No abstract available.
Heart Diseases* ; Heart*

No abstract available.
Echocardiography* ; Echocardiography, Doppler, Pulsed ; Heart Diseases* ; Heart*

No abstract available.
Arteries* ; Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic* ; Humans ; Infant* ; Mothers*

PURPOSE: The purpose of our study was to evaluate the volume of pre- and post operative masseter muscle and bite force in mandibular prognathic patients treated with SSRO with the use of the 3D CT imaging technique and occlusal force meter. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study group consisted of 12 patients with mandibular prognathism (5 males and 7 females) who underwent mandibular setback surgery (BSSRO) in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Samsung medical center. Bite force was measured at pre op, post op 3, 6 and 12 months by occlusal force meter(GM10, Nagano Keiki, Japan) The preoperative CT examination of subjects was performed between one month prior to operation and one year after to operation. And muscle volume was measured. RESULT: As compared to preoperative measurements at 1 year postoperatively the masseter and internal pterygoid muscle volume were diminished (p<0.05) The bite force steadily recovered, so at postoperatively 6 months reached the preoperative level. And at 1 year after operation, the maximum bite force was significantly greater than preoperative levels. No significant correlation was presented between masseter muscle and bite force (p>0.05), internal pterygoid muscle and bite force (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: In this study, the results showed that volume and bite force of the masticatory muscles decresed significantly immediate after orthognathic surgery for mandibular set-back. However, reduction of maximum bite force disappears within 6 months after surgery.
Bite Force ; Bites and Stings ; Humans ; Male ; Masseter Muscle ; Masticatory Muscles ; Muscles ; Orthognathic Surgery ; Prognathism ; Pterygoid Muscles ; Surgery, Oral

PURPOSE: Few reports have documented psychopathological abnormalities in patients with primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP). We analyzed the results of a multiphasic personal inventory test to investigate the psychopathologic impact of PSP in young Korean males. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors reviewed the results of a Korean military multiphasic personal inventory (KMPI) administered to military conscripts in South Korea. A total of 234 young males participated in this study. The normal volunteer group (n=175) comprised individuals who did not have any lung disease. The PSP group (n=59) included individuals with PSP. None of the examinees had any psychological problems. The KMPI results of both groups were compared. RESULTS: There were more abnormal responses in the PSP group (17.0%) than the normal volunteer group (9.1%, p=0.002). The anxiety scale and depression scale scores of the neurosis category were greater for the PSP group than the normal group (p=0.039 and 0.014, respectively). The personality disorder and paranoia scale scores of the psychopathy category were greater for the PSP group than the normal group (p=0.007 and 0.018, respectively). CONCLUSION: Young males with PSP may have greater tendencies to suffer from anxiety, depression, personality disorders, and paranoia compared to normal individuals. Clinicians should be advised to evaluate the psychopathological aspects of patients with PSP.
Anxiety ; Depression ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Korea ; Lung Diseases ; Male* ; Military Personnel ; Paranoid Disorders ; Personality Disorders ; Pneumothorax* ; Psychopathology

PURPOSE: Aberrant methylation of CpG islands in gene promoters has been considered as a common mechanism for suppressing gene expression in cells. Hypermethylation of CpG islands in promoters is associated with silencing of transcription in various tumor suppressor genes and recent studies identified a CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) suggesting common methylation defect in cancer cells. For breast cancer, several genes were previously reported to be hypermethylated, but it is unclear whether the CIMP status is associated with any clinicopathological characteristics of breast cancer. In this study, we investigated the methylation patterns of several genes such as p16(INK4a), O(6)-methyguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT), Death associated protein kinase (DAPK), E-cadherin, hMLH1, and four loci such as Methylation in tumor (MINT: MINT1, MINT2, MINT25, MINT31) and analyzed the correlation with clinical features. METHODS: 85 patients who underwent curative surgery for breast cancer were studied retrospectively using their paraffin-embedded tissues and medical records. Immunohistochemical staining were performed according to their hormone receptors. DNA extraction, sodium bisulfite modification and methylation specific PCR (MSP-PCR) were performed with some modifications. RESULTS: The rates of E-cadherin and MINT 31 methylation in cancer tissue were significantly higher than those of normal tissues (P<0.05). There was no statistical correlation between methylation status of each suppressor genes and hormone receptor except DAPK methylation with progesteron receptor. The rate of E-cadherin methylation was significantly high in stage II (P=0.010). For 5-year survival and disease-free survival rate, the group with methylated MINT1 and MINT25 had significantly better outcome than unmethylated group (P<0.05). There was no statistical significance between CIMP status and other prognostic factors such as hormone receptor and stage (P=0.885). But, CIMP-High group was significantly lower than CIMP-Low group in 5-year survival (P=0.001) and disease-free survival rate (P=0.024). CONCLUSION: The methylation of E-cadherin and some MINT loci seems closely related to tumorigenesis in breast cancer and CIMP status have some value as a prognostic indicator after surgery in breast cancer but more large scale study will be needed.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Cadherins ; Carcinogenesis ; CpG Islands ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16 ; Disease-Free Survival ; DNA ; Gene Expression ; Genes, Suppressor ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor* ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Mentha ; Methylation* ; Phenotype ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Protein Kinases ; Retrospective Studies ; Sodium

PURPOSE: Endoscopic thyroidectomy has become a widely used operative method due to the recent advances in the operative technique and instruments and its cosmetic superiority. The aim of this study is to evaluate the technical feasibility and potential role of endoscopic thyroidectomy. METHODS: Between December 1999 and December 2006, 300 patients with benign thyroid disease or thyroid cancer were treated by gasless endoscopic thyroidectomy with using the anterior chest wall approach at Uijongbu St. Mary's Hospital. We analyzed that clinicopathological features, the operative time, the operative method and the complications. RESULTS: There were 261 cases of benign disease and 39 cases of malignant tumor. We generally performed lobectomy for benign thyroid disease. For malignant tumor, we performed 14 lobectomies, 6 total (or near total) thyroidectomies, 17 total (or near total) thyroidectomies with central lymph node dissection and 2 total (or near total) thyroidectomies with lateral lymph node dissection. The most frequent pathology in benign disease was nodular hyperplasia, and in malignant disease it was papillary carcinoma. The mean operative time was 122.2 minutes. For the patients with thyroid cancer, the mean operative time for thyroid cancer surgery without lymph node dissection (20 cases) and thyroid cancer surgery with lymph node dissection (19 cases) was 144 and 177 minutes, respectively. There were 34 cases of complication (11.33%) with 11 cases of transient hoarseness, 9 cases of transient hypocalcemia and 1 case of permanent hypocalcemia. CONCLUSION: Endoscopic thyroidectomy is a safe and technically feasible alternative to conventional thyroidectomy in patients with benign disease. In patients with thyroid cancer, we suggest that that endoscopic thyroidectomy can be a good alternative to conventional thyroid surgery in highly selected cases. Larger series and longer follow-up evaluation are necessary to confirm our findings.
Carcinoma, Papillary ; Cosmetics ; Hoarseness ; Humans ; Hyperplasia ; Hypocalcemia ; Lymph Node Excision ; Operative Time ; Thoracic Wall ; Thyroid Diseases ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; Thyroidectomy

PURPOSE: In response to DNA damage, Chk2 (CHEK2) is involved in cell cycle checkpoint. Chk2 is activated by the upstream ATM kinase and then directly phosphorylate p53 at serine 20. Other substrates for Chk2 are BRCA1, Cdc25A, Cdc25C, mdm2. Germ line mutations of Chk2 have been identified in Li-Fraumeni syndrome with normal p53 alleles. There are few reports on somatic mutations of Chk2 in osteosarcoma, lung cancer, breast cancer, testicular germ cell tumor, ovarian cancer. In this study, we have analyzed 30 breast cancer specimens to understand the relationship of Chk2 and P53 in the pathogenesis of sporadic breast cancer. METHODS: We performed an immunohistochemical studies for Chk2, P53 in the specimens from 30 breast cancer patients. We designed entire intronic primers and searched for Chk2mutations in 7 cases by DNA sequence analysis of the entire coding region. RESULTS: Seven of 30 (23.3%) breast cancers had reduced immuno-expression of Chk2, one of them (1/7, 14.3%) showed a p53 immuno-expression and all of them revealed no Chk2 mutation. CONCLUSION: Expression of Chk2 protein more reduced in breast cancer with no abnormal p53 immuno-expression. No Chk2 mutation was found in all of Chk2 reduced expression, we hypothesize that there may be a posttranscriptional/ posttranslational mechanism (s) in breast caner to downregulate Chk2 protein expression.
Alleles ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints ; Clinical Coding ; DNA Damage ; Germ Cells ; Humans ; Introns ; Li-Fraumeni Syndrome ; Lung Neoplasms ; Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal ; Osteosarcoma ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Phosphotransferases ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Serine

PURPOSE: In order to confirm the clinical application of a tissue microarrays method, the expression rate and relationship between factors related apoptosis, hormonal receptors and the clinical factors were investigated. METHODS: A tissue microarrays of 59 breast cancer tissues, and apoptosis related factors were examined by immunohistochemical staining using monoclonal antibodies. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 49.9 years and 86.4% had a pathological stage of over stage II. The average number of metastatic lymph nodes was 3.8. p53 expression was noted in 21 cases (35.6%) and was related to Bcl-2, ER and PR expression. PTEN was expressed in 39 cases (66.1%) and related to FAS, Bcl-2, ER and PR expression. Fas was expressed in 34 cases (57.6%) and related with PR and BAX expression. BAX expression was observed in 42 cases (71.2%) and was related to the metastatic axillary lymph nodes, and both Bcl-2 and PR expression. Bcl-2 expression was noted in 33 cases (55.9%) and related to ER and PR expression. ER was expressed in 34 cases (57.6%) and was related positively with PR expression. CONCLUSION: The tissue microarrays method can be used for both screening and analyzing many factors or different tumor types. This new technique may be very powerful for the rapid identification of the tumor characteristics.
Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Apoptosis* ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Mass Screening

BACKGROUND: There have been several studies showing that the angiotensin II and angiotensin converting enzyme(ACE) contributes to the apoptosis of alveolar epithelial cells in idiopathic interstitial pneumonia and the activation of fibroblasts during the process of pulmonary fibrosis. These results suggest that the pulmonary fibrosis can be inhibited by the angiotensin II receptor antagonist(AGIIRA). This study was performed to identify the therapeutic effect of AGIIRA in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis(IPF). METHOD: Thirteen patients with IPF, who were diagnosed with an open lung biopsy(6 patients) and furfilling the ATS criteria(7 patients) between March 1999 and October 2001 at the Gachon medical center, were enrolled in this study. Of these patients, eight patients were treated with a regimen including AGIIRA(AT group), and five were treated without AGIIRA(NT group). The pulmonary function tests and dyspnea(ATS scale) were measured at diagnosis and 1 year after treatment. All the data was collected to analyze the therapeutic effect of AGIIRA on the patients with IPF. RESULTS: The AT group contained 8 patients(M:F=4:4) and the NT group contained 5 patients (M:F=3:2). There was no significant difference in the serum angiotensin II level between the two groups(202.5+/-58.5 vs 163.7+/-47.3pg/ml, p>0.05). The AT group showed an upward trend in TLC(+3%), FVC(+4%), FEV1(+3%) and DLco(+2%) compared to the NT group(TLC(-14%), FVC(-3%), FEV1(-4%) except for DLco(+5%)). The dyspnea score in the AT group improved significantly but not in the NT group. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the angiotensin II receptor antagonist may have an effect on stabilizing IPF.
Angiotensin II* ; Angiotensins* ; Apoptosis ; Diagnosis ; Dyspnea ; Epithelial Cells ; Fibroblasts ; Humans ; Idiopathic Interstitial Pneumonias ; Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis* ; Lung ; Pulmonary Fibrosis ; Receptors, Angiotensin* ; Respiratory Function Tests