A case of Balantidium coli in the gastric juice of a neonate / 대한주산의학회잡지

Balantidium coli is the only pathogenic ciliate parasitizing humans. Balantidium coli is widely distributed in hogs, particularly in warm and temperate climates, and in monkeys in the tropics. It is infrequently pathogenic for man. Balantidium coli is considered as a possible pathogen in immunocompromised patients. The infection fundamentally affects the colon and cause variable clinical pictures, from asymptomatic to serious dysenteric forms. Apart from intestinal involvement there have been reports on lung, liver, vagina infection by Balantidium coli. Balantidium coli were observed in the gastric juice of neonate. this is first report of asymptomatic balantidiasis in neonate.

A Case of Esophageal Achalasia in a 10-Year-Old Girl with Persistent Asthma / 소아알레르기및호흡기학회지

Achalasia is a primary esophageal motor disorder, which is a rare disease with an estimated prevalence of 0.5-1 per 100,000 general population. The typical symptoms are vomiting, dysphagia and weight loss, but the respiratory symptoms are often presented in the 20-30% of the patients. The respiratory symptoms are known to be caused by the regurgitation or aspiration of the undigested food. Choking, recurrent pneumonia nocturnal cough are common and bronchiectasis, lung abscess and atelectasis also have been reported. The treatment of achalasia aimed at improving esophageal peristalsis by reducing pressure at the lower esophageal sphincter. We experienced a case of esophageal achalasia coincidentally found in a 10-year-old girl who was admitted with the exacerbation of asthma. She had pneumatic dilatation and her asthma symptoms including nocturnal cough much improved.

A Case of Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis Presenting with Bilateral Optic Neuritis associated with Mycoplasma pneumoniae / 대한소아신경학회지

Mycoplasma pneumoniae(M. pneumoniae) is a well-known human respiratory pathogen. It also affects various organ systems and causes extrapulmonary complications, including neurologic, cutaneous, hematologic and ophthalmologic complications. M. pneumoniae has been implicated in a number of immune-mediated neurological diseases, such as ADEM, Gullian- Barre syndrome, and transverse myelitis. We present a 5-year-old boy with bilateral optic neuritis related to ADEM and pruritic skin lesions simultaneously associated with M. pneumoniae infection. He developed a headache with decreased activity six weeks before admission. He had no respiratory symptoms. Cerebral MRI showed multiple bilateral subcortical white matter lesions, suggesting a radiologic diagnosis of ADEM. M. pneumoniae was positive serologically. The cerebrospinal fluid polymerase chain reaction for M. pneumoniae was negative. The treatment with intravenous high-dose steroids and oral clarithromycin resulted in the rapid recovery of the patients visual and cutaneous problems. He was found to have returned to his normal conditions in the follow-up examination. We believe that immune-mediated injury can explain all the clinical manifestations of our case, which are ADEM-associated optic neuritis and cutaneous lesions.

Expression of Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor mRNAs according to Administration of Geneticin in Hypoxic Neuron Cell Culture

PURPOSE: Recently, Geneticin (G418) were known to exert neuroprotective effects in the hypoxic-ischemic (H-I) brain injury, but the mechanism is still unclear. The roles of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and FGF receptor (FGFR) ware not well known in the H-I brain injury. We investigated the neuroprotective effects of systemically administrated Geneticin through the regulation of FGFR following the H-I brain injury METHODS: The cortical neuron cell culture of Spague-Dawley (SD) rat embryo brain (E18) was done in a hypoxic incubator. The cultured cells were divided three groups: a normoxia group, a hypoxia group, and an Geneticin-treated group. After verifying the desired amount of cellular injury in the hypoxia group, the Geneticin-treated group (after an H-I insult) was further divided into two groups. This produced four final groups: normoxia, hypoxia, and Geneticin-treated groups before H-I insult and a Geneticin-treated group after HI insult. The expression of FGFR-2 and FGFR-3 mRNA was measured using Northern blotting. RESULTS: The expression of FGFR-2 and FGFR-3 mRNA was notably increased in the hypoxic group compared to the normoxic group. In both Geneticin-treated groups before and after a hypoxic insult, the expression of FGFR-2 and FGFR-3 mRNA was decreased. CONCLUSION: It suggests that FGFR has an important role in hypoxic brain injury. Geneticin appears to exert a protective effect through down regulation of the expression of FGFR mRNA. However, more experiments are needed in order to demonstrate the usefulness of Geneticin as a preventative and rescue treatment for H-I brain injuries of neonatal brain.