A 14-year old boy presented with myoclonic seizure with rightward deviation of eyeballs. Three years ago, he was diagnosed as diabetes necessitating insulin injection. At that time, his blood glucose was 448mg/dl, HbA1c 27.8%, serum C-peptide rose from 0.4 to 1.1ng/ml after glucagon, and 24 hour urine C-peptide was 6.7microg/day. Eye examination was normal. His maternal grandmother died of diabetes at 50 years old, and his mother's sister and his elder sister had NIDDM with oral hypoglycemics. But, he didn't control hyperglycemia himself since that time. On physical exam, his grasping power was decreased in right hand, and cataract was detected at the posterior pole of lenses in both eyes requiring surgery. EEG showed partial seizure disorder in left frontoparietal area, and MRI revealed cerebral infarction in left frontoparietal cortex. Sensory-motor polyneuropathy was noted in nerve conduction velocity. His neurologic symptom was improved gradually with insulin therapy, but nerve conduction velocity and MRI abnormalities did not improved after 6 months of follow-up. Although long-term diabetic complication is common in poorly controlled diabetes, very early manifested eye and nervous system complications like this case is extremely uncommon.
Adolescent ; Blood Glucose ; C-Peptide ; Cataract ; Cerebral Infarction ; Diabetes Complications ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; Electroencephalography ; Epilepsies, Partial ; Follow-Up Studies ; Glucagon ; Hand ; Hand Strength ; Humans ; Hyperglycemia ; Hypoglycemic Agents ; Insulin ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nervous System ; Neural Conduction ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Polyneuropathies ; Seizures ; Siblings

Prurigo pigmentosa is a peculiar pruritic pigmented dermatosis characterized by the sudden appearance of reddish papules accompanied by severe pruritus. The etiology still remains unknown but environmental factors may play a role, in which physical trauma or friction from wet clothing induces the skin lesions. It has a seasonal preference for spring to summer when there is increased sweating. We report a case of prurigo pigmentosa which may be triggered by sweating and cured with minocycline.
Clothing ; Friction ; Minocycline ; Prurigo* ; Pruritus ; Seasons ; Skin ; Skin Diseases ; Sweat* ; Sweating*

No abstract available.
Hepacivirus* ; Hepatitis C* ; Hepatitis* ; Prevalence*

Due to an author error the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant Number was incorrectly listed in the original online publication of this article.

BACKGROUND: Allergen-specific immunotherapy ( IT ) can be an important adjunctive therapy in the treatment of allergic disorders. Although a number of studies have shown that cytokine production by T cells may be modified by IT, IT-induced chsnges at the single cell level in allergen -specific Th ( T helper ) and Tc ( cytotoxic T ) responses have not been reported. Objective : The objectives of the present study were ( 1 ) to demonstrate differences in the house dust mite(HDM)-induced cytokine production patterns of Th and Tc cells between untreated and treated HDM allergic patients and ( 2 ) to determine whether there are differences between child and adult patients in Th and Tc cell responses to HDM. METHOD: This study included twenty Dermatophagoides farinae (Df)-sensitive asthmatics ( ten children and ten adults ), of which five children and five adults received immunotherapy to Df over a 1.5- to 3-year period. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells ( PBMC ) were isolated from peripheral blood of each patient and cultured in the presence of IL-2 ( 10ng/ml ) and Df extract (100ug/ml) for 6 days. After harvesting cultured cells, Th and Tc cell frequencies were determined by a multiparameter cytokine flow cytometric assay that allows simultaneous determination of intracellular IFN-r and IL-4 in CD4+ or CD8+ cells. RESULTS: Predominant Th2 responses to Df were observed in all untreated child patients, three untreated adult patients, and two treated adult patients. On the other hand, predominant Thl responses to Df were observed in all treated child patients, two of untreated adult patients, and three of treated adult patients. Predominant Tcl responses to Df were observed in all groups of patients. However, Tcl responses were more prominent in adults than in children and in treated adult patients than in untreated adult patients. In children, there were no differences in predominant Tcl responses except in one treated child, in whom more prominent Tcl response was observed.
Adult ; Cells, Cultured ; Child ; Dermatophagoides farinae ; Dust ; Hand ; Humans ; Immunotherapy* ; Interleukin-2 ; Interleukin-4 ; T-Lymphocytes

OBJECTIVETo compare the tissue engineered cartilage constructed with chondrocytes derived from auricular and articular cartilage.

METHODSChondrocytes were isolated from porcine auricular and articular cartilage, and BMSCs were obtained from bone marrow aspirate and cultured. Each kind of chondrocytes were resuspended alone or mixed with BMSCs at a ratio of 1:1, and seeded onto PGA/PLA scaffolds to construct tissue engineered cartilage (n = 4). The constructs were cultured for 8 weeks in vitro and then subcutaneously implanted into nude mice for 6 weeks. The differences between chondrocytes monoculture from articular and auricular cartilage or between each of them co-cultured with BMSCs were evaluated by gross view, measurement of thickness and wet weight, histological examinations including H&E, Safranin O, type II collagen, and Ponceau's & Victoria blue staining, and gene expression analysis of cartilage related genes.

RESULTSNo obvious differences were found histologically among the complexes constructed in vitro 8 weeks except for few elastic fibers secreted in the auricular chondrocytes + BMSCs co-culture group. Neo-cartilage is thicker in the groups of articular chondrocytes (38. 1% than the group of auricular chondrocytes, P < 0.05) and articular chondrocytes + BMSCs co-culture (19.3% than the group of auricular chondrocytes + BMSCs, P < 0.05). However, after 6 weeks in vivo the elastic fibers were found positive in the complexes constructed by auricular chondrocytes, and its staining was even stronger and more homogenous in the group of auricular chondrocytes + BMSCs co-culture. The tissues generated by articular chondrocytes alone and co-cultured with BMSCs both formed the characteristic features of three-layer structure of hyaline cartilage and ossified in vivo with significant up-regulation of COL10A1 and MMP-13. To summarize, auricular chondrocytes formed the elastic cartilage while articular chondrocytes formed the hyaline cartilage during the development of tissue engineered cartilage either by monoculture or the co-culture with BMSCs.

CONCLUSIONSThe chondrogenic response of chondrocytes from different cartilage origins demonstrates that an initial chondrocyte and cartilage type recapitulates the same in later tissue-engineered development.

Animals ; Bone Marrow Cells ; cytology ; Cartilage, Articular ; cytology ; Cells, Cultured ; Chondrocytes ; Coculture Techniques ; Ear Auricle ; cytology ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; cytology ; Mice, Nude ; Swine ; Tissue Engineering ; methods ; Tissue Scaffolds

Glutathione S-transferase (28GST) with molecular mass of 28 kDa is an antioxidant enzyme abundant in Clonorchis sinensis. In adult C. sinensis, 28GST was localized in tegumental syncytium, cytons, parenchyma, and sperm tails examined by immunoelectron microscopy. C. sinensis 28GST was earlier found to neutralize bioreactive compounds and to be rich in eggs. Accordingly, it is suggested that 28GST plays important roles in phase II defense system and physiological roles in worm fecundity of C. sinensis.
Animals ; Clonorchis sinensis/*enzymology ; Glutathione Transferase/*metabolism/physiology ; Immunohistochemistry ; Microscopy, Immunoelectron ; Molecular Weight ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Objective To explore the expression and significance of Dickkopf-1 (Dkk-1) and cell lymphoma/leukemia-2 (Bcl-2) protein in sinonasal squamoucell carcinoma(SNSCC) .MethodThe immunohistochemical SP method and Western blomethod were adopted to determine the expression of Dkk-1 and Bcl-2 in 30 specimenof SNSC(SNSCgroup) ,38 specimenof sinonasal inverted papillomas(SNIP group) and 20 specimenof middle turbinate mucosa(control group) .ResultThe expression of DKK-1 protein in the SNSCgroup wasignificantly down-regulated compared with the SNIP group and the control group ,while the expression of Bcl-2 protein in the SNSCgroup wasignificantly up-regulated compared with the SNIP group and the control group;in the SNSCgroup ,the positive rateof DKK-1 protein and Bcl-2 protein in the high and middle differentiation group and the low differentiation group were 100 .00% ,68 .75% ,33 .33% and 50 .00% ,62 .50% ,100 .00% respectively ,the differencewere statistically significan(P＜0 .05) .Conclusion Dkk-1 protein may play an importanpromoting role in the developmenand pro-gression procesof SNSC,the expression of Dkk-1 protein hanegative correlation with the expression of Bcl-2 protein in SNSC,which may become new targespoof SNSCgene therapy .

Objective To evaluate the clinical value of pulmonary embolism severity index (PESI) in non high-risk acute pulmonary thromboembolism (APTE) patients treated with sequential anticoagulation.Methods Non high-risk APTE patients treated with sequential anticoagulation were divided into two groups according to PESI:high-value group and low-value group.Prognosis and treatment response was compared between two groups.Results There were 82 cases in high-value group,and 76 cases in low-value group.The rate of adverse events in high-value group was significantly higher than that in low-value group [23.2％(19/82) vs.7.9％ (6/76)] (x2 =5.0698,P =0.009),and 30 days cumulative hazard was also significantly higher than that in low-value group (P ＜ 0.05).The sensitivity of predicting adverse events by PESI was 76.0％,specificity was 52.6％,positive predicting value was 64.6％,and negative predicting value was 65.9％.The mortality in high-value group was significantly higher than that in low-value group [9.8％(8/82) vs.1.3％ (1/76)] (P =0.022).After 30 days of anticoagulation,the pulmonary artery systolic pressure,internal diameter of right ventricle in high-value group was significantly higher than that in low-value group [(39.4 ± 8.1) mm Hg (1 mm Hg =0.133 kPa) vs.(27.2 ± 5.5) mm Hg,(33.0 ± 7.8) mm vs.(21.7 ± 4.6) mm] (P =0.034,0.021),and arterial oxygen partial pressure was significantly lower than that in low-value group[(75.15 ± 12.41) mm Hg vs.(86.36 ± 9.22) mm Hg](P=0.016).Conclusions PESI can effectively predict short-term prognosis of non high-risk APTE patients treated with sequential anticoagulation.At least some of these patients might need treatment other than sequential anticoagulation.

ObjectiveTo investigate the effects of ARB or/and β-blocker in treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy(DCM).Methods95 cases with DCM were randomly divided into 3 groups.ARB group(A,32 cases) was treated with Irbesartan,150 mg/d without adverse drug reaction and then to 300 mg/d weekly; β-blocker group( B,30cases) was treated with Bisoprolol,1.25 mg/d without adverse drug reaction and then to maximal dose weekly; combination group( AB,33 cases) was treated with Irbesartan and Bisoprolol to maximal dose which patients were able to tolerate.The 3 groups were observed for a period of 12 months.ResultsComparing with pretreatment,the results of 6min walk,LVEDd,LVESd,LVEF were improved significantly( all P ＜0.05).There were no significant differences between A group and B group(P ＞0.05),but the differences between combination group and A group or B group were significant( P ＜0.05 ).ConclusionEffect of ARB combined with β-blocker was better than that of ARB or β-blocker alone in treatment of DCM and well tolerated.