A 62-year-old man with multiple myeloma visited our clinic with multiple painful erythematous to purpuric nodules on his whole body. He received a skin biopsy which showed septal and lobular inflammation with vasculitis, and multiple amoebic organisms were found.Polymerase chain reaction and culture were performed and an Acanthamoeba triangularis infection was diagnosed. This is the first report on cutaneous acanthamoebiasis caused by A. triangularis, suggesting that A. triangularis should be regarded as a clinical pathogen that can cause ocular as well as disseminated infection.

No abstract available.
Coronary Occlusion ; Heart Neoplasms ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Sarcoma*

Candida exists in the oral cavity as normal flora, which is cultured in 7% of the population. And the development of candidiasis is usually related to the systemic or local immunosuppressed status such as diabetes, long-term antibiotics, steroid, radiation therapy or chemotherapy. However, isolated laryngeal candidiasis in immunocompetent patients is a rare entity with fewer than 40 cases reported in the world. Symptoms of laryngeal candidiasis are variable such as hoarseness, dysphagia, or odynophagia according to its extent, but it has clinical importance because of its resemblance with laryngeal premalignant or malignant lesions. Diagnosis is made by biopsy under direct laryngoscopy with special staining to identify the hyphae. In this article, we report a case of laryngeal candidiasis presented as leukoplakia localized on vocal fold with literature reviews.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Biopsy ; Candida ; Candidiasis* ; Deglutition Disorders ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Hoarseness ; Humans ; Hyphae ; Laryngoscopy ; Larynx ; Leukoplakia* ; Mouth ; Vocal Cords

Inflammatory myositis as an extra-intestinal manifestation of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is rare. Coexistence of immuno-mediated diseases in patients with IBD and myositis suggests a common etiopathogenic mechanism underlying these conditions. The current report refers to a rare case of a 45-year-old Korean female with ulcerative colitis (UC) who developed dermatomyositis. She presented with skin rash and proximal muscle weakness, and her disease activity of UC was in remission state. Electromyography, magnetic resonance imaging, and deltoid muscle biopsy were performed. She was diagnosed with dermatomyositis associated with UC and treatment with glucocorticoids and azathioprine resulted in improvement in muscle power and skin rash. Clinicians should be aware of this unusual extra-intestinal manifestation.
Azathioprine ; Biopsy ; Colitis, Ulcerative* ; Deltoid Muscle ; Dermatomyositis* ; Electromyography ; Exanthema ; Female ; Glucocorticoids ; Glycogen Storage Disease Type VI ; Humans ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Muscle Weakness ; Myositis ; Polymyositis ; Ulcer*

INTRODUCTION: Distant metastases of mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) are reported with the most common sites being the soft tissue of skin, lung, liver, and bone. We report here a very rare case of MEC with multiple metastases to the kidney, adrenal gland, skull and gluteus maximus muscle. CASE REPORT: A 63-year-old male patient presented with left-sided headache. Radiologic evaluations including CT and MRI showed ill-defined soft tissue lesion involving the left infratemporal fossa and left sphenoid sinus, and multiple enlarged lymph nodes in neck and mediastinum. PET-CT demonstrated multiple hypermetabolic lesions in and around the left kidney, left adrenal gland, right ischium, right gluteus maximus and skull base. These lesions were confirmed as MEC with multiple metastases through biopsy. DISCUSSION: Only one case of metastasis to the skull has been previously reported, and moreover, there has not been a case of metastatic MEC to the kidney, adrenal gland and gluteus maximus muscle so far in the medical literature. It is important to acknowledge the possibility of every unusual MEC metastases, since the presence of metastasis has statistically significant influence on the survival of MEC.
Adrenal Glands* ; Biopsy ; Carcinoma, Mucoepidermoid* ; Headache ; Humans ; Ischium ; Kidney* ; Liver ; Lung ; Lymph Nodes ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Mediastinum ; Middle Aged ; Neck ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; Skin ; Skull Base ; Skull* ; Sphenoid Sinus

Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is a very rare genetic disorder. PJS carries a high risk of developing gastrointestinal (GI) cancer or non-GI cancer with advancing years. However, major symptoms of PJS in childhood are obstruction, intussusception, and bleeding from hamartomatous intestinal polyps which in majority of cases are not related to cancer. Generally, first GI symptom develops by 20 years in one half of children diagnosed with PJS. Children under two years of age who had PJS polyp-related intestinal symptoms are rare, and there have been no published report on intestinal carcinoma development, adenomatous change or dysplasia of polyps in Korean children with PJS. Recently, the authors have experienced a case PJS with adenomatous polyp change in a 15-month-old boy who had STK11 gene mutation. Therefore, early evaluation could be necessary and considered in children with PJS.
Adenoma/*diagnosis/pathology ; Base Sequence ; Colonoscopy ; Heterozygote ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome/*diagnosis/genetics/pathology ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Polyps/pathology ; Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases/chemistry/genetics

Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) is defined as a granulomatous inflammation of the upper and lower respiratory tract due to a systemic vasculitis. Facial nerve palsy may occur during the course of any granulomatous or vasculitis disease. But very few cases have been reported in which facial nerve palsy is the presenting feature of WG. We recently experienced an interesting case of WG presenting as acute middle ear infection and subsequent bilateral facial palsy.
Ear, Middle ; Earache ; Facial Nerve ; Facial Paralysis ; Inflammation ; Paralysis ; Respiratory System ; Systemic Vasculitis ; Vasculitis ; Wegener Granulomatosis

The application of polyphenols has attracted great interest in the field of functional foods and nutraceuticals due to their potential health benefits in humans. However, the effectiveness of polyphenols depends on their bioactivity and bioavailability. In the present study, the bioactive component from green tea extract (GTE) was administrated orally (50 mg/kg body weight/day) as free or in a microencapsulated form with maltodextrin in rats fed a high fructose diet. High fructose diet induced features of metabolic syndrome including hypertriglyceridemia, hyperuricemia, increased serum total cholesterol, and retroperitoneal obesity. In addition, myocardial fibrosis was increased. In rats receiving high fructose diet, the lowering of blood triglycerides, total cholesterol, non esterified fatty acid (NEFA) and uric acid, as well as the reduction in final body weight and retroperitoneal fat weight associated with the administration of GTE, led to a reversal of the features of metabolic syndrome (P < 0.05). In particular, the administration of microencapsulated GTE decreased myocardial fibrosis and increased liver catalase activity consistent with a further alleviation of serum NEFA, and hyperuricemia compared to administration of GTE. Taken together, our results suggest that microencapsulation of the bioactive components of GTE might have a protective effect on cardiovasucular system by attenuating the adverse features of myocardial fibrosis, decreasing uric acid levels and increasing hepatic catalase activity effectively by protecting their bioactivities.
Animals ; Biological Availability ; Body Weight ; Catalase ; Cholesterol ; Diet ; Dietary Supplements ; Drug Compounding ; Fatty Acids, Nonesterified ; Fibrosis ; Fructose ; Functional Food ; Humans ; Hypertriglyceridemia ; Hyperuricemia ; Insurance Benefits ; Intra-Abdominal Fat ; Liver ; Obesity ; Polyphenols ; Polysaccharides ; Rats ; Tea ; Triglycerides ; Uric Acid

BACKGROUND: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been known to play a key role in the stromal invasion of carcinoma in situ (CIS) lesion. Loss of E-cadherin and acquisition of vimentin are two critical steps in EMT, that are induced by Snail-1 upregulation associated with overexpression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). However, roles of EMT-related proteins in human cervical tissues have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we investigated the immunoexpressions of EMT-related proteins in CIS, microinvasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and invasive SCC to demonstrate their key roles in tumor progression. METHODS: Eighty one CIS, 17 microinvasive, and 21 invasive SCC cases were immunostained with primary antibodies for Snail-1, EGFR, E-cadherin, and vimentin on paraffin-embedded tissue microarray blocks. RESULTS: EGFR and Snail-1 proteins were highly expressed but the levels were not significantly different between the three groups. However, loss of E-cadherin and acquisition of vimentin were proven to occur significantly higher in microinvasive and invasive SCC cases than in CIS. CONCLUSIONS: E-cadherin and vimentin were found to be two useful indicators of EMT in evaluating stromal invasion of CIS. However, it was not demonstrated for Snail-1 and EGFR proteins to play any key role in the progression of cervix cancer.
Antibodies ; Cadherins ; Carcinoma in Situ ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cervix Uteri ; Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition ; Female ; Humans ; Proteins ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor ; Up-Regulation ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms ; Vimentin

We report a fatal case of Shewanella algae bacteremia accompanied by cellulitis in both legs of a chronic renal failure patient who had not been exposed to sea water or raw fish. A 47-year-old male on hemodialysis was admitted to our clinic due to pain in both legs accompanied by a febrile sensation that started 2 days prior to his visit. A blood culture specimen revealed S. algae, a rare human opportunistic pathogen. In spite of early and appropriate antimicrobial treatment, the patient died of septic shock on the second day of his hospital stay. Recently, serious infections caused by Shewanella species have been reported in increasing frequency. Hepatobiliary diseases have been proposed as predisposing factors, not only for infection by this organism, but also for fatality. However, we should be aware of the significance of S. algae in patients with renal insufficiency, especially those on maintenance hemodialysis. Herein, we report our case with review relevant literature.
Bacteremia ; Cellulitis ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Leg ; Length of Stay ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Renal Dialysis ; Renal Insufficiency ; Seawater ; Sensation ; Shewanella ; Shock, Septic