No abstract available.
Cadmium*

No abstract available.
Flow Cytometry* ; Humans* ; Leukocytes* ; Microscopy* ; Phagocytosis* ; Staphylococcus aureus* ; Staphylococcus*

No abstract available.
Flow Cytometry* ; Humans* ; Leukocytes* ; Microscopy* ; Phagocytosis* ; Staphylococcus aureus* ; Staphylococcus*

Congenital M llerian anomalies of uterus are so infrequently encountered and endometriosis, primary infertility, hematometra, and urinary tract anomalies are claimed to be common complaints in women with unicornuate uterus. We report one case of rudimentary horn associated with agenesis of right kidney and pelvic endometriosis which is presented with brief review of literature about anomaly of the female genital tract.
Animals ; Endometriosis* ; Female ; Hematometra ; Horns* ; Humans ; Infertility ; Kidney* ; Urinary Tract ; Uterus

Placement of an endoprosthesis for palliative decompression of biliary obstruction has been advocated as an effective alternative for interanl-external drainage catheters, of which the care and psychological impact of the external segment protruded through the skin has been a difficult problem. (continue...)
Catheters ; Decompression ; Drainage* ; Skin

PURPOSE: To compare the predicted and actual refractive errors of hydrophilic, one-piece, C-flex(R)570C (C-flex) intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in simultaneous vitrectomy and lens extraction in various conditions. METHODS: One hundred fifty-nine eyes of patients who had lens extraction between March 2004 and September 2005 were enrolled in a retrospective study. Group 1 had lens extraction and IOL implantation, and Group 2 had lens extraction and IOL implantation with vitrectomy. IOL calculation was done with axial length and keratometry measurements. The actual and predicted refractive errors were compared at 1 and 6 months postoperatively. The factors influencing the postoperative refractive outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: The mean refractive predictive error (i.e., the actual minus predicted spherical equivalent) was +0.19+/-0.39 D (Diopter) and -0.26+/-0.45 D at 1 and 6 months postoperatively (all: p<0.001) in group 1, and -0.22+/-0.39 D and -0.06+/-0.62 D at 1 and 6 months postoperatively (p=0.013, p=0.399 respectively). In group 2, all surgical factors related to refractive errors were not statistically significant (all: p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Refractive errors in combined surgery showed myopic shift of -0.50 D and -0.32 D at 1 and 6 months postoperatively compared with C-flex IOL implantation alone. With the hyperopic tendency of IOL and myopic tendency of vitrectomy, the combined surgery made postoperative refractive errors near emmetropia.
Acrylic Resins ; Aged ; Humans ; *Lens Implantation, Intraocular ; Lenses, Intraocular ; Middle Aged ; Phacoemulsification/*methods ; Refractive Errors/*diagnosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Vitrectomy/*methods

BACKGROUND: There have been many reports that 1,5-Anhydroglucitol (1,5-AG) was a better marker than the hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) or fructosamine for monitoring the control of glucose in patients with Diabetes Mellitus (DM). However, there was difficulty in performing the tests on the patient's samples in the hospital laboratory because the measurement was possible only with gas chromatog-raphy or high performance chromatography. Recently, a reagent that can measure 1,5-AG on the automatic chemistry analyzer was introduced. We evaluated the analytical and clinical characteris-tics of the reagent. METHODS: We measured the 1,5-AG with the Lana(TM) (Japan Chemistry Medicine, Tokyo, Japan) on the automatic chemistry analyzer, TBA-30FR (Toshiba, Otawara, Japan). We evaluated the pre-cision, the recovery rate, the lower detection limit, the reference value, and the correlation with other clinical markers for glucose control of the DM patient. RESULTS: The within-run precisions of abnormal and normal samples were 1.27% and 1.41%. The between-day precisions were 2.34% and 4.56%, respectively. The recovery rate was 100.1% and 100.7% in abnormal and normal samples, respectively. The lower detection limit was 0.05 mg/L. The reference value from the healthy people was from 12.7 to 50.9 mg/L. The correlation coefficients of the 1,5-AG with glucose and HbA1c were -0.45 and -0.63, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The newly introduced reagent for 1,5-AG that could be applied with the automatic chemistry analyzer was enough to satisfy the analytical features and it showed better correlation with HbA1c than with the fasting blood glucose. We expect that the Lana(TM) can be used in hospital lab-oratories to monitor the blood glucose control of DM patients and more studies on the clinical value of the 1,5-AG can be done with the convenient reagent such as this.
Biomarkers ; Blood Glucose ; Chemistry ; Chromatography ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Fasting ; Fructosamine ; Glucose ; Humans ; Laboratories, Hospital ; Limit of Detection ; Reference Values

OBJECTIVE: To investigate a re-closure capacity and chronological changes of re-closure, the histologic findings are observed after skin graft on surgically induced spinal open neural tube defect(ONTD) in chick embryos. METHODS: Embryos were divided into two groups: graft and control. In the embryos of the graft, a skin fragment from another chick embryo of embryonic day 7 was grafted on the ONTD immediately after neural tube incision. Embryos were re-incubated in ovo, up to postoperative days(PODs) 3, 5, 7, 10 and sacrificed. Rate of re-closure was compared according to the group of the embryo and the observation time point. Serial changes in histological appearance were observed to investigate whether the re-closured ONTDs regain normal shape. Statistical analysis was performed using the SAS and x2 test. RESULTS: On PODs 3, 5, 7, and 10, re-closure rates of the graft were 87, 60, 53 and 88%, and those of the control were 13, 0, 0 and 20%, respectively. They showed more frequent re-closure of ONTDs by the skin allograft in the graft than control. There was no statistical difference between the closure rates of adjacent POD subgroups. Some embryos of the closed groups revealed complete closure of the neural tube and there was no difference from the normal neural tube. CONCLUSION: Skin graft on the surgically induced ONTD in the embryonic period has a protective effect on the spinal cord. It is suggested that the prenatal skin graft on the lesions of fetal myelomeningocele might prevent repeated spinal cord damage.
Allografts ; Animals ; Chick Embryo* ; Embryonic Structures ; Meningomyelocele ; Neural Tube Defects* ; Neural Tube* ; Skin* ; Spinal Cord ; Transplants*

PURPOSE: To analyze the gene expression profiles of uterine cervical cancer, and its variation after radiation therapy, with or without concurrent chemotherapy, using a cDNA microarray. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixteen patients, 8 with squamous cell carcinomas of the uterine cervix, who were treated with radiation alone, and the other 8 treated with concurrent chemo-radiation, were included in the study. Before the starting of the treatment, tumor biopsies were carried out, and the second time biopsies were performed after a radiation dose of 16.2~27 Gy. Three normal cervix tissues were used as a control group. The microarray experiments were performed with 5 groups of the total RNAs extracted individually and then admixed as control, pre-radiation therapy alone, during-radiation therapy alone, pre-chemoradiation therapy, and during-chemoradiation therapy. The 33P-labeled cDNAs were synthesized from the total RNAs of each group, by reverse transcription, and then they were hybridized to the cDNA microarray membrane. The gene expression of each microarrays was captured by the intensity of each spot produced by the radioactive isotopes. The pixels per spot were counted with an Arrayguage(R), and were exported to Microsoft Excel(R). The data were normalized by the Z transformation, and the comparisons were performed on the Z-ratio values calculated. RESULTS: The expressions of 15 genes, including integrin linked kinase (ILK), CDC28 protein kinase 2, Spry 2, and ERK 3, were increased with the Z-ratio values of over 2.0 for the cervix cancer tissues compared to those for the normal controls. Those genes were involved in cell growth and proliferation, cell cycle control, or signal transduction. The expressions of the other 6 genes, including G protein coupled receptor kinase 6, were decreased with the Z-ratio values of below -2.0. After the radiation therapy, most of the genes, with a previously increase expressions, represented the decreased expression profiles, and the genes, with the Z-ratio values of over 2.0, were cyclic nucleotide gated channel and 3 Expressed sequence tags (EST). In the concurrent chemo-radiation group, the genes involved in cell growth and proliferation, cell cycle control, and signal transduction were shown to have increased expressions compared to the radiation therapy alone group. The expressions of genes involved in angiogenesis (angiopoietin-2), immune reactions (formyl peptide receptor-like 1), and DNA repair (cAMP phosphodiesterase) were increased, however, the expression of gene involved in apoptosis (death associated protein kinase) was decreased. CONCLUSION: The different kinds of genes involved in the development and progression of cervical cancer were identified with the cDNA microarray, and the proposed theory is that the proliferation signal starts with ILK, and is amplified with Spry 2 and MAPK signaling, and the cellular mitoses are increased with the increased expression of Cdc 2 and cell division kinases. After the radiation therapy, the expression profiles demonstrated the evidence of the decreased cancer cell proliferation. There was no significant difference in the morphological findings of cell death between the radiation therapy alone and the chemo-radiation groups in the second time biopsy specimen, however, the gene expression profiles were markedly different, and the mechanism at the molecular level needs further study.
Apoptosis ; Biopsy ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cell Death ; Cell Division ; Cell Proliferation ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Cervix Uteri ; Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Cation Channels ; DNA Repair ; DNA, Complementary ; Drug Therapy ; Expressed Sequence Tags ; Female ; Gene Expression* ; GTP-Binding Proteins ; Humans ; Membranes ; Mitosis ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Phosphotransferases ; Protein Kinases ; Radioisotopes ; Reverse Transcription ; RNA ; Signal Transduction ; Transcriptome* ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

PURPOSE: Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) is the first choice of treatment for age-related macular degeneration. However, quite a few eyes treated using conventional dose anti-VEGF (CDAV) have persistent pigment epithelial detachment (PED) on optical coherence tomography. This study investigated the efficacy and safety of high dose anti-VEGF (HDAV) for refractory PED. METHODS: In this retrospective study, 31 eyes of neovascular age-related macular degeneration patients with persistent PED findings despite six or more intravitreal injections of CDAV (bevacizumab 1.25 mg or ranibizumab 2.5 mg) were analyzed. Changes in visual outcome, central foveal thickness, and PED height were compared before and after HDAV (bevacizumab 5.0 mg) for these refractory PED cases. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 67.7 years. The number of CDAV injections was 12.1. The number of HDAV injections was 3.39. Best-corrected visual acuity in logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution before and after HDAV was 0.49 and 0.41 (p < 0.001), respectively. Central foveal thickness before and after HDAV was 330.06 and 311.10 µm (p = 0.125), respectively. PED height before and after HDAV was 230.28 and 204.07 µm (p = 0.014), respectively. There were no serious adverse reactions in all the eyes. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing the dose of bevacizumab in refractory PED may be a possible treatment option.
Aged ; Angiogenesis Inhibitors/administration & dosage ; Bevacizumab/*administration & dosage ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Female ; Fluorescein Angiography ; Fundus Oculi ; Humans ; Intravitreal Injections ; Macular Degeneration/*complications/diagnosis/drug therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retinal Detachment/diagnosis/*drug therapy/etiology ; Retinal Pigment Epithelium/*diagnostic imaging/drug effects ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, Optical Coherence ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A/antagonists & inhibitors