BACKGROUND: Calcium status is more accurately determined by measuring free calcium, the tightly regulated biologically active form. The concentration of ionized calcium is strongly dependent on different preanalytic factors. In this study the influence of several methodological factors on the concentration of ionized calcium in blood is investigated. METHODS: Authors selected 127 persons of health care management center & comparatively healthy-look, out-patients of our hospital. When serum was needed, blood was anaerobically withdrawn in vacutainers, the serum was separated after standing at room temperature. For the plasma sample blood was anaerobically drawn into the tube with dry sodium heparin 143 IU/10ml blood in the same patient. And then, to avoid CO2 loss, the samples were left unopened and centrifuged anaerobically at 900g for 15 min; the serum and plasma were then pipetted as quickly as possible into 2ml plastic eppendorf-tube, which were completely filled and sealed off immediately and keeping it in refrigeration before testing. For the studies of calcium binding effect by different volume of sodium heparin. blood was collected into two type of tube, each containing 30IU heparin/whole blood ml or 125 IU/ml. Ioniged calcium were measured by ion-selective electrodes. RESULTS: 1. The reference value of ionized calcium in serum and plasma was 4.9+/- 0.19, 4.9+/-0.17 mg/ml(serum versus plasma, p>0.05) respectively. 2. The concentration change of ionized calcium according to heparin volume shows no significant difference until heparin 14.3 IU/blood 1 ml compared with serum. 3. The concentration of ionized calcium of serum and plasma was stable until 4 hours and 4 days after serum and plasma separation. CONCLUSIONS: Above shows that the concentration of ionized calcium have the same reference range on both serum and plasma. But each laboratory should have their own reference range according to heparin volume, ionized calcium in serum and plasma samples kept at -4degrees C remains stable within few days, provided the proposed conditions for storage.
Calcium* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Heparin ; Humans ; Ion-Selective Electrodes ; Outpatients ; Plasma ; Plastics ; Reference Values ; Refrigeration

No abstract available.
Ego* ; Humans ; Hypochondriasis*

No abstract available.
Prostheses and Implants*

It is essential to estimate the size, volume and wall thickness of the gallbladder in diagnosis of the gallbladder disease. Author measured maximum length, A-P diameter, width, wall thickness and volume of gallbladder ultrasonographically in 130 normal adults. The results are as follows; 1. The mean length of the gallbladder was 5.88±0.97 cm. 2. The mean A-P diameter of the gallbladder was 2.49±0.52c, on longitudinal scan and 2.48±0.42cm on coronal scan. 3. The mean width of the gallbladder was 2.48±0.46cm. 4. The mean wall thickness of thegallbladder was 2.09±0.29mm. 4. The mean volume of gallbladder was 27.09±10.07cm² by single cylinder method and 18.27±9.04cm³ by Weill method, but there was linear correlation between the two methods(p<0.001).
Adult ; Diagnosis ; Gallbladder Diseases ; Gallbladder ; Humans ; Methods ; Ultrasonography

This study was carried out to understand the relationship between specific chromosome changes and their phenotypic consequences at the tissue level of human lung cancers. Then paraffin-embedded human lung squamous cell carcinoma samples were investigated for in evidence of genetic alterations, using chromosome 7 and 17-specific repetitive alpha-satellite DNA probes. In situ hybridization procedure with chromosome-specific DNA probes was optimized for use on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded lung tissue sections. The chromosome index ranged from 1.10 to 1.88(median, 1.49) for chromosome 7 and 1.20 to 1.98(median, 1.69) for chromosome 17. Normal lymphocytes and stromal cells showed one or two chromosome signals per cell in most cases. All tumors showed three or more chromosome signals per cell with range of 16.0% to 80.6% of cancer cells(median, 50.9%) for chromosome 7 and 32.7% to 84.7%(median, 69.9%) for chromosome 17. The chromosome index did not correlate with the DNA content in most cases. Chromosomes 7 and 17 were either overrepresented or underrepresented when they were compared with corresponding DNA index determined by FCM. An increase in copy number, particularly of chromosome 7 was associated with a less favorable phenotype, including high nuclear grade. In addition, chromosome alterations were differentially expressed in the different areas of the same tissue section, correlating with histologic heterogeneity. These results suggest that chromosome polysomy can be reliably detected in tissue sections using in situ hybridization. There is a strong correlation between genotypic abnormalities and tumor phenotype in human lung cancer. This capability will prove to be an important tool for determining the underlying genetic basis for tumor development, tissue phenotype heterogeneity and progression by allowing genetic determination to be made on paraffin-embedded tissue sections where tumor histologic architecture is preserved.
Humans ; Lung Neoplasms

Twenty-five paraffin-embedded tumor tissues were analyzed for detection of HPV 16 and 18 in cervical adenocarcinoma by polymerase chain reaction with type specific primers and by non-radioactive Southern blot hybridization for confirmation . The suitability of paraffin-embedded tissue as PCR material was confirmed by successful amplification of 100% of cervical specimens with human -globin specific primer. Eighty four percent of the cervical adenocarcinoma tissues were positive for HPV 16 and/or 18. HPV 16 positive rate was 68%, HPV 18 was 60%. The double infection with HPV 16 and 18 was found in 44%. Three cases of the negative specimen in PCR for each type of HPV DNA 16 and 18 were positive in Southern blot hybridization. The total positive rate was 92% for HPV 16 and/or HPV 18, HPV 16 positive rate was 80%. HPV 18 was 72%. The double infection with HPV 16 and 18 was 60%. These results suggest that the pattern of HPV types 16 and 18 is closely associated with carcinogenesis of cervical cancers. HPV type 18 appears to be preferentially related to cervical adenocarcinoma and the poor prognosis of these patients. Therefore, determination of HPV DNA type in cervical carcinoma patients is important in treatment and prognosis.
Humans ; Adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: There are many reports showing the efficacy of polymerase chain reaction(PCR) for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum. but only few reports in extrapulmonary specimens. Because of the difficulty in establishing a diagnosis of tuberculosis in the extrapulmonary specimens there have been considerable interest in the development of a rapid sensitive diagnostic test that might be useful. Therefore we used PCR for detection of M. tuberculosis DNA in extrapulmonary specimens and compared the results of conventional acid-fast stain, culture methods and PCR assay. METHODS: Total of 63 clinical samples(10 cerebrospinal fluids, 12 pleural fluids, 1 pericardial fluid, 3 bone marrow aspirates, 1 ascitic fluid, 25 fine needle aspirates of lymph nodes, 7 urine, 1 stool and 3 tissue biopsies) in Ewha Womans University Tongdaemun hospital were analysed by the PCR. We performed the PCR using a species-specific M. tuberculosis DNA fragment(mtp 40 gene) as primers that was cloned and sequenced at recent and a 396-bp fragment was specifically amplified. We analyzed sensitivity and specificity of AFB culture and PCR for the diagnosis of extrapulomonary tuberculosis. RESULTS: The positivity of AFB smear, culture and PCR were 2(10%), 4(20%), 13(65%) out of total 20 cases diagnosed as clinically active extrapulmonary tuberculosis. respectively. All of 2 smear-positive samples and 2 of 4 culture-positive and smear-negative samples were PCR-positive. And 9 of 14 smear and culture negative specimens also gave detectable DNA products in PCR The specificity of PCR(95.4%) is compared with those of smear and culture(100.0%). CONCLUSIONS: This results suggest that the PCR assay is a sensitive and rapid diagnostic alternative to classical procedures for the diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis.
Ascitic Fluid ; Bone Marrow ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Clone Cells ; Diagnosis* ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; DNA ; Female ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Needles ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sputum ; Tuberculosis*

The coding and filing of pathologic diagnoses have been heavy tasks; however with the availability of inexpensive microcomputer, a system may be developed that permits storage and retrieval to be performed efficiently. With Apple II(R) computer system and SNOP coding, a simple program using dBASE-II and QUICKCODE computer program can be created to include the following informations: accession number, chart number, sex and age of patients and 2 diagnosis codes. Once SNOP coding is carried out by medical staff, a secretary or clerk can enter the informations into the microcomputer. Data may be searched on any combination of the above parameters.

No abstract available.
Intestinal Mucosa* ; Macrophages* ; Salmonella typhimurium* ; Salmonella*

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA, PC10), an auxillary protein of DNA polymerase, plays a main role in the early stage of DNA Synthesis and is synthesized from Gl phase to s phase of the cell cycle. Nucleolar organizer region (NORs) are DNA loops encoding RNA proteins(AgNORs). To evaluate correlation with PCNA labelling index (LI)and AgNORs according to histological grades and clinical stages of transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder, the authors analysed 54 transitional cell carcinoma using immunohistochemical stain for PCNA and silver stain for AgNORs in paraffin sections. The comparison of PCNA (PC10) LI and clinical stage showed a significant correlation (p<0.05), where as PCNA (PC10) LI according to histologic grade showed no significant correlation. High grade tumors showed increase PCNA LI. Superficial tumors (Ta-Tl) showed significantly lower PCNA LI than muscle invasive tumors (T2-T4)(p<0.05). There was no significant correlation between AgNORs and clinical stage, bur higher stage and higher grade tumors showed increased noubers of AgNORs. These results suggest that PCNA LI has a significant correlation with clinical stages of transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder.