Nine cases of gastrointestinal leiomyosarcoma were studied by ultrasound. Abdominal sonogram disclosed a largelobulated iso or hypoechoic mass containing a few or multiple central sonolucent cavitations in seven cases. Twocases arising from mesentery and abdominal wall were hypoechoic mass without central sonolucent area. Thesecentral sonolucent areas were condirmed to be necrotic or hemorrhagic cavities in the solid mass pathologically.Although not pathognomonic, a large lobulated exophytic gastrointestinal mass with central sonolucent areastrongly suggests the diagnosis of leiomyosarcoma.
Abdominal Wall ; Diagnosis ; Leiomyosarcoma ; Mesentery ; Ultrasonography

No abstract available.
Knee* ; Lipoma*

No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: Cleaning and disinfection of fiberoptic bronchoscope requires careful attention, especially to mycobacterium species because the contamination of mycobacteria could raise confusion on diagnosis. Recently, we detected contamination of Wydex(R) solution used in bronchoscope washer with Mycobacterium chelonae. In this study, we evaluated the mycobactericidal effect of 12 kinds of disinfectants for M. chelonae. METHOD: To evaluate the bactericidal effect of Wydex(R) 2%, Cidex(R) 2.25%, Cidex(R) 3%, Bacteriokiller (BK) disinfectant, Perasafe(R), HICLO-S(R), Lamicine(R), ethanol, Instrusept(R), Virkon(R), Betadine(R), and Vipon(R) against M. chelonae, culture was performed after exposure of two M. chelonae strains (ATCC 35749, the type strain and the strain isolated from contaminated Wydex(R) solution) to each disinfectant solution. The growth of organism was examined for up to 8 weeks. RESULTS: Growth of M. chelonae (reference strain of ATCC 35749 and isolated strain) was observed after a week incubation for Wydex(R) 2%, Cidex(R) (2.25%, 3%) and control. For BK disinfectant and Perasafe(R), they grew after 2-3 weeks, and 3-4 weeks, respectively. For HICLO-S(R) and Lamicine(R), only the contaminated strain grew after two and three weeks, respectively. For ethanol, Virkon(R), Betadine(R), Vipon(R), and Instrusept(R) , growth was not observed from either strain. CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of these results, Instrusept(R), virkon(R), ethanol, Betadine(R), and Vipon(R) were effective for the disinfection of M. chelonae. Especially, Instrusept(R) was thought to be useful as a disinfectant for bronchoscopes because it has advantages including non-corrosiveness, chemical stability, and non-irritativeness. And additional washing with ethanol might be effective. The finding that strain isolated from contaminated bronchoscopes was more resistant to disinfectants than reference strain suggested that the more resistant strains are selected throughout the improper disinfection.
Bronchoscopes ; Diagnosis ; Disinfectants* ; Disinfection ; Ethanol ; Mycobacterium chelonae* ; Mycobacterium*

Agnogenic myeloid metaplasia (AMM) is a myeloproliferative disorder characterized by leukoerythroblastosis, tear-drop erythrocytes, extramedullary hematopoiesis with hepatosplenomegaly, and varying degrees of myelofibrosis. The mean age at presentation is about 60 years, and pediatric cases are rare. We experienced a case of AMM in a 9 months old female who was presented with pallor, huge splenomegaly and intermittent fever. Peripheral blood showed leukoerythroblastosis poikilocytosis, and tear drop cells. Bone marrow was difficult to aspirate, and biopsy specimen showed increased reticulin with decreased cellularity, which was compatible with myelofibrosis. We presented a case of AMM with brief review of the literatures.
Biopsy ; Bone Marrow ; Erythrocytes ; Female ; Fever ; Hematopoiesis, Extramedullary ; Humans ; Infant ; Myeloproliferative Disorders ; Pallor ; Primary Myelofibrosis* ; Reticulin ; Splenomegaly

BACKGROUND: Nosocomial urinary tract infection (UTI) accounts for 35% of the nosocomial infection and 80-90% of them are associated with urethral catheters. Recently, we experienced an outbreak of nosocomial UTI caused by multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in neurosurgical intensive care unit (NSICU). METHODS: We investigated clinical records of the patients and observed the methods of care of urethral catheters in NSICU. Identification of P. aeruginose was done by API NE (API system; bioMerieux, France) and antibiotic susceptibility tests were done by disk diffusion method. Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay was used as a genotyping method. RESULTS: Between November 1997 and January 1998, 11 P. aeruginosa strains were isolated from the urine of 11 patients hospitalized in NSICU of Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital. Routine regular bladder irrigation, and emptying urine with common urinal had been done falsely. Antibiogram of the isolates showed resistance to multiple antibiotics including imipenem, gentamicin. amikacin, piperacillin, ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime, and cefoperazone/sulbactam. RAPD of the outbreak strains showed clonal relatedness, which was different from those of other clinical strains, We instructed all the health care workers to stop bladder Irrigation, and to use the separate urinals for each patient. Thereafter, no further case of P. aeruginosa UTI has occurred. CONCLUSION: An outbreak of UTI, caused by a single clone of P. aeruginosa, was confirmed by RAPD and was eradicated after correction of false practice on care-of urinary catheter.
Amikacin ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Ceftazidime ; Ciprofloxacin ; Clone Cells ; Cross Infection ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diffusion ; DNA ; Drug Resistance, Multiple ; Gentamicins ; Humans ; Imipenem ; Intensive Care Units ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Piperacillin ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa* ; Pseudomonas* ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Catheters ; Urinary Tract Infections* ; Urinary Tract*

BACKGROUND: In order to evaluate the prevalence of enterovirus and cytomegalovirus infections to terminally failing hearts, the presence of enteroviral RNA and cytomegaloviral DNA was screened in the explanted hearts of transplantation recipients. METHODS: RNA and DNA extractions were performed from explanted failing hearts (N=22) and normal hearts (N=5). Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of enterovirus and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of cytomegalovirus were performed. In situ RT-PCR and in situ PCR were performed with positive nucleic acids of viruses. RESULTS: The positivity of enterovirus in failing hearts was 4.4% (1/22) and 0% (0/5) in normal hearts in nested RT-PCR. There was no significant difference in positivity of enteroviral RNA between failing and normal hearts. Nuclei of myocardium was stained in dark-violet color with in situ RT-PCR. The positivity of cytomegalovirus in failing hearts was 45% (10/22) and 40% (2/5) in nested PCR. There was no significant difference in positivity of cytomegaloviral DNA between failing and normal hearts. Nuclei of myocardium was stained in dark-violet color with in situ PCR. Positive chambers of cytomegalovirus were in decreasing tendency according to increasing patient's age. CONCLUSION: Enterovirus was very rarely observed in explanted terminally failing hearts and cytomegalovirus was frequently found both in explanted failing hearts and normal. These viruses have little direct causal relationship with the development of heart failure.
Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ; Cytomegalovirus Infections* ; Cytomegalovirus* ; DNA ; Enterovirus* ; Heart Failure ; Heart* ; Humans* ; Mass Screening* ; Myocardium ; Nucleic Acids ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence ; RNA

BACKGROUND: An accurate and rapid method for specise identification of coagulase negative staphylococci(CNS) has been increasingly necessary for the clinical significance and planning the management of patients with staphylococcal infections. Recently, it has been reported that there is a highly conserved area on their 60KDa heat shock protein(HSP60) gene sequences between the interspecies of CNS and it can be amplified by a set of universal degenerate primer. This led us our attention to focus on whether the PCR-based RFLP method using Mse / restriction enzyme could be a useful tool for the species identification of CNS. METHODS: In the present study, we performed PCR-based RFLP analysis using a set of degenerate primers covering HSP60 and Mse / restriction enzyme on the reference strains and 25 clinical isolates(10 of S. epidermidis, 10 of S. haemolyticus, 4 of S. lugdunensis and 1 of S. warneri) which were previously identified by the API-STAPH, Vitek GPI card and/or with conventional biochemical test. RESULT: All the seven reference strains revealed that each strain has a distinct electrophoresed band patterns with combination of different number (up to 8) and size of fragments. And these distinct band patterns showed remarkable concordance with the seven reference strains and 25 clinical isolates. CONCLUSION: These result strongly suggest that the PCR-RFLP method using degenerate primers covering the HSP60 gene and Mse / digestion enzyme offer a convenient and accurate tool for species-specific identification of CNS.
Chaperonin 60* ; Coagulase* ; Digestion ; Heat-Shock Proteins* ; Hot Temperature* ; Humans ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Shock ; Staphylococcal Infections

There are considerable discrepacies between clinical symptoms and imaging diagnosis in the localization of the responsible radiculopathy. The purposes of this study are to analyzed the dynamic alteration of contrast filling of the spinal nerve sleeves during positional changes and to determine how the abnormalities of nerve sleeves no lateral bending A-P views correlate with sciatica. The criteria indicationg the root abnormality in functional myelography were (1) bad filling of ipsilateral root to sciatica and (2) good filling of contralateral root compared with those in neutral A-P view. Of total 77 patients, 67 had radiculopathy and 10 had no radiculopathy. In 23 (34.3%) of 67 patients with radiculopathy and 6 (60%) of 10 patients with no radiculopathy, their clinical symptoms well correlated with conventional myelographic findings. However, in 35 (52.2%) of 67 patients with radiculopathy and 6(60%) of 10 patients with no radiculopathy, their symptoms well correlated with functional myelographic findings. This study suggests that the functional myelogaphy using both lateral bending A-P views can be used as a complementary tool in the evaluation of the radiculopathy.
Diagnosis ; Humans ; Myelography* ; Radiculopathy* ; Sciatica ; Spinal Nerves

Two strains of vancomycin-resistant Leuconostoc species were isolated from blood cultures in two compromised patients. The isolates produced gas from Lactobacillus MRS booth, hydrolysed esculin, and produced no ammonia from arginine, thus fulfilling the major criteria as Leucorostoc spp. We recommend that clinical laboratories should perform susceptibility test to vancomycin for clinical isolates (especially from cerebrospinal fluid and blood) which resemble streptococci so as not to confuse Leuconostoc spp. with more commonly isolated pathogens such as streptococci.
Ammonia ; Arginine ; Bacteremia* ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Esculin ; Humans ; Lactobacillus ; Leuconostoc* ; Vancomycin