Tailgut cysts are rare congenital lesions thought to arise from vestiges of the tailgut/postanal gut, which is a primitive gut temporarily present at the most caudal portion of the embryo. The lesions are usually multilocular cysts lined by various types of epithelium in the retrorectal space. We experienced a tailgut cyst in an 18-day-old girl initially presented as an epidermoid cyst like skin lesion in the coccygeal region. MRI showed a well-defined multiloculated cystic mass between the rectum and coccyx, measuring 12x23 mm and markedly hyperintense on T2 weighted images and hypointense on T1-weighted images. The cyst was surgically removed via a posterior sagittal approach and microscopically lined by ciliated columnar, transitional and squamous cells. Tailgut cysts are usually found in adult females, and extremely rarely in neonates. We report a tailgut cyst in a neonate with a review of the literature.
Adult ; Coccyx ; Embryonic Structures ; Epidermal Cyst ; Epithelium ; Female ; Gastrula ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Rectum ; Sacrococcygeal Region ; Skin

Hirschsprung's disease is one of the most common causes of intestinal obstruction in neonates and infants. The underlying pathology of this disease is the absence of the ganglion cells in both the myenteric (Auerbach's) plexus and the submucosal (Meissner's) plexus. Since Hirschsprung's report in 1886, there have been thousands of papers on Hirschsprung's disease but the cause of the absence of the ganglion cells has not been identified. Hirschsprung's disease can be successfully treated with the Swenson, the Duhamel, and the Soave operations even though the pathogenesis is unknown. With the recent progress of molecular biology and genetics, a more detailed approach to the pathogenesis of Hirschsprung's disease can be undertaken. In addition, there have been recent developments in the surgical approach. In this review, recent advances in surgery for Hirschsprung's disease are presented.
Ganglion Cysts ; Genetics ; Hirschsprung Disease* ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Intestinal Obstruction ; Molecular Biology ; Pathology

No abstract available.

The effects of brisk walking & muscle strengthening exercise on pain, fatigue, physical function & disease activity were examined in 28 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Research design was a quasi-experimental study of nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. 14 for the experimental group and 14 for the control group were selected from the outpatients on rheumatoid arthritis clinic of Dong-A University Hospital. The experimental group underwent 16 weeks of brisk walking and muscle strengthening exercise using Thera-Band. Pain, fatigue. physical function & disease activity was measured before and after 16 weeks of exercise. At baseline test, Fatigue & physical function score between groups were significantly different. So differences within experimental group (baseline versus follow up)were compared with differences within the control group by Mann-Whitney test. There were significant differences between groups in the difference score on pain (U=6.50 p .001) and fatigue (U=26.5 p .0l). For the experimental group. the score on the pain & fatigue was significantly decreased but no changed for the control group. Also there was a significant differences between groups in the difference score of the physical function (u=22.5 p .001). For the experimental group, the score of the physical function has been significantly increased. However, for the control group, it has been no changed. But there were no significant differences between groups in the ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate) and the CRP (C-reactive protein) level. In summary, brisk walking & muscle strengthening exercise led to significant improvements in pain, fatigue. and physical function without exacerbating disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* ; Fatigue* ; Humans ; Outpatients ; Research Design ; Walking*

This study was carried out to identify the important risk factors for reduced bone mass of postmenopausal RA patients and to develop discriminant function which can classify postmenopausal RA patients with either reduced or normal bone mass. Through the literature review, individual characteristics such as age, body weight, height. age of menarche, duration of menopause, gravity, parity, and breast feeding period and factors of life style such as milk consumption exercise habit. alcohol intake, cigarette smoking, coffee consumption, disease activity, corticosteroid therapy were identified as influencing factors of reduced bone mass in RA patients Sixty eight postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis aged between 42 and 76 were selected among those who checked bone mineral density in lumbar spine and femur from October. 1998 to April. 1999 at Dong-a university hospital in Pusan. Assessment of disease activity, duration of disease and corticosteroid therapy were made by the same rheumatologist and included Ritchie articular index, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and C-reactive measuring bone protein on mineral density. Cumulative steroid dosage was calculated from the daily dosage multiplied by the number of days received. The information of other risk factor including health assessment score, individual characteristics and life style factors were collected by questionnaire. Bone mineral density(BMD) was measured using DXA at lumbar spine and femoral Ward's triangle. Discriminant function (regression equation) was developed for estimating the likelihood of the presence or absence of reduced bone mass. The results are as follows: Among the subjects, thirteen(l9.1%) exhibited osteoporosis in lumbar spine and twenty four(35.3%) exhibited osteoporosis in femoral Ward's triangle. For lumbar spine, the variables significant were age, body weight, health assessment score, while for femoral Ward's triangle, age, body weight, duration of disease. But disease activity and corticosteroid therapy were not signigicant to distinguish reduced bone mass from normal bone mass. When the discriminant function was evaluated by comparing the observed outcome with predicted outcome, the discriminant function correctly classified 85.4% of patients with reduce bone mass and 63.0% of patients with normal bone mass in the lumbar spine and 100% of patients with reduced bone mass and 9.1% of patients with normal bone mass in the femoral Ward's triangle. In summary, we found that osteoporosis in postmenopausal women with RA is more evident at the femur than the lumbar spine. Also the important discriminant factors of reduced bone mass postmenopausal women with RA were age, body weight, duration of disease and health disability. In nursing situation, the efforts to improve of functional capacity of postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis should be considered to prevent osteoporosis and fractures. Also we recommend those postmenopausal women with RA who are classified as a group of the reduced bone mass in the discriminant function should examine the bone mineral density to further examine the usefulness of this discriminant function.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* ; Body Weight ; Bone Density ; Breast Feeding ; Busan ; Coffee ; Erythrocyte Indices ; Female ; Femur ; Gravitation ; Humans ; Life Style ; Menarche ; Menopause ; Milk ; Nursing ; Osteoporosis ; Parity ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Risk Factors ; Smoking ; Spine

OBJECTIVE: To assess the scavenging effect of carnitine derivatives on oxidative damage to sperm during sperm processing cryopreservation and thawing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fresh semen samples from 20 normal healthy volunteers were collected by masturbation after at least 48 hours abstinence. After liquefaction of semen samples at room temperature, the specimens were diluted with sperm wash media (Ham's F-10, Life technologics) to a uniform density of 20x106/ml. L-carnitine or acetylcarnitine were added with various concentration of 0 micrometer, 10 micrometer, 30 micrometer in semen sample or cryoprotectant. All specimens were cryopreservated at -196degrees C LN2 for 3 days. Sperm motility, vitality, fertilizing capacity, reactive oxygen species formation and the level of lipid peroxidation were analyzed by computer assisted semen analyzer, eosin-nigrosin stain, hypo-osmotic swelling test, chemiluminescence and thiobarbituric acid method, respectively, during sperm processing, cryopreservation and thawing. RESULTS: The sperm motility was only increased in proportion to the concentration of acetylcarnitine with no statistical significance (p>0.05). The sperm vitality was also significantly improved in proportion to the concentration of acetylcarnitine with statistical significance (p<0.05). The sperm fertilizing capacity was significantly increased in proportion to the concentration of L-carnitine and acetylcarnitine and reactive oxygen species generation and lipid peroxidation were significantly decreased with same fashion(p<0.05). On comparison of effects between L-carnitine and acetylcarnitine, acetylcarnitine was superior to L-carnitine on the improvement of sperm motility and vitality as well as the suppression of reactive oxygen species generation and lipid peroxidation. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that carnitine derivatives have a scavenging effect against oxidative damages during sperm processing, cryopreservation and thawing. Therefore, carnitine derivatives may be useful as an oral antioxidant in patients with male infertility due to increased ROS generation.
Acetylcarnitine* ; Carnitine* ; Cryopreservation ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Infertility, Male ; Lipid Peroxidation ; Luminescence ; Male ; Masturbation ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Semen ; Sperm Motility ; Spermatozoa*

While studying Bombyx mori "Zipnuae" inoculated with an entomopathogenic fungus, Paecilomyces tenuipes, a mycoparasitic hymenoascomycete with a long neck was isolated from the silkworm rearing room. The fungus was identified as Syspastospora parasitica which has been recognized as a hyperparasite on various moniliaceous hyphomycetes. A descriptive illustration is presented in this study.
Ascomycota* ; Bombyx* ; Fungi* ; Mitosporic Fungi ; Neck ; Paecilomyces*

No abstract available.
Wounds, Stab*

Pulmonary adenocarcinoma of fetal type is a very uncommon tumor of the lung which simulates an early stage of lung differentiation. This is a primitive appearing epithelial tumor similar to the epithelial component of pulmonary blastoma but lacking the sarcomatous features. Since the report of Kradin et al, 8 more cases have been reported by a variety of name. These tumors are composed of glycogen-rich, non-ciliated tubular epithelial cells forming irregularly shaped tubules or arranged in a papillary pattern. A very remarkable findings of this tumor is the presence of endocrine cells which is confirmed by argyrophilia, immunohistochemistry or electron microscopy. We experienced a case of this tumor which showed hepatocytoid differentiation in addition to the characteristic histologic findings. Immunohistochemical studies performed on a resected tumor tissue showed immunoreactivity for alpha-fetoprotein, neuron-specific enolase and somatostatin, and endocrine type granules were found ultrastructurally. Although this tumor seems to have a relation with pulmonary blastoma in its histology, immunohistochemistry and ontogeny, a distinction between these should be attained because the average survival of the former group is longer as 23 months, while that of the latter is only 4 months.
Adenocarcinoma

No abstract available.
Rectal Neoplasms*