OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this present study was to compare mouse embryo development in 3 commercial media and hatching competence of mouse embryo with or without enzymatic treatment. METHODS: Collected 375 mouse embryos were divided into three groups, and then cultured in IVF-20 (G2), Medicult IVF (M3), P-1 (blastocyst M), respectively. Three day mouse morulae were cultured in G2 media treated with pronase. The results were analyzed using Chi-square test, and considered statistically significant when p<0.01. RESULTS: The developmental rate of 2 cell mouse embryo after 72 hours was highest in IVF-20 (G2) among conventional 3 media. The hatching rate of mouse morulae was low when clultured in G2 media without pronase during 48 hours. However, it was higher when cultured in media treated with l mg/ml, 2.5 mg/ml, 5 mg/ml pronase, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Using good media and digestion of zona pellucida with enzymatic treatment improve development and hatching rate of embryo. Therefore, implantation and pregnancy rate could be improved.
Animals ; Digestion ; Embryonic Development ; Embryonic Structures* ; Female ; Mental Competency ; Mice* ; Morula ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Rate ; Pronase* ; Zona Pellucida

We correct a typo in the title.

Accidents, Traffic ; Diagnosis ; Facial Injuries ; Female ; Head ; Humans ; Incidence ; Inpatients ; Jeollanam-do ; Lacerations ; Male ; Mandibular Fractures ; Neck ; Postoperative Complications ; Social Environment ; Surgery, Oral ; Violence

Stroke is one of the common causes of death and disability. Despite extensive efforts in stroke research, therapeutic options for improving the functional recovery remain limited in clinical practice. Experimental stroke models using genetically modified mice could aid in unraveling the complex pathophysiology triggered by ischemic brain injury. Here, we optimized the procedure for generating mouse stroke model using an intraluminal suture in the middle cerebral artery and verified the blockage of blood flow using indocyanine green coupled with near infra-red radiation. The first week after the ischemic injury was critical for survivability. The survival rate of 11% in mice without any treatment but increased to 60% on administering prophylactic antibiotics. During this period, mice showed severe functional impairment but recovered spontaneously starting from the second week onward. Among the various behavioral tests, the pole tests and neurological severity score tests remained reliable up to 4 weeks after ischemia, whereas the rotarod and corner tests became less sensitive for assessing the severity of ischemic injury with time. Further, loss of body weight was also observed for up 4 weeks after ischemia induction. In conclusion, we have developed an improved approach which allows us to investigate the role of the cell death-related genes in the disease progression using genetically modified mice and to evaluate the modes of action of candidate drugs.
Animals ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Body Weight ; Brain Injuries ; Brain Ischemia ; Cause of Death ; Disease Progression ; Indocyanine Green ; Ischemia ; Mice* ; Middle Cerebral Artery ; Stroke* ; Survival Rate ; Sutures ; Therapeutic Human Experimentation

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Ventricular arrhythmia is an important cause of death in patients suffering with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM). The decreased uptake or increased "washout" of 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG)-derived radioactivity is associated with a worse prognosis or severe disease in patients with cardiac diseases. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Forty patients (28 men, mean age: 56.5+/-13.0 years) with angiographically proven IDCM were studied and divided into 2 groups: the patients with clinically documented ventricular tachycardia (VT) and IDCM (group A; 17 patients), and the patients without VT, but with IDCM (group B; 23 patients). The normal control group (7 men, mean age 62.4+/-7.9) was compared theses patients. 123I-MIBG was evaluated by the early (15 min) and delayed (3hours) uptake, the heart to mediastinum uptake (H/M) ratio and the global and regional washout ratio (WOR) that was defined as the [early H uptake-delayed H uptake]/early H uptake. The clinical variables, echocardiographic parameters and 123I-MIBG-derived parameters were compared among three groups. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in age and the echocardiographic parameters between the groups A and B. A significant negative correlation was present between the early inferior wall H/M ratio and the LVEDD (Spearman's correlation, r=-0.412, p=0.08), and the early inferior H/M ratio and the LVESD (Spearman's correlation, r=-0.463, p=0.03). Only the delayed lateral wall uptake was significantly lower in group A than that in group B (23.3+/-5.3 versus 27.8+/-8.4, respectively p=0.042). The regional WOR was not statically different among the three groups. CONCLUSION: Cardiac 123I-MIBG SPECT partially reflects the vulnerability for the occurrence of VT in patients suffering with IDCM. These results support the feasibility of using cardiac 123I-MIBG SPECT as a prognostic tool in IDCM patients.
Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated* ; Cause of Death ; Echocardiography ; Heart ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Male ; Mediastinum ; Prognosis ; Radioactivity ; Radionuclide Imaging ; Tachycardia, Ventricular* ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage occurs from a variety of causes and mitral stenosis has been well known to cause hemoptysis. However, mitral regurgitation rarely can cause hemoptysis at presentation. A 38-year-old man who has been healthy was admitted to the hospital with massive hemoptysis. The patient underwent fiberoptic bronchoscopy which showed fresh blood throughout the bronchus of both lung and transbronchial biopsy showed chronic inflammation. All serologic and microbiologic markers were negative. On auscultation, grade 4 holosystolic murmur was incidentally heard at apex, the patient was examined by transthoracic 2-dimensional Doppler echocardiography which showed severe mitral regurgitation. Transesophageal echocardiography showed severe mitral regurgitation with A2 portion chordae rupture of anterior mitral leaflet. The patient was done with emergency mitral valve repair surgery and complete resolution of symptom and radiographic abnormalities thereafter.
Adult ; Auscultation ; Biopsy ; Bronchi ; Bronchoscopy ; Echocardiography ; Echocardiography, Doppler ; Echocardiography, Transesophageal ; Emergencies ; Hemoptysis ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Lung ; Mitral Valve ; Mitral Valve Insufficiency* ; Mitral Valve Stenosis ; Rupture

Glycogen storage diseases are a heterogeneous group of metabolic disorder affecting multiple organ system: liver, skeletal muscle, heart and brain. Clinical features include: short status, hepatomegaly, hypoglycemia, dyslipidemia and rare involvement of the myocardium except in the case of type III, glycogen storage diseases with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in adult, which is extremely rare. We treated a case of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with hepatomegaly that was unknown etiology. The patient was diagnosed as having glycogen storage disease. This 46-year old women was transferred with dyspnea on exertion and abnormal LFTs. She was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by echocardiography but there was no specific cause for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. A liver biopsy was performed. The result showed glycogen storage disease possible type III, IV or IX. In conclusion, patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy of unknown etiology and abnormal LFTs should be evaluated for glycogen storage disease.
Adult ; Biopsy ; Brain ; Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic* ; Dyslipidemias ; Dyspnea ; Echocardiography ; Female ; Glycogen Storage Disease* ; Glycogen* ; Heart ; Hepatomegaly ; Humans ; Hypoglycemia ; Liver ; Middle Aged ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Myocardium

No abstract available.
Diagnosis, Differential ; Electrons ; Embolism ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; Pulmonary Artery ; Thromboembolism

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Atrial dilatation contributes to the inducibility of atrial fibrillation (AF) by changing the atrial electrophysiological properties. There has been no report regarding the electrophysiologic data of the left atrium (LA), where the most significant electrophysiological impact might be expected to occur in case of mitral stenosis (MS). We investigated the electrophysiological changes after reduction of the LA pressure in patients who were undergoing percutaneous balloon mitral commissurotomy (PBMC). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We studied 26 patients (21 women, age range: 50+/-12 years) with MS, including 7 sinus rhythm (SR) patients. The effective refractory period (ERP), the monophasic action potential duration (MAPD90), and the conduction time (CT) were measured simultaneously in both atriums at 600, 500, 400 and 300 ms of drive cycle length (DCL). The restitution slope (RS) was also calculated by the S1S2 method. The atrial fibrillation cycle length (AFCL) and dominant frequency (DF) for the cases of AF were also calculated. All the measurements were repeated after PBMC. RESULTS: The mean LA pressure was significantly reduced after PBMC in both the AF and SR patients (17.0+/-5.5 mmHg vs 10.4+/-4.0 mmHg, respectively, p<0.01, 17.6+/-7.1 mmHg vs 9.0+/-2.8 mmHg, respectively, p<0.01). A significant increase of ERP was observed in the LA after PBMC, but not in the right atrium (RA). The increase of MAPD90 after PBMC was significant in the LA at all the tested DCLs, but not in the RA. The CT was also significantly decreased at all the tested DCLs after PBMC. The RS of the LA decreased from 1.71+/-0.82 to 0.76+/-0.33 after PBMC (p=0.056). However, no significant changes of the AFCL or DF after PBMC were observed in the AF group. CONCLUSION: Chronic atrial stretch altered the atrial electrophysiological milieu, especially in the LA, which was partially reversible in SR patients. This result supports the theoretical basis for the beneficial effects of early intervention to reduce the atrial pressure overload in MS patients.
Action Potentials ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Atrial Fibrillation ; Atrial Pressure ; Decompression* ; Dilatation ; Early Intervention (Education) ; Electrophysiology ; Female ; Heart Atria ; Humans ; Mitral Valve Stenosis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Measurements obtained using an intracoronary electrocardiogram (IC-ECG) reflect the electrical activity in various regions of the myocardium. This technique can be easily used in the catheterization laboratory during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures. Furthermore, IC-ECG could be used to evaluate myocardial viability in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of IC-ECG in predicting the microvascular integrity and late improvement of left ventricular (LV) function after primary PCI in patients with AMI. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 78 patients (62 male, 16 female) who underwent primary PCI with stent implantation were enrolled in this study. After the implantation of the stent, IC-ECG was recorded from the tip of an insulated angioplasty guidewire before and after balloon occlusion of the infarct-related artery. The IC-ECG was obtained from the inferior and inferolateral areas in inferior wall MI, or apex and apical anterior wall regions in anterior wall MI. Significant ST segment elevation was defined as a further ST segment elevation of > or =0.2 mV at 80 msec after the J-point in comparison to the baseline value. The microvascular integrity of the myocardium was evaluated by myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) one day after the PCI was performed. Six months later, all of the patients were followed up by echocardiography and the wall motion score index (WMSI) and ejection fraction (EF) were measured. RESULTS: Significant ST elevation was noted in 47 patients (Group A) after coronary occlusion. There was no significant change in the other 31 patients (Group B). MCE showed microvascular perfusion in 41 patients in group A (87%) and in four patients in group B (13%) (p<0.05). The six-month follow-up echocardiography showed that group A had a lower WMSI (1.20+/-0.18 vs 1.56+/-0.34, p<0.05) and higher EF (57.6+/-7 vs 47+/-11, p<0.05) than group B. The LV end diastolic dimension (LVEDD) in group B was increased compared to group A (p=0.021). The LV end systolic dimension (LVESD) was also increased in group B; however, the LVESD in group A was decreased after six months (p=0.002). CONCLUSION: IC-ECG during PCI is a simple and useful method for assessing the microvascular integrity of the myocardium and for predicting the long-term improvement of LV function.
Angioplasty ; Arteries ; Balloon Occlusion ; Catheterization ; Catheters ; Coronary Occlusion ; Echocardiography ; Electrocardiography* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Myocardium ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention* ; Perfusion ; Stents ; Ventricular Function