Spontaneous Subcapsular hematoma of the kidney is relatively uncommon. Although several cases have been recorded in the literature, the diagnosis was seldom made preoperatively. Selective renal angiography provide an excellent means of diagnosing this lesion prior to surgery. Case I: A 37 years male was admitted with the right flank pain and hematuria. Excretory urogram showed moderate hydronephrosis and a cystic shadow compressing upper calices. Selective renal angiography showed strip-like curvilinear capsular density outside the nonopacifying mass. By exploration, blood clots, about 300 c. c., between renal parenchyma and renal capsule was evacuated. The cause of the hematoma is uncertain whether it is from ruptured aneurysm or due to hydronephrosis. Case II : A 54-year-old woman was hospitalized with right flank discomfortness and mild fever. Intravenous pyelogram revealed increased size of the right kidney and angiogram demonstrated the compressed and flattened renal parenchyma by a nonopacifying mass and renal capsule on the outer margin of the mass. Blood clots, about 200 c.c., inside the renal capsule which compressed renal parenchyma was evacuated.
Aneurysm, Ruptured ; Angiography ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Fever ; Flank Pain ; Hematoma* ; Hematuria ; Humans ; Hydronephrosis ; Kidney* ; Male ; Middle Aged

Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea Maffucci's syndrome is characterized by dysccondroplasia with hemangiomata. Since Angelo Maffucci (1881) first described this entity, 105 cases and some more were reported in the literature till 1976. We recently observed a patient suffering from this disorder. The patient is 21 year-old girl, who has multiple hemangiomes on her right foot, right buttock, left wrist and enchondromas on both proximal phalanx, distal phalanx of both great toes and proximal, middle phalanx of right second toe. The disease started at age of 11 and these lesions grew rapidly last 3 years. The diagnosis was based on clinical, radiological and histological findings. Because of its rarity, we report it with brief review of literature.
Buttocks ; Chondroma ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Foot ; Humans ; Korea ; Osteochondrodysplasias ; Seoul ; Toes ; Wrist

Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology that affects spine, sacroiliac joint, and the large joints of the extremities, and lead to fibrous or bony ankylosis and deformity. The rigid ankylosed spine of ankylosing spondylitis is prone to fracture by minimal trauma, and the resulting fractures likely to be unstable and damage to spinal cord or cauda equina. The authors report a case of paraplegia in ankylosing spondylitis after open reduction of the femoral trohanteric fracture.
Ankylosis ; Cauda Equina ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Extremities ; Femur ; Joints ; Paraplegia ; Sacroiliac Joint ; Spinal Cord ; Spine ; Spondylitis, Ankylosing

Several stresses are known to induce synthesis of heat shock protein. The present study was performed to see whether pulmonary ischemia, induced by the bronchial artery occlusion, produced HSP70 in cat lung. To this aim we compared experimental and control groups of cats with respect to the HSP70 production in the lung. Experimental animals were subjected to 10-min bronchial artery occlusion followed by reperfusion. The interval between the end of the occlusion and the end of the reperfusion was 1 hour, 4 hours and 8 hours, whereas control animal was not subjected to any manipulation except anesthesia. According to the interval differences, experimental animals were divided into 1HR, 4HRs and 8HRs groups. To determine the induction of HSP70 in each group, total proteins of lung tissues were extracted and separated by PAGE electrophoresis. Immunoblotting with a mouse monoclonal anti-HSP70 IgG antibody revealed that HSP70 was not detected in the pulmonary tissues resected from control, 1HR or 4HRs groups. In contrast, HSP70 expression in 8HRs group was marked. These results suggest that pulmonary ischemia by the bronchial artery occlusion produces HSP70 in a delayed
Anesthesia ; Animals ; Bronchial Arteries* ; Cats* ; Electrophoresis ; Heat-Shock Proteins ; Immunoblotting ; Immunoglobulin G ; Ischemia ; Lung* ; Mice ; Reperfusion

BACKGROUND: The expression of adhesion molecules contribute to development of systemic diseases. Vascular cell adhesion molecule-l(VCAM-1) is an endothelial cell membrane glycoprotein that has been implicated in leukocyte/endothelial cell interactions in inflammation. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to characterize the surface expression and regulation of VCAM-1 on two different endothelial cells. METHOD: We examined the effects of the expression of VCAM-1 in two different endothelial cells, isolated from human umbilical cords and human glomerulus. Expression of VCAM-1 was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) and flow cytometry. RESULTS: In human umbilical cord endothelial cells(HUVECs), both interleukin-l B(IL-lB) and tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) increased VCAM-1 expression. VCAM-1 expression increased by TNF-a was higher than that increased by IL-lB. In human glomerular endothelial cells(HGECs), IL-lB and TNF-a markedly increased VCAM-1 expression. Conclusion. The regulation of VCAM-1 appears to be somewhat different in HGECs compared with HUVECs. These differences between the responsiveness of the two cells may possibly indicate inherent differences in endothelial cell derived from different vascular beds.
Cell Adhesion ; Cell Communication ; Cytokines* ; Endothelial Cells* ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans* ; Inflammation ; Membrane Glycoproteins ; Necrosis ; Umbilical Cord ; Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1*

Fifteen cases of papillary cystic tumor of the pancreas (PCTP) were studied (14 female patients, one male patient; mean age: 23.5 years). Most tumors developed in the head of the pancreas as a well circumscribed large mass. The tumor had a mean diameter of 6.7 cm(range; 2 to 15 cm). Histopathologically abundant delicate papillary fragments, monomorphic tumor cells and degenerative changes of the solid area of the tumor were characteristic. All but two cases had completely circumscribed capsules. Two cases had duodenal invasion; one of all cases had cul de sac metastasis. Compared with 12 non-aggressive tumors, the aggressive cases had larger tumor size (more than 9 cm) with a thicker capsule (more than 2 mm). In studies to investigate the prognostic index using nucleolar organizing region (NOR), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and flow cytometry as well as nuclear grade and mitotic index, we could not find the useful parameter to detect the malignant potential of PCTP. In the flow cytometric analysis of cellular DNA contents, two invasive cases and the only one case of the male patient among the non-aggressive group were aneuploid. In conclusion, although it is hard to predict the prognosis by microscopic findings only, those with a thick capsule and aneuploidy tend to be related to malignant potential.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Cell Division/physiology ; Cystadenoma, Papillary/*chemistry/*pathology ; Female ; Flow Cytometry ; Human ; Immunohistochemistry ; Male ; Nucleolus Organizer Region/chemistry ; Pancreatic Cyst/*chemistry/*pathology ; Pancreatic Neoplasms/*chemistry/*pathology ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Prognosis ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen/analysis ; Silver Staining ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES : The common methods of genetic association analysis are sensitive to population stratification, which may easily lead to a spurious association result. We used a regression approach based for linkage disequilibrium to perform a high resolution genetic association analysis. SUBJECTS AND METHODS : We applied a regression approach that can increase the resolution of quantitative traits that are related with cardiovascular diseases. The population data was composed of 543 males and 876 females without cardiovascular diseases, and it was obtained from a cardiovascular genome center. We used information about linkage disequilibrium between the marker and trait locus, and we added the covariates to model their effects. RESULTS : We found that this regression approach has the merit of analyzing genetic association based on linkage disequilibrium. In the analysis of the male group, the total cholesterol was significantly in linkage disequilibrium with CETP3 (p=0.002), and triglyceride was significantly in linkage disequilibrium with ACE8 (p=0.037), APOA1-1 (p=0.031), APOA5-1 (p=0.001), APOA5-2 (p=0.001) and LIPC4 (p=0.022). HDL-cholesterol was significantly in linkage disequilibrium with ACE7 (p=0.002), ACE8 (p=0.008), ACE10 (p=0.003), APOA5-2 (p=0.022), and MTP1 (p=0.001). In the female group, total cholesterol was significantly associated with APOA5-1 (p=0.020), APOA5-2 (p=0.001), and LIPC1 (p=0.016), and triglyceride was significantly associated with APOA5-1 (p=0.009), APOA5-2 (p=0.001), and CETP5 (p=0.049). LDL-cholesterol was significantly associated with APOA5-2 (p=0.004), and HDL-cholesterol was significantly associated with LIPC1 (p=0.004). CONCLUSION : We used a regression-based method to perform high resolution linkage disequilibrium analysis of a quantitative trait locus that's associated with lipid profiles. This method of using a single marker, as applied in this paper, was well suited for analysis of genetic association. Because of the simplicity, the method can also be easily performed by routine statistical analysis software.
Cardiovascular Diseases ; Cholesterol ; Female ; Genome ; Humans ; Linkage Disequilibrium* ; Male ; Quantitative Trait Loci* ; Triglycerides

A case of primary choroid plexus papilloma of the cerebellopontine angle with spinal leptomengeal seeding is reported, and the literature pertinent to this subject reviewed. CT scan revealed a well-demarcated elliptical homogeneousely high density lesion with definite contrast enhancement within right cerebellopontine angle, which could hardly be differentiated from that of acoustic neurinoma.
Cerebellopontine Angle* ; Choroid Plexus* ; Choroid* ; Neuroma, Acoustic ; Papilloma, Choroid Plexus* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Since the development of ultrasonography and computerized topography scanning, the diagnosis of uric acid stone the urinary system has not been difficult. But recently, we experienced a case of uric acid stone that was misdiagnosed as renal pelvis tumor.
Diagnosis ; Kidney Pelvis* ; Ultrasonography ; Uric Acid*

BACKGROUND: It has been recently noticed that type 2 diabetes (T2D), one of the most common metabolic diseases, causes a chronic low-grade inflammation and activation of the innate immune system that are closely involved in the pathogenesis of T2D. Cordyceps militaris, a traditional medicinal mushroom, produces a component compound, cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine). Cordycepin has been known to have many pharmacological activities including immunological stimulating, anti-cancer, and anti-infection activities. The molecular mechanisms of cordycepin in T2D are not clear. In the present study, we tested the role of cordycepin on the anti-diabetic effect and anti-inflammatory cascades in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. METHODS: We confirmed the levels of diabetes regulating genes mRNA and protein of cytokines through RT-PCR and western blot analysis and followed by FACS analysis for the surface molecules. RESULTS: Cordycepin inhibited the production of NO and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1beta, IL-6, and TNF-alpha in LPS-activated macrophages via suppressing protein expression of pro-inflammatory mediators. T2D regulating genes such as 11beta-HSD1 and PPARgamma were decreased as well as expression of co-stimulatory molecules such as ICAM-1 and B7-1/-2 were also decreased with the increment of its concentration. In accordance with suppressed pro-inflammatory cytokine production lead to inhibition of diabetic regulating genes in activated macrophages. Cordycepin suppressed NF-kappaB activation in LPS-activated macrophages. CONCLUSION: Based on these observations, cordycepin suppressed T2D regulating genes through the inactivation of NF-kappaB dependent inflammatory responses and suggesting that cordycepin will provide potential use as an immunomodulatory agent for treating immunological diseases.
11-beta-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase Type 1 ; Agaricales ; Blotting, Western ; Cordyceps ; Cytokines ; Deoxyadenosines ; Immune System ; Inflammation ; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 ; Interleukin-6 ; Macrophages ; Metabolic Diseases ; NF-kappa B ; PPAR gamma ; RNA, Messenger ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha