Clinicopathological characteristics of colon cancer diagnosed at primary health care institutions.

Background/aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinicopathologic characteristics of colon cancers detected at the SOK Sokpeynhan Internal Medical Network, a nationwide system of primary health care institutions.

Methods: We analyzed 579 colon cancer patients diagnosed using colonoscopy at the SOK network from January 2011 through December 2012. Cancers from the rectum to the splenic flexure were classified as left colon cancer.

[Clinicopathologic characteristics of superficial gastric cancer diagnosed at primary health care institutions in 2011].

Background/aims: Stomach cancer is prevalent in Korea. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of superficial gastric cancers detected at SOK Sokpeynhan Internal Medical Network, the nationwide primary health care institutions.

Methods: We prospectively analysed the clinicopathologic and endoscopic characteristics of 218 superficial gastric cancer patients diagnosed using gastric endoscopy at SOK network from January 2011 through December 2011.

Use of bioluminescent imaging to assay the transplantation of immortalized human fetal hepatocytes into mice.

Noninvasive serial monitoring of the fate of transplanted cells would be invaluable to evaluate the potential therapeutic use of human hepatocyte transplantation. Therefore, we assessed the feasibility of bioluminescent imaging using double or triple fusion lentiviral vectors in a NOD-SCID mouse model transplanted with immortalized human fetal hepatocytes. Lentiviral vectors driven by the CMV promoter were constructed carrying reporter genes: firefly luciferase and green fluorescence protein with or without herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase.

[A randomized, prospective, comparative, multicenter study of rabeprazole and ranitidine in the treatment of reflux esophagitis].

Background/aims: This study was done to evaluate the efficacy of rabeprazole (proton-pump-inhibitor) and ranitidine (H(2)-receptor antagonist) in the symptom relief and treatment of erosive esophagitis diagnosed by endoscopy.

Methods: A total of 110 patients with typical gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms were enrolled in this multicenter study. They were randomized into rabeprazole group (53 patients) and ranitidine group (57 patients) respectively.

[A case of subphrenic abscess with ileal fistula caused by metastatic adenocarcinoma of unknown origin].

Usual sources of subphrenic abscess with intestinal fistula are previous abdominal operation, inflammatory bowel disease and malignancy. Reported cases of intestinal fistula caused by adenocarcinoma were complicated by direct invasion. In this report, a 70-year-old male had a subphrenic abscess with intestinal fistula and the cause was a metastatic adenocarcinoma of unknown origin.

[Liver abscess caused by Gemella morbillorum].

Gemella morbillorum, an anaerobic-to-aerotolerant Gram-positive coccus, is a normal flora of the oral cavity, respiratory tract, urogenital organ and gastrointestinal tract, and infections caused by this organism are unusual. It has been associated mainly with endocarditis and bacteremia, and rarely with arthritis, spondylodiscitis, meningitis, brain abscess and septic shock. Liver abscess caused by G.