Liver biopsies are used routinely in the assessment of graft dysfunction following liver transplantation and generally considered to be the most reliable method for the diagnosis of posttransplant complications with overlapping clinical and laboratory findings. To investigate posttransplant complications causing graft dysfunction and usefulness of liver biopsy, we analysed clinicopathologic features of 65 posttransplant liver biopsies, 2 autopsies and an explanted liver, taken from 20 patients. The frequencies of posttransplant complications were acute cellular rejection in 9 patients (45%), postoperative infection in 11 patients (55%), of which cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and systemic invasive aspergillosis with candidiasis occured in 10 patients (50%) and 1 patient (5%), respectively. Remainders were hepatic arterial thrombosis in two (10%), primary graft dysfunction due to fatty donor liver in one (5%), and posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) in two (10%). There were no chronic rejection or recurrent disease. Postoperative mortality was 25%. Histologic grade by Banff schema was well correlated with clinical parameters associated with unfavorable short term prognosis. CMV infection was associated with acute cellular rejection in 6 out of 10 patients (60%). Immunohistochemical staining for CMV was more sensitive method than CMV in situ hybridization or histologic detection of viral inclusion on tissue section. It was unique that one case of PTLD developed under the circumstances of the lowest dosage of immunosuppression and took grave outcome. Based on these results, we concluded that clinicopathologic correlation with integration of all the clinical and laboratory findings is necessary in the interpretation of accurate and early diagnosis of posttransplant liver biopsies. The interrelationship between chronic rejection and CMV infection as well as pathogenetic factors of PTLD remains to be clarified through further ongoing observation.
Aspergillosis ; Autopsy ; Biopsy* ; Candidiasis ; Cytomegalovirus ; Diagnosis ; Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Immunosuppression ; In Situ Hybridization ; Liver Transplantation ; Liver* ; Lymphoproliferative Disorders ; Mortality ; Primary Graft Dysfunction ; Prognosis ; Thrombosis ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants

Purpose: To report a case of continuously progressive abducens palsy after transarterial coil embolization.Case summary: A 42-year-old male was referred to the clinic due to binocular horizontal diplopia. The patient had a history of left direct carotid cavernous fistula (CCF) after head trauma, and his ocular symptoms developed 15 months after coil embolization for CCF. Visual acuity and pupil reaction of both eyes were normal. The ocular motility examination showed 14 prism diopters (PD) of left esotropia in the primary gaze with abduction limitation; therefore, the patient was diagnosed with left abducens palsy. There was no evidence of fistula recanalization or new abnormal lesions in follow-up brain imaging. After strabismus was stabilized with 35 PD of esotropia, strabismus surgery including left medial rectus muscle recession and lateral rectus resection was performed, and ocular alignment was normalized in the primary position. However, 2 years after surgery, left abducens palsy recurred and abduction limitation worsened to -4 over 10 months. Finally, the patient underwent superior rectus transposition and medial rectus re-recession, which improved his ocular alignment at primary position. Binocular diplopia was resolved at primary position. Conclusions Late-onset abducens palsy can occur after coil embolization and is likely to continue to progress. Because spontaneous regression is rare in late-onset palsy compared with acute-onset palsy, surgery should be considered when the strabismus becomes stabilized.

Purpose: To report a case of continuously progressive abducens palsy after transarterial coil embolization.Case summary: A 42-year-old male was referred to the clinic due to binocular horizontal diplopia. The patient had a history of left direct carotid cavernous fistula (CCF) after head trauma, and his ocular symptoms developed 15 months after coil embolization for CCF. Visual acuity and pupil reaction of both eyes were normal. The ocular motility examination showed 14 prism diopters (PD) of left esotropia in the primary gaze with abduction limitation; therefore, the patient was diagnosed with left abducens palsy. There was no evidence of fistula recanalization or new abnormal lesions in follow-up brain imaging. After strabismus was stabilized with 35 PD of esotropia, strabismus surgery including left medial rectus muscle recession and lateral rectus resection was performed, and ocular alignment was normalized in the primary position. However, 2 years after surgery, left abducens palsy recurred and abduction limitation worsened to -4 over 10 months. Finally, the patient underwent superior rectus transposition and medial rectus re-recession, which improved his ocular alignment at primary position. Binocular diplopia was resolved at primary position. Conclusions Late-onset abducens palsy can occur after coil embolization and is likely to continue to progress. Because spontaneous regression is rare in late-onset palsy compared with acute-onset palsy, surgery should be considered when the strabismus becomes stabilized.

PURPOSE: To investigate the shifting trends of pathogenic organisms, antibiotic resistance, and clinical characteristics of patients with Gram-positive bacterial keratitis and to elucidate the prognostic factors. METHODS: We performed a retrospective chart review of 152 isolates in 146 eyes with Gram-positive bacterial keratitis between January 1998 and December 2012. The study was divided into 5 periods for analysis of the bacteriological profiles and in vitro antibiotic resistance. The epidemiological and clinical characteristics were compared according to bacterial isolates. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the risk factors. RESULTS: Gram-positive bacterial keratitis tended to decrease and significant change in the distribution of isolates was not observed. Commonly isolated organisms were S. epidermidis (48.7%), S. aureus (25.0%), and S. pneumoniae (7.2%) in order of frequency. The resistance to fluoroquinolone tended to increase (p = 0.104) and resistance to gentamicin was significantly decreased (p = 0.01). S. epidermidis had the shortest corneal epithelium healing time (p = 0.035) and the most favorable visual outcome after treatment (p = 0.035) compared with the other species. Risk factors for poor visual outcomes included a best corrected visual acuity less than 0.1 at initial evaluation and an epithelial healing time greater than 10 days. CONCLUSIONS: Gram-positive bacterial keratitis tended to decrease and S. epidermidis was the most common isolate. The clinical prognosis was most favorable in S. epidermidis. The BCVA less than 0.1 at initial evaluation was an important risk factor for poor visual outcome and surgical treatment in Gram-positive bacterial keratitis.
Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Epithelium, Corneal ; Gentamicins ; Humans ; Keratitis* ; Logistic Models ; Pneumonia ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Staphylococcus aureus ; Staphylococcus epidermidis ; Visual Acuity

OBJECTIVE: This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of the isolation methods of inner cell mass from mouse blastocyst, types of feeder cells and treatment time of mitomycin C on the formation rate of ICM colony. METHODS: The inner cells were isolated by conventional immunosurgery, partial trophoblast dissection with syringe needles and whole blastocyst co-culture method. Commercially available STO and primary cultured mouse embryonic fibroblast (pMEF) feeder cells were used, and mitomycin C was treated for 1, 2 or 3 hours, respectively. The formation rate of ICM colony was observed after isolation of ICM and culture of ICM on the feeder cells for 7 days. RESULT: The ICM colony formation rate on STO were significantly higher in partial trophoblast dissection group (58%) than that in immunosurgery (12%) or whole blastocyst culture (16%) group (p<0.05). The formation rate on pMEF feeder layer was higher in partial trophoblast dissection (88%) and whole blastocyst culture (82%) group than that in immunosurgery (16%) group (p<0.05). When mitomycin C treated to pMEF for 2 hours, the formation rate of 88% was significantly higher than those of other conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Above results showed that the efficient isolation method of ICM from blastocyst was the partial trophoblast dissection and the appropriate treatment time of mitomycin C was 2 hours. However, the subculture of ICM colony and characterization of stem cells should be carried out to confirm the efficacy of the partial trophoblast dissection method.
Animals ; Blastocyst ; Coculture Techniques ; Feeder Cells* ; Fibroblasts ; Mice* ; Mitomycin* ; Needles ; Stem Cells ; Syringes ; Trophoblasts

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), comprising Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract, which is often accompanied by altered gut microbial composition. Gut dysbiosis in IBD is considered to be the reason for the high risk of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) in patients with IBD. Therefore, CDI should be evaluated in IBD patients with a symptom flare. Medical treatment of non-severe CDI in IBD is similar to that in non-IBD patients and includes oral vancomycin or fidaxomicin. The risk of recurrent CDI in IBD is higher than in non-IBD patients and this could be mitigated by fecal microbiota transplantation. As CDI may worsen the clinical outcomes of IBD, patients should be carefully monitored and an escalation of IBD therapy needs to be considered when there is no improvement seen with the antimicrobial treatment of CDI. This review discusses the risk, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of CDI in IBD.

A 36-year old Korean woman consulted a clinic for a regular gynecological examination, and a mass was noticed in her pelvis. She was referred to the Asan Medical Center, Seoul where transvaginal ultrasonography confirmed a pelvic mass exceeding 10 cm in diameter. She received total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingoophorectomy, and a borderline serous neoplasm with micropapillary features involving the left ovary and right ovarian serosa was histopathologically confirmed. In addition, a section of a nematode with numerous eggs was found in the parenchyma of the left ovary. The worm had degenerated but the eggs were well-preserved and were identified as those of Enterobius vermicularis. She is an incidentally recognized case of ovarian enterobiasis.
Adult ; Animals ; Enterobiasis/diagnosis/*parasitology/pathology ; Enterobius/isolation & purification ; Female ; Human ; Korea ; Ovarian Diseases/diagnosis/*parasitology/pathology ; Ovary/parasitology ; Parasite Egg Count

PURPOSE: In this study we evaluated the prognostic factors by comparing the clinical manifestation of consecutive exotropia after consecutive exotropia surgery. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study of 65 patients who had surgery due to consecutive exotropia after esotropia surgery in Yeungnam University Medical Center between July 1988 and December 2013. The type of esotropia, age at diagnosis of esotropia, type of esotropia surgery, age at esotropia surgery, type of consecutive exotropia surgery, age at consecutive exotropia surgery, presence of adduction limitation, presence of amblyopia, and preoperative and postoperative angles of strabismus were analyzed. RESULTS: The mean follow-up time after consecutive exotropia surgery was 5.1 +/- 5.2 years and 50 of 65 patients showed successful surgical outcomes at the last follow-up. Cumulative success rate of consecutive exotropia remained stable postoperatively in 68.2% of patients after 7.7 years. When comparing the success group and the recurrent group, the age at consecutive exotropia surgery was significantly younger and mean follow-up time was significantly longer in the recurrent group. The mean interval between consecutive exotropia surgery and recurrence of exotropia was 16.9 months in the recurrent group. The mean angle of strabismus at postoperative 1 week was significantly different between the 2 groups; 0.5 prism diopters (PD) esodeviation in the success group and 4.5 PD exodeviation in recurrent group. CONCLUSIONS: Recurrence of consecutive exotropia frequently developed with younger age at consecutive exotropia surgery and exodeviation at postoperative 1 week. Recurrent consecutive exotropia should be observed for an extended period, thus requiring periodic long-term postoperative follow-ups.
Academic Medical Centers ; Amblyopia ; Diagnosis ; Esotropia ; Exotropia* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Strabismus

It is well known that a significant decrease in ventilatory function and arterial oxygenation follows upper abdominal surgery (Bromage, 1967; Bridenbaugh et al., 1972). In the first few hours after operation, hypoxemia is thought to be due to regional misalignment of ventilation and perfusion (Nunn and Payne, 1962). Diament and Palmer (1966) have shown that, by the end of 24 hours, frank shunting of blood past collapsed alveoli is the dominant factor (Georg et al., 1967) Pain arising from the upper abdomir,al regions can result in shallow breathing, diminished cough ability, retained bronchial secretions and eventually atelectasis (Bendixen et al., 1964). Narcotic drugs are most frequently used in postoperative pain control, but too large or too frequent doses may result in hypoventilation and subsquent atelectasis (Yakaitis et al., 1972). Epidural block has been advocated for pain control after upper abdominal surgery, because pain can be abolished completely (Bonica, 1953), arterial oxygenation improved (Spence and Smith, 1971) and the frequency of respiratory complications reduced (Wahba et al., 1975). Twenty eight patients for upper abdominal surgery, chosen at random, were studied for postoperative pain relief. In ten patients pain was managed by meperidine and in the other eighteen patients it was managed by tboracic epidural block with 0. 25% bupivacaine. In both groups, pulmonary funtions were assessed by measurement of arterial blood gases, tidal volume, respiratory rate, minute volume, vital capacity, timed vital capacity and peak flow, and by calculation of A-aDO2 These measurements were assessed before operation, on the first postoperative day, the second day and the fifth day. The effect on pain relief, of epidural analgesia after upper abdominal surgery and the patients ability to cough, to take deep breaths and to sit up were assessed objectively by the same physician and subjectively by each patients. The results of this study were summarized as follows: 1) Minute volume showed no significant change in both groups. Increase in respiration rate and decrease in tidal volume of the control group in postoperative days 1 and 2 were significant when compared with preoperative values, but changes in the epidural group were noticed in postoperative day l. 2) Peak flow, FEV, and FVC of both groups were significantly reduced in postoperative days 1 and 2, but in the 5th day peak flow values of the epidural group were restored to postoperative levels. There was no significant change between the groups. 3) Differences between decreased PaO2 and increasedA-aDO, of the control group in post- operative days 1 and 2 were significant when compared with preoperative values, but changes in the epidural group were not significant. The values of PaCOpH and BE were not significantly changed. 4) The epidural analgesic effect was excellent in postoperative pain control, and resulted in much improvement in the patients ability to cough, breathe deeply and to sit up. From the results described above, epidural analgesia is a reliable method of controlling pain after upper abdominal operations, especially in aged or debilitated patients with ventilatory dysfuntion.
Analgesia, Epidural ; Anoxia ; Bupivacaine ; Cough ; Forced Expiratory Volume ; Gases ; Humans ; Hypoventilation ; Meperidine ; Oxygen ; Pain, Postoperative* ; Perfusion ; Pulmonary Atelectasis ; Respiration ; Respiratory Rate ; Tidal Volume ; Ventilation ; Vital Capacity

Leventhal, et al. described a preoperative scoring system for myasthenic patients undergoing transsternal thymectomy, which includes four key risk factors. There were : 1) duration of myasthenia gravis greater than 6 years (12 points); 2) a history of chronic respiratory disease not due to myasthenia gravis(10 points); 3) a dose of pyridostigmine greater than 750mg per day 48 hours before operation (8 points); 4) a preoperative vital capacity less than 2.9L(4 points). Thirty-seven patients with myasthenia gravis undergoing transsternal thymectomy under general inhalation anesthesia with or without muscle relaxants were applied to scoring system by leventhal, et al. retrospectively. The predicitive score was assessed for each patient and the duration of postoperative mechanical ventilation was also noted for each patient. in this study, there was correct in 23/37(62.2%) of the cases, with 9 out of 27 being incorrectly predicted to be ready for tracheal extubation(false positive) and 5 out of 10 being incorrectly predicted to need ventilation(false positve). In conclusion, the scoring system proposed by leventhal, et al. may be some value in predicting whether or not a particular myasthenic patient was likely to need mechanical ventilation following transsternal thymectomy.
Anesthesia, Inhalation ; Humans ; Myasthenia Gravis* ; Pyridostigmine Bromide ; Respiration, Artificial* ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Thymectomy* ; Ventilation ; Vital Capacity