Antibody mediated rejection (AMR) after adult ABO-incompatible living donor liver transplantation (ABO-I LDLT) induced hepatic necrosis or diffuse intrahepatic biliary complications, which were related with poor graft and patient survival. Various desensitization protocols have been used to overcome these problems. Since using rituximab, the outcomes of ABO-I LDLT show a similar survival rate to those of ABO-compatible living donor liver transplantation. However, diffuse bile duct complications still occur after ABO-I LDLT. We have reviewed the past and current immune strategies for desensitization and to provide outcomes and ABO incompatibility-related complications in ABO-I LDLT.

PURPOSE: We evaluated the safety and efficacy of radial optic neurotomy (RON) in eyes with central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO). METHODS: We performed standard tri-port pars plana vitrectomy and RON in 7 eyes (7 patients) which were diagnosed with CRVO at Konyang University Hospital from December 2001 to November 2002. The eyes had best corrected visual acuities of less than 20/200 and revealed macular edema and hemorrhage on optical coherence tomography and fluorescein angiography. Visual acuity, fundus examination, fundus photography, optical coherence tomography, and fluorescein angiography were performed both preoperatively and postoperatively in all cases. Visual fields were performed preoperatively and postoperatively in 2 eyes. RESULTS: No intraoperative complications occurred in any case except bleeding from incision sites, but we noted defects corresponding to the incision sites of RON on visual field tests in 2 eyes. In 6 of the 7 eyes, the findings improved on fundus photography, optical coherence tomography, and fluorescein angiography. In 2 of the 6 eyes, the visual acuities improved to better than 20/30, but the other 4 eyes showed no improvement. CONCLUSIONS: The surgical decompression of CRVO via RON was a relatively safe procedure, and demonstrated the benefit of rapid reperfusion of retina. However, further studies are needed to establish the safety and long term efficacy of the surgery.
Decompression, Surgical ; Fluorescein Angiography ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Hemorrhage ; Intraoperative Complications ; Macular Edema ; Photography ; Reperfusion ; Retina ; Retinal Vein* ; Tomography, Optical Coherence ; Visual Acuity ; Visual Field Tests ; Visual Fields ; Vitrectomy

The Emergency Medicine Recipes in Local Medicinals (鄕藥救急方, Hyang'yak Kugŭpbang) (c. 14th century) is known to be one of the oldest Korean medical textbooks that exists in its entirety. This study challenges conventional perceptions that have interpreted this text by using modern concepts, and it seeks to position the medical activities of the late Koryŏ Dynasty 高麗 (918–1392) to the early Chosŏn Dynasty 朝鮮 (1392–1910) in medical history with a focus on this text. According to existing studies, Emergency Medicine Recipes in Local Medicinals is a strategic compromise of the Korean elite in response to the influx of Chinese medical texts and thus a medical text from a “periphery” of the Sinitic world. Other studies have evaluated this text as a medieval publication demonstrating stages of transition to systematic and rational medicine and, as such, a formulary book 方書 that includes primitive elements. By examining past medicine practices through “modern” concepts based on a dichotomous framework of analysis — i.e., modernity vs. tradition, center vs. periphery, science vs. culture — such conventional perceptions have relegated Emergency Medicine Recipes in Local Medicinals to the position of a transitional medieval publication meaningful only for research on hyangchal 鄕札 (Chinese character-based writing system used to record Korean during the Silla Dynasty 新羅 [57 BC–935 AD] to the Koryŏ Dynasty). It is necessary to overcome this dichotomous framework in order to understand the characteristics of East Asian medicine. As such, this study first defines “medicine 醫”, an object of research on medical history, as a “special form of problem-solving activities” and seeks to highlight the problematics and independent medical activities of the relevant actors. Through this strategy (i.e., texts as solutions to problems), this study analyzes Emergency Medicine Recipes in Local Medicinals to determine its characteristics and significance. Ultimately, this study argues that Emergency Medicine Recipes in Local Medicinals was a problem-solving method for the scholar-gentry 士人層 from the late Koryŏ Dynasty to the early Chosŏn Dynasty, who had adopted a new cultural identity, to perform certain roles on the level of medical governance and constitute medical praxis that reflected views of both the body and materials and an orientation distinguished from those of the so-called medicine of Confucian physicians 儒醫, which was the mainstream medicine of the center. Intertwined at the cultural basis of the treatments and medical recipes included in Emergency Medicine Recipes in Local Medicinals were aspects such as correlative thinking, ecological circulation of life force, transformation of materiality through contact, appropriation of analogies, and reasoning of sympathy. Because “local medicinals 鄕藥” is understood in Emergency Medicine Recipes in Local Medicinals as referring to objects easily available from one's surroundings, it signifies locality referring to the ease of acquisition in local areas rather than to the identity of the state of Koryŏ or Chosŏn. As for characteristics revealed by this text's methods of implementing medicine, Korean medicine in terms of this text consisted largely of single-ingredient formulas using diverse medicinal ingredients easily obtainable from one's surroundings rather than making use of general drugs as represented by materia medica 本草 or of multiple-ingredient formulas. In addition, accessible tools, full awareness of the procedures and processes of the guidelines, procedural rituals, and acts of emergency treatment (first aid) were more important than the study of the medical classics, moral cultivation, and coherent explanations emphasized in categorical medical texts. Though Emergency Medicine Recipes in Local Medicinals can be seen as an origin of the tradition of emergency medicine in Korea, it differs from medical texts that followed which specializing in emergency medicine to the extent that it places toxicosis 中毒 before the six climatic factors 六氣 in its classification of diseases.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Ceremonial Behavior ; Classification ; Emergencies ; Emergency Medicine ; Emergency Treatment ; Far East ; Humans ; Korea ; Materia Medica ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Methods ; Publications ; Thinking ; Writing

BACKGROUND: Deficiency of von Willebrand factor-cleaving protease, a disintegrin-like and metalloprotease with thrombospondin type 1 motif 13 (ADAMTS13), is thought to be responsible for platelet aggregation and microthrombi formation, which in turn cause typical thrombotic microangiopathies. This deficiency is found in patients with thrombocytopenia-associated multiple organ failure such as thrombocytopenic purpura and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). We evaluated the clinical significance of ADAMTS13 deficiency in patients with sepsis-induced DIC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nineteen patients with sepsis-induced DIC were enrolled. ADAMTS13 antigen levels were determined by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and activity levels were measured by fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay. Patients were categorized into two groups according to ADAMTS13 antigen level: less than 350 ng/mL or above. Clinical characteristics and survival were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: ADAMTS13 antigen level was less than 350 ng/mL in 7 patients and was above 350 ng/mL in 12 patients. There were no significant differences between the groups for age, sex, severity of illness, and other clinical characteristics. In patients with ADAMTS13 antigen level less than 350 ng/mL, in-hospital mortality was much higher (100% versus 25%, P=0.003) and 7-day survival was much shorter (P=0.023). CONCLUSION: Deficiency of ADAMTS13 could be thought to be associated with unfavorable outcome in patients with sepsis-induced DIC.
Dacarbazine ; Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer ; Hospital Mortality ; Humans ; Multiple Organ Failure ; Platelet Aggregation ; Prognosis ; Purpura, Thrombocytopenic ; Sepsis ; Thrombospondins ; Thrombotic Microangiopathies

BACKGROUND: Deficiency of von Willebrand factor-cleaving protease, a disintegrin-like and metalloprotease with thrombospondin type 1 motif 13 (ADAMTS13), is thought to be responsible for platelet aggregation and microthrombi formation, which in turn cause typical thrombotic microangiopathies. This deficiency is found in patients with thrombocytopenia-associated multiple organ failure such as thrombocytopenic purpura and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). We evaluated the clinical significance of ADAMTS13 deficiency in patients with sepsis-induced DIC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nineteen patients with sepsis-induced DIC were enrolled. ADAMTS13 antigen levels were determined by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and activity levels were measured by fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay. Patients were categorized into two groups according to ADAMTS13 antigen level: less than 350 ng/mL or above. Clinical characteristics and survival were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: ADAMTS13 antigen level was less than 350 ng/mL in 7 patients and was above 350 ng/mL in 12 patients. There were no significant differences between the groups for age, sex, severity of illness, and other clinical characteristics. In patients with ADAMTS13 antigen level less than 350 ng/mL, in-hospital mortality was much higher (100% versus 25%, P=0.003) and 7-day survival was much shorter (P=0.023). CONCLUSION: Deficiency of ADAMTS13 could be thought to be associated with unfavorable outcome in patients with sepsis-induced DIC.
Dacarbazine ; Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer ; Hospital Mortality ; Humans ; Multiple Organ Failure ; Platelet Aggregation ; Prognosis ; Purpura, Thrombocytopenic ; Sepsis ; Thrombospondins ; Thrombotic Microangiopathies

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory skin disease affecting 2~3% of the worldwide population. Ustekinumab, an IL-12/23p40 inhibitor, is a biologic reported to be effective and safe in treating psoriasis. However, there are limited data on the treatment outcomes of ustekinumab in patients with psoriasis in Korea. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the treatment outcomes and response pattern of ustekinumab in patients with psoriasis in Korea. METHODS: This was a retrospective single-center study. Eighty-four patients with psoriasis treated with ustekinumab were analyzed. Each patient's medical records, psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) score, and body surface area were reviewed at baseline and up to week 52. RESULTS: A total of 84 patients were included (male:female=1.8:1). The mean age was 44.5 years. At week 16, 86.7% achieved PASI75, 59.0% achieved PASI90, and 20.5% achieved PASI100. By week 16, 84.8% of subjects had attained PASI75 for the head region, whereas 79.0% had attained it for the lower extremities, indicating a relatively slower treatment response of psoriatic lesions on the lower extremities. Four patients discontinued treatment due to lack of effect. No severe adverse events occurred during the follow-up period. CONCLUSION: Ustekinumab demonstrated highly effective and safe treatment profiles in Korean psoriatic patients, consistent with the previous reports from mainly Western countries. Psoriasis severity and treatment responsiveness may vary with body region.
Body Regions ; Body Surface Area ; Follow-Up Studies ; Head ; Humans ; Korea ; Lower Extremity ; Medical Records ; Psoriasis ; Retrospective Studies ; Skin Diseases ; Ustekinumab

Gemellae is a gram positive cocci that forms part of the oropharyngeal microflora in humans and is anaerobic to aerotolerant. Unlike the other members of the same genus, G. morbillorum rarely causes human infections. Recently, we experienced a case of tubo-ovarian abscess caused by G. morbillorum which was initially suspected to be actinomycosis associated with intrauterine device. This is the first case in the world on tubo-ovarian abscess with G. morbillorum as the culprit.
Abscess ; Actinomycosis ; Gemella ; Gram-Positive Cocci ; Humans ; Intrauterine Devices

Gemellae is a gram positive cocci that forms part of the oropharyngeal microflora in humans and is anaerobic to aerotolerant. Unlike the other members of the same genus, G. morbillorum rarely causes human infections. Recently, we experienced a case of tubo-ovarian abscess caused by G. morbillorum which was initially suspected to be actinomycosis associated with intrauterine device. This is the first case in the world on tubo-ovarian abscess with G. morbillorum as the culprit.
Abscess ; Actinomycosis ; Gemella ; Gram-Positive Cocci ; Humans ; Intrauterine Devices

BACKGROUND: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is closely associated with gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric carcinoma. We evaluated the reliability and usefulness of 73C-urea breath test (13C-UBT) for the detection of H. pylori infection and searched for the cut-off value of the test. METHOD : We investigated 45 patients, who underwent esophagoduodenoscopy with multiple biopsy specimens taken for culture, histology and rapid urease test, and 13C-UBT. Sensitivity and specificity of UBT were calculated against the combined biopsy-based test results. RESULT: Of 45 patients, 26 were found to be H. pylori-positive according to combined biopsy-based test-results. Sensitivity and specificity of the 13C-UBT were 100.0% and 89.5 %, respectively. CONCLUSION: The urea breath test provides a simple and reliable and noninvasive method of assessing HL pylori infection status.
Biopsy ; Breath Tests* ; Gastritis ; Helicobacter pylori* ; Helicobacter* ; Humans ; Peptic Ulcer ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Urea* ; Urease