No abstract available.
Animals ; Interleukin-4* ; Mice*

PURPOSE: The effects of pain on brain is not well known. Also, differences between somatic and visceral pains have not been fully elucidated. This study was conducted to investigate changes in the expression of c-Fos protein after somatic and visceral pains were induced by formalin. METHODS: Male rats(n=65) were underwent one of three procedures : (i) Control group, rats were left undisturbed in their cages; (ii) Somatic pain group, rats were injected subcutaneously with 0.1 ml of 10% formalin in the plantar surface of right hindpaw; (iii) Visceral pain group, rats were administered with same amount of formalin, as described above, in the rectum. Rats were sacrificed at increasing times(30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 6 hours, 1 day, 3 days and 7 days) after noxious formalin stimuli to hindpaws and rectums. Rat brains were removed and sliced in rat brain matrix. Brain slices were coronal sectioned at interaural 5.70-6.70mm. Serial sections were immunohistochemically reacted with polyclonal c-Fos antibody. The numbers of c-Fos protein immunoreactive neurons in cingulate cortex, primary somatosensory area, and hippocampus were examined and analyzed statistically with Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: 1) The numbers of c-For protein immunoreactive neurons in cingulate cortex, primary somatosensory area and hippocampus peaked at 2 hours after somatic pain stimuli and reached almost normal conditions at 7 days. 2) The numbers of c-Fos protein immunoreactive neurons in cingulate cortex, primary somatosensory area and hippocampus peaked at 1 day after visceral pain stimuli and reached almost normal conditions at 7 days. 3) The numbers of c-Fos protein immunoreactive neurons of somatic pain groups were higher than that of visceral groups at all times and the difference of numbers peaked at 2 hours after pain stimuli. CONCLUSION: Reactions of somatic pain stimuli influenced more changable than visceral pain stimuli to brain. Conduction velocities of somatic pain were more faster than those of visceral pain. Higher numbers of c-Fos protein immunoreactive neurons were found in specific regions. These results provide some basic knowledge in understanding the mechanism and control of pain.
Animals ; Brain* ; Formaldehyde* ; Gyrus Cinguli ; Hippocampus ; Humans ; Male ; Neurons* ; Nociceptive Pain ; Rats* ; Rectum ; Visceral Pain

No abstract available.
Antifungal Agents* ; Trichophyton*

KOH examination is a simple, rapid and diagnostic procedure to confirm dermatophytic infections. It is important to select a proper examination site of the lesion. To determinate the proper examination site of the lesion, mycologic studies were done with multiple specimens collected from the center, margin and out of margin of the ring-shaped dermatophytic skin lesion on the 58 patients. The results were as follows. Positive rate of KOH wet smear was 94.8% at the center and 100% at the margin of the lesions, 22.4% at the 1 cm and 5.2% at the 2 cm out of the lesions. The more hyphae were found in the lesion, the more hyphae were found out of the lesion. Culture was done on the Sabouraud's glucose agar from the highest KOH positive area and the positive culture was 48 strains (82.8%) of 58 patients. These findings suggested that the ring-shaped active margin was the best site to examine mycologic studies.
Agar ; Glucose ; Humans ; Hyphae ; Skin*

We report a case of congenital giant pigmented nevus with malignant melanoma of brain in a 14-year-old male patient. He had giant pigmented nevus on the back and neck, and multiple satellite lesions over the whole body since birth. One year prior to visit to our hospital, the patient suffered from various neurologie symptoms including headache, nausea, vomiting, seizure and right side motor weakness. Flistologic findings of skin lesions were benign nevocytic nevi. Computed tomogram of brain demonstrated increased densities in the both fronto-parietal leptameninges and brain parenchyme. Histologic findings of brain parenchyme by stereotaxic long needle biopsy showed the infiltration of melanin containing atypical melanocytes. There was no evidence of malignant melanoma at other organs. All of these findings suggested that origin of malignant melanoma of brain parenchyme was leptomeninges rather than skin.
Adolescent ; Biopsy, Needle ; Brain* ; Headache ; Humans ; Male ; Melanins ; Melanocytes ; Melanoma* ; Nausea ; Neck ; Nevus ; Nevus, Pigmented* ; Parturition ; Seizures ; Skin ; Vomiting

We report a case of primary cutaneous cryptococcosis on the left knee of a 67 year-old woman. She had a large ulcerated and indurated plaque with yellowish purulent exudates on her left knee. A histopathological examination from the lesion showed numerous encapsulated, round spores. Cultures from the lesion showed the presence of Cryptococcus neoforrnans. This may have resulted from an immunosuppressive state due to long-term use of oral corticosteroids.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones ; Cryptococcosis* ; Cryptococcus ; Exudates and Transudates ; Female ; Humans ; Knee ; Spores ; Ulcer

Exercise-induced anaphylaxis can be associated with ingestion of a specific food. We experienced a case of exercise-induced anaphylaxis followed by ingestion of parsely. A 22- year old female patient was presented with angioedema of the face and chest tightness induced by running after ingestion of parsley within 15 minutes. She had suffered from allergic rhinitis. She had positive reactions to mugwort pollen and parsely extract on skin prick test in a dose dependent manner. Although the oral provocation test with parsely could not induce bronchoconstriction, we could diagnosed as parsely dependent exercise induced anaphylaxis based upon skin prick test and history.
Anaphylaxis ; Angioedema ; Artemisia ; Bronchoconstriction ; Eating ; Female ; Humans ; Petroselinum ; Pollen ; Rhinitis ; Running ; Skin ; Thorax

We studied the intradural variations of spinal nerve rootlets in 100 cases of Korean adults. The results of the study are as follows ; 1. The incidence of intrasegmental variations (abberrant rootlets) is high in cervical segments and decreased toward lumbosacral segments. The incidence is higher in posterior rootlets than anterior, except cervical sesments. 2. The incidence of intersegmental variations is higher in posterior rootlets than anterior, and generally high in cervical and lumbar segments. 3. We divide the intersegmental variations into supernumerary rootlets, dividing rootlets, and anastomosing rootlets, and among them the incidence of anastomosing rootlets is higher. We divide the anastomosing rootlets into parallel anastomosing rootlets, uniting anastomosing rootlets, and rearrangement anastomosing rootlets. 4. The anterior to posterior anastomosing of spinal nerve rootlet is present in 4 of cases studied.
Adult ; Humans ; Incidence ; Spinal Nerves*

Responses of mouse lymphocytes to the soybean paste fermented by Korean traditional fashion was examined to clarify its effects in cytokine production in vitro. A fraction of the soybean paste (KFSP-100) was prepared by precipitation with ammonium sulfate and by filtration through ultrafiltration membrane. KFSP-100 were added into cultures of fresh mouse splenic cells in vitro. KFSP-100 significantly enhanced the amount of IL-6 and TNF-a produced by macrophages and IL-6 and IFN-r produced by lymphocytes. Production of IL-12 by macrophages was not much affected by KFSP-100 treatments. The most noticeable finding was the fact that lymphocytes treated with KFSP-100 proliferated to an exceeding numbers (more than 10 times to the control) in 72 hours. The KFSP-100-induced proliferative response was specific to B cells since almost all of the KFSP-100-induced cells in the cultures of splenic cells were B cells. Furthermore, such a proliferative responses were equally observed only in cultures of purified B cells but not in cultures of T cells. In thermostability test, the biologically active components of the KFSP-100 is assumed to be either linear protein or glycoprotein. KFSP-100 did not induce agglutination of lymphocytes demonstrated by lectins in the same cells. These observations suggest that KFSP-100 may be a novel mitogen for B lymphocytes. The component (s) responsible for the B cell proliferation in KFSP-100 might be a factor gained by natural fermentation. None of the fractions of not fermented soybean paste prepared by the same methods demonstrate the same effect.
Agglutination ; Ammonium Sulfate ; Animals ; B-Lymphocytes ; Cell Proliferation ; Fermentation ; Filtration ; Glycoproteins ; Immunologic Factors* ; Interleukin-12 ; Interleukin-6 ; Lectins ; Lymphocytes ; Macrophages ; Membranes ; Mice ; Soybeans* ; T-Lymphocytes ; Ultrafiltration

We report a case of piroxicam-induced photosensitive dermatitis in a 54-year-old female. She had taken oral piroxicam and was exposed to the sunlight on her way home for a few minutes. Several hours after the sun-exposure she developed well-defined, confluent, erythematous plaques and numerous vesicobullae with pruritus and prickling sensation on the sun-exposed areas. A phototest was done on her first visit. The minimal erythemogenic dose (2 J/cm²) of ultraviolet (UV) A was markedly decreased whereas that of UVB was within a normal limit. Visible light irradiation for 30 minutes did not cause skin lesions. Six months after the initial skin lesions, a photopatch test with 1% and 10% piroxicam solution followed by UVA (10 J/cm²) irradiation showed positive responses on both concentrations.
Dermatitis* ; Female ; Humans ; Light ; Middle Aged ; Piroxicam ; Pruritus ; Sensation ; Skin ; Sunlight