Hepatitis B core antigen expression pattern predicts response to lamivudine therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B / 대한간학회지

BACKGROUNDS/AIMS: Negative hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) staining in hepatocytes is indicative of viral replication by an active immune response. HBcAg is expressed mainly in the cytoplasm in patients with active hepatitis and hepatocyte regeneration, and mainly in the nuclei of hepatocytes in patients with minimal liver injury in the absence of hepatocyte regeneration. The aim of this study was to elucidate whether the existence and expression pattern of HBcAg predicts the response to antiviral treatment. METHODS: The study involved 58 patients with biopsy-proven chronic hepatitis B who were treated with lamivudine. Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg), antibody to HBeAg, hepatitis B virus DNA, and alanine aminotransferase in serum were recorded every 3 months. The inflammation grade and the fibrosis stage of chronic hepatitis were scored from 0 to 4 according to lobular inflammation, portal inflammation, periportal inflammation, and fibrosis. RESULTS: The 58 patients included 49(84%) HBcAg-positive patients, with HBcAg staining confined to the cytoplasm in 15(31%) and in both cytoplasm and nuclei in 34(69%). The grade of lobular inflammation and the total histology score were significantly higher in patients with cytoplasmic expression of HBcAg than in HBcAg-negative patients (lobular inflammation: 2.9 vs 2.1, P=0.02; total histology score: 12.2 vs 10.3, P=0.04). The virologic responses at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months differed significantly between the cytoplasmic and mixed expression groups (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The expression pattern of HBcAg (including its possible absence) before initial therapy appears to predict the response to antiviral treatment.

A Comparison of Conventional Cytology and ThinPrep Cytology of Bronchial Washing Fluid in the Diagnosis of Lung Cancer / 결핵및호흡기질환

Background: A ThinPrep(R) Processor was developed to overcome the limitations of conventional cytology and is widely used to diagnose various cancers. This study compared the diagnostic efficacy of conventional cytology for lung cancer with that of the ThinPrep(R) cytology using the bronchial washing fluid. Methods: The bronchial washing fluid of 790 patients from Jan. 2002 to Dec. 2006, who were suspected of gaving a lung malignancy, was evaluated. Both ThinPrep(R) and conventional cytology were performed for all specimens. Result: Four hundred forty-six men and 344 women were enrolled in this study, and 197 of them were diagnosed with cancer from either a bronchoscopic biopsy or a percutaneous needle aspiration biopsy. ThinPrep(R) cytology showed a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and false negative error rate of 71.1%, 98.0%, 92.1%, 91.1%, 8.9%, respectively. The conventional cytology showed sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, nagative predictive value and false negative error rate of 57.9%, 98.0%, 90.5%, 87.5%, 12.5%, respectively. For central lesions, the sensitivity of conventional cytology and ThinPrep(R) were 70.1% and 82.8%, respectively. Conclusion: ThinPrep(R) cytology showed a higher sensitivity and lower false negative error rate than conventional cytology. This result was unaffected by the histological classification of lung cancer. Therefore, ThinPrep(R) cytology appears to be a useful method for increasing the detection rate of lung cancer in bronchial washing cytology test.

A Case of Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Infection Associated Acute Interstitial Nephritis / 대한신장학회잡지

Acute interstitial nephritis is an important cause of acute renal failure and result from immune mediated tubulointerstitial injury, initiated by medications, infections, and other variable causes. Since acute interstitial nephritis may present a variety of clinical and laboratory findings and progress more rapidly than expected and it is reversible with withdrawal of the etiologic drug or administration of steroid, its early detection is very important. Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a common pathogen in young-healthy adult but mycoplasma infection induced acute interstitial nephritis is rarely reported. Therefore considering mycoplasma infection as one possible cause of acute interstitial nephritis is clinically important. So we report a case of acute interstitial nephritis associated with mycoplasma infection.

Role of Thigh Muscle in the Carotid artery Intima-Media Thickness and Insulin resistance / 대한내분비학회지

BACKGROUND: There have been recent reports that the fat distribution within skeletal muscle and the amount of muscle mass are associated with insulin resistance and the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study evaluated the impacts of visceral fat and thigh muscle from patients with T2DM and healthy subjects on atherosclerosis and insulin resistance. METHODS: Forty-two patients with newly-developed T2DM and 11 healthy subjects were selected for the study. The diabetic patients were subdivided into two groups, those under 40 years of age, as the young T2DM (n=21) group, and 40 years-old or greater, as the old T2DM (n=21) group. CT scans were obtained for all patients at the L4-L5 level and at the mid-portion between the greater trochanter and upper margin patella. The carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) was also measured using high resolution B-mode ultrasonography. RESULTS: The mean visceral fat area (VFA) in the old T2DM group was 169.4+/-13.2cm2, which was significantly greater than that found in the healthy subjects (67.9+/-7.92cm2, P<0.001) and young T2DM group (127.1+/-10.4cm2, P<0.05). The mean visceral fat to normal density muscle area ratio (VMNR) in the old T2DM group was 1.50+/-0.19, which was greater than in the healthy subjects (0.46+/-0.52, P<0.001) and young T2DM group (1.01+/-0.10, P<0.05). The total thigh muscle areas in the young and old T2DM groups were smaller than that in the healthy subjects, but without statistical significance. VMNR showed a positive correlation with the IMT and HOMA-IR. However, the total thigh muscle area was negatively correlated with the IMT. The normal density muscle area also showed significant negative correlations with the IMT and HOMA-IR. In a multiple regression analysis, age and VMNR were the most important independent risk factors of an increased carotid IMT. CONCLUSION: This study showed that the role of thigh muscle, as well as that of visceral fat, played a very important role in the occurrence of atherosclerosis. VMNR was found to be an especially important independent factor for an increased carotid IMT.