OBJECTIVES: The standard metrics used to monitor the progression of acute kidney injury (AKI) include markers such as serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Moreover, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) expression has been reported to modulate oxidative stress. METHODS: We aimed to evaluate the usefulness of serum NGAL levels for monitoring renal function after radical nephrectomy (RN). We prospectively collected data from 30 patients who underwent RN. We analyzed serum NGAL and creatinine at 6 time points: preoperative day 1, right after surgery, 6 hours after surgery, postoperative day (POD) 1, POD 3, and POD 5. We compared these measurements according to the eGFR values (classified as chronic kidney disease stage III; CKD III or not) using data obtained 3 months after surgery. RESULTS: The mean age was 65.5 years (range, 45–77 years), and the male-to-female ratio was 2:1. At the last follow-up examination, there were 12 patients (40%) with CKD III. Using receiver operating characteristic analysis, we found that serum creatinine on POD 5 (area under the curve [AUC], 0.887; P= 0.000) and NGAL at 6 hours after LRN (AUC, 0.743, P= 0.026) were significant predictors of CKD III. The development of CKD III after LRN was associated with the serum creatinine level on POD 5 and the NGAL at 6 hours after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to serum creatinine, serum NGAL enabled earlier prediction of postoperative CKD III. Therefore, serum NGAL measured 6 hours after surgery could be a useful marker for managing patients after RN.
Acute Kidney Injury ; Blood Urea Nitrogen ; Creatinine ; Early Diagnosis* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Glomerular Filtration Rate ; Humans ; Kidney ; Lipocalins* ; Nephrectomy* ; Neutrophils* ; Oxidative Stress ; Prospective Studies ; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic ; ROC Curve

OBJECTIVE: The adolescent presentation of tethered cord syndrome (TCS) is well-recognized, but continues to pose significant diagnostic and management controversies. The authors conducted a retrospective study of clinical outcomes after surgical intervention in 24 school-aged children, adolescents, and young adults with TCS. METHODS: All 83 patients with a lipomyelomeningocele (LMMC) underwent untethering surgery for caudal cord tethering between 1987 and 2007. The clinical charts and follow-up data were reviewed. Of these patients, 24 school-aged children, adolescents, and young adults with TCS were studied with respect to the clinical, radiologic, pathologic features, and surgical outcomes. RESULTS: Untethering procedures were performed in 24 patients (age range, 7-25 years) for TCS of various origins (lipoma, lipomyelomeningocele, and tight filum terminale). Specific circumstances involving additional tugging of the already tight conus, and direct trauma to the back precipitated the onset of symptom in 50% of the patients. Diffuse and non-dermatomal leg pain, often referred to the anorectal region, was the most common presenting symptom. Progressive sensorimotor deficits in the lower extremities, as well as bladder and bowel dysfunction, were also common findings, but progressive foot and spinal deformities were noted less frequently. The most common tethered lesions were intradural lipomas, thickened filum and fibrous band adhesions into the placode sac. The surgical outcome was gratifying in relation to pain and motor weakness, but disappointing with respect to resolution of bowel and bladder dysfunction. Of the 24 patients with TCS, pre-operative deficits improved after surgery in 14 (58.3%), remained stable in 8 (33.4%), and worsened in 2 (8.3%). CONCLUSION: The pathologic lesions of tethered cord syndrome in school-aged children, adolescents, and young adults, are mostly intradural lipomas and tight filum. It is suggested that the degree of cord traction results in neurologic dysfunction in late life due to abnormal tension, aggravated by trauma or repeated tugging of the conus during exercise. Early diagnosis and adequate surgical release might be the keys to the successful outcome in school-aged children, adolescents, and young adults with TCS.
Adolescent ; Child ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Conus Snail ; Early Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Foot ; Humans ; Leg ; Lipoma ; Lower Extremity ; Meningomyelocele ; Neural Tube Defects ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Retrospective Studies ; Traction ; Urinary Bladder ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: We evaluated the impact of positive surgical margins as an independent predictive factor for biochemical recurrence after radical retropubic prostatectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data on 122 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy during the last eight years were retrospectively analyzed with respect to the incidence, number, and sites of positive surgical margins, as well as biochemical recurrence. Biochemical recurrence was defined as a serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level of 0.2ng/ml or greater and rising on at least two postoperative measurements. The mean follow-up was 33.4 months (6.0-104.0). RESULTS: Surgical margins were positive in 51 patients (41.8%), of whom 35 (68.6%) and 16 (31.4%) had positive margins of 1 and more than 1, respectively. The most frequent site of positive margin was the apex/ urethra, and the other frequent sites were bladder neck, posterior, anterior, and lateral portion in order of frequency. The overall biochemical recurrence rate was 35.2% (43 patients). The time to recurrence was significantly shorter in patients with positive margins than in patients with negative margins (p<0.05). Five-year recurrence-free probability was 29.5% and 74.7% in the group with positive margins and in the group with negative margins, respectively. However, the number of positive margins did not seem to have a significant influence on disease recurrence (p>0.05). We could not identify the site that showed a significant influence on biochemical recurrence compared to other sites (p>0.05). Finally, the multivariate Cox proportional hazards analyses revealed that the presence of positive margins was independently associated with time to recurrence(p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that the surgical margin status is an independent predictor of biochemical recurrence. However, longer follow-ups and a larger sample size are necessary to understand the influence of positive margins on survival. In addition, improvement in surgical technique, which can avoid positive margins, is required.
Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Neck ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; Prostatectomy* ; Recurrence* ; Retrospective Studies ; Sample Size ; Urethra ; Urinary Bladder

PURPOSE: This was a methodological research to develop an instrument to assess the emotional response of family members of physically restrained patients. METHODS: A primary instrument with 68 questions was developed based on literature review and semi-structured interviews with family members. A group of experts revised individual questions and removed 4 irrelevant questions. This secondary instrument, then, was tested with 199 family members of physically restrained patients in intensive care units of a university hospital. The validity and reliability of the instrument were tested by factor analysis. RESULTS: After item analysis, 3 questions with a correlation coefficient under .30 were discarded and the questions with a factor loading under .45 on Varimax Rotation were also removed. After factor analysis on the final 37 questions, 7 factors were identified; avoidance, shock, helplessness, grudge, depression, anxiousness, and acceptance. The total variance explained was 55.63%. The reliability of this instrument was 0.93 of Cronbach's alpha. CONCLUSION: This instrument was statistically reliable and valid to measure family's emotional response to physical restraints of the patients. This instrument can be useful in assessing the effects of nursing interventions for family members of restrained patients.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Emotions ; Family/*psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Interviews as Topic ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Program Development ; Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results ; *Restraint, Physical

Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate value of diagnostic tool for vocal cord palsy utilizing artificial intelligence without laryngoscopeMaterials and Method A dataset consisting of recordings from patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis (n=54) as well as normal individuals (n=163). The dataset included prolonged pronunciations of the vowels /ah/, /u/, /i/, and vocal cord data from paralyzed patients. Various acoustic parameters such as Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, jitter, shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio, and fundamental frequency statistics were analyzed. The classification of vocal cord paralysis encompassed paralysis status, paralysis degree, and paralysis location. The deep learning model employed the leave-one-out method, and the feature set with the highest performance was selected using the following methods. Results: Vocal Cord Paralysis Classifier: The classifier accurately distinguished normal voice from vocal cord paralysis, achieving an accuracy and F1 score of 1.0. Paralysis Location Classifier: The classifier accurately differentiated between median and paramedian vocal cord paralysis, achieving an accuracy and micro F1 score of 1.0. Breathiness Degree Classifier: The classifier achieved an accuracy of 0.795 and a mean absolute error of 0.2857 in distinguishing different degrees of breathiness. Conclusion Although the small sample size raises concerns of potential overfitting, this preliminary study highlights distinctive acoustic features in cases of unilateral vocal fold paralysis compared to those of normal individuals. These findings suggest the feasibility of determining the presence, degree, and location of paralysis through the utilization of acoustic parameters. Further research is warranted to validate and expand upon these results.

Angiomyxolipoma is a rare variant of lipoma and seven cases have been reported in the English literature. The reported cases mostly presented with a well-demarcated, asymptomatic, solitary, subcutaneous mass on the scalp or extremities. Histopathologic features of this tumor are characteristic and consist of the paucicellular myxoid areas and the mature fat tissue, with numerous thin, dilated blood vessels. The important histopathological differential diagnoses include myxoid spindle cell lipoma, myxoid lipoma, angiolipoma, angiomyolipoma, superficial angiomyxoma, myxoid liposarcoma and low-grade myxofibrosarcoma. We describe a 38-year-old man with multiple angiomyxolipoma on the gluteal area and the upper and lower extremities.
Adult ; Angiolipoma ; Angiomyolipoma ; Blood Vessels ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Extremities ; Humans ; Lipoma ; Liposarcoma, Myxoid ; Lower Extremity ; Myxoma ; Scalp

Most brachial plexus injuries are a result of high velocity, traction-type traumas. In severe cases, brachial plexus injury results in a variable functional loss of the upper extremities. Steroid has been reported to delaye degeneration and improve regeneration of the injured nerve. Here, steroid was injected into the brachial plexus compartment in a 5-year-old female with brachial plexus injury caused by a traffic accident. After the injection of steroid into the compartment of the injured brachial plexus, motor and sensory functions of the left upper extremity were much improved. Steroid injection should be considered as another option of conservative treatment in patients with brachial plexus injury before or after operation.
Accidents, Traffic ; Brachial Plexus* ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Regeneration ; Sensation ; Upper Extremity

PURPOSE: Acute lower respiratory tract infections (LRI) are important causes of pediatric morbidity and mortality. Recently among the common pathogens causing acute LRI in children respiratory viruses are apparently increasing rather than bacteria and mycoplasma in Korea. This study was aimed to define the distribution of age, seasonal variation and clinical manifestation of respiratory virus in children. METHODS: All 328 children in Seoul, who had hospitalized at the Pediatric ward of Hanyang University (138 children), Hallym University (61 children) and Sungkunkwan University (129 children) for the treatment of respiratory diseases were studied from March, 1997 to February, 1998. In nasopharyngeal aspirates obtained from these patients viral agents were detected by virus isolation and/or antigen detection by indirect immunofluorescent staining. But the subjects who was not found respiratory virus were excluded, although respiratory symptoms were present. RESULTS: 1) One or more agents were identified in 328 subjects. 2) The pathogens identified were Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV : 44.7%), influenza A virus (25.6 %), parainfluenza virus (14.6%), influenza B virus (14.3%), adenovirus (4.3%) and two or more viruses (3%). 3) Infections with RSV, parainfluenza virus and influenza A and B virus occured in epidemics, while adenovirus was isolated sporadically throughout the study period. 4) Clinical patterns of viral LRI were pneumonia (39%), bronchiolitis (34%), croup (18%), acute pharyngitis (7%) and asthma (2%). CONCLUSIONS: RSV was the most important in viral respiratory tract infection in children. Clinical manifestation and epidemic characterics were variable according to the agent. Accordingly, we should acknowledge the importance of respiratory virus to cause the repiratory tract diseases in children.
Adenoviridae ; Asthma ; Bacteria ; Bronchiolitis ; Child ; Croup ; Epidemiology* ; Herpesvirus 1, Cercopithecine ; Humans ; Influenza A virus ; Influenza B virus ; Influenza, Human ; Korea ; Mortality ; Mycoplasma ; Paramyxoviridae Infections ; Pharyngitis ; Pneumonia ; Respiratory Syncytial Viruses ; Respiratory System* ; Respiratory Tract Infections* ; Seasons ; Seoul*

PURPOSE: The most accepted method for the reanimation of a paralyzed face is the two-stage method that combines cross-face nerve grafting with free-muscle transfer. Although the results of reconstruction with this method are satisfactory, there is an excessive delay between the stages, which prolongs the period of rehabilitation. In order to overcome this drawback, a one- stage, neurovascular free-flap reconstruction method using free neurovascular muscle flaps is introduced. METHODS: From 1994 to 2004, 35 patients with longstanding facial palsy were treated. Fifteen patients underwent the single-stage reconstruction with the latissimus dorsi muscle, and 20 patients underwent the two-stage reconstruction method with the gracilis muscle. We compared the long-term results of the two methods of reconstruction. The mean follow-up period was 28.7 months for one-stage reconstruction, and 35.2 months for the two-stage, respectively. RESULTS: In the patient group of the single stage reconstruction, both mouth corner excursion and animation grade were markedly improved at the final postoperative visit. Moreover, the first muscle contraction occurred earlier in this group, than in the two-stage reconstruction group. However, four patients in the single stage group never achieved a first muscle contraction or mouth corner excursion. CONCLUSION: Facial palsy is a very challenging condition for cosmetic surgeons to deal with. Traditional methods for treatment of chronic facial palsy use a two- stage muscle flap which is time-consuming and burdensome to patients, many of whom are averse to waiting 8 to 12 months to complete the two stages. The one- stage reconstruction method described herein uses a atissimus dorsi free-flap and has demonstrated consistent positive outcomes in clinical assessments.
Facial Paralysis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Mouth ; Muscle Contraction ; Rehabilitation ; Superficial Back Muscles* ; Transplants

Atrophying pityriasis versicolor is a rare variant of pityriasis versicolor. Clinically, atrophying pityriasis versicolor is characterized by well defined, slightly scaly, depressed macules and patches with minimal symptoms. The etiology of the atrophy is unknown, though several hypotheses have been suggested, including immune reaction to antigens of Malassezia species. A 23-year-old male was presented with multiple, slightly brown colored macules and patches on the chest and back. In the potassium hydroxide preparation, lots of yeasts and hyphae were found. A histopathologic study showed multiple yeasts and hyphae on the stratum corneum, focal epidermal thinning, and perivascular lymphocytic infiltration on the upper dermis. The patient was treated with 100 mg itraconazole a day with topical antifungal agents. After 3 weeks of treatment, clinical improvement and mycological improvement were achieved. We present an additional case of atrophying piryriasis versicolor developed on the chest and back with the review of the relevant literature.
Antifungal Agents ; Atrophy ; Dermis ; Humans ; Hydroxides ; Hyphae ; Itraconazole ; Malassezia ; Male ; Pityriasis ; Potassium ; Potassium Compounds ; Thorax ; Tinea Versicolor ; Yeasts ; Young Adult