As an optimal quality of the restorations, there should be a least amount of seating discrepancy between the casting and abutment teeth. However, high viscosity of the cementing medium and its resulting thickness ay prevent complete seating of the restoration. The use of die spacing material provides adequate internal relief for the cementing medium. The purpose of this study is to compare the thickness of three commonly used die spacing materials. Materials and Methods : Stone plates were fabricated and divided into 12 sections to be painted with die spacers. Tru-Fit, Whip-Mix and Belle de St. Claire die spacer which are commonly used in dental practice were tested in this study. Each die spacers were painted layer by layer according to the manufacturer's recommendation. The average thickness of each die spacers were measured with light microscope(x100) and compared between them. Results and Conclusions: A silver-colored Tru-Fit die spacer has the lowest value of thickness without statistical significance comparing with a gold-colored Tru-Fit die spacer and a gray layer of Whip-Mix die spacer has the highest value of thickness without any statistical significance comparing with Belle de St. Claire die spacer. Three and four layers of Tru-Fit die spacer and two layers of Whip-Mix and Belle de St. Claire die spacers seem to be in the acceptable range of thickness of 25 to 45micrometer for optimal seating of the restorations. The standard experimental design and method should be further evaluated for more consistent and objective results.
Paint ; Research Design ; Tooth ; Viscosity

Soft tissue expansion technique has been a very useful method for the reconstruction of scalp defects and alopecia since the scalp is an unyielding tissue allowing minimal distension in traditional local flap surgery. As a result, there has been wide use of the tissue expansion method in the reconstruction of scalp defect and treatment of alopecia in the plastic surgery. There have been many concerns about histomorphologic changes of the overlying skin and the underlying structure resulting from tissue expansion. We also know that progressive tissue expansion induces increased mitotic activity of the epidermis and thining of the dermis in the overlying skin, as well as significant gross, histologic bony erosion in the underlying structure. However, little informations have been reported about the changes of the hair and pilocebaceus units in scalp expansion. We compared the horizontal sections of the expanded scalp and its longterm histologic changes with a normal unexpanded scalp specimen as a control. The terminal hair proportions to the vellus hair both increased. There was a 32% decrease in follicular units, a 24% decrease in terminal hair, and a 23% decrease in total hairs 8 week after scalp expansion compared to the normal unexpanded scalp. The perifollicular inflammatory changes and fibrosis observed in the full expanded scalp specimen disappeared within 12 weeks after removal of the expander and the flap transposition. In our observation, tissue expansion at the hair-bearing scalp did not precipitate any adverse changes on the hair follicles. On the contrary, we observed that secondary scalp expasion could be safetly performed 3 months after the first scalp expansion.
Alopecia ; Dermis ; Epidermis ; Fibrosis ; Hair Follicle* ; Hair* ; Humans* ; Scalp* ; Skin ; Surgery, Plastic ; Tissue Expansion*

A 53-year-old woman presented with dyspnea. She had undergone extended thymectomy for an invasive thymoma two months prior. CT revealed numerous small nodules in the lung. After that, she deteriorated owing to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and the vascular surgeon planned veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). During percutaneous cannulation through the left femoral vein, a vascular injury was suspected, and the patient’s vital signs became unstable. Diagnostic angiography showed a ruptured left common iliac vein, and the bleeding was stopped by placement of a stent-graft. May-Thurner syndrome was diagnosed on abdominal CT. Here, we report a rare case of ECMO-related vascular injury in a patient with an unrecognized anatomical variant, May-Thurner syndrome.

We report a case of nevus sebaceus of Jadassohn in a 31-year-old female associated with various epidermal appendage tumors, such as syringocystadenoma papilliferum, sebaceus adenoma and eccrine hidrocystoma. We supposed that the multiple lesions seem to support the concept of nevus sebaceus arising from the pluripotential primary epithelial germ.
Adenoma ; Adult ; Female ; Hidrocystoma ; Humans ; Nevus* ; Nevus, Sebaceous of Jadassohn

The gray vibrissae of Korean males(n =189) between 15 and 75 years old and females(n =111) between-15 and 74 years old who visited the department of otorhinolaryngology, Konkuk university Chungju hospital during 1996 to 1998, were counted for the purpose of estimating approximate age range in individuals of unknown age . The lowest age appearing gray hairs in both sexes was 15-year-old. The Pearson's correlation coefficient in both sexes was 0.490 (p<0.01). The age appearing gray vibrissae in females was slightly earlier than that of males, however, the differences between right and left sides of nasal cavity were insignificant. This method of counting gray vibrissae would be useful to estimate age range in personal identification together with other methods available until now.
Adolescent ; Aged ; Chungcheongbuk-do ; Female ; Hair* ; Humans ; Male ; Nasal Cavity ; Otolaryngology ; Vibrissae*

Palisaded, encapsulated neuroma is characterized clinically by a solitary, slowly-growing and dome-shaped papule or nodule, usually accompanied by telangiectasia on the surface, and histopathologically by an encapsulated nodule in the dermis and the palisading arrangement of nuclei. A 57-year-old female patient presented with a 1cm-sized, solitary nodule on the right ala nasi which had been present for about 5 years. The nodule had a tendency to slow growth and it became a polypoid nodule. Telangiectasia was shown on the surface of the lesion. Histopathlogical findings showed a well-defined and encapsulated nodule in the dermis, composed of spindle cells with basophilic and plump nuclei in a palisading fashion. On immunohistochemical staining, the tumor cells of the nodule were positive for S-100 protein, while the capsule of the nodule was negative for S-100 protein. Epithelial membrane antigens were focally positive only on the capsule of the nodule. We report herein a case of palisaded, encapsulated neuroma, one case of which has been reported in Korea.
Basophils ; Dermis ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; Mucin-1 ; Neuroma* ; S100 Proteins ; Telangiectasis

No abstract available.
Child* ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural* ; Humans ; Temporal Bone*

BACKGROUND: Granuloma annulare is a chronic skin disease of unknown origin, that can present itself with diverse clinical and histopathologic findings. But no clinicopathological studies has been reported yet in Korea. OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to investigate the clinicopathological findings of each type of granuloma annulare. METHODS: We observed twenty two cases of granuloma annulare and examined their clinical manifestations and histopathological findings. RESULTS: The incidence showed a bimodal peak between 3 to 4 years and 49 to 51 years in age and females were affected twice as much as males. The lesions are commonly located on the distal portion of the extremities. In histopathologic findings, perforating type was observed in 13.6% and subcutaneous type in 18.2%. In collagen alteration, fragmentation and hyalinization were observed in 72.7% and 81.8% respectively. Most infiltrated cells were epithelioid cells. In vascular changes, endothelial swelling and occlusion of vessels were common findings and vasculitis was shown in 36.4%. CONCLUSION: There were not epidemiologic differences from the reported studies in western patients. But the clinical manifestation and the histopathologic findings were so varied that differential diagnosis is important in diagnosis of granuloma annulare. Immunological and immunohistochemical studies may be necessary for differential diagnosis and elucidating pathogenesis of granuloma annulare.
Collagen ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Epithelioid Cells ; Extremities ; Female ; Granuloma Annulare* ; Granuloma* ; Humans ; Hyalin ; Incidence ; Korea ; Male ; Skin Diseases ; Vasculitis

No abstract available.
Child* ; Edema* ; Gallbladder* ; Humans

In order to study the clinical characteristics of primary acute angle closure glaucoma, we analyzed the data of 72 eyes from 63 patients with the disease from January 1, 1990 to December 31, 1993 to the Department of Ophthalmology of Chonnam University Hospital. The mean age of the patients was 63.3 years and female and male ratio was 5.9:1. And the mean IOP at first visit was 53.2 mmHg. There was no significant difference of rop between right and left eyes, and 11 patients had the disease in both eyes. 38% of the patients developed the disease in winter time. The development of the disease was closely associated with physical illness and emotional stress. 39 eyes(49.3%) of them was required filtering surgery because medication and laser treatment was insufficient to lower IOP.
Female ; Filtering Surgery ; Glaucoma, Angle-Closure* ; Humans ; Jeollanam-do ; Male ; Ophthalmology ; Stress, Psychological ; Trabeculectomy