Administration of a subparalytic dose of a nondepolarizing muscle relaxant prior to intubating dose hastens the onset time of neuromuscular blockade. This study was designed to investigate the influence of a priming dose of vecuronium (0.015 mg/kg) and d-tubocurarine (0.05 mg/kg) on intubating dose of vecuronium (0.085 mg/kg). The authors measured TOF ratio using neuromuscular monitoring. This monitoring was carried out by stimulation of ulnar nerve at a frequency of 2Hz every 20 seconds using Datex relaxograph to measure the compound evoked electrographic response of hypothenar muscle. The patients were randomly divided into two groups as priming dose ; vecuronium and dtubocurarine (DTC) group respectively. Mixture of two different nondepolarizing muscle relaxant may produce synergism, although the reason for this synergism is unknown. It may be the results of the action of the drugs at different sites. In our study, we found the results as follows ;1) The rapid onset was occured with d-tubocurarine(0.05 mg/kg) as priming drug than vecuronium (0.015 mg/kg) 2) The duration was longer when d-tubocurarine was used (P<0.05) The authors conclude that the onset is more rapid and the duration is longer when other species of nondepolarizing muscle relaxant is used than same agent is used as priming drug.
Humans ; Neuromuscular Blockade* ; Neuromuscular Blocking Agents ; Neuromuscular Monitoring ; Tubocurarine* ; Ulnar Nerve ; Vecuronium Bromide*

PURPOSE: To compare the RI (resistive index) of renal artery with serum creatinine level and histological change in 50 patients with renal parenchymal disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To measure RI in each patient, Doppler studies were performed three times in each kidney at the level of the interlobar arteries, and the average value of RI was taken. The study was performed 1-3 days after renal biopsy and the time interval between blood sampling for serum creatinine and duplex study was also 1-3 days. The RI of patients with renal disease was also correlated with patient's age, sex and serum creatinine level, and RI was also correlated with the degree of severity of glomerular, interstitial, and vascular change in the kidneys. Statistical analysis was performed using Student's t test and Pearson's correlation method. RESULTS: The RI of the normal control and renal disease group was 0.566+/-0.037 and 0.584+/-0.038, respectively with no statistical significance (p=0.444). In the group with renal disease, there was no significant correlation between RI and a patient's age, sex, and serum creatininelevel (p>0.05). RI was not significantly different between predominantly glomerular disease (n=45) and nonglomerular or mixed disease (n=5) (p=0.558), and did not correlate with the severity of glomerular sclerosis, interstitial fibrosis, or atherosclerosis (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: The authors conclude that RI is not helpful for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of renal parenchymal diseases and does not correlate with serum creatinine levels. In order to define the role of the RI, further clinical experience with more cases is required.
Arteries ; Atherosclerosis ; Biopsy ; Creatinine ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Fibrosis ; Humans ; Kidney ; Renal Artery ; Sclerosis

Renal hemangioma is an uncommon benign tumor which usually causes painless or painful gross hematuria. Its preoperative diagnosis is extremely difficult or even impossible. We experienced three cases of renal hemangioma, located mainly at the pelvocalyceal junction or in the inner medulla. US demonstrated variable echogenecity, and CT revealed a lack of significant enhancement. Where there is gross hematuria in a young adult, especially when the renal mass located in the pelvocalyceal junction or inner medulla shows little enhancement on CT, renal heman-gioma should form part of the differential diagnosis.
Adult ; Case Report ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Hemangioma, Capillary/*radiography/*ultrasonography ; Hemangioma, Cavernous/*radiography/*ultrasonography ; Hematuria/etiology ; Human ; Kidney Neoplasms/*radiography/*ultrasonography ; Male ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

The purpose of this study was to confirm the exactitude of in vitro nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMRS) and to complement the defect of in vivo NMRS. It has been difficult to understand the metabolism of a cerebellum using in vivo NMRS owing to the generated inhomogeneity of magnetic fields (B0 and B1 field) by the complexity of the cerebellum structure. Thus, this study tried to more exactly analyze the metabolism of a canine cerebellum using the cell extraction and high resolution NMRS. In order to conduct the absolute metabolic quantification in a canine cerebellum, the spectrum of our phantom included in various brain metabolites (i.e., NAA, Cr, Cho, Ins, Lac, GABA, Glu, Gln, Tau and Ala) was obtained. The canine cerebellum tissue was extracted using the methanol-chloroform water extraction (M/C extraction) and one group was filtered and the other group was not under extract processing. Finally, NMRS of a phantom solution and two extract solution (90% D2O) was progressed using a 500MHz (11.4 T) NMR machine. Filtering a solution of the tissue extract increased the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The metabolic concentrations of a canine cerebellum were more close to rat's metabolic concentration than human's metabolic concentration. The present study demonstrates the absolute quantification technique in vitro high resolution NMRS with tissue extraction as the method to accurately measure metabolite concentration.
Brain ; Cerebellum ; Complement System Proteins ; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid ; Magnetic Fields ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Protons ; Signal-To-Noise Ratio ; Spectrum Analysis ; Water

We reported earlier that expression of Sox-4 was found to be elevated during prostaglandin (PG) A2 and delta(12)-PGJ(12) induced apoptosis in human hepatocarcinoma Hep3B cells. In this study, the role of Sox-4 was examined using human Hep3B and HepG2 cell lines. Sox-4 induction by several apoptotic inducer such as A23187 (Ca(2+) ionophore) and etoposide (topoisomerase II inhibitor) and Sox-4 transfection into the cells were able to induce apoptosis as observed by the cellular DNA fragmentation. Antisense oligonucleotide of Sox-4 inhibited the induction of Sox-4 expression and blocked the formation of DNA fragmentation by PGA(2) and delta(12)-PGJ(12) in Hep3B and HepG2 cells. Sox-4-induced apoptosis was accompanied with caspase-1 activation indicating that caspase cascade was involved in this apoptotic pathway. These results indicate that Sox-4 is involved in Hep3B and HepG2 cells apoptosis as an important apoptotic mediator.
Apoptosis/*drug effects ; Blotting, Western ; Calcimycin/pharmacology ; Caspase 1/antagonists & inhibitors/metabolism ; Etoposide/pharmacology ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic/drug effects ; High Mobility Group Proteins/genetics/*metabolism ; Human ; Liver Neoplasms/enzymology/metabolism/pathology ; Oligopeptides/pharmacology ; Prostaglandin D2/*analogs & derivatives/*pharmacology ; Prostaglandins A/*pharmacology ; Trans-Activators/genetics/*metabolism ; Transfection ; Tumor Cells, Cultured

The purpose of this study is to quantitate regional neurochemical profile of regional normal adult mice brain and assess regional metabolic differences by using ex vivo 1H high-resolution magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H HR-MAS NMRS). The animals were matched in sex and age. The collected brain tissue included frontal cortex, temporal cortex, thalamus, and hippocampus. Quantitative 1D spectra were acquired on 40 samples with the CPMG pulse sequence (8 kHz spectral window, TR/TE = 5500/2.2 ms, NEX = 128, scan time: 17 min 20 sec). The mass of brain tissue and D2O+TSP solvent were 8~14 mg and 7~13 mg. A total of 16 metabolites were quantified as follow: Acet, NAA, NAAG, tCr, Cr, tCho, Cho, GPC + PC, mIns, Lac, GABA, Glu, Gln, Tau and Ala. As a results, Acet, Cho, NAA, NAAG and mIns were showed significantly different aspects on frontal cortex, hippocampus, temporal cortex and thalamus respectively. The present study demonstrated that absolute metabolite concentrations were significantly different among four brain regions of adult mice. Our finding might be helpful to investigate brain metabolism of neuro-disease in animal model.
Adult ; Animals ; Brain ; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid ; Hippocampus ; Humans ; Magic ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Mice ; Models, Animal ; Spectrum Analysis ; Thalamus

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is a therapeutic option for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. Supraumbilical skin rash is a rare complication of TACE caused by patent hepatic falciform artery. We report herein two cases of supraumbilical skin rash developed after TACE for hepatocellular carcinoma, with discussion on the pathogenesis, prophylaxis, and treatment.
Arteries ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Exanthema* ; Humans ; Skin*