No abstract available.
Child* ; Epilepsy* ; Humans

No abstract available.
Leg* ; Myocutaneous Flap*

SUMMARY: Benign fibrous histiocytoma of the knee is a very rare entity. We report on one case of benign fibrous histiocytoma that involved the patellar fat pad, an areas of involvement not previously reported. Diagnostic arthroscopy was performed to show retrobulging of infrapatellar fat pad without specific synovial changes. The lesion was completely resected. At short-term follow-up, all symptoms were resolved. Arthroscopy can be used as an diagnostic tool for identification of intraarticular lesions of the knee, but appears not to be a good tool for clean removal of mass within patellar fat pad.
Adipose Tissue* ; Arthroscopy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Histiocytoma, Benign Fibrous* ; Knee

PURPOSE: Synuclein has been identified as an important neuroprotein for developing pathologic deposits in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease patients. gamma-synuclein is also known as a breast cancer-specific gene 1 thats's not found in normal breast tissues but it has been reported to be overexpressed in breast cancer, ovarian cancer and other tumors. To evaluate the availability of gamma-synuclein expression as a prognostic factor for infiltrative breast cancer, we analyzed its correlation with the clinical parameters and the HER-2/neu gene expression. METHODS: Two hundred fiffty samples of breast cancer tissues embedded in paraffin and that were obtained from the infiltrative breast cancer patients who were operated in our institution from January 1995 to December 2000 were analyzed with employing the tissue microarray technique. The expression of gamma-synuclein was studied with immunohistochemistry and with using gamma-synulcein antibodies. One hundred thirty one cases that showed favorable staining were selected and studied retrospectively. RESULTS: Fiffty five% (71/131) of the patients showed gamma-synuclein overexpression. The histopathological findings that significantly correlated with gamma-synuclein overexpression were the number of metastatic lymph nodes (p<0.01) and the cancer stage (p<0.01). Using the same tissue mircoarray, the HER-2/neu gene expression and gamma-synuclein expression also showed statistically significant correlation (p=0.04). CONCLUSION: gamma-synuclein overexpression showed significant correaltion with lymph node metastasis and cancer stage. It also showed significant relevance with the HER-2/neu gene expression, and that is already known to be a prognostic factor for breast cancer. Therefore gamma-synuclein may be a useful prognostic factor for infiltrative breast cancer and further studies on the its correlation with survival, local recurrence, and distant metastasis should be conducted
Antibodies ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; gamma-Synuclein* ; Gene Expression ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Paraffin ; Parkinson Disease ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Synucleins

OBJECTIVE: Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) is a syndrome of post-traumatic neuropathic pain in association with dystrophic changes and signs of sympathetic overactivity. Pain following spinal cord injury occurs frequently, but RSD is not usually considered as one of the common sources of pain. There have only been a few reports of RSD in spinal cord injured patients, although this condition is well-known in the painful upper extremity of hemiplegia due to stroke. The purpose of this study was to investigate the rate of occurrence, characteristic clinical features and more objective evaluation tools for the diagnosis of RSD in cervical cord injured patients. METHOD: Thirty-two cervical cord injured patients were evaluated for hand pain, swelling, vasomotor changes and dystrophic skin or nail changes. The patients were evaluated with studies such as three phase bone scintigrathy, digital infrared thermographic imaging (DITI) and plain roentgenograms of the hands. RESULTS: Eighteen patients (56.3%) were diagnosed as RSD based on the clinical symptoms and findings of three phase bone scintigraphy. Characteristic symptoms were hand pain, edema and dystrophic skin or nail changes, in the order of frequency. In patients with spasticity of the upper extremity, the incidence of RSD was higher than in patients without spasticity. CONCLUSION: We should consider RSD as a cause of upper extremity pain in cervical cord injured patients. This will lead to early diagnosis and treatment of the condition and it will be helpful in preventing various complications.
Diagnosis ; Early Diagnosis ; Edema ; Hand ; Hemiplegia ; Humans ; Incidence ; Muscle Spasticity ; Neuralgia ; Radionuclide Imaging ; Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy* ; Reflex* ; Skin ; Spinal Cord ; Spinal Cord Injuries ; Stroke ; Upper Extremity

Parathyroid cysts are uncommon lesions of the neck and superior mediastinum, rarely large enough to be of clinical significance. They frequently present as a clinical diagnostic problem. They may mimic solitary thyroid nodule. They can be classified as either functioning or non-functioning depending on whether or not they are associated with hypercalcemia. Non-functioning or “true” cysts are those associated with normocalcemia (85%), whereas functioning or “pseudocysts” are those associated with hypercalcemia (15%). The presence of a high content of intact parathyroid hormone (intact PTH) in the cystic fluid on fine-needle aspiration (FNA), in conjunction with an elevated serum calcium and intact PTH is diagnostic of a functional parathyroid cyst. A functional parathyroid cyst usually requires surgical removal. We report herein one case of functional parathyroid cyst.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Calcium ; Hypercalcemia ; Mediastinum ; Neck ; Parathyroid Hormone ; Thyroid Nodule

PURPOSE: The p53 gene is located on chromosome 17p13 and may play important roles in cell cycle regulation, apoptosis and the regulation of the expression of other genes as well as tumor suppression. In addition, the p53 gene is believed to play an important role in the progression of various human malignant tumors through mutation and overexpression. There have been few studies on loss of heterozygosity (LOH) study on 17p13 in invasive ductal carcinoma. This study evaluated a 17p13 LOH and protein expression in invasive ductal carcinomas and correlated these results with the clinicopathological factors. METHODS: LOH analysis was carried out using a polymerase chain reaction with four polymorphic microsatellite markers (D17S796, TP53, D17S5, D17S513) in 50 surgically resected tumors and their non-tumorous counterparts. The p53 protein expression level was examined using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: A LOH and protein expression was detected in 66% and 54% of the tumors, respectively. The LOH rates ranged from 26.3% (D17S513) to 33.3% (TP53). There was no detected LOH or protein expression in the non-tumor parts. The LOH results correlate well with the tumor size and stage. The protein expression results correlate well with the tumor histological grade. There was no correlation between the LOH and protein loss. CONCLUSION: 17p13 LOH and p53 gene abnormalities may be associated with tumorigenesis and tumor invasion. In addition, the combined use of both methods may help in early detection as well as for determining the prognosis of an invasive ductal carcinoma. 17p13 LOH and p53 protein expression may contribute to tumor progression through reciprocal complementation in some portions of the invasive ductal carcinoma.
Apoptosis ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Ductal* ; Cell Cycle ; Complement System Proteins ; Genes, p53 ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Loss of Heterozygosity* ; Microsatellite Repeats ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prognosis

Cis-diamminedichloroplatinum II (cisplatin) has been reported to induce cell death. However, the mechanism by which cisplatin is induced the apoptosis of cancer cells is still unclear. To evaluate the mechanistic insights of apoptosis by cisplatin, we tested the activities of apoptotic signaling pathway in HeLa cells. Apoptotic death of HeLa cells by cisplatin was confirmed by ladder-pattern fragmentation of genomic DNA. Cisplatin induced the activation of caspase-3 and 9 proteases in a time dependent manner. The caspase-3 protease activation and the cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and procaspase-3 was demonstrated. We also showed that the expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL was markedly decreased by the addition of cisplatin in HeLa cells. Moreover, expression of Fas and FasL proteins was increased by cisplatin. These data suggest that cisplatin triggers the activation of apoptotic signaling pathway in human cervical cancer, HeLa cells, via affects the expression of Fas, FasL and Bcl-2 families as well as triggers the activation of caspase-3 and -9 proteases.
Apoptosis ; Caspase 3 ; Cell Death ; Cisplatin* ; DNA ; Fas Ligand Protein ; HeLa Cells* ; Humans ; Peptide Hydrolases ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

PURPOSE: We evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of finasteride in the treatment of hemospermia, especially in prostatitis-related hemospermia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Among the patients who visited our urologic department due to hemospermia from Jan 2000 to Oct 2003, 46 patients enrolled in the study. Semen analysis, expressed prostatic secretion, and transrectal ultrasonography were performed for all patients, and we determined whether or not the hemospermia was caused by inflammatory chronic non-bacterial prostatitis. We sorted all the subjects into 2 groups by the use of finasteride or not. We sub-divided the 2 groups by the presence or absence of prostatitis. In each of the 4 groups, the results were compared. Results were also recalculated after excluding sonographically abnormal cases. RESULTS: In the 35 finasteride-treated patients, the prostatitis group showed a 75% (12/16) success rate whereas the non-prostatitis group showed 31.6% (6/19) success. This difference was statistically significant (p=0.01). In the 11 non-finasteride patients, there was no difference in success rate between the prostatitis group (57.1%) and non-prostatitis group (50.0%). After excluding 15 sonographically abnormal patients, the finasteride-prostatitis group showed an 80% (8/10) success rate whereas the non-prostatitis group showed a 25% (3/12) success rate. CONCLUSIONS: Finasteride treatment in hemospermia was more successful in prostatitis than non-prostatitis patients. Efficacy was more prominent after excluding sonographically abnormal cases. Finasteride could be an useful agent in the treatment of prostatitis-related hemospermia. More extensive study is needed.
Finasteride* ; Hemospermia* ; Humans ; Prostatitis ; Semen ; Semen Analysis ; Ultrasonography

Congenital pneumonia is defined as pneumonia acquired transplacentally or perinatally. It is frequently associated with prolonged rupture of the membranes, chorioamnionitis, prolonged labor, premature labor, fetal distress, prematurity and meconium staining. It is one of the important causes of neonatal death. We report a case of congenital pneumonia of a full-term, female neonate who was born by cesarian section and died at 10th hours of her life. There were no maternal signs and symptoms of infection and amniotic fluid was not stained with meconium at birth. We insist that full physical examination and routine laboratory examinations including simple chest X ray are required even in grossly normal neonate without specific risk factors and that possibility of neonatal pneumonia should always be considered when the cause of death cannot be explained immediately by gross autopsy findings.
Amniotic Fluid ; Autopsy ; Cause of Death ; Chorioamnionitis ; Death, Sudden* ; Female ; Fetal Distress ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Meconium ; Membranes ; Obstetric Labor, Premature ; Parturition* ; Physical Examination ; Pneumonia* ; Pregnancy ; Risk Factors ; Rupture ; Sudden Infant Death ; Thorax