No abstract available.
Carotid Artery, Common* ; Rupture*

No abstract available.
Sinusitis*

This study evaluated the risk factor of glaucoma progression despite of adequate intraocular pressure[IOP]and that of glaucomatous optic nerve head progression before visual field progression with minimum treatment regimen. Inclusion criteria included subjects with elevated intraocular pressure and glaucomatous optic nerve head in fundus examination. Patients were main-tained their IOP by medication or filtering surgery. Baseline assessment included routine ocular examination, Heidelberg Retina Tomograph[HRT]and visual field. All patients were reexamined 6 months after the first examina-tion. We review the results of 61 patients[118 eyes]. In multiple logistic regression analysis, the risk factors of glaucoma progression were age[p=0.027] and the intraocular pressure at the first HRT examination[p=0.0216]. Glaucomatous visual field progression correlated significantly with HRT progres-sion[p=0.0216]. If the early glaucoma progression is detected with HRT, progression of glaucoma can be prevented. In the groups with the risk factors, the target pressure should be lower to prevent further loss or blindness with agressive treatment. In groups without risk factor, the quality of patient's life can be improved with minimum treatment. We may be able to prevent the progression of glaucomatous field defect, if we can recognize the early change of their optic nerve head morphology. Their findings may help us to differentiate non-risk group from risk group. We hope that we would improve our patient's life quality by minimizing glaucoma treatment especially in the non-risk group.
Blindness ; Filtering Surgery ; Glaucoma ; Hope ; Humans ; Intraocular Pressure ; Logistic Models ; Optic Disk* ; Optic Nerve* ; Quality of Life ; Retina* ; Risk Factors* ; Visual Fields

p27 is a cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor and plays an important role in negative regulation of the cell cycle. It has been revealed that down-regulation of p27 is frequently found in various cancers and is well associated with their malignancies including poor prognosis. In the present work, we constructed including inhibition of cell proliferation, arrest of cell cycle, and induction of apoptosis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC)cells. On transduction of the HNSCC cell lines with ad-p27, overexpression of p27 was confirmed in all cell lines tested. In addition, overexpression of p27 resulted in significant inhibition of cancer cell proliferation with increased apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in HNSCC cell lines. From these results, it was suggested that overexpression of p27 could show anti-tumor effects in HNSCC cell lines and it is possible that an increase of p27 protein by introducing the p27 gene into human cancer cells may be helpful for the treatment or prevention of human cancers, especially HNSCC.
Apoptosis ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints ; Cell Line* ; Cell Proliferation ; Cyclins ; Down-Regulation ; Head* ; Humans ; Neck* ; Phosphotransferases ; Prognosis

OBJECTIVE: The frontal sinus is frequently a troublesome anatomical obstacle to gain access to the medial anterior cranial base. Surgical approaches to and through the frontal sinus using osteoplastic frontal sinusotomy provide significant advantages to the treatment of lesions of the medial anterior cranial base in addition to the frontal sinus itself. However, appropriate management is necessary to avoid postoperative complications such as cerebrospinal fluid leakage, infection, mucocele formation, and deformity of the forehead. METHODS: The advantages and shortcomings of the approach along with the surgical technique are reported based on our clinical experience with pertinent literature review. The approach using the osteoplastic frontal sinusotomy was applied to two cases of osteoma in the frontal sinus, seven cases of craniofacial tumors, a case of chordoma in the sphenoid and clivus, and two cases of intradural lesions in the anterior cranial fossa. The frontal sinus was managed in such a way as to prevent the postoperative complications. RESULTS: All patients underwent gross total resection of the tumors. With a mean follow-up of 26 months, there were no postoperative complications related to frontal sinus violation. CONCLUSION: The neurosurgical approaches via the frontal sinus using osteoplastic frontal sinusotomy are versatile for various lesions of the anterior cranial base in patients with large frontal sinuses. In situations that the frontal sinus have to be violated to approach medial anterior cranial base, the osteoplastic frontal sinusotomy provides such advantages as optimal frontal sinus control to prevent postoperative complications; increases viewing angle with superior trajectory from nasofrontal suture; lower incidence of pnemocephalus due to minimal dural exposure; and excellent cosmesis without frontal burr holes.
Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Chordoma ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Cranial Fossa, Anterior ; Cranial Fossa, Posterior ; Follow-Up Studies ; Forehead ; Frontal Sinus* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Mucocele ; Osteoma ; Postoperative Complications ; Skull Base ; Sutures

No abstract available.
Acute Kidney Injury* ; Back Pain*

Purpose: We report two cases of tacrolimus-related transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA) retinopathy in leukemia patients who had undergone allogenic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT).Case summary: (Case 1) A 58-year-old woman with a history of PBSCT due to acute myelocytic leukemia and taking tacrolimus was referred to the ophthalmology clinic with visual disturbance. Her visual acuity (VA) was 0.4 in the right eye and 0.5 in the left eye. Multiple cotton wool spots and retinal hemorrhages were found in both eyes on fundus examination. Multiple capillary non-perfusions were seen on fluorescein angiography (FA). Tacrolimus-related TA-TMA retinopathy was suspected. Tacrolimus was discontinued and plasmapheresis was performed. After 3 months, neovascular glaucoma developed and her VA became “counting fingers” at 20 cm in both eyes. (Case 2) A 20-year-old man with a history of PBSCT due to acute lymphocytic leukemia and taking tacrolimus was referred to our clinic because of decreased VA in both eyes. His VA was 0.05 in the right eye and 0.025 in the left eye. Fundus and FA findings were the same as in Case 1, and the patient was suspected to have tacrolimus-related TA-TMA retinopathy. Tacrolimus was discontinued and plasmapheresis was performed. His VA was 0.2 in the right eye and 0.4 in the left eye at 1 month after treatment. Conclusions It is necessary to consider TA-TMA retinopathy in leukemia patients taking calcineurin inhibitors, such as tacrolimus, who have decreased VA. Early diagnosis and treatment are important.

Many studies have cited occurrences of severe and long-lasting emotional disturbances of almost every kind after surgical procedures, particularly due to the sedatives or narcotics which were administered to control the post-operative pain. In order to control this post-operative pain, pediatric caudal analgesia was performed in 15 infants and children from the age 2 months to 6 years, who were to undergo lower abdomen, perineum and lower extremity surgery. They were induced with inhalation anesthoeia, using nitrous oxide, oxygen and halothane by mask before and during the block. Following the block, infants and children were turned to supine position and the initial concentration of halothane was reduced. All cases were given 10mg/kg of 1% solution of lidocaine. On examination of the level of the analgesia, 13 out of 15 cases had spread higher level than T10, with effective block for surgical procedures. The identification of the sacral cornu is easy and technical failureis lees in comparison than with the lumbar epidural block for infants and children. Thus we can perform this block successfully for infants and children without any complications or accidents. It is especially helpful in the management of postoperative cases due to the effect in control of the postoperative pain. Thus it gives satisfaction to their parents, nurses and doctors. Despite no follow-up study on postoperative emotional reactions, it was considered that there were minimal occurrences of emotional and behavioral sequelae following the hospital and surgical experiences.
Abdomen ; Affective Symptoms ; Analgesia ; Anesthesia, Caudal* ; Child ; Follow-Up Studies ; Halothane ; Humans ; Hypnotics and Sedatives ; Infant ; Inhalation ; Lidocaine ; Lower Extremity ; Masks ; Narcotics ; Nitrous Oxide ; Oxygen ; Pain, Postoperative ; Parents ; Perineum ; Supine Position

PURPOSE: It has been reported that all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) can inhibit glioma growing in vitro. However, clinical trials with ATRA alone in gliomas revealed modest results. ATRA has been shown to increase radiosensitivity in other tumor types, so combining radiation and ATRA would be one of alternatives to increase therapeutic efficacy in malignant gliomas. Thus, we intended to know the role of catalase, which is induced by ATRA, for radiosensitivity. If radiation-reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) is removed by catalase, the effect of radiation will be reduced. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A rat glioma cell line (36B10) was used for this study. The change of catalase activity and radiosensitivity by ATRA, with or without 3-amino-1, 2, 4-triazole (ATZ), a chemical inhibitor of catalase were measured. Catalase activity was measured by the decomposition of H2O2 spectrophotometrically. Radiosensitivity was measured with clonogenic assay. Also ROS was measured using a 2, 7-dichlorofluorescein diacetate spectrophotometrically. RESULTS: When 36B10 cells were exposed to 10, 25 and 50microM of ATRA for 48 h, the expression of catalase activity were increased with increasing concentration and incubation time of ATRA. Catalase activity was decreased with increasing the concentration of AT (1, 10 mM) dose-dependently. ROS was increased with ATRA and it was augmented with the combination of ATRA and radiation. ATZ decreased ROS production and increased cell survival in combination of ATRA and radiation despite the reduction of catalase. CONCLUSION: The increase of ROS is one of the reasons for the increased radiosensitivity in combination with ATRA. The catalase that is induced by ATRA doesn`t decrease ROS production and radiosensitivity.
Animals ; Catalase* ; Cell Line ; Cell Survival ; Glioma* ; Radiation Tolerance* ; Rats* ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Tretinoin*

BACKGROUND: An accurate ABO blood type is essential for transfusion therapy. Genetic structures of ABO blood group and subgroup have been investigated and so far about 100 ABO alleles have been reported worldwide. This study was performed to investigate the molecular characteristics of B subgroups in the Korean population. METHODS: A total of 19 samples of B subgroups were collected from patients (n=11) and from blood donors (n=8) of Korean Red Cross blood centers; these samples had been typed serologically for the ABO blood group. Allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR), direct sequencing of exon 6 and 7, and allele separation were performed for ABO gene analysis. RESULTS: The ABO PCR-RFLP genotyping results of 18 samples among the provisional 19 B subgroups were identical regardless of their phenotypes. Two new B alleles showing 255C>T base change and 547G>A base change were observed in B3 and A1B3 subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Serologically unidentified B subgroups were unequivocally identified through molecular analyses of the ABO gene. And new ABO alleles observed only in the Korean B subgroups were recognized.
Alleles ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Blood Donors ; Exons ; Genetic Structures ; Humans ; Phenotype ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Red Cross