No abstract available.
Oral Health

Partial meniscectomy was a common method of treatment for a meniscal injury and currently available instruments were scalpel, punch, electrocautery, CO2, laser, Nd: YAG laser, etc. However some methods could cause injuries to adjacent meniscal tissue after meniscectomy. An experimental study was conducted in order to examine the depth of injury to adjacent meniscal tissue according to above 5 different methods of meniscectomy. 25 medial menisci were harvested from Yorkshire pig knee immediately after the death of pig. Meniscal injury, 1.5cm long and 0.5cm wide, was made by using 5 different methods and was analysed macroscopically and microscopically. Average depth of injury was 237 in Nd: YAG laser group. 258um in electrocautery group, 307um in CO2, laser group, and nil in scalpel and punch group. The depth of meniscal injury of Nd: YAG laser and electrocautery group were less than that of CO2, laser group. Scalpel and punch were the most safe methods to adjacent meniscal tissue. CO2, laser, Nd: YAG laser and electrocautery should be carefully applied because they could cause the significant depth of injury in the adjacent meniscal tissue.
Electrocoagulation ; Knee ; Lasers, Solid-State ; Menisci, Tibial ; Methods

No abstract available.

Osteochondroma is one of the most common benign tumor. But, intraarticular occurrence is very rare. This tumor have been thought not a true neoplasm hut a developmental malformation or harnartoma. The authors experienced a case of intaarticular osteochondroma arising from inferior pole of pateUa, projecting into the infrapatellar fat pad. The tumor was excised surgically, and symptoms were relieved.
Adipose Tissue ; Knee ; Osteochondroma* ; Patella*

An electron microscopic study was conducted in order to investigate the healing and maturation process of central one third of donor site patellar tendon which was used for endoscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. 17 patients among 118 consecutive series, which underwent ACL reconstruction from January 1990 to March 1995, were involved in this study according to various followup periods. At 6 months follow-up, hypercullular and randomly arranged fibrohlasts had abundant cytoplasm with marked irregular cytoplasmic borders and short cytoplasmic extensions. Thc, nuclei of fibroblasts had prominent nuclear indentation with chromatin condensation along the nuclear mernbrane and prominent nucleolus. The cytoplasm contained irregularly dilated rough endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi complex, and pinocytic vesicles. Intercellular space were occupied by newly-formed, immature col)agen fibrills without distinct parallel arrangement, and the diameter of collagen fibrils was unifoimly small. At 12 months, fibroblast and collagen fibrils showed a little matured findings except the small diameter of collagen fibrils. At 24 months, irregular-shaped fibroblasts were still present, which contained folded nuclei, ahundant cytoplasm with large amount of rough endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi complex. Collagen fihril showed also a unimodal distribution pattern with small diameter, however had a tendency to have a regular parallel arrangement. These finding suggest that the donor site of a patellar tendon was still quite different from normal patellar tendon in electron microscopic morphology even at 24 months postoperative follow-up regardless of considerable maturation of regular parallel arrangement pattern of collagen fibril.
Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction ; Chromatin ; Collagen ; Cytoplasm ; Dronabinol ; Endoplasmic Reticulum, Rough ; Extracellular Space ; Fibroblasts ; Follow-Up Studies ; Golgi Apparatus ; Humans ; Patellar Ligament* ; Tissue Donors*

Deep vein thrombosis(DVT) after joint arthroplasty in tbe lower extmmity has been one of the major causes of death in postoperative complications. But, there is little information on incidence and clinical risk factors of DVT in Korea. Fifty-eight patients (sixty-two cases) who underwent TKR were included in this study for evaluation of the incidence of DVT and correlation with clinical risk factors after total knee replacement(TKR) in Korea. Venography were performed preoperatively and postoperatively, and clinical risk factors were examined. The preoperative venography was performed within seven days before the surgery, and postoperative venography seven to 14days after the surgery. There was no evidence of thrombosis in any patient preoperatively, but thrombi were observed in seven cases (11%) postoperatively. Six cases showed thrombi in the calf vein and one case showed thrombi in the femoral vein. There was no statistically significant difference in incidence rate of DVT according to clinical risk factors such as age, toumiquet time, BMI(body mass index), diastolic blood pressure, operation time and coagulation assay(platelet, PT, aPTT, Anti-thrombin III, fibrinogen).
Arthroplasty ; Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee* ; Blood Pressure ; Cause of Death ; Femoral Vein ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Joints ; Knee ; Korea ; Phlebography ; Postoperative Complications ; Risk Factors* ; Thrombosis ; Veins ; Venous Thrombosis*

PURPOSE: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) after joint arthroplasty in the lower extremity has been a major cause of death postoperatively. However, there is few reports on incidence and risk factors of DVT in Korea. We evaluated the incidence of DVT, correlation between the DVT, and risk factors and effectiveness of color doppler ultrasonography for diagnosis of DVT after joint arthroplasty in the lower extremity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and six cases (99 patients) of total hip or knee arthroplasties from March 1996 to August 1997 were included in this study. There were forty-four total hip arthroplasties and sixty-two total knee arthroplasties. No patients received prophylactic agents for DVT. Venogram and color doppler ultrasonogram were obtained within 7 days preoperatively and in 7 to 14 days postoperatively. Only venography was performed in 45 cases and both venography and color doppler ultrasonography were performed in 61 cases. RESULT: On venogram, there were no evidence of thrombi in all cases preoperatively but thrombi were observed in 9 cases (8.5%) postoperatively. Among these positive cases, eight cases showed thrombi in the calf vein and one case in the femoral vein. Color doppler ultrasonography could not detect any thrombi among 3 cases which had positive findings with venogram. In contrast to other reports, we did not identify a correlation between DVT and so-called risk factors such as age, tourniquet time, BMI (body mass index), diastolic blood pressure, operation time and coagulation assay (platelet, PT, aPTl, Anti-thrombin III, fibrinogen) CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that color doppler ultrasonography may not be an effective method in the diagnose is of DVT of calf vein in asymptomatic patients and that so-called risk factors had no relation to DVT.
Arthroplasty* ; Blood Pressure ; Cause of Death ; Diagnosis ; Femoral Vein ; Hip ; Humans ; Incidence ; Joints* ; Knee ; Korea ; Lower Extremity* ; Phlebography* ; Risk Factors ; Tourniquets ; Ultrasonography ; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color* ; Veins ; Venous Thrombosis*

OBJECTIVES: Xylitol is an effective anticarious natural sugar substitute, by inhibiting the virulence of Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans). However, long-term xylitol consumption leads to an emergence of the xylitol-resistant (XR) strains. This study aimed to confirm the general characteristics, mRNA expression of gtf genes, and adhesive ability of the xylitol-sensitive (XS) and XR S. mutans , by xylitol-treated concentrations. METHODS: S. mutans KCTC3065 was maintained in TYE medium, containing 0.4% glucose with 1% xylitol for 30 days at 37degrees C, 10% CO2 to form XR strain and the same procedures, without xylitol, were repeated for the formation of XS S. mutans. Both XS and XR were cultured by xylitol-treated concentrations (0%, 0.1% and 1%), then, general characteristics, such as growth and acid production, mRNA expression of gtf genes and adhesive ability were analyzed. RESULTS: Xylitol reduced the cell growth of XS S. mutans in a dose-dependent manner, but did not reduce the XR. Xylitol inhibited acid production of XS in a dose-dependent manner. However, it did not inhibit that of XR. Xylitol reduced the gtfB and gtfD mRNA expression of the XS S. mutans, which the genes synthesized soluble and insoluble extracellular polysaccharides, but not reduced that of the XR. By a microtiter plate assay, biofilm formation was more reduced in the XR strains, which means biofilm's adhesive ability of XR S. mutans was lower than that of the XS. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that a lower level of adhesive ability for XR S. mutans is related with mRNA expression level of gtf genes, which suggested that the XR strains may be less cariogenic than that of the XS.
Adhesives ; Biofilms ; Glucose ; Glucosyltransferases ; Polysaccharides ; RNA, Messenger ; Sprains and Strains ; Streptococcus ; Streptococcus mutans ; Sweetening Agents ; Xylitol

In attempt to investigate histone fractions and non-histones of parasites, nuclei were isolated from Fasciola hepatica by the procedure of Pogo et al. (1966). Histone fractions H1, H2a, H2b, H3 and H4 were prepared from isolated nuclei by the procedure of Johns (1964 and l967). The five histone fractions found in most tissues were also present in the Fasciola hepatica histones. These histone fractions were characterized by amino acid analysis and by polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis. Non-histone proteins were extracted from isolated Fasciola hepatica nuclei and separated by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The results of the experiment were summarized as follows: The yield of whole histone recovered was 2.47 mg per 1 g of Fasciola hepatica. The yield of DNA was 1.02 mg per gm of tissues. Consequently the DNA to histone ratio was 1:2.44. The relative amounts of five fractions, i.e., Hl, H2a, H2b, H3 and H4 were 19.96 percent, 26.48 percent, 29.60 percent, 12.56 percent and 14.37 percent, respectively. Amino acid analysis of the individual histone fractions showed that the over-all compositions were similar but not identical to those of corresponding fraction from calf thymus. It was found that histone H2b fraction of Fasciola hepatica contained detectable amounts of epsilon-N-monomethyllysine. No evidence for the presence of methylated lysine or other side-chain derivatives was reported on this histone fraction. In SDS-polyacrylamide disc gel, it showed that 17 protein bands of nuclear acidic protein can be identified visually.
parasitology-helminth-trematoda ; Fasciola hepatica ; histone ; DNA ; biochemistry ; amino acid ; epsilon-N-monomethyllysine

BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity are associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Obesity is influenced by multiple factors, both genetic and environmental factors. We investigated the relationship between socioeconomic, behavioral, dietary, reproductive factors and body mass index(BMI). METHODS: The subject were 3000 adults who had visited the Health Screening and Diagnosis Center of Yeungnam University School of Medicine from February to June, 1997. We evaluated BMI and occupation, exercise, smoking, alcohol intake, total calory intake, fat and carbohydrate intake in both gender and reproductive factors in women. Then, we analyzed the association between BMI and such variables as above. RESULTS: 1629 men and 1371 women were analyzed. The mean BMI was 23.4+/- 2.8kg/M(2) in men, 22.9+/- 3.1kg/M(2) in women. In both gender, 9.7% of our population had BMl over 27. Mean BMI increased with age. Those who were active and light smokers( 20cigarette/day) had the lowest BMI in men. But no relationship was observed between BMI and exercise, smoking in women. Heavy alcohol drinkers(> 1cup/day) had higher BMI than other group in both gender. We found significant correlation between BMI and total calory intake, calory intake to recommended calory ratio in both gender. In women, the group whose number of parity was above 3 had significantly higher BMI than the other. And age at first birth was significantly correlated with BMI in a negative direction. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that BMI was associated with age, smoking, alcohol, total calory intake, calory intake to recommended calory ratio, parity, age at first birth. Socioeconomic class, exercise and diet composition appeared to have little influence.
Adult* ; Birth Order ; Body Mass Index* ; Diagnosis ; Diet ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Mortality ; Obesity ; Occupations ; Overweight ; Parity ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Social Class