BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy & safety of a new HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, atorvastatin, to improve serum lipid profiles in patients with primary hypercholesterolemia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three hundred and six patients from 21 hospitals, all with total cholesterol level over 240 mg/dl and triglyceride level below 400 mg/dl were enrolled in the study. Following diet therapy for 2 weeks, atorvastatin 10 mg was taken for 6 weeks if the total cholesterol level remained higher than 240 mg/dl. The percent change of total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol from baseline to 6 weeks of treatment were evaluated. Patients were monitored for safety through careful history talking, physical examination, serum sampling for liver and muscle enzyme. RESULTS: 1) The study was completed in a total of 166 patients. The mean age of patients the was 58 1/2 years and the percent of male and female patients was 37%, 37% and 63%, respectively. 2) The baseline mean values of total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol following diet therapy for 2 weeks were 280+/-34 mg/dl, 172+/-77 mg/dl, 190+/-35 mg/dl, 56+/-13 mg/dl, respectively. 3) After 6 weeks treatment, the level of total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol were 195+/-34 mg/d, 150+/-67 mg/dl, 110+/-33 mg/dl, 55+/-12 mg/dl, respectively, and the rates of change were -30%, -7%, -42%, -0.2%, respectively. 4) The level of LDL-cholesterol at the end of treatment was below 100 mg/dl in 44%, 100-130 mg/dl in 33%, 130-160 mg/dl in 14%, over 160 mg/dl in 9% of patients. 5) 77% of total patients achieved the target goal of LDL cholesterol (below 130 mg/dl) according to the NCEP guideline. 6) The reduction rate of LDL-cholesterol was different among the patients. At the end of treatment, the patients with initial LDL-cholesterol below 100 mg/dl achieved a higher reduction rate (52%) as compared with those patient's inithal LDL-cholesterol level were higher. 7) There are was only 1 patient (0.6%) who showed 3 times a three-fold increase of liver enzyme and no patient showed an increase of creatine kinase. CONCLUSION: Atorvastatin is effective and safe in improving the lipid profiles in of patients with hypercholesterolemia without serious side effects. (Korean Circulation J 2001;31 (4):434-441)
Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, LDL ; Creatine Kinase ; Diet Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Hypercholesterolemia* ; Liver ; Male ; Oxidoreductases ; Physical Examination ; Triglycerides ; Atorvastatin Calcium

Atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (AAH) is regarded as a precancerous lesion in the multistep process for carcinogenesis of pulmonary adenocarcinoma. AAH is found in up to 25% of the lung tissue adjacent to cancer, particularly adenocarcinoma and also in 2-4% of autopsy cases. Until now, its main clinical significance is that some tumor recurrences are the lesions that have progressed from undetected AAH or they are newly developed cancers arising from AAH during the follow-up after the resection of adenocarcinoma. We present here the case of a 58-year-old woman having a large main adenocarcinoma with multiple small AAHs that mimicked lung-to-lung metastasis. AAH should be considered in the differential diagnosis of multiple small nodules during the preoperative evaluation and also during the follow-up of lung cancer patients.
Adenocarcinoma ; Autopsy ; Carcinogenesis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hyperplasia* ; Lung Neoplasms ; Lung* ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Recurrence

Four hundred and fifty patients of cerebrovascular accident who underwent computerized tomographic scanning during the 45 months, from January 1978 to October 1981, at department of internal medicine, Kyung Hee University Hospital, were studied and following results were obtained. 1. In Korea, intracerebral hematoma(48.2%) is more common than cerebral infarction(27.6%). 2. 87.3% of intracerebral hemorrhage were comfirmed while 61.5% of cerebral infarction were identified by brain CT. 3. Cerebrovascular accidents are definitely developing in 6th decade(40.6%) and male is more often affected. 4. hypertension is the most common underlying disease(72.3%) of cerebral hemorrhage, 52.4% of cerebral infarction. 5. hematoma occurs most frequently in basal ganglia(40.6%) and cerebral infarction occurs most frequently in global area(48.4%). 6. Changes of consciousness level were observed in 54.2% of the cases of mild degree hematoma. Mortality was 6.2% in mild degree hematoma and 88.2% in severe degree hematoma. 7. In 26.2% of cerebral hematoma, inital CSF findings were normal in spite of the evidence of cerebral hematoma confirmed by CT scanning.
Brain* ; Cerebral Hemorrhage ; Cerebral Infarction ; Classification* ; Consciousness ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Internal Medicine ; Korea ; Male ; Mortality ; Stroke* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a disease characterized by prolongation of ventricle repolarization and by the occurrence, usually during emotional or physical stress, of life-threatening arrhythmias that lead to sudden death in most symptomatic and untreated patients. Two variants have been initially identified:the original Jervell and Lange-Nielsen syndrome of congenital deafness and autosomal recessive inheritance, and the more frequent Romano-Ward syndrome of autosomal dominant inheritance. Evidence also shows that approximately 25 to 30% of the cases are sporadic with syncope and a prolonged QT interval but without showing evidence for familial involvement. Familial and sporadic cases have been grouped under the definition of congenital long QT syndrome. We experienced a case of congenital long QT syndrome in a 13-year-old female girl. She had episodes of recurrent syncope and QT interval prolongation(QTc=0.46sec) in electrocardiogram(ECG). The ECG of her mother showed QT interval prologation(QTc=0.46sec). After applying atenolol, the QT interval returned to normal range and syncope has not occurred. We report a case of congenital long QT syndrome with a brief review of related literatures.
Adolescent ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Atenolol ; Deafness ; Death, Sudden ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Humans ; Jervell-Lange Nielsen Syndrome ; Long QT Syndrome* ; Mothers ; Reference Values ; Romano-Ward Syndrome ; Syncope* ; Wills

No abstract available.
Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung*

Hirayama disease usually selectively involves lower cervical myotomes (C8, T1). Thus, patients usually manifest with atrophy and weakness of small hand muscle. Predominant isolated involvement of proximal arm is rarely reported in Hirayama disease. Here, we report a case of Hirayama disease who had focal weakness and wasting, mainly confined to right biceps brachii muscle, with prominent shifting of dural sac in C4-5 segment by dynamic flexion magnetic resonance imaging (dfMRI), which may explain this unusual distribution of the disease.
Amyotrophy, monomelic

The antihypertensive efficacy and safety of Dilevalol, compared with Nicardipine, were evaluated in mild to moderate hypertensive patients in a randomized crossover study. Following a 3 week placebo washout (phase I), the first crossover (phase II) was initiated with 63 patients randomized to dilevalol and 62 to nicardipine. The 6 weeks of treatment was initiated with 100mg of dilevalol once daily or 40mg of nicardipine (20mg B.I.D.). After 2 weeks, patients not achieving a sitting DBP to < or =90mmHg or a decrease of > or =10mmhg were uptitrated to 200mg Dilevalol once daily or 60mg Nicardipine twice daily. A second three week placebo washout (phase III) followed by a second 6 week active treatment phase (phase IV) during which patients were crossed over to the alternative therapy as during phase II if the sitting DBP again met the entrance criteria. 18 patients were only evaluable for the first washout and treatment period because of early discontinuation or protocol violations. They were included in the safety evaluation. phass II patients treated with Dilevalol (n=63) were mean age of 52.9 years, 49% male and 51% mild hypertensives (< or =105mmHg). Phase ??patients treated with Nicardipine (n=62) were mean age of 51.2 years 55% male and 66% mild hypertensives. Both Dilevalol and Nicardipine significantly and equivalently lowered blood pressure relative to baseline (71% versus 67% normalization). Dilevalol slightly but significantly lowered heart rate (-5 beat/min versus -1 beat/min). Dilevalol significantly increased HDL cholesterol (2.1mg/dl, 4.2%) and decreased total cholesterol (9.6mg/dl, 4.2%) while Nicardipine produced only a small but not significant reduction in total cholesterol (3.2mg/dl, 1.2%). The incidence of adverse effects were lower with Dilevalol than with Nicardipine and especially flushing and ankle edema occurred significantly more often with Nicardipine. in conclusion, dilevalol is equally effective but has a superior safety profile to nicardipine in the treatment of mild to moderate hypertension.
Ankle ; Blood Pressure ; Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, HDL ; Cross-Over Studies ; Edema ; Flushing ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Incidence ; Labetalol* ; Male ; Nicardipine*

The coronary artery fistula from right coronary artery to left ventricle is a rare disease among coronary artery anomaly. We experienced three cases of rare coronary fistula and report with literature review. Although symptoms of coronary artery fistula are associated with arteriovenous shunt and coronary steal phenomenon, many cases are asymptomatic. In this report, all patients had no symptom. but incidental murmur was noted (two are continuous, one is diastolic rumbling). The diagnosis was made by transthoracic or transesophageal echocardiogram and selective coronary angiography. Because patients were relatively young and the diameter of dilated coronary artery were huge, we perfomed operation on three patients.
Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Vessels* ; Diagnosis ; Fistula* ; Heart Ventricles* ; Humans ; Rare Diseases

Despite on-going efforts to control malaria, the rate of malaria has not decreased throughout the world. It was believed that endemic malaria had been eradicated in Korea since the end of the 1970s, however it reemerged from 1993 and has been increasing ever since. Besides endemic malaria, imported malaria is also increasing in Korea as the number of overseas travellers and foreign workers increases. We discovered malaria in a two-year-old child who visited Sierra Leone with his missionary father. The patient contracted malaria despite chemo-prophylaxis with chloroquine and was diagnosed as falciparum malaria by blood smear examination and IFAT. He successfully recovered after administraion of quinine and clindamycin without complication. However, the malaria did not respond quickly to chloroqine and Fansidar but a drug resistence test was not performed.
Child* ; Chloroquine ; Clindamycin ; Fathers ; Humans ; Korea ; Malaria* ; Missions and Missionaries ; Quinine ; Sierra Leone

Congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS) is an inherited disease characterized by prolonged QT intervals and polymorphic ventricular tachycardia. The clinical manifestations vary from sudden cardiac death by ventricular arrhythmia to asymptom throughout life. In 1957, Jervell and Lange-Nielsen reported a syndrome of congen-ital sensory deafness associated with a prolonged QT interval in four children. The affected children had multiple syncopal episodes, and three died suddenly. The mode of inheritance is autosomal recessive. Affected persons are susceptible to recurrent syncope, and they have a high incidence of sudden death and short life expectancy. We report a case and review the literature on long QT syndrome diagnosed in a 30-year-old female with a history of convulsion and loss of consciousness during delivery.
Adult ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Child ; Deafness* ; Death, Sudden ; Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Jervell-Lange Nielsen Syndrome ; Life Expectancy ; Long QT Syndrome* ; Seizures ; Syncope* ; Tachycardia, Ventricular ; Unconsciousness ; Wills