No abstract available.
Ataxia* ; Brain Stem Neoplasms* ; Mesencephalon*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Hysterectomy* ; Lymph Node Excision* ; Lymph Nodes* ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

Tsutstugamushi disease is a major febrile disease that generally occurs in the fall in Korea with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and leptospirosis. This disease is often accompanied by interstitial pneumonia, acute renal failure and liver failure. The causative agent, namely Orientia tsutsugamushi, is transmitted to humans through the bite of a laval trombiculid mite, which is commonly known as a chigger. A 78 year old man was admitted in October 2004 with intractable fever and a drowsy mentality. Two weeks earlier, he visited a private clinic complaining of a simple skin rash. He was treated with antihistamine and steroid, but his symptoms were aggravated and he was referred to our hospital. His physical examination and laboratory findings showed a septic shock status. The maculopapular rash had spread over his face, chest, abdomen and extremities. Eschar was observed in lower back area but it was too difficult to distinguish it from other skin rashes. His chest X-ray appeared as diffuse nodular patchy consolidations in the bilateral lung parenchyme. He was treated with a mechanical ventilator and doxycycline under th suspicion of Tsutstugamushi disease. However, he suffered multiorgan failure accompanied by acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute renal failure and acute hepatitis. He was treated in the intensive care unit for approximately 12 weeks and his general condition was recovered.
Abdomen ; Acute Kidney Injury ; Aged ; Doxycycline ; Exanthema ; Extremities ; Fever ; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome ; Hepatitis ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Korea ; Leptospirosis ; Liver Failure ; Lung ; Lung Diseases, Interstitial ; Orientia tsutsugamushi ; Physical Examination ; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult ; Scrub Typhus ; Shock, Septic ; Thorax ; Trombiculidae ; Ventilators, Mechanical

OBJECTIVES: SCC Ag(Squamous cell carcinoma antigen) is so far the most useful tumor marker in assisting clinical diagnosis of cervical cancer and follow-up after therapy. Elevated levels of cytokeratin 19-fragments(CYFRA 21-1) have recently been detected in large proportion of patients with non small cell cancer of the lung, and in particular those with squamous cell carcinoma. This study is to assess the clinical efficacy of CYFRA 21-1 with SCC Ag as the clinicopathologic parameter in cervical cancer. METHOD: Retrospective analysis of the serum tumor markers CYFRA 21-1 & SCC Ag in eighty cervical cancer patients was performed. RESULTS: Cut off values for SCC Ag & CYFRA 21-1 were 1.94 ng/ml, 3.11 ng/ml respectively. Using the cut-off point, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value(PPV), and negative predictive value(NPV) of serum SCC were 55, 95, 97, 46%, respectively. Serum CYFRA 21-1 showed a sensitivity of 45%, specificity of 91%, PPV of 87%, and NPV of 55%. The combination of SCC and CYFRA 21-1 increased the sensitivity to 62%, with a specificity, PPV, and NPV of 72, 75, 58%. Serum levels of both markers were compared with tumor stage, lesion size and were significantly related. In FIGO stage Ib-IIa, the serum levels of SCC Ag & CYFRA were 2.2+/-3.9, 2.5+/-3.6 ng/ml and in FIGO stage IIb-IV, 12.2+/-15.2, 10.8+/-11.2 ng/ml. In < or =4cm of lesion size the serum levels of SCC Ag & CYFRA were 3.3+/-9.0, 4.5+/-7.6 ng/ml and in >4cm of lesion size, 11.8+/-11.9, 7.7+/-9.3 ng/ml. CONCLUSION: These data seems to show that serum CYFRA 21-1 may be of additional value in assessing the state of disease in some patients with cervical cancer. The prediction of recurrent cervical cancer with SCC Ag were improved by the combination with CYFRA 21-1 but further investigation is needed.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Keratins ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Small Cell Lung Carcinoma ; Biomarkers, Tumor ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

No abstract available.
Meningioma* ; Radiosurgery*

It is a rare occurrence that cervical cancer and aplastic anemia are combined, but eight cases were reported since Fujiu's report in 1968. There has been no one who have reported the case of like this in Korea. And so, we report this case for the support of idea of treatment in aplastic anemia patient combined with cervical cancer. The knowledges required are early detection of malignancy and the individualization of the treatment according to the status of the patient, the bone marrow function saving procedure and the prevention of the patient from death involved with bleeding and sepsis induced by infection.
Anemia, Aplastic* ; Bone Marrow ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Korea ; Sepsis ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

OBJECTIVE: To compare the patients of chronic low back pain with and without emotional depression in terms of psychosomatic aspect and clinical outcome by cross-sectional and prospective study. METHOD: We evaluated 100 patients who were admitted due to chronic low back pain. The patients were classified into three groups (moderately depressed, mild depressed, non-depressed) by the score of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). And three groups were compared by Pain Disability Index (PDI), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Pain Rating Score (PRS) and special diagnostic studies such as MRI and EMG. All subjects took the same conservative treatments for 4 weeks and then, they were re-evaluated by PDI, VAS and PRS. RESULTS: BDI score was positively correlated with VAS and PRS significantly. All groups were not different with respect to functional limitation (measured by PDI) and organic lesion (measured by MRI and EMG study). But, subjective pain (measured by VAS, PRS) were severe in depressed group. All groups showed improvement in PDI, VAS and PRS after 4 weeks of treatment. But, the amount of improvement was greater in non-depressed group. CONCLUSION: The clinician treating chronic low back pain should be familiar with depression and prepare for screening on that.
Depression* ; Humans ; Low Back Pain* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Mass Screening ; Prospective Studies

OBJECTIVE: Ovarian cancer represents a relatively chemosensitive solid tumor, with responsiveness to a range of agents. Cisplatin is the mainstay of drug treatment and is one of the most active single agent. However, the overall outcome for patients remains unsatisfactory and the emergence of drug resistance is a major factor in treatment failure. Loss of DNA mismatch repair is a common finding in many types of sporadic cancer as well as in patients with hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer. Cells that lack DNA mismatch repair are resistant to commonly used chemotherapeutic agents. Selection of cells for resistance to cisplatin, a well-recognized mutagen, could result in mutation in genes involved in DNA mismatch repair. METHODS: This study evaluated the mutation of hMLH1 and hMSH2, and its relation to the Taxol and Topotecan chemosensitivity in the clones from the ovarian cancer cell line 2008 and cisplatin-resistant cell line 2008/ C13*5.25. RESULTS: 1. Cells from 2008 and 2008/C13*5.25 expressed both hMLH1 and hMSH2 when analysed with immunoblotting. 2. Twenty two out of 100 single-cell clones from 2008 and 27 of clones from 2008/C13*5.25 expressed no hMLH1. hMSH2 was expressed in all clones. 3. There was no difference of Taxol chemosensitivity between 2008 and 2008/C13*5.25 cell lines. In the 2008/C13*5.25 cell line, the hMLH1-deficient clones were more sensitive to Taxol than the hMLH1-proficient clones(P=0.049), but in 2008 cell lines hMLH1-proficient clones were more sesitive to Taxol(P=0.003). 4. There was no difference in Topotecan chemosensitivity between 2008 and 2008/C13*5.25 cell lines. In the 2008/C13*5.25 cell line, the hMLH1- deficient clones were not more sensitive to Topotecan than the hMLH1-proficient clones. In the 2008 cell lines hMLH1-deficient clones were more sesitive to Topotecan(P=0.001). Overall, hMLH1-deficient clones from both 2008 and 2008/C13*5.25 cell lines were significantly more sensitive to Topotecan(P=0.001). 5. Microsatellite instability was not demonstrated in all 4 types of single-cell clones from 2008 and 2008/C13*5.25 cell lines. CONCLUSIONS: The present results indicate that there is no relation between mutation of mismatch repair gene and cisplatin resistance. But hMLH1-deficient ovarian cancer cells are more sensitive to Taxol or Topotecan in this study. The latter finding mandates the examination to assess the mutation of hMLH1 in tumor cells before treatment or at the time clinical resistance to cisplatin develops in ovarian cancer.
Cell Line* ; Cisplatin ; Clone Cells* ; Colorectal Neoplasms, Hereditary Nonpolyposis ; DNA Mismatch Repair* ; DNA* ; Drug Resistance ; Humans ; Immunoblotting ; Microsatellite Instability ; Ovarian Neoplasms* ; Paclitaxel* ; Topotecan* ; Treatment Failure

No abstract available.
Gingival Overgrowth ; Granuloma, Plasma Cell ; Immunohistochemistry ; Interleukin-6 ; Phospholipases ; Plasma Cells ; Plasma

BACKGROUND: Early diagnosis of tuberculosis is critical, especially in Korea, an area where tuberculosis is endemic. Because antibody responses to some membrane proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are not comparable, and the policy of BCG vaccination and the prevalence of tuberculosis are different from country to country, the usefulness of the serological diagnostic tests is questionable in Korea, even though they have been confirmed to be useful in other countries. In the specific context of Korea, we tried to evaluate the validity of the ICT Tuberculosis Test (ICT), a membrane-based antibody kit that purports to detect the 5 M. tuberculosis complex-specific antigens including 38-kDa protein. METHOD: 68 patients with tuberculosis were tested: 37 had no history of previous tuberculosis, and 31 were reactivated cases. The control group comprised 77 subjects: 25 healthy adults, 35 hospital workers with frequent contact with tuberculosis patients, and 17 in-patients with non-tuberculous respiratory diseases. RESULTS: The diagnostic sensitivities of the ICT were 87% and 73% in patients with versus without previous history of tuberculosis, respectively. The sensitivities of smear-positive and smear-negative patient groups were 81% and 73%, respectively. Both of the two patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis tested positive through the ICT. The specificities of the ICT were 88%, 94%, and 94% in healthy adults, hospital workers, and non-tuberculous patients, respectively, with an overall specificity of 92%. Conclusion: It is suggested that when combined with traditional techniques, the ICT is an useful tool for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. The procedure is simple, easy to perform, rapid, and needs no equipment. It shows 73% sensitivity and 92% specificity for the diagnosis of tuberculosis.
Adult ; Antibody Formation ; Diagnosis* ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Korea ; Membrane Proteins ; Mycobacterium bovis ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Prevalence ; Tuberculosis* ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary ; Vaccination