BACKGROUND: Androgenetic alopecia is considered to be a genetically determined disorder influenced by age and androgen. The proportion of patients with androgenetic alopecia among the total number of patients with alopecia seems to be gradually increasing. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the family history,clinical and endocrine status of the patients with androgenetic alopecia. METHODS: 1113 patients with androgenetic alopecia who had visited the Department of Dermatology, Yongsan Hospital, College of Medicine,Chung-Ang University during the 3 years (1995.1-1998. 12) have been examined. RESULTS: The results are summarized as follows 1) The incidence of androgenetic alopecia among the total number of alopecia patients was 64.5%, showing recent increment. 2) There were 855 male and 258 female patients being most prevalent in the third decade in both sexes and the patients younger than 30 years old with premature androgenetic alopecia,made up 70.3% of the male patients and 48.8% of the female patients with androgenetic alopecia. 3) While Norwood's type Iia was the most common and following type II, III vertex,and IV in the male AGA, Ludwig's type II was the most common in female AGA 4) There was a family history of baldness in 53.5% of first degree relatives in male patients and 51.6%in female patients. 5)Associated diseases were observed in 565(66.8%) of the male patients and 219 (84.8%) of the female patients:diseases associated with androgen such as seborrheic dermatitis and acne vulgaris occupied 39.1%. CONCLUSION: Based on our findings, those who want to treat androgenetic alopecia at the earlier ages are gradually increasing and it seems to be reasonable to believe that the age, genetic factors, localized effects of androgens on the scalp and the density and/or functional activity of androgen receptors may influence the pathogenesis of androgenetic alopecia.
Acne Vulgaris ; Alopecia* ; Androgens ; Clinical Study* ; Dermatitis, Seborrheic ; Dermatology ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Receptors, Androgen ; Scalp ; Testosterone

Multiple symmetric lipomatosis is a rare disease and affects almost exclusively middle aged man, usually with a background of excessive a alcohol intake. The disease is characterized by progressive growth of subcutaneous fat masses which are located symmetrically at neck, shoulders, chest, abdomen and groin, and which subsequently penetrate deeply into the surrounding spaces and structures with symptomatic compression of deep organs, such as trachea. A recent survey revealed a high incidence of sometic and autonomic neuropathy. The exact cause of the disease is not known, but a hyperplastic mechanism has been postulated, with in vitro studies demonstrating a defect in adrenergic-stimulated lipolysis of lipomatous tissue. We have experienced two cases of multiple symmetric lipomatosis. Case 1 was a 59-year-old male, complaining of slowly enlarging doughunt ring-shaped mass at his neck. He had a habit of excessive alcohol intake for many years. The subcutaneous mass at the neck was excised. The pathology report described the specimen as "normal adipose tissue". Case 2 was a 49-year-old male, complanining of slowly enlarging multiple symmetric masses at the neck, shoulders, chest, abdomen, flank and groin over a period of 6 years. He also complained of mild muscular weakness. He had a habit of excessive alcohol intake for many years. The subcutaneous mass in the neck was excised. The specimen had a tendency to form globular masses and microscopically indistinguishable from mature adipose tissue.
Incidence

Pilomatrix carcinoma is an extremely rare tumor of hair matrix origin and its definite biological behavior of malignancy has remained inconclusive. We report a case of a huge pilomatrix carcinoma arising in the lateral neck skin from an elderly woman, who eventually
Female ; Humans

Tumor angiogenesis, the development of new blood vessels by tumor, is a widely observed phenomenon associated with the growth of human solid tumors. To investigate how tumor angiogenesis correlates with other prognostic features i.e. menopause status, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, mitosis, angioinvasion, estrogen receptor (ER), p53 protein expression, histologic grade and clinical stage, we counted microvessels by immunohistochemistry using antibody for CD34 antigen in 56 cases of invasive breast carcinoma (27 with and 29 without axillary lymph node metastases) and 20 cases of non-inflammatory benign breast lesion. CD34 antigen is expressed on the surface of hematopoietic progenitor cells and more sensitively expressed than factor VIII in vascular endothelial cells. Microvessel count (MVC) was performed at a single hot field of 200x magnification (0.74 mm2 per field). The results are summarized as follows; 1) The mean MVC of invasive carcinoma and benign breast lesion were 92.0+/-54.4 (range, 7-237) and 20.7+/-16.6 (range, 4-73), respectively (p<0.0001). 2) Although MVC had no correlation with all other prognostic factors i.e. menopause status, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, mitosis count, angioinvasion, ER, p53 protein expression, histologic grade, and clinical stage (p>0.05), MVC had a tendency to increase in tumors with axillary LN metastasis or without ER expression. 3) Without correlation with MVC, ER (+), angioinvasion (-) and higher histologic grade correlate to significantly higher mitosis count (p<0.0005). Also, angioinvasion correlate to a significantly higher histologic grade (p<0.05). In conclusion, angiogenesis is related to tumorigenesis, but MVC may not be related to other clinicopathologic factors.
Antigens, CD34 ; Blood Vessels ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Carcinogenesis ; Endothelial Cells ; Estrogens ; Factor VIII ; Female ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lymph Nodes ; Menopause ; Microvessels* ; Mitosis ; Neoplasm Metastasis

An autopsy case of a newborn male who died of exsanguination into the subamniotic space of placenta presumably due to the rupture of the umbilical vein, is reported. This fetus, previously uneventful except for hydramnios and partial breech presentation showed obvious signs of fetal distrees during the first stage of labor that lasted for 6 hours to this 25 year old multigravid mother who came to the hospital because of labor pain at 29 weeks of gestation. Immediately after birth the baby was pale and the Apgar score was 1. He died 30 minutes after birth. Postmortem examination confirmed generalized pallor in this 1380 gm baby, with petechial hemorrhage of viscera and subarachnoid hemorrhage. No other findings of the cause of death were found. The placenta showed large ellipsoid subamniotic hematoma containing approximately 76 ml of blood, which is 57% of the total circulation blood volume of the fetus.
Male ; Infant, Newborn ; Humans

Mesenteric lymphadenitis due to Yersinia enterocolitica infection is not common in Korea. Although most cases of Yersinia enterocolitica-induced mesenteric adenitis are self limited, cardinal features of Yersinia enterocolitica-induced mesenteric adenitis are so similar to those of acute appendicitis that some of the patients undergo laparotomy with suspected appendicitis. The findings on laparotomy in such patients are usually enlarged mesenteric nodes with a normal or slightly inflamed appendix. Because histologic examination of the removed mesenteric lymph nodes reveals reactive hyperplasia in most cases, it is usually difficult to suspect Yersinia enterocolitica infection on morphology of the resected nodes. But suppurative granulomata of mesenteric lymph nodes, uncommonly encountered in Yersinia enterocolitica infection, strongly suggest yersinial infection. We report a case of mesenteric lymphadenitis in a 10-year-old boy, who underwent laparotomy with suspected acute appendicitis. The removed lymph node showed several suppurative granulomata in the cortex, suggesting yersinial infection. Serologic study confirmed Yersinia enterocolitica serotype O:3 infection.
Appendicitis ; Appendix ; Child ; Humans ; Hyperplasia ; Korea ; Laparotomy ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphadenitis ; Male ; Mesenteric Lymphadenitis* ; Yemen ; Yersinia enterocolitica* ; Yersinia*

No abstract available.
Blood Platelets* ; Platelet Activating Factor* ; Progesterone*

A 31-year-old woman with surgically proven spinal extradural granulocytic sarcoma was examined with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. This patient had no evidence of systemic leukemia. The signal intensities of the mass on T1-weighted and gradient echo images were higher than those of spinal cord, which were different from iso-intensity of cases reported by other authors.
Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Leukemia ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Sarcoma, Myeloid* ; Spinal Cord

To evaluate the clinical and histopathological significance of the proliferative activity in neoplastic and non-neoplastic thyroid lesions, we analyzed the mitotic count and the proliferating cell nuclear antigen labeling index (PCNA-LI) by immunohistochemistry as the proliferation- related markers. In this study included were surgically removed normal thyroid tissue (27 cases), adenomatous goiter (15 cases), Hashimoto's thyroiditis (5 cases), follicular adenoma (13 cases), follicular carcinoma (7 cases), papillary carcinoma (44 cases), poorly differentiated carcinoma (2 cases) and undifferentiated carcinoma (3 cases). The median PCNA-LI was 0 in normal thyroid tissue, 0.5 in adenomatous goiter, 6.2 in Hashimoto's thyroiditis, 1.2 in follicular adenoma, 4.8 in follicular carcinoma, 8.5 in papillary carcinoma, 60.8 in poorly differentiated carcinoma, and 55.2 in undifferentiated carcinoma (p=0.0001). Although PCNA-LI was exceptionally high in Hashimoto's thyroiditis, it was suggested that PCNA-LI could be used as a marker differentiating benign lesions from malignant neoplasm. Also, it could differentiate follicular adenoma from follicular carcinoma. Except clinical stage (p=0.0397), PCNA-LI was not related with sex, size, histologic subtype, and lymph node metastasis in papillary carcinoma. The presence of mitosis differentiated the neoplastic thyroid lesions from the non-neoplastic lesions (p<0.05), however, it could not divide benign and malignant neoplasm. These results suggest that an evaluation of the proliferative activity can help to differentiate the thyroid lesions. In addition, there was no significant correlation between the value of PCNA-LI and the presence of mitosis. It can be recommended to evaluate both the mitotic count and the PCNA-LI for determining the proliferative activity of the thyroid lesions.
Adenoma ; Carcinoma ; Carcinoma, Papillary ; Goiter ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lymph Nodes ; Mitosis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen* ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroiditis

No abstract available.
Ebstein Anomaly*