To investigate the imbalance of the cytokine production profile of T cells from atopic asthmatics, we measured concentrations of IL-4, IL-5 and IFN-y by ELISA method in the culture supernatants of peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs) and Derrnato-phagoides pteronyssinus(Der p) J-stimulated PBMCs from Der p-sensitized atopic asthmatics, Der p-sensitized healthy atopits, non-atopic asthmatics and healthy non-atopics. The suppressive effect of IFN-y on cytokine production of Der p J-stimulated PBMCs was also examined. The PBMCs from atopics showed higher IL-4 and IL-5 production in response to PHA +TPA and higher IFN-gamma production in response to Der p Jq compared with non-atopits. The Der p J-stimulated PBMCs from atopics showed a tendency of increased IL-5 production in response to Der p J and higher IL-4 and IL-5 production in response to PHA+TPA compared with non-atopics. IL-5 production of Der p J-stimulated PBMCs from atopics was suppressed by IFN It is suggested that an imbalance in IL-4, IL-5 and IFN-y production is a feature of the atopic state. The TH2 characteristics of allergen-stimulated PBMCs could be regulated by IFN-y.
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Interleukin-4 ; Interleukin-5 ; T-Lymphocytes

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the serum levels of IL-10 in patients with rheumatoid arthritis are different from those of normal controls and SLE patients and to find out any correlation with disease activity parameters of rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS: Sera from 20 healthy normal persons, 16 rheumatoid arthritis patients and 16 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were collected and measured for IL-10 and IL-6. Various disease activity parameters were measured in RA patients. RESULTS: The serum level of IL-10 in RA patients was significantly elevated compared to normal controls but lower than those of SLE patients. In RA patients there was no definite correlation between the disease activity parameters and serum IL-10 levels. Despite significant improvements in terms of various disease activity parameters, there was no significant change of serum IL-10 levels after treatment in RA patients. In seropositive RA patients, positive correlation was found between serun IL-10 and rheumatoid factor levels. CONCLUSION: Our findings show that the serum IL-10 levels in patietns with RA are elevated compared to normal controls but lower than those of SLE patients. There was no correlation between serum IL-10 levels and disease acivity parameters of RA.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* ; Humans ; Interleukin-10* ; Interleukin-6 ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic ; Rheumatoid Factor

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The outcome of asthma treatment has traditionally been assessed by measuring the conventional clinical parameters such as symptoms, expiratory flow rates and needs for medications. But none of them tells us whether the patients are actually able to function properly in their lives. Only assessment of the quality of life (QOL) can reflect the parts of patients lives affected by the disease. However, there is no measure to assess the quality of life of patients with any chronic diseases in Korea yet. We developed the QOL Questionnaire for Korean Asthmatics and evaluated its measurement properties. METHOD: The questionnaire was composed of 18 items in four domains : i.e. activity limitation (6 items), symptoms (5 items), emotional function (3 items) and environmental stimuli (4 items). At our out-patient clinic, 32 adults with moderate to severe persistent bronchial asthma were enrolled. The study design consisted of 4 week unblinded single cohort with visits at 0 and 4 weeks, and the patients were asked to answer the questionnaire by self administration method at the two separate visits. Forced expiratory volume for 1 second (FEV1) and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) were recorded at each visit. According to the patients and physicians global assessment, the patients were divided into two groups, i.e. stable and changed (improved). The responsiveness, reproducibility and validity of the questionnaire were evaluated. RESULTS: The total QOL scores at the second visit in the changed group were significantly higher than those at the first visit. The score differences between the two visits in the changed group were higher than in the stable group. In the stable group, the responses to the questionnaire were reproducible. The QOL scores showed good longitudinal correlation with the expiratory flow rates, whereas FEV1 did not correlate with the QOL in cross-sectional analysis. CONCLUSION: The questionnaire proved to be reproducible, responsive and valid in the subjects. It could be recommended for the outcome evaluation of Korean asthmatics.
Adult ; Asthma ; Chronic Disease ; Cohort Studies ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Forced Expiratory Volume ; Humans ; Korea ; Outpatients ; Peak Expiratory Flow Rate ; Quality of Life* ; Self Administration ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of IL-10 on development of collagen-induced arthritis, on humoral and cellular immunity and on the endogenous production of IL-10 in DBA/1J mice. METHODS: DBA/1J mice were immunized with chicken type II collagen in Freund s complete adjuvant. Murine recombinant IL-10 was given intraperitoneally twice a week from the day of second immunization (week 3) in doses of 0.002ug, 0. 02ug and 0. 2ug for 3 different groups, respectively. Dexamethasone was injected in one group to suppress the arthritis development and this group was used as negative control group. Levels of anti-collagen antibodies, serum IL-10 and stimulation indices of splenic monocytes to collagen were measured at the end of study. RESULTS: The 0. 02ug IL-10 and 0. 2ug IL-10 treated groups developed earlier and more severe arthritis (week 6 and 8) compared to that of the control group while the 0. 002ug IL-10 group has shown similar course to the control group in terms of incidence and severity of arthritis, At week 10, all groups with or without IL-10 injections developed arthritis with similar degree of severity while dexamethasone group showed far less incidence and severity of arthritis. The serum levels of anti-collagen antibody, IL-10 and spleen monocyte stimulation indices to collagen antigen showed no difference among control group, IL-10 injected groups and dexamethasone injected group. CONCLUSION: This study shows IL-10 could worsen the arthritis in CIA with the dosage used in this study without significant influence on the level of anti-collagen antibodies or stimulation indices of spenic monocyte to collagen.
Animals ; Antibodies ; Arthritis ; Arthritis, Experimental* ; Chickens ; Collagen ; Collagen Type II ; Dexamethasone ; Immunity, Cellular ; Immunization ; Incidence ; Interleukin-10* ; Mice ; Monocytes ; Spleen

No abstract available.
Adult* ; Humans ; Still's Disease, Adult-Onset*

OBJECTIVES: Lipocortin-1 (LC-1), a member of annexin family of calcium-binding proteins induced by corticosteroid, originally evoked interest as one of the secondary messengers in the antiinflammatory action of corticosteroid, But the exact mechanism of LC-1 responsible for antiinflammatory effect is still unclear. We investigated the potential role of LC-1 in the effect of corticosteroid on amelioration of collagen induced arthritis (CIA) in mice. METHODS: Four groups of DBA/1j mice were immunized by intradermal injection of 5mg/kg of type 2 collagen with complete Freunds adjuvant which was boostered on day 21 and 42. Group 1 received no treatment and group 2 received 1mg/kg dexamethasone intraperitoneally twice weekly from day 21. Group 3 and 4 were treated with 50 and 0.5microgram/kg of anti LC-1 monoclonal antibody subcutaneously and dexamethasone from day 21 twice weekly, respectively. The prevalence of arthritis and arthritis score were assessed twice weekly. At week 10, we measured serum anticollagen antibody levels and splenic mononuclear cell stimulation indices (SI) to collagen. RESULT: CIA started to develop after 4 weeks of collagen treatment in all groups. All mice of group 1 developed arthritis by the 9 week. Treatment with dexamethasone markedly inhibited arthritis development (P<0.05). Cotreatment of anti LC-1 monoclonal antibody and dexamethasone abolished the antiinflammatory effect of dexamethasone (P<0.05). But there was no significant difference in the serum levels of anticollagen antibody or splenic mononuclear cell SI among the groups. CONCLUSION: These findings support the hypothesis that LC-1 is involved, at least in part, in the antiinflammatory actions of corticosteroid in chronic inflammation, although the mechanism of which is unclear.
Animals ; Arthritis* ; Calcium-Binding Proteins ; Collagen* ; Dexamethasone ; Freund's Adjuvant ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Injections, Intradermal ; Mice ; Prevalence

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of ketoprofen plaster on knee pain in patients with osteoarthritis who are concomittantly treated with acetaminophen. METHODS: Forty-three patints with knee osteoarthritis were randomized into a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to receive treatment with either placebo or ketoprofen plaster (Ketotop? applied over painful knee for 4 week. The patients were instructed to apply Ketotop%r placebo plaster to more painful knee twice daily. The response to treatment was assessed in I and 4 weeks with the use of visual analog scales (VAS) for pain and a categorical pain scale, and physician's global evaluation. All of the patients continued to receive acetaminophen concomittantly. RESULTS: Significantly more relief of pain was noted in Ketotop treated patients than the placebo treated patients by the end of the study; after four week, Ketotop treated patients demostrated mean reductions in pain of 33%. The reduction in pain was statistically significant in Ketotop group compared with placebo group(p=0.03). According to the physician's global evaluations, 81% of the Ketotop treated patients experienced a reduction in pain after 4 weeks of treatment compared with those treated with placebo(25%o)(p=0.01). No significant adverse effect was noted except mild skin irritation in one case. CONCLUSIONS: The application of Ketotop is a safe and effective adjunctive therapeutic modality for the relief of knee pain in patients with osteoarthritis who are treated with acetaminopen.
Acetaminophen ; Humans ; Ketoprofen ; Knee* ; Osteoarthritis ; Osteoarthritis, Knee* ; Skin ; Visual Analog Scale

BACKGROUND: Oral allergy syndrome(OAS) is composed of it,ching sense and edema in oral cavity, lips, throat, pharynx, and larynx following eating some fresh fruits or vegetables. It has been known that most of patients with OAS are allergic to pollens. Common epitopes were found among pollens, fruits and vegetables. Although OAS is a common farm of food allergy in adults, this is the first epidemiologic study of OAS in Korea. MATERIAL AND METHOD: One hundred and fifty one patients who showed positive skin reaction to pollens were telephone-interviewed. Investigation of the prevalence and clinical manifestations of OAS was possible in 81 patients. RESULT: The prevalence of OAS among these patients was 34.6% (28/81). OAS was found in 24(48%) out of 50 patients sensitized to tree pollens, whereas 4(13%) of 31 grass or weed pollen-sensitized paients had OAS. Most common causative food was apple and all of 17 apple- OAS patients were sensitized to tree pollens. Peach was the second common food and 14 of 15 peach-OAS patients were sensitized to tree pollens. Besides oral symptoms, rhinitis, asthma, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting or generalized urticaria were accompanied in half of the OAS patients (14/28). Some patients showed OAS to some unique Korean foods such as dropwort, taro and Aster. CONCLUSION: OAS was very common in pollen-sensitized patients. Larger epidemiologic studies are needed to find unique Korean foods and their antigensm causing OAS.
Adult ; Asthma ; Colocasia ; Diarrhea ; Eating ; Edema ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Epitopes ; Filipendula ; Food Hypersensitivity ; Fruit ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity* ; Korea ; Larynx ; Lip ; Mouth ; Nausea ; Pharynx ; Poaceae ; Pollen* ; Prevalence ; Prunus persica ; Rhinitis ; Skin ; Urticaria ; Vegetables ; Vomiting

A 42-year-old man presented with severe pancytopenia and uncontrolled epistaxis. The diagnosis of SLE was made and the pancytopenia was found to be due to myelofibrosis. The pulse therapy with methylprednisolone and maintenance therapy with prednisolone reversed both pancytopenia and myelofibrosis. Although myelofibrosis has been described in SLE, this coexistence must be very rare since there has been only 19 cases showing this combination. We report a case of SLE with myelofibrosis which was reversed by the treatment with glucocorticoid.
Adult ; Diagnosis ; Epistaxis ; Humans ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic* ; Methylprednisolone ; Pancytopenia ; Prednisolone ; Primary Myelofibrosis*

Sarcopenia-related falls and fractures are increasing worldwide due to the aging population. The purpose of this study was to 1) evaluate anthropometric characteristics related to hip fracture in Korean patients, 2) investigate sarcopenia prevalence in hip fracture (HF) and non-hip fracture (NF) groups, and 3) investigate the correlation between sarcopenia and osteoporosis. This case-control study examined 359 HF and 1,614 NF normal populations using Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data. We performed whole-body dual energy X-ray absorptiometry to analyze body composition using the skeletal muscle mass index (SMI: lean mass/height2) and bone mineral density (BMD). In the HF group, using the AWGS definition, the prevalence of sarcopenia in women and men was 44.3% and 68.2%, respectively; in the NF group, it was 7.1% and 16.1%, respectively. Lower appendicular SMI (P < 0.001), leg muscle mass (P < 0.001), and higher prevalence of sarcopenia (P < 0.001) were observed in the HF group after adjustment for age and gender. In multivariate analysis, sarcopenia (OR = 6.52; 95% CI = 4.67-9.09), age (OR = 1.15; 95% CI = 1.13-1.17), and osteoporosis (OR = 1.87; 95% CI = 1.35-2.58) were associated with the occurrence of a hip fracture. This study showed a higher prevalence of sarcopenia in patients with hip fractures compared with a normal population, and higher prevalence of sarcopenia in men.
Absorptiometry, Photon ; Accidental Falls ; Aging ; Body Composition ; Bone Density ; Case-Control Studies* ; Female ; Hip Fractures ; Hip* ; Humans ; Korea ; Leg ; Male ; Multivariate Analysis ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Nutrition Surveys ; Osteoporosis ; Prevalence* ; Sarcopenia*