No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: Many reports have shown that hormone replacement therapy(HRT) in postmenopausal women decreases lipoprotein(a)[Lp(a)]. However these had small numbers of subjects, short duration of therapy, or comparisons of only a few regimens. The influences of progesterone on Lp(a) and lipids, administered with estrogen, are controversial. METHODS: Five hundred and fifty-one postmenopausal women were divided into 4 groups : group A ; 0.625mg conjugated equine estrogen(CEE)(m=140), group B ; 0.625mg CEE plus 5mg medroxyprogesterone acetate(MPA)(m=97), group C ; 0.625mg CEE plus 10mg MPA(n=109), and group D ; 2mg estradiol valerate(E2) plus 0.5mg norgestrel(N)(n=134) and group E ; control(n=71). Lp(a) and lipids levels were measured before and 12 months after HRT. RESULTS: Estrogen replacement therapy(ERT) for 12 months lowered Lp(a) level by 37.1%. The addition of progesterone attenuated the Lp(a)-lowering effect of estrogen and decreased by 27.7%, 29.6%, and 30.3% in groups B(p<0.05), C(p<0.05), and D(p<0.0001) respectively. High density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C) was increased markedly in group A(16.5%), increased moderately in groups B(10.8%) and C(11.3%), and not changed in group D. Low density lipoprotein cholesterol was decreased by 10.9%, 13.7%, 11.3%, and 17.6% in groups A, B, C, and D respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Reduction of Lp(a) with estrogen replacement therapy may be one of mechanisms for cardioprotective effect in postmenopausal women. The combined therapy of estrogen and progesterone may reveal different effects on heart due to adverse actions of progesterone on Lp(a) and HDL-C. The variations in the androgenic potency of progesterone may explaine inconsistent results on HDL-C in previous studies.
Cholesterol, LDL ; Estradiol ; Estrogen Replacement Therapy ; Estrogens ; Female ; Heart ; Hormone Replacement Therapy* ; Humans ; Lipoprotein(a)* ; Lipoproteins ; Medroxyprogesterone ; Progesterone*

Henoch-Schonlein purpura is a common pediatric disease presenting most frequently with skin, gastrointestinal, joint and renal manifestations. But in cases are infrequently only severe gastrointestinal manifestations. It is hard to diagnose promptly and exactly. Clinical manifestations and laboratory findings were observed and analyzed in 20 cases with Henoch-Schonlein purpura which were considered as acute abdomen, hospitalized at Kyung Hee university Hospital during the period from December, 1982 to September, 1992. The following results were obtained; 1) The age distribution of Henoch-Schonlein purpura had a peak incidence between 7 to 9 year old. And male preponderance was observed with male to female ratio of 2.33 to 1. 2) The most prevalent season for the initial presentation of Henoch-Schonlein purpura was in fall: in 10 cases (50%). 3) The frequency of each type of clinical manifestations showed 20 (100%), 20 (100%), 18 (90%), 8(40%) cases for skin, gastrointestinal, joint and renal manifestation respectively in order of frequency. 4) The common previous illness were URI, 40 cases (50%) and allergy, 2 cases (10%). 5) The onset time of skin manifestation from admission were 1 to 4 days (75%0, 5 to 8 days (15%), 9 to 12 days (10%) explolaparotomies were done the last 2 cases. 6) In all cases, X-ray study (100%), abdominal sono (50%), Meckels scan and colon study (5%) respectively were done. 7) Hematologically leukocytosis over 10,000/mm3 was observed in 80% of cases and increase in ESR over 20 mm/hr in 65% of cases. Coagulation studies, immunologic and complement level revealed the result within normal range in most of the cases. 8) Among 8 cases with renal involvement, all cases had both hematuria and proteinuria. 9) Most cases were recovered within 4 weeks but in 4 cases, renal biopsies were done because of relapse. The results were Meadow classification grade I (1 case), II (1 case), IVa (2 cases). After renal biopsy, steroid pulse therapy was started.
Abdomen, Acute* ; Age Distribution ; Biopsy ; Child ; Classification ; Colon ; Complement System Proteins ; Female ; Hematuria ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Incidence ; Joints ; Leukocytosis ; Male ; Proteinuria ; Purpura, Schoenlein-Henoch* ; Recurrence ; Reference Values ; Seasons ; Skin ; Skin Manifestations

OBJECTIVE: The accuracy of analytical results of blood and urine heavy metals came out to the main issue on occupational health from late eighties. The discrepancy of the results for same samples from different laboratories made the diagnosis for occupational diseases be unreliable. Therefore, a quality control program for analysis of samples taken from workplace had been introduced in Korea since 1992. This study aims to show the quality control program f'or analysis of blood and urine samples and its proficient rates from 1992 to 1999 and to know how they have been being used in occupational health. METHODS: The quality control program runs twice a year with mandatory items of blood lead and urine hippuvic acid and voluntary items of blood cadmium and manganese and urine mandellic acid and methyl hippuric acid. Participant laboratories are receiving three levels for each items and two out of three samples have to be qualified for being a proficient laboratory for the item. The acceptable range of blood lead and urine hippuric acid is +/-15% and that of the others is within 3 SD(standard deviation) from the reference values. RESULTS: The proficient rates of blood lead and urine hippuric acid was 89%, 90%, repectively, however those of the other voluntary items have been from 51% to 62%. The proficient rates of urine mercury and urine N-methylformamide(NMF), which are introduced since 1999, were very poor. Urine hippuric acid and blood lead were analyzed frequently for the purpose of biological monitoring conducting by special health examination organizations. Urine and blood manganese and urine metabolites of trichloroethylene, urine phenol, methylhippuric acid and cadmium were followed. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the quality control program for biological monitoring has dramatically improve the ability of analysing blood and urine samples and eventually contributes to diagnose occupational diseases and to prevent occupational poisoning. However, some biological monitoring data, such as urine manganese, mercury and NMF, have been still reported from laboratories that were not accepted as a proficient laboratory.
Cadmium ; Diagnosis ; Environmental Monitoring ; Korea ; Manganese ; Metals, Heavy ; Occupational Diseases ; Occupational Health ; Phenol ; Poisoning ; Quality Control ; Reference Values ; Trichloroethylene

Traumatic intracranial lesion has been one of the most frequent and serous problem in neurosurgical pathology. CT made it possible to get prompt diagnosis and surgical intervention of intracranial lesions by its safety, fastiness and accuracy. Computed tomographic scan was carried out on 1309 cases at Soonchunhyang Chunan Hospitalfor 15 months from Oct. 1983 to Dec. 1984. We have reviewed the computed tomographic scans of 264 patients whichshowed traumatic intracranial lesion. The results were as follows: 1. Head trauma was the most frequentlydiagnosed disase using computed tomographic scans(57.8%), and among 264 cases the most frequent mode of injury wastraffic accident (73.9%). 2. Skull fracture was accompained in frequency of 69.7% and it was detected in CT in38.6%: depression fractue was more easily detected in 81%. 3. Countercoup lesion(9.5%) was usually accompained with temporal and occipital fracture, and it appeared in lower incidence among pediatric group. 4. Intracranial lesions of all 264 cases were generalized cerebral swelling(24.6%), subdural hematoma(22.3%), epiduralhematoma(20.8%), intracerebral hematoma(6.1%), and subarachnoid hemorrhage(3.0%). 5. The shape of hematoma wasusually biconvex(92.7%) in acute epidural hematoma and cresentic(100%) in acute subdural hematoma, but the morechronic the cases became, they showed planoconvex and biconvex shapes. 6. Extra-axial hematoma was getting decreased in density as time gone by. 7. Hematoma density was not in direct proportion to serum hemoglobin levelas single factor.
Chungcheongnam-do ; Craniocerebral Trauma ; Depression ; Diagnosis ; Hematoma ; Hematoma, Subdural, Acute ; Humans ; Incidence ; Pathology ; Skull Fractures

DSA(Digital Subtractin Angiography) is a valuable diagnostic imaging method in many clinical fields, includingranal-related conditons. Sixty four renal DSA examinations were performed in 59 patients with renal-relateddiseases from Jan. 1984 to Dec. 1985. Summary of these were as follows: 1. Intraarterial (IA)-DSA is performed in6 cases, intravenous(IV)-DSA in 58 cases. In 58 Examinations of IV-DSA, diagnostic image quality is obtained in 51cases(88%). 2. In investigations of a possible renovascular etiology of hypertension, IV-DSA,is a safe, sensitiveand accurate method. On screening for evaluation of renovascular hypertension, RSP should be replaced with IV-DSA,because IV-DSA is moe sensitive and accurate and can detect not only anatomic change of renal arttery but alsofunctional hemodynamic change. 3. IV-DSA is valuable in diseases with morphologic changes of vessels. Incharacterization of a known renal mass, and evaluation of hematuria, suspected aneurym and renal trauma, IV-DSA isvery useful diagnostic imaging modality. 4. In evaluation of potential renal donors, IV-DSA is an accurate andsafe method with 82.4% of accuracy. IV-DSA also is useful in follow-up of allograft recipients. 5. Ininvestigation of diabetic nephropathy, glomerulonephritis, pyelonephritis, IV-DSA is little helpful. 6. Theadvantages of DSA are well known, particularly post-procedure process using computer programs is helpful forobtaining informations of hemodynamic change or time-sequence-curve of density etc. More technical improvementwith this modality is required for improvement of the image quality and resolution. And more accumulation ofclinical experience is required in order to increase the diagnostic accuracy.
Allografts ; Angiography, Digital Subtraction ; Diabetic Nephropathies ; Diagnostic Imaging ; Follow-Up Studies ; Glomerulonephritis ; Hematuria ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hypertension, Renovascular ; Mass Screening ; Methods ; Pyelonephritis ; Tissue Donors

Since introduction of venous flap in 1980, many experimental studies and clinical applications of various kinds of venous flaps were reported. Venous flap has the following advantages : (1) nonbulky and goo-quality of flap (2) long & large vascular pedicle (3) easy & rapid elevation of flap (4) no sacrifice of major arteries (5) a single operative field. But, we also have some disadvantages of difficult handling of the pliable veins and the tmcertainty of flap survival. For the better result we had to design the size of the flap larger than that of defect and increase the number of draining vein to reduce the postoperative edema of the flap. We have treated the defects of soft tissue of the hand using free arterialized venous flap from the flexor aspect of the forearm & had an excellent results.
Arteries ; Edema ; Forearm ; Hand* ; Veins ; Wounds and Injuries*

3-Deazaadenosine (DZA), one of the potent inhibitors of S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase, is known to possess several biological properties including an induction of apoptosis. To evaluate a possibility that DZA may be utilized for the treatment of human leukemia, we studied molecular events of cell death induced by DZA in human leukemia HL-60 and U-937 cells. DZA induced a specific cleavage of poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) and an activation of the cysteine protease caspase-3/CPP32 which is known to cleave PARP. DZA-mediated nuclear DNA-fragmentation was completely blocked in the presence of a universal inhibitor of caspases (z-VAD-fmk) or the specific inhibitor of caspase-3 (z-DEVD-fmk) unlike of cycloheximide (CHX). DNA fragmentation was preceded by the lowering of c-myc mRNA in the DZA treated cells. In addition, DZA-induced apoptosis was blocked by pretreatment with adenosine transporter inhibitors such as nitrobenzylthioinosine (NBTI) and dipyridamole (DPD). Taken together, these results demonstrate that DZA-induced apoptosis initiated through an active transport of DZA into human leukemia cells, is dependent on the caspase-3-like activity without de novo synthesis of proteins and possibly involves c-myc down-regulation.
Adenosine/metabolism ; *Apoptosis ; Biological Transport, Active ; Carrier Proteins/metabolism ; Caspases/*metabolism ; Down-Regulation ; Enzyme Activation ; Genes, myc ; HL-60 Cells ; Human ; Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute/*drug therapy ; Thioinosine/*analogs & derivatives/pharmacology ; Transcription Factors/genetics ; Tubercidin/*pharmacology ; U937 Cells

Background: Reversal of neuromuscular blockade (NMB) at the end of surgery is important for reducing postoperative residual NMB; this is associated with an increased risk of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs). Moreover, PPCs are associated with poor prognosis after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) for lobectomy. We compared the effects of two reversal agents, sugammadex and neostigmine, on the incidence of PPCs and duration of hospital stay in patients undergoing VATS lobectomy. Methods: After VATS lobectomy was completed under neuromuscular monitoring, the sugammadex group (n = 46) received sugammadex 2 mg/kg, while the neostigmine group (n = 47) received neostigmine 0.05 mg/kg with atropine 0.02 mg/kg after at least the third twitch in response to the train of four stimulation. The primary outcome was incidence of PPCs. The secondary outcomes were duration of hospital stay and intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Results: There was no significant difference in the incidence of PPCs for both the sugammadex and neostigmine groups (32.6% and 40.4%, respectively; risk difference = 0.08; 95% confidence interval = [−0.12, 0.27]; P = 0.434). The lengths of hospital (P = 0.431) and ICU (P = 0.964) stays were not significantly different between the two groups. Conclusions The clinical use of sugammadex and neostigmine in NMB reversal for patients undergoing VATS lobectomy was not significantly different in the incidence of PPCs and duration of hospital and ICU stay.

125 cases of traumatic intracerebral hematoma among 935 head injury in-patients were diagnosed with brain computed tomography in the department of neurosurgery, Chungnam National University hospital from Feb. 1986 to Feb. 1990. The authors attempted to analyse these cases clinically by reviews them with pertinent literature. The results were summarized as follows ; 1) The common age incidence was between fifth and sixth decade and almost all patients were male. 2) The most common cause of trauma was traffic accident. 3) The most common site of hematoma was the frontal lobe followed by temporal lobe. 4) There were 39 cases(31.2%) that had hematoma with contralateral skull fracture. 5) Subdural hematoma was the most common combined single lesion. 6) Almost all of the medically treated patients had a hematoma amount below 20cc. 7) The total mortality rate of the patients was 27.2%. 8) High GCS score at admission was good prognostic factor. However, pupil abnormality and rigidity at admission were poor prognostic factors.
Accidents, Traffic ; Brain ; Cerebral Hemorrhage, Traumatic* ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Craniocerebral Trauma ; Frontal Lobe ; Hematoma ; Hematoma, Subdural ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Mortality ; Neurosurgery ; Pupil ; Skull Fractures ; Temporal Lobe ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed