BACKGROUND: Mechanisms of secondary injury (post-ischemic injury) in the central nervous system have cently reported in a vast of amount of experiments. Among many factors which give rise to post-ischemic neuronal damage, glial deterioration probably mediated by calcium paradox, could be another of the aggravating deleterious factars to the already ischemic neurophil. METHODS: Here we have designed experiment to investigate calcium paradox in astroglial cell line, humsn asttocytoma U1242MG. Intracellular calcium alterations in experimental cells were monitored by using calcium indicating dye fura-2 and epifluorescent photometry system. RESULTS: Intracellular free calcium changes during reperfusion phase after exposure to low calcium led to a prampt increase in intracellular calcium level after 10 and 30 minutes. The way of calcium entry during the reperfusion phase was mediated by the revase mode of Na+/Ca(2+) exchanger. Cells that had a reduction of reperfusate calcium to 10 uM increased cell viability. Also we observed an inverse relationship between major enzymatic activity in the astrocytoma cells (i.e., glutamine synthetase activity) and the duration of reperfusion in the the same protocols. CONCLUSIONS: A relatively small amount of intracellular calcium increase by the reverse mode of Na+/Ca(2+) exchanger during the reperfusion period is related to a limitation of enzyme activity and viability 24 hours later.
Anesthesia* ; Astrocytoma ; Brain ; Calcium ; Capnography* ; Cell Line ; Cell Survival ; Central Nervous System ; Fura-2 ; Glutamate-Ammonia Ligase ; Ions ; Neuroglia ; Neurons ; Photometry ; Reperfusion

No abstract available.
Ring Chromosomes*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the therapeutic effects of topiramate differ according to the types of migraine. METHODS: We recruited 38 children and adolescents with migraine who had been treated with topiramate. The effect of topiramate was evaluated on the basis of the change in the frequency of migraine attacks after treatment. RESULTS: Among patients having migraine with aura, 85.7% showed complete recovery, 1 (7.1%) showed partial recovery, and 1 did not show any recovery. Among patients having migraine without aura, 47.1% showed complete recovery, 29.4 % showed partial recovery, and 23.5% showed no recovery. Among patients suspected with migraine, 1 (20%) showed complete recovery, 1 (20%) showed partial recovery, and 3 (60%) showed no recovery. CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that topiramate exhibited excellent therapeutic effects for migraine accompanied with aura, and it was effective in migraine without aura. However, the effect of topiramate in patients suspected with migraine was uncertain.
Adolescent ; Child ; Epilepsy ; Fructose ; Humans ; Migraine Disorders ; Migraine with Aura ; Migraine without Aura

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the attitudes of middle-school students about height and their behaviors related to height gain. METHODS: One thousand four hundred twenty two middle-school students were included. We requested that the students complete a battery of questionnaires asking about problems associated with height. RESULTS: There was a clear difference between real height and desired height. Most students (83.7%) had height dissatisfaction. Most students (91.1%) were concerned about their height. Few students made efforts to improve their height, even though most students had height dissatisfaction and were concerned about their height. Herbal medicine had a tendency to become popularized in treatments for height. Students generally did not judge their friends by height, but there was a small tendency to ignore shorter friends and to feel a sense of inferiority around taller friends. Most students had a greater desire to have a beautiful face than a good body, especially to be tall. Most students thought that there would be some handicaps in life if they had a short stature. CONCLUSION: The attitudes and concerns about height in adolescence should be understood, and recognized as one aspect of treatment for problems associated with height.
Adolescent ; Friends ; Herbal Medicine ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: Clinical and radiologic results of femur intertrochanteric fractures treated with ITST nail in elderly patients with osteoporosis were analysized to evaluate the efficacy and complication of ITST nailing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 32 patients who were treated with ITST nail due to femur intertrochanteric fracture and were followed up for more than 1 year were analysed. According to Evans classification, 11 cases were stable fractures and 21 cases were unstable fractures. Clinically, ambulatory function was compared and radiologically, BMD of healthy leg was checked with analysis of postoperative bone union and complication. RESULTS: In ambulatory function comparison before and after the operation, there were 9 cases of good, 17 cases of moderate and 6 cases of poor. Considering social activity after the operation, 7 cases showed normal ambulation, 9 cases showed ambulatory with one cane, 5 cases showed two cane ambulation and 11 cases showed dependent ambulation. In radiologic evaluation, T-score of ward triangle in healthy femoral neck showed BMD of -3.12. In 20 cases, bone union was observed within 3 months. The patients with low BMD result had poor outcome. There were 2 cases of intraoperative proximal femur fracture, 3 cases of nonunion and 4 cases of death within 1 year. CONCLUSION: In elderly patients with intertrochanteric fracture, ITST nailing is relatively efficient treatment. However, in pateint with severe osteoporosis (T-score<-3.0) and unstable fracture pattern, arthroplasty should be considered due to relatively high complicaton rate.
Aged ; Arthroplasty ; Canes ; Classification ; Dependent Ambulation ; Femur ; Femur Neck ; Hip Fractures ; Humans ; Leg ; Osteoporosis ; Walking

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disorder that affects discrete areas of the CNS, including the optic nerves, in a quite variable relapsing-remitting fashion over a prolonged period of time. Although MS is usually considered to be a disease that affects peoples in early to middle adulthood, children do develop multiple sclerosis. The frequency of MS onset before the age of 15 years is 2.7-5% of all cases, while MS onset during infancy and early childhood was observed to be 0.2- 0.7% of all cases. We report here on a Korean case of a relapsing-remitting MS female child who was treated with four rounds of intravenous methylpredinsolone pulse therapy and preventive Interferon-beta-1b (Betaferon(R)).
Child ; Demyelinating Diseases ; Female ; Humans ; Interferons* ; Multiple Sclerosis* ; Optic Nerve ; Interferon beta-1b

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is an inflammatory demyelinating conditions, which is usually monophasic. Recurrent ADEM and multiphasic disseminated encephalomyelitis (MDEM) is much less characterized entity, and its differentiation from multiple sclerosis (MS) poses a diagnostic challenge. We report a case of multiphasic disseminated encephalomyelitis (MDEM). The patient had two episodes of paraparesis and other neurologic symptoms, which were separated by 2 months. The patient presented with fever, headache, mental change, lower extremity weakness, voiding difficulty as well as focal neurologic deficits, which showed good response on steroid and acyclovir. Brain MRI revealed variable sized, multifocal, subcortical white matter lesions with gray matter involvement, and spine MRI revealed high signal intensity from C3 to T9 spinal cord. The CSF study showed elevated protein count and negative oligoclonal band.
Acyclovir ; Brain ; Encephalomyelitis ; Encephalomyelitis, Acute Disseminated ; Fever ; Headache ; Humans ; Lower Extremity ; Multiple Sclerosis ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Paraparesis ; Simplexvirus ; Spinal Cord ; Spine

Atretic cephalocele is a rare congenital cranial anomaly. We have experienced 3 cases of atretic cephalocele at the Department of Neurosurgery, Kyungpook University Hospital between 1990 and 1993. Clinical features, operative considerations, and outcome are discussed.
Encephalocele* ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Neurosurgery

We performed two trials on the external quality assessment of viral markers and serological tests for syphilis (STS) organised by the Immunoserology Subcommittee of the Korean Association of Quality Assurance for Clinical Laboratories in 2013. In each trial, we delivered 3 kinds of pooled sera specimens to 1,021 institutions for external proficiency testing. Pooled sera were checked for their homogeneity and stability by using more than 3 other methods between the day of their manufacture and 3 days after despatching. The numbers of participating laboratories were 1,019 (99.8%) and 1,020 (99.8%) for the first and second trials, respectively. The most commonly tested items were hepatitis B surface antigen followed by antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen, anti-human immunodeficiency virus, anti-hepatitis C virus, STS, and anti-hepatitis B core. The most frequently used methods for detecting viral markers were the chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) and the electrochemiluminescence immunoassay, which generated a few false positive results. In contrast, false negative results were frequently found through the immunochromatography assay, the use of which for detecting viral markers has been steadily increasing in recent years. The new tests, turbidoimmunoassay and CLIA, have recently been introduced for the measurement of non-treponemal and treponemal antibodies, and their use is also increasing.
Antibodies ; Biomarkers* ; Hepatitis B ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis C ; HIV ; Immunoassay ; Immunochromatography ; Korea ; Laboratory Proficiency Testing ; Luminescence ; Serologic Tests* ; Syphilis*

Pathologic splenic rupture is an uncommon finding associated with a long list of pathologic conditions, including infectious diseases, hematologic diseases, metabolic disorders, drug therapy, primary and secondary benign or malignant splenic tumors, acute or chronic pancreatitis, collagen disorders pregnancy, and others. In this report, we present a case study of a pathologic splenic rupture caused by metastasis from a previously undiagnosed gastric carcinoma.
Collagen ; Communicable Diseases ; Drug Therapy ; Hematologic Diseases ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pancreatitis, Chronic ; Pregnancy ; Splenic Rupture*