Influence of Phacoemulsification on Progression of Glaucoma and Analysis of Related Factors in Glaucoma Patients

PURPOSE: To evaluate the factors affecting glaucoma progression after cataract surgery with phacoemulsification. METHODS: The medical charts of 109 eyes of 68 patients with glaucoma who had phacoemulsification were retrospectively reviewed. The course of glaucoma was followed up for at least 2 years. Age, sex, diabetes, hypertension, preoperative mean deviation, phacoemulsification time, cataract type, refractive error, preoperative and postoperative visual acuity, preoperative and postoperative intraocular pressure, axial length, and central corneal thickness between the progression group and the non-progression group were compared. RESULTS: Among 109 eyes with glaucoma, 19 (17.4%) eyes were classified into the glaucoma progression group. In the multivariate analysis, age (p = 0.026), preoperative mean deviation (p < 0.001), and phacoemulsification time (p < 0.001) were statistically associated with glaucoma progression. CONCLUSIONS: For patients with glaucoma, phacoemulsification may result in its progression. Special attention should be given to patients with the above risk factors.

A Case of Angiosarcoma Arising from the Eyelid

PURPOSE: To report a case of angiosarcoma arising from the eyelid. CASE SUMMARY: A 72-year-old male patient presented with swelling and erythema on the upper and lower eyelid of 10 months in duration. After the diagnosis of cutaneous angiosarcoma via tissue biopsy, no evidence of systemic metastasis was found. The right eyelid was treated with radiation therapy and a partial clinical response was achieved. After 4 months of follow-up, swelling and a red-purple plaque developed on the same (right) eyelid. Another biopsy was performed and the histological examination indicated a recurrence of angiosarcoma. Neither local nor distant metastases were observed. However, large-sized and ill-defined margins warranted size reduction by paclitaxel neoadjuvant chemotherapy, followed by surgical excision and eyelid reconstruction. CONCLUSIONS: Angiosarcoma commonly occurs on the face and scalp, but rarely occurs on the eyelids. Herein, the authors report a case of angiosarcoma arising from the eyelid.

Use of Cytochrome c Oxidase Subunit I (COI) Nucleotide Sequences for Identification of the Korean Luciliinae Fly Species (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in Forensic Investigations

Blowflies, especially species belonging to the subfamily Luciliinae, are the first insects to lay eggs on corpses in Korea. Fast and accurate species identification has been a key task for forensic entomologists. Because conventional morphologic identification methods have many limitations with respect to forensic practice, molecular methods have been proposed to identify fly species of forensic importance. To this end, the authors amplified and sequenced the full length of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene of the Luciliinae fly species collected in Korea. The results showed the COI sequences are instrumental in identifying Luciliinae fly species. However, when compared with previously reported data, considerable inconsistencies were noted. Hemipyrellia ligurriens data in this study differed significantly from two of the five pre-existing data. Two closely related species, Lucilia illustris and Lucilia caesar, showed an overlap of COI haplotypes due to four European sequences. The results suggest that more individuals from various geographic regions and additive nuclear DNA markers should be analyzed, and morphologic identification keys must be reconfirmed to overcome these inconsistencies.

Molecular Identification of Four Muscidae Species Collected in Korea using the DNA Barcode Region of Mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit I / 대한법의학회지

DNA barcoding was recently introduced to molecular identification of forensically important fly species. So, we have analysed the barcode region (687 nucleotides) of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene for four species of Muscidae flies collected from Korea. The sequences were aligned and analysed to construct a phylogenetic tree using DNA Star 5.01(DNAStar Inc) and MEGA 3.1 program(Kumar, Tamura, Nei 2004). Intraspecific variation was not noted between M.stabulans individual to each other. Intraspecific variation ranges of other species were 0.1%, 0.1~0.3% and 0.1~0.6% for O.leucostoma, M.angustifrons and M.domestica, respectively. Interspecific percent distance was minimal(9.7~10.0%) between M.stabulans and M.angustifrons. Other species showed above 10% distance from each other. The result showed that four species of Muscidae fly species (Muscina angustifrons, Muscina stabulans, Ophyra leucostoma and Musca domestica) were identifiable from each other with analysis of barcode region of COI gene. Therefore, we conclude that species identification of forensically important Muscidae flies used in this study is possible with percent distance of sequences of COI barcode region, but more species and individuals should be examined to be confident about the conclusion.

Death due to hydrogen sulfide poisoning after drain cleansing in an apartment house / 대한법의학회지

A nine-year old boy was found unconscious by his father in his apartment house. He was transferred to the emergency unit immediately but resuscitation was failed. Drain cleansing was performed just before the deceased came home. The father stated that there was foul odor in the house when he opened the door. The autopsy finding showed only nonspecific findings including severe pulmonary edema. Significant amount of sulfide ion was detected from blood and brain tissue. The cause of death was concluded as hydrogen sulfide poisoning.

DNA-based Identification of Forensically Important Blow Fly Species in Korea; Aldrichina grahami, Calliphora lata, Calliphora vicina and Phormia regina / 대한법의학회지

Entomological evidence, especially necrophagous flies, are important in estimating postmortem interval in a putrefied corpse. Accurate and rapid species identification of eggs, maggots and pupae is required because growth rates and ecological characteristics are different among different species. But species identification of these immature stages of insects is difficult or impossible to even an expert entomologist. We tried to identify the necrophagous fly species using molecular data. Adult specimens of four forensically important blow fly species [Aldrichina grahami, Calliphora lata, Calliphora vicina and Phormia regina] were used for DNA extraction and sequences analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (CO1) in this study. A total of 560 base pairs(bp) of the CO1 region was recovered using the newly designed specific primer pairs and was sequenced to compare it with those of same fly species registered in NCBI GenBank. The results presented in Table 2 to 6 demonstrate not only the potential utility of the COI sequence in interspecific discrimination, but also indicate that this sequence is probably not suitable for use with intraspecific studies, especially for dividing different local populations within the same species.

Molecular Identification of Six Necrophagous Fly Species (Family: Muscidae) by Mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit I / 대한법의학회지

Estimation of postmortem interval (PMI) in a putrefied corpse has been a long theme in the forensic medicine. Insects, especially necrophagous fly species are now utilized as indicators of PMI because the first visitors to a dead body are usually known to be blow fly species (Family Calliphoridae). House flies (Family Muscidae) are later visitors but they are very significant in forensic entomology because of their worldwide distribution. Entomologic evidences recovered from the scene are often immature individuals such as eggs, maggots and pupae. Because growth rates and ecological characteristics are different among fly species, accurate species identification is essential. As species identification in immature stages is very difficult or even impossible to an expert entomologist, many researchers are trying to identify fly species by molecular techniques. Authors analyzed 400bp of mitochondrial COI gene sequences of six Muscidae fly species (Fannia prisca, Muscina angustifrons, Muscina stabulans, Musca domestica, Hydrotaea dentipes and Ophyra leucostoma). In spite of limited number of flies analyzed in this study, all six fly species have different haplotype of COI gene and shows minimal intraspecific variation. This result shows that six fly species analyzed in this study can be discriminated each other by COI gene sequence analysis. But, more individuals from various geographic region should be analyzed to apply this result to a forensic entomology practice.