Three dimensional computed tomographic angiography is a rapid and minimally invasive method of detecting intracranial aneurysms, however, there are some limitation to identify the associated cerebrovascular lesions. We report a case of ruptured dorsal wall aneurysm of internal carotid artery in a 50-year-old man who had underlying stenosis of cervical internal carotid artery, which was overlooked due to lesion outside the scan field of view.
Aneurysm ; Angiography* ; Carotid Artery, Internal ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Humans ; Intracranial Aneurysm* ; Middle Aged

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to test the effect of a 12-week exercise program on body composition, blood pressure, blood glucose, blood lipid and bone mineral density for middle-aged and aged women in rural areas. METHODS: The subjects were 33 women at the age of 40-75. For statistical analysis, descriptive statistics and paired t-test were used with SPSSWIN 16.0. RESULTS: The results were summarized as follows. First, body weight, BMI, % body fat, abdominal adipose, and waist circumference of the women decreased significantly after implementing the 12-week exercise program. Second, diastolic blood pressure, serum cholesterol, triglyceride, and LDL decreased significantly, and the HDL level increased significantly after the 12-week exercise program. Third, bone mineral density did not increase significantly after the program. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the exercise program has an effect in decreasing body composition, and improving blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood lipid in middle-aged and aged women.
Adipose Tissue ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Body Composition ; Body Weight ; Bone Density ; Cholesterol ; Female ; Humans ; Triglycerides ; Waist Circumference

OBJECTIVE: With improvement in endoscopic visualization and surgical tools, several minimally invasive procedures such as transpedicular fixation, interbody fusion, or decompression have advocated their respective advantages. But all these procedures are developed separately and are not related to other techniques. The authors utilize these procedures as organized procedure like comprehensive conventional procedure. This study is designed to study early results of minimally invasive decompression, interbody fusion, and endoscopic pedicle screw fixation. METHODS: We utilized minimally invasive decompression, interbody fusion, and endoscopic pedicle screw fixation on 12 consecutive patients(9 female, 3 male, mean age 54.8 years). For decompression, unilateral laminectomy and controlateral laminar undercutting was performed through tubular retractor, and interbody fusion(PLIF or TLIF) was done with one cage and bone packing. Pedicle screw fixation was done using expandable tubular retractor under endoscopic visualization and fluoroscopic guidance. Contralateral screw fixation was done with the same manner. RESULTS: There were five spinal stenosis and seven degenerative spondylolisthesis. All patients received one level (L4-5) decompression, interbody fusion, and fixation. Mean operating time was 245.8 minutes. There was dural tear in one patient. All patients were excellent or good with average follow up of 7.2 months. Bone fusion was not evident due to short-term follow-up, but there were no instability or screw loosening. CONCLUSION: Although it is small series and has short-term follow-up, this study demonstrates that minimally invasive decompression, interbody fusion, and pedicle screw fixation are feasible and effective.
Decompression* ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Laminectomy ; Male ; Spinal Fusion ; Spinal Stenosis ; Spondylolisthesis

BACKGROUND: Tuberculous pleurisy treatment improve symptoms such as fever, chest pain, cough, and prevents the progression to active pulmonary tuberculosis and the development of residual pleural thickening that decrease diaphragm and rib cage movement. This study investigated how the degree of residual pleural thidkening affects the pulmonary function. METHODS: Fifty seven patients who were initially diagnosed as having tuberculous pleurisy, were treated with anti-tuberculous medication for 6 months and had residual pleural thickening between May 1998 and January 2000 at the Eulji university hospital were reviewed. A chest X-ray and pulmonary function test(PFT, Sensormedics 2200) were perfored. The predicted value (%) of the forced vital capacity(FVC), forced inspiratory vital capacity(FIVC) and total lung capacity(TLC) were measured. The residual pleural thickening was defined the average of the summation in the lateral chest at the level of the imaginary line intersecting from the cardiophrenic angle to the diaphragmatic dome and the lowest part of the costophrenic angle between them. The results were sorted into three grades according to pleural thickness; <2mm(grade I), 2~10mm(grade II), 10mm(grade III). RESULTS: 1. FVC(% pred) and FIVC(% pred) were statistically different between grade I and III, and II and III. However, there was no difference between the TLC(% pred) between each of the groups. 2. The pleural thickness that cause restrictive dysfunction(FVC<80%) and a statisticall difference, is 3 mm. CONCLUSION: The larger the extent of the residual pleural thickness after antituberculous medication, the greater the reduction in the FVC, FIVC, TLC. A pleural thickness of 3 mm is recommended as a guideline for diagnosing a restrictive pulmonary dysfunction.
Chest Pain ; Cough ; Diaphragm ; Fever ; Humans ; Lung ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Ribs ; Thorax ; Tuberculosis, Pleural* ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of suicide attempters visiting emergency department in a general hospital located at local city. METHODS: To investigate the characteristics of suicide attempters, the medical records of 201 suicide attempters were reviewed with a structured analytic sheet. Data were analyzed using χ² test, two sample t-test, and oneway ANOVA. RESULTS: Among total of 201 suicide attempters, 114 (56.7%) lived in rural areas. 114 (56.7%) were men and most of them (71, 35.3%) lived in rural areas. 155 (77.5%) was the first trier and the most frequently used method was taking pesticides. There were gender and regional differences in the suicide-related characteristics of suicide attempters. CONCLUSION: The results provide empirical evidences to design and implement strategies at both macro and micro levels to prevent suicide.
Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Male ; Medical Records ; Methods ; Pesticides ; Suicide*

PURPOSE: This study was done to identify correlations between fatigue and quality of life in clinical nurses. METHOD: A sample of 294 nurses working in 3 general hospitals answered a questionnaire containing Yoshitake's fatigue scale and WHOQOL-BREF. Data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficients. The SPSS/WIN 11.0 version program was used. RESULTS: The score for level of fatigue was 2.11 (52.7%) and quality of life, 2.89 (57.8%). The level of fatigue was highest in the physical domain followed by psychical and nervous-sensual domain in that order. There were statistically significant differences in scores of fatigue depending on the nurse's age, marital status, career, position, health status and present illness. Quality of life had the highest score in the social domain followed by physical, overall, psychological, and environmental domain in that order. There were statistically significant differences in scores on quality of life depending on nurse's age, marital status, career, position, health status and present illness. CONCLUSION: The relationship between fatigue and quality of life revealed a significant negative correlation. Based on this study, nursing administrators need to reduce the level of nurse fatigue by providing various programs, which improve quality of life.
Administrative Personnel ; Fatigue* ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Marital Status ; Nursing ; Quality of Life* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

No abstract available.
Humans ; Pregnancy, Twin* ; Twins*

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of intracranial-extracranial arterial bypass(EIAB) surgery on cerebrovascular reserve capacity(CRC) in patients with hemodynamic cerebral ischemia and to assess the significance of transcranial doppler(TCD) examination before and after EIAB surgery. METHODS: In 29 consecutive patients who underwent EIAB surgery due to symptomatic internal carotid artery or middle cerebral artery(MCA) occlusion, 21 patients were studied using preoperative and postoperative digital subtraction angiogram(DSA), SPECT, and TCD examination. After measuring mean radioactivity count of a region of interest, relative regional cerebral blood flow(rrCBF) was quantitated by the following formula: lesional radioactivity count/contralateral radioactivity count x 100%. CRC was calculated as the percentage change from baseline flow after a vasodilatory challenge. RESULTS: Postoperative DSA showed good collateral circulation through the bypass except 4 patients. Preoperative mean value of rCRC improved significantly after EIAB surgery from -14.8+/-2.6% to 6.9+/-2.7%(p<0.01). Intraoperatively, flow velocity of superficial temporal artery(STA) and MCA just after anastomoses increased remarkably in comparison with the values just before anastomoses(p<0.01). There was no correlation between the change of pre- and postoperative flow velocity and the change of rrCBF. In patients with the increase of flow velocity after surgery manifested good collateral circulation through the bypass. The difference was statistically significant(repeated measures ANOVA, p<0.05). Over a mean follow-up period of almost 3 years, no patient had another episode of brain ischemia. CONCLUSION: We believe that the measurement of flow velocity is expected a good method to evaluate the degree of collateral circulation through the bypass.
Brain Ischemia* ; Carotid Artery, Internal ; Collateral Circulation ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hemodynamics* ; Humans ; Radioactivity ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

No abstract available.
Female ; Fetomaternal Transfusion* ; Pregnancy

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate comparison of static MRI and pseudo-dynamic (cine) MRI in temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this investigation, 33 patients with TMJ disorders were examined using both conventional static MRI and pseudo-dynamic MRI. Multiple spoiled gradient recalled acquisition in the steady state (SPGR) images were obtained when mouth opened and closed. Proton density weighted images were obtained at the closed and open mouth position in static MRI. Two oral and maxillofacial radiologists evaluated location of the articular disk, movement of condyle and bony change respectively and the posterior boundary of articular disk was obtained. RESULTS: No statistically significant difference was found in the observation of articular disk position, mandibular condylar movement and posterior boundary of articular disk using static MRI and pseudo-dynamic MRI (P>0.05). Statistically significant difference was noted in bony changes of condyle using static MRI and pseudo-dynamic MRI (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: This study showed that pseudo-dynamic MRI didn't make a difference in diagnosing internal derangement of TMJ in comparison with static MRI. But it was considered as an additional method to be supplemented in observing bony change.
Humans ; Joints* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine ; Mouth ; Protons ; Temporomandibular Joint ; Temporomandibular Joint Disorders