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

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The efficacy of standard triple therapy (STT) in treating Helicobacter pylori infection has decreased. Many investigators have attempted to increase the eradication rate. We investigated the outcomes of concomitant therapy (CT) and STT combined with probiotics (STP) as a first-line treatment for H. pylori infection. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of 361 patients who received either STP (n=286) or CT (n=75). The STP group received STT combined with a probiotic preparation for 1 week. The CT group received STT and metronidazole for 1 week. RESULTS: The intention-to-treat and per-protocol eradication rates were 83.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 79.0 to 87.7) and 87.1% (95% CI, 81.2 to 89.7) in the STP group and 86.7% (95% CI, 78.7 to 93.3) and 91.4% (95% CI, 83.6 to 97.1) in the CT group (p=0.512 and p=0.324), respectively. The frequency of adverse effects was higher in the CT group (28.2%) than in the STP group (12.8%) (p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: STP and CT are encouragingly efficacious as first-line treatments for H. pylori infection. Therefore, adding probiotics to STT may be a feasible option to avoid side effects.
Helicobacter pylori* ; Helicobacter* ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Metronidazole ; Probiotics* ; Research Personnel

BACKGROUND: Exercise-induced coronary spasm is occasionally recognized in patients with variant angina, but the patterns of exercise-induced coronary spasm and its relation to clinical features are still not clear. METHODS: Eight consecutive patients with variant angina without significant stenosis of the coronary artery performed serial treadmill exercise tests during early morning, late morning, and in the afternoon. The subjects repeated the tests after administration of atropine and doxazosin or phentolamine. RESULTS: (Upon drug administration), anginal episodes with ST-segment changes (elevation 5, depression 1) Occurred repeatedly in 6 of the 8 patients during early morning; the episodes occurred in only 2 patients during the afternoon exercise test. Four patients showed exercise-induced angina and ST-segment changes during early morning but not in the afternoon, and 2 of them showed mild episodes of exercise-induced angina and ST-segment changes during late morning. Three of the four patients had the characteristic clinical history of angina in early morning during usual activities but not during daytime activities despite the activities being more strenuous. Another 2 patients showed both exercise-induced ST-segment elevation and angina in early morning and afternoon, and they had the characteristic history of more episodes at night and in early morning but only occasionally in the daytime with or without relation to activity. One of the two patients showed intermittent ST-segment elevation during the exercise test. The other two patients had exercise-induced episodes neither in the early morning nor in the afternoon; they had a characteristic history of episodes only at night during sleep but never in the early morning nor in the daytime. Atropine did not suppress the exercise-induced angina in 4 of 5 patients studied. Doxazosin or phentolamine suppressed the exercise-induced episodes in 3 of 5 patients studied but aggravated spontaneous episodes in 3 patients. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that there's possibility of presence of different patterns of exercise-induced coronary spasm, which may be induced by different mechanisms from those in spontaneous episodes in patients with variant angina.
Atropine ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Coronary Vessels ; Depression ; Doxazosin ; Exercise Test ; Humans ; Phentolamine ; Spasm*

Patients with pain syndromes resulting from recurrent or metastatic cancer should be evaluated carefully to determine the cause of their pain and the need for appropriate antitumor treatment. The most effective ablative pain control procedure at the current time is cordotomy, which is indicated in patients with unilateral pain. The authors results of 12 antero-lateral thoracic cordotomies performed for intractable cancer pain between 1996-1998. The follow-up of these patients was continued for at least 12 months or until death to determine the late success of this procedure. Excellent surgical results were obtained in 100% after one week and in 50% in 6 months after operation. The operation was considered to be successful for patients with malignant disease of short life expectancy.
Cordotomy* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Life Expectancy

No abstract available.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast*

Malignant peripheral nerve sheath spinal tumours are relatively rare. A primary spinal location at the first onset is rarely reported in the literature, thus the clinical features and therapeutic results of these spinal malignant tumours are not defined. We describle three patients with primary spinal malignant schwannomas and stress the surgical mananement of these cases.
Humans ; Neurilemmoma* ; Peripheral Nerves

BACKGROUND: This study was performed to compare the analgesic effects of the systemic versus local administration of ketamine and observe the effects of an NMDA receptor agonist on its peripheral analgesia using the rat formalin test. METHODS: Rats undergoing peripheral analgesia were divided into three groups; the administration of a subcutaneous (s.c.) injection of 0.1 ml of normal saline (Control), and intraperitoneal (i.p.) (Keta/IP) and s.c. (Keta/LO) injections of 2.5 mg/0.1 ml of ketamine administered 5 min before a s.c. injection of 50 ul of 5% formalin. All s.c. injections were performed at the same site: the right hind paw of the rat. To observe the effects of an NMDA receptor agonist, five groups were compared. In addition to the control and Keta/LO groups described above, following three groups with 1-Aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid (ACPC), an NMDA receptor agonist, in addition to the Keta/LO group; local infiltration with 0.1 mM/0.1 ml ACPC 10 min before or after the administration of ketamine, and an i.p. injection 10 min before the administration of ketamine followed by a s.c. injection of formalin 5 min later. The pain behavior was compared according to the number of flinches during phase 2. RESULTS: All the ketamine groups showed fewer flinches compared to the control (P < 0.01). The Keta/Lo group showed fewer flinches than that of the Keta/IP group (P < 0.01). The analgesic effect of locally administered ketamine was reversed by pretreatment with either s.c. or i.p. ACPC, but not by post-treatment. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that locally administered ketamine has a potent peripheral analgesic effect, but the administration of ACPC prior to ketamine decreases the analgesic effect of ketamine.
Analgesia ; Animals ; Formaldehyde* ; Ketamine* ; N-Methylaspartate ; Pain Measurement* ; Rats*

BACKGROUND: Of the plasmid-mediated AmpC beta-lactamases (ABLs), CMY-2 is the most prevalent and is distributed in many countries. However, little is known about the emergence and characteristics of CMY-2 among Escherichia coli isolates in Korea. The aims of this study were to detect the emergence of the CMY-2 beta-lactamase in clinical isolates of E. coli from various regions in Korea. METHODS: Eighteen cefoxitin non-susceptible isolates of 1, 130 consecutive, nonrepeat isolates of E. coli at five university hospitals were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility by the broth microdilution method. The cefoxitin non-susceptible isolates were further investigated by AmpC disk tests, double disk synergy (DDS) tests, isoelectric focusing, CMY-2-specific PCR, DNA sequencing, and plasmid analysis. RESULTS: Seven (0.6%) isolates of plasmid-mediated ABL-producing E. coli were found at three of the five hospitals; all seven isolates produced CMY-2 beta-lactamase and one of the isolates was also tested positive by the DDS test. All isolates demonstrated different plasmid patterns by plasmid analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that CMY-2-producing E. coli has emerged and is prevalent in the medical institution in Korea. Therefore, constant surveillance is needed to prevent its further spread.
beta-Lactamases ; Cefoxitin ; Escherichia coli* ; Hospitals, University ; Isoelectric Focusing ; Korea ; Plasmids ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sequence Analysis, DNA

Rabies is a major zoonotic disease that causes approximately 55,000 human deaths worldwide on an annual basis. The nucleocapsid protein and glycoprotein genes of the Korean rabies virus (RABV) have been subjected to molecular and phylogenetic analyses. Although the phosphoprotein (P) has several important functions in viral infection and pathogenicity, the genetic characterizations of the P of Korean RABV isolates have not yet been established. In the present study, we conducted genetic analyses of P genes of 24 RABV isolates circulating in the Republic of Korea (hereafter, Korea) from 2008 to 2011. This study revealed that the P genes of Korean RABVs are genetically similar to those of RABV strains of lyssavirus genotype I including V739 (dogs, Korea), NNV-RAB-H (humans, India), NeiMeng925 (raccoon dogs, China), and RU9.RD (raccoon dogs, Russia). Among Korean isolates, the RABV P genes showed low variability in the variable domains among Korean isolates; they had specific consensus sequences and amino acid substitutions capable of identifying geographic characteristics and retained specific sequences thought to be important for viral function. These results provide important genetic characteristics and epidemiological information pertaining to the P gene of the Korean RABV.
Amino Acid Substitution ; Animals ; Consensus Sequence ; Dogs ; Genotype ; Glycoproteins ; Humans ; Korea ; Lyssavirus ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Nucleocapsid Proteins ; Rabies ; Rabies virus ; Republic of Korea

Fractures of the humeral shaft are commonly encountered by orthopaedic surgeons, mainly in the age group ranging between adolescence and adult, in which treatment can be mananged operatively using plate and screws, intramedullary nail or external fixator. In this case, a patient had an operation for humerus shaft fracture, an intramedullary nail was applied and bone union occured. When removing the metal, and because the proximal entry of the intramedullary nail could not be tightly interlocked with the metal removal set due to entry screw thread wear, it was necessary to devise a certain tool. A 6.5 mm diameter cannulated screw was used as a alternative device for removal of interlocking intramedullary nail.
Adolescent ; Adult ; External Fixators ; Humans ; Humerus