No abstract available.
Drug Interactions*

The area overlying the ischium is the most frequent site for the development and recurrence of pressure sores in the paraplegic patient. This report describes a newly-designed inferior gluteus maximus myocutaneous island flap that is useful for the repair of ischial pressure sores in paraplegic patients. Sacral sore develops a wide and flat ulcer crater. However, ischial sore seems to develop large and deep bursa with relatively small openings. We have used a newly-designed gluteus maximus myocutaneous island flap according to the specific characteristics of ischial sore. The flap is designed in the fashion of a small skin island with a large muscle flap. This flap with its abundant and constant blood supply had proved very reliable in the surgical management of ischial pressure sore. There is also the possible advantage of cushioning with the bulk of muscle for greater long-term durability. Incision could be extended for a complete bursetomy and partial ischiectomy. The reliability, versatility and low morbidity of the inferior gluteus maximus island flap has been demonstrated by its use in our consecutive series of 7 patients with 8 ischial pressure sores. We conclude that this newly-designed inferior gluteus maximus myocutaneous island flap can be applied in deep, infected ischial sore according to the specific characteristics of ischial sore, and it is a very useful method in comparison to other flaps.
Humans ; Ischium ; Pressure Ulcer ; Recurrence ; Skin ; Ulcer

Erythropoietin is the major hormonal regulator of erythropoiesis. It is controlled by many factors inducing hypoxia in tissue. The serum erythropoietin levels of neonates have shown gradual dccrease until 1 month of age, which they are reactivated in the period of physiologic anemia. This change is exaggerated if the meonates are born prematurely, and the levels of erythropoietin respond to lower hemoglobin are lower than those of term neonates and adults. The purpose of this study was to assess the values of erythropoietin levels to compare hemoglobin on the preterm and term neonates until 1 month of age. The results were as follows: 1) At birth mean erythropoietin values of preterm and term neonates were 16.5+/-1.4mU/ml, 16.5+/-1.7mU/ml respectively, there was no significant difference. Also erythropoietin values in preterm and term neonates were 23.6+/-13.3mU/ml, 10.9+/-1.5mU/ml respectively. Resticulocyte counts in preterm and term neonates were 10.7+/-3.3%, 5.7+/-2.9% respectively, so they were significantly higher in preterm than in term neonates. 2) The changes of mean hemoglobin, reticulocyte counts and erythropoietin according to postnatal ages were that those of reticulocyte counts and erythropoietin were significantly increased about 1 month of age. 3) At the 1 month of age, mean erythropoietin values in preterm neonates were lower than those of term neonates and adults, despite of the lowest hemoblobin. This results showed that erythropoietin values in preterm neonates during the physilolgic anemia were lower values than those of term neonates and adults in spite of the lowest hemoglobin.
Adult ; Anemia ; Anoxia ; Erythropoiesis ; Erythropoietin* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Parturition ; Reticulocyte Count

No abstract available.
Humans

No abstract available.
Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Respiratory Syncytial Viruses

The development of multidrug-resistant tumor cell population is a major problem in the chemotherapy of human cancer. These cells are often cross resistant to unrelated drugs and the precise mechanisms of multidrug resistant phenotype of tumor cells has not been fully elucidated. Cisplatin resistant tumor cell (SNU-1/Cis₅) was induced from human stomach cancer cell line (SNU-1) in vitro. Growth profiles of survival cells were observed during 5 days by thiazolyl blue (MTT) assay. To investigate the cross resistance of various anticancer drugs in SNU-1 and SNU-1/Cis5, We compared the value of IC₅₀-drug concentration at 50% survival of control and gained relative resistances (RR). The RR for SNC-1/Cis₅ were as follows; vinblastine, > 43.0; epirubicin, 22.9; dactinomycin, 16.0; etoposide, 15.0; vincristine, 9.2; adriamycin, 5.7; aclarubicin, 5.3. But 5-fluorouracil, methotrexate, daunorubicin have not cross resistance with cisplatin. Resistant inhibition values of 10µM verapamil for SNU-1/Cis₅ were as follows; vincristine, 13.1; epirubicin, 10.0; etoposide, 6.3; vinblastine, 4.4; dactinomycin, 3.6; daunorubicin, 2.4. Membrane proteins of 51,400 and 81,300 daltons were identified by radioiodination with SDS-PAGE, which might represented the drug resistance.
Aclarubicin ; Cell Line ; Cisplatin* ; Dactinomycin ; Daunorubicin ; Doxorubicin ; Drug Resistance ; Drug Resistance, Multiple* ; Drug Therapy ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Epirubicin ; Etoposide ; Fluorouracil ; Humans* ; In Vitro Techniques ; Membrane Proteins ; Methotrexate ; P-Glycoprotein ; Phenotype ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Stomach* ; Verapamil* ; Vinblastine ; Vincristine

No abstract available.
Low Back Pain*

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary tuberculosis with a remaining cavitary lesion is considered to be a problem with the course of treatment. In particular, re-treatment cases tend to respond poorly to current anti-tuberculosis agents. Therefore the factors that are related with the poor closure of a cavitary lesion in pulmonary tuberculosis during treatment were evaluated. METHODS: A retrospective review of the medical records and chest X-ray films of 68 patients who had chemotherapy for the pulmonary tuberculosis with cavitary lesions was made. All the patients had been followed up for more than 12 months at National Masan Tuberculosis Hospital as of Aug. 2000. RESULTS: The male to female ratio was 3.9:1. 72.4% of the patients were between 20 to 50 years of age. 66.2% of the cavitary lesions on the chest X-ray films were confined to the upper lung fields : 36.8% in the right upper lung field and 29.4% in the left upper lung field. 82.4% of the cavities were less than 40mm in their size, and 83.8% were less than 6mm thick. The cavitary lesions were closed in 48 cases and remained in 20 cases during a follow-up period of more than 12 months. The factors that are though to affect ot the outcomes of the cavities were age, past medication history, the number of unused drugs, and the number of sensitive drugs. CONCLUSION: In the treatment courses of pulmonary tuberculosis with cavitary lesions, the following factors are associated with less desirable outcome:an age over 45, a past medication history of more than 2 courses of treatment, The number of unused drugs not exceeding average 6 and the number of sensitive drugs not exceeding average 7.
Drug Therapy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hospitals, Chronic Disease ; Humans ; Lung ; Male ; Medical Records ; Retrospective Studies ; Thorax ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary* ; X-Ray Film

Malassezia intertrigo is a very rare clinical entity in which the clinical lesions occur in intertroginous areas as erythematous scaling macules and direct microscopic examinatons of scales reveal only large numbers of yeast forms of Malassezia organism. A 59-year-old man, developed brown, finely scaling macular lesions on the inguinal areas. Direct microscopy and culture of the scalings taken from the lesional areas of the patient revealed only oval forms of Malassezia organism.
Humans ; Intertrigo* ; Malassezia* ; Microscopy ; Middle Aged ; Weights and Measures ; Yeasts

In this study of 64 cases of breast cancer with a clinical follow-up period of more than 5 years, several prognostic factors were evaluated. The purpose of this study was to determine whether any one parameter or group of parameters serves as adequate predictors of tumor behavior and patient's prognosis. Several prognostic factors included clinicopathological variables (patient's age, histologic grade, status of lymph node (LN) metastasis, and tumor size), expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), p53, bcl-2 and CD44 by immunohistochemistry, and DNA ploidy pattern. The results showed that the expression of ER and PR had a significant inverse correlation with the histologic grade (ER, p=0.05; PR, p<0.05). The expression of p53 protein showed a significant relationship with high histologic grade of tumor (p<0.05). The expression of bcl-2 protein was preferably seen in low histologic grade of tumor (p<0.05) and significantly associated with ER positive or PR positive tumors (ER, p<0.05; PR, p<0.05). This results suggest that bcl-2 protein might play significant roles in ER and PR. The CD44 expression showed a significant relationship with tumor size (p<0.05). The large size and aneuploidy pattern of tumor had a tendency to be associated with shorter patient survival. Cox's multivariate analysis showed that overall survival was affected by LN metastasis because of the shorter survival in patients with LN metastasis. In conclusion, tumor size, DNA ploidy pattern, and LN metastasis were themselves significant predictors of breast cancer survival rate.
Aneuploidy ; Breast Neoplasms ; Breast* ; Carcinoma, Ductal* ; DNA* ; Estrogens ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lymph Nodes ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Ploidies* ; Prognosis ; Receptors, Progesterone ; Survival Rate