Fractures of the body of the talus are extremely rare, constituting only about 0.1 percent of all fractures (Coltart 1952). Consequently, the prognostic problems have so far been elucidated only on the basis of few reports in the literature. The authors experienced an unusual type of the shearing fracture of the talar body with total disocation that the talar body was lying upside down in the ankle joint. Satisfactory results were obtained after follow up period of 20 months and some are reporting this case with bibliographic reviews.
Ankle Joint ; Deception ; Follow-Up Studies ; Talus

Evidence in human studies of the association of long term habitual exercise with bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) mostly come from studies done on athletes. The highest BMC and BMD values in young adults have been found in strength and power-training athletes, while endurance activities such as long distance running and swimming seem to be less effective in obtaining peak bone mineral density. To compare the differences in BMD among ballet, Korean traditional dancing and athletics, we examined the BMD of 10 ballerinas, 10 Korean traditional dancers, 12 athletes and 12 volunteers as the control group. All participants were female. The average age were 20.6 years for the ballerinas, 21.2 for the Korean traditional dancers, 20.4 for the athletes and 21.3 for the control group. Average weights were 50.6 kg for the ballerina, 53.7 kg for the Korean traditional dancer, 59.2 kg for the athletes and 53.8 kg for the control group. Average heights were 162.0 cm for the ballerinas, 160.4 cm for the Korean traditional dancers, 162.3 cm for the athletes and 160.5 cm for the control group. There were no significant differences in the BMD values of the proximal femur and the lumbar spine between ballerinas and control group and between Korean traditional dancers and control group (p>0.05). There was, however, a significant increase of BMD in the proximal femur and lumbar spine of the athletes when compared with the control group (p<0.05) After adjusting for difference in body mass index (BMI) we recompared the BMD of ballerinas, Korean traditional dancer and athletes with BMD of control group and found significant higher lumbar spine BMD values in ballerinas, Korean traditional dancers and athletes. In athletes higher BMD levels were also obtained in the proximal femur including the neck, greater trochanter and Wards triangle regions (p<0.05). There was no significant increase of proximal femur BMD levels for Korean traditional dancers (p>0.05). Differences of BMD values between the ballerinas and control group was statistically significant only in femoral neck (p<0.05).
Athletes* ; Body Mass Index ; Bone Density* ; Dancing ; Female ; Femur ; Femur Neck ; Humans ; Neck ; Running ; Spine ; Sports ; Swimming ; Volunteers ; Weights and Measures ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND: Several methods have been developed to measure skin thickness, including the use of the radiography, micrometer screw gauge, Harpenden's caliper, and ultrasound, but there are no reports to measure skin thickness using computed tomography. OBJECTIVE: We measured skin thickness on the CT films retrospectively. This study was to investigaste variations of skin thickness by age, gender, and different sites. METHODS: Skin thickness was measured on the CT films of 562 patients, including 357 males and 205 females who had undergone brain, chest, and abdominal CT in our hospital. Patients with endocrinologic, malignant, or collagen disease and those on antimetabolite or steroid therapy were excluded. Comparisons of histometric and computed tomographic methods weremade in 5 skin tumors and 1 localized lipodystrophy. Results: 1. The measurements of the skin thickness(mean) in examined sites varied from 0.84 to 3.07 milimeters : the posterior part at the level of the chest(aortic arch level) was the thickest and the anterior part at the level of the forehead(aortic arch level) was the thickest and the anterior part at the level of the forehead(frontal sinus level) was the thinnest. 2. Skin thickness in males wal generally thicker than in females : the anterior and lateral part at the level of the forehead(P<0.0001), the posterior part at the level of the bladder(P<0.2) were thicker in males than in females. 3. In each gender, the thickness of the skin increased with age of 40 or 60, and then decreased with age at every level. 4. Skin on posterior parts of the body was thicker than on other parts. 5. Unlike other levels, skin was thicker on the lateral parts than on the anterior parts at the levels of the forehead and bladder. 6. The measured skin thickness in about 7% greater in formalin fixed tissues than on CT films. CONCLUSION; Computed tomographic measurement of the skin thickness in a reliable method in the aquisition of normal values and their individual variations during cutaneous aging. Moreover, this method is useful in evaluating skin tumors and monitoring the response to therapy of inflammatory conditions.
Aging ; Brain ; Collagen Diseases ; Female ; Forehead ; Formaldehyde ; Humans ; Lipodystrophy ; Male ; Radiography ; Reference Values ; Retrospective Studies ; Skin* ; Thorax ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Ultrasonography ; Urinary Bladder

No abstract available.

Angiogenesis is an essential requirement for development, progression, and metastasis of malignant tumors. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the important angiogenic factors. Recently the role of angiogenesis has been known in premalignant lesions. This study was performed to determine whether the angiogenesis and VEGF expression were increased in association with histological grade of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and to see the relationship between the angiogenesis and VEGF. Immunostainings for factor VIII and VEGF were performed on 52 cases of cervical neoplasia (12 cases of CIN I, 11 cases of CIN II, 15 cases of CIN III, 7 cases of microinvasive squamous cell carcinoma, and 7 cases of invasive carcinoma) and 5 cases of normal cervix. The results showed a significant increase of microvessel count from normal cervix through CIN grades to invasive squamous cell cacinoma. VEGF expression was increased in proportion to the CIN grades. There was no significant correlation between microvessel count and VEGF expression. In conclusion, the tumor angiogenesis is an early event in tumorigenesis of uterine cervix. In addition, no significant relationship between the microvessel count and VEGF expression in CIN suggests the possibility of other growth factors affecting mainly angiogenesis of premalignant lesion of uterine cervix.
Angiogenesis Inducing Agents ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia* ; Cervix Uteri ; Factor VIII ; Female ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Microvessels ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A*

No abstract available.
Hemoglobin A* ; Humans ; Mothers* ; Postpartum Period*

No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: Acute abdominal pain in children is one of the most common problems encountered in our daily practice. The children often are not able to tell us their exact complain symptoms and differential diagnosis of acute abdominal pain is difficult in its first encounter. When family physicians encounter patients with acute abdominal pain in the ambulatory care settings, they must make an appropriate decision for proper management such as admission, referral, discharge and follow-up without firm diagnosis. If it is possible to predict the course or prognosis of acute abdominal pain by clinical data concerning patient, it will be helpful to make a decision for the management of acute abdominal pain. So we tested for hypothesis that patients with acute intermittent abdominal pain and normal simple abdomen X-ray finding is not serious and shows favorable outcome. METHOD: 82 patients with acute abdominal pain were assessed from Oct. in 1996 to Sep. in 1997 at the emergency department of Kyungju Hospital, Dongkuk University. 69 patients among 82 showed normal simple abdomen X-ray findings. 67 patients were discharged and 2 patients were admitted. 64 patients were contacted by phone call after 1 week and reported their outcome of the previous abdominal pain. RESULTS: Among 64 subjects 36 patients were male and 28 patients female. 57 patients complained of intermittent abdominal pain and 7 patients complained continous abdominal pain. Positive predictive value of intermittent abdominal pain and normal simple abdominal x-ray was 98%. Outcome of patients with intermittent abdominal paln was more favorable than that of continuous pain. CONCLUSIONS: Acute intermittent abdominal pain and normal simple abdomen x-ray findings in children shows favorable outcome and can be managedim ambulatory care settings.
Abdomen ; Abdominal Pain* ; Ambulatory Care ; Child* ; Decision Making* ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Male ; Physicians, Family ; Prognosis ; Referral and Consultation

No abstract available.
Fatigue*

This study was performed to evaluate the clinical significance of SCC as a tumor marker in patient with squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix. We measured the serum levels of SCC by radioimmunoassay in patient with invasive squamous cell carcinoma of cervix to determine the prognostic value, correlation with the presence of lymph node metastasis, response to treatment, and those value in the early detection of recurrence after treatment. The result was: 1) In 117 of 174 patients with cervical cancer, the pretreatment positive rate of SCC was 47.0%(57/117). In each stage, the stage Ia was 25.0%, Ib 26.3%, IIa 56.0%, 62.6%, III 57.1%, IV 100%, and the recurrent case was 37.5%. 2) In 79 of 174 patients with cervical cancer, the pretreatment positive rate of SCC was 44,0%(30/69) in no evidence of malignancy patients, but 60.0%(6/10) in recurrent or permanent patients(p>0.05), 3) In 133 of 174 patients with cervical cancer, the posttreatment positive rate of SCC was 2.6%(3/117) in no evidence of malignancy patients, but 50.0%(8/16) in recurrent or permanent patients(p<0.05). 4) In 48 patients of 174 with cervical cancer who underwent radical hystrectomy, the positive rate of SCC was 71.4%(5/7) in pelvic lymph node positive patients but 19,5%(8/41) in pelvic lymph node negative patients(p<0.05). We concluded that the pretreatment SCC level was not effective as a prognostic value, but well correlated with pelvic lymph node metastasis, and serial measurements of serum levels of SCC provided a reliable clue for early detection of recurrence or progression of disease, so it may be useful for monitoring cervical carcinoma patient.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* ; Cervix Uteri* ; Female ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Radioimmunoassay ; Recurrence ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms