A case of acute Gingko poisoning in a year and 7 months old boy was presented. The patient manifested vomiting and tonic convulsive seizure after 2 hours of Gingko ingestion and followed by sensory disturbance, miosis, positive Babinski sign, leukocytosis and increased CSF pressure. Patient recovered 3 days later with symptomatic treatment such as anticonvulsanr and parenteral fluid administration. The authors report the case with review of prtinent literature.
Eating ; Fruit* ; Ginkgo biloba* ; Humans ; Infant ; Leukocytosis ; Male ; Miosis ; Poisoning ; Reflex, Babinski ; Seizures ; Vomiting

Mucocele is commonly found in frontal sinus. Mucocele of sphenoid sinus is rare and only 100 cases have been reported since Burg's description in 1889. Their etiology is still conjectural. These lesions are potentially more serious and are often misdiagnosed as pituitary tumor. The author experienced a case of sphenoid sinus mucocele develped headache, fever and CSF rhinorrhea. Plain skull, cisternography brain CT scan help the diagnosis of sphenoid sinus mucocele. A transnasal approach is considered best for case with extensive sphenoid sinus mucocele with bone destruction in the floor of sella turcica. The headache, fever and CSF rhinorrhea improved after surgery.
Brain ; Diagnosis ; Fever ; Frontal Sinus ; Headache ; Mucocele* ; Pituitary Neoplasms ; Sella Turcica ; Skull ; Sphenoid Sinus* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

No abstract available.
Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory*

No abstract available.
Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory*

Genitourinary fungal infections are uncommon, but the incidence is increasing due to the wider use of antibiotics, steroids, radiating treatment, immunosuppressive and antineoplastic drugs. Hospitalized patients are at the highest risk, which includes those with hematologic neoplasms and other neoplastic disorders, diabetes mellitus, and those with prolonged preterminal diseases. Candidal urinary tract infections typically occur in hosts with a compromised immune function. Emphysematous cystitis is a rare disease, usually caused by aerobic bacteria, most commonly Escherichia coli. However emphysematous cystitis occasionally complicates fungal infections of the lower urinary tract, especially in diabetic patients. Because emphysematous cystitis has potentially high morbidity and mortality, early diagnosis and treatment is very important. We report a case of emphysematous cystitis with fungus ball due to Candida albicans.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Antineoplastic Agents ; Bacteria, Aerobic ; Candida albicans ; Cystitis* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Early Diagnosis ; Escherichia coli ; Fungi* ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Humans ; Incidence ; Mortality ; Rare Diseases ; Steroids ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Tract ; Urinary Tract Infections

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective, controlled study OBJECTIVE: To compare one and two-caged posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) with local bone grafting for spondylolisthesis. SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW: Even though there are many reports on PLIF using cages and local bone grafting, Studies comparing one and two-caged PLIFs are rare. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-three patients who underwent pedicle screw fixated PLIF using cages and local bone grafts were followed for more than 1 year. Twenty-five patients had one cage (group I), and 38 patients had two cages (group II). Sampling error, disc height, sagittal Cobb angle, coronal Cobb angle, fusion rate, Oswestry disability index (ODI), operation time, blood loss, and neurologic complications were assessed. RESULTS: There was no sampling error between the two groups, except with regard to diagnosis: degenerative spondylolisthesis, 15 cases in group I and 9 cases in group II; spondylolytic spondylolisthesis, 10 cases in group I and 29 cases in group II (p=0.004). Fusion rates were 87.5% and 88.2% for groups I and II, respectively (p=1.000). More disc height loss occurred in group I (0.6 mm) than in group II (0.0 mm) (p=0.041). Over-3mm-disc height-losses were noted more frequently in group I (20%) than in group II (2.6%) (p=0.022). ODI improved from 28.1 to 12.3 (72.1% improvement) in group I and from 29.2 to 12.7 (79.3% improvement) in group II. There were no significant differences in operation time, amount of blood loss, or neurologic complications between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Unilateral one-caged PLIF with local bone grafting and posterior instrumentation was no different from bilateral two-caged PLIF with regard to fusion rates or radiologic or clinical results. The statistically significant differences in disc height seemed to be clinically insignificant. Disc height loss of greater than 3 mm was much more common in group I, with one-caged PLIF.
Bone Transplantation ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Selection Bias ; Spondylolisthesis ; Transplants

No abstract available.
Animals ; Nitric Oxide Synthase* ; Nitric Oxide* ; Rats* ; Spermatic Cord Torsion* ; Testis*

We performed this study to understand the health status and food intake of North Koreans. Information was collected by individual closed in-depth interviews of 11 escapers from North Korea as well as books, newspapers and North Korean movies. Interviews were done from October, 1996 to May, 1997, covering their heights and weights, their appearance and disease, food system and intake of various main/side foods, concern about health and hygiene. North Korean's height and BMI were lower than those of South Koreans. Difference of BMIs between North and South Koreans was profound in middle aged women than in other age groups. Childrem showed many malnutrition appearances of moon face, large abdomem, arrow-like legs, flaky skin, decolored hair, etc.. Main foods in North Korea were rice-shaped corn, corn flour, wheat flour and wet noodle, and side foods were kimchi and/or soups and steamed soy paste. Food supply system there seemed not to work normally for many years, so foods, especially in cities, has been extremely short in government-operating shops, but some in private market. Many housewives were eager to make and sell simple snack food products, We noticed that North korea schools didn't check students' health even though their medical policy was based on preventive medicine. Their living environmental hygiene was shown to be oyt of control.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea ; Eating* ; Female ; Flour ; Food Supply ; Hair ; Humans ; Hygiene ; Leg ; Malnutrition ; Middle Aged ; Periodicals ; Preventive Medicine ; Skin ; Snacks ; Steam ; Triticum ; United Nations ; Weights and Measures ; Zea mays

PURPOSE: Umbilical cord blood (CB) transplantation is an alternative method instead of allogeneic bone marrow (BM) transplantation. CB transplantation has used grafts with red blood cell (RBC) depletion but previous reports in CB investigated the immune reaction about mononulcear cell separated by density gradient. To study the real immune response in CB transplantation, the experimental group designed the total nuclear cell (TNC) groups by RBC depletion and the mononuclear cell (MNC) groups by Ficoll Hypaque in CB and BM. METHODS: We evaluated the various cytokine gene expression by semiquantitative RT- PCR method after immune stimulation with phytohemagglutinin in cord blood and bone marrow according to cell separation method. RESULTS: 1) All samples of CB and BM expressed IL-2 mRNA. There was no difference in amounts of IL-2 mRNA between CBTNC and CBMNC, between BMTNC and BMMNC. 2) All samples of CB and BM expressed IL-10 mRNA. There was no difference in amounts of IL-10 mRNA between the CBTNC and CBMNC but significantly different between the BMTNC and BMMNC (P<0.05). The amounts of IL-10 mRNA in the BMMNC and CBTNC group showed larger than in the BMTNC group (P<0.05). 3) The expression of IL-4, IFN-gamma was not shown in this study. These results suggest that no difference of IL-2 mRNA between CB and BM may reveal IL-2 as major cytokine gene in CB after immune stimulation. The expression of IL-10 mRNA in CBTNC showed more than in BMTNC group. Conclusion: Our results suggest that CBTNC may contain a lot of cells producing IL-10, as a cytokine of immunoregulatory function, and therefore the immune reaction in CB transplantation may be less apparent than in BM transplantation. The cell component producing IL-10 in CB may be T regulator cell. There were not showed the IFN-gamma and IL-4 mRNA due to short duration of immune stimulation. Therefore, further studies will identify the IL-4 and IFN-gamma mRNA expression after long time stimulation and various cytokine gene expression to certificate the precise immune response after flow cytometry to composed of immune cells in CB and BM.
Bone Marrow* ; Cell Separation* ; Cellular Structures ; Diatrizoate ; Erythrocytes ; Fetal Blood* ; Ficoll ; Flow Cytometry ; Gene Expression* ; Interleukin-10 ; Interleukin-2 ; Interleukin-4 ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA, Messenger ; Transplants

No abstract available.