No abstract available.
Humans ; Hysterectomy*

No abstract available.
Cervix Uteri* ; Female ; Hysterectomy*

Noninvasive techniques of antenatal detection of the fetal development and well-being such as biophysical profile, non-stress and stress remain major challenges in modern obstetric practice. To obtain and analyze umbilical artery velocity waveform by pulsed-wave doppler ultrasound, a total of 160 determinations were carried out on 157 normal pregnant women between 16th to 41st week gestation. The ratio of peak systolic to end-diastolic flow velocity (S/D ratio), pulsatility index and resistance index were measured as indices of the resistance in feto-placental circulation. The results were as follows: As gestation advances, the mean values for peak systolic and end-diastolic velocities raised progressively. As gestation advances, the mean values for the S/D ratio declined progressively, exhibiting high diastolic flow velocity caused by low resistance. Pulsatility index, and resistance index were also declined progressively, as gestation advances. The analysis of umbilical artery blood flow velocity waveforms provides a new noninvasive technique to evaluate fetal development and well-being, and may be expected a reliable method for assessment of fetal life.
Blood Flow Velocity* ; Female ; Fetal Development ; Humans ; Methods ; Pregnancy* ; Pregnant Women ; Ultrasonography ; Umbilical Arteries*

Cervical pregnancy is a rare form of ectopic gestation in which the blastocyst implants in the cervical mucosa below the histologic cervical os. Because of the serious vaginal bleeding, hysterectomy was usually done in the management of cervical pregnancy. Howerver, conservative treatment is desirable for women who want to be pregnancy in the future. Methotrexate has been utilized recently for conservative management of cervical pregnancy. We report a case of cervical pregnancy which was treated succesfully with intramuscular methotrexate injection.
Blastocyst ; Female ; Humans ; Hysterectomy ; Methotrexate* ; Mucous Membrane ; Pregnancy* ; Uterine Hemorrhage

OBJECTIVE: The ratio of 2nd to 4th digit length (2D:4D) is a sexually dimorphic trait. Men have a relatively shorter second digit than fourth digit. This ratio is thought to be influenced by higher prenatal testosterone level or greater sensitivity to androgen. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between alcohol dependence and 2D:4D in a Korean sample and whether 2D:4D can be a biologic marker in alcohol dependence. METHODS: In this study, we recruited 87 male patients with alcohol dependence from the alcohol center of one psychiatric hospital and 52 healthy male volunteers who were all employees in the same hospital as controls. We captured images of the right and left hands of patients and controls using a scanner and extracted data with a graphics program. We measured the 2D:4D of each hand and compared the alcohol dependence group with the control group. We analyzed these ratios using an independent-samples t-test. RESULTS: The mean 2D:4D of patients was 0.934 (right hand) and 0.942 (left hand), while the mean 2D:4D of controls was 0.956 (right hand) and 0.958 (left hand). Values for both hands were significantly lower for patients than controls (p<0.001, right hand; p=0.004, left hand). CONCLUSION: Patients who are alcohol dependent have a significantly lower 2D:4D than controls, similar to the results of previous studies, which suggest that a higher prenatal testosterone level in the gonadal period is related to alcoholism. Furthermore, 2D:4D is a possible predictive marker of alcohol dependence.
Alcoholism ; Biomarkers ; Epigenesis, Genetic ; Gonads ; Hand ; Hospitals, Psychiatric ; Humans ; Male ; Testosterone ; Volunteers

Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage is one of the most devastating forms of cerebrovascular disease, and is most frequently caused by hypertension in the distribution of the perforating arteries. Generally, hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage is usually a single lesion, and recurrent intracerebral hemorrhage due to hypertension is not a rare condition. But multiple simultaneous intracerebral hemorrhage caused by hypertension is very rare. The authors report 4 cases of multiple hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage. This represents 0.77% of total 514 hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhages treated between January, 1994 and December, 1997 in our institution. All patients had chronic history of hypertension, and the locations of the hematomas were as follows: both basal ganglia in two cases, right basal ganglia and left thalamus in one case, cerebellum and left parietal lobe in one case. Two cases were treated by surgical evacuation of hematoma and remaining two were treated by conservative management. The results of treatment were poor in all patients.
Arteries ; Basal Ganglia ; Cerebellum ; Cerebral Hemorrhage ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Intracranial Hemorrhage, Hypertensive* ; Parietal Lobe ; Thalamus

OBJECTIVE: he authors evaluated the quality of life in women who underwent radical hysterectomy. METHODS: he protocol of functional assessment of chronic illness therapy by Cella was used to evaluate the quality of life after radical hysterectomy in 156 women. The data was standardized and scaled 0-100 points by Rasch's assessment model. The statistical analysis was done with ANOVA and post-Hoc test. RESULTS: Those with a lower ECOG performance score, housewives, workers, and those who are married had a higher sense of well-being than those with a higher ECOG performance score or who were jobless or widowed. Women with no family or who are single mothers showed lower emotional well-being (EWB) and Medicare patients had a lower social/family well-being (SFWB) or functional assessment of cancer therapy with general (FACT-G) than those who had medical insurances. The EWB and specific symptoms confined to cervical cancer (CxCs) were found to be higher in women who were diagnosed to be at stage I than those to be at stage II. The physical well-being (PWB) was found to be lower in women when adjunctive chemotherapy or radiation therapy had been performed than only the surgery had been done, and the CxCs was found to be lower in women when radiation therapy had been performed than only the surgery had been done. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that familial, social condition, clinical stage, and treatment modality affect the quality of life of each patient. In conclusion, our results support the importance of earlier prediction and a proper management plan to improve the quality of life in women who had underwent radical hysterectomy.
Chronic Disease ; Drug Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Hysterectomy* ; Insurance ; Medicare ; Mothers ; Quality of Life* ; Social Conditions ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms ; Widowhood

High mobility group-1 (HMGB-1) enhances the DNA interactions and possesses a transcriptional activation potential for several families of sequence-specific transcriptional activators. In order to examine the effect of HMGB-1 on the cell cycle progression in MCF-7 cells, the HMGB-1 expression vector was transfected into synchronized MCF-7 cells, and the effect of HMGB-1 overexpression on the cell cycle was examined. The HMGB-1 protein level in the transfected cells increased 4.87-fold compared to the non-transfected cells. There were few changes in the cell cycle phase distribution after HMGB-1 overexpression in the MCF-7 cells. Following the estrogen treatment, the cell cycle progressed in both the HMGB-1 overexpressed MCF-7 and the mock-treated cells. However, a larger proportion of HMGB-1 overexpressing MCF-7 cells progressed to the either S or G2 phase than the mock-treated cells. The mRNA levels of the cell cycle regulators changed after being treated with estrogen in both the HMGB-1 overexpressing MCF-7 and the mock-treated cells, but the changes in the expression level of the cell cycle regulator genes were more prominent in the HMGB-1 overexpressing MCF-7 cells than in the mock-treated cells. In conclusion, HMGB-1 overexpression itself does not alter the MCF-7 cell cycle progression, but the addition of estrogen to the HMGB-1 overexpressing MCF-7 cells appears to accelerate the cell cycle progression.
Blotting, Western ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Densitometry ; Estrogens/metabolism ; G2 Phase ; Genetic Vectors ; HMGB1 Protein/*biosynthesis ; Human ; Kinetics ; Oligonucleotides/chemistry ; Plasmids/metabolism ; Protein Structure, Tertiary ; RNA, Messenger/metabolism ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; S Phase ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Time Factors ; Trans-Activation (Genetics) ; Transfection

BACKGROUND: Unstable angina is a critical phase of ischemic heart disease, but there are no reliable noninvasive methods of assigning patients to different prognostic actegories. Recently cardiac Troponin-T has been developed as a new myocardial specific marker, especially myocardial injury. We investigated the value of the Troponin-T in unstable angina to determine whether the increase of cardiac Troponin-T might be a useful predictor of prognosis. METHODS: Unstable angina is defined as Braunwald classification(Class I, II, III). CLass I is new onset of severe angina or accelerated angina and no rest pain, class II is angina at rest but not within preceding 48 hour, and class III is angina at rest within 48 hour. We studied 16 cases of unstable angina(male:10, mean age:57+/-2year). We measured Troponin-T and CK-MB at admission, after 6 hours, and every 8 hour for 2 days. For the determination of serum Troponin-T, an enzyme immunosorbent assay (Boehringer Mannheim, ES 300 analyzer) was used. Above 0.1ng/ml was regarded as positive. During the admission, we investigated the myocardial infartion, sudden death, and the need of emergency PTCA and CABG. RESULTS: 1) Among 16 unstable angina patients, there are 12 patients in Class I(range 0.001-0.13, mean SD 0.04 0.01, median 0.02ng/ml) and 4 patients in Class III(range 0.03-1.56, mean SD 0.39 0.2, median 0.27ng/ml) and 4 patients showed positive value of Troponin-T. One was in Class I and the others were in Class III. 2) During the admission, one patient expired due to cardiogenic shock preceding inferior myocardial infarction, and 2 patients progressed non-Q wave myocardial infarction(NQMI). These 3 patients were in unstable angina Class III and had positive Troponin-T value. In Class I, one patient performed emergency CABG due to consistent chest pain at the sixth hospital day. These patient had negative Troponin-T value. 3) CK-MB increased in one patient with NQMI, and the other patients were not increased. CONCLUSION: Cardiac Troponin-T in serum appears to be a more sensitive indicator of myocardial cell injury than serum creatine Kinase MD activity, and its detection in the circulation may be a useful porgnostic indicator in patients with unstable angina.
Angina, Unstable* ; Chest Pain ; Creatine Kinase ; Death, Sudden ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Inferior Wall Myocardial Infarction ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Prognosis ; Shock, Cardiogenic ; Troponin T*

OBJECTIVE; This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of pregnancy on the activities of oxygen hee radical generating and scavenging system in the female rats. MATERIAL & METHOD; Rats weighing 200-220 gm were grouped to non-pregnant, 2nd trimester and 3rd trimester of pregnancy. The experiment was carried out following overnight fasting. Animals were anesthetized by administration of pentothal sodium, and blood was drawn via abdominal aorta. After exsanguination, the liver, kidney, heart, lung, with or without placenta tissues were excised immediately. The excised tissue was frozen in liquid nitrogen rapidly, and stored in liquid nitrogen for analysis. RESULTS; The gain in body weight was higher in pregnant rats than in normal rats. Lipid peroxidation was not significantly different among all groups in the liver, kidney, heart, lung, and placenta tissue. Xanthine oxidase activity of the kidney in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy was lower than that of non-pregnant rats. Superoxide dismutase activity of the liver was significantly decreased in the 2nd and 3rd trimester of pegnancy compared with that of non-pregnant rats, and that of lung was also decreased than that of non-pregnant rats. Catalase activity of the kidney was decreased in the 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy compared with that of non-pregnant rats. Glutathione content of the liver was markedly decreased in the 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy compared with that of non-pregnant rats. CONCLUSION; In conclusion, these results suggest that oxygen free radical will not increase in the liver, kidney, heart, lung, and placenta during normal pregnancy, but in the cases of overproduction of oxygen free radical, the liver, kidney, and lung will have me chance of tissue damage because of decreased activity of some anti-oxidant enzymes and/or decreased amount of anti-oxidant materials.
Animals ; Aorta, Abdominal ; Body Weight ; Catalase ; Exsanguination ; Fasting ; Female ; Glutathione ; Heart ; Humans ; Kidney ; Lipid Peroxidation ; Liver ; Lung ; Nitrogen ; Oxygen* ; Placenta ; Pregnancy ; Rats ; Sodium ; Superoxide Dismutase ; Thiopental ; Xanthine Oxidase