Candida albicans is the most common cause of infectious esophagitis and usually is an opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients. Dysphagia and odynophagia are the usual presenting complaints and, importantly, oral lesions are absent in 50 percent of patients. The role of gastrointestinal endoscopy in diagnosing fungal infections of the esophagus is primary. It is the most definitive and often the only method of detecting esophageal candidiasis. Accurate endoscopic diagnosis by biopsy or brushing leads to the initiation nf effective therapy. We have experienced a case of esophageal candidiasis in an 11-year-old girl who was immunologically normal and whose main symptoms were epigastric abdominal pain and nausea for 4 months. The endoscopic and pathologic findings of esophageal candidiasis were presented.
Abdominal Pain* ; Biopsy ; Candida albicans ; Candidiasis* ; Child* ; Deglutition Disorders ; Diagnosis ; Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal ; Esophagitis ; Esophagus* ; Female ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Intestines* ; Nausea ; Opportunistic Infections ; Stomach*

We experienced a case of pedunculated left atrial primary fibrosarcoma, which obstructed the mitral orifice and produced symptoms and manifestations of mitral stenosis clinically. There was no evidence of metastasis to adjacent tissue or distant organs. It was treated by open heart surgery.
Fibrosarcoma* ; Heart Atria* ; Mitral Valve Stenosis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Thoracic Surgery

We observed the motion of left ventricular posterior wall aortic root posterior wall in 20 normal persons and 20 patients with left ventricular hypertrophy during the period from March 1985 to Agust 1985. The results were as followings; 1) The percentage of rapid filling time to one cycle of heart beat obtained from the ventriculat posterior wall motion was significantly prolonged in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy(24.1+/-5.44%) than in normal persons(13.5+/-3.69%)(p<0.05) and that of slow filling time was significantly shortend in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy(27.4+/-6.10%) than in normal persons(38.7+/-9.06%)(P<0.005). 2) The rapid filling slop obtained from left ventricular postrior wall motion was significantly reduced in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy(44.0+/-12.45mm/sec)than in normal persons(91.7+/-53.16mm/sec)(P>0.005) but the slow were not signigficantly different between the two groups. 3) The left artial emptying index calculated from the aortic root posterior wall motion was significantly lower in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy(0.6+/-0.18) than in normal persons(1.1+/-0.26)(P<0.005).
Echocardiography* ; Heart ; Humans ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular*

No abstract available.
Liver*

The occurrence of immune complexes in the serum from rats infected with M. leprae-murium and 38 patients with leprosy were studied by the polyethylene glycol precipitation complement consumption (PEG-CC) test and the results were compared in the various forms of the disease. Circulating immune complexes (CIC) were significantly increased in the sera from rats infected with M. lepraemurium compared to normal control rats (P < 0.005). There were no significant differences between the the level of CIC in the sera from lepromatous leprosy patients and that from tuberculoid leprosy patients, but in the sera from patients with erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL) the level of CIC was significantly increased (P < 0.005). And although we couldn't find a corre1ation between the level of CIC and bacterial indices in lepromatous leprosy patients, CIC tends to de-crease after negative conversion of their bacterial indices. These findings suggested that the detection of CIC can be of some practical interest in the early diagnosis of ENL and can be a valuable assessment in following the therapy after negative conversion of their bacterial indices.
Animal ; Antigen-Antibody Complex/analysis* ; Disease Models, Animal ; Human ; Leprosy/immunology* ; Male ; Rats ; Reference Values ; Time Factors

The incidence of severe hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection has been increasing. However, clinicopathologic features of severe HAV infection that lead to liver transplantation (LT) have not been reported in Korea. We retrieved 16 LT cases with HAV infection during the last 3 years at Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. Fifteen cases progressed to hepatic encephalopathy. Thirteen cases survived with or without complications, and three patients died of sepsis. The explanted liver showed massive or zonal necrosis with moderate to severe cholestasis. The zonal distribution of necrosis was frequently associated with endothelialitis of portal and/or central veins. Degenerative changes of hepatocytes were various in degree and distribution. Viral inclusions were suspected in two cases. Although HAV infection is usually confirmed by serological tests, significant venulitis of central and/or portal veins and viral inclusions, which are rarely observed, can suggest an HAV infection as a cause of massive hepatic necrosis of unknown mechanism.
Cholestasis ; Fluconazole ; Hepatic Encephalopathy ; Hepatitis ; Hepatitis A ; Hepatitis A virus ; Hepatocytes ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Liver ; Liver Transplantation ; Massive Hepatic Necrosis ; Necrosis ; Portal Vein ; Sepsis ; Serologic Tests ; Veins

HLA-DR antigen and gene frequencies were studied in 150 unrelated Koreans in Seoul. HLA-DR4 was the most common DR specificity encountered and HLA-DR1 and -DR3 occurred with the lowest frequencies. The frequency of HLA-DR blank allele was 27.1%. HLA-B:DR haplotypes involving positive delta values differing significantly from zero were DR1:B7, DR2:Bw22, DR3:B17, DR5:Bw35, DRw6:B17, DR7:B12, DR7:B13, and DRw8:Bw16. The supertypic groups (MT1, MT2 and MT3) differ somewhat in frequencies from Other populations. These findings suggested that the Korean population, while having many similarities in HLA-DR antigen frequencies with those of neighboring Orientals, has not only different features in the distribution of HLA-DR antigens but also has unique HLA-B:DR haplotypes.
Gene Frequency ; HLA Antigens/analysis* ; HLA-B Antigens ; HLA-DR Antigens ; Haploidy ; Histocompatibility Antigens Class II/analysis* ; Human ; Korea ; Mongoloid Race*

In order to develop a method for the detection of minimal residual leukemic disease (MRD) in T cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (T cell ALL), T cell leukemia cell line was used to detect clonal TCR p chain mRNA and to synthesize CDR3 specific oligonucleotide probe. For the Jurkat cell line clonal TCR p chain cDNA was amplified by using RT-PCR with oligonucleotide primer, Vp universal primer. As the result of RT-PCR an approximate 300 bp fragment of the TCR chain was obtained, and the partial identification of the TCR p chain gene and the amino acid sequence of the fragment were done by gene cloning and sequencing. The gene sequence of TCR p obtained was identified as Vp8-Jp1.2-Cp2. Diversity gene segment could not be found. Within the p chain, the CDR3 region was identified as 12 amino acids (SFSTCSANYGYT). It is kown that TCR is expressed in about 40% of the all T cell ALL. However it is not kown what percentage of the TCR p chain mRNA expression translates into the actual TCR molecule. It is not certain how many patients with MRD can be detected by this method used in this study, but this technique might be useful to detect MRD in at least 40% of the patients with T-cell ALL.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Amino Acids ; Cell Line* ; Clone Cells ; Cloning, Organism ; DNA, Complementary ; Humans ; Jurkat Cells ; Leukemia, T-Cell* ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell* ; RNA, Messenger ; T-Lymphocytes

The polymorphic variants of HLA-linked genetic markers GLO, Bf, C2 and C4 were determined in Koreans. The GLO2 allele was found at a similar frequency as compared with other orientals and at higher frequency than in Caucasians. The gene frequencies of BfS and BfF showed different figures from those in other orientals and were similar to Caucasians. The C2C allele was the highest variant as in other populations. The rare variant C2A was not observed in this study. The common variants of C4A alleles are C4A*3 and C4A*4. Among the C4B variants, C4B*1, C4B*2 and C4B* QO are common in that order. Several undefined electrophoretic variants C4A and C4B were observed in this study. These findings suggest that the frequencies of various HLA-linked genetic markers can be used in anthropological studies.
Caucasoid Race ; Comparative Study ; Genetic Markers* ; HLA Antigens/genetics* ; Human ; Korea ; Mongoloid Race* ; Polymorphism (Genetics)

Myoglobin has been shown to be elevated in the serum after myocardial infarction. Myoglobin is one of the first to appear in the serum and its quantification may thus be used in the diagnosis of the early phase of acute myocardial infarction. The purpose of this study was to clarify the time course of myoglobin elevation in the early phase of acute myocardial infarction. We compared this with the time course of serum CPK and obtained following results: 1) Serum myoglobin becomes significantly elevated at 4 hours following onset of chest pain and apears earlier than CPK. 2) Serum myoglobin time curve peaks at 8 hours, whereas the CPK time surve peaks at 16 hours following onset of chest pain. 3) Mearsurement of serum myoglobin in the early phase of acute myocardial infarction can serve as valuable aid in diagnosis of myocardial infarction with other findings.
Chest Pain ; Diagnosis ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Myoglobin*