This study was designed to investigate the effect of local hyperthermia on contact hypersensitivity (CHS) and elucidate it's mechanism through assessment of number of epidermal LCs and transfer of spleen cells. Depilated dorsal skin of mouse was immersed into controlled water bath at 52 ℃ for 30 seconds in vivo. The number of epidermal LCs was counted by adenosine triphosphate staining, and CHS to 2,4-dinitro-l-fluorobenzene was assessed by ear swelling and transfer of spleen cells. The number of LCs was significantly reduced 1 to 3 days after the hyperthermia treatment and recovered to normal 5 days after the treatment. CHS was significantly suppressed in mice sensitized 5,7, or 10 days after hyperthermia treatment, but the suppression was meager in mice sensitized 1 or 3 days after the treatment. There is a discord between the number of LCs and degree of CHS. When mice received spleen cells from hyporesponsive donors, CHS was remarkably sup-pressed in the recipient mice compared with positive control. These findings suggest that tfeatment of local hyperthermia suppress CHS in mice, which may be associated with the induction of suppressor cells. The nature of the discord between the the number of LCs and degree of CHS in this investigation remains to be cleared by further studies.
Adenosine Triphosphate ; Animals ; Baths ; Dermatitis, Contact* ; Ear ; Fever* ; Humans ; Hyperthermia, Induced ; Langerhans Cells* ; Mice* ; Skin ; Spleen ; Tissue Donors ; Water

No abstract available.
Lymphangioma

Two patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis were treated with itraconazole. One patient was a 24-year-old man who had several erythematous papulonodules on the extremities for 1 month, which revealed cutaneous leishmaniasis, histopathologically. He was treated with itraconazole (200 mg/day) for 2 months. After treatment he showed clinical healing and the biopsy specimens no longer showed leishmania organisms. The other patient was a 27-year-old female who had several erythematous papulonodules on the face and neck for 3 months. The skin lesions revealed leishmania organisms in the tissue sections and culture media. She was also treated with itraconazole (200 mg/day) for 2 months. After treatment she also showed satisfying clinical healing and the biopsy specimens revealed no leishmania organisms. No specific side effects were encountered in both patients during the treatment. From these results, itraconazole is considered to be one of the promising anti-leishmanial drugs.
Adult ; Biopsy ; Culture Media ; Extremities ; Female ; Humans ; Itraconazole* ; Leishmania ; Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous* ; Neck ; Skin ; Young Adult

We report a case of multiple Bowen's disease associated with leprosy. A 68-year-old man was seen because of slightly pruritic multiple erythematous scaly patches and plaques on the trunk and the both extremities for 5 years. He has been treated for leprosy with many kinds of drugs consisting of the herb medications for over 40 years. He also showed decreased cell-mediated immunity in skin tests. It is considered that depressed cellular immunity may be an important predisposing factor in the development of mutiple Bowen's disease in this case, .although arsenics can not be completetly excluded.
Aged ; Bowen's Disease ; Causality ; Extremities ; Humans ; Immunity, Cellular ; Leprosy* ; Skin Tests

A 31-year-old woman had a livedo reticularis of reticulated, bluish discoloration on both arms and legs for 18 months with a burning pain in the right hand and numbness in both lower legs. The findings of the electromyography were consistent with mononeuropathy multiplex and bilateral ulnar-median nerve anastomosis. A biopsy specimen from the right sural nerve showed perivascular lymphocytic infiltration and occasional myelin digestion chambers, which were consistent with vasculitic neuropathy. We present a patient with livedo reticularis idiopathica associated with mononeuropathy multiplex syndrome who also has bilateral ulnar-median nerve anastomosis.
Adult ; Arm ; Biopsy ; Burns ; Digestion ; Electromyography ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Hypesthesia ; Leg ; Livedo Reticularis* ; Mononeuropathies* ; Myelin Sheath ; Sural Nerve

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the relationship between the degree of expression of E-cadherin and presence of high risk prognostic factors (lymph node metastasis or parametrium involvement), clinical stages and pathologic types in invasive cervical cancer. METHODS: An immunohistochemical technique has been applied to formalin-fixed, paraffin- embedded samples from 20 radical hysterectomy without risk factors and 16 radical hysterectomy with risk factors. The degree of expressions of E-cadherin immunostaining was compared with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage, presence of high risk prognostic factors, and pathologic types. RESULTS: The difference of the degree of expression of E-cadherin was not statistically significant between high-risk group (lymph node metastasis or parametrium invasion) and non-risk group. The difference of the degree of expression of E-cadherin was not statistically significant according to clinical stages and variable pathologic types either. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the degree of the expression of E-cadherin has no relationship with known high risk prognostic factors, clinical stages and pathologic types in invasive cervical cancer.
Cadherins* ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Hysterectomy* ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Obstetrics ; Risk Factors ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

We evaluated after-cataract, capsular opacification, following combined lens removal with phacoemulsification or pars plana lensectomy, pars plana vitrectomy and primary or secondary IOL implantation on 34 eyes followed up more than 3 years.For the lens removal 23 eyes had pars plana lensectomy ad 11 eyes phacoemulsification. Nd-YAG capsulotomy is needed on 8/34 eyes(25.5%). Nd-YAG capsulotomy was performed on 3/23 eyes(13%) of pars plana lensectomy and on 5/11 eyes(45.5%) of phacoemulsification. Nd-YAG capsulotomy was performed to 7/22 eyes(31.8%) of primary IOL implantation and 1/12 eyes(8.3%) of secondary IOL implantation. Most patients had systemic vascular disease such as diabetes or hypertension.In conclusion, combined pars plana lensectomy, pars plana vitrectomy and secondary IOL implantation was the least incidence of after-cataract and side effects, so this procedure was thought to be recommended for vitreoretinal surgery.
Humans ; Incidence ; Phacoemulsification ; Vascular Diseases ; Vitrectomy ; Vitreoretinal Surgery

Many authors reported the etiology of hypoplasia of the nasomaxillary complex as trauma, infection, underdevelopment. To correct these deformities, Le Fort II Osteotomy and its modification has been popularly applied. This method enabled total advancement of nasomaxillary complexes and acquirememt of midfacial esthetics. But it has some limitations such as various occlusal deviation or lateral shifting of nasomaxillary complex in case of nasomaxillary retrusion. We grouped these patients as follows : 1. Nasomaxillary retrusion without shifting of nasomaxillary complex (1) Anteroposterior deviation of occlusal plane (2) Lateral deviation of occlusal plane(including canting) (3) Supero-inferior deviation of occlusal plane (4) Combined disturbance of occlusal plane without shifting of nasamaxillary complex 2. Lateral shifting of nasomaxillary complex with or without deviation of occlusal plane We performed Le Fort II and I combined osteotomy on eleven cases of midfacial deformity from June 1994 to July 1997 and in most of the cases, followed up maximum 36 months and could acquire positional stability and improvement of facial eathetics.
Congenital Abnormalities* ; Dental Occlusion ; Esthetics ; Humans ; Osteotomy*

BACKGROUND: It is not yet clear whether the abnormal cytokine production in relation to serum IgE levels in atopic dermatitis (AD) is associated with the amount of mRNA of cytokine gene. OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to delineate the effect of reciprocal correlation in the level of mRNA between interleukin-4 (I") and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) in severe AD. METHODS: We examined 15 cases including 5 AD patients with high serum IgE (>2,000 kU/liter), 5 AD patients with low serum IgE (<100 kU/liter), and 5 healthy controls. Using semi quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, IL-4 and IFN-γ gene expressions in peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMC) were examined. RESULTS: 1) IL-4 gene expression in spontaneous PBMC was higher in AD patient groups than in control group, significantly higher only in AD patient group with high serum IgE level (p < 0.05). 2) IFN-γ gene expression in spontaneous PBMC showed increased tendency in AD patient groups than in control group without statistical significance. 3) IL-4 and IFN-γ gene expressions in stimulated PBMC were not different among all three groups. CONCLUSION: In light of our results, high and low IgE subgroups in AD can exist and AD may not be R characterized by the shift in the reciprocal relationship between IL-4 and IFN-γ when T cells are stimulated under antigen presenting cell-independent conditions.
Dermatitis, Atopic ; Gene Expression ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E* ; Interferon-gamma* ; Interleukin-4* ; RNA, Messenger ; T-Lymphocytes

In male reproducible health, fertility and IVF (in-vitro fertilization), semen analysis has been most important. Semen analysis can be divided into concentration, motional and morphological analysis of sperm. The existing method which was developed earlier to analyze semen concentrated on the sperm motility analysis. To provide more useful and precise solutions for clinical problems such as infertility, semen analysis must include sperm morphological analysis. But the traditional tools for semen analysis are subjective, imprecise, inaccurate, difficult to standardize, and difficult to reproduce. Therefore, with the help of development of microcomputers and image processing techniques, we developed a new sperm morphology analyzer to overcome these problems. In this study the agreement on percent normal morphology was studied between different observers and a computerized sperm morphology analyzer on a slide-by-slide basis using strict criteria. Slides from 30 different patients from the SNUH andrology laboratory were selected randomly. Microscopic fields and sperm cells were chosen randomly and percent normal morphology was recorded. The ability of sperm morphology analyzer to repeat the same reading for normal and abnormal cells was studied. The results showed that there was no significant bias between two experienced observers. The limits of agreement were 4.1%~-3.8%. The Pearson correlation coefficient between readers was 0.79. Between the manual and sperm morphology analyzer, the same findings were reported. In this experiments the slides were stained by two different methods, PAP and Diff-Quik staining methods. The limits of agreement were 7.2%~-5.7% and 6.0%~-6.3%, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficients ware 0.76 and 0.91, respectively. The limits of agreement was tighter below 20% normal forms. In the experiments of repeatability, 52 cells stained by PAP and Diff-Quik staining methods were analyzed three times in succession. Estimating pairwise agreement, the kappa statistic for the pairs were 0.76, 0.81, 0.86, and 0.75, 0.88, 0.88 respectively. In this study it was shown that there was good agreement between manual and computerized assessment of normal and abnormal cells. The repeatability and agreement per slide of computerized sperm morphology analyzer was excellent. The computer's ability to classify normal morphology per slide is promising. Based on results obtained, this system can be of clinical value both in andrology laboratories and IVF units.
Andrology ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Fertility ; Humans ; Infertility ; Male ; Microcomputers ; Semen ; Semen Analysis ; Sperm Motility ; Spermatozoa*