No abstract available.
Fever*

Sacrococcygeal chordoma is a rare malignant tumor which is believed to take its origin from remnants of the fetal notochord, and presents in the sacral hollow or occasionally posteriorly. The growth is leisurely and it is invasive rather than metastatic. In treatment, there is evidence that early diagnosis of sacrococcygeal chordoma followed by radical resection c palliative radiotherapy does provide the opportunity for cure. We have experienced two cases of sacrococcygeal chordoma, which were treated with one case of a complete surgical resection and the other case of only biopsy.
Biopsy ; Chordoma ; Early Diagnosis ; Notochord ; Radiotherapy

The computed tomographic (CT) and clinical findings in 9 patients with serologically confirmed Japanese encephalitis were reviewed. In 6 patients with prominent pyramidal and extrapyramidal symptoms and signs, the main CT finding was low density areas in the thalamus, internal capsule, basal ganglia, and midbrain. Low density areas were compatible with the anatomical distribution of pathologic lesions in Japanese encephalitis. Diffuse low density in the periventricular white matter was evident in 5 of 6 cases, with ventricular compression in 2 cases, between the 1st and 7th day of illness. There was enlargement of the third and lateral ventricles and cortical sulci dilatation in 3 cases on or after the 21st day of illness. In once CT scan obtained on the 10th day of illness, diffuse low density in the periventricular white matter was observed with enlargement of lateral ventricles and cortical sulci dilatation. Gyral enhancement was noted in 3 of 4 cases within 4 days after the onset of symptoms. There was a limited correlation between the clinical and CT findings.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Basal Ganglia ; Dilatation ; Encephalitis, Japanese* ; Humans ; Internal Capsule ; Lateral Ventricles ; Mesencephalon ; Thalamus ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Sellar arachnoid cysts are rare; an infected arachnoid cyst is extremely rare as only one case has been reported to date in the literature. Here, we report a patient with an infected or inflamed sellar arachnoid cyst that was successfully treated with transsphenoidal surgery (TSA). A 53-year-old female with a history of chronic sinusitis developed a headache 5 months ago, and one month before admission polyuria, polydipsia, and abnormal vaginal bleeding occurred. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a sellar cystic mass with a thickened pituitary stalk. Preoperative hormonal study revealed normal pituitary hormone levels except for a moderate elevation of prolactin. She was diagnosed with diabetes insipidus of the central nervous system origin based on a water-deprivation test. TSA was performed under an impression of symptomatic Rathke's cleft cyst according to the MRI findings. Intraoperative findings showed confirmation of turbid intracystic contents, but micro-organisms were unidentified on microbial culture. Pathology of the cyst wall revealed inflamed meningoepithelial lining cells compatible with an arachnoid cyst.
Arachnoid Cysts ; Arachnoid* ; Central Nervous System ; Diabetes Insipidus ; Female ; Headache ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Pathology ; Pituitary Gland ; Polydipsia ; Polyuria ; Prolactin ; Sinusitis ; Uterine Hemorrhage

One hundred sixty-three patients with graded degrees of uncomplicated stable chronic renal failure were studied to investigate the quantitative relationship between serum acid-base and electrolyte composition and serum creatinine level. Even in patients with a mild degree of renal failure, the serum total carbon dioxide (tCO2) content was reduced significantly. Progressive decrements in tCO2 were noted in the more severe degrees of renal failure with the reciprocal relationship between tCO2 and serum creatinine concentration. Depending upon the degree of chronic renal failure, the type of metabolic acidosis was different. In patients with a moderate degree of renal failure, hyperchloremic acidosis was noted with anion gap remaining normal. As the renal failure progressed to a more severe degree, this pattern of hyperchloremic acidosis changed to anion gap acidosis with a normal serum chloride level. The highest anion gap was 25 mEq/L in the patient with serum creatinine concentration 24.7mg/dL.
Acid-Base Equilibrium* ; Acidosis/etiology* ; Adult ; Carbon Dioxide/blood ; Chlorides/blood ; Creatinine/blood ; Electrolytes/blood* ; Human ; Hyperkalemia/etiology ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/blood* ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/complications ; Middle Age ; Sodium/blood

Status epilepticus (SE) can be induced with homocysteine after pretreatment with cobalt. In order to investigate the pattern of neuronal changes in the hippocampus in cobalt/homocysteine-induced SE, H-E staining and immunohistochemistry for c-Jun were performed in the brain after SE. Neuronal damage was not seen in the hippocampus in cobalt-treated control rats. Neuronal injury occurred in 14% of the cells in the hilus 24 hrs after SE. The neuronal injury was minimal in the dentate gyrus (DG), CA3, and CA1 24 hrs after SE. c-Jun immunoreactivity was detected strongly in the DG and CA3 2 hrs after SE, and then c-Jun immunoreactivity was decreased to that of control rats in the hippocampus 24 hrs after SE. These results suggest that upregulation of c-Jun expression in the hippocampus is not related to neuronal death in cobalt/homocysteine-induced SE, secondary generalized epilepsy originating from the cerebral cortex does not cause significant hippocampal cell injury.
Animals ; Brain ; Cerebral Cortex ; Cobalt ; Dentate Gyrus ; Epilepsy, Generalized ; Hippocampus ; Homocysteine ; Immunohistochemistry ; Neurons ; Rats ; Status Epilepticus* ; Up-Regulation

OBJECTIVES: This study is to investigate the hypothesis that schizophrenic patients have difficulty in inferring mental state of others. METHODS: Twenty schizophrenic patients and twenty normal subjects were administered to the Cartoon Task required inferring the character's intention in a given context. RESULTS: The schizophrenic patients showed a statistically significant impairment in the Cartoon Task. Both groups chose the card depicting a frequent everyday action significantly more rather than the similar card to the last picture in each story for wrong answers. CONCLUSION: These preliminary results suggest that schizophrenia is associated with a specific deficit of the cognitive ability referred to as social cognition, and this deficit can be detected not only in the acute phase as found in previous research studies, but also in remission. Also when subjects fail to appreciate what is going on in the minds of other people, they seem to rely on a socially familiar experience.
Cognition* ; Humans ; Intention ; Schizophrenia*

BACKGROUND: Left ventricular hypertrophy(LVH) is a powerful indepedent risk factor of ventricular tachycardia and sudden death. Even though it is not clear the mechanism of sudden death in patients with LVH, inhomogenous ventricular repolarization is highly suggested. QT dispersion which reflecting regional inhomogeneity of repolarization is defined as interlead variation in QT intervals of 12 leads ECG. The purpose of this study was to assess whether QT dispersion is associated with LVH in hypertensive patients. METHODS: We assessed 23 untreated hypertensives with echocardiographic LVH and normal left ventricular systolic function. The criteria of 5th Joint National Committee stage I-III was used to define hypertension. Thirty four normotensives was assessed as controls. On a standard 12 lead ECG, the intervals between onset of QRS to end of T wave were measured(QT intervals) and corrected by heart rate(QTc). QT dispersion was calculated by the difference of maximal and minimal QTc. Left ventricular mass(LVM) was calculated from Devereux's formula using the parameters measured by the recommendation of American Society of Echocardiography. LVH was defined by LVM indices over 130 g/m2. RESULTS: LVM indices of hypertensive group were significantly greater than those of controls (162.2+/-39.3 g/m2 vs 84.2+/-16.1 g/m2, p<0.001). Maximal QT and QTc of hypertensive group were significantly prolonged than those of controls(maximal QT=401+/-31 ms vs 380+/-35 ms, p<0.05 ; maximal QTc=432+/-19 ms vs 414+/-17 ms, p<0.001). QT dispersions were significantly greater in hypertensive group than in controls(60.2+/-15.7 ms vs 33.2+/-11.7 ms, p<0.001). In hypertensive group, there was significant association between LVM index and QT dispersion(r=0.492, p=0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Hypertensives with LVH have a prolonged QT and QTc and increased QT dispersion in comparision with controls. QT dispersion in these patients correlates with degree of LVH.
Death, Sudden ; Echocardiography ; Electrocardiography ; Heart ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular* ; Joints ; Risk Factors ; Tachycardia, Ventricular

This study was carried out to investigate the development rates of human embryos co-cultured with cumulus cells to each blastocyst stage. Human zygotes were co-cultured on cumulus cell monolayer in YS medium supplemented with 20% hFF. On day 2, if patient had four or more 'good' embryos(regular blastomeres without fragmentation), embryos were further cultured for 72hrs. Blastocysts on day 5 were classified into early blastocyst (ErB), early expanding blastocyst (EEB), middle expanding Blastocyst (MEB), and expanded blastocyst (EdB) on the basis of their morphological aspects of trophectoderm cells and blastocoele. Subsequently, maximum 3 of best blastocysts were transferred in 486 cycles. The results in this study were as follows: Patients who had four or more 'good' embryos on day 2 were 498 persons, but patients whose embryos could not be transferred due to failure in development to the blastocyst stage on day 5 were 12 persons (2.4%). The development rate of embryos to the blastocyst stage was 58.2% (2,885/4,957) on day 5, and the rates that developed to the ErB, EEB, MEB, and EdB stage were 15.0% (743/4,957), 14.9% (739/4,957), 14.4% (714/4,957), and 13.9% (689/4,957), respectively. Total 1366 blastocysts were transferred in 486 cycles (mean number=2.81). The implantation rate and the ongoing implantation rate obtained by observing the number of G-sac and FHB were 29.9% (409/1,366) and 22.5% (308/1,366), respectively. The clinical pregnancy rate was 51.2% (249/486), and the ongoing pregnancy rate was 39.1% (190/486). Among women showing ongoing pregnancy, women with singleton were 50% (95/190), women with twin were 37.9% (72/190), and women with triplet were 12.1% (23/190). Although triplet pregnancy rate in this study was high such as 12.1%, because many blastocysts with high viability were produced in our co-culture system using cumulus cells on day 5, we really believe that a multiple pregnancy except twin should not occur by selecting good embryos for maximum two blastocyst transfer. These results demonstrate that autologous cumulus cells may be used for the production of blastocysts with high developmental competence, and the use of autologous cumulus cells to be collected easily, and to be treated conveniently at OPU must be an effective means for obtaining high implantation and pregnancy rate.
Blastocyst* ; Blastomeres ; Coculture Techniques* ; Cumulus Cells* ; Embryo Transfer ; Embryonic Structures* ; Female ; Humans* ; Mental Competency ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Rate ; Pregnancy, Multiple ; Pregnancy, Triplet ; Triplets ; Zygote

The clinical application of the three-dimensional radiographic technique had been limited to standard Broadbent-Bolton cephalometer with biplanar stereoradiography. We developed a new method for compensating the error of head position in ordinary non-biplanar cephalostat. It became to possible to use the three dimensional cephalogram commonly in clinical bases. 1. The method of methemetical compensation of head positioning error in non-biplanar condition was evaluated with dry skull. The error of the method of first and the second trial was 0.46+/-1.21, 0.33+/-0.90mm, which means the error of the head positioning correction in conventional cephalogram was within clinical acceptance. 2. The reproducibility of this system for clinical application was 0.54 mm (-2.99~2.26mm) which defines the absolute mean difference of the first and second trial. Compare to the The landmark identification error 1.2+/-1.6mm, the error of the measurement was within the range of landmark identification error. The result indicates the adequate clinical accuracy of the computation of three-dimensional coordinates by compensation of the error of the head position in ordinary non-biplanar cephalostat.
Compensation and Redress* ; Head* ; Skull