We performed pars plana vitrectomy combined with anterior capsule-sparing lensectomy on forty three eyes WJth coexisting cataract and vitreoretinal disease and followed up more than 6 months. Preoperative vitreoretinal diseases consisted of nondiabetic vitreous hemorrhage (thirteen eyes), retained metallic intraocular foreign bodies (nine eyes), posterior uveitis (nine eyes), proliferative diabetic retinopathy (seven eyes) and rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (five eyes) . Thirty six eyes (84%) revealed the visual acuity of 0.1 or less before operation. Thirty eight eyes (88%) could get a better visual acuity after operation than before operation. Posterior chamber intraocular lenses were implanted to thirty eight eyes. The severity of anterior capsular opacity showed a statistically significant difference between the eyes with injection of intraocular gas or silicone oil and them without injection of that (p=0.004). In this study, we can find that the technique of pars plana vitrectomy combined with anterior capsule-sparing lensectomy would be recommendable and the anterior capsular opacity may have relation with intraocular gas or silicone oil.
Cataract ; Diabetic Retinopathy ; Foreign Bodies ; Lenses, Intraocular ; Retinal Detachment ; Silicone Oils ; Uveitis, Posterior ; Visual Acuity ; Vitrectomy* ; Vitreous Hemorrhage

OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy of Acrysof(R) intraocular lens (IOL) compared to PMMA IOL about visual acuity & postoperative complications (eg. posterior capsular opacification) in diabetic patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 18 patients (21 eyes) which underwent cataract extraction with Acrysof (R) IOL implantation and 58 patients (65 eyes) with PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate) IOL implantation from January 1996 to December 1999 at Chonnam National University Hospital. RESULTS: Postoperative best corrected visual acuity of above or equal to 0.5 was seem in 66.7% in acrysof (R) group, and in 73.9% in PMMA group at 6 months follow-up. Postoperative posterior capsular opacification was 33.3% and 49.2% respectively, and there was statistically significant difference in both group(p=0.021). CONCLUSIONS: Acrysof(R) intraocular lens can be used safely and reduce the rate of posterior capsular opacification in diabetic patients, which can make the positive effect on the treatment of the diabetic retinopathy after cataract surgery.
Cataract ; Cataract Extraction ; Diabetic Retinopathy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Jeollanam-do ; Lens Implantation, Intraocular* ; Lenses, Intraocular* ; Medical Records ; Polymethyl Methacrylate* ; Postoperative Complications ; Retrospective Studies ; Visual Acuity

PURPOSE: To determine the results of pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) for the treatment of severe giant retinal tear. METHODS: We analyzed the clinical records of patients who had 150degrees or greater of giant retinal tear and underwent PPV. RESULTS: Of all 10 patients (10 eyes), 7 were male patients and mean age was 29.8 years. Giant retinal tear was idiopathic in 6 eyes and traumatic in 1 eye, and occurred after vitrectomy in 3 eyes. Primary operations were scleral buckle in 1 eye, PPV with intraocular gas injection in 2 eyes and with silicone oil (SO) injection in 7 eyes. In 3 eyes without SO injection, secondary operations were PPV with intraocular gas injection in 1 eye and with SO injection in 2 eyes. In 1 eye with PPV and intraocular gas injection, tertiary operation was PPV with SO injection. Removal of SO was done in all 10 eyes and SO was re-injected due to proliferative vitreoretinopathy in 2 eyes. Visual acuity was counting fingers or worse in 8 eyes before the primary operation and, on the final visit, 0.1 or better in 6 eyes and 0.3 or better in 3 eyes. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that PPV with SO injection might be better for the treatment of severe giant retinal tear than with intraocular gas injection.
Fingers ; Humans ; Male ; Retinal Perforations* ; Retinaldehyde* ; Silicone Oils ; Visual Acuity ; Vitrectomy* ; Vitreoretinopathy, Proliferative

PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical characteristics and surgical results of retinal detachment due to macular hole. METHODS: We analyzed the record of the patient undergoing pars plana vitrectomy(PPV) for thetreatment of macular hole retinal detachment (MHRD). RESULTS: Of all 13 eyes, the follow-up period was 25.7 months on average and 10 eyes were highly myopic. Mean preoperative axial length was 26.58 mm (29.15 mm in high myopia group). In terms of visual acuity, 11 eyes showed less than 0.04 before the operation and on the final examination, 10 eyes 0.04 or more and 11 eyes improved 2 lines or more. Silicone oil was injected in a recurrent case. Finally there was the complete retinal attachment in all 13 eyes and sealed macular hole in 12 eyes. CONCLUSIONS: PPV seems to be an effective method for the treatment of MHRD.
Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Myopia ; Retinal Detachment* ; Retinal Perforations* ; Retinaldehyde* ; Silicone Oils ; Visual Acuity ; Vitrectomy*

A 51-year-old female patient with right lower motor weakness and left side motor weakness is presented. MRI signal revealed a butterfly brain mass. Angiography showed stenosis of left side internal carotid artery at the supraclinoid portion and Moyamoya vessel, collateral circulation to mass via posterior circulation and contralateral was observed.
Angiography ; Brain Neoplasms* ; Brain* ; Butterflies ; Carotid Artery, Internal ; Collateral Circulation ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Moyamoya Disease*

OBJECTIVE: Several lines of evidence suggest that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a role in the pathophysiology of anxiety. We analyzed the association of the BDNF gene polymorphism, G196A (val66met), in the coding region of exon XIIIA in chromosome 11p13, and generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD). METHODS: Patients with GSAD (n=73) and age-matched control subjects (n=152) were tested for the BDNF (val66met) polymorphism. A clinical interview and a Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview were conducted by trained psychiatrists in order to diagnose GSAD. The symptomatic characteristics of the GSAD patients were assessed with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Retrospective Self Report of Inhibition, the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the frequencies of the genotypes (chi2=0.961, degree of freedom [df]=2, p=0.619), alleles (chi2=0.415, df=1, p=0.519), or allele (methionine) carriers (chi2=0.019, df=1, p=0.889) between the patients and controls. In addition, when we compared the severity of social anxiety symptom as determined by the clinical scales with the genotypes of the BDNF gene, we could not find any significant differences between the genotypes or allele carriers. CONCLUSION: These results do not support the hypothesis that the BDNF gene might be a candidate gene for susceptibility or severity of GSAD in the Korean population in this study.
Alleles ; Anxiety ; Anxiety Disorders ; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor ; Clinical Coding ; Exons ; Freedom ; Genotype ; Humans ; Psychiatry ; Retrospective Studies ; Self Report ; Weights and Measures

No abstract available.
Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: It is very important to distinguish between the primary and secondary genetic effects at different sites within a small genetic region. Therefore, we evaluated the relative effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within a gene on the serum lipid profiles by using individual data. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: To evaluate the contributions of SNPs in a region to the serum lipid profiles (total cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein, high density lipoprotein), we used data that consisted of 808 individuals (327 males and 481 females) who did not have cardiovascular disease. In this study, we used a stepwise regression procedure to analyze the relative effects of four single nucleotide polymorphisms (ACE6, ACE7, ACE8, ACE10) in a gene region on the development of the serum lipid profiles in each gender group. RESULTS: In the males, there were epistatic interaction effects between two loci (ACE6xACE7, ACE6xACE8, ACE6xACE10, ACE8xACE10 and ACE7xACE8) and among three loci (ACE6xACE7xACE8, ACE6xACE7xACE10 and ACE6xACE8xACE10). Also, there are interaction effects between two loci (ACE6xACE7, ACE6xACE8, ACE6xACE10, ACE7xACE10 and ACE8xACE10) and among three loci (ACE6xACE7xACE8, ACE6xACE7xACE10, ACE6xACE8xACE10 and ACE7xACE8xACE10) in the females. CONCLUSION: The results suggested that each of these loci is important in causing a relative change of the serum lipid profiles, even with simultaneously accounting for the effects at the other loci. In the results of the analysis, there existed the effects of individual loci and significant interaction between the loci on the serum lipid profiles in each gender group. It was confirmed that this stepwise regression method can be suitable for evaluating the relative effects of SNPs and it is easily performed.
Cardiovascular Diseases ; Cholesterol ; Female ; Genes, vif* ; Humans ; Linear Models* ; Lipoproteins ; Male ; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide* ; Triglycerides

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES : The common methods of genetic association analysis are sensitive to population stratification, which may easily lead to a spurious association result. We used a regression approach based for linkage disequilibrium to perform a high resolution genetic association analysis. SUBJECTS AND METHODS : We applied a regression approach that can increase the resolution of quantitative traits that are related with cardiovascular diseases. The population data was composed of 543 males and 876 females without cardiovascular diseases, and it was obtained from a cardiovascular genome center. We used information about linkage disequilibrium between the marker and trait locus, and we added the covariates to model their effects. RESULTS : We found that this regression approach has the merit of analyzing genetic association based on linkage disequilibrium. In the analysis of the male group, the total cholesterol was significantly in linkage disequilibrium with CETP3 (p=0.002), and triglyceride was significantly in linkage disequilibrium with ACE8 (p=0.037), APOA1-1 (p=0.031), APOA5-1 (p=0.001), APOA5-2 (p=0.001) and LIPC4 (p=0.022). HDL-cholesterol was significantly in linkage disequilibrium with ACE7 (p=0.002), ACE8 (p=0.008), ACE10 (p=0.003), APOA5-2 (p=0.022), and MTP1 (p=0.001). In the female group, total cholesterol was significantly associated with APOA5-1 (p=0.020), APOA5-2 (p=0.001), and LIPC1 (p=0.016), and triglyceride was significantly associated with APOA5-1 (p=0.009), APOA5-2 (p=0.001), and CETP5 (p=0.049). LDL-cholesterol was significantly associated with APOA5-2 (p=0.004), and HDL-cholesterol was significantly associated with LIPC1 (p=0.004). CONCLUSION : We used a regression-based method to perform high resolution linkage disequilibrium analysis of a quantitative trait locus that's associated with lipid profiles. This method of using a single marker, as applied in this paper, was well suited for analysis of genetic association. Because of the simplicity, the method can also be easily performed by routine statistical analysis software.
Cardiovascular Diseases ; Cholesterol ; Female ; Genome ; Humans ; Linkage Disequilibrium* ; Male ; Quantitative Trait Loci* ; Triglycerides

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the expression and localization of Nrf2 mRNA in rats according to the changes of K-diet. METHODS: Nrf2 gene was isolated using DNA chip microassay. Northern and Western blot analysis and in situ hybridization (ISH) were performed. RESULTS: Northern analysis of normal rat demonstrated that Nrf2 mRNA was abundantly expressed in stomach, moderately in testis, kidney, distal colon, duodenum, and adrenal gland, and weakly in brain, heart, spleen, salivary gland, liver, and lung. In the kidney of K-restricted groups, Nrf2 mRNA and protein expressions were gradually increased in K-restricted kidney. By ISH, hybridization signal for Nrf2 gene of normal group was prominent in the S3 segment of proximal tubule, distal tubule, and cortical collecting duct, and weak in outer and inner medullary collecting duct. In K-restricted groups, the localization of hybridization signal was the same as in normal group. Signal intensity of K-restricted groups was markedly increased in outer and inner medullary collecting ducts compared with normal group. But, that of the distal tubule and cortical collecting duct was decreased. mRNA for Nrf2 gene of normal group was detected in the cells of the basal portion of intestinal gland of distal colon and stomach, spermatogonia and spermatocytes of seminiferous tubule of testis, small lymphocytes of germinal center of spleen, and adrenal medulla cells of adrenal gland. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that expression of Nrf2 is different in various tissues and increased expression of Nrf2 gene in outer and inner medullary collecting ducts of hypokalemic kidney could regulate the ion transporter genes by these segments.
Adrenal Glands ; Adrenal Medulla ; Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Brain ; Chimera ; Colon ; Duodenum ; Germinal Center ; Heart ; Hypokalemia ; In Situ Hybridization ; Intestinal Mucosa ; Ion Transport ; Kidney ; Liver ; Lung ; Lymphocytes ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Potassium ; Rats ; RNA, Messenger ; Salivary Glands ; Seminiferous Tubules ; Spermatocytes ; Spermatogonia ; Spleen ; Stomach ; Testis ; Transcription Factors