• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.128-132
• /
• 2020

Tanycytic ependymoma is a rare variant of ependymoma that commonly affects the cervical and thoracic spinal cord. It usually arises as intramedullary lesions, and extramedullary cases are extremely rare. We report a case of a 44-year-old woman who was diagnosed with tanycytic ependymoma in her lumbar spine at level 2-3. The tumor mass developed in an intradural extramedullary location. Histopathologically, tanycytic ependymoma can be misdiagnosed as schwannoma or pilocytic astrocytoma. Immunohistochemical findings such as strong positivity for glial fibrillary acidic protein, perinuclear dot-like positive patterns for epithelial membrane antigen, and focal positivity for S100 protein are helpful in diagnosing tanycytic ependymoma. It is important to be aware of this rare tumor to ensure appropriate patient management and accurate prognosis.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.76-82
• /
• 2009

It would be one of the most important tests that determination of semen in crime scene as a matter of significant evidences. Recently, it has been developed for the identification of semen in forensic specimens which was used simply, easily and reproductively. In this study, Prostate-Specific-Antigen (PSA) Rapid Test kit was evaluated for the forensic identification of semen and compared with one step semen inspection forensic rapid test kit. The sensitivity and specificity of the rapid PSA kit were examined in addition to the stability of PSA. The positive band of rapid PSA kit shown even with 1,000,000-fold diluted semen, which was at least 100 timed higher than qualitative one step semen inspection forensic rapid test kit. PSA was detected in urine from normal male adult, however, it was not detected in urine from young boys and female body fluids. It was shown that PSA was very stable to resist boiling for 20 minutes and the effect of bacteria. In crime scene investigation, rapid PSA kit is expected to help to identify semen easily in the evidences.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.89-96
• /
• 1987

To test the efficacies of thiosulfate in cyanide poisoning with or without oxygen, after the administration of sublethal dose of potassium cyanide, serial arterial blood samples were collected during 60 minutes in 15 rabbits. Cyanide ion concentrations were measured by Conway cell microdiffusion method, and arterial oxygen tensions were also observed. Comparison of elimination constants showed that arterial blood cyanide ion concentration decreased most rapidly in the thiosulfate with oxygen-administered group. The elimination of cyanide ion by the action of thiosulfate in acutely poisoned rabbit accelerated probably due to oxygen and elimination pattern seems to occur by first-order elimination kinetics.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.57 no.6
• /
• pp.635-638
• /
• 2019

Horace N. Allen, an American physician, was a Presbyterian missionary to Korea. In 1886, he wrote the annual report of the Korean government hospital, summarizing patient statistics according to outpatient and inpatient classification for the first ever in Korean history. In the report, he speculated that hemoptysis cases of outpatient might have been mainly caused by distoma. Allen's conjecture was noteworthy because only a few years lapsed since the first scientific report of paragonimiasis. However, he was not sure of his assumption either because it was not evidently supported by proper microscopic or post-mortem examinations. In this letter, we thus revisit his assumption with our parasitological data recently obtained from Joseon period mummies.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.51-58
• /
• 2008

The present study was designed to explore the immunotoxic effects of orally administered aluminum (AI) on pregnant rats (n = 60) and their growing fetuses and consequently on the animal wealth. The animals were randomly allocated into three equal groups of 20 rats each. The first group has no treatment and kept as a control (G1). The second and third groups of pregnant rats were treated orally with aluminum chloride at 345 mg/Kg b.wt. The second group (G2) received the tested compound from the $6^{th}$ day of gestation to the end of weaning, whereas the third group (G3) received the tested compound from the $15^{th}$h day of gestation to the end of weaning. Control and treated animals (dams and offspring) were immunized ip with (0.5 ml) 20% sheep red blood cell (SRBC) suspension seven days before the end of experiments. At the end of exposure, ten dams and ten offspring from each group were used for assessment of cell-mediated immunity and a similar number of animals were sacrificed for evaluating the humoral immune response and serum protein profile. Aluminum chloride exposure of dams ($G_2&G_3$) caused significant suppression of both cell mediated and humoral immune responses in the obtained offsprings compared to the control group ($G_1$) without any significant effect on the immune responses of these dams. Moreover, the serum total globulins, albumin/ globulin (A/G) ratio and gamma globulin fraction were significantly decreased in the treated dam's offsprings compared to the corresponding controls while the serum total protein and all serum protein fractions showed non significant difference between the control and treated dams and between the two treated dam groups themselves. There were no histopathological changes observed in thymus, spleen and liver of the control and treated dams. Thymus of treated dam's offsprings (G2) showed lymphoid depletion in both cortex and medulla. Their spleens showed lymphoid depletion in the white pulps and congestion with hemosiderosis in the red pulps. Liver of treated dam's offsprings showed dilation and congestion of its central vein with degenerative changes in the hepatocytes. These histopathological changes were more severe in G2 than in G3 offsprings. It can be concluded that gestational and/ or lactation exposure of pregnant dams to AI chloride caused suppression of both cellular and humoral immune responses of their offsprings.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.27-36
• /
• 2006

The cases of unidentified individual remains submitted to Forensic dentistry section in National Institute of Scientific Investigation, Korea were analyzed to study the application of forensic dental identification into individual identification in the period 2002-2005. The identification cases of unidentified remains were 405 out of 493, which accounted about 82% of whole cases. The incidence of submission of skeletons at least including the skull was increased from 58% in 2002 to 80% in 2005. The numbers of cases for the full examinations were 4 times more than that for age estimation in 2005. Twenty-four cases were submitted for skull to photographic superimposition and 15 out of 24 cases were examined, and the other 9 cases were examined by DNA analysis only. The submitted cases for dental comparison were 23 cases, 9 cases were positively identified, 4 cases were possible, 7 cases were excluded, and 3 cases ended up with insufficient evidences. The proportion of positive identification by dental methods was increased gradually from 9% in 2002 to 46% in 2005. Forensic dental identification has become important and useful because the availability of dental records and radiographs has been increasing. Compared to DNA analysis, forensic dental identification has several advantages such as no needs for high cost equipments and low expenses. And the interpretation of results is straightforward and speedy. These advantages are based on using primary their own dental records of the individuals rather than secondary DNA reference samples from family members. The application of the forensic dental identification to unidentified individual remains will be increased because the dental comparison can complement the limitation of DNA analysis and skull to photographic superimposition in many cases. In order to obtain positive identifications of unidentified remains, a close collaboration between the police and forensic scientists is important. The systemic approach including legislation to preserve dental records of unidentified remains and missing persons for the identification of unidentified remains should be needed.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.253-260
• /
• 1997

한국인 집단에서 개인식별의 기초자료로 활용하고자 한국인 201명을 대상으로 STR 유전좌위 중 하나인 LPL 유전좌위의 유전자 빈도 및 유전자형 분포를 구하였다. 혈액으로부터 추출한 핵 DNA를 중합효소연쇄반응으로 증폭시키고 폴리아크릴아마이드 겔 상에서 전기영동하여 은염색한 후 관찰하여 다음의 결과를 얻었다. 1. 한국인 집단 201명의 LPL 유전자에서 5개의 대립유전자, 7개의 유전자형을 검출하였으며, 이형접합도는 50.7%로 나타났고 대립 유전자다양성 (allelic diversity value)은 0.454, 개 인식 별력 (PD)은 0.674를 보였다. 2. 대립 유전자 및 유전자빈도는 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 대립 유전자에서 각각 0.020, 0.714, 0.100, 0.164, 0.002로 나타났으며, 대립유전자 7, 8, 14는 관찰되지 않았다. 이상의 결과를 볼 때 한국인 집단에서 STR LPL유전좌위의 유전자빈도는 친자감정 등 개인식별에 유용하게 사용할 수 있으나 감정실무에 응용시 다수의 STR유전좌위 및 VNTR유전좌위의 분석을 병행하여야 할 것으로 사료된다.

• Journal of forensic and investigative science
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.45-53
• /
• 2006

The purposes of fire investigation are to identify and analyze the causes of fire and, using the results in promoting fire fighting policies, ultimately to prevent fires caused by similar causes and to protect people's life and properties from fire. However, although the patterns of fire are getting more diverse and complicated with the rapid development of industry, complicated with the rapid development of industry, fire fighting organizations are continuing traditional superficial fire investigation without operating a fire investigation department for the reason of insufficient manpower, equipment and budget, losing public confidence. Thus, the present study purposed to propose plans to improve the technicality of fire investigation and win public confidence in fire investigation. First, the technicality of fire investigation should be improved by operating a department and personnel exclusively for fire investigation. Second, fire investigation should be more scientific and precise using high tech fire investigation equipment. Lastly, responsible fire fighting administration should be realized through statistical analysis of the causes of fire and computerization. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the safety and security of our society.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.317-329
• /
• 1996

Allelic frequency and genotype distribution of short tandem repeat(STR) F13A01 locus was analysed by polymerase chain reaction, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and silver staining from human genomic deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA) was extracted from 205 unrelated Korean to be applied to forensic identification and parentage testing as a database. The results were as follows : 1. 5 alleles and 11 genotypes of F13A01 locus were detected and heterozygosity value was 62.0% and the observed each alleles and allelic frequency was 3.2(0.363), 4(0.105), 5(0.063), 6(0.466), 16(0.002). 2. The allelic diversity value was 0.639 and the power of discrimination was 0.804.3. Compared with observed number of alleles and allele frequency in ethnic difference, result was appeared to be similar to that of Japanese and Asians, while was appeared to be much different to that of Blacks and Caucasians in the observed number of alleles and frequency of allele 3.2, 5, 7. From the above result of this investigation, the allelic frequency of STR F13A01 locus in the Korean was considerd to be useful for individual identification and parentage testing as a database.

• Genomics & Informatics
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.93-96
• /
• 2013

The prediction of externally visible characteristics from DNA has been studied for forensic genetics over the last few years. Externally visible characteristics include hair, skin, and eye color, height, and facial morphology, which have high heritability. Recent studies using genome-wide association analysis have identified genes and variations that correlate with human visible phenotypes and developed phenotype prediction programs. However, most prediction models were constructed and validated based on genotype and phenotype information on Europeans. Therefore, we need to validate prediction models in diverse ethnic populations. In this study, we selected potentially useful variations for forensic science that are associated with hair and eye color, iris pattern, and facial morphology, based on previous studies, and analyzed their frequencies in 1,920 Koreans. Among 20 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), 10 SNPs were polymorphic, 6 SNPs were very rare (minor allele frequency < 0.005), and 4 SNPs were monomorphic in the Korean population. Even though the usability of these SNPs should be verified by an association study in Koreans, this study provides 10 potential SNP markers for forensic science for externally visible characteristics in the Korean population.