The pathological lesion in spinal injury is usually more severe in the central gray matter and spreads centrifugally to surrounding white matter. Opiate antagonists, naloxone, by blocking the pathophysiologic effect of endorphins, should increase both mean arterial pressure and spinal cord blood flow and limit neurologic injury. Naloxone produce increase of lateral column blood flow and ameliorate the central gray matter ischemia. We have investigated the effects of naloxone on histopathological change in cats subjected to thoracic cord contusion. The histopathological evaluation of the injured spinal cords in naloxone-treated cats had less tissue damage than would be observed in time-matched standards. The acute histopathology in saline-treated cats had lesions typical of what we would expect in untreated cats, but the chronic histopathology had slightly better than typical that.
Animals ; Arterial Pressure ; Cats ; Contusions ; Endorphins ; Ischemia ; Naloxone* ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord* ; Spinal Injuries

No abstract available.
Pregnancy*

Tuberculosis and lymphoma, these 2 diseases can present with lyphadenopathy in anywhere of the body. Therefor differentiation of tuberculosis from lymphoma is often difficult. CT scans of 17 patients with tuberculosis and 23 patients with lymphoma were retrospectively reviewed to evaluate the efficacy of CT scans in differentating adenopathy between tuberculosis and lymphoma, All the patients underwent abdominal CT scans with contrast enhancement before treatment. The size, internal architecture, distribution of lymph nodes, and associated findings on CT scans were analyzed. As compared with lymphoma, tuberculous lymphadenopathy showed 1) female preponderance (65%), 2) predilection for portocaval lymph nodes (47%), 3) internal low attenuation in lymph nodes (82%), 4) cold abscess formation (24%). Characteristics of lymphoma on CT scans included 1) male prepondrance (78%), 2) conglomeration of lymph nodes (39%), 3) homogenous internal lymph node structure (83%). These results suggest that evaluation of the characteristics of lymphadenopathy on CT scans is helpful for differentiating between tuberculosis and lymphoma.
Abscess ; Female ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphatic Diseases* ; Lymphoma ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Tuberculosis*

Tuberculosis and lymphoma, these 2 diseases can present with lyphadenopathy in anywhere of the body. Therefor differentiation of tuberculosis from lymphoma is often difficult. CT scans of 17 patients with tuberculosis and 23 patients with lymphoma were retrospectively reviewed to evaluate the efficacy of CT scans in differentating adenopathy between tuberculosis and lymphoma, All the patients underwent abdominal CT scans with contrast enhancement before treatment. The size, internal architecture, distribution of lymph nodes, and associated findings on CT scans were analyzed. As compared with lymphoma, tuberculous lymphadenopathy showed 1) female preponderance (65%), 2) predilection for portocaval lymph nodes (47%), 3) internal low attenuation in lymph nodes (82%), 4) cold abscess formation (24%). Characteristics of lymphoma on CT scans included 1) male prepondrance (78%), 2) conglomeration of lymph nodes (39%), 3) homogenous internal lymph node structure (83%). These results suggest that evaluation of the characteristics of lymphadenopathy on CT scans is helpful for differentiating between tuberculosis and lymphoma.
Abscess ; Female ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphatic Diseases* ; Lymphoma ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Tuberculosis*

Many technics have geen tried to avoid the adverse effects of succinylcholine administered for endotracheal intubation especially with the complications of hyperkalemia, aspiration pneumonis, increased intraocular pressure and postoperative muscle pain. One of these is that the prior administration of a small subparalizing dose of nondepolarizing muscle relaxant would shorten the onset time of an intubating dose of muscle relaxant. However, the priming dose, the intubating dose, and the time interval between these doses requires better definition. This study was undertaken to determine the intubating dose of a nondepolarizing agent, pancuronium bromide under the condition of fixed priming dose and administration interval time. Fifty five patients were divided randomly into three groups, administered intubating dose of 60(group l), 80(group ll) and 100(group lll) ug/kg including 20, 20 and 15 cases, respectively. The results are as follows: 1) Nine patients complained of blurred vision or diplopia after the administration of priming dose. 2) There was no difference of intubation condition between one and another group. 3) In the low grading of intubation condition, female patients were more distrbuted and better facilitated endotrscheal intubation than male patients(p<0.05). 4) There was no difference of interval time between the administration of intubating dose and the maximum depression of TOF in each group. The interval revealed 7.0+/-3.3, 6.2+/-3.3 and 5.4+/-2.4min. in l, ll and lll group, respectively. 5) The interval time between the administration of intubating dose and reappeared first twitch of TOF revealed 36.6+/-18.3, 45.7+/-17.6 and 65.4+/-22.2 min. in l, ll and lll group, respectively. The interval in group lll was significantly longer than that in group l and ll(p<0.05). In conclusion, the priming and intubating doses may not be required in the divided doses of pancuronium more than 15 and 100ug/kg, respectively.
Depression ; Diplopia ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperkalemia ; Intraocular Pressure ; Intubation ; Intubation, Intratracheal* ; Male ; Myalgia ; Pancuronium* ; Succinylcholine

Fourty one cases with coronary occlusive disease were anesthetised for aortocoronary bypass graft from May 1977 to December 1983 st Severance Hospital, Yonsei University Medical Center. The main anesthetic agents were diazepam-morphine-pancuronium-O2-N2O in most cases, and supplemented with halothane, enflurane of methoxyflurane in some cases. Nitroglycerin, nitroprusside, triflupromasine, and dopamine were used for keeping the hemodynamic stability before, during and after anesthesia depending on the needs. Two operative death occured in our early years. The mortality rate was 4.87% and no late deaths. The overall anesthetic management for aortocoronary bypass graft surgery is disscussed.
Academic Medical Centers ; Anesthesia* ; Anesthetics ; Coronary Artery Bypass ; Dopamine ; Enflurane ; Halothane ; Hemodynamics ; Methoxyflurane ; Mortality ; Nitroglycerin ; Nitroprusside ; Transplants*

A case of endodermal sinus tumor in the pineal region of a 12-year-old boy is presented. Preponderance of this tumor occurs in the boys, usually in their second decade. The tumor is characterized by perivascular structure(Schiller-Duval body) which simulate endodermal diverticula of yolk sac origin. His serum alpha-fetoprotein levels was abnormally high(over 400ng/ml) He was treated with operation and irradiation of 4500rad to the whole brain and spinal axis. But he died 6 month later after operation. The authors report a case of endodermal sinus tumor arising from pineal gland and briefly review literature.
alpha-Fetoproteins ; Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Brain ; Child ; Diverticulum ; Endoderm* ; Endodermal Sinus Tumor* ; Humans ; Male ; Pineal Gland ; Yolk Sac

BACKGROUND: Although high dose chemotherapy coupled with an autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is widely accepted as effective therapy for multiple myeloma (MM), few reports are available in Korea, especially in the area of double ASCT. We present the results of an institutional retrospective study of 12 patients with MM treated by double ASCT. METHODS: Eligible patients received induction therapy using vincristine, adriamycin, dexamethasone (VAD), and mobilization was performed using cyclophosphamide plus lenograstim. High-dose melphalan (total 200 mg/m2) was used to condition the ASCT. RESULTS: The median interval from diagnosis to ASCT was 6 months (range, 1.8-15.3 months). The median interval between the 1st and 2nd ASCT was 4.4 months (range 2.1-48.7 months). The median follow up was 18.3 months (range 8.1-50.5 months) for the nine surviving patients. No therapy-related mortality occurred. Following induction chemotherapy, two patients experienced CR. Following double ASCT, eight patients experienced CR. The 5 year OS was 59%. The median duration of event free survival was 2.13 years (95% CI, 0.84-3.42). CONCLUSION: Although the results of study did not demonstrate the advantage of double ASCT, this is the first report to outline the outcome of double ASCT for Korean MM patients.
Vincristine/administration & dosage ; Transplantation, Autologous ; *Stem Cell Transplantation ; Retrospective Studies ; Recombinant Proteins/administration & dosage ; Multiple Myeloma/drug therapy/*therapy ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Korea ; Humans ; Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor/administration & dosage ; Female ; Doxorubicin/administration & dosage ; Dexamethasone/administration & dosage ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/*administration & dosage ; Antineoplastic Agents/*therapeutic use ; Aged ; Adult

Purpose: This study aimed to confirm the decision-making patterns for life-sustaining treatment (LST) and analyze medical service utilization changes after enforcement of the Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision-Making Act. Materials and Methods: Of 1,237 patients who completed legal forms for life-sustaining treatment (hereafter called the LST form) at three academic hospitals and died at the same institutions, 1,018 cancer patients were included. Medical service utilization and costs were analyzed using claims data. Results: The median time to death from completion of the LST form was three days (range, 0 to 248 days). Of these, 517 people died within two days of completing the document, and 36.1% of all patients prepared the LST form themselves. The frequency of use of the intensive care unit, continuous renal replacement therapy, and mechanical ventilation was significantly higher when the families filled out the form without knowing the patient’s intention. In the top 10% of the medical expense groups, the decision-makers for LST were family members rather than patients (28% patients vs. 32% family members who knew and 40% family members who did not know the patient’s intention). Conclusion The cancer patient’s own decision-making rather than the family’s decision was associated with earlier decision-making, less use of some critical treatments (except chemotherapy) and expensive evaluations, and a trend toward lower medical costs.