We reviewed MR angiograms to evaluate its efficacy for visualizing the renal arteries and detecting renovascular disease. 41 renal arteries in 19 patients were examined by MR angiography. 3-D time-of-flight technique was used as routine examination method for MR angiography and 2-D time-of-flight technique was added in some particular cases to visualize venous flow. Within two weeks after MR angiography was performed, 23 renal arteries in 10 patients were additionally examined by conventional angiography or intraarterial DSA. The success rates of vessel visualization on MR angiography in normal renal arteries were 100% in main 67.7% in segmental, and 11.8% in intrarenal arteries. As a result of comparative study in normal main renal arteries with MR angiograms and conventional angiograms, overall correspondence in the number and the shape was noted and the caliber discrepancy between two examination did not exceed 3.0 mm. one arteriovenous fistula with aneurysm, one stenotic artery and two occluded arteries were well evaluated One arteriovenous fistula with aneurysm, and two occluded arteries were well evaluated by MR angiography. However three stenotic lesions were misdiagnosed as occlusions on MR angiography. and the overall accuracy was 87%. We conclude that MR angiography has the potential to be a noninvasive and useful screening method for determining the number of renal arteries and for detection of abnormalities of main renal arteries.
Aneurysm ; Angiography* ; Arteries ; Arteriovenous Fistula ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Methods ; Renal Artery*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the spectrum of MR characteristics of cystic acoustic neurinomas and to correlate with pathologic findings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the MR findings of 12 patients with cystic acoustic neurinomas. The signal intensity and enhancement pattern of the cystic components as well as the location relative to the tumors were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 30 cysts were found in 15 acoustic neurinomas;28 were intratumoral cysts and the remaining two were extratumoral cysts. The signal intensity of all 28 intratumoral cysts was higher than that of CSF on Tl-weighted images, and isointense to CSF on T2-weighted images, while the signal intensity of the two extratumoral cysts was same as CSF on both Tl-weighted and T2-weighted images. Rim enhancement was seen in 27 of 28 intratumoral cysts but in none of the two extratumoral cysts. CONCLUSION: We concluded that intratumoral cyst was due to tumoral necrosis, hemorrhage or degenerative change and extratumoral cyst due to secondary arachnoid cyst formation.
Acoustics* ; Arachnoid ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Necrosis ; Neuroma, Acoustic* ; Retrospective Studies

In recent years pulmonary function teste have had a wide application in clinical pulmonary diseases. By combining a number of different pulmonary function tests, abnormality present in a particular pa tient can be defined. This narrows the list of possible diagnosis and allows to determine accurately the degree of impairment and assess the pesponse to therapy. To assess the pulmonary function in a patient and label as abnormal, it becomes important to define the range of expected values for a normal population. These normal'predicted values'vary according to sex and prowth, i.e., age, height, and weight, particularly in children. In addition, race and geography have been consistently shown to bc an important determinant of lung function. In order to obtain normal perdicted values of pulmonary function tests in Korean school-aged children, we performed spirometry-based pulmonary function tests on the normal healthy 2022 children, age from 6 through 15, and analyzed the data, with the parameters such as sex, age, height, weight, and body surface area. We calculated each of their simple and complex linear and logarithmic regression equations setting the predicted values. The results are as follows: 1) Predicted values of pulmonary function test items were generally higher in boys than those of girls. 2) A correlation coefficient to the parameters examined was the highest in FEV1, then those of FVC, FEF25,PEFR, FEF50, MMEF, AND FEF75 follow in order. 3) Of the parameters examined, height had the highest correlation coefficient consistently in all pulmonary function test items. 4) As compared with the inland and overseas data, some differences were observed.
Body Surface Area ; Child* ; Continental Population Groups ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Geography ; Humans ; Lung ; Lung Diseases ; Respiratory Function Tests*

Fifteen patients with 38 compression fractures of the spine underwent magnetic resonance(MR) imaging. We retrospectively evaluated MR images in these benign compression fractures. MR images showed four patterns in T1-weighted images. MR imaging patterns were normal signal(21), band like low signal(8), low signal with preservation of peripheral portion of the body(8), and diffuse low signal through the vertebral body(1). The low signal portions were changed to high signal intensities in T2-weighted images. In 7 of 15 patients(11 compression fractures). There was a history of trauma, and the remaining 8 patients(27 compression fractures) had no history of trauma. Benign compression fractures of trauma, remained 8 patients(27 compression fractures) were non-traumatic. Benign compression fractures of the spine reveal variable signal intensities in MR imagings. These patterns of benign compression fractures may be useful in interpretation of MR imagings of the spine.
Fractures, Compression* ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Retrospective Studies ; Spine*

OBJECTIVE: To describe normal postoperative MR findings and MR findings of postoperative discitis in patients who underwent operation due to herniated intervertebral disc. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed normal postoperative MR findings and MR findings of discitis in 30 patients(21-61yrs.) (13 cases dignosed as discitis and 17 cases as normal) who previonsly underwent laminectomy and discectomy, or bony fusion. We analyzed signal intensity of end plate and disc, end plate destruction, and enhancement of end plate and disc on T1- and T2-weighted images(WI) of 1.5T MRI. RESULTS: Among 14 out of 17 patients with no evidence of discitis, 7 patients showed high signal of the posterior portion of disc on T1- and T2-WI and 11 patients revealed enhancement at the same sites. In all 13 patients suspected of having discitis, end plate and disc showed low signal on T1-WI, high signal on T2-WI, heterogeneous enhancement, and irregular destruction of end plate. Meanwhile, 3 cases with no evidence of postoperative discitis clinically who underwent bony fusion showed similiar findings to those of the above 13 patients, except for homogeneous enhancement of end plate and vertebral body. CONCLUSION: The MR findings of postoperative discitis were low signal on T1-WI, high signal on T2-WI, and heterogeneous enhancement of and plate and disc, and destruction of end plate.
Discitis* ; Diskectomy ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc* ; Laminectomy ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Retrospective Studies

No abstract available.
Hemorrhage*

No abstract available.
Hemorrhage*

No abstract available.
Nasal Polyps*

Epidural clonidine is reported to produce analgesia in humans. To investigate the analgesic effect and prolongation of epidural and spinal anesthesia, we mixed 0.2mg epinephrine, 150 mcg clonidine, or 1 cc normal saline with 0.5% bupivacaine and compared the hemodynamie and analgesic effects of each drug. Heart rate and blood pressure were checked before, during and after anesthesia. Sensory level was checked by pin-prick method. The results were as follows; 1) The analgesia onset time and the time to highest level of sensory loss was most rapid in the epinephrine group. 2) The two segment regression time was significantly prolonged in the epinephrine group. 3) The analgesia duration was significantly prolonged in the clonidine and epinephrine group. 4) Although the heart rate gradually decreased over 60 min. After injection of each drug, there was no significant change between the groups. 5) Blood pressure decreased over 20-30 min. After injection of each drug, but there was no significant change between the groups.
Analgesia ; Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, Epidural* ; Anesthesia, Spinal ; Blood Pressure ; Bupivacaine* ; Clonidine* ; Epinephrine* ; Heart Rate ; Humans

PURPOSE: Kawasaki disease (KD) shows a variety of clinical signs of multi-system involvement, including clinical diagnostic criteria. It is unknown that the severity of the clinical signs is associated with the risk of coronary artery lesions (CALs). We wanted to evaluate clinical characteristics and the risk of CALs in the patient groups who had severe skin lesions or those with arthritis. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 220 KD patients who were treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). We compared clinical and laboratory data between the group with severe skin lesions (n=52) and those with mild or no skin lesions (n=168), and between the group with arthritis (n=6) and those without arthritis (n=214). RESULTS: The mean age of total patients was 2.23±1.87 years of age, and the male-to-female ratio was 1.5:1 (138/82). Among 220 patients, 52 patients had CALs (23.6%), and 29 patients (13.2%) showed incomplete KD. The patients with CALs had a higher mean age, longer total fever duration, and higher rate of IVIG non-responsiveness. The patient group with severe skin lesions showed a higher mean age (P<0.001), more prolonged fever duration (P=0.041), higher frequency of CALs (P=0.033), higher WBC, neutrophil, and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio levels, compared to the patient group without severe skin lesions. The patients with arthritis had a tendency of further treatment with methylprednisolone or infliximab. CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of CALs was higher in patient group with severe skin lesions. Our results suggest that the intensity of clinical signs of KD such as skin rash, cervical lymphadenopathy and possibly arthritis may be associated the risk of CALs.
Arthritis* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Exanthema ; Fever ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins ; Immunoglobulins, Intravenous ; Infliximab ; Lymphatic Diseases ; Medical Records ; Methylprednisolone ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome* ; Neutrophils ; Retrospective Studies ; Skin*