Great efforts have been expended to compensate for nerve gap in the repair of a peripheral nerve injury. And yet, this nerve gap presents a great problem in surgical management. End-to-end anastomosis is most frequently used for repair of peripheral nerves, but the main problem is tension at the suture site. The purpose of this experiment is to observe the relationship between the tension and the nerve healing, when stretching is applied to the suture site of the peripheral nerve trunk. We used 25 rabbits of both sexes divided into 5 groups according to the nerve gap and the period of immobilization for this study. Gross and histological examination were used to compare the results of end-to-end suture under a tension and suture without tension. We concluded that: 1. The best results were obtained when end-to-end suture was done without tension. 2. Direct suture under a tension produced the results quite inferior to that of the suture without tension. 3. Better results were obtained from the group of immobilization, at least, for 4 weeks among the tension group. 4. Immobilization period may be prolonged according to the degree of the tension affecting the suture site. 5. Tension at the suture site causes proliferation of connective tissue.
Connective Tissue ; Immobilization ; Peripheral Nerve Injuries ; Peripheral Nerves ; Rabbits ; Sciatic Nerve ; Sutures

Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disorder, caused by the presence of anti-ac- etylcholine receptor antibody or acetylcholine-receptor deficiency and involved neuro- muscular endplate. The clinical course and outcome of myasthenia gravis are variable during pregnancy. The special caution and adequate management for myasthenic mother and myasthenia gravis occurred newborn of myasthenic mother are essential for good perinatal outcomes. We experienced a case of myasthenia gravis associated with pregnancy who underwent cesarean section. We present this case with a brief review of literatures.
Cesarean Section ; Female ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Mothers ; Myasthenia Gravis* ; Myasthenia Gravis, Neonatal ; Pregnancy*

No abstract available.
Adiponectin ; Humans ; Plasma

No abstract available.
Female ; Ovarian Cysts* ; Ultrasonography*

In Korea, Clonorchis sinensis infection is still highly prevalent because case detection in the field is difficult and the detected cases used to be incompletely cured due to treatment failure. The present study tried to control clonorchiasis in an endemic village by repeated treatments with praziquantel every 6 months and to evaluate sonography as a diagnostic measure. By stool examinations, the egg positive rate in the endemic village was 22.7%, but it decreased to 19.6% at 6 months, 15.1% at 12 months. 12.2% at 18 months, 6.3% at 24 months, 11.4% at 30 months, and 6.3% at 42 months after the beginning of repeated praziquantel administration. The sonography showed 61 (49.6%) positive cases of 123 screened residents: among egg-positives the sonography positive rate was 52.2% and among egg-negatives it was still 49%. The rate among cured cases was 64.3% after 6 months, 50.0% after 12 months, 50.0% after 18 months, and 66.7% after 24 months. In a non-endemic village, 64 residents were found egg-negative by fecal examination, but 20 (31.3%) of them were positive by sonography. The present findings indicate that control of clonorchiasis in an endemic village by repeated praziquantel treatment for 42 months is still insufficient and sonography is of little value for diagnosis of clonorchiasis.
Animal ; Antiplatyhelmintic Agents/administration & dosage* ; Clonorchiasis/ultrasonography* ; Clonorchiasis/prevention & control ; Clonorchiasis/epidemiology ; Follow-Up Studies ; Human ; Korea/epidemiology ; Parasite Egg Count ; Praziquantel/administration & dosage* ; Prevalence ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Treatment Failure

No abstract available.
Pregnancy*

BACKGROUND: This study was aimed to investigate the diagnosis-related characteristics of the microvascular complications among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and to identify the relationship ship between regular check-up and detection of complications of diabetes. METHODS: The study subjects were 63 patients with diabetic microvascular complications. The data were collected with self-administered questionnaire and analyzed with descriptive statistics. RESULTS: The main motive to identify retinopathy was through 'visiting hospital after having symptoms (58.9%)', and not through regular checkup. The most common symptom of retinopathy was dim dye (84.3%) and the mean duration after diabetes mellitus diagnosis was 6.8 years. The main motive to identify renal complications was through 'visiting hospital after having symptoms and checking for other complications (28.0%)'. The most common symptom of renal complications was edema of face and hands (72.0%) and the mean duration following diabetes mellitus diagnosis was 8.4 years. The main motive to identify neuropathy was through 'visiting hospital after having symptoms (34.8%)', and not regular checkup. The most common symptom of neuropathy was tingling sensation of feet (100.0%) and the mean duration following diabetes mellitus diagnosis was 7.4 years. CONCLUSION: Based on the results, we suggest that diabetes complications check-up should be performed simultaneously to make the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, and that the health care providers could provide them with more opportunities to have such check-ups with standardized complications care guidelines.
Diabetes Complications ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2* ; Diagnosis ; Edema ; Foot ; Hand ; Health Personnel ; Humans ; Sensation ; Ships ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Alcohol influences the neuroadaptation of brain cells where receptors and enzymes like protein kinase C (PKC) exist. Naltrexone acts on opioid receptors. However, other mechanisms of action remain unknown. We prepared SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, and fed them with 150 mM ethanol for 72 h followed by treatment with naltrexone for 24 h. We performed microarray analysis and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Our results showed that PKC epsilon increased 1.90 times and showed an overall decreasing pattern as time increased. Phosphorylated ERK also increased 2.0 times according to the change of PKC epsilon. Integrin alpha7 increased 2.32 times and showed an increasing pattern as time increased. In conclusion, naltrexone influences PKC epsilon neuronal signaling system and endothelial adhesion molecule integrin alpha7 in addition to the well-known opioid system.
Antigens, CD/*metabolism ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Comparative Study ; DNA, Complementary/genetics ; Humans ; Integrin alpha Chains/*metabolism ; Naltrexone/*pharmacology ; *Neuroblastoma/enzymology/metabolism/pathology ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Protein Kinase C-epsilon/*metabolism ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Time Factors

PURPOSE: In order to review various complications and their frequencies and causes after chemoembolization in the patients with hepatic neoplasm. Subjects and Methods:Subjects were 362 patients who underwent chemoembolization for hepatic neoplasm during the recent 2 years from Jan. 1990 to Dec. 1992. A total of 954 procedures were performed in these patients. For the initial treatment, only the emulsion of Lipiodol and Adriamycin were infused in 225 patients and gelfoam embolization were followed in 126 patients. A retrospective analysis for the complications was undertaken with reviewing of clinical and radiologic findings. RESULTS: Severe post-embolization syndrome lasting longer than one week developed in 54 patients in whom Ihe tumor size was mostly larger than 6cm in diameter. Sepsis accompanying persistent fever was developed in 9 cases. There were various hepatic complications;transient deterioration of hepatic function(46 cases), persistent deterioration of hepatic function(15 cases), hepatic failure(9 cases), hepatic rupture(3 cases), intrahepatic bile duct injury(3 cases) and liver abscess(1 case). Complications involuing other organs were upper GI bleeding(9 cases), gallbladder infarction(3 cases), splenic infarction(4 cases), Pulmonary embolism(6 cases)and spinal arterial embolism(1 case). There were 9 mortalities within one month after the procedure. CONCLUSION: Various complications of liver and other organs after chemoembolization of hepatic neoplasm warrants more scrutinized preprocedure evaluations of related factors such as amount of embolic materials, vascular anatomy, protal invasion, biliary obstruction, and liver functional reservoir.
Bile Ducts, Intrahepatic ; Doxorubicin ; Ethiodized Oil ; Fever ; Gallbladder ; Gelatin Sponge, Absorbable ; Humans ; Liver ; Liver Neoplasms* ; Mortality ; Retrospective Studies ; Sepsis

Glucocorticoid-remediable aldosteronism (GRA) is an autosomal-dominant inheritable form of hyperaldosteronism with early onset hypertension. GRA is caused by unequal crossing-over of the steroid 11beta-hydroxylase (CYP11B1) and aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) genes. As a result of chimeric gene duplication, aldosterone is ectopically synthesized in the adrenal zona fasciculata under the control of adrenocorticotropin. Here, we describe three cases of GRA in a Korean family. The proband-a 21-yr-old female-was incidentally found to have high blood pressure (170/108 mmHg). Her 46-yr-old father had been treated twice for cerebral hemorrhage at the ages of 29 and 39 yr. Her 15-yr-old brother had a 2-yr history of hypertension; however, he was never treated. Their laboratory test results showed normokalemia, hyporeninemia, hyperaldosteronism, and a high plasma aldosterone concentration-to-plasma renin activity ratio. Normal saline loading failed to suppress aldosterone secretion. However, dexamethasone administration effectively suppressed their plasma aldosterone concentrations. Following genetic analyses with PCR and direct sequencing to document the chimeric gene and crossover site, respectively, we identified CYP11B1/CYP11B2 and determined the breakpoint of unequal crossover to be located between intron 2 of CYP11B1 and exon 3 of CYP11B2.
Adolescent ; Aldosterone/blood ; Aldosterone Synthase/*genetics ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group/*genetics ; Dexamethasone/therapeutic use ; Family ; Female ; Glucocorticoids/*therapeutic use ; Humans ; Hyperaldosteronism/diagnosis/drug therapy/*genetics ; Hypertension/etiology ; Magnetic Resonance Angiography ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Renin/blood/metabolism ; Republic of Korea ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Steroid 11-beta-Hydroxylase/*genetics ; Young Adult