The corrected transposition of the great arteries is a rare congenital heart anomaly consisting of the discordant connections of both the atria to ventricles and the ventricles to the great arteries. But its circulation is physiologically corrected and therefore it is compatible with life unless there are associated lesions. Our case was associated with VSD, COA, and PDA. He was slightly cyanotic and irritable. Despite of oxygen supply, his symptoms were not improved and he eventually died in 52 hours after delivery. Medical record revealed severe respiratory and metabolic acidosis.
Acidosis ; Arteries* ; Heart ; Medical Records ; Oxygen

A 65 year-old female was suddenly expired soon after arriving in emergency room. Before arriving, she complained chest discomfort. Her neck mass was diagnosed as thyroid tumor about 11 years ago. She was recommended operation, but not taken due to arrhythmia. The neck mass was originally diagnosed as thyroid mass(goiter) by radiologic studies. The mass (10.5 x 9.5 x 7.0 cm, 319 gm) is mainly located in the lower neck and partly in the anterior superior mediastinum. The trachea is compressed by the mass and its tubal structure is flattened. The cause of death is mechanical asphyxia by thymoma(type B1 according to the WHO classification of thymoma, and stage I according to Masaoka's classification). On review of her past history, paraneoplastic syndrome including myasthenia gravis is not present. Generally, the patient with large thymic mass shows symptoms including chest pain, respiratory difficulty, hemoptysis, cough, superior vena cava syndrome. Although the symptoms related with its mass effect are common, but the death from mechanical asphyxia by thymoma is very rare in recent days.
Aged ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Asphyxia* ; Cause of Death ; Chest Pain ; Classification ; Cough ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Female ; Hemoptysis ; Humans ; Mediastinum ; Myasthenia Gravis ; Neck ; Paraneoplastic Syndromes ; Superior Vena Cava Syndrome ; Thorax ; Thymoma* ; Thyroid Gland ; Trachea

This is a statistical observation based on data of deaths occurred in the first army group(1A) of Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) and data brought to Wonju Army Hospital for medicolegal autopsy by all of Military Police Corps (MPC) in 1A during the year of 1996. The report aims to reveal facts on various causes of death of military members in attempt to analyse 70 cases statistically and differences between military members and civillians. The following are the summary of results ; 1. The total numbers of death in 1A were 70 cases and autopsy rate was 17.1%(12 cases). All cases were males. 2. The violent deaths were 60 cases(85.7%) and the natural deaths were 10 cases(14.3%). 3. The percentage of deaths of soldiers was 81.4%(the most), sergeants was 8.6%, officers was 5.7%, others was 4.3%. The group of the private (25.7%) and the private first class (25.7%) was the leading group of death by the rank. 4. For deaths due to injuries, the percentage of deaths due to gunshut injury was 51.2%, traffic accident was 30.1%, explosion of bomb was 7.0%, fall was 7.0% and blunt injury was 4.7%. 6. For the natural deaths, 10 cases were recorded and death due to neoplasm was taking the most of the total percentage with 40%. 7. For the violent deaths, the percentage of accidental death was 42.4%, suicide was 40.7% and homicide was 16.9%. These results suggest that suicide by firearm and traffic accident including military owned vehicle could be the major cause of death in army, and intensive management for group of the private and the private first class could be important to reduce the number of death.
Accidents, Traffic ; Autopsy ; Bombs ; Cause of Death ; Explosions ; Gangwon-do ; Homicide ; Hospitals, Military ; Humans ; Male ; Military Personnel ; Police ; Republic of Korea ; Suicide ; Wounds, Nonpenetrating

OBJECTIVES: The main purpose of this study was aimed at examining the epidemiological and clinical data of firesetters in Konju forensic psychiatric hospital. METHOD: The thirty firesetters were admitted at Konju forensic psychiatric hospital from January. 1, 1998 to December. 1, 1995, They carefully investigated from January. 3, 1996 to July. 31, 1996 through the methods of psychiatric interview, chart review, the written judgement review and telephone interview. RESULTS: There are significant differences in education level and intelligence quotient among three groups. Prevalence of febrile convulsion, nail biting, and enuresis are highest among the firesettes. Alcohol-related family history is significantly high in firesetters. Most frequently reported motivation of firesetters were psychosis, and anger or revenge.
Anger ; Education ; Enuresis ; Hospitals, Psychiatric* ; Humans ; Intelligence ; Interviews as Topic ; Motivation ; Nail Biting ; Prevalence ; Psychotic Disorders ; Seizures, Febrile

Coronary artery calcification(CAC) is found frequently in the atheromatous plaques CAC is known to have increased frequency above 40 years. CAC without evidence of atherosclerosis in young adults is quite rare, however, CAC combined with aneurysms in young adults have been infrequently reported in patients with a past history of a Kawasaki disease in child. We report an autopsy case showing CAC and aneurysm in the absence of macroscopically identified atherosclerotic lesions in a healthy 23-year-old man. The autopsy examination revealed aneurysmal dilatation of the right coronary artery which was connected with calcified lesion. A calcified lesion of the left anterior descending coronary artery was aslo noted. Microscopically, aneurysmal wall was non-specific except for hyalinized wall and foci of calcification. A striking histologic finding of calcified mass was ring calcification along the wall of the coronary artery. Antecedent Kawasaki disease in the past was suggestive as other reports.
Aneurysm* ; Atherosclerosis* ; Autopsy ; Child ; Coronary Vessels* ; Dilatation ; Humans ; Hyalin ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome ; Plaque, Atherosclerotic ; Strikes, Employee ; Young Adult*

Aortic dissection may be considered the result of a discrepancy between the strength of the aortic wall and the intramural pressure. And factors that predispose to aortic dissection may include systemic hypertension, cystic medial necrosis, Marfan's syndrome, atherosclerosis, disease of aortic valve, pregnancy, giant cell arteritis, hyperthyrosis, disease of aortic valve, pregnancy, giant cell arteritis, hyperthyroidism, and blunt chest trauma. A few of aortic dissection may extend retrograde toward the aortic valve and involve the coronary arteries. Coronary artery occlusions due to mural dissection are an uncommon but well documented cause of myocardial infarction. Although rare, extramural hematoma compressing the coronary artery is another cause of myocardial infarction. At autopsy of 43 years old male who had no critical external wound, pericardial sac was distended and contained 400ml of dark red and clotted blood. Examination of the aorta revealed only minute atherosclerosis, intact aortic valve, and patent coronary ostia. 0.5cm sized aortic rupture was noted at the 3.5cm distal to the aortic valve. DeBakey type II aortic dissection was found to involve the ascending aorta and brachiocephalic trunk. Three intimal tears were 1.5cm, 8cm. 11.5cm distal to the aortic valve and two false lumens which had intact area between them extended 3.5cm distal to the third intimal tear and proximally in a retrograde fashion to the aortic root. Microscopically, sections of aorta showed relatively intact arrangement of smooth muscle and elastic fibers, except mild vascular ectasia and scattered several foci of the small sized aggregation of foamy histiocytes, and there was no evidence of cystic medial degeneration in aorta. Sections of both coronary arteries did not show mural dissection or atherosclerosis. Sections of right atrium and sinus node showed inflammatory reaction, extensive replacement of myocardium by active fibrous tissue consistent with infarction. There was no histologic evidence of myocardial infarction in the walls of other chambers or septum of the heart. We believe that extramural compression of the artery to sinus m\node by the dissecting hematoma was the cause of myocardial infarction involving the right atrium and the sinus node.
Adult ; Aorta ; Aortic Rupture ; Aortic Valve ; Arteries ; Atherosclerosis ; Autopsy ; Brachiocephalic Trunk ; Coronary Vessels ; Dilatation, Pathologic ; Elastic Tissue ; Giant Cell Arteritis ; Heart ; Heart Atria ; Hematoma ; Hemodynamics* ; Histiocytes ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hyperthyroidism ; Infarction ; Male ; Marfan Syndrome ; Muscle, Smooth ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Myocardium ; Necrosis ; Pregnancy ; Sinoatrial Node ; Thorax ; Wounds and Injuries

The heart, 500g in weight, with subacute myocarditis associated with granulomatous myocarditis may be a good model for the study on the pathophysiologic mechanism of cardiac failure. Furthermore, the clinical data of this case is enough to clarify his all clinical course from admission to death due to cardiac failure. So, we analyzed the clinical data, histologic findings, and morphometric pattern of histologically intact myocardial cells and inflammatory reaction to investigate the pathophysiologic mechanism of the cardiac failure. The results were summarized as follows. 1. Clinically, the heart showed cardiac failure of diastolic phase and abnormal conduction system related to sudden cardiac death. However, it might be adapted to the relatively stable wital signs due to pericardial positive pressure by slowlyprogressed pericardial effusion. 2. The distribution pattern of area of intact myocardial cell area and inflammtion reaction showed relatively even spread of inflammatory reaction and extremely decreased area of myocardial cells to about 21% of total heart. So, its contractility might be decreased below to the 21% of the normal cardiac contractility. 3. The mechanism of the cardiac failure in myocarditis may be sudden inflammatory involvement of conduction system and/or extremely decreased myocardial cell volume due to inflammatory destruction. 4. Morphometric analysis may be a useful objective method to grading the severity of old and recent form of myocarditis. From the above results, the cardiac failure of myocarditis is influenced by the adaptability at the inflammatory abnormality of the conduction system, contractility of injured myocardial cells, and compensation activity of pericardial effusion.
Cell Size ; Compensation and Redress ; Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Heart ; Heart Failure* ; Myocarditis* ; Pericardial Effusion

Alleles and genotype frequencies and its distribution pattern for the highly polymorphic D1S80 locus were determined in a Korean population sample, especially in Kwangju and Chonnam, by using PCR followed by agarose gel electrophoresis with ethidium bromide staining, a procedure called the amplified-fragment-length polymorphism(Amp-FLP) technique. And the data were compared with the alleles and genotype frequencies of Finnish population, North American Caucasian, and Korean population(Seoul) which had been reported. In 203 unrelated Korean individuals 27 alleles and 84 genotypes were observed. The highest allele frequency was in allele M24(0.128) and tne next orders were inalleles M18(0.126), M29, M30, M31, and M28 and the other alleles showed relatively low frequencies. The highest frequency of genotype was in M18/M24 and the next order frequencies were M18/M30, M19/M27 M29/M29, and M18/M29. The homozyous genotypes were in 9 alleles such as M29, M24, M31, and M18, and most of heterozygous genotypes were composed of alleles of each homozygous genotypes and /or the other alleles, its composition of genotypes was 0.881(74/84), 183(0.901) of the 203 individuals alleles, its composition of genotypes was 0.881(74/84), 183(0.901) of the 203 individuals alleles, its composition of genotypes was 0.881(74/84), 183(0.901) of the 203 individuals were included. The VNTR D1S80 locus demonstrated a heterozygosity of 0.872. From the above results, VNTR D1S80 locus may be a powerful locus to identify individuals, however, the allele frequencies was not closely related to the genotype pattern, and the alleles of homozygous genotypes influenced on the chance of the recombination of the various genotypes. It is necessary to analyze the genotype distribution and the recombination pattern of alleles as well as alleles and genotype frequencies in each populations for statistical test at most highly polymorphic loci.
Alleles* ; Electrophoresis, Agar Gel ; Ethidium ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype* ; Gwangju ; Jeollanam-do ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Recombination, Genetic

The four tetrameric STRs loci(HUMvWA31, HUMTHO1, HUMF13A1, HUMFES/FPS) were studied to confirm the allele frequency distribution and to see whether these results can be used for identity and paternity testing in a population o Koreans using multiplex PCR and laser-fluorescence detection method. In the Korean population (n=227), 8 alleles with their relative frequency range of 0.002-0.249 are detected in the HUMvWA31 locus, 6 alleles with those of 0.007-0.500 in 6 alleles with those of 0.004-0.434 in the HUMFES/FPS locus. The highest observed heterozygosity is found at the locus HUMvWA31(0.8077), with those of the lociively. All loci meet Hardy-Weinberg expectations ; there are good agreements between observed and expected heterozygosity, number of observed genotypes. Pairwise comparisons between loci show allelic independence for all the 4 loci. The power of discrimination (PD) determined for the locus HUMvWA31 is 0.933, that for the HUMTHO1 is 0.836, 0.798 for HUMF13A1, and 0.844 for the HUMFES/FPS ; the combined power of discrimination for the quadruplex is 0.9997. Thus, these allelic frequency distribution can be used to construct the database of the multiplex PCR-based DNA profile in the Korean population. The calculated parameter, "combined power of discrimination(PD)" show the informativeness of these loci for the determination of identity and relatedness of individuals.
Alleles ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; DNA ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Microsatellite Repeats* ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Paternity

The HUMACTBP2 locus was investigated to collect population genetic data in the Korean population and to evaluate the applicability for the forensic field. An Automatic fluorescent-based sequencer (377 automatic DNA sequencer, ABI) was used to detect amplified fragments of the HUMACTBP2 locus electrophoresed on 4% denaturing polyacrylamide sequencing gels. ACTBP2 allelic ladder consisting of different sizes of 18 alleles was constructed and employed as an internal size standard in combination with a GS-350 size standard for precision of allele-band sizing. By utilizing different fluorescent dyes, both the allelic ladders and samples were able to be analyzed in the same lane by 99% orecision of allele-band sizing. Among the Korean population (n=224), 26 alleles in the range of 239-313 bp are determined. allele No. 6 is found 45 times (0.100) which is mostly frequent, and the rest of allele is distributed with their relative frequency of 0.002-0.100. The comparison between observed and expected numbers of homozygous and heterozygous individuals confirms that ACTBP2 locus is in the state of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium among the Korean population. The heterozygosity is 0.9389+/-0.0034(93.89%), and the power of discrimination(PD) and power of exclusion(PEX) are calculated to be 0.991(99.1%)and 0.890(89.0%), respectively, showing the high informativeness for individual identification. Thus, these results mean that the HUMACTBP2 locus can effectively be used for the forensic application.
Alleles ; DNA ; Fluorescent Dyes ; Gels ; Genetic Variation*