Red blood cells that agglutinate with most normal adult sera but never with own sera are termed polyagglutinable and can be separated by patterns of lectin reactivity into various types. Among these polyagglutination, activation of the T cryptantigen occurs when carbohydrate structures on glycophorins A and B lose sialic acid and express the disaccharide Gal beta-l-3 GalNac which reacts with the peanut agglutinin, a lectin from Arachis hypogaea. T activation is a temporary condition due to exposure of the membrane antigen to the action of microbial neuraminidase. In T activated red cells, the following hazards, which are theoretically possible, are spontaneous polyagglutination of red cells in vitro, in vivo and severe blood transfusion reactions. We experienced a case of T activation in 6 month old girl with bacterial meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. The reactivity to lectins indicated the patient's red cells were T activated. We report a case of T activation in an infant with the review of literature.
Adult ; Arachis ; Blood Transfusion ; Erythrocytes ; Female ; Glycophorin ; Humans ; Infant ; Lectins ; Membranes ; Meningitis, Bacterial ; N-Acetylneuraminic Acid ; Neuraminidase ; Peanut Agglutinin ; Streptococcus pneumoniae

No abstract available.
Gastrin-Secreting Cells* ; Gastrins* ; Gastrointestinal Tract*

No abstract available.
Blood Donors* ; Hepacivirus* ; Hepatitis C* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans

Recently non-invasive diagnostic imaging replaced the invasive catheter angiography in the diagnosis of vascular disease. Catheter methods are now almost confined to the purpose of intervention. Coronary artery or coronary artery bypass graft still needs catheter technique because of small diameter and the cardiac motion. The last challenge for radiologists in this domain is to obtain a non-invasive imaging. Electron beam tomography(EBT) for high temporal resolution is able to obtain a coronary arteriogram or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), of which CABG imaging is quite useful for the evaluation of patency. In our experience as well as others, the accuracy of EBT angiogram in evaluating CABG patency revealed that the accuracy of patency of saphenous vein grafts(SVG) is high due to relatively wide lumen, short and straight course and less influence from cardiac motion. The sensitivity and specificity of patency of SVGs were 92%, 97% respectively in the prospective evaluat on and 100% each in the retrospective evaluation. A false positive and a false negative case are rudimentary errors in the initial learing period. In contrast the analysis of left internal mammary artery(LIMA) graft was difficult due to the inherent small size and the adjacent surgical clips provoking beam-hardening artifact; therefore, the method of combining 3 dimensional reconstruction and flow mode study was important in improving the accuracy of LIMA patency. The sensitivity and specificity of LIMA patency were 100% and 80% in both prospective and retrospective evaluation. Therefore, EBT angiography is an accurate non-invasive diagnostic modality for evaluating the patency of CABG, particularly in SVGs. The accuracy can be improved with the improvement of the EBT and the development of the image reconstruction software.
Angiography ; Artifacts ; Catheters ; Coronary Artery Bypass* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic Imaging ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Prospective Studies ; Retrospective Studies ; Saphenous Vein ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Surgical Instruments ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed* ; Transplants ; Vascular Diseases

Spinal cord injury may occur during surgical correction of spinal deformity. In this situations, administrations of opiate receptor antagonists have known to improve spinal cord damage. Although those therapeutic modalities for the management of acute trauma of the spinal cord, impsoved the mean systemic arterial pressure controversy continues regarding their effectiveness Because opioids or inhalational anesthetics are used clinically, the effect of an opiate antagonist was evaluated by cortical somatosensory evoked potentials(cortical SEPs) which occur in 24 cats undergoing compressive injury on the posterior spinal cord during fentanyl or halothane anesthesia. Anesthesia was induced with pentobarbiturate(50 mg/kg, im). A balloon tipped catheter was inserted in the epidural space with tip located at thoracolumbar Junction. Spinal cord compressive injury was produced by balloon inflation for 20 minutes during intravenous saline infusion (control group), fentanyl(group l) or halothane(group 2) anesthesia Naloxone(5mg/kg) was administered intravenously following injury to all animals. Cortical SRPs were determined before and after induction of anesthesia, during the spinal cord compressive injury for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, l5 minutes, 20 minutes, after naloxone administration, and after removal of compressive injury. General anesthesia resulted in increases of latency and reductions of amplitude in the cortical SEPs. The reductions of amplitude were more marked than increases of latency in group 1, 2. During the cord injury, group 1 resulted in more reductions of amylitude than the other groups. But there were no significant differences among the groups. The administration of naloxone far improved latencies and amplitudes in the cortical SEPs of group 1 more than in other two groups. But there were no significant differences among the groups. Less recovery of the cortical SRPs response to naloxone in control group than the other groups. These results do nat support the supposition that opioid anesthesia produces an adverse effect upon cortical SEPs following spinal cord compressive injury and treatment with naloxone in the dose used in this study improves neurologic recovery of cortical SEPs less significantly.
Analgesics, Opioid ; Anesthesia* ; Anesthesia, General ; Anesthetics ; Animals ; Arterial Pressure ; Catheters ; Cats ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Epidural Space ; Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory ; Fentanyl* ; Halothane* ; Inflation, Economic ; Naloxone* ; Receptors, Opioid ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord*

Curcumin, a natural compound extracted from rhizomes of Curcuma longa, has been shown to possess potent antiinflammatory and anti-tumor activity. The mechanism by which curcumin initiates apoptosis remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the effects of curcumin on caspase-3 activity and protein expression of procaspase-3, Bcl-2, Bax, total Akt and phosphorylated Akt in SW480 human colon cancer cell. We cultured SW480 cells in the presence of various concentrations(0, 10, 20 or 30 uM) of curcumin. Curcumin inhibited colon cancer cell growth in a dosedependent manner (p < 0.05). Caspase-3 activity was significantly increased dose-dependently in cells treated with curcumin (p < 0.05), concisely procaspase-3 expression was significantly decreased. Bcl-2 levels were decreased dosedependently in cells treated with curcumin (p < 0.05), but Bax remained unchanged. In addition, phosphorylated Akt levels and total Akt levels were markedly lower in cells treated with 20 uM of curcumin treatment (p < 0.05). In conclusion, we have shown that curcumin inhibits cell growth and induces apoptosis in SW480 human colon cancer cell lines via Akt signal pathway.
Apoptosis* ; Caspase 3 ; Cell Line* ; Colon* ; Colonic Neoplasms* ; Curcuma ; Curcumin* ; Humans* ; Rhizome ; Signal Transduction

The individual onset of action of pancuronium and vecuronium has been examined with a priming dose of same or the other agent or two times priming. Measurement of changes in the Tl% of TOF ratio of the adductor pollicis muscle were performed by Accelograph (Biometer). Sixty adult patients were administered Vecuronium(V) 0.015mg/kg (group 1), V 0.005mg/kg 3 minutes after 0.01mg/ kg(group 2), Pancuronium(P) 0. 015 mg/kg(group 3,4) as a priming agents. After 5 minutes, the intubating dose of V 0.085mg/kg (group 1,2,3), P 0.085 mg/kg (group 4) were administered with the induction agent, thiopental sodium 5 mg/kg. All sixty patients underwent orotracheal intubation at 60 seconds after the injection of intubating dose. Intubation condition, reduction of Tl% at 60 seconds, the onset time of maximal blockade (Tl 0%) were evaluated. There was no difficulty in intubation. Fifty-two (86%) patients were distributed in exellent and satisfactory grade of largest in group 2. While group 3 showed more rapid than group 4, group 2 showed the most rapid onset time significantly. These results indicate that the twicely divided dose of vecuronium for priming agent may be adequate and vecuronium after priming with pancuronium is more rapid than priming with same agent.
Adult ; Humans ; Intubation ; Intubation, Intratracheal* ; Pancuronium* ; Thiopental ; Vecuronium Bromide*

In the case of brachial plexus block, mixtures of local anesthetics can combine better features of both components, rapid onset and long duration. Combining effects may influence the onset and duration of neural blockade. Our study was undertaken in order to compare the onset time (time of injection to time of loss of pain on pin prick) and duration of analgesia (time of return of sense of pain on pin prick minus time required for onset of analgesia) of a lidocaine and bupivacaine mixture with 5 minutes interval injection of lidocaine and bupivacaine. The patients admitted to our hospital for hand or forearm operations were divided into three groups. In Group 1, 9 patients were injected with 0.5% bupivacaine 150 mg only, in Group 2, 11 patients were injected with a mixture of 29: lidocaine 200 mg and 0.5% bupivacaine 100 mg, in Group 3, 10 patients were injected with 2% lidocaine 200 mg and 5 minutes later, 0.5% bupivacaine 100 mg was injected through the same needle. Group 3 had the shortest onset time (7.2+/-0.2 minutes) with moderately long duration (9.4+/-2.4hours). Group 2 had a moderately rapid onset time (9.4+/-2.3 mintes) with the shortest duration (8.6+/-1.6 hours). Group 1 had the slowest onset time (14.8+/-4.3 minutes) with the longest duration (11.3+/-2. 4 hours). The time for analgesia to reach the C7 dermatome was the slowest in group 1 and Group 2, but in Group 3, there was no difference in the time needed to achieve analgesia in all dermatomes.
Analgesia ; Anesthetics, Local* ; Brachial Plexus ; Bupivacaine ; Forearm ; Hand ; Humans ; Lidocaine ; Needles

Forty patients with preeclampsia, undergoing general anesthesia for Cesarean section were studied. They were allocated randomly to receive either propofol 2.5 mg/kg and laryngeal mask insertion or thiopental sodium 4 mg/kg and endotracheal intubation for induction of anesthesia. All patients receiving thiopental sodium and tracheal intubation showed potentially dangerous reflex cardiovascular instability. There was a average 48.7 mmHg increase in systolic blood pressure after intubation. The patients receiving propofol and laryngeal mask insertion showed only 10.7 mmHg increase in systolic blood pressure. It is concluded that thiopental sodium induction and traeheal intubation of patients with preecalmpsia produces an increase in blood pressure which can lead to a risk of significant complication. Thus propofol induction and laryngeal mask seems to be a suitable anesthetic method in preeclampsia.
Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, General ; Blood Pressure ; Cesarean Section* ; Female ; Humans ; Intubation ; Intubation, Intratracheal ; Laryngeal Masks* ; Pre-Eclampsia* ; Pregnancy ; Propofol* ; Reflex ; Thiopental

Epidural clonidine is reported to produce analgesia in humans. To investigate the analgesic effect and prolongation of epidural and spinal anesthesia, we mixed 0.2mg epinephrine, 150 mcg clonidine, or 1 cc normal saline with 0.5% bupivacaine and compared the hemodynamie and analgesic effects of each drug. Heart rate and blood pressure were checked before, during and after anesthesia. Sensory level was checked by pin-prick method. The results were as follows; 1) The analgesia onset time and the time to highest level of sensory loss was most rapid in the epinephrine group. 2) The two segment regression time was significantly prolonged in the epinephrine group. 3) The analgesia duration was significantly prolonged in the clonidine and epinephrine group. 4) Although the heart rate gradually decreased over 60 min. After injection of each drug, there was no significant change between the groups. 5) Blood pressure decreased over 20-30 min. After injection of each drug, but there was no significant change between the groups.
Analgesia ; Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, Epidural* ; Anesthesia, Spinal ; Blood Pressure ; Bupivacaine* ; Clonidine* ; Epinephrine* ; Heart Rate ; Humans