Bamboo joint-like appearance of stomach in Korean patients with Crohn's disease]

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Bamboo joint-like (BJL) appearance is an endoscopic finding characterized by swollen longitudinal folds transversed by erosive fissures or linear furrows on the lesser curvature side of gastric body and cardia. It has been reported to be associated with Crohn's disease (CD). This study was aimed to evaluate the incidence of BJL appearance in Korean patients with CD. METHODS: From January to December in 2005, we performed esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) in patients diagnosed as CD and ulcerative colitis (UC) in our hospital. Non-inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) subjects with upper gastrointestinal symptoms who underwent EGD were consecutively enrolled during the same period. One endoscopist performed all the endoscopic examinations to avoid inter-observer variation. A dye-spraying technique with 0.4% indigocarmine was used to allow the detection of subtle changes during the endoscopic examination. RESULTS: A total of 21 patients with CD (mean age+/-SD, 40+/-15 yr; M/F, 13/8), 28 patients with UC (42+/-15 yr; 21/7), and 685 non-IBD subjects (49+/-14 yr; 354/331) were enrolled. EGD findings in CD patients were gastric erosions (11/21), chronic superficial gastritis (5/21), chronic atrophic gastritis (1/21), duodenal erosions or ulcers (2/21), and normal (2/21). Incidence of BJL appearance was significantly higher in patients with CD (47.6%, 10/21) than others (UC, 3.6%, 1/28; non-IBD, 0.1%, 1/685) (p< 0.0001). Among patients with CD, incidence of BJL appearance was not significantly different according to the sex, status of H. pylori infection, Vienna classification for phenotype, medications or EGD findings. CONCLUSIONS: BJL appearance on the gastric body and cardia can be a diagnostic clue to CD.     

A case of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in a patient with Crohn's disease]

Although adenocarcinoma is a well known complication of chronic inflammatory bowel disease, primary gastrointestinal lymphoma occurring in Crohn's disease is rare. A 40-year-old man with 10 year-history of Crohn's disease had multiple longitudinal ulcerative lesions on descending colon in follow-up colonoscopic examination. Microscopic examination of proximal descending colon revealed peripheral T cell lymphoma and other site of the descending colon was consistent with Crohn's disease. The patient reached complete remission of malignant lymphoma after three cycles of combined chemotherapy. He has been well for 10 months with sulfasalazine maintenance therapy but was admitted to the hospital due to spontaneous bowel perforation of ascending colon. Right hemicolectomy was done, but the patient died of post-surgical recurrent mesenteric abscess and sepsis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma complicating Crohn's disease in Korea which was confirmed by immunohistochemical studies.     

99Tcm直接法标记血管抑素

目的: 探索用99Tcm直接标记血管抑素(angiostatin, AS)的方法,并研究标记产物的体外稳定性及其生物活性. 方法:制备的AS经鉴定后,分别用2-巯基乙醇(2-ME)和氯化亚锡(SnCl2)还原法进行标记,并用正交设计筛选最佳合成条件;对标记产物用纸层析法及Sephadex G-50层析柱分离测标记率;产物中分别加入牛血清白蛋白(BSA)、生理盐水及不同摩尔比的半胱氨酸(Cys)以观察其体外稳定性;用人脐静脉内皮细胞系ECV304观察其生物活性. 结果:2-ME法最佳标记条件为AS 100 μg,PB(0.5 mol*L-1, pH 7.3) 1 mL, 2-ME 100 μg, 亚甲基二膦酸盐(MDP)(用1 mL生理盐水溶解) 10 μL,加入99TcmO4- 185 MBq,标记率可达(97.0±1.5)%; SnCl2法为AS 100 μg,硼酸缓冲液(0.1 mol*L-1, pH 9.0) 1 mL, 20 g*L-1 SnCl2 (1 mol*L-1盐酸作为溶剂) 20 μL加入MDP药盒,用去氧水稀释至1 mL, 取20 μL,加入99TcmO4- 185 MBq,标记率可达(90.0±3.0)%. 产物在体外稳定;细胞培养观察其抑制内皮细胞生物活性与AS无显著差异. 结论:用99Tcm直接法标记AS简单高效,且对AS生物活性无明显影响.     

Can a leukocyte depletion filter (LDF) reduce the risk of reintroduction of hepatocellular carcinoma cells?

During liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, HCC could theoretically be introduced into the systemic circulation when salvaged blood is used with an autotransfusion device. Several reports have shown that some types of leukocyte depletion filters (LDFs) could completely reduce the risk for reintroducing some types of tumor cells. In this study, we tested the ability of the LDF (RCEZ1T, Pall Biomedical Co, NY, USA) to reduce the risk for reintroducing HCC cells in vitro by using a very sensitive detection method. We divided the test group into 6 groups: group I was 10 cells, group II was 20 cells, group III was 2 x 10(3) cells, group IV was 2 x 10(5) cells, group V was 2 x 10(6) cells, and group VI was 2 x 10(7) cells. The counted cells in 200 mL saline were passed through the RCEZ1T using the force of gravity. To identify the presence of cells, the pellet was resuspended, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed. Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), a housekeeping gene, was used as a primer. In groups I and II, the HCC cells were completely filtered in all experiments. However, in groups III, IV, and V, the HCC cells were not completely filtered in a few of the repeated experiments, with the unfiltered rate of tumor cells being between 8% and 20%. In group VI, the HCC cells were not completely filtered in all the repeated experiments. In conclusion, the RCEZ1T filter markedly reduced the risk for reintroduction of HCC cells. However, at high HCC cell load the filter cannot completely remove all the tumor cells. Further studies are required to assess the impact in clinical settings.     

Hwa-byung. A community study of Korean Americans.

One hundred nine Korean American community subjects were interviewed regarding their experiences with hwa-byung (HB), a Korean folk illness label commonly used by Koreans with a myriad of physiological and psychological complaints. During these interviews, standard instruments were also used to assess their depressive and somatic symptoms. The results indicated that a relatively high proportion (12%) of the subjects labeled themselves as having suffered from HB. While no apparent sociodemographic differences were found between HB and non-HB subjects, significantly more HB subjects fulfilled the diagnosis of DSM-III major depression and also had previous diagnoses of depression. The HB subjects also had significantly higher scores for the total, depressive, and somatic subscales and 16 of the 20 individual items of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale. These data confirm previous observations of substantial overlap between HB and DSM-III major depression among Koreans and Korean Americans, and suggest that HB may be a culturally patterned way of expression for Koreans experiencing major depression and related conditions. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are also discussed.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Glycoprotein ABCB5 and YB-1 expression plays a role in increased heterogeneity of breast cancer cells: correlations with cell fusion and doxorubicin resistance

Background  

Cancer cells recurrently develop into acquired resistance to the administered drugs. The iatrogenic mechanisms of induced chemotherapy-resistance remain elusive and the degree of drug resistance did not exclusively correlate with reductions of drug accumulation, suggesting that drug resistance may involve additional mechanisms. Our aim is to define the potential targets, that makes drug-sensitive MCF-7 breast cancer cells turn to drug-resistant, for the anti-cancer drug development against drug resistant breast cancer cells.     

子宫体三角形切除术的临床应用

目的:探讨子宫体三角形切除术的临床价值。 方法 :对子宫体三角形切除术组、子宫次全切除术组各6 4例进行回顾性分析。结果:两组的手术时间、出血量、术后排气时间等比较 ,差异无统计学意义 (P >0 .0 5 ) ,但子宫体三角形切除术组术后有少量月经。两组在性生活质量及更年期症状方面差异有统计学意义 (P <0 .0 1)。子宫体三角形切除术组的血清性激素水平手术前 FSH(7.0 5± 1.10 ) IU/ L、E2 (5 6 .4 0± 1.12 ) pm ol/ L,手术后 FSH(6 .88± 1.12 ) IU/ L、E2 (5 6 .2 8± 1.15 ) pm ol/ L,手术前后比较差异无统计学意义 (P >0 .0 5 )。子宫次全切除术组血清性激素水平手术前 FSH(5 .98± 1.15 ) IU/ L、E2 (5 6 .2 2± 1.10 ) pmol/ L,手术后 FSH(10 .6 6± 1.18) IU/ L、E2(47.4 5± 1.2 0 ) pmol/ L,手术前后比较差异有统计学意义 (P<0 .0 5 )。 结论:子宫体三角形切除术术式具有操作简单、易于掌握、不影响卵巢功能、术后恢复快等优点 ,能满足患者既去除疾病又保留子宫的生理和心理需要