We describe a case metastatic alveolar soft part sarcoma of the brain in a 20-year old man. Alveolar soft part sarcoma is slowly growing tumor which almost shows conspicuous vascular invasion and have a high incidence of blood-borne metastasis. The principal metastatic sites are the lungs, followed by the skeleton and brain. Cerebral metastases may be the first manifestation of the disease and are more common with alveolar soft part sarcoma than with any other type of soft tissue sarcoma. The light-and electron-microscopic and immunohistochemical findings are described. Periodic acid-Schiff-positive, diastase resistant, intracytoplasmic crystals, pathognomonic for alveolar soft part sarcoma, are present. The cells expressed immunoreactivity for vimentin, desmin, neuron-specific enolase, S-100 protein and renin. The results of our own immunohistochemical examinations is suggestive of myoendocrine origin.
Incidence ; Neoplasm Metastasis

No abstract available.
Depression*

BACKGROUND: Aronox is an anthocyanin-rich extract from Aronia melanocarpa E which is known to have anti-inflammatory effect in atherosclerosis due to high anti-oxidative activity. This study was conducted to evaluate the preventive and therapeutic effect of Aronox on hypertension and metabolic status in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). METHODS: Seven-week-old male SHR were orally administrated with Aronox (low dose; 100 mg/kg, n = 4 or high dose; 200 mg/kg, n = 3) or amlodipine (10 mg/kg, n = 7) and sham (n = 10) for 8 weeks. Aronox was administered 30 mg/kg for the first 3 weeks and then increased to 100 mg/kg (low dose group) or 100 mg/kg to 200 mg/kg (high dose group). Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was measured every week by tail cuff method. At 8 weeks, fasting lipid level was measured. Heart and kidney stained with Masson's trichrome. RESULTS: Aronox or amlodipine treatment showed significantly lower SBP compared with sham (202.2 +/- 10.2 mm Hg in low dose group, 202.0 +/- 12.6 mm Hg in high dose group and 187.4 +/- 22.7 mm Hg in amlodipine group vs. 224.4 +/- 12 mm Hg in sham-SHR, p < 0.005). There were no significant differences in cardiac and renal weight corrected by body weight among 3 groups. Aronox and amlodipine treatments significantly decreased fasting glucose and showed a trend of decrease in triglyceride level. Aronox or amlodipine treatment for 8 weeks showed less collagen deposition changes compared to sham. CONCLUSIONS: Aronox showed significant antihypertensive effects, decreased fasting glucose, and less cardiac and renal fibrosis in SHR. These results suggest that Aronox can be used as an adjuvant therapy or functional food in hypertension.
Amlodipine ; Atherosclerosis ; Blood Pressure ; Body Weight ; Collagen ; Fasting ; Fibrosis ; Functional Food ; Glucose ; Heart ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Kidney ; Male ; Photinia ; Rats, Inbred SHR ; Salicylamides ; Tail

Among the fifty-three clinical isolates of Haemophilus influenzae, nineteen isolates including eight isolates of each biotype I-VIII, six of serotype b (Hib) strains and five of nontypeable strains were characterized by SDS-PAGE about outer membrane protein (OMP), restriction enzyme analysis (REA) and rRNA gene restriction pattems. OMP patterns showed to common band patterns in each H. influenzae isolate. Based on the two major proteins, 31KDa-38KDa, isolated strains were classified into 7 subtypes. In the OMP patterns about biotype and serotype, the specific pattern of each biotype was not distinguishable, but all of the serotype b strains were shown identical unique pattern, therefore it made distinctive difference with nontypeable strains. The digested genomic DNAs with EcoRI were identical result with rRNA gene restriction. It was more subdivided into 10 ribotypes. The most common ribotype I and serotype 1 accounted for 6 strains (31.6%) and 7 strains (36.8%) of the 19 clinical isolates, respectively. Hib isolates that were both OMP subtype 1 and ribotype I accounted for 2 strains (10.5%). In the epidemiologically unrelated strains, the putative association between the subtypes could not be confirmed. According to these results, the three methods were discriminatory and appropriate techniques for epidemiological studies of H. influenzae.
DNA ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel* ; Genes, rRNA* ; Haemophilus influenzae type b ; Haemophilus influenzae* ; Haemophilus* ; Influenza, Human ; Membrane Proteins ; Restriction Mapping* ; Ribotyping

Maspin is a recently described gene with tumor suppressor activity. The gene product is a 42 kD protein with homology to the serpin family of protease inhibitors and may play a role as an inhibitor of tumor cell invasion. The prior observation that invasive breast cancers and their metastases showed decreased maspin protein expression by immunostaining supports this speculation. However, the role of maspin in breast cancer progression has not been studied in detail. We, therefore, studied maspin protein expression in a series of hyperplasia, atypical ductal hyperplasia, intraductal carcinoma and invasive carcinomas. Immunohistochemical staining (IHC) for maspin was performed on paraffin sections of 136 breast specimens using a commercially available monoclonal antibody. Among the 106 cases studied were 36 moderate/florid ductal hyperplasia, 11 atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH), 29 intraductal carcinoma (IDC) (4 low grade, 13 intermediate grade, 12 high grade) and 30 invasive ductal carcinomas. Thirty cases of normal breast were also studied as control group. IHC stains were scored using a semiquantitative scoring system. The mean IHC scores for maspin for normal, moderate/florid hyperplasia, atypical ductal hyperplasia, intraductal carcinoma, and invasive carcinoma were 5.51 1.30, 7.36 0.72, 3.82 1.60, 4.48 2.69, 3.97 3.30, respectively. These scores for each category were statistically significant (p<0.05), except between ADH and IDC. Maspin protein expression was increased in most cases of moderate/florid hyperplasia, while maspin expression was more heterogeneous in ADH and IDC. In high grade IDC, maspin protein expression was stronger than low and intermediate grade IDC, and this suggests the possibility of a compensatory cellular response against the forces driving further tumor progression. Two thirds of invasive ductal carcinomas expressed maspin protein weakly and focally. All metastatic carcinomas of lymph nodes were negative for maspin. It is possible that high grade IDC with strong maspin expression may represent a subset less likely to progress to invasive cancer. This speculation merits investigation in clinical outcome studies.
Breast Neoplasms ; Breast* ; Carcinoma, Ductal* ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating* ; Coloring Agents ; Humans ; Hyperplasia* ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Paraffin ; Protease Inhibitors

The activation of the insulin-like growth factor-I-receptor system (IGF-IR) has recently emerged as critical events in transformation and tumorigenicity of several human tumors. In this study we investigated the expression of IGF-IR in 33 colorectal adenomas, 88 primary colorectal carcinomas, and 30 normal colonic mucosa adjacent to the carcinoma. Immunohistochemical staining (IHC) for IGF-IR was performed on paraffin embedded sections using an anti-IGF-IR rabbit polyclonal antibody. IHC stains for IGF-IR were scored using a semiquantitative scoring system. The relationship of IGF-IR staining to clinicopathologic variables and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) staining was also analysed. The mean IHC scores for IGF-IR of normal glands, adenoma, intramucosal carcinoma, node-negative carcinoma, and node-positive carcinoma were 0.41 0.96, 0.76 1.23, 2.0 1.48, 2.83 2.0 and 5.93 1.58, respectively. These scores for each category were statistically significant except between normal glands and adenoma and between intramucosal carcinoma and node-negative carcinomas. The mean PCNA indexes of normal glands, adenoma, intramucosal carcinoma, node-negative carcinoma, and node-positive carcinoma were 2.48 2.60, 6.94 11.03, 27.21 11.42, 43.36 9.9 and 57.60 10.01, respectively. The PCNA index for each category was statistically significant except between normal and adenoma. IGF-IR scores and PCNA indexes were higher with tumor progression and also correlated each other (sr=0.65, p=0.0001). Higher IGF-IR scores and PCNA indexes were seen in tumors with advanced stage, infiltrative growth pattern, poor differentiation, nerve invasion, lymphovascular invasion, and moderate fibrosis. Our results suggest that IGF-IR plays an important role in tumorigenicity and tumor progression.
Adenoma* ; Colon ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Coloring Agents ; Fibrosis ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Mucous Membrane ; Paraffin ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have conflicting results concerning the role of p53 protein related to the discovery that a wild-type of p53 is a nuclear protein that plays a role both as a tumor suppressor and may play roles in the control of transcription and as a negative regulator of cell growth, whereas mutant p53 supports tumor formation in experimental oncogenic settings and is overexpressed in some human tumors. The mutant p53 is abnormally stable, leading to increased expression. p53 has been most widely studied by the immunohistochemical method. p53 overexpression often found in some studies, but not always in other studies, have been shown to be an independent predictor of poor prognosis. METHODS: To evaluate a possible prognostic factor, we studied the expression of the p53 protein by an immunohistochemical method and compared these results with the established prognostic factors for breast carcinomas. RESULTS: 78 patients aged 28-69 were included in this study. The mean age was 46.3, and 53 patients out of 78 were less than 50 years old. There were 28 cases with tumor diameters of less than 2 cm, and 50 with tumor diameters of more than 2 cm. The most common pathologic type was an infiltrating duct carcinoma, 71 out of 78 cases (91.0%), and proportions of histologic grade I, II, and III tumors was 23 (29.5%), 41 (52.6%), 14 (17.9%), respectively. Cases with lymph node metastasis numbered 52 of 78 (66.7%). We observed a remarkable increase in the nuclear staining intensity at the invasive margins of some tumors, which may be linked to a higher incidence of proliferating cells. CONCLUSIONS: p53 overexpression was associated with tumor size (p<0.05), but was not associated with lymph node status, age, histologic grade, or estrogen receptor status.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Estrogens ; Humans ; Incidence ; Lymph Nodes ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Nuclear Proteins ; Prognosis

PURPOSE: The prognosis forearly gastric cancer (EGC) is generally excellent after curative gastrectomy alone. However, the EGC of young patients was generally more invasive and metastasizing, and the prognosis of them was poorer than those of the elderly. We performed a retrospective study to evaluate clinica1 and pathological factors influencing the prognosis of EGC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors investigated 66 cases of EGC resected at Inha Hospital in Song-Nam, from January 1987 to December 1996. We analyzed 9 clinicopathologic factors: age, sex, macroscopic type, tumor size, depth of invasion, location, lymph node metastasis, Williss classification and Laurens classification. RESULTS: Out of 66 cases (42 males, 24 females) of EGC, the sex ratio (M: F) was 1.75: 1, and the mean age was 55.5 years in male and 54.3 in female. The age incidence revealed a greater prevalence on 6th decade (33.3%). The most common macroscopic type of EGC was IIb and its combined type (43 cases, 65.2%). In tumor size, 16 cases (24.2%) were between 2.0 and 2.9 cm, and 13 cases (19.6%) between 1.0 and 1.9 cm, 10 cases (15%) between 3.0 and 3.9 cm. The tumors smaller than 2.0 cm were 33.2% but greater than 5.0 cm were 18.8%. In male, mucosal lesions were more common (66.6%) than submucosal lesions (33.4%); but in female, the incidence of both types of lesions were the same. The submucosal lesion in female was the most frequent at 4th decade. The major location of EGC was antrum (51.5%). Lymph node metastases were found in 3 females and 1 male. By Williss classification, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma and signet ring cell carcinoma were more common in female (29.2%, 25%) than in male (11.9%, 14.3%). By Laurens classification, the diffuse type was more common in female (50%) than in male (33.3%). This type was the most frequent in 4th decade female patients. However, none of the above data reached statistical significance. CONCLUSION: We found the generalized tendency, though not statistically confinned, that the young female patients of EGC frequently had larger and poorly differentiated, diffuse adenocarcinomas with more frequent lymph node metastasis than male. The authors emphasizes that a further study would be needed in young female patients of EGC on hormonal factors influencing its clinicopathologic findings.
Adenocarcinoma ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Signet Ring Cell ; Classification ; Female ; Gastrectomy ; Humans ; Incidence ; Lymph Nodes ; Male ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Prevalence ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Sex Ratio ; Stomach Neoplasms

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of drinking patterns and the prevalence of hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorder with the assessment of alcohol policy needs in community population of urban city in Korea. METHODS: Data was collected from 1,000 residents in a single urban city in Korea, from June 1 to July 31, 2011 by a questionnaire. As research tools, socio-demographic characteristics composed of variables based on study purpose, alcohol problems and alcohol use disorder state scales composed with Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test(AUDIT) and Cut down, Annoyed, Guilty, Eye-opener(CAGE), and the assessment of alcohol policy needs in community population questions were used. RESULTS: The lifetime experience of alcohol drinking was 97.4%. For the frequency of drinking, 21.9% of population responded 2 to 4 times per weekly. 24.4% of male had one time or more high risk drinking, defined as having four or more drinks in a sitting, per week. 51.6% experienced the first time drinking of alcohol in adolescence. The lifetime prevalence of hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorder were 14.9% and 3.3%, respectively using AUDIT. Alcohol use disorder were 9.6% with the CAGE scale. Problem drinking were 8.4% in this study. They requested the program such as prevention education(57.2%), construction of liaison system to treatment facilities( 50.1%), alcohol counseling and intervention(41.7%), and rehabilitation program(39.8%). CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that alcohol problem and alcohol use disorder were much prevalent, and these problem started in the earlier age. It is necessary to develop an effective alcohol prevention program or policy with considering the needs in community population.
Adolescent ; Alcohol Drinking ; Counseling ; Drinking ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Prevalence ; Questionnaires ; Weights and Measures

NAD(P)H oxidase plays an important role in hypertension and its complication in aldosterone-salt rat. We questioned whether NAD(P)H oxidase subunit expression and activity are modulated by aldosterone and whether this is associated with target- organ damage. Rats were infused with aldosterone (0.75 microgram/hr/day) for 6 weeks and were given 0.9% NaCl+/-losartan (30 mg/kg/day), spironolactone (200 mg/kg/ day), and apocynin (1.5 mM/L). Aldosterone-salt hypertension was prevented completely by spironolactone and modestly by losartan and apocynin. Aldosterone increased aortic NAD(P)H oxidase activity by 34% and spironolactone and losartan inhibited the activity. Aortic expression of the subunits p47(phox), gp91(phox), and p22(phox) increased in aldosterone-infused rats by 5.5, 4.7, and 3.2-fold, respectively, which was decreased completely by spironolactone and partially by losartan and apocynin. Therefore, the increased expression of NAD(P)H oxidase may contribute to cardiovascular damage in aldosterone-salt hypertension through the increased expression of each subunit.
Acetophenones/administration & dosage ; Aldosterone/administration & dosage/*toxicity ; Aldosterone Antagonists/administration & dosage ; Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers/administration & dosage ; Animals ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal/administration & dosage ; Aorta/metabolism/pathology ; Blood Pressure/drug effects ; Hypertension/chemically induced/drug therapy/*enzymology ; Kidney/metabolism/pathology ; Losartan/administration & dosage ; Male ; NADPH Oxidase/antagonists & inhibitors/*metabolism ; Organ Size ; Oxidative Stress ; Protein Subunits/metabolism ; RNA, Messenger/metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sodium Chloride/administration & dosage ; Spironolactone/administration & dosage ; Superoxides/metabolism