PURPOSE: This study was designed to identify the possible mechanism of insensitivity of DU145 prostate cancer cells to the transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1-mediated growth inhibition. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DU145 cells were treated with 4, 40, 100 pM TGF-beta1 for 3, 6, 9 days. Initially we performed the growth assay. After that, we analysed the change of cell cycle using fluorescence flow cytometry. At each time point, Western blot analysis with cell pellets was performed to investigate the change of expressions of epidermal growth factor(EGF), TGF-alpha, EGF receptor(EGFR) and TGF receptorII(TbetaR-II) proteins. RESULTS: The growth rate of TGF-beta1-treated cells was initially suppressed, but over time returned to control level. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that TGF-beta1-treated cells showed an increase in apoptotic/G1 phases, and concurrent decrease in S, G2/M phases until 6days. On day 9, however, TGF-beta1-treated cells showed a persistent increase of apoptotic unclei in spite of recovery of apoptotic/G1, S and G2/M phases. Western blot analysis showed that the intensity of EGF or TGF-alpha band decreased in dose-sependent manner on day 6. However, the intensity of each band increased up to the control level on day 9. the expression of EGFR or TbetaR-II protein did not change after treatment of TGF-beta1. CONCLUSIONS: these results suggest that EGF and TGF-alpha sould mediate in part the escape fron the inhibitory effect of TGF-beta1 in DU145 cells.
Blotting, Western ; Cell Cycle ; Epidermal Growth Factor* ; Flow Cytometry ; Fluorescence ; Prostate* ; Prostatic Neoplasms* ; Transforming Growth Factor alpha ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; Transforming Growth Factors ; United Nations

No abstract available.
Aspergillosis ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Liver ; Lung ; Maxillary Sinus

BACKGROUND: Intraoperative collection of bile and a bile culture are of use in predicting bacterial infection in the biliary system. The aim of this study was to identify chronological changes in the bacteriology of the bile in the age and sex distributions for biliary tract disease of the patients. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 722 patients who had been operated on for biliary tract disease at the Department of Surgery Ewha Womans University Hospital, from Jan. 1979 to July 1998 and on whom intraoperative bile culture had been performed. We divided the 722 patients into two group based on the time of their treatment, period A being 1979-1988 and period B being 1989-1998. The statistical analysis was done by using the Mantel-Haenszel Chi-Square test. RESULTS: The overall bile culture positive rate was 56% (404 cases), and the male-to-female ratio was 1:1.64. There was no significant statistical difference in the sex ratio between the two periods (period A: 1:1.78, period B: 1:1.55) (p>0.05). Overall, the most commonly isolated organism in the bile was Escherichia coli (137 cases, 30%). Comparing the two periods, we found that the Enterococcus species was an organism found increasingly in biliary tract infections (period A: 0%; period B: 17%) whereas infection by Escherichia coli was significantly decreased in the latter period (period A: 43%; period B: 28%) (p<0.05). The sixth decade (29.1%) was the most prevalent age overall. The age distribution for period A showed no statistical difference between the 5th (21.58%) and the 7th decades (21.94%), but there was significant difference between the 7th (29.95%) and the 5th decades (16.89%) in the age distribution for period B (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: According to the above results, we concluded that there were significant chronological changes in the bacteriology of the bile & in the age distributions between the two periods, but no such difference was observed between the sex distribution.
Age Distribution ; Bacterial Infections ; Bacteriology* ; Bile* ; Biliary Tract ; Biliary Tract Diseases ; Enterococcus ; Escherichia coli ; Female ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Sex Distribution ; Sex Ratio

To measure the mutagenic activity of micro-organic pollutants in drinking water, mutagenic test was conducted using Salmnella typhimurium TA 98 strain on the water sample taken from three water supply station and six tap water in Seoul in July and November 1987. The results were as follows : 1. The average amounts of organic matters in raw, treated, and tap water sampled in July were 0.38mg/l, 0.28mg/l, and 0.45mg/l, respectively, and sampled in November were 0.34mg/l, 0.24mg/l, and 0.22mg/l, respectively. The amount of organic matters of tap water sampled in November did not increase while that of tap water sampled in July increased compare to those of raw or treated water. 2. The amount of organic matters is the highest in neutral fraction compare to acidic and basic fractions. 3. In the five out of six tap water and raw water of Paldang and Kuui station sampled in July, the mutagenic ratios were greater than two (both direct and indirect mutagenicity). 4. In the three out six tap water and raw and treated water of Kuui station sampled in November, the mutagenic ratios were greater than two. 5. While mutagenic were low in acidic and basic fraction, they were high in neutral fraction. The samples which had high mutagenic activity in the total amount also showed high mutagenic activity in neutral fraction. 6. While mutagenic activity was decreased after the treatment of water, it was increased in tap water as the distance from the water supply station increases.
Drinking Water* ; Drinking* ; Seoul* ; Water ; Water Supply

With expanded and extended coverage of the national medical insurance and fast growing health care expenditures, appropriateness of health service utilization and quality of care are concerns of both health care providers and insurers as well as patients. An accurate patient classification system is a basic tool for effective health care policies and efficient health services management. A classification system applicable to Korean medical information-Korean Diagnosis Related Groups (K-DRGs)-was developed based on the U. S. Refined DRGs, and the performance of the developed system was assessed in this study. In the process of the development, first the Korean coding systems for diagnoses and procedures were converted to the systems used in the definition of the U. S. Refined DRGs using the mapping tables formulated by physician panels. Then physician panels reviewed the group definition, and identified medical practice patterns different in two countries. The definition was modified for the difference in K-DRGs. The process resulted in 1,199 groups in the system. Several groups in Refined DRGs could not be differentiated in K-DRGs due to insufficient medical information, and several groups could not be defined due to procedures which were not practiced in Korea. However, the classification structure of Refined DRGs was retained in K-DRGs. The developed system was evaluated for its performance in explaining variations in resource use as measured by charges and length of stay(LOS), for both all and non-extreme discharges. The data base used in this evaluation included 373,322 discharges which was a random sample of discharges reviewed ad payed by the medical insurance during the five-month period from September 1990. The proportion of variance in resource use which was reduced by classifying patients into K-DRGs-r-square-was comparable to the performance of the U. S. Refined DRGs: .39 for charges and .25 for LOS for all discharges, and .53 for charges and .31 for LOS for non-extreme discharges. Another measure analyzed to assess the performance was the coefficient of variation of charges within individual K-DRGs. A total of 966 K-DRGs (87.7%) showed a coefficient below 100%, and the highest coefficient among K-DRGs with more than 30 discharges was 159%.
Classification ; Clinical Coding ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diagnosis* ; Diagnosis-Related Groups* ; Health Expenditures ; Health Personnel ; Health Services ; Humans ; Inpatients* ; Insurance ; Insurance Carriers ; Korea

No abstract available.
Bronchitis, Chronic* ; Humans

We present a case of perforating granuloma annulare which appeared as multiple small papular lesions with central umbilication on the dorsum of both foot and sides of foot, The patient was a 12 year-old female child who had slightly tender lesions of one month's duration. Histologic study showed perforation of the epiderrnis and release of the abnormal necrobiotic material transepiderrnally. The epidermal perforation communicated with area of granuloma annulare in the dermis that consist of necrobiotic collagen surrounded by palisading mononucler phagocytes in the dermis. All the lesions resolved spontaneously with a slight hyperpigmentation in 4 months. She also had erythematous tender nodules, which diagnosed as erythema nodosum, on both shins. The lesions responded to potassium iodide 1.0g for 2 weeks.
Child ; Collagen ; Dermis ; Erythema Nodosum ; Female ; Foot ; Granuloma Annulare* ; Granuloma* ; Humans ; Hyperpigmentation ; Phagocytes ; Potassium Iodide

CHAP syndorme consists of choreoathetosis, orofacial dyskinesia, affective change, hypotonia, and pseudobulbar signs. CHAP syndrome was firstly des- cribed with onset 1 to 7 days after induced profound hypothermia and complete circulatory arrest for con- genital heart lesion repair. Since then, only a few cases have been reported until now. Case We report a patient who demonstrated all of the elements of the CHAP syndrome in severe cachexic state. Brain SPECT(99mTC-ECD) shows decreased perfusion in left fronto-parieto-temporal lobe. Comments The pathogenesis of CHAP syndrome is obscure. However our case led us to suggest that more essential component pre- disposing to the CHAP syndrome is hypoxia rather than hypothermia. Furthermore, it seems to be related with circulatory insufficiency in extrapyramidal nervous systems.
Anoxia ; Brain ; Heart ; Humans ; Hypothermia ; Movement Disorders ; Muscle Hypotonia ; Nervous System ; Perfusion

11,609 of childhood new outpatients seen in Department of Dermatology of Seoul National University Hospital from 1975 to 1984 were analyzed statistica,lly. The study results were summarized as follows: l. 11, 609 out of 48, 188 new outpatients were under 15 years old age, amounting to 24. l %. 2. The 10 most common dermatoses were atopic dermatitis, vitiligo, urticari, hemangiorna, contact dermatitis, fungal disease, molluscum contagiosum, scabies, impetigo and nevocellular neuvs. The most freguent age groups were 2 to 6 years amounting to 47 2p, af total outpatients. 4. The peak incidence occurred in August, while the lowest incidence occurred in November and October. 5. Dermatoses which showed increasing tendency were nevocellular nevus and vitiligo, those of decreasing tendency were contact dermatitis and impetigo,
Adolescent ; Dermatitis, Atopic ; Dermatitis, Contact ; Dermatology ; Humans ; Impetigo ; Incidence ; Molluscum Contagiosum ; Nevus ; Outpatients ; Scabies ; Seoul ; Skin Diseases* ; Statistics as Topic* ; Vitiligo

No abstract available.
Hypersensitivity* ; Immunoglobulins* ; Otitis Media with Effusion* ; Otitis Media* ; Otitis*