BACKGROUND: Various types of dystonia may be associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). This dystonic phenomenon is sometimes observed in untreated parkinsonian patients. However, it more commonly emerges as a side effect to long term levodopa (LD) therapy. We studied several factors which influence the risk of the occurrence of LD-induced dystonia (LID) in patients with PD. The types and involved sites in LID were also studied. METHODS: Ninety-six patients diagnosed as PD were evaluated. We analyzed the contribution of several factors such as sex, age at onset of parkinsonian symptoms, disease durations, H & Y stages, average LD doses, LD durations, and types of initial symptoms (tremor vs non-tremor) to the occurrence of LID. The types of LID were divided into: wearing-off, morning-off, peak-dose, and diphasic groups. RESULTS: LID was observed in 29 patients (30.2%). Among the 29 patients with LID, 11 were categorized as wearing-off dystonia, 10 as morning-off, 6 as peak-dose, and 2 as diphasic. LID occurred in the feet or toes of 23 patients, upper extremities of 3, and in the heads or necks of 3. Sixteen patients had dystonias on the same side of their initial symptoms, 4 on the opposite side, and 6 on both sides. Among the several factors, the types of initial symptoms, average LD doses, LD durations, age at onset of parkinsonian symptoms, and H & Y stages were found to significantly contribute to the occurrence of LID. CONCLUSIONS: Dystonia often appeared as a side effect to anti-parkinsonian medications. Wearing-off dystonia was the most common type of LID. LID was commonly seen on the same side of initial symptoms. Initial parkinsonian symptoms were thought to be the most important contributing factor of LID.
Dystonia* ; Foot ; Head ; Humans ; Levodopa* ; Neck ; Parkinson Disease* ; Risk Factors ; Toes ; Upper Extremity

No abstract available.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Survival Rate*

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Hemifacial spasm(HFS) is a chronic and often progressive disorder characterized by unilateral irregular clonic and tonic contractions of one or more muscles of facial expression. Many previous electrophysiologic studies showed characteristic features of HFS differentiating from other involuntary movements of the face. However, there has been no electrophysiologic study for estimating the clinical severity of HFS. This study was prospectively designed to evaluate the relationships between electrophysiologic findings and clinical severity of HFS. METHODS: The authors performed direct facial nerve stimulation, blink reflex, and lateral spread response in 62 patients with HFS, and compared the results of affected side with those of unaffected each other. Clinical severity was graded into seven groups (0-6) by questionnaire and confirmed by a neurologist. RESULTS: The results were as following. 1) The total number of subjects were 62, the number of patients in group 2 was 3 (4.8%), group 3 was 12 (19.3%), group 4 was 25 (40.3%), group 5 was 21 (33.9%), and group 6 was 1(1.6%). 2) The mean age was 54.5+/-9.1years old, the mean duration of the illness was 6.4+/-4.9years, male was 11(17.7%) and female was 51(82.3%), and involved sites were right in 26(41.9%) and left in 36(58.1%) patients. 3) Direct stimulation of facial nerve showed no differences between affected and unaffected sides in HFS. 4) The results of blink reflex showed more increased latencies and larger amplitudes of R1 & R2 responses in affected sides than in unaffected sides of HFS, but no differences among the groups. 5) The lateral spread responses were found in 45 of 62 (72.6%) patients by stimulation of zygomatic branch and recording in mentalis muscle, 26 of 62 (41.9%) patients by stimulation of mandibular branch and recording in orbicularis oculi muscle on affected side. 6) There was a linear correlation between the presence of lateral spread response with zygomatic or mandibular stimulation and the grade of clinical severity. CONCLUSION: We suspected that the lateral spread response was a significant electrophysiological test for estimating the clinical severity of HFS.
Blinking ; Dyskinesias ; Facial Expression ; Facial Nerve ; Female ; Hemifacial Spasm* ; Humans ; Male ; Muscles ; Prospective Studies ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE: Chronic acquired hepatocerebral degeneration(CAHD) is a heterogenous disorder that can occur with a primary neurologic, hepatic, or combined presentation. Characteristic radiologic finding is high signal in globus pallidus on T1WI MRI, and which is associated with increased level of Manganese. We experienced a patient with CAHD presenting various involuntary movements. Our patient had multiple anomalous vessels with a porto-systemic shunt in abdomen in absence of liver cirrhosis. CASE: A 74-years-old female was admitted because of gradually progressive buccal and lingual choreiform movements with moderate generalized chorea. In our patient, T1 weighted MRI of the brain showed symmetric high signal intensity in both globus pallidus and subthalamus. Increased ammonia level(165umol/L) and Manganese level(7.75ug/dl) in whole blood, pancytopopenia in peripheral blood smear and a multiple vessel anomaly with a porto-systemic shunt on abdominal ultrasonography and CT were found. These involuntary movements had a dramatic response to neuroleptics and nearly disappeared within 5 days. CONCLUSION: We report one patient with chronic acquired hepatocerebral degeneration which had a porto-systemic shunt by anomalous vessels and various involuntary movements.
Abdomen ; Ammonia ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Brain ; Chorea ; Dyskinesias ; Female ; Globus Pallidus ; Hepatolenticular Degeneration* ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Liver Diseases ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Manganese ; Subthalamus ; Ultrasonography

PURPOSE: Certain pitching mechanics is thought to lead pitchers in danger of surgical risk and decrease performance. The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of shoulder hyperabduction position during early cocking phase in association with surgical risk and performance in professional baseball players.METHODS: From 2009 to 2013, total of 93 candidates reached minimum inning qualification. After exclusion criteria (overlapped players, foreign players, age over 31 years, proceed to other league and retirement), 19 players were analyzed with slow-motion pitching video for hyperabduction of the shoulder and hyperpronation of forearm in cocking-phase. Also players were analyzed with innings pitched, earned run average (ERA), walks and hits divided by innings pitched (WHIP) and surgical history with database offered by official Korean Baseball Organization website.RESULTS: Out of total 19 players, nine players had hyperabduction arm movement and 10 players did not. Group with hyperabduction had average age of 24.3 years old, average inning/ERA/WHIP for 5 years were 55 innings/yr, 6.52 ERA/yr and 1.33 WHIP/yr, respectively, and seven players (77%) had surgeries eventually. Group without hyperabduction arm movement had average age of 25.4 years old; average inning, ERA/WHIP for 5 years were 127 1/3 innings/yr, 4.84 ERA/yr, and 1.32 WHIP/yr, respectively and five players (50%) went for surgeries. Player performance (ERA, p=0.66; WHIP, p=0.14) was not statistically influenced by the certain arm position at cocking phase but average inning pitched was statistically affected (p<0.01).CONCLUSION: Hyperabduction of shoulder in early cocking phase of throwing motion does not lead to decrease in performance (ERA, WHIP) but will result in tremendous decline of average IP. Also, risk of surgery is not associated to hyperabduction motion of the shoulder.
Arm ; Baseball ; Forearm ; Mechanics ; Shoulder

No abstract available.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast*

Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) is characterized by necrotizing granulomatous vasculitis of small or medium sized vessels affecting the upper and lower respiratory tracts and kidney. It is well known that peripheral neuropathy is one of the leading manifestations of WG in western countries but there are rare cases of WG showing peripheral neuropathy in Korea. We report a patient with WG having peripheral neuropathy in his pathological and immunological findings.
Humans ; Kidney ; Korea ; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases* ; Respiratory System ; Vasculitis ; Wegener Granulomatosis*

PURPOSE: The incidence of obesity has increased in Korea recently. Obesity leads to higher risks of hypertension, hyperlipidemia and insulin resistance. It also leads to risks of respiratory complications. This study was performed to see the effects of obesity on children's pulmonary functions and on developed bronchospasm after exercise loading according to their obesity degrees. METHODS: 257 obese children and 150 non-obese children were enrolled. Obese children were divided into 3 groups by the obesity degrees. Pre- and post-exercise loading FEV1(forced expiratory volume at one second), FVC(forced vital capacity) and PEFR(peak expiratory flow rate) were checked in all subjects. The percent predicted values of each parameter was compared according to obesity degrees and the differences between pre-exercise and post-exercise values. RESULTS:The percent predicted value of FEV1, FVC decreased only in the severe obesity group compared with those in the control group. However percent predicted PEFR declined according to obesity degrees. The percent predicted value of FEV1, FVC and PEFR after exercise loading were much lower than those before exercise loading in all groups. CONCLUSION: As the degree of obesity was higher, the percent predicted value of pulmonary function was lower. And after exercise loading, as the degree of obesity was higher, the reduction of percent predicted value of pulmonary function was larger. Therefore the pulmonary function in obese children must be observed carefully. Further studies on the effects of pulmonary functions in obese children are necessary.
Bronchial Spasm ; Child* ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Incidence ; Insulin Resistance ; Korea ; Obesity* ; Obesity, Morbid ; Peak Expiratory Flow Rate

BACKGROUND: The patterns of cognitive impairment in subcortical vascular dementia (SVaD) have been insufficiently investigated as compared with those in Alzheimer disease (AD). The aims of this study are to clarify the differences in the cognitive profiles between patients with SVaD and AD, and to differentiate between these two dementias using neuropsychological assessment. METHODS: Twenty-seven patients with SVaD, 45 patients with AD and 27 normal controls participated in this study. The dementia groups were all matched for age, education and the severity of dementia using the clinical dementia rating scale (CDR) and the global deterioration scale (GDS). All subjects were evaluated with a battery of detailed neuropsychological tests assessing attention, memory, language, visuospatial functions and frontal executive functioning. RESULTS: Both dementia patient groups demonstrated significant impairments in all cognitive domains including attention, verbal and visual memory, language function pertaining to naming, visuospatial and frontal executive functions compared with the control group. The patients with SVaD showed greater deficits in several items pertaining to attention and frontal executive functions than the AD patients. However, the AD group did not show any significant impairment in comparison with the SVaD group in any cognitive domain. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that patients with SVaD show different patterns of neurocognitive profiles from those with AD in the items of frontal executive dysfunctions and that quantitative neuropsychological assessments can play an important role in the discrimination between SVaD and AD.
Alzheimer Disease* ; Dementia ; Dementia, Vascular* ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Education ; Executive Function ; Humans ; Memory ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Neuropsychology

PURPOSE: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) for asymptomatic gallbladder disease has been increasing since 1990 due to the development of LC technique. Moreover, it might be considered when someone with asymptomatic gallbladder disease needs emergency operation due to acute abdomen such as acute appendicitis. The aim of this study is to identify the efficacy of concurrent laparoscopic appendectomy with cholecystectomy. METHODS: From January 1997 to June 2009, 40 patients underwent laparoscopic appendectomy with cholecystectomy at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital. 40 patients were enrolled in this study. We analyzed, retrospectively, clinical and diagnostic information, time and open conversion rate in operation, length of postoperation hospital stay, and complication rate. RESULTS: The mean age was 44.53+/-15.34 and male to female ratio was 1 to 1.86. 5% of all patients underwent abdominal surgery and 20% of all patients had associated diseases. Most common associated symptoms and final diagnosis were right lower abdominal pain (72.5%) and simple gallbladder stone (62.5%). Mean operation time was 98.75+/-33.14 min. and there was no open conversion. Mean length of postoperation hospital stay was 5+/-2 days. There was one (2.5%) postoperative complication. CONCLUSION: Combined operation of laparoscopic cholecystectomy during laparoscopic appendectomy can be a good modality for patients with chronic gallbladder disease.
Abdomen, Acute ; Abdominal Pain ; Appendectomy ; Appendicitis ; Cholecystectomy ; Cholecystectomy, Laparoscopic ; Emergencies ; Female ; Gallbladder ; Gallbladder Diseases ; Humans ; Length of Stay ; Male ; Retrospective Studies