BACKGROUND: Few reports have documented the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of adult patients with Elizabethkingia meningoseptica infection. METHODS: Medical records of patients over 18 years of age and suspected of having an E. meningoseptica infection from March 1, 2006 to February 28, 2013 were reviewed retrospectively. Their clinical characteristics, antimicrobial susceptibility results, and treatment outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: E. meningoseptica was isolated from 30 patients. Median age was 68.5 years, and infections were more frequent in males (17, 56.7%). The most common isolation source was sputum (23, 76.7%), and pneumonia was the most common condition (21, 70%) after excluding two cases of colonization. This bacterium was most susceptible to minocycline (27, 90%) and fluoroquinolones, including levofloxacin (20, 66.7%) and ciprofloxacin (18, 60%). The mortality rate due directly to E. meningoseptica infection was 20% (6/30), and uncontrolled pneumonia was the only cause of death. After isolating E. meningoseptica, the numbers of patients with pneumonia (9/9, 100% vs. 12/21, 57.1%), history of hemodialysis (5/9, 55.6% vs. 3/21, 14.3%), tracheostomy (8/9, 88.9 vs. 10/21, 47.6%), and median Charlson comorbidity index score (6 [range, 3-9] vs. 4 [range, 0-9]) were significantly higher in non-survivors than those in survivors (p < 0.05, for each). However, only 12 (40%) patients received appropriate antibiotics. CONCLUSIONS: E. meningoseptica infection most commonly presented as pneumonia in adults with severe underlying diseases. Despite the high mortality rate, the rate of appropriate antibiotic use was notably low.
Adult* ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Cause of Death ; Chryseobacterium ; Ciprofloxacin ; Colon ; Comorbidity ; Cross Infection ; Fluoroquinolones ; Humans ; Levofloxacin ; Male ; Medical Records ; Minocycline ; Mortality ; Pneumonia ; Renal Dialysis ; Retrospective Studies ; Sputum ; Survivors ; Tertiary Care Centers* ; Tracheostomy

A 38 year old woman presented with two week history of cough, progressive dyspnea, orthopnea and pedal edema. She had previously been in excellent health with the exception of surgery five years ago for tumor of the right thigh. The histopatihologic diagnosis was chondrosarcoma. Her clinical course was characterized by rapid aggrevation of dyspnea and eddema unresponsive to conventional managements for congestiove heart failure. Transesophageal echocardiogram showed dleft atrial mass growing from pulmonic vein. To our knowledge, cardiac metastasis from chondrosarcoma is rare and we report this is the first case of chondrosarcoma metastatic to the heart in Korea.
Adult ; Chondrosarcoma* ; Cough ; Diagnosis ; Dyspnea ; Edema ; Female ; Heart Failure ; Heart* ; Humans ; Korea ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Thigh ; Veins

BACKGROUND: Although elevated serum cholesterol level has been considered as a significant health problem because it is associated with coronary artery disease, the relation with various health problem (esp. depression) from low serum cholesterol is not well known in Korean people. The authors tried to observe the degree of depression in low serum cholesterol group for its better management. METHODS: The study population was selected among adults who visited the National University Hospital Health Screening Center between May and July 1998. They had no history of cancer and liver disease and no significant medical illnesses which may affect blood cholesterol level. Using the Korean standard BDI, we evaluated the degree of depression scale. RESULTS: The number of subjects with low serum cholesterol was 77 (males 42, females 35) and that of the control group was 82 (males 47, females 34). The low serum cholesterol group had a statistically significantly higher BDI score(12.2+/-8.2) than the control group (7.6+/-6.3) (P<0.05). In males the mean BDI score of 11.9+/-7.4 in the low serum cholesterol group was significantly higher than the mean score of 5.0+/-3.8 in the control group (P<0.05). In females, there was no significant difference in depression scale between both groups. CONCLUSION: Since the male low serum cholesterol group had a high depression scale, the multi-disciplinary approaches which include psychological supports may be required to manage and treat them. And persistent significant association between low serum total cholesterol level and psychological problems suggests that further long-term study on the association of low cholesterol with depression is necessary.
Adult ; Cholesterol* ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Depression* ; Female ; Humans ; Liver Diseases ; Male ; Mass Screening

OBJECTIVE: The lateral extracavitary approach(LECA) to the thoracolumbar spine is known as one of procedure which allows not only direct vision of pathologic lesion, but also ventral decompression, and dorsal fixation of the spine through the same incision. However, some drawbacks of LECA, including the technically- demanding, time-consuming, unfamiliar surgical anatomy and excessive blood loss, make surgeons to hesitate to use this approach. This study is to provide the surgical anatomy of LECA using cadavers, for detailed informations when LECA is considered for the surgery. METHODS: We performed the 10 cadaveric studies, 7 male and 3 female, and careful dissection was carried out on right side of thoracolumbar region, except one for thoracic region. The photographs with micro-lens were taken to depict the close-up findings and for demonstrating detailed anatomy. RESULTS: The photographs and hand-drawings demonstrated the relationships among the musculature, segmental vessels and nerve roots seen during each dissection plane. The lateral branches of dorsal rami of spinal nerve and the transverse process were confirmed to be the most important landmark of this approach. CONCLUSION: We concluded that detailed anatomical findings for LECA through this step-by-step dissection would be useful during operative intervention to reduce the intraoperative complications in LECA.
Cadaver* ; Decompression ; Female ; Humans ; Intraoperative Complications ; Male ; Spinal Nerves ; Spine*

No abstract available.

From May, 1975 to August, 1986, we experienced 21 patients with ruptured aneurysm of the sinus of Valsalva. 1) Their ages ranged from 15 to 52 years with a mean age of 26.7 years, and 14 patients were male and 7 patients were female. Among 18 cases of which aneurysms occurred on the right sinus of Valsalva, 15 cases (83%) ruptured into the right ventricle, 1 case (6%) ruptured into the right atrium and 2 cases (11%) ruptured into the pulmonary artery. All 3 cases of which aneurysms occurred on the noncoronary sinus ruptured into the right atrium. 2) Clinical symptoms consisted of dyspnea (95%), palpitation (81%), chest pain (43%), orthopnea (33%), cough (14%), hemoptysis (5%), oliguria (5%), and fever (5%). In all patients continuous heart murmur was audible. Hepatomegaly (48%), pulmonary basal rale (14%), and pretibial pitting edema (19%) were also observed. 3) In all patients diagnosis was made with cardiac catheterization and angiography, and confirmed by operation excetpt one case. 4) Among 20 patients who had been performed corrective surgery, ventricular septal defect was observed in 16 patients (85%), aortic insufficiency in 5 patients (25%), pulmonary infundibular stenosis in 1 patient (5%), patent foramen ovale in 1 patient (5%), and tricuspid insufficiency in 1 patient (5%). Ventricular septal defect was observed in all 16 patients whose aneurysms of the right coronary sinus of Valsalva ruptured into the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery. 5) All patients survived operation, and no postoperative complication was found except 1 patient to whom reoperation was performed because of postoperative aortic insufficiency and detachment of the patch closure for ventricular septal defect. There was symptomatic improvement in all patients.
Aneurysm ; Aneurysm, Ruptured* ; Angiography ; Cardiac Catheterization ; Cardiac Catheters ; Chest Pain ; Coronary Sinus ; Cough ; Diagnosis ; Dyspnea ; Edema ; Female ; Fever ; Foramen Ovale, Patent ; Heart Atria ; Heart Murmurs ; Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular ; Heart Ventricles ; Hemoptysis ; Hepatomegaly ; Humans ; Male ; Oliguria ; Postoperative Complications ; Pulmonary Artery ; Pulmonary Subvalvular Stenosis ; Reoperation ; Respiratory Sounds ; Sinus of Valsalva*

The Fas (TNF receptor superfamily, member 6) (FAS)/FAS ligand (FASLG) interaction plays a central role in the regulation of programmed cell death. FAS and FASLG polymorphisms in promoter regions affect transcriptional activities. To investigate whether FAS and FASLG polymorphisms are associated with the development and clinical phenotypes of stroke, 2 promoter single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in FAS (rs1800682, -670C/T) and FASLG (rs763110, -844C/T) were selected and genotyped by direct sequencing in 220 stroke patients [107 ischemic stroke (IS), 77 intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), and 36 subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)] and 369 control subjects. For the analysis of clinical symptoms, all stroke patients were divided into 3 clinical phenotypes according to the respective results of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Survey (NIHSS) and the Modified Barthel Index (MBI) and the presence or absence of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). The SNPStats, SNPAnalyzer, and Helixtree programs were used to analyze the genetic data. Multiple logistic regression models (codominant, dominant, and recessive) were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs), 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and p-values. The promoter SNP rs1800682 was associated with stroke in the codominant (OR=0.48, 95% CI=0.25-0.94, p=0.04) and dominant models (OR=0.51, 95% CI=0.30-0.87, p=0.011). However, a FASLG SNP (rs763110) was not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p<0.05). In the analysis of stroke types, rs1800682 was associated with IS in the codominant (OR=0.30, 95% CI=0.12-0.74, p=0.025), dominant (OR=0.44, 95% CI=0.23-0.88, p=0.018), and recessive models (OR=0.45, 95% CI=0.21-0.99, p=0.042). The genotype frequencies of rs1800682 were different between ICH and controls in the dominant model (OR=0.49, 95% CI=0.26-0.94, p=0.031) but not between SAH and controls. In the analysis of clinical symptoms, however, rs1800682 was not related to the 3 clinical phenotypes (NIHSS, MBI, and CRPS). These results suggest that a promoter SNP (rs1800682, -670C/T) in FAS may be associated with the development of stroke in the Korean population.
Cell Death ; Cerebral Hemorrhage ; Genotype ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; National Institutes of Health (U.S.) ; Odds Ratio ; Phenotype ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Stroke ; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

The stomach is the most common site of gastrointestinal tract lymphoma, while synchronous mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphomas of the stomach and duodenum are very rare. A literature review found no reported case of synchronous gastroduodenal MALT lymphomas with involvement of the bone marrow and spleen. Here, we describe the case of a 62-year-old male who was diagnosed with synchronous MALT lymphomas of the stomach and duodenum based on upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and pathology. Other staging evaluations, including colonoscopy, abdominopelvic and chest computed tomography (CT), 18F fludeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), and a bone marrow examination, showed involvement of the bone marrow and spleen. We diagnosed stage EIV MALT lymphoma and began systemic chemotherapy. We report the first case of MALT lymphomas arising synchronously in both the stomach and duodenum with bone marrow involvement and review the literature.
Bone Marrow Examination ; Bone Marrow* ; Colonoscopy ; Drug Therapy ; Duodenum ; Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal ; Gastrointestinal Tract* ; Humans ; Lymphoid Tissue ; Lymphoma ; Lymphoma, B-Cell, Marginal Zone* ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pathology ; Spleen ; Stomach ; Thorax

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has now rapidly replaced open cholecystectomy. Rarely a calculus may arise from a metallic surgical clip migrated into the common bile duct (CBD) after this surgical procedure was performed. We report a 50-year-old man with CBD stone formed around a surgical clip, who had undergone a laparoscopic cholecystectomy because of acute calculous cholecystitis 14 months before. Abdominal CT revealed a single stone in mildly dilated CBD. A high density core within the CBD stone, was suspected to be a surgical clip. The stone was removed using a retrieval balloon catheter and basket after endoscopic sphincterotomy.
Cholecystectomy, Laparoscopic/adverse effects/*instrumentation ; Choledocholithiasis/*etiology ; *Foreign-Body Migration ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Surgical Instruments/*adverse effects

PURPOSE: We wanted to evaluate the results of treating acromioclavicular joint dislocation using an AO hook plate. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between February 2008 and September 2009, 10 patients underwent implant removal after surgical treatment of acromioclavicular joint dislocation using a AO hook plate. The Constant-Murley scoring system was administered postoperatively for evaluating the clinical results, and simple X-ray was taken for evaluating the state of reduction. RESULTS: All cases showed satisfactory results on the clinical and radiological study. The mean Constant-Murley score at follow-up was 90.5 (range: 84~95). Three patients had some degree of discomfort with the hook plate, but these symptoms were relieved on removal of the plate. The radiological evaluation showed restoration of the vertical displacement of the clavicle in all the patients. No complications occurred such as infection, plate failure or redislocation after removal of the plate. CONCLUSION: The short term follow-up results of treating acromioclvicular joint dislocation using an AO hook plate were satisfactory both clinically and radiologically.
Acromioclavicular Joint ; Clavicle ; Dislocations ; Displacement (Psychology) ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Joints