Hepatoblastoma is the most common pediatric liver malignancy and usually occurs within the first 3 years of life. In recent years, the overall incidence of hepatoblastoma has exhibited the greatest increase among all pediatric malignancies worldwide. The diagnosis of hepatoblastoma may be challenging due to the lack of a current consensus classification system. The International Pediatric Liver Tumors Consensus introduced guidelines and a consensus classification for the diagnosis of hepatoblastoma as either epithelial or mixed epithelial and mesenchymal and in the updated 5th edition of the World Health Organization Classification of Digestive System Tumors.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: It has been reported that various inflammatory and immune reactions are involved in the development and progression of atherosclerosis. We tried to investigate whether the TNF receptor superfamilies are involved in the development and progression of atherosclerosis. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Thirteen carotid atheroma specimens(frozen sections : 10 cases, paraffin section : 5 cases) were obtained from the patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy at Samsung Medical Center and one normal aortic tissue was obtained from a transplantation donor in brain death. In the carotid endarterectomy specimens and a normal aortic tissue , the expressions of R110(TR1), 139(TR2) and DR3(TR3), members of the TNF receptor superfamilies were evaluated by immunohistochemical staining with monoclonal antibodies. Simultaneously, we evaluated the expressions of foam cells, smooth muscle cells, T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes. RESULTS: Immunohistochemical analysis identified a strong expressions of foam cells and smooth muscle cells in all atheroma. But, the expression of T-lymphocytes was minimal and that of B-lymphocytes was rare. The expression of DR3(TR3) was seen in all atheroma as strongly positive. The expression of 139(TR2) was observed well in frozen sections, but not in paraffin sections. Whereas, that of R110(TR1) was observed in paraffin sections as weakly positive, but not in frozen section. The areas where the TNF receptor superfamilies were expressed correlated to the area of foam cell presence. The expression of DR3 also correlated with expression of smooth muscle cells. In normal aortic tissue, the expression of inflammatory cells or TNF receptor superfamilies was not observed except smooth muscle cells which were observed in normal artery. CONCLUSION: Foam cells and smooth muscle cells were abundantly present in atheroma. The TNF receptor superfamilies are expressed in the atheroma and the region of expression was coincident with the presence of foam cells.
Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Arteries ; Atherosclerosis ; B-Lymphocytes ; Brain Death ; Endarterectomy, Carotid ; Foam Cells ; Frozen Sections ; Humans ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle ; Paraffin ; Plaque, Atherosclerotic* ; Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor* ; T-Lymphocytes ; Tissue Donors ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*

PURPOSE: To evaluate the CT grading of complications developing after endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST), and their clinical course. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated CT in 19 patients in whom pancreatitis or duodenal perforation developed after EST in 594 patients. The CT grading of pancreatitis was classified as mild, moderate or severe, according to the extent of peripancreatic infiltration; duodenal perforation was classified as mild, moderate or severe grade, according to the extent of fluid collection. We attempted to correlate CT grade with the average duration of hospitalization after EST, treatment method and mortality. RESULTS: Post-EST complications detected on CT were pancreatitis (ten patients, 1.7%) and duodenal perforation (nine patients, 1.5%). In those with pancreatitis, hospitalization after EST lasted an average of nine days in mild cases (n=2), 21 days in moderate (n=1) and 41 days in severe (n=7). Nine of ten patients with pancreatitis were treated conservatively, while the other, whose grade was severe, underwent percutaneous drainage. Eight of these ten recovered; the two who died were severe grade patients, one having been treated conservatively and the other by percutaneous drainage. In patients with duodenal perforation, hospitalization after EST lasted an average of 13 days in mild cases (n=2), 16 days in moderate (n=2) and 37 days in severe (n=5). Four of nine patients with duodenal perforation were treated conservatively, while the other five (severe, four; moderate, one) underwent percutaneous drainage. One patient, graded as severe, expired, but the remaining eight rocovered. Percutaneous drainage was performed mostly in severe grade cases, and among patients thus graded, only three (3/594; 0.5%) died. CONCLUSION: CT is considered useful for predicting the clinical course and prognosis of complications occurring after EST.
Drainage ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Mortality ; Pancreatitis ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Sphincterotomy, Endoscopic*

Tracheal perforation during intubation of the neonate is a rare event but may have contributed to lethal complication. We have had experience with a case of tracheal perforation which probably resulted from the trauma of too vigorous an attempt at orotracheal intubation for cardiopulmonary resuscitation of a newborn infant delivered by C-section.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Intubation*

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) has widely been employed as a method of obtaining analgesia in medical practice. The mechanisms of pain relief by TENS are known to be associated with the spinal gate control mechanism or descending pain inhibitory system. However, most of the studies concerning the analgesic effects and their mechanisms for TENS have dealt with somatic pain. Thus, in this experiment, we investigated the analgesic effects of TENS on renal pain as a model of visceral pain, and the characteristics of the dorsal horn cells with renal inputs. The renal pain was induced by acute occlusion of the ureter or renal artery. The main results are summarized as follows: 1) The renal nerve was composed of A beta, A delta and C fiber groups; the thresholds for each group were 400-800 mV, 1.1-1.5 V, and 2.1-5.8 V, respectively. 2) The dorsal horn cells tested received A and/or C afferent fibers from the kidney, and the more C inputs the dorsal horn cells had, the greater was the response to the stimuli that elicited the renal pain. 3) 94.9% of cells with renal input had the concomitant somatic receptive fields on the skin; the high threshold (HT) and wide dynamic range (WDR) cells exhibited a greater responses than low threshold (LT) cells to the renal pain-producing stimuli. 4) TENS reduced the C-responses of dorsal horn cells to 38.9 +/- 8.4% of the control value and the effect lasted for 10 min after the cessation of TENS. 5) By TENS, the responses evoked by acute occlusion of the ureter or renal artery were reduced to 37.5 +/- 9.7% and 46.3 +/- 8.9% of the control value, respectively. This analgesic effects lasted 10 min after TENS. 6) The responses elicited by squeezing the receptive fields of the skin were reduced to 40.7 +/- 7.9% of the control value and the effects lasted 15 min after TENS. These results suggest that most of dorsal horn cells with renal inputs have the concomitant somatic inputs and TENS can alleviate the renal pain as well as somatic pain.
Animal ; Cats ; Female ; Kidney/innervation/*physiopathology ; Male ; Pain/physiopathology/*therapy ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; *Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation

BACKGROUND: Ductal adenocarcinoma (DAC) of the prostate is an uncommon histologic subtype whose prognostic factors and immunoprofile have not been fully defined. METHODS: To define its prognostic factors and immunoprofile, the clinicopathological features, including biochemical recurrence (BCR), of 61 cases of DAC were analyzed. Immunohistochemistry was performed on tissue microarray constructs to assess the expression of prostate cancer-related and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling-related proteins. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 19.3 months, BCR occurred in 26 cases (42.6%). DAC demonstrated a wide expression range of prostate cancer-related proteins, including nine cases (14.8%) that were totally negative for pan-cytokeratin (PanCK) immunostaining. The mTOR signaling-related proteins also showed diverse expression. On univariate analysis, BCR was associated with high preoperative serum levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), large tumor volume, predominant ductal component, high Gleason score (GS), comedo-necrosis, high tumor stage (pT), lymphovascular invasion, and positive surgical margin. High expressions of phospho-mTOR (p-mTOR) as well as low expressions of PSA, phospho-S6 ribosomal protein (pS6) and PanCK were associated with BCR. On multivariable analysis, GS, pT, and immunohistochemical expressions of PanCK and p-mTOR remained independent prognostic factors for BCR. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest GS, pT, and immunohistochemical expressions of PanCK and p-mTOR as independent prognostic factors for BCR in DAC. Since DAC showed diverse expression of prostate cancer–related proteins, this should be recognized in interpreting the immunoprofile of DAC. The diverse expression of mTOR-related proteins implicates their potential utility as predictive markers for mTOR targeted therapy.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Carcinoma, Ductal ; Follow-Up Studies ; Immunohistochemistry ; Neoplasm Grading ; Prognosis ; Prostate* ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Recurrence ; Ribosomal Proteins ; Sirolimus ; Tumor Burden

Purpose: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) targeting vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) signaling pathways have been used for metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (mCCRCC), but resistance to the drug develops in most patients. We aimed to explore the underlying mechanism of the TKI resistance with regard to programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and to investigate signaling pathway associated with the resistant mechanism. Materials and Methods: To determine the mechanism of resistance, 10 mCCRCC patients from whom tumor tissues were harvested at both the pretreatment and the TKI-resistant post-treatment period were included as the discovery cohort, and their global gene expression profiles were compared. A TKI-resistant renal cancer cell line was established by long-term treatment with sunitinib. Results: Among differentially expressed genes in the discovery cohort, increased PD-L1 expression in post-treatment tissues was noted in four patients. Pathway analysis showed that PD-L1 expression was positively correlated with the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. The TKI-resistant renal cancer cells showed increased expression of PD-L1 and mTOR signaling proteins and demonstrated aggressive tumoral behaviour. Treatment with mTOR inhibitors down-regulated PD-L1 expression and suppressed aggressive tumoral behaviour, which was reversed with stimulation of the mTOR pathway. Conclusion These results showed that PD-L1 expression may be increased in a subset of VEGFR-TKI–resistant mCCRCC patients via the mTOR pathway.

BACKGROUND: Basaloid squamous cell carcinoma (BSCC) is a rare variant of squamous cell carcinoma with distinct pathologic characteristics. The histogenesis of BSCC is not fully understood, and the cancer has been suggested to originate from a totipotent primitive cell in the basal cell layer of the surface epithelium or in the proximal duct of secretory glands. METHODS: Twenty-six cases of head and neck BSCC from Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea, reported during a 14-year-period were subclassified into basal, ductal, and mixed subtypes according to the expression of basal (cytokeratin [CK] 5/6, p63) or ductal markers (CK7, CK8/18). The cases were also subject to immunohistochemical study for CK19, p53, cyclin D1, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and p16 and to in situ hybridization for human papillomavirus (HPV), and the results were clinico-pathologically compared. RESULTS: Mixed subtype (12 cases) was the most common, and these cases showed hypopharyngeal predilection, older age, and higher expression of CK19, p53, and EGFR than other subtypes. The basal subtype (nine cases) showed frequent comedo-necrosis and high expression of cyclin D1. The ductal subtype (five cases) showed the lowest expression of p53, cyclin D1, and EGFR. A small number of p16- and/or HPV-positive cases were not restricted to one subtype. BSCC was the cause of death in 19 patients, and the average follow-up period for all patients was 79.5 months. Overall survival among the three subtypes was not significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest a heterogeneous pathogenesis of head and neck BSCC. Each subtype showed variable histology and immunoprofiles, although the clinical implication of heterogeneity was not determined in this study.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* ; Cause of Death ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Cyclin D1* ; Cyclins* ; Epidermal Growth Factor* ; Epithelial Cells* ; Epithelium ; Follow-Up Studies ; Head* ; Humans* ; In Situ Hybridization ; Korea ; Neck* ; Population Characteristics ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor* ; Seoul ; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53

STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective study was designed to evaluate the clinical result and difference between short segment and long segment fixation, which was undertaken by posterior approach for thoracic and lumbar spine fractures. OBJECTIVE: To determine and compare the mechanical maintenance and ability of correction, and clinical and neurologic recov-ery between short segment and long segment fusion group. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: The long segment instrumentation is a cause of decrease of motion segment in thoracic and lumbar spine. In short segment fusion, screw failures were reported. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 1989 thorough 1997, 54 patients who had been operated on by the posterior approach with transpedicular screw fixation for spine injuries were divided into two groups. The authors applied the short segment transpedic-ular instrumentation including fractured vertebra. Short segment group included 35 cases, and long segment group, 19 cases. The mean follow-up period was one year and eight months for short segment group, two years and seven months for long segment one. The results were evaluated by comparing the anterior vertebral height, sagittal index in simple roentgenogram and neurologic recovery. RESULTS: The average of anterior vertebral height which was 50.7% at preoperation, became 78.7% after the operation and measured 74.9% at final follow-up in long segment fusion group, while in short segment fusion group it was 59.7%, 79.3% and 77.7%, respectively. The average of sagittal index of 17.5degreeat preoperation became 6.7degreeafter the operation, and measured 8degreeat final follow-up in long segment fusion group, while in short segment fusion group it was 19.9degree, 10.4degree, and 12.1degree, respectively. Overall clinical results had no statistical significant difference between two groups. Of the thirty-six patients with neurologic deficits, twenty-two improved by over the one Frankel grade. CONCLUSIONS: The authors conclude that the short segment transpedicular instrumentation including fractured vertebra is a successful method of thoracolumbar and lumbar burst fractures.
Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Retrospective Studies ; Spine

BACKGROUND/AIMS: There are no studies that looked into the bubble eliminating efficacy of polyethylene glycol with ascorbic acid (PEGA), which has been one of the shortcomings of polyethylene glycol (PEG). In this study, we compared newly introduced PEGA regimen by adding either simethicone or 1 L of water. METHODS: A prospective randomized controlled study was carried out at Dongguk Universtiy Gyeongju Hospital from July 2014 to September 2014. A total of 90 patients were randomly assigned to 3 groups; PEGA group (n=30) which served as control, simethicone addition group (n=30) to which simethicone 400 mg was additionally prescribed, and water addition group (n=30) to whom additional 1 L of water was given. Cleansing effectiveness, gas elimination efficacy, side effects, and patient satisfaction were compared between the groups. RESULTS: PEGA group demonstrated the highest cleansing effectiveness, but there was no statistically significant difference among the groups. Simethicone addition group showed significantly lesser amount of bubbles than the other groups (2.57±2.05 vs. 1.10±1.83 vs. 2.60±2.84, p=0.017). The rates of side effects in each group were 20.00% vs. 16.77% vs. 53.33%. Water addition group had significantly more side effects than the PEGA group and the simethicone addition group (p=0.003). The patient satisfaction score of each group was 3.37±0.85 vs. 3.73±0.74 vs. 3.20±0.66 with simethicone addition group showing significantly higher satisfaction than water addition group (p=0.020). CONCLUSIONS: PEGA bowel preparation agent showed satisfactory bowel cleansing despite the decrease in dosage, and addition of simethicone resulted in better bubble elimination.
Adult ; Ascorbic Acid/*chemistry ; Cathartics/adverse effects/chemistry/*pharmacology ; Colon/*drug effects ; Colonoscopy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Patient Compliance ; Polyethylene Glycols/adverse effects/*chemistry/pharmacology ; Prospective Studies ; Simethicone/*chemistry ; Water/*chemistry