Takayasu's arteritis is an arteritis of undetermined etiology, which affects the aorta, proximal portion of its major branches, and causes narrowing, occlusion, or aneurismal dilatation of vessel. Authors report 2 cases of Takayasu's arteritis with brief review of the literature.
Aorta ; Arteritis ; Dilatation ; Takayasu Arteritis*

No abstract available.
Leiomyoma*

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Adult* ; Humans ; Neural Conduction*

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary tuberculosis(TB) is still prevalent and remains a significant clinical problem for the elderly. However, the disease presents in many ways, and there are frequent adverse drug reactions that may prevent the early diagnosis and treatment of elderly TB patients compared to the young. The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not there are any differences in the clinical feature of pulmonary tuberculosis(TB) in both the diagnosis and treatment between the young (less than 64 years) and the elderly (65 years and more). METHODS: The medical records of 125 young and 70 elderly pulmonary TB patients, who were diagnosed with and treated for pulmonary TB at the Seoul Municipal Boramae Hospital from November 1991 to January 1997, were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: Anorexia(12% vs. 31.4%), general weakness (20.0% vs. 54.3%), dyspnea(21.6% vs. 37.1%) and an abnormal mentality (0.8% vs. 15.7%) were more frequent presenting symptoms in elderly TB patients, whereas hemoptysis (32.8% vs. 10.0%) and fever (BT>37℃ 58.4% vs. 35.7%) were more frequent in the young. The elderly had a higher number of cardiovascular and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases as underlying illnesses. In chest PA, there were no differences in the location of the TB lesion, but the appearances were initially diagnosed more frequently as pneumonia or lung cancer (8.8% vs. 30.0%, p<0.05) in the elderly. There was no difference in the detection rate of acid fast bacilli(AFB) in the sputum between the two groups. There were no differences in the treatment response and follow-up loss. However, adverse drug reactions (13.6% vs. 45.7%, p<0.05), and changes in medication (4.9% vs. 25.7%, p<0.05) during treatment occurred more frequently in the elderly. One among the 125 young patients died from tuberculosis whereas 6 among the 70 elderly patients died from the disease. CONCLUSION: Because the clinical and radiological presentations were more atypical, a sputum AFB smear and culture should be done immediately in the elderly who are TB. The elderly experienced more frequent adverse drug reactions and mortality during treatment, but the response to treatment was good and rapid.
Aged* ; Diagnosis ; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions ; Early Diagnosis ; Fever ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hemoptysis ; Humans ; Lung Diseases, Obstructive ; Lung Neoplasms ; Medical Records ; Mortality ; Pneumonia ; Retrospective Studies ; Seoul ; Sputum ; Thorax ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary*

BACKGROUND: Conventional thoracoscopic thoracic sympathectomy or sympathicotomy is an effective method in treating localized hyperhidrosis; however, this may result in a postoperatively embarrassing compensatory hyperhidrosis or facial anhidrosis in the treatment of palmar hyperhidrosis. We modified the conventional sympathicotomy by limiting the extent of nerve transection. The purpose of this study was to assess the result of the limited thoracoscopic sympathetic nerve transection in hyperhidrosis. MATERIAL AND METHOD: From May to August 1998, 17 patients underwent limited transection of the sympathetic nerve. For 9 patients with facial hyperhidrosis, we transected only the interganglionic fiber between the first and the second ganglion, whereas the conventional method cuts two interganglionic fibers. Eight patients with palmar hyperhidrosis underwent limited transection of the interganglionic fiber between the second and third ganglion. RESULT: Sixteen patients had improved symptom postoperatively. There was a recurred facial sweating in 1 patient 1 month after the operation. Among the 9 facial hyperhidrosis patients, postoperative compensatory hyperhidrosis was severe in 4, moderate in 4 and minimal in 1. But in 8 cases of palmar hyperhidrosis compensatory hyperhidrosis was moderate in 3, and minimal in 1, none in 4. Facial sweating was not disturbed postoperatively in all of the palmar hyperhidrosis patients. CONCLUSION: Limited sympathetic nerve transection is a practical and less invasive method for the treatment of localized hyperhidrosis and may reduce the incidence of compensatory truncal hyperhidrosis and facial anhidrosis in case of palmar hyperhidrosis.
Ganglion Cysts ; Humans ; Hyperhidrosis* ; Hypohidrosis ; Incidence ; Sweat ; Sweating ; Sympathectomy

Malignant lymphoma of the bladder is a rare lesion, representing approximately 0.2% of the primary lesions and approximately 1.8% of the secondary lesions. A disseminated lymphoma presenting as a bladder mass is an infrequent phenomenon. The authors report the case of a 71-year-old patient with concurrent bladder lymphoma and bladder cancer presenting as metastatic bladder cancer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of concurrent bladder lymphoma and bladder cancer.
Aged ; Carcinoma, Transitional Cell ; Humans ; Lymphoma ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms

No abstract available.
Coronary Artery Bypass* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Mortality*

This report describes three cases of large arteriovenous malformation which were removed totally with two stage operation. When a large arteriovenous malformtaion had to be removed, prediction of profuse bleeding and brain swelling could be made. We clipped large feeding arteries and arteires and made a cleft around the AVM during the first operation, and the progressive reduction of the shunt flow by clipping the dominant peduncles on after the other diminished the risk of profuse bleeding and brain swelling. 7 to 10 days later, we removed AVM totally as the second operation. All three lesions were resected by microsurgical techniques, and the results were excellent. The rationale for the two stage operation for large cerebral AVM is discussed.
Arteries ; Arteriovenous Malformations ; Brain Edema ; Hemorrhage ; Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformations*

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Prostaglandin (PG) A2 has been reported to inhibit the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma cells via activation of apoptosis, although the molecular mechanisms involved have not been clarified, yet. To investigate the mechanism of the PGA2-induced apoptosis, we analyzed the activation of caspases during the apoptosis of hepatoma cell lines. METHODS: Induction of apoptosis by PGA2 in hepatoma cell lines, Hep 3B and Hep G2, was assessed by DAPI staining of nuclei and agarose gel electrophoresis of genomic DNA. The involvement of caspases was analyzed by immunoblot analysis of poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) and by checking the effect of caspase inhibitors on PGA2-induced apoptosis. RESULTS: PGA2 inhibited the growth of Hep 3B and Hep G2 cells, accompanying nuclear condensation and fragmentation, and genomic DNA laddering, which are the hallmarks of apoptosis. The PARP was not cleaved during the apoptosis of Hep 3B and Hep G2 cells and caspase inhibitors such as z-VAD-Fmk and z-DEVD-Fmk exerted no effect on the PGA2-induced apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that PGA2 induces apoptosis in Hep 3B and Hep G2 cells via caspase-independent pathway.
Apoptosis/*drug effects ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/*pathology ; Caspases/antagonists & inhibitors/*metabolism ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation/drug effects ; Enzyme Activation ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms/*pathology ; Prostaglandins A/*pharmacology ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Tumor Cells, Cultured