No abstract available.
Adult* ; Humans ; Ophthalmic Artery*

We report a case of a tick bite by Ixodes nipponensis found on the neck of a 75-year-old female. The tick was thought to be in the lesion for 10 days. Till now 31 cases of tick bites were reported in Korea including the present case. The review of the Korean cases revealed that the ratio of female/male was 1.3 : 1, its age distribution was from 1st to 8th decade, sites of the invasion were trunk, head and neck, extremities, and anogenital area in order of frequency. Its prevalent season was spring and summer and the most common species(17/31) was Ixodes nipponensis.
Age Distribution ; Aged ; Extremities ; Female ; Head ; Humans ; Ixodes ; Korea ; Neck ; Seasons ; Tick Bites* ; Ticks*

BACKGROUND: Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) remain one of the most promising target cells for gene therapeutic approaches, but is currently limited by a number of issues, including the low gene transfer efficiency. METHODS: We evaluated the effect of recombinant fibronectin fragment (retronectin) and cytokines during retroviral transduction of CD34+ cells and analyzed the characteristics of transduced cells. To rapidly characterize and isolate transduced cells, we used a retroviral vector coding for the truncated form of the low-affinity nerve growth factor receptor (delta LNGFR). RESULTS: The total number of CD34+ cells (1.5~6.3-fold) and the amount of cycling (S+G2/M) cell fractions (2~6-fold) were increased after cytokine prestimulation, especially using thrombopoietin (TPO)-based cytokines. The immunophenotype of CD34+ cells showed no significant differences according to the cytokines. However, CD34+AC133+ cells were more effectively maintained in the presence of TPO. The transduction efficiency of CD34+ cells was significantly increased in the presence of retronectin (6.7+/-2.3% vs 23.1+/-4.4%). Immunomagnetic selection of the transduced cells allowed us to enrich these effectively (6.7+/-2.3% --> 86.3+/-6.5%). Compared with control, delta LNGFR transduction did not influence on the immunophenotype and cloning efficiency of CD34+ cells. Among the delta LNGFR+/-derived colonies, 85.0% were shown to contain an integrated delta LNGFR gene. CONCLUSION: These data show that retronectin and TPO-based cytokines can be used to facilitate retroviral transduction of CD34+ cells. Also, delta LNGFR transduced cells could be rapidly characterized by FACS analysis and effectively enriched by immunomagnetic selection method. Further improvement of transduction conditions for stimulation of HSC proliferation without differentiation and development of new vectors that obviate the requirement for cell division are likely to enhance transduction of primitive HSC.
Cell Division ; Clinical Coding ; Clone Cells ; Cloning, Organism ; Cytokines* ; Fibronectins* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Nerve Growth Factor ; Thrombopoietin ; Zidovudine*

Upper gastrointestinal bleeding is one of the most common complications in patients with chronic renal failure. Common causes are peptic ulcer, gastritis, duodenitis, esophagitis, Mallory-Weiss tear, and angiodysplasia. However, gastric polyp is a rare cause of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. We diagnosed a bleeding hyperplastic polyp in chronic renal failure patient with melena. He had a bleeding polyp with a Y-shaped stalk. This polyp was treated effectively by endoscopic snare polypectomy.
Angiodysplasia ; Duodenitis ; Esophagitis ; Gastritis ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic* ; Mallory-Weiss Syndrome ; Melena ; Peptic Ulcer ; Polyps* ; SNARE Proteins

Upper gastrointestinal bleeding is one of the most common complications in patients with chronic renal failure. Common causes are peptic ulcer, gastritis, duodenitis, esophagitis, Mallory-Weiss tear, and angiodysplasia. However, gastric polyp is a rare cause of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. We diagnosed a bleeding hyperplastic polyp in chronic renal failure patient with melena. He had a bleeding polyp with a Y-shaped stalk. This polyp was treated effectively by endoscopic snare polypectomy.
Angiodysplasia ; Duodenitis ; Esophagitis ; Gastritis ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic* ; Mallory-Weiss Syndrome ; Melena ; Peptic Ulcer ; Polyps* ; SNARE Proteins

Several reports have suggested a geographic difference in the histopathologic characteristics and prognosis of malignant lymphoma around the world. We tried to evaluate the clinical and histopathologic characteristics, therapeutic outcomes, and prognostic features of malignant lymphoma, particularly in Korean patients. Three hundred and seventy-six adult patients with the initial histopathologic diagnosis of malignant lymphoma of Yonsei University College of Medicine over an 8-year period were analyzed, retrospectively, with the following results: 1) There were 47 cases of Hodgkin's disease (HD) (12.5%) and 329 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) (87.5%) with a 1:7 ratio. The most common histopathologic subtype of HD was mixed cellularity (44.7%), and that of NHL was intermediate grade (70.8%), especially diffuse large-cell type (44.1%), whereas follicular type was less common. In regard to the incidence of extranodal presentation, it is rare in HD (4.2%), but occurs in 49.8% of patients with NHL. 2) The complete remission (CR) rate was 91.5% in HD and 63.6% in NHL, and the 5-year and 7-year disease-free survival rates were 71.3% and 57.0% in HD; 67.0% and 49.6% in NHL. The 5-year and 8-year overall survival rates were 90.7% and 68.0% in HD; 65.2% and 60.2% in NHL. 3) By multivariate analysis, we found that age, performance status, histopathologic grade, stage, serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and beta 2-microglobulin were the useful prognostic factors in predicting survival in NHL, while no definite prognostic factors were found in HD. Also, in NHL patients less than 60 years old, stage, serum LDH, and histopathologic grade were closely associated with their therapeutic outcomes. In conclusion, the characteristics of malignant lymphoma in our hospital differ from those in Western countries with respect to the clinical, histopathologic and immunophenotypic patterns, but the prognostic factors and overall therapeutic outcomes were quite comparable to those of other reports from Western countries.
Adolescence ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Human ; Lymphoma/therapy* ; Lymphoma/pathology* ; Male ; Middle Age ; Prognosis ; Survival Analysis ; Treatment Outcome

Nevus sebaceus is a congenital cutaneous hamartoma which has a potential to develop both benign and malignant neoplasm in late life. The most common benign tumor developed within the nevus is syringocystadenoma papilliferum and the most common malignant tumor basal cell epithelioma. Although two different tumors often develop simultaneously on the lesion, it is rare to see more than two different tumors developing on the lesion of nevus sebaceus. In Korean literatures only three such cases were reported. We report an additional case of nevus sebaceus developing three different tumors, syringocystadenoma papilliferum, sebaceous epithelioma, and basal cell carcinoma, in a 67-year-old female patient.
Aged ; Carcinoma* ; Carcinoma, Basal Cell* ; Female ; Hamartoma ; Humans ; Nevus*

The numb chin syndrome (NCS) is characterized by chin or lower lip numbness restricted to the distribution of the mental nerve (the distal trigeminal nerve). The authors report a patient whose initial symptom of tumor recurrence was unilateral numbness of the chin. A 65-year-old male was admitted because of paresthesia around the left chin and left lower lip. Neurologic examination revealed hypesthesia on the left side of chin, lower lip and buccal mucous mem-brane. Bone scan (Tc-99m MDP) showed focal hot uptakes on the left mandible and left first rib. Brain CT with bone window setting showed a focal osteolytic lesion in the bone marrow of the left mandibular canal without destruction of bone cortex. Both coronal T1 weighted image and axial T2 weighted image showed focal low signal intensities on the left ramus. The pathophysiologic mechanism could be understood by identification of the pathologic focus.
Aged ; Bone Marrow ; Brain ; Chin ; Hodgkin Disease* ; Humans ; Hypesthesia ; Lip ; Male ; Mandible ; Neurologic Examination ; Paresthesia ; Recurrence ; Ribs

PURPOSE: Recently, a new animal model for permanent focal brain ischemia using macrospheres was developed wherein the hypothalamic area was free from ischemic injury. The purpose of this study was to evaluate spatiotemporal changes in the expressions of cFos, pERK, and pAkt proteins in the macrosphere model. METHOD: Three or four macrospheres were injected into the internal carotid artery after ligation of the external carotid artery to induce permanent focal brain ischemic injury. RESULT: Twenty-four hours after macrosphere injection, 2,3,5-Triphenyltetrazlium (TTC) staining showed a marked ischemic injury in the blood supply territory of the middle cerebral artery, for example, the cerebral cortex and striatum. Furthermore, TUNEL staining revealed apoptotic cell death in the ischemic injury region of the cerebral cortex and striatum. Expression of the cFos protein was significant in the penumbral zone, but not in the ischemic core of the cortex and striatum, two and six hours after ischemic insult. A transient prominent expression of the pERK1/2 protein was noted in the penumbral zone of the cortex and striatum two hours after injection of macrospheres. In contrast, there was a strong immunoreactivity for the pAkt protein in the ischemic core, but not in the penumbral zone of the cortex and striatum, six hours after ischemic injury. CONCLUSION: The above results suggest that early expressions of cFos, pERK1/2, and pAkt proteins take part in different signaling cascades for cell survival or death in macrosphere animal model of permanent focal brain ischemic injury.
Animals* ; Brain Ischemia ; Brain* ; Carotid Artery, External ; Carotid Artery, Internal ; Cell Death ; Cell Survival ; Cerebral Cortex ; In Situ Nick-End Labeling ; Ligation ; Middle Cerebral Artery ; Models, Animal*

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rapidly growing malignant neuroendocrine tumor with a high rate of recurrence and metastasis for which wide excision is recommended. About 10 cases of spontaneous regression have been reported in the world. We report a case of Merkel cell carcinoma which showed spontaneous regression. The patient was a 68-year-old woman with a two-month history of a rapidly enlarging dusky red tumor on her right cheek. Microscopically, the tumor cells were uniform with round to oval shaped nucleus and scanty cytoplasm, and showed trabecular arrangement. Ultrastructually, dense core neurosecretory granules 100 to 200nm in diameter were found in the cytoplasm of tumor cells. As far as we know, this is the first case of the spontaneous regression of the tumor in the country.
Aged ; Carcinoma, Merkel Cell* ; Cheek ; Cytoplasm ; Female ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neuroendocrine Tumors ; Recurrence