The Role of Protein Kinase C in Acute Lung Injury Induced by Endotoxin / 결핵

BACKGROUND: The signal pathways and their precise roles for acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by endotoxin (ETX) has not been established. Since there has been several in vitro experiments suggesting that activation of protein kinase C (PKC) pathway may be responsible for endotoxin-induced inflammatory reaction, we performed in vivo experiments in the rats with the hypothesis that PKC-inhibition can effectively prevent endotoxin-induced acute lung injury. METHODS: We studied the role of PKC in ETX-induced ALl using PKC inhibitor (staurosporine, 5Th) in the rat. Specific pathogen free male Sprague-Dawley weighted from 165 to 270g were used for the study. Animals were divided into the normal control (NC)-, vehicle control (VC)-, ETX-, PMA (phorbolmyristateacetate)-, STP+PMA-, and STP+ETX-group. PMA (50mg/kg) or ETX (7mg/kg) was instilled through polyethylen catheter after aseptic tracheostomy with and without STP (0.2mg/kg) pretreatment. STP was injected via tail vein 30mm before intratracheal injection (IT) of PMA or ETX. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was done 3- or 6-hrs after IT of PMA or FTX respectively, to measure protein concentration, total and differential cell counts. RESULTS The results were as follows. The protein concentrations in BALF in the PMA- and ETX-group were very higher than that of VC-group (p<0.001). When animals were pretreated with STP, the %reduction of the protein concentration in BALF was 64.8 8.5 and 30.4 2.5% in the STP+PMA- and STP+ETX-group, respectively (p=0.028). There was no difference in the total cell counts between the PMA-and VC-group (p = 0.26). However the ETX-group showed markedly increased total cell counts as compared to the VC- (p=0.003) and PMA group (p=0.0027), respectively. The total cell counts in BALF were not changed after pretreatment with STP compared to the PMA- (p=0.22) and ETX-group (p=0.46). The percentage of PMN, but not alveolar macrophage, was significantly elevated in the PMA-, and ETX-group. Especially in the ETX-group, the percentage of PMN was 17 times higher than that of PMA (p<0.001). The differential cell counts was not different between the PMA and STP+PMA. On the contrary the STP+ETX-group showed decreased percentage of PMN (p = 0.016). There was no significant relationship between the protein concentration and the total or differential cell counts in each group. CONCLUSION: Pretreatment with PKC-inhibitor (staurosporine) partially but significantly inhibited ETX-in-duced ALI.

Endoscopic Characteristics of Lymphangioma of Colon / 대한소화기내시경학회지

Lymphangioma of the large bowel is a rare benign tumor which is composed of numerous small or large thin-walled lymphatie spaces contained fibrous tissue, smooth muscle and aggregates of lymphoid tissue. Lymphangioma never demonstrated any potential for malignant degeneration. There are three types; l. simple capillary lymphangioma, 2 cavernous lymphangioma and 3 cystic lymphangioma. Endoscopically, lymphangioma appears as a compressible smooth, round, or oval submucosal tumor covered with pale intact mucosa. The surfaces is smooth and the superficial color is the same as the surrouding mucosa or slightly more yellowish. There are change of dimension and shape during propagation of the peristaltic wave and on compression. Recently, authors experienced 4 cases of lymphangioma of large intestine which has been revealed by typical colonoscopic findings and/or endoscopic ultrasound, and confirmed by surgical resection and colonscopic snare polypectomy. 3 of 4 cases show cystic lymphangioma and one case shows carvenous lymphangio~rna. We report these cases with review of literatures.

Diffuse Alveolar Damage Associated with Polymyositis / 결핵

Interstitial pneumonitis may be the presenting manifestation of polymyositis-dermatomyositis (PM-DM), or may occur later in the evolution of disease. The clinical picture is characterized by non-productive cough, dyspnea and hypoxemia. The chest radiograph demonstrates interstitial infiltrates with predilection for the lung bases, often with an alveolar pattern in addition. We experienced a case of polymyositis associated with diffuse alveolar damage(DAD) that was proven in open lung biopsy. The patient was a 52 year-old woman who was presented with 6 months' duration of generalized ache, edema on ankle and wrist, non-productive cough and mild dyspnea. She had typical symptoms and physical findings of interstitial pneuminitis, and elevated muscle enzyme levels in serum with characteristic histologic findings of myositis on muscle biopsy. She also had typical interstitial lung disease pattern on high resolution CT and restrictive pattern on pulmonary function tests. The findings of open lung biopsy was compatible with diffuse alveolar damage(DAD). She failed to respond to the therapeutic trials with corticosteroid and cyclophosphamide, and finally expired due to acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Endoscopic Application of Tannenbaum Stent with OASISTM / 대한소화기내시경학회지

Endoscopic biliary drainage has been established as the palliative treatment of choice for malignant obstructive jaundice. But the clogging of biliary endoprosthesis has been a persistent problem faced by endoscopists over many years. Different materials, sizes, and designs have been used in efforts to overcome this problem. Recently, there are some reports that incorporating sideholes increases the risk of stent clogging, and prostheses without sideholes had significantly lower clogging compared to those with sideholes. And then Soehendra and his colleagues introduced a new design Teflon straight stent without sideholes, designated "Tan-nenbaum" (TB) stents, and reported that TB stent had significantly longer patency than Teflon pigtail stent with sideholes. When placing the TB stent, we used OASIS (One Action Stent Introduction System). This introducer enables the stent to be pre-loaded onto the distal tip of the guiding catheter and placed endoscopically in one step. By using OASIS, we reduced the duration of placing the stent in narrowed bile duct and the patients were more tolerable. Now, we report our experience of endoscopic retrograde biliary drainage by use of TB stent and OASIS" in 12 patients with obstructive jaundice due to malignancy.

Endoscopic Ultrasonography in Gallstone Pancreatitis / 대한소화기내시경학회지

Gallstone pancreatitis is caused by migration of gallstones through the common bile duct and ampulla of Vater, where ohetruction or impaction may occur. Early detection and endoscopic treatment of impacted gallstones are very important for the amelieration of pancreatitis. Pancreatic imagings, such as conventional ultrasonography, computerised tomography(CT) and endoscopic retrograde cholangiypancreatography(ERCP) have beea used for the diagnosis of gallstone pancreatitis. But these imaging net are often unsatisfactory fordetection of the impacted gallstones in the common bile duct ampulla of Vater. Especially ERCP has been contraindicated in acute pancreatitis. Endoscopic ultrasonography(EUS), which was recently developed, has been known as highly accurate diagnostic tool in the diagnosis of biliary and pancreatic disease. The high resolution of EUS is capable of showing unique morphological detail in gallstone pancreatitis. We report 3 cases of gallstone pancreatitis which Was accurately diagnosed by EUS and successfully treated by endoscopic treatment.