No abstract available.

No abstract available.

Opportunistic fungal infections are significant causes of mortality and morbidity especially among the immunocompromised hosts. There is now increasing array of drugs available for their treatment. Amphotericin B is the most established and widely used antifungal agent and lipid-complexed amphotericin B preparations are introduced recently. The imidazole and triazole drugs have specific roles to play on the management of these patients. However, antifungal therapy is still limited by the lack of effective agents, lack of early diagnostic techniques to identify infection in its early stages and the developement of resistance. There are also few comparative studies of drugs within the increasing number of antifungal agents which would Provide a reliable basis for choice.
Amphotericin B ; Antifungal Agents ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Mortality

No abstract available.
Atrioventricular Block* ; Myocarditis* ; Pancreatitis* ; Typhoid Fever*

Arthroscopic treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee has been widely performed as one of the surgical options, in spite of persisting concerns regarding its efficacy. Arthroscopic debridement is a general term that is used to cover many procedures, including lavage, partial meniscectomy, removal of loose body, synovectomy, chondroplasty, removal of offending osteophytes, and/or microfracture. Recently, the role of arthroscopy in managing the osteoarthritic knee has been challenged by elusive consensus on its usefulness. Therefore, we review the available literatures for the arthroscopic intervention in knee osteoarthritis and summarized evidences for proper patient selection, which is a paramount factor to achieve the surgical goal of the arthroscopic treatment in osteoarthritic knee.
Arthroscopy ; Consensus ; Debridement ; Knee ; Osteoarthritis ; Osteoarthritis, Knee ; Osteophyte ; Patient Selection ; Therapeutic Irrigation

Chusid et al proposed diagnostic criteria of hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) that remain valid today. These were, (1) a sustained peripheral blood eosinophil count of more than 1500/L present for longer than 6 months ; (2) no evidence of other apparent causes for eosinophilia, and (3) presumptive signs of parenchymal organ involvement. Any organ system may be affected in HES, but the most severe clinicopathological involvements are of the heart and nervous system. Although multiple organ systems may be involved, the most common cause of morbidity and mortality is cardiac involvement with extensive fibrous thickening of the endomyocardium and overlying thrombus. We report a case of acute peri-myocarditis with eosinophilia, which was confirmed as eosinophilic myocarditis by endomyocardial biopsy, with literature review.
Biopsy ; Edema* ; Eosinophilia ; Eosinophils* ; Heart ; Hypereosinophilic Syndrome ; Mortality ; Myocarditis* ; Nervous System ; Thrombosis

Chusid et al proposed diagnostic criteria of hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) that remain valid today. These were, (1) a sustained peripheral blood eosinophil count of more than 1500/L present for longer than 6 months ; (2) no evidence of other apparent causes for eosinophilia, and (3) presumptive signs of parenchymal organ involvement. Any organ system may be affected in HES, but the most severe clinicopathological involvements are of the heart and nervous system. Although multiple organ systems may be involved, the most common cause of morbidity and mortality is cardiac involvement with extensive fibrous thickening of the endomyocardium and overlying thrombus. We report a case of acute peri-myocarditis with eosinophilia, which was confirmed as eosinophilic myocarditis by endomyocardial biopsy, with literature review.
Biopsy ; Edema* ; Eosinophilia ; Eosinophils* ; Heart ; Hypereosinophilic Syndrome ; Mortality ; Myocarditis* ; Nervous System ; Thrombosis

The ultimate goal of periodontal treatment is the regeneration of periodontal tissues which have been lost due to periodontal disease. Recently, many natural medicines have been studied for their potential of anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and regenerative effects in periodontal tissues. Safflower seeds have been traditionally used as a drug for treatment of fracture and blood stasis in oriental medicine. The objective of the present study is to examine the biologic effects of safflower seeds extract on bone formation and regeneration of rat calvarial defects. The calvarial defects were made with 8mm trephine bur and extract of safflower seeds were placed directly at these defects. 24 rats were divided into control and experimental groups, and each group was sacrificed at 1 week, 4 weeks and 8 weeks. To study a histopathology related to bone regeneration, Goldner's Masson Trichrome stain and histomorphologic measuring was done at each weeks. In the early phase of bone healing, less inflammatory infiltration and capillary proliferation was found in experimental group compared to control. Dense bony tissues and matured bone structures in defect areas were found in experimental groups. And area of new bone formation was significantly increased at 8 weeks in experimental group. These results indicate that direct local application of safflower seeds extract reduces the early inflammatory response and promotes the regeneration of new bone in calvarial defects of rats.
Animals ; Bone Regeneration* ; Capillaries ; Carthamus tinctorius* ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Osteogenesis ; Periodontal Diseases ; Rats* ; Regeneration

Porphyromonas gingivalis is strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of adult periodontitis, the major cause of tooth loss in adults. Use of an antibacterial agent controlling P. gingivalis as a periodontal therapeutic agent has been rationalized. The present study was performed to observe the antibacterial effect of inorganic polyphosphates (polyP) on P. gingivalis. P. gingivalis 2561 was grown in half-strength brain-heart infusion broth containing hemin and vitamin K with or without polyP. Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of polyP with various chain lengths was determined by measuring the absorbance of the grown cells at 540 nm. MIC of polyP for the bacterium was determined to be 0.05%. The effect of polyP with a chain length of 75 (polyP 75) was further examined. PolyP 75 added to the growing culture of P. gingivalis at its exponential phase was as effective in inhibiting the growth of P. gingivalis as polyP 75 added at the very beginning of the culture. More than 99% of the cells lost their viability determined by viable cell count when polyP 75 was added to the culture of growing P. gingivalis at the concentration of 0.06%, suggesting that polyP 75 has a bactericidal effect on the bacterium. Intracellular nucleotide release from the cells was increased by approx. 20% in the presence of polyP 75 but was not reversed by the addition of divalent cations like Ca++ and Mg++. Under the transmission electron microscope, only a small number of the growing P. gingivalis cells were actually lysed. However, the majority of the cells appeared to be atypical in their shape, demonstrating accumulation of highly electron-dense granules and bodies of condensed nucleic acid-like material in the cytoplasm. In the presence of polyP 75, the protein profile of P. gingivalis was changed as determined by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblot, and the proteolytic activity of the bacterium demostrated on the zymograms was decreased. The overall results suggest that polyP have a strong bactericidal activity against P. gingivalis in which lysis in relation to chelation may not play the major role but unknown mechanism that possibly affects the viability of the bacterium may be involved. PolyP may be used as an agent for prevention and treatment of periodontitis.
Adult ; Cations, Divalent ; Cell Count ; Chronic Periodontitis ; Cytoplasm ; Electrophoresis ; Hemin ; Humans ; Periodontitis ; Polyphosphates* ; Polyps ; Porphyromonas gingivalis* ; Porphyromonas* ; Tooth Loss ; Vitamin K

No abstract available.
Brain Edema* ; Brain* ; Decompressive Craniectomy*