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

No abstract available.

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

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

No abstract available.
Sterilization, Tubal*

A technique for Thallium-201 imaging after two separate injections of the tracer, which took less than I hour, was performed to evaluate if this technique could be used clinically as a noninvasive screening test of angina pectoris. 29 patients who complained of chest pain were included in this study: 18 patients were proven to have coronary artery disease by coronary angiography and 11 patients had normal coronary arteries. With the patient supine at rest, 1.0 mCi of Thallium was injected intravenously and imaging was performed in the anterior and 50degrees left anterior oblique projections for a preset time according to Okada's protocol. Immediately after acquisition of the rest images, without moving the camera head, an infusion of dipyridamole was done at the rate of 0.14 mg/Kg/min for 4 minutes. Two minutes after stopping the infusion, 1.0 mCi of Thallium was injected intravenously and 50degrees left anterior oblique and anterior projection images were acquired. Images of the same projection were realigned using computer image registration approach (PDP-11/34 computer of DEC company). The rest image was then subtracted from the realigned dipyridamole image to produce an image representing perfusion during dipyridamole induced hyperemia (subtraction image). The results were as follows; 1) All of the subtraction images were of adequate quality for interpretation. 2) 16 cases in 18 patients of angina pectoris and 1 case in 11 normal control showed perfusion defects, so the over all sensitivity and specificity of the subtraction versus rest Thallium image technique for diagnosis of angina pectoris were 89% and 91%, respectively. 3) All patients (8 cases) whose left ventriculography revealed abnormality of regional wall motion showed perfusion defects in corresponding segments. But qualitative analysis of Thallium image could not predict if the patient whose Thallium image revealed perfusion defect has abnormality of regional wall motion. 4) segmental analysis was performed to know the association between the site of coronary artery stenosis and the perfusion defects in Thallium scan, which revealed the sensitivities for detecting stenosis of LCX, LAD & RCA were 50-60% in range and the range of specificities were 89-92%. 5) Adverse effects of dipyridamole were headache (2 cases) and chest pain (4 cases) but aminophylline was not needed in any case. In conclusion, split dose Thallium dipyridamole scan can be used as a noninvasive screening test of angina pectoris reducing the total duration of imaging to less than one hour. Futher applications of this technique may include the assessment of myocardial perfusion before and immediately after coronary angioplasty and coronary artery bypass graft and the evaluation of the impact of pharmacotheraphy on regional myocardial perfusion.
Aminophylline ; Angina Pectoris* ; Angioplasty ; Chest Pain ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Artery Bypass ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Stenosis ; Coronary Vessels ; Diagnosis* ; Dipyridamole* ; Head ; Headache ; Humans ; Hyperemia ; Mass Screening ; Perfusion ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Thallium ; Transplants

High blood pressure is an important determinant of the incidence of coronary heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, renal failure, and peripheral vascular disease. Recommendations for control of high blood pressure emphasize lifestyle modification, including weight control, reduced sodium intake, increased physical activity. Subjects who were normotensive (n = 19, 47.2 +/- 9.0 y, BP 116/81 mmHg), treatment hypertensive (n = 33, 54.2 +/- 6.9 y, BP 132/85 mmHg) and non-treatment hypertensive (n = 14, 50.1 +/- 11.0 y, 149/94 mmHg) recruited. Anthropometric assessment (height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, fat %, fat mass, and lean body mass) and dietary assessments (using 3-days food records, daily nutrient intakes were analysed by CAN PRO 2.0 were carried out. Blood and 24-hour urine were collected). Test of recognition for salt taste threshold were performed. In non-treatment hypertensive male subjects, weight, %IBW, BMI, and waist circumference were significantly higher than those of normotensive and treatment hypertensive subjects (p < 0.05). Food habits were not significantly different among the three groups. Intakes of vitamin A, vitamin B1, and vitamin B2 were significantly higher in normotensive group (p < 0.05). Intakes of sodium and salt taste recognition threshold were the highest in normotensive group and the lowest in treatment hypertensive group (p < 0.05). Blood levels of lipids and minerals were not significantly different among the three groups. Urinary calcium level of normotensive group were significantly higher than that of treatment hypertensive and non-treatment hypertensive groups (p < 0.05). These results indicate that continuous management of hypertension by drug and non-drug treatment affects salt taste recognition threshold and reduced the consumption of sodium. However, dietary sodium intake exceed recommended sodium intake to prevent and treat hypertension. It is necessary to develop the lifestyle modification program that may have beneficial effects on hypertension treatment.
Calcium ; Coronary Disease ; Food Habits ; Heart Failure ; Hip ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Incidence ; Life Style ; Male ; Minerals ; Motor Activity ; Peripheral Vascular Diseases ; Renal Insufficiency ; Riboflavin ; Sodium ; Sodium, Dietary ; Stroke ; Taste Threshold ; Thiamine ; Vitamin A ; Waist Circumference

PURPOSE: To optimize the transition time between the triggering point in monitoring scanning and theinitia-tion of diagnostic hepatic arterial phase (HAP) scanning in hepatic spiral CT, using a bolus triggeringtechnique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred consecutive patients with focal hepatic lesion were included inthis study. Patients were randomized into two groups. Transition times of 7 and 11 seconds were used in group 1and 2, respectively. In all patients, bolus triggered HAP spiral CT was obtained using a semi-automatic bolustracking program after the injection of 120 mL of non-ionic contrast media at a rate of 3 mL/sec. When aorticenhancement reached 90 HU, diagnostic HAP scanning began after a given transition time. From images of group 1 andgroup 2, the degree of parenchymal enhancement of the liver and tumor-to-liver attenuation dif-ference weremeasured. Also, for qualitative analysis, conspicuity of the hepatic artery and hypervascular tumor was scored andanalyzed. RESULTS: Hepatic parenchymal enhancement on HAP was 12.07+/-6.44 HU in group 1 and 16.03+/-5.80 HU ingroup 2 (p<.05). Hypervascular tumors were detected in seven patients in group 1 and 13 patients in group 2.Tumor-to-liver contrast was 20.43+/-9.47 HU in group 1 and 28.77+/-12.75 HU in group 2 (p> .05). In the evaluationof conspicuity of hepatic artery, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups(p>.05). The conspicuity of hypervascular tumors in group 2 was higher than in group 1 (p<.05). CONCLUSION: HAPspiral CT using a bolus triggering technique with a transition time of 11 seconds provides better HAP images thanwhen the transition time is 7 seconds.
Contrast Media ; Hepatic Artery ; Humans ; Liver ; Tomography, Spiral Computed*

OBJECTS:We investigated a possible association between the polymorphic trinucleotide repeat(TNR) expansion in neuronal potassium channel gene KCNN3 and schizophrenia. METHODS: CAG/CTG repeat distribution in KCNN3, CTG18.1 and ERDA1 was examined and the copy number of ligation product in repeat expansion detection(RED) was measured in Korean patients with schizophrenia(n=245) and ethnically matched healthy controls(n=116). RESULTS: Longer alleles in the KCNN3 gene were over-represented in patients. The frequency of alleles with CAG repeats longer than 19 copy in the KCNN3 gene was higher in the patients with schizophrenia as compared to controls(73.3% vs. 65.1%;p=0.029, Fisher's exact test). And this difference was more prominent in schizophrenic patients with familial background(p=0.03, Fisher's exact test). We found no difference in the frequency of longer alleles between negative and positive subtypes of schizophrenia. Ligation product size in RED and alleles with CAG repeat number in the CTG18.1 gene was not increased in the patients. The copy number of ligation product in RED was highly correlated with CAG/CTG copies of ERDA1 in the patient group(r=0.45, p<0.001) as well as in the control group(r=0.44, p<0.001). However, CAG repeat length in the KCNN3 gene was not correlated with ERDA1 score. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the hypothesis that the longer allele of KCNN3 may be considered as a candidate gene for schizophrenia, especially in the case with familial background. And the RED assay results was affected by the CAG copy number of ERDA1.
Alleles ; Humans ; Ligation ; Neurons ; Potassium Channels ; Schizophrenia*

Lupus myocarditis is usually treated using immunosuppressive agents, such as high-dose corticosteroids, azathioprine and cyclophosphamide. Viral myocarditis and enteroviruses have been identified as the most common causative agents of myocarditis in lupus patients. Although immunosuppressive therapy has an important role in the treatment of lupus myocarditis, it is not recommended in patients with infectious or post-infectious viral myocarditis, and supportive care is very important in these patients. A 25-year old female patient, with systemic lupus erythematosus, was admitted due to severe dyspnea, and diagnosed as having heart failure. She recovered 7 days after supportive care for heart failure, without Immuno-suppression. Her sera neutralized coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) in neutralization test, with the horse anti-CVB3 antibody (Ab, ATCC V030-501-560) used as a positive control. The titers for the neutralizing Ab in her sera were 4 times higher than that of the standard control ATCC Ab.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones ; Adult ; Azathioprine ; Cyclophosphamide ; Dyspnea ; Enterovirus ; Female ; Heart Failure ; Horses ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic* ; Myocarditis* ; Neutralization Tests