The purpose of this study was to compare and evaluate the stress distribution and displacement developed in the abutment teeth and residual ridge area by madibular unilateral distal extension removable partial denture with 2 different retainer designs. The retainers on right and left canine and right 2nd molar were Akers clasp in one model and telescopic crown in the other model. The stress distribution of abutment teeth and residual ridge area on two model were compared and analyzed with 3-dimensional finite element method. 150N and 400N forces were applied vertically, 30 degree and horizontally on the central fossa area of left 1st molar of the removable partial denture, and then stress distribution patterns were analyzed and compared. The results were as follows 1. As the magnitude and angulation of applied force were increased, the magnitude of stress on the right and central residual ridge area and the right canine of the telescopic type increased and comparing to those of the Akers clasp type. 2. As the magnitude and angulation of applied force were increased, the mesial direction of displacement on the right residual ridge area and the right tooth of the telescopic type increased and the distal direction of displacement on left residual ridge area and the left canine increased comparing to those of Akers clasp type. 3. As the vertical force was applied, the distal direction of the displacement of the right tooth were greater and that of the left canine was smaller and the upward displacement of the right canine was greater in telescopic partial denture than those of Akers clasp type. 4. As the 30 degree force was applied, the mesial direction of the displacement of the right tooth were greater and the distal direction of the displacement of the left canine was smaller and the upward displacement of the right canine was greater in telescopic partial denture than those of Akers clasp type. In the horizontal force the results were same in right area tooth but the distal direction of displacement was greater in left canine. 5. In both removable partial dentures, as the magnitude and degree of force were increased, the stress and displacement were increased. The compressive force was dominative than the tensile force. 6. In both removable partial dentures, the magnitude of stress was greater on mucosal tissue area than that of the alveolar bone area on distal extension residual ridge area but the result was reversed on anterior residual ridge area. The displacement was always greater on mucosal tissue area than that of alveolar bone area.
Crowns ; Denture, Partial ; Denture, Partial, Removable ; Molar ; Mucous Membrane ; Tooth*

No abstract available.
Centric Relation* ; Tooth Wear*

To elucidate the effects of food texture such as hardness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness on mastication procedure, the electromyographic activity (EMG) of the masticatory muscles and the chewing movements were analyzed in eighteen young subjects during ordinary chewing. Seven different foods were selected by sensory texture profiling and mechanical test with texturometer; egg white, sausage, pizza cheese, yang-geng, biscuit, peanut and almond. The indexes of jaw movements used were the chewing number, chewing time, maximum opening, average opening, closing velocity and opening velocity. The EMG indexes analyzed were maximum and average integrated amplitude of the anterior temporal and masseter muscles. The results obtained were as follows. 1. The chewing time and chewing number, mandibular displacement and mandibular movement velocity were not changed by the hardness, cohesiveness and adhesiveness of the food (p>0.05). 2. The harder food materials showed a higher amplitude of the anterior temporal muscle integrated EMGs than the softer ones (p<0.05). 3. The maximum and average integrated EMGs of the masseter muscle increased with the increase of hardness of the food (p<0.05). 4. The integrated EMGs of preferred side and non-preferred side masticatory muscles increased with the increase of hardness of the food (p<0.05). 5. The adhesiveness and cohesiveness of the food were not the determining factor to the integrated EMGs of masticatory muscles (p<0.05).
Adhesiveness ; Cheese ; Egg White ; Hardness ; Jaw ; Masseter Muscle ; Mastication* ; Masticatory Muscles* ; Prunus dulcis ; Temporal Muscle

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the radiologic findings of primary epiploic appendagitis, with particular attention to the correlation of ultrasonographic, clinical, CT, MR and surgical findings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Among 14 patients with primary epiploic appendagitis who presented with the rapid onset of a very localized pain and tenderness, we performed ultrasonography in all, CT in eight, and MRI in four of these eight. Surgery was performed in two patients. Follow-up examinations were performed using US, CT and MRI (n=2), US and CT (n=2), US alone (n=2), and with regard to clinical features (n=12). RESULTS: US performed in 14 patients revealed the presence in all of small, well-defined, ovoid, noncompressible hyperechoic (n=12) or isoechoic (n=2) solid masses attached to the colonic wall, without bowel wall change and without communication with bowel lumen. CT performed in 8 patients showed varying hyperattenuating fatty lesions in the same location in the abdomen, without other inflammatory process. MRI findings of four patients were helpful for further evaluation of internal architecture. CONCLUSION: In primary epiploic appendagitis, US findings were sufficiently characteristic to allow accurate diagnosis and valuable for the differential diagnosis of other acute conditions of the abdomen.
Abdomen ; Colon ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Ultrasonography

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to estimate incidence, mortality and survival rate of lung cancer in the elderly people in Korea. METHODS: Study population was Korean Elderly Phamacoepidemiologic Cohort (KEPEC). The lung cancer incidence cases were detected from three different sources, medical utilization database of the Korea Medical Insurance Corporation (KMIC), the database from the National Cancer Registry, and the database from the Regional Cancer Registry. The hospital survey to confirm the final diagnosis of the potential cases was conducted. A specialist on lung cancer reviewed the abstracted data to confirm the final diagnoses. The lung cancer death cases were detected from the mortality database at National Statistical Office. Incidence rate, survival rate and mortality rate of lung cancer and their 95% confidence intervals were estimated with SAS Window ver. 8.1. PESULTS: There were 213 confirmed lung cancer cases in KEPEC between Jan. 1994 and Dec. 1998. Age-standardized incidence rate of lung cancer to the Korean population was estimated to be 316.9 per 100,000 person-years in male and 65.2 per 100,000 person-years in female. Age-standardized mortality rate of lung cancer to the Korean population was estimated to be 342.3 per 100,000 person-years in male and 84.8 per 100,000 person-years in female. One year survival rate was 17% in male and 11% in female. Two year survival rate was 2% in male and 4% in female. CONCLUSION: Age-standardized incidence rate, age-standardized mortality rate and survival rate of lung cancer in the elderly Korean may be useful for further study and making health policy for managing lung cancer in the elderly.
Aged* ; Cohort Studies ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Health Policy ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Insurance ; Korea ; Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung* ; Male ; Mortality* ; Specialization ; Survival Rate*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Anaplastic carcinoma of thyroid gland is a lethal entity: few patients live more than 12 months following the diagnosis. We retrospectively reviewed the experience with this entity at our institute with respect to prognostic factors influencing survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirteen cases of anaplastic carcinoma of thyroid gland diagonsed from 1995 to 2000 were analyzed retrospectively. The median age at presentation was 66.2 years; the male/female ratio was 1.17:1: and the most common symptom was a rapidly enlarging neck mass. RESULTS: All but one patient died within one year of diagnosis. Tumor size of less than 7 cm and complete resection of tumor were significant prognostic factors. Patients who had operation with or without radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy survived significantly longer than other patients. Median survival duration was 74 days. CONCLUSION: This study showed that complete resection and multimodal treatment for tumor of size less than 7 cm resulted in prolonged survival for a subgroup of patients with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.
Carcinoma* ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Neck ; Radiotherapy ; Retrospective Studies ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We carried out an acoustic analysis to investigate the phonatory characteristics of patients undergoing short-term endotracheal intubation with or without thyroidectomy, and who had no nerve injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The patients were divided into two groups, one undergoing thyroidectomy (39 cases) and the other not undergoing thyroidectomy (25 cases). All patients of the thyroidectomy group had undergone thyroidectomy using general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation. All patients of the other group had undergone chronic ear surgery with the same anesthetic method and duration. For the evaluation of voice, preoperative and postoperative acoustic analyses were done. RESULTS: On the acoustic analysis of thyroidectomy group, jitter, shimmer and the vocal range were significantly increased at one day after thyroidectomy. But one month after thyroidectomy, these changes return to statistically insignificant increments, except for shimmer and the vocal range. These acoustical changes were not related to the extent of surgery between total thyroidectomy and hemithyroidectomy. In comparison with acoustical changes after short-term endotracheal intubation, the change of jitter and shimmer of thyroidectomy group did differ significantly. CONCLUSION: Voice alteration after thyroidectomy without nerve injury may be associated with the disturbance of the prelaryngeal musculature. This voice changes emphasize the importance of the extralaryngeal skeleton for pitch control and early intensive speech therapy, especially in patients who need their voice professionally.
Acoustics* ; Anesthesia, General ; Ear ; Humans ; Intubation, Intratracheal* ; Skeleton ; Speech Therapy ; Thyroidectomy* ; Voice

Chinese herb nephropathy (CHN) is characterized by progressive tubulointerstitial nephritis and development of renal failure in a couple of years after diagnosis. Aristolochic acid (AA) is believed to be associated with the development of CHN. The authors report a case of CHN in which AA in the herb regimen was identified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A 32-year-old female presented with nausea, vomiting and generalized weakness. She had been taking Chinese herbs for symptomatic care. Clinical and laboratory examinations revealed Fanconi syndrome, renal failure, and severe anemia. Renal biopsy showed severe tubulointerstitial nephritis with moderate tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis. She developed end-stage renal failure 4 months after diagnosis. The herb she had been taking was Aristolochia fangchi. HPLC technique was used to identify AA and to measure its concentration in the herb. From the clinical and laboratory data, the patient was diagnosed with CHN caused by aristolochic acid.
Adult ; Anemia ; Aristolochia* ; Aristolochic Acids ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Atrophy ; Biopsy ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Chromatography, Liquid ; Diagnosis ; Fanconi Syndrome ; Female ; Fibrosis ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Nausea ; Nephritis, Interstitial ; Renal Insufficiency ; Vomiting

Behcet's disease is a multisystemic disease, in which vascular involvement occurs in 7. 7-60% of patients. There are three forms of vascular involvement such as venous occlusion, arterial occlusion and arterial aneurysm. Venous lesions are more common than arterial lesions and the common sites of venous thrombosis are inferior vena cava, superior vena cava, and superficial or deep veins of extremities. Thrombosis of cerebral venous sinus is an infrequent complication of Behcet's disease and it seems to be rare that both deep vein thrombosis and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis occured at the same time. We experienced a case of Behcet's disease complicated with thromboses of left common femoral vein and right transverse sinus. A 29-year-old man presented with persistent dull nature headache, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision and left lower leg swelling. Duplex ultrasonography of lower extremity showed thrombus in the left common femoral vein. Magnetic resonance imaging of brain showed isodense signal intensity lesions in right transverse sinus on Tl weighted image. On magnetic resonance angiography, the right transverse, sigmoid sinus and right internal jugular vein were not visualized. The patient showed substantial improvement after treatment with steroid, cyclosporine A and anticoagulants.
Adult ; Aneurysm ; Anticoagulants ; Brain ; Colon, Sigmoid ; Cyclosporine ; Extremities ; Femoral Vein ; Headache ; Humans ; Jugular Veins ; Leg ; Lower Extremity ; Magnetic Resonance Angiography ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Nausea ; Sinus Thrombosis, Intracranial* ; Thrombosis ; Ultrasonography ; Veins ; Vena Cava, Inferior ; Vena Cava, Superior ; Venous Thrombosis* ; Vomiting

PURPOSE: To assess the usefulness of radiofrequency (RF) thermal ablation with combined chemotherapy for the treatment of metastatic liver tumors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A non-randomized, comparative study was performed in 21 patients with metastatic liver tumors. Inclusion criteria were that these should be less than five in number and less than 6 cm in diameter. Two groups were designed for comparison of the local and remote (new intrahepatic or extrahepatic) tumor control rate (Group A: RF alone, n=11; Group B: RF+combined chemotherapy, n=10). There was no significant difference in age, sex, and mass size between the two groups (p>0.05). All ablations were performed percutaneously with a 50W RF generator and 15G-needle electrode (RITA Medical System Inc.) under US guidance. In group B, six cycles of systemic chemotherapy were performed every month immediately after RF ablation. Follow-up CT scans were obtained within 24 hours of ablation and were compared with the findings of pre-ablation CT scanning. If an ablated lesion covered the mass without any residual enhancing foci, this was defined as complete ablation. Three and six months after ablation, local and remote tumor control rates were compared between the two groups (follow up: range 4 -17 (mean, 10.2) months. RESULTS: In group A, the local tumor control rate was 43.8% (7/16) and 31.2% (5/16) at 3 and 6 months follow-up, respectively, while in group B, the corresponding rates were both 75% (15/20). At three months, the difference in this rate between the two groups was not significantly different (p>0.05), but at 6 months there was significant difference (p<0.05). At 6 months follow-up, the remote tumor control rate for Group A and Group B was 27.3% (3/11) and 80.0% (8/10), respectively, reflecting a significant difference between the two groups (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: In patients with metastatic liver tumor, radiofrequency thermal ablation with combined chemotherapy may be superior to RF thermal ablation alone for both local and remote tumor control.
Drug Therapy* ; Electrodes ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Liver* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed