PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to investigate the reproducibility of the quantitative assessment of segmental wall motion and systolic thickening provided by an automatic quantitation algorithm. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tc-99m-MIBI gated myocardial SPECT with dipyridamole stress was performed in 31 patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease (4 with single, 6 with two, 11 with triple vessel disease; ejection fraction 51+/-14%) twice consecutively in the same position. Myocardium was divided into 20 segments. Segmental wall motion and systolic thickening were calculated and expressed in mm and % increase respectively, using AutoQUANTTM software. The reproducibility of this quantitative measurement of wall motion and thickening was tested. RESULTS: Correlations between repeated measurements on consecutive gated SPECT were excellent for wall motion (r=0.95) and systolic thickening (r=0.88). On Bland-Altman analysis, two standard deviation was 2 mm for repeated measurement of segmental wall motion, and 20% for that of systolic thickening. The weighted kappa values of repeated measurements were 0.807 for wall motion and 0.708 for systolic thickening. Sex, perfusion, or segmental location had no influence on reproducibility. CONCLUSION: Segmental wall motion and systolic thickening quantified using AutoQUANTTM software on gated myocardial SPECT offers good reproducibility and is significantly different when the change is more than 2 mm for wall motion and more than 20% for systolic thickening.
Coronary Artery Disease ; Dipyridamole ; Humans ; Myocardium ; Perfusion ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Blastocyst* ; Embryonic Structures* ; Glucose* ; Mice*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The transsynaptic transfer of neurotropic viruses is an effective tool for tracing chains of connected neurons because the replication of virus in the recipient neurons after transfer amplifies the "tracer signal". The purpose of study was to identify the location of spinal nucleus of the accessory nerve and the central neural pathways using Bartha strain of Pseudorabies virus (PRV-Ba), as a transsynaptic tracer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: PRV-Ba was injected into the sternocleidomastoid muscle of a rat, and the localization of PRV-Ba in the rat spinal cord and CNS was identified with light microscopic immunohistochemistry using primary antibodies against the PRV-Ba. RESULTS: Sequential tracing of retrogradely labeled cells was done. The shapes of positive immunoreactive cells were mostly ovoid or polygonal, and were shown in the spinal nucleus of the accessory nerve, nucleus ambiguus, paraventricular nucleus, and the primary motor area of cerebral cortex. CONCLUSIONS: These results showed the location of spinal accessory nucleus and the central neural pathways of spinal accessory nerve using PRV-Ba.
Accessory Nerve* ; Animals ; Antibodies ; Cerebral Cortex ; Herpesvirus 1, Suid* ; Immunohistochemistry ; Neural Pathways* ; Neurons ; Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus ; Pseudorabies* ; Rats ; Spinal Cord

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 and COX-2 are expressed differentially during the whole gestational period in the pregnant human uterine cervix and if they are involved in the process of labor. METHODS: Nine patients were matched for obstetrical history and maternal age were divided into an abortion group who aborted between 13 and 16 weeks(n=3), a preterm group who delivered between 20 and 37 weeks(n=3), and a term group who delivered between 37 and 42 weeks of gestation(n=3). Immediately after vaginal delivery cervical biopsy samples were obtained and immunohistochemically stained for COX-1 and COX-2 and the degree of staining was evaluated by H-scoring system. RESULTS: Expression of COX-1 and COX-2 was found in epithelial and stromal cells of uterine cervical tissues of preterm and term group. The immunohistochemical expression of COX-1 and COX-2 was strongest in the term group compared to the preterm group in stromal cells(HSCORE : 2.0 vs. 4.0 ; 2.0 vs. 3.0), and in epithelial cells(HSCORE : 1.0 vs. 3.0 ; 1.0 vs. 3.0). CONCLUSION: Although small amount of the groups were investigated, in the pregnant human uterine cervix, COX-1 and COX-2 are found to be expressed, and both shows the strongest expression in term cervical tissue. It is suggested that the uterine cervix, under the control of prostaglandins, is actively involved in the process of labor, and it is thought that the role of COX-1 and COX-2 is more important in parturition process with advancing gestational age.
Biopsy ; Cervix Uteri* ; Cyclooxygenase 1* ; Cyclooxygenase 2 ; Female ; Gestational Age ; Humans* ; Maternal Age ; Parturition ; Pregnancy ; Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases ; Prostaglandins ; Stromal Cells

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of acupuncture on regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) at acupoints suggested by oriental medicine to be related to the treatment of cerebrovascular diseases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rest/acupuncture-stimulation Tc-99m ECD brain SPECT using a same-dose subtraction method was performed on 54 normal volunteers (34 males, 20 females, age range from 18 to 62 years) using six paradigms: acupuncture at acupoints GV. 20, GV. 26, LI. 4, ST. 36 and SP. 6. In the control study, needle location was chosen on a non-meridian focus 1 cm posterior to the right fibular head. All images were spatially normalized, and the differences between rest and acupuncture stimulation were statistically analyzed using SPM for Windows . RESULTS: Acupuncture applied at acupoint GV. 20 increased rCBF in both the anterior frontal lobes, the right frontotemporal lobes, and the left anterior temporal lobe and the left cerebellar hemisphere. Acupuncture at GV. 26 increased rCBF in the left prefrontal cortex. Acupuncture at LI. 4 increased rCBF in the left prefrontal and both the inferior frontal lobes, and the left anterior temporal lobe and the left cerebellar hemisphere. Acupuncture at ST. 36 increased rCBF in the left anterior temporal lobe, the right inferior frontal lobes, and the left cerebellum. Acupuncture at SP. 6 increased rCBF in the left inferior frontal and anterior temporal lobes. In the control stimulation, no significant rCBF increase was observed. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrated a correlation between stimulation at each acupoint with increase in rCBF to the corresponding brain areas.
Acupuncture Points* ; Acupuncture* ; Brain* ; Cerebellum ; Female ; Frontal Lobe ; Head ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Male ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Needles ; Prefrontal Cortex ; Temporal Lobe ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Infertility* ; Luteinizing Hormone, beta Subunit*

No abstract available.
Actinomycosis*

Leukotrienes (LTs) are known to act as a mediator provoking tissue response in inflammation. LTs, particularly type B4 (LTB4) as chemotactic factor of neutrophil are released from neutrophils and gastric mucosal cells when these cells are stimulated by Helicobacter pylori. The present study was performed to test a possibility that eupatilin may prevent the H. pylori-induced gastric cell damage by observing whether this chemical inhibit the release of LTB4 from H. pylori-stimulated gastric cells (Kato III) and neutrophils. As observed in the previous study, H. pylori induced the release of LTB4 from these cells and at the same influx of Ca2+ into the cells. In the presence of eupatilin, the release of LTB4 was inhibited whereas Ca2+ influx was not affected. Probably eupatilin may inhibit the release of LTB4 by preventing the synthesis of LTs. These results suggest that eupatilin can has a therapeutic effect on H. pylori-induced gasric cell damage.
Helicobacter pylori* ; Helicobacter* ; Inflammation ; Leukotriene B4* ; Leukotrienes ; Neutrophils*

It has been implicated that leukotrienes play roles in the pathogenesis of gastritis and gastric ulceration associated with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). Rebamipide is being used as an antiulcer drug but it's mechanism of action has not been understood well. One possible mechanism of action of this drug is to inhibit the cellular release of leukotrienes by various stimuli, particularly H. pylori. In the present study, attempts were made to test this possibility and the results are as follows. When Kato III cells (gastric adenoma cells) were stimulated by H. pylori, leukotriene D4 (LTD4) was released and rebamipide inhibited this release dose-dependently. Similar experiment was performed on neutrophils because the infilteration of neutrophils is a common phenomenon in H. pylori-infected gasrtric tissues. Neutrophils released LTD4 when these cells were stimulated by H. pylori and rebamipide also inhibited this release. Furthermore, rebamipide inhibited the release of LTD from neutrophils induced by calcium ionophore A23187 and arachidonic acid. The results suggest that rebamipide has the action to inhibit the release of LTD4 from various cells and this action may contribute in part to prevent the ulcerogenesis induced by H. pylori.
Adenoma ; Arachidonic Acid ; Calcimycin ; Calcium ; Gastritis ; Helicobacter pylori* ; Helicobacter* ; Leukotriene D4* ; Leukotrienes ; Neutrophils ; Stomach Ulcer

Matrix metalloproteinases are believed to play an important role in tumor invasion and metastasis. But little is known about the role of them in the gastric adenocarcinoma. We investigated the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-1,2,3 in eighty paraffin blocks of the primary gastric adenocarcinoma tissues with immunohistochemistry and analysed their correlation with lymph node metastasis and survival. MMP-1,2,3 were expressed most intensely in the fibroblasts around the tumor stroma. In our study the increased immunoreactivity of MMP-2 only showed statistically significant correlation with lymph node metastasis (P=0.0517, Odd's ratio=2.274). But MMP-1,2,3 all were correlated with survival. Type IV collagen was observed in the vascular basement membranes and tumor basement membranes and showed statistically significant correlation with lymph node metastasis (P=0.0002, Odd's ratio=0.194) and prognosis (P=0.0001). The immunoreactivity of MMP-2 and type IV collagen was inversely correlated (Kendall's Tau-b correlation = 0.37482, P=0.0001). Our results suggest that in human gastric adenocarcinoma the increased immunoreactivity of MMP-2 and the decreased immunoreactivity of type IV collagen has an important role in lymph node metastasis and prognosis. MMP-1,3 are not correlated with lymph node metastasis but correlated with survival. The mechanism responsible for the production of MMP by the host fibroblasts remains obscure and requires further investigation.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Basement Membrane ; Collagen Type IV* ; Fibroblasts ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lymph Nodes* ; Matrix Metalloproteinases ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Paraffin ; Prognosis*