No abstract available.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle* ; Paraganglioma*

No abstract available.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle*

BACKGROUND: There are many suggested methods for the indirect determination of anaerobic threshold(AT) using the changes of ventilatory parameters in respones to ventilatory load accompanying the increase of blood lactic acid level during exercise and the threshold derived from them is called ventilatory threshold( VT). They include ventilatory equivalent method(VEM), End-tidal PO2 method(PETO2), V-slope method(VSM), and respiratory quotient method(RQ). But in the patients with chronic airway ohstruction(CAO), the AT determined by ventilatory methods may not reflect true AT because the patients with GAO show inadequate ventilatory response to the increase of blood lactic acid level during excercise. METHODS: For the investigation of detection rate and reliability of above four VT determination methods in the patients with GAO, we performed the symptom-limited and maximal incremental exercise test in 17 patients with GAO and 12 normal controls. The incremental workload was 10 W/min in GAO group and 25 W/min in control group. The reliability of VT in each group was investigated by the calculation of Spearman correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The detection rates of VT were 100% by RQ, 91.7% by both VEM and POETO2, and 83.3% by VSM in normal control group, while 94.1% by RQ, 64.7% by VEM and PETO2, and 83.3% by VSM in GAO group. Good correlations were noted among VEM, PETO2, and VSM except RQ in normal control group. But there was no significant correlation except between VEM and PETO2 in GAO group. CONCLUSIONS: RQ is very sensitive but crude and VEM is near similar to PETO2. The clinical usefulness of VT determined by ventilatory method might be limited in patients with severe GAO.
Airway Obstruction* ; Exercise Test ; Humans ; Lactic Acid

BACKGROUND: Normal humans meet the increased ventilatory need during exercise initially by the increase of tidal volume (TV) and later by the increase of respiratory frequency (Rf). And the inspiratory duty cycle (Ti/Ttot) is also increased more than 50% for the compensation of the decrease of respiratory cycle provoked by the increase of respiratory frequency. The patients with chronic airflow obstruction show rapid and shallow breathing pattern during exorcise because of the degreased ventilatory capacity and the increased dead space ventilation. However, the studies about the change of inspiratory duty cycle are only a few and there is no literature about the relationship between the change of inspiratory duty cycle and the degree of airflow obstruction. METHODS: The subjects were the twelve patients with chronic airflow obstruction (CAO) and ten normal people. The incremental exercise test was done. The increase of work load was 10 Win CAO group and 25 Win normal control group. The analysis of the results was done by the comparison of the parameters such as minute ventilation (VE), TV, Rf, physiologic dead space (Vd/vt), and inspiratory duty cycle between the two groups. Each parameters were compared after transformation into % control duration base that means dividing the total exercise time into five fractons and % control duration data were obtained at rest, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and max. Statistical analysis was done by repeated measure ANOVA using SAS program. RESULTS: The changes of VE and TV were significantly different between two groups while the change of Rf was not significant. The decrease of Vd/vt was significantly low in CAO group. Ti/Ttot was markedly increased from 38.4+3.0% at rest to 48.6+4.5% at max in normal control group while Ti/Ttot showed little change from 40.5+2.2% at rest to 42.6+3.5% at max. And the change of inspiratory duty cycle showed highly good correlation with the degree of airflow obstruction (FEVl%). (r=0.8151, p<0.05) CONCLUSIONS: The increase of Ti/Ttot during exercise observed in normal humans is absent in the patients with CAO and the change of Ti/TtDt is well correlated with the degree of airflow obstruction.
Compensation and Redress ; Exercise Test* ; Humans ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive* ; Respiration* ; Tidal Volume ; Ventilation

PURPOSE: There is increasing awareness of the clinical importance of early detection and treatment of posterior cruciate ligament(PCL) injury. We evaluate the usefulness of Magnetic resonance(MR) imaging in the diagnosis of PCL injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analysed the MR images of 140 cases with clinically suspected knee injury. Arthroscopic or surgical correlation was available in 63 cases. We observed the finding and extent of PCL injury and other associated abnormalities. The frequency of anterior and posterior meniscofemoral ligament was evaluated. RESULTS: Eleven PCL injuries were observed, six midsubstance tears, two tibial attachment tears, two fernoral attachment tear, one laxity. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of MR imaging diagnosis are 100%, 98.1%, 98.4%. MR findings of PCL injury are discontinuity and focal mass formation, irregular increased signal intensity, detachment or redundancy of the ligament with avulsed bony fragment. In all cases of injured PCL, other associated abnormalities of adjacent structures were observed. Accessory anterior and posterior meniscofemoral ligaments were observed in 67.4%(87/129). CONCLUSION: MR imaging is useful in evaluation of presence or absence of PCL injury, accurate extent of PCL injury and other important associated abnormalities of adjacent structures.
Diagnosis ; Knee Injuries ; Ligaments ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Posterior Cruciate Ligament* ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity

We herein report a case of transient acrodermatitis enteropathica in a 3-month-old, breast-fed, full-term infant. The patient was presented with a 2-month history of diarrhea and crusted erythema- tous patches on the periorificial area. Similar lesions were seen in his siblings. His serum zinc level and the zinc level in his mother's breast milk were markedly reduced. Diarrhea and skin lesions disappeared promptly with oral zinc supplementation and did not recur when zinc was discontinued after three weeks. Our case indicates that even full-term infants, who feed excl-usively on mothers milk, run a risk of developing zinc deficiency, if the concentration of zinc in the breast milk is very low.
Acrodermatitis* ; Diarrhea ; Humans ; Infant* ; Milk ; Milk, Human ; Mothers ; Siblings ; Skin ; Zinc

E-cadherin (ECD) is a Ca++ -dependent adhesion molecule which plays a major role in the maintenance of intercellular adhesion in epithelial tissues. The expression pattern of ECD in 77 surgically resected gastric adenocarcinomas was examined by immunohistochemistry, using a rat monoclonal antibody raised against murine E-cadherin (DECAM-1). ECD was strongly expressed uniformly at cell to cell borders in normal gastric epithelium without exception. But, various staining patterns were observed in the cancer tissues. The frequency of tumors with preserved ECD expression (Pre-type) and reduced ECD expression (Rd-type) was 44% and 56%, respectively. Using Lauren's classification, the high frequency of the Pre-type expression in adenocarcinoma of the intestinal type was significantly higher than that in adenocarcinoma of the diffuse type (p<0.05). But, no significant correlation between the ECD expression and the gross type, invasion depth, growth pattern or metastasis was observed. These results suggest that ECD might play a key role in the morphogenesis of gastric adenocarcinoma.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Animals ; Cadherins* ; Classification ; Epithelium ; Immunohistochemistry ; Morphogenesis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Rats

BACKGROUND: The skin prick test and in vitro allergen-specific IgE assays are commonly used to diagnose atopic diseases. However, there is still a need for comparison of their diagnostic efficiency. Objective and METHOD: To evaluate their clinical efficiency, the results of UniCAP and multiple antigen simultaneous test (MAST) were compared with skin prick test results. After 51 allergic patients completed skin prick test (SPT), serum sample was collected and UniCAP and MAST were performed to determine specific IgE to house dust mite (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus : Dp and D. farinae. Df). Result : When SPT was used as a reference standard, UniCAP depicted higher sensitivity of 88.8% to Dp IgE and 91.4% to Df - IgE, but lower specificity of 73.3% to Dp IgE and 75.0% to Df - IgE. However, MAST had lower sensitivity of 75.1% to Dp-IgE and 71.4% to Df - IgE, higher specificity of 93.3% to Dp-IgE and 93.7% to Df - IgE. The values of UniCAP and MAST were significantly correlated with the reactivity grade of skin prick test, respectively. Additionally, the response of SPT was not apparently associated with ECP levels. CONCLUSION: These study results may suggest that both UniCAP and MAST are generally feasible for measuring house dust mite - specific IgE and that they are both replicable.
Dust* ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E* ; Pyroglyphidae* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Skin*

Livedo reticularis is a mottled bluish discoloration of the skin which occurs in a netlike pattern and is not a diagnosis in itself, but is a nonspecific reaction pattern. It may be classified as idiopathic and secondary livedo reticularis. Decompression sickness can occur during decompression after diving into deep sea water or during a rapiid ascent from sea level, and is one of the many causes of the secondary livedo reticularis. We report a case of livedo reticulris which developed in a patient with decompression sickness. A biopsy from the purpuric patch revealed an unusual histopathologic finding that resembles those of bullae and sweat gland necrosis in drug induced coma.
Biopsy ; Coma ; Decompression Sickness* ; Decompression* ; Diagnosis ; Diving ; Humans ; Livedo Reticularis* ; Necrosis ; Seawater ; Skin ; Sweat Glands

Astasia-abasia refers to the inability to stand or walk despite possessing good motor strength and conserved voluntary coordination. Although it is usually regarded as a psychogenic disorder, organic causes have been reported. Herein we describe a patient who presented with alcohol-induced episodic astasia-abasia. Interestingly, SPECT performed during an episode showed hyperperfusion in the dorsal brainstem and subthalamic region. These areas roughly coincide with the mesencephalic locomotor region and subthalamic locomotor region, respectively, and it is conceivable that abnormal neural activity in these areas is related to the symptoms in our patient.