We experienced a case of anterior mediastinal teratoma in 26 month old boy with 2 month history of cough and dyspnea. The diagnosis was easily established by chest CAT which revealed calcific densities, while plane radiographs of chest revealed no evidence of calcification. Operation was done with good result and remained in good condition thereafter. A brief review of the related literature was made on this subject.
Anemia ; Animals ; Cats ; Child, Preschool ; Cough ; Diagnosis ; Dyspnea ; Hemangioma ; Humans ; Kasabach-Merritt Syndrome* ; Male ; Teratoma ; Thorax ; Thrombocytopenia

We experienced a case of anterior mediastinal teratoma in 26 month old boy with 2 month history of cough and dyspnea. The diagnosis was easily established by chest CAT which revealed calcific densities, while plane radiographs of chest revealed no evidence of calcification. Operation was done with good result and remained in good condition thereafter. A brief of the related literature was made on this subject.
Animals ; Cats ; Child, Preschool ; Cough ; Diagnosis ; Dyspnea ; Humans ; Male ; Teratoma* ; Thorax

The direct differentiation of hepatocytes from bone marrow cells remains controversial. Several mechanisms, including transdifferentiation and cell fusion, have been proposed for this phenomenon, although direct visualization of the process and the underlying mechanisms have not been reported. In this study, we established an efficient in vitro culture method for differentiation of functioning hepatocytes from murine lineage-negative bone marrow cells. These cells reduced liver damage and incorporated into hepatic parenchyma in two independent hepatic injury models. Our simple and efficient in vitro protocol for endodermal precursor cell survival and expansion enabled us to identify these cells as existing in Sca1+ subpopulations of lineage-negative bone marrow cells. The endodermal precursor cells followed a sequential developmental pathway that included endodermal cells and hepatocyte precursor cells, which indicates that lineage-negative bone marrow cells contain more diverse multipotent stem cells than considered previously. The presence of equivalent endodermal precursor populations in human bone marrow would facilitate the development of these cells into an effective treatment modality for chronic liver diseases.
Animals ; Ataxin-1/*analysis ; Bone Marrow Cells/*cytology ; Cell Differentiation ; Cell Proliferation ; Cells, Cultured ; Female ; Hepatocytes/*cytology ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of peginterferon plus ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients under real life setting in Korea. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 758 CHC patients treated with peginterferon plus ribavirin between 2000 and 2008 from 14 university hospitals in the Gyeonggi-Incheon area in Korea. RESULTS: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 was detected in 61.2% of patients, while genotype 2 was detected in 35.5%. Baseline HCV RNA level was > or =6x10(5) IU/mL in 51.6% of patients. The sustained virological response (SVR) rate was 59.6% regardless of genotype; 53.6% in genotype 1 and 71.4% in genotype 2/3. On multivariate analysis, male gender (p=0.011), early virological response (p<0.001), genotype 2/3 (p<0.001), HCV RNA <6x10(5) IU/mL (p=0.005) and adherence to the drug >80% of the planned dose (p<0.001) were associated with SVR. The rate of premature discontinuation was 35.7%. The main reason for withdrawal was intolerance to the drug due to common adverse events or cytopenia (48.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that the efficacy of peginterferon and ribavirin therapy in Koreans is better in Koreans than in Caucasians for the treatment of CHC, corroborating previous studies that have shown the superior therapeutic efficacy of this regimen in Asians.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Genotype ; Hepacivirus ; Hepatitis C, Chronic ; Hepatitis, Chronic ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Male ; Medical Records ; Multivariate Analysis ; Retrospective Studies ; Ribavirin ; RNA