No abstract available.
Animals ; Brain* ; Pineal Gland* ; Rats*

Soft-tissue sarcomas account for 1% of all solid tumors. Of these, less than 15% will occur in the retroperitoneum. Late diagnosis and large tumor size make retroperitoneal sarcomas difficult to resect. Resection with wide margins in all directions is rarely possible owing to proximity to vital structures. Radiation therapy is limited in dosage and, as with chemotherapy, has only been successful in a limited number of cases. These problems result in a poor prognosis. A series of patients with retroperitoneal sarcoma was reviewed with a focus on issues of surgical management and prognostic factors. A retrospective analysis of 12 patients with retroperitoneal sarcomas who had undergone operations at the Department of Surgery, Inje University Paik Hospital, Seoul, from 1980 through 1996 was performed. The mean age of the 10 adult patients was 51 years; the male-to-female ratio was 2:1. Eighty-three percent of the patients presented with an abdominal mass. The mean diameter of the tumors was 18.3 cm. Leimyosarcomas(33%) and liposarcomas(25%) comprised the majority of the histologic types. The tumor grades were I, II, and III in 3 cases each. Resection of the tumor was possible in 75%(9/12) of the cases, although 17% of the resections were incomplete. Resection of adjacent organs was required in 66% of the cases. The resectability rose from 60% in 80s to 86% in 90s, with no statistical significance, possibly due to the small number of cases in this series. There was no postoperative morbidity or mortality. Actuarial 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates after resection were 75%, 60%, and 30%, respectively. Four of the 7(57%) patients who underwent complete resections had recurrence 3 to 33 months after surgery; this was notable for grade II or III tumors only. Two patients with grade I tumors are alive 65 and 102 months respectively after complete resection and show no evidence of the disease. One patient who underwent an incomplete resection of the tumor died 50 months after the operation. Only the tumor grade was a significant prognostic factor(p=0.0207). In conclusion, a wide en-bloc resection of a retroperitoneal sarcoma with a clear margin in all directions is a prerequisite for long-term survival. Aggressive follow-up for the first 3 years after a complete resection of a high-grade tumor is justified.
Adult ; Delayed Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Mortality ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Sarcoma* ; Seoul ; Survival Rate

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Urotensin II (UII) is a mitogenic and hypertrophic agent that can induce the proliferation of vascular cells. UII inhibition has been considered as beneficial strategy for atherosclerosis and restenosis. However, currently there is no therapeutics clinically available for atherosclerosis or restenosis. In this study, we evaluated the effects of a newly synthesized UII receptor (UT) antagonist, KR-36996, on the proliferation of SMCs in vitro and neointima formation in vivo in comparison with GSK-1440115, a known potent UT antagonist. In primary human aortic SMCs (HASMCs), UII (50 nM) induced proliferation was significantly inhibited by KR-36996 at 1, 10, and 100 nM which showed greater potency (IC₅₀: 3.5 nM) than GSK-1440115 (IC₅₀: 82.3 nM). UII-induced proliferation of HASMC cells was inhibited by U0126, an ERK1/2 inhibitor, but not by SP600125 (inhibitor of JNK) or SB202190 (inhibitor of p38 MAPK). UII increased the phosphorylation level of ERK1/2. Such increase was significantly inhibited by KR-36996. UII-induced proliferation was also inhibited by trolox, a scavenger for reactive oxygen species (ROS). UII-induced ROS generation was also decreased by KR-36996 treatment. In a carotid artery ligation mouse model, intimal thickening was dramatically suppressed by oral treatment with KR-36996 (30 mg/kg) which showed better efficacy than GSK-1440115. These results suggest that KR-36996 is a better candidate than GSK-1440115 in preventing vascular proliferation in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and restenosis.
Animals ; Atherosclerosis ; Carotid Arteries ; Humans ; In Vitro Techniques ; Ligation ; Mice ; Muscle, Smooth* ; Muscle, Smooth, Vascular ; Neointima ; Phosphorylation ; Reactive Oxygen Species

Neuromuscular blockade plays an important role in the safe management of patient airways, surgical field improvement, and respiratory care. Rapid-sequence induction of anesthesia is indispensable to emergency surgery and obstetric anesthesia, and its purpose is to obtain a stable airway, adequate depth of anesthesia, and appropriate respiration within a short period of time without causing irritation or damage to the patient. There has been a continued search for new neuromuscular blocking drugs (NMBDs) with a rapid onset of action. Factors that affect the onset time include the potency of the NMBDs, the rate of NMBDs reaching the effect site, the onset time by dose control, metabolism and elimination of NMBDs, buffered diffusion to the effect site, nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit affinity, drugs that affect acetylcholine (ACh) production and release at the neuromuscular junction, drugs that inhibit plasma cholinesterase, presynaptic receptors responsible for ACh release at the neuromuscular junction, anesthetics or drugs that affect muscle contractility, site and methods for monitoring neuromuscular function, individual variability, and coexisting disease. NMBDs with rapid onset without major adverse events are expected in the next few years, and the development of lower potency NMBDs will continue. Anesthesiologists should be aware of the use of NMBDs in the management of anesthesia. The choice of NMBD and determination of the appropriate dosage to modulate neuromuscular blockade characteristics such as onset time and duration of neuromuscular blockade should be considered along with factors that affect the effects of the NMBDs. In this review, we discuss the factors that affect the onset time of NMBDs.
Acetylcholine ; Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, Obstetrical ; Anesthetics ; Cholinesterases ; Diffusion ; Drug Interactions ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Metabolism ; Neuromuscular Blockade* ; Neuromuscular Blocking Agents* ; Neuromuscular Junction ; Neuromuscular Monitoring ; Pharmacokinetics ; Plasma ; Receptors, Nicotinic ; Receptors, Presynaptic ; Respiration

OBJECTIVE: Dopamine transporter is member of family of Na/Cl dependent neurotransmitter transporter, 12 transmembrane domain that has high substrate specificity, affinity. It is related with dopamine reuptake in presynaptic vesicle. DAT has a VNTR in its 3'-untranslated region(UTR), 3'-UTR VNTR polymorphism is related with modification of dopamine transmission. The association between with VNTR polymorphism and neuropsychiatric disorders such as alcohol dependence, and low activity ALDH has been studied but their relationship is unclear. We study about association of 3'-UTR VNTR of DAT gene and G2319A and alcohol dependence. METHOD: Group of Korea subjects were studied with alcohol dependence(n=49 male) compared to mentally healthy controls(n=53 male). The peripheral blood sample was acquired. and Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR) amplification, Mspl procedure was done. RESULT: There was a significant difference between alcohol dependence group and normal control(genotype frequency p<0.05 allele frequency p<0.05) Allele A frequency and genotype(GG,GA) frequency was a significant difference between alcohol dependence group and normal control(p<0.05) CONCLUSION: Our study showed that genetic polymorphism of DAT1 G2319A had relation with alcohol dependence.
Alcoholism* ; Alleles ; Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins ; Dopamine* ; Gene Frequency ; Humans ; Korea ; Neurotransmitter Agents ; Polymorphism, Genetic* ; Substrate Specificity