STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Regardless of any restoration, most of case, we used in screw connection between abutment and implant. For this reason, implant screw loosening has been remained problem in restorative practices. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare surface of coated/plated screw with titanium and gold alloy screw and to evaluate physical property of coated/plated material after scratch test in FESEM investigation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: GoldTite, titanium screw provided by 3i (Implant Innovation, USA) and TorqTite, titanium screw by Steri-Oss (Nobel Biocare, USA) and gold screw, titanium screw by AVANA (Osstem Implant, korea) - were selected for this study. Each abutment screw surface was observed at 100 times, and then screw crest, root, and slope were done more detailed numerical value, at 1000 times with FESEM. A micro-diamond needle was also prepared for the scratch test. Each abutment screw was fixed, micro-diamond scratch the surface of head region was made at constant load and then was observed central region and periphery of fine trace through 1000 times with FESEM. RESULTS: The surface of GoldTite was smoother than that of other kinds of screw and had abundant ductility and malleability compared with titanium and gold screw. The scratch test also showed that teflon particles were exfoliated easily in screw coated with teflon. Titanium screw had a rough surface and low ductility. CONCLUSION: It was recommended that the clinical use of gold-plated screw would prevent a screw from loosening.
Alloys ; Head ; Needles ; Polytetrafluoroethylene ; Titanium

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is often associated with extrahepatic autoimmune disease, and autoantibodies such as anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) or anti-smooth muscle antibody (ASA). The presence of autoantibodies may make discrimination between chronic hepatitis C with autoimmune features and type 1 autoimmune hepatitis difficult. We studied the prevalence of autoantibodies in patients with chronic HCV infection and their clinical significance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: ANA, ASA, anti-mitochondrial antibody (AMA), anti-microsomal antibody (AmA), rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-cardiolipin antibody (aCL) and lupus anti-coagulant (LA) were tested in 116 patients (80 chronic hepatitis C, 36 liver cirrhosis). Genotypes of HCV were determined in 25 patients by INNO LiPA. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of autoantibody was 65.5%. The most common autoantibody was aCL (34.5%), followed by ANA (25%), RF (18%), LA (15.5%), ASA (6.9%), anti-microsomal antibody (6%) and AMA (1%). The positive rate of either ANA or ASA was 30.2%, but both were positive in 1.7% only. There was no difference in the demographic features, biochemistry, HCV genotypes and disease status between autoantibody-positive and autoantibody-negative patients. CONCLUSIONS: Autoantibodies were commonly found in patients with chronic HCV infection. But, the presence of autoantibodies may be a non-specific finding in chronic hepatitis C infection without clinical significance.
Autoantibodies* ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Biochemistry ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Genotype ; Hepacivirus ; Hepatitis C, Chronic* ; Hepatitis, Autoimmune ; Hepatitis, Chronic* ; Humans ; Liver ; Prevalence* ; Rheumatoid Factor

Most loci associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) discovered to date are within noncoding regions of unknown functional significance. By contrast, exonic regions have advantages for biological interpretation.

Most loci associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) discovered to date are within noncoding regions of unknown functional significance. By contrast, exonic regions have advantages for biological interpretation.

No abstract available.
Ultrasonography*

A questionnaire on a variety of ophthalmic topics was made up and sent to 150 members of the Korean Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery-[KSCRS] in May, 1996. Forty percent [60/150] responded within the deadline in June, 1996. As the contents of the questionnaire were almost identical to the ones prepared in the USA [1994, 1995] and in Japan [1994], the answer to the questionnaire could be compared with those gathered from the USA and Japan. Over half of the respondents [57%] were in their forties. The average number of operations done per month was 26. Cataract operation accounted for over 60% of the total operations in 34% of KSCRS members. And more than 76% of the cataract operation were done using phacoemulsification technique in 31% of the respondents. There were no difference in the preferred method of local anesthesia for the cataract surgery in Korea compare to the USA or Japan. And there was less likelihood of using peribulbar anesthesia and no suture technique in Korea compared to the USA. Sixty-one percent of the Korean ophthalmic surgeon implanted the intraocular lenses even before the patients were younger than 20 years old whereas, 82% of ophthalmic surgeon in Japan did only when the patients were older than 20 years of age. For radial keratotomy as a means of correcting myopia, 91% of the Korean respondents were not performing the procedure any more, while 45% of the American respondents abandoned it. Fifty four percent of the Korean respondents and 46% of the American respondents have been doing excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy. There was no statistical difference between the two. From the answers to the qustionnaire, we found that our results did not differ significantly from those of the USA or Japan and we believe that these results reflect the present trends of cataract and refractive surgeries in Korea.
Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, Local ; Cataract* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Humans ; Japan ; Keratotomy, Radial ; Korea ; Lasers, Excimer ; Lenses, Intraocular ; Myopia ; Phacoemulsification ; Photorefractive Keratectomy ; Refractive Surgical Procedures* ; Suture Techniques ; Young Adult

We investigated whether symptom-free period(mean response time) could be prolonged when diltiazem, one of the calcium-channel blocker, as a adjuvant was administered with botulinum toxin in blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm. The patients were 10 blepharospasms and 20 hemifacial spasms who had been treating with botulinum toxin injection in our hospital. When they received only botulinum toxin for treatment of blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm, their mean response times were 126.94 +/- 42.74 and 167.32 +/- 52.90 days, respectively. After start combination therapy of diltiazembotulinum toxin, mean response times were prolonged to 163.83 +/- 53.07 (p=0.0446) in patients with blepharospasm, on the other hand, 154.21 +/- 43.36(p=0.2156) days in patients with hemifacial spasm. This study suggests that a combination treatment of diltiazem and toxin may be effective especially when the mean response time is decreased due to antibody production and the local complications are possibly expected in some patients. Present study is meaningful in that it provides a new treatment modality for blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm.
Antibody Formation ; Blepharospasm* ; Botulinum Toxins* ; Diltiazem* ; Hand ; Hemifacial Spasm* ; Humans ; Reaction Time

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a major problem associated with liver cirrhosis which has high mortality. Increased production of inflammatory mediators, such as tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) and interleukin- (IL-) may be associated with development of renal impairment, one of the most important prognostic parameters in SBP. The aim of this study is to investigate the changes of these cytokines in ascitic fluid and plasma in patients with SBP and the relationship between these cytokines and development of renal impairment. METHODS: Forty patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites were studied 21 with SBP and 19 with sterile ascites. TNF-a and IL- levels in ascitic fluid and plasma were determined by ELISA at the time of diagnosis in both groups and 48 hours after antibiotics treatment in SBP patients. RESULTS: TNF-and IL- levels in ascitic fluid and plasma were significantly higher in patients with SBP than those without SBP (ascitic fluid TNF-a: 2.5+/-0.5 vs. 1.6+/-0.2; plasma TNF-a: 2.3+/-0.5 vs. 1.5+/-0.2; ascitic fluid IL-: 3.8+/-0.5 vs. 3.0+/-0.4; plasma IL-: 3.4+/-0.5 vs. 2.3+/-0.3, log pg/mL)(p<0.001). In patients with SBP, levels of TNF-a and IL- in ascitic fluid and plasma decreased 48 hours after antibiotics treatment. Eleven patients with SBP (11/21, 52%) developed renal impairment. Patients with renal impairment had significantly higher ascitic fluid and plasma TNF-a levels than those without renal impairment (median 2.5 vs. 2.1 for ascitic fluid, p=0.006; median 2.4 vs. 2.0, log pg/mL for plasma, p=0.04). Although four out of eleven (36%) patients who developed renal impairment died during hospitalization, all the patients without renal impairment survived (p=0.09). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the levels of TNF-a and IL- in ascitic fluid and plasma are increased in SBP and elevated levels of TNF-a in ascitic fluid and plasma may be associated with development of renal impairment, thus indicating poor prognosis in patients with SBP.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Ascites ; Ascitic Fluid* ; Cytokines ; Diagnosis ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Mortality ; Necrosis* ; Peritonitis* ; Plasma* ; Prognosis

When examining in the patients with epiphora, it is common to evaluate only the insufficiency or obstruction of lacrimal pathway by irrigation or dacryocystography and to over look the conjunctival conditions near the punctum in most cases. Authors found marked redundancy of conjunctival tissue around the punctal area in 8 patients(12 eyes) who complained of epiphora. They have neither lacrimal pathway insufficiency and obstruction, nor facial palsy or lid laxity that can impass the lacrimal pump action, and also no anatomical anomaly of the puncta. In fluorescein dye dissappearence test of these patients, the clearance of dye was markedly delayed on the lesion site(Grade 3 to 4). Epiphora was dramatically improved after simple resection of redundant conjunctiva under surgical microscope. The Hematoxylin-Eosin and Toluidine-Blue staining of resected conjunctiva revealed infiltration of many inflammatory cells and increase of metachromatic cells in the conjunctival stroma.
Conjunctiva ; Facial Paralysis ; Fluorescein ; Humans ; Lacrimal Apparatus Diseases*

URPOSE: To evalvate the role of double-phase spiral CT for T staging of gastric cancers with radiologic-pathologic correlation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Double-phase spiral CT images of 44 patients of gastriccancers proved by pathologic examination were retrospectively evaluated. We retrospectively classified spiral CTimages of gastric cancers ; classification was from S 0 to S 4 and was based on the degree of change in three multilayered patterns shown in normal gastric wall and whether or not tumor cells had invaded perigastric fattissue. Pathologic classification was based on the T staging of TNM classification for gastric cancers, and wethen correlated these results. RESULTS: In group S1, all of three cases(100%) were proved to be T1 and in groupS2, five(45.5%) of 11 cases were T2. Of five cases with S3 CT findings, three(60%) were proved to be T3s andtwo(40%) were T2. Of 22 cases with S4 CT findings, 19(86.4%) were T3p. Overall sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 60.3%, 88. 5%, and 86.9%, respectively. In 35 (79.5%) of the total of 44 cases, the lesions were more enhanced on venous than on arterial phase. CONCLUSION: The accuracy of double-phase spiral CT for T staging of gastric cancers was 86.9%, and in contrast to previous results for conventional or dynamic CT, this level of accuracy was thought to be relatively high. In conclusion, double-phase spiral CT images of gastric cancers were helpful in the diagnosis of T staging.
Classification ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Tomography, Spiral Computed*