It is widely blieved that the new bone formation is provoked by fine electrical stress to bone. There have been maay experimental studies that showed much efforts to define these small amounts of electricity, and these fine electricities are being used in the orthopedic field for the treatment of various fractures, nonunions and pseudsrthrosia The auther has checked the electrical potentials changing in the course of fractvre hesling in rabbits femur. Comparing these data with that of the normal control group, the following results were obtained. 1. In the normal rabbit's femur the electrical potentisl was 13.6mV less on the concave side than on the convex side. This finding can be explained by the existence of stress generated potential or piexoelectricity. 2. Electrcal potentials on the fractured femoral sites were lowered significantly from that of the control group. So auther could confirm the existence of bioelectrical generated by increased electrical activity of the living bone. 3. The electrical potential of the fractured femoral site has been decreased 50% and 20% as low as that of the normal site at 8 weeks respectively. It is expected that these lowered electrical potentials may become dose to the normal values when the changed metabolic process due to the fractured bone is no longer functioning and it is believed to take human 2 years to get the normal value.
Electricity ; Femur ; Fracture Healing ; Humans ; Metabolism ; Orthopedics ; Osteogenesis ; Rabbits ; Reference Values

Epikeratophakia is a newly developed refractive corneal surgery for the correction of aphakic vision. Two aphakic patients have received hyperopic epikeratophakia grafts. Three months postoperatively, two patients had visual acuities of 0.6 without spectacle overcorrection. Epikeratophakia appears to be effective for the correction of adult aphakia.
Adult* ; Aphakia* ; Epikeratophakia* ; Humans ; Transplants ; Visual Acuity

An international outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a recently recognized syndrome caused by the newly identified severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), began in November 2002 and ended in July 2003. Coronavirus is a family of enveloped, single stranded-RNA viruses causing disease in humans and animals, but the other known coronaviruses that affect humans cause only the common cold. The number of SARS cases in 2003 was approximately 8000 across the world. Many recent studies have reinforced initial impressions that SARS-CoV is primarily transported via contact and/or droplets and that the combination of standard, contact, and droplet precautions is generally effective for its control. Active surveillance for clusters of cases of severe respiratory disease must be a first priority, especially among health care workers. Such surveillance should include the rapid diagnosis and prevention of other respiratory viruses that cause outbreaks of febrile respiratory disease-notably, influenza. Surveillance on the part of clinicians is the key to the early detection of any reemergence before it regains a foothold in the community. During the outbreak of SARS, ribavirin, steroids, interferon, convalescent plasma, and lopinavir/itonavir were used in varying doses and combinations in different regions of the world. At present no definitive conclusions regarding the efficacy of any of these treatments can be drawn. New findings regarding SARS are continuing to be discovered at an unprecedented pace, permitting a better understanding of the disease and enabling better preparation for its possible returns.
Animals ; Common Cold ; Coronavirus ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diagnosis ; Disease Outbreaks ; Humans ; Influenza, Human ; Interferons ; Plasma ; Ribavirin ; SARS Virus ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome* ; Steroids

PURPOSE: Airway eosinophilic inflammation is a characteristic feature of asthma. Sputum analysis can be used as a non-invasive tool to assess severity of the airway inflammation. This study was performed to compare relationships between sputum eosinophils to other parameters of airway inflammation and to evaluate the clinical utility of sputum eosinophils and ECP in childhood asthma. METHODS: A total of 40 asthmatic children over 6 years of age were divided into two groups : Group A of 15 current symptomatic subjects and Group B of 25 stable asymptomatic subjects with history of asthma for 2 weeks. Eosinophils in induced sputum were compared with the severity of asthma symptom, pulmonary function, bronchial hyperresponsiveness by methacholine, sputum ECP, blood eosinophils and serum ECP. RESULTS: 1) Asthmatics had a significantly higher proportion of sputum eosinophils than the control subjects (15.2+/-17.8% VS 3.8+/-4.5%, P<0.01). Group A had a significantly higher proportion of sputum eosinophils than group B (22.9+/-21.7% VS 11.2+/-14.8%, P<0.05). 2) Sputum eosinophils were correlated with symptom scores in asthmatics (r=0.76, P<0.01), inversely correlated with FEV1 in group A (r=-0.65, P<0.01) and with LogPC20 in group B (r=-0.45, P<0.05). 3) Sputum eosinophils were correlated with sputum ECP for group A; r=0.77 (P<0.01) and for group B; r=0.39 (P<0.05) but not correlated with serum ECP. 4) Sputum eosinophils were correlated with blood eosinophils in group A (r=0.67, P<0.05), but not in group B. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the proportion of eosinophils and the level of ECP in induced sputum may be sensitive and accurate means of assessing the airway inflammation in childhood asthma, and their relationships with blood eosinophils or serum ECP are to be studied further.
Asthma* ; Child ; Eosinophil Cationic Protein* ; Eosinophils* ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Methacholine Chloride ; Sputum*

Parenteral reserpine was given intramuscularly to 32 hospitalized hypertensive patients: 10 hypertensive patients without renal insufficiency, 3 hypertensive patients with heart failure, 10 hypertensive patients of malignant phase or with uremia, and 9 hypertensive patients with cerebrovascular accident. Follwoings were the result. 1. In the majority of patients, the effective dose of reserpine was 2 to 3 mg. 2. Reserpine given intramuscularly lowered blood pressure in 2 to 4 hours, had its maximum effect in 3 to 6 hours and had a duration of 3 to more than 24 hours (average 9 hours). 3. When effective dose of reserpine was given, blood pressure was lowered significantly (more than 30mmHg in mean blood pressure) in 18 patients (81.7%) of 22 hypertensive patients without renal insufficiency, and in 4 patients (40%) of 10 hypertensive patients with renal insufficiency. 4. Major side effect was drowsiness which was more evident in the patients with renal insufficiency. 5. Reserpine administered parenterally is an effective and safe agent for the treatment of hypertensive emergencies on a short term basis especially in the patient without renal insufficiency.
Blood Pressure ; Emergencies ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Renal Insufficiency ; Reserpine* ; Sleep Stages ; Stroke ; Uremia

Malignant degeneration of mature cystic teratoma has been reported in 1~3% of cases, usually between the age of 30 and 70 years with a peak incidence of 40~60 years. The most common malignancy developing in such tumors is squamous cell carcinoma arising in a mature cystic teratoma. Hirakawa reported two patients with benign teratomas diagnosed 25 and 32 years prior to surgery for malignancy and Dorothea reported a patient who was diagnosed as benign teratoma 50 years prior to operate for carcinoma. But there has been no report of squamous cell carcinoma arising in the mature cystic teratoma with direct invasion to gastrointestinal tract. We report a case of squamous cell carcinoma with direct invasion to transverse colon and jejunum in 62-year-old female who was diagnosed as mature cystic teratoma 20 years ago.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* ; Colon, Transverse* ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Incidence ; Jejunum* ; Middle Aged ; Teratoma*

The coexistence of spinal stenosis and scoliosis in lumbar spines is becoming a more frequent problem in elderly persons. Decreased bone mass in most of these patients also complicates their management. Recently, the pedicle screw instrumentation systems offer the way to solve these difficult problems. Most of the cases with degenerative scoliosis itself don't require surgical intervention. However, the case with severe clinical manifestations need surgery. From Jan. 1988 to Oct. 1993, authors had treated operatively for 15 cases of spinal stenosis with degenerative lumbar scoliosis. After adequate posterior decompression, pedicular instrumentation was carried out and correction of scoliotic deformity was attempted. Cotrel-Dubousset instrumentation was used in six patients, Graf instrumentation in three patients, and combined(Steffee and Graf) instrumentation in six patients. Follow up was obtained at an average of 20.4 months(Range; 10
Aged ; Animals ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Decompression ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lordosis ; Methods ; Pedicle Screws ; Scoliosis ; Spinal Stenosis ; Spine

Although the obstruction of the right colon is usually handled by primary anastomosis following resection, fear of the increased incidence of septic complication, especially anastomotic leakage with sepsis has turned surgeons away from doing anastomosis in the face of acute obstruction of the left colon. However, from recent reports, enough experiences have been accumulated to show that primary anastomosis is associated with minimum morbidity and mortality in the acute obstruction of the left colon. We experienced 54 cases of colon cancer obstruction at Holy Family Hospital from January 1988 to December 1997. Twenty six cases of them were right colon cancers, 24 cases were left colon cancers and 4 cases were rectal cancers. We reviewed these three groups for evaluation of the safety of one-stage resection and anastomosis of left colon cancer obstruction. The postoperative complication rate was 18% in right colon obstruction versus 38% in left colon obstruction. The most common complication was wound infection(43%). In using of primary resection and anastomosis, complication of right colon revealed 15% and left colon was 29%. But in a method of primary resection and anastomosis with decompression, complication of right colon was 17% and left colon was 13%. Especially on the left colon, primary resection and anastomosis with decompression revealed lower complication(13%) than that without decompression(67%). The mortality of colon cancer obstruction was 2% but this was a patient who had a poor general condition and took a primary resection and anastomosis without decompression. In cases of left colon cancer obstruction primary resection and anastomosis with decompression of left colon cancer obstruction can be a safe operation method with low morbidity and mortality.
Anastomotic Leak ; Colon* ; Colonic Neoplasms* ; Decompression ; Humans ; Incidence ; Mortality ; Postoperative Complications ; Rectal Neoplasms ; Sepsis ; Wounds and Injuries

PURPOSE: A large number of studies have demonstrated that rhinitis and asthma commonly occur together, and that a temporary relationship between the onset of rhinitis and asthma with rhinitis frequently preceding the development of asthma. We studied to know whether there were asthmatic airway inflammations in subjects with allergic rhinitis with bronchial hyperresponsiveness to methacholine who had no asthma symptoms. METHODS: Thirty seven children with an allergic rhinitis who visited the pediatric allergy clinic from January 1998 through June 1999 were enrolled. They were grouped into two groups according to the degree of airway responsiveness to methacholine, and 19 bronchial asthma patients with had no asthma attacks for 2 months were compared as control group.; AR-Mch (+) group (n=19) had a PC20-Methacholine lower than 10 mg/mL: AR-Mch (-) group (n=18) had a PC20-Metacholine greater than 10 mg/mL. The relationship of PEFR variability, sputum eosinophils, and nasal eosinophils with bronchial hyperresponsiveness to methacholine in each groups was compared. RESULTS: 1) The PC20-Methacholine was 5.7+/-3.5 mg/mL in the AR-Mch (+) Group, 1.9+/-2.7 mg/mL in the BA Group. 2) Sputum eosinophil was 14+/-6.9% in the AR-Mch (+) Group, 8.1+/-5.2% in the AR-Mch (-) Group, 29.6+/-16.9% in the BA Group, and sputum eosinophils of the AR-Mch (+) Group was higher than that of the AR-Mch (-) Group. 3) PEFR dinural variation was 7.0+/-2.6% in the AR-Mch (+) Group, 5.0+/-2.9% in the AR-Mch (-) Group, 14.0+/-6.0% in the BA Group, and PEFR dinural variation in AR-Mch (+) Group was higher than that of the AR-Mch (-) Group. 4) The PC20-Methacholine was not correlated with PEFR dinural variation in both the AR-Mch (+) Group and the BA Group. 5) The PC20-Methacholine was correlated with sputum eosinophils only in the BA Group. 6) Nasal eosinophils were not correlated with sputum eosinophils in the AR-Mch (+) and the BA Group. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that patients with allergic rhinitis who had bronchial hyperresponsiveness to methacholine might have eosinophilic inflammation in the lower airway and increased dinural PEFR. Further studies are necessary to evaluate whether asthma symptoms will be developed in these allergic rhinitis children.
Asthma ; Child* ; Eosinophils ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Inflammation ; Methacholine Chloride ; Peak Expiratory Flow Rate ; Rhinitis* ; Sputum*

PURPOSE: Exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) is widely prevalent in asthmatic patients. Recently, eosinophilic airway inflammation and atopy (defined as skin sensitivity to common aeroallergens) are considered to be a important factors in the pathogenesis of asthma. Thus we studied to find out the effect of atopy and airway eosinophilic inflammation on exercise- induced bronchospasm. METHODS: We followed up the cases of 132 mild asthmatics for 2 years. On their first visit, skin prick tests, with 29 common allergens including dust mites antigen, and sputum induction were performed. And 3 days later, methacholine challenge was done. 24 hours after methacholine challenge, treadmill test was performed and the positive EIB was defined as a 15% reduction or more in FEV1 from baseline after exercise. RESULTS: EIB was observed in 54 (40.9%) of 132 asthmatic subjects. There was no significant difference in atopy between EIB positive and EIB negative asthmatics. Eosinophil and eosinophil cationic protein in induced sputum were significantly higher in EIB positive asthmatics. We also found the significant correlation between bronchial responsiveness (BR) index and maximal % fall in FEV1. CONCLUSION: The severity of bronchospasm evoked by exercise was more closely related to eosinophilic airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness to methacholine than atopy.
Allergens ; Asthma ; Asthma, Exercise-Induced* ; Bronchial Spasm ; Dust ; Eosinophil Cationic Protein ; Eosinophils* ; Exercise Test ; Humans ; Inflammation* ; Methacholine Chloride ; Mites ; Skin ; Sputum