High-voltage electrical burns are associated with deep muscle injuries. A hidden, deep muscle injury has no specific clinical manifestations, and undetected muscle injury sometimes leads to septisemia or major amputations. From January to December 1996, 52 burned patients were admitted to the burn center. We evaluated their laboratory findings and the results of diagnostic tools. The items of study were urine, EKG, CK-MB, CPK, LDH, SGOT, SGPT, PYP scanning, Plethysmography, and arteriography. The presence of myoglobinuria and the increase in SGOT and SGPT two weeks after the injury were related to the extent of the burns. The PYP scanning was a very sensitive and useful tool for detecting hidden muscle injuries. The arteriographic findings were unsatisfactory for deciding the amputation level. The PCR findings converting to obstructive type were helpful in predicting possibile amputations.
Alanine Transaminase ; Amputation ; Angiography ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; Burn Units ; Burns* ; Electrocardiography ; Humans ; Myoglobinuria ; Plethysmography* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Radionuclide Imaging*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Mast cells are localized in the middle ear and Eustachian tube. They play a prominent role in the inflammatory and allergic conditions. The purpose of this study is to investigate if different inflammatory reactions depend on whether patients are allergic or not by measuring concentration of the mast cell tryptase that reflects the mast cell activity. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Twenty-five patients with chronic otitis media with effusion (COME) were studied. Thirteen patients were confirmed allergy positive by multiallergosorbent test. Mast cell tryptase in the middle ear effusions was measured using western blotting. RESULTS: Mast cell tryptase was more strongly expressed in the effusions with allergy positive than in the allergy negative (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: There was a correlation between mast cell tryptase from MEE and allergy, so we conclude that allergy plays a role in the pathogenesis of COME.
Blotting, Western ; Ear, Middle ; Eustachian Tube ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Mast Cells* ; Otitis Media with Effusion* ; Otitis Media* ; Otitis* ; Tryptases*

Cystic parathyroid adenoma is one of the rare causes of hyperparathyroidism, and is usually located in neck and mediastinum. This type of adenoma tends to cause increased serum level of parathyroid hormone and alkaline phosphatase, similar serum calcium level when compared to those of solid adenoma. Thanks to current radioimmunoassay and easy accessibility to serum autoanalyzer, serum calcium level and parathyroid hormone level are more easily measured, which in turn lead to more easier diagnosis of hyperparathyroidism. Also improvement in imaging and nuclear diagnostic method of parathyroid lesion are suggested to enable easy diagnosis of cystic parathyroid adenoma. A 35-year-old male presented with easy fatigability for 12 months. The serum calcium, phosphate, alkaline phosphotase were 11.5mg/dL, 1.4mg/dL, 194IU/L respectively and his parathyroid hormone level in serum was 126.42pg/mL. Neck CT showed enlargement of right lobe of thyroid gland with well defined inhomogenously enhanced density inside the right thyroid gland. The patient was diagnosed of hyperparathyroidim due to parathyroid adenoma and was surgically removed. The surgical biopsy showed cystic parathyroid adenoma. After operation his general condition was improved and serum calcium, phosphate, parathyroid hormone level were normalizd. We report a case of hyperparathyroidism caused by cystic parathyroid adenoma with brief review of literature.
Adenoma ; Adult ; Alkaline Phosphatase ; Biopsy ; Calcium ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Hyperparathyroidism* ; Male ; Mediastinum ; Neck ; Parathyroid Hormone ; Parathyroid Neoplasms* ; Radioimmunoassay ; Thyroid Gland

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to examine whether the neurocognitive deficits of schizophrenia may be associated with certain features of symptomatology or a stable vulnerability of disease itself. METHOD: The 42 schizophrenic patients and 35 matched normal controls with sex, age, and education level were examined for their sustained attention, sensory register, executive function, concentration and attention, and verbal memory and learning in the acute and remitted stages of schizophrenia using Degraded Stimulus Continuous Performance Test, Span Apprehension Task, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Digit Span, and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, respectively. RESULTS: The schizophrenic patients showed significant deficits in the sustained attention, sensory register, executive function, and verbal memory and learning compared with the normal controls in both acute and remitted stages of schizophrenia. Regarding the concentration and attention, the schizophrenic patients showed significant deficits in the backward digit span compared with the normal controls during acute stages, but there was no difference between two groups in the forward and backward digit span during remitted stages. No difference was evident in the sustained attention, sensory register, executive function, and verbal memory and learning between acute and remitted stages of schizophrenia. But the forward and backward digit span of schizophrenic patients showed significant improvement in the remitted stages compared with acute stages. CONCLUSIONS: The sustained attention and sensory register deficits in the visual information processing associated with schizophrenia, detected by high-processing-load version of the Degraded Stimulus Continuous Performance Test and Span Apprehension Task, are highly possible to be stable vulnerability indicators. Executive functioning deficit in the schizophrenic patients detected by Wisconsin Card Sorting Test is not likely to be dependent on symptoms, so it is difficult to conclude that it is a stable vulnerability indicators of schizophrenia. In the digit span task, the forward digit span is more likely to be a episodic indicator but the backward digit span is likely to be a mediating vulnerability indicator. And the forward and backward digit span tasks seem to be tap different cognitive abilities that are differentially associated with the diathesis for schizophrenia. Some forms of the verbal memory and learning deficits associated with schizophrenia appear to be a stable vulnerability indicators.
Automatic Data Processing ; Disease Susceptibility ; Education ; Executive Function ; Humans ; Learning ; Memory ; Negotiating ; Schizophrenia* ; Verbal Learning ; Wisconsin

No abstract available.
Stomach Neoplasms*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Hysterectomy*

No abstract available.
China*

No abstract available.
China* ; Depression* ; Republic of Korea*

PURPOSE: To elucidate the incidence of Gd-DTPA enhancement of the optic nerve/sheath complex (ONC) in patients with various ophthalmopathies using fat-suppression MRI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Orbit MRI with fat-suppression technique (ChemSat) was performed in 58 patients with normal and various orbital lesions. The fat-suppression MR was done with and without Gd-DTPA injection in all cases. MR findings were reviewed retrospectively in a blind fashion with respect to presence or absence of contrast enhancement of the O NC. RESULTS: Contrast enhancement of the ONC was seen in 86% (6/7) of cavernous sinus lesions, 80% (8/10) of intraconal lesions excluding the ONC, 57% (16/28) of ONC lesions, 38% (3/8) of ocular lesions, and 2% (1/55) of normal orbits. The ONC enhancement was the most common in optic nerve/sheath tumors (10/10), and pseudotumors (6/6), cavernous sinus dural arteriovenous malformations (3/3) and cavernous sinus thrombosis (2/2), and less frequently seen in optic neuritis (3/14). CONCLUSION: Enhancement of the ONC may be seen in lesions of the cavernous sinusand orbit other than optic nerve/sheath lesion.
Arteriovenous Malformations ; Cavernous Sinus ; Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis ; Gadolinium DTPA ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Optic Neuritis ; Orbit* ; Retrospective Studies

Moving on the femoral srticular surface, the patella is doing a significant role in the patellofemoral mechanism as one of the most important components of the knee. The knowledge of patellar movement would be very helpful to understand the functional mechanism of the knee We studied the distance of patellar movement during the knee motion on the lateral X-ray view of 100 normal adult knees. The results were as follows :1. The average distance of patellar movement from full extension to full flexion of the knee was 8.4cm. 2. Patella moves average 1.7cm(20.2%) form 0° to 30° flexion, 2.6cm(31.0%) from 30° to 60° flexion, 1.7cm(20.2%) from 60° to 90° flexion, 1.3cm(15.5%) from 90° to 120° flexion and l.lcm(13.1%) from 120° to full flexion.
Adult ; Humans ; Knee ; Patella