Cerebellar degeneration is a group of diseases that manifests as progressive ataxia, that finally led to death without specific treatment. We report here two patients with cerebellar degeneration, who had shown an improvement and less progressive course, which is associated with panax ginseng intake. Patient 1 was a 60-year-old woman with multisystem atrophy (MSA) type C with 5 year history of ginseng ingestion. Patient 2 was a 54-year-old woman with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) type 6, who had a history of ginseng intake for 30 months. Both the patients showed atrophic change in the cerebellum by brain magnetic resonance imaging. Cerebellar functions had been semi-quantified by International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale (ICARS) and monitored before and after the ginseng ingestion every 6 to 12 months. In Patient 1 with MSA type C, ICARS had improved from 21 to 17.5 ± 1.8 in the following 5 years. In Patient 2 with SCA, ICARS also showed an improvement from 22 to 6.0 ± 1.0 over 30 months. However, when she stopped taking ginseng, it progressed up to 13 points in two years. These observations provide a potential disease-modifying effect of ginseng on patients with cerebellar degeneration.
Cerebellar Ataxia ; Cerebellar Diseases

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HLA Antigens* ; Humans

No abstract available.
Dementia* ; Humans ; Urinary Incontinence*

BACKGROUND: Methods to detect and quanitify Mycobacterium leprae(M. leprae)are needed for studies involving the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and chemotherapy of leprosy. Serological assays and skin tests lack the sensitivity and specificity to serve as diagnostic tool for M. leprae infection. The polymerase chain reaction(PCR) based on the selective amplification of an 530-bp frangment of the gene encoding the proline-rich antigen of M. leprae was performed with sections of fixed or frozen biopsy samples from leprosy patients. OBJECTIVE: This study was done to investigate the applicability of PCR for the detection of low numbers of M. leprae in tissues and peripheral blood. METHODS: The PCR was used to amplify a 530-base-pair M. leprae DNA with the thermoxtable Taq DNA polymerase. RESULTS: The In frozen skin tissues and peripheral blood of leprosy patients. relatively high detection rates of PCR products was achieved by using direct gel analysis as well as Southern blot hybridization. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that PCR amplification for the detection of M. leprae may be useful for the epidemiologic study of large papulations as well as coinical astudies on the individual patients.
Biopsy ; Blotting, Southern ; DNA ; Drug Therapy ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Epidemiology ; Humans ; Leprosy ; Mycobacterium leprae* ; Mycobacterium* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Skin ; Skin Tests ; Taq Polymerase

No abstract available.
Ectoderm* ; Ectodermal Dysplasia*

No abstract available.
Free Tissue Flaps* ; Lower Extremity* ; Soft Tissue Injuries*

BACKGROUND: Combination therapy using cyclosporine A (CsA) together with low-dose corticosteroids has adequate efficacy with little toxicity for the treatment of severe alopecia areata (AA). OBJECTIVE: We wanted to evaluate the clinical efficacy of combination therapy using CsA with low-dose corticosteroid for the treatment of severe AA and we also wanted to determine the safe therapeutic concentration of CsA in the peripheral blood. METHODS: We treated 34 cases of severe AA with combination therapy for 24 weeks and we evaluated the efficacy at 12 and 24 weeks. We monitored the peripheral blood concentration of CsA to determine the therapeutic range of CsA that has the fewest side effects. RESULTS: Of the patients, 77.4% (n=24) and 22.6% (n=10) were classified in the responder and poor-responder groups, respectively. The mean trough concentration of CsA was 95.1 and 101.2 ng/ml in the responder and poor-responder groups, respectively. For the patients with side effects associated with CsA, the mean CsA concentration was 195.8 ng/ml. CONCLUSION: We found that combination therapy with systemic CsA and low-dose corticosteroids effectively treats severe AA and this therapy results in a safe, therapeutic concentration of CsA in the peripheral blood.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones ; Alopecia ; Alopecia Areata ; Cyclosporine ; Humans