No abstract available.
Bipolar Disorder*

No abstract available.
Humans*

PURPOSE:To evaluate the role of unenhanced CT in diagnosing the acute appendicitis. METHOD AND MATERIALS: We retrospectively analyzed conventional contrast-enhanced abdominal CT scans of 197 normal patients and barium enemas of 26 out of the 197 patients. Additional unenhanced CT scans of right lower abdomen were performed on 30 patients who were suspected of having acute appendicitis;barium enema was performed in 26 patients. RESULTS: in the analysis of the conventional CT scans, we could detect 132(67%) normal appendicies. On barium enema of 26 out of 197 patients, abruptly narrowed appendix was visualized in 5 cases and luminal irregularity in 4 cases but all 26 cases showed normal appendix on CT. In the 30 cases of unenhanced CT, all appendicies were visualized. Among 12 Cases which were proved as acute appendicitis, barium enenma was done in 10 case;abruptly narrowed appendix was shown in 3 and luminal irregularity in 1. Among 18 cases which were diagnosed as normal appendix, nonvisualization of appendix' was in 1 case, abruptly narrowed lumen in 3, and luminal irregularity in 9. CONCLUSION:Unenhanced CT in the area of the cecum may be an effective and safe diagnostic tool for acute appendicitis.
Abdomen ; Appendicitis* ; Appendix ; Barium* ; Cecum ; Enema* ; Humans ; Phenobarbital ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Primary cancer af the duodenum is rare. An extensive experience with fiberoptic eaophag-ogastro-duodenoscopy in our institution has indicated that duodenal cancer may be more frequent thsn suspeeted and readily diagnesed by this modality, With this in mied, clinical, pathological, diagnostic and therapeetie aspects of the 26 patients with primary duodenal cancer which had been endoscopically diugnosed were reviewed. The results obtained were as follows: 1) Ages ranged from 16 to 75, with the mean of 55.2 years. Seventeen patients were men and nine patients women being l. 9:1 of male-female ratio. 2) Hndoscoyic findings were 46. 1 percent ulcerative anld 34. 8 per cent ulcerative-infiltrative, 3) The diatribution within the duodenum was 50 per cent suprapapillary, 42. 4 per cent peri- papillary aecl 7. 6 per cent infrapapillary. 4) The twenty-three patients had adenocarcinoma, two patients leiomyosarcoma and 1 patient lymphoma. 5) Twenty patients were confirmed by duodenoseopic biipsies and six patients by operations. 6) The mast common presenting mmyliiints were abdominal pain, chronic blood lais leading anemia, jaundice, anorexia, indigestion, weight lass and palpable abdominal mass. 7) Of the 26 patients, eight patients underwent attempted curative resection, six patients underwent palliative bypasa procedures or exploratory laparotomy.
Abdominal Pain ; Adenocarcinoma ; Anemia ; Anorexia ; Diagnosis* ; Duodenal Neoplasms ; Duodenum ; Dyspepsia ; Female ; Humans ; Jaundice ; Laparotomy ; Leiomyosarcoma ; Lymphoma ; Male ; Ulcer

OBJECTIVES: Lipocortin-1 (LC-1), a member of annexin family of calcium-binding proteins induced by corticosteroid, originally evoked interest as one of the secondary messengers in the antiinflammatory action of corticosteroid, But the exact mechanism of LC-1 responsible for antiinflammatory effect is still unclear. We investigated the potential role of LC-1 in the effect of corticosteroid on amelioration of collagen induced arthritis (CIA) in mice. METHODS: Four groups of DBA/1j mice were immunized by intradermal injection of 5mg/kg of type 2 collagen with complete Freunds adjuvant which was boostered on day 21 and 42. Group 1 received no treatment and group 2 received 1mg/kg dexamethasone intraperitoneally twice weekly from day 21. Group 3 and 4 were treated with 50 and 0.5microgram/kg of anti LC-1 monoclonal antibody subcutaneously and dexamethasone from day 21 twice weekly, respectively. The prevalence of arthritis and arthritis score were assessed twice weekly. At week 10, we measured serum anticollagen antibody levels and splenic mononuclear cell stimulation indices (SI) to collagen. RESULT: CIA started to develop after 4 weeks of collagen treatment in all groups. All mice of group 1 developed arthritis by the 9 week. Treatment with dexamethasone markedly inhibited arthritis development (P<0.05). Cotreatment of anti LC-1 monoclonal antibody and dexamethasone abolished the antiinflammatory effect of dexamethasone (P<0.05). But there was no significant difference in the serum levels of anticollagen antibody or splenic mononuclear cell SI among the groups. CONCLUSION: These findings support the hypothesis that LC-1 is involved, at least in part, in the antiinflammatory actions of corticosteroid in chronic inflammation, although the mechanism of which is unclear.
Animals ; Arthritis* ; Calcium-Binding Proteins ; Collagen* ; Dexamethasone ; Freund's Adjuvant ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Injections, Intradermal ; Mice ; Prevalence

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors in veterans for posttraumatic stress disorder and to find the correlation between the disorder and the characteristics of the variables. METHODS: We compared the risk factors in veterans between 40 diagnosed PTSD patients and 78 controls, using psychiatric by psychiatrists and measurement instruments such as CES, Mississippi scale, and BDI RESULTS: 1) There was statistically significant difference in prevalence on pre-military factor with regard to age at recruit(p<0.05) 2) PTSD on military factor was closely correlated with CES score(p<0.05) 3) There was statistically significant difference in PTSD on post-military factor with regard to occupation(p<0.05) 4) Scores of Mississippi scale, and BDI in PTSD were higher than those in control subjects(p<0.05, p<0.05) CONCLUSION: This results suggest that the likehood of developing PTSD in veterans depends on pre-military and post-military factors in addition to features of the trauma itself. Age of entry into the military, CES score, and occupation had statistically significant relationships with PTSD.
Humans ; Military Personnel ; Mississippi ; Occupations ; Prevalence ; Psychiatry ; Risk Factors* ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic* ; Veterans*

BACKGROUND: Various molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA hybridization have been introduced to diagnose the hepatitis B more accurately. Recently, Hybrid Capture Assay (HCA) was developed, which uses the signal amplification solution hybridization capture assay with chemiluminescent detector. So we evaluated the sensitivity and clinical utility of the HCA and PCRs for the detection of hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV DNA) and compared these results with serologic markers. METHODS: We analysed the 50 samples from the hepatitis B patients using enzyme immunoassay, HCA and nested PCRs with two different primer sets. The primers of PCR I and PCR II were targeted to pol and core region respectively. RESULTS: In 18 cases, HBV DNA were detected by HCA in which the positive rates by PCR I and PCR II were 55.6%, and 88.9%, respectively. And in 32 cases in which HBV DNA by HCA was negative, the positive rates by PCR I and PCR II were 6.2% and 31.3%, respectively. In 44 cases which were positive for HBsAg, the positive rates for HBV DNA were 38.6% by HCA, 27.3% by PCR I, and 56.8% by PCR II. In cases positive for HBeAg, the positive rates were 93.3% by HCA, 60.0% by PCR I and 80.0% by PCR II. In cases positive for anti-HBe and negative for HBeAg, the positive rates were 10.3% by HCA, 10.3% by PCR I, and 44.8% by PCR II. CONCLUSIONS: Both HCA and PCR compensated each other yet as to the accurate investigation of the viral replication in patients with hepatitis B and the sensitivity was better in HBV PCR with primers to core region than to pol region.
DNA ; Hepatitis B e Antigens ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis B virus* ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Polymerase Chain Reaction*

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of IL-10 on development of collagen-induced arthritis, on humoral and cellular immunity and on the endogenous production of IL-10 in DBA/1J mice. METHODS: DBA/1J mice were immunized with chicken type II collagen in Freund s complete adjuvant. Murine recombinant IL-10 was given intraperitoneally twice a week from the day of second immunization (week 3) in doses of 0.002ug, 0. 02ug and 0. 2ug for 3 different groups, respectively. Dexamethasone was injected in one group to suppress the arthritis development and this group was used as negative control group. Levels of anti-collagen antibodies, serum IL-10 and stimulation indices of splenic monocytes to collagen were measured at the end of study. RESULTS: The 0. 02ug IL-10 and 0. 2ug IL-10 treated groups developed earlier and more severe arthritis (week 6 and 8) compared to that of the control group while the 0. 002ug IL-10 group has shown similar course to the control group in terms of incidence and severity of arthritis, At week 10, all groups with or without IL-10 injections developed arthritis with similar degree of severity while dexamethasone group showed far less incidence and severity of arthritis. The serum levels of anti-collagen antibody, IL-10 and spleen monocyte stimulation indices to collagen antigen showed no difference among control group, IL-10 injected groups and dexamethasone injected group. CONCLUSION: This study shows IL-10 could worsen the arthritis in CIA with the dosage used in this study without significant influence on the level of anti-collagen antibodies or stimulation indices of spenic monocyte to collagen.
Animals ; Antibodies ; Arthritis ; Arthritis, Experimental* ; Chickens ; Collagen ; Collagen Type II ; Dexamethasone ; Immunity, Cellular ; Immunization ; Incidence ; Interleukin-10* ; Mice ; Monocytes ; Spleen

Most of the malignant tumors of the pancreas are adenocarcinomas arising from the ductal epithelium. Primary leiomyosarcoma of the pancreas, even though it is the most common sarcoma of the pancreas, is very rare. We present a case of leiomyosarcoma of the pancreas, probably primary, with metastases to the stomach, lymph nodes, and abdominal wall. A 52-year-old woman visited the hospital with vague right upper abdominal pain and weigh loss of 6 kg for 2 months. The radiological and endoscopic examination revealed that she had a large heterogeneous mass, 11 cm in size, in the pancreatic body and tail, a 4 cm-sized mass in the paraaortic area, and a 3 cm-sized polypoid mass in the stomach. Histologically, they were all similar to one another and composed of markedly pleomorphic cells. Immunohistochemical and electron microscopic studies showed definite smooth muscle differentiation of the tumor cells. Two months later, the patient underwent an excision of a new 3 cm mass in the right lower abdominal wall, showing features of well differentiated leiomyosarcoma.
Abdominal Pain ; Abdominal Wall ; Adenocarcinoma ; Epithelium ; Female ; Humans ; Leiomyosarcoma* ; Lymph Nodes ; Middle Aged ; Muscle, Smooth ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pancreas* ; Sarcoma ; Stomach

PURPOSE: Thyroid disease is the most common endocrine disease in childhood. Thyroid hormone has critical effects on growth and development, especially in childhood. We survey the prevalence, sex and age distribution, symptoms and thyroid function states of thyroid diseases in childhood. METHODS: Three hundred ninety one children who were diagnosed as having thyroid disease at department of pediatrics, St. Mary's hospital from Jan. 1987 to Dec. 1998 enrolled in this study. RESULTS: 1) The ratio between male and female patients was 1: 5.3. Age distribution was puberty, school age and infancy in their order of frequency. 2) The results of thyroid function tests showed normal function in 210 cases (53.7%), increased function in 95 cases(24.3%), and decreased function in 86 cases (22%). 3) Simple goiter, Graves disease, and chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis were the most common diseases in euthyroid, hyperthyroid, and acquired hypothyroid state, respectively. 4) The most common sign and symptom was goiter in euthyroid(100%), hyperthyroid(98.8%) and acquired hypothyroid state(96.2%). Forty of 68 cases(58.8%) with congenital hypothyroidism were detected by neonatal screening. CONCLUSION: Simple goiter, chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis and Graves disease were common acquired thyroid diseases in childhood, and goiter is the most common clinical manifestation in acquired thyroid disease. Recently, increasing number of congenital hypothyroidism was detected by neonatal screening test.
Adolescent ; Age Distribution ; Child ; Congenital Hypothyroidism ; Endocrine System Diseases ; Female ; Goiter ; Graves Disease ; Growth and Development ; Hashimoto Disease ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Neonatal Screening ; Pediatrics ; Prevalence ; Puberty ; Thyroid Diseases* ; Thyroid Function Tests ; Thyroid Gland*