Expression of thymidine phosphorylase in cervical neoplasia: correlation with clinicopathological prognostic factors / 대한산부인과학회잡지

OBJECTIVES: Angiogenesis is a critical factor in the progression of solid tumors, including cervical cancer. However, the association between the expression of thymidine phosphorylase(TP) and clinicopathological factors has scarcely been examined in cervical neoplasia. This study was performed to evaluate the level of TP expression in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia(CIN) and invasive cancer respectively, and to observe the relationship between expression of TP and various clinicopathological factors of cervical cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Total 81 cervical biopsy specimens obtained from Jan. 1995 to Aug. 1996 at YUMC were evaluated for the expression of TP : among these, 9 were pathologically confirmed as benign, 6 as CIN I, 11 as CIN II, 12 as CIN III, and 43 as invasive squamous cell carcinoma(SCC) of uterine cervix. These specimens were immunostained to examine the expression of TP and the results of immunostaining were correlated with various clinicopathological factors of cervical cancer. RESULTS: TP expression progressively increased along a continuum from normal epithelium to invasive SCC(p<0.05) and TP expression in cancer cells was well correlated with pelvic lymph node metastasis(p<0.01), large tumor size(p<0.05) and advanced stage(p<0.05). Overall survival rate for 28 patients with TP-positive cervical cancer was significantly lower than that of 15 patients with TP-negative cervical cancer. CONCLUSIONS: With this study, we can speculate that TP might play a role in the growth and metastatic process of cervical neoplasia and be a possible prognostic factor of cervical cancer.

A Case of Aplasia Cutis Congenita Associated with Fetus Papyraceous / 대한주산의학회잡지

No abstract available.

A Case of the Holt-Oram Syndrome with Unaffected Parents Diagnosed by Antenatal Ultrasonography / 대한산부인과학회잡지

Holt-Oram Syndrome is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by the association of upper-limb abnormalities and congenital heart disease. A woman with no family history of genetic disease underwent antenatal sonography at 27 weeks' menstrual age to screen for fetal anomalies. Ultrasonography revealed abnormalities in the upper limbs. The limb abnormalities included abscence of bilateral thumbs and radius: the left humus was short. Pregnancy termination was performed. The postnatal chromosomal analysis revealed a normal 46XX karyotype and the autopsy finding confirmed the Holt-Oram syndrome. We report a case of Holt-Oram Syndrome in fetus with unaffected parents with brief of the literatures.

Factors Affecting the Complaints of Subjective Symptoms in VDT Operators / 대한산업의학회지

In order to investigate symptoms prevalence related to visual display terminal (VDT) syndrome, and to evaluate the variables affecting the development of the VDT syndrome, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 119 (92 men and 27 women) VDT operators who had been engaged in one plant design company in Seoul. The results were as follows : The average age of questionnaire respondents was 30. The average years of service were 4.3 years, and the working hours per day with VDT for half of them were more than 4 hours with the average being about 4.7 hours. The majority of subjects (71 persons) were working at computer aided design (CAD) or computer programming tasks. Subjective symptoms of VDT syndrome were divided into 4 groups with musculoskeletal, eye, skin, and industrial fatigue according to their major affected organ. 4 high incidence of complaints of eye discomfort was observed. In the 3 subgroups of industrial fatigue symptom, the highest average group score was accounted for by 'dullness and sleepiness', followed by 'difficulty in concentration', 'bodily projection of fatigue' in the order of sequence, suggesting the heavier mental stress of VDT work rather than physical burden. Relationship among these 4 groups of symptoms showed statistically significant correlations one another. This result suggests that VDT syndrome is a multi-organ disease composed of these 4 symptom groups which were commonly caused by the use of VDT. Multiple regression analysis were used to examine the relationship between risk factors and these symptom groups of VDT syndrome. As the result of analysis, the most important risk factor for VDT syndrome was the average daily VDT working hours. The longer was VDT working hours, the higher was symptom prevalence of VDT syndrome. In addition, daily total working hours including VDT working hours and shift of work also affected the health of VDT users. In order to protect workers from VDT syndrome, it is urgently required to implement standard management recommendations including restriction of VDT working hours and allowance of more sufficient resting time for VDT workers.