Pseudohypoparathyroidism is a medical disorder characterized by a complex disorder of renal resistance to parathyroid hormone and the mechanism underlying the disease is still unclear. The authors described two cases of pseudohypoparathyroidism in sibling,who had metabolic anomalies(hypocalcemia and hyperphosphatemia, high circulatin immunoreactive PTH)and basal ganglia calcification. Bilateral basal ganglia calcifications, which was not visible on plain skull film, was detected by CT scan of brain MRI. We report these cases with a review of related literatures.
Basal Ganglia ; Brain ; Humans ; Hyperphosphatemia ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Parathyroid Hormone ; Pseudohypoparathyroidism* ; Siblings* ; Skull ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

BACKGROUND: beta-Catenin has dual functions: adhesive molucule and transcriptional activator. Subcellular accumulation of beta-catenin and subsequent formation of beta-catenin- Tcf/Lef-1 complexes, as well as c-myc and cyclin D1 genes which were recently defined as target genes of beta-catenin- Tcf/Lef-1, has been shown to be important in the development of colorectal and breast carcinomas. The author investigated the rate of subcellular accumulation of beta-catenin and overexpression of c-myc and cyclin D1, and also investigated the association between them in the pulmonary adenocarcinomas. METHODS: Fifty-one surgically resected primary adenocarcinomas of the lung, including 11 bronchioloalveolar carcinomas, were investigated by immunohistochemical analysis with monoclonal antibodies specific for beta-catenin, c-myc and cyclin D1. Clinico-pathological information were collected from the patient charts and surgical pathology reports. RESULTS: Accumulation of beta-catenin in the nucleus and/or cytoplasm and overexpression of c-myc and cyclin D1 were observed to be 20%, 37%, 16%, respectively. Ten cases showing accumulated patterns of beta-catenin revealed alternative overexpressions of c-myc (7 cases) and cyclin D1 (3 cases). In nonmucinous tumors, 9 cases showing overexpression of c-myc or cyclin D1 revealed accumulations of beta-catenin. The accumulation of beta-catenin was not statistically related to clinico-pathological parameters. The association between c-myc overexpression and histological subtype of tumors was observed. CONCLUSIONS:It is suggested that the accumulation of beta-catenin is closely associated with tumorigenesis in a minor subset (20%) of peripheral adenocarcinomas of the lung. It is also suggested that transactivation of beta-catenin may closely be associated with the overexpression of c-myc or cyclin D1 in the nonmucinous adenocarcinoma.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Adenocarcinoma, Bronchiolo-Alveolar ; Adhesives ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; beta Catenin* ; Breast Neoplasms ; Carcinogenesis ; Cyclin D1* ; Cyclins* ; Cytoplasm ; Genes, bcl-1 ; Humans ; Lung ; Pathology, Surgical ; Transcriptional Activation

OBJECTIVES: This study compared the nutritional status of child-bearing age women between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). METHODS: The data presented in the DPRK Final Report of the National Nutrition Survey 2012 was utilized for the nutritional status and food intake of North Korean women. To produce the South Korean women's data comparable to those of North Korean women, the data from the 2012 National Health and Nutrition Survey were analyzed and the data presented in the 2010 Report of the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards were utilized. RESULTS: The prevalence of maternal anemia (blood hemoglobin < 12.0 g/dL) was over 30% in all the age groups of North Korean women and 8.9%, 14.2%, 16.4% in 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 year old South Korean women, respectively. The prevalence of maternal protein-energy malnutrition (Mid-Upper Arm Circumference < 22.5 cm) was 25.2%, 21.4%, 21.8% in 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 year old North Korean women, respectively and less than 10% in all the age groups of South Korean women. Result of dietary diversity comparison showed that North Korean women consumed less food than South Korean women at all food groups: grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy. Percentage of North Korean women having consumed protein rich foods-meat and fish, eggs or dairy products-were much lower than those of South Korean women. CONCLUSIONS: The striking disparity of nutritional status between South and North Korean women indicates that nutrition support for North Korean women is essential in the process of preparation for a unified nation.
Anemia ; Arm ; Democratic People's Republic of Korea* ; Eating ; Eggs ; Female ; Fruit ; Humans ; Meat ; Nutrition Surveys ; Nutritional Status ; Ovum ; Prevalence ; Protein-Energy Malnutrition ; Republic of Korea ; Strikes, Employee ; Vegetables

The Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor is a rare sex cord stromal tumor of the ovary, accounting for less than 0.5% of all primary ovarian neoplasm. This tumor is the most common type of all virilizing ovarian tumors. However, only one-third of patients develop virilization. Recently, we experienced a case of intermediately differentiated Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor with amenorrhea and so we present it with brief review of literature.
Amenorrhea ; Female ; Humans ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Ovary ; Sertoli-Leydig Cell Tumor* ; Sex Cord-Gonadal Stromal Tumors ; Virilism

OBJECTIVE: To systematic analyze the change of indications, age distribution of the patients and chromosomal results according to patient's age and indications in midtrimester genetic amniocentesis METHODS: This study reviewed 2,000 genetic amniocentesis cases from 1984 to 1997 which were done at Severance Hospital, after prenatal genetic counseling for the mothers who have high risk for carrying chromosomally abnormal babies. We analized the change of the indication, age distribution and chromosomal results according to maternal age and indications of amniocentesis RESULTS: 1. The incidence of amniocentesis had been in gradual increase since the 1980's, and from the mid 1990's it showed an abrupt increment. 2. Of the 2,000 amniocentesis cases, 31.8% was maternal age 35 to 39 which was most common age group and followed by age 30 to 34 was 28.4% and age 25 to 29 was 27.4. 3. The indications for amniocentesis were advanced maternal age(39.6%), abnormal maternal serum markers(27.8%) and abnormal ultrasonographic findings which implies chromosomal abnormality(6.4%). Recently maternal serum markers and ultrasonography play an important role as an indicator for the amniocentesis. 4. From the 2000cases, 1,950 cases showed normal diploidy and 50 cases abnormal karyotype which consisted 2.5%. In autosomal disorders ll Down syndrome, 7 Edward syndrome, 1 Patau syndrome, 15 Translocation, 3 Mosaicism were diagnosed. In sex chromosomal disorders 3 Klinefelter syndmme, 2 Turner syndrome and other 8 chromosomal abnormalities were diagnosed. No statistic significance was found among different age groups. Those who had abnormal ultrasonographic findings implying chromosomal abnormality were found to have correlation with chromosomal abnormality than other indications CONCLUSION: Midtrimester genetic amniocentesis is an important diagnostic tool in prenatal diagnosis, of which the annual incidence has been recently increased abruptly. Not only maternal age, but the maternal serum markers and ultrasonograms should be considered in prenatal counseling, The genetic amniocentesis should be well informed to the general population.
Abnormal Karyotype ; Age Distribution ; Amniocentesis* ; Biomarkers ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Chromosome Disorders ; Counseling ; Diagnosis* ; Diploidy ; Down Syndrome ; Female ; Genetic Counseling ; Humans ; Incidence ; Maternal Age ; Mosaicism ; Mothers ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second ; Prenatal Diagnosis ; Turner Syndrome ; Ultrasonography

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe and explore the experience of adolescents with cancer. METHODS: This study was based on the grounded theory by Strauss & Corbin (1998). The subjects were 13 adolescents including in and out-patients of a university hospital diagnosed with cancer. RESULTS: 'Getting changed' and 'getting deviated' were found to be the causal conditions. 'Inclination', 'self-reliance', and 'hope' were identified as contextual conditions, 'shrinking feeling' as the core phenomenon, 'awareness of disease', 'self-consciousness', and 'getting understanding and love' as intervening conditions, 'negligence', 'separation', 'self-management', and 'inspiration' as the strategies and 'being shirk', 'getting back', and 'going forward' as consequences. 'Breaking out of the withdrawn ego' was the core category in this study. CONCLUSION: This study provides a framework for the development of individualized nursing interventions for 'Breaking out of the withdrawn ego' to care for adolescents with cancer. Finally adolescents with cancer are 'reborn' with a more mature ego.
Adolescent ; Ego* ; Humans ; Life Change Events ; Nursing ; Outpatients

In this article, the statement of ethical statement about animal experiment was omitted.

BACKGROUND: To investigate incidence and mortaltiy of osteoporotic fractures (including hip, spine, distal radius, and proximal humerus) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and compare them with those in the genearal population. METHODS: Data provided by National Health Insurance Service were used to identify osteoporotic fractures in patients aged >50 years between 2010 and 2012. Patients with RA were identified by the diagnostic code for seropositive RA. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs; observed/expected deaths) of osteoporotic fractures were calculated based on age and gender-specific rates in the entire Korean population. Incidence, mortality, and SMR of osteoporotic fractures in RA patients and the general population were calculated and compared. RESULTS: Osteopororic fractures in the general population and RA patients were increased by 11.6% and 17.4% over 3 years (195,271 and 1,356 in 2010; 217,985 and 1,592 in 2012), respectively. Mean age-specific incidence of osteoporotic fracture in women and men with RA increased from 932.1/100,000 and 306.1/100,000 for aged 50 to 59 year to 9,377.0/100,000 and 3,700.9/100,000 for aged ≥80 years, respectively. Cumulative mortality rate in the first year after osteoporotic fracture in patients with RA was higher than that in the general population (7.8% in RA and 6.6% in the general population). SMR of osteoporotic fracture in RA patients was 1.4 times higher in men and 1.3 times higher in women than that for the general population. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstated that incidence, 1-year mortality, and SMR of osteoporotic fracture in RA patients aged 50 years and older were higher than those in the general papulation.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Female ; Hip ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Male ; Mortality ; National Health Programs ; Osteoporotic Fractures ; Radius ; Spine

OBJECTIVE: Recently some behavioral features and affective traits are considered important for the phenotype of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The purpose of this study was to assess some specific behavioral, temperamental, emotional features of OCD patients and to investigate if there is any change in patterns of temperament-character after 4-month pharmacotherapy. METHODS: Fifty-six patients with OCD and 70 normal controls were enrolled in this study. Four self-report questionnaires were employed to assess temperamental characteristics and affective traits: The behavioral inhibition system and behavioral activation system scale, the Baratt impulsiveness scale, state-trait anger expression inventory, emotional intelligence inventory. Among 56 OCD patients, 21 subjects started pharmacotherapy and 4 months later, they repeated 4 self-report tests as the same above and Yale-Brown obsessive compulsive scale (Y-BOCS). And then we investigated the changes from initial results. RESULTS: Patients with OCD showed significantly greater expression of behavioral inhibition system (p<0.0001), more cognitive impulsiveness (p<0.0001), motor impulsiveness (p=0.0067) and increased level of state anger (p<0.0001), trait anger (p<0.0001) than healthy controls. Compared to the controls, the OCD patients also expressed significantly lower level of emotional intelligence for using to facilitate thinking (p<0.0001) and managing emotions (p<0.0001). After 4-month pharmacotherapy for 21 OCD patients, Y-BOCS scores significantly decreased while self-report tests showed no meaningful differences from baseline assessments. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that patients with OCD may have some differences in behavioral and affective tendencies including behavioral inhibition, impulsiveness, anger experiences, and emotional patterns. And short term pharmacotherapy during 4 months improved the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms but didn't influence these traits. These results provide some perspectives about possible vulnerability or trait markers of OCD. Further research is needed to examine the effects of long term treatment and other investigation might be helpful to assess the relationships between these behavioral and affective aspects and clinical phenotypes of OCD.
Anger ; Emotional Intelligence ; Humans ; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder ; Phenotype ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Temperament ; Thinking

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the rates at which women with a previous cesarean delivery were offered and consented to trial of labor (TOL) and to investigate the factors affecting the decision making about mode of delivery METHODS: For 12 months duration, pregnant women with one previous cesarean were enrolled prospectively in this study. Eligibility to TOL was defined as pregnancy after 36 weeks of gestation without medical or obstetric indication of cesarean section. Patients were received counseling and consented to the process of TOL. The social and obstetric factors were collected through interview and the medical records were analyzed. RESULTS: Among the initial 185 patients with one previous cesarean, 106 were considered eligible to TOL. Seventy-two patients out of the 106 delivered with elective repeat cesarean while 34 patients tried TOL; 24 were delivered with vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), while 10 were received emergency cesarean section. The indications of cesarean section were cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD, 7 cases) and fetal distress (FD, 1 case). Two received emergency cesarean without definite obstetric indication. The rate of high education, college greaduate or more was higher in the group of TOL than in those of elective cesarean (50% vs 68%, p=0.04). The rates of patients with indication of previous cesarean, CPD, FD, or abnormal placentation were more frequent among the patient with TOL (23% vs 48%, p=0.007). CONCLUSION: These result provides clinical information about the decision making about mode of delivery among the patients eligible to TOL with one previous cesarean. More clinical studies about TOL and VBAC are required in the different setting of hospital or institute.
Cephalopelvic Disproportion ; Cesarean Section ; Counseling ; Decision Making* ; Education ; Emergencies ; Female ; Fetal Distress ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Placentation ; Pregnancy ; Pregnant Women* ; Prospective Studies ; Trial of Labor ; Vaginal Birth after Cesarean