This article presents a description of the ultrasonographic and computed tomographic findings with a discussion on the imaging features in three patients with epigastric hernias, simulating abdominal wall lipomas. Ultrasonogram showed a heterogeneous hypoechoic mass encircled by echogenic rim within subcutaneous space of the abdominal wall. Computed tomographic findings were a localized fatty mass surrounded by a thin capsule in as sociation with a focal discontinuity of the linea alba. Ultrasonogram was not diagnostic, but computed tomogram was suggestive because of the well demonstrated focal defect in linea alba.
Abdominal Wall ; Hernia* ; Humans ; Lipoma ; Ultrasonography*

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Antibodies*

Sonographic evaluation of the 23 patients with herniated lumbar disc was carried out via anterior approach. The most important sonographic finding of the herniated disc was posterior displacement of the ventral echogenic line. Twenty patients(87%) were coincided in the result of the preoperative sonography and myelography. Of them, 19 patients were well correlated with surgical findings. A 19 of the 20 patients with satisfactory outcome found changes on the postoperative sonogram. In conclusion, disc sonography may be the modality evaluating patients with low back pain and radiculopathy. And also, sonography will become the supplementary study of the patient who has the persistent radiculopathy following discectomy.
Diskectomy ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc Displacement ; Low Back Pain ; Myelography ; Radiculopathy ; Ultrasonography*

No abstract available.
Mediastinum* ; Osteosarcoma*

Neurofibromat osis is a familial discase with widespread manifestations such as lesions of the skin, tumors of the central and peripheral nervous system and abnormalities of bone. The presence of at least two of the following features was considered for diagnostic criteria; positive family history, positive blopsy, a minimum of six cafe-au-lait spots each with a diameter of at least 1.5 cm and multiple subcutaneous nodules. From January 1971 to December 1979, 17 patients of neurofibromatosis and 30 patients of neuro- fibroma treated at Yonsei Medical Center were clinically analized for the study and the results obtained from this study were as follows; 1. Positive family history was obtained In 2 per cent of cases with neurofibromatosis. 2. Cafe-au-lait spots or tumors were the most common findings in neurofibromatosis. The bone changes were presented in 8 patients(45 per cent) and scoliosis has been In 62.5 per cent of them. 3. The location of the neurofibroma was variable. Central nervous sustem was involved in 40.4 per cent and peripheral nervous system in 59.4 per cent. 4. Myelography and determinations of the cerebro-spinal fluid protein concentration led us to a correct diagnosis of the neurofibroma which involved the spinal cord. For the treatment of the neurofibroma, 9 out of 30 patients were performed laminectomies and excision of the intradural masses, and one of them was flxed the spinous processes with a plate and wires after laminectomy for prevent spinal instability. 5. in 3 patients with progressive scoliosis, the best results were obtained with early Harrington instrumentation and posterior fusion.
Cafe-au-Lait Spots ; Chymopapain ; Clinical Study ; Diagnosis ; Fibroma ; Humans ; Laminectomy ; Myelography ; Neurofibroma ; Neurofibromatoses ; Peripheral Nervous System ; Scoliosis ; Skin ; Spinal Cord

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the silicone ring pessary in the management of pelvic organ prolapse. METHODS: This study was evaluated for the clinical analysis of 58 pelvic organ prolapse patients who visited our hospital and weared silicone ring pessary from January 1997, to December 1998. RESULTS: Among 58 patients, failure rate was 13.7%(8/58) and complication rate was 50%(29/58). Main causes of failure were vaginal ulcer(4 cases) and recurrent falling out of pessary(3 cases). Most common problems were recurrent falling out of pessary(10 cases) and vaginal erosion with or without ulcer(9 cases), vaginitis(6 cases). There was no significant difference of failure rates and complication rates between hysterectomized patients and the non-hysterectomized patients. CONCLUSION: In management of pelvic organ prolapse which unsuitable for operation, pessary is noninvasive, simple and effective alternative method.
Humans ; Pelvic Organ Prolapse* ; Pessaries* ; Silicones*

No abstract available.
Dermatitis, Atopic*

PURPOSE: Recently, two tests are commercially available for the identification of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI): tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA). Due to its false positiveness, TST tends to be preferred by IGRA until now. In our study, we simultaneously performed both TST and QuantiFERON(R)-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT) and compared their results. METHODS: TST and QFT-GIT were done for the diagnosis of LTBI among children who visited pediatric out-patient clinic at St. Vincent's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea from February of 2007 to May of 2008. The study group was stratified into two groups in terms of whether there was intrafamilial contact or not. RESULTS: Out of total 35 children, 29 were tuberculosis (TB)-exposed cases and the remainders were diagnosed as clinical pulmonary TB. Among these 29 children, TST was positive 38.9% (7/18) for the intrafamilial and 45.5% (5/11) for the non-intrafamilial, and at the same time, the result for QFT-GIT was positive 5.6% (1/18) and 9.1% (1/11), respectively which implies that TST was more sensitive than QFT-GIT. Among 29 TB-exposed cases, 26 initially went through TST and QFT-GIT together on their first visit to out-patient clinic, and 15 continued the follow-up tests. Out of total 41 cases collected, the agreement (known as kappa value) was 0.063 which was relatively low. Including 6 cases with pulmonary TB who were all positive for TST and only 5 being positive for QFT-GIT, the final kappa value was 0.334. CONCLUSION: In our study, the agreement for TST and QFT-GIT was low, and the majorities were almost the cases of positive TST. In current situation with lacking a gold standard test and limited data on children to adolescents, this result is quite alarming that the recent trend tends to replace TST by QFT-GIT when diagnosing LTBI.
Adolescent ; Child ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Interferon-gamma Release Tests ; Korea ; Latent Tuberculosis ; Outpatients ; Skin ; Skin Tests ; Tuberculin ; Tuberculosis

No abstract available.
Family Practice* ; Humans ; Outpatients* ; Thyroid Diseases* ; Thyroid Gland*