No abstract available.
Humans*

No abstract available.
Herpes Zoster* ; Infertility*

No abstract available.
Fertilization in Vitro* ; Humans* ; Micromanipulation* ; Pregnancy Rate* ; Pregnancy*

Slipped capital femoral epiphysis is a rare hip disorder that mainly occurs in pubertal children. Although the exact cause of this disorder is unknown, it is known to be associated with obesity, trauma, delayed sexual development, delayed bone maturation, chronic renal failure, genetic diseases, endocrine disorders (growth hormone deficiency, hypothyroidism, hypogonadism), growth hormone therapy, and gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist (GnRH agonist) therapy. We report 2 cases of slipped capital femoral epiphysis in adolescent females who were receiving growth hormone therapy. The first case is of a 16 year-old-girl with chronic renal failure and renal osteodystrophy. The second case is of an 11 year-old-girl with idiopathic precocious puberty who had received GnRH agonist and growth hormone therapy. Unilateral or bilateral slipped capital femoral epiphysis developed at 1 year 3 months after treatment in both the cases. The chief complaints were pain in the hip joint and lower extremities. Growth hormone and/or GnRH agonist therapy was stopped, and in situ screw fixations of the involved hip epiphyses were performed.
Adolescent ; Child ; Endocrine System Diseases ; Epiphyses ; Female ; Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone ; Growth Hormone ; Hip ; Hip Joint ; Humans ; Hypothyroidism ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Lower Extremity ; Obesity ; Puberty, Precocious ; Renal Osteodystrophy ; Sexual Development ; Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphyses

Biliary stents are widely used not only for palliative treatment of malignant biliary obstruction but also for benign biliary diseases. Each plastic stent or self-expandable metal stent (SEMS) has its own advantages, and a proper stent should be selected carefully for individual condition. To compensate and overcome several drawbacks of SEMS, functional self-expandable metal stent (FSEMS) has been developed with much progress so far. This article looks into the outcomes and defects of each stent type for benign biliary stricture and describes newly introduced FSEMSs according to their functional categories.
Bile Ducts, Extrahepatic ; Biliary Tract ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Drug-Eluting Stents ; Palliative Care ; Plastics ; Stents

The purpose of this study is to delineate the pattern of reorganization of cortical language areas using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) after rehabilitation therapy in patients with aphasia. Six right-handed aphasic patients were investigated. Causes of aphasia were intracerebral hemorrhages of the left basal ganglia in 3 patients, cerebral infarction of the left MCA in 2, and surgical resection of the frontotemporal lobes to control intractable epilepsy in 1. An auditory sentence completion task was used to activate brain language areas during the fMRI. Three patients with left frontal lesions showed activation in the right inferior frontal lobes while performing language tasks, whereas the other 3, whose lesions located at subcortical areas, showed activation in the bilateral frontal and temporal lobes. Our results demonstrated the differences in interhemispheric reorganization of the language network depending on the location of the lesion in aphasic patients. While the patients with subcortical lesion showed tendency of bilateral frontal activation, those with cortical lesion showed activation of the right frontal lobe.
Adult ; Aphasia/*pathology/physiopathology ; Cerebral Cortex/*pathology ; Female ; Human ; *Language ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Age

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of donepezil on cognitive function in patients with brain injury who had cognitive impairment. METHOD: Twenty one subjects with brain injury (18 males,3 females) were enrolled and classified into two groups, experimental and control group. There was no significant difference between two groups in age, postonset duration, and level of education. For the experimental group, one tablelet of Aricept(R) (5 mg of donepezil per tablet) was administered daily for 6 weeks. The baseline and follow up cognitive assessments were performed before and 6 weeks after. Mini- mental Status Examination (MMSE), Computerized Neuropsychologic Test (CNT), Judgement of Line Orientation (JLO), and visuospatial Wechsler memory test were used for the assessment of cognitive function. RESULTS: In baseline study, two groups showed no difference in their cognitive function. After 6 weeks, the experimental group showed significantly higher performance in forward digit span, verbal learning test, backward visual span, visual learning test, non-verbal Wechsler memory test, and judgement of line orientaion than control group (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: These results suggested that the administration of Aricept(R) was beneficial in improving the cognitive func tion, especially verbal and visual memory and visuospatial perception in patients with brain injury.
Brain Injuries* ; Brain* ; Education ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Learning ; Memory ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Verbal Learning

No abstract available.
Humans* ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Papilloma*

No abstract available.
Humans* ; Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic* ; Spermatozoa* ; Vero Cells*

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) detected in Korean patients almost belongs to genotype C, which is subdivided into subgenotype C1 (or Cs) and C2 (or Ce). It was recently reported that the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma is different between subgenotype C1 and C2. Thus, we studied the distribution of subgenotypes of HBV in Korean chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. METHODS: Specimens of 421 patients, who were diagnosed as CHB and underwent antiviral treatment, were used. After sequence analysis for HBV S gene, subgenotype was identified through phylogenetic analysis. Utilizing the same sequence data, the distribution of serotypes was also investigated. RESULTS: Among 421 patient specimens, genotype C was found in 419 (99.5%) and genotype B in 2 (0.5%). Among the genotype C strains, 417 strains were C2 subgenotype and 2 strains were mixed subgenotypes. However, C2 was evidently found even in the mixed sequences. Serotypes of 419 HBV with genotype C were classified as follows: adr, 385 (91.9%), adw, 22 (5.3%), ayr, 2 (0.4%) and mixed serotype, 10 (2.3%). Serotype of both HBV with genotype B was adw. CONCLUSIONS: It was found that HBV detected in Korean CHB patients under treatment almost all belong to the C2 (Ce) genotype.
Antiviral Agents/therapeutic use ; Blood Specimen Collection ; Genotype ; Hepatitis B virus/*classification/genetics ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/diagnosis/drug therapy/*virology ; Humans ; Korea ; Phylogeny ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Serotyping