This study investigated the effect of leuprolide acetate treatment on sex offenders' sexual fantasies and behaviors, as well as on their criminogenic psychological character and the risk of second conviction. The study participants consisted of 22 sex offenders who were confined to the National Institute of Forensic Psychiatry. Among them, 9 patients were given off-label leuprolide acetate for three months to inhibit sexual impulses, whereas the others were not given any medication. All sex offenders underwent two psychological evaluations; the first evaluation was conducted before starting medication, and the second was conducted after medication. Wilson's Sex Fantasy Questionnaire (WSFQ), the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (RMAS), and the Endorsement of Violence Scale (EVS) were used for evaluation. Leuprolide acetate-treated sex offenders showed a statistically significant decline in the total WSFQ score (p < 0.05). However, the RMAS and EVS scores did not differ after leuprolide acetate treatment, indicating that cognitive distortions like rape myth acceptance and endorsement of violence were unchanged after leuprolide medication. Leuprolide acetate may reduce deviant sexual impulses and fantasies, as suggested by previous research form Korea and other countries. However, it probably cannot alter cognitive distortion. On the basis of these findings, we recommend a combination of leuprolide medication and other therapies, like cognitive behavioral therapy, for the treatment of paraphilic sex offenders.
Cognitive Therapy ; Criminals ; Fantasy ; Forensic Psychiatry ; Humans ; Korea ; Leuprolide ; Paraphilic Disorders ; Rape ; Violence ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Second-look ultrasonography (US) is a targeted breast US examination that evaluates suspicious lesions detected on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It is a useful tool for determining the probability of malignancy and facilitating US-guided biopsy. Lesions detected on MRI and US should be correlated accurately, which is challenging in some cases. This article documents second-look US and MRI findings that are correlated with the pathology, and suggests helpful approaches for correlating between the two modalities.

Recent studies have suggested an association of genetic and neurodevelopmental factors with development of paraphilia. In this case report on monozygotic twins with pedophilia, we aim to offer additional evidence indicating that genetic vulnerability may be a significant risk factor along with environmental influences on development of pedophilia. These twin pairs, who have been arrested for sexual offenses against boys, had experienced emotional and physical abuse during their childhood, and the older twin brother is reported to have a history of sexual abuse. Both showed homosexual tendencies, and the younger twin brother was also diagnosed as exhibitionism. This case implies greater involvement of genetic factors and associated vulnerabilities in the etiology of paraphilia, including pedophilia, than environmental factors such as childhood abuse. In the future, conduct of research will be needed in order to determine the biological markers related to the etiology of pedophilia.
Biomarkers ; Exhibitionism ; Homosexuality ; Humans ; Paraphilic Disorders ; Pedophilia* ; Risk Factors ; Sex Offenses ; Siblings ; Twins, Monozygotic*

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Increased mass of adipose tissue in obese persons is caused by excessive adipogenesis, which is elaborately controlled by an array of transcription factors. Inhibition of adipogenesis by diverse plant-derived substances has been explored. The aim of the current study was to examine the effects of the aqueous methanol extract of laver (Porphyra yezoensis) on adipogenesis and apoptosis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and to investigate the mechanism underlying the effect of the laver extract. MATERIALS/METHODS: 3T3-L1 cells were treated with various concentrations of laver extract in differentiation medium. Lipid accumulation, expression of adipogenic proteins, including CCAAT enhancer-binding protein alpha, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, fatty acid binding protein 4, and fatty acid synthase, cell viability, apoptosis, and the total content and the ratio of reduced to oxidized forms of glutathione (GSH/GSSG) were analyzed. RESULTS: Treatment with laver extract resulted in a significant decrease in lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, which showed correlation with a reduction in expression of adipogenic proteins. Treatment with laver extract also resulted in a decrease in the viability of preadipocytes and an increase in the apoptosis of mature adipocytes. Treatment with laver extract led to exacerbated depletion of cellular glutathione and abolished the transient increase in GSH/GSSG ratio during adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. CONCLUSION: Results of our study demonstrated that treatment with the laver extract caused inhibition of adipogenesis, a decrease in proliferation of preadipocytes, and an increase in the apoptosis of mature adipocytes. It appears that these effects were caused by increasing oxidative stress, as demonstrated by the depletion and oxidation of the cellular glutathione pool in the extract-treated adipocytes. Our results suggest that a prooxidant role of laver extract is associated with its antiadipogenic and proapoptotic effects.
3T3-L1 Cells ; Adipocytes* ; Adipogenesis* ; Adipose Tissue ; Apoptosis* ; Carrier Proteins ; Cell Survival ; Glutathione ; Humans ; Methanol* ; Oxidative Stress ; PPAR gamma ; Transcription Factors

Lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor 1 (LOX1) binds to oxidized LDL, which is associated with inflammation in various vascular disorders. Here, we aimed to investigate the potential of soluble LOX1 (sLOX1) as an indicator of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV) activity. Serum levels of sLOX1 in frozen samples from patients with AAV enrolled in a prospective observational cohort study at the Severance Hospital were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Clinical and laboratory data were collected on the date when the blood sampling was performed. The association between sLOX1 and clinical and laboratory data was assessed using Pearson’s correlation analysis. The median age of the recruited 79 patients was 62.0 years, and 27 (34.2%) patients were men. The median Birmingham vasculitis activity score (BVAS), five-factor score, vasculitis damage index, and sLOX1 level were 6, 1, 3, and 911.9 pg/mL, respectively. Correlation analysis based on BVAS revealed that sLOX1 and total cholesterol were significantly inversely correlated with BVAS (r=-0.224, p=0.047 and r= -0.424, p<0.001, respectively). No significant correlations were observed between continuous variables and sLOX1 except for BVAS, although total cholesterol tended to correlate with sLOX1 (r=0.190, p=0.093). Additionally, sLOX1 was not influenced by sex, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, or the presence of pulmonary, cardiovascular, and renal involvement of AAV. In summary, sLOX1 was inversely correlated with BVAS in AAV patients, which is different from other vascular diseases or inflammatory diseases.

Individual dental age is used as an index of chronological age estimation and is an important indicator of the child's growth stage. Dental age does change greatly over time, but it changes constantly. And updating information about this change is important. The purpose of this study was to provide information about tooth eruption stage using diagnostic model analysis and to investigate tooth eruption sequence and estimate chronological age based on this information.Tooth eruption stages were measured on a diagnostic model from 488 patients in 5 – 13 year old children. Based on the information on eruption stage, eruption sequence in maxilla was first permanent molar, central incisor, lateral incisor, first premolar, canine, second premolar and second permanent molar. Eruption sequence in mandible was first permanent molar, central incisor, lateral incisor, canine, first premolar, second premolar and second permanent molar. There were significant differences between males and females in the eruption stage of canine, first and second premolar, and second molar at several ages. The chronological age of male and female was estimated by the coefficient of determination of 0.816, 0.826 respectively.
Bicuspid ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Incisor ; Male ; Mandible ; Maxilla ; Molar ; Tooth Eruption ; Tooth

. Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) is an autoimmune disease (AID) characterised by necrotising intravascular inflammation. Growing evidence suggests that immune system triggers altered lipid metabolism in AIDs. We investigated whether changes in lipid profile correlate with severity of disease in AAV. Methods. Seven lipid profiles were evaluated utilizing frozen serum samples from 67 patients registered in the Severance Hospital ANCA-associated VasculitidEs cohort by a chemistry autoanalyzer. The Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS) version 3 was used to measure patient’s assessment of global disease activity. The relationship between the BVAS with continuous variables was calculated by Pearson’s correlation analysis. Results. Thirty-five (52.2%), 19 (28.4%), and 13 (19.4%) patients were diagnosed with microscopic polyangiitis, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, respectively. Patients’ mean age was 60.0 years, and 22 (32.8%) were male. Among the lipid profiles investigated, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein, and apolipoprotein A1 and B were significantly associated with BVAS; apolipoprotein A1 showed the highest correlation with BVAS (r=−0.521, p＜0.001), remaining consistent even in patients with new-onset disease (r=−0.430, p=0.012). Apolipoprotein A1 had the highest association with the renal manifestation score among the clinical scores comprising BVAS (r=−0.457, p＜0.001). Conclusion. Decreased lipid levels, especially apolipoprotein A1, are relevant to increased AAV disease activity, and differ according to organ involvement. Measuring lipid profiles could have clinical implications regarding the assessment of global disease activity and organ involvement patterns.

The use of high throughput screening (HTS) in drug development is principally for the selection new drug candidates or screening of chemical toxicants. This system minimizes the experimental environment and allows for the screening of candidates at the same time. Umbilical cordderived stem cells have some of the characteristics of fetal stem cell and have several advantages such as the ease with which they can be obtained and lack of ethical issues. To establish a HTS system, optimized conditions that mimic typical cell culture conditions in a minimal space such as 96 well plates are needed for stem cell growth. We have thus established a novel HTS system using human umbilical cord derived-mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs). To determine the optimal cell number, hUC-MSCs were serially diluted and seeded at 750, 500, 200 and 100 cells per well on 96 well plates. The maintenance efficiencies of these dilutions were compared for 3, 7, 9, and 14 days. The fetal bovine serum (FBS) concentration (20, 10, 5 and 1%) and the cell numbers (750, 500 and 200 cells/well) were compared for 3, 5 and 7 days. In addition, we evaluated the optimal conditions for cell cycle block. These four independent optimization experiments were conducted using an MTT assay. In the results, the optimal conditions for a HTS system using hUC-MSCs were determined to be 300 cell/well cultured for 8 days with 1 or 5% FBS. In addition, we demonstrated that the optimal conditions for a cell cycle block in this culture system are 48 hours in the absence of FBS. In addition, we selected four types of novel small molecule candidates using our HTS system which demonstrates the feasibility if using hUC-MSCs for this type of screen. Moreover, the four candidate compounds can be tested for stem cell research application.
Cell Count ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Cell Cycle ; Fetal Stem Cells ; Humans ; Hydrazines ; Mass Screening ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; Seeds ; Stem Cell Research ; Stem Cells ; Umbilical Cord

Bleeding frorn the duodenal varix is an unusual event. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy is the diagnostic procedure of choice in diagnosing duodenal varices. If performed during active bleeding, it can differentiate between esophageal and duodenal varices as the source, which has important therapeutic implications. A thorough examination of the duodenum for varices is important in an upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Treatment modalites for bleeding duodenal varices are sclerotherapy, varix suture ligation, portocaval shunt, and duodenal resection. Although endoscopic sclerotherapy has lirnited success in controlling active duodenal varix as initial treatment, endoscopic injection sclerotherapy is a useful first-line therapeutic measure in the treatment of bleeding duodenal varices. In this study we present a case of a ruptured duodenal varix, which was defected by an endoscopy, in a 61-year-old male. An endoscopic examination showed small and nonbleeding esophageal varices and a prominant ulcerated varix was identified in the 2nd portion of the duodenum. Endoscopic sclerotherapy was performed by injecting ethanolamine oleate into the varix. Our report demonstrate that endoscopic sclerotherapy can be efficient even in the presence of acute bleeding and that it can provide a definitive method of curing of a bleeding duodenal varix.
Duodenum ; Endoscopy ; Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal ; Esophageal and Gastric Varices ; Ethanolamine ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Ligation ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Oleic Acid ; Sclerotherapy* ; Sutures ; Ulcer ; Varicose Veins*

Purpose: We investigated whether serum clusterin levels could reflect the current antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV)-specific indices. Materials and Methods: Fifty-seven patients with AAV and 40 healthy controls were included in this study. AAV-specific indices included the Short-Form 36-Item Health Survey Physical and Mental Component Summaries (SF-36 PCS and MCS) scores, Birmingham vasculitis activity score (BVAS), five-factor score (FFS), and vasculitis damage index. Clinical and laboratory data and AAV-specific indices were obtained at blood collection. The highest tertile of BVAS (≥16) was defined as high activity of AAV. Results: The median age of AAV patients was 64.0 years and 19 patients were male. SF-36 PCS score (r=0.328), SF-36 MCS score (r=0.289), BVAS (r=-0.404), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (r=-0.336), and C-reactive protein levels (r=-0.421) were significantly correlated with serum clusterin levels. In the multivariable linear regression analysis using AAV-specific indices and serum clusterin levels, both FFS (β=0.412) and serum clusterin levels (β=-0.250) were significantly associated with BVAS. When the optimal serum clusterin cut-off level for high activity of AAV was identified as 130.45 μg/mL, patients with serum clusterin level ≤130.45 μg/mL had a significantly higher risk for high activity of AAV than did those without (relative risk 7.194). Patients with AAV exhibited significantly lower serum clusterin levels than did healthy controls (168.2 μg/mL vs. 230.5 μg/mL). Conclusion Serum clusterin levels could reflect the current disease activity in patients with AAV.