We report a case of cutaneous sarcoidosis which occurred in a 32-year-old female who had, in addition to some cutaneous nodules, recently developed an acute spontaneous erythematous area of induration in old scars on her forehead and lower lip. Histopathologic findings revealed well-demarcated islands of epitheloid cells with a few giant, cells. In addition, slight admixture of lyrnphoid cells with present. at the margins of the epitheloid cell granulomas. Complete regression of the skin lesions was obtained with systemic steroid therapy without recurrence for some 8 months.
Adult ; Cicatrix ; Female ; Forehead ; Granuloma ; Humans ; Islands ; Lip ; Recurrence ; Sarcoidosis* ; Skin

No abstract available.

Objectives: Short stature in childhood is defined to the cases in which the stature is below 3 percentiles of the standard value in accordance with that of those in the same age and gender group. The influence of the socioeconomic status on the short stature in childhood are analyzed. Methods: 154 children from the community child center in a region of poor socioeconomic status and 78 children in normal socioeconomic status who visited the Busan Medical Center due to the issue of short stature were selected for examination and analysis. Results: The prevalence rate of short stature at the community child center in 2 municipalities in Busan was confirmed to be 7.3%. In the comparison of the average growth parameters of poor socioeconomic status and normal socioeconomic status in the short stature group, there was no observation of significant difference in terms of the chronological age, midparental height, bone age, bone age/chronological age, height standard deviation score (SDS), body mass index(BMI) percentile and insulin like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP3) SDS. In the short stature suspicious group, there was observation of significant difference in the averages of bone age, weight, BMI percentile , IGFBP3 and IGFBP3 SDS. Conclusions Although the prevalence rate of short stature in children belonging to the poor socioeconomic class was observed to be higher than the existing results, there was no significant difference in the growth parameters associated with the growth of the height from those of the children in normal socioeconomic status.

PURPOSE: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder with a association of genetic, environmental, and immunologic factors in the development of AD. And AD can be classified into IgE mediated and non-IgE mediated. We investigated a difference of clinical characteristics and immune response between the two groups. METHODS: From January 2008 to December 2011, we enrolled 125 children who visited Dong-A University Medical Center and Busan Medical Center, and were diagnosed as AD with the Haniffin and Rajka's criteria. We checked the history of combined asthma and allergic rhinitis and allergic disease of family in patients. We measured serum total IgE, specific IgE by ImmunoCAP or skin prick test. We measured serum interleukin (IL) 4 (IL-4), interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), IL-10, and IL-17, which are associated with chronic inflammatory disorder by flow cytometry method (Luminex). RESULTS: Eighty (64%) were included in the IgE mediated group, while forty-five (36%) were included in the non-IgE mediated group. The frequency of combined allergic disorder and serum total eosinophil count were relatively higher in IgE mediated group (P=0.023, P=0.032). The incidence of a family history in allergic disease and the mean of SCORing Atopic Dermatitis index had no difference between the two groups. Serum IL-4, IFN-gamma, IL-10, IL-17 were higher in the IgE mediated group, but there were no statistically significant differences between two groups (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: IgE mediated AD showed higher total eosinophil count and higher incidence of bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis than non IgE mediated AD.
Academic Medical Centers ; Asthma ; Busan ; Child* ; Dermatitis, Atopic* ; Eosinophils ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E* ; Immunologic Factors ; Incidence ; Interferon-gamma ; Interleukin-10 ; Interleukin-17 ; Interleukin-4 ; Interleukins ; Methods ; Rhinitis ; Skin

OBJECTIVE: Tamoxifen is a nonsteroidal hormone that functions as a selective estrogen-receptor (ER) modulator in breast tissue. It is the first-choice drug for the postoperative treatment of ER-positive breast cancer patients. However, tamoxifen, if administered for a prolonged duration, has estrogen-like effects on the uterus, leading to an increased risk for the development of endometrial diseases such as endometrial hyperplasia, endometrial polyp, and endometrial cancer. This study was designed to investigate the effects of tamoxifen treatment on endometrium in breast cancer patients. METHODS: Fifty-five tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients visited an outpatient gynecology clinic. We analyzed the endometrial pathology with consideration to the duration of tamoxifen treatment the patient symptoms and the endometrial thickness, as measured by transvaginal ultrasonography. Endometrial polypectomy was performed to obtained polyps from women presenting with abnormal bleeding (17 polyps from postmenopausal women who had not been treated with tamoxifen and 14 from women who had been treated with this drug). To investigate the effects of tamoxifen treatment on the endometrial polyps, we performed immunohistochemical staining for ER, the progesterone receptor (PR), and Ki67 on the polyps obtained from both groups of women. RESULTS: In 29 (52.7%) of 55 tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients, the endometrium was more than 10 mm thick, and in 19 (65.5%) of these patients, the abnormalities noted comprised 11 endometrial polyps, 5 endometrial carcinomas, 2 submucosal myomas, and 1 endometrial hyperplasia. The incidence of endometrial proliferation was significantly higher in patients who had been treated with tamoxifen for less than 1 year (P=0.037) than in those who had been treated for more than 1 year. Although the endometrial carcinomas, submucosal myomas, and endometrial hyperplasia were found in the patients who had been treated for more than 1 year, this result was not statistically significantwhen compared with the other group. As compared to the endometrial polyps obtained from women who had not received tamoxifen treatment, those obtained from patients who had received the treatment exhibited significantly lower levels of ER expression (P=0.000) in the glands and increased levels of PR (P=0.031) and Ki-67 expression (P=0.000) in the stroma. CONCLUSIONS: During tamoxifen treatment for breast cancer, the endometrial pathology should be investigated if transvaginal ultrasonography reveals the tissue to be more than 10 mm thick. Although tamoxifen has significant effects on the expression of hormone receptors, the mechanism underlying the development of endometrial polyps does not appear to be mediated by the ER.
Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Endometrial Hyperplasia ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; Endometrium ; Female ; Gynecology ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Incidence ; Myoma ; Outpatients ; Polyps ; Receptors, Progesterone ; Tamoxifen ; Uterine Diseases ; Uterine Hemorrhage ; Uterus

No abstract available.
Aging* ; Endocrine Cells* ; Neurons*

Carboxy-terminal fragment of amyloid precusor protein (CT) is a candidate of causal molecule in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Although it has been identified that CT shows cytotoxicity in various types of cells, little is known about the molecular mechanism of the cytotoxic on neuronal cells by CT. In the present study, we investigated the relevance of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation to CT induced cell death in SK-N-SH cells. We showed CT induced ROS production and antioxidant GSH inhibited the increase of ROS production, thereby preventing neuronal cell death. These results indicate that CT induce neuronal cell death through mediation of ROS. Furthermore, increase of caspase activity resulted from CT reduced by GSH. It is implicate that caspase-3 may act downstream of ROS in the pathway neuronal cell death induced by CT.
Alzheimer Disease ; Amyloid ; Caspase 3 ; Cell Death* ; Negotiating ; Neurons* ; Reactive Oxygen Species

Primary Hyperparathyroidism is the metabolism abnormality of calcium, phosphate, and bone due to the high synthesis of parathyroid hormone, a rare endocrine disease in children. It scarcely occurs in children so that till now it was reported only 4 cases in Korea, especially with abdominal symptoms. We report this case of primary hyperparathyroidism with brief review of literatures.
Abdominal Pain ; Calcium ; Child ; Endocrine System Diseases ; Humans ; Hyperparathyroidism, Primary ; Korea ; Parathyroid Hormone ; Parathyroid Neoplasms

PURPOSE: In a previous study, we have shown that anticancer agents inhibiting topoisomerases improve survival of tumor cells under hypoxic condition. In the present study, we evaluated whether and how cell survival effect of the anticancer agents under hypoxic conditions could be eliminated by the addition of nitroimidazoles, a class of bioreductive agents. METHODS: Human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) were incubated with different combinations of pimonidazole (1~1,000 microg/ml) and doxorubicin (0.1 or 1 microg/ml) concentrations under different O2 concentrations [1, 3, 5, 10 and 21 O2]. Then cell numbers, glucose concentrations and lactic acid concentrations in the medium were measured, and DNA fragmentation assay was performed. Finally, different combinations of nitroimidazoles, such as pimonidazole, misonidazole, etanidazole, tinidazole, metronidazole, ornidazole or dimetridazole, and anticancer agents, such as doxorubicin, campothecin, epirubicin, dactinomycin, etoposide or mitomycin C was added to the cell culture medium under hypoxic conditions (1% O2). RESULTS: Pimonidazole at a concentration of 100 microg/ml eliminated cell survival effect of doxorubicin at the concentrations of 0.1 and 1 microg/ml under hypoxic condition (1% O2) by promoting apoptosis. Almost all the cells died even after 24 hours of incubation for all the oxygen concentrations at a combination of 100 microg/ml pimonidazole and 1 microg/ml doxorubicin. Finally, pimonidazole at a concentration of 100 microg/ml, and misonidazole or etanidazole at a concentration of 1,000 microg/ml eliminated cell survival effect of all the anticancer agents tested under hypoxic condition. CONCLUSION: Combination therapy of doxorubicin (adriamycin) with pimonidazole can maximize dororubicin efficacy by eliminating cell survival effect of doxorubicin under hypoxic conditions in treating solid tumors, such as breast cancer.
Anoxia ; Antineoplastic Agents ; Apoptosis ; Breast Neoplasms ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Cell Count ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Cell Survival ; Dactinomycin ; Dimetridazole ; DNA Fragmentation ; Doxorubicin ; Epirubicin ; Etanidazole ; Etoposide ; Glucose ; Humans ; Lactic Acid ; Metronidazole ; Misonidazole ; Mitomycin ; Nitroimidazoles ; Ornidazole ; Oxygen ; Tinidazole

No abstract available.
Sciatic Nerve*