No abstract available.
Blood Donors* ; Hepacivirus* ; Hepatitis C* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans

No abstract available.

Twin reversed arterial perfusion (TRAP) sequence is a rare specific anomaly of twin gestation with fused placenta and umbilical anastomosis. This syndrome occurs once in about 34,600 births and reported first by Beneditti in 1533. We report on prenatal diagnosis of a case of TRAP sequence with color Doppler sonography, this case is presented with a brief review of the literature.
Humans ; Parturition ; Perfusion ; Placenta ; Pregnancy ; Prenatal Diagnosis*

BACKGROUND: Obesity-induced insulin resistance is an important risk factor for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, as potential mechanisms of increased insulin, how oxidative stress (OS) advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) can be changed through exercise is not fully understood. METHODS: A total of 36 C57BL/6 mice were fed either a high-fat diet (HFD; n=19) or chow diet (Chow; n=17) for 7 weeks. The two groups were then divided into voluntary running wheel exercise or no-exercise subgroups each, and the four groups were provided with another 8 weeks of intervention: 1) HFD+exercise (HE; n=11), 2) HFD+no exercise (HN; n=8), 3) Chow+exercise (CE; n=8), and 4) Chow+no exercise (CN; n=9). Body weight, fasting insulin level, and AGEs were measured before and after intervention. ANOVA and Pearson's multiple correlation coefficients were used for statistical analysis using SPSS statistics software version 20.0. RESULTS: The HE group showed significantly greater weight reduction (P<0.01), while CE and CN did not show significantly different weight reductions between each other. Also, the fasting insulin level was significantly lower in the HE group than in the HN group. The 7-week HFD intervention significantly increased OS and AGEs. However, 8 weeks of exercise did not significantly change OS and AGEs among the groups. CONCLUSION: The findings of the current study suggest that OS and AGEs may not be related to the pathway of exercise-induced improvement in insulin levels in obese mice.
Animals ; Body Weight ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Diet ; Diet, High-Fat ; Fasting ; Glycosylation End Products, Advanced ; Insulin Resistance ; Insulin ; Mice ; Mice, Obese ; Oxidative Stress ; Risk Factors ; Running ; Weight Loss

Urachal adenocarcinoma is a rare tumor, and it has similarities with nonurachal adenocarcinoma; therefore, it is sometimes difficult to make a diagnosis. We present a typical case of urachal adenocarcinoma that had all the diagnostic criteria including the presence of an urachal remnant. A 65-year-old woman presented with complaints of a painless gross hematuria. Pelvic CT and cystoscopy showed an intraluminal protruding mass centered in the bladder wall. When diagnosed as adenocarcinoma with a signet ring cell component being noted by frozen biopsy, partial cystectomy with resection of the median umbilical ligament and peritoneum was carried out for a suspected urachal adenocarcinoma. The tumor morphology showed as typical mucinous adenocarcinoma. Characteristic tubular structures showing the typical histology of an urachal remnant was found in the perivesical fat. On immunohistochemical staining, the urachal adenocarcinoma showed a pattern similar to colonic adenocarcinoma, while the urachal remnant showed strong positivity for CK7 and Chromogranin A.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous ; Aged ; Biopsy ; Cellular Structures ; Chromogranin A ; Colon ; Cystectomy ; Cystoscopy ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Hematuria ; Humans ; Ligaments ; Peritoneum ; Urachus ; Urinary Bladder

Primary ovarian myxoid tumor such as myxoma, myxoid liposarcoma and myxoid leiomyosarcoma is extremely rare neoplasm. We experienced a case of unusual myxoid tumor of the ovary in a 25 year-old woman. She was admitted for an incidentally found ovarian mass during antenatal check. Radiologic studies revealed a 5.5x5 cm-sized solid mass in left ovary and she was undertaken left oophorectomy. Grossly, the round ovarian mass was measuring 8x6x5 cm, and the cut surface was predominantly solid with myxoid appearance. Microscopically, the tumor was surrounded by thick collagenous capsule and had moderate cellularity and rich vascularity. The tumor cells were stellate-shaped with abundant extracellular myxoid material without atypia. We initially thought this lesion as myxoma, but the cellularity was too high as an ordinary myxoma. Myxoid liposarcoma could also be considered as the differential diagnosis, however there was no convincing lipoblast. So, we diagnosed that tumor as myxoma with uncertain malignant potential.
Adult ; Collagen ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Leiomyosarcoma ; Liposarcoma, Myxoid ; Myxoma* ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Ovariectomy ; Ovary*

The presence of benign mesothelial cell inclusions in the mediastinal lymph node is extremely rare and thus difficult for the pathologist distinguishing from sinus histiocytosis, metastatic carcinoma, or metastatic mesothelioma. We recently had a case of benign mesothelial cell inclusions in the mediastinal lymph node, which is initially misinterpreted as metastatic carcinoma of unknown origin. However, further clinical studies failed to identify the primary site. Subsequent immunostaining with calretinin demonstrated the strong nuclear and cytoplasmic immunore-activity, suggesting that these cells are mesothelial cells. It is important that when the nodal changes resemble metastatic carcinoma morphologically in the mediastinal lymph nodes, but the primary site can not be identified clinically, the possibility of mesothelial cell inclusions should be raised and the proper use of immunohistochemistry in conjunction with a clinical finding is recommended.
Calbindin 2 ; Cytoplasm ; Epithelium ; Histiocytosis, Sinus ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lymph Nodes* ; Mediastinum ; Mesothelioma

Cone-beam digital tomosynthesis (CBDT) has greatly been paid attention in the image-guided radiation therapy because of its attractive advantages such as low patient dose and less motion artifact. Image quality of tomograms is, however, dependent on the imaging conditions such as the scan angle (beta(scan)) and the number of projection views. In this paper, we describe the principle of CBDT based on filtered-backprojection technique and investigate the optimization of imaging conditions. As a system performance, we have defined the figure-of-merit with a combination of signal difference-to-noise ratio, artifact spread function and floating-point operations which determine the computational load of image reconstruction procedures. From the measurements of disc phantom, which mimics an impulse signal and thus their analyses, it is concluded that the image quality of tomograms obtained from CBDT is improved as the scan angle is wider than 60 degrees with a larger step scan angle (Delta beta). As a rule of thumb, the system performance is dependent on . If the exact weighting factors could be assigned to each image-quality metric, we would find the better quantitative imaging conditions.
Artifacts ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Radiotherapy, Image-Guided ; Thumb

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to develop a Korean version of the Participatory Action Oriented Training (PAOT) program and training materials for improvement of agricultural working environments. METHODS: The PAOT manual and checklist were developed on the basis of the original English version of the training materials, a questionnaire survey of agricultural health and safety professionals, and a brainstorming conference. Good example pictures were collected through visits to agricultural workers' houses, and an easily understandable picture was drawn by an animation specialist. A PAOT action manual and five types of action checklists were developed for use in different agricultural environments. Each action checklist contained six categories and 38 items of agricultural health and safety principles; the six categories were material storage and handling, work stations and tools, machine safety, physical environment, working schedule and organization, and basic health and safety management. Incorporating these training materials, a one-day Korean PAOT program was developed. RESULTS: Among 307 candidate agricultural workers from four rural Korean villages, 94 workers (59 males, 35 females) participated in a PAOT from July 2007 to Oct 2008. The PAOT program was successful and the mean self-estimated satisfaction score of the participants was greater than 90%. CONCLUSIONS: A Korean PAOT program and training materials were successfully developed and applied to Korean agricultural workers. Although more studies are needed, it is expected that PAOT will greatly contribute to the improvement of agricultural working conditions and health and safety through the use of agricultural workers' self initiatives.
Appointments and Schedules ; Checklist ; Farmers ; Handling (Psychology) ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Safety Management ; Specialization ; Surveys and Questionnaires

We investigated the major trends in health aid financing in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) by identifying the primary donor organizations and examining several data sources to track overall health aid trends. We collected gross disbursements from bilateral donor countries and international organizations toward the DPRK according to specific health sectors by using the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development creditor reporting system database and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs financial tracking service database. We analyzed sources of health aid to the DPRK from the Republic of Korea (ROK) using the official records from the ROK's Ministry of Unification. We identified the ROK, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) as the major donor entities not only according to their level of health aid expenditures but also their growing roles within the health sector of the DPRK. We found that health aid from the ROK is comprised of funding from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, private organizations, local governments, and South Korean branches of international organizations such as WHO and UNICEF. We also distinguished medical equipment aid from developmental aid to show that the majority of health aid from the ROK was developmental aid. This study highlights the valuable role of the ROK in the flow of health aid to the DPRK, especially in light of the DPRK's precarious international status. Although global health aid from many international organizations has decreased, organizations such as GFATM and UNFPA continue to maintain their focus on reproductive health and infectious diseases.
Databases, Factual ; Democratic People's Republic of Korea ; Electrical Equipment and Supplies/economics/statistics & numerical data ; Financial Management/*economics/trends ; Health Expenditures/statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; United Nations ; World Health Organization