Cardiac arrest associated with hyperkalemia during red blood cell transfusion is a rare but fatal complication. Herein, we report a case of transfusion-associated cardiac arrest following the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support in a 9-month old infant. Her serum potassium level was increased to 9.0 mEq/L, soon after the newly primed circuit with pre-stored red blood cell (RBC) was started and followed by sudden cardiac arrest. Eventually, circulation was restored and the potassium level decreased to 5.1 mEq/L after 5 min. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) priming is a relatively massive transfusion into a pediatric patient. Thus, to prevent cardiac arrest during blood-primed ECMO in neonates and infants, freshly irradiated and washed RBCs should be used when priming the ECMO circuit, to minimize the potassium concentration. Also, physicians should be aware of all possible complications associated with transfusions during ECMO.
Blood Transfusion ; Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Erythrocyte Transfusion ; Erythrocytes ; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation* ; Heart Arrest* ; Humans ; Hyperkalemia* ; Infant* ; Infant, Newborn ; Potassium

PURPOSE: Either gated myocardial perfusion SPECT or attenuation corrected SPECT can be used to improve specificity in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. We investigated in this study whether gating or attenuation correction improved diagnostic performance of rest/stress perfusion SPECT in patients having intermediate pre-test likelihood of coronary artery disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-eight patients underwent rest attenuation-corrected T1-20l/dipyridamole stress gated attenuation-corrected Tc-99m-MIBI SPECT using an ADAC vertex camera (M:F=29:39, aged 59+/-12 years, coronary artery stenosis> or =70%. one vessel: 13, two vessel: 18, three vessel: 8, normal: 29). Using a five-point scale, three physicians graded the post-test likelihood of coronary artery disease for each arterial territory (1 normal, 2: possibly normal 3:equivocal, 4: possibly abnormal, 5: abnormal). Sensitivity, specificity and area under receiver-operating-characteristic curves were compared for each operator between three METHODS: (A) non-attenuation-corrected SPECT; (B) gated SPECT added to (A); and (C) attenuation-corrected SPECT added to (B). RESULTS: When grade 3 was used as the criteria for coronary artery disease, no differences in sensitivity and specificity were found between the three methods for each operator Areas under receiver- operating-characteristic curves for diagnosis of coronary artery disease revealed no differences between each modality (p>005). CONCLUSION: In patients at intermediate risk of coronary artery disease, gated SPECT and attenuation-corrected SPECT did not improve diagnostic performance.
Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Perfusion* ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

No abstract available.
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

Obstructive uropathy with hydronephrosis is a well-known complication of Crohn's disease. This complication is treacherous, since symptoms of urinary tract disease are mostly absent. Inflammatory ureteral engagement should always be suspected in patients with Crohn's disease, particularly when located in the terminal ileum. The treatment for this condition is still controversial. We report a case of a 25 year-old man who presented with intermittent diarrhea, weight loss, and RLQ pain. Diagnostic studies confirmed Crohn's disease, and revealed an abdominal mass obstructing the right ureter with hydroureteronephrosis. The patient was successfully treated with corticosteroid and mesalamine, without resection of the ileocecal lesion, drainage of the iliopsoas abscess and ureterolysis. We discuss a ureteral obstruction as a complication of Crohn's disease, with emphasis on conservative treatment.
Adult ; Crohn Disease* ; Diarrhea ; Drainage ; Humans ; Hydronephrosis ; Ileum ; Mesalamine ; Psoas Abscess ; Ureter* ; Ureteral Obstruction* ; Urologic Diseases ; Weight Loss

PET allows non-invasive, quantitative and repetitive imaging of biological function in living animals. Small animal PET imaging with [18F]FDG has been successfully applied to investigation of metabolism, receptor-ligand interactions, gene expression, adoptive cell therapy and somatic gene therapy. Experimental condition of animal handling impacts on the biodistribution of [18F]FDG in small animal study. The small animal PET and CT images were registered using the hardware fiducial markers and small animal contour point. Tumor imaging in small animal with small animal [18F]FDG PET should be considered fasting, warming, and isoflurane anesthesia level. Registered imaging with small animal PET and CT image could be useful for the detection of tumor. Small animal experimental condition of animal handling and registration method will be of most importance for small lesion detection of metastases tumor model.
Anesthesia ; Animal Experimentation ; Animals ; Fasting ; Fiducial Markers ; Gene Expression ; Genetic Therapy ; Handling (Psychology) ; Isoflurane ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Positron-Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography ; Tissue Therapy

No abstract available.
Urinary Bladder

Cardiac arrest associated with hyperkalemia during red blood cell transfusion is a rare but fatal complication. Herein, we report a case of transfusion-associated cardiac arrest following the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support in a 9-month old infant. Her serum potassium level was increased to 9.0 mEq/L, soon after the newly primed circuit with pre-stored red blood cell (RBC) was started and followed by sudden cardiac arrest. Eventually, circulation was restored and the potassium level decreased to 5.1 mEq/L after 5 min. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) priming is a relatively massive transfusion into a pediatric patient. Thus, to prevent cardiac arrest during blood-primed ECMO in neonates and infants, freshly irradiated and washed RBCs should be used when priming the ECMO circuit, to minimize the potassium concentration. Also, physicians should be aware of all possible complications associated with transfusions during ECMO.
Blood Transfusion ; Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Erythrocyte Transfusion ; Erythrocytes ; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ; Heart Arrest ; Humans ; Hyperkalemia ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Potassium

PURPOSE: We aimed to determine whether Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) would show neural abnormality of the social reward system using functional MRI (fMRI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: 27 ASDs and 12 typically developing controls (TDCs) participated in this study. The social reward task was developed, and all participants performed the task during fMRI scanning. RESULTS: ASDs and TDCs with a social reward learning effect were selected on the basis of behavior data. We found significant differences in brain activation between the ASDs and TDCs showing a social reward learning effect. Compared with the TDCs, the ASDs showed reduced activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, right orbitofrontal cortex, right parietal lobe, and occipital lobe; however, they showed increased activity in the right parahippocampal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that there might be neural abnormality of the social reward learning system of ASDs. Although this study has several potential limitations, it presents novel findings in the different neural mechanisms of social reward learning in children with ASD and a possible useful biomarker of high-functioning ASDs.
Brain/*physiopathology ; Brain Mapping ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive/*physiopathology ; Female ; Functional Neuroimaging/*methods ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods ; Male ; Neural Pathways/*physiopathology ; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ; Republic of Korea ; *Reward ; *Social Behavior

P450 CYP2D6 enzyme(debrisoquine hydroxylase) is known to metabolize many neuroleptics and some genetic polymorphisms in the CYP2D6 gene were reported to be associated with tardive dyskinesia(TD). We investigeted the association of two genetic polymorphisms in the CYP2D6 gene, CYP2D6*4 and CYP2D6*10, with TD in Korean schizophrenic subjects. Subjects consisted of 71 Korean schizophrenics and TD was evaluated using the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale(AIMS). There were no statistically significant differences in the demographic variables of age, male to female percentage and the current antipsychotic(CPZ equivalent) dose between the grup with TD and the group without TD. But the duration of antipsychotic drug exposure was siginificantly higher in the group without TD(p=0.000, by independent t-test). The mean AIMS score in the group with TD was 11.2+/-6.6(S.D.). Genotypings ofr the presence of CYP2D6*4 and CYP2D6*10 wee done using PCR amplifications and endonuclease digestions. There were no statistically significant genotypic and alleleic associations between TD and CYP2D6*4(by chi-square tests), and between TD and CYP2D6*10(by chi-square tests). These results indicate that the CYP2D6*4 and CYP2D6*10 polymorphisms have no significant roles in the causation of TD.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Cytochrome P-450 CYP2D6 ; Dyskinesias ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Movement Disorders* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Genetic

The role of neuropeptides in the central nervous system (CNS) has received increasing attention. Numerous peptide molecules are found in the mammalian CNS and many of them are thought to act as either neurotransmitters or neuromodulators. The neuropeptides found in high concentration in the hypothalamus include vasopressin (VP), vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, somatostatin, and oxytocin. The main approches to assess the involvement of neuropeptides can be focused on functions affecting the aging of the brain. Morphological aging of the CNS has been characterized by degenerative changes of fiber connections and cell loss, although degeneration does not always occur to the same extent throughout various parts of the brain and, moreover, varies for different cell types. Despite of many studies in VP containing neurons , there exist discrepancies in results about the changes of aged rat brain. The aim of the present study is, therefore, to investigative possible changes in the number and morphology of VPimmunoreactive neurons with aging in each area of the hypothalmus of the aged rats. As a result, the number of VP-immunoreactive neurons was decreased in hypothalamus nucleus of aged group. Especially, in VP-immunoreactive neurons of hypothalamus, the size of neuronal cell body and nuclei in aged group is larger than in young group and the fiber density of immunoreactivity neurons of median eminance (ME) in aged group is stronger than in young group. But, the total number of VP-immunoreactive neurons in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the aged group is larger than in the young group. These studies indicate the involvement of VP-immunoreactive neurons in aging process of hypothalamus, and aging process may affect the synthesis of VP in the neurons of hypothalamic nuclei. Whereas, in VP expression, aging process induces an enlargement of the cell size of surviving neurons to compensate.
Aging ; Animals ; Brain ; Cell Size ; Central Nervous System ; Hypothalamus* ; Neurons* ; Neuropeptides ; Neurotransmitter Agents ; Oxytocin ; Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus ; Rats* ; Somatostatin ; Suprachiasmatic Nucleus ; Supraoptic Nucleus ; Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide ; Vasopressins