A 30 years old female patient was diagnosed valvular heart disease and double valve replacement was ndertaken. After operation, mediastinitis developed and we had done continuous mediastinal irrigation and had used IV antibiotics for 3 weeks. During outpatient follow-up, infection signs developed, so she readmitted and was reoperated because CT revealed mediastinal abscess. No infected material was observed at the operation. Infection signs continued for 3 weeks. Chest CT revealed giant pseudoaneurysm of ascending aorta. We resected the pseudoaneurysm and performed an aortoplasty with bovine pericardium under deep hypothermia and total circulatroy arrest. She recovered well and was discharged without any complication.
Abscess ; Adult ; Aneurysm, False ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Aorta* ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Heart Valve Diseases ; Humans ; Hypothermia ; Mediastinitis* ; Outpatients ; Pericardium ; Thoracic Surgery* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

The ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel is a member of inward rectifier potassium channel (Kir) that is inhibited by intracellular ATP and functions in close relation to sulfonylurea receptors (SUR). Although the molecular mechanism and physiological function of KATP channels are well understood, the expression pattern during development or treatment with the channel modulators such as glybenclamide is little known. In this work, we determined mRNA levels of a KATP channel (Kir6.2) and a sulfonylurea receptor (SUR2) in rat tissues by RNase protection assay. Levels of Kir6.2 and SUR2 mRNA in the rat brain and skeletal muscle were higher in adult (90-120 days) than in neonate (2-8 days), whereas those in the heart were not much different between neonate (2-8 days) and adult (90-120 days). In addition, none of KATP channel modulators (opener, pinacidil and nicorandil; blocker, glybenclamide) affected the Kir6.2 mRNA levels in the heart, brain and skeletal muscle. The results indicate that the expression of Kir and SUR genes can vary age-dependently, but the expression of Kir is not dependent on the long-term treatment of channel modulators. The effect of the channel modulators on mRNA level of SUR is remained to be studied further.
Adenosine Triphosphate ; Adult* ; Animals ; Brain ; Glyburide ; Heart ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; KATP Channels ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Nicorandil ; Pinacidil ; Potassium Channels* ; Potassium Channels, Inwardly Rectifying ; Potassium* ; Rats* ; Ribonucleases ; RNA, Messenger ; Sulfonylurea Receptors

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) causes a mosquitoborne viral zoonosis that is becoming increasingly important to public health in east and south Asia. Although JEV is primarily associated with reproductive failure in swine, JEV infection can cause fever and headache in humans and is associated with aseptic meningitis and encephalitis. The exact mode of transmission, including host range and possible source of viral amplification within livestock, is still not completely clear. This study consisted of a serological survey of JEV infection in goats. A total of 804 goat serum samples were collected from 144 farms in Korea between May 2005 and May 2006. The incidence of positive cases was 12.1% (97 out of 804 goats). The seroprevalence of JEV infection in the 144 farms screened was 31.3% (45/144), indicating that JEV infection is frequent in goat farms in Korea. In addition, three districts of Korea (mainly in the southern region) had a higher seroprevalence of JEV compared to other areas. The results suggest that goats could be monitored epidemiologically as a sentinel animal for JEV transmission in Korea.
Age Factors ; Animals ; Antibodies, Viral/blood ; Encephalitis Virus, Japanese/*isolation & purification ; Encephalitis, Japanese/epidemiology/*veterinary/virology ; Goat Diseases/*epidemiology/*virology ; Goats ; Hemagglutination Inhibition Tests/veterinary ; Korea/epidemiology ; Seroepidemiologic Studies

Skeletal remains collected from the archaeological fields must be maintained carefully, for being used in scientific studies on the physical characteristics, health status, and pathological disease of the ancient or medieval human populations. Even if Joseon Dynasty Human Sample Collection might be a good example for such studies, few of bone collections predated the Joseon Age (e.g. Goryeo Dynasty) have been established until now, possibly owing to poor preservation condition of archaeological sites in Korea. In this study, we performed anthropological studies on a few cases of Goryeo skeletons, which have been rarely reported by anthropologists in Korea. Judging from the preservation status of bones found in various types of Goryeo graves (e.g. earthen- or stone-chambered tombs), many cases seem to be cremated in accordance with Buddhist funeral rites. Goryeo bone collections must be constructed with the bones identified in the earthen tombs, which were preserved much perfectly than those of any other types of Goryeo tombs.
Anthropology, Physical ; Archaeology ; Funeral Rites ; Humans ; Korea ; Skeleton

Therefore differential diagnosis from idiopathic ulcerative colitis will be needed. Recently, we have examined a 20 year-old Korean female patient who had the complaints of acute lower abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. The diagnosis of ischemic colitis was confirmed on the basis of colonoscopic and associated histopathological findings. The patient dis-charged with good improvement on the thirteenth hospital day after medical treatment with antibiotics, fluid and electrolytes. We report a case of reversible ischemic colitis of descend-ing colon of a young woman with literature review.
Abdominal Pain ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Colitis, Ischemic* ; Colitis, Ulcerative ; Colon ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Diarrhea ; Electrolytes ; Female ; Humans ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: This retrospective study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of radiation therapy (RT) with/without cisplatin-based chemotherapy in nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred forty six patients with NPC received curative RT and/or cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Thirty-nine patients were treated with induction chemotherapy (IC), including cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil followed by RT. Another 63 patients were treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) using cisplatin, and 22 patients were treated with IC followed by CCRT. The remaining 22 patients were treated with RT alone. RESULTS: One hundred four (80.0%) patients achieved complete response (CR), and 23 (17.7%) patients achieved partial response (PR). The patterns of failure were: locoregional recurrences in 21.2% and distant metastases in 17.1%. Five-year overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) were 50.7% and 45.0%, respectively. Multivariate Cox stepwise regression analysis revealed CR to chemoradiotherapy to be a powerful prognostic factor for OS. CR to chemoradiotherapy and completion of radiation according to the time schedule were favorable prognostic factors for PFS. A comparison of each treatment group (IC --> RT vs. CCRT vs. IC --> CCRT vs. RT alone) revealed no significant differences in the OS or PFS. However, subgroup analysis showed significant differences in both OS and DFS in favor of the combined chemoradiotherapy group compared with RT alone, for stage IV and T3-4 tumors. Grade 3-4 toxicities were more common in the combined chemoradiotherapy arm, particularly in the CCRT group. CONCLUSIONS: This study was limited in that it was a retrospective study, much time was required to collect patients, and there were imbalances in the number of patients in each treatment group. Combined chemoradiotherapy remarkably prolonged the OS and PFS in subgroup patients with stage IV or T3-4 NPC.
Appointments and Schedules ; Arm ; Chemoradiotherapy ; Cisplatin ; Disease-Free Survival ; Fluorouracil ; Humans ; Induction Chemotherapy ; Korea ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies

BACKGROUND: This study evaluates the effectiveness of immunochemotherapy and radiation therapy in the treatment of patients with primary bone lymphoma (PBL). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 33 patients with PBL who were treated at 6 medical centers in Korea from 1992 to 2010. Clinicopathological features and treatment outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: The median age of the patients participating in our study was 40 years. The most common sites of involvement were the pelvis (12.36%) and femur (11.33%). CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone) or CHOP-like regimens were administered to 20 patients (61%), and R-CHOP (rituximab plus CHOP) was administered to the remaining 13 patients (39%). The overall response rate was 89% (complete response, 76%; partial response, 12%). The overall survival (OS) of patients with solitary bone lesions was longer than that of patients with multiple bone lesions (median OS: not reached vs. 166 months, respectively; P=0.089). Addition of rituximab to CHOP did not significantly affect either OS or progression-free survival (P=0.53 and P=0.23, respectively). Combining radiation therapy with chemotherapy also did not improve the OS or progression-free survival of patients with solitary bone lesions. CONCLUSION: Conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy remains an effective treatment option for patients with PBL. Additional benefits of supplementing chemotherapy with either rituximab or radiation therapy were not observed in this study. Further investigation is needed to characterize the role of immunochemotherapy in treating patients with PBL.
Antibodies, Monoclonal, Murine-Derived ; Disease-Free Survival ; Doxorubicin ; Femur ; Humans ; Korea ; Lymphoma ; Medical Records ; Pelvis ; Retrospective Studies ; Vincristine ; Rituximab