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*

Angiogenesis is a series of processes that include endothelial proliferation, migration and tube formation. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is regarded as a potent mediator of angiogenesis, vascular permeability and tumor cell growth in renal cell carcinoma. This study was designed to evaluate the expression of VEGF and the microvessel count (MVC) and to determine their prediction efficacies for prognosis in renal cell carcinoma. The relationship between the expression of VEGF and MVC were evaluated immunohistochemically in 50 patients with renal cell carcinoma who received a radical nephrectomy at Wonju Christian Hospital between 1989 and 1997. Microvessels were identified by immunostaining endothelial cells for CD-31 antigen. The mean follow-up was 96 months (3 - 133 months). Overall 5-year survival rate was 71.5%. VEGF was expressed in the tumor cell cytoplasm. Of the 50 tumors, 23 (46%) were weak to strongly positive for VEGF but 27 (54%) were unreactive. The respective 5-year survival rates for patients with positive and negative expressions of VEGF were 70% and 73% (p > 0.05). The overall mean MVC was 13.4 in a 400x field. Mean MVCs were significantly higher in VEGF-positive tumors (17.6 +/- 12.1) than in VEGF-negative tumors (9.9 +/- 5.4), and the MVCs of the high vascular density group and the low ascular density groups were significantly different. The 5-year survival rates of patients with high vascular density and low vascular density were 59% and 86%. The median survival period for patients with MVCs higher than or equal to 10 vessels/field was 85 months, whereas for those with MVCs lower than 10 vessels/field the median survival time was 102 months. These results suggest that MVC may be a better prognostic factor in renal cell carcinoma than the expression of VEGF.
Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Renal Cell/*blood supply/*metabolism ; Endothelial Growth Factors/*metabolism ; Female ; Human ; Kidney Neoplasms/*blood supply/*metabolism ; Lymphokines/*metabolism ; Male ; Middle Age ; Neovascularization, Pathologic/*pathology ; Prognosis

We herein report a case of transient acrodermatitis enteropathica in a 3-month-old, breast-fed, full-term infant. The patient was presented with a 2-month history of diarrhea and crusted erythema- tous patches on the periorificial area. Similar lesions were seen in his siblings. His serum zinc level and the zinc level in his mother's breast milk were markedly reduced. Diarrhea and skin lesions disappeared promptly with oral zinc supplementation and did not recur when zinc was discontinued after three weeks. Our case indicates that even full-term infants, who feed excl-usively on mothers milk, run a risk of developing zinc deficiency, if the concentration of zinc in the breast milk is very low.
Acrodermatitis* ; Diarrhea ; Humans ; Infant* ; Milk ; Milk, Human ; Mothers ; Siblings ; Skin ; Zinc

Myocardial scintigraphy is a widely used noninvasive procedure with high sensitivity for the detection of patients with suspected coronary artery disease. The purpose of this study was to determine the prognostic value of a normal myocardial scintigraphy in 292 patients (150 males, 142 females, mean age 53+/-12 years) with chest pain who were followed from 7 to 58 (mean 25) months. Myocardial SPECT was performed with Tc-99m MIBI in 173 patients, with Tc-99m tetrofosmin in 74 patients and with T1-201 in 45 patients. During the follow-up period, there were 2 cardiac deaths and 2 nonfatal myocardial infarctions resulting in cardiac event rate of 1.37% (0.66% per year). The cardiac event rate was not different in patients with angiographically normal coronary arteries (1/30, 3.3%) and in those who had significant coronary a disease (2/27, 7.4%) (p=0.60). In conclusion, patients with chest pain and normal myocardial scintigraphy have a low cardiac event rate, and there was no significant difference of cardiac event rates between patients with normal and abnormal coronary angiograms.
Chest Pain* ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Vessels ; Death ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Myocardial Infarction ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging ; Perfusion Imaging* ; Perfusion* ; Prognosis ; Thorax* ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

It has been shown that both rest and stress myocardial perfusion imagings with technetium agents can be performed on the same day using two different doses injected within few hours. The purpose of this study was to compare the two protocols (stress-rest and rest-stress) in detecting coronary artery diseases. One hundred and sixty patients (101 males, 59 females, mean age 57+/-9 years) and 120 patients (79 males, 41 females, mean age 59+/-10 years) underwent stress-rest myocardial perfusion SPECT and rest-stress myocardial perfusion SPECT, respectively All of them underwent both myocardial perfusion SPECT and coronary angiography within 1 month. A coronary stenosis was considered significant when it compromised the luminal diameter by> or =50%. The chi square test was used to compare differences in sensitivity, specificity and accuracy between the two groups. The overall sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of stress-rest protocol were 99%, 35%and 68%, respectively. Those of rest-stress protocol were 96%, 47%, and 78%, respectively. There was no difference between the two protocols in identifying individual diseased coronary artery branches. Therefore, one day stress-rest and rest-stress myocardial SPECT using Tc-99m agents were comparable and were very sensitive tests in detecting coronary artery diseases.
Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Stenosis ; Coronary Vessels* ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Perfusion Imaging ; Perfusion* ; Phenobarbital ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Technetium ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

No abstract available.
Breast* ; Humans*

Several observation suggest that the antimelanocyte autoantibodies could play a role in melanocyte destruction. Some experiments indicate that melanocyte antibodies from patients with vitiligo can kill melanocyte in vitro. In these experiments, we demonstrated that vitiligo patient's sera containing antimelanocyte antibodies can lyse cultured human melanocytes by complement activation. Melanocyte cytotoxicity was measured using the ethidium bromide/ acridine orange viability assay. Significant melanocyte cytotoxicity was seen in sera from patients with both active and inactive vitiligo(p<0.01). Melanocyte cytotoxicity measured with complement-mediated cytotoxicity decreased after systemic steroid treatment(p<0.05) ; however melanocyte cytotoxicity showed no significant change with systemic PUVA therapy.
Acridine Orange ; Antibodies ; Autoantibodies* ; Complement Activation ; Ethidium ; Humans ; Melanocytes ; PUVA Therapy ; Vitiligo*

We would like to correct the affiliation for the first author.

Modified two layer vasovasostomy with optical loupe magnification was performed in 66 patients from Jan. l984 to Dec. 1990 in Seoul Eulji General Hospital. 44 patients could be followed up, viable sperms more than 10 x 10(6)/ml appeared in 37(84.1 %) and pregnancy occurred in 24(54.5 %). Patients presenting for vasovasostomy less than 5 years after vasectomy had a 88.9 % (24/27) patency rate and a pregnancy rate of 66.7% ( 18/27). Beyond 5 years, a 76.5% (13/17) patency rate and a pregnancy rate of 35.3% (6/17). In conclusion, we have found that there is little difference in the patency and pregnancy rates resulting from microscopic vasovasostomy and vasovasostomy with optical loupe magnification, however, modified two-layer vasovasostomy with optical loupe magnification was simple, easy, convenient time-saving and cost-effective comparing with microscopic vasovasostomy.
Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Rate ; Seoul ; Spermatozoa ; Vasectomy ; Vasovasostomy*

BACKGROUND: Infantile Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis (IHPS) is one of the most common surgical problems of early infancy and one for which an eminently successful surgical treatment has been available since the work of Ramstedt in 1912. A clinical study was begun to access further the accuracy of ultrasonography in identifying hypertrophic pylorus. METHODS: This study is a retrospective clinical analysis of 31 cases of IHPS treated at the Department of Surgery of Pohang St. Mary's Hospital from Jan. 1990 to Dec. 1997. RESULTS: (1) The most prevalent age group was between 3 weeks and 8 weeks in 24 cases (77.4%), and the ratio of males to females was 5.2:1. (2) Among the 31 cases, new born babies were 21 cases (67.7%). (3) In 30 cases (96.8%), the gestational age was between 37 weeks and 42 weeks, and the birth weight was more than 3.5 kg in 21 cases (67.7%). The body weight percentile at admission was lower than the 50 percentile in 31 cases. (4) Among the 31 cases, breast-fed infants were 15 cases (48.4%), milk-fed 13 cases (41.9%), and mixed-fed 3 cases (9.7%). B type blood group was 23 cases (74.2%), and O type was 4 cases (12.9%). (5) In 4 cases (12.9%), an inguinal hernia was noted as an associated anomaly. (6) The onset of symptoms was neonatal (1 week-12 weeks) in all 31 cases, and the duration of the symptoms was between 1 week and 2 weeks in 18 cases (58.1%). (7) Non-bile stained, projectile vomiting was noted in all 31 cases (100.0%), an olive-shaped mass in right upper quadrant of the abdomen was felt in 27 cases (87.1%), and visible peristalsis on the epigastrium was noted in 25 cases (80.6%). (8) On laboratory tests, 17 patients had leukocytosis, and anemia was observed in 2 cases. Hypokalemia was observed in 9 cases (29.0%), hypochloremia in 4 cases (12.9%), and moderate to severe alkalosis (CO2 content > 25 mEq) in 7 cases. (9) Among the 25 cases, for which an the ultrasonographic evaluation was performed, the length of the stenotic canal was from 16 mm to 20 mm in 23 cases (92.0%), and the thickness of the stenotic portion was from 5 mm to 6 mm in 21 cases (84.0%). (10) All 31 cases were surgically treated by using a Fredet-Ramstedt pyloromyotomy, and the mortality was nil. The average hospitalization was 9.4 days. (11) There was 1 case of duodenal perforation and 1 case of intermittent non-projectile vomiting after the operation. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that early accurate diagnosis, adequate preoperative preparation of the fluid & electrolyte imbalance, immediate surgical correction, and scheduled careful oral feeding are important in treatment of IHPS. Ultrasonographic determination of pyloric muscle length and thickness is the most accurate of the currently available techniques. A Fredet-Ramstedt pyloromyotomy is a safe and successful surgical procedure.
Abdomen ; Alkalosis ; Anemia ; Birth Weight ; Body Weight ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Gestational Age ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Hernia, Inguinal ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Hypokalemia ; Infant ; Leukocytosis ; Male ; Mortality ; Peristalsis ; Pyloric Stenosis, Hypertrophic* ; Pylorus ; Retrospective Studies ; Ultrasonography ; Vomiting