The effect of a secretory proteinase from the pathogenic amoebae Acanthamoeba castellanii on hosts defense-oriented or regulatory proteins such as immunoglobulins, interleukin-1, and protease inhibitors was investigated. The enzyme was found to degrade secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA), IgG, and IgM. It also degraded interleukin-1alpha (IL-1alpha) and IL-1beta. Its activity was not inhibited by endogenous protease inhibitors, such as alpha2-macroglobulin, alpha1-trypsin inhibitor, and alpha2-antiplasmin. Furthermore, the enzyme rapidly degraded those endogenous protease inhibitors as well. The degradation of hosts defense-oriented or regulatory proteins by the Acanthamoeba proteinase suggested that the enzyme might be an important virulence factor in the pathogenesis of Acanthamoeba infection.
Acanthamoeba/*enzymology/pathogenicity ; Animals ; Endopeptidases/*physiology ; Immunoglobulins/*metabolism ; Interleukin-1/*metabolism ; Protease Inhibitors/*metabolism ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Virulence

No abstract available.
Animals ; Brain* ; Carbon Monoxide* ; Carbon* ; Rats*

No abstract available.
Urticaria*

No abstract available.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle* ; Liver*

No abstract available.
Bile*

No abstract available.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle* ; Breast*

No abstract available.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell*

A case of systemic cytomegalovirus infection in a newborn baby is reported. This female baby was born after 36 weeks gestation to a 30 year-old mother who had no prenatal problem except for breech presentation and placenta previa for which Caesarian section was given. The mother has two healthy children. The clinical course of this baby was characterized by repeat spells of apnea, cyanosis and edema, that progressed to deepening jaundice and generalized petechiae. She died 58 hours after birth. A characteristic linear calcification along the ventricular wall of the brain enabled us to suggest congenital nature of cytomegalic inclusion disease in the patient. Postmortem exmaination showed numeorous cystomegalic inclusions in kidneys, pancreas, liver and thyroid. There was subependymal and periaqueductal calcification together with hydrocepalus and cerebellar hypoplasia.
Adult ; Apnea ; Autopsy* ; Brain ; Breech Presentation ; Child ; Cyanosis ; Cytomegalovirus Infections* ; Edema ; Female ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Jaundice ; Kidney ; Liver ; Mothers ; Pancreas ; Parturition ; Placenta Previa ; Pregnancy ; Purpura ; Thyroid Gland

A total of 213 fine needle aspirations from pulmonary lesions in 193 patients performed from January, 1986 to March, 1989 were analyzed. The cytologic diagnoses were unsatisfactory in 10, negative in 60, atypical in 6, suspicious in 11 and malignant in 126 cases. The cytologic types of the malignant cases were 47 squamous cell carcinomas, 40 adenocarcinomas, 10 small cell carcinomas, 6 large cell carcinomas and 10 metastatic tumors. They were verified by the histologic confirmation in 31 cases and by the clinical data in the remainder. There were 5 false-negative cases and none was false-positive, representing 96% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Primary lung cancers were accurately typed in 73% of histologically confirmed case. Cell blocks, prepared in 99 cases, were helpful in tumor typing of 11 cases.
Neoplasm Metastasis ; Lung Neoplasms

PURPOSE: In patients with small or large aneurysms, the decision for surgical treatment is not so simple. The mortality of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is high. This study was designed to retrospectively analyse the clinical characteristics of patients with AAA. METHODS: Ninety-one cases of AAA were surgically treated between January 1991 and January 2003 at the Department of Surgery, Chonnam National University Hospital. Patients were divided into 49 elective cases and 42 emergency cases, and retrospective analysed on the basis of age, sex, chief complaints, physical examination, associated diseases, size of aneurysm, diagnostic modalities, operative mortality and causes of death. RESULTS: The initial presentations were mainly palpable masses in the elective cases. On the other hand, in the emergency cases which were ruptured, many patients complained of abdominal or back pain. There was a positive relationship between the size of AAA and the incidence of the rupture in our study, especially in the case of transverse diameters above 10 cm (P<0.001). There was no death in the elective cases, but there were 22 surgical mortalities in the 42 emergency cases (52.3%, P<0.001). Overall surgical mortality was 24.1%. The causes of death were intraoperative and postoperative bleeding (11), myocardial infarction (5), acute renal failure (4), and sepsis (2). CONCLUSION: Surgical mortality in ruptured AAA was high. Consequently, surgical intervention is recommended and the operation must be performed. In that way we can reduce the operative mortality and improve the treatment outcome.
Acute Kidney Injury ; Aneurysm ; Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal* ; Back Pain ; Cause of Death ; Emergencies ; Hand ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Incidence ; Jeollanam-do ; Mortality ; Myocardial Infarction ; Physical Examination ; Retrospective Studies ; Rupture ; Sepsis ; Treatment Outcome