The Q-switched ruby laser has been used in clinics since the early 1980s. It was tried to remove tattoos at first with good effects. Thereafter, some physicians reported the usefulness of the laser in the treatment of some kinds of pigmented lesions such as nevus of Ota, freckles and lentigines. The reason why the Q-switched ruby laser has a lot of effect on tattoos and some pigmented lesions is that the laser has the function of selective photothermolysis on those cutaneous lesions. The authors have treated 185 patients with tattoos and cutaneous pigmented lesions using the Q-switched ruby laser during last 4 years ago. Patients had tattoos, nevus of Ota, freckles, lentigines, melasma, postinflammatory hyperpigmentation, and were followed up over 5 months after the end of the laser treatment. The authors analysed the results and compared them with other's results in Caucasians, and we intended to present a guide of the treatment using Q-switched ruby laser in Koreans. The results were as follows 1. Tattoos showed good results after the treatment because the most of tattoos are black or dark blue in color and cheated by amateur. We repeated the laser treatments with the interval of 2 weeks. 2. Nevus of Ota, freckles and lentigines showed good results after treatment of the Q-switched ruby laser 3. Melasma showed no improvement after the treatment. 4. The treatment of postinflammatory hyperpigmentation using the Q-switched ruby laser must be confined within a part of the lesion at the first visit of patient, because the therapeutic effects were observed in some patients only and the degree of depigmention after treatment was diverse. 5. The most common complication after Q-switched ruby laser treatment was pigmentary change, including hyperpigmentation in most of the cases and hypopigmentation in some cases. However, there was no visible scar or remarkable change of skin texture in all of the cases.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Cicatrix ; Humans ; Hyperpigmentation ; Hypopigmentation ; Lasers, Solid-State* ; Lentigo ; Melanosis ; Nevus of Ota ; Skin

No abstract available.
Methylprednisolone* ; Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic*

No abstract available.
Obesity, Morbid* ; Polycystic Ovary Syndrome*

No abstract available.
Byssinosis* ; Carbon* ; Daegu* ; Korea* ; Textiles*

Although the medical applications of He-Ne lasers remain controversial, the clinical use of these devices for a variety of analgesic and wound healing applications is steadily increasing. Research studies of the effects of He-Ne laser irradiation on biologic function are growing in number and scope. Many investigators have described successful treatment of a wide variety of painful musculoskeletal, rheumatologic, and neurologic conditions with He-Ne lasers. Since we have recently initiated studies examing the effects of He-Ne lasers on wound healing and pain relief, we investigated the effect of He-Ne laser irradiation on the healing of skin defect, abrasion, burn and on the pain relief of temporomandibular joint dysfunction in admitted patients. The total number of patients was 96. The He-Ne laser power was 1 mW, dose was 1 J/cm2 and the wavelength was 632.8 nm. Each patient underwent 2 to 8 trials of irradiation on point around the wound area and painful joint at a frequency of 2 times a week. After every 1 trial up to 8 trials, we evaluated the efficacy of He-Ne laser irradiation by checking the wound size and by questioning the patients about degree of pain. Following the estimation by patients, excellent, good, and fair were accounted as effective, and poor as noneffective. The efficacy of the laser at the end of 2 to 8 trials was noticed on 78.1%, and the degree of pain relief was 73.9%. These results suggested that the irradiation of He-Ne laser is an effective and safe treatment for wound healing and pain relief. In this overview, we are summarizing some of our results which suggest a potential usefulness of He-Ne lasers for stimulation of wound healing and pain relief. Although its clinical use can be anticipated in the future, further research is required to clarify the basic mechanisms and the preferred optical parameters, such as treatment time and intensity, for increased wound healing and pain relief.
Burns ; Humans ; Joints ; Research Personnel ; Skin ; Temporomandibular Joint ; Wound Healing ; Wounds and Injuries

Primary amenorrhea due to intrasella arachnoid cyst is a very rare disease and require careful and frequent evaluation because may produce intracranial hemorrhage, elevated intracranial pressure and rapid expansion. Surgical intervention is needed only when visual disturbance, hypopituitarism or enlarging lesion is shown. Thus, we present a case of primary amenorrhea due to intrasella arachnoid cyst which was resected through the transsphenoidal approach.
Amenorrhea ; Arachnoid* ; Female ; Hypogonadism* ; Hypopituitarism ; Intracranial Hemorrhages ; Intracranial Hypertension ; Rare Diseases

BACKGROUND: Measurement of the plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) level has been recommended as the first diagnostic test for differentiating between ACTH-independent Cushing syndrome (CS) and ACTH-dependent CS. When plasma ACTH values are inconclusive, a differential diagnosis of CS can be made based upon measurement of the serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) level and results of the high-dose dexamethasone suppression test (HDST). The aim of this study was to assess the utility of plasma ACTH to differentiate adrenal CS from Cushing' disease (CD) and compare it with that of the HDST results and serum DHEA-S level. METHODS: We performed a retrospective, multicenter study from January 2000 to May 2012 involving 92 patients with endogenous CS. The levels of plasma ACTH, serum cortisol, 24-hour urine free cortisol (UFC) after the HDST, and serum DHEA-S were measured. RESULTS: Fifty-seven patients had adrenal CS and 35 patients had CD. The area under the curve of plasma ACTH, serum DHEA-S, percentage suppression of serum cortisol, and UFC after HDST were 0.954, 0.841, 0.950, and 0.997, respectively (all P<0.001). The cut-off values for plasma ACTH, percentage suppression of serum cortisol, and UFC after HDST were 5.3 pmol/L, 33.3%, and 61.6%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of plasma ACTH measurement were 84.2% and 94.3%, those of serum cortisol were 95.8% and 90.6%, and those of UFC after the HDST were 97.9% and 96.7%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Significant overlap in plasma ACTH levels was seen between patients with adrenal CS and those with CD. The HDST may be useful in differentiating between these forms of the disease, especially when the plasma ACTH level alone is not conclusive.
Adrenocorticotropic Hormone* ; Cushing Syndrome* ; Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate ; Dexamethasone ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; Humans ; Hydrocortisone ; Pituitary ACTH Hypersecretion* ; Plasma* ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity

We describe a case of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus(lDDM) with a mutation at nucleotide 3243 of mitochondrial DNA. A 24-years-old female presented with recurrent episodes of generalised tonic clonic seizures, cognitive decline, short stature, bilateral sensory neural hearing loss, bilateral optic neuropathy, lactic acidosis, and basal ganglia calcifications in addition to IDDM. Maternal transmission of the disease was suggested, by the fact that her mother have died of diabetic complications of the age of 50. Heteroplasmy of wild type and mutant mitochondrial DNA derived from peripheral leucocytes was detected by Apa I digestion of the polymerase chain reaction products amplified with a set of primer for tBNALUR(UUR) Adenosin-to guanidine substitution, occurring at nucleotide position 3243 in tRNALUR(UUR) gene in comparison with reference sequences was confirmed.
Acidosis, Lactic ; Basal Ganglia ; Diabetes Complications ; Diabetes Mellitus* ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 ; Digestion ; DNA, Mitochondrial* ; Female ; Guanidine ; Hearing Loss, Bilateral ; Humans ; Insulin* ; MELAS Syndrome ; Mothers ; Optic Nerve Diseases ; Point Mutation* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Seizures

PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of polyamines on tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha)-or tamoxifen (TAM)-induced apoptosis in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive MCF- 7 and ER-negative MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cell viability was assessed by using MTT assay. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was measured using 2', 7'-dichlorofluorescin diacetste (DCFDA) by fluorescence plate reader. DNA fragmentation was assessed by 1.5% agarose gel electrophoresis. RESULTS: TNFalpah and TAM showed significant dose- and time- dependent inhibitory effects on the growth of MCF-7 human cells. However, the growth of MDA-MB-231 cells were not inhibited by TNFalpha or TAM treatment. The generation of ROS was increased in dose-and time-dependent manner by TNFalpha treatment in MCF-7 cells. Polyamines, especially spermine suppressed TNFalpha-induced ROS generation in MCF-7 cells. Antioxidant effects of polyamines were also demonstrated by DNA fragmentation, cell morphology as well as ROS generation assay. Polyamines also blocked TAM-induced cell death in MCF-7 cell. However, MDA-MB-231 cells showed resistance to the cytotoxic effects of TNFalpha or TAM. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that polyamines may prevent TNFalpha or TAM-induced apoptosis in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells.
Antioxidants ; Apoptosis* ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Cell Death ; Cell Survival ; DNA Fragmentation ; Electrophoresis, Agar Gel ; Estrogens ; Fluorescence ; Humans* ; MCF-7 Cells ; Polyamines* ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Spermine ; Tamoxifen ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

This study aimed to define a one portion size of food items frequently consumed for convenient use by Koreans in food selection, diet planning, and nutritional evaluation. We analyzed using the original data on 5,436 persons (60.87%) aged 20 ~ 64 years among 8,930 persons to whom NHANES 2005 and selected food items consumed by the intake frequency of 30 or higher among the 500 most frequently consumed food items. A total of 374 varieties of food items of regular use were selected. And the portion size of food items was set on the basis of the median (50th percentile) of the portion size for a single intake by a single person was analyzed. In cereals, the portion size of well polished rice was 80 g. In meats, the portion size of Korean beef cattle was 25 g. Among vegetable items, the portion size of Baechukimchi was 40 g. The portion size of the food items of regular use set in this study will be conveniently and effectively used by general consumers in selecting food items for a nutritionally balanced diet. In addition, these will be used as the basic data in setting the serving size in meal planning.
Adult ; Aged ; Animals ; Cattle ; Edible Grain ; Diet ; Food Preferences ; Humans ; Meals ; Meat ; Nutrition Surveys ; Single Person ; Vegetables