OBJECTIVES: Kienbock's disease, which is characterized by osteonecrosis of the lunate bone, causes progressive chronic pain and dysfunction of the hand and wrist. Even though occurrence of the disease was reported approximately 100 years ago and it is suspected to be work-related to some degree, the etiology has not been clearly discribed and the disease has rarely been considered as an occupation-related disease. As such, we submit this case as the first report of Kienbock's disease in Korea, with clinical findings, x-ray, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and strain index results along with a literature review. METHODS: The patient was carefully interviewed and her medical records were properly reviewed by the authors with her consent. The authors also visited her factory work site to inspect and videotape the working environment and to conduct an ergonomic evaluation with a strain index. RESULTS: Excessively repeated contact stress was found to be concentrated on her right hand and the environment was discovered to be hazardous from an ergonomic standpoint. The literature review revealed that heavy loads on the hand might be related to the cause or deterioration associated with Kienbock's disease. ; therefore, it is very likely that her disease is related to her work. CONCLUSIONS: There is much evidence to suggest that heavy workloads involving hand and wrist intensive tasks may cause and worsen Kienbock's disease. However, to date epidemiologic studies clarifying the etiology of the disease have not been sufficiently reported. Therefore, further research focusing on the etiology and prevention of the disease are required. In addition, practical guidelines for hand and wrist intensive tasks are needed to prevent disease development and worsening.
Chronic Pain ; Glycogen Storage Disease Type VI ; Hand ; Humans ; Korea ; Lunate Bone ; Medical Records ; Occupational Diseases ; Osteonecrosis ; Sprains and Strains ; Videotape Recording ; Workplace ; Wrist

Behcet's disease is a chronic multi-systemic disease of unknown origin that includes mucocutaneous, ocular, cardiac, vascular, renal, gastrointestinal, neurologic and cutaneous involvement. The disease is spread throughout the world, but it is most prevalent in the eastern Mediterranean region-along the Silk Road-, and in Japan, China, and Korea. Recently, we treated a Mongolian patient who had complete-type Behcet's disease. As far as we know, this case is the first report of a Mongolian with Behcet's disease in the English literature. HLA typing in this patient revealed A2, A24; B51, B35; Cw4, Cw7; DR9, DR11. Study of the MICA genetype showed *5, *6 positive. Our data provided adequate evidence, from an epidemiological aspect, to support the belief that Behcet's disease is most prevalent along the old Silk Road.
Adult ; Alleles ; Behcet Syndrome/*genetics/immunology ; Genotype ; HLA-B Antigens/*genetics ; Histocompatibility Antigens Class I/*genetics ; Human ; Male

PURPOSE: Pim kinases are highly conserved serine/threonine kinases, and different expression patterns of each isoform (Pim-1, Pim-2, and Pim-3) have been observed in various types of human cancers, including gastric cancer. AZD1208 is a potent and selective inhibitor that affects all three isoforms of Pim. We investigated the effects of AZD1208 as a single agent and in combination with an Akt inhibitor in gastric cancer cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The antitumor activity of AZD1208 with/without an Akt inhibitor was evaluated in a large panel of gastric cancer cell lines through growth inhibition assays. The underlying mechanism was also examined by western blotting, immunofluorescence assay, and cell cycle analysis. RESULTS: AZD1208 treatment decreased gastric cancer cell proliferation rates and induced autophagy only in long-term culture systems. Light chain 3B (LC3B), a marker of autophagy, was increased in sensitive cells in a dose-dependent manner with AZD1208 treatment, which suggested that the growth inhibition effect of AZD1208 was achieved through autophagy, not apoptosis. Moreover, we found that cells damaged by Pim inhibition were repaired by activation of the DNA damage repair pathway, which promoted cell survival and led the cells to become resistant to AZD1208. We also confirmed that the combination of an Akt inhibitor with AZD1208 produced a highly synergistic effect in gastric cancer cell lines. CONCLUSION: Treatment with AZD1208 alone induced considerable cell death through autophagy in gastric cancer cells. Moreover, the combination of AZD1208 with an Akt inhibitor showed synergistic antitumor effects through regulation of the DNA damage repair pathway.
Apoptosis ; Autophagy ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Death ; Cell Line ; Cell Proliferation ; Cell Survival ; DNA Damage ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique ; Humans ; Phosphotransferases ; Protein Isoforms ; Stomach Neoplasms