No abstract available.
Dexamethasone* ; Psychotic Disorders*

No abstract available.
Colon* ; Dilatation* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn*

No abstract available.
Female ; Humans ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory* ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Outcome* ; Pregnancy* ; Renal Dialysis*

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Liver biopsy has been used to evaluate the degree of hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic liver diseases. It is important to assess liver fibrosis when following the course of chronic liver diseases. Histopathological examination of percutaneous biopsy specimens is invasive and is also of questionable value because of the heterogenous distribution of pathological changes in the liver. Therefore, non-nvasive methods to determine the progress of liver fibrosis are needed. Serum hyaluronic acid and type IV collagen are known to be related to hepatic fibrosis. This study was performed to evaluate the clinical usefulness of serum hyaluronic acid and type IV collagen measurement as a differential point in patients with chronic liver diseases and early cirrhosis. METHODS: This study included 109 patients with chronic liver diseases caused by various etiologies. Liver biopsy and histopathological classification were done in all patients. Serum hyaluronic acid and type IV collagen were measured by one-tep sandwich binding protein assay and one-tep sandwich enzyme immunoassay. RESULTS: The concentrations of hyaluronic acid and type IV collagen in the early cirrhosis group (208.5+/-186.4 ng/mL, 242.1+/-162.8 ng/mL) were significantly higher (p<0.01) than those in the normal and fatty liver group (26.3+/-21.7 ng/mL, 79.2+/-28.8 ng/mL), mild chronic hepatitis group (22.8+/-15.4 ng/mL, 125.5+/-79.7 ng/mL), moderate to severe hepatitis group (66.3+/-60.5 ng/mL, 148.5+/-78.7 ng/mL). At the cutoff value of 100 ng/mL for hyaluronic acid and 200 ng/mL for type IV collagen, the sensitivities were 66.7% and 55.6%, and specifities were 82.9% and 89%, and diagnostic efficiencies were 78.9% and 80.7% respectively for discriminating patients with cirrhosis (4 points) from the mild to severe fibrosis (0~3 points). CONCLUSIONS: The serum levels of hyaluronic acid and type IV collagen may be sensitive markers of fibrotic process in chronic liver diseases and useful biochemical markers in differentiation of the patients with early cirrhosis from those with chronic liver diseases.
Biomarkers ; Biopsy ; Carrier Proteins ; Classification ; Collagen Type IV* ; Fatty Liver ; Fibrosis ; Hepatitis ; Hepatitis, Chronic* ; Humans ; Hyaluronic Acid* ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver Diseases ; Liver*

Total knee arthroplasty has become a common procedure for treatment of severe osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and post-traumatic arthritis. In the past, failure of total knee arthroplasty was commonly attributable to aseptic loosening, often associated with component malalignment, soft tissue imbalance. With improved surgical instrumentation and soft tissue balancing techiniques, failure secondary to mechanical loosening has been minimal. But surgeons are still dissatisfied with implant malalignment. Correct tibiofemoral alignment seems to be particularly important since it is generally agreed that axial deviation and imprecise implantation may lead to loosening of the implant component. Navigation systems and robotic techniques could potentially solve problems of imprecision in traditional total knee arthroplasty. It is expected that the success rate and longevity of total knee arthroplasty will be improved during the twenty first century.
Arthritis ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Arthroplasty* ; Knee* ; Longevity ; Osteoarthritis ; Surgical Instruments

No abstract available.
Diagnosis* ; DNA*

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the morbidity of adnexal surgery through minilapatotomy by comparing with adnexal surgery through laparotomy. METHODS: From January 2000 to December 2001, 84 patients with adnexal diseases were managed through minilaparotomy and 80 patients treated with adnexal surgery through laparotomy. RESULTS: Fifty-three (69.0%) of the adnexal diseases were ectopic pregnancies. Fifty-seven patients (67.9%) were treated with salpingectomy. Other patients were treated with the following operations: salpingotomy (3 cases, 3.6%); salpingostomy (3 cases, 3.6%); fimbrioplasty (2 case, 2.4%); ovarian cyst enucleation (4 cases, 4.8%); ovarian resection (6 cases, 7.1%); parovarian cystectomy (5 cases, 6.0%); salpingooophorectomy (4 case, 4.8%). The average operation time for minilaparotomy was 30.5 +/- 9.2 minutes. The average bowel function recovery time for minilaparotomy was 28.2 +/- 15.6 hours (p<0.05). The average postoperative pain control was 29 cases (34.5%) lower than that of controls (p<0.05). The average postoperative hospital stay for minilaparotomy was 3.4 +/- 1.0 days (p<0.05). The procedure morbidity was lower than that of controls. CONCLUSION: It is suggested that minilaparotomy is a quick, convenient method to decrease patient morbidity and postoperative stay and that it could be considered an alternative to laparotomy for the treatment of adnexal diseases.
Adnexal Diseases ; Cystectomy ; Female ; Humans ; Laparotomy* ; Length of Stay ; Ovarian Cysts ; Pain, Postoperative ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Ectopic ; Recovery of Function ; Salpingectomy ; Salpingostomy

BACKGROUND: We compared the analgesic effects of an intravenous infusion of remifentanil with local lidocaine injection during endovenous laser treatments (EVLT) for varicose veins. MATERIAL AND METHOD: In order to compare the efficacy of analgesia between the lidocaine group (n=15) and the remifentanil group (n=15), we measure the pain intensity of the patients, with using the visual analogue scale, during EVLT and at the first week, the second week, the third week and the fourth week after EVLT. RESULT: The remifentanil group showed significantly less pain intensity during EVLT (p<0.01), but there were no differences of pain intensity between the two groups from the first week to the fourth week after EVLT (p>0.3). CONCLUSION: The result showed that the intravenous infusion of remifentanil during EVLT can be a good option to reduce pain during EVLT for treating varicose veins.
Analgesia ; Anesthesia, Local ; Humans ; Infusions, Intravenous ; Laser Therapy ; Lidocaine ; Piperidines ; Varicose Veins ; Veins

A 69-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for deep vein thrombosis, and he had experienced two episodes of left leg swelling: one happened after an 11 hour-air trip from Europe in June 2007, and the other developed 3 days after an operation for a herniated lumbar disc in July 2007. We treated him for a deep vein thrombosis of the deep femoral vein after admission. However, we arrived at the final diagnosis of angioleiomyosarcoma after the operation for the tentative diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis. We removed the firmly engorged deep femoral vein on the second operation. We report here on a case of angioleiomyosarcoma that arose from the deep femoral vein.
Aged ; Europe ; Femoral Vein ; Humans ; Leg ; Leiomyosarcoma ; Thrombosis ; Venous Thrombosis

A 26-yr-old male patient reported worsened dyspnea, dizziness one year after an emergency Bentall operation for type A aortic dissection. There was evidence of hemolytic anemia and aortogram revealed a significant stenosis at the distal anastomosis site. During the reoperation, we found the inner felt at the distal anastomosis was inverted causing a significant stenosis. The reoperation successfully resolved this problem. Here, we report a rare case of hemolytic anemia caused by an inverted inner felt after Bentall operation.
Acute Disease ; Adult ; Anastomosis, Surgical ; Anemia, Hemolytic/*diagnosis/*etiology/surgery ; Aneurysm, Dissecting/complications/*surgery ; Aortic Aneurysm/complications/*surgery ; *Blood Vessel Prosthesis ; Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation/*adverse effects/instrumentation ; Dizziness/etiology ; Dyspnea/etiology ; Echocardiography ; Humans ; Male ; *Postoperative Complications/surgery ; Reoperation ; Time Factors ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Treatment Outcome