No abstract available.
Arthroplasty* ; Knee*

BACKGROUND: We reviewed retrospectively the clinical features and contrast material-enhanced computed tomography(CT) after blunt abdominal trauma demonstrated a characteristic hypoperfusion complex. Our purpose were to evaluate the hypothesis that children with this 'hypoperfusion complex' CT finding were associated with a tenuous hemodynamic state, severe injury and a poor outcome. METHODS: Between January 1996 and December 1999, 39 consecutive children who sustained blunt trauma and were suspected clinically of having intraabdominal injury underwent CT. Demographic data, blood pressure, indication for CT, pediatric trauma score(PTS) and Glasgow coma score(GCS) were recorded at the time of the initial examination. RESULTS: Three of the 39 children(8%) demonstrated a characteristic finding at CT which was described as the hypoperfusion complex. The 'hypoperfusion complex' was present in the 3 of the 39 traumatized children(8%), but was the main radiographic finding in the 3 of the 14 children with a severe pediatric trauma score(PTS<8) and in the 3 of the 6 children with a Glasgow coma score(GCS<8) who were examined with CT. CONCLUSION: The CT finding in all children with the hypoperfusion complex by definition included marked, diffuse dilatation of the intestine with fluid; abnormally intense contrast enhancement of the bowel wall, mesentery, kidney and/or pancreas; decreased caliber of the abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava(IVC); and moderate to large peritoneal fluid collection. This 'hypoperfusion complex' is a relatively rarely observed in injured children but appears to be associated with severe injury and a poor outcome. The pediatric trauma score provides a useful profile of injury severity in children. Prompt diagnosis of hypovolemic shock is important so that supportive therapy can be instituted to prevent further metabolic abnormalities and their potential cardiotoxic effects. In summary, the intense multiorgan enhancement pattern seen in the hypoperfusion complex indicates tenuous hemodynamic stability and is associated with a poor outcome.
Aorta, Abdominal ; Ascitic Fluid ; Blood Pressure ; Child* ; Coma ; Diagnosis ; Dilatation ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Hypovolemia* ; Intestines ; Kidney ; Mesentery ; Pancreas ; Retrospective Studies ; Shock* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed*

The allopurinol hypersensicivity syndrome is a rare, but life thereaning immunologic reaction of allopurinol therapy, characterized by multiple abnormalities such as fever, rash, decreased renal function, hepatocellular injury, leukocytosis, and eosinophila. It may require prolonged hospitalization and occasionally involves residual morbidity. Three patients developed erythematous skin eruption three to five weeks after beginning therapy with allopurinol. The clinical, laboratory, and histologic findings of these patients were compatible with a allopurinol hyperensitivity syndrome.
Abnormalities, Multiple ; Allopurinol* ; Exanthema ; Fever ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity* ; Leukocytosis ; Skin

The case is presented a 49-year-old man had several year history with chronic renal failure with hyperlipidemia due to diabetes mellitus. Treatment of hyperlipidemia was started by oral bezafibrate intake 600 mg per day. Several days later, patient noticed muscle weakness and myalgia. The serum CK, LDH, AST levels were remarkably elevated, myoglobulinuria was also noticed The symptoms of the patient were resolved after the drug was discontinued, thus the diagnosis was established as having bezafibrate induced rhabdomyolysis. On the basis of the above description, bezafibrate may induce muscle damage if dose is excess over the renal capacity. Extreme caution is warranted when the patient is placed on bezafibrate and has renal dysfunction.Strict dose adjustment is necessary in taking account of renal function to avoid muscle damage including rhabdomyolysis.
Bezafibrate ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Middle Aged ; Muscle Weakness ; Myalgia ; Rhabdomyolysis

PURPOSE: Generally, if a patient suffers from chest pain and shows a specific EKG pattern, it is easy to determine a clinical diagnosis, thus it is but in many cases, patients show nonspecific chest pain and a nonspecific EKG pattern. So it's important to consider the serological labaratory exam for cardiac enzymes for a definite diagnosis. Until now, cTnI has been considered to be different from CK-MB and cTnT in that it shows a specific elevation in early myocardiac injury and rare nonspecific elevation in renal-failure patients. Therefore, to affirm a sufficient relation between cTnI elevation and myocardiac injury, are carried out this study. METHODS: The number of patients in the study was 58. No one had shown any evidence of myocardiac injury during the recent 2 years or any of the risk factors for AMI, such as smoking, obesity, and hypercholesterolemia. They showed specific symptoms like chest pain or nonspecific ones like dyspnea, indigestion, or a nonspecific EKG abnormality, including nonspecific ST-T change. Their serum creatinine level was above 2.0 mg/dL and qualitative results of cTnI was obtained by using a Troponin I rapid assay kit. The definite diagnosis of AMI was made by a cardiologist based on an intergrated result of EKG, clinical symptoms and signs and regional cardiac wall-motion abnormality on a echocardiogram. RESULTS: The sensitivity of CK-MB, cTnT, and cTnI were 100%, 100%, and 100%, respectively, and the specificities were 75%, 85%, 100%. CONCLUSION: In cases of patients with a high serum-creatinine level, particularly, those with positive serum CK-MB and cTnT, the measurement of cTnI is considered to be significant for the differential diagnosis of AMI as it shows both a high sensitivity and a high specificity in early myocardiac injury.
Chest Pain ; Creatinine ; Diagnosis* ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Dyspepsia ; Dyspnea ; Electrocardiography ; Emergencies* ; Humans ; Hypercholesterolemia ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Obesity ; Renal Insufficiency* ; Risk Factors ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Troponin I* ; Troponin*

BACKGROUND: Tsutsugamushi disease is an acute, rashed febrile disease that shows widely varying prognoses from unsymptomatic infection to death. Early diagnosis and treatment lead to speedy recovery. Otherwise, many complications develop. This research was carried out to analyze the factors that affect the development of complications by comparing Tsutsugamushi patients with complicaions with those without complications. METHODS: Among the acute febrile disease patients who visited the emergency center of Chosun University Hospital from January to December 2000, 41 patients were clinically and serologically confirmed as having Tsutsugamushi disease. They were divided into two groups; 14 patients with complications and 27 patients without complications. We analyzed the two groups for correlations between complications and sex, age, period of occurrence, transfer or not, vital signs, laboratory findings, period before treatment, and checks for the existence of underlying disease, eschar, eruption, chest Xrays, and early diagnosis. RESULTS: 1) The aged have a high incidence of the disease, but there was no correlation between age and complications. Also, there was no correlation based on sex. 2) Although fall has a high incidence of the disease, the other seasons have higher complication rates. 3) The complication incidence rate has no correlation with either blood pressure or heart rate, also it does no correlate with eschar and skin rashes. 4) In the laboratory findings, hemoglobin and platelet, and Bun/Cr correlate with the complicaton incidence rate, but the white blood cell count and AST/ALT do not. 5) The complication incidence rate was high when treatment was started 10 days after the onset of Tsutsugamushi disease and no early diagnosis had been given. CONCLUSION: Early diagnosis and treatment are most important in preventing complications of Tsutsugamushi disease because the factors that affect the developement of complications of Tsutsugamushi disase are found during early diagnosis. Patients with doubtful clinical symptoms and abnormal lab findings should be started on a program of antibiotic treatment.
Blood Platelets ; Blood Pressure ; Early Diagnosis ; Emergencies ; Exanthema ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Incidence ; Leukocyte Count ; Prognosis ; Scrub Typhus ; Seasons ; Thorax ; Vital Signs

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to develop a set of standardized nursing interventions and their associated nursing activities according to the NIC system to guide home care nurses in performing nursing intervention activities for hospice patients. METHOD: This study was a descriptive survey that first identified frequently used & specialized hospice nursing interventions based on the NIC systems and next validated a set of standardized nursing interventions and their associated nursing activities. One hundred chart records of home hospice patients were used to identify nursing interventions. Also, thirty-nine hospice specialized nurses participated twice using the Delphi technique to test the content validity of the standards. RESULTS: Among the nursing interventions, 19 important nursing interventions and 418 associated nursing activities were selected after two rounds of Delphi technique by hospice specialized nurses. The mean content validity of the final nursing activities was 0.82. In this paper, only the 3 most frequently used nursing interventions and 3 hospice specialized nursing interventions with their associated nursing activities are presented since space is limited. CONCLUSION: The nursing intervention standards will be a basis for home hospice nurses to improve quality of hospice care for hospice patients.
Delphi Technique ; Home Care Services ; Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing ; Hospice Care ; Hospices* ; Humans ; Nursing*

PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical characteristics of the intermediate uveitis with prominent snowbank, METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of the patients with intermediate uveitis characterized by the snowbank larger than half a quadrant. RESULTS: Of all 49 patients, 67 eyes, the mean age was 37.3 years. Male patients was 31, and eighteen patients (36.7%) were bilateral. Snowbank was at the inferior in 56 eyes (83.6%), and larger than two quadrant in 16 eyes (23.9%). Mean follow-up was 27 months. Final visual acuity improved in 40 eyes (59.7%), worsened in 4 eyes (6.0%), and more than 0.5 in 51 eyes (76.1%). Complications were cystoid macular edema (23 eyes, 34.3%), retinal detachment (22 eyes, 32.8%), and vitreous hemorrhage (11 eyes, 16.4%). Procedures were barrier laser photocoagulation (45 eyes, 67.2%), pars plana vitrectomy(12 eyes, 17.9%), scleral buckling(2 eyes, 3.0%), cataract surgery (9 eyes, 13.4%), trabeculectomy(6 eyes, 9.6%), and cryopexy (1 eye, 1.5%). Statistically, there was no significant relationship in the final visual acuity and gender, bilaterality, initial visual acuity of 0.5 or above, snowbank larger than two quadrants, and barrier laser photocoagulation. However, pars plana vitrectomy showed a significant relationship (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Intermediate uveitis with prominent snowbank seems to show the similar clinical prognosis to generally-reported intermediate uveitis, and the prognosis of pars plana vitrectomy is good.
Cataract ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Light Coagulation ; Macular Edema ; Male ; Pars Planitis* ; Prognosis ; Retinal Detachment ; Retrospective Studies ; Uveitis, Intermediate ; Visual Acuity ; Vitrectomy ; Vitreous Hemorrhage

BACKGROUND & OBJECT10NS: Multiple system atrophy(MSA) is a heterogenous system disorder affecting extrapyramidal, cerebellar and autonomic nervous system. Clinical spectrum is broad, and depending on the system affected, patients are classified into striato-nigral degeneration (SND), olivo-ponto-cerebellar atrophy (OPCA) and Shy-Draper syndrome (SDS). However, evolution of symptoms during follow-up usually occurs, stirring up a debate between "lumpers" and "splitters". Recent pathological documentation of intracytoplasmic inclusions support "lumpers" that MSA is a specific disease entity with specific pathology. The study was done to analyze the natural course of MSA, and examine whether they are separate or part of the same disease. METHOD: We obtained the clinical data of patients with clinically probable MSA by the criteria of Quinn (1994). In addition to review of medical records, all patients were phone-interviewed or examined personally. RESULTS: Forty four patients were included in the study (male 23, female 21). Mean onset age 52.9 years, and mean follow-up period 19.7 months. Nine patients died during follow-up (mean disease duration 5.2 years). The initial predominant features were parkinsonism in 40% (14/35), cerebellar dysfunction in 25.7% (9/35), autonomic dysfunction in 17.1% (6/35) and others in 17.1%. At the latest follow-up, parkinsonism were noted in 77.1%, cerebellar dysfunction in 88.6% and autonomic dysfunction in 80%. With progression, all the patients showed mixed clinical manifestations, the most common being combination of all 3(60%). CONCLUS10N: The data supports that SND, OPCA and SDS are part of the same disease process.
Age of Onset ; Autonomic Nervous System ; Cerebellar Diseases ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Natural History* ; Olivopontocerebellar Atrophies ; Parkinsonian Disorders ; Pathology

The purpose of this study was to examine the cytotoxicity of orthodontic wire which had an increased diameter through electroplating, and to evaluate its possible clinical applications. First, nickel plating was carried out on the commercially available stainless steel wire using an electroplating technique. For the comparison of the electroplated wire with ready made stainless steel wire and titanium or copper, each wire was incubated for 72 hours in a medium. The release of the metal ion was measured using ICP-AES (Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrophotometer). Balb/c 3T3 mouse fibroblast was put on a microplate and placed in an incubated medium of 75%, 50%, and 20% dilation. An MTT analysis was used to compare with the medium only. The change in absorbency value of each wire group and the difference of absorbency value according to the change of dilution was measured. The results of ICP-AES analysis showed that great amount nickel ion was isolated from electroplated orthodontic wires and great amount copper ion was isolated from copper. The results of the MTT analysis showed that there was no difference in the absorbency value of titanium at any dilution. However, the electroplated wires (p < 0.001), the stainless steel wires (p < 0.05) and the copper (p < 0.001) were statistically significantly lower than those of medium only at all dilutions. Assessment as per ISO 10993, part 5, showed that electroplated wire was alloted to "moderate cytotoxic", the titanium and stainless steel wire were "non-cytotoxic". The results of this study indicate that the electroplated orthodontic wires need additional efforts to decrease cytotoxicity for their clinical applications.
Animals ; Copper ; Electroplating ; Fibroblasts ; Mice ; Nickel ; Orthodontic Wires* ; Plasma ; Stainless Steel* ; Titanium