The perichondrium has neochondrogenic potential. Many authors have published their study for the cartilage regeneration from perichondrium and the clinical uses of perichondrial graft. How is the difference of thickness of the regenerated cartilage after crushing the free perichondrial graft, compare with uncrushed graft? In this study, the perichondrium was obtained from rabbit, ears, and sectioned 10x10 mm slices. The uncrushed and crushed perichondriums were grafted into subcutaneous layer of back. After the 2,4 and 8 weeks, authors obtained regenerated cartilage from both crushed and uncrushed free perichondrial graft from rabbit back, examined the survival rate and thickness by histologic study.The results are as follows: 1. The survival rate was no difference between the uncrushed perichondrium & crushed perichondrium (p>0.05). 2. The cartilage from the uncrushed perichondrium was thicker than the crushed perichondrium, at only 8 weeks(p<0.01). 3. The thickness of regenerated cartilage was similar to the cartilage of the donor site of free perichondrial graft at 4 weeks(p>0.05).
Cartilage* ; Ear* ; Humans ; Regeneration* ; Survival Rate ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants

A retrospective, multivariate statistical analysis of 394 patients who underwent cleft palate repair was performed to document the incidence of postoperative oronasal fistula formation, and to assess possible contributing factors. Fistulas of the secondary palate were included, but nasal-alveolar fistulas and intentionally unrepaired anterior palatal fistulas were excluded. Postoperative oronasal fistulas occurred in 25 of the 394 patients(6.35%). The mean age at repair was 16.4 months, and mean follow-up period was 2.5 years. Several variables that are included sex, age, extent of clefting(as estimated by the Veau classification), type of repair, and experience level of the operating surgeon were analyzed by means of the log-rank test to determine their significance in postoperative fistula formation. Sex (p=0.077), age(p=0.538), and experience level of the operating surgeon(p=0.094) did not significantly affect the rate of fistula formation. However, extent of clefting(p=0.005) and type of repair(p=0.001) are the strongest predictor of the occurrence of a cleft palate fistula.
Cleft Palate ; Fistula* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Intention ; Palate ; Retrospective Studies

PURPOSE: To present the enhancement pattern of acute cerebral or cerebellar cortical infarctions aged 1-3 days on MR. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Contrast-enhanced MR images of 26 patients with acute cerebral or cerebellar ischemic events were retrospectively reviewed. MR was performed within 3 days after ictus. RESULTS: Contrast enhancement in the area of infarction was observed in 61.5% (16/26) on MR. Of these 50% (13/26) showed non-parenchymal enhancement (NPE) representing either vascular or leptomeningeal enhancement, 7.7% (2/26) showed parenchymal enhancement (PE), and 2.8% (1/26) showed both NPE and PE. The earliest enhancement was seen in images obtained 12 hours after the onset of symptoms and appeared as NPE. One patient showed NPE without apparent high signal intensity at the corresponding area on T2-weighted images. In 38. 5% (10/26), there was no enhancement. CONCLUSION: Contrast-enhanced MR imaging may be needed in acute ischemic infarction, because NPE may be seen as the earliest MR finding of acute cortical infarction aged 1-3 days.
Cerebral Infarction* ; Humans ; Infarction ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Retrospective Studies

Although many invasive studies in the biliary tract disase are replaced by noninvasive techniques such asultrasonography and CT, PTC does still play an important role indiagnosis of obstructive jaundice. Authors hadperformed 42 patients of PTC with Chiba needle at the department of radiology, Han Gang Sacred Heart Hospital for4 years from Jan. 1978 to April 1982. And we reviewed literatures. The results were as follows; 1. Forty twopatients of PTC were 22 males and 20 females. The success rate was 90.5%(38/42). The failed 4 cases of PTC werenonobstructive hepatobiliary diseases. 2. The PTC diagnosis of 38 cases were biliary stone (21 cases),cholangiocarcinoma(7 cases), pancreatic carcinoma (2 cases), hepatoma (2 cases), ascariasis(2 cases), andclonorchiasis(1 case), and the remainders were normal. 3. We made 2 cases of misdiagnosis on the basis of PTCfindings. They were one case of distal CBD stone with severe cholangitis diagnosed as ampullary carcioma andanother case of proximal CBD stone with cholangitis diagnosed as pancreas carcinoma. 4. We experienced 2 cases ofcomplication such as sepsis and severe hypotension, but they were recovered.
Biliary Tract ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Cholangiography ; Cholangitis ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic Errors ; Female ; Heart ; Humans ; Hypotension ; Jaundice, Obstructive ; Male ; Needles ; Pancreas ; Sepsis

Skip lesion is not uncommon feature in osteosarcoma and considered to be importantly associated with poor prognosis factor, and thus, should be excised with the main mass. The accurate pre-operative evaluation of the intramedullary extent of osteosarcoma is essential, because it determines the level of bone resection. Among the reliable detection methods, bone scan has a drawback of high rate of false negative results and regional MRI has a difficulty to cover the whole involved lesions without clinical suspicion. The authors report a case of osteosarcoma of the distal femur with a proximal skip lesion that was not detected by either regional MR imaging or by bone scan, but which was visualized by FDG-PET/CT.
Complement System Proteins ; Femur ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Osteosarcoma ; Prognosis

PURPOSE: Pain is the most distressing feature of cancer patients. Thoracoscopic splanchnicectomy, first performed in 1993, has caused a resurgence of interest in surgical treatment of such excruciating pain. We wish to introduce a method of splanchnicectomy. METHODS: Five patients underwent a splanchnicectomy for intractable cancer pain, over a period of 11 months. We evaluated the type of splanchnicectomy performed and the results. The procedure was done using a double lumen catheter to deflate the lung at the operation side under general anesthesia with the patient in the lateral decubitus position. A small opening was made with scissors in the pleura of the 5th intercostal space to expose the terminal branch of the greater splanchnic nerve. Six-Seven branches of splanchnic nerve were cut downward until the splanchnic nerve trunk and then cut. A left thoracoscopic splanchnicectomy was done in one case, and a bilateral thoracoscopic splanchnicectomy in four cases. RESULTS: The splanchicectomy appears to result in significant reduction of abdominal pain in all cases. There were no postoperative complications. CONCLUSION: As a conclusion, thoracoscopic splanchnicectomy is the treatment of choice for intractable intraabdominal cancer pain, affording drug cessation and recovery of daily activity in most patients.
Abdominal Pain ; Anesthesia, General ; Catheters ; Humans ; Lung ; Pleura ; Postoperative Complications ; Splanchnic Nerves ; Thoracoscopy

Telomerase is an enzyme that maintains telomeres and prevents telomere shortening, and may be linked with cellular proliferation or the aging process. The purpose was to examine telomerase activity in human chorionic villi from early and term normal pregnancies, and to analyze the correlation of telomerase activity (TA) with MIB-1 & bcl-2. A total of 37 placentae were obtained from 16 early and 21 term pregnancies. TA was assayed by telomeric repeat amplification protocol, and immunohistochemical staining was performed for MIB-1 & bcl-2 expression. TA & MIB-1 expression were strong in early placenta, but bcl-2 was highly expressed in term placentae. Thirteen (81.25%) of 16 early placentae showed TA, but only 2 (9.52%) of 21 term placentae expressed TA (p<0.01). MIB-1 was observed in nuclei of cytotrophoblast, and the expression rate was 16.09% in early placentae and 2.87% in term placentae (p<0.01). bcl-2 was observed only in the cytoplasm of syncytiotrophoblast. Term placenta demonstrated stronger expression of bcl-2 compared to early placentae (p<0.05). These findings suggest that TA, MIB-1 & bcl-2 expression are critically regulated over the course of gestation: cytotrophoblast, main cells of early chorionic villi, may be a common source of telomerase and proliferative activity. The TA showed good correlation with cellular proliferative activity. Syncytiotrophoblast, may be a main source of bcl-2 expression which is stronger in the term placentae.
Aging ; Cell Proliferation ; Chorion* ; Chorionic Villi* ; Cytoplasm ; Humans* ; Placenta ; Pregnancy* ; Telomerase* ; Telomere ; Telomere Shortening ; Trophoblasts

The survey of occupational injury has not been performed in Korean Air Force. The aim of this survey is to identify the feature of the occupational injury at the Korean Air force base. The occupational injury were monitored at the medical group in a Korean air base, from Aug 1998 to Jul 1999. Because the medical group has supported 2 different groups, we analysed and described some results seperately; group 1 consisted of workers in line maintenance operation, group 2 included workers in base maintenance operation. There were 59 injuries(injured persons) in group 1, and 9 injuries in group 2, so the incidence(per 1000) were 21.5, 4.46 respectively. 11 persons transferred to well-equiped hospital. Most of injured persons were air men, and then sergeant, civilian employee in order. The median age of injured persons was 22 years old in group 1 and 21 years old in group 2. The median work experience was 0.8 and 8 years respectively. The median delay time to arrive at the hospital from the time of injury were 30 min in group 1, 20 min in group 2, but maximum delay in group 1 was about 9 days. The occupational injuries were most common in October in the year, Tuesday in a week. Also the injury occurred common from 13 to 13:59, and from 11 to 11:59 in a day. The injury occurred most commonly by the collision with something, when working with more than 4 coworkers, and repairing the machinery. The most common injured part of the body were hands and feet, the patterns of injury were laceration and fracture.
Foot ; Hand ; Humans ; Incidence ; Lacerations ; Male ; Occupational Injuries* ; Young Adult

Myotonic dystrophy is a multisystemic disorder inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. The characteristic clinical features include the presence of myotonia, atrophy of the muscles of the face and the sternocleidomastoids and numerous nonmusclar manifestations such as cataracts, frontal baldness, gonadal dysfunctions and cardiac abnormalities. We experienced one case of myotonic dystrophy with prolonged atrial flutter in 30-year-old male who was admitted because of palpitation. We present this case with reviewing literatures.
Adult ; Alopecia ; Atrial Flutter* ; Atrophy ; Cataract ; Gonads ; Humans ; Male ; Muscles ; Myotonia ; Myotonic Dystrophy*

PURPOSE:To investigate the change in the tear protein composition of patients who underwent refractive surgery. METHODS: Tear samples were collected before photorefrative keratectomy (PRK), on the first, the second, and the third postoperative day, and then a month after the operation from 40 eyes of 20 patients. These tear samples were analyzed using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). Matrix-associated laser desorption/ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF) was employed for the identification of expressed proteins. Control tear samples were collected from 40 eyes of 20 healthy volunteers who had no history of ocular surgery or pathology. RESULTS: On the first postoperative day, lipocalin-1 precursor, lipocalin-1, and lysozyme were up-regulated. On the second postoperative day, serum albumin precursor and serum albumin were up-regulated. The tears collected on the third postoperative day and after 1 month had similar protein expression levels to the control group. Lipocalin 1 precursor and lysozyme were up-regulated and down-regulated after reftactive surgery, respectively. However, each protein had a different molecular weight and isopotential point. CONCLUSIONS: The tear protein composition changed uniquely in the early postoperative period, and proteins with different isopotential points were detected after PRK. We hypothesized that the healing process might influence the expression of the tear proteins.
Electrophoresis ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional ; Eye ; Eye Proteins ; Humans ; Lipocalin 1 ; Molecular Weight ; Muramidase ; Photorefractive Keratectomy ; Postoperative Period ; Proteins ; Refractive Surgical Procedures ; Serum Albumin ; Tears