Encapsulated and free pus in the substance of the brain tissue following an acute purulent infection is known as brain abscess, and which is uncommon. The brain abscess arise either as direct extention from infections within the cranial cavity or as hematogenous metastasis from infections elsewhere in the body. Since 1945, the antibiotics associated use of steroid and mannitol have been available for the treatment of brain abscess, and the result are very hopeful. The common method of surgical treatment are consist of excision and drainage and the problem of the best operative procedure has been disputed on the many neurosurgical literatures for many years. Recently we had treated 2 cases of severe otogenic brain abscesses with semicomatose patient by drainage, and good was the result compared with the other literatures. Result; 1. One case with semicoma recovered completely without any neurologic sequelae, and the other case recovered with visual disturbance. 2. The best operative procedure for the severe brain abscess considered a drainage.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Brain Abscess ; Brain* ; Drainage* ; Hope ; Humans ; Mannitol ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Suppuration ; Surgical Procedures, Operative

Nerve-root anomalies are very uncommon, and there symptoms and signs are nearly similar with those of disc herniation. So we can misdiagnois them for intervertebral disc herniation. The negative Lasegue' sign is the only distinct feature of the nerve root anomalies. The authors report a case of Nerve-Root Anomaly associated with disc herniation in lumbar 4-5 interspace, which was diagnosed preoperatively in myelogram and confirmed surgically.
Intervertebral Disc*

From March 1987 to July 1989, six patients (five dadults and one child) with lung abscess (size, 5-13cm in diameter) were treated with percutaneous aspiration and drainage. In each case, the puncture was made where the wall of the abscess was in contact with the pleural surface. An 8 to 10 Fr catheter was inserted for drainage. Five of 6 had a dramatic clinical response within 24 hours of the drainage. Percutaneous drainage was successful with complete abscess resolution in four and partial resolution in one patient. No response was seen in the rest one. The duration of drainage ranged from 7 to 18 days (average, 15.5days) in successful cases. One case of the failure in drainage was due to persistent aspiration of the neurologically impaired patient. In one patient, the abscess resolved after drainage but recurred after inadvertent removal of the catheter 7 days after insertion. In two patients, concurrent pleural empyema was resolved completely by the drainage. Computed tomography provided anatomic details necessary for choosing the puncture site and avoiding a puncture of the lung parenchyma. Percutaneous catheter drainage is a safe and effective method for treating patients with lung abscess.
Abscess ; Catheters* ; Drainage* ; Empyema, Pleural ; Humans ; Lung Abscess* ; Lung* ; Methods ; Punctures

No abstract available.
Child* ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Radiotherapy

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to identify the comparison with the different methods of acupressure treatment in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Methods: This study was a single group pretest-posttest design. Thirty patients age 30- 65 scheduled for chemotherapy were included. The data were collected through self- reported questionnaires on nausea, vomiting, and anorexia and analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon signed ranked test. Results: The relieving effect of nausea and vomiting (Z=-2.54, p=.011) was significant in P6 acupressure by wrist bands. Conclusion Patients undergoing chemotherapy have relieving effects on nausea and vomiting after P6 acupressure by wrist band. This study demonstrates the stimulation of the P6 acupressure by wrist band for reducing nausea and vomiting for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: Hereditary spherocytosis(HS) is a clinically and biochemically very heterogeneous disorder The purpose of this study is to detect erythrocyte membrane protein abnormalities by SDS-PAGE and to investigate the frequency of erythrocyte membrane protein defects in hereditary spherocytosis and correlation between some of the hereditary spherocytosis biochemical subsets and the selected clinical phenotype. METHODS: We evaluated the clinical and laboratory characteristics of 14 normal healthy persons and 23 hereditary spherocytosis patients and 8 their family members. The patients were divided into three groups based on clinical and hematological severity(mild, typical, severe). In addition to routine hematologic determlnatlons, osmotic fragility and autohemolysis, RBC membrane protein analysis were performed in all patients by densitometric tracing of SDS-PAGE(sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) stained by Coomassle blue utilizing both the discontinuous buffer system of Laemmli with acrylamide linear gradient from 4% to 12% and the continuous buffer system of Fairbank with exponential gradient of acrylamide from 3.5% to 17%. RESULTS: 1) The patients could be seperated into three classes of different clinical severity as mild(3 cases), moderate(16 cases) and severe(4 cases) on the clinical feature. 2) Eighteen patients(82.6%) among 23 hereditary spherocytosis revealed abnormal erythrocyte membrane protein and we detected six patients(26.1%) with spectrin deficiency combined with ankyrin reduction, 4 patients(17.4%) with ankyrin deficiency, 4 patients(17.4%) with isolated spectrin deficiency and 3 patients(13.0%) with band 3 deficiency. Five HS patients(21.7%) showed normal RBC membrane protein. 3) Eight HS and their family members showed same RBC membrane protein deficiency. 4) The type and degree of RBC membrane protein reduction were variale with spectrin at 66~94%, with ankyrin at 48~82% of normal levels. These showed that each patient had different clinical severities according to different RBC membrane protein levels and type. CONCLUSION: RBC membrane protein abnormalities were observed in 82.6% of HS patients. The combined spectrin and ankyrin deficiency is the most common molecular defect in HS. The clinical severity and biochemical expression is heterogeneous. SDS-PAGE analysis of RBC membrane protein was provided the diagnosis of RBC membrane defects and basic molecular studies. We believed that the early identification of the biochemical defect responsible for HS is important because it is helpful starling point for the identification of the primary molecular defect, and it could help to anticipate the clinical outcome of the disease. For these reasons, we consider the SDS-PAGE of the red cell membrane to be of crucial importance for a complete evaluation of children with HS. Further studies with more cases would be to clarify the correlation between clinical and biochemical phenotypes.
Acrylamide ; Ankyrins ; Cell Membrane ; Child ; Diagnosis ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel* ; Erythrocyte Membrane* ; Erythrocytes* ; Erythrocytes, Abnormal ; Humans ; Membrane Proteins ; Membranes ; Osmotic Fragility ; Phenotype ; Population Characteristics* ; Spectrin ; Starlings

A murime monoclonal antibody (mAb) specific for the envelope glycoprotein gp120 of human immunodeficiency virus type-I (HIV-1) was chemically coupled to pokeweed antiviral protein (PAP) from Phytolacca americana. The immunotoxin was purified by FPLC using 5200 colum. The purified immunotoxin efficiently bound to HIV-infected T cells as evidenced by fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis. The immunotoxin selectively killed human T lymphoid lines infected with HIV-lIIIB at less than 250 pM of the immunotoxin cells, while PAP or mAb alone did not have any significant effect on infected cells. The uninfected control T cell lines were not affected. Human cells infected with HIV-2 or other HIV-1 strains were not killed, suggesting that the killing depends completely on the antibody used for coupling. These in vitro results suggest that the PAP-mAb conjugate may be used to selectively remove cells expressing viral antigens from individuals infected with HIV.
Antigens, Viral ; Cell Line ; Glycoproteins ; HIV ; HIV-1 ; HIV-2 ; Homicide ; Humans* ; Immunotoxins ; Phytolacca americana* ; T-Lymphocytes*

The intracranial epidural abscess is a not indenpendent disease which is practically always secondary to osteitis or osteomyelitis of overlying bone. Also it was developed from complication of frontal sinusitis, middle ear or mastoiditis, incomplete debridement of compound comminuted depressed fracture and post-operative complications. Occasionally it was derived from dural sinus thrombophlebitis especially cavernous sinus. It was frequently developed frontal and temporal region. We have experienced 5 cases of intracranial epidural abscesses for this one year. Followings are the results ; 1. The causes were complication of compound depressed fracture, chronic osteomyelitis and post-operative complications. 2. The usual symptom was headache, fever and increased lethargy. 3. The laboratory findings of CBC were the increased WBC count and ESR. The CSF findings revealed occasionally increased the cell count and sugar. 4. The pus culture revealed proteus, coliform bacilli and paracolon bacili. 5. Treatment was surgical removal of overlying diseased bone, drainage of the purulent materials and instillation of antibotics irrigation. 6. The prognosis of the 5 cases of the intracranial epidural abscess was good. There was not appeared any complication or sequelae.
Cavernous Sinus ; Cell Count ; Debridement ; Drainage ; Ear, Middle ; Enterobacteriaceae ; Epidural Abscess* ; Fever ; Frontal Sinus ; Frontal Sinusitis ; Headache ; Lethargy ; Mastoid ; Mastoiditis ; Osteitis ; Osteomyelitis ; Prognosis ; Proteus ; Suppuration ; Thrombophlebitis

OBJECTIVE: After drawing and stacking contour of structures, which are identifed in the serially sectioned images, three-dimensional (3D) images can be made by surface reconstruction. The 3D images can be selected and rotated in a real time. The purpose of this research is to compose software of automatic surface reconstruction for making 3D images. METHODS: Contours of 55 structures in the 613 magnetic resonance images of whole body were drawn to make segmented images. We composed automatic software for stacking contours of a structure, for converting the contours into polygons, and for connecting vertices of the neighboring polygons to fill gaps between polygons with triangular surfaces. The surface reconstruction software was excuted to make 3D images of 55 structures. RESULTS: Virtual dissection software, on which 3D images could be selected and rotated, was composed. CONCLUSION: For other research, this like program can be composed for automatic surface reconstruction; several kinds of commercial software can be used for manual or automatic surface reconstruction. Investigators might choose one of the methods in consideration of their only circumstances.
Humans ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Research Personnel