No abstract available.
Humans ; Mortality* ; Risk Factors*

No abstract available.
Snake Bites* ; Snakes*

No abstract available.
Abdomen, Acute* ; Aged* ; Geriatrics* ; Humans

No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: Due to its high diagnostic accuracy, preoperative sonographic evaluation of gallbladder disease is accepted as the most reliable and effective procedure. However we have encountered, though not so often, cases in which the sonographic tumor revealed only sludge material in reality. METHODS: A retrospective review of 11 cases that had been preoperatively diagnosed as a gallbladder mass or stone focused on the features of the patients and the characteristics of the sonographic findings. RESULTS: Of the cholecystectomized 2486 cases in which gallstones or gallbladder polyps had been preoperatively diagnosed, 0.4% had only sludge in reality. Symptomatic patients were 7 (64%). Pseudo- tumorous lesions of the gallbladder resembled the shapes of the stones, as well as the shapes of polyps, in their echogenic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Gallbladder sludge alone can make the sonographic image of a stone or a polyp. The application of more advanced sonography, such as contrast-enhanced Doppler sonography, may contribute to the differential diagnosis of pseudo-tumorous lesions of the gallbladder; however, an indefinite lesion on sonography always deserves operative intervention.
Diagnosis, Differential ; Gallbladder Diseases ; Gallbladder* ; Gallstones ; Humans ; Polyps ; Retrospective Studies ; Sewage* ; Ultrasonography*

PURPOSE: We observed the actual half life of the alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) had clinical meaning in that it reflected the long term prognosis more individually at a certain level of preoperative alpha-fetoprotein. METHODS: From preoperative and postoperative measurements of alpha-fetoprotein in 96 hepatocellular carcinomas the actual half lives were calculated with the formula: AHL T1/2 (days) = -0.3x(T/log(C1/C0)), where T was the time interval between C1 and C0, in which C1 meant the level of AFP at postoperative 7 day, C0 the original AFP level. We investigated overall survival and disease free survival rate between delayed AHL group and non-delayed AHL group under various definitions of delay. RESULTS: The average actual half life of all cases was 5.1+/-13.6 days. One, three and five year overall survival rates of the group with actual half life less than 4 days were 82.1%, 66.7%, 61.1% respectively, whereas those of the group with actual half life more than 4 days showed 83.0%, 36.5%, 18.2% respectively. The significance of different survival rates was much higher, when only the patients with preoperative alpha-fetoprotein above 100 ng/ml were taken into account (n=53, P=0.0019). The disease free five year survival rates were also significantly different. CONCLUSION: We can predict the elevated postoperative survival rate in the patients with actual half life of alpha-fetoprotein less than 4 days. And this has also relevant clinical meaning in the prognostication of disease free survival, if the preoperative alpha-fetoprotein of patients has elevated up to over 100 ng/ml. The measurement of actual half life of postoperative hepatocellular carcinoma patientscan be a clinical useful parameter for the prognosis of long term survival.
alpha-Fetoproteins* ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Disease-Free Survival ; Half-Life* ; Humans ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate

Although the "Duodenogastric reflux" was often developed in normal persons, it was more frequently developed in the majority of patients who had a gallstone disease or malfunctioned gallbladder. The "duodenogastric reflux" induced chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer, and esophagitis causing upper abdominal symptoms. After the cholecystectomy was performed, most patients have no further symptoms but a significant minority of patients still have persistent symptoms. Such symptoms was often explained with the "duodenogastric reflux". We examined the degree of duodenogastric reflux in the patients with gallstones and the changes of the degree of the duodenogastric reflux after the laparoscopic cholecystectomy in these patients. The study population consisted of 9 patients with gallstone disease. The clinical symptoms (upper abdominal pain, bloating, early satiety, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, dysphagia, indigestion, fat intolerance) were graded and all subjects had standard esophageal manometry to identify the location of the lower esophgeal sphincter and the 24 hour gastric pH monitoring to ascertain the duodenogastric reflux at before and 3 months after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. On the results of our study, the severity of clinical symptoms was decreased after operation and the time percentage above pH 7, longest time above pH 7, frequency above pH 7 and frequency persistent 5 min above pH 7 in supine and upright position were not significantly different after operation at statistical analysis. It is revealed that the degree of duodenogastric reflux was not changed on 24 hour gastric pH monitoring. We concluded that laparoscopic cholecystectomy did not affect on the duodenogastric reflux in the patients of gall bladder stone.
Abdominal Pain ; Cholecystectomy ; Cholecystectomy, Laparoscopic* ; Deglutition Disorders ; Duodenogastric Reflux* ; Dyspepsia ; Esophagitis ; Gallbladder ; Gallstones* ; Gastritis ; Heartburn ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Manometry ; Nausea ; Peptic Ulcer ; Urinary Bladder Calculi ; Vomiting

Cavernous transformation of the portal vein that is resulted as a collateral vessel formation from a portal hypoplasia is very rarely to be observed in human being. Such an abnormal transformation can be caused by congenital defect of vein formation in the early embryonal development or congenital hematologic hypercoagulability which gives rise to the cavernous development of cavernous collateral branches. Acute thrombosis of portal vein can also be the cause of acquired cavernous transformation. In most cases it extends into the parenchyme of liver, and often has porto-systemic shunt (with left gastropiploic vein and varices around spleen) or porto-portal shunt (with varices around gallbladder). A 48 years old male patient underwent splenectomy at the age of 24 owing to splenomegaly. He had liver cirrhosis without hepatitis and alcohol history. Intrahepatic stone in left lateral lobe of liver was diagnosed in the course of medical treatment. The cavernous transformation of portal vein with right lobe hypoplasia was confrimed during the operation.
Congenital Abnormalities ; Hepatitis ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Liver* ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Portal Vein* ; Splenectomy ; Splenomegaly ; Thrombophilia ; Thrombosis ; Varicose Veins ; Veins

BACKGROUND: In spite of the development of diagnostic tools, gallbladder carcinoma is often diagnosed at a late stage because of the lack of symptomatic awareness of patients in early stage. Early diagnosis and proper resectional treatment is, therefore, the most important factor for the prognosis. This study aims at the analysis of clinical characteristics and the effect of various modes of surgical treatment on long-term survival. METHODS: From January 1989 to December 1997 we operated on 132 patients with gallbladder carcinoma. Age, sex, stage distribution, clinical manifestations and mode of operations were analyzed. The cumulative survival rates were also analyzed for 107 patients who had been finally followed up, and the significance of survival difference was tested (p<0.05). RESULTS: The average age of 132 patients was 64 years old, and female patients suffered more frequent incidence than male patients by a ratio of 1.7:1. The distribution of patients according to the pathologic TNM staging showed early stage (stage 0 & I) accounted for only 9.8% whereas the advanced stages (stage II, III, IVa, IVb) accounted for the majority of the patients (90.2%). The chief complaints were abdominal pain (84.8%), indigestion, weight loss, palpable mass and so forth in a decreasing frequency order. Among the patients, 30 cases (22.7%) were irresectable, 50 cases (38%) were curative resected, and 52 cases (39%) were palliative resected. The overall cumulative survival rates of 107 patients were 53.7%, 41.7% and 30.1% for 1-year, 2-year and 5-year survival respectively. Although the 5-year survival rate of curative resected patients showed a significantly better survival rate (p<0.005) than that of non-curative resected patients, the different modes of combined radical surgery did not affect the survival rates. CONCLUSION: Combined curative resection ameliorated long-term survival of patients with gallbladder carcinoma. For the further evaluation of the efficacy of combined radical surgery on survival, more extensive data needs to be accumulated.
Abdominal Pain ; Dyspepsia ; Early Diagnosis ; Female ; Gallbladder* ; Hospital Distribution Systems ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate ; Weight Loss

PURPOSE: The 8 pancreatic cancer cell lines (BxPC-3, Capan-2, CFPAC-1, HPAC, Capan-1, AsPC-1, MIA PaCa-2, and PANC-1) were investigated to identify the factors which would increase CA19-9 related to the Lewis antigen. CA19-9 in serum is a well-known tumor marker, and is frequently used for the clinical diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The oligosaccharide on the CA19-9 epitope is a sialylated Lewis A blood group antigen. METHODS: beta3Gal-T was detected by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The phenotypes and genotypes of Lewis antigen were determined by flow cytometry analysis and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), respectively. The phenotypes of sLe(a) were assessed by flow cytometry analysis and the sLe(a) on supernatants was detected by sodium dodecyl sulfate - polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). CA19-9 and DUPAN-2 on supernatants were measured by enzyme immunoassay. RESULTS: CA19-9 productions were possible from all cell lines since they all had beta3Gal-T and there were no genotypical Lewis negative (le/le). The elevation of CA19-9 was noted on Capan-2 and CFPAC-1, which were phenotypically Lewis positive (Le(a+b+)), as expected. Interestingly, it was also elevated in BxPC-3 even though the line was known to be phenotypically Lewis negative (Le(a-b-)). Sialyl Le(a) appeared to play an important role in this phenomenon. Although CA 19-9 was not detected in the phenotypically Lewis negative pancreatic cell line without sialyl Le(a), the levels of DUPAN-2 were variable. CONCLUSION: It was revealed that an elevated CA19-9 was related with increased expression of Lewis gene, not merely the existence of the gene. Further investigations on the role of ST3Gal are warranted to explain the mechanisms of the variable levels of DUPAN-2 in Le(a-b-) cell lines.
Cell Line* ; Diagnosis ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Flow Cytometry ; Genotype ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Pancreatic Neoplasms* ; Phenotype ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate