No abstract available.
Temporomandibular Joint*

In patients with Sjögren syndrome, decreased salivary flow result in reduced buffering capacity, which leads to the gradual erosion of enamel and significant tooth wear in both anterior and posterior teeth. The tooth wear often causes the loss of anterior and lateral guidance, occlusal disharmony, and insufficient space for prosthetic restorations, leading to functional and esthetic challenges, as well as complex occlusal issues. To address these issues, applying standardized cusp angles can help achieve long-term stability in occlusal contacts, allowing for a functional and stable occlusion with minimal adjustments during centric and eccentric movements.This case report presents a patient with Sjögren syndrome who exhibited severe wear in the maxillary and mandibular anterior and posterior teeth. Through prosthetic rehabilitation using standardized cusp angles, occlusal stability was improved, and esthetic outcomes were achieved, highlighting the effectiveness of this approach in restoring both function and esthetics.

In patients with Sjögren syndrome, decreased salivary flow result in reduced buffering capacity, which leads to the gradual erosion of enamel and significant tooth wear in both anterior and posterior teeth. The tooth wear often causes the loss of anterior and lateral guidance, occlusal disharmony, and insufficient space for prosthetic restorations, leading to functional and esthetic challenges, as well as complex occlusal issues. To address these issues, applying standardized cusp angles can help achieve long-term stability in occlusal contacts, allowing for a functional and stable occlusion with minimal adjustments during centric and eccentric movements.This case report presents a patient with Sjögren syndrome who exhibited severe wear in the maxillary and mandibular anterior and posterior teeth. Through prosthetic rehabilitation using standardized cusp angles, occlusal stability was improved, and esthetic outcomes were achieved, highlighting the effectiveness of this approach in restoring both function and esthetics.

In patients with Sjögren syndrome, decreased salivary flow result in reduced buffering capacity, which leads to the gradual erosion of enamel and significant tooth wear in both anterior and posterior teeth. The tooth wear often causes the loss of anterior and lateral guidance, occlusal disharmony, and insufficient space for prosthetic restorations, leading to functional and esthetic challenges, as well as complex occlusal issues. To address these issues, applying standardized cusp angles can help achieve long-term stability in occlusal contacts, allowing for a functional and stable occlusion with minimal adjustments during centric and eccentric movements.This case report presents a patient with Sjögren syndrome who exhibited severe wear in the maxillary and mandibular anterior and posterior teeth. Through prosthetic rehabilitation using standardized cusp angles, occlusal stability was improved, and esthetic outcomes were achieved, highlighting the effectiveness of this approach in restoring both function and esthetics.

Airway hyperresponsiveness is a consistent feature of asthma. Since the airway smooth muscle is hyperresponsive to a number of different stimuli operating through many different mechanisms, it is attractive to speculate that the abnormality may reside in the airway smooth muscle itself. Animal model of asthma is needed to unravel possible mechanisms underlying airway hyperresponsiveness and also to develop new therapeutic approaches. However, there are few reports showing that airway smooth muscle from animal asthma model is indeed hyperresponsive. In addition, sensitizing and provoking doses of allergen were different each other ambng the studies on animal asthma model. The aim of this study was to determine an appropriate sensitizing and provoking dose of allergen to induce a maximum airway hyperresponsiveness. Eighty-four male Sprague-Dawley rats were actively sensitized with a subcutaneous injection of 0, 10, or 1000/gg ovalbumin(OA) and 14 days later they were provoked with 0, 1, or 5 % OA aerosols. One day after the provocation, serum levels of OA-specific IgE, cell numbers in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), and in vitro isometric contractile responses of the isolated tracheal smooth muscle(TSM) to 120 mM KC1, acetylcholine(ACh, 0.1~ 1000/micro meter), electrical field stimulation (EFS, 0.5~100Hz), serotonin(5-HT, 0.014 100/micro meter), and OA(10, 50, or 250 micro gram/ml) were measured. The results were as follows; 1) When 38 OA-sensitized rats were exposed to OA aerosols in vivo early asthmatic responses(EAR) were observed in 20(52.6%) rats. In vitro isometric contractile forces of TSM from rats with EAR were stronger than those from rats without EAR. 2) The maximal contractile responses to KC1 and EFS were significantly higher in rats only sensitized with OA compared with those in controls. The maximal response to ACh was significantly related to OA-specific serum IgE level(r=0.40, p%0.05), and the latter was in turn significantly related to the BALF eosinophil count(r=0.67, p<0.01). 3) When 10 microgram OA-sensitized rats were analyzed, the maximal response to KC1, ACh, EFS, and 250 micro gram/ml OA were lower in OA-provoked rats compared to those in saline-provoked control rats, in which 5% OA-provoked rats had a lower response than 1% OA-provoked rats. 4) The sensitivity of TSM to ACh was significantly higher in 10/micro gram OA-sensitized & OA-provoked rats, and the sensitivity to EFS was also significantly higher in 10/~g OA-sensitized & 5% OA-provoked rats compared to that in controls(p<0.05). 5) There was a significant correlation between the sensitivity of TSM to EFS and the counts of eosinophil or of lymphocytes in BALF(for eosinophil, r=-0.30; p<0.05, for lymphocyte, r=-0.35; p<0.05), or OA-specific serum IgE level(r=-0.46, p<0.01) in OA-sensitized & OA-provoked rats. This relationship was maintained in the data obtained only from 10 micro gram OA-sensitized & 5% OA-provoked rats. 6) The ratio of EFS-sensitivity to ACh-sensitivity was significantly lower in OA-sensitized & OA-provoked rats compared to that in controls or rats only sensitized with OA(p%0.05). 7) The Schultz-Dale phenomenon occurred in an in vitro dose-dependent manner. However, the inhaled provocation with OA in vivo resulted in a decrease in the contractile response to OA in vitro. There was a significant correlation between OA-specific serum IgE level and isometric response to 250 micro gram/ml OA(r=0.36, p<0.01). These results suggest that sensitization and provocation in vivo with OA in rats induces hypersensitivity of airway smooth muscle to cholinergic stimuli through an allergic inflammatory mechanism. The sensitivity was highest when sensitized to 10 micro gram OA and exposed to 5% OA aerosols.
Aerosols ; Animals ; Asthma* ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ; Cell Count ; Ear ; Eosinophils ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Immunoglobulin E ; Injections, Subcutaneous ; Lymphocytes ; Male ; Models, Animal ; Muscle, Smooth* ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

OBJECTIVES: The differentiation of tuberculous effusion from the other causes of exudative pleural effusion remained difficult even with aids of biochemical analyses and pleural biopsy. As the pathophysiology of tuberculous pleural effusion is an enhanced cell mediated immunity, Adenosine deaminase(ADA) and various cytokines including Inteferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor alpha(TNF-α) are considered as useful diagnostic tools in differentiating exudative pleural effusion The author would like to demonstrate the diagnostic usefulness of TNF-α in the differentiation of exudative pleural effusion, and compared the discriminating ability of TNF-α with ADA. METHODS: Pleural fluids obtained from 80 patients (tuberculous : 39, malignant : 31, parapneumonic : 10) with exudate pleural effusions were processed for cell counts and biochemical analysis including ADA and TNF-α RESULTS: Tuberculous pleural fluid showed higher levee of ADA and TNF-α, 48.7α 32.7U/L and 184.1±214.2pg/mL than that of non-tuberculous effusion 26.0α41.3U/L and 44.1α114.2pg/mL, respectively (ADA, TNF-α : p<0.05, p<0.01). Receiver operating characteristics(ROC) curves were generated for ADA and TNF-α, and the best cut-off value for adenosine deaminase and TNF-α were considered as 30U/L and 15pg/ml, respectively. Comparing the area under the ROC curves, there was no significant difference between ADA and TNF-α CONCLUSION: For the differential diagnosis of tuberculous pleural effusion from the other causes of exudative pleural effusions, TNF-α as well as ADA was considered as useful diagnostic method. However adding TNF-α to ADA has no further diagnotic benefit than ADA alone.
Adenosine ; Adenosine Deaminase ; Biopsy ; Cell Count ; Cytokines ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Exudates and Transudates ; Humans ; Immunity, Cellular ; Pleural Effusion* ; ROC Curve ; Tuberculosis ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*

Alport syndrome is a hereditary, progressive disease characterized by progressive nephritis, sensorineural deafness, and ocular abnormalities, including anterior lenticonus. The ultrastructure of the lens capsule abnormalities in Alport syndrome is reported. Four anterior lens capsules from 31-year-old patient and 26-year-old patient with lenticonus who were affected by the Alport syndrome were obtained at capsulectomy. And all four anterior lens capsules were examined by transmission electron microscopy. The histopathologic findings showed that the thickness of the anterior lens capsules was decreased (4~13 micrometer) and that there were many vascular dehiscences localized at the inner part of the lens capsule. There were large numbers of capsular dehiscences containing fibrillar materials and vacuoles. The anterior capsules were clearly fragile in this disease, forming the basis for the progressive lenticonus and anterior polar cataract.
Adult ; Epithelial Cells/ultrastructure ; Humans ; Lens Capsule, Crystalline/*ultrastructure ; Lens Diseases/genetics/*pathology ; Lens Implantation, Intraocular ; Male ; Nephritis, Hereditary/genetics/*pathology ; Phacoemulsification

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the BD Phoenix Automated Microbiology System (Phoenix) for its ability to detect methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and compared the results to those obtained by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) agar dilution method, a mecA gene PCR method, and the MicroScan WalkAway 96 System (MicroScan). METHODS: One hundred seventy S. aureus strains (Group I) isolated from blood and urine cultures were collected from eight university hospitals and 58 strains (Group II) including 20 blood isolates among Group I and 38 isolates from skin lesions of atopic patients were collected from Asan Medical Center. All 208 isolates were tested with Phoenix using PMIC/ID-53 panels, and the tests were repeated when the results were indeterminate. The results by Phoenix were compared to the susceptibility results obtained by reference methods: the CLSI method for oxacillin MIC for Group I strains, and a PCR assay method for detection of the mecA gene and MicroScan tests for oxacillin susceptibility for Group II strains. RESULTS: One hundred strains (58.8%) in Group I were MRSA and 28 strains (48.3%) were mecA positive in Group II. Compared to the CLSI method, Phoenix showed the sensitivity and specificity of 100% and MIC agreement of 99.4% for Group I strains. The level of agreement between Phoenix and MicroScan for oxacillin MIC and their interpretation were 98.3% and 100%, respectively, for Group II strains. Both MicroScan and Phenix failed to detect one mecA-positive strain: its MIC was shown as 2 microgram/mL twice by MicroScan and 2 microgram/mL twice and > 2 microgram/mL once by Phoenix. The frequency of the indeterminate results was 5.5% and the mean time to completion of the tests was 12.8 (10.2-16) hours in Phoenix. CONCLUSION: Phoenix showed a high level of sensitivity and specificity for the detection of MRSA with an excellent correlation with MicroScan. Further evaluation is required for detection of heterogeneous MRSA.
Agar ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Methicillin Resistance ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ; Oxacillin ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Skin ; Staphylococcus aureus* ; Staphylococcus*

We report here a case of pulmonary benign metastasizing leiomyoma from the uterus in a 45 year old woman. The patient presented for investigation of multiple pulmonary nodules on a routine chest roentgenogram. The patient had undergone uterine myomectomy due to uterine leiomyoma 10 years earlier. We performed thoracoscopic wedge resection for definitive diagnosis. Histologically, spindle shaped smooth muscle cells appeared between collagen stroma, histology similar to that seen in uterine myoma. The tumor tissue tested positive for estrogen and progesterone receptors. The pathological findings were consistent with benign metastasizing leiomyoma. The patient was in pre-menopause. She received no specific treatment for lung tumors, and we did not found any changes in the lesions after one year follow up without any medication.
Collagen ; Diagnosis ; Estrogens ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Leiomyoma* ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Middle Aged ; Multiple Pulmonary Nodules ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Premenopause ; Receptors, Progesterone ; Thorax ; Uterine Myomectomy ; Uterus

BACKGROUND: The zygoma is a major portion of the midfacial contour. When deformity occurs in this area, a reduction should be conducted to correct it. If a sagittal fracture at the temporal root of the zygomatic arch occurs, this also requires reduction, but it is difficult to approach due to its anatomical location, and the possibility of fixation is also limited. Thus, the authors attempted the reduction of sagittal fracture by two- or three-point fixation and the Gillies approach without direct manipulation. The preoperative and postoperative results of the patients were evaluated. Follow-up was performed to establish a treatment guideline. METHODS: A retrospective study was done with 40 patients who had sagittal fractures at the temporal root of the zygomatic arch from March 2009 to June 2012. Only two- or three-point fixation was performed for the accompanying zygomatic-orbital-maxillary fracture. The Gillies approach was used for complex fractures of the zygomatic arch, while the temporal root of the zygomatic arch was only observed without reduction. Preoperative and postoperative computed tomography and X-ray scans were performed to examine the results. RESULTS: The result of the paired t-test on preoperative and postoperative bone gap differences, the depression level, and the degree of temporal protrusion showed a marked decrease in the mean difference at a 95% confidence interval. The results were acceptable. CONCLUSIONS: In the treatment of sagittal fractures at the temporal root of the zygomatic arch, it is acceptable to use indirect reduction and non-fixation methods. This leads to a satisfactory aesthetic and functional outcome.
Congenital Abnormalities ; Depression ; Facial Asymmetry ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Zygoma ; Zygomatic Fractures