Osteoporosis is a major health-care problem for aging communities. And postmenopausal osteoporosis is a common disorder characterized by an increase in bone resorption relative to bone formation, generally in conjunction with an increased rate of bone turnover. Twenty female rats were used as rat model of osteoporosis. They randomly were divided into two groups: a normal control group, and calcium-free diet groups treated with bilateral ovariectomy. The animals were sacrified at 12 weeks after treatment. In the rats with osteoporosis, there was significant thining and loss of trabeculae, accompanied by a disconnection of trabeculae. And acid mucopolysaccharides were decreased in osteoporotic animals. In order to setup conditions of invivo micro-CT, proper anesthetic is ketamine (50 mg/kg) /xylazine (6 mg/kg). And proper breathing rate of experimental animals is 1.3~1.6/sec. Our finding suggest that bilateral ovariectomy and calcium-free diet induce decrease in thickeness of trabecular bone and decrease in acid mucopolysaccharide, therefore cause weakness of bone. And micro-CT imaging system is useful to evaluate trabecular bone. Anesthetic time, anesthetics and respiration rate also signify much in micro-CT imaging system.
Aging ; Anesthetics ; Animals ; Bone Resorption ; Diet ; Female ; Glycosaminoglycans ; Humans ; Ketamine ; Models, Animal ; Osteogenesis ; Osteoporosis* ; Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal ; Ovariectomy ; Rats ; Respiration ; Respiratory Rate

BACKGROUND: Diverticulosis of the cecum and ascending colon is a rare disease in Western countries, it is more common in the Orient. Making the diagnosis preoperatively could be difficult, and the intraoperative assessment and decision of optimal treatments are difficult. METHODS: Therefore, we reviewed the patient's charts of diverticulosis of the cecum and ascending colon at our hospital from 1992 to 1997. RESULTS: During the past 5 years, a total of 53 cases of diverticulosis of the cecum and ascending colon had been treated at this hospital. Mean age was 41.8 years (range 20-70). The male to female ratio was 1.8 : 1. Frequent complaints were abdominal pain (46 cases, 86.8%), followed by diarrhea (5 cases, 9.3%), indigestion (4 cases, 7.5%), and bowel habits change (2 cases, 3.8%). Mean duration of illness was 3.5 days(range 24 hours~15 days). In non-surgical cases, diagnoses were established with barium enema, CT scan, or ultrasonography. The accuracy of these methods was 91%, 75%, and 25%. In surgical cases, the preoperative diagnoses were appendicitis(13 cases, 50.1%), diverticulitis (7 cases, 31.8%), and abscess (2 cases, 9.1%). Treatments of the cecum and ascending colon diverticulitis were conservative management (3 teases,58.5%) and surgical treatment (22 cases,41.5%). The operative procedures were right hemicolectomies (2 cases), ileocecal resections (2 cases), diverticulectomies (6 cases) and appendectomies only (11 cases). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that correct diagnosis of the diverticulitis of the cecum and ascending colon made before treatment is very important because correct assessment of diverticulitis intraoperatively is difacut. Liberal use of diagnostic modalities could facilitate to make correct diagnosis to set a proper plan for treatment.
Abdominal Pain ; Abscess ; Appendectomy ; Barium ; Cecum* ; Colon, Ascending* ; Diagnosis ; Diarrhea ; Diverticulitis ; Diverticulum* ; Dyspepsia ; Enema ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Rare Diseases ; Surgical Procedures, Operative ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Ultrasonography

Acute peripheral vestibulopathy, of which the chief complaint is positional vertigo, comprises benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), labyrinthitis, labyrinthine fistula, and cerebellopontine angle tumors. Since the typical presentation of labyrinthine fistulas may be sensorineural hearing loss, positional vertigo, or disequilibrium, it is often difficult to distinguish from BPPV or Meniere's disease. Herein we report a 61-year-old female patient with typical symptoms and signs attributable to geotropic type variant of the lateral semicircular canal BPPV on the left side, who eventually was confirmed as having a labyrinthine fistula from chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma on the left side. This is another case where, even in the presence of isolated vertigo showing typical findings of acute peripheral vestibulopathy, other otologic symptoms and signs must not be overlooked.
Cholesteatoma* ; Ear, Inner ; Female ; Fistula* ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Humans ; Labyrinthitis ; Meniere Disease ; Middle Aged ; Neuroma, Acoustic ; Otitis Media ; Semicircular Canals ; Vertigo* ; Vestibular Neuronitis

BACKGROUND: Culture filtrate proteins secreted by mycobacteria are thought to play an important role in inducing protective immunity and to develop new methods for diagnosing tuberculosis. METHODS: A culture filtrate protein of M. avium that was strongly reactive with goat antiserum against M. intracellulare was constructed. Its homologous protein (TB-14) in M. tuberculosis was cloned, expressed and purified. The inductions of IFN-gamma stimulated with 10 microgram of TB-14 recombinant protein and 10 microgram PPD were estimated by using whole bloods from seven PPD (-) subjects, seven PPD (+) healthy volunteers and nine tuberculosis patients. RESULTS: M. avium culture filtrate protein was confirmed as a hypothetical protein that was termed contig 116. A novel 14-kDa recombinant protein (TB-14) of M. tuberculosis was composed of 148 amino acids, including 30 amino acids of the signal peptide, and it showed 78% homology with M. avium. In the PPD (+) healthy volunteers, recombinant TB-14 protein strongly induced the secretion of IFN-gamma in whole blood cultures. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that TB-14 recombinant protein might play an important role in inducing cell-mediated immunity against tuberculosis. Furthermore, TB-14 protein antigen and its antiserum will be available for the development of new diagnostic tools for tuberculosis.
Amino Acids ; Clone Cells ; Goats ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Immunity, Cellular ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis* ; Mycobacterium* ; Protein Sorting Signals ; Tuberculosis

PURPOSE: Cancers are highly individual in their response to chemotherapy, however attempts to predict tumor response to drugs using in vitro cell culture have largely failed. A new technology, the histoculture drug response assay (HDRA), appears to have solved many previous problems. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reliability of HDRA in a chemosensitivity test for breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tumor specimens from breast cancer patients were evaluated by HDRA using different chemotherapeutic agents. Each specimen was tested using a blind method in order to determine the reproducibility of HDRA results for the same tissue and with a triplicated assay in order to determine reproducibility by different examiners. The evaluative power of this assay and the chemosensitivity of drugs for each specimen was determined. RESULTS: Specimens of 92.9% (65/70) were successfully cultured and evaluated for chemosensitivity. The reproducibility of HDRA for the same tissue was 75% (100% agreement) and 100% (over 70% agreement), respectively. And the reproducibility by different examiners was 78.9% (100% agreement) and 94.7% (over 70% agreement), respectively. Each specimen demonstrated a response to at least one agent. CONCLUSION: The evaluative power and reproducibility of HDRA were high, therefore it might serve as a reliable clinical method for chemosensitivity testing. However, there is a need for clinical trial in which patients are initially randomized for treatment either by HDRA direction or by clinician's choice.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Drug Therapy ; Humans

Previous studies showed that whole body vibration could prevent bone resorption and stimulate new bone formation. The aim of this study is to detect and track effect of whole body vibration for osteoporotic bone of OVX rats. 12 Female rats were used and allocated into 5 group, CON, SHAM, WBV 17, WBV 30 and WBV 45. Rats except SHAM group were ovariectomised to induce osteoporosis. Rats in WBV groups were stimulated whole body vibration at magnitude of 1 mm(peak-peak) and frequency 17 Hz, 30 Hz and 45 Hz, repectively, for 8 weeks (20 min, 5 days/week). The 4th lumbar in rats were scanned at a resolution of 35 micrometer at baseline, before stimulation, and 8 weeks by In-vivo Micro-CT. To detect and track changes of morphological characteristics in lumbar trabecuar bone of rats, structural parameters were measured and calculated from acquiring images. In the results, changes of structural characteristics of WBV group were smaller than those of CON group. Loss of quantity of trabecular bone in WBV 45 was the least. In contrast, that in WBV 17 was the biggest. These results showed that reasonable whole body vibration beneficially affected osteoporotic bones. In addition to, whole body vibration was likely to be substituted partly for drug treatment.
Animals ; Bone Resorption ; Female ; Humans ; Osteogenesis ; Osteoporosis ; Rats* ; Vibration*

In patient treated by mastectomy for breast cancer, chest wall and skin recurrences are frequently encountered. Chest wall recurrence results in profound physical and psychological morbidity, and often heralds the appearance of other, more life threatening metastasis. Traditionally the two most common treatments have been site-specific radiation and resection. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) provided an alternative treatment modality using a photosensitizer and laser light to induce selective tumor necrosis. The patient was 64- years old female, had undergone breast conserving surgery for cancer of the right breast. Chest wall and skin metastasis recurred at 40 months after the adjuvant treatment of chemotherapy. The lesions were progressed despite 2nd, 3rd chemotherapy and hyperthermal therapy. The light was administered through a diode laser turned to 630 nm wave length (150 J/cm2 in light dosage, 200 mW/cm2 in intensity), 72 h after photosensitizing agent injection. There was clinical evidence of partial response, defined as granulation tissue with re-epitheliaization from the periphery of normal epithelium. PDT has demonstrated good results in other solid tumors at some hospitals, however there has been no application for breast cancer in Korea previously. Our experience suggests that PDT is non-invasive procedure that is highly tolerable, particularly when compared with other modalities, and an effective treatment method for chest wall or skin recurrence that shows no response to other treatments.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Drug Therapy ; Epithelium ; Female ; Granulation Tissue ; Humans ; Korea ; Lasers, Semiconductor ; Mastectomy ; Mastectomy, Segmental ; Necrosis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Photochemotherapy* ; Recurrence* ; Skin* ; Thoracic Wall* ; Thorax*

We reviewed the clinical findings of infectious mononucleosis and performed Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) serologic antibody tests in infectious mononucleosis and healthy group. One groupwas 18 cases of children, diagnosed as infectious mononucleosis who had been admitted to the department of Pediatrics, Asan Medical Center for two years and eight months, from November, 1989 to June, 1992. Another group was 20 cases of healthy 5-year old children. @ES The results wereas follows: 1) The age distributions of 18 patients with infectious mononucleosis were as follows: nine patients were less than 5 year old and nine patients (50%)were older than 5 year old. 2) The hematologic findings revealed increased atypicallymphocytes in sixteen patients (88%), leukopenia in one patient (6%), thrombocytopenia in one patient (6%). In addition, we observed transient hepatitis in eight patients (44%) and jaundice in one patient (6%). 3) Hemophagocytic sydrome wasdeveloped in one patient who expired due to meningitis. 4) The heterophil antibody tests werepositive in two cases (11%) out of eighteen infectious mononucleosis patients. 5) EBV serologic antibody tests for IgM antibody to EBV-viral capsid antigen (VCA) in 18 patients were all positive, which implies primary infection. 6) EBV serologic antibody tests for IgG antibody to EBV-VCA and antibody to Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen (EBNA) in helathy 5-year old children were negative in 3 cases (15%) out of 20 cases each other, which suggests primary infection might occur afer five years of age. 7) Recently, more cases of clinically typical infectious mononucleosis are detected and the onset of EBV primary infection is becoming late in Korea, which is thought to be due to economic developments and improvements of environmental hygine. And we recommend EBV serologic antibody test for the confirmative diagnostic test of infectious mononucleosis.
Age Distribution ; Capsid ; Child* ; Child, Preschool ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; Hepatitis ; Herpesvirus 4, Human ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulin M ; Infectious Mononucleosis* ; Jaundice ; Korea ; Leukopenia ; Meningitis ; Pediatrics ; Thrombocytopenia

PURPOSE: To elucidate whether there is a delay of adjuvant treatment or detection of recurrences, or an increasing of the recurrence of tumorsin clinically advanced breast cancer patients. METHODS: The study group included 55 patients underwent mastectomy with immediate reconstruction (IBR), and 563 patients who received the mastectomy without reconstruction (non-IBR), and who were stage IIB and IIIA breast cancer patients, at Asan Medical Center between Jun 1993 and December 2000. We retrospectively assessed the comparative outcomes through using follow-up data. RESULTS: Out of 2,057 patients who had undergone the mastectomy on during the period, 175 (8.5%) underwent immediate reconstruction. 55 of them (31.6%) were stage IIB and IIIA patients, a similar portion (29.9%) was seen in the 563 patients of same stages without reconstruction. The mean ages of these groups were 37.1 and 46.9 years, that is, the reconstruction group was about 10 years younger. All these patients voluntarily underwent immediate reconstruction. For the patients who were followed up, the local recurrence was 3.6% (2/55) for the IBR group and 5.2% (29/563) for the non-IBR group. On the other hand, the distant relapse rates were 12.7% and 13.9%. The administration of adjuvant chemotherapy was not delayed and radiotherapy was used as an adjuvant treatment after reconstruction in nine of the cases (16.4%). Chemotherapy was also conducted in 98.2% of the IBR group and 77.3% of the non-IBR group. While radiotherapy was used in the IBR group less frequently, there was no statistical difference between the two groups (P=0.63). CONCLUSION: Immediate reconstruction following mastectomy for the treatment of breast cancer is now more frequently performed. IBR can be done in clinically advanced breast cancer without increasing the risk of treatment failure or modification.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Drug Therapy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hand ; Humans ; Mammaplasty* ; Mastectomy* ; Radiotherapy ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Failure

The biliary cystadenocarcinomas are very rare malignant tumor. The etiology is unclear, this tumor may be develop from malignant transformation of begin cystadenoma. The tumor appears typically as a cystic mass which contains papillary projections or internal septations. Papillary projections are seen on the inner surface of the cyst which present numerous papillary protrusion typical to this rare tumor. Excessive mucin secretion produced by the tumor cells and its retention in the common bile duct may cause bile stasis leading to obstructive jaundice. Common presenting symptoms are abdominal fullness, pain, nausea, palpable mass and asymptomatic. The available diagnostic tools are CT and sonography, but histologic examination can be made diagnostic confirm. Surgical resection yields excellent results. We were experienced a cystadecarcinoma with early gallbladder cancer, then report with reference.
Bile ; Common Bile Duct ; Cystadenocarcinoma* ; Cystadenoma ; Gallbladder Neoplasms* ; Gallbladder* ; Jaundice, Obstructive ; Mucins ; Nausea