BACKGROUND: Endoscopic Ultrasonography(EUS), a combination of endoscopy and ultrasonography is one of the most useful tools for diagnosis of digestive system diseases. EUS is useful in staging the primary tumor invasion and regional lymph node metastasis because of its ability to image the gut wall and adjacent structures in unique detail. We performed a study preoperatively for assessing the accuracy and limitation of EUS in gastric carcinoma. METHODS: In 75 patients(Male 54, Female 21, Mean age 62.3 years) with a gastric carcinoma confirmed by endoscopic biopsy, we performed EUS preoperatively. The results were compared with the postoperative histopathologic staging. RESULTS: 1) In assessing the depth of tumor invasion, EUS accuracy on depth of invasion was 76.0% and overstaging and understaging were 14.7% and 9.3%, respectively. 2) In assessing the lymph node metastasis, the accuracy rate of EUS was 65.3%. A rate of false-positive diagnosis was 27.3%, and a rate of false-negative diagnosis was 24.5%.3) In assessing the incidence of lymph node metastasis for each T stage, the involve rate was 10.5% in pT1, 36.4% in pT2, 95.7% in pT3, 100% in pT4. CONCLUSIONS: EUS is the most accurate diagnostic methods presently available to determine tumor infiltration depth and lymph node metastasis.
Biopsy ; Diagnosis ; Digestive System Diseases ; Endoscopy ; Endosonography* ; Esophagus* ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Intestines* ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Stomach* ; Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVES: Accurate assessment of the retained or recurrent bile duct stone is important in postcholecystectomy patients who have signs of cholangitis or other pancreatobiliary disease. This study was performed to evaluate the diagnostic and therapeutic reliability of endoscopic retrograde cholangiography in postcholecystectomy patients. METHODS: From October 1975 through August 1995, we reviewed 311 patients retrospectively who had undergone on cholecystectomy. Our study was based on assessment of their age, sex, symptoms and physical findings, comparison between sonographic and endoscopic retrograde cholangiographic findings, and stone removal rate using endoscopic sphincterotomy, basket, electro-hydraulic lithotripsy. RESULTS: The ratio of male to female was 1:1.67, and the mean age was 56+/-14.3 years. After cholecystectomy, they visited our clinic within 2 years in 25 patients(8.4%), beyond 2 years in 286 patients(91.6%). Most common symptoms and physical findings were epigastric pain or tenderness(63.6%). We detected bile duct stone using endoscopic retrograde cholangiography 219 patients. In case of the bile duct stone, we successfully removed it using endoscopic sphincterotomy, basket, electrohydraulic lithotripsy in 194 patients(88.6%). CONCLUSION: From the above results, we concluded that endoscopic retrograde cholangiography was the most effective diagnostic and therapeutic method in postch- olecystetomy patients who have signs of cholangitis.
Bile Ducts ; Cholangiography* ; Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde ; Cholangitis ; Cholecystectomy ; Female ; Humans ; Lithotripsy ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Sphincterotomy, Endoscopic ; Ultrasonography

Primary carcinoma of the fallopian tube is the rarest cancer of the female genital tract with an incidence of 1% all gynecologic tumors Moreover, adenocarcinoma in situ of fallopian tube accounts for approximately 1% of primary fallopian tube cancer. Ovarian cancer and primary carcinoma of the fallopian tube are similar in many aspects. Both carcinomas show an increase incidence among nulliparous women, are often of serous papillay histology, and they have not only a poor pronosis with stage and residual tumor size as important prognostic factors, but also respond to paclitaxel-based treatment. Nevertheless, presenting symptoms are variable and nonspecific, so pre-operative diagnosis of fallopian tube carcinoma is seldom made. We have experiened a case of primary adenocarcinoma in situ of fallopian tube and reported with brief review of literature.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Diagnosis ; Fallopian Tube Neoplasms ; Fallopian Tubes* ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Neoplasm, Residual ; Ovarian Neoplasms

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Electrohydraulic lithotrypsy(EHL) under cholangioscopic control has been performed for difficult bile duct stones. The percutaneous transhepatic approach is technically easy and useful in diagnosis and treatment of bile duct obstruction and stones. Biliary stenting with self expanding metal stent is gaining increasingly wider acceptance as a palliative treatment of bile duct obstruction. METHODS: Between Sep. 1994 and Sep. 1996, EHL under choledochoscopy by percutaneous transhepatic approach was performed in 30 cases(Male: 13, Female: 17). After PTBD with 7F pig tail catheter, the percutaneous transhepatic passage was dilated over guide wire with dilaters of increasing size up to 16Fr in 3-Sdays. In one week, after fistula had been estabilished, choledochoscopy was performed. RESULTS: (1) Mean age was 61.3 years. Mean stone number was 2.5. And mean stone size was 1.6 X 2.3 cm. (2) Com.plete removal of the stone was achieved in all patients(100%). (3) There were no serious complications. (4) In six cases, Endocoils were implanted with successful decompression of obstructions and simultaneous removal of biliary stones located at both side of stricutre. CONCLUSIONS: Percutaneous transhepatic choledochoscopy is easy and safe and assists in the diagnosis and treatment of biliary stricture and the management of difficult CBD stone.
Bile Ducts ; Catheters ; Cholestasis ; Common Bile Duct* ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Decompression ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Fistula ; Humans ; Palliative Care ; Stents

PURPOSE: Symptomatic and/or malignant changes in hepatic cysts require surgical treatment, but there are few comparative studies with respect to the safety and long-term effectiveness. We compared the resection and non-resection of hepatic cysts from the view point of recurrence and complications. METHODS: We reviewed 24 patients who underwent surgery for hepatic cysts between 1990 and 2001 at a single institution. There included 15 resections and 9 non-resections. RESULTS: The median age was 59 years, with a male to female sex ratio of 9: 15. The median size of the dominant cyst was 12 cm, and 22 patients presented with symptoms. We treated 12 simple cysts, 3 polycystic liver diseases (PCLD), 3 cystadenomas, 1 cystadenocarcinoma, 2 hamartomas, 1 hydatid cyst, 1 traumatic cyst and 1 other. The causes requiring an operation were peritoneal irritation in 7, a mass effect such as early satiety or jaundice in 5, possible malignancy in 4, associated hepatobiliary diseases in 3, increase of cyst sizes in 2 and another disease in 2. We performed 5 right lobectomies, 2 left lobectomies, 1 left lateral segmentectomy, 3 non-anatomical resections, 3 cyst excisions, and 1 total hepatectomy for liver transplantation in the resection group. 6 unroofings and 3 fenestrations were performed in the non-resection group, in which a laparoscopic approach was applied in 3 cases. The incidence of postoperative complications were uncommon in both groups, whereas resection decreased the recurrence rate significantly (P=0.003). CONCLUSION: Resection is a safe and effective procedure to lower the recurrence of all cystic lesions in the liver.
Cystadenocarcinoma ; Cystadenoma ; Echinococcosis ; Female ; Hamartoma ; Hepatectomy ; Humans ; Incidence ; Jaundice ; Liver ; Liver Diseases ; Liver Transplantation ; Male ; Mastectomy, Segmental ; Postoperative Complications ; Recurrence ; Sex Ratio

This paper describes a community effort to improve earlier versions of the full-text corpus of Genomics & Informatics by semi-automatically detecting and correcting PDF-to-text conversion errors and optical character recognition errors during the first hackathon of Genomics & Informatics Annotation Hackathon (GIAH) event. Extracting text from multi-column biomedical documents such as Genomics & Informatics is known to be notoriously difficult. The hackathon was piloted as part of a coding competition of the ELTEC College of Engineering at Ewha Womans University in order to enable researchers and students to create or annotate their own versions of the Genomics & Informatics corpus, to gain and create knowledge about corpus linguistics, and simultaneously to acquire tangible and transferable skills. The proposed projects during the hackathon harness an internal database containing different versions of the corpus and annotations.

This paper describes a community effort to improve earlier versions of the full-text corpus of Genomics & Informatics by semi-automatically detecting and correcting PDF-to-text conversion errors and optical character recognition errors during the first hackathon of Genomics & Informatics Annotation Hackathon (GIAH) event. Extracting text from multi-column biomedical documents such as Genomics & Informatics is known to be notoriously difficult. The hackathon was piloted as part of a coding competition of the ELTEC College of Engineering at Ewha Womans University in order to enable researchers and students to create or annotate their own versions of the Genomics & Informatics corpus, to gain and create knowledge about corpus linguistics, and simultaneously to acquire tangible and transferable skills. The proposed projects during the hackathon harness an internal database containing different versions of the corpus and annotations.