A 20-year-old woman presented with 2-year history of low back pain. She is a basketball player. There was neither major traumatic episode nor history of febrile illness, On plain roentgenograms, sclerosis and slightly decreased height of L5 vertebral body was detected while the intervertebral disc spaces were intact. We found that L5 body was destructed by materials showing high signal intensity on T2 weighted images and connecting the two adjacent disc spaces on MRI. The initial diagonsis included bone tumors. Vertebrectomy was done and the intravertebral material was revealed as degenerated nucleus pulposus.
Basketball ; Female ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc ; Low Back Pain ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Sclerosis ; Young Adult

STUDY DESIGN: We analysed the pre-vertebral soft tissue measurements in cervical spine trauma patients. OBJECTIVES: We tried to determine the sensitivity and specificity of soft tissue measurements in patients with radiographically proven cervical spine fracture and to investigate the diagnostic value of the measurements. SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW: Widening of the pre-vertebral soft tissue is a well recognized sign in injury of the cervical spine. But the diagnostic value of this widening is still controversial. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Width of the prevertebral soft tissue on lateral cervical spine radiographs was measured for 52 patients with a history of cervical spine trauma and for 53 patients complaining of cervical discomfort without a history of trauma. As a normal Korean adult standard, 7mm at C2 level, 8mm at C3 level, and 16mm at C6 level were considered the upper limit. Width of the prevertebral soft tissue was measured as a distance between antero-inferior margin of the body of cervical spine and the most posterior border of the larynx and trachea. RESULTS: A C2 prevertebral soft tissue measurement of more than 7mm had a sensitivity of 35% and a specificity of 86%. A C3 measurement of more than 8mm had a sensitivity of 35% and a specificity of 72%. A C6 measurement of more than 16mm had a sensitivity of 30% and a specificity of 80%. CONCLUSIONS: The prevertebral soft tissue measurement seems to be of limited diagnostic value. Further study may be required to determine more acceptable limits of normal cervical spine measurement in Korean population.
Adult ; Humans ; Larynx ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Spine* ; Trachea

No abstract available.
Humans ; Killer Cells, Lymphokine-Activated* ; Killer Cells, Natural*

Creatine kinase (CK) isoenzyme are considered as a specific tissus injury marker. Brain type isoenzyme of CK (CK-BB) was measured in 44 healthy and 33 asphyxiated preterm and fullterm infants. Samples were drawn from periphera blood at six to ten hours after birth. There were no difference of CK-BB and CK-BB% between preterm and fullterm infants. CK-BB and CK-BB% were well correlated to the degree of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. Seventeen infants died in newborn period had higher CK-BB activity than 60 infants who survived at discharge. We conculuded that early CK-BB determination can be used as and indicator of neonatal brain damage and neonatal death. It is warranded to do long-term follow-up for evaluation of neurologic outcome.
Asphyxia* ; Brain ; Creatine Kinase ; Humans ; Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Parturition

PURPOSE: Recently, MRI has been routinely used in detection and treatment of metastatic spine tumors, but no previous study on prediction and prevention of vertebral body collapse was done using MRI. This study was done to analyze the risk factors of collapse and to define criteria of impending collapse using MRI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety-five vertebrae of 69 patients with metastatic lesions were evaluated using ratio of involved axial area, sagittal area, costovertebral joint, pedicle, facet joint and uncovertebral joint involvement as independent variables. We defined collapse when there was a fracture of the end plate and loss of vertebral body height over 10%, and degree of collapse was measured as ratio of the body height to the mean of the height of adjacent bodies. The ratio of the involved area was measured on T1-weighted images which showed the largest area of tumor involvement. RESULTS: There noted collapse of the bodies in 11 of 14 cervical vertebrae, 24 of 48 thoracic vertebrae and 15 of 33 lumbar vertebrae. Metastatic involvement on axial images was considered as a significant risk factor regardless of the vertebral level, while costovertebral joint destruction and axial involvement were significant risk factors in the thoracic spine. The criteria of impending collapse were: 51-60% axial involvement of the vertebral body in the cervical and lumbar spine; 61-70% axial involvement of the vertebral body with no destruction of other structures, 21-30% involvement of the vertebral body with destruction of one costovertebral joint or destruction of both costovertebral joints regardless of body involvement in thoracic spine. CONCLUSIONS: Using the above criteria with consideration of the patient s general condition and biologic behavior of the primary tumor, prophylactic stabilization can be performed to prevent ver-tebral body collapse which results in severe pain or paralysis.
Body Height ; Cervical Vertebrae ; Female ; Humans ; Joints ; Lumbar Vertebrae ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Paralysis ; Risk Factors* ; Spine* ; Thoracic Vertebrae ; Zygapophyseal Joint

Eosinophilic granuloma of bone well-documented in the literature. This lytic bone disease most commonly occurs in children, but a fraction of the cases does occurs in adult. When the disease occurs in adults, the bone most often affected include the skull, ribs, mandible, clavicle, pelvis, and long bone of the extremities. We report the case of a 31-year old woman with isolated eosinophilic granuloma of the thoracic spine. She had a 1-month history of progressive back pain that radiated to the right anterior chest. Authors performed resection of vertebral body lesion and soft tissue lesion and anterior fusion from T7 to T9. Immunochemical staining showed a positive S100 protein stain. EM demonstrated characteristic Birbeck granule. Postoperatively, the patient underwent a 5-day course of RT to the T6-T10 spine with 200cGY fractions (total dose 1000cGY). Postoperatively, the patient's back and chest pain had disappeared. There is no evidence of local recurrence or distant metastasis at 18 months follow-up. Though rare, eosinophilic granuloma of the adult spine could be considered in the differential diagnosis of osteolytic lesions.
Adult* ; Back Pain ; Bone Diseases ; Chest Pain ; Child ; Clavicle ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Eosinophilic Granuloma* ; Eosinophils* ; Extremities ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Mandible ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pelvis ; Recurrence ; Ribs ; Skull ; Spine* ; Thorax

No abstract available.
Aspirin* ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome*

No abstract available.
Coronary Aneurysm* ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome*

This article was withdrawn by the authors' request.

This article was withdrawn by the authors' request.