No abstract available.
Hemoglobinuria, Paroxysmal*

No abstract available.
Neck* ; Posture* ; Rabbits*

PURPOSE: Patients requiring urethral reconstruction due to failed hypospadias repairs present a considerable technical challenge. Herein we report the experience of redo urethroplasties for complicated recurrent hypospadias. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 1987 to 1997, we performed redo urethroplasty in 11 cases with complicated recurrent hypospadias. Types of recurrent hypospadias were coronal (1 case), distal shaft (4 cases), mid-shaft (1 case), and penoscrotal (5 cases) hypospadias. The interval between the last operation and redo operation was distributed from 8 months to 5 years. We analysed preoperative status, operative methods and their complications retrospectively. RESULTS: We performed urethroplasties using scrotal skin flap or buccal mucosal graft in only 2 cases. In spite of a paucity of usable penile skin, we performed urethroplasties with maximal use of remaining penile skin. Mathieu method was used in one case with coronal type. Mustarde operation was used in 4 cases with distal shaft hypospadias. And in 5 cases with penoscrotal type, we used Thiersch-Duplay method. Six of 11 patients had complications such as urethrocutaneous fistulas (4 cases) or recurrent hypospadias (2 cases) which were managed successfully later. CONCLUSIONS: Urethroplasty using penile skin maximally such as Mathieu, Mustarde, or Thiersch-Duplay methods appears to achieve success in patient with recurrent hypospadias subsequent to previous failed repairs.
Female ; Fistula ; Humans ; Hypospadias* ; Male ; Mustard Plant ; Retrospective Studies ; Skin ; Transplants

BACKGROUND: Transcatheter closure of patent ductus arteriosus, using the Rashkind double umbrella occluder system, had been attempted in mulitcenter since non-surgical closure of patent ductus arteriosus by Rashkind. METHODS: Between July 1991 and June 1993, transcatheter closure of patent ductus arterious was attempted in 20 adult patients(21 trials). RESULTS: Seventeen female and 3 male patients was consisted of the study. The patient age ranged from 17 to 54 years(mean 30+/-9 years). Mean pulmonary artery pressure before closure was 18.5+/-6.0mmHg(range from 10mmHg to 30mmHg). The diameter of ductus ranged from 3.5mm to 8.0mm(mean 5.2+/-1.5mm), as determined by contrast injection through 11F Mullin sheath or 7F catheter. There was significant decrease of Qp/Qs from 2.6+/-1.1 to 1.5+/-0.4 immediately after transcatheter closure of ductus(p<0.01). There was significant decrease of left ventricular end-diastolic dimension by echocardiogram from 58.7+/-7.6mm to 53.6+/-6.5mm after transcatheter closure of ductus(p<0.01). Among the 21 cases, 16 cases(76.2%) had the clinical improvement without the support of surgical closure. One 17mm Rashkind umbrella was retrieved because of position and problem of deployment. There was no device embolic experience in 21 cases. There were 2 cases of hemolytic anemia during the follow-up period ; one case was surgically ligated and another 17mm device was implanted in the other case. CONCLUSIONS: Transcatheter closure of patent ductus arteriosus in adult patients can replace the surgical correction in selected patients.
Adult* ; Anemia, Hemolytic ; Catheters ; Ductus Arteriosus, Patent* ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Pulmonary Artery

PURPOSE: Circumferential pulmonary (PV) vein isolation (CPVI) is the most important treatment strategy for atrial fibrillation (AF). While understanding left atrial wall thickness around PVs (PVWT) prior to catheter ablation is important, its clinical implications are not known. This study aimed to evaluate PVWT characteristics according to underlying disease and to identify associations between PVWT and reconnections of PV potentials (PVPs) in redo ablation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 28 patients who underwent redo-AF ablation, PVWT and reconnected PVPs were evaluated at 12 sites (1–12 o'clock) around each PV. Clinical characteristics including stroke and CHA₂DS₂-VASc scores were analyzed according to the PVWT. RESULTS: The PVWT was thicker in males than females (p<0.001) and in those with diabetes (p=0.045) or heart failure (p=0.002) than in those without. Patients with strokes or high CHA₂DS₂-VASc scores (≥3) had significantly thinner PVWTs than those without strokes or low CHA₂DS₂-VASc scores (p<0.001). In redo-ablation, reconnected PVPs were detected in 60 (53.6%) of 112 PVs, and the PVs were thicker (p<0.001) and had more reconnected PVs (p=0.009) than right PVs. A PVWT of >0.6 mm predicted PV reconnections with a sensitivity of 76.7% and specificity of 52.2% with an area under the curve of 0.695. CONCLUSION: Thick PVWs were associated with diabetes and heart failure, and also showed significant inverse correlations with stroke and the CHA₂DS₂-VASc score. Thick PVWs were associated with reconnected PVPs after the CPVI, which were related to AF recurrence.
Atrial Fibrillation* ; Catheter Ablation ; Female ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Male ; Pulmonary Veins* ; Recurrence ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Stroke* ; Veins

PURPOSE: Combination therapy of alpha-blockers and 5alpha-reductase inhibitors (5-ARIs) is widely used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). We aimed to study the effect on prostate volume and symptoms of shifting to monotherapy in patients who previously received a combination therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective study was conducted of 60 patients who were diagnosed with BPH. Patients were aged 45 years or older and had a prostate volume of 30 cc or more, International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) of 12 or above, maximal flow rate (Qmax) of 15 ml/s or less, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level of less than 10 ng/ml. The patients initially received a combination therapy of doxazosin 4 mg/day and finasteride 5 mg/day for 3 months and were then randomly assigned to receive monotherapy for 3 months. The factors were then compared. RESULTS: A total of 30 patients were assigned to doxazosin (group 1) and 30 to finasteride (group 2) after the combination therapy. The percentage changes in prostate volume, IPSS, and Qmax during the period from post-combination therapy to post-monotherapy were not significantly different between the two groups (p=0.052, 0.908, 0.081), whereas PSA significantly decreased in group 2 (p<0.001). IPSS was not significantly different at post-combination therapy and at post-monotherapy in both groups (p=0.858, 0.071). The prostate volume significantly increased from 40.97 cc at post-combination therapy to 44.29 cc at post-monotherapy in group 1 (p=0.001) and insignificantly increased from 38.32 cc to 38.61 cc in group 2 (p=0.696). CONCLUSIONS: Although the duration of drug administration was short in this study, 5-ARI monotherapy could maintain the alleviated symptoms and reduce the risk of acute urinary retention and surgery due to prostate regrowth in BPH patients whose symptoms improved with combination therapy.
Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists ; Aged ; Doxazosin ; Finasteride ; Humans ; Prospective Studies ; Prostate ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; Prostatic Hyperplasia ; Urinary Retention

Atrial tachycardia (AT) originating from the aortomitral junction is a very rare and challenging disease. Its arrhythmic characteristics have not been described in detail compared with the descriptions of the arrhythmic characteristics of AT originating from the other locations. Only a few case reports have documented successful ablation of this type of AT using transaortic or transseptal approaches. We describe a case with AT that was resistant to right-sided ablation near the His bundle failed and transaortic ablation at the aortomitral junction successfully eliminated.
Bundle of His ; Catheter Ablation ; Tachycardia*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have demonstrated an association between several single nucleotide polymorphisms and atrial fibrillation (AF). We hypothesized that the phenotypes of AF patients were associated with common AF susceptibility alleles. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 659 patients (57±9 years, 76% male) with AF who underwent catheter ablation and 659 age, and sex-matched controls were genotyped for the common AF susceptibility alleles rs2200733 and rs6843082 at 4q25, rs2106261 at ZFHX3, and rs13376333 at KCNN3. The phenotypes of AF patients, including electroanatomical characteristics of the left atrium and recurrence after ablation, were compared. RESULTS: The rs2200733 variant allele carriers have larger left atrium volume (128.5±40.7 vs. 113.5±29.2 mL, p=0.020), longer PR interval (185.9±32.6 vs. 174.8±21.9 ms, p=0.018), and higher amplitude of negative P-wave terminal force in Lead V₁ (0.07±0.04 vs. 0.05±0.04 mV, p=0.015) on electrocardiography than those without the variant allele. When the patients were assigned to three groups according to the number of variant alleles (Group A: no variant, n=15; Group B: 1 variant, n=158; Group C: 2 variants, n=439), incremental prognostic value, according to the number of variant alleles, was demonstrated (Log Rank p=0.015). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that persistent AF (OR 1.677, 95% CI 1.176-2.381, p=0.004) and the number of variants (OR 1.552, 95% CI 1.099-2.222, p=0.015) were independent predictors for recurrence of AF. CONCLUSION: This study showed the common AF susceptibility alleles at 4q25 and ZFHX3 are associated with electroanatomical characteristics of the left atrium and the clinical outcomes of catheter ablation in Korean patients with AF.
Alleles ; Atrial Fibrillation* ; Catheter Ablation* ; Electrocardiography ; Heart Atria* ; Humans ; Phenotype ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide* ; Recurrence

No abstract available.

No abstract available.