From Oct. 1, 1983 to May 31, 1988, 6198 mammograms were taken and 443 mastectomies were performed at the Yonsei University Hospital, Seoul, Korea. Of these, 191 cases had preoperative mammography performed prior to surgery (study group) and 252 cases underwent mastectomies without preoperative mammography (control group). There were no significant differences between the two groups in pathological stages, axillary lymph node metastasis and size of the tumor, suggesting that little benefit is derived from the preoperative mammography in the hospital setting. However, there were a number of other findings, including a 14% incidence of multiple foci and localization of non-palpable cancer in 3% of cases, that could help us to make therapeutic plans and strategies for these patients.
Breast Neoplasms/pathology/*radiography/surgery ; Female ; Hospitalization ; Human ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; *Mammography ; Preoperative Care ; Prospective Studies

The subconjuctival sparganosis is rare tissue helminthiasis which develops frequently in. orbital, abdominal, urethral, ureteral and vertebral cases. Authors reported a case of sparganosis which complained conjuntival hyperemia, chemosis, subconjuntival mass in the right eye for 10 months. The patient was a 37 years old male who had a history of having eaten raw snake in the So-Re Gun. Gyeonggi Do for the purpose of tonics 3 years ago. In the winter of 1977, he had experienced edematous changes in the right cheek intermittently. A few months later, he noticed the apperence of the congestion and a mass on the right eye. On surgical exploration, one larvae (5.8 cm in length and 5 m min width) was extracted from the right upper temporal subconjunctiva. It was actively motile in the bottle filled with saline, so this larvae was consulted to parasitology department of Korea University from our clinic under the impression of subconjunctival sparganosis. The sources of infection of some formely reported sparganosis in Korea were discussed. It is most probable that human sparganosis is acquired by consuming of raw snakes and frogs in this country.
Adult ; Cheek ; Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) ; Gyeonggi-do ; Helminthiasis ; Humans ; Hyperemia ; Korea ; Larva ; Male ; Orbit ; Parasitology ; Snakes ; Sparganosis* ; Ureter

No abstract available.

PURPOSE: Allergen-specific immunotherapy (IT) has been shown to be effective in the treatment for allergic diseases. But the immunologic mechanism of IT effect has not been fully elucidated. We studied house dust mite (HDM)-specific cytokine mRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patient with HDM- sensitive asthma and determined whether alterations in cytokine mRNA expression correlated with the clinical outcome of IT. METHODS: PBMC were obtained from 64 children with mite-sensitive asthma : 25 had never received HDM-IT (NIT), 39 had been receiving HDM-IT for more than 12 months. The 39 patients were divided into two groups according to the clinical response based on the asthma scores (symptom and medication scores) before and after IT. Good responders were those patients who showed an improvement greater than 50%, whereas poor responders were those who showed an improvement less than 50%. After a 18 hr culture with HDM, cytokine mRNA expression was analysed by RT-PCR and densitometry. RESULTS: 1) IL-10 mRNA expression in NIT was significantly lower than that in the normal controls and was significantly increased by IT. IL-10 mRNA expression in the good responders was significantly higher than that in the poor responders and NIT. 2) Little or no IL-13 mRNA were detected in the good responders and the normal controls. IL-13 mRNA expression in the good responders was significantly lower than that in the poor responders and NIT. 3) IFN-gamma mRNA expression in NIT was significantly lower than that in the normal controls and was significantly increased with IT. IFN-gamma mRNA expression in the good responders was significantly higher than that in the poor responders and NIT. 4) Little IL-4 mRNA were detected in the good responders and the normal controls. IL-4 mRNA expression in the good responders was significantly lower than that in the poor responders and NIT. CONCLUSION: These results show that IT not only induces a shift in cytokine expression from TH2 (IL-4 and IL-13) to TH1 cytokines (IFN-gamma), but also leads to induction of the antiinflammatory cytokine IL-10. These changes in cytokine expression may be responsible for clinical effects by immunotherapy.
Asthma* ; Child ; Cytokines ; Densitometry ; Humans ; Immunotherapy* ; Interleukin-10* ; Interleukin-13* ; Interleukin-4 ; Pyroglyphidae ; RNA, Messenger*

No abstract available.
Pulmonary Artery*

Between 1986 and 1990, four children with recurrent CNS leukemia who had previous CNS prophylaxis therapy were treated with intermittent central nervous system irradiation and intrathecal chemotherapy (IIIC). There was no isolated CNS recurrence. One patient died form bone marrow relapse. Three patients are alive without evidence of disease for 3E3/12 year to 3E6/12 year after the diagnosis of recurrence of CNS leukemia. This experience suggests that IIIC may be an effective treatment for preventing the recurrence of CNS leukemia without any serious side effects.
Bone Marrow ; Central Nervous System* ; Child* ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy* ; Humans ; Leukemia* ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; Recurrence

Almost all colorectal carcinomas have been thought to develop from pre-existing adenomas. However, some colorectal carcinomas can arise directly from normal flat mucosa, and usually form infiltrative mass at the early stage. The carcinogenesis of this infiltrative carcinoma may be different from the well-known adenoma-carcinoma sequence, which usually forms a polypoid mass. The purpose of this study is to investigate the different expression of various oncogenes in polypoid carcinoma and infiltrative carcinoma. We performed immunohistochemical staining on p53, bcl-2, c-erbB-2 and MIB-1 in 29 polypoid carcinomas arised from adenomas, and 21 infiltrative carcinomas. The average tumor size of infiltrative carcinomas (5.5 cm) was larger than that of polypoid carcinomas (3.1 cm), and the polypoid carcinomas were differentiated more than the infiltrative carcinomas. The results of p53, bcl-2, c-erbB-2, and MIB-1 antisera immunoreactivity in the polypoid carcinoma were 79%, 17%, 21%, and 100%, and those in the infiltrative carcinoma were 71%, 29%, 29%, and 100%, respectively. However the diffuse positivities of p53 and MIB-1 antisera were slightly higher in the infiltraive carcinomas (62%, 76%) than in the polypoid carcinomas (55%, 41%) (p=0.63, 0.01). And the results of p53 and c-erbB-2 immunoreactivity in the adenomas were 52% and 17%, respectively, which is significantly lower than that in the polypoid carcinoma(p=0.03, 0.74). The immunoreactivty of bcl-2 in the adenoma was 72%, which was significantly higher than that in the polypoid carcinoma (17%) (p<0.01). In summary, we did not show the significant difference in expression of p53, bcl-2, c-erbB-2, and MIB-1 proteins between polypoid and infiltrative carcinomas. However, the tendency of infiltrative carcinomas having a more aggressive nature suggests another carcinogenetic mechanism is involved in the colorectal carcinogenesis.
Adenoma ; Carcinogenesis ; Colorectal Neoplasms* ; Immune Sera ; Ki-67 Antigen ; Mucous Membrane ; Oncogenes

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of short segment fixation in flexion-distraction injuries of thoracolumbar junction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-five patients with a flexion-distraction injury in thoracolumbar junction confirmed by radiogram or MRI and stabilized with a short construct spanning short segment were included in this study. We investigated the location of fractures, type of fractures, anterior or posterior vertebral body height, and preoperative and postoperative kyphotic angle of injuried motion-segments on radiologic examinations and clinical outcome on the Oswestry score. RESULTS: A significant correction of deformity was achieved, from a mean preoperative kyphosis of 17.3 degrees to a mean postoperative kyphosis of 8.4 degrees. The loss of correction were minimal. The mean Oswestry score was 6.9, with 84% of patients having minimal disability (<20%) and no correlation with age, sex, the location of fractures, type of fractures, change of kyphotic angle. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the efficacy of posterior open reduction and short segment fixation of flexion-distraction injuries.
Body Height ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Humans ; Kyphosis ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Spine*

Paraffin embedded sections of 64 breast carcinomas were stained immunohistochemically using a commercially available monoclonal antibody to estrogen receptor. To improve the sensitivity of the staining, the authors used a Pronase enzyme pretreatment, biotinylated antibody to rat IgG as secondary antibody, streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase as tertiary reagent and fast red as chromogen. When compared to the results of estrogen receptor enzyme immunoassay, this method yielded an 85.9% concordance rate, 86.2% specificity and 85.7% sensitivity. When compared to estrogen receptor immunocytochemistry(ER-ICA) in frozen section and considering the inherent advantages of immunohistochemical staining over biochemical assay, the major advantages of this method are good morphology, suitability for retrospective study and reduced cost of staining due to dilution of expensive primary antibody. Thus, this method offers an alternative to ER assay using fresh tissue and should provide additional valuable information about estrogen receptor
Adult ; Aged ; Breast Neoplasms/*metabolism ; Carcinoma/*metabolism ; Comparative Study ; Female ; Human ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Middle Aged ; Paraffin Embedding ; Prognosis ; Receptors, Estrogen/*analysis ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and limitations of the Risk of Malignancy Index (RMI) for discriminating malignant from benign adnexal masses. METHODS: This study was based on 382 women who have visited Korea University Hospital for surgical exploration of adnexal masses between July 2000 and December 2003. RMI was based on menopausal status, serum CA 125 levels, and ultrasound feature. A cutoff level of 200 was chosen as the threshold for discriminating malignant from benign adnexal masses. This setup was evaluated by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) with respect to the ability to distinguish malignant from benign adnexal masses. RESULTS: The sensitivity was 57.1%, specificity 93.3%, PPV 74.7% and NPV 86.3%. If stage I disease is considered "benign", the sensitivity was 95.1%, specificity 89.3%, PPV 52.7%, and NPV 99.3%. The statistical significance of RMI over other factors was proven. However, it had limitations of high false negative rate (68.4%) in stage 1 ovarian malignancy including borderline malignancy. Moreover, its relationship with RMI1, RMI2, and RMI3 had no statistical significance. CONCLUSION: RMI is a simple, easily applicable method for the primary evaluation of patients with adnexal masses and an effective method to selectively refer to an oncological unit for further management due to its relatively high specificity observed from this study. However this method has significant limitations in stage I ovarian malignancy including borderline malignancy. Other methods should be evaluated to increase the diagnostic accuracy.
Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Ultrasonography