No abstract available.
Asphyxia* ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory* ; Humans ; Infant* ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature* ; Parturition*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate how college students' perceived stress, cognitive stress, and somatization affect their heart rate variability (HRV). METHODS: This study is a cross-sectional survey research on 191 university students, registered at the G University. The perceived stress scale (PSS) and cognitive stress response scale, were used to assess level of stress. The somatization symptom scale of the Symptom Check List 90 (SCL-90), was used to assess level of somatization caused by stress. To assess heart rate variability (HRV), we conducted a five-minute test using a pulse wave analyzer, to analyze short-term HRV. RESULTS: The SCL-90 somatization score had relatively high positive correlation (p<.001) with cognitive stress, but low positive correlation (p<.001) with perceived stress. Cognitive stress response had low negative correlation (p<.001) with 1nSDNN and 1nRMSSD among HRV parameters. Perceived stress was not correlated with HRV. Multiple regression analysis showed that variables of perceived stress, cognitive stress, and somatization symptoms, could not explain HRV. By contrast, one of the HRV indicators, 1nSDNN, was affected by age, gender, and aggressive-hostile thought, the latter being a subscale of the cognitive stress response scale. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that stress evaluation for people in early adulthood will be more effective, if the evaluation examines cognitive stress and heart rate variability.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Heart Rate ; Heart ; Humans ; Mental Fatigue ; Somatoform Disorders

Total or mostly total intestinal aganglionosis is rare and invariably fatal. All patients with aganglionosis involving more than half of the small bowel have died with persistent intestinal obstruction and secondary malnutrition and infection. Recently, we experienced two cases of total colon aganglionosis extending to the middle of the jejunum in triplet. We report the cases with brief review of literatures.
Colon* ; Humans ; Intestinal Obstruction ; Jejunum ; Malnutrition ; Triplets*

Pelvic and abdominal actinomycosis is a chronic granulomatous supurative disease usually caused by an anaerobic Gram positive organism Actinomyces israelii. Its presentation is usually considered to be malignancy rather than an infective process and was once described as 'the most misdiagnosed disease'. They are normal commensal inhabitants of the human bronchial and gastrointestinal tracts and seem to only cause pathological infection after preceding mucosal breakdown. Infection spreads by direct extension. Hematogenous spread can occur but lymphatic spread is unknown. We experienced a pelvic and abdominal actinomycosis after total abdominal hysterectomy. This case illustrates the importance of considering the possibility of actinomycosis when we met a vague abdominal pain and mass after hysterectomy.
Abdominal Pain ; Actinomyces ; Actinomycosis* ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Hysterectomy*

Hemangioma in the gastrointestinal tract rarely occurs especially in the stomach compared with the small and large intestine. A 45-year-old man was admitted with pneumonia. After hematemesis, the authors performed gastroscopy, which revealed active bleeding on the huge ulcer on the antrum of the stomach and multiple erosive lesions on the whole stomach. After multiple submucosal hypertonic saline injection and hemoclipping at the huge ulcerative lesion, ulcer bleeding stopped. Three days later, recurrent massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding occured at the same site of the stomach. To prevent futher recurrent bleeding, total gastrectomy with esophagojejunostomy and splenectomy was done. The histologic diagnosis of the ulcerative lesion was hemangioma of mixed type. We report this rare case with the brief literature review.
Diagnosis ; Gastrectomy ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage* ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Gastroscopy ; Hemangioma* ; Hematemesis ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Intestine, Large ; Middle Aged ; Pneumonia ; Splenectomy ; Stomach* ; Ulcer

In vivo electroporation has emerged as a leading technology for developing nonviral gene therapies, and the various technical parameters governing electroporation efficiency have been optimized by both theoretical and experimental analysis. However, most electroporation parameters focused on the electric conditions and the preferred vehicle for plasmid DNA injections has been normal saline. We hypothesized that salts in vehicle for plasmid DNA must affect the efficiency of DNA transfer because cations would alter ionic atmosphere, ionic strength, and conductivity of their medium. Here, we show that half saline (71 mM) is an optimal vehicle for in vivo electroporation of naked DNA in skeletal muscle. With various salt concentrations, two reporter genes, luciferase and beta-galactosidase were injected intramuscularly under our optimal electric condition (125 V/cm, 4 pulses x 2 times, 50 ms, 1 Hz). Exact salt concentrations of DNA vehicle were measured by the inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES) and the conductivity change in the tissue induced by the salt in the medium was measured by Low-Frequency (LF) Impedance Analyzer. Luciferase expression in-creased as cation concentration of vehicle dec-reased and this result can be visualized by X-Gal staining. However, at lower salt concentration, transfection efficiency was diminished because the hypoosmotic stress and electrical injury by low conductivity induced myofiber damage. At optimal salt concentration (71 mM), we observed a 3-fold average increase in luciferase expression in comparison with the normal saline condition (p < 0.01). These results provide a valuable experimental parameter for in vivo gene therapy mediated by electroporation.
Animals ; Comparative Study ; DNA/*administration & dosage/metabolism ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Electric Conductivity ; Electroporation/methods ; Escherichia coli/genetics ; Female ; Gene Therapy/*methods ; *Gene Transfer Techniques ; Genes, Reporter ; Injections, Intramuscular ; Luciferase/metabolism ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Muscle, Skeletal/drug effects/*metabolism/pathology ; Osmolar Concentration ; Plasmids/genetics/*metabolism ; Sodium Chloride/*pharmacology ; Transfection ; Vehicles/*administration & dosage ; beta-Galactosidase/metabolism

In vivo electroporation has emerged as a leading technology for developing nonviral gene therapies, and the various technical parameters governing electroporation efficiency have been optimized by both theoretical and experimental analysis. However, most electroporation parameters focused on the electric conditions and the preferred vehicle for plasmid DNA injections has been normal saline. We hypothesized that salts in vehicle for plasmid DNA must affect the efficiency of DNA transfer because cations would alter ionic atmosphere, ionic strength, and conductivity of their medium. Here, we show that half saline (71 mM) is an optimal vehicle for in vivo electroporation of naked DNA in skeletal muscle. With various salt concentrations, two reporter genes, luciferase and beta-galactosidase were injected intramuscularly under our optimal electric condition (125 V/cm, 4 pulses x 2 times, 50 ms, 1 Hz). Exact salt concentrations of DNA vehicle were measured by the inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES) and the conductivity change in the tissue induced by the salt in the medium was measured by Low-Frequency (LF) Impedance Analyzer. Luciferase expression in-creased as cation concentration of vehicle dec-reased and this result can be visualized by X-Gal staining. However, at lower salt concentration, transfection efficiency was diminished because the hypoosmotic stress and electrical injury by low conductivity induced myofiber damage. At optimal salt concentration (71 mM), we observed a 3-fold average increase in luciferase expression in comparison with the normal saline condition (p < 0.01). These results provide a valuable experimental parameter for in vivo gene therapy mediated by electroporation.
Animals ; Comparative Study ; DNA/*administration & dosage/metabolism ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Electric Conductivity ; Electroporation/methods ; Escherichia coli/genetics ; Female ; Gene Therapy/*methods ; *Gene Transfer Techniques ; Genes, Reporter ; Injections, Intramuscular ; Luciferase/metabolism ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Muscle, Skeletal/drug effects/*metabolism/pathology ; Osmolar Concentration ; Plasmids/genetics/*metabolism ; Sodium Chloride/*pharmacology ; Transfection ; Vehicles/*administration & dosage ; beta-Galactosidase/metabolism

Primary extrapulmonary small cell carcinoma have been described in the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, salivary gland, paranasal sinus, small bowel, uterus, urinary bladder and skin. Primary small cell carcinoma of the esophagus has rarely been reported since McKeown had reported the first 2 cases of small cell carcinoma of the esophagus in 1952. Primary small cell cancer of esophagus is extremely aggressive tumor with grave prognosis. Because of the highly malignant potency, multimodality treatment including chemotherapy for the primary therapy is accepted generally. We experienced 2 cases of small cell carcinoma of the esophagus. One patient was a 57 year-old male without metastasis and we treated him with a multi-drug regimen (cisplatin and VP-16) being used in small cell carcinoma of the lung at our hospotal. But the other patient was a 67 year-old male with bone metastasis, and he refused all management.
Aged ; Carcinoma, Small Cell* ; Drug Therapy ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Esophagus ; Humans ; Lung ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pancreas ; Prognosis ; Salivary Glands ; Skin ; Stomach ; Urinary Bladder ; Uterus

Monoamniotic twin pregnancies are relatively rare, but perinatal mortality is high about 30-70%. The major cause of fetal death is cord accident, congenital anomalies, twin-twin transfusion syndrome, and intrauterine growth restriction. Especially cord entanglement occurs; perinatal mortality is about 50%. So the active management of monoamniotic twins to reduce the complication of cord entanglement is important. This is a case of monoamniotic twin pregnancy with cord entanglement and both fetuses survival by elective cesarean section at 32+4 weeks after medical amnioreduction and intensive fetal surveillance.
Cesarean Section ; Female ; Fetal Death ; Fetus ; Humans ; Perinatal Mortality ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Twin

OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to identify pathologic and clinical risk factors that predicted survival in cervical cancer stage IB2 patients treated surgically. METHODS: The records of 52 patients with cervical cancer IB2 who underwent radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection from 1997 to 2003 were reviewed retrospectively. Clinical and pathologic variables included age, tumor size (TS), histologic type, involvement of resection margin, parametrium invasion, lymph node metastasis (LN), lymph-vascular space invasion, depth of invasion, treatment modality and adjuvant radiation therapy (RTx). Survival analyses were performed by the Kaplan-Meier curves and the log-rank test. Independent prognostic factors were determined by Cox's proportional hazards model. RESULTS: In the present study, median follow up was 46.5 months. With regard to the 2-year disease free survival rate and the 5-year survival rate, univariate analysis revealed no significant differences in subgroups according to age, histologic type, resection margin, parametrium, lymph-vascular space invasion, depth of invasion and treatment modality. Tumor size (p=0.0024), lymph node metastasis (p=0.0007) and radiation therapy (p=0.0398) significantly affected the 2-year disease free survival rate in univariate analysis. They (TS: p=0.0001, LN: p=0.0023, RTx: p=0.0428) also significantly affected 5-year survival rate in univariate analysis. Tumor size (RR 35.87, CI 2.94-438.26, p=0.01) and lymph node metastasis (RR 16.6, CI 1.36-202.05, p=0.03) affected 5-year survival rate in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: In patients with cervical cancer stage IB2 who underwent operation regardless adjuvant radiation therapy, the important independent prognostic factors were tumor size and LN metastasis.
Disease-Free Survival ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hysterectomy ; Lymph Node Excision ; Lymph Nodes ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Survival Rate ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*