A 24-year-old Korean soldier was found to have horseshoe kidney with left ureter stone. The diagnosis was made radiographically. Considering the rarity of this disorder, we decided to report this case. According to the literature. horseshoe kidney was described by Berengeri da Carpi for the first time in 1552. After Allen, the ratio of incidence of the horseshoe kidney is approximately 0.25% of the general population. Its etiology, incidence, complication, diagnosis and treatment was discussed. Recent related literatures were reviewed.
Diagnosis ; Humans ; Incidence ; Kidney* ; Military Personnel ; Ureter* ; Young Adult

E.S.T. is performed not only for the treatment but also for the diagnosis of biliary tract diseases. E.S.T. serves as a diagnostic aid for some of biliary tract diseases which require such procedures as a peroral cholangioscopy or biopsy of the biliary duct for precise diagnosis and further differential diagnosis. The diseases of our patients were diagnosed by clinical findings and such diagnostic maneuvers as abdominal ultrasonography, intravenous cholangiography, percutaneous transhepatic chorangiography(P.T.C.), endoscopic retrograde chorangiopancreatography(E.R.C.P.), In all the two cases, abdominal ultrasonography revealed dilated extrahepatic duct, but biliary trees were not visualized at E.R.C.P. In one of the two cases, P.T.C. revealed a filling defect with dilated common bile ducts(CBD) but we could not make a differential diagnosis of CBD stone from CBD cancer. In another of the two cases, on which intravenous cholangiography was done, we could not see CBD. For the purpuse of precise diagnosis and further differential diagnosis, we performed EST and then ERCP thraugh widened papillae. With those procedures, CBD stones were shown.
Bile ; Biliary Tract Diseases ; Biopsy ; Cholangiography ; Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVE: Taxol (Bristol-Myers Squibb)(paclitaxel) has been shown to be a potent inhibitor of cell growth for a variety of tumors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the interaction of five different combinations of drugs: taxol and cisplatin, topotecan, actinomycin D, methotrexate, and etoposide in two established choriocarcinoma cancer cell lines to identify potential synergistic combinations of chemotherapy for patients with choriocarcinoma. METHODS: Six antitumor drugs were tested for synergism and antagonism in combination studies using human choriocarcinoma cell lines, JAR and BeWo. Cytotoxic effects were determined by 3-(4,5- dimethylthiazol-2-ly)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Synergic interactions were determined by the median effect principle in which Combination lndex (CI) of less than one suggest a synergic interaction. RESULTS: Proliferation of JAR and BeWo cells was inhibited by taxol and 2.7 to 86 nmol/L was needed to achieve 50% growth reduction. Combination effect of taxol/cisplatin (fixed ratio of 8 nM: 0.8 ug and 333 nM: 0.8 ug) and taxol/actinomycin-D (fixed ratio of 8 nM: 0.17 nM and 300 nM: 0.003 nM) in JAR and BeWo cell lines showed a synergistic effect at the intermediate and high level of cytotoxicity in both cell lines. Combination effect of taxol/topotecan at all fixed ratio of 8 nM: 1.7 ug showed a synergistic effect at the intermediate and high level of cytotoxicity in JAR cell line. Combination effect of taxol/etoposide at fixed ratio of 8 nM: 0.83 ug and 333 nM: 1.67 ug in JAR and BeWo cell lines showed an antagonistic effect at all level of cytotoxicity in both cell lines. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that taxol is synergistic with cisplatin, actinomycin-D in both cell lines tested and synergistic with topotecan, methotrexate in one cell line. However the most active drug against trophoblastic disease, etoposide, was antagonistic with taxol in both cell lines. Clinical trials using taxol/ cisplatin or taxol/topotecan combination are warranted to determine whether there is a survival advantage in refractory choriocarcinoma or high risk group and a survival can be achieved with taxol in combination with these drugs.
Antineoplastic Agents* ; Cell Line* ; Choriocarcinoma* ; Cisplatin ; Dactinomycin ; Drug Therapy ; Etoposide ; Female ; Humans ; Methotrexate ; Paclitaxel* ; Pregnancy ; Topotecan ; Trophoblasts

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine attitudes of middle-school students toward happiness, suicide, and factors associated with suicide. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was used in a cluster sample of 1,319 middle-school students (male 793, female 526). Data were obtained on a wide range of constructs regarding their attitude towards happiness, suicidal ideation and attempts, and factors associated with suicide. RESULTS: Middle-school students choose 'love within family' as most important factor for their happiness. Subjective mental health status was mostly associated with happiness. Subjects in lower socioeconomic status tended to respond their mental health status was not good and have more suicidal idea. 48.7% of subjects had permissive attitudes toward suicide, especially, girls. However, 65.0% responded that suicide was preventable problem. Compared to older people, middle-school students perceived that environmental factors were more important than innate and personal factors for suicide. CONCLUSION: Results of the study indicate that middle-school students have permissive attitudes toward suicide, but positive attitudes for the prevention of suicide. This suggest that education in these age group could be effective for the prevention of suicide. Also, approaches to suicide prevention programs should be developed based on the family intervention. Especially, we should care about girls and adolescents in lower socioeconomic status.
Adolescent ; Female ; Happiness ; Humans ; Mental Health ; Social Class ; Suicidal Ideation ; Suicide ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: Systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) frequently has cardiovascular complications. Pericardial inflammation and effusion. ventricular dysfunction, valvular disease and coronary atherosclerosis may result in morbidity. While the pathologic findings in SLE have been well described, the antemortem documentation of the cardiac complications has been less frequent than the postmortem findings would support, we therefore sought to study how echocariography may improve the clinical assessment of cardiac involvement in 40 consecutive patients with SLE. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This study began in 1990 with a prospective design. An appointment was scheduled with all patients whose SLE was diagnosed at the outpatient clinic and during the admission of the internal medicine service at the Kang Nam St Mary's hospital These were 40 female patients, with a mean age of 32+/-11 years(+/-SD). The average duration of disease was 37+/-32months, the average dosage of prednisolone per day was 20+/-17mg. M-mode and 2-D echocardiogram were carried out to the 40 SLE patients. RESULT: Seventeen(43%) of the SLE patients had pericardial effusion. Reduced left ventricular contractility was evident in 8 patients(20%). Abnormality of diastolic dysfunction to be checked by A/E ratio was in 3 patients(8%). No patients had echocardiographic evidence of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Clinical findings of myocardial dysfunction in these patients included dyspnea(30%), jugular venous distension(20%), rales(10%) and S3 gallop(8%). Valvular abnormality of SLE patients included mitral regurgitation in five patients(13%) and aortic regurgitation in two patients(5%). Electrocardiogram showed myocardial ischemia, atrial fibrillation and sick sinus syndrome in 3, 1 and 1 patients respectively. CONCLUSION: In this study, pericardial effusion were the most common echocardiopraphic abnormalities in Patients with SLE. The incidence of valvular and myocardial disease were relatively common.
Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Aortic Valve Insufficiency ; Atrial Fibrillation ; Cardiomyopathies ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Echocardiography* ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Incidence ; Inflammation ; Internal Medicine ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic* ; Mitral Valve Insufficiency ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Pericardial Effusion ; Prednisolone ; Prospective Studies ; Sick Sinus Syndrome ; Ventricular Dysfunction

Animals ; Bone Regeneration ; Bone Substitutes ; Carbon ; Dogs ; Durapatite ; Heterografts ; Mouth ; Osteogenesis ; Transplants

The DNA probes Pn17 and Pn34 were evaluated for their ability to specifically detect clinical strains of P. intermedia and P. nigrescens from a Korean population by dot blot hybridization. These probes were sequenced by extension termination and their specificity was determined by Southern blot analysis. The results revealed that the Pn17 sequence (2,517 bp) partially encodes an RNA polymerase beta subunit (rpoB) and that Pn34 (1,918 bp) partially encodes both rpoB (1-169 nts) and the RNA polymerase beta subunit (rpoB'; 695-1918 nts). These probes hybridized with both HindIII- and PstI-digested genomic DNAs from the strains of P. intermedia and P. nigrescens used in this study. Interestingly, each of the hybrid bands generated from the HindIII-digested genomic DNAs of the two bacterial species could be used to distinguish between them via restriction fragment length polymorphism. These results thus indicate that Pn17 and Pn34 can simultaneously detect P. intermedia and P. nigrescens.
Blotting, Southern ; Chimera ; DNA ; DNA Probes ; DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Prevotella ; Prevotella intermedia ; Prevotella nigrescens ; Sensitivity and Specificity