The authors studied the ultrastructural changes of liver cell mitochondria in autolysis. The male Sprague-Dawley rats, weighting 140~160 gm were sacrificed for extract liver tissue. The slices of the liver tissue were incubated in 37 degrees C aseptic normal saline, and those were examined by following intervals; 10, 20 and 30 minutes and 1, 2, 6, 12 and 24 hours with light and electron microscope. The results obtained by light microscopy were summerized as follow. Several fine intracytoplasmic vacuoles were observed 1 hour after incubation. After 3 hours, focal destruction of cytoplasmic membrane with pyknosis of nuclei were observed. More delicate intracytoplasmic architectural changes could not be detected at light microscopic studies. The cord arrangement and cellular boundaries were relatively well preserved until 24 hours after incubation. Electronmicroscopically, mild intramitochondrial swelling with diminution of intramatrical granules were observed at 20 minutes. These were the earliest findings. Both high amplitude swelling and destruction of mitochondrial membrane were observed concurrently at 1 hour after incubation. The earlier membrane changes were observed at inner membrane with cristae and followed by degeneration of the outer membrane. The intramatrical amorphous dense deposits were observed at 30 minutes when the membranes were not destroyed. These deposits were noted in the other experimental groups which were incubated longer than 30 minutes. More electron dense deposits were observed after 1 hour at that time the membrane changes appeared. Vhe results suggest in this experiment that the earliest autolytic changes of liver cell mitochondria is loss of intramitochondrial granules and the membraneous changes led to the irreversible mitochondiral injury. The appearance of two types of intramitochondrial dense deposits would be an interesting finding needed to require further investigation for the chemical stucture and mechanism of dense deposit formation.
Male ; Humans

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study is to compare the differences of fetal heart rate (FHR) variables between preterm and term pregnancies after acoustic stimulation using computerized analysis of fetal heart rate. METHODS: Eighty-two normal pre-term and term pregnancies entered to this study after conventional 20-minutes nonstress test(NST) and 10-minutes acoustic stimulation test (AST). Acoustic stimulations were performed using Fetal Acoustic Stimulator (Model 146, Corometrics, US). We analyzed the FHR response after acoustic stimulation using our on-line computerized FHR analysis system, HYFM-I & II software. The changes of loss of signal, baseline FHR, variability, number of fetal movements, and number of FHR accelerations were analyzed numerically. RESULT: The mean baseline FHR was increased in term pregnancies from 141+/-7.0bpm to 152.7+/-9.7bpm, and in preterm pregnancies from 144.6+/-6.8bpm to 156.8+/-10.2bpm, respectively. The mean baseline FHR was significantly increased in both term and preterm pregnancies (p<0.01. paired t-test). The variability of FHR was increased in term pregnancies from 18.2+/-6.4bpm to 22.6+/-5.0bpm and in preterm pregnancies from 17.8+/-5.5bpm to 22.7+/-5.9bpm, respectively. The variability of FHR was also significantly increased in both term and preterm pregnancies. (p<0.01. paired t-test) CONCLUSION: The mean baseline FHR and the variability of FHR was significantly increased both preterm and term pregnancies. But the difference of each FHR variables between preterm pregnancies and term pregnancies was not statistically significant in this study.
Acceleration ; Acoustic Stimulation* ; Acoustics* ; Female ; Fetal Heart* ; Fetal Movement ; Heart Rate, Fetal* ; Pregnancy

Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome is characterized by classical electrocardiographic findings resulting from preexcitation of a part of the ventricular myocardium due to anomalous atrioventricular conduction via a accessory pathway. Anesthetic management with this syndrome is aimed at avoiding tachycardia and cardiac arrhythmia by using the techniques to avoid hypoxia, hypercarbia, acidosis and sympathetic stimulation. We experienced a case of severe hypotension and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) during insertion of subclavian vein catheter on a patient with this syndrome prior to operation, in spite of adequate anesthetic management. The patient's condition was recovered after infusion of adenosine and removal of catheter. Operation was postponed for further evaluation of WPW syndrome. After 3 days, electrophysiologic study was done and accessory pathway was ablated by radiofrequency catheter. After 6 days, the patient was operated uneventfully and discharged 2 weeks later. We report that minor stimulation such as central venous catheterization on a patient with WPW syndrome can cause life-threatening severe hypotension and PSVT.
Acidosis ; Adenosine ; Anoxia ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Catheterization, Central Venous ; Catheters* ; Central Venous Catheters ; Electrocardiography ; Humans ; Hypotension* ; Myocardium ; Subclavian Vein ; Tachycardia ; Tachycardia, Supraventricular* ; Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome*

The effect of induced hypotension with sodium nitroprusside(SNP) on alveolar-arterial oxygen tension difference and pulmonary shunting in 10 surgical patients with normal pulmonary function was studied under general anesthesia. Heart rate, mean arterial pressure, central venous pressure, blood gases and hemoglobin were measured before, during and after SNP infusion. Using the above data, alveolar-arterial oxygen tension difference and pulmonary shunting were calculated. The results were as follows. 1) Mean arterial pressure decreased significantly from 98+/-9.1mmHg before SNP infusion to 61+/-3.0 mmHg during SNP infusion(p<0.001), and increased to 96+/-6.7mmHg again after SNP infusion. 2) Heart rate increased significantly from 78+/-10.5 beats/min. to 101+/-11.9 beats/min.(p<0.001), and decreased to 84+/-11.5 beats/min. again. 3) Arterial oxygen tension decreased from 489+/-32.5mmHg to 480+/-25.0mmHg, but was not statistically significant. (p>0.05). 4) Alveolar-arterial oxygen tension difference increased from 188+/-29.0mmHg to 196+/-25.0mmHg, but was not statistically significant(p>0.05). 5) Pulmonary shunting increased from 9.0+/-1.83% to 9.2+/-1.50%, but was not statistically significant.(p>0.05). The above findings suggest that pulmonary shunting in patients with normal lung function will not affected during induced hypotension with SNP.
Anesthesia, General ; Arterial Pressure ; Central Venous Pressure ; Gases ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Hypotension* ; Lung ; Nitroprusside* ; Oxygen* ; Sodium*

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

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to explore the effects of attitude to death in hospice and palliative professionals on their terminal care stress, and to analyze relationships among variables related to the two aforementioned parameters, such as depression and coping strategies. METHODS: Participants were 131 hospice and palliative professionals from the cancer units of two tertiary hospitals and two general hospitals, two hospice facilities, two geriatric hospitals, and two convalescent hospitals in J province. Data were collected from April through June 2015 and analyzed using t-test, factor analysis, ANOVA (Scheffe test), ANCOVA, and Pearson's correlation and a path analysis using the SPSS/WIN 21.0 and AMOS 18.0 programs. RESULTS: The score for attitude to death was low (2.63), and that for depression was 0.45. Among all, 16.0% of the participants showed need for depression management. They scored 3.82 on terminal care stress. The subcategory with the highest mark was inner conflicts on limitation given availability of medical services (4.04). The score on coping strategy was low (3.13). They used passive coping strategies such as interpersonal avoidance (4.03), fulfilling basic needs (3.65) such as sleeping or eating. Attitudes to death had a direct negative effect on the terminal care stress level and indirectly affected through depression and fulfilling basic needs (CS2). CONCLUSION: It is necessary to provide hospice and palliative professionals with education on death and dying, as well as access to programs that provide emotional support and promote positive cognition of death and dying.
Attitude to Death* ; Cognition ; Depression ; Eating ; Education ; Hospices* ; Hospitals, Convalescent ; Hospitals, General ; Terminal Care* ; Tertiary Care Centers

Clostridium perfringens is an anaerobe responsible for a wide range of diseases in animals and humans. Symptoms associated with C. perfringens food poisoning are caused by enterotoxin expressed only during sporulation of C. perfringens. It has been known that only 6% of global C. perfringens isolates carry the enterotoxin gene. We found 2 strains of enterotoxigenic C. perfringens out of 33 strains isolated from various sources in Korea using PCR. It was also found that these two strains were both type A that were strongly associated with food poisoning by checking the presence of four major lethal toxins (a-, B-, e-, l-toxin) using PCR. These results suggest that foodborne illness caused by C. perfringens may be common in Korea and that public education is necessary to prevent contamination of foods by this organism.
Animals ; Clostridium perfringens* ; Clostridium* ; Education ; Enterotoxins* ; Foodborne Diseases ; Humans ; Korea* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction

Adult polycystic kidney disease is a genetic disease characterized by bilateral multiple renal cysts and is transmitted as an autosomal dominant traits. The disease usually manifests in the fourth decade of life. The affected patients usually die with end stage renal failure, cardiovascular assaults and infection etc. Cardiovascular assaults include ruptured berry aneurysm, spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage, acute myocardial infarction, dissecting aortic aneurysm and hypertensive heart failure. Fatal intracranial hemorrhage and hypertensive heart failure occur in 15% and 2% of patients, respectively. Genetically-determined structural weakness in the arterial wall have been suggested as a possible factor in the genesis of berry aneurysm. We have experienced three autopsy cases with cardiovascular causes of sudden death. Two cases have intracranial hemorrhage (1 berry aneurysm and 1 intracerebral hemorrhage) and the remaining one is dead with hypertensive cardiomyopathy. All of them are aged over 40 years and associated with polycystic liver disease. Histologically, myriad cysts of enlarged bilateral kidney are lined by single layer of cuboidal cells with focal hyperplastic epithelial configuration. Diffusely scattered liver cysts are also lined by flat to cuboidal epithelium and often associated with portal fibrosis.
Adult* ; Aortic Aneurysm ; Autopsy ; Cardiomyopathies ; Cerebral Hemorrhage ; Death, Sudden ; Epithelium ; Fibrosis ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Intracranial Aneurysm ; Intracranial Hemorrhages ; Kidney ; Liver ; Liver Diseases ; Myocardial Infarction ; Polycystic Kidney, Autosomal Dominant* ; Renal Insufficiency

No abstract available.

The authors studied the formation of giant mitochondria in liver cell. The Sprague Dawley rats were sacrificed following intervals; 5, 10, 20, 30, and 60 minutes after intraperitoneal injection of hydrazine in the amount of 200 microliter/kg. And the extracted liver tissues were examined with light and electron microscopes. The results obtained were summarized as follow; Light microscopically, there is little difference between control and experimental groups. Electron microscopically, elongated, bizzare shaped mitochondria are appears 5 minutes after hydrazine injection. Those show attenuated portion, Y, U, or C shaped feature suggesting fusion or budding mitochondria. The number of giant mitochondria is decreased after 10 minutes group and rarely present in 60 minutes group. The results suggest in this experiment that the formation of giant mitochondria is kind of reversible change and it is different from the mitochondrial swelling of cellular injury. Intermitochondrial fusion and mitochondrial budding may be related with the formation of giant mitochondria.
Rats ; Animals