Calcific tendinitis of the shoulder joint is common disease causing acute pain, mainly involving the supraspinatus or infraspinatus muscle, and less frequently the teres minor or subscapularis muscle. This study reports on the satisfactory arthroscopic removal of calcium deposits as well as infraspinatus and supraspinatus muscle repair without relapse via minimal incision using suture anchors. This was a case of atypically extensive calcific tendinitis involving the infraspinatus muscle, with a bursal side partial rupture of the supraspinatus muscle in a 61-year-old female whose chief complaint was chronic pain of the right shoulder exacerbated by limited movement.
Acute Pain ; Calcium ; Chronic Pain ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Recurrence ; Rupture ; Shoulder Joint ; Shoulder* ; Suture Anchors ; Tendinopathy*

No abstract available.
Teratoma*

No abstract available.
Sotos Syndrome*

No abstract available.
Dermatitis, Allergic Contact

BACKGROUND: Aging is associated with increased cardiovascular risk and firmly established as a risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis. However the exact mechanism of age-related damage to the arterial wall and its relation to the atherosclerotic process are not well known.The endothelium plays an important role for the regulation of vascular tone and the endothelial function is impaired in the presence of risk factors early in the process of atherosclerosis. Assessment of endothelial function appears to be a valuable tool for the diagnosing and therapeutic monitoring of coronary artery disease. Anti-oxidants are known to improve endothelial dysfunction in atherosclerosis patients. The aim of this study was, (1) to evaluate the endothelial function in elderly, (2) to investigate whether vitamin C administration has benefit on the endothelial function in elderly. METHODS: The endothelial function was estimated using venous occlusion plethysmography(VOP) in 7 elderly and 7 young healthy volunteers. The strain guage was connected to plethysmograph to record the forearm volume change. A rapid cuff inflator was used to inflate the arm cuff to 40 mmHg instantaneuosly thus occluding venous return from the forearm. The measurement of forearm volume change was repeated for 7 times each stage. The change of the forearm blood flow(FBF) was measured with the acetylcholine infusion through brachial artery and also with intra-arterial vitamin C. RESULTS: Endothelium-dependent vasodilatation was significantly impaired in the elderly group compared to the young group(321 +/-17% in elderly group vs 509 +/-81%, mean+/-SEM) Forearm blood flow response to acetylcholine was significantly enhanced with inraarterial infusion of vitamin C in elderly group(321+/-17% in elderly group vs 78% in vitamin C) Coinfusion of L-NMMA, an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase, blunted forearm blood flow response to acetylcholine. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the mechanisms leading to drpressed endothelial function in elderly remains to be elucidated, our study shows that vitamin C result in demonstrable improvement by a mechanism that is probably related to antioxidant activity.
Acetylcholine ; Aged* ; Aging ; Arm ; Ascorbic Acid* ; Atherosclerosis ; Brachial Artery ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Endothelium ; Forearm ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Nitric Oxide Synthase ; omega-N-Methylarginine ; Risk Factors ; Vasodilation* ; Vitamins*

Polycysytic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder characterized by chronic anovulation and hyperandrogenism. The etiology of PCOS is complex and incompletely understood. Accumulating data conclude that hyperinsulinemia and hyperandrogenemia may cause hormonal abnormalities that lead to disturbance of ovarian function. Although insulin resistance is not a part of the diagnostic criteria for PCOS, its importance in its pathogenesis can not be ignored. Excess insulin is capable of stimulating steroidogenesis and therefore excessive androgen production occurs from the theca cell system. Recently, the effects of insulin sensitizer in PCOS patients are being reported and they include the improvement of menstrual pattern, improvement in hyperandrogenism, increased response in ovulation induction and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Understanding the relation of PCOS and insulin resistance will offer an improvement in treatment of PCOS in the future.
Anovulation ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperandrogenism ; Hyperinsulinism ; Insulin Resistance* ; Insulin* ; Ovary ; Ovulation Induction ; Polycystic Ovary Syndrome* ; Theca Cells

We report 13 chromophobe renal cell carcinomas (10.8%) observed among 120 renal cell carcinomas in adults. The average age was 53 (range: 34-72) years old, and 6 were males and 7 females. The mean tumor size was 10 (range: 5-17) cm, mean nuclear grade 2.4, and mean Robson's stage was 1.9. There were two distinct histologic variants; typical variant (n=9) and eosinophilic variant (n=4). Both of them showed typical light microscopic features and positive reaction with Hale's colloidal iron and carbonic anhydrase II, a marker protein of intercalated cells of renal collecting ducts. A strong positive immunoreactivity for epithelial membrane antigen was noted in the cytoplasm in 12 of 13 tumors. Numerous microvesicles, 180~440 nm in diameter, were identified ultrastructurally. DNA aneuploidy was found in 3 out of 10 cases. Neither local recurrence nor metastasis have been identified during the following period of 4~144 (mean 48) months.
Adult ; Aneuploidy ; Carbonic Anhydrase II ; Carcinoma, Renal Cell* ; Colloids ; Cytoplasm ; DNA ; Eosinophils ; Female ; Humans ; Iron ; Male ; Mucin-1 ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Recurrence

This study was conducted to fine out the preventive effects of chitosan and chitosan oligomer on the disorders of hepatic functions and lipid metabolism induced by 2, 3, 7, 8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), using adult male rats (SD) for four weeks. Rats were fed chitosan (4%) or chitosan oligomer (4%) diets respectively before 3weeks of TCDD treatment (50 ug/kg BW) by intraperitoneal injection and then continually supplied these diets for one week until being sacrificed. The elevation of serum total and LDL cholesterol levels induced by TCDD treatment was significantly reduced in the rats fed chitosan diets. The increment of liver triglyceride levels caused by TCDD treatment was tended to suppress in all rats fed chitosan and chitosan oligomer diets. Fecal total lipid and cholesterol excretion were high levels in the rats fed chitosan diets. The hepatic cytosolic catalase activities significantly decreased by TCDD treatment appeared recovering trend by chitosan diets. In hepatic microsomal cytochrome p-450, NADPH cytochrome p-450 reductase, ethoxycoumarin-o-deethylase (ECOD) and benzphetamin N-demethylase (BPND), chitosan than chitosan oligomer diets apparently decreased the increasing levels by TCDD treatment. In histochemical observation, the fat droplets and apoptosis of hepatocytes by TCDD treatment were markedly alleviated by chitosan and chitosan oligomer diets. These results indicate that chitosan, more than chitosan oligomer can exert preventive effects on some disorders of hepatic functions and lipids accumulation by TCDD.
Adult ; Animals ; Apoptosis ; Catalase ; Chitosan* ; Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, LDL ; Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System ; Cytosol ; Diet ; Hepatocytes ; Humans ; Injections, Intraperitoneal ; Lipid Metabolism* ; Liver ; Male ; NADPH-Ferrihemoprotein Reductase ; Rats* ; Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin* ; Triglycerides

PURPOSE: Several statistical models, such as the TRISS, the APACHE II and the SAPS II scoring systems, have been utilized over the recent decades to accurately predict outcomes in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) trauma patients. This study was performed to evaluate the ability of these three statistical models to predict hospital mortality and to compare the performance of these three statistical models in ICU trauma patients. METHODS: Seven hundred forty-seven trauma patients were admitted to the ICU via the emergency center, Masan Samsung Hospital, from March 1999 to February 2001. Of them, 684 patients were included in this study, and their medical records were retrospectively analyzed. The probability of death was calculated for each patient based on the TRISS, the APACHE II, and the SAPS II equations. RESULTS: The values of the Hosmer and Lemeshow X2 for TRISS, APACHE II, and SAPS II were 41.32, 43.03, and 17.64, respectively, and all of them underestimated mortality (p<0.05). For two-by-two decision matrices with a decision criterion of 0.5, the specificities and percentages correctly classified of APACHE II and SAPS II were higher than those of TRISS (p<0.001). For the ROC curve analysis, the areas under the curves (+/-SEM) of TRISS, APACHE II, and SAPS II were 0.922 +/- 0.011, 0.951 +/- 0.011, and 0.957 +/- 0.009, respectively (95% confidence interval). The areas under the curves of APACHE II and SAPS II were larger than that of TRISS (p<0.05 and p<0.01, respecively). CONCLUSION: All of these three statistical models had good discriminative power, with APACHE II and SAPS II performing better than TRISS. However, all of them showed poor calibration and underestimated mortality. The authors conclude that a new statistical model is needed to accurately predict hospital mortality in severely injured patients.
APACHE* ; Calibration ; Emergencies ; Hospital Mortality ; Humans ; Injury Severity Score* ; Intensive Care Units ; Medical Records ; Models, Statistical ; Mortality ; Physiology* ; Retrospective Studies ; ROC Curve

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although elevations of plasma N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) concentration have been shown to be prognostically significant in patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome (ACS), the relation between the plasma level of NT-proBNP and the severity of coronary disease remains unknown. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The NT-proBNP concentration was analyzed in 50 patients with non-ST elevation ACS. We compared plasma NT-proBNP levels and treatment method (medical treatment vs. percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI]). RESULTS: In patients with non-ST elevation ACS, NT-proBNP levels were significantly higher in the PCI (n=37) group than in the medical treatment (n=13) group (296.6 vs. 76.3 pg/mL;p<.001). In patients with unstable angina (UA), NT-proBNP levels were significantly higher in the PCI (n=22) group than in the medical treatment (n=12) group (147.6 vs. 64.5 pg/mL;p<.001). Elevated NT-proBNP level predicted PCI in patient with non-ST elevation ACS. A NT-proBNP level >125.9 pg/mL had sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of 75.7%, 92.3%, 96.6% and 57.1%, respectively. In patients with UA, a NT-proBNP level >123.8 pg/mL had equivalent results of 68.2%, 91.7%, 93.8% and 61.1%, respectively. The area under the curve was 0.891 in non-ST elevation ACS and 0.907 in UA. Elevated NT-proBNP level was also correlated with the severity of culprit artery stenosis and multi-vessel disease. CONCLUSION: Elevated plasma NT-proBNP concentrations were associated with the severity of coronary artery disease in patients with non-ST elevation ACS. In combination with clinical factors, NT-proBNP level will provide a highly discerning tool for early risk stratification and further clinical decisions.
Acute Coronary Syndrome* ; Angina, Unstable ; Angioplasty ; Arteries ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Disease ; Coronary Stenosis* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Humans ; Natriuretic Peptide, Brain ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention ; Plasma* ; Sensitivity and Specificity