Considerable controversy exists concerning the value of histomorphological data in the assessment of the malignant potential of prostate carcinomas. Mutations in the p53 gene resulting in the accumulation of altered p53 proteins with prolonged half-life have been found in a large variety of human malignancies. E-Cadherin is a specific epithelial cell-to- cell adhesion molecule which has previously been found to be expressed in well-differentiated non-invasive carcinoma cell lines, but it is lost in many poorly differentiated invasive cell lines. We performed immunohistochemical staining of p53 and E-cadherin in formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissues of 58 primary prostatic carcinomas. The expression rates of p53 and E-cadherin proteins in prostate carcinoma were positive in 15.5% and 44.8% of the cases, respectively. Histologically high-grade prostate carcinoma shows an increased expression of the p53 protein and a decreased one of the E-cadherin protein (P<0.05). The expression rates of the E-cadherin protein in prostate carcinoma decreased significantly according to the higher clinical stages and PSA levels (P<0.05). There was no accordance between the expression rate of p53 and E-cadherin. There were no significant correlation between each of the clinical stages and the expression rate of p53 protein or the PSA levels and the expression rates of p53 protein (P<0.05). Based on the present study, the expression of p53 and down regulation of E-cadherin are correlated with tumor progression and metastasis, and may be a useful prognostic factor in prostate carcinoma.
Cadherins* ; Cell Adhesion ; Cell Line ; Down-Regulation ; Formaldehyde ; Genes, p53 ; Half-Life ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paraffin ; Prostate*

OBJECTIVE: Disturbances in the biogenic amine pathways have been hypothesized to be the biochemical basis of schizophrenia. Catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) gene is an important candidate gene due to its function to metabolically inactivating these amines. We investigated the association between 472 G/A (158val/met) and -287 A/G polymorphisms of COMT gene with response to clozapine treatment in refractory schizophrenia. METHODS: One hundred twenty patients of refractory schizophrenia, who were treated with clozapine longer than six months, were participated in this study. We evaluated treatment response on the basis of the difference of re-hospitalization frequency and hospitalization duration before and after the first clozapine administration day. Genotyping of the 472 G/A and -287 A/G polymorphisms was performed by SNapShot method. RESULTS: In 472 G/A polymor-phism, there were no significant differences of the re-hospitalization frequency and the hospitalization duration between the A (-) group and A (+) group, and also no differences among GG, GA, and AA groups. In -287 A/G polymorphism, there were no significant differences between G (-) group and G (+) group. However, we observed significant differences in the re-hospitalization frequency (F=4.38, p=0.015) and in the hospitalization duration (F=3.90, p=0.024) among three genotype groups. CONCLUSION: We found that the treatment response to clozapine was not associated with COMT 472 G/A polymorphism but was positively associated with -287 A/G polymorphism in refractory schizophrenia. However, This association is not strong enough to conclude the association between -287 A/G polymorphism in COMT gene and clozapine response. Further studies with a large sample are required to verify this positive finding more clearly.
Amines ; Biogenic Amines ; Clozapine* ; Genotype ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Schizophrenia* ; Transferases*

There are a variety of different causes of parkinsonism including PD, secondary parkinsonism, and the parkinsonism plus syndromes. Secondary parkinsonism is caused by structural, toxic, metabolic, or infectious mechanisms. Among structural causes, intracranial neoplasms are a rare cause of secondary parkinsonism. Moreover, there are almost never case reports with intracranial space-occupying lesions resulting in parkinsonism associated with rapid cognitive impairment. Therefore, we report herein a 37-year-old woman diagnosed with papillary meningioma who presented with parkinsonism associated with rapidly progressive cognitive impairment mimicking diffuse Lewy body disease.
Adult ; Brain Neoplasms ; Dementia ; Female ; Humans ; Lewy Body Disease ; Meningioma ; Parkinson Disease, Secondary ; Parkinsonian Disorders

Mazabraud's syndrome, the etiology of which is unknown, is a rare benign disease, characterized by theas-sociation of intramuscular myxoma and fibrous dysplasia of bone, usually polyostotic. We describe a case ofMazabraud's syndrome in which with two intramuscular myxomas of the forearm were associated with polyostoticfibrous dysplasia.
Fibrous Dysplasia of Bone ; Forearm ; Myxoma

BACKGROUND: The incidence of Crohn's disease in the upper digestive tract, and especially in the stomach, is recently increasing. Focal inflammatory reaction without Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is thought to be the characteristic pathologic findings suggesting Crohn's disease in the stomach. Yet gastric involvement of Crohn's disease has not been studied in Korea. We studied the endoscopic and pathologic findings of patients with Crohn's disease in the stomach by taking biopsies. METHODS: Thirty patients with Crohn's disease who underwent gastroduodenoscopy followed by biopsies were included in the study. The pathology of the gastric biopsy specimens and the presence of H. pylori were evaluated. RESULTS: Among 30 cases, 22 cases (73.3%) were H. pylori negative and 8 cases (26.7%) were H. pylori positive. For the H. pylori negative cases, all but one cases showed pit abscess and focal lymphocytic collections in the antrum. Granulomas were found in 6 cases (20%) and they were exclusively located in the antrum. CONCLUSIONS: In the stomach, pit abscess and focal lymphocytic collections that are not associated with H. pylori infection are the characteristic pathologic findings found in Crohn's disease.
Abscess ; Biopsy ; Crohn Disease* ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Granuloma ; Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Pathology ; Stomach*

Acute thyroid abscess is an uneommon type of neck infection. We experieneed a case of staphylococcal thyroid abscess in 29 year old man, diagnosed by needle aspira~tion and culture of the aspirate. The patient had complained fever and slowly growing anterior neck swelling. Needle aspiration of the cold nodule prior to broad spectrum antibiotics was performed. After Surgical excision combined with antibiotics, he was discharged with elinical improvement. The laboratory diagnosis and clinical course was summarized and is reported with relevent references.
Abscess ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Clinical Laboratory Techniques ; Fever ; Humans ; Neck ; Needles ; Staphylococcus aureus ; Staphylococcus ; Thyroid Gland

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that presents with abdominal pain, weight loss, and diarrhea. Although the etiology has not been fully elucidated, both environmental and genetic causes are known to be involved. In chronic inflammatory conditions such as IBD, B lymphocytes are chronically stimulated, and they induce monoclonal expansion of plasma cells, sometimes resulting in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. Immunomodulators that are commonly used to control inflammation, such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) blockers could increase the possibility of hematologic malignancy. The pathogenesis of multiple myeloma in association with TNF-α inhibitor therapy is attributed to decreased apoptosis of plasma cell populations. Here, we describe a case of a 36-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with immunoglobulin A subtype smoldering multiple myeloma during the treatment for CD with infliximab and adalimumab. We report this case along with a review of the literature on cases of multiple myeloma that occurred in conjunction with CD.
Abdominal Pain ; Adalimumab ; Adult ; Apoptosis ; B-Lymphocytes ; Crohn Disease* ; Diarrhea ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin A ; Immunologic Factors ; Inflammation ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Infliximab ; Male ; Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance ; Multiple Myeloma* ; Necrosis ; Plasma Cells ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; Weight Loss

Up to 1937, 357 cases of tongue tuberculosis had been reported. However, Since potent antituberculosis drugs had been introduced, the incidence of oral tuberculosis lesions has been dramatically decreased. This might be related to the marked vascularity of the tongue which enables a high concentration of the drug to be reached to the lesion. Both the primary and secondary types of tuberculosis can be revealed in the oral cavity. In the primary type, the causative organisms are directly inoculated in the oral mucosa of a person who has never been tuberculosis earlier and who has not acquired an immunity to the disease, In the secondary type, tuberculosis of the oral cavity is coexistent with pulmonary disease. We report a case of tongue tuberculosis with pulmonary tuberculosis, with a review of literature.
Humans ; Incidence ; Lung Diseases ; Mouth ; Mouth Mucosa ; Tongue* ; Tuberculosis* ; Tuberculosis, Oral ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary*

PURPOSE: To investigate gastric juice nitrate/nitrite concentration according to mucosal surface pH extent (area) of gastric corpus intimately contacting the gastric juice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We included ninety-nine patients with dyspepsia. To evaluate gastric mucosal surface pH and its extent, gastric chromosocpy was performed by spraying phenol red dye on the corpus mucosa and estimating the extent of area with color changed. Nitrate/nitrite concentrations and pH of gastric juice were measured by ELISA and pH meter, respectively. Silver staining was done to histologically confirm the presence of Helicobacter pylori. RESULTS: Intragastric nitrate/nitrite concentrations in patients, showing phenol red staining mucosa were higher than those of unstaining mucosa (p=0.001): the more extensive in the area of phenol red staining area of corpus, the higher gastric juice pH found (r=0.692, p<0.001). Furthermore, the intragastric nitrate/nitrite concentrations correlated positively with gastric juice pH (r=0.481, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The changes of mucosal surface pH and its extent in gastric corpus might affect either pH or nitrate/nitrite level of gastric juice.
Adult ; Aged ; Dyspepsia/*metabolism/microbiology ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Female ; Gastric Juice/*metabolism ; Gastric Mucosa/*metabolism/microbiology ; Helicobacter pylori/isolation & purification ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nitrates/*metabolism ; Nitrites/*metabolism ; Young Adult

Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the ovary is rare, aggressive neoplasm frequently accompanied with surface epithelial tumor. A 47-year old woman with asymptomatic pelvic mass which showed malignant on frozen biopsy underwent total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy, partial omentectomy, appendectomy. Pathologically, size of the pelvic mass was 11 cm in greatest diameter with surface rupture. Histology and immunohistochemical staining revealed that large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma accompanied with malignant brenner tumor and serous adenocarcinoma. Under the diagnosis of Ic ovarian cancer, patient received six cycles of taxol and cisplatin. After a follow-up 2 years, she shows no evidence of disease.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Appendectomy ; Biopsy ; Brenner Tumor* ; Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine* ; Cisplatin ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hysterectomy ; Lymph Node Excision ; Middle Aged ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Ovary* ; Paclitaxel ; Rupture