Seventy-three uncemented total hip arthroplasties in the sixty-four patients were studied as a retrospective manner. Hydroxyapatite and tricalcium-phosphate (HA/TCP Calcicoat) coated titanium fiber-mesh stems were used in forty-eight cases and the identical components but without hydroxyapatite coating were used in the other twenty-five cases. The distribution of the patients in two groups showed no statistically significant differences and the same porous coated hemispherical acetabular components were used in two groups. At the time of two year follow-up after the operation, the mean Harris hip score and the Enghs radiographic assessment score were 95.5 and 19.8, respectively, in the HA/TCP Calcicoat tm group and 94.4 and 19.2, respectively, in the non-coated group. None of these differences were statistically significant. At three months after operation, the frequency of the thigh pain was 8.3% in the HA/TCP Calcicoat tm group and 20% in the non-coated group, which was also not significantly different (p=0.24). There were no revisions in either group. All the femoral components except one among the non-coated group showed stable bony fixation in both groups and no differences in Enghs radiographic assessment criteria were detected between the two groups. There seemed to be a tendency of early pain relief and more endosteal new bone formation in the HA/TCP Calcicoat TM group, which, however, failed to show a statistically significant clinical or radiographic differences. This result is considered as preliminary and longer follow-up should be required to uncover any hidden advantages or disadvantages of the HA/TCP Calcicoat TM coating on titanium fiber-mesh stem.
Acetabulum ; Arthroplasty ; Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip ; Durapatite* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hip ; Humans ; Osteogenesis ; Retrospective Studies ; Thigh ; Titanium*

Background: Fluvastatin is the first entirely synthetic 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A(HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor. Clinical data indicate that this agent exhibits the proven efficacy of its class and also has some theoretical advantages in safety for long-term use because of its unique pharmacololgic property consistent with hepatoselectivity(i.e., low systemic exposure). This study is to evaluate efficacy and safety of fluvastatin in hypercholesterolemic patients in Korea. Methods: An open clinical trial with fluvastatin was conducted in 31 subjects who continued to have high blood cholesterol levels of 6.21 mmol/L(240 mg/dl) or greater after 1 month of lipid-lowering diet plus single blind placebo period. Fluvastatin was administered for 8 weeks with the initial dose of 20 mg per day and if serum cholesterol levels did not fall below 5.20 mmol/L(200 mg/dl) after 4 weeks the dose was increased to 40 mg per day for the second 4 weeks. On each visit every 4 weeks they underwent interview and laboratory tests about side effects and tolerability. Results: The mean % changes in plasma total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol from baseline were
Cholesterol ; Creatine Kinase ; Diet ; Humans ; Hypercholesterolemia ; Korea ; Oxidoreductases ; Plasma ; Sleep Stages ; Triglycerides

No abstract available.
Pneumonectomy*

Juvenile granulosa cell tumor is rare but one of the common congenital testicular neoplasms. Although histological features are typical of its ovarian counterpart, testicular juvenile granulosa cell tumor has a distinctly different clinical presentation. We report a case of juvenile granulosa cell tumor arising in the cryptochid testis of a 4-day-old newborn. A 6 5 5 cm sized multilocular cyst containing thick, mucinous fluid was found in the peritoneal cavity. The external surface of the cyst was smooth and the septae were relatively thin. The cyst consisted of numerous mucin-filled, cystic follicles lined by cells having vacuolated cytoplasm and round to oval dark nuclei without grooves. Cells resembling granulosa cells of an ovarian follicle were also observed in the intervening stroma forming irregular solid nests.
Cryptorchidism* ; Cytoplasm ; Female ; Granulosa Cell Tumor* ; Granulosa Cells* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Mucins ; Ovarian Follicle ; Peritoneal Cavity ; Testicular Neoplasms ; Testis

No abstract available.
Diaphragmatic Eventration* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn*

No abstract available.
Heart Valve Prosthesis* ; Heart Valves*

"It was reported that polymorphism of TNF alpha gene was present in promoter region and involves the substitution of guanine by adenosine in the uncommon (TNFA 2) allele. In this study, we investigated the significance of TNFA gene polymorphism in relation to various clinical characteristics and autoantibody profiles in SLE as well as comparing it with that of other countries, and also studied its association with peripheral TNF-a production in vitro. TNFA genotyping was performed in 126 SLE patients and 300 controls using DNA extracted from peripheral leucocytes. The biallelic polymorphism at position -308 of the TNFA promotor was determined by Ncol- RFLP. Peripheral mononuclear cell production of TNF-a was investigated by bioassay using L-929 cell cytotoxicity. The TNFA ""1 homozygote was a predominant allele (77.0%) in SLE, which was not different from the controls. TNFA ""2 homozygate was extremely rare in both patients and controls (0.8%, 1.3% respectively). The clinical manifestations between TNFA '1 and TNFA""2 did not differ. The production of autoantibodies including dsDNA, anti-La, anti-nRNP and anti-Sm was not different between two alleles, whereas anti- Ro antibody was more frequent in TNFA""1/TNFA '1 than in TNFA'1/TNFA'2 (62.1% vs 38.4%, P=0.022). The polymorphism of TNFA gene did not influence the lipopolysaccharide stimulated peripheral mononuclear cell production of TNF-a (1356+/-293 vs 1119+/-385 pg/ml; TNFA'1/TNFA'1, TNFA'1/TNFA'2 respectively). These results suggested that promoter polymorphism of TNFA was not directly involved in the susceptibility of SLE and was not responsible for differential peripheral TNF-a production, but TNFA ' may be associated with anti-Ro antibody production."
Adenosine ; Alleles ; Autoantibodies ; Biological Assay ; DNA ; Guanine ; Homozygote ; Humans ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic* ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*

Oral administration of antigen has long been used in the induction of immune tolerance in various animal models of autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Alleveation of arthritogenic symptoms has been reported from RA patients who received oral administration of type II collagen (CII) without side effects, however its rather inconsistent therapeutic efficacy and variation among patients calls for more detailed investigation on the mechanism of oral tolerance to be settled as regular treatment for RA. In an attempt to understand the immunogenic processes underpinning tolerance induction by orally administered CII, we analyzed changes in the expression of costimulatory molecules and STAT/SOCS signaling messengers in the mouse model of collagen induced arthritis (CIA). We found thatin the spleen of CIA mice, that has been undergone repeated oral feeding of CII prior to the induction of arthritis, showed increased promortion of CTLA4 expressing lymphocytes than in the spleen of PBS fed control. On the other hand, cells expressing CD28 or ICOS were decreased in the spleen of tolerized mice. Tolerance induction by oral CII administration also enhanced the expression of STAT6 in both RNA and protein level, while not affecting the expression of STAT3. The expression of SOCS3, which hasbeen known to transmit STAT-mediated signals from Th2 type cytokines, remained unchanged in the spleen of tolerized mice. Interestingly transcript of SOCS1, which has been associated with Th1 related pathways, was only visible in the spleen of tolerized but not of control mice, suggesting that as in the case of IL-6 signaling, it may exert a feed back inhibition toward the Th1 type stimulation.
Administration, Oral* ; Animals ; Arthritis* ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Collagen ; Collagen Type II* ; Cytokines ; Hand ; Humans ; Immune Tolerance ; Interleukin-6 ; Lymphocytes ; Mice* ; Models, Animal ; RNA ; Spleen

BACKGROUND: Death from coronary heart disease is increasing and this study is to evaluate the effect of longitudinal changes of lifestyle and biological parameters on the blood lipid levels, as the risk factor of the coronary heart disease. METHODS: Total cholesterol and total cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol ratio (atherosclerogenic index) as an indicator for risk of coronary heart disease were examined longitudinally in a sample (n = 463) of middle-aged men by 2 years. The independent variables were body mass index, smoking, alcohol, exercise, diastolic blood pressure, uric acid. All data was drawn from questionnaire, blood chemistry, and review of chart. RESULTS: ANOVA test according to categorized variables revealed that for total cholesterol, uric acid (P<0.01) and diastolic blood pressure (P<0.01), and for atherosclerogenic index, and body mass index (P<0.001) were significant. In correlation analysis, total cholesterol was associated with uric acid (r=0.20, P<0.001), diastolic blood pressure (r=0.15, P <0.001) and body mass index (r=0.03, P<0.05), and for atherosclerogenic index so was body mass index (r=0.18, P<0.001). In regression, uric acid (beta=6.07, P <0.001), diastolic blood pressure (beta=0.36, P <0.01) for total cholesterol, and body mass index (beta=0.22, P <0.001) for atherosclerogenic index were significant. But changes in alcohol consumption, smoking, and exercise were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: In order to reduce risks of coronary heart disease, the more aggressive medical intervention for the uric acid, DBP, and BMI, would be essential. This study was done without medical intervention. So, further study with intervention, adequate duration and intensity for parameters modification is required.
Alcohol Drinking ; Blood Pressure ; Body Mass Index ; Chemistry ; Cholesterol ; Coronary Disease ; Humans ; Life Style* ; Male ; Middle Aged* ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Uric Acid ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Background: Dengue fever is considered one of the transfusion-transmissible emerging infectious diseases. Dengue fever has been reported every year by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Because a blood donor screening assay to detect the dengue virus (DENV) as an agent of dengue fever is not performed, the risk of transfusion-transmitted DENV infection needs to be assessed. Methods: This study collected the data of DENV infected cases from the Infectious Disease Portal of the KDCA, the data of blood donors and blood components from the Blood Information Management System of the Korean Red Cross, and the data of travelers to major dengue outbreak countries from the Korean Tourism Organization.All data were from 2016 to 2018. A risk assessment was performed using European Up-Front Risk Assessment Tool (EUFRAT). Results: The risk of DENV-infected red cells and platelet concentrate was higher than that of plasma and apheresis platelet. Nevertheless, the risk of the DENV infected blood component was shown to be less than one case per year for all kinds of blood components. Conclusion All the DENV infected cases in Korea were overseas travelers. Therefore, the risk of transfusiontransmissible DENV infection is very low. On the other hand, continuous observation and monitoring are required because Aedes albopictus as a vector of DENV is found in Korea, and the increase in reported cases may lead to domestic infections.