BACKGROUND: Intracellular calcium overload is a common final feature of the ischemic-reperfused heart and mediates the genesis of irreversible cell damage. Reactive oxygen medabolites have been known to play and important role as toxic mediators in myocardial injuries resulting from ischemia and reperfusion. In order to investigate the mechanism of intracellular calcium accumulation in the ischemic-reperfused myocardium, the present study observed the possible contribution of the reactive oxygen metabolite to the calcium transport of cardiac mitochondria. METHODS: Mitochondrial were isolated from rabbit hearts. The effects of a reactive oxygen metabolite, H2O2 on calcium uptake and release, redox states of endogenous pyridine nucleotides and glutathiones of mitochondria respiring with succinate were observed. Calcium uptake and release were monitored by dual-wave length spectrophotometer using a calcium indicator, arsenaze III. Contents and redox states of pyridine nucleotides and glutathiones were measured by enzymatic methods using spectrofluorometer and HPLC. RESULTS: Hydrogen peroxide(10-500microM) promoted calcium release dose-dependently from CA++-preloaded mitochondria, but did not affect the mitochondrial calcium uptake. The H2O2-induced calcium release was accompanied by simultaneous oxidation of the pyridine nucleotides and decrease in the content of the reduced form of glutathione(GSH). When mitochondria were treated with BCNU(N,N=bis(2-chloroethyl)-N-nitrosourea) to inhibit glutathione reductase and so as to reduce the GSH content, there were no increase in calcium release from the mitochondria. These results may indicate that H2O2 increases the permeability of cardiac mitochondrial membrane to calcium in association with the changes in redox state of endogenous pyridine nucleotides, but not with that of glutathiones. CONCLUSION: It is suggested that the reactive oxygen metabolites induce the release of calcium from mitochondria by altering the redox state of pyridine nucleotides, and it may partly be involved in the elevation of cytosolic calcium concentration in the ischemic-reperfused myocardial cells.
Calcium* ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Cytosol ; Glutathione Reductase ; Heart ; Hydrogen ; Ischemia ; Mitochondria* ; Mitochondrial Membranes ; Myocardium ; Nucleotides ; Oxidation-Reduction ; Oxygen* ; Permeability ; Reperfusion ; Succinic Acid

Three children with osteogenesis imperfecta who were treated with fragmentation, realignment and intramedullary rod fixation (Sofield and Millar, 1959) have been followed up for considerable period. Repeated fractures in other sites as well as deformities occurred in overgrown part as the children grew up necessitated further operations of same kind. However, level of activity afterwards was found very much enhanced by the operations in general.
Child ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Humans ; Osteogenesis Imperfecta ; Osteogenesis

No abstract available.
Female ; Fibronectins* ; Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced* ; Plasma* ; Pregnancy*

The Schatzki ring, a submucosal fibrotic thickening of the lower esophagus, occurs at the squamocolumnar junction and is invariably associated with an esophageal histal hernia The ring is discrete narrowing covered with squamous epithelium on its superior aspect and columnar epithelium on its inferior aspect, with various degrees of submucosal fibrosis supporting the annulair ring. Symptoms, when present, are generally those of distal esophageal obstruction to the passage of solids and highly associated with ring diameter. The pathogenesis and etlology are obscure. But one theory suggests that they are caused by gastroesophageal reflux. The vast maiority of symptomatic Schatzki rings sre ameneble to dilation, a few patients will require surgical antireflux measures after dilatation. We have experienced a case of Schatzki ring associated with reflux esophagitis and esophageal hiatal hernia by the esophagogram after barium swallowing and endoscopy. So we report this case with brief review of the previous literatures.
Barium ; Carcinosarcoma ; Deglutition ; Dilatation ; Endoscopy ; Epithelium ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Esophagitis, Peptic* ; Esophagus* ; Fibrosis ; Gastroesophageal Reflux ; Hernia ; Hernia, Hiatal* ; Humans

Recent immunological investigations have demonstrated that the patients with psoriasis have various humoral and cellular immune abnormalities, such as increased serum IgG, IgE and secretory IgA, anti-IgC factor in psoriatic lesions, in peripheral blood lymphocytes and in serum, rhumatoid-like factors in IgA and IgG classes of immunoglobulins, antinuclear antibodies (ANA; reacting with the basal cell nuclei of uninvolved skin., anti-stratum corneum antibody and complements in psoriatic scales, immuoglobulin and complement bearing polymorphonuclear leucocytes in the Muro microabscess. These abnormal findings are enough to suggest an autoimmune mechanism in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Several investigators have also reported the results of T cell enumeration in the peripheral blood in psoriatic patients. However, the results are not in general agreement,. Thee present study was undertaken to clarify any abnormality in the proportion of T cells in the peripheral blood in psoriatic patients. Forty-one patients with active psoriasis registered at the Department of Dermatology, Seoul National University Hospital entered this study from May, 1979 through April, 1980. Twelve healthy medical and paramedical personel the comprised the control group. Active and total T cells were enumerated by the method of E-rosetting technique, and the results were as follows. 1, in normal controls, the active and total T celIs identified as E rosetteforming cells accounted for 61.6+7.4% and 68.1+8.9% of the total lymphocyte population, respectively. 2. In patients with psoriasis, significant decrease of active T cells (54. 2,+11.0%,p<0.005) and total T cells (62.2+11.2%, p<0.05) was observed. More profound reduction of T cells was noted in patients with wide spread psoriasis than those with limited extent.
Antibodies, Antinuclear ; Cell Nucleus ; Complement System Proteins ; Dermatology ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin A ; Immunoglobulin A, Secretory ; Immunoglobulin E ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulins ; Lymphocytes ; Psoriasis* ; Research Personnel ; Seoul ; Skin ; T-Lymphocytes* ; Weights and Measures

BACKGROUND: Pain on injection is one of the major disadvantages of propofol. To solve this problem, many investigations have been done. We postulated that the duration of pre-treatment of local anesthetics might affect the incidence and nature of injection pain. METHODS: Seventy seven patients were involved in our study. They were divided into control group (group C, n = 25); pre-treatment with normal saline and study group (n = 52); pre-treatment with 0.1% lidocaine 1 ml/kg/h for 30 min before propofol injection. The study group was subdivided into 2 groups, one receiving maintenance fluid (group LF, n = 28) and one not (group LS, n = 24). A vein on the dorsum of the hand was used for the intravenous line in all patients. Pain assessment was made twice, immediately after injection of first half dose of propofol and after injection of the remaining half dose. The speed of propofol injection was 0.5 ml/sec. After measuring pain with the visual analogue scale (VAS) and pain scoring (PS) during propofol injection, the highest score in each case was used for comparison. RESULTS: The values of VAS and PS of group LF were not different from group C. However the corresponding values of group LS were lower than those of group C (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: From our results, it can be suggested that the duration of 30 min pre-treatment of lidocaine without maintenance fluid is one method for reducing the incidence and nature of pain induced by propofol.
Anesthetics, Local ; Hand ; Humans ; Incidence ; Lidocaine* ; Pain Measurement ; Propofol ; Veins

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans ; Korea* ; Myocarditis* ; Rheumatic Fever*

OBJECTIVE: the enzymes cyclooxygenase(COX)-1 and -2 are necessary for the synthesis of prostaglandins. COX-2 is usually absent in normal cells and is upregulated and expressed as a product of the "immediate early" gene during inflammatory processes. In previous studies, the expression of COX-2 has been shown to be induced by prointlammatory cytockines, and suggestions have been made that overexpression of COX-2 supresses apoptosis and is directly related to tumor growth. We the authors have attempted to determine a relationship between the tumor invasion and metastasis of uterine cervical cancer and COX and apoptosis by comparing the protein expression of apoptosis and COX-I and COX-2 in tumor tissues confirmed with cytokeratin, and therefe determine the clinicopathologic risk factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The subjects were 18 patients who were FIGO stage IB uterine cervical cancer patients who underwent surgery at the Ajou University Medical Center. The 18 cases were comprised of 12 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, 3 cases each of adenocarcinoma and adenosquamous carcinoma. There were 9 cases with lymph node or prarametrial involvement and 13 cases with lymphvascular space involvement. All tissues obtained from the cases were subject to immunohistochemical staining for COX-1, -2 and TUNEL method for apoptosis detection, and the following results were obtained. RESULTS: Tumor tissues confirmed by cytokeratin wae separated into tumor surface, tumor stroma, and invasion site portions, and in which increased apoptosis was observed in the tumor surface and tumor stmma, but not in the invasion sites. COX-2 expression was observed in all tumor tissues, which was especially strong in the tumor invasion site. Therefore, it is suggested that COX-2 expression may supress cell apoptosis at the site of tumor invasion. When COX-2 expression was investigated when the cases were divided into groups with regard to the presence or absence of lymph node or parametrial involvement, there was statistically significant (Mann-Whitney U test) COX-2 expression seen microscopically in the tumor stroma (p-value=0.028) and tumor invasion site (p-value=0.040) compared to the tumor surface (p-value=0.499). In other words, in surgically treated stage IB cervical cancer patients, COX-2 was significantly expressed when lymph node or parametrial involvement was present. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the expression of COX-2 in stage IB cervical cancer patients may downregulate apoptosic processes and thus enhances tumor invasion and metastasis.
Academic Medical Centers ; Adenocarcinoma ; Apoptosis ; Carcinoma, Adenosquamous ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Humans ; In Situ Nick-End Labeling ; Keratins ; Lymph Nodes* ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases* ; Prostaglandins ; Risk Factors ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

The superoxide anion, hydrogen peroxide, and hydroxyl radical are oxygen free radicals which arise in cell metabolism and which are toxic to cells, with an important role in carcinogenesis. The measurement of the oxygen free radical is a problem due to the instantaneously changing nature, and therefore the superoxide dismutase(SOD) is employed which act as an oxygen free radical scavenger. The authors quantitatively analyzed the SOD levels in normal uterine cervix epithelium, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, and in invasive cervical cancer patients by the SOD-525R spectrophotometric assay and compared the results between each group with respect to prognostic variables such as stage of disease, cell type, lymph node involvement, and SCC Ag(TA-4 Ag) levels. The mean SOD levels were 0.41U/ml, 0.39U/ml and 0.73U/ml in the normal uterine cervix, intraepithelial neoplasia, and invasive cervical cancer groups, respectively, showing statistically significant difference by the Oneway anova test(p=0.05). The mean SOD levels according to the stage of disease were 0.5U/ml, 0.62U/ml, and 1. 15U/ml for stages I a, I b, and stage II and above(p=0.029). For the cell type the SOD levels were 0.77/ml for squamous cell carcinoma and 0.57U/ml for adenocarcinoma(p=0.15). For cancer cell lymph node involvement cases, the mean SOD levels were 0.75U/ml and 0.57U/ml for lymph node involvement and no involvement respectively(p=NS). The mean SOD levels also did not show any significance when compared with SCC Ag levels where SOD was 0.78U/ml for SCC Ag levels of more than 2.0ng/ml, and 0.77U/ml for SCC Ag levels of less than 2.0ng/ml. From the above results the authors conclude that SOD levels were higher in invasive cervical cancer tissues compared to intraepithelial neoplasia and normal cervical tissues, that SOD levels increased with higher stage of disease, and that there was no relationship between SOD levels and known prognostic variables such as cell type, lymph node involvement and SCC Ag level.
Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia ; Cervix Uteri ; Epithelium ; Female ; Free Radicals ; Humans ; Hydrogen Peroxide ; Hydroxyl Radical ; Lymph Nodes ; Metabolism ; Oxygen* ; Superoxides* ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare aggressive primary neuroendocrine skin tumor. It is more prevalent in elderly patients and commonly occurs as a solitary lesion on the head and neck. This case reports an 84-year old female with an asymptomatic 1x1.5 cm sized erythematous nodule on the right side of the nose that had rapidly enlarged over a one-month period. Histopathologically, it is difficult to differentiate Merkel cell carcinoma from metastatic small cell lung cancer. Thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) staining was very useful to differentiate Merkel cell carcinoma from metastatic small cell lung cancer. This case was positive for cytokeratin 20, but negative for TTF-1. We report a case that was diagnosed as Merkel cell carcinoma by TTF-1 staining.
Aged ; Carcinoma, Merkel Cell ; Female ; Head ; Humans ; Keratin-20 ; Neck ; Nose ; Skin ; Small Cell Lung Carcinoma ; Thyroid Gland