Higher QT Dispersion in Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder

OBJECTIVES: Social phobia is frequently accompanied with autonomic nerve system symptoms. QT dispersion( QTd) is the maximum inter-lead difference in QT interval, an indicator of the autonomic nerve system( ANS) disparity of the heart itself. The objective of this study is to investigate the ANS disparity, which is measured by QTd, is associated with pathophysiology of social phobia. METHODS: This research have compared QT dispersion of 25 physically healthy social phobia outpatients(16 men, 9 women, the average age 35.5 +/- 12.9) and age and sex matched control group of mentally and physically healthy 25 volunteers(16 men, 9 women, the average age 34.83 +/- 12.7). QTd was measured by previously described method. RESULTS: QTd and rate-corrected QTd were significantly higher on the patient group than the control group[QTd(patients vs. controls : 52.60 +/- 27.63ms vs. 27.53 +/- 14.29ms, p<0.0001), QTd(patients vs. controls : 55.79 +/- 27.98ms vs. 29.10 +/- 14.24ms, p<0.0001)]. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that the patients with social phobia have higher QTd than the normal controls. These results suggest that the ANS disparity, which is measured by QTd, is associated with pathophysiology of social phobia.

Refeeding Syndrome Associated with Delusion in a Schizophrenic Patient

Refeeding syndrome is a life-threatening but treatable condition occurring in any patients with starvation. Electrolyte imbalance, especially hypophosphatemia and fluid shift result in metabolic changes in various systems. The authors reported a case of refeeding syndrome associated with prolonged starvation due to delusion and hallucination in a 38-year-old schizophrenia patient. Hypophosphatemia, hypokalemia, edema and elevation of liver enzyme was occurred despite careful treatment. The symptoms were improved after consistent electrolyte supplement. Close observation and repetitive monitoring are important to prevent refeeding syndrome.

Effect of Dendritic Cell Based Cancer Vaccine Using Allogeneic Tumor Cell Lysate in Melanoma Pulmonary Metastasis Model

BACKGROUND: To perform the successful dendritic cell-based cancer immunotherapy one of the main issues to be solved is the source of antigen for DC pulsing. Limitations occur by using auto-tumor lysate due to the difficulties obtaining enough tumor tissue(s) quantitatively as well as qualitatively. In this study the possibility of allogeneic tumor cell lysate as a DC pulsing antigen has been tested in mouse melanoma pulmonary metastasis model. METHODS: B16F10 melanoma cells (1x10(5)/mouse) were inoculated intravenously into the C57BL/6 mouse. Therapeutic DCs were cultured from the bone marrow myeloid lineage cells with GM-CSF and IL-4 (1,000 U/ml each) for 7 days and pulsed with lysate of either autologous B16F10 (B-DC), allogeneic K1735 (C3H/He origin; K-DC) or CloneM3 (DBA2 origin; C-DC) melanoma cells for 18 hrs. Pulsed-DCs (1x10(6)/mouse)[CGP1] were injected i.p. twice with one week interval starting from the day 1 after tumor cell inoculation. RESULTS: Without observable toxicity, allogeneic tumor cell lysate pulsed-DC induced the significantly better anti-tumor response (tumor scale: 2.7+/-0.3, 0.7+/-0.3 and 0.3+/-0.2 for saline, B-DC and C-DC treated group, respectively). Along with increased tumor specific lymphocyte proliferations, induction of IFN-gamma secretion against both auto- and allo-tumor cell lysates was observed from the DC treated mice. (w/B16F10-lysate: 44.97+/-10.31, 1787.94+/-131.18, 1257.15+/-48.27, w/CloneM3 lysate: 0, 1591.13+/-1.83, 1460.47+/-86.05 pg/ml for saline, B-DC and C-DC treated group, respectively) Natural killer cell activity was also increased in the mice treated with tumor cell lysate pulsed-DC (8.9+/-[CGP2]0.1, 11.6+/-0.8 and 12.6+/-0.7% specific NK activity for saline, B-DC and C-DC treated group, respectively). CONCLUSION: Conclusively, promising data were obtained that allogeneic-tumor cell lysate can be used as a tumor antigen for DC-based cancer immunotherapy.