The purpose of this study was to evaluate the histologic difference that occured after trichloroacetic acid(TCA) chemical peel in an animal model that was pretreated with Tretinoin alone or Tretinoin-based combined pretreatment kit. Eight Hartley white guinea pigs were used in our study. The dorsal skin of the guinea pigs was divided into six equal squares(2x2 cm). Upper two areas of these six were not pretreated, middle two areas were pretreated for 4 weeks with Tretinoin alone and lower two areas were pretreated for 4 weeks with Tretinoin-based combined kit. Each guinea pig underwent chemical peel with 50% TCA. The wounded areas were biopsied at post-peeling 3 weeks and 6 weeks. The histology revealed that those animals pretreated with combined kit healed quicker than the animals pretreated with Tretinoin alone. This study implies that if patients are treated with Tretinoin-based-combined pretreatment kit before undergoing chemical peel, the pretreatment time will be shortened.
Animals ; Guinea Pigs* ; Guinea* ; Humans ; Models, Animal ; Skin ; Tretinoin* ; Wounds and Injuries

BACKGROUND: Recent ad vances and innovation in laser technology encourages us to learn and use it experimentally and clinically. The pulsed dye laser(Candela SPTL-1) is a flashlamp excited dye laser, using the princ ples of selective photothermolysis that targets the abnormal microvascu lature of cutaneous lesions while sparing adjacent structures including the epidermis. The laseemits a 585nm wavelength, and has a pulse duration of 450 usec. It is now being widely used in the treatment of vascular diseases in the dermatology field. OBJECTIVE & METHOD : Buring the period of about 3 years from August 1994 to March 1992, at the out patient clinin of Department of Dermatology of Yonsei University. 252 patients who were treated with SPTL was analyzed to evaluate the clinical effects of the pulsed dye laser. Patient di@st.ributition f the cutaneous vascular lesions included 1fil pat.ients with nevui flammeus, 68 with telangcetasia, 15 with spider angima, 5 with strawberry hemangiona and 2 with cavernous hemangior ia. RESULTS: The results and summarized as follows : 1. Nevus flammeus 4b.7% of early childhood, 41.5% of late childhood and 47.3% of adults showed excellent or good results. 2. Telangiectasia 78.1% of patients she wed excellent or good results. 3. Spider angioma 66.7% of patients she wed excellent or good results. 4. Strawberry hemangioma and cavernous hemangioma Most, of the patients,howed fair or poor results. 5. Complications included hyperpigmentation(26.5%), hypopigmentation(1.6%) and atrophic scar(4.5% ). CONCLUSION: Our experince with pulsed dye laser during the last 3 years revealed that it was superior in treating vascular disease than other existing lasers.
Adult ; Dermatology ; Epidermis ; Fragaria ; Hemangioma ; Hemangioma, Cavernous ; Humans ; Lasers, Dye* ; Port-Wine Stain ; Spiders ; Telangiectasis ; Vascular Diseases

No abstract available.
Electrocardiography, Ambulatory*

A case of malignant mixed mesodermal tumor (MMMT) developed after radiation therapy for a uterine cervix cancer is described. The patient was a 62-year-old female at the time of diagnosis of stage Ib squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix and a total of 12,000 rads of x-ray was administered on the pelvic area. Five years later she manifested vaginal spotting and rectal pain. Endometial curettage and biopsy revealed carcinosarcoma. Radical hysterectomy was done and a 5x3x2 cm sized polypoid mass was noted in the uterine cavity. Microscopically, the tumor showed intimate admixture of adenocarcinomatous and sarcomatous areas. The sarcomatous stroma was composed of compactly arranged atypical spindle cells with frequent mitoses, merging into a loosely textured reticular areas and abundant amount of heterologous elements such as skeletal muscle and cartilage. The rhabdomyosarcomatous element was confirmed by PTAH staining and immunohistochemical staining for myoglobin and desmin. Multiple metastases to the liver, lung, and lymph nodes appeared within one year of total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. In spite of palliative radiotherapy, she expired one month later.
Female ; Humans ; Biopsy ; Neoplasm Metastasis

Embryos of most mammalian species grown in vitro would undergo developmental arrest at the approximate time of genomic activation. Stage-specific cell block and the resulting rapid loss of embryo viability in conventional culture media have limited the duration for which embryos may be cultured prior to transfer. As a result, embryos are usually transferred to the uterus at the 4-to 8-cell stage to avoid the loss of viability associated with long-term in vitro culture. Early transfer has led to asynchrony of the endometrium-trophectoderm interaction at the time of implantation and a resultant reduction in the rate of implantation. To overcome these problems, a variety of co-culture systems has been devised in which embryos can develop for a longer period prior to embryo transfer. Vero cells, derived from African green monkey kidney, share a common embryologic origin with cells from the genital tract. In addition, they are potentially safe to use, since they are highly controlled for viruses and other contaminants. Therefore, co-culture using Vero cells has been widely utilized to enhance embryo viability and development, although not without controversies. We thus designed a series of experiments to demonstrate whether Vero cells do indeed enhance mouse embryo development as well as to compare the efficacy of co-culturing mouse 1-cell embryos on Vero cell monolayer in both Ham's F-10 and human tubal fluid (HTF) culture media. 1-cell stage ICR mouse embryos were cultured either in the presence of Vero cells (Group A) or in conventional culture medium alone (Group B). In Ham's F-10 significantly more 3-to-8cell embryos developed in group A than group B (59.8 versus 10.0%; F<0.01). In contrast, there was no significant difference in embryonic development both group A and group B in HTF. However, significant differences were noted only in later embryonic stage (13 and 0%; p<0.05 of group A and B respectively, hatching or hatched). In Ham's F-10, we also could observe the beneficial effect of Vero cell on hatching process (70.7 and 42.1%; p<0.05 of group A and group B respectively).
Animals ; Cercopithecus aethiops ; Coculture Techniques* ; Culture Media ; Embryo Transfer ; Embryonic Development* ; Embryonic Structures* ; Female ; Humans ; Kidney ; Mice* ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Pregnancy ; Uterus ; Vero Cells*

BACKGROUND: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is known to play an important role in various conditions such as inflammation, autoimmunity, apoptosis, insulin resistance and sleep induction. Five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been known to affect the transcriptional activities of TNF-alpha: 1,-031T/C, -863C/A, -857C/T, -308G/A and -238G/A. METHODS: We have investigated 5 SNPs of the promoter region of TNF-alpha gene, the distribution of 5-locus TNF-alpha haplotypes, and their haplotypic associations with previously typed HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 loci in 107 healthy unrelated Koreans. TNF-alpha SNPs were typed using PCR-single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) methods. RESULTS: The allele frequencies of -1,031C, -863A, -857T, -308A, and -238A, which are known as the high-producer-type, were 19.3%, 15.9%, 14.0%, 5.9%, and 2.9%, respectively. The frequency of -308A allele, known to be associated with autoimmune diseases, was 5.9% in Koreans which was lower than Caucasians (14-17%) and somewhat higher than Japanese (1.7%). Five most common TNF-alpha haplotypes (-1,031/ -863/ -857/ -308/ -238) comprised over 95% of total haplotypes: TCCGG (58.4%), CACGG (14.8%), TCTGG (13.7%), TCCAG (5.3%), and CCCGA (3.1%). Strong positive associations (P<0.001) were observed between TCCGG and B62; between CACGG and B51, DRB1*0901; between TCTGG and B35, B54, B59, DRB1* 1201; and between TCCAG and A33, B58, DRB1*0301, DRB1*1302. Five most common extended haplotypes (>3%) comprised around 16% of total haplotypes: A33-B58- TCCAG-DRB1*1302, A24-B52-TCCGG-DRB1*1502, A33-B44-TCCGG-DRB1*1302, A24- B7-TCCGG-DRB1*0101, and A11-B62-TCCGG-DRB1*0406. The distribution of extended HLA and TNF-alpha haplotypes showed that most of HLA haplotypes were almost exclusively associated with particular TNF-alpha haplotypes. CONCLUSION: The results obtained in this study would be useful as basic data for anthropologic studies and disease association studies in Koreans.
Alleles ; Apoptosis ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Autoimmunity ; Gene Frequency ; Haplotypes* ; HLA-A Antigens ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Insulin Resistance ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*

No abstract available.
Teratoma* ; Turner Syndrome*

Purpose: To compare differences between the original criteria for diagnosis of ocular sarcoidosis (OS) (first International Workshop for OS [IWOS] 2009) and the revised criteria (sixth IWOS 2017), and their clinical usefulness when assessing OS in Korean patients. Methods: We analyzed patients with suspected OS who visited our tertiary referral ophthalmological and pulmonary clinic from 2007 to 2018. We diagnosed patients using both sets of criteria. Blood test and biopsy data (collected by physicians) and slit-lamp, fundus, and fluorescein angiography data (collected by ophthalmologists) were reviewed. Results: Thirty-four patients were diagnosed using both criteria. Of 32 patients who underwent biopsies, 31 had OS (96.87%). Using either set of criteria, 31 patients were diagnosed with definite OS and two with presumed OS. One patient diagnosed with possible OS using the previous criteria was diagnosed with presumed OS using the revised criteria. The new criteria add the lysozyme level, the CD4/CD8 ratio, and positron emission tomography imaging data to the old criteria and add the descriptors “presumed OS” and “probable OS”. There is no need to use the revised criteria in Korea; the biopsy and imaging data are adequately diagnostic. Conclusions IWOS revised the OS diagnostic criteria by adding new parameters. However, this was unnecessary for Korea, where the biopsy and imaging data are adequately diagnostic.

Purpose: To compare differences between the original criteria for diagnosis of ocular sarcoidosis (OS) (first International Workshop for OS [IWOS] 2009) and the revised criteria (sixth IWOS 2017), and their clinical usefulness when assessing OS in Korean patients. Methods: We analyzed patients with suspected OS who visited our tertiary referral ophthalmological and pulmonary clinic from 2007 to 2018. We diagnosed patients using both sets of criteria. Blood test and biopsy data (collected by physicians) and slit-lamp, fundus, and fluorescein angiography data (collected by ophthalmologists) were reviewed. Results: Thirty-four patients were diagnosed using both criteria. Of 32 patients who underwent biopsies, 31 had OS (96.87%). Using either set of criteria, 31 patients were diagnosed with definite OS and two with presumed OS. One patient diagnosed with possible OS using the previous criteria was diagnosed with presumed OS using the revised criteria. The new criteria add the lysozyme level, the CD4/CD8 ratio, and positron emission tomography imaging data to the old criteria and add the descriptors “presumed OS” and “probable OS”. There is no need to use the revised criteria in Korea; the biopsy and imaging data are adequately diagnostic. Conclusions IWOS revised the OS diagnostic criteria by adding new parameters. However, this was unnecessary for Korea, where the biopsy and imaging data are adequately diagnostic.

BACKGROUND: Bowen's disease is a form of intraepidermal (in situ) squamous cell carcinoma in histopathology, the representative premalignancy of the cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and is usually persistent and progressive, with a small potential for invasive malignancy by 3-5%. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical and histopathological characteristics of Bowen's disease. METHODS: A total of 45 patients with Bowen's disease were enrolled in this study. The hospital charts and histopathological slides were reviewed at Chungnam university hospital from 1983 to 2002. RESULTS: The male and female ratio was 1: 1.14. The mean age at diagnosis was 63 years. Twenty-two cases (58%) of solitary bowen's disease were located in non sun exposed area. Trunck, extremities, genital area followed in decreased order. Sixteen cases (42%) of solitary bowen's diseases occurred on the sun-exposed area. Face, dorsum of hand followed in decreased order. Thirty-three cases(73%) of single lesions and seven cases(27%) of multiple lesion. Analysis of clinical character of the Bowen's disease was performed and results were as follows: the most common type were patch(20 cases; 44%) and plaque (18 cases; 40%). And nodule, ulcer and papule type in decreased order. Analysis of histopathological character of the Bowen's disease was performed and results were as follows: the most common type were psoriasiform(15 cases; 41%) and irregular (12 cases; 32%). And verrucous, atrophic and combined type in decreased order. CONCLUSION: In Bowen's disease among Koreans, there were many distinctive clinical and histopathological features compared to those of non-Korean cases. In Korean cases, Bowen's diseases were located on sun exposed area only 42%, pigmented lesions were 20% and sex ratio 1: 1.14(male: female).
Bowen's Disease* ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Diagnosis ; Extremities ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Male ; Sex Ratio ; Solar System ; Ulcer