No abstract available.
Fibroma*

We evaluated the role of endoseopic balloon dilatation for esophageal strictures caused by postoperative anastomosis in 5 cases, sclerotherapy in 4 cases, caustic injury in 6 cases, and malignancy in 16 cases. The success rate of balloon dilatation was 100% in postoperative anastomotic and post-scle- rotherapy strictures, 16.7% in caustic stricture, and 62.5% in malignant stricture. The addition of bougienage increased the final success rate of dilatation therapy from 16.7 to 66.7% in caustic stricture, and 62.5 to 93.8% in malignant stricture. The overall one-year recurrence rate in benign stricture was 34.5%. All of the recurrent strictures were successfully retreated by balloon dilatation. In conclusion, endoscopic balloon dilatation is a safe, effective, and easy method for the management of benign esophageal strictures except longstanding caustic stricture, and can be used as an auxiliary therapy prior to more definitive treatments such as esophageal intubation in malignant stricture.
Constriction, Pathologic* ; Dilatation ; Esophagus ; Intubation ; Recurrence ; Sclerotherapy

30 patients with essential hypertension were treated with diltiazem (Herben(R))significantly decreased both systolic and diastolic blood pressuer and heart rate. Mean decrease in systolic & diastolic blood pressuer were 38.0+/-4,5mmHg and 16.3+/-2.3 mmHg respectively and mean drop in heart rate was 17+/-2 beats/mm. The side effects of diltiazem (Herben(R)) were mild headache, fatigue and pruritus, but those were insignificant. Diliazem may be of benefit to hypertensive patients, and particularly useful when hypertension occurs in association with coronary artery disease.
Coronary Artery Disease ; Diltiazem* ; Fatigue ; Headache ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Pruritus

We observed the serum cholesterol, triglyceride and HDL-cholesterol values in 25 hyperlipidemic patients with procectofene(LIpanthyl(R))administration. 1) The mean serum lipids before & after procetofene administration was as follows 2) The undersirable effect of the drug was found on 3 patients; those were abdominal fullness, headache & pruritus.
Cholesterol* ; Fenofibrate ; Headache ; Humans ; Pruritus ; Triglycerides*

Hypereosinophilic syndrome is characterized by marked eosinohia and eosinopbilic infiltrition of various organ-systems without any identifiable underlyin sathologic conditions such as hypersensitivity, drug eruption, parasitic infestat,ion, malignant tuinc, and autoimrnune and infectious d iseases. A 31 year-old male had weight loss, abnormal peripheral cirrultiction both extremities and two distinct skin lesions. One showed rice sized, erythematous follicular popules on both extremit.ies and trunk and the other showed a walnut sized, gangrenous ulcer on the left 2nd finger tip. The patients skin lesions and circulation defect. improved after retrnent with steroid and the blood eosinophilia returned to normal.
Adult ; Blood Circulation* ; Drug Hypersensitivity ; Eosinophilia ; Extremities* ; Fingers ; Humans ; Hypereosinophilic Syndrome* ; Juglans ; Male ; Skin ; Ulcer ; Weight Loss

No abstract available.
Replantation

OBJECTIVES: Anticardiolipin antibody (ACA) and lupus anticoagulant (LA) are acquired antiphospholipid antibodies (APAs), which are regarded as important risk factors far vascular thrombosis and recurrent fetal loss. Although the clinical relevance of APAs in dialysis patients is uncertain, recent studies have suggested that APAs are involved in bioincompatibility and thrombogenic complications in hemadialysis (HD) patients. METHOD: We performed a cross sectional study of ACA and LA in 50 stable HD patients and their 68 vascular accesses (52 native arteriovenous fistulae and 16 synthetic arterovenous grafts), with the analysis of factors associated with the presence of APAs and the retrospective evaluation of vascular access occlusion (VAO). LA was assessed by platelet neutralization method whereas IgG-ACA was measured by a solid phase ELISA. Values higher than 23GPLU/ml (IgG phospholipid units) were considered to be positive for IgG-ACA and positive values for LA was more than 8 seconds in prolongation of the clotting time with human platelet lysate. Vascular access survival was assessed by Kaplan- Meier method, RESULTS: The mean age of the subject (M:F 21:29) was 46 years and the mean duration of hemodialysis was 49 months. The frequency of VAO in entire subjects was 0.45+/-0.98 episodes/patient year. The median value of IgG-ACA was 16.0 GPLU/ml with a distribution from 2.7 to 46.1GPLU/ ml. The median titer of I.A was 4.5 (3.1-45.6) seconds. Fourteen patients (28%) were found to have at least one episode of VAO. In spite of comparable clinical and biochemical data according to the presence of VAO, the titers of IgG-ACA (13.6+/-7.7 vs, 20.3+/-8.7GPLIJ/ml, P<0.05) and LA (4.5+/-2.9 vs. 11.7 +/-12.6sec, P<0.05) were significantly higher in VAO group. Six out of 50 patients(12%) had an increased titer of IgG-ACA and LA was found in 11 patients(22%). No patients were positive for ACA and LA simultaneously. There was no significant difference in sex, etiology of ESRD, diabetic status, the dosage of heparin during HD or the amount of erythropoietin administered according to the presence of APAs. We could not find any significant correlation between the titer of APAs and age, duration of dialysis, blood pressure, platelet count and biochemical parameters. In the patients with positive ACA, the frequency of VAO was 1.05+/-0.12 episodes/patient year, which was significantly higher than patients without ACA (0.33+/-0.17 episodes/ patient year, P<0.05). In the patients with the presence of LA(1.06+/-0.43 vs. 0.12+/-0.06 episodes/ patients year, P<0.01). The median vascular access survival time in IgG-ACA positive patients (32.7 months) was significantly decreased compared to 66.8 months in IgG-ACA negative group. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the presence of APAs (ACA and/or LA) affects the event-free vascular access survival in HD patients. Therefore the evaluation of APAs status have to be included in the diagnostic strategies for the patients with recurrent VAO. Further studies are necessary to explore the pharmacologic intervention method to decrease APAs and prevent VAO in HD patients.
Antibodies, Anticardiolipin* ; Antibodies, Antiphospholipid ; Arteriovenous Fistula ; Blood Platelets ; Blood Pressure ; Dialysis ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Erythropoietin ; Heparin ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Lupus Coagulation Inhibitor* ; Platelet Count ; Renal Dialysis* ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Thrombosis

No abstract available.
Choriocarcinoma* ; Female ; Pregnancy

Left ventricular hypertrophy is a compensatory response to hemodynamic overload secondary to an increased systemic resistance. This increase, however, is not the only cause of hypertrophy, and there are other factors which can have a significant effect on its incidence. To determine whether chronic antihypertensive therapy by enalapril modifies the cellular and subcellular changes of left ventricular hypertrophy observed in spontaneously hypertensive rats(SHR), 20-weeks-old SHR were treated for 22 weeks with enalapril(2mg/kg) and compared with normotensive Wister-Kyoto rats and not-treated SHR. Systolic blood pressure in enalapril-treated SHR was significantly lowered after 22 weeks compared with that of untreated control SHR group. Myocytes were reduced in size and fibrination seen in cardiac muscle fibers of control SHR was decreased in treated SHR group. Myofibrils appeared to be irregular in shape and myofilaments are decreased in control SHR but in enalapril-treated SHR the diameter and length of the myofilament became turned to regular forms. These results suggest that, enalapril, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, may regress hypertrophy and some subcellular changes may be modified by enalapril.
Animals ; Blood Pressure ; Enalapril* ; Fibrin ; Hemodynamics ; Hypertrophy ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular* ; Incidence ; Muscle Cells ; Myocardium ; Myofibrils ; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A ; Rats ; Rats, Inbred SHR*

PURPOSE: Preamplifier and amplifier are very important parts for developing a portable counting or imaging gamma probe. They can be used for analyzing pulses containing energy and position information for the emitted radiations. The commercial Nuclear Instrument Modules (NIMs) can be used for processing these pulses. However, it may be improper to use NIMs in developing a portable gamma probe, because of its size and high price. The purpose of this study was to develop both preamplifier and amplifier and measure their performance characteristics. MATERIALS and Methodes: The preamplifier and amplifier were designed as a charge sensitive device and a capacitor resistor-rsistor capacitor (CR-RC) electronic circuit, respectively, and they were mounted on a print circuit board (PCB). We acquired and analyzed energy spectra for Tc-99m and Cs-137 using both PCB and NIMs. Multichannel analyzer (Accuspec/A, Caberra Industries Inc., Meriden Connecticut, U.S.A) and scintillation detectors (EP-047 (Bicron Saint-Gobain/Norton Industrial EP-047 (Ceramics Co., Ohio, U.S.A) with 2"x2" NaI (T1) crystal and R1535 (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Electron Tube Center, Shizuoka-ken, Japan) with 1"x1"NaI (T1) crystal) were used for acquiring the energy spectra. RESULTS: Using PCB, energy resolutions or EP-047 detectors for Tc-99m and Cs-137 were 12.92% and 5.01%, respectively, whereas R1535 showed 13.75% and 5.19% of energy resolution. Using the NIM devices, energy resolutions of EP-047 detector for Tc-99m and Cs-137 were measured as 14.6% and 7.58%, respectively. However, reliable energy spectrum of R1535 detector could not be acquired, since its photomultiplier tube (PMT) requires a specific type of preamplifier. CONCLUSION: We developed a special preamplifier and amplifier suitable for a small sized gamma probe that showed good energy resolutions independent of PMT types. The RESULTS indicate that the PCB can be used in developing both counting and imaging gamma probe.
Connecticut ; Ohio ; Optics and Photonics