Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Ching-Yi Lee.
The authors describe one female patient with leiomyoma of the bladder who presented with female pseudoprostate and right hydronephrosis. A computed tomography (CT) of the pelvis revealed a soft tissue mass, circumferential and heterogenous in appearance with some calcification inside the mass. Bladder leiomyoma might be one of the differential diagnoses with CT imaging findings of female pseudoprostate.
BACKGROUND: Glucosamine sulfate may have an ex vivo inhibitory effect on the plasminogen activator (PA)/plasmin system and gelatinases expression during the early development of osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: We compared the levels of urokinase-type PA (u-PA), PA inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and gelatinases (matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9 [MMP-2 and -9]) in a series of chondral, meniscal, and synovial cultures of early OA after treatment with or without glucosamine sulfate. RESULTS: Gelatin zymography revealed that glucosamine sulfate could suppress MMP-2 secretion in chondral, meniscal and synovial cultures and also decrease MMP-9 production in synovial and meniscal cultures. ELISA data also showed the suppressive effects of glucosamine sulfate on u-PA and PAI-1 production in synovial cultures at 48 h. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that one of the therapeutic effects of glucosamine sulfate is to down-regulate the expressions of u-PA, PAI-1, MMP-2 and MMP-9 that underlie the destruction of articular cartilage in the early stage of OA, and therefore to delay the joint failure.
BACKGROUND: The involvements of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) in the pathogenesis of breast cancers have been established. We determined the concentrations of MMP-2 in serum samples and tumor tissues of breast cancer patients. METHODS: Gelatin zymography and ELISA were used to measure MMP-2 and MMP-9 concentrations in 90 breast cancer patients, including 60 tissue samples and 30 serum samples. RESULTS: ProMMP-2, activated MMP-2, proMMP-9 and activated MMP-9 levels were significantly higher in tumor tissues than that of corresponding paired adjacent normal tissue of 60 breast cancer patients (p<0.01). Further linear regression analysis has showed that the tumor size positively correlated with MMP-2 level in tumor tissue samples (R=0.55, p<0.0001), as well as with that of in serum samples (R=0.398, p=0.032). In addition, further statistical analysis for clinic pathological parameters revealed that MMP-2 level was significantly increased in patients with metastasis (p<0.05). Furthermore, MMP-2 level was significantly different between tumor grades (p=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: MMP-2 levels in serum and tumor tissue might reflect the severity of invasion of breast cancer and various MMP inhibitors might be selectively used as potential anti-metastasis agents according to tumor size.
Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) provides a new approach to thymectomy for myasthenia gravis (MG). We compared the results of video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy (VATT) and transternal thymectomy (TT) in Taiwanese people with MG. From January 1997 to August 2002, we enrolled a total of 82 patients with MG who underwent TT and anterior mediastinal adipose tissue removal in our study. Of those, 51 patients underwent VATT, and 31 patients underwent TT. The men-to-women ratios were 18:33 and 15:16 in the VATT and TT groups, respectively. The mean age was 37.9 +/- 17.56 years in the VATT group and 35.6 +/- 16.8 years in the TT group (P = 0.55). Preoperative Osserman's classification revealed the following: class I: 11 (21.6%), 13 (41.9%); class IIA: 18 (35.3%), 11 (35.5%); class IIB: 18 (35.3%), 5 (16.1%); class III: 2 (3.9%), 0; and class IV: 2 (3.9%), 2 (6.5%), respectively, in the two groups (P = 0.06). During VATT, all but two patients were placed supine in the 45 degrees left lateral decubitus position under double-lumen intubated anesthesia. Usually three 1-cm incision wounds over anterior axillary line at the third, fifth, and sixth intercostal spaces were necessary. A total of 82 patients (51 with VATT and 31 with TT) were studied. There were no statistical differences between the two groups of patients in terms of sex, age, and severity of MG. In VATT and TT groups, postoperative hospital stays were 6.1 +/- 3.3 and 26.9 +/- 14.1 days, respectively (P = 0.001). Intensive care unit stays were 1.5 +/- 1.1 and 3.2 +/- 2.3 days, respectively (P = 0.018). Operative times were 180.0 +/- 53.4 and 248.2 +/- 71.9 minutes, respectively (P = 0.004). Thymus weights were 43.7 +/- 22.5 and 52.2 +/- 29.6 g, respectively (P = 0.141). Fifty-one VATT procedures were performed through a right-side approach without conversion. Most patients were extubated in the operating room or recovery room. The harvested thymus glands had an average weight of 49.4 g (range, 21.4-90 g). There were no surgical mortality cases. There was no statistically significant difference (P = 0.574) in the postoperative improvement classification between the two groups, with a mean of 4 years of follow-up. In the VATT group, 14 (27.5%) patients had complete remission without any medication, 14 (27.5%) patients were in class II, 21 (41.1%) patients were in class III, 2 (3.9%) patients were in class IV, and 0 (0%) patients were in class V, according to postoperative classification of DeFilippi et al. We concluded that VATT is technically feasible and safe and is associated with a favorable postoperative outcome compared with the transsternal approach.