No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Animals ; Cricetinae* ; Macrophage Activation* ; Macrophages* ; Macrophages, Peritoneal* ; Mice* ; Nitric Oxide ; Phagocytosis

PURPOSE: The purpose was trying to clarify utility of allogenous bone graft on open type high tibial osteotomy, among the method of treatment of osteoarthritis with genu varum deformity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Working with eight patients who have osteoarthritis with genu varum deformity, performed the open type high tibial osteotomy. and after transplanting allogenous bone graft, fixed using L-shaped plate. Before and after the operation, measured the degree of correction of genu varum through radiography of anterior and posterior of weigh load, understudied degree of union by testing bone histology during removal of implant, and evaluated functional factor as well as improvement of patients using Lysholm's knee score and HSS knee score. RESULTS: According to radiography of anterior and posterior of weigh load, the average of varus angle was 5.3 +/- 3.2 degrees before operation, the average of correction angle was 16.1 +/- 4.1 degrees after operation and the average of valgus angle was 10.7 +/- 4.3 degrees. By radiography of anterior and posterior of weigh load and lateral taken during the continual observation, complete bone union was seen. It got result that bone histology of transplanted part was composed of osteologic tissue and ratio of live bone and dead bone was 3.3:1, which live bone was 76.7 +/- 8% by image analyzer (Pro Plus(R) system) during the implant removal. The average of correction loss angle was 1.5 +/- 1.0 degrees After 15.3 months, average period of observation, average of Lysholm's score and HSS knee score were increased from 66.2 +/- 8.3 to 75.7 +/- 9.1 and from 55.2 +/- 9.0 to 79.0 +/- 7.5 respectively. CONCLUSION: The method that using a transplantation of allogenous bone graft on open type high tibial osteotomy, can be a fine surgical technique because it gains a perfect union, has an inconsiderable loss of correction angle and precision of correction angle, and can be contributed to the improvement of functional knee joint.
Congenital Abnormalities ; Genu Varum ; Humans ; Knee ; Knee Joint ; Osteoarthritis ; Osteotomy* ; Radiography ; Transplants*

The purpose of this study was to measure the skin dose using the glass dosimeter and diode and to compare those measurements to the planned skin dose from the treatment planning system. For the reproducibility of the glass dosimeter (ASAHI TECHNO GLASS CIRPORATION, Japan), the same dose was irradiated to 40 glass dosimeters three times, among which 28 with the reproducibility within 3% were selected for the use of this study. For each of 27 breast cancer patients, the glass dosimeters and diodes were attached to 4 different locations on the skin to measure the dose during treatment. All the patients received one fraction of 180 cGy each. The maximum difference of measurements between the glass dosimeter and diode at the same location was 3.2%. Comparing with the planned skin dose from the treatment planning system (Eclipse v6.5, Varian, USA), the dose measured by the glass dosimeter and the diodeshowed on an average 3.4% and 2.3% difference, respectively. The measured doses were always less than the planned skin dose. This may be due to the specific errors of both detectors. Also, the difference may be caused by the fact that since the skin where the detectors were attached is pretty moveable, it was not fix the detectors on the skin.
Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Glass ; Humans ; Skin

No abstract available.
Lymphangioleiomyomatosis*

Myasthenia gravis and autoimmune thyroid disorders often overlap. It is known that hyperthyroidism occurs in 2~17.5% of patients with myasthenia gravis. Thyrotoxicosis may influence the clinical course of myasthenia gravis. Overlapping clinical features may cause diagnostic confusion when Graves' disease and myasthenia gravis co-exist. Thus, various tests may be needed to distinguish these two diseases. It is clinically important to screen patients with myasthenia gravis for the co-existence of autoimmune thyroid disorders and vice versa. We cared for a patient with Graves' disease associated with ocular myasthenia gravis who presented with fluctuating double vision and ptosis. Ocular myasthenia gravis was diagnosed by electrophysiologic study and presence of acetylcholine receptor antibody. The patient had a favorable clinical and laboratory response to treatment with an anticholinesterase (pyridostigmine) and an antithyroid drug (propylthiouracil), and he had minimal symptoms at the 9-month follow-up examination.
Acetylcholine ; Diplopia ; Follow-Up Studies ; Graves Disease ; Humans ; Hyperthyroidism ; Myasthenia Gravis ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyrotoxicosis

A 5-year-old girl was admitted because of an acute onset of weakness in her extremities. She had experienced a similar episode before but had recovered spontaneously. She had previously been diagnosed with distal renal tubular acidosis(RTA) at the age of 2 months. During the period of acute paralysis, her serum potassium level was 1.8 mmol/L and the muscle enzymes were markedly raised suggesting massive rhabdomyolysis. Although hypokalemia is common in renal tubular acidosis, acute paralytic presentation is uncommon and is rarely described in children. We report a case of distal RTA complicated with hypokalemic paralysis with a brief review of related literatures.
Acidosis, Renal Tubular* ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Extremities ; Female ; Humans ; Hypokalemia ; Paralysis* ; Potassium ; Rhabdomyolysis

OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to evaluate the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognostic factors of uterine endometrial cancer affecting survival of the patients. METHODS: Form Jan. 1995 to Dec. 2001, medical records including operation record and pathologic reports of 111 patients with histologically proven endometrial cancer at Samsung Medical Center were reviewed. The survival of patients was determined by description of last follow up date in medical records or phone calls. RESULTS: The median age of all patients was 52 years and the most common presenting symptom was abnormal vaginal bleeding (74.0%). Histologic type of endometrioid adenocarcinoma was the most common (90%) type of all endometrial cancers. The grades were classified into G1 (65.7%), G2 (17.1%), G3 (12.6%) and unknown (4.5%). The FIGO surgical stage was also classified into stage I(75.7%), stage II (14.4%), stage III (9.0%), and stage IV (0.9%). All patients were treated by primary surgery and postoperative adjuvant therapy including radiation therapy (54.1%), chemotherapy (4.5%) was applied. The overall 5-year disease free survival rate (DFSR) was 86.5% and overall 5-year survival rate was 87.8%. The age (p=0.04), grade (p=0.04), myometrial invasion (p=0.047), FIGO surgical stage (p=0.0067), lymph node metastasis (p=0.0001), lymphovascular space invasion (p=0.01) and C-erb B2 (p=0.04) were significant prognostic factors by univariate analysis. CONCLUSION: The age, grade, myometrial invasion, FIGO surgical stage, lymph node metastasis, lymphovascular space invasion and C-erb B2 were significant prognostic factors of uterine endometrial cancer affecting survival of the patients.
Carcinoma, Endometrioid ; Disease-Free Survival ; Drug Therapy ; Endometrial Neoplasms* ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Medical Records ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Survival Rate ; Uterine Hemorrhage

PURPOSE: To determine the prevalence and degree of CAC (coronary artery calcification) in appearently healthy middle-aged Koreans, and the relation of CAC to risk factors for atherosclerosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 289 apparently healthy personnel at Yonsei University (male: 170, female: 119, age: mean(SD=54.9 +/-7.1 years) underwent EBT (electron bean tomography). The risk factors for atherosclerosis, which included diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking, a family history of precocious onset, obesity, hyperlipidemia, and high intraperitoneal fat, were scrutinized. One hundred and sixty-eight subjects (58 % ) had at least one risk factor. The CAC score was calculated for all subjects and for each coronary artery separately and was then analyzed by age and sex and in relation to the risk factors. RESULTS: The prevalence of CAC was 40% in men and 18.5% in women (mean score: 29.7 vs. 9.9). The number of individuals who had one, two, or more than two risk factors was 141, 41, and 19, respectively. The number of risk factors and the prevalence and score of CAC were significantly correlated (p=0.01, 0.02 respectively). The number of individuals with no risk factor, with without CAC, was 58(20.1%) and 103(35.6% ) , respectively, while the number with some risk factor, with or without CAC, was 38(13.1%) and 90(31.1%), respectively. The CAC score was significantly higher in the presence of hypertension, low HDL, or obesity (p=0.001, 0.049, and 0.068, respectively). Smoking appeared to have a borderline effect on the calcium score (p=0.118). CONCLUSION: This study should provide useful information for interpreting CAC scores and establishing a treatment strategy for Koreans. The comparison of our results with other studies will enable a better understanding of the process and risk factors of atherosclerosis in Koreans.
Arteries ; Atherosclerosis ; Calcium* ; Coronary Vessels ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Male ; Obesity ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking

PURPOSE: The trinucleotide repeat expansion in the 3' untanslated resion of the gene is known to be the cause of myotonic dystrophy which is one of most common neurodegenerative disorder manifested by myotonia, cataract, mental retardation and even respiratory distress in neonates. The hereditary pattern of myotonic dystrophy shows more severe symptoms and shows earlier onset with successive generations and congenital cases, the most severe form of myotonic dystrophy,. Occurs by maternal transmission. This genetic transmission mode does not follow Mendelian genetic trait. To find the molecular genetic abnormalities of Korean myotonic dystrophy patients, we investigated the general distribution of myotonic dystrophy alleles and compared the results with referred patients. METHODS: During an 8 month study, from June 1995 to February 1996, 5 patients were referred with presumed diagnosis of myotonicdystrophy. Among these patients, four cases were confirmed to have the disease by clinical and electrophysiological findings. We included family members of the studied probands and 50 normal blood donor DNAs were included as controls. The DNAs of the enrolled cases were evaluated by Southern blot. Subsequently, copy numbers of the repeats were determined using PCR amplification. RESULTS: (1) Two peaks were found in the distribution of trinucleotide repeats in the normal Korean population. One peak had 5 copies and the other had 11 to 13 copies. The highest number of copies was 27. (2) Of the referred cases, 4 pedigrees showed typical expanded repeats. (3) The minimum expanded copy number was 55 and we were able to detect the expanded band only by PCR in 2 cases. In other cases, expaded bands were visible by Southern blotting. (4) There were trend of earlier onset of the disease, progressive worsening symptoms and larger expanded bands with successive generations. CONCLUSION: We established the methodology for myotonic dystrophy DNA diagnosis using Southern blot and PCR amplification based on the normal Korean allele distribution. These methods might be useful in genetic counselling and detection of minimally affected myotonic dystrophy patients.
Alleles ; Blood Donors ; Blotting, Southern ; Cataract ; Diagnosis ; DNA ; Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intellectual Disability ; Molecular Biology ; Myotonia ; Myotonic Dystrophy* ; Neurodegenerative Diseases ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Trinucleotide Repeat Expansion* ; Trinucleotide Repeats*