We report a case of multiple basal cell carcinoma associated with keratoacanthoma. A 65-year-old Korean female had suffered from multiple, variable-sized papules and nodules on the face for 20 years previous to treatment. She had no history of arsenic intake, irradiation, herb medication, or hereditable or preexisting dermatoses. Histopathologically, the tumors revealed typical findings of solid and adenoid types of basal cell carcinoma and keratoacanthoma.
Aged ; Carcinoma, Basal Cell/complications/*pathology ; Case Report ; Facial Neoplasms/complications/*pathology ; Female ; Human ; Keratoacanthoma/complications/*pathology ; Skin Neoplasms/complications/*pathology

No abstract available.
Diagnosis ; Ductus Arteriosus, Patent ; Endarteritis ; Pulmonary Embolism

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of airway hyperresponsiveness induced by isocyanate at one petrochemical industry complex in Yeochon, Korea. METHOD: Questionnaires, allergic skin prick test, toluene diisocyanate (TDI)-specific IgE, and non-specific airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) were studied in 73 exposed workers and 27 control subjects. Methacholine challenge tests were done and bronc hial responsiveness (BR index) was defined as log (% fall of FEV1)/ log (last concentration of methacholine +10). RESULTS: Twenty-three workers (31.5% ) had respiratory symptoms, 21 had nasal symptoms, and eight had skin symptoms. Exposed workers with respiratory symptoms (n=22) had significantly higher BR index than those without them (0.82+/-0.06 vs 0.60+/-0.02, p<0.05). Exposed workers tended to have higher BR index than controls (0.67+/-0.03 vs 0.62+/-0.02). Three exposed workers had PC20 methacholine <2.0 mg/ml. There were no significant differences in atopy score between exposed workers and controls (p>0.05). Specific IgE antibodies were found in 19.7% of exposed workers. FEV, showed a significant negative correlation with BR index (r =-0.25, p<0.05). Poor correlation was noted between BR index and atopy, smoking status, or exposure duration. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that workers exposed to isocyanates are at higher risk of airway hyperresponsiveness.
Antibodies ; Immunoglobulin E ; Isocyanates* ; Korea ; Methacholine Chloride ; Plants* ; Prevalence ; Skin ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Toluene 2,4-Diisocyanate ; Surveys and Questionnaires

beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta) consisting of 40 to 42 amino acid is the principle constituent of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease. Although, the hypothesis that deposition of AP triggers a cascade of events leading to the pathology of Alzheimer's disease has been widely accepted, direct evidence for triggering accumulation of phosphorylated tau in paired helical filament is rare. In this study, we examined neurotoxicity induced by 3 kinds of beta-amyloid peptides 1 ~28, 25~,35 and 1~40 to elucidate the way of mechanism trading to neuronal cell death caused by Abeta using cultured hippocampal neurons. For this purpose, we measured lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the culture media after treatment with Abeta combined with anti-oxidant drug, trolox, or not. By histochemical and TUNEL method, we studied the change of immunoreaction to anti-MAP-2 (microtubule associated protein -2, the main component of neuritis) and detected apoptotic cells, respectively, in the hippocampal neurons treated with Abeta. To investigate whether tau phosphorylation involve neurotoxicity induced by Abeta, we immunostained the neurons with anti-SMI-31 to recognize phosphorylated Ser 396/404 of tau. From our data, we suggested that Abeta1-40 and Abeta25-35 induced marked neurodegenerative changes, and the mechanism responsible for cell death caused by Abeta -neurotoxicity was associated with the apoptosis. Because Abeta-neurotoxicity was not inhibited by anti-oxidant, trolox, we suggested that anti-oxidant did not protect the neuronal cells against the damage induced by Abeta in ou. expo.imental envi.onment. Finally, we suggested that AP treatment did not potentiate the immunoreactivity to anti-phosphorylated tau antibody and we speculated that Abeta-neurotoxicity led hippocampal cells to apoptosis without tau phosphorylation.
Alzheimer Disease ; Apoptosis* ; Cell Death ; Culture Media ; In Situ Nick-End Labeling ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase ; Neurons* ; Pathology ; Peptides* ; Phosphorylation* ; Plaque, Amyloid

When neurologic clinical manifestation suggests encephalitis but inflammation of brain has not occurred, the condition is identified by the less specific term encephalopathy. A strange type of acute encephalopathy, which is characterized by symmetrical low density areas in both thalami on brain computed tomography (CT) images, has been reported in Japan and Taiwan. This type of acute encephalopathy usually occurs in infants and young children without sexual predilection and is preceded by fever and symptoms of upper respiratory infection for several days. These symptoms are followed by the rapid evolution of stupor and coma, associated with generalized seizures and decorticated and decerebrated rigidity without focal neurologic or meningeal signs. Brain CT images demonstrates symmetrical low density areas in both thalami. Because it is preceded by fever and symptoms of upper respiratory infection and pathologic finding shows necrosis, petechiae, and marked congestion of the veins and capillaries suggesting noninflammatory vascular changes, it may be a postviral or postinfectious brain disorder, characterized by the distribution of the lesions. We experienced two cases of this type of acute encephalopathy in siblings, who showed symmetrical low density areas in both thalami on brain CT images and report these cases with a brief review of related literatures.
Brain ; Brain Diseases ; Capillaries ; Child ; Coma ; Encephalitis ; Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) ; Fever ; Humans ; Infant ; Inflammation ; Japan ; Necrosis ; Purpura ; Seizures ; Siblings* ; Stupor ; Taiwan ; Thalamus ; Veins

Anaphylaxis caused by beta-lactam antibiotics usually develops following the systemic administration of the drug, although it can also occur with trivial contact of the drug on the skin in extraordinarily sensitive individuals. Cefotiam is a second-generation cephalosporin developed in Japan, and cefotiam-induced contact urticaria and systemic symptoms (contact urticaria syndrome) have been reported in several nurses from Japan and Korea. Considering the serious nature of the systemic manifestations, such as hypotension, contact anaphylaxis is a more appropriate name for severe forms of the disease than contact urticaria syndrome. No previous study has reported a case involving contact urticaria syndrome to multiple drugs. We describe a case of cefotiam-induced contact anaphylactic shock combined with cefoperazone/sulbactam-induced contact urticaria syndrome in a 24-year-old nurse. She exhibited positive skin prick test responses to both cefotiam and cefoperazone/sulbactam.
Anaphylaxis ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Cefoperazone ; Cefotiam ; Humans ; Hypotension ; Japan ; Korea ; Skin ; Sulbactam ; Urticaria ; Young Adult

It has been suggested that dendritic cells (DCs) are critical antigen presenting cells for eosinophilic airway inflammation in a mouse model of asthma, and cysteinyl leukotrienes may play a role in DC trafficking in asthmatics. We investigated whether the number of DCs is increased in the induced sputum of both atopic and nonatopic asthmatics and is related to activated eosinophil count in the sputum. Sputum was induced by inhalation of hypertonic saline in 9 atopic and 12 nonatopic asthmatics and 10 nonatopic normal controls, and differential cell counts were performed. DCs and activated eosinophils were identified by immunocytochemistry with monoclonal antibodies (anti-CD1a and EG2, respectively). There were significantly higher percentages of eosinophils, EG2+ cells, and CD1a+ DC in the sputum of atopic and nonatopic asthmatics compared with normal controls, respectively. In asthmatics, the percentage of CD1a+ DC was significantly correlated with that of EG2+ cells (Rs=0.62, p=0.004). We demonstrated that the increased number of DCs was evident in the induced sputum of both atopic and nonatopic asthmatics, and the DC number was related to the activated eosinophil count, which suggests that DCs may contribute to the ongoing eosinophilic inflammation in asthmatic airways, and vice versa.
Adult ; Aged ; Antigens, CD1/analysis ; Asthma/*immunology/pathology ; Comparative Study ; Dendritic Cells/*immunology ; Eosinophil Granule Proteins/analysis ; Eosinophils/cytology/*immunology ; Female ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Leukocyte Count ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Sputum/cytology/*immunology

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the results of treatment using stent-angioplasty for symptomatic middle cerebral arterial (MCA) stenosis and comparison of in-stent restenosis between drug-eluting stents (DES), bare metal coronary stents (BMS) and self-expanding stents (SES). MATERIALS AND METHODS: From Jan. 2007 to June. 2012, 34 patients (mean age +/- standard deviation: 62.9 +/- 13.6 years) with MCA stenosis were treated. Inclusion criteria were acute infarction or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) and angiographically proven symptom related severe stenosis. Stents used for treatment were DES (n = 8), BMS (n = 13) and SES (n = 13). National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at admission was 2.5 +/- 3.1 and mean stenosis rate was 79.0 +/- 8.2%. Assessment of clinical and angiographic results was performed retrospectively. RESULTS: Among 34 patients, periprocedural complications occurred in four cases (11.8%), however, only two cases (6.0%) were symptomatic. All patients were followed clinically (mean follow-up period; 40.7 +/- 17.7 months) and 31 were followed angiographically (91.2%. 13.4 +/- 8.5 months). There was no occurrence of repeat stroke in all patients; however, mild TIAs related to restenosis occurred in three of 34 patients (8.8%). The mean NIHSS after stent-angioplasty was 1.7 +/- 2.9 and 0.8 +/- 1.1 at discharge. The modified Rankin score (mRS) at discharge was 0.5 +/- 0.9 and 0.3 +/- 0.8 at the last clinical follow-up. In-stent restenosis over 50% occurred in five of 31 angiographically followed cases (16.1%), however, all of these events occurred only in patients who were treated with BMS or SES. Restenosis rate was 0.0% in the DES group and 20.8% in the other group (p = 0.562); it did not differ between BMS and SES (2/11 18.2%, 3/13 23.1%, p = 1.000). CONCLUSION: Stent-angioplasty appears to be effective for symptomatic MCA stenosis. As for restenosis, in our study, DES was presumed to be more effective than BMS and SES; meanwhile, the results did not differ between the BMS and SES groups.
Angioplasty ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Drug-Eluting Stents ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Infarction ; Ischemic Attack, Transient ; Middle Cerebral Artery ; National Institutes of Health (U.S.) ; Stents ; Stroke

The loss of neuronal cells in the central nervous system may occur in many neurodegenerative diseases. Alzheimer's disease is a common senile disease in people over 65 years, and it causes impairment characterized by the decline of mental function, including memory loss and cognitive impairment, and affects the quality of life of patients. However, the current therapeutic strategies against AD are only to relieve symptoms, but not to cure it. Because there are only a few therapeutic strategies against Alzheimer's disease, we need to understand the pathogenesis of this disease. Cell therapy may be a powerful tool for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. This review will discuss the characteristics of Alzheimer's disease and various available therapeutic strategies.
Alzheimer Disease* ; Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy ; Central Nervous System ; Humans ; Memory Disorders ; Neurodegenerative Diseases ; Neurons ; Quality of Life ; Stem Cells* ; Transplantation