Theca lutein cysts are rare, benign lesions responsible for gross cystic enlargement of both ovaries during pregnancy. This condition is also termed hyperreactio luteinalis. Elevated human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) levels or states of hCG hypersensitivity seem to promote these changes, which in up to 30% of patients produce clinical signs of hyperandrogenism. Given the self-limiting course of theca lutein cysts, which are subject to spontaneous postpartum resolution, conservative treatment is the mainstay of patient management. Described herein is a rare case of theca lutein cysts with maternal virilization that failed to regress by 9 months after childbirth. Surgical intervention was eventually undertaken, necessitated by adnexal torsion.

Involuntary physical activity induced by the avoidance of electrical shock leads to improved endurance exercise capacity in animals. However, it remains unknown whether voluntary stand-up physical activity (SPA) without forced simulating factors improves endurance exercise capacity in animals. We examined the eff ects of SPA on body weight, cardiac function, and endurance exercise capacity for 12 weeks. Twelve male Sprague-Dawley rats (aged 8 weeks, n=6 per group) were randomly assigned to a control group (CON) or a voluntary SPA group. The rats were induced to perform voluntary SPA (lifting a load equal to their body weight), while the food height (18.0 cm) in cages was increased progressively by 3.5 every 4 weeks until it reached 28.5 cm for 12 weeks. The SPA group showed a lower body weight compared to the CON group, but voluntary SPA did not affect the skeletal muscle and heart weights, food intake, and echocardiography results. Although the SPA group showed higher grip strength, running time, and distance compared to the CON group, the level of irisin, corticosterone, genetic expression of mitochondrial biogenesis, and nuclei numbers were not affected. These findings show that voluntary SPA without any forced stimuli in rats can eff ectively reduce body weight and enhance endurance exercise capacity, suggesting that it may be an important alternative strategy to enhance endurance exercise capacity.
Animals ; Body Weight ; Corticosterone ; Eating ; Echocardiography ; Hand Strength ; Heart ; Humans ; Male ; Organelle Biogenesis ; Motor Activity* ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Running ; Shock ; Weights and Measures

Gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) was purified to electrophoretic homogeneity from the cell extract of H. pylori. The purified enzyme consisted of heavy and light subunits with molecular weights of 38 kDa and 21 kDa, respectively. N-terminal amino acid sequence of heavy and light subunits revealed that H. pylori GGT was processed into 3 parts for a signal peptide of 27 amino acid residues, a heavy subunit of 352 residues, and a light subunit of 188 residues during translation. The reaction rate for hydrolysis of gamma-GpNA was 84.4 micromol/min per milligram of protein, and that for the gamma-glutamyl transfer from gamma-GpNA to gly-gly was 23.8 micromol/min per milligram of protein. The apparent Km values of H. pylori GGT for gamma-glutamyl compounds were on the order of 10-3 to 10-4 M and those for acceptor peptides and amino acids were on the order of 10-1 to 10-2 M. The GGT protein kept approximately 80% of the initial enzymatic activity on incubation at 60degrees C for 15 min. The optimum temperature and pH for reactions of both hydrolysis and transpeptidation were 40degrees C and 9.0, respectively. The transpeptidation and hydrolysis reactions catalyzed by H. pylori GGT were strongly inhibited by L-Gln and moderately inhibited by L-Ala, L-Ser, beta-chloro-L-Ala, and L-Glu. These results demonstrated that the biochemical properties of H. pylori GGT are different from those of other bacterial GGTs. Further, H. pylori GGT might degrade glutathione in the gastric mucous layer of humans if the enzyme could be secreted in the bacterial niches.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Amino Acids ; Glutathione ; Helicobacter ; Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Hydrolysis ; Light ; Molecular Weight ; Peptides ; Protein Sorting Signals

BACKGROUND: Diabetes self-management education and reinforcement are important for effective management of the disease. We investigated the effectiveness of interactive small-group education on glycemic, blood pressure, and lipid levels. METHODS: For this study, 207 type 2 diabetes patients with suboptimal glycemic control (HbA1c levels >6.5%) were enrolled. The conventional education group received an existing education program from April to November in 2006, and the interactive education group received a new small-group education program from December 2006 to July 2007. The two groups were comparatively analyzed for changes in blood sugar, glycated hemoglobin, lipid, and blood pressure at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months and the proportion of patients achieving target goals at 12 months. RESULTS: After 12 months of follow-up, HbA1c levels in the interactive education group were significantly lower than in the conventional education group (6.7% vs. 6.4%, P<0.001). Fasting and 2 hour postprandial glucose concentrations, total cholesterol, and low density lipoprotein cholesterol were significantly lower in the interactive education group than in the conventional education group. The proportion of patients that achieved target goals was significantly higher in the interactive education group. CONCLUSION: The small-group educational method improved and re-established the existing group educational method. This finding suggests that the importance of education appears to be related to the method by which it is received rather than the education itself. Thus, the use of small-group educational methods to supplement existing educational methods established for diverse age levels should be considered in the future.
Achievement ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, LDL ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Fasting ; Follow-Up Studies ; Glucose ; Hemoglobins ; Humans ; Lipoproteins ; Reinforcement (Psychology) ; Self Care

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) has been presented as a new approach to tiniutus management. The aim of this paper is to show the clinical implication method of TRT in our clinic and to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of TRT based on questionnaires and tinnitograms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using the clinical implication method of TRT, 60 patients with tinnitus, who visited Tinnitus Clinic, Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital from May, 1999 to July, 2001, and who had received TRT for their tinnitus, were included for the evaluation of therapeutic efficacy of TRT. Their psychoacoustic characteristics of tinnitus and changes of subjective tinnitus were analyzed. RESULTS: Loudness, awareness, annoyance and effect on life of tinnitus decreased after TRT. Tinnitus handicap score also significantly decreased (p<0.05). Forty-eight patients among the sixty patients (80%) showed relief of their tinnitus in more than 2 of 4 subjective parameters (loudness, awareness, annoyance and effect on life of tinnitus). CONCLUSION: TRT has been shown to be effective in the treatment of subjective tinnitus. Modification of TRT may be necessary for easy application of this therapy in Korea.
Humans ; Korea ; Psychoacoustics ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Tinnitus*

Ischemic-reperfusion injury (IRI) is thought to be caused by oxygen radicals. Nitric oxide (NO) also has been thought to play a key role in IRI. This experiment was designed to evaluate the effects of antioxidants and NO supplement on hepatic IRI. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into five groups: a sham operation group, a group with IRI, and three groups with vitamin C combined with vitamin E (VC&VE), L-arginine and N(G)-nitro-L-arginine (NNLA) injected after IRI. IRI was induced by clamping of the porta hepatis for 30 minutes and then by declamping. To prevent mesenteric blood congestion, a porto-systemic shunt had been made four weeks before the portal clamping. Biochemical assays of TNF-alpha level and NO2- level in the blood, malondialdehyde level, catalase activity and NO synthase activity in the liver tissue were performed. The results were as follows: IRI increased the malondialdehyde level and exhausted the catalase activity remarkably. VC&VE lowered the malondialdehyde levels and protected against catalase exhaustion, but had no significant effect on the NO production. L-arginine had a definite antioxidant effect, which was much weaker than that of VC&VE. In conclusion, antioxidants and a supplement of NO protected the liver tissue against IRI.
Animals ; Antioxidants/*metabolism ; Arginine/metabolism ; Ascorbic Acid/metabolism ; Catalase/metabolism ; Enzyme Inhibitors/metabolism ; Liver/*metabolism/pathology ; Male ; Malondialdehyde/metabolism ; Nitric Oxide/*metabolism ; Nitric Oxide Synthase/metabolism ; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II ; Nitrites/blood ; Nitroarginine/metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reperfusion Injury/*metabolism ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/metabolism ; Vitamin E/metabolism

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The aims of this study were to determine subgoups of functional dyspesia and to evaluate the short-term effect of cisapride in patients with functional dyspepsia in Korea. METHODS: 1025 patients, with a mean age of 42.6 years, with symptoms of functional dyspepsia, were recruited consecutively and upper gastrointestinal symptoms were investigated by interview in 41 hospitals in Korea. In an open, multicenter trial, 1025 patients received Smg of cisapride three times a day (TID) for at least .2 weeks for the treatment of symptoms of functional dyspepsia. When necessary, the dose of cisapride was increased to 10mg TID and the duration of therapy was extended to 4 weeks. RESULTS: The most frequently reported symptoms of functional dyspepsia were epigastric discomfort or fullness (85%), bloating (70%), belching (53%), early satiety (52%) and epigastric pain (46%) retrospectively. Subgroups of functional dyspepsia were as follows; dysmotility-like 73.5%, ulcer-like 39.7%, reflux-like 13.0%, and unspecified dyspepsia 14.0%. However, 33.2% of subjects with functional dyspepsia could be classified into more than one subgroup. Upper gastrointestinal symptoms were decreased to average 50.3% (range; 42.2 to 59.2%) after 2 weeks of cisapride treatment and to 25% (19.2 to 29.9%) after 4 weeks. cisapride therapy resulted in good or excellent improvement in 59.0% of the patients after two weeks, in 75% of patients after 4 weeks. Adverse events were occurred in 52 patients (5.8% of all patients), most commonly, loose stools or diarrhea (3.5%), abdominal pain (1.1%), and dizziness (0.3%). The majority of adverse events was mild and transient in nature and led to premature discontinuation of treatment in 4 patients. CONCLUSIONS: Although the majorities of patients with functional dyspepsia have dysmotility like symptoms in Korea, there is such overlap among the dyspepsia subgroups. Most patients responded well to a short therapeutic trial with cisapride without significant side effects.
Abdominal Pain ; Cisapride* ; Diarrhea ; Dizziness ; Dyspepsia* ; Eructation ; Humans ; Korea* ; Retrospective Studies

A rare case of intraventricular central neurocytoma in 17-year-old male is reported. The patient had diffuse headache and diplopia. Radiologic findings displayed obstructive hydrocephalus and a large, well-demarcated intraventricular mass lesion obstructing the foramen of Monroe. The tumor arouse from the splenium of corpus callosum. It was removed successfully using two different approaches after extraventricular drainage of the cerebrospinal fluid(CSF). Histologically, the tumor showed pathological features as that of oligodengroglioma on the light microscope. In immunohistochemical examination, glial fibrillary acidic protein(GFAP) was negative and synaptophysin, positive. Numerous neurosecretory granules were found and no typical synapsis was noticed on the electron microscope. No shunt operation was needed. Postoperative radiotherapy or chemotherapy was not performed and no tumor recurrence was detected during the one year follow-up period. We present the case together with a review of the literatures.
Adolescent ; Cerebral Ventricles ; Chromosome Pairing ; Corpus Callosum ; Diplopia ; Drainage ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Headache ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Male ; Neurocytoma* ; Radiotherapy ; Recurrence ; Synaptophysin