Peripartum cardiomyopahty(PPCM) is an uncommon myocardial disease arising in the last month of pregnancy or within 5 months after delivery, in the absence of obvious cause and without prior evidence of heart disease. The risk of recurrence of PPCM is considered low when left ventricular size and function return to normal. But we experienced a case of peripartum cardiomyopathy recurred in subsequent pregnancy despite the return to normal heart size and function. This case was summarized here with a brief review of the related literatures.
Cardiomyopathies* ; Heart ; Heart Diseases ; Peripartum Period* ; Pregnancy ; Recurrence

PURPOSE: It is very important to evaluate and fix coronoid process fractures because they are a critical element for a stable, effective elbow function. The lateral view of the elbow joint is used for a radiographic evaluation of the coronoid but an understanding of the fracture pattern is often difficult because of overlap of the radial head and obliquity of the fracture line. We developed the coronoid view, which is a new radiograph for an evaluation of the coronoid process fracture, and discuss its advantages for a postoperative follow-up. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The coronoid view was designed for an evaluation of the anteromedial fragment of the coronoid process. After the patient sat on his side, the shoulder was abducted 45degrees and the elbow was flexed 90degrees The X-ray beam was shot perpendicular to the table. Since shoulder was abducted 45degrees the fracture line of the coronoid process can be parallel to the X-ray beam, and the radial head can be cleared. CONCLUSION: The coronoid view can be a good alternative radiograph for an evaluation of a coronoid process fracture because the beam is parallel to the fracture line. The coronoid view can be particularly useful in postoperative patient follow-up where computed tomography is impractical due to metal implants and cost.
Elbow ; Elbow Joint ; Follow-Up Studies ; Head ; Humans ; Shoulder

Two cases of cavernous hemangioma of the cauda equina are presented. Cavernous hemangioma of the cauda equina is rare vascular malformation. This is the fifth and sixth case of cavernous hemangioma of the cauda equina in the literature. These cases are female patients. MRI is more sensitive method than spinal myelography and CT in diagnosis of cavernous hemangioma of the cauda equina. Total removal was possible without immediate post-operative complication.
Cauda Equina* ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Hemangioma, Cavernous* ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Myelography ; Vascular Malformations

Sigmoid colon cancer occasionally attaches to the adjacent viscera. It is estimated that such attachment occurs in 6% to 12% of all patients with colon carcinoma without distant metastases. This study was performed to identify the parameters to distinguish direct tumor invasion to adjacent organs from simple inflammatory adhesion in sigmoid colon cancer and to clarify the difference of survival and recurrence pattern between two groups. METHODS: Between 1989 and 1998, 415 patients underwent resection of sigmoid colon cancer in our clinic. Of these, 46 had tumors adherent to adjacent organs and confirmed as tumor direct invasion or simple inflammatory adhesion by pathologic examination. The mean age of 46 cases was 54.2+/-12.8 (mean+/-SD) years and median follow up was 21 (3~53) months. RESULTS: Among the clinical and pathologic parameters such as symptoms and laboratory findings presenting bowel obstruction, serum CEA levels, preoperative radiological findings, tumor size, differentiation, and stage, there was no specific one that was correlated with direct tumor invasion or inflammatory adhesion. Almost all cases with adhesion to adjacent organ were treated by an en bloc resection including mutivisceral resection. The group with direct invasion had inferior disease free survival rate and overall survival rate comparing with simple inflammatory adhesion group. CONCLUSIONS: In the situation that there was no valuable parameter suggesting direct tumor invasion, en bloc resection or multivisceral resection involving one tumor-free plane may be beneficial to the patients with sigmoid colon cancer adherent to adjacent organ.
Colon ; Colon, Sigmoid* ; Disease-Free Survival ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Recurrence ; Sigmoid Neoplasms* ; Survival Rate ; Viscera

PURPOSE: Oral UFT is known to be a safe and effective antineoplastic regimen for adjuvant chemotherapy of colorectal cancer. As it sometimes produces upper gastrointestinal symptoms such as anorexia, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, medication should be stopped transiently or dosage reduced. UFT-E, an enteric coated granule of UFT was introduced to reduce UGI toxicity. We analyzed the toxicity of UFT and UFT-E prospectively for the purpose of comparison between the two types. METHODS: The toxicity of UFT and UFT-E were evaluated in 83 patients (UFT; 45, UFT-E; 38) with colorectal cancer who underwent curative surgery according to the WHO toxicity criteria. All patients were selected consecutively with patients' approval and by the "Institutional Review Board, Asan Medical Center". RESULTS: The toxicity incidence in UFT-E group was slightly less than that in UFT group without statistical significance. The severity of toxicity seemed to be mild within grade 1 or 2 and most of them toxicity self-limiting. The regimen was completely interrupted in 9 patients (20%) in the UFT group, 3 patients (7.9%) in the UFT-E group due to severe UGI symptoms, prolonged leukopenia, derrangement of liver function and skin rash. CONCLUSIONS: Toxicity rate of UFT-E was not higher than that of UFT. But we cannot prove superiority of UFT-E on UGI toxicity. Oral UFT-E can be administered safely on an outpatient basis without lethal toxicity requiring hospitalization.
Abdominal Pain ; Anorexia ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Colorectal Neoplasms* ; Exanthema ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Incidence ; Leukopenia ; Liver ; Nausea ; Outpatients ; Prospective Studies ; Vomiting

Norcardia is an aerobic, gram-positive, AFB positive filamentous organism which is frequently branching. Nocardial infection is usually opportunistic and is found in immunosuppressed patients during transplantation or anti-cancer chemotherapy. With the increasing number of AIDS, nocardial infection have been increasingly recognized as a serious human infection. Among patients on peritoneal dialysis, Nocardia is a rare cause of peritonitis : only one case has been reported in Korea. It is extremely important to make an early and correct diagnosis and treatment with susceptible antibiotics. We report here a case of nocardial peritonitis associated with Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis(CAPD) which was resistant to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and has treated successfully with imipenem and amikacin.
Amikacin ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Imipenem ; Korea ; Nocardia ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory* ; Peritonitis*

Bilateral ectopic testes, located in the perineum is a rare disease with no cases reported yet in Korea. We report a case of bilateral perineal ectopic testes in a 7-month-old infant who visited for evaluation of both non palpable testis in scrotum. External genitalia was male in appearance and cystic masses were palpated in both inguinal area. Serum testosterone level was lower than 0.01 ng/mL and suspicious hernial sac-like structures were seen in both inguinal area on pelvic ultrasonography. After 4 weeks of total 12,000IU hCG(human chorionic gonadotropin) therapy in pediatrics, serial follow up was done for 2 months and bilateral palpable masses were identified on deep perineal area, so bilateral orchiopexy was carried out.
Chorion ; Follow-Up Studies ; Genitalia ; Humans ; Infant ; Korea ; Male ; Orchiopexy* ; Pediatrics ; Perineum ; Rare Diseases ; Scrotum ; Testis* ; Testosterone ; Ultrasonography

Holoprosencephaly is a rare malformation complex or development defect including different degrees of incomplete cleavages of the embryonic prosencephalon and varying degrees of the midface defects, resulting from the defect of prechordal mesoderm, migrating forward into the area anterior to the notochord during the third week of fetal development. Early antenatal diagnosis of holoprosencephaly is important to find out its severity, to predict its prognosis, and to determine proper management according to its prognosis and severity. The possibility of early antenatal diagnosis of holoprosencephaly by ultrasound has been suggested, but occasionally missed and rarely confirmed. We present one case of lobar holoprosencephaly, diagnosed postnatally and one case of alobar holoprosencephaly, diagnosed antenatally in our hospitals.
Fetal Development ; Holoprosencephaly* ; Mesoderm ; Notochord ; Prenatal Diagnosis ; Prognosis ; Prosencephalon ; Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVE: Extracranial-intracranial arterial bypass (EIAB) has proved to be useful in selected patients with artherosclerotic cerebral ischemia and moyamoya disease. But neurological deterioration (ND) after EIAB has occasionally been reported in spite of successful EIAB. We have performed EIAB in 150 patients with artherosclerotic cerebral ischemia and moyamoya disease during the recent 8 years. We analyzed the patients who exhibited ND after successful EIAB was performed for a selected group of patients with artherosclerotic cerebral ischemia and moyamoya disease. METHODS: Among 150 patients, the cause of the hemodynamic ischemia was atherosclerotic in 90 and moyamoya disease in 60. Eighteen patients experienced ND after successful EIAB. There were 14 patients with temporary neurologic deficit and 5 patients had a permanent deficit. We divided these 18 patients into two groups. Group 1 revealed relative hyperperfusion of a chronically hypoperfused area of the brain after successful EIAB. Group 2 showed hypoperfusion of the brain by the change of the flow pattern after successful EIAB. RESULTS: Of the 18 patients who experienced ND after successful EIAB, 8 patients belonged to group 1 and 10 patients belonged to group 2. We divided group II into four subgroups according to angiographic flow patterns. The first subgroup (2 patients) showed delayed filling of one division out of two divisions of the middle cerebral artery. The second subgroup (3 patients) showed collision between the orthograde flow and the retrograde flow from the grafted vessel, which resulted in more profound hypoperfusion. The third subgroup (2 patients) exhibited a complete occlusion of the preoperative stenotic artery. The fourth subgroup (3 patients) included the cases with marginal hypoperfusion in the periphery of the perfused region from the grafted extracranial artery. CONCLUSION: EIAB is a reliable, reasonably safe method for establishing new pathways of collateral circulation to the brain. However, this operation can have potential complications according to the relative hyperperfusion or hypoperfusion that's due to the altered flow pattern after the bypass.
Arteries ; Brain ; Brain Ischemia ; Cerebral Revascularization ; Collateral Circulation ; Glycosaminoglycans ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Middle Cerebral Artery ; Moyamoya Disease ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Transplants

BACKGROUND: Severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) can develop into respiratory failure that requires mechanical ventilation (MV), which is associated with a higher rate of mortality. It was recently reported that a hydrocortisone infusion in severe CAP patients was associated with a significant reduction in the length of the hospital stay and mortality. This study evaluated efficacy of a hydrocortisone infusion for patients with severe CAP requiring MV. METHODS: From February 2005 to July 2005, 13 patients (M : F = 10 : 3, mean age: 68.6+/-14.1 years), who were diagnosed with severe CAP and required MV, were enrolled in this study. Hydrocortisone was administered as an intravenous 200mg loading bolus, which was followed by an infusion at a rate of 10mg/hour for 7 days. The control group was comprised of patients with severe CAP requiring MV but in whom corticosteroid was not used before study period. The clinical and physiologic parameters on or by day 8 and the outcome in the hydrocortisone infusion group were compared with those in the control group. RESULTS: 1) There was no significant difference in age, gender ratio, SAPS II, SOFA score, temperature, leukocyte count, PaO2/FiO2 (P/F) ratio, the number of patients with P/F ratio < 200, chest radiograph score, lung injury score and catecholamine-dependent septic shock between the hydrocortisone infusion group and control group at day 1. 2) At day 8, the proportion of patients with an improvement in the P/F ratio > or = 100 and the chest radiograph score was significantly higher in the hydrocortisone infusion group than in the control group (61.5% vs. 15.4%, 76.9% vs. 23.1%, p<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the other clinical and physiologic parameters. 3). There was no significant difference in the duration of the MV, ICU stay, hospital stay and 10th and 30th day mortality between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Hydrocortisone infusion for patients with severe CAP requiring invasive mechanical ventilation may be effective in improving the level of oxygenation and the chest radiograph score.
Humans ; Hydrocortisone* ; Length of Stay ; Leukocyte Count ; Lung Injury ; Mortality ; Oxygen ; Pneumonia* ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Respiration, Artificial* ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Shock, Septic