A 37 year old female who presented with a history of foreign body ingestion ten months previously was found on examination to have a retropharyngeal swelling. An initial differential of foreign body granuloma or retropharyngeal tuberculous abscess was considered. The usefulness of the lateral neck radiograph in demonstrating retropharyngeal pathology and the supplementary role of the computed tomography scan in confirming and elucidating the identity of the radio-opacity is highlighted. This presentation is a timely reminder of the need for a simple inexpensive lateral neck radiograph in situations of doubt as to persisting foreign body impaction.
Granuloma ; Deferred ; Neck ; Case Report ; Pathology processes

A case of lymphatic cyst of the adrenal gland in a 55-year-old woman is described. The patient presented with vague abdominal pain, and abdominal CT and ultrasonography suggested a pancreatic cyst. The cyst, 10x8x6 cm in size, was found in the left adrenal gland; it was multilocular and septated with thin walls that were lined by a single layer of attenuated cells. The lining cells gave a weak positive immunoreactivity against factor VIII-related antigen and Ulex eurapaeus, and ultrastructural study revealed the lining cells to be of endothelial origin. Together with small tiny proliferative cystic spaces were intermixture of the normal adrenal cortical cells in the transition zone between large cysts and adrenal cortex. No histologic distinction between cystic lymphangioma and lymphangiectatic cyst was obtained; instead, a term of lymphatic cyst seems preferred unless otherwise confirmed. With its classification, the pathogenesis of adrenal lymphatic cysts is reviewed.
Female ; Humans ; Cysts

We present 20 medicolegal autopsies performed at the Department of Forensic medicine, Seoul National University Medical College during the year of 1996. In Korea Postmortem Invesigation (PI) system is not established and is needed greatly provide the basic considerations on PI system, we detailed the cases with impediments to be overcome. Among the 20 cases, 13cases were unusual deaths and 6 cases were natural. For unusual deaths, 7 were by mechanical injuries, four by asphyxia. Test for toxic stance was the most needed part to be solved.
Asphyxia ; Autopsy* ; Forensic Medicine ; Humans ; Korea ; Seoul

At "Keumjung-gul" site, bones of more than 153 persons are excavated in October 1995. They were interred in Autumn of 1950 during Korean War. Among them, 70 skulls were examined in morphological method and DNA test for sex determination. With PCR amplification of amelogenin, 60 skulls were proved male, 9; female, 1; not amplified. Result with Y27H39LR, SRY and alphoid repeats were not satisfactory. The morphologic determination for sex were made maily by (1) prominence of the supercilliary arch, (2) prominence of the external occipital protuberance and crest, (3) size and shape of the mastoid process. The concurrence rate between two examiner, and between two morphologic result and DNA result were low (<70%), largely because of the subjectivity of morphologic trait and the paucity of experiences.
Amelogenin ; DNA* ; Female ; Humans ; Korean War ; Male ; Mastoid ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Skull*

This study was carried out to understand the relationship between specific chromosome changes and their phenotypic consequences at the tissue level of human lung cancers. Then paraffin-embedded human lung squamous cell carcinoma samples were investigated for in evidence of genetic alterations, using chromosome 7 and 17-specific repetitive alpha-satellite DNA probes. In situ hybridization procedure with chromosome-specific DNA probes was optimized for use on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded lung tissue sections. The chromosome index ranged from 1.10 to 1.88(median, 1.49) for chromosome 7 and 1.20 to 1.98(median, 1.69) for chromosome 17. Normal lymphocytes and stromal cells showed one or two chromosome signals per cell in most cases. All tumors showed three or more chromosome signals per cell with range of 16.0% to 80.6% of cancer cells(median, 50.9%) for chromosome 7 and 32.7% to 84.7%(median, 69.9%) for chromosome 17. The chromosome index did not correlate with the DNA content in most cases. Chromosomes 7 and 17 were either overrepresented or underrepresented when they were compared with corresponding DNA index determined by FCM. An increase in copy number, particularly of chromosome 7 was associated with a less favorable phenotype, including high nuclear grade. In addition, chromosome alterations were differentially expressed in the different areas of the same tissue section, correlating with histologic heterogeneity. These results suggest that chromosome polysomy can be reliably detected in tissue sections using in situ hybridization. There is a strong correlation between genotypic abnormalities and tumor phenotype in human lung cancer. This capability will prove to be an important tool for determining the underlying genetic basis for tumor development, tissue phenotype heterogeneity and progression by allowing genetic determination to be made on paraffin-embedded tissue sections where tumor histologic architecture is preserved.
Humans ; Lung Neoplasms

We report an autopsy of a male fetus that showed multiple congenital anomalies that could best be designated as Meckel-Gruber syndrome. The fetus was born dead at the gestational age of 38 weeks. His parents denied any history of congenital malformation. And the parity of the mother was 0-0-0-0, but she had the past history of receiving herb medication for common cold. The congenital anomalies found in this case consited of occipital meningoencephalocele, midline cleft palate, bifid epiglottis, hepatic fibrosis, choledochal cyst, bilateral polycystic kidneys, postaxial polydactyly of both hands and feet, aplasia of the left testis, secundum type atrial septal defect and patent ductus arterious. This malformation syndrome is rare and lethal. The prenatal diagnosis should be made by ultrasound study or analysis of the amniotic fluid for alpha-feto protein during intrauterine period. The kidneys showed Potter type III cystic change and there was a characteristic hepatic fibrosis.
Male ; Humans

No abstract available.
Fires*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Ethanol* ; Rats*

To know the amplification pattern according to relative concentration ratio in mixed samples, two STRloci, vwF locus and MBP locus and two VNTR loci, D1S80 locus and d17S5 locus were amplified in DNA with various concentration of two individuals were easily identified. But when the concentration of one person were lowered to 1/20-1/40 of the other's the intensity of product bands diminshed and hardly discernible. Also different amplification efficiency according to the template length was noted, especially in VNTR loci. Using automatic sequencer and RFLP scan program, the intensity OD of each PCR product band could be calculated, and this correlates the felative amplification efficiency of each allele. By using this we could construct quantitative PCR for the mixed samples. This could be used in practical case work for forensic purpose, and also be a valuable candidate for 'chimerism detection' in case of bone marrow transplatation.
Alleles ; Bone Marrow ; DNA ; Humans ; Minisatellite Repeats ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length

DNA profiling with sets of short tandem repeat (STR) markers is the most popular method for identifying human DNA in forensics. Identification by STR typing might fail when DNA is degraded or is present in low amounts, such as in disaster victim identification (DVI) samples. In such cases, more information might be obtained by using additional markers such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Multiplex PCR and microarray are convenient techniques to analyze SNP markers. We used an AccuID(TM) Chip, SNP-based DNA chip manufactured by DNA Link Corporation, to confirm genetic relationship between two human bone samples that had been buried for more than 50 years and blood samples from the alleged descendants of the sources of the bone fragments. The chip combines an Affymetrix resequencing array with a multiplex PCR technology and can genotype hundreds of SNP markers in a single experiment. Genotyping the two bone samples yielded 90.5 and 77 SNP markers. The commonly genotyped markers (61 and 47 SNP loci) in each bone-family pair provided high paternity indices to support the genetic relationships in both cases.
Disasters ; DNA Fingerprinting ; DNA* ; Forensic Anthropology* ; Genotype ; Humans* ; Microsatellite Repeats ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis* ; Paternity ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide