Many factors including social rejection, family problems, loss of educational opportunity, fear, prejudice and ignorance of leprosy compound the inherent psychological stress of leprosy. In light of these problems this present study was undertaken to evaluate the psychological status of leprosy patients. The subjects of the present study were 205 patients admitted to a hospital and 304 control people living in similar isolated areas to resettlement villages. A self report symptom inventory, SCL-90 (symptom check list-90) was used and the groups were analysed and compared by many factors. (countinued..)
Humans ; Leprosy* ; Prejudice ; Self Report ; Social Distance ; Stress, Psychological

A 26-year-old male has experienced repeated pruritic and burning erythema and edema over the exposed areas of the skin, especially on the face and hands, after sunlight exposure. He stated that his father, three aunts, and three sisters had similar sunlight sensitivity. The face showed tiny whitish scars. And also there were hypopigmented scars on the dorsum of the hands. Characteristic laboratory findings were as followa: RBC, plasma and stool fluoresced coral red color under the Woods light. 100ml of the RBC contained 245 pg of protoporphyrin. On photosensitive test using sunlight for 60 rninutes, there developed painful sensation at 4 minutes and 40 seconds after exposure, erythema at 12 minutes after, and edema at 20 minutes after. Pathological findings of the specimen obtained from erythematous lesion of the forehead revealed hypergranulosis and acanthosis in the epidermis and perivascular thickening and hyalin deposit around the capillaries in the upper dermis. For treatment, avoidance of exposure to sunlight was recomrnended and symptomatic therapy was tried.
Adult ; Anthozoa ; Burns ; Capillaries ; Cicatrix ; Dermis ; Edema ; Epidermis ; Erythema ; Fathers ; Forehead ; Hand ; Humans ; Hyalin ; Male ; Plasma ; Protoporphyria, Erythropoietic* ; Sensation ; Siblings ; Skin ; Sunlight ; Wood

OBJECTIVE: Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein that synthesizes TTAGGG repeats onto chromosome ends. The expression of telomerase is thought to be required for cellular immortality and carcinogenesis. This study was conducted to examine the telomerase activation occurs in cervical carcinogenesis. METHODS: The standard telomeric repeat amplification protocol(TRAP) was used to examine telomerase activity in tissues of 10 normal cervix, 10 carcinoma in situ, and 21 invasive cervical carcinoma. RESULTS: Telomerase activity was detected in tissues of 16/21(76.2%) invasive carcinoma, in 5/10(50.0%) carcinoma in situ, and in 3/10(30.0%) normal cervix. But the degree of telomerase activity in normal cervix was weak. There was significant difference in 3 groups(p<0.05). The results of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in 10 invasive cervical carcinoma were as follows. In 8 cases of which tumor size decreased more than 50%, 5 were positive for telomerase. In 2 cases that didn't respond to chemotherapy by tumor size, 1 was positive for telomerase. There was no significant difference between 2 groups. All of the 5 cases that had pelvic lymph node metastasis revealed positive telomerase activity, and the 11 cases of 16 cases that didn't have pelvic lymph node metastasis were positive for telomerase, but there was no significant difference in 2 groups. The positivity of telomerase activity in clinical stage of invasive cervical carcinoma was 73.3% in stage I(11/15), 75.0% in stage II(3/4), 100% in stage III(1/1), and 100% in stage IV(1/1), but there was no significant difference in each stages. CONCLUSION: Telomerase seems to be uniquely associated with malignant transformation of cervix and can be used as a tumor marker. Additional studies are needed to better clarify the biological significance of telomerase expression in cervical tumorigenesis.
Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma in Situ ; Cervix Uteri ; Drug Therapy ; Female ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Ribonucleoproteins ; Telomerase* ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

Spindle cell hemangioendothelioma was first described in 1986 by Weiss and Enzinger as a low grade angiosarcoma resr mbling a cavernous hemangioma and kaposis sarcoma. Recently, it is suggested to be non neoplastic lesion or reactive process arising from pre-existing vascular mal- formation. We report a case of spindle cell hemangioendothelioma in a 9-month-old boy. He had multiple, variable sized, colorful, cutaneous or subcutaneous nodules on the forearm and hand. The tumor first appeared on the forearm as erythematous patches at birth and grew rapidly with- in 3 months. Histopatholgical findings showed that the lesion was composed of thin walled cavernous spaces mixed with spindle cells and occasional epithelioid endothelial cells containing intracytoplasmic vacuole. Most af the endothelial cells lining the cavernous spaces and intracytoplasmic lumina, were positive for factor VIII associated antigen. But the spindle cells were negative. Atypical vascular structures resembling arteriovenous shunts were noted around the tumor suggesting a reactive proliferation due to disturbance of local blood flow. Several turnors were excised. No recurrence has been recognized in the one year- follow-up period.
Endothelial Cells ; Factor VIII ; Follow-Up Studies ; Forearm ; Hand ; Hemangioendothelioma* ; Hemangioma, Cavernous ; Hemangiosarcoma ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Parturition ; Recurrence ; Sarcoma, Kaposi ; Vacuoles

BACKGROUND: The bcl-2 is an oncogene involved in tumorigenesis by blocking apoptosis, or programmed cell death and over-expression of bcl-2 protein has been reported in several malignant tumors such as lung cancer, basal cell carcinoma, breast cancer and malignant melanoma. However, there have been only a few studies about bcl-2 expression of cutaneous T cell lymphoma. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine whether there is any difference in expression of bcl-2 between mycosis fungoides(MF), angiocentric T cell lymphoma, angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma, subcutaneous T cell lymphoma and anaplastic large cell lymphoma. We also evaluated the statistical significance between expression of bcl-2 and the prognosis of the diseases. METHODS: Routine paraffin sections of formalin-fixed 36 tissues (14 MF, 7 angiocentric T cell lymphoma, 5 subcutaneous panniculitic T cell lymphoma, 2 anaplastic large cell lymphoma, 1 angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma, 1 unspecified peripheral T cell lymphoma, 2 small plaque parapsoriasis, 2 psoriasis and 2 lichen planus) were labelled with anti-bcl-2 monoclonal antibody using an avidin- biotin-peroxidase complex. Normal skin for bcl-2 served as negative controls. RESULTS: The results were as follows. l. All cases of benign inflammatory diseases, small plaque parapsoriasis and patch stages of MF showed positive staining for bcl-2. Therefore, there were no differences in expression of bcl-2 among these diseases. 2. In the plaque and tumor stages of mycosis fungoides, statistically significancant differences in bcl-2 expression were not found during disease progression. 3. bcl-2 expression in peripheral T cell lymphoma (five in seven cases of angiocentric T cell lymphoma showed positive staining but all other peripheral T cell lymphoma was negative) decreased significantly (p<0.05) than that of MF. 4. No statistical significance was found between bcl-2 expression and prognosis of cutaneous lymphoma (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the loss of bcl-2 expression may play a significant role in progression of cutaneous T cell lymphoma except in MF and angiocentric T cell lymphoma.
Apoptosis ; Breast Neoplasms ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Basal Cell ; Cell Death ; Disease Progression ; Lichens ; Lung Neoplasms ; Lymphoma ; Lymphoma, Large-Cell, Anaplastic ; Lymphoma, T-Cell ; Lymphoma, T-Cell, Cutaneous* ; Lymphoma, T-Cell, Peripheral ; Melanoma ; Mycosis Fungoides ; Oncogenes ; Paraffin ; Parapsoriasis ; Prognosis ; Psoriasis ; Skin

No abstract available
Mycosis Fungoides*

Psoriasis has been known to have various humoral and cellular immune abnormalities. And adenosine deaminase (ADA) activities are known to be decreased in immune deficiency diseases. The present study was designed to measure the activities of ADA in sera and erythrocytes of psoriasis patients by Giustiss method. There were no significant differences in the erythrocytes ADA activities between normal subjects (9, Gp+4 43 units/10 cells) and psoriasis patients (7, 29+3. 64 units /10 cells). The ADA activities in sera of the psoriasis patients (13. 15+3. 43 units/ L) showed lowered activities than those of normal subjects (20. 44-2, 07 units/L).
Adenosine Deaminase* ; Adenosine* ; Deficiency Diseases ; Erythrocytes* ; Humans ; Psoriasis*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The identification of a specific etiology of effusive pericardial disease is difficult because of the limited yield of cytologic and microbiologic pericardial fluid analysis. We performed retrospective study to find out whether pericardial biopsy was superior to pericardial fluid analysis in search of the etiology of pericardial effusion. MATERIALS AND METHOD: We reviewed 76 cases of moderate to severe pericardial effusion on which we performed surgical pericardial biopsy from Sep. 1986 to Sep. 1996. The results of pericardial fluid analysis, clinical manifestation, pericardial biopsy were compared retrospectively. RESULTS: 1)Clinical diagnosis of pericardial effusion were as follow:neoplastic disease (7.9%), tuberculosis (72.4%), constrictive pericarditis (17.1%), and others (2.6%). 2)By the percutaneous pericardial biopsy, we confirmed 19 cases (25%). Etiology of 4 cases (5.3%) were malignancy and 15 cases (19.7%) tuberculosis. Fifteen out of 76 patients who were diagnosed by biopsy as tuberculous pericarditis and 28 patients who were suspected as tuberculous pericarditis clinically were treated with antituberculous medications. Ten patients (66.7%) of pathologically diagnosed patients and 18 patients (69.2%) of clinically diagnosed patients showed complete resolution of pericarditis. CONCLUSION: By pericardial biopsy, we only confirmed 19 cases (25.0%). It means that pericardial biopsy is not superior to pericardial fluid analysis in searching of etiology of pericardial effusion. Moreover, it is not sufficient for final diagnosis of pericardial effusion.
Biopsy* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Pericardial Effusion ; Pericarditis ; Pericarditis, Constrictive ; Pericarditis, Tuberculous ; Retrospective Studies ; Tuberculosis

Purpura fulminans is a potentially disabling and life-threatening disorder characterized by acute onset of progressive cutaneous hemorrhage and necrosis on distal extremities, and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. We experienced a case of purpura fulminans due to Streptococcus pneumoniae. A 42-year-old women presented with skin petechiae, ecchymosis and gangrene on distal extremities with laboratory evidence of DIC. The latex agglutination test with CSF was positive at Streptococcus pneumoniae. To our knowledge, this is the first report of purpura fulminans caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in Korea.
Adult ; Dacarbazine ; Ecchymosis ; Extremities ; Female ; Gangrene ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Korea ; Latex Fixation Tests ; Necrosis ; Purpura Fulminans* ; Purpura* ; Sepsis ; Skin ; Streptococcus pneumoniae* ; Streptococcus*

Many factors including social rejection, family problems, loss of educational opportunity, fear, prejudice and ignorance, compound the inherent paychologicaI stress of leprosy. In ligh.t of these problems this present study was undertaken to evaluate the psychologica.l status of 1cprosy patients. The subjects of the present study were 220 patients staying at home and 304 control people living in similar isolated areas to resettlemert villages. A self reprort symptom inventory,, SCL--90 symptom check list 90) was used and the group", were analysed and compand by many factors. The results of this study are follows. -countinue-
Humans ; Leprosy* ; Prejudice ; Social Distance