites elongatc, and branch. In this experiment, we induced the activation of melanocyts in the epidermis of C57BL black mice by ultraviolet-B(UVB) irradiation and observcd ihe effect of azelaic acid and retinoic acid on the UVB activated epidermal melanocytes. Sixty C57BL black mice were irradiated by UVB 100mJ/cm daily for 10 days, and then azeiaic acid and retinoic acid were topically applied daily for 7 weeks. For the estimation of morphologic change of epidermal melanocytes, light microscopic observation with split DOPA stain was performed at the end of the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th week of topical application. The results are summerized as follows : 1. The number, size and circumference of DOPA-positive epidermal melanocytes were significantly decreased in 20% azelaic acid applied group and 30% azelaic acid and 0.05% retinoic acid applied group. 2. In 20% azelaic;i.cid and 0.05% retinoic acid applied group, the number, size and circumference of DOPA-positive epidermal melanocytes were nore significantly decreased than in 20% azelaic acid applied group. In summary, the present study suggets that azelaic acid act as a depigmenting agent on epidermal melanocyte; and such depigmenting effect of azelaic acid was increased by addition of retinoic acid.
Animals ; Dendrites ; Dihydroxyphenylalanine ; Epidermis ; Melanins ; Melanocytes* ; Mice* ; Monophenol Monooxygenase ; Pigmentation ; Tretinoin*

A 31-year-old female patient has had a translucent cystic papule on the genitalia since 2 years ago. The diagnosis was confirmed by clinical and histopathological findings. This is the rare case of apocrine hidrocystoma occring in the fernale genitalia in the literature.
Adult ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Female* ; Genitalia ; Genitalia, Female* ; Hidrocystoma* ; Humans

Tricilemmoma is a benign, solitary tumor that may be clinically misdiagnosed as basal cell carcinoma or verruca. It affects frequently the face of elderly rnen. We present herein a case of trichilemrnoma in a 70-year-old Korean wornan who had a slowly growing tumor on the scalp for 50 years. The histopathologic findings revealed lobular acanthosis of glycogeri rich clear cells and palisade of columnar cells resting on prominent basement membrane.
Aged ; Basement Membrane ; Carcinoma, Basal Cell ; Humans ; Scalp* ; Warts

The pretent study was performed to study the epiderrnal changes of ultraviolet irradiation and PUVA treatment in the black mice. The following results were obtained: 1) The histologic changes of the epidermis, number of DOPA positive melanocytes and ultrastructural changes of keratinocytes due to UVB and PUVA were rnore prominent than those of UVA irradiation. 2) The histological changes after 8-MOP photosensitization closely mirnic those of UVR irradiation, and constant, finding was hyperkeratosis. 3) Early histological change after UVL irradiation & IUVA treatment was appearance of dytkeratotic cells. 4) Pro]onged exposure to UVB & PUVA resulted in transient epidermal hyperplasia, and epidermal atrophy occurred 3 weeks after PUVA treatment. 5) Early electron microscopic changes was perinuclear edema, juxtanuclear vacuoles and clumping of tonofilament.
Animals ; Atrophy ; Dihydroxyphenylalanine ; Edema ; Epidermis ; Hyperplasia ; Intermediate Filaments ; Keratinocytes ; Melanocytes ; Methoxsalen ; Mice* ; Photosensitivity Disorders ; Ultraviolet Rays ; Vacuoles

No abstract available.
Facial Asymmetry

No abstract available.
Adrenocortical Carcinoma*

A nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was applied to detect and identify pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis. We used photochemical postamplification procedure with 8-methoxypsoralen to control carryover contamination. Using the ail and inv gene, the sensitivity and specificity of DNA amplification by nested PCR was considerably improved. The amplified fragment sizes were 298 bp for the ail gene and 295 bp for the inv gene. Amplification was successful when the template was derived from three sources: purified DNA, aliquots of boiled bacterial suspension and aliquots of lysed bacterial suspension. The detection limits were 10 fg of DNA and 2 * 10 colony forming units (CFU) for Y. enterocolitica and 10 fg DNA and 2 CFU for Y. pseudotuberculosis.
DNA ; Limit of Detection ; Methoxsalen ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Stem Cells ; Yersinia enterocolitica* ; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis* ; Yersinia*

Neurocristopathy is characterized as having a common origin in aberrant neural crest development. Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (Ondine's curse) is characterized by marked depression of respiratory drive during sleep and normal ventilation while awake because of no response to both hypercapnea and hypoxia. The girl was full-term, weighing 3020 grams. The girl had poor respiratory effort at birth, but improved with oxygen supply and stimulation. abdominal distention and calcification were noted. During laparotomy transitional zone was found at distal jejunum; a jejunostomy was constructed. Numerous attempts at extubation failed because of apnea. The results of an apnea work-up, including brain sonography, echocardiogram, were normal. The girl died of sepsis at 37 days of age. para-aortic ganglioneuroblastoma was found on autopsy. We experienced a newborn with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, Hirschsprung's disease and congenital ganglioneuroblastoma representative of neurocristopathy.
Anoxia ; Apnea ; Autopsy ; Brain ; Depression ; Female ; Ganglioneuroblastoma* ; Hirschsprung Disease* ; Humans ; Hypoventilation* ; Infant, Newborn* ; Jejunostomy ; Jejunum ; Laparotomy ; Neural Crest ; Oxygen ; Parturition ; Sepsis ; Ventilation

Ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VP shunt) for hydrocephalus is thought to inhibit the closure of processus vaginalis by increasing intraabdominal pressure, thus it promotes the inguinal hernia. We reviewed the incidence and characteristics of the inguinal hernia in VP shunted patients, and tried to estimate the patency rate of processus vaginalis in early childhood. A reprospective review of patients undergone insertion of VP shunt between January 1980 and May 1998 at Seoul National University Children Hospital was done. 262 patients were included in this study. Among them, 28 patients developed inguinal hernia (10.7%). Six patients developed inguinal hernia before the insertion of VP shunt. According to the age of VP shunt, the inguinal hernia developed in 16.2% (12/74) of patients who had undergone VP shunt before 6 months old, 12.4% (11/89) between 6 months and 2 years old and 5.1% (5/99) after 2 years old. Among 22 patients excluding 6 patients who developed hernia before VP shunt, the incidence of inguinal hernia after VP shunt was 8.6% (22/256) with male predominance (M:F=18:4). 8 patients developed inguinal hernia bilaterally (36.4%). It is suggested that at least 14% of processus vaginalis is patent until 2 years old.
Child ; Child, Preschool ; Hernia ; Hernia, Inguinal* ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Incidence ; Infant ; Male ; Seoul ; Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt*

Hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage is one of the important diseases in Korea, sociomedically, in view of high incidence and mortality rate of the disease, severity of its sequelae and the affected productive age-group of 40 to 50 years old. The indications for surgery in hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage are still controversial. The reason for this may be : 1) lack of adequate and comparable data in conservative and surgical therapy from the same institution : 2) lack of adequate close follow-up monitoring over an extended period of time ; or 3) lack of proper classification of hematomas for comparison of results from different institutions. The authors analysed 1009 cases of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage admitted to the Department of Neurosurgery, Kyung-Hee University Medical center for five years from January 1983 to December 1987. The site of hemorrhage have classified according to their anatomical site on computerized tomography. The long term outcome was analysed with reference to comparison between surgical treatment and conservative treatment. The results were as follows : 1) The incidence was high in the age-group of 50 years old and the sex ration was 1.23 : 1.0. 2) There was no seasonal variation in the incidence. 3) The occurrence of putamino-thalamic hemorrhage(38.7%) was most frequent, and then followed by putaminal(17.9%), thalamic(17.9%), subcortical(13.6%), pontine(7.5%), cerebellar(4.4%) hemorrhage in order. 4) The outcome was satisfactory in the cases of subcortical hemorrhage and cerebellar hemorrhage. The outcome was poorest in the cases of pontine hemorrhage. Both putamen and thalamic hemorrhage had brought about a high licidence of severe sequelae. 5) In correlation between the therapeutic modality and the outcome, surgical treatment increased the frequency of improvement towards Grade I-II, and also decreased the frequency of Grade III, but brought about the increase of the mortality rate. In general this results failed to support the view that the surgical treatment is superior to the conservative one in the management of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage. But, in the subcortical and cerebellar hemorrhage, surgical treatment showed better outcome than conservative treatment. 6) The outcome was poor in large sized hemorrhage than small one. In cases with large sized subcortical and cerebellar hemorrhage, surgical treatment had low mortality rate. 7) The level of consciousness at attack had closely related to the outcome. 8) In correlation between the time interval from ictus till operation and outcome, generally speaking, the outcome of delayed operation was slightly better than early operation. But, when the level of consciousness was good, the outcome of early operation was satisfactory. 9) Intraventricular hemorrhage occurred in 38.9% of all cases, and most frequently associated with thalamic hemorrhage. In the case of association with intraventricular hemorrhage, the mortality rate was greatly increased than in cases without intraventricular hemorrhage. 10) As far as the causes of death were concerned, cerebral swelling was most frequent and overall mortality rate was 22%.
Academic Medical Centers ; Blood Loss, Surgical ; Cause of Death ; Classification ; Consciousness ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hematoma ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Incidence ; Intracranial Hemorrhage, Hypertensive* ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; Mortality ; Neurosurgery ; Putamen ; Seasons