No abstract available.
Duodenal Ulcer* ; Vagotomy, Truncal*

A bilateral facet dislocation after anterior cervical fusion with a plate in distraction-flexion injury without significant instability in plain radiography is very rare. This paper reports a case with a confirmed injury status (C6–7 and C7–T1) by magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography with no visible fractures or displacement on plain radiography. Anterior cervical fusion (C6–T1) was performed with a cage and plate. On the other hand, three days later, C6–7 bilateral facet dislocation developed with severe neck and radiating pain, and posterior decompression and fusion were performed.

A newly developed third generation enzyme immunoassay(Lucky HCD 3.0 EIA) for hepatitis C virus(HCV) antibodies was added with the envelope(E1E2)/NS4 fusion proteins and expanded NS5 proteins as well as the core/NS3 fusion proteins. Authors evaluated the HCD 3.0 EIA with the previously available second generation EIA(HCD 2.0) in 10,435 Red Cross blood donors. Among 10,435 donors who were screened for the presence of HCV antibodies by HCD 2.0 assay, 22(0.21%) sera were repeatedly reactive. All of these sera were tested for further testing. Only 13 of all tested sera were reactive by HCD 3.0 EIA, and nine sera were not reactive. Nine of 13 HCD 3.0 positive sera were reactive by recombinant immunoblot assay(Lucky-Confirm). Also seven of these 13 sera had detectable HCV genomic RNA by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR). None of nine HCD 3.0 negative samples had detectable immunoblot assay and HCV genomic RNA. It is concluded that the new HCV EIA can decrease a significant false positivity of second generation EIA in a blood donor population. This new assay correlates well with detection of HCV-RNA by RT-PCR and identifies donors who are truly infected.
Antibodies ; Blood Donors* ; Hepatitis C ; Hepatitis C Antibodies ; Humans ; Immunoblotting* ; Red Cross ; RNA ; Tissue Donors

No abstract available.

PURPOSE: To determine which perinatal risk factors influence neurodevelopmental outcome, we try to investigate which perinatal risk factors are correlated with Baley mental or psychomotor developmental index using BSID-II test (Baley Scales of Infant Development, II) in long term follow up of very low birth weight who received neonatal intensive care. METHODS: This study was performed on 56 very low birth weight infants with corrected age 24 months who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. We analyzed correlation between perinatal risk factors and neurodevelopmental outcome assessed by mental and psychomotor developmental index. RESULTS: Mean birth weight was 1317.8+/-168.5g : Small for gestational age was 11 cases and appropriate for gestational age was 45 cases : Mean mental developmental index was 93.8+/-10.3 and psychomotor developmental index was 99.9+/-13.2. Mean developmental scale did not show any significant difference between perinatal risk factors, such as sex, ventilator care and its duration, hospitalization days, birth weight, small for gestational age. Mental or psychomotor developmental score was significantly delayed in the subgroup with grade III intraventricular hemorrhages and periventricular cyst. On cranial ultrasonogram, sinificantly low mental, psychomotor developmental score was found on the subgroup with grade III intraventricular hemorrhages and periventricular cyst formation larger than 3mm size (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that grade III intraventricular hemorrhage and periventricular cyst larger than 3mm size are associated with poor prognostic risk factors regarding to low neurodevelopmental index score.
Birth Weight ; Child ; Child Development ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gestational Age ; Hemorrhage ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Infant* ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Very Low Birth Weight* ; Intensive Care, Neonatal ; Risk Factors* ; Ultrasonography ; Ventilators, Mechanical ; Weights and Measures

The familial occurrence of bilateral acoustic neuroma has rarely been reported in the literatures, and its inheritance is known to be an autosomal dominant trait in association with or without von Recklinghausen's disease. Recently, we experienced an unusual case of bilateral acoustic neuroma, which was familially occurred in mother and her son. A 18-year-old Korean boy was referred to us due to bilateral hearing disturbance and staggering gait of one year duration. There were no stigmata of von Recklinghausen's disease. Neurological examination, simple skull films and vertebral angiograms revealed various evidences of bilateral cerebellopontine angle tumors. At operation, a hen egg-sized firm mass was subtotally removed at the left cerebellopontine angle region and a peanut-sized mass was totally removed at the right cerebellopontine angle region via suboccipital craniectomy. The histological diagnosis was neurofibroma. In family history, 13 years ago his mother was operated on C6-7 neurofibroma at her age of 28 years, and again operated on bilateral acoustic tumors 2 years later. The histological diagnosis was also neurofibroma.
Acoustics* ; Adolescent ; Cerebellopontine Angle ; Christianity ; Diagnosis ; Gait ; Hearing ; Humans ; Male ; Mothers ; Neurofibroma ; Neurofibromatosis 1 ; Neurologic Examination ; Neuroma, Acoustic* ; Skull ; Wills

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlations of various kinetic parameters derived from the time intensity curve in a xenograft mouse model injected with a prostate cancer model (PC-3 and LNCaP) using an ultrasound contrast agent with histopathologic parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty nude mice were injected with human prostate cancer cells (15 PC-3 and five LNCaP) on their hind limbs. A bolus of 500 microL (1 x 10(8) microbubbles) of second-generation US contrast agent (SonoVue) was injected into the retroorbital vein. The region of interest was drawn over the entire tumor. The time intensity curve was acquired and then fitted to a gamma variate function. The maximal intensity (A), time to peak (Tp), maximal wash-in rate (washin), washout rate (washout), area under the curve up to 50 sec (AUC50), area under the ascending slope (AUC(in)), and area under the descending slope (AUC(out)) were derived from the parameters of the gamma variate fit. Immunohistochemical staining for VEGF and CD31 was performed. Tumor volume, the area percentage of VEGF stained in a field, and the count of CD31 (microvessel density, MVD) positive vessels showed correlation with the parameters from the time intensity curve. RESULTS: No significant differences were observed between the kinetic and histopathological parameters from each group. MVD showed positive correlation with A (r=0.625, p=0.003), washin (r=0.462, p=0.040), AUC50 (r=0.604, p=0.005), and AUC(out) (r=0.587, p=0.007). Positive correlations were also observed between tumor volume and AUC50 (r=0.481, p=0.032), washin (r=0.662, p=0.001), and AUC(out) (r=0.547, p=0.012). Washout showed negative correlations with MVD (r=-0.454, p=0.044) and tumor volume (r=-0.464, p=0.039). The area percentage of VEGF did not show any correlation with calculated data from the curve. CONCLUSION: MVD showed correlations with several of the kinetic parameters. CE-US has the potential for prediction of tumor vascularity in a prostate cancer animal model.
Animals ; Extremities ; Humans ; Mice ; Mice, Nude ; Models, Animal ; Prostate ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Transplantation, Heterologous ; Tumor Burden ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A ; Veins

We have experienced 3 cases of recurrent urinary tract infection with ureterovesical reflux under age of 10 years. Two of these patients have completely recovered after surgical reimplantantation which were confirmed by follow-up VCUG 6 to 8 month after surgery. One showed hydronephrotic change of right kidney by intravenous pyelogram taken 7 months after surgical reimplantation. A brief review of the related literature wag also presented and discussed the importance of radiological investigation in recurrent urinary tract infection.
Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kidney ; Replantation ; Urinary Tract Infections* ; Urinary Tract*

Melanocortin is the downstream mediator of leptin signaling and absence of leptin signaling in ob/ob and db/db mice revealed the enhancement of bone formation through the central regulation. While alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha MSH) inhibits the secretion of interleukin-1 alpha and tumor necrosis factor-alpha from the inflammatory cells, alpha MSH can also enhance clonal expansion of pro B cells linked to stimulation of osteoclastogenesis. Therefore, we tested the effect of melanocortin on bones. alpha MSH analogues [6His] alpha MSH-ND and [6Asn] alpha MSH-ND were synthesized and the radio-ligand receptor binding- and cyclic AMP generating activity were analyzed in China Hamster Ovary cell line over- expressing melanocortin receptors. The EC50 of [6His] alpha MSH-ND measured from melanocortin-1, 3, 4 and 5 receptors were 0.008 0.0045, 1.523 0.707, 0.780 0.405, and 250.320 42.234 nM, respectively, and the EC50 of [6Asn] alpha MSH-ND were 16.8 6.94, 271.8 21.95, 8.0 1.21, and 1132.5 635.46 nM, respectively. Four weeks after the subcutaneous injection of the analogues, the body weights in the [6His] alpha MSH-ND and the [6Asn] alpha MSH-ND treated groups (346.0 20.63 g vs. 350.0 13.57 g) were lower than that of the vehicle treated group (375.8 17.31 g, p 0.05). There was no difference in the total femoral BMD measured by dual x-ray absorptiometry among the three groups. Among the three groups, there were no differences in the total numbers of crystal violet positive- or alkaline phosphatase positive colonies, in the expression of Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor Kappa-B ligand on the tibia and the total number of multinucleated osteoclast-like cells differentiated from primary cultured bone marrow cells. From the above results, no evidence of bone gain or loss was found after treatment of the alpha MSH analogues peripherally.
Animal ; Body Weight/drug effects ; Bone and Bones/*drug effects ; CHO Cells ; Cyclic AMP/biosynthesis ; Eating/drug effects ; Hamsters ; Male ; Osteoblasts/drug effects/physiology ; Osteoclasts/drug effects/physiology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Receptors, Corticotropin/physiology ; alpha-MSH/analogs & derivatives/*pharmacology