No abstract available.
Female* ; Humans

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is overexpressed in various malignancies including carcinoma of the breast, lung, esophagus, cervix, and stomach. In patients with cervical carcinoma, its overexpression may be associated with advanced stage and poor prognosis. So, we evaluated the levels of serum EGFR in patients with cervical carcinoma. The level of EGFR extracellular domain was determined in serum from 57 cervical carcinoma patients(adenocarcinoma: 2, squamous cell carcinoma: 39, carcinoma in situ(CIS): 16) and 28 cases of healthy control using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(Calbiochem). In invasive carcinoma, serum EGFR level was measured in 11 cases of Stage Ia, 9 cases of Stage Ib, 4 cases of Stage IIa, 15 cases of Stage IIb, 2 cases of stage III patients. The mean ages of the healthy controls, of the wome with carcinoma in situ(CIS), and with invasive cervical carcinoma were not different(49.3, 44,4, 49.5, respectively, p 0.241). The mean serum level of EGFR in healthy control(n 28), carcinoma in situ(CIS)(n 16), and invasive carcinoma patients(n=41) were not significantly different(71.4+/-12.8fmol/ml, 79.2+/-26.8fmol/ml, 61.8+/- 18.4 fmol/ml, respectively, p=0.071). In conclusion, the expression of EGFR was not increased in patients with cervical cancer compared with normal women. And no significant differences were found depending on the clinical stage.
Breast ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cervix Uteri ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Esophagus ; Female ; Humans ; Lung ; Prognosis ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor ; Stomach ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study. PURPOSE: The objective of the study is to evaluate the relationship between the detection rate of lumbar disc herniation and socioeconomic status. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Income is one important determinant of public health. Yet, there are no reports about the relationship between socioeconomic status and the detective rate of disc herniation. METHODS: In this study, 443 cases were checked for lumbar computed tomography for lumbar disc herniation, and they reviewed questionnaires about their socioeconomic status, the presence of back pain or radiating pain and the presence of a medical certificate (to check the medical or surgical treatment for the pain) during the Korean conscription. RESULTS: Without the consideration for the presence of a medical certificate, there was no difference in spinal physical grade according to socioeconomic status (p=0.290). But, with the consideration of the presence of a medical certificate, the significant statistical differences were observed according to socioeconomic status in 249 cases in the presence of a medical certificate (p=0.028). There was a lower detection rate in low economic status individuals than those in the high economic class. The common reason for not submitting a medical certificate is that it is neither necessary for the people of lower socioeconomic status nor is it financially affordable. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of lumbar disc herniation is not different according to socioeconomic status, but the detective rate was affected by socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status is an important factor for detecting lumbar disc herniation.
Back Pain ; Intervertebral Disc Displacement ; Prevalence ; Public Health ; Retrospective Studies ; Social Class ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Measurements of the diameter of the coronary artery (left main, left anterior descending branch, left circumflex branch, right) and the length of the coronary artery (left main, left anterior descending) were performed in 77 cases obtained from corpses with normal and mild atherosclerosis of coronary artery. Fifty-six males and 21 females were studied whose ages ranged from 15 -78 years old. The diameter of the coronary artery exponentially increased in accordance with the increase of age (left main coronary artery: lumen diameter=1.847+0.216 X age, R2=0.632, p<0.01; left anterior descending branch: lumen diameter=1.513 +0.241 X age, R2=0.539, p<0.01; right coronary artery:lumen diameter=1.830 +0.193 X age, R2=0.513, p<0.01; left circumflex branch: lumen diame-ter= 1.470+0.159 X age, R2=0.502, p<0.01). The lumen diameter of the left main coronary artery, the length of the left anterior descending branch and the thickness of the left anterior descending branch exponentially increased in accordance with the increase of the heart weight(left main coronary artery: lumen diameter=1.721+0.031 X heart weight, R2=0.338, p<0.01; left anterior descending branch: length=7.114+0.103 X heart weight, R2=0.313, p<0.01; left anterior descending branch: wall thickness=0.226+0.009 X heart weight, R2=0.256, p<0.01). But no significant difference was observed between the diameter, length of the coronary artery and various body indices, and heart weight. Microscopic and immunohistochemical studies on coronary arteries of 77 cases showed high frequency of diffuse intimal thickening with many smooth muscle cells and scanty macrophages and fragmentation of internal elastic lamina in arteries without atherosclerosis. These results indicate that the lumen diameter of coronary artery is closely correlated with age but not with various body indices and heart weight, and the length of the anterior descending branch is closely correlated with heart weight but not with age and various body indices. The results of the microscopic and immunohistochemical studies indicate that the early event of the atherosclerosis of the coronary artery is intimal thickening and fragmentation of internal elastic lamina.
Arteries ; Atherosclerosis ; Cadaver ; Coronary Vessels* ; Female ; Heart ; Humans ; Macrophages ; Male ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle

PURPOSE: To compare the results of two different surgical methods (translation vs rod derotation) in a correction of double thoracic adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) using pedicle screw instrumentation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-seven patients with double thoracic AIS treated by pedicle screw instrumentation were reviewed retrospectively after a minimum follow-up of 2 years. The patients were divided into two groups; TR group (translation method, n=14) and RD group (rod derotation, n=33). There were no significant differences in the preoperative curve characteristics between the two groups. RESULTS: In the TR group, the preoperative upper thoracic curve of 37+/-4 degrees improved to 24+/-4 degrees (35% correction), and the lower thoracic curve of 52+/-9 degrees improved to 18+/-5 degrees (65% correction). In the RD group, the preoperative upper thoracic curve of 40+/-7 degrees improved to 19+/-7 degrees (51% correction), and the lower thoracic curve of 56+/-12 degrees was improved to 16+/-6 degrees (72% correction). The correction of the upper and lower thoracic curves was significantly better in the RD group (p<0.05). Thoracic sagittal kyphosis was corrected from 21 degrees to 24 degrees in the TR group and from 18 degrees to 26 degrees in the RD group. There was no significant difference in the spinal balance, shoulder height difference, T1 tilt and fusion extent. The operating time and the amount of blood loss was 231 minutes and 2050ml in the TR group and 263 minutes and 3217ml in the RD group, respectively (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: In correcting double thoracic AIS using pedicle screw instrumentation, the rod derotation method showed better correction for the upper and lower thoracic curves. The translation method showed the advantages of easier application, a shorter operation time and less blood loss.
Adolescent* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kyphosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Scoliosis* ; Shoulder

Human pulmonary dirofilariasis has been documented from many parts of the world, but not in Korea so far. We experienced a patient of pulmonary dirofilariasis who had visited a local clinic because of chest pain for 1 month. On chest radiograph, a coin lesion of 2 cm diameter and enlargement of the mediastinal lymph node were shown. An exploratory lung resection was done. Pathologically the lesion was a pulmonary dirofilariasis complicated with necrotic pneumonia, fibrosis, and infarction. At the center of the lesion, degenerated nematode sections with multilayered cuticle, thick musculature, and bilateral internal ridges on each side were found, which was identified to be Dirofilaria immitis. This is the first report of human pulmonary dirofilariasis in Korea.
Case Report ; Dirofilariasis/pathology* ; Dirofilariasis/diagnosis ; Human ; Lung Diseases, Parasitic/pathology* ; Lung Diseases, Parasitic/diagnosis ; Male ; Middle Age

Vaccination has proven to be the most cost-effective strategy for controlling a wide variety of infectious diseases in humans and animals. For the last decade, veterinary vaccines have been substantially developed and demonstrated their effectiveness against many diseases. Nevertheless, new vaccines are greatly demanded to effectively control newly- and re-emerging pathogens in livestock. However, development of veterinary vaccines is a challenging task, in part, due to a variety of pathogens, hosts, and the uniqueness of host-susceptibility to each pathogen. Therefore, novel concepts of vaccines should be explored to overcome the limitation of conventional vaccines. There have been greatly advanced in the completion of genomic sequencing of pathogens, the application of comparative genomic and transcriptome analysis. This would facilitate to open opportunities up to investigate a new generation of vaccines; recombinant subunit vaccine, virus-like particle, DNA vaccine, and vector-vehicle vaccine. Currently, such types of vaccines are being actively explored against various livestock diseases, affording numerous advantages over conventional vaccines, including ease of production, immunogenicity, safety, and multivalency in a single shot. In this articles, the authors present the current status of the development of veterinary vaccines at large as well as research activities conducted in Korea.
Animals ; Communicable Diseases ; DNA ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Humans ; Korea ; Livestock ; Vaccination ; Vaccines

Thymolipoma is rare benign tumor of the thymic gland and mostly occurs at anterior mediastinum. Thymolipoma comprises 2~9% of thymic tumor and less than 1% of mediastinal mass. Therefore, thymolipoma should be differentiated from anterior mediastinal tumor such as thymoma, germ cell tumor and lymphoma. These tumors resemble cardiomegaly, pleural effusion, basal atelectasis, pericardial tumor and cyst, pleural tumor, lung cancer and pulmonary sequestration, and differentiated from above mentioned diseases. Though most cases are asymptomatic, there can be dyspnea with compression of adjacent organ by mass effect, and myasthenia gravis. We experienced a thymolipoma simulating cardiomegaly and report the case with the review of literatures.
Bronchopulmonary Sequestration ; Cardiomegaly* ; Dyspnea ; Lung Neoplasms ; Lymphoma ; Mediastinum ; Myasthenia Gravis ; Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal ; Pleural Effusion ; Pulmonary Atelectasis ; Thymoma ; Thymus Neoplasms

Generally, absolute alcohol embolization has been commonly used for treatment of arteriovenous malformation (AVM) because complete surgical extirpation of AVM can be an extremely hazardous and difficult. Even if absolute alcohol is safe embolic agent, it can result in pain, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary embolism and post-embolization syndrome such as nausea, vomiting, hemolysis and myoglobinuria. So, general anesthesia is needed for alcohol embolization. In this case, anesthesia was induced with intravenous (IV) propofol 110 mg and succinylcholine 60 mg and maintained with propofol and vecuronium. The pulmonary artery pressure was monitored with a Swan-Ganz catheter. After alcohol injectons, systolic pulmonary artery pressure was increased, ranging 35-40 mmHg. And cola-colored urine was noticed. For treatment of pulmonary hypertension, nitroglycerine was given IV. The IV fluid rate was increased and furocemide was given IV to increase the urine output. After general anesthesia, the patient was awake but appeared to be alcohol-intoxicated. Blood alcohol level was 42 mg/dl. Urinalysis showed large amounts of myoglobin, hemoglobin and albumin. So, anesthesiologists have to keep in mind of such complications when absolute alcohol embolization is done.
Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, General ; Arteriovenous Malformations* ; Catheters ; Ethanol* ; Hemolysis ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; Myoglobin ; Myoglobinuria ; Nausea ; Nitroglycerin ; Propofol ; Pulmonary Artery ; Pulmonary Embolism ; Succinylcholine ; Urinalysis ; Vecuronium Bromide ; Vomiting

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the surgical outcome of congenital scoliosis with a hemivertebra treated by posterior hemivertebra excision and pedicle screw instrumentation. SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW: Posterior hemivertebra excision can be accomplished through a single posterior approach, and excellent correction and outcome may be achieved. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty patients with one fully segmented hemivertebra treated by posterior hemivertebra excision with pedicle screw instrumentation were retrospectively analyzed after a minimum follow-up of 2 years (range 2~7.7 years). The mean age at surgery was 15.9 years (range 2.6~37.9 years). Preoperative and postoperative standing radiographs were used to assess radiographic parameters. RESULTS: The average number of vertebrae in the major curve was 4.2 (range 3~8), and the average flexibility was 29% (range 8~59%). The average length of fusion was 3.5 segments (range 1~6). The number of fused vertebrae had a positive correlation with age at the index surgery (r=0.345, p<0.05). Mean preoperative scoliosis of 48+/-12degrees was corrected to a mean of 17+/-10degrees (65% correction), and mean preoperative kyphosis of 46+/-18degrees was corrected to a mean of 12+/-12degrees at the most recent follow-up. The compensatory curve had a mean of 25+/-10degrees preoperatively and spontaneously corrected to a mean of 8+/-8degrees (70% correction) at the most recent follow-up. The mean operating time was 233+/-81 min, with an average blood loss of 2904 ml. There was neither crankshaft phenomenon nor iatrogenic spinal stenosis in 6 patients under the age of 5 years after an average follow-up of 6 years. CONCLUSIONS: Posterior hemivertebra excision using pedicle screw instrumentation in congenital scoliosis due to a hemivertebra is a safe and effective procedure. Posterior hemivertebra excision at an early age may reduce the fusion length while avoiding the induction of iatrogenic spinal stenosis during follow-up.
Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kyphosis ; Pliability ; Retrospective Studies ; Scoliosis ; Spinal Stenosis ; Spine