Focal dermal hypoplasia (Goltz syndrome) is a rare genetic mesoectodermal disorder characterized by variable multisystem defects, including anomalies of the skin, skeleton, teeth and eyes. A 22-year-old female patient presented with confluent and disciete, yellowish nodules on the calves, white linear atrophic lesions, hypoand hyper!igmented patches, and telangiectasia scattered over the trunk, neck and extremities. In addition to the skin lesions, this patient showed hypertrophy of the left leg, anomalies of the left foot, fingers and nails, and maloccluded teeth. Histopathological findings of a yellow nodule revealed accumulations of adipose tissue very near to the epidermis that largely replaced the upper dermis.
Adipose Tissue ; Dermis ; Epidermis ; Extremities ; Female ; Fingers ; Focal Dermal Hypoplasia* ; Foot ; Humans ; Hypertrophy ; Leg ; Neck ; Skeleton ; Skin ; Telangiectasis ; Tooth ; Young Adult

Paraquat(Gramoxone) is the most commonly used herbicide in Korea. But serious paraquat poisoning in human beings has occurred following ingestion or exposure to the skin. Exposure to paraquat through the skin has resulted in local irritation or inflammation of varyiig degree, sometimes severe. We report three cases of primary irritant dermatitis due to paraquat. Two patients developed generalized vesicobullae and necrotirulcer in the scrotum, respectively. The other patient developed painful whitish patch and erosion in ttie tongue after accidental exposure.
Dermatitis, Irritant* ; Eating ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Korea ; Paraquat ; Poisoning ; Scrotum ; Skin ; Tongue

The buttercup is an inportant irritant plant which contairs an unsaturated lactone, protoanemonin, formed by the breakdown of a glucoside in injured plants. We report the three cases of irritant contact dermatitis due to buttercup(Ranunculus sceleratus). These patient developed erythematous and edematous patches with tense vesicles or bullae on t,he application site of pounded buttercup for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, arthralgia, and neuralgia, respectively.
Arthralgia ; Dermatitis, Contact ; Dermatitis, Irritant* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Humans ; Neuralgia ; Plants ; Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation

Ewing's sarcoma is a highly malignant, small, round cell tumor that usually affects long bones. The acral part of the extremities is a very rare primary site for this neo plasm. A fifteen-year-old girl was seen for a lobulated, dome-shaped, 2.7cm diameter, denuded mass on the distal phalanx of the right middle finger which had increased in size over a 14-month period. The radiological featuies of the hand showed a cortical brick of distal phalanx and surrounding soft tissue mass. Histologically, the biopsy specimen showed sheets of small round to oval cells with scanty cytoplasm, that were closely packed and separated into lobules by trands of fibrous tissue. A periodic acid-Schiff stain demonsirated glycogen in the cytoplasm of the tumor cells. Electron microscopy showed large aggregates of glycogen in the cytoplasm of the neoaplastic cells. Immunohistochemical stains revealed positive staining for vimentin, glial fibrillary acid potein, and neuron specific enolase, stains for S-100, Factor VIII, and cytokeratin were negative.
Biopsy ; Coloring Agents ; Cytoplasm ; Extremities ; Factor VIII ; Female ; Fingers ; Glycogen ; Hand ; Humans ; Keratins ; Microscopy, Electron ; Phosphopyruvate Hydratase ; Sarcoma* ; Sarcoma, Ewing ; Vimentin

Ewing's sarcoma is a highly malignant, small, round cell tumor that usually affects long bones. The acral part of the extremities is a very rare primary site for this neo plasm. A fifteen-year-old girl was seen for a lobulated, dome-shaped, 2.7cm diameter, denuded mass on the distal phalanx of the right middle finger which had increased in size over a 14-month period. The radiological featuies of the hand showed a cortical brick of distal phalanx and surrounding soft tissue mass. Histologically, the biopsy specimen showed sheets of small round to oval cells with scanty cytoplasm, that were closely packed and separated into lobules by trands of fibrous tissue. A periodic acid-Schiff stain demonsirated glycogen in the cytoplasm of the tumor cells. Electron microscopy showed large aggregates of glycogen in the cytoplasm of the neoaplastic cells. Immunohistochemical stains revealed positive staining for vimentin, glial fibrillary acid potein, and neuron specific enolase, stains for S-100, Factor VIII, and cytokeratin were negative.
Biopsy ; Coloring Agents ; Cytoplasm ; Extremities ; Factor VIII ; Female ; Fingers ; Glycogen ; Hand ; Humans ; Keratins ; Microscopy, Electron ; Phosphopyruvate Hydratase ; Sarcoma* ; Sarcoma, Ewing ; Vimentin

No abstract available.
Microsurgery* ; Radiosurgery* ; Trigeminal Neuralgia*

Lhermitte-Duclos disease, or dysplastic gangliocytoma of the cerebellum, is a peculiar hamartoma arising from the cerebellar cortex. Cowden disease, which is also termed as a multiple hamartoma-neoplasia syndrome, is an unusual autosomal dominant disorder characterized by mucocutaneous lesions, including facial papules, gingival papillomas, and acral keratoses. Other systemic hamartomas are frequently present, and there are high incidence of breast, thyroid, and genitourinary malignancies. Recently, it is accepted that Lhermitte-Duclos disease is a part of Cowden disease, a new phakomatosis. Recognition of this association has clinical significance, because diligent long-term follow-up monitoring of individuals with Lhermitte-Duclos disease and Cowden disease may lead to the early detection of malignancy.
Breast ; Cerebellar Cortex ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hamartoma ; Hamartoma Syndrome, Multiple* ; Incidence ; Keratosis ; Neurocutaneous Syndromes ; Papilloma ; Thyroid Gland

The aim of this study was to identify the usefulness of pelviscopy in treatment besides its diagnostic value. The advantages of pelviscopic surgery are low cost, rapid recovery, good cosmetic effect, low incidence of complication and postoperative adhesion. So most of the pelvic exploration in gynecologic patients are replaced by the pelviscopic surgery these days. Pelviscopic surgery was performed on 136 patients at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, Yenungnam University from May 1991 to July 1993. The results obtained were as follows : The age distribution of the patients was from 19 to 55 with age of 31.2 years, and the mean parity was 0.96, the most common indication of pelviscopic surgery was tubal pregnancy(66.9%), the second most common indications was ovarian cyst(10.3%) and the other indications were endometriosis, corpus iuteum cyst rupture, parovarian cyst, foreign body, tubal ligation, hydrosalpinx, uterine myoma and in 16.3%. The mean duration of hospitalization was 2.1 days without specific complications. According to these results, it was postulated that the pelviscopic surgery was a useful operative tool in gynecologic treatment and its application could be extended to many other areas of gynecology with safety by the development of surgical techniques and instruments.
Age Distribution ; Endometriosis ; Female ; Foreign Bodies ; Gynecology ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Incidence ; Leiomyoma ; Obstetrics ; Parity ; Parovarian Cyst ; Rupture ; Sterilization, Tubal

OBJECTIVE: Kainic acid(KA) enhances the expression of nitric oxide synthase, increases nitric oxide(NO), and thus evokes epileptic convulsion, which results in neuronal damage in the rat brain. NO may stimulate cyclooxygenase type-2 (COX-2) activity, thus producing seizure and neuronal injury, but it has also been reported that KA-induced seizure and neurodegeneration are aggravated on decreasing the COX-2 level. This study was undertaken to investigate whether the suppression of NO using the NOS inhibitor, N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester(L-NAME), suppresses or enhances the activity of COX-2. METHODS: Silver impregnation and COX-2 immunohistochemical staining were used to localize related pathophysiological processes in the rat forebrain following KA-induced epileptic convulsion and L-NAME pretreatment. Post-injection survival of the rat was 1, 2, 3days and 2months, respectively. RESULTS: After the systemic administration of KA in rats, neurodegeneration increased with time in the cornu ammonis (CA) 3, CA 1 and amygdala, as confirmed by silver impregnation. On pretreating L-NAME, KA-induced neuronal degeneration decreased. COX-2 enzyme activities increased after KA injection in the dentate gyrus, CA 3, CA 1, amygdala and pyriform cortex, as determined by COX-2 staining. L-NAME pretreatment prior to KA-injection, caused COX-2 activities to increase compared with KA- injection only group by 1day and 2days survival time point. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that L-NAME has a neuroprotective effect on KA-induced neuronal damage, especially during the early stage of neurodegeneration.
Amygdala ; Animals ; Brain* ; Dentate Gyrus ; Hippocampus ; Kainic Acid* ; Neurons* ; Neuroprotective Agents* ; NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester ; Nitric Oxide Synthase ; Prosencephalon ; Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases ; Rats* ; Seizures ; Silver

OBJECTIVE: It is not uncommon to perform anterior discectomy for two adjacent disc levels in degenerative cervical disease due to diagnostic problems. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of titanium cage(RABEA) applied to two-level cervical degenerative disc disease, which is compared with the result of fusion with the same cage for one-level disc disease. METHODS: Between January 1999 and March 2003, 52 patients with degenerative cervical disease underwent anterior discectomy and interbody fusion with titanium cage(RABEA). Among them, 23 patients could be followed-up for more than 1 year. Ten patients received interbody fusion at one disc level(Group A), and 13 patients at two adjacent disc levels(Group B). Clinical outcome, fusion rate, disc space height and change of lordotic angle were analyzed in both groups. RESULTS: Clinical outcome according to Odom's criteria was excellent and good in 9(90%) of Group A and 11(84.6%) of Group B. The bone fusion rate of Group B was slightly lower than that of Group A. The height of disc space was well maintained until 1 year postoperatively in both groups. The change of the cervical lordotic angle has no significant difference between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Interbody fusion with titanium cage(RABEA) for two-level degenerative cervical disease may be an acceptable treatment modality due to relatively good clinical outcome despite slightly low fusion rate.
Diskectomy ; Humans ; Titanium*