No abstract available.
Cleft Lip* ; Congenital Abnormalities*

OBJECTIVES: We investigated impulsivity and sensation seeking of pathological gambling, comparing with alcoholism and normal group. METHODS: 36 pathological gamblers, who were diagnosed by DSM-IV criteria, were compared with 31 alcoholism group and 26 healthy normal group with Barratt impulsivity scale and Zuckerman sensation seeking scale. RESULTS: 1) Pathological gamblers appeared to have much more impulsivity than alcoholism group or normal group. In respect to sensation seeking, no significant differences were founded among three groups. 2) Pathological gamblers tend to have more non-planning impulsivity, cognitive impulsivity, and motor impulsivity than alcoholic group. Comparing with normal group, pathological gamblers tend to have more non-planning impulsivity and motor impulsivity, but not in cognitive impulsivity. 3) There were no differences in three sub-scales including of thrill seeking, experience seeking and disinhibition out of four sub-scales of sensation seeking scale, among three groups. However, Boredom susceptibility was higher in pathological gamblers than alcoholics and normal group. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that personality of pathological gambler is most impulsive and boredom susceptible, which indicates that pathological gamblers is more serious pathological clinical disorder than alcoholism.
Alcoholics ; Alcoholism* ; Boredom ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Gambling* ; Humans ; Impulsive Behavior* ; Sensation

An unusual case of glroependymal cyst involving the lateral ventricle, 3rd ventricle, cerebellopontine angle cistern and prepontine cistern, simultaneously, is reported. The glroependymal cyst is benign developmental cyst that mainly occurs in the cerebrospinal axis in relation to ventricle, but occasionally occurs in relation to extraventricular system, such as subarachnoid space, brain stem and cerebral parenchyme. The histological characteristics of ependymal cyst wall are ependyma-like epithelium and neuroglial tissue.
Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Brain Stem ; Cerebellopontine Angle ; Epithelium ; Lateral Ventricles ; Subarachnoid Space

The patients with degenerative lumbar spine disease were treated using TSRH(Texas Scottish Rite Hospital) universal instrumentation system. The patient population consisted of 6 men and 4 women with a mean age of 56 years(43 to 65 years). All patients suffered chronic back pain with other neurological symptoms and signs. Neurological improvement was obtained in all cases postoperatively. Complication include pneumonia in 1 case, deep vein thrombosis in 1 case, flaccid neurogenic bladder in 1 case. Autogenous bone graft, obtained from iliac bone, between transverse process provided excellent bony fusion in 7 cases on radiologic evaluation between 9 months to 12 months after operation. TSRH universal instrumentation system have several advantages compared with other pedicle screw rod systems ; easy to handle, low morbidity, shorter operative time and easier relieval of root compression.
Back Pain ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Operative Time ; Pneumonia ; Spine ; Transplants ; Urinary Bladder, Neurogenic ; Venous Thrombosis

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy and timeliness of using tracheal ultrasound for examination of endotracheal tube placement in cardiac arrest patients. METHODS: This was a prospective, observational study, conducted at the emergency department of a university teaching hospital. Patients underwent emergency intubation due to cardiac arrest. Airway ultrasonography was performed during emergency intubation with the transducer placed transversely at the trachea over the suprasternal notch. Quantitative waveform capnography was used as the criterion standard for confirmation of tracheal intubation. The main outcome was the timeliness between airway ultrasonography and capnography. RESULTS: A total of 16 patients and 19 intubations were included in the analysis. The endotracheal tube was placed in the trachea in 16 intubations and in the esophagus in three intubations. The overall sensitivity and specificity of ultrasound for confirmation of tracheal intubation was 100%, respectively. The capnography application time after intubation was 17.5(10.0~32.5) seconds. The capnograpny confirmation time after application was 30(10~120) seconds. The ultrasound confirmation time for endotracheal tube placement after application was 5(4~5) seconds. CONCLUSION: When patients were in a low pulmonary blood flow state, such as cardiac arrest, capnography confirmation of endotracheal tube placement was not rapid and needed a lot of times. Ultrasound confirmation was very rapid and accurate, and was not affected by pulmonary blood flow. Ultrasound confirmation of endotracheal tube placement is more useful in the emergency department.
Capnography ; Emergencies ; Esophagus ; Heart Arrest ; Hospitals, Teaching ; Humans ; Intubation ; Prospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Trachea ; Transducers

No abstract available.

Hyperglycemia during either global or regional ischemia is widely known to be detrimental, and ischemia induced release of diverse neurotransmitters and the ensuing activation of specific postsynaptic receptors have been suggested to play a important role in the development of ischemic selective vulunerability. This study was undertaken to investigate the influence of blood glucose change on tissue concentration of some catecholamines ; dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, of the transient ischemic rat's brain, estimated by high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) assay system, following transient bilateral forebrain ischemia in the rat's model subjected to 20 minutes of normothermic ischemia by two vesseles occulusion plus profound cortex, hippocampus and striatum respectively by HLPC. The concentrations of catecholamines were significantly decreased in all sampled areas in experimental groups compared with the control group(p<0.05), respectively(average decrease rate : norepinephrine 71%, dopamine 89%, serotonin 80% in frontal cortex ; norepinephrine 71%, dopamine 93%, serotonin 81% in hippocampus ; norepinephrine 33%, dopamine 35%, serotonin 78% in striatum). Dopamine was relatively decreased in concentration in frontal cortex and hippocampus, and serotonin was relatively decreased in striatum. But no statistic significancy(p>0.05) of catecholamines level between each experimental group(hyper-, hypo- and normoglycemic group) according to the change of blood sugar. The results suggested that blood glucose level did not influence the tissue concentration of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin in frontl cortex, hippocampus and striatum of transient ischemic rat's brain.
Blood Glucose* ; Brain* ; Catecholamines ; Dopamine* ; Frontal Lobe* ; Hippocampus* ; Hyperglycemia ; Ischemia ; Neurotransmitter Agents ; Norepinephrine* ; Prosencephalon ; Serotonin*

PURPOSE: To describe that Computer image recognition technique is more accurately and less invasive than other methods, which using contact lens with a search probe or electrodes for record of eye movements. METHODS: A reference marker which was infrared was attached to the center of the forehead of the patients and the infrared light was illuminated to both eyes. Video image sequences were recorded using digital CCD camera and the captured image frames (640 X 480) were processed using a image analysis program. From which each image frame captured, pupil area was saperated using difference of brightness in pupil and iris. And then the pupil center was determined by calculating the center-of-mass of black pixels to meet the pupil threshold criteria. RESULTS: In a post-processing process, we could acquire horizontal and vertical eye position and velocity data. Inverse fast fourier transformation(FFT) and digital filtering algorithm were applied to filter out noise due to limited resolution of the CCD camera and sampling rates. Experimental result showed that the system could detect about 0.2mm positional location and 30Hz horizontal and vertical eye movements simultaneously. CONCLUSIONS: We could accurately measure and record two dimensional eye movements of patients (horizontal and vertical simultaneously) in real time with some head movements.
Electrodes ; Eye Movements* ; Forehead ; Head Movements ; Humans ; Iris ; Noise ; Pupil

PURPOSE: Post-authorization survey(PAS) is a useful tool for obtainting wider range of data on the safety and efficacy of new drugs following their approval, as they can detect uncommon, unreported adverse events(AEs), which enables more attention to be directed to the practioners. Especially, the limited number of patients in oncology trial cannot usually give the actual incidence of AEs. METHODS: Since Nov. 1998, when docetaxel gained Korean approval in the treatment of breast cancer, a PAS to investigate its safety profiles has been conducted targeting more than 600 patients over 4 calendar years. RESULTS: Case report forms from 626 out of 646 patients were assessable for safety and 444 for efficacy. The patient characteristics are: mean age, 48.1 years; male/female 4/622; Wt/Ht/BSA 57.9 kg/156.1 cm/1.56 m2 ; stage I-II/III/IV 109 (18.2%)/125 (20.8%)/366(61.0%). In 344 patients, 960 AEs were reported in severity of mild/moderate/severe in 6.7, 40.9 and 51.1 % of cases. From AE results, 36.0% needed dose reduction; 34.3% transient interruption of the cycle; and 1.3% permanent discontinuation of docetaxel. Thirty five serious AEs such as febrile neutropenia, alopecia, diarrhea, abdominal pain and headache were reported in 21 patients. Unexpected AEs such as skin ulcer, discoloration of skin, H. Zoster infection, ulticaria, facial flush, chest pain, hemoptysis, pneumonia, stridor, nasal bleeding, photophobia, haematuria, Cushing's syndrome, hyperglycemia and insomnia were reported regardless of any causal relationship. Factors affecting the development of AEs were age, stage, concomitant medication other than chemotherapeutic agents and the number of cycles treated. The efficacy was evaluable in 444 patients with overall response rate of 36.5% (CR/PR 6.3/30.2%). Factors affecting the efficacy were stage, concommitant medication other than chemotherapeutic agents and the number of treatment cycles. CONCLUSION: This post-authorization survey on the safety and efficacy of docetaxel in breast cancer offers oncology practice in the real world without subject selection as is the case in clinical trials, although it was performed to fulfill the registrative requirement of the Korean health authority with limited data. The efficacy and safety profile of docetaxel in breast cancer was no much different from those reported in clinical trials.
Abdominal Pain ; Alopecia ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Chest Pain ; Cushing Syndrome ; Diarrhea ; Epistaxis ; Febrile Neutropenia ; Headache ; Hemoptysis ; Herpes Zoster ; Humans ; Hyperglycemia ; Incidence ; Photophobia ; Pneumonia ; Respiratory Sounds ; Skin ; Skin Ulcer ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders

PURPOSE: To determine whether CT angiography can predict the parent artery of an anterior communicating aneurysm on the basis of characteristics of the aneurysm and precommunicating anterior cerebral artery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighteen patients with anterior communicating aneurysm were studied prospectively using CT angiography and conventional angiography. The parent artery of an aneurysm was predicted by evaluating aneurysm neck location, direction of aneurysm projection, and size of the precommunicating anterior cerebral artery, as seen on CT angiography. A somatom Plus-4 spiral CT scanner was used and shaded-surface display three-dimensional images were constructed. RESULTS: Aneurysm neck was located near the parent artery in 12 cases(66.7%), and aneurysm projection was against the parent artery in 11 cases(61.1 %). The parent artery of the anterior cerebral artery was larger in 15 cases (8 3 .3 %), including ten cases of hypoplasia or agenesis of the contralateral anterior cerebral artery. In 17 of 18 aneurysms(94.4%) the parent artery seen on DSA was correctly predicted by CT angiography. CONCLUSION: Teh parent artery of an anterior communicating aneurysm can be predicted by evaluating a-neurysm neck location, direction of aneurysm projection, and precommunicating anterior cerebral artery, as seen on CT angiography.
Aneurysm ; Angiography* ; Anterior Cerebral Artery ; Arteries* ; Humans ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Intracranial Aneurysm* ; Neck ; Parents* ; Prospective Studies ; Tomography, Spiral Computed