Syringomyelia was described by Etienne, Morgagni and Santorini in 1594 for the first time and was named by Olliver in 1824. In spite of hundreds of years study, it's cause is still not distinctly known and symptoms are very much variable because of its wide, irregular lesion in the spinal cord. The patient of 34 years old male had been suffered from sensory and temperature dissociation and muscle weakness of lower extremity including lower trunk for two years. In case of classical syringomyelia, sense of pain and temperature were diminished on the same area but this patient had complained disturbance of pain and light touch on the same area, but temperature loss does not coincides with, as figure shows. This report will review syringomyelia of lumbosacral type with a case history and references which is relatively rare in incidences.
Humans ; Incidence ; Lower Extremity ; Male ; Muscle Weakness ; Spinal Cord ; Syringomyelia

Myositis Ossificans progressiva is a very rare disease and not more than five cases have been reported in this country. The symptoms usually appear before the age of six and no case has ever been reported in medical literature in which patient is older than the age of twenty. This author reports here that a 52 years old male was diagnoed as a myositis ossificans progressiva. The patient developed his symptoms when he was lynched by a club during the Korean conflict at the Korean conflict at the age of thirty. Another interesting fact is that is that his daughter has also developed similar symptoms which appeared following an accident when she was run over by an angry cow at the age of six.
Humans ; Korean War ; Male ; Myositis Ossificans ; Myositis ; Nuclear Family ; Rare Diseases

BACKGROUND: Heat shock proteins (HSP), especially the HSP 70 family, may play certain roles in the immunophysiology of some skin diseases such as psoriasis, pemphigus, and lichen planus. HSPs generally induce down-regulation of the process of apoptosis that is considered to be one of the acantholysis-producing pathways in pemphigus. OBJECTIVE: We planned to examine possible roles of HSPs 70/105 in the blistering process in pemphigus vulgaris (PV) and pemphigus foliaceus (PF), in connection with the detection results of apoptosis in local tissue specimens. METHODS: Immunohistochemical stainings and Western blot analysis were performed for the detection and semiquantitation of HSPs 70/105 in skin specimens from lesional, nonlesional, and normal control sites. Hoechst 33342 staining was simultaneously carried out to examine features of apoptosis in lesional skin specimens. RESULTS: The findings on expression of HSP were as follows. In PV, the expression of HSP 70 was minimum or negative; however, in PF, the expression was obvious and recognizable in lesional and perilesional normal skin. In contrast, HSP 105 was not detected in all cases of PV and PF. The features of apoptosis were evident at the lesional skin of all cases of pemphigus with acantholytic changes. CONCLUSION: PV and PF had different relative intensities of HSPs in lesional tissue stainings, especially in cases with HSP 70. This suggests that there may be subtle differences in the mechanisms causing acantholysis between PV and PF.
Acantholysis ; Apoptosis ; Benzimidazoles ; Blister ; Blotting, Western ; Down-Regulation ; Heat-Shock Proteins ; Hot Temperature ; HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins ; Humans ; Lichen Planus ; Pemphigus ; Psoriasis ; Skin ; Skin Diseases

PURPOSE: Schwann cells are difficult to isolate from adult mammalian peripheral nerves because of the abundant connective tissue and the highly differentiated state of the cells, particularly those involved in the formation of myelin. It has been shown that in vivo, both neurons and Schwann cells are conditioned by a nerve lesion, speeding up the Schwann cell proliferation and the neuronal regeneration. In this study with adult rat peripheral nerves, we report that a conditioning lesion increases Schwann cells and of cells which successfully attach to a tissue culture striatum. METHODS: The study was done with Sprague-Dawley male rats(250-300 g). Their left sciatic nerves were exposed, severed at the sciatic notch and deflected. After 14 days, with 20 mm segments the nerves were excised from the distal stump of the conditioned sciatic nerves. Schwann cells were cultured in RPMI-1640 media. The identity of the cells was verified with antibody staining using S-100. RESULTS: The lesion evoked a progressive and significant increase in the number of cells obtained as early as 48 hr of the plating, until day 12. Decreasing the duration of enzyme digestion to 3 and 4 hrs markely increased the number of attached Schwann cells. The peak numbers of attached Schwann cells was observed between day 12 and day 14 of the plating. Most attached Schwann cells had typical oval-shaped cell bodies, with prominent nuclei and bipolar cell extensions, resulting in overall spindle shapes. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that a conditioning lesion enables us to isolate and culture adult Schwann cells successfully from the peripheral nerves of rats.
Adult* ; Animals ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Cell Proliferation ; Connective Tissue ; Digestion ; Humans ; Male ; Myelin Sheath ; Neurons ; Peripheral Nerves* ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Regeneration ; Schwann Cells* ; Sciatic Nerve