This study was aimed to clarify the effects of systemic kainic acid (KA) administration (10 mg/kg i.p.) on somatostatin containing neurons, and to examine the distribution of somatostain immunoreactive neurons in the cerebral cortex of the rats. Animals were sacrificed at three time points at the two, six, and ten days after the injection of KA. Thirty-six rats were observed by using the free-floating immunohistochemical method (modified ABC method). The results were as follows: 1) In the anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, somatostatin immunoreactive neurons were not observed in 2,6,10days after treatment of KA including control group except Cg 1 showing some somatostatin immunoreactive neurons in 10days and control groups. 2) In the insular cortex, somatostatin immunoreactive neurons also were not observed in any groups except AIV showing few somatostatin immunoreactive neurons in control group. 3) In the perirhinal cortex, few somatostatin immunoreactive neurons were observed in 2 days and 6 days groups. In control group, a number of somatostatin immunoreactive neurons observed. 4) A strong decrease of somatostatin immunoreactive neurons were observed in the frontal, arietal, temporal and occipital cortex 2 days after treatment of KA. Initially decreased somatostatin immunoreactive neurons had recovered to control 10 days after treatment. 5) Distribution of the somatostatin immunoreactive neurons was observed marked difference according to the cortical areas. Somatostatin immunoreactive neurons in isocortex were more increased in number than the allcotex by control study. The changes in somatostatin immunoreactive neurons after systemic treament of KA were marked in 2 days and 6 days, but these had recovered to control 10 days the treatment of KA. It suggested the normalization of the cerebral function 10 days after seizure. According to the cerebral cortex, the different distribution of somatostatin immunoreactive neurons in number was observed.
Animals ; Cerebral Cortex* ; Gyrus Cinguli ; Kainic Acid* ; Neurons* ; Rats* ; Seizures ; Somatostatin*

Endpgenous bacterial endophthalmitis develops mainly in a extremely ill patient or a immunologically compromised patient. As reported earlier, early suspicion and careful diagnostic evaluation and early aggressive treatment are important to treat endophthalmitis and prevent poor visual acuity. The authors experienced a case of endogenous endophthalmitis developed from pneumonia in chronic alcoholics patient. The pathogen was proved to be a Staphylococcus aureus by the culture of specimen obtained from the aqueous. Systemic, topical, subconjunctival and intravitreal antibiotic therapy were done, but the patient's eye progressed to phthisis state.
Alcoholics* ; Endophthalmitis* ; Humans ; Pneumonia ; Staphylococcus aureus ; Visual Acuity

PURPOSE: This study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of intravaginal pelvic floor electrical stimulation (FES) therapy on bladder irritability symptoms in stress urinary incontinent women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The evaluation before and after treatment included the Blaivas's female Bladder Questionnaire, the quality of life questionnaires and the overall satisfaction with present voiding state using visual analogue test (VAT). All patient were treated for 20 minutes, twice a week for 6 weeks, using a new intravaginal electrical stimulator with microchip (PIC16C74). RESULTS: After the FES therapy, the overall success rate of the SUI was 50.4.% at 9 months. The bladder irritability symptoms such as frequency, nocturia, urgency, residual urine sensation and lower abdominal discomfort were improved. In particular, the symptoms of frequency, urge incontinence, dysuria were significantly improved after the FES therapy at 9 months. The VAT score of the overall satisfaction with the present voiding state was significantly lower after the FES therapy. 73.7% of patients were satisfied with the FES therapy and complications such as hemorrhage, vaginitis, urinary tract infection and pain were not encountered. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that FES therapy with microchip improves some bladder irritability in SUI women. Therefore, electrical stimulation therapy should be considered as a first line therapy in SUI women with bladder irritability symptoms.
Dysuria ; Electric Stimulation Therapy* ; Electric Stimulation* ; Female ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Nocturia ; Pelvic Floor ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Sensation ; Urinary Bladder* ; Urinary Incontinence, Urge ; Urinary Tract Infections ; Vaginitis

It is not common that formation of retrobulbar abscess by inflammatory spreading of chronic frontal sinusitis and even rare that the abscess cause acute exophthalmos and ocular pain. But, if the acute exophthalmos with ocular pain arise from the patient associated with chronic rhinitis or paranasal sinusitis, it should be suspected that peri bulbar abscess was formed by spreading of these disease and otorhinologic examination should be taken. The authors experienced a case of acute exophthalmos with ocular pain in a 27-years old woman and founded that abscess arising from the chronic frontal sinusitis disrupted the superomedial wall of orbit and spread to the retrobulbar area by computed tomography and other radiologic evaluation. We had good result by performing incision and drainage and some otorhinologic therapy.
Abscess ; Adult ; Drainage ; Exophthalmos* ; Female ; Frontal Sinus* ; Frontal Sinusitis* ; Humans ; Orbit ; Rhinitis ; Sinusitis

Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Cooperative Behavior ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Humans ; International Cooperation ; Japan ; Korea ; Liver ; Lung Neoplasms ; Mass Screening ; Oceania ; Taiwan ; Thailand ; Thyroid Neoplasms

No abstract available.
Herpesvirus 8, Human* ; Humans* ; Kidney Transplantation ; Lymphohistiocytosis, Hemophagocytic* ; Sarcoma, Kaposi* ; Transplant Recipients*

Discovery of Nod2 has brought to light the significance of mononuclear cells as well as epithelial cells in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) pathogenesis. Similarly, CCL20 is expressed in both mononuclear cells and epithelial cells and is likely to link innate and acquired immunity. We therefore asked whether CCL20 expression is altered in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), a major type of IBD in Korea, and is correlated with the disease activity. The expression levels of CCL20 mRNA were significantly high in the PBMCs from the patients with UC. CCL20 protein expression was also up-regulated in the mucosal epithelium in UC but not in normal controls. Interestingly, however, disease activity index (DAI) revealed that untreated UC groups express higher expression levels of CCL20 mRNA than treated UC groups, implying that CCL20 may be a potential target for the anti-inflammatory treatments. In an agreement with this, three months follow up study revealed that the UC patients who were treated with 5-amino salicylic acid (5-ASA) and glucocorticoid showed dramatic decrease in their CCL20 mRNA levels as compared to untreated ones. Moreover, TNF-alpha-or IL-1beta-induced CCL20 secretion in human epithelial HT-29 cells was significantly diminished by the treatment with 5-ASA and/or dexamethasone, suggesting that CCL20 may be one of the central targets of the anti-inflammatory drugs. Collectively, these results suggest that CCL20 expression in UC may be associated with altered immune and inflammatory responses in the blood as well as the intestinal mucosa and further implied a potential for CCL20 as an important diagnostic marker for UC.
Adaptive Immunity ; Blood Cells* ; Colitis, Ulcerative* ; Crohn Disease ; Dexamethasone ; Epithelial Cells ; Epithelium ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gene Expression* ; HT29 Cells ; Humans ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Intestinal Mucosa ; Korea ; RNA, Messenger ; Salicylic Acid ; Sulfasalazine* ; Ulcer*

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We investigated whether inflammatory markers such as neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) independently and in combination would be significant prognostic factors for survival in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer. METHODS: A total of 497 patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer who received neoadjuvant or definitive chemoradiotherapy from 2005 to 2015 were evaluated. We divided the patients into groups according to the median values of NLR and PLR: NLR < 1.89 (n=156), NLR≥1.89 (n=341), PLR < 149 (n=248) and PLR≥149 (n=249). RESULTS: For NLR < 1.89 and ≥1.89 groups, respectively, the 1-year overall survival (OS) rates were 73.2% and 60.8% (p < 0.001) and 1-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 43.9% and 31.3% (p < 0.001). For PLR < 149 and ≥149 groups, respectively, the 1-year OS rates were 68.1% and 61.3% (p=0.029) and 1-year PFS rates were 37.9% and 32.5% (p=0.027). Patients with both high NLR and high PLR showed the worst OS and PFS rates compared with those with both lower NLR and lower PLR. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated pretreatment NLR and PLR independently and in combination significantly predicted poor OS and PFS.
Chemoradiotherapy* ; Disease-Free Survival ; Humans ; Lymphocyte Count ; Neutrophils ; Pancreatic Neoplasms* ; Platelet Count ; Prognosis

PURPOSE: To evaluate intracranial control after surgical resection according to the adjuvant treatment received in order to assess the optimal radiotherapy (RT) dose and volume. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between 2003 and 2015, a total of 53 patients with brain oligometastases from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) underwent metastasectomy. The patients were divided into three groups according to the adjuvant treatment received: whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) ± boost (WBRT ± boost group, n = 26), local RT/Gamma Knife surgery (local RT group, n = 14), and the observation group (n = 13). The most commonly used dose schedule was WBRT (25 Gy in 10 fractions, equivalent dose in 2 Gy fractions [EQD2] 26.04 Gy) with tumor bed boost (15 Gy in 5 fractions, EQD2 16.25 Gy). RESULTS: The WBRT ± boost group showed the lowest 1-year intracranial recurrence rate of 30.4%, followed by the local RT and observation groups, at 66.7%, and 76.9%, respectively (p = 0.006). In the WBRT ± boost group, there was no significant increase in the 1-year new site recurrence rate of patients receiving a lower dose of WBRT (EQD2) <27 Gy compared to that in patients receiving a higher WBRT dose (p = 0.553). The 1-year initial tumor site recurrence rate was lower in patients receiving tumor bed dose (EQD2) of ≥42.3 Gy compared to those receiving <42.3 Gy, although the difference was not significant (p = 0.347). CONCLUSIONS: Adding WBRT after resection of brain oligometastases from NSCLC seems to enhance intracranial control. Furthermore, combining lower-dose WBRT with a tumor bed boost may be an attractive option.
Appointments and Schedules ; Brain* ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung* ; Metastasectomy ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Radiotherapy* ; Radiotherapy, Adjuvant ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We have reported that the expression of MAGE gene is specific to the mRNA level or protein level in head and neck cancer tissues. In this study, we investigated the applicability of MAGE gene to molecular diagnosis of head and neck cancer by detecting MAGE mRNA with common MAGE primers in sputa of patients. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Nested RT-PCR with MAGE common primers were designed by authors and were performed to detect MAGE 1, 2, 3, 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, and 6 (MAGE A1-6) genes in sputa obtained from 22 cancer patients (17 squamous cell carcinoma of laryngopharynx, 2 lung metastsis after surgery for tongue and hypopharyngeal cancer, 2 neck metastasis from primary lung cancer, and 1 case of sarcoma of hypopharynx) and 40 normal persons. RESULTS: Of 17 sputa from squamous cell carcinoma patients, expression of MAGE mRNA was positive in 13 (76.5%) cases. MAGE was detected in 72.7% (8/11) of laryngeal cancer, 50% (1/2) of base of tongue cancer, and 100% in hypopharyngeal (2/2) and tonsillar cancer. According to T stage, T1, T2, T3, T4 was positive in 50% (2/4), 100% (5/5), 66.6% (2/3), and 80% (4/5) respectively. In case of primary lung cancer, metastatic lung cancer, and hypopharyngeal sarcoma, all expressed MAGE mRNA. Among 22 cancer patients, 81.8% (18/22) were positive. MAGE expression was detected in 5% (2/40) of the normal control. CONCLUSION: Nested RT-PCR with common MAGE primers was helpful for assessing the presence of cancer cell in the sputa of the respiratory tract. This examination can be used as a tumor marker for the screening of laryngopharyngeal cancers and early detection of recurrent cancers or lung metastasis after treatment.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Diagnosis ; Head and Neck Neoplasms* ; Head* ; Humans ; Hypopharyngeal Neoplasms ; Hypopharynx ; Laryngeal Neoplasms ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Mass Screening ; Neck ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Respiratory System ; RNA, Messenger* ; Sarcoma ; Sputum ; Tongue ; Tongue Neoplasms ; Tonsillar Neoplasms