No abstract available.
Intestinal Fistula*

Primary tumors of the heart are rare, and one-third of them are malignant. The most common malignant intracardiac tumor is angiosarcoma, which usually involves right atrium. MR features in one patients with right atrial angiosarcoma is presented and the literature briefly reviewed. Angiosarcoma demonstrated slightly heterogeneous intermediate signal intensity on T1-weighted images, high signal intensity on T2-weighted images and higher signal intensity on Gd-DTPA enhanced images. MRI provided more information regarding the extent of the tumor than 2D echocardiography or CT.
Echocardiography ; Gadolinium DTPA ; Heart ; Heart Atria ; Hemangiosarcoma* ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Moral Development* ; Students, Medical*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary*

Ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VP shunt) for hydrocephalus is thought to inhibit the closure of processus vaginalis by increasing intraabdominal pressure, thus it promotes the inguinal hernia. We reviewed the incidence and characteristics of the inguinal hernia in VP shunted patients, and tried to estimate the patency rate of processus vaginalis in early childhood. A reprospective review of patients undergone insertion of VP shunt between January 1980 and May 1998 at Seoul National University Children Hospital was done. 262 patients were included in this study. Among them, 28 patients developed inguinal hernia (10.7%). Six patients developed inguinal hernia before the insertion of VP shunt. According to the age of VP shunt, the inguinal hernia developed in 16.2% (12/74) of patients who had undergone VP shunt before 6 months old, 12.4% (11/89) between 6 months and 2 years old and 5.1% (5/99) after 2 years old. Among 22 patients excluding 6 patients who developed hernia before VP shunt, the incidence of inguinal hernia after VP shunt was 8.6% (22/256) with male predominance (M:F=18:4). 8 patients developed inguinal hernia bilaterally (36.4%). It is suggested that at least 14% of processus vaginalis is patent until 2 years old.
Child ; Child, Preschool ; Hernia ; Hernia, Inguinal* ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Incidence ; Infant ; Male ; Seoul ; Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt*

Most stress urinary incontinence require a surgical correction for stabilizing the urethrovesical junction Many procedures had been applied for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence. Recently we experienced two cases of stress urinary incontinence, corrected by endoscopic suspension of bladder neck with percutaneous nephrostomy needles, ang good results were obtained. Herein we reported a more simple and safe modified procedure with some literatures.
Neck ; Needles ; Nephrostomy, Percutaneous ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Incontinence*

The incidence of thyroid cancer has been rapidly increased in Korea. Although fine needle aspiration cytology is recommended for diagnosis of cancer, there are some limitations. Patients with indeterminate or suspicious cytology category in which malignancy cannot be ruled out usually undergone a thyroidectomy, however, only 10~25% of them finally diagnosed as cancer. According to the progress in understanding molecular mechanism, some mutations or other molecular alterations have been studied for the diagnostic and prognostic markers for thyroid cancer. The majority of papillary thyroid cancers have BRAF and RAS mutations or RET/PTC rearrangement, and approximately 80% of follicular thyroid cancers harbor a RAS mutation or PAX8/PPARgamma rearrangement. These genetic alterations are mostly studied and current clinical guidelines suggested that these molecular markers may help management for patients with indeterminate cytology. In addition, recent studies demonstrated the high sensitivity and specificity of thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor mRNA in diagnosing cancer in patients with indeterminate cytology. For the detection of recurrent or residual thyroid cancer, serum thyroglobulin is the only circulating marker in clinical practice. However, it lacks sensitivity and is unreliable specifically in the presence of antibodies to thyroglobulin. Recent studies demonstrated a significant role of measuring the mRNA of thyroglobulin, thyroid peroxidase, thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor, and sodium/iodine symporter in peripheral blood for monitoring of the recurrence of thyroid cancer.
Antibodies ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Humans ; Incidence ; Iodide Peroxidase ; Ion Transport ; Korea ; Recurrence ; RNA, Messenger ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Thyroglobulin ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; Thyroidectomy ; Thyrotropin

PURPOSE: To verify the usefulness of left portal vein angle (LPVA) on CT scan in the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis and to compare its diagnostic value with that of caudate to right lobe ratio (C/RL ratio). MATERIALS AND METHODS: LPVA, an angle formed by a vertical line and a line connecting the center of the vertebral body to the umbilical point of the left portal vein, and C/RL ratio were measured on CT scans of 100 cirrhotic and 100 normal livers. Diagnostic values of LPVA and C/RL ratio were compared statistically. RESULTS: The mean of LPVA was 18.9 degrees(SD; 7.6) for normal livers and 25.8 degreesSD; 8.4) for cirrhotic livers (P<0.001). The mean of C/RL ratio was 0.47(SD; 1.10) for normal livers and 0.58(SD;0.14) for cirrhotic livers (P<0.001). When LPVA was greater than 30 degreesliver cirrhosis was diagnosed with 36% sensitivity and 92% specificity. When C/RL ratio was greater than 0.60, the diagnose of liver cirrhosis was with 41% sensitivity and 90% specificity. There was no significant difference of the diagnostic accuracy between LPVA and C/R L ratio in ROC analysis. CONCLUSION: Both LPVA and C/RL ratio are useful diagnostic indices of liver cirrhosis on CTscan. LPVA is more convenient to measure than C/RL ratio.
Diagnosis* ; Fibrosis ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver* ; Portal Vein* ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Since the effectuation of a new bioethical law, the number of registered genetic testing laboratories in Korea has reached about one hundred and seventy, as of June 2006. For the purpose of supervision and quality control of these laboratories the Korean Institute of Genetic Testing and Evaluation (KIGTE) was founded in October 2005 with the support of the Korean Government. KIGTE will perform its task by establishing a proficiency testing program and on-site inspection program in the near future. At this moment, however, the ambiguous definition of genetic testing, hasty entry of research tests into clinical practice, unpreparedness of some non-medical commercial laboratories for systematic quality assurance programs, and the risk of violating privacy related to genetic testing are major issues to be solved.
Genetic Testing* ; Jurisprudence ; Korea* ; Organization and Administration ; Privacy ; Quality Control

No abstract available.
Heart Defects, Congenital ; Umbilical Veins*