BACKGROUND AND OBJECT: Cheiro-oral syndrome (COS) is characterized by a sensory disturbance in the unilateral hand and ipsilateral mouth corner. It is usually due to a lesion in the parietal cortex, thatamocortical projections, thalamus, or rarely brain stem. However, the syndrome is relatively unknown and rarely mentioned in most neurological textbooks. We presented ten cases of COS with a review of the clinical symptoms and signs and the neuroradiological methods used to demonstrate the responsible site. METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied 10 patients with stroke who showed restricted sensory disturbance on the one hand and ispilateral mouth. The study forms consisted of clinical manifestaion, neurological examination, electrophysiological, and neuroradiologic studies. Computed tomography and/or magnetic resonance imaging identified lesion in the thalamus in 5, brain stem in 3, and corona radiata in 1 patient. But, the anatomical responsible site for one case was not founded. Infarction had occurred in nine cases and hemorrhage in one. Seven of the 10 patients showed sensory disturbances restricted to the perioral area, hands, fingers when they were first examined; the remaining patients complained more diffuse sensory disturbances at first, but it had become restricted to perioral and fingers, usually within 2-3 weeks. The durations of symptom varied from 5 days to more than 15 months and these symptoms were improved within 2-3 weeks to 4 months in treated patients. CONCLUSION: When the symptoms and signs of the COS were presented, especially if a history of migraine is lacking, neuroradiological methods such as CT or MRI should be undertaken to localize and diffentiate the nature of lesion.
Brain Stem ; Fingers ; Hand ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Infarction ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Migraine Disorders ; Mouth ; Neurologic Examination ; Rabeprazole ; Stroke ; Thalamus

Hereditary spastic ataxia is a familial neurological disorder which exhibit the features of a progressive combined pyramidal tract and cerebellar deficiency. The main features are progressive gait disturbance, incoordination, nystagmus, visual impairment, hyperreflexia, extensor plantar response, peripheral neuropathy, and pes cavus. A 27-year-old male patient with spastic ataxic gait was evaluated. He showed characteristic features of hereditary spastic ataxia. There were another twelve affected members in four generations of his family which may be inherited by autosomal dominant pattern. One of them is reported with review of the literature on familial spastic ataxia.
Adult ; Ataxia* ; Family Characteristics ; Foot Deformities ; Gait ; Humans ; Male ; Muscle Spasticity* ; Nervous System Diseases ; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases ; Pyramidal Tracts ; Reflex, Abnormal ; Reflex, Babinski ; Vision Disorders

The spontaneous hematomyelia is an uncommon event and its predisposing conditions are vascular malformation, syringomyelia, pregnancy and delivery, angioma, hemophilia, anticoagulant therapy, etc. We have recently experienced the patient with spontaneous onset and resolving hematomyelia in the cervical spinal cord. A 30-year-old male patient with non-traumatic spinal shock was evaluated. On MRI, a hematomyelia along cervical spi-nal cord was revealed. A suspicious AV malformation was noticed at C3-4 level. Fol-low-up MRIs showed spontaneous resolution of the hematoma.
Adult ; Hemangioma ; Hematoma ; Hemophilia A ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Pregnancy ; Shock ; Spinal Cord ; Spinal Cord Vascular Diseases* ; Syringomyelia ; Vascular Malformations

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have shown that uptake of 18Fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose in head and neck cancer, as determined by the standardized uptake value (SUV) on positron emission tomography scan (PET scan), is associated with the biology of tumor. The aims of this study were to confirm the association with the biology of tumor and to establish whether a high SUV had prognostic significance. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Thirty patients with the head and neck cancer diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma underwent a PET scan before treatment. SUVs were analyzed for possibility correlated with diseasefree survival. RESULTS: In univariate survival analysis, when patients were divided into two groups based on the SUV cut-off value of 8, the group whose SUV was greater than 8 in the pre-treatment PET scan showed significantly worse outcome (p=0.029). Correlation analysis demonstrated that SUV provided prognostic information independent of the tumor size, pathologic differentiation and stage. CONCLUSION: We conclude that high FDG uptake on PET (SUV >8 in pre-treatment PET scan) is an important prognostic indicator for poor outcome. Identified patients are thought to require intensive treatment protocol and more careful follow up.
Biology ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Head and Neck Neoplasms* ; Head* ; Humans ; Positron-Emission Tomography*

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to evaluate the safety and the clinical efficacy of the laparoscopic myomectomy through analyzing several operation factors. METHODS: There were 185 cases of laparoscopic myomectomy between January 2004 and December 2008 at the department of obstetrics and gynecology in Hanyang University Guri Hospital. Retrospectively many factors of the operation were analyzed. The factors include the size, number and type of the myoma, BMI (body mass index), operation method, operation time, and complication and the prognosis of the operation. RESULTS: For the type of myomas, 115 (62.2%) cases were intramural myomas, 38 (20.5%) cases were subserosal types and 32 (17.3%) cases were mixed types. The average diameter of the biggest myoma was 6.67+/-0.16 cm (range, 2.5~15 cm) and the average number of the myoma was 2.07+/-0.15 (range, 1~15). Previous operation history and pelvic adhesion did not show correlation with the operation time. The size, type and number of myoma and the operation methods showed correlation with the operation time. According to myoma size and number, we divided the cases into two groups, low risk group (122 cases) and high risk group (63 cases). The analysis showed that post-operation hemoglobin drop (2.89+/-0.10 g/dL vs. 4.03+/-0.23 g/dL) and blood transfusion amount (2.89+/-0.10 pints vs. 4.03+/-0.23 pints) as well as the operation time (137.58+/-4.37 min vs. 193.73+/-9.88 min) showed noticeable increase in the high risk group. CONCLUSION: This statistics show that laparoscopic myomectomy is now being applied to patients with larger and more myomas. Factors affecting operation time were the weight of myomas, number of myomas, type of myomas, number of trocars and methods of resected myomas removal. Also, operation time and post-operative hemoglobin drop increased in the high risk group.
Blood Transfusion ; Gynecology ; Hemoglobins ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Myoma ; Obstetrics ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Surgical Instruments