Leprosy is an infectious diseases caused by Mycobacterium leprae. It is considered to be manifested in person with an impaired. immune system and is divided into two polar forms; the first being tuberculoid leprosy(TL) with nearly norrnal cell-mediated immunity(CMI) and the second heing lepromatous leprosy(LL) with deficient CMI. Adenosine deaminase(ADA) is an enzyme concerned with intermediary purine metabolism, which is known to be deficient in case of immunological dysfunction. To find out if there is any ADA deficiency in leprosy, the ADA activities in the lymphocytes of leprosy patients were compared with those of normal ones. The ADA activities in lymphocytes of normal subjects, TL patients and. LL patients were as follows; ID. 36-I-l. 90 units/10cells, 6. 35+0. 86units/10'cells and 4. 58+0. 52units/IO'cells respectively. The ADA activities in lymphocytes were revealed to be significantly different between normal subjects and LL patients(p<0. 01) and also between normal subjects and TL patients(p<0. 05). The lowered ADA activities in lymphocytes of leprosy patients, particularly in lepromatous leprosy, suggests a similar role in ADA for immunological response as demonstrated in severe combined immunodeficiency diseases.
Adenosine Deaminase* ; Adenosine* ; Communicable Diseases ; Humans ; Immune System ; Leprosy* ; Leprosy, Lepromatous ; Lymphocytes* ; Metabolism ; Mycobacterium leprae ; Severe Combined Immunodeficiency

Adenosine deaminase (adenosine aminohydrolase, E.C.3. 5. 4. 4; ADA), which catalyzes the deamination of adenosine to yield inosine and ammonia, was characterized in the human penile foreskin. ADA was found to be present in both layers of the skin with slightly higher activity in the epidermis(Epidermis; (7. 2+2. 3) * 10-4 unit/mg protein, Dermis;(5. 7 +1. 9) *10-4 unit/mg protein). The enzyme exhibited a broad pH optimum from 6. 5 to 8. 0 in both layers of the skin, and was heat-labile, being completely inactivated by heat treatment at 70C-75 C for 10 minutes. In contrast to the ADA of other tissue, the enzyme was inhibited by 2 mM of Cu2+, Fe2+ and Co2+ at pH7. 0 in both layers of the skin. The inhibitory effect of Cu2+ on the enzyme was stronger than other metal ions, and the enzyme was completely inactivated by 20 mM of Cu2+ in both layers. The Cu2+ inhibited enzyme activities which were recovered by adding EDTA. From the above results, it is suggested that the enzyme in both layers of the skin are consisted of same types of isozymes.
Adenosine Deaminase* ; Adenosine* ; Ammonia ; Deamination ; Edetic Acid ; Foreskin ; Hot Temperature ; Humans* ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Inosine ; Ions ; Isoenzymes ; Skin*

Since Epsteins report in 1963, which identified topical corticosteroid therapy as a possible cause of striae formation, many adverse effects resulting from topical steroids therapy has heen observed in dermatological practice. In this study, 365 cases of side-effects with topical steroids in Department of Dermatology, Chonnarn University Hospital from 1972 to 1981 were analyzed, and the results obtained can be summerized as follows; 1. During this pericd, themean average percent of side effects with topical steroids was 0.85 of the yearly total patients and 12 different kinds of side-effects were found to be present in this study. 2. The annual rate of increase of side-effects with topical steroids (2.4%) was higher than that of yearly total patients (0.5%) and the annual frequency of the 12 side-effects was shown in Table 1. 3. The frequency of the 12 side-effects by age group was shown in Table 2. 4. The frequency of the 12 side-effects by season, sex and region was shown in Table 8. 5. The frequency of the 12 side-effects by lesion site was shown in Table 5. 6. T.he mean period of application with topical steroids was 4. 18 months and applied topical steroids were betamethasone-17-valerate(30.4%), fluocortolone (22.7%), hetamethasone dipropionate(12.9%), fluocmolone acetonide (9.0%) and prednisolone(8.8%) respectively. 7. The most frequent topical steroids and period of application causing each side-effects were as follows: betamethaaone-17-valerate for 1 month resulting in Steroid acne, betamethasone-17-valerate for 2 months resulting in Telangiectasia rubeosis et steroidica, triamcinolone acetonide for 1 month resulting in Perioral dermatitis and betarnethasone-17-valerate for 11 months resulting in Atropic striae.
Acne Vulgaris ; Dermatitis, Perioral ; Dermatology ; Fluocortolone ; Humans ; Seasons ; Steroids* ; Telangiectasis ; Triamcinolone Acetonide

Leprosy has two polar types. The one tuberculoid leprosy (TL) is characterized by well preserved cellular immunity with a good prognosia and the other lepromatous leprosy(LL) shows no cellular immunity with a poor prognosis. The preaent study was designed to measure the activity of adenosine deaminase (ADA) in sera and erythrocytes of leprosy patients, as it's activities are known to be decreased in immune deficiency diseases. There were no significant differences in the erythrocyte ADA activities among normal subjects(9. 60+4. 43 units/1012 cells), TL patients (7. 12+2. 51 units/1012 cells) and LL patients(6. 96+0. 81 units/1012 cells), The ADA activities in sera of TL patients(20.15+2. 90 units/L) did not differ from those of normal subjects(20.44+ 2. 07 units/L), but the LL patients(17. 52+3. 30 units/L) showed a slightly lowered activity than those of normal subjects.
Adenosine Deaminase* ; Adenosine* ; Deficiency Diseases ; Erythrocytes* ; Humans ; Immunity, Cellular ; Leprosy* ; Leprosy, Tuberculoid ; Prognosis

The present study was designed to measure the activity of purine nucleoside phosphorylalse (PNPase) in sera, erythrocytes and lymphocytes of blood from patients with various dermatoses as it's activities are known to be decreased in cell-mediated immune deficiency diseases. The PNPase activities in sera, erythrocytes and lymphocytes of normal subjects were (3. 9+1. 03) x 104 unit/L, 5.04+1. 06 unit/107rbc, l. 74+0. 35 unit/103 lymphocytes respectively. In urticaria, leukocytoclastic vasculitis and purpura, there were no differences in PNPase antivities between patients groups and normal subjects. In atopic dermatitis, there were no differences in PNPase activities of sera and erythrocytes between patients group and normal subjects. But, lymphocyte PNPase activities of atopic patients were lowered than those of normal subjects(1.41 +0. 52 unit/10 lymphocytes). In tuberculoid leprosy, there were no differences in lymphocyte PNPase activities between patients group and normal subjects. But, the PNPase activities in sera and erythrocytes of patients group were lowered than those of normal subjects (3. 20. 76) x 104 unit/L, 3. 8n+1.96 unit/107rbc). The PNPase activities in sera((l. 87+/-0. 62) x 104 unit/L), erythrocytes(2. 08+0. 98 unit/107rbc) and lymphocytes (0.51+0. 26 unit/103 lymphocytes) of lepromatous leprosy patients were significantly lowered than those of normal subjects.
Deficiency Diseases ; Dermatitis, Atopic ; Erythrocytes* ; Humans ; Leprosy, Lepromatous ; Leprosy, Tuberculoid ; Lymphocytes* ; Purine-Nucleoside Phosphorylase* ; Purpura ; Skin Diseases* ; Urticaria ; Vasculitis

No abstract available.

A psoriatic patient may have rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis(or both), osteoarthritis or gout. In so far as possible, each of these must be distinguished on clinical grounds with some help from laboratory tests. Psoriatic arthritis is very similar to rheumatoid arthritis but clinically, it is regarded as a unique disease entity, which is found in 1% to 32% of psoriatic individuals. We herein report two cases of psoriatic arthritis that are thought to be distal type and arthritis mutilans on the basis of clinical, serological and radiological features.
Arthritis ; Arthritis, Psoriatic* ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Gout ; Humans ; Osteoarthritis ; Psoriasis

No abstract available.
Dermatomyositis* ; Stomach Neoplasms*

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans

BACKGROUND: Hereditary spherocytosis(HS) is a clinically and biochemically very heterogeneous disorder The purpose of this study is to detect erythrocyte membrane protein abnormalities by SDS-PAGE and to investigate the frequency of erythrocyte membrane protein defects in hereditary spherocytosis and correlation between some of the hereditary spherocytosis biochemical subsets and the selected clinical phenotype. METHODS: We evaluated the clinical and laboratory characteristics of 14 normal healthy persons and 23 hereditary spherocytosis patients and 8 their family members. The patients were divided into three groups based on clinical and hematological severity(mild, typical, severe). In addition to routine hematologic determlnatlons, osmotic fragility and autohemolysis, RBC membrane protein analysis were performed in all patients by densitometric tracing of SDS-PAGE(sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) stained by Coomassle blue utilizing both the discontinuous buffer system of Laemmli with acrylamide linear gradient from 4% to 12% and the continuous buffer system of Fairbank with exponential gradient of acrylamide from 3.5% to 17%. RESULTS: 1) The patients could be seperated into three classes of different clinical severity as mild(3 cases), moderate(16 cases) and severe(4 cases) on the clinical feature. 2) Eighteen patients(82.6%) among 23 hereditary spherocytosis revealed abnormal erythrocyte membrane protein and we detected six patients(26.1%) with spectrin deficiency combined with ankyrin reduction, 4 patients(17.4%) with ankyrin deficiency, 4 patients(17.4%) with isolated spectrin deficiency and 3 patients(13.0%) with band 3 deficiency. Five HS patients(21.7%) showed normal RBC membrane protein. 3) Eight HS and their family members showed same RBC membrane protein deficiency. 4) The type and degree of RBC membrane protein reduction were variale with spectrin at 66~94%, with ankyrin at 48~82% of normal levels. These showed that each patient had different clinical severities according to different RBC membrane protein levels and type. CONCLUSION: RBC membrane protein abnormalities were observed in 82.6% of HS patients. The combined spectrin and ankyrin deficiency is the most common molecular defect in HS. The clinical severity and biochemical expression is heterogeneous. SDS-PAGE analysis of RBC membrane protein was provided the diagnosis of RBC membrane defects and basic molecular studies. We believed that the early identification of the biochemical defect responsible for HS is important because it is helpful starling point for the identification of the primary molecular defect, and it could help to anticipate the clinical outcome of the disease. For these reasons, we consider the SDS-PAGE of the red cell membrane to be of crucial importance for a complete evaluation of children with HS. Further studies with more cases would be to clarify the correlation between clinical and biochemical phenotypes.
Acrylamide ; Ankyrins ; Cell Membrane ; Child ; Diagnosis ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel* ; Erythrocyte Membrane* ; Erythrocytes* ; Erythrocytes, Abnormal ; Humans ; Membrane Proteins ; Membranes ; Osmotic Fragility ; Phenotype ; Population Characteristics* ; Spectrin ; Starlings