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Biomedical subjects

C Y Wu

Publications and source records attributed to C Y Wu.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2001

Analysis of air toxics emission inventory: inhalation toxicity-based ranking.

Air toxics emission inventories play an important role in air quality regulatory activities. Recently, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) staff compiled a comprehensive air toxics emission inventory for 1996. While acquiring data on the mass of emissions is a necessary first step, equally important is developing information on the potential toxicity of the emitted pollutants. To account for the toxicity of the pollutants in the emission inventory, inhalation health benchmarks for acute effects, chronic effects, and cancer were used to weight the mass of emissions. The 1996 Minnesota emissions inventory results were ranked by mass of emissions and by an index comprised of emissions divided by health benchmarks. The results show that six of eight pollutants ranked highest by toxicity were also the pollutants of concern indicated in environmental monitoring data and modeling data. Monitoring data and modeling results did not show high impacts of the other two pollutants that were identified by the toxicity-based emission ranking method. The biggest limitation in this method is the lack of health benchmark values for many pollutants. Despite uncertainties and limited information, this analysis provides useful information for further targeting pollutants and source categories for control.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed2001

The correlation of depression and gastric dysrhythmia in functional dyspepsia.

Psychologic factors in functional dyspepsia have been discussed in many previous articles. However, the relationship between depression and functional dyspepsia is still obscure. We investigated the impact of depression on clinical symptoms and gastric dysrhythmia in functional dyspepsia. Thirty-nine patients with functional dyspepsia and 18 healthy subjects were included. Patients were investigated with clinical symptoms assessment, Zung's self-rating depression scale, and electrogastrography. Patients with functional dyspepsia were divided into two groups: 21 patients with depression and 18 patients without depression. The depressed patients had similar total gastrointestinal symptom severity scores compared with the nondepressed patients, but with higher total symptom frequency scores (p < 0.05). With regards to symptoms, the depressed patients had higher abdominal fullness severity and frequency scores and nausea frequency scores. The patients with functional dyspepsia had a lower percentage of normal slow wave in both the fasting and fed states and a higher percentage of bradygastria in the fasting state and tachygastria in the postprandial state (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the percentage of bradygastria or tachygastria between the depressed and nondepressed patients. There was no correlation between the specific type of electrogastrographic abnormality and the presence or absence of depression in functional dyspepsia patients.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Non-Hodgkin's orbital lymphoma.

BACKGROUND: The non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) are a group of neoplasms characterized by proliferation of malignant lymphocytes. Patients with NHL have a wide variety of presenting signs and symptoms, depending largely on the site of involvement and aggressiveness of the disease. Many organs in the body may be affected, including the eye and orbit. CASE REPORT: A 47-year-old male with a 3-year history of stage IV non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who had undergone recent monoclonal antibody therapy presented with a complaint of blur in the left eye with occasional diplopia. Significant ocular findings of the left eye included ptosis, mild proptosis, increased intraocular pressure, and choroidal folds. Magnetic resonance imaging of the orbit revealed an orbital lymphoma that completely resolved after 2400 rads of external beam irradiation therapy. Eight months later, the patient developed a secondary radiation retinopathy. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of NHL is on the rise, and orbital involvement may occur at any time during the course of the disease. The standard treatment for non-Hodgkin's orbital lymphoma is external beam irradiation therapy, although the optimal dose for obtaining local tumor control without complications remains to be determined. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, orbital lymphoma, and various treatment options are discussed.

Exophthalmos↗
PubMed2001

Structure-function analysis of BfpB, a secretin-like protein encoded by the bundle-forming-pilus operon of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli.

Production of type IV bundle-forming pili by enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) requires BfpB, an outer-membrane lipoprotein and member of the secretin protein superfamily. BfpB was found to compose a ring-shaped, high-molecular-weight outer-membrane complex that is stable in 4% sodium dodecyl sulfate at temperatures of < or = 65 degrees C. Chemical cross-linking and immunoprecipitation experiments disclosed that the BfpB multimeric complex interacts with BfpG, and mutational studies showed that BfpG is required for the formation and/or stability of the multimer but not for the outer-membrane localization of BfpB. Formation of the BfpB multimer also does not require BfpA, the repeating subunit of the pilus filament. Functional studies of the BfpB-BfpG complex revealed that its presence confers vancomycin sensitivity, indicating that it may form an incompletely gated channel through the outer membrane. BfpB expression is also associated with accumulation of EPEC proteins in growth medium, suggesting that it may support both pilus biogenesis and protein secretion.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2001

Effect of electrical stimulation on acupuncture points in diabetic patients with gastric dysrhythmia: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Abnormal gastric slow-wave frequencies have been observed in diabetic gastroparesis and are associated with impaired antral motor activity. In this study, we aimed at evaluating the effect of acupuncture on gastric slow waves in diabetic patients with symptoms suggesting gastric motor dysfunction. METHODS: Fifteen patients with type II diabetes who had had dyspeptic symptoms for more than 3 months were enrolled. Two acupuncture needles were inserted into the subjects' legs at the Zusanli points, and electrical stimulation (2-Hz pulses) was delivered for 30 min. Cutaneous electrogastrography was performed for 30 min at baseline, for 30 min during acupuncture, and for an additional 30 min after acupuncture. Serum gastrin, motilin, and human pancreatic polypeptide levels were also measured. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in the percentages of normal frequency during and after acupuncture (baseline vs. acupuncture and after acupuncture 21.99 +/- 19.38% vs. 45.93 +/- 19.72 and 48.92 +/- 19.56%; p < 0.01). In addition, the percentage of tachygastric frequency was decreased significantly during and after acupuncture. The dominant frequency was also changed significantly. There was an increase of serum human pancreatic polypeptide during acupuncture (baseline vs. acupuncture 56.96 +/- 27.64 vs. 73.11 +/- 22.37 pmol/l; p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study revealed that electrical stimulation at the Zusanli points could increase the percentage of normal electrogastrography frequency and decrease the percentage of tachygastric frequency in diabetic patients. The data indicate that acupuncture may enhance the regularity of gastric myoelectrical activity in diabetic patients.

Acupuncture Points↗
PubMed2001

Effects of task goal and personal preference on seated reaching kinematics after stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Current theories of motor control in rehabilitation focus on how the nervous system responds to many types of external and internal constraints to execute motor behavior to accomplish a task. However, the dynamic interplay between these 2 constraints remains unclear. This study examined the impact of some aspects of internal and external constraints on motor performance in persons with stroke. METHODS: Twenty-seven persons with stroke used the uninvolved arms to perform an upper-extremity reaching task under 4 experimental conditions, formed by the crossing of functional goals and personal preferences. For the higher level of a functional goal, subjects took a drink from a can of beverage. For the lower level of a functional goal, subjects brought the can to the mouth without drinking. The level of personal preferences was determined, by interview, by the degree of predilection for particular beverages. RESULTS: Significant and large effects of functional goals and personal preference were found in the variables of movement time and reaction time. However, the data trend of the 4 testing conditions varied according to presence of visuospatial neglect and side of lesion. CONCLUSIONS: Offering choices for the treatment activities and incorporating functional goals to therapeutic tasks might enhance response rate or movement efficiency, depending on the side of the lesion and presence of visuospatial neglect. The findings suggest that the consideration of the neglect phenomenon is a necessity when rehabilitative treatment planning incorporates constraint factors.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Severe pulmonary hemorrhage as the initial manifestation in systemic lupus erythematosus with active nephritis.

Pulmonary hemorrhage (PH) is an uncommon clinical manifestation of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In this report, we describe a 14-year-old male with PH as the sole clinical manifestation of his SLE. Kidney biopsy was performed and the report revealed lupus nephritis class IVb. He demonstrated a rapid clinical response to the therapy of intravenous pulse methylprednisolone. Awareness of the possibility of PH as a sole clinical presentation of SLE may aid in the diagnosis and early aggressive management of this condition.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Left multicystic dysplastic kidney with contralateral ectopic kidney and ureterovesicle junction obstruction.

Multicystic dysplastic kidney (MCDK) represents the most common cause of abdominal mass in the neonatal period. It is usually combined with contralateral genitourinary tract anomaly. Because the multicystic dysplastic kidney is usually dysfunctional, it is important to evaluate and monitor the remaining preserved function of the contralateral kidney regularly. The presence of severe obstructive lesion over contralateral kidney is often life-threatening. Prompt treatment should therefore be given as early as possible to preserve the remaining renal function. We here report one rare case of left MCDK with contralateral ectopic kidney and ureterovesicle junction (UVJ) obstruction. As the best as we know, this report is the first case report of MCDK with contralateral ectopic kidney and UVJ obstruction.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2001

Suprasellar squamous papillary craniopharyngioma: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Craniopharyngiomas are benign neoplasms that are usually suprasellar in origin. They are considered a type of pituitary tumor that can cause hyposecretion of anterior pituitary hormones or hypopituitarism. Clinically, they may cause visual and endocrine deficiencies similar to pituitary adenoma. Histopathologically, they are distinct from pituitary adenoma and are generally classified as either adamantinomatous or squamous papillary. Adamantinomatous tumors are more common in children, whereas the squamous papillary type is found almost exclusively in adults. CASE REPORT: A 45-year-old white man came to our clinic with a history of decreased vision in his left eye for the previous five months that fluctuated. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain revealed a suprasellar multilobular mass, which was distinguishable from the pituitary gland. The patient underwent a right frontotemporal craniotomy for resection of the tumor. Histopathological analysis showed a benign squamous epithelial-lined mass consistent with squamous papillary craniopharyngioma. CONCLUSION: Craniopharyngiomas are generally considered to be adamantinomatous or squamous papillary in origin. Recently, magnetic resonance imaging has been used to distinguish between these two types of tumors, although clinically no significant difference has been found with respect to resectability. Clinical presentation, treatment options, recurrence, and differential diagnosis of craniopharyngiomas are discussed.

Craniopharyngioma↗
PubMed2001

Childhood serum sickness: a case report.

Childhood serum sickness is a rare allergic disease that follows the administration of a foreign antigenic material, most commonly caused by injecting a protein or haptenic drug. The disease is a type III hypersensitivity reaction mediated by deposits of circulating immune complexes in small vessels, which leads to complement activation and subsequent inflammation. The clinical features are fever, cutaneous eruptions, lymphadenopathy, arthralgias, albuminuria, and nephritis. Serum sickness is an acute self-limited disease. We report a 3-year-old child who presented with fever and a rash; an invasive bacterial infection was strongly suspected. He was therefore given penicillin and gentamicin and responded well. At day 4 after admission, he developed a serum sickness reaction and showed symptoms of arthralgias, generalized edema, purpura, and gross hematuria. The white blood cell count was 12 190/mm3 with 7% eosinophils. Urinalysis revealed red blood cell above 100 per high power field, white blood cell 10 to 15 per high power field, and proteinuria. The antibiotics were discontinued and hydrocortisone (20 mg/kg/d), diphenhydramine HCl (4 mg/kg/d), aspirin (66 mg/kg/d) was administered, plus 1 dose of epinephrine (0.01 mL/kg) administered intramuscularly. On day 7, the 3rd day after withholding antibiotics, his condition dramatically improved. The clinical symptoms resolved progressively and his urinalysis returned to normal.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2001

Inadvertent hypothermia causes pulseless electrical activity in a patient during cervical spine surgery--a case report.

Recent studies have shown that hypothermia triples the incidence of major cardiac events. We present a happening in which a 71-year-old patient developed pulseless electrical activity (PEA) while he was undergoing cervical laminectomy for spinal stenosis in the sitting position. Thromboembolism or venous air embolism and acute myocardial infarction were respectively excluded by transesophageal echocardiography and cardiac enzymes analysis to be the causes of the cardiac event. The abnormal finding that stood out was low nasopharyngeal temperature (31 degrees C) during the procedure, which was thought to contribute to the development of the PEA episode.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Fish allergy in atopic children.

The prevalence of fish allergy among 11 atopic children with elevated levels of specific immunoglobulin (Ig) E for cod was determined. None of the children had a history of fish allergy. All of the children had asthma and allergic rhinitis and 5 of them had also atopic dermatitis. The children underwent allergy skin tests (codfish, tuna, catfish, salmon, flounder, and bass), specific IgE tests (salmon, trout, tuna, eel, and mackerel), and food challenge tests. Skin tests in cod-specific IgE-positive children were positive for codfish in 4 children, tuna in 2, catfish in 2, salmon in 6, flounder in one, and bass in 2. Three children had elevated specific IgE for salmon, 5 for trout, 8 for tuna, 4 for eel, and 4 for mackerel. Oral fish challenge with 10 g of fish did not result in positive reaction in any of the children. In conclusion, a positive food challenge test provided the only definitive confirmation of fish allergy, whereas positive allergy skin tests or positive specific IgE tests were less reliable. Skin tests and in vitro specific IgE assays were not correlated with clinical symptoms of fish allergy, and the results of these 2 tests did not correlate with each other in this study.

Anaphylaxis↗
PubMed2001

Anesthetic management of a patient with relapsing polychondritis--a case report.

Relapsing polychondritis is a rare multisystem disorder of uncertain etiology. It is characterized by recurrent and progressive destruction of both elastic and hyaline cartilages as well as connective tissue. Respiratory tract involvement is associated with high mortality and morbidity. General anesthesia may be required in these patients for tracheostomy, bronchoscopy, nasal reconstruction, aortic valve replacement, and recent tracheobronchial stenting which they usually sustain. Tracheostomy was once the most likely surgical procedure in relapsing polychondritis. However, this procedure is only effective in patients with upper subglottic involvement. In cases of extensive tracheobronchial involvement, tracheostomy is ineffective because the distant tracheal collapse below the tracheostomy is still unresolved. We would like to report a case of relapsing polychondritis with tracheobronchial involvement, who underwent an emergent tracheostomy. Tracheostomy with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) effectively improved her airway collapse. Herein, we also discuss the anesthetic management after review of the current literature.

Anesthesia↗
PubMed2000

A rice functional transcriptional activator, RISBZ1, responsible for endosperm-specific expression of storage protein genes through GCN4 motif.

The GCN4 motif, a cis-element that is highly conserved in the promoters of cereal seed storage protein genes, plays a central role in controlling endosperm-specific expression. This motif is the recognition site for a basic leucine zipper transcriptional factor that belongs to the group of maize Opaque-2 (O2)-like proteins. Five different basic leucine zipper cDNA clones, designated RISBZ1-5, have been isolated from a rice seed cDNA library. The predicted gene products can be divided into two groups based on their amino acid sequences. Although all the RISBZ proteins are able to interact with the GCN4 motif, only RISBZ1 is capable of activating (more than 100-fold expression) the expression of a reporter gene under a minimal promoter fused to a pentamer of the GCN4 motif. Loss-of-function and gain-of-function experiments using the yeast GAL4 DNA binding domain revealed that the proline-rich N-terminal domain (27 amino acids in length) is responsible for transactivation. The RISBZ1 protein is capable of forming homodimers as well as heterodimers with other RISBZ subunit proteins. RISBZ1 gene expression is restricted to the seed, where it precedes the expression of storage protein genes. When the RISBZ1 promoter was transcriptionally fused to the beta-glucuronidase reporter gene and the chimeric gene was introduced into rice, the beta-glucuronidase gene is specifically expressed in aleurone and subaleurone layer of the developing endosperm. These findings suggest that the specific expression of transcriptional activator RISBZ1 gene may determine the endosperm specificity of the storage protein genes.

Amino Acid Motifs↗
PubMed2000

The suppressive effect of TGF-beta on IL-12-mediated immune modulation specific to a peptide Ac1-11 of myelin basic protein (MBP): a mechanism involved in inhibition of both IL-12 receptor beta1 and beta2.

Transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta exerts a counter-regulatory effect on interleukin (IL)-12-mediated immune modulation. The underlying mechanism is not fully understood. Here we demonstrate that the expression of IL-12Rbeta1 and IL-12Rbeta2 in MBP peptide Ac1-11-primed splenocytes is upregulated upon antigen stimulation. TGF-beta induces an unresponsiveness of these primed splenocytes to IL-12 signaling through a mechanism involved in inhibition of both IL-12Rbeta1 and beta2. The modulation of IL-12Rbeta1 and beta2 expression by Ac1-11 stimulation and TGF-beta is mainly involved in CD4+ population. These data indicate that both IL-12Rbeta1 and IL-12Rbeta2 expression are crucial during T cell activation. TGF-beta-induced inhibition of IL-12R expression will reduce cellular immune responses during IL-12-mediated autoimmune disease.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

The role of antigen and IL-12 in sustaining Th1 memory cells in vivo: IL-12 is required to maintain memory/effector Th1 cells sufficient to mediate protection to an infectious parasite challenge.

IL-12 plays a central role in both the induction and magnitude of a primary Th1 response. A critical question in designing vaccines for diseases requiring Th1 immunity such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Leishmania major is the requirements to sustain memory/effector Th1 cells in vivo. This report examines the role of IL-12 and antigen in sustaining Th1 responses sufficient for protective immunity to L. major after vaccination with LACK protein (LP) plus rIL-12 and LACK DNA. It shows that, after initial vaccination with LP plus rIL-12, supplemental boosting with either LP or rIL-12 is necessary but not sufficient to fully sustain long-term Th1 immunity. Moreover, endogenous IL-12 is also shown to be required for the induction, maintenance, and effector phase of the Th1 response after LACK DNA vaccination. Finally, IL-12 is required to sustain Th1 cells and control parasite growth in susceptible and resistant strains of mice during primary and secondary infection. Taken together, these data show that IL-12 is essential to sustain a sufficient number of memory/effector Th1 cells generated in vivo to mediate long-term protection to an intracellular pathogen.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Requirements for the maintenance of Th1 immunity in vivo following DNA vaccination: a potential immunoregulatory role for CD8+ T cells.

Protective immunity against Leishmania major generated by DNA encoding the LACK (Leishmania homologue of receptor for activated C kinase) Ag has been shown to be more durable than vaccination with LACK protein plus IL-12. One mechanism to account for this may be the selective ability of DNA vaccination to induce CD8+ IFN-gamma-producing T cells. In this regard, we previously reported that depletion of CD8+ T cells in LACK DNA-vaccinated mice abrogated protection when infectious challenge was done 2 wk postvaccination. In this study, we extend these findings to study the mechanism by which CD8+ T cells induced by LACK DNA vaccination mediate both short- and long-term protective immunity against L. major. Mice vaccinated with LACK DNA and depleted of CD8+ T cells at the time of vaccination or infection were unable to control infection when challenge was done 2 or 12 wk postvaccination. Remarkably, it was noted that depletion of CD8+ T cells in LACK DNA-vaccinated mice was associated with a striking decrease in the frequency of LACK-specific CD4+ IFN-gamma-producing T cells both before and after infection. Moreover, data are presented to suggest a mechanism by which CD8+ T cells exert this regulatory role. Taken together, these data provide additional insight into how Th1 cells are generated and sustained in vivo and suggest a potentially novel immunoregulatory role for CD8+ T cells following DNA vaccination.

Animals↗