CD44 is a family of transmembrane glycoproteins involved in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. Expression of CD44 isofonns (splice variants) has been shown to be associated with poor prognosis in several human cancers. We evaluated the expression patterns of the CD44 isofortn (CD 44 splice variant v6) in infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast by immunohistochemical and RT-PCR method. Paraffin embedded blocks from seventy-five cases of mastectomized samples were analyzed immunohistochemically using monoclonoal antibody against CD44v6. CD44v6 was detected in fifty-seven cases (76%) of the tumor samples. Adjacent normal myoepithelial cells and ductal epithelial cells revealed focal positive reaction to CD44v6. Thirtytwo cases (80.0%) with lymph nodal metastasis revealed overexpression of CD44v6 monoclonal antibody, but twenty-five cases (71.4%) without nodal metastasis also showed positive reaction to CD44v6 monoclonal antibody, and there is no statistically significant value. Other prognostic factors of infiltrating ductal carcinoma, such as tumor size, histologic grade and hormonal receptors did not show any significant correlation with CD44v6 expression. The RT-PCR studies for 9 cases of infiltrating ductal carcinoma showed the same band patterns both in the normal and tumor tissues. From the above results, it is concluded that the expression of CD44v6 is not a valuable prognostic marker of infiltrating ductal carcinoma of breast.
Breast* ; Carcinoma, Ductal* ; Epithelial Cells ; Glycoproteins ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paraffin ; Prognosis

Sebaceous carcinoma of the eyelid is a rare tumor that usually arises from tarsal sebaceous gland. Because the clinical manifestations can masquerade as unilateral recurrent chalasion or chronic blepharoconjunctivitis, its diagnosis may be delayed. Therefore, early biopsy for diagnosis is needed for the persistently recurring unilateral blepharoconjunctivitis. The masquerade syndrome was first described in 1967 by Theodore and Irvine as chronic blepharoconjunctivitis due to an underlying conjunctival carcinoma. While the originally described neoplasms were squamous cell carcinomas, many of the tumors producing this clinical picture are believed to be sebaceous in origin. We experienced a case of pathologically confirmed sebaceous carcinoma of the eyelid which originally masqueraded as chronic blepharoconjunctivitis and was treated with topical antibiotics and steroids for 1 year and 8 months, finally being treated by partial orbital exenteration.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Biopsy ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Conjunctivitis* ; Diagnosis ; Eyelids ; Orbit ; Sebaceous Glands ; Steroids

This study was performed for the standardization and proper selection of effective antifungal agents by measuring the minimal inhibitory concentra-tions[MICs]of antifungals to fungi, separated from keratitis patients.Two strains of A.fumigatus and single strain of F.solani, A.falciforme, and A . alternata were used for this test.Standard powders of miconazole, itraconazole, clotrimazole, ketoconazole, and amphotericin B were used as antifungal agents. Microscopic and macroscopic measurements of MIC after 24, 48 and 72 hours of inoculation[105 conidia /ml]into YNB broth with culture temperature of 25 degrees C were performed by use of broth microdilution method.The results are as follows : itraconazole, amphotericin B, and clotrimazole were effective against A.fumigatus.F.solani showed resistance to all kinds of antifungal agents.A.falciforme and A.alternata were sensitive to amphotericin B and itraconazole, respectively. Further studies may be needed for the standardized measurement of MIC against filamentous fungi and also for in Vitro-in Vivo correlations for the treatment of fungal keratitis.
Amphotericin B ; Antifungal Agents* ; Clotrimazole ; Fungi ; Itraconazole ; Keratitis* ; Ketoconazole ; Miconazole ; Powders ; Spores, Fungal

PURPOSE: Laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) has become a viable alternative treatment for patients suffering with early gastric cancer. Surgeons have long thought that obesity might increase the rate of intraoperative or postoperative complications. This study was performed to evaluate the impact of obesity, according to the learning curve, in patients who underwent laparoscopy assisted distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 100 patients who had undergone LADG for gastric cancer between September 2004 and May 2007 at Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center. We measured the degree of obesity by using the body mass index (BMI: kg/m(2)), and we compared the surgical outcomes between the low BMI group (BMI < 25 kg/m(2), n=72) and the high BMI group (BMI >25 kg/m(2), n=28). We further subdivided the patients into the surgeons' number of cumulative LADG cases, the early learning curve group (from the first patient to the 50th patient) and the late learning curve group (from the 51th patient to the 100th patient). We analyzed them in terms of the operation time, the amount of intraoperative bleeding, the number of retrieved lymph nodes, the rate of operative morbidity and the length of the postoperative hospital stay. RESULTS: There no significant differences between the high and low BMI groups in terms of the patients' clinicopathologic characteristics and surgical outcomes, but there was a statistically significant difference in the operation times between the high BMI (303.3 min) and low BMI groups (269.3 min, P=0.029). The postoperative morbidity was not different between the high BMI (25%) and low BMI groups (12.5%, P=0.12). However, when we subdivided the patients by the learning curve, there was a statistically significant difference for the operation time (360 vs 297 minutes, respectively), postoperative morbidity (41.7 vs 10.5%, respectively) and the postoperative hospital stay (15.5 vs 8.6 day, respectively) between the high BMI and low BMI groups at the early learning curve period. Especially for male patients, the early learning curve period showed significant differences in the operation time, the postoperative morbidity and the postoperative hospital stay between the high BMI and low BMI groups, but in case of the female patients, there was no difference in postoperative morbidity and the length of the postoperative hospital stay. At the late learning curve period, there was no difference according to gender and obesity. CONCLUSION: Obesity itself does not increase operative morbidity when performing LADG in patients with gastric cancer. However, at a surgeon's initial period of performing LADG, a careful approach seems to be required for male obese patients.
Body Mass Index ; Female ; Gastrectomy ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Learning ; Learning Curve ; Length of Stay ; Lymph Nodes ; Male ; Obesity ; Postoperative Complications ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Stress, Psychological

It has been reported that keratocytes endocytose foreign particles both in vitro and in vivo, suggesting the active participation of keratocytes in corneal wound healing and host defense mechanism. This study was conducted to investigate the phagocytosis of keratocytes against Candida albicans[C.albicans]and the intracellular response after phagocytosis. C.albicans were fixed with glutaraldehyde and then coated with fibronectin. After exposing these C.albicans to the cultured rabbit keratocytes, the phagocytosis of keratocytes against C.albicans was evaluated by light microscope[LM]and transmission electron microscope[TEM], while the intracellular response was evaluated by changes of acid phosphatase activity. Also the study about latex beads was performed at the same time to know even if keratocytes can phagocytose foreign particles, regardless of wheather or not the particles are biodegradable. After Wright staining, phagocytosed latex beads and C.albicans were observed on LM and these were recognized to be surrounded by limiting membranes inside the cytoplasm of keratocytes on TEM. The phagocytic rates of fibronectin-coated were increased to 1.5 times , as compared with that of non-coated group. Acid phosphatase activities were higher in C.albicans-exposed groups than in control[keratocytes cultured without C.albicans or latex beads]during the culture period of 24 hours and they also increased according to culture duration and reached to the plateau after 12 hours. In comparison with non-coated group, fibronectin-coated groups showed a increasing tendency of acid phosphatase activity. These results suggest that keratocytes can phagocytose not only foreign particles but also C.albicans and that fibronectin may act as effective opsonin on phagocytosis, and that keratocytes phagocytosing C.albicans increase acid phosphatase activity to digest engulfed C.albicans when corneal stroma was wounded or inflammed.
Acid Phosphatase* ; Candida albicans* ; Candida* ; Corneal Stroma ; Cytoplasm ; Fibronectins ; Glutaral ; Latex ; Membranes ; Microspheres ; Phagocytosis* ; Wound Healing ; Wounds and Injuries

A choriocarcinoma is a rapidly invasive, widely metastatic, human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG)-producing neoplasm, which are usually intrauterine and gestational. A primary gastric choriocarcinoma is very rare, and its pathogenesis is still uncertain. A 56-year old man presented with gastrointestinal bleeding and a gastric mass, clinically suspicious of a gastric adenocarcinoma. Thus, a radical subtotal gastrectomy and lymph node dissection, with a reconstruction, was performed. The resected specimen was found to be a Borrmann type I tumor, and a histological examination showed it to be a primary gastric choriocarcinoma, with an associated adenocarcinoma and a syncytiotrophoblast, which was immunostained by human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). The serum HCG level, on the 7th postoperative day, was found to be 2, 775 mIU/ml. Chemotherapy was administered two months after surgery, as the patient refused chemotherapy during the immediate post operative period. At that time, the tumor rapidly recurred and disseminated to the liver. The patient died three months after the initial diagnosis.
Adenocarcinoma ; Choriocarcinoma* ; Chorionic Gonadotropin ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Female ; Gastrectomy ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Liver ; Lymph Node Excision ; Pregnancy ; Trophoblasts

A choriocarcinoma is a rapidly invasive, widely metastatic, human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG)-producing neoplasm, which are usually intrauterine and gestational. A primary gastric choriocarcinoma is very rare, and its pathogenesis is still uncertain. A 56-year old man presented with gastrointestinal bleeding and a gastric mass, clinically suspicious of a gastric adenocarcinoma. Thus, a radical subtotal gastrectomy and lymph node dissection, with a reconstruction, was performed. The resected specimen was found to be a Borrmann type I tumor, and a histological examination showed it to be a primary gastric choriocarcinoma, with an associated adenocarcinoma and a syncytiotrophoblast, which was immunostained by human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). The serum HCG level, on the 7th postoperative day, was found to be 2, 775 mIU/ml. Chemotherapy was administered two months after surgery, as the patient refused chemotherapy during the immediate post operative period. At that time, the tumor rapidly recurred and disseminated to the liver. The patient died three months after the initial diagnosis.
Adenocarcinoma ; Choriocarcinoma* ; Chorionic Gonadotropin ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Female ; Gastrectomy ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Liver ; Lymph Node Excision ; Pregnancy ; Trophoblasts

Hemorrhagic radiation proctitis is infrequently seen in patients receiving pelvic irradiation. The treatment of hemorrhagic ralation proctitis is often difficult. Many patients need reyeated hospitalizations and blood transfusions. Occasionally patiets will develop severe or recurrent rectal bleeding. In case of massive bleeding requiring excessive transfusion, colonic diversion by construction of a colostomy or excision of the diseased segment may be inevitable. However, surgical procedures in these patients are associated with a high mortality and morbidity. Moreover, medical therapy is usually ineffective. Recently formalin therapy has been introduced as a simple and effective treatment for hemorrhagic radiation proctitis. We experienced a 69 year-old woman patient who developed severe homorrhagic proctitis 1 year after radiotherapy for carcinoma of the cervix. She had not improved by conservative management and required blood tranafusions and repetitive hospitalizations. After local application of a 4% formalin solution in the diseased rectum under caudal anesthesia, the bleeding immediately stopped and the patient was discharged from the hospital, and no recurrence has been observed until now.
Aged ; Anesthesia, Caudal ; Blood Transfusion ; Cervix Uteri ; Colon ; Colostomy ; Female ; Formaldehyde* ; Hemorrhage ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Mortality ; Proctitis* ; Radiotherapy ; Rectum ; Recurrence

Splenosis is the autotransplantation of fragmented splenic tissue that occurs as a result of traumatic splenic rupture or a routine splenectomy. Generally, splenic implants are numerous and located within the peritoneal cavity; peritoneum, omentum and abdominal viscera, and occasionally on extra-abdominal surfaces. Splenic implants are rarely clinically significant and are incidental found during an abdominal operation, but occasionally mimics primary or metastatic tumors, as seen on radiological studies. Herein, the case of a patient in whom multiple abdominal masses were identified as splenosis, but the initial radiographic finding was that of carcinomatosis peritonei.
Autografts ; Carcinoma* ; Humans ; Omentum ; Peritoneal Cavity ; Peritoneum ; Splenectomy ; Splenic Rupture ; Splenosis* ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Viscera

Morphometry of nuclei of the benign and malignant prostatic lesions was performed to study the relationship between nuclear size and shape and the prognosis of prostatic adenocarcinoma. Fifty one cases of prostatic adenocarcinoma and 13 cases of benign prostatic hyperplasia were included to evaluate area, perimeter, Dmax, Dmin, and 5 form factors of the nuclei by image analyzer(Zeiss Ibas 2000) using hematoxylineosin stained slides. All analytic factors of nuclear size and shape were significantly different between benign lesions and adenocarcinomas. Increased nuclear size was associated with nuclear irregularity, presence of metastasis, advanced clinical stage, and high Gleason's grade and score of prostatic adenocarcinoma. On Kaplan-Meier method, survival was decreased with older age, no hormonal treatment, stage D, high Gleason}s grade and stage as well as with larger size and irregular shape of the nuclei. In conclusion, morphometry of nuclei of the prostate can be a helpful tool to differentiate between benign and malignant lesions. Nuclear morphology is thought to be associated with prognosis of prostatic adenocarcinoma.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Prognosis ; Prostate* ; Prostatic Hyperplasia