PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the relationships between body mass index (BMI) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, international prostate symptom score (IPSS), quality of life (QoL), and prostate volume (PV). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Height, weight, PSA levels, PV, and IPSS were analyzed in 15,435 patients who underwent a prostate examination between 2001 and 2014. Patients aged <50 years or with a PSA level ≥10 ng/mL were excluded. The relationships between BMI and PSA, IPSS, QoL, and PV were analyzed by a scatter plot, one-way analysis of variance, and the Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The mean age was 71.95±7.63 years, the mean BMI was 23.59±3.08 kg/m2, the mean PSA level was 1.45±1.45 ng/mL, the mean IPSS was 15.53±8.31, the mean QoL score was 3.48±1.25, and the mean PV was 29.72±14.02 mL. PSA, IPSS, and QoL showed a tendency to decrease with increasing BMI, and there were statistically significant differences for each parameter (p≤0.001). PV showed a significant tendency to increase with BMI (p < 0.001). In the correlation analysis, BMI showed a statistically significant correlation (p < 0.001) with PSA, IPSS, and QoL, although the correlations were very weak. In contrast, BMI showed a significant correlation with PV (p < 0.001), with a meaningful Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.124. CONCLUSIONS: Higher BMI was associated with lower PSA levels and higher IPSS and QoL scores. Meanwhile, PV increased with BMI. Although obese individuals had a greater PV, obesity did not aggravate lower urinary tract symptoms.
Body Mass Index* ; Humans ; Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms ; Male ; Obesity ; Prostate ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; Prostatic Hyperplasia ; Quality of Life

No abstract available.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the diagnostic performance in evaluating the response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), between the response evaluation criteria in solid tumor (RECIST) 1.0 and RECIST 1.1, on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for advance breast cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Breast cancer patients, who underwent NAC between 2005 and 2010, were included. Both prechemotherapy and post-chemotherapy MRIs were performed within 1-4 weeks before and after NAC. Only the patients with subsequent surgery were included. The response to NAC was assessed by using RECIST 1.0 and RECIST 1.1. Patients with a complete or partial response on MRI were considered as responders, and those with stable or progressive disease were considered as non-responders. Tumor necrosis > 50% on pathology was defined as responders and necrosis < 50% was defined as non-responders. The diagnostic accuracy of both RECIST 1.0 and RECIST 1.1 was analyzed and compared by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. RESULTS: Seventy-nine females (mean age 51.0 +/- 9.3 years) were included. Pathology showed 45 responders and 34 non-responders. There were 49 responders and 30 non-responders on RECIST 1.0, and in 55 patients, RECIST 1.0 results agreed with pathologic results (69.6%). RECIST 1.1 showed 52 responders and 27 non-responders. In 60 patients, RECIST 1.1 results were in accordance with pathology results (75.9%). The area under the ROC curve was 0.809 for RECIST 1.0 and 0.853 for RECIST 1.1. CONCLUSION: RECIST 1.1 showed better diagnostic performance than RECIST 1.0, although there was no statistically significant difference between the two.
Breast Neoplasms/*drug therapy/*pathology/surgery ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Contrast Media/diagnostic use ; Female ; Gadolinium DTPA/diagnostic use ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/*methods ; Middle Aged ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; Predictive Value of Tests ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Statistics, Nonparametric ; Survival Analysis ; Treatment Outcome

Collagenomas, or connective tissue nevi of the collagen type, are hamartomatous growths of otherwise normal collagen. They are divided into two groups: the inherited form that contains familial cutaneous collagenoma and shagreen patches in tuberous sclerosis, and the acquired form that contains eruptive collagenoma and isolated collagenoma. Among them, isolated plantar collagenoma with a cerebriform appearance is a relatively rare type of connective tissue nevus. It has been described as one of the major skin findings in Proteus syndrome. We present an unusual case of acquired isolated plantar collagenoma presenting as cerebriform hyperplasia, which was not associated with Proteus syndrome.
Collagen ; Connective Tissue ; Hyperplasia ; Nevus ; Proteus Syndrome ; Skin ; Tuberous Sclerosis

Fibrous hamartoma of infancy (FHI) is a rare benign soft tissue tumor that is composed of an organoid pattern of fibrous tissue and primitive mesenchyme and adipose tissue. The majority of cases of fibrous hamartoma of infancy occur within the first year of life as a single painless subcutaneous nodule. We experienced and report on an uncommon case of protruding fibrous hamartoma of infancy in an 1-year-old girl.
Adipose Tissue ; Hamartoma ; Mesoderm ; Organoids

Fibrous hamartoma of infancy (FHI) is a rare benign soft tissue tumor that is composed of an organoid pattern of fibrous tissue and primitive mesenchyme and adipose tissue. The majority of cases of fibrous hamartoma of infancy occur within the first year of life as a single painless subcutaneous nodule. We experienced and report on an uncommon case of protruding fibrous hamartoma of infancy in an 1-year-old girl.
Adipose Tissue ; Hamartoma ; Mesoderm ; Organoids

BACKGROUND: Although oral isotretinoin is an effective established therapy for acne, Korean data related with this therapy is very limited. Moreover, there is no published data available on the efficacy of this drug that uses a grading system suitable for Korean acne patients. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of oral isotretinoin (Roaccutane?) by using the Korean Acne Grading System (KAGS) and the general satisfaction of patients in treating acne. METHODS: In this multicenter and prospective clinical study, 499 patients with acne, who visited at 5 dermatologic clinics during 11 months, were enrolled. The drug dosage was 0.2~1.0 mg/kg/day over 4 months. The efficacy assessment was performed at baseline and monthly after, with an acne grading based on the KAGS and the patient satisfaction questionnaire. RESULTS: Out of the 499 patients, 435 and 371 have completed the 3-month and 4-month treatments, respectively. After the 4-month treatment, the mean acne grades significantly decreased from 2.71 to 0.68, thus showing a 75.9% reduction in pretreatment scores. The mean patient satisfaction scores improved at the end of 4-month treatment, showing a 4.42 out of 5. CONCLUSION: In this paper, we describe the efficacy of oral isotretinoin by using the KAGS, which has not been previously reported in the Korean literature. Our results show that oral isotretinoin is an effective and satisfactory treatment modality for acnes of all grades in Korean patients, regardless of the dosage.
Acne Vulgaris ; Humans ; Isotretinoin ; Patient Satisfaction ; Prospective Studies

PURPOSE: To intra-individually compare diagnostic accuracy of high-resolution contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA) with computed tomography angiography (CTA) and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) for the assessment of supraaortic steno-occlusive disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-eight patients (20 men, 8 women, 53-79 years of age) underwent supraaortic CE-MRA, CTA and DSA. CE-MRA was performed on two 1.5T MR scanners (voxel dimension: 0.66x0.66x1.1 or 1.2 mm3), and CTA on 64-slice CT scanners (voxel dimension: 0.42x0.42x0.63 mm3). All the three examinations were completed within 40 days (median 19 days; range 1-40 days). Retrospective evaluation and measurement of diameter of 6 extracranial and 9 intracranial arterial segments was done by 2 experienced radiologists. RESULTS: A total of 420 arterial segments were examined by CE-MRA, CTA and DSA. On DSA, 34 stenoocclusive lesions were noted at extracranial (n=19) and intracranial (n=15) vessels. For extracranial stenosis greater than 70%, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) were 94.7%, 98.7%, 90.0% and 99.3% on CE-MRA, and 94.7%, 99.3%, 94.7% and 99.3% on CTA. For intracranial stenosis greater than 50%, sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV were 93.3%, 98.3%, 77.8%and 99.6% on CE-MRA, and 86.7%, 97.9%, 72.2% and 99.1% on CTA, with DSA as the standard of reference. CONCLUSION: Supraaortic CE-MRA is as reliable as CTA in depicting the arterial stenosis, and is effective in screening of significant stenosis of both extracranial and intracranial arterial stenosis.
Angiography ; Angiography, Digital Subtraction ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Angiography ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Magnetics ; Magnets ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity

The aims of this study were to summarize results on the association of HLA-DRB1 with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Asians and to determine if the shared epitope (SE) hypothesis could explain the meta-analysis results. Among the papers published between January 1987 and July 2006 on RA susceptibility in Asian-Mongoloid populations (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Thai), 12 were selected for the metaanalysis. Mongoloid-Asian patients with RA had significantly higher frequencies of HLA-DRB1*0101, *0401, *0410, and *1001 than controls (OR 1.5-2.1, p<0.05 for association). When analyses were restricted to more ethnically homogeneous populations, HLA-DRB1*0405 showed a significant susceptibility to RA in Koreans (OR 5.65, 95% CI 4.32-7.39), whereas the HLA-DRB1*0301, *0403, *0406, *0701, *1301, and *1405 alleles showed protective association with RA (OR 0.32-0.70, p<0.05 for association). In conclusion, it was found that HLA-DRB1 *0101, *0401, *0405, *0410, and *1001 are susceptible, while HLA-DRB1* 0301, *0403, *0406, *0701, *1301, and *1405 are protective in Asian-Mongoloids. All the RA-associated alleles except DRB1*0301 could be explained by the structural model supporting the SE hypothesis that RA susceptibility is determined by the combination of amino acid residues at HLA-DR beta71 and beta74, not by beta71 alone.
*Alleles ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid/*genetics ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group/*genetics ; *Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; HLA-DR Antigens/chemistry/*genetics ; Humans

BACKGROUND: A good acne grading system should reflect epidemiological and clinical features of a particular patient group. Current Korean acne grading systems are mostly based on the skin colors, epidemiology, and clinical features of Western countries, which make them less than being ideal for Korean acne patients. OBJECTIVE: We tried to devise an acne grading system based on clinical and epidemiological characteristics of Korean acne patients. This system is intended for use in primary care setting as well as in research purposes. METHODS: In the formulation of a new acne grading system, a panel of 5 dermatologists from 5 referral centers took into account the degree of complexity of the system, criteria for severity as well as skin colors through the review of clinical photographs of 250 acne patients. The new grading system then underwent inter-rater and intra-rater discrepancy assessment and simulation with 149 patient photos to find out an optimal epidemiological representation. RESULTS: We developed 6-scale grading system with both standard pictures and ranges of number of lesions as criteria. Intra-rater and inter-rater reproducibility turned out to be moderate to strong, suggesting clear instruction and easy performance. Simulation with 4 different models yielded best parameter ranges for the optimal criteria. CONCLUSIONS: With the feedback from the large-scale field applications, this new acne grading system will serve as a multipurpose acne grading system for Korean patients.
Acne Vulgaris* ; Epidemiology ; Humans ; Primary Health Care ; Referral and Consultation ; Skin