BACKGROUND: Monofunctional psoralens plus UVA radiation are not severely phototoxic and have less mutagenic activity than bifunctional psoralens plus UVA radiation. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate pigment producing effect using various concentrations(0.02%, 0.1%, 0.5%) of monofunctional psoralens such as angelicin, khellin and comparing it's effect with TMP in topical photochemotherapy. METHOD: Ninty three C57BL mice were painted with either angelicin, khellin or TMP solution in concentrations of 0.02%, 0.1% and 0.5% each and were UVA irradiated. Skin biopsies were performed at 1,3,5 weeks after UVA irradiation. The pigment producing effects were measured by the number, area and perimeter of the melanocytes after topical PUVA. RESULTS: The comparison of melanocyte numbers between different psoralens after five weeks of photochemotherapy showed a significant difference in decreasing order of TMP, khellin and angelicin. The area and perimeter of melanocytes were larger in the TMP group after five weeks photochemotherapy than the other group. However in the khellin and angelicin group, the area and perimeter of melanocytes were not increased by increasing the frequency of the UVA irradiation. CONCLUSION: The number, area and perimeter of melanocytes after topical PUVA increased in the TMP group compared to angelicin or khellin group. We expect the clinical application of angelicin and khellin in vitiligo is possible considering the result of the study of pigment producing effect with a higher concentration and higher dose of UVA.
Animals ; Biopsy ; Ficusin* ; Furocoumarins ; Khellin ; Melanocytes* ; Methods ; Mice* ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Paint ; Photochemotherapy* ; Skin ; Thymidine Monophosphate ; Vitiligo

The exact etiologies and mechanisms of ischemia in avascular necrosis of femoral head are still under investigation. But this condition seems to be increasing during a few decades with increasing use of steroid and alcohol abuse in Korea. The treatment modalities have been based on the stages of the disease by simple radiographic findings that do not describe the accurate pathological extent or localization. Therefore more sophisticated study is needed to treat the AVN of the femoral head well. Magnetic resonance images, simple radiographs, scintigraphs of 13 patients(22 femoral heads), who were admitted and treated at Seoul National University Hospital from April, 1989 to December, 1989 were correlated, to characterize the type of AVN by extent and location regardless of its stage and reveal the relationship between types and stages. It is the result of this study that the type of AVN as well as stage should be considered in determining the treatment modality.
Alcoholism ; Classification ; Head ; Ischemia ; Korea ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Necrosis ; Seoul

BACKGROUND: Stellate ganglion block (SGB) is known to increase blood flow to the innervations area of the stellate ganglion. Near infrared spectroscopy reflects an increased blood volume and allows continuous, non-invasive, and bedside monitoring of regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2). We investigated the influence of SGB on bilateral cerebral oxygenation using a near infrared spectroscopy. METHODS: SGB was performed on 30 patients with 1% lidocaine 10 ml using a paratracheal technique at the C6 level and confirmed by the presence of Horner's syndrome. The blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR) and rSO2 were measured before SGB and 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes after SGB. Tympanic temperature of each ear was measured prior to SGB and 20 minutes after SGB. RESULTS: The increments of the rSO2 on the block side from the baseline were statistically significant at 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes. The rSO2 on the non-block side compared with the baseline, however, decreased at 15 and 20 minutes. The difference between the block and the non-block sides was significant at 15 and 20 minutes. The BP at 10, 15 and 20 minutes was increased and the HR was increased at 10 and 15 minutes. CONCLUSIONS: We observed an increment of the rSO2 on the block side from the baseline; however, the rSO2 on the non-block side decreased.
Blood Pressure ; Blood Volume ; Ear ; Heart Rate ; Horner Syndrome ; Humans ; Lidocaine ; Oxygen ; Spectrum Analysis ; Stellate Ganglion

Several observation suggest that the antimelanocyte autoantibodies could play a role in melanocyte destruction. Some experiments indicate that melanocyte antibodies from patients with vitiligo can kill melanocyte in vitro. In these experiments, we demonstrated that vitiligo patient's sera containing antimelanocyte antibodies can lyse cultured human melanocytes by complement activation. Melanocyte cytotoxicity was measured using the ethidium bromide/ acridine orange viability assay. Significant melanocyte cytotoxicity was seen in sera from patients with both active and inactive vitiligo(p<0.01). Melanocyte cytotoxicity measured with complement-mediated cytotoxicity decreased after systemic steroid treatment(p<0.05) ; however melanocyte cytotoxicity showed no significant change with systemic PUVA therapy.
Acridine Orange ; Antibodies ; Autoantibodies* ; Complement Activation ; Ethidium ; Humans ; Melanocytes ; PUVA Therapy ; Vitiligo*

Congenital fibrosarcoma of neonate is a very rare malignant tumor prone to behave aggressively with a tendency to local recurrence without metastasis. It is characteristically composed of collagenous fibroblasts and herringbone pattern in histology. We experienced a case of congenital fibrosarcoma on the left thigh and report this case with some review in literature with 1½ year follow up.
Collagen ; Fibroblasts ; Fibrosarcoma ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Recurrence ; Thigh

OBJECTIVE: To report the pregnancy which was made by in vitro fertilization using recombinant follicle stimulating hormone and gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonist. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Case report. RESULTS: Six oocytes were retrieved and all were fertilized by intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Six embryos were transferred and the pregnancy was confirmed. CONCLUSION: It is envisaged that the availability of recombinant gonadotropins and gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonists will ultimately lead to shorter, cheaper and safer treatments, using reduced dosages.
Pregnancy ; Female ; Humans

This study was undertaken at the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chonnam University Medical School, to investigate the association between some of the risk factor and the incidence of intrauterine fetal growth restriction(IUGR). The studied population was selected from patients who admitted at Chonnam University Hospital during January, 1992 through May, 1997, with following criteria, Korean, singletone pregnancy with live birth and known gestational weeks with 28 or more. And then, the risk factors were analyzed in terms of maternal factor, placental factor, and fetal factor. The following results were obtained. 1) The incidence of IUGR was 6.1%. 2) The incidence of IUGR was higher at young aged mother and nullipara. 3) Only 39.1% of etiologic factors for IUGR was found to have known causes. According to the risk factors for IUGR, hypertensive disorder during pregnancy, anemia, cardiac disease, leukemia, and pulmonary tuberculosis were associated with increased incidence of IUGR. 4) The relative risk of IUGR was much higher in neonates born with congenital anomalies. 5) According to the placental causes of IUGR, placenta previa and placenta abruption showed some association with IUGR.
Anemia ; Fetal Development* ; Fetal Growth Retardation ; Gynecology ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant, Newborn ; Jeollanam-do ; Leukemia ; Live Birth ; Mothers ; Obstetrics ; Placenta ; Placenta Previa ; Pregnancy ; Risk Factors ; Schools, Medical ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

We investigated the clinical aspect and immunologic parameters of childhood and adult vitiligo in our clinics and made a comparative study. The childhood vitiligo showed the following results : similar incidence of clinical patterns with adults except for the lower incidence of the acrofacial type than in adults ; less involvement in the extent of lesion of disease than in adults ; higher incidence of family history than with adults ; of the precipitating factors, trauma is the main one whereas emotional stress is for adults ; higher association with halo nevi than adults ; and lower incidence of serum autoantibodies than adults. We have ascertained that childhood vitiligo is a distinct subset of vitiligo, showing the above features which will be studied in more patients in a long term follow-up clinical study.
Adult ; Autoantibodies ; Clinical Study ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Nevus, Halo ; Precipitating Factors ; Stress, Psychological ; Vitiligo

This study was undertaken to investigate the recovery of epidermal Langerhans cells in relation to time after UVA irradiation through different amounts and ways of exposure in CH mice. We irradiated the ears of C2H mice with UVA 200J/cm2 and 400J/cm2 in a single dose at one time or 5 fractionated doses for 5 days and performed biopsies on the ears of the control and experimental groups after 2, 7, 14, 21days of irradiation and stained them with immunoperoxidase method. The results are summarized as follows, l. We observed a significant decrease in the number of the Ia-positive epidermal Langerhans cells in the single-dose-exposed group compared to the fractionated- dose-exposed group on 7th and 14th days irradiated with UVA 200J/cm. 2. There was no significant difference in the change in the number of the Ia- positive epidermal Langerhans cells until 21 days of exposure between the single- dose-exposed group and the fractionated-dose-exposed group irradiated with UVA 400 J/cm 3. In the group irradiated with UVA 2003/cm, the reduced number of the Ia-positive epidermal Langerhans cells returned to normal on the 14th day after irradiation in the fractionated-dose-exposed group and on the 21st day in the single- dose-exposed group. In the group irradiated with 400J/cm, the number returned to normal on the 21st day of irradition both in the fractionated-dose-exposed group and in the single-dose-exposed group.
Animals ; Biopsy ; Ear ; Langerhans Cells* ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C3H*

PURPOSE: Algorithms to get cross-sectional bone density pattern(transverse histogram) to predict the loosening of hip prosthesis using DXA(Dual X-ray Absorptiometry) have been developed. We performed this study to analyze the correlation between radiologic findings and densitometric pattern of the THRA(Total Hip Replacement Arthroplasty) patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-six hips of 32 THRA patients were evaluated. The duration between THRA and DXA was from 1 year 7 months to 15 years. On transverse histogram, the periprosthetic bone density patterns were classified as 3 types;type I, rigid fixation in 17, type II, definite loosening in 8, and type III, partial loosening in 11 cases. Surgical findings, plain X-ray findnings and transverse histogram using DXA were correlated. RESULTS: Among 14 cases performing revision for acetabular prosthesis loosening, 5 cases revealed loosening of fernoral stems while 9 cases revealed rigid fixation of femoral stems. Sensitivity was 100% for either plain X-ray or DXA. Specificity was 88%, 77% for plain X-ray and DXA respectively. CONCLUSION: This preliminary study reveals that periprosthetic bone density pattern on transverse histogram on DXA may be useful in the evaluation of the loosening. However, further study will be needed for clinical application.
Acetabulum ; Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip* ; Bone Density ; Hip ; Hip Prosthesis ; Humans ; Prosthesis Failure ; Sensitivity and Specificity