Functional lacrimal obstruction is a rare physiologic dysfunction of the lacrimal drainage system without any mechanical obstruction. Twelve eyes of 9 patients were diagnosed by syringing, dacryacystography, and lacrimal scintigraphy. Normal drainge pattern was noticed in syringing and in the initial film of dacryocystography. However slow or non-functioning drainge was disclosed in the delay film of dacryocystography and lacrimal scintigraphy. The causes of functional problem were facial nerve palsy, trauma and idiopathic. Conjunctivodacryocystorhinostomy was performed in all 12 eyes with satisfactory results.
Drainage ; Facial Nerve ; Humans ; Paralysis ; Radionuclide Imaging

We did clinical analysis of 14 patients who had bilateral BRVO. The peak age distribution of the patients was between 60 and 69 years of age. In this 14 patients, there were 12 women and 2 men, and the most commonly associated systemic disease was hypertension(50%). In majority of patients, the interval of disease onset between two eyes was within two years. Complications developed, including maculopathy, retinal neovascularization, vitreous hemorrhage, glaucoma, and retinal detachment. Twenty one of 28 eyes(75%) had a final visual acuity of 0.4 or less. The larger the size of capillary nonperfusion was the higher was the incidence of neovasculgulation was an effective means of prevention of vitreous hemorrhage in BRVO with neovascularzation, and vitrectomy that was done in case of persistent vitreous hemorrhage improved final visual acuity. Our findings suggest that women with history of unilateral BRVO associated with hypertension in seventh, decade have high risk of occurrence in fellow eyes within two years.
Age Distribution ; Capillaries ; Female ; Glaucoma ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Incidence ; Male ; Prognosis ; Retinal Detachment ; Retinal Neovascularization ; Retinal Vein Occlusion* ; Retinal Vein* ; Retinaldehyde* ; Risk Factors* ; Visual Acuity ; Vitrectomy ; Vitreous Hemorrhage

Audiant bone conductor(ABC) can be beneficial to patients with conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss. We have implanted ABC for 3 patients with bilateral conductive hearing loss and 2 patients with unilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss. And we evaluated the hearing gain in these patients except 1 case who did not return for follow up. The preoperative average air conduction threshoulds at the three speech frequencies 500, 1000 and 2000Hz, SRT, SD scores were 48.3dB HL, 47.5dB HL, 95% respectively and 19.1dB HL, 20dB HL, 95% postoperatively in 2 patients with bilateral conductive hearing loss. The preoperative average air conduction threshoulds at the three speech frequencies 500, 1000 and 2000Hz, SRT, SD scores were no response, no response, 0% respectively and 42.5dB HL, 51.3dB HL, 60% postoperatively in 2 patients with sensorineural hearing loss.
Follow-Up Studies ; Hearing ; Hearing Loss, Conductive ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Humans

PURPOSE: It is essential to know the functional and morphologic changes of the larynx in the evaluation of laryngeal lesions. Conventional CT which has relatively long examination time is not suitable for this aim. The purposes of this study are to evaluate the capability of spiral CT in the dynamic study of the larynx and to know whether this new technique can replace conventional laryngography or not. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Five healthy volunteers and 20 patients with laryngeal lesions underwent spiral dynamic CT scans with 3-dimensional reconstruction of the mucosal surface. A series of spiral CT scans were done while the volunteers performed various laryngeal positions to obtain the functional and morphologic information. The maneuvers used were:quite breathing, "E" phonation, Valsalva maneuver, modified Valsalva maneuver, and a new method of our own, "modified breath holding" technique. The patients were scanned when in quite breathing. Additioal scans were obtained by using the "modified breath holding" technique. RESULTS: The dynamic study with spiral CT could provide high resolutional images which nicely depicted the mobility of vocal cords and the mucosal changes of the laryngeal cavity in both healthy volunteer and patient groups. In patient group, the new "modified breath holding" technique was easier and more reproducible than other maneuvers. CONCLUSION: Spiral CT allows a dynamic study of the larynx and can be a new alternative of laryngography.
Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Larynx* ; Phonation ; Respiration ; Tomography, Spiral Computed* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Valsalva Maneuver ; Vocal Cords ; Volunteers

Renal thromboembolism almost always occurs in the setting of cardiac disease. Acute renal infarction may occur rarely in middle-aged patients without apparent risk factors for cardiac thromboembolism. We report a 40-year-old man who developed bilateral renal infarction and had no cardiovascular risk factors, except smoking. In middle-aged healthy patients with renal colic without lithiasis, the diagnosis of idiopathic renal infarction should be considered, especially if lactate dehydrogenase is elevated.
Adult ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Infarction ; Kidney ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase ; Lithiasis ; Renal Colic ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Thromboembolism

BACKGROUND: The extracellular matrix (ECM) produced by dermal fibroblasts supports skin structure, and degradation and/or reduced production of ECM are the main causes of wrinkle formation. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify the active ingredient that enhances ECM production in dermal fibroblasts. METHODS: Polarity-based fractionation was used to isolate the active ingredient from natural extracts, and the effects of cedrol (isolated from Pterocarpus indicusirginia) on ECM production in cultured human dermal fibroblasts was investigated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, and Western blot analysis. RESULTS: Cedrol accelerated fibroblast growth in a dose-dependent manner and increased the production of type 1 collagen and elastin. Phosphorylation of p42/44 extracellular signal-regulated kinase, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase, and Akt was markedly increased by cedrol, indicating that enhanced ECM production is linked to activation of intracellular signaling cascades. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that cedrol stimulates ECM production, with possible applications to the maintenance of skin texture.
Blotting, Western ; Collagen ; Collagen Type I ; Elastin ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Extracellular Matrix ; Fibroblasts ; Humans ; Phosphorylation ; Phosphotransferases ; Protein Kinases ; Pterocarpus ; Skin ; Terpenes

OBJECTIVES: For many years, inflammatory bowel disease has been thought to have a strong psychosomatic component, but recent prospective studies show no evidence of correlation between various psychologic factors and the disease activity. However, chronic renal disease still places unique stresses on the hemodialysis patients, with consequent emotional reactions. The aims of this study are to investigate the psychologic factors of ulcerative colitis and hemodialysis patients using MMPI scales, which are objective psychological test, thus give aid to psychological understanding of these patients. MOTHODS: We investigated 23 ulcerative colitis patients in remission followed at outpatient department of Hanyang University Hospital and 25 patients receiving hemodialysis between June, 1994 and August, 1995. Twenty students were selected for normal control group. We utilized T-score of each MMPI scale for analyzing characteristics of each group and regard T-score over 70 or below 40 as abnormal. RESULTS: The average T-scores of each MMPI scale in ulcerative colitis, hemodialysis patients & normal control group were within normal range between 40 and 70, except for T-score of Es scale in hemodialysis patient group(34.5). The results of comparison between each MMPI scale of two patients & normal control group were as follows. 1) L scale was significantly elevated in ulcerative colitis & hemodialysis patients group compared with that of normal control group. F scale was significantly elevated in hemodialysis patients compared with that of ulcerative colitis patients & normal control group (p<0.01). 2) Hs(p<0.01), D, Pt(p<0.05) and Sc(p<0.01) scales were significantly elevated in hemodialysis patients compared with those of ulcerative colitis patients & normal control group. 3) Es scale was significantly lower in hemodialysis patients compared with that of ulcerative colitis patients & normal control group(p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The result presented in this study reflects emotional disturbances, functional impairment, stressful life condition, excessive hypochondriacal thinking, depressed mood and egocentric tendency of hemodialysis patients compared with ulcerative colitis patients & normal control group. This result also reflects the projective tendency, hostility, difficulty in rapport formation, psychologic disturbance, obssesive and rigid personality, anxiety and retiredness of hemodialysis patients compared with ulcerative colitis patients & normal control group. On the other hand, we can't find any statistically significant differences between ulcerative colitis and normal control group.
Affective Symptoms ; Anxiety ; Colitis, Ulcerative* ; Hand ; Hostility ; Humans ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; MMPI* ; Outpatients ; Psychological Tests ; Reference Values ; Renal Dialysis* ; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic ; Thinking ; Ulcer* ; Weights and Measures

PURPOSE: Tumor bleeding is a major complication in inoperable gastric cancer. The study aim was to investigate the effects of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) treatment for the prevention of gastric tumor bleeding. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was a prospective double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Patients with inoperable gastric cancer were randomly assigned to receive oral lansoprazole (30 mg) or placebo daily. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of tumor bleeding, and the secondary endpoints were transfusion requirement and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: This study initially planned to enroll 394 patients, but prematurely ended due to low recruitment rate. Overall, 127 patients were included in the analyses: 64 in the lansoprazole group and 63 in the placebo group. During the median follow-up of 6.4 months, tumor bleeding rates were 7.8% and 9.5%, in the lansoprazole and placebo groups, respectively, with the cumulative bleeding incidence not statistically different between the groups (P=0.515, Gray's test). However, during the initial 4 months, 4 placebo-treated patients developed tumor bleeding, whereas there were no bleeding events in the lansoprazole-treated patients (P=0.041, Gray's test). There was no difference in the proportion of patients who required transfusion between the groups. The OS between the lansoprazole (11.7 months) and the placebo (11.0 months) groups was not statistically different (P=0.610). Study drug-related serious adverse event or bleeding-related death did not occur. CONCLUSIONS: Treating patients with inoperable gastric cancer with lansoprazole did not significantly reduce the incidence of tumor bleeding. However, further studies are needed to evaluate whether lansoprazole can prevent tumor bleeding during earlier phases of chemotherapy (ClinicalTrial.gov, identifier No. NCT02150447).
Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Lansoprazole ; Primary Prevention ; Prospective Studies ; Proton Pump Inhibitors ; Proton Pumps* ; Protons* ; Stomach Neoplasms*

Chios gum mastic (CGM) is obtained from the stem and leaves of Pistacia lentiscus trees and has been extensively used for centuries in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries, both as a dietary supplement and herbal remedy. This study was undertaken to examine in vitro effects of cytotoxicity and growth inhibition, and the molecular mechanism underlying modulation of cell cycle and induction of apoptosis in YD9 human oral squamous carcinoma cell line treated with CGM. The viability of YD9 cells and human normal keratinocyes (HaCaT cells), and the growth inhibition of YD9 cells were assessed by the MTT assay and clonogenic assay respectively. The hoechst staining and DNA electrophoresis were conducted to observe the YD9 cells undergoing apoptosis. YD9 cells were treated with CGM, and Western blotting, immunocytochemistry, confocal microscopy and FACScan flow cytometry were conducted. Mitochondrial membrane potential change and proteasome activity were measured. CGM treatment on YD9 cells resulted in a does-dependent inhibition of cell growth and induced apoptotic cell death. And tested YD9 cells showed several lines of apoptotic manifestation. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that CGM resulted in G1 arrest in cell cycle progression which was associated with decrease in the protein expression of cyclin D1, cyclin D3, Cdk2 and Cdk4, and increase in the protein expression of p21(WAF1/CIP1) and p53. These results demonstrate that CGM induces G1 the cell cycle arrest via the modulation of cell cycle-related proteins, and apoptosis via mitochondria and caspase pathway in YD9 cells, suggesting that CGM can be considered as a novel therapeutic strategy for human oral squamous cell carcinoma from its strong cell cycle arrest and apoptosis-inducing activity.
Apoptosis ; Blotting, Western ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints ; Cell Death ; Cell Line ; Cyclin D1 ; Cyclin D3 ; Dietary Supplements ; DNA ; Electrophoresis ; Flow Cytometry ; Gingiva ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Membrane Potential, Mitochondrial ; Microscopy, Confocal ; Mitochondria ; Pistacia ; Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex ; Proteins ; Resins, Plant ; Trees

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To evaluate the association between Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and gastric cancer (GC) according to tumor subtype in Korea. METHODS: H. pylori status was determined serologically using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In total, 2,819 patients with GC and 562 healthy controls were studied. A logistic regression method was used after adjusting for possible confounders. RESULTS: The prevalence of H. pylori infection was significantly higher in the GC patients (84.7%) than in the controls (66.7%) (odds ratio [OR], 3.13; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.46-3.97). The adjusted OR was significantly higher in H. pylori-infected patients aged <60 years (OR, 4.69; 95% CI, 3.44-6.38) than in those aged > or =60 years (OR, 1.48; 95% CI, 0.88-2.46; p<0.001). Subgroup analyses revealed no differences in seroprevalence between early gastric cancer (84.8%; OR, 3.01; 95% CI, 2.27-4.01) and advanced gastric cancer (84.6%; OR, 2.94; 95% CI, 2.24-3.85), cardia cancer (83.8%; OR, 2.98; 95% CI, 2.16-4.02) and noncardia cancer (84.8%; OR, 3.17; 95% CI, 2.48-4.04), and differentiated carcinoma (82.7%; OR, 2.99; 95% CI, 2.21-4.04) and undifferentiated carcinoma (86.8%; OR, 3.05; 95% CI, 2.32-4.00). CONCLUSIONS: The seroprevalence of H. pylori was higher in GC patients than in healthy controls, especially in younger patients. H. pylori infection is associated with GC, regardless of the tumor location, stage, or differentiation.
Aged ; Carcinoma ; Cardia ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Helicobacter ; Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Odds Ratio ; Prevalence ; Seroepidemiologic Studies ; Stomach Neoplasms