Menopause Knowledge, Attitude, Symptom and Management among Midlife Employed Women

OBJECTIVES: Midlife women's knowledge, positive attitudes and management toward menopause may improve the quality of peri and post-menopause life. This study was to identify correlations of the knowledge, attitude, symptoms and management toward menopause in middle-aged women. METHODS: We used a cross-sectional questionnaire study applying to 231 perimenopausal and menopausal women aged from 40 to 59 years old. The completed data of 189 perimenopausal and menopausal women were analyzed through t-test, ANOVA and pearson's correlation coefficient using the SPSS statistical programme. RESULTS: The menopausal women showed significantly higher physical symptoms than perimenopausal women. The menopausal women showed significantly higher psychosomatic symptom than perimenopausal women. There was a significant correlation between the menopausal attitude and management. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the fundamental data of developing midlife women's symptom index (MSI) and providing menopause management could be a strategy to encourage successful menopausal transition in middle-aged women.

Lymphoepithelioma-like Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder

A 78-yr-old woman presented with gross hematuria for 2 weeks. On cystoscopy, a frond-like mass was observed at the bladder trigone. Transurethral resection of bladder tumor was performed for the mass. Histopathological findings showed that 90% of lesions were lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELCA) and a few lesions were non-invasive transitional cell carcinoma. On microscopy, syncytial growth pattern and indistinct cytoplasmic borders were observed with the severe infiltration of lymphoid cells. The case was followed-up for 8 months without recurrence. This is the first report of a LELCA case in Korea.

Adenomatoid Tumor of the Spermatic Cord / 대한비뇨기과학회지

Adenomatoid tumors are rare benign neoplasms thought to be of mesothelial origin. Although most reported cases developed from the epididymis, rare cases have been reported in the testicular tunica, spermatic cord and ejaculatory ducts. Because of the benign nature of this tumor, the treatment of choice is local excision. We report a rare case of adenomatoid tumor of the spermatic cord treated by local excision.

DNA Hypermethylation of Tumor-Related Genes in Gastric Carcinoma

The hypermethylation of the CpG islands is a common mechanism for the inactivation of tumor-related genes. In the present study, we analyzed the methylation status of genes for cell repair such as hMLH1, MGMT, and GSTP1, and a gastric cancer-specifically methylated DNA fragment, MINT 25 in gastric cancer cases and control groups. The study population consisted of 100 gastric cancer patients (50 distal and 50 proximal carcinomas), and 238 healthy controls. All genes showed more frequent hypermethylation in the cases than in the control group (p<0.0001). We investigated the association between promoter hypermethylation and relevant parameters including age, gender, alcohol consumption, smoking, and family history. There was a common hypermethylation of hMLH1 (p=0.008), MGMT (p= 0.0001), and GSTP1 (p=0.0003) in females. This study also demonstrates that hypermethylation was strongly associated with non-drinkers (MGMT, p=0.046 and MINT 25, p=0.049) and non-smokers (hMLH1, p=0.044; MGMT, p=0.0003; MINT 25, p=0.029). Moreover, the frequency of MINT 25 hypermethylation increased with age (p=0.037), and MGMT methylation was frequently detected in distal gastric cancer than in proximal type (p=0.038). Our study suggested that promoter hypermethylation of the genes involved in cell repair system and MINT 25 is associated strongly with some subgroups of primary gastric carcinoma.

Skin Metastasis of Neuroendocrine Carcinoma Arising in the Uterine Cervix / 대한피부과학회지

Neuroendocrine carcinoma is known to have features of neuroendocrine and epithelial differentiation through immunochemical and biochemical investigation and Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare primary malignancy of the skin belonging to the broad spectrum of tumors of the neuroendocrine system. Small cell carcinoma of uterine cervix, also a kind of neuroenodcrine carcinoma, is rarely reported and it is much more exceptional in the world that cervical carcinoma metastases to distant skin. Further more this may be the first case of a uterine neuroendocrine carcinoma metastasizing to the skin in Korean medical literature. We report a case of 74-year-old woman who presented with a somewhat fixed subcutaneous nodule measuring 2.5 cmX0.8 cm on the left side of forehead. A biopsy of the nodule revealed a poorly differentiated carcinoma under the muscle without involvement of upper structures and it showed neuroendocrine differentiation by immunohistologic studies. Before appearing as cutaneous manifestation 2 months ago, she had showed a history of abnormal vaginal bleeding and diagnosed as a cervical neuroendocrine carcinoma, especially small cell carcinoma histologically.

Ipsilateral Synchronous Renal Cell Carcinoma and Transitional Cell Carcinoma: A Case Report

We report a synchronous renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and renal pelvic transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) in the kidney of a 74-year-old man. The kidney was without hydronephrosis. The patient was admitted to the hospital because he had intermittent gross hematuria for three years. Histologically, a section of the specimen revealed a conventional (clear cell) RCC in renal parenchyma just beneath the renal pelvis and a papillary urothelial carcinoma arising from the renal pelvis at the upper pole; the two are completely separated from one another. The tumor cells of the TCC showed an overexpression of c-MET immunohistochemical staining and more intense positive reactivity for p53 immunohistochemical staining than those of the RCC. These findings suggest that c-Met and p53 may be associated with the development of papillary TCC.

Molecular Diagnosis of Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoproliferative Diseases

It is often problematic to diagnose T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders of the skin because of the difficulty in establishing clonality in paraffin-embedded tissue. We used polymerase chain reaction single strand conformational polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) and heteroduplex analysis in paraffin embedded tissue to detect clonal rearrangement of T-cell receptor gamma (TCRgamma) gene in 17 T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders and 6 atypical lymphoproliferative diseases. We used polymerase chain reaction to detect TCR beta gene rearrangement in 8 of 17 cases which did not show TCRgamma gene rearrangement. Jurkat cell lines were used as monoclonal controls. DNA was extracted from 5 biopsies of T-cell lymphomas, 10 biopsies of mycosis fungoides, 2 biopsies of lymphomatoid papulosis, and 6 biopsies of atypical lymphoproliferative lesions. We detected monoclonality in 5 of 5 T-cell lymphoma cases, 2 of 2 lymphomatoid papulosis cases, 6 of 10 mycosis fungoides cases, and 2 of 6 atypical lymphoproliferative disease cases. We conclude that nonradioactive PCR-SSCP for TCR gene rearrangement analysis is a useful adjunct to routine histological and immunophenotypic methods in the diagnosis of cutaneous T cell lymphoproliferative disorders in paraffin embedded tissue.