Intrathecal administration of methotrexate(IT-MTX) has constituted the standard approach to prophylaxis and treatment of central nevous system(CNS) leukemia. We experienced a quadriplegia and motor aphasia in a 14-year-old boy following repeated IT-MTX for the prophylaxis of meningeal leukemia. He was diagnosed as ALL without CNS involvement and treated by CCG- 1882 protocol. IT-MTX was administered for CNS prophylaxis. The patient began complaining of urinary incontinence, motor aphasia and weakness in his right leg from 12 days after the 5th dose of the IT-MTX therapy. Even though the IT-MTX was discontinued, loss of muscle power progressed upward resulting in quadriplegia. The patient showed slow and partial recovery on right extremities over 3 months. We report this case with brief review of literature.
Adolescent ; Aphasia, Broca* ; Extremities ; Humans ; Leg ; Leukemia ; Male ; Methotrexate* ; Quadriplegia* ; Urinary Incontinence

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the pregnancy rate and time to pregnancy after timed coitus with or without superovulation in infertile young women younger than 35 years old with low serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels (< 25th percentile). METHODS: A total of 202 patients younger than 35 years old were recruited retrospectively between 2010 and 2012. Ninety-eight women had normal serum AMH levels (25–75th percentile), 75 women had low serum AMH levels (5th≤&< 25th percentile) and 29 women had very low serum AMH levels (< 5th percentile), according to reference values for their age group. RESULTS: The clinical pregnancy rate was positively associated with AMH levels, but this trend did not reach statistical significance (43.9% vs. 41.3% vs. 27.6% in the normal, low, and very low AMH groups, respectively). The time to pregnancy was longer in the very low AMH group than in the normal AMH group (13.1±10.9 months vs. 6.9±6.1 months, p=0.030). The cumulative live birth rate over 18 months was lower in the very low AMH group than in the normal AMH group, with marginal significance (20.0% vs. 55.9%, p=0.051). The duration of infertility was negatively correlated with achieving pregnancy (odds ratio, 0.953; 95% confidence interval, 0.914–0.994; p=0.026). CONCLUSION: Conservative management, such as timed coitus with or without superovulation, should be considered in young patients who have low ovarian reserve without any infertility factors. However, for women with a long duration of infertility or very low serum AMH levels, active infertility treatment should be considered.
Anti-Mullerian Hormone ; Coitus* ; Female ; Humans ; Infertility ; Live Birth ; Maternal Age ; Ovarian Reserve* ; Pregnancy Rate ; Pregnancy* ; Reference Values ; Retrospective Studies ; Superovulation ; Time-to-Pregnancy

BACKGROUND: It is known that QT dispersion represents asynchronous repolarization of ventricle which is related to ventricular fibrillation. The incidence of ventricular arrhythmia is increased after acute myocardial infarction. So this study compared QT dispersion and other repolarization indexes for detection of asynchronous repolarization in acute myocardial infarction. We also investigated which portion of repolarization is the key portion of the asynchrony. METHODS: In 37 acute myocardial infarction patients and 38 angina patients dispersion of QT, JT, JTpeak and QTpeak were measured. We also measured maximum adjacent dispersion of same parameters in precordial leads. In 20 survived patients and 17 dead patients after acute myocardial infarction were also compared. We also investigated correlation of PVC's on Holter monitoring with these repolarization parameters. RESULTS: 1) All ventricular repolarization indexes(QT, QTc, JT, JTpeak, QT peak and TpeakTend dispersion) were significantly increased in acute myocardial infarction group than compared with those of angina group(p<0.05). 2) Maximal precordial dispersion(QT, QTc, JT, JTpeak and QTpeak) were also significantly increased in acute myocardial infarction group than angina group(p<0.05). 3) Dead patient group after myocardial infarction showed significantly increased QTc and TpeskTend dispersion compared with those of survived patient group(p<0.05). 4) Multivariate linear correlation showed that TpeakTend dispersion and JT dispersion was correlated with QT dispersion. CONCLUSIONS: There were asynchronous myocardial repolarization changes in acute myocardial infarction. Our study demonstrated that T wave change was major determinant of dispersion of myocardial repolarization.
Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Electrocardiography, Ambulatory ; Humans ; Incidence ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Ventricular Fibrillation

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate luteinizing hormone(LH) in patients with infertility and recurrent spontaneous abortion. MATERIAL AND METHOD: LH was tested by solid phase immunoradiometric assay based on monoclonal and polyclonal anti-LH antibodies. RESULTS: Of 100 infertile patients, the number of less than 5 mIU/ml, 5~10 mIU/ml, greater than 10 mIU/ml in LH level was 67(67%), 22(22%), 11(11%), respectively. Of 100 patients with recurrent spontaneous abortion, the number of less than 5 mIU/ml, 5~10 mIU/ml, greater than 10 mIU/ml in LH level was 79(79%), 18(18%), 3(3%), respectively. There was a significant difference between patients with infertility and recurrent spontaneous abortion only in the group with LH level greater than 10 mIU/ml(p=0.325). CONCLUSIONS: High LH in the follicular phase is known to decrease pregnancy rate and increase abortion rate. But in this study the incidence of high LH in patients with recurrent spontaneous abortion was low. On the contrary, there was a significant increase of LH in infertile patients. So recurrent spontaneous abortion does not seem to be related to high LH level.
Abortion, Induced ; Abortion, Spontaneous* ; Antibodies ; Female ; Follicular Phase ; Humans ; Immunoradiometric Assay ; Incidence ; Infertility* ; Lutein* ; Luteinizing Hormone* ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Rate

Three cases of hydatidiform mole with a coexisting fetus are described. In two cases, flow cytometric analysis of nuclear DNA content from paraffin-embedded, molar tissues and normal-appearing placental tissues showed diploid pattern. One case had karyotypes of 46, XX both in fetal skin fibroblasts and in molar tissues. Microscopically, the villi showed diffuse hydropic swelling with circumferential trophoblastic proliferations and consistent with the diagnosis of complete mole. Two patient had persistent gestational trophoblastic neoplasia on the follow-up. Therefore, in cases of hydatidiform mole with a coexisting fetus, dizygotic twin pregnancies composed of a normal pregnancy from one ovum and a complete mole pregnancy from the other ovum must be considered and the patients should be followed with serum beta-hCG measurements.
Pregnancy ; Female ; Humans

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have documented increased release of endothelin(ET) during acute attack of asthma. The purpose of this study is to observe the link between plasma level and urinary excretion of each and changes during acute exacerbation. METHOD: Plasma and 24 hour urine were collected from sixteen asthmatics during acute exacerbation, twice ; first day of symptomatic exacerbation and two weeks after treatment. Controls were ten healthy normal subjects. All patients were treated with corticosteroid and beta-2 adrenergic agonist on admission. ET was determined by radioimmmunoassay and had 100% cross reactivity with ET-1, 67% with ET-2, 84% with ET-3, and 8% with Big-ET. RESULTS: Plasma ETs were significantly elevated during acute attack of asthma compared with those in remission and controls. However, there was no significant changes in urine ET concentrations or total ET amounts in 24 hour urine during exacerbation upto two weeks. Those levels of urine ET in asthmatics were still higher than controls. ET concentrations in plasma or urine were not correlated with pulmonary functional parameters and hypoxemia. CONCLUSION: The findings suggests that increased plasma ETs are related with exaggerated release during acute asthma. Urinary ET excretion is increased in asthma. However, urine ET changes during exacerbation should be observed in a larger and longer scale.
Adrenergic Agonists ; Anoxia ; Asthma* ; Endothelin-2 ; Endothelins* ; Humans ; Plasma*

OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of embryo retention (ER) in the transfer catheter following embryo transfer (ET) in blastocyst transfer and investigate whether retransferring retained embryos has an impact on reproductive outcomes in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization-ET. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the records of 1,131 blastocyst transfers, which comprised 223 single blastocyst transfer (SBT) and 908 double blastocyst transfer (DBT) cycles. Each SBT and DBT group was classified depending on whether ET was performed without retained embryos in the catheter during the first attempt (without-ER group) or whether any retained embryos were found following ET (ER group) for the purpose of comparing reproductive outcomes in a homogenous population. RESULTS: The overall incidence of finding retained embryos was 2.8% (32/1,131). There were no retained embryos in SBT cycles. In DBT cycles, implantation rates (30.0% vs. 26.6%), positive β-hCG rates (57.2% vs. 56.2%), clinical pregnancy rates (45.3% vs. 46.9%), and live birth rates (38.9% vs. 43.8%) were not significantly different between the without-ER and ER groups. There were no significant differences in the mean birth weight (g) 2,928.4±631.8 vs. 2,948.7±497.8 and the mean gestational age at birth (269.3±17.2 days vs. 264.2±25.7 days). A total of nine cases of congenital birth defects were found in this study population. Eight were observed in the without-ER group and one in the ER group. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that retransfer of retained embryos does not have any adverse impact on reproductive outcomes in blastocyst transfer cycles. Furthermore, our results support finding that SBT might be advantageous for decreasing the incidence of retained embryos in catheters.
Birth Weight ; Blastocyst* ; Catheters ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Embryo Transfer* ; Embryonic Structures* ; Fertilization in Vitro ; Gestational Age ; Humans ; In Vitro Techniques ; Incidence ; Live Birth ; Parturition ; Pregnancy Rate ; Retrospective Studies

PURPOSE: Alternative medicine(AM) is defined as the approaches and techniques that are not included in the curricula of medical schools or residency training at present. This study aimed to evaluate the present status of the use of AM in allergic diseases and to propose an appropriate guide. METHODS: Mailed questionnaires on the patterns of the use of AM were collected during the month of May in 2001. The data was analyzed using SPSS WINDOW 8.0. RESULTS: 1) One hundred and five patients responded. Their mean age was 46.5 years old and the mean duration of the diseases was 67 months. 2) Ninety six(91.4%) out of 105 responders who have allergic diseases experienced AM. Herb medicine(57.3%) was most popular and hot spring(22.9%), immune stimulants(22.9%), nutritional supplements(13.5%), acupuncture(12.5%), breathing exercise, aroma-therapy and foods such as aloe, honey and ginkgo nuts were also tried. 3) The annual mean expenditure for the AM was about 690,000 Won. Severely diseased patients spent more money out of their pocket for AM. 4) Doctors(43.5%), oriental doctors(19.8%), neighbours(27.1%) and mass media played some roles for the distribution of the information about AM. 5) The patients purchased the products for AM from drug store, hospital, market, health care shop and by mail or internet orders. 6) Thirty two patients(33.3%) were satisfied with the AM and 35(36.5%) patients answered that they would recommend the AM to the others. CONCLUSION: Many allergy patients used various kinds of AM without any guidelines. Therefore, doctors' active participation in AM is necessary to confirm the scientific basis, to strengthen patient's education and to filter the informations about AM spreaded by the mass media.
Aloe ; Complementary Therapies* ; Curriculum ; Education ; Ginkgo biloba ; Health Care Sector ; Health Expenditures ; Honey ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity* ; Internet ; Internship and Residency ; Mass Media ; Nuts ; Postal Service ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Respiration ; Schools, Medical

No abstract available.

Glandular odontogenic cyst (GOC) is an intraoral cyst originated from serre remnants which has incidence of rare frequency. Only 111 cases have been reported since Gardener first introduced it in 1987. The clinical features are the following components: cortical bone thinning, locally aggressive root resorption, non-painful swelling. The following recurrences rate are 64.3% in conservative treatment, and 0% in wide excision for instance, segmental or marginal mandibulectomy. So, its prognosis is similar to that of odontogenic keratocyst and ameloblastoma. Therefore, periodic recall follow ups are essential to detect disease recurrence. Here, we will report the first case of GOC diagnosed in our department considering with references. And we share this treatment experience because these aggessive lesions may be misjudged for simple dental cyst.
Ameloblastoma ; Follow-Up Studies ; Incidence ; Mandible ; Odontogenic Cysts ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Root Resorption