No abstract available.
Osteomyelitis* ; Radionuclide Imaging*

No abstract available.
Angioplasty*

OBJECTIVES: Auditory verbal hallucination (AVH) is knoun for its high prevalence and difficulty in evaluation. Authors hypothesized that it may be possible to find useful dimensions of AVH that reflect the clinical status of schizophrenic patients by assessing the multi-dimensional changes and linguistic forms' of AVH during antipsychotic treatment. METHODS: 33 schizophrenic patients with AVH were selected and periodically assessed with the 11 items of hallucinations subscale of 'The Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS)'. In addition, to assess the linguistic forms observed in the AVH, the evaluations of sentence structure of AVH reported by the patients were conducted. RESULTS: PSYRATS showed the multidimensionality inherent in AVH. The changes in the quantitative dimensions did not correlate well with patients' subjective distress. However, qualitative changes in the cognitive and emotional dimensions showed more favorable correlation with clinical course of the patient. The sentence structures of AVH showed tendency to change from "sentence" to "non-sentence" type with overall improvement during treatment. CONCLUSION: Multi-dimensional approach to AVH can give us more information about the changing patterns of multi-faceted structure of AVH and clinical status of patients than one-dimensional or categorical approach.
Hallucinations* ; Humans ; Linguistics ; Prevalence ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVES: Auditory verbal hallucination (AVH) is knoun for its high prevalence and difficulty in evaluation. Authors hypothesized that it may be possible to find useful dimensions of AVH that reflect the clinical status of schizophrenic patients by assessing the multi-dimensional changes and linguistic forms' of AVH during antipsychotic treatment. METHODS: 33 schizophrenic patients with AVH were selected and periodically assessed with the 11 items of hallucinations subscale of 'The Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS)'. In addition, to assess the linguistic forms observed in the AVH, the evaluations of sentence structure of AVH reported by the patients were conducted. RESULTS: PSYRATS showed the multidimensionality inherent in AVH. The changes in the quantitative dimensions did not correlate well with patients' subjective distress. However, qualitative changes in the cognitive and emotional dimensions showed more favorable correlation with clinical course of the patient. The sentence structures of AVH showed tendency to change from "sentence" to "non-sentence" type with overall improvement during treatment. CONCLUSION: Multi-dimensional approach to AVH can give us more information about the changing patterns of multi-faceted structure of AVH and clinical status of patients than one-dimensional or categorical approach.
Hallucinations* ; Humans ; Linguistics ; Prevalence ; Weights and Measures

Angiolipomas are usually found in the soft tissues of the extremity, trunk, or neck. Spinal angiolipomas are rare, accounting for between 0.14% and 1.2% of spinal axis tumors, and the majority are extradural. We report a case of surgically proven extradural spinal angiolipoma with a high vascular content and involving the thoracic level.
Angiolipoma* ; Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Extremities ; Neck

PURPOSE: To evaluate therapeutic effect of biofeedback therapy according to methods of diagnosis in patients with norelaxing puborectalis syndrome. METHODS: From September, 1, 1998 to February, 30, 1999, the patients who were diagnosed with norelaxing puborectalis syndrome on anal electromyography (EMG) and/or cinedefecography (CD) underwent biofeedback therapy. The patients were divided into 3 groups according to the diagnostic method; CD group - only diagnosed on cinedefecography, EMG group - only diagnosed on anal electromyography, CD EMG group - diagnosed on both tests. RESULTS: Nineteen patients were diagnosed nonrelaxing puborectalis syndrome on CD and/or EMG. There were 14 females and 5 males with a mean age of 40.8+/-18.4 years. The patients were classified into CD group; five patients (26.3%); EMG group, eight patients (42.1%); CD EMG group, six patients (31.6%). The patients had 5.4 3.7 sessions of outpatient EMG-based biofeedback sessions. Subjective symptoms after biofeedback therapy improved in 4 (80.0%), 6 (75%), 5 (83%) patients in CD, EMG, CD EMG groups, respectively. There was a statistically significant increase in spontaneous bowel movements, and a reduction in assisted bowel movements after biofeedback therapy in patients in all three groups (p<0.05). However, no significant difference was found among the three groups. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that biofeedback therapy had a high therapeutic effect regardless to the diagnostic method. Therefore, biofeedbck therapy can be performed if one test results in the diagnosis of norelaxing puborectalis syndrome in patients with constipation.
Biofeedback, Psychology* ; Constipation ; Diagnosis* ; Electromyography ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Outpatients

PURPOSE: We analyzed the efficacy and safety of laparoscopic radical cystectomy (LRC) compared with open radical cystectomy (ORC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between November 2007 and April 2009, we performed LRC to treat bladder cancer in 23 patients and ORC in 64 patients. Data including the patients' clinical characteristics, peri-operative parameters, clinical outcomes, and oncologic outcomes were collected retrospectively and analyzed by use of the Mann-Whitney U test and chi-square test. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in demographic data between the two groups. Operative time was longer (595.2 min vs. 453.1 min; p<0.01) in the LRC group but blood loss was less (634.8 ml vs. 1,415.9 ml; p<0.01) and fewer transfusions were required (13.0% vs. 50.0%; p=0.002) in the LRC group. Days to oral intake (5.7 days vs. 7.3 days; p<0.01), days to drain removal (10.9 days vs. 13.9 days; p=0.014), and length of hospital stay (15.2 days vs. 22.3 days; p<0.01) were shorter in the LRC group. Postoperative complications occurred in 4 cases in the LRC group and 28 cases in the ORC group (17.4% vs. 43.8%, p<0.01). There were no cases with a positive surgical margin in the LRC group and 3 cases in the ORC group. There was no significant difference in the number of lymph nodes excised (17.4 vs. 19.6; p=0.132) between groups. CONCLUSIONS: These short-term clinical and oncological results suggest that LRC is a safe and effective method for the treatment of invasive bladder cancer.
Cystectomy ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Length of Stay ; Lymph Nodes ; Operative Time ; Postoperative Complications ; Retrospective Studies ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms ; Urinary Diversion

HIV-1 p24 was cloned into multiple cloning site of pMV261, extrachromosomal expression vectors carrying BCG replication origin and BCG-specific heat-shock promoter, and then introduced into BCG and E. coli. Western blot experiments showed that the p24 efficiently expressed in recombinant BCG (rBCG), but not in E. coli. Recombinant p24 expression induced by a single heat-shock of rBCG was maintained longer than 3 weeks. Immunoblot experiments with intact rBCG did not show any distinctive positive signal, suggesting that the recombinant protein was not secreted or exposed at the surface of BCG. The guinea pigs immunized with live rBCG showed delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) by the systemic area as well as an effective humoral immunity, suggesting that tbis rBCG is believed to elicit eKcient immune responses against p24, even though the expression is restricted only in the cytoplasm as reported previously with other antigen. These results demonstrate that BCG can be developed as a live recombinant vaccine vector against a broad spectrum of infectious disease.
Animals* ; Blotting, Western ; Clone Cells ; Cloning, Organism ; Communicable Diseases ; Cytoplasm ; Guinea Pigs ; HIV* ; HIV-1 ; Hypersensitivity ; Immunity, Humoral ; Mycobacterium bovis* ; Replication Origin

No abstract available.
Hand* ; Regional Blood Flow*

Some of cerebral palsy patients are accompanied by mental retardation, convulsion, scoliosis and thoracic deformity. We experienced general anesthesia of a 22-year-old male with cerebral palsy accompanied by high degree mental retardation and scoliosis for dental caries therapy. We performed anesthetic management of this patient without any occurrence of anesthesia-related complications, though we had some difficulties in anesthetic induction and postural maintenance during the process. We recognized that considerable attention is needed for the patients with cerebral palsy to avoid undesirable anesthetic complications, especially ventilatory failure and neurologic sequelae.
Anesthesia, Dental ; Anesthesia, General ; Cerebral Palsy* ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Dental Caries ; Humans ; Intellectual Disability ; Male ; Scoliosis ; Seizures ; Young Adult