• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.34 no.8
• /
• pp.749-754
• /
• 2010

Knowledge of the characteristics of airflow in nasal cavities is essential to understand the physiological and pathological aspects of nasal breathing. In our laboratory, a series of experimental investigations on the nasal airflow was conducted; airflow in models of normal and deformed nasal cavities under both constant and periodic flow conditions was studied by PIV. Some of the patients with asymmetric nasal cavities experience pain or discomfort, while other patients with asymmetric nasal cavities do not experience pain. Airflows inside asymmetric nasal cavities with and without obstructions due to a bent nasal septum are investigated both experimentally by PIV and numerically by using the general-purpose FVM code in order to determine the reason for the above-mentioned discrepancy. The comparisons between two cases are tried. Heat and humidity distribution are investigated numerically.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.15 no.2 s.69
• /
• pp.231-235
• /
• 2005

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of structurally and functionally related zinc-dependent enzymes responsible for proteolytic degradation of extracellular matrix components such as base membrane or interstitial stroma. MMPs play an important role in a variety of physiological and pathological tissue remodeling processes, including wound healing, embryo implantation, tumor invasion and metastasis. Since MMP-9 (gelatinase B) has unique ability to cleave type IV collagen, gene expression of MMP-9 has been focused on as a pharmacological target. Flavonoids are a class of compounds that are widely spread in plants. In the coures of screening for the suppressors of MMP-9 gene expression from natural products, Metasequoia glyptostroboides was selected. Six flavonoids, sciadopitysin, isoginkgetin, bilobetin, 2,3-dihydrohinokiflavone, luteolin and apigenin were purified as suppressors of MMP-9 gene expression from M. glyptostroboides. The suppressing activity of the isolated flavinoids on the MMP-9 gene expression was measured by gelatin zymography and Nothern blot analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.82 no.5
• /
• pp.1103-1123
• /
• 2021

The uterus can be largely divided into the uterine corpus and uterine cervix. Diseases that can occur in the uterine corpus, composed of the endometrium and myometrium, vary from benign to malignant tumors. Ultrasound and CT are the primary non-invasive evaluation methods to differentiate between benign and malignant tumors, but in some cases, they are difficult to differentiate due to their non-specific imaging findings. However, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which has high resolution, helps not only in locating lesions but also in evaluating histological characteristics and staging of malignant tumors. In this review article, the characteristic MRI findings that radiologists should be aware of regarding various benign and malignant tumors detected in the uterine corpus are summarized with their points of differentiation.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.92-100
• /
• 2002

Objectives : As medical science develops, survival rate of cancer patients rises. Therefore, psychologic understanding and improving quality of life in cancer patients is getting greater significance. The Object of this study is to investigate sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, psychopathology, self esteem and quality of life in cancer patients and to provide useful information for therapeutic approach to cancer patients. Methods : The subjects were 41 patents who had been treated by radiotherapy and 20 normal people. Sociodemographic information and clinical characteristics of cancer patients were investigated, and SCL-90R for psychopathology, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale for self esteem, WHOQOL-BREF for quality of life were administered to subjects. The results of both groups were compared and analysed, and correlation between variables were evaluated. Results : 1) The tendency of Somatization, obsession-compulsion, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobia, psychosis in cancer group were higher than normal group. Especially, somatization and anxiety in cancer group were significantly higher than normal group. 2) Self esteem and quality of life in cancer group were significantly lower than normal group. 3) No significance were found in comparison of psychopathology, self esteem and quality of life according to sociodemographic variables. Among clinical characteristics, higher somatization was shown in case of more weight loss, and higher somatization and lower quality of life was shown in the presence of pain. 4) Higher anxiety was significantly associated with lower self esteem, and Higher somatization and anxiety was significantly associated with lower quality of life. Conclusion : Cancer patients had various kinds of psychopathology, low self esteem and low quality of life. In particular, somatization and anxiety, self esteem and pain were found to be important factors to quality of life of cancer patients. Therefore, management of psychopathology, improving self esteem, pain control is necessary to improve quality of life in cancer patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.74-81
• /
• 2008

Background: Fascin is an actin-bundling protein that induces membrane protrusions and it increases cell motility in various transformed cells. Esophageal cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies, and it exhibits extensive local invasion or frequent regional lymph node metastasis even after curative surgery. We investigate the expression of fascin by performing immunohistochemistry to evaluate the clinical characteristics and prognostic significance of its expression in esophageal cancer patients. Material and Method: Immunochemistry for fascin was performed on 76 tumor samples from 76 patients who underwent esophageal cancer operations. The expression levels of fascin in the 76 esophageal cancer tissues were compared with those in the corresponding normal esophageal epithelium. The fascin-positive samples were defined as those showing more than 75% of fascin-positive cells. Result: Overall, a fascin positive expression was detected in 39 (51.3%) out of the total 76 cases. The tumors with positive fascin expression tended to more frequently show a higher stage (p=0.030), and a higher T-factor (p=0.031). The prognosis of the fascin negative group was significantly better than that of the fascin positive group (p=0.004). Multivariate analysis revealed that lymphovascular invasion and the fascin expression were independent prognostic factors. Conclusion: Fascin was expressed in 513% of the esophageal cancer tissues and a positive expression of fascin was associated with more advanced tumor progression and recurrence. Our study suggests that the fascin expression may be an independent prognostic factor for an unfavorable clinical course few those patients suffering with esophageal cancer.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.262-268
• /
• 2009

Purpose: We wanted to analyze the clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with gastric carcinoid tumor, which is a rare gastric tumor (less than 2% of all gastric tumors). Materials and Methods: We reviewed all the carcinoid patients who were treated from 1996 to 2006. The clinicopathologic characteristics, the treatment modalities and the survival rates were retrospectively analysed. Results: There were 8 type I patients and 10 type III patients, but there were no type II patients. The mean age of onset for type I was 47.75 years and that for type III was 57.90 years. More type III patients were female, but the gender ratio of type I patients was equal at a ratio of 1：1. There were 4 cases of solitary tumor, which were all T1 except for one case, and there was neither distant metastasis nor lymph node involvement for the type T1 cases. In the 13 patients who had no metastasis, 5 underwent endoscopic mucosal resection and 8 underwent surgery, and their combined 5 year survival rate was 92.3%. For the 5 cases who had metastastses, their mean survival was 22 months and especially, 3 of them underwent palliative surgery and their median survival were 24 months (95%, ${\pm}6.52$). Conclusion: Higher incidence of type III gastric carcinoid tumor and less multiplicity in type I gastric tumor were identified in our study compared with previous reports. For the type III cases, there were some noteable differences compared with the Western country's survival rate for the patients who underwent palliative surgery, so physicians must pay close attention to the definite clinicopathologic characteristics of gastric carcinoid patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.356-362
• /
• 2003

Background: Intralobar and extralobar pulmonary sequestrations have been considered as congenital lesions that occur at different stages of embryonic life. However, most cases of intralobar pulmonary sequestration (IPS) seem to have an acquired origin, as they are absent in infants and associated anomalies are relatively, uncommon among them. Material and Method: The cases of 25 patients who were diagnosed as IPS after surgical resection from December, 1985 to July, 2002 were included in this study. The medical records wire retrospectively reviewed and the clinical characteristics were age at operation; gender; symptoms at presentation; presence of congenital anomalies; combined diseases; preoperative studies and diagnosis; location of the lesion; method of surgical resection; origin, size and numbers of aberrant artery; histopathological findings; and postoperative complications. Result: There were 17 (68%) female patients and 8 (32%) male patients, their ages ranged from 1 to 57 and mean value was 23 years old. Though 14 patients (56%) complained of respiratory symptoms such as pneumonia and recurrent respiratory infections, a large number of patients (44%) were asymptomatic or had chest pain only when the lesion was discovered. Only 8 patients (32%) were diagnosed as pulmonary sequestration preoperatively and 8 (32%) were suspected as mediastinal or lung tumor, 5 (20%) were congenital or acquired cystic lung disease, and 4 (16%) were lung abscess or bronchiectasis, respectively. The majority of aberrant arteries (86.4%) confirmed during the operation were originated from thoracic aorta and 2 were thoracic and abdominal aorta, 1 was abdominal aorta, respectively. The younger patients (less than 10 years old) had more other congenital anomalies (30% vs 6.7%) but the proportion of congenital IPS was not significantly different (10% vs 6.7%, p>0.05) compared with elder patients. Histopathologically, almost all lesions showed chronic inflammation, cystic changes and similar pleural adhesions regardless of age. Conclusion: The large portion of the patients with IPS (44%) was clinically asymptomatic or presented non-respiratory symptoms at diagnosis and likely to be diagnosed as mediastinal or lung tumor especially in elder patients. Though the younger patients had more other congenital anomalies, most cases of IPS proved to be acquired lesions in terms of the histopathlogical findings and the proportion of congenital evidences.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.192-217
• /
• 2001

Object：This study was carried out to classify adolescents in runaway shelters by evaluating their psychopathology. And the ultimate purpose is to offer basic data for preventing adolescents‘ runaway and for diversifying runaway shelters suitable for the problem of individual adolescent. Method：128 adolescents who stay in the runaway shelters were asked to complete self-report qeustionnaires including basic sociodemographic data, Child Behavior Check List(CBCL), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory(MMPI), and Symptom Check List-90-Revised(SCL-90-R). Korean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale(K-WAIS)[or Korean Educational Developmental Institute-Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children(KEDI-WISC)] and Bender-Gestalt test(BGT) were also done by clinical psychologists. Results：The most common age of the subjects were 15-year-old, and they dropped out their schools in the middle school most commonly. Mostly they were from middle class family and their parents' educational level were high school graduates. The first runaway episode was most common in the middleschool period, and their runaways were repeated. The most common frequency of runaways were more than 10 times. About 10% of them abused drugs and about 80% of them abused alcohol. One third of them had experiences of illegal problems and 10% of them engaged in sexual activity for money. 95 adolescents(83%) in CBCL, 42 adolescents(36%) in SCL-90-R, and 70 adolescents(69.3%) in MMPI showed clinical significance. In intelligence test, 22 adolescents(22%) were mentally retarded. In BGT, 35 adolescents(39.4%) manifested brain dysfunction signs. Conclusion：Runaway adolescents in the shelters have variable and severe psychopathology. Their psychopathology is classified as follows；The behavior disorder group, the mood disorder group with anxiety/depression, the somatic disorder group with somatic symptoms, and the psychosis group with possibility of severe psychopathology. Therefore it is very important to evaluate psychiatric problems of runaway adolescents, and specific therapeutic interventions according to their problems are required.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 1996

From the concepts of cellular pathology and of exfoliative cytology, as elucidated by Virchow and Papanicolaou respectively in the late 19th and early 20th century, have evolved the primary methods for the diagnosis of cancer today. From Papanicolaou's concept of exfoliative cytology developed fine needle aspiration biopsy in the early 1960's, this has become a major diagnostic procedure and has contributed to a significant reduction in open biopsies and, therefore, to medical cost-effectiveness immunobiochemical techniques provided us with a supplement to cancer diagnosis in the 1980's. The immunoperoxidase method, using monoclonal antibodies, is applied primarily as an ancillary measure to elucidate the nature of cancers The availability of specific monoclonal antibodies has greatly facilitated the identification of cell products or surface markers. For example, antibodies directed against intermediate filaments have proved to be of value in determining the histogenesis oi poorly differentiated neoplasms. Tumor markers may serve as biochemical indicators of the presence of a neoplasm. They can be detected In plasma and other body fluids. Their concentration can be applied as a diagnostic test, for monitoring the clinical course of known cancer, and as a screening measure to detect certain cancers in a population at risk. Flow cytometry is a useful tool for distinguishing several cell characteristics, such as the immunophenotype of leukemia-lymphoma cells, the DNA content of neoplastic cells, and cell proliferation rate. Molecular biologic techniques provided a giant step for the management of cancer patients encompassing diagnosis, prognostic evaluation, and therapy. Nucleic acid hybridization techniques are utilized as Southern, Northern, and dot blots and in situ hybridization. Molecular biology and its techniques may bring a blight new horizon for understanding cancer biology and in designing therapy on the basis of gene manipulation.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.81-87
• /
• 2006

A lot of studies have investigated the role of psychosocial and behavioral risk factors in the etiology and pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. On the basis of prospective population studies that found a relationship between Type A behavior and cardiac morbidity and mortality independent of traditional risk factors, Type A behavior was declared a risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease. Additionally, recently proposed, a new personality construct, Type D personality have been reported to be associated with the increased risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. In Korea, however, there were few studies about these issues. This article attempts to provide an overview of accumulating evidences on the Type A behavioral pattern and Type D personality related with cardiovascular disease to offer new directions for research.