A retrospective study 40 patients with moderate or severe diffuse axonal injury which is defined as posttraumatic coma for over 24 hours without mass lesions or ischemic insults was conducted in order to identify prognostic parameters. The sign of hypothalamic damage and motor reactivities of 40 patients were reviewed and compared to the outcome. The results were as follows ; 1) The ratio of male to female was about 3 to 1 and the peak incidence was at the first decade. 2) Of abnormal brain stem signs, fever of central origin was observed at the early posttraumatic phase and correlated with nonrecovery of consciousness(P<0.05). 3) Of abnormal brain stem signs, abnormal ADH secretion was significantly correlated with nonrecovery of consciousness(P<0.005). 4) Abnormal motor reactivity to pain was significantly correlated with nonrecovery of consciousness(P<0.005). 5) In the group of recovery of consciousness, initial Glasgow coma scale in 40 patients with moderate or severe DAI was significantly correlated with their outcome(P<0.005).
Brain Stem ; Coma ; Consciousness ; Diffuse Axonal Injury* ; Female ; Fever ; Glasgow Coma Scale ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Retrospective Studies

This study intended to obtain an useful information on the prevalence of subjective symptoms, and to clarify the interrelationships between blood lead and lead related symptoms in low level lead exposure. The 93 male workers exposed to lead and 56 male nonexposed workers were examined for their blood lead (PBB), Zinc-protoporphy (ZPP), hemoglobin (HB) and personal history, and completed 15 questionnaires related to symptoms of lead absorption; also measured lead concentration in air (PBA) in the workplace. The results obtained were as follow; 1. The means of blood lead (PBB), blood ZPP and hemoglobin (HB) among workers exposed to lead were 26.1+/-8.8 microgram/dl, 28.3+/-26.0 microgram/dl and 16.2+/-1.2g/dl; whereas those of nonexposed workers were 18.7+/-5.1 microgram/dl, 20.6+/-8.7 microgram/dl and 17.3+/-1.1g/dl. The means of above three indicies between two groups showed significant difference statistically (p<0.05). 2. The means of blood lead (PBB), blood ZPP and hemoglobin of workers exposed to different lead concentration in air were as follows; When it was below 25 microgram/m3 , the indices were 24.7+/-79, 26.1+/-26.8 microgram/dl and 16.4+/-1.1 g/dl respectively; These indices were 27.1+/-8.5, 23.9+/-10.92 /dl and 16.2+/-1.3 g/dl when the lead concentration in air was 25~50 microgram/m3; and they were 3.4+/-9.3, 42.3+/-31.3 microgram/dl and 15.5+/-1.2 g/dl when the concentration of lead was above 50 microgram/m3. Although there were statistical difference in blood lead and hemoglobin among three different lead concentration in air, there was no statistical difference of blood ZPP among the three groups with different exposure levels (p>0.05). 3. The most frequently by complained symptom was "Generalized weakness and fatigue", and fewest symptom was "Intermittent pains in abdomen". 4. Only two symptoms out of fifteen symptoms checked by themselves revealed significant difference between exposed and nonexposed groups. These were "Intermittent pains of abdomen" and "Joint pain or arthralgia" (p<0.05). No positive correlation was found between the levels of blood lead and symptom groups categorized as gastrointestinal, neuromuscular and constitutional symptoms. 5. Blood lead (r=0.3995) and ZPP (r=0.2837) showed statistically significant correlation with mean lead concentration in air, whereas correlations were not demonstrated between blood lead and lead related symptoms or blood ZPP and lead related symptoms. 6. Blood lead (PBB) and ZPP showed association (r=0.2466) and the equation PBB=23.75+0.0842 ZPP was derived. 7. On stepwise multiple regression, using blood lead level as a dependent variable and ZPP, hemoglobin (HB), age, work duration (WD) and symptom prevalence as a independent variables, only ZPP significantly contributed a lot to blood lead level. 8. While the ZPP measurement was found to be a good indicator in evaluating health effect of lead absorption in low level lead exposure, lead related symptoms were not sensitive enough to evaluate of lead absorption in low level exposure.
Absorption ; Humans ; Male ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Most patients of urethral stricture can be cured by urethral dilatation or visual internal urethrotomy. But, it is necessary to perform accurate surgical urethroplasty in complex urethral stricture such as extensive or multiple urethral strictures, urethrocutaneous fistula, urethral diverticulum, periurethral scar and chronic inflammation. Usually urethroplasty can be performed in one-stage, using standard end-to-end urethral anastomosis or full thickness skin graft or vascularized skin flap urethroplasty. But, in high risk cases, sometimes, two-stage scrotal inlay operation is adopted. We report 3 successful results with urethroplasty using vascularized penile dorsal skin flap which was made from rectangularily designed penile dorsal skin with longitudinal incision, one was inflammatory posterior urethral stricture associated with traumatic urethrocutaneous fistula the other was extensive and multiple inflammatory bulbous urethral stricture and another was intractable penile urethral stricture; totally in 3 cases.
Cicatrix ; Dilatation ; Diverticulum ; Fistula ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Inlays ; Skin* ; Transplants ; Urethral Stricture*

No abstract available.
Hematoma* ; Orbit*

Antifungal bacteria for biological control of plant diseases or production of novel antibiotics to plant pathogens were isolated in 1997 from various soils of Ansung, Chunan, Koyang, and Paju in Korea. Sixty-four bacterial strains pre-screened from approximately 1,400 strains were tested on V-8 juice agar against eight plant pathogenic fungi using in vitro bioassay technique for inhibition of mycelial growth. Test pathogens were Alternaria mali, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, C. orbiculare, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum, F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, Magnaporthe grisea, Phytophthora capsici, and Rhizoctonia solani. A wide range of antifungal activity of bacterial strains was found against the pathogenic fungi, and strain RC-B77 showed the best antifungal activity. Correlation analysis between inhibition of each fungus and mean inhibition of all eight fungi by 64 bacterial strains revealed that C. gloeosporioides would be best appropriate for detecting bacterial strains producing antibiotics with potential as biocontrol agents for plant pathogens.
Agar ; Alternaria ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bacteria* ; Biological Assay ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Colletotrichum ; Fungi ; Fusarium ; Gyeonggi-do ; Korea ; Magnaporthe ; Mali ; Mass Screening* ; Phytophthora ; Plant Diseases ; Plants* ; Rhizoctonia ; Soil*

Injury to specific areas of the immature brain, in both the human and animals, can result in compensatory reorganization in undamaged adjacent or contralateral areas. The functional plasticity of such compensatory hypertrophy is not well known, but in some cases may be responsible for recovery of function. In order to investigate the effect of unilateral ischemic injury on the contralateral cerebral hemisphere in neonatal rats, early and late changes in various areas of both cerebral hemispheres were assessed. Seventy-seven seven-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats underwent unilateral carotid artery ligation and were then exposed to hypoxia(8% oxygen) for 3 hours. The animals were killed one week(Group I, 58 rats) and three months(Group II, 19 rats) later. Twelve rats, comprising Group III, were exposed to hypoxia for 3 hours without carotid artery ligation. The control group, consisting of 19 rats, did not undergo any of the above procedures. In each slice of brain tissue(4mm posterior to the bregma), the area of the whole brain, each hemisphere, and the frontoparietal, temporal and hippocampal regions in each hemisphere were measured, using the image analysis program(Optimas 5.2), and to assess which regions were affected, proportions of each hemisphere occupied by each region were compared. In Group II, the proportional areas of the frontoparietal(p<0.05) and temporal(p<0.01) regions in the contralateral hemisphere increased significantly, compared with the control group, but the hippocampal region showed no significant change. In Group I, there was no contralateral hypertrophy. The ipsilateral hemisphere showed significant atrophy and there was weight reduction in Groups I(p<0.001) and II(p<0.001). This study suggests that unilateral hypoxia-ischemia results in ipsilateral hemispheric atrophy and contralateral hypertrophy, especially in the frontoparietal and temporal areas, may contribute to some functional recovery and compensation in addition to uncrossed corticospinal or other descending motor systems.
Animals ; Anoxia ; Atrophy ; Brain* ; Carotid Arteries ; Cerebrum* ; Compensation and Redress ; Humans ; Hypertrophy ; Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain* ; Ligation ; Plastics ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Recovery of Function ; Weight Loss

Paraganglioma, a pheochromocytoma arising in extra-adrenal tissue, is less common and more difficult to characterize radiologically. This disease has higher incidence of nonfunctioning and malignancy than adrenal pheochromocytoma, and occurs multiple. mostly around renal hilum. A 35-year-old female was transferred to our hospital complaining of palpable mass on the LUQ for 3 years. On admission, child head-sized fixed hard mass was palpated on LUQ. Urinary VMA, serum catecholamine and other tumor markers were within normal limit. Ultrasonogram and abdominal CT demonstrated inhomogeneous enhanced tumor mass located anteriorly to left kidney. En bloc removal of the mass with ipsilateral kidney and regional lymphadenectomy were done. We confirmed postoperatively the benign nonfunctioning retroperitoneal paraganglioma by histopathological studies.
Adult ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Kidney ; Lymph Node Excision ; Paraganglioma* ; Pheochromocytoma ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Biomarkers, Tumor ; Ultrasonography

A retrospective study was made in 21 patients who angiographically diagnosed as moyamoya or moyamoya-like disease over the last 10 years. Computed tomography of the patients showed semorrhage, infarction or normal. Carotid angiography revealed various stages unilaterally or bilaterally. Seventy-five percent of the venous phase on the side of arterial occlusion demonstranted some abnormalities. Two children with unilateral abnormality showed arterial occlusion at supraclinoid portion of internal carotid arteries. On the other hand 5 adults with unilateral abnormality showed occlusion at variable sites of internal carotid artery.
Adult ; Angiography ; Carotid Artery, Internal ; Child ; Hand ; Humans ; Infarction ; Moyamoya Disease* ; Retrospective Studies

PURPOSE: Since umbilical cord blood (UCB), which used to be discarded, was found to be a source of enriched hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, basic research to elucidate characteristics of UCB hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and its clinical application to bedside transplantation have been attempted. Moreover, stem cell transplantation (SCT) has expanded its role, not only in hematopoietic reconstitution, but in cancer therapy, stem cell expansion and gene therapy. This study was aimed to clarify the characteristics of UCB HSC comparing differences between term and preterm babies in term of 1) hematologic parameters, 2) immunophenotypic characteristics studied by flow cytometer utilizing CD34 and several other monoclonal antibodies (MoAb), and 3) hematopoietic capacity by clonogenic assays. METHODS: UCB was obtained from 18 term babies and 13 preterms after informed consents. Samples were initially tested for complete blood counts. Immunophenotypic characteristics were studied in 11 cases (preterm, 4; term, 7) by two laser FACscan plus (Becton Dickinson) with FITC-conjugated MoAb to CD3, CD4, CD5, CD8, CD10, CD16+ 56, CD19, CD33, CD34, CD38, CD71, Thy-1, and HLA-DR. Clonogenic assays were performed by methylcellulose method. RESULTS: The mean hematologic parameters for all groups were : white blood cell, 12.7x103/microliter; hemoglobin 14.8g/dL; platelets, 230x103/microliter. The parameters for preterms and terms were as follows : white blood cell, 10.6x103/microliter vs 13.9x103/microliter; hemoglobin 13.5g/dL vs. 15.4g/dL; platelets, 188x103/microliter vs 254x103/microliter; mononuclear cells 5.1x103/microliter vs 6.4x103/microliter, respectively. Parameters other than hemoglobin and platelet counts were not significantly different between the two groups. The colony-forming units granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM) count and count for all colonies identified on day 14 were 10,888+/-11,257.3/mL and 16,504+/-16,531.6/mL, respectively. However, there was no significant differences in clonogenic assays between the term and preterm groups. The percentage of CD34+ cells in mononuclear cells was 1.5+/-1.5%, with 1.0+/-0.2% for preterms and 1.8+/-1.9% for terms. The number of CD34+ cells was 5.5+/-4.1x104/mL, with 3.8+/-2.0x104/mL for preterms and 6.5+/-4.7x104/mL, respectively. These findings suggested that the percentage and number for CD34 cells and the number of CFUs be higher in term babies than in preterms, but the differences failed to meet statistical significances. As T cell markers, CD3 (pan-T cell) and CD5 (early developmental T cell) were positive in 28.5% and 32.8%, respectively. The CD4 : CD8 ratio for all was 2.2+/-0.5, with 2.3+/-0.3 for preterms and 2.1+/-0.6 for terms, respectively, tending to decrease with gestational age with transient increase when approaching to the term. CD10 and CD19 expression as markers for B cell-associated antigens were 1.8+/-1.6% and 6.5+/-4.6%, respectively. Myeloid marker CD33 was positive in 2.24%, while CD71 (transferrin receptor) in 43.7%. Thy-1 was 30.0% with peak of 63.4% at 32th gestational week. As a subpopulation study among HSCs, CD34+CD38- cells were 2.1+/-1.5%, CD34+ HLA-DR+ was present in 85.3+/-3.1%, while CD34+CD19+ cells were 1.7+/-1.6%. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that T cells in UCB were immature, that the number of CD8+ cells which are known to be implicated in graft-versus-host disease, was relatively low, that B cell expression was low, and that UCB were enriched with primitive HSCs. As UCB for preterms were not significantly different from that of terms, the UCB from preterm babies might be used as a source of HSCs. Moreover, the cell number for adequate engraftment might be inferred from calculating mononuclear cells in UCB as the mononuclear cell count had a good correlation with CFUs.
Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Blood Cell Count ; Cell Count ; Fetal Blood* ; Genetic Therapy ; Gestational Age ; Graft vs Host Disease ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; HLA-DR Antigens ; Leukocytes ; Methylcellulose ; Platelet Count ; Stem Cell Transplantation ; Stem Cells ; T-Lymphocytes ; Umbilical Cord*

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether paraspinal muscle wasting occurs in association with chronic low back pain(LBP) and to know whether low back muscle exercise is effective for abating chronic low back pain. Cross sectional areas(CSA) of lumbar vertebral bodies and paraspinal muscles were measured using CT at the level of the fouth lumbar vertebral body in 37 patients(23 males 14 females) with acute low back pain and in 44 patients(20 males, 24 females) with chronic low back pin. The results were as follows; 1) The mean age of the patients with chronic LBP were higher than those with acute LBP. 2) The CSAs of L4 vertebral bodies were correlated significantly with body weight and the CSAs of L4 vertebral bodies, erector spinae and psoas muscles were larger in males than in females. 3) The volumes of the paraspinal muscles were significantly reduced in patients with chronic LBP compared to a cute LBP. These changes can cause erector spinae and psoas muscle weakness and disuse atrophy and thereby predispose to spinal instability and progressive dysfuction.
Back Muscles ; Body Weight ; Female ; Humans ; Low Back Pain* ; Male ; Muscular Atrophy ; Muscular Disorders, Atrophic ; Paraspinal Muscles* ; Psoas Muscles