Elastofibroma is a rare benign tumorous growth presenting as a slowly growing ill-defined mass of fibroblastic tissue occurring in elderly persons and arising mainly form the connective tissue between the lower portion of the scapula and the chest wall. Its pathogenesis is not well established but it may be the result of nonneoplastic reactive hyperplasia taking place with constitutional predisposition in the background. A case of elastofibroma occurring in the subscapular area of a 65-year-old female cook is presented. The mass, 6x5x3 cm in maximum dimensions, was poorly circumscribed, solid, hard, pale fleshy and pray-white fibrous tumor. Microscopically, it was composed of numerous small globular and linear elastic fibers embedded in collagenous matrix. To our knowledge, it is the first case of elastofibroma in Korea.
Female ; Humans

No abstract available.
Reticulocytes*

Primary hepatic carcinoid tumors are extremely rare although the liver is a frequent site of metastases from intestinal carcinoids. Recently we investigated a case of primary hepatic atypical carcinoid in a 47-year-old man who had infested with Clonorchis sinensis for 20 years. The resected right lobe of the liver was almost completely occupied by a huge tumor, measuring 20 x 19 x 12 cm. The cut surfaces of the mass were solid, soft and pale yellow, accompanied by several small satellite nodules, measuring up to 1.5 cm in diameter. Microscopically, the tumor consisted of polygonal to columnar cells with eosinophilic granular cytoplasm forming Lym-numerous small acini and large trabeculae. Their nuclei were round to polygonal with coarse stone chromatin, had obscure to small nucleoli and frequent mitoses. There were multiple necrotic foci of varing sizes. The surrounding dilated bile ducts contained several degenerating worms on in of Clonorchis sinensis. The tumor cells were argyrophil-positive but argentaffin-negative. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were positive for cytokeratin, chromogranin and somatostatin but were negative for CEA, AFP, insulin, glucagon, ACTH, growth hormone and volve-prolactin. Ultrastructually, the tumor cells contained variable-sized numerous electron dense of neurosecretory granules.
Male ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis

The influences of adrenal corticosteroid on the development and regression of neurons of dentate and hippocampus were studied by adrenalectomy and steroid overload in neonatal rats. The results obtained were as follows. 1. The cell death occurred naturally in numerous dentate granule cells and hippocampal pyramidal cells. 2. The number of dentate granule cells undergoing cell death decreased by injection of adrenal corticosteroid, but increased in adrenalectomized rat brains. The changes occurred prominently at postnatal day 6. 3. The number of hippocampal pyramidal cells undergoing cell death decreased in CA3 region by injection of adrenal corticosteroid, but was not changed in adrenalectomized rat brains. However, other regions exhibited no change by adrenal corticosteroid and adrenalectomy. 4. The cell death of pyramidal cells of CA3 region occurred in close relationship with the cell death of dentate granule cells, which was different from other CA regions. In summary, the cell death of dentate and hippocampal neurons occurred naturally but seemed to be influenced by other factors as well as adrenal corticosteroid.
Adrenalectomy ; Animals ; Brain ; Cell Death ; Hippocampus* ; Neurons* ; Pyramidal Cells ; Rats*

No abstract available.
Lissencephaly* ; Walker-Warburg Syndrome

BACKGROUND: This study was performed to develop a dietary self-efficacy questionnaire and to determine how dietary self-efficacy is related to selected biochemical markers and health-related quality of life in hemodialysis patients. METHODS: Participants included 172 patients who had been participating in a dialysis program for at least 6 months at two teaching hospitals. A questionnaire was used to assess socio-demographic factors, dialysis-related factors, dietary self-efficacy, and kidney disease quality of life (KDQOL). Serum levels of potassium and phosphorus and interdialytic weight gain were also measured. RESULTS: The internal reliability of dietary self-efficacy was 0.944 (Cronbach's alpha). Principal component analysis resulted in two factors, situational self-efficacy of compliance with dietary guidelines and self-efficacy of food choice. The correlation analysis showed a significant association between situational self-efficacy of compliance with dietary guidelines and serum potassium and KIDQOL. The average scores of situational self-efficacy of compliance with dietary guidelines and self-efficacy of food choice in the participants were 3.52+/-0.72 and 3.61+/-0.71 respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the situational self-efficacy of compliance with dietary guidelines was significantly associated with serum potassium level and KDQOL and self-efficacy of food choice was significantly associated with KDQOL. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, the developed dietary self-efficacy questionnaire may be a suitable survey tool for hemodialysis patients, which can play a role in predicting clinical indicators of patient and health-related quality of life. We recommend further research into clarifying whether the positive effects of increased dietary self-efficacy is maintained in long-term dialysis patients.
Biomarkers ; Compliance ; Dialysis ; Diet ; Hospitals, Teaching ; Humans ; Kidney Diseases ; Linear Models ; Phosphorus ; Potassium ; Principal Component Analysis ; Quality of Life ; Renal Dialysis ; Self Efficacy ; Weight Gain

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is an uncommon association with idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) often leading to a variety of serious complications. A total of 41 resected cases of IBD were examined to elucidate the pathologic features of intestinal CMV infection which was assessed by histologic examination and confirmed by immunohistochemistry with CMV antibody. Six cases were positve for CMV antibody; five cases in 19 ulcerative colitis (UC, 26.3%) and one case in 22 Crohn's disease (CD, 4.5%). Of 7 cases of the steroid-treated UC group, five cases were superinfected with CMV (71.4%) but none in 12 cases of the steroid-untreated UC group. All of the five CMV-positive cases in UC showed deep ulceration and transmural inflammation, while none of 10 UC cases without above features were CMV positive. Fibrinoid necrosis and thrombi were found in 83.3% of the CMV infected group, while none in the CMV-negative group of UC cases (p=0.01). We conclude that IBD, particularly UC, is susceptible to the CMV infection when steroid hormone is administered, and that deep colonic ulceration, transmural inflammation and fibrinoid necrosis of vasculature may suggest superinfection of CMV in UC patients. It seems that deep colonic ulceration may be the consequence of an ischemic change following vascular luminal occlusion or vasculitis by CMV infection.
Colitis, Ulcerative ; Colon ; Crohn Disease ; Cytomegalovirus Infections* ; Cytomegalovirus* ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Inflammation ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases* ; Necrosis ; Phenobarbital ; Superinfection ; Ulcer ; Vasculitis

No abstract available.
Humans

Large-cell acanthoma is a generally hyperkeratotic, sharply demarcated patch on sun-exposed skin with the outstanding pathologic feature being composed of large, relatively uniform keratinocytes. We describe a case of large-cell acanthoma that involved the skin of the nasal bridge. Patient was a 56-year-old women with a tannish brown patch, 2 cm in size and of 5 years' duration. Controversial issues about nosologic entity of large cell acanthoma are discussed.
Female ; Humans

Histopathologic studies for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)-associated chronic gastritis have been mostly undertaken with endoscopic biopsy specimens, often leading to an inappropriate evaluation of the gastric mucosal alterations. The purpose of this paper was designed to investigate the actual prevalence of lymphoid follicle formation by H. pylori infection using the resected stomachs. A total of 16 fresh gastrectomy specimens bearing gastric carcinoma were examined under the quick and gentle procedure, with which H. pylori was detected in 12 cases (75%) and lymphoid follicles in 14 cases (87.5%), while the detection rate of H. pylori remained 56.3% in the control group which comprised the same 16 resected stomachs and were examined by routine tissue preparation procedure without any special care. There was a significant correlation between the presence of H. pylori and lymphoid follicle formation (p=0.05), but no correlation was found between the grades of H. pylori and lymphoid follicles. The topographical distribution of H. pylori or lymphoid follicles in antrum and body gave no statistical difference. Similarly, there was no correlation between H. pylori infection and intestinal metaplasia, activity of chronic gastritis or histologic types of accompanying adenocarcinoma. We conclude that studies of the gastric mucosal change by H. pylori infection using the gastrectomy specimens provide a useful information for analysis of lymphoid follicle formation which is a consistent morphological characteristic of H. pylori infection.
Adenocarcinoma ; Biopsy ; Gastrectomy* ; Gastritis ; Helicobacter pylori* ; Helicobacter* ; Metaplasia ; Prevalence ; Stomach