Rhinocerebral mucormycosis, which is a fulminant and progressive disease often seen in debilitated hosts! Requires a high degree of clinical suspicion to promptly diagnose and an aggressive medical and surgical therapy. The prognosis is grave, especially in case of bilateral cavernous sinus thrombosis. We report a case of 69-year-old female patient with bilateral cavernous sinus thrombosis caused by rhinocerebral mucormycosis, who showed orbital swelling and lateral bulging of bilateral cavernous sinus in orbital CT, and large branching nonseptate hypae in biopsed specimen of the left periorbital necrotic tissue.
Aged ; Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis ; Cavernous Sinus* ; Female ; Humans ; Mucormycosis* ; Orbit ; Prognosis

During 1964 to 1967, a survey of 30,534 persons for filariasis was made on all over the country with the following results: Among 24,816 draftees from all over the country in the army recruitment camp 155(0.63 %) were found infected with Brugia malayi. Cheju Do showed the highest microfilaria rate(3.5 %), North Kyongsang Do(1.4 %) the next and South Cholla Do(1.2 %) the third. Blood films from 2,308 inhabitants were examined and 407(17.6 %) showed microfilaria in Cheju Do. 30(3.1 %) out of 974 inhabitants in North Kyongsang Do were found to be infected. The microfilaria rates were 2.0 per cent for 400 inhabitants of Chindo island in South Cholla Do. However, no positive case of microfilaria was found in the inhabitants of Kokumdo among 1,820 persons examined in South Cholla Do and of Namhae island(among 165 persons examined) in South Kyongsang Do. The mean microfilarial density per 20 cu. mm of blood was 52.6 in the inhabitants of Cheju Do, 12.2 in North Kyongsang Do and 27.3 in Chindo island(South Cholla Do). Any distinct relationship between the incidence of positive cases of microfilariae and age or sex of the cases was not observed in Cheju Do. However, in Norh Kyongsang Do and South Cholla Do the microfilaria rate of the male group is higher than the one of the female group of the inhabitants. From the above survey results it turned out that filariasis was found throughout Southern Korea except Kyonggi Do and South Kyongsang Do. A total 30,534 persons examined, 601(2.0 %) were found to be infected by Brugia malayi. Therefore, it seems that there are some endemic foci of malayian filariasis in three main areas such as North Kyongsang Do, South Cholla Do and Cheju Do.
parsitology-helminth-nematoda-Brugia malayi ; filariasis ; epidemiology ; Army

No abstract available.
Humans ; Hyperbilirubinemia, Hereditary* ; Siblings*

This is a case report of the familial olivo-ponto-cerebellar atrophy (Menzel type OPCA, OPCA III with retinal degeneration). The patient is a 37 year-old male with 5 years history of slowly progressive cerebellar ataxia, dysarthria, visual change, horizontal nystagmus and signs of pyramidal dysfunction. The CT brain scan shows significant atrophy of brain stem and cerebellum with dilatation of cisterns. His younger sister, also, has similar clinical manifestations and radiological abnormalities, but mild. By history, his mother who died at 47 years of her age looked like to have same kind of chronic disease.
Adult ; Atrophy ; Brain ; Brain Stem ; Cerebellar Ataxia ; Cerebellum ; Chronic Disease ; Dilatation ; Dysarthria ; Humans ; Male ; Mothers ; Nystagmus, Pathologic ; Olivopontocerebellar Atrophies* ; Retinaldehyde* ; Siblings

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects and usefulness of fiuroscopy guided celiac ganglion block after marking of needle path with CT scan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Celiac ganglion block with 100% ethyl alcohol was performed in 50 cancer patients who were inoperable and had intractable abdominal pain. Duration and degree of pain relief after the procedure and its complication were analyzed. RESULTS: Early pain relief was observed in 98% and long term relief in 68% without serious complication. CONCLUSION: Fluoroscopy guided celiac ganglion block after marking of needle path with CT scan was a safe and valuable procedure in relieving intractable pain in terminal cancer patients and reduced the time in the CT room.
Abdominal Pain ; Ethanol ; Fluoroscopy* ; Ganglia, Sympathetic* ; Humans ; Needles ; Pain, Intractable ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Ondine's curse refers to the failure of automatic breathing during sleep associated with preservation of voluntary respiratory controls. This syndrome of Ondine's curse usually result from both bilateral and unilateral medullary tegmental infarcts. We report a case of a 56-year old hypertensive man who showed automatic respiratory failure during sleep and bilateral medullary infarcts in brain MRI.
Brain ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Respiration ; Respiratory Insufficiency*

No abstract available.
Technetium Tc 99m Disofenin*

No abstract available.
Depression ; Humans ; Lung ; Transplants

BACKGROUND: Elevated level of low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) is one of the major risk factors for the development of coronary heart disease. Direct LDL-C determination method by immunoseparation (DLDL-C) recently developed is claimed not to be influenced by food ingestion. We re-evaluated the effects of diet and storage conditions for this method. METHODS: Samples were collected from thirty-two medical college students before and after meal to study the effects of diet on this method. We compared the difference of LDL-C of filtered samples between refrigerated and frozen state. We also compared direct and indirect calculated measurements of LDL-C with ultracentrifugal beta-quantification (BQLDL-C) method. RESULTS: Morning 2-hour-postprandial specimen can be acceptable with no minimal significant bias, but afternoon 2-hour or 4-hour-postprandial specimen cannot be recommended due to significant negative bias (8.6-9.6%). Storage of filtered samples showed no significant difference between frozen and refrigerated state. Calculated LDL-C when triglyceride level is more than 400 mg/dL was not reliable due to large proportional and constant bias. In contrast, DLDL-C showed good accuracy comparing with BQLDL-C (y=0.909x+3.3, r=0.869, n=9, x=BQLDL-C, y=DLDL-C). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, morning two-hour postprandial specimens can be acceptable for DLDL-C, but afternoon postprandial specimens may not be recommended due to significant negative bias. DLDL-C seems to be reliable and useful especially for hypertriglyceridemic patients or follow-up cases of hypercholesterolemia with normal triglyceride or HDL-C levels.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Cholesterol, LDL ; Coronary Disease ; Diet ; Eating* ; Fasting ; Humans ; Hypercholesterolemia ; Meals ; Risk Factors ; Triglycerides ; Ultracentrifugation

BACKGROUND: Vimentin is the major intermediate-size filament in the cytoplasm of cells from mesenchymal origin. The HL-60 cell is a unique human leukemic cell line capable of terminal differentiation with several chemical inducers, and then the cell line becomes a fre#quently described model system for cell differentiation in vitro. Vimentin mRNA is reduced during all-trans retinoic acid (retinoic acid) -dependent differentication but increased by 12-0-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). In this paper, we have investigated on the mechanism of transcriptional repression of vimentin gene during retinoic acid-dependent differentication of HL-60 cell. METHODS: HL-60 cells were grown in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum and antibiotics in a humidified 5% CO at 37C. Total RNA was prepared by a modification of the method of Karlinsey et al. Northern blot hybridization was performed by the method of Virca et al. EcoRI fragment of pVIM-GEM was used as probe for vimentin mRNA. DNA mobility shift assay was performed by the method of Lim et al. End labeled DNA probe (Upper strand, 5-CGCITGATGAGTCAGCCG-3) for AP-1 binding activity was mixed with nuclear extracts in a 20 pL reaction volume containing 300 mM KCI, 60 mM HEPES, pH 7.9, 25mM MgC1, 1mM EDTA, 1mM DTT, 60% glycerol, and 2 pg of poly[dI-dC]. RESULTS: The level of vimentin mRNA was decreased at 12 hours after retinoic acid treatment, and not detected at 48 hours. The level of vimentin mRNA was reduced in proportion to concentration of retinoic acid, Retinoic acid-reduced vimentin mRNA was no change in cells treated with cycloheximide. Retinoic acid-dependent decrease of vimentin mRNA was partially recovered by staurosporin pretreatment. In DNA mobility shift assay, AP-1 binding activity was reduced at 48 hr during retinoic acid-induced differentiation. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the transcriptional repression of vimentin gene during retinoic acid-induced differentiation in HL-60 cells is correlated with reduction of DNA binding activity of AP-1.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Blotting, Northern ; Cell Differentiation ; Cell Line ; Cycloheximide ; Cytoplasm ; DNA ; Edetic Acid ; Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay ; Glycerol ; HEPES ; HL-60 Cells* ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Repression, Psychology* ; RNA ; RNA, Messenger ; Transcription Factor AP-1 ; Tretinoin ; Vimentin*