Revascularizations of 14 occlusive arterial diseases in the lower extremities with the Transluminal Endarterectomy Catheter was done successfully. The causes of occlusions were atherosclerosis in 9 cases and cardiogenic thromboembolism in 5 cases. The site of lesions were at the common femoral artery in 1 case, the superficial femoral artery in 6 cases and the popliteal artery in 7 cases. The length of the lesion were below 5cm(n=3), 5-10cm(n=2), 11-20cm(n=6) and 21-30cm(n=3). Complications were distal embolism(n=1) and hematoma at the puncture site(n=1). No symptoms recurred in any cases during 2 months -15 months followup. Endarterectomy with Transluminal Endarterectomy Catheter was found to be an effective method for revasculizations of occlusive arterial disease in the lower extremity, especially in long segmental occlusion.
Atherosclerosis ; Catheters ; Endarterectomy* ; Femoral Artery ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hematoma ; Lower Extremity* ; Methods ; Popliteal Artery ; Punctures ; Thromboembolism

[Background] Over the last thirty years, majority of researches on clinical effectiveness of acupuncture have been explanatory (or experimental) randomized controlled trial. The benefits of acupuncture in clinical trials are stillcontroversial and most studies concluded that further control studies were required. Standardized combinations of acupuncture points for all the experimental subjects in various past studies have been criticized because such treatments do not reflect current routine clinical treatment.
[Objective] This paper aims to review pragmatic clinical trials on the effect of acupuncture treatment and to develop the ideal clinical research methodology of acupuncture study.
[Method] Clinical studies of acupuncture relevant with pragmatic or individualized trials were searched mainly in Pubmed and Science direct databases. All articles were fully reviewed by researchers, and data were evaluated by usage of a standardized form.
[Results & Suggestion] Pragmatic acupuncture researches were tried for various symptoms (eg. low back pain, hypertension, depression during pregnancy, sleep quality in HIV disease, chronic poststroke leg spasticity, headache, etc). Individualized acupuncture treatments based on oriental disease pattern diagnosis reflexes practical treatments which is more effective than unified and fixed acupuncture treatments without any theoretical basis of oriental medical philosophy.
[Conclusion] To overcome the controversies and limitations of past explanatory acupuncture trials, more individualized and tailored acupuncture trials with the theoretical basis of oriental medical diagnosis is highly recommended. Also clear definition and categorization of pattern identification should be established for further active clinical researches and applications of acupuncture.

The presence of A-V shunting in hepatocellular carcinoma is an important factor for deciding the prognosis and in the management with transarterial chemoembolization. Twenty-four patients with hepatocellular carcinoma performed with CO2-DSA and iodinated-DSA were reviewed for the evaluation of visibility of A-V shunting. It was classified by the visibility into clearly visible, faintly visible and invisible. Also the authors evaluated neovascularity and tumor staining. And we checked side effects after the injection of CO2 gas during CO2-DSA. A-V shunting was noted in 19 cases(63%), which were clearly visible in 15 of 19 cases(79%) on CO2-DSA and in 7 of 19 cases(37%) on iodinated-DSA. In 3 cases, A-V shunting was noted only on CO2-DSA. CO2-DSA(17%)was inferior to iodinated-DSA in detection of neovasculaity and tumor staining. Side effects from CO2-DSA were abdominal pain(1 case) and chest discomfort(1 case) but improved within several minutes. In conclusion, CO2-DSA is a sensitive and effective method for the detection of A-V shunting in hepatoma.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Humans ; Methods ; Prognosis ; Thorax

Seven patients with giant cavernous hemangioma of the liver were treated surgically with success at Pusan Gospel Hospital, Kosin Medical College, Pusan, from 1980 through 1989. They were 3 males and 4 females, and their ages ranged from 6 to 59 years. The tumors were located on the right lobe of the liver in 5 patients and on the left lobe in 2. The lesions were solitary in all patients, and their sizes varied from 4cm to 15cm in diameter. All patients underwent hepatic resection: 1 right hepatic lobectomy and 4 partial resections for tumors on the right lobe, and 1 left lobectomy and 1 left lateral segmentectomy for tumors on the left lobe. There was no surgical death, but 1 patient had a postoperative complication: multiple stress ulcers on the stomach and ileum. The pathologic diagnosis was cavernous hemangioma in all cases. In the long-term follow-up, there was no recurrence of preoperative symptoms in any patient.
Adult ; Child ; Female ; Hemangioma, Cavernous/*surgery ; Humans ; Ileal Diseases/etiology ; Liver Neoplasms/*surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Postoperative Complications/etiology ; Prognosis ; Stomach Ulcer/etiology ; Stress, Physiological/etiology ; Ulcer/etiology

From July 1988 to September 1992, we experienced 15 cases of thrombolysoangioplasty (TLA) at Chonnam University Hospital. Among 15 cases, 5 had claudication (Clinical stage II according to Modified Fontaine Classification), pain at rest (III), and gangrene(IV). Duration of symptoms was 1-7 months except patients of clinical stage IV unable to guess occlusion age. The occlusion length was 5-10cm in 8 cases, 10-20cm in 4 cases, and above 30cm in 2 cases. In all cases, thromolytic therapy was performed with intraarterial urokinase infusion. The total amount of urokinase ranged from 300,000 IU to 2,000,000 IU and infusion time ranged from 2 to 50 hours except three cases infused bolus dose only. Complete successful TLA was defined as technical (less than 50% of residual stenosis) and clinical success. Partial success was defined as technical success but clinical failure. Follow-up angiography could be performed in 8 cases. Overall initial success rate was 86.6% (13/15). Among them. Complete success was in 11 cases and partial success was in 2 cases. Recurrence of disease was not noted on all cases(n=8). Severe complications, such as hemorrhage, did not occurred. TLA was considered to be effective and safe way to recanalized chronic long artery occlusion in lower extremity.
Angiography ; Arteries ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Jeollanam-do ; Lower Extremity ; Recurrence ; Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator

No abstract available.
Pancreatic Neoplasms*

PURPOSE: This study sought to evaluate the treatment modality, morbidity and mortality after surgery, the method of nutritional support and the survival rate for patients with cancer of the hypopharynx, larynx and cervical esophagus. METHODS: A retrospective review was undertaken of 17 hypopharyngeal, laryngeal and cervical esophageal carcinoma patients who had undergone surgical treatment in the Department of Surgery and Otorhinolaryngology, Yonsei University, College of Medicine, from January 1995 to April 2000. All patients underwent transhiatal esophagectomy in order to avoid pulmonary complications. Outcome measures were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier estimator. RESULTS: The 17 consecutive patients included 11 cases of hypopharyngeal cancer, 3 glottic cancers, 2 cervical esophageal cancers and one thyroid cancer with invasion of the trachea and esophagus. Fifteen patients (88%) presented with an advanced tumor stage. As for nutritional support following surgery, 12 underwent feeding jejunostomy, 4 a nasoenteric tube feeding and the other recieved total parenteral nutrition. Nine patients (53%) developed complications following surgery. One of the patients who had surgery died postoperatively. The mean survival time was 26 months and the 2-year and 4-year overall survival rates were 69.5% and 53.0%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Reconstruction of the hypopharynx and esophagus using stomach was low mortality and low severe morbidity. A total pharyngolaryngoesophagectomy with gastric transposition and primary hypopharyngogastric anastomosis offers the best chance for cure or palliation with acceptable morbidity and degree of function for selected patients with advanced hypopharyngeal, laryngeal and cervical esophageal carcinomas.
Enteral Nutrition ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Esophagectomy ; Esophagus* ; Head and Neck Neoplasms ; Humans ; Hypopharyngeal Neoplasms ; Hypopharynx* ; Jejunostomy ; Larynx ; Mortality ; Nutritional Support ; Otolaryngology ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Parenteral Nutrition, Total ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach* ; Survival Rate ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; Trachea

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of repetitive magnetic stimulation (rMS) of the spinal cord on limb angiogenesis in healthy rats and explore its implication for the treatment of lymphedema. METHOD: Twelve adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups as follows: sham rMS followed by tissue harvest 5 minutes later (group 1, n=2), 1 Hz rMS and tissue harvest 5 minutes later (group 2, n=3), 20 Hz rMS and tissue harvest 5 minutes later (group 3, n=3), 20 Hz rMS and tissue harvest 30 minutes later (group 4, n=4). Animals were treated with 20-minute rMS with 120% of the motor threshold on their left side of upper lumbar spinal cord. Expression of angiogenic factors, that is, Akt, phospho-Akt (pAkt), endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), phospho-eNOS (p-eNOS) were measured by western blot. Bilateral hindlimb muscles (quadriceps and gastrocnemius) were harvested. RESULTS: Expression of Akt in left quadriceps increased in group 4 compared with group 2 and 3 (3.4 and 5.3-fold each, p=0.026). Expression of eNOS in left plus right quadriceps markedly increased in group 3 and 4 compared with group 1 and 2 (p=0.007). Expressions of eNOS, Akt and p-eNOS, pAkt in gastrocnemius were not comparable between four groups (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Repetitive magnetic stimulation of the spinal cord may exert an angiogenic effect closely linked to lymphangiogenesis. It has clinical implication for the possible therapy of lymphedema caused by breast, cervical or endometrial cancer operation. Future studies with the specific lymphatic endothelial cell markers are required to confirm the effect of rMS on lymphangiogenesis.
Adult ; Angiogenesis Inducing Agents ; Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Breast ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; Endothelial Cells ; Extremities ; Female ; Hindlimb ; Humans ; Lymphangiogenesis ; Lymphedema ; Magnetics ; Magnets ; Male ; Muscles ; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III ; Pilot Projects ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Salicylamides ; Spinal Cord

In order to observe the changes in left ventricular function during coronary artery occlusion and reperfusion, left anterior descending (LAD) coronary arteries in the anesthetized dogs were occluded for 1 hour and then reperfused for 4 hours. Hemodynamic indexes of global systolic and diastolic function and regional wall thickness changes as a regional contractile index were measured during occlusion and reperfusion. The results were as follows; 1) Indexes of global systolic function (left ventricular peak systolic pressure, peak positive dP/dt) and global diastolic function (peak negative dP/dt, time constant, left ventricular end-diastolic pressure) showed deterioration in early occlusion period (10-30 minutes) but gradually improved even if coronary occlusion persisted. Reperfusion did not induce significant changes except that peak positive dP/dt transiently deteriorated 30 minutes after reperfusion and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure decreased 1.5-2 hours after reperfusion. 2) Indexed of regional function (i.e, end-diastolic thickness and % systolic thickening of anterior left ventricular wall) deteriorated by 10 minutes' occlusion which persisted during the entire occlusion period. Reperfusion induced no significant improvement in regional contractile function compared with occlusion 60 minutes' data, which suggested reperfusion for 4 hours after 1 hour's LAD occlusion may be insufficient for the ischemic region to recover its contractility. 3) Reperfusion arrhythmia (ventricular tachycardia) was noted in most (6/9) of the dogs, one of which deteriorated into ventricular fibrillation and the others spontaneously converted to normal sinus rhythm.
Animals ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Blood Pressure ; Coronary Occlusion ; Coronary Vessels* ; Dogs ; Hemodynamics ; Reperfusion* ; Ventricular Fibrillation ; Ventricular Function, Left*

BACKGROUND: Irbersatan, an orally active antihypertensive agent, effectively reduce blood pressure by directly blocking angiotensin II receptors without any significant adverse effects. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of irbesartan in patients with mild to moderate hypertension. METHODS: This study enrolled 83 patients who had diastolic pressure above 95 mmHg and below 110 mmHg on two measurements. Sixty eight patients were administered 150mg of irbesartan, an angiotensin II receptor blocker, daily for four weeks as an initial dosage. If the sitting diastolic pressure was equal to or greater than 90 mmHg after a 4 week treatment period, the dosage was doubled until the end of 8 weeks. Baseline pressures, antihypertensive effect, side effects, laboratory findings were compared before and after treatment. RESULTS: Fourty two patients out of 53 patients having completed this study showed decreased blood pressure equal to or more than 5 mmHg of the sitting diastolic pressure (response rate=79%). Twenty one patients out of 53 patients showed normalized blood pressure below 90 mmHg of the sitting diastolic pressure (normalization rate=40%). The extent of decrease in diastolic and systolic blood pressure after eight week treatment was an average 11.7+/-10.1 mmHg and 16.3+/-18.9 mmHg, respectively (p<0.05). Nineteen ontoward side effects was observed in 17 patients out of 68 patients with medication (frequency of ontoward effects=25%). Only one case with headache was considered to be related to the medication. Abnormal laboratory findings were observed in eight patients, and only one case with elevation of bilirubin and ALT levels was considered to be related to the medication. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, irbesartan is a safe and effective antihypertensive drug in patients with mild to moderate hypertension with tolerable side effects.
Bilirubin ; Blood Pressure ; Headache ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Receptors, Angiotensin