PURPOSE: To evaluate the pattern VEP in adult amblyopic patients seen in consultation for ophthalmic evaluation as a past of physical examinations for conscription. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed, 67 men, 20-year-old or older, who had pattern VEP done for the diagnosis of amblyopia from January 2004 to May 2009. P100 latency and P100 amplitude were analyzed. RESULTS: Thirteen patients were non-amblyopic, and 54 patients had amblyopia. Binocular amblyopia and monocular amblyopia were found in 23 and 31 patients, respectively. In the binocular amblyopic patients, four patients were hyperopic, seven patients were myopic, and 12 patients were astigmatic amblyopia. In the monocular amblyopic patients, 15 patients were anisometropic, 12 patients were strabismic, and four patients had organic amblyopia. The value of P100 latency and P100 amplitude were statistically significantly different between non-amblyopic and amblyopic eyes, with check size of 32x32. However, the types of amblyopia among the patients were not different at a statistically significant level. Visual acuity and P100 amplitude were significantly positively correlated. CONCLUSIONS: VEP might be a useful tool for diagnosis of adult amblyopia, especially using a 32x32 check size. This tool may impart the ability to decide relationship between amblyopia and visual acuity by analyzing P100 latency and amplitude values.
Adult ; Amblyopia ; Eye ; Humans ; Male ; Military Personnel ; Physical Examination ; Retrospective Studies ; Telescopes ; Visual Acuity ; Young Adult

Achondroplasia is a congenital disorder resulting from a specific disturbance in endochondral bone formation. The ophthalmic features reportedly associated with achondroplasia are telecanthus, exotropia, inferior oblique overaction, angle anomalies and cone-rod dystrophy. This is first report of chorioretinal coloboma in achondroplasia. An 8-year-old female was diagnosed with a developmental delay, known as achondroplasia, seven months after birth. Upon her initial visit, visual acuity was 0.3 in both eyes. The patient had telecanthus but normal ocular motility. Findings were normal upon anterior segment examination. Fundus examination of both eyes revealed about 1,500 microm sized chorioretinal coloboma inferior to the optic nerve head. Upon fluorescent angiography, there was chorioretinal coloboma without any other lesions. Afterward, there was no change in the fundus lesion, and best corrected visual acuity was 0.6 in both eyes. Chorioretinal coloboma is associated with choroidal and retinal detachment. As chorioretinal coloboma and achondroplasia are developmental disorders in the embryonic stage, early detection and regular ophthalmologic examination would be essential in patients with achondroplasia.
Achondroplasia/*complications/diagnosis ; Child ; Choroid/*abnormalities ; Choroid Diseases/*complications/diagnosis ; Coloboma/*complications/diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Ophthalmoscopes ; Tomography, Optical Coherence ; Visual Acuity

We have experienced a case of occult hepatocellular carcinoma metastasized to the heart in a 41 year old female. The hepatocellular carcinoma invaded the hepatic vein, grew in a snakelike fashion up the inferior vena cava and reached the right atrium. Ultrastural examination in this case confirmed the hepatocellular origin of the tumor.
Female ; Humans ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular

Urinary cytology has become an essential element in the diagnosis and management of transitional cell carcinoma(TCC) of the urinary tract. It has the advantage of being noninvasive, inexpensive, and easily accessible. Besides that it can even detect malignancy when unsuspected at cystoscopy. We report a retrospective review of urine cytology in the diagnosis of 83 TCC cases that underwent 295 cytologic evaluation. All patients had biopsy-proven TCC of the bladder, ureter and renal pelvis. The overall inci- dence of the positive cytology cases was 66.2%. To define the cytologic features of tumor cells, we tried to use three cytologic gradings such as "grade 1", "grade 2", and "grade 3" according to the cytologic degree of anaplastic neoplastic cells. These cytologic gades of TCC were relatively well correlated with the histologic grade and tumor invasiveness. This result suggests that the recognition of characteristic cellular features of TCC can suspect the histologic grade and tumor stage. The false negative TCC cases were 78.9%. They showed severe inflammatory or bloody background and a few neoplastic cells. Therefore, a cautious approach for accurate interpretation, personal experience, and proper fixation and processing could expand the role of urinary cytology.
Cystoscopy ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Kidney Pelvis ; Nocturnal Enuresis* ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors* ; Thyroid Gland ; Ureter ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Tract

Congenital lipoid adrenal hyperplasia, the most severe form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia, is caused by mutations in the steroidogenic acute regulatory protien (StAR). It is characterized by failure of synthesis of all three classes of adrenal steroids and massive accumulation of lipids and cholesterol in the adrenal cortex. The computed tomography (CT) unequivocally delineated massively enlarged adrenal glands of fat-tissue attenuation, enabling early diagnosis and replacement therapy. We report a case of congenital lipoid adrenal hyperplasia, in which CT established that lipoid deposition at the adrenal cortex disappeared after the adrenal hormone replacement therapy.
Adrenal Cortex ; Adrenal Glands ; Adrenal Hyperplasia, Congenital ; Cholesterol ; Early Diagnosis* ; Hormone Replacement Therapy ; Hyperplasia* ; Steroids

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among family functioning, empathy and aggression by high school students. METHODS: This was a descriptive study. The survey participants were 467 high school students from M city. Data were collected from November 29 to December 7, 2012 and self-report questionnaires including a Family Adaptability Cohesion Evaluation Scale, Interpersonal Reactivity Indexes, and an Aggression Questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-test, ANOVA, stepwise multiple regression. RESULTS: The majority of the subjects were 2nd graders (42.0%) and female (57.2%). 59.7% of the subjects had religion, 84.8% were living together with parents. The mean ages of their fathers and mothers were 49.90+/-0.20 and 46.85+/-0.19 respectively. Aggression was found to have a statistically negative correlation with family functioning and empathy. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor of aggression was empathic concern. Empathic concern, family cohesiveness, perspective taking, personal distress and gender accounted for 16.7% of the variances. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to provide aggressiveness reduction programs for high school students that consider their family functioning and empathy.
Aggression* ; Empathy* ; Fathers ; Female ; Humans ; Mothers ; Parents ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: To examine the fate of muscle-derived stem cells (MDSC) after injection into different host conditions and provide an insight for their mechanism of action. MATERIALS AND METHODS: MDSCs differentiated in vitro towards the endothelial lineage and transfected with lentivirus tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP) were injected into two animal models mimicking vascular diseases: hindlimb ischemia and carotid injury models. Injected cells were tracked at the site of injection and in remote organs by harvesting the respective tissues at different time intervals and performing immunofluorescent histological analyses. Stem cell survival was quantified at the site of injection for up to 4 weeks. RESULTS: MDSCs were successfully tagged with fluorescent material GFP and showed successful implantation into the respective injection sites. These cells showed a higher affinity to implant in blood vessel walls as shown by double fluorescent co-stain with CD31. Quantification of stem cell survival showed a time-dependent decrease from day 3 to 4 weeks (survival rate normalized against day 3 was 72.0% at 1 week, 26.8% at 2 weeks and 2.4% at 4 weeks). Stem cells were also fo und in distant organs, especially the kidneys and liver, which survived up to 4 weeks. CONCLUSION: MDSCs were successfully tracked in different vascular disease models, and their fate was assessed in terms of cell survival and distribution. Better understanding of the donor cell properties, including their interaction with the host conditions and their mechanism of action, are needed to enhance cell survival and achieve improved outcomes.
Adult Stem Cells ; Animals ; Blood Vessels ; Cell Survival ; Hindlimb ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Kidney ; Lentivirus ; Liver ; Models, Animal ; Stem Cell Niche ; Stem Cells* ; Tissue Donors ; Vascular Diseases

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of IL-10 on development of collagen-induced arthritis, on humoral and cellular immunity and on the endogenous production of IL-10 in DBA/1J mice. METHODS: DBA/1J mice were immunized with chicken type II collagen in Freund s complete adjuvant. Murine recombinant IL-10 was given intraperitoneally twice a week from the day of second immunization (week 3) in doses of 0.002ug, 0. 02ug and 0. 2ug for 3 different groups, respectively. Dexamethasone was injected in one group to suppress the arthritis development and this group was used as negative control group. Levels of anti-collagen antibodies, serum IL-10 and stimulation indices of splenic monocytes to collagen were measured at the end of study. RESULTS: The 0. 02ug IL-10 and 0. 2ug IL-10 treated groups developed earlier and more severe arthritis (week 6 and 8) compared to that of the control group while the 0. 002ug IL-10 group has shown similar course to the control group in terms of incidence and severity of arthritis, At week 10, all groups with or without IL-10 injections developed arthritis with similar degree of severity while dexamethasone group showed far less incidence and severity of arthritis. The serum levels of anti-collagen antibody, IL-10 and spleen monocyte stimulation indices to collagen antigen showed no difference among control group, IL-10 injected groups and dexamethasone injected group. CONCLUSION: This study shows IL-10 could worsen the arthritis in CIA with the dosage used in this study without significant influence on the level of anti-collagen antibodies or stimulation indices of spenic monocyte to collagen.
Animals ; Antibodies ; Arthritis ; Arthritis, Experimental* ; Chickens ; Collagen ; Collagen Type II ; Dexamethasone ; Immunity, Cellular ; Immunization ; Incidence ; Interleukin-10* ; Mice ; Monocytes ; Spleen

No abstract available.
Carcinoma, Basal Cell* ; Dermoscopy*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explain the health promotion behavior of Chinese international students in Korea using a structural equation model including acculturation factors. METHOD: A survey using self-administered questionnaires was employed. Data were collected from 272 Chinese students who have resided in Korea for longer than 6 months. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. RESULTS: The p value of final model is .31. The fitness parameters of the final model such as goodness of fit index, adjusted goodness of fit index, normed fit index, non-normed fit index, and comparative fit index were more than .95. Root mean square of residual and root mean square error of approximation also met the criteria. Self-esteem, perceived health status, acculturative stress and acculturation level had direct effects on health promotion behavior of the participants and the model explained 30.0% of variance. CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese students in Korea with higher self-esteem, perceived health status, acculturation level, and lower acculturative stress reported higher health promotion behavior. The findings can be applied to develop health promotion strategies for this population.
*Acculturation ; Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group/*psychology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Emigrants and Immigrants/*psychology ; Female ; Health Promotion/*methods ; *Health Status ; Humans ; Male ; Models, Theoretical ; Republic of Korea ; *Self Concept ; Social Support ; Students/*psychology ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Young Adult