Eun-Mi Ko

Thoracic involvement occurs more frequently in systemic lupus erythematosus than in any other connective tissue diseases, and more than half of patients with the disease suffer from the involvement. Primary intrathoracic manifestations include pleural disease (effusions and/or thickening), acute lupus pneumonitis, subacute interstitial lung disease including bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia and non-specific interstitial pneumonia with fibrosis, chronic interstitial lung disease of u

This study compares the permanency outcomes of children in kinship foster care with a matched sample of children in nonkinship foster care in Illinois. It addresses the issue of selection bias by using propensity score matching (PSM) to balance mean differences in the characteristics of children in kinship and nonkinship foster homes. The data come from the March 1998 to September 2007 six-month files submitted by the state of Illinois to the federal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting S

OBJECTIVES: The REgistry of Pulmonary Hypertension Associated with Rheumatic Disease (REOPARD) was established in Korea. The baseline data are described from the second year of the registry's operation. METHODS: Patients with a connective tissue disease (CTD) who met the modified definition of the WHO group I pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) were enrolled. PAH was defined as a systolic pulmonary arterial pressure> 40 mmHg by echocardiography or mean pulmonary arterial pressure> 25 mmHg by r

AIM: To investigate the effects of Tubastatin A, a selective histone deacetylase-6 inhibitor, on synovial inflammation and joint destruction in a collagen antibody-induced arthritis (CAIA) mouse model. METHODS: Collagen antibody-induced arthritis mice were given daily intraperitoneal injections of various concentrations of Tubastatin A (0, 10, 50, 100 mg/kg). The clinical score and paw thickness were measured. Mice were sacrificed on day 15, and the expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, i

Our study demonstrated a rate of live births and of flares in pregnant lupus patients comparable to recent reports in Western countries. Proteinuria during and prior to pregnancy and presence of antiphospholipid antibodies were predictive factors for poor pregnancy outcome. Preserved renal function prior to pregnancy resulted in favorable outcomes even in patients with a history of lupus nephritis.

Inadequate apoptosis contributes to synovial hyperplasia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Recent study shows that low expression of Puma might be partially responsible for the decreased apoptosis of fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS). Slug, a highly conserved zinc finger transcriptional repressor, is known to antagonize apoptosis of hematopoietic progenitor cells by repressing Puma transactivation. In this study, we examined the expression and function of Slug in RA FLS. Slug mRNA expression was me