OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to investigate the relationship between age of onset in late-life depression and T2 hyperintensities observed in the brain MRI, we tried to see part of pathophysiology of late-life depression. METHOD: The subjects consisted of 18 patients whose first depressive episode occurred before age 50, and 20 patients whose first depressive episode occurred after age 50 years, and 20 agematched controls. Depressive patients were diagnosed according to DSM-IV. Established hyperintensity rating systems were used to analyse the T2 weighted images and blood pressure, cholesterol level, DM, EKG were measured to compare the relationships. RESULTS: 1) Signal hyperintensities on T2 weighted image were more severe in late-life depressive patients whose first depressive episode after age 50 (p<0.05) and there is no significant difference between patients whose first episode before age 50 and age-matched control subjects. 2) Mild signal hyperintensities were observed in all elderly depressed patients and control subjects, but severe hyperintensities were observed in late-onset depression. 3) Signal hyperintensities were related to age, hypertension, blood cholesterol level (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The late onset depressive patients had more white matter hyperintensities on T2 weighted image than early onset depressive patients. this results support previous hypothesis that white matter change is the important biological factor of late-onset elderly depression and old age, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia may be associated with signal hyperintensities.
Age of Onset ; Aged ; Biological Factors ; Blood Pressure ; Brain* ; Cholesterol ; Depression ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Electrocardiography ; Humans ; Hypercholesterolemia ; Hypertension ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging*

Arterial cannulation for constant monitoring of arterial pressure and blood gase analyses has become commonplace in the care of the critically ill patients. The radial artery is often regarded as causing a negligible complication risk because of extensive collateral arterial flow in the hand. One of other alternative sites for arterial cannulation is femoral artery. Femoral artery cannulation has a high degree of success in very small, critically ill children. It should be considered an acceptable alternative to small-vessel cannulation when the latter is not technically achievable, or in the unstable patient where rapid establishment of reliable artery access is necessary. Arterial cannulation may cause many complications: arterial catheters can directly injure the vessels, resulting in thrombosis, occlusion, distal embolization or ischemia. Local insertion site complications, such as hematoma, hemorrhage, and infection may occur. Arterial catheter may also be a source of systemic sepsis. We report an unusual case of unintentional release of a catheter fragment into the external iliac artery in a 7-month (7.8 kg) male patient with tetralogy of Fallot, which was inadvertently inserted during right femoral artery cannulation. The catheter fragment was successfully retrieved with the Amplatz Goose Neck microsnare under fluoroscopy without any problems.
Arterial Pressure ; Arteries ; Catheterization* ; Catheters* ; Child ; Critical Illness ; Femoral Artery* ; Fluoroscopy ; Hand ; Hematoma ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Iliac Artery* ; Ischemia ; Male ; Neck ; Radial Artery ; Sepsis ; Tetralogy of Fallot ; Thrombosis

OBJECTIVES: Regarding the relationship between the laterality of seizure focus and depression in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), previous studies reported inconsistent results. The role of frontal function as moderating variable between laterality and depression had been proposed. We attempted to replicate functional involvement of frontal lobe (FIFL) and, as an effort to extend previous findings, to test the functional involvement of parietal lobe (FIPL) to prove the hypothesis derived from Heller's valencearousal theory of emotion. METHODS: In study 1, patients with TLE (right 19, left 17) performed MMPI-D as a depression measure, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) as a frontal function measure, and block design (BD) as a parietal function measure in the course of pre-operation assessment. Multiple regression model of depression which includes the interaction terms both between laterality and WCST and between laterality and BD were tested. In study 2, patients underwent anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL;right 20, left 25) were assessed and analyzed in the same way as study 1. RESULTS: In study 1, contrary to the FIFL and FIPL prediction, interaction of laterality with WCST or BD were not significant. In study 2, the interaction with frontal function was significant. Consistent with FIFL prediction, depression came to be evident when seizure focus was lateralized to the left side and simultaneously frontal function declined. But the interaction with BD remained insignificant, which suggests the invalidity of FIPL hypothesis. CONCLUSION: We replicated the FIFL hypothesis in the depression of ATL patients. The relation of depression with frontal function was more evident in post rather than pre operation sample. This pattern may be due to the inter-hemispheric interference of frontal functions in pre-operation sample and to the release-of-function phenomenon in post-operation sample. On the other hand, we did not succeed in confirming the role of parietal function in depression. Intactness of the parietal function in TLE was considered as the main cause of the negative finding.
Anterior Temporal Lobectomy ; Depression* ; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe* ; Frontal Lobe ; Hand ; Humans ; Parietal Lobe* ; Rabeprazole* ; Seizures ; Temporal Lobe* ; Wisconsin

A 41-year-old man was diagnosed with a huge symptomatic liver mass and was referred to our hospital for liver biopsy and further evaluation. He presented with right upper quadrant tenderness. Enhanced abdominal computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a 12.5-cm relatively well-defined heterogeneous enhancing mass in the right inferior liver with a large exophytic component containing a fat component and progressive delayed enhancement. The patient underwent right inferior sectionectomy. The pathological diagnosis was confirmed as angiomyolipoma, 12.3×9.2×5.0 cm in size, with tumor necrosis in 20% of the tissue. Hepatic angiomyolipoma is known as a benign tumor, but in our case, because of the large tumor size and coagulative necrosis, this tumor had malignant potential; surgical resection was deemed to be appropriate, and close follow-up monitoring was essential postoperatively.

A 41-year-old man was diagnosed with a huge symptomatic liver mass and was referred to our hospital for liver biopsy and further evaluation. He presented with right upper quadrant tenderness. Enhanced abdominal computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a 12.5-cm relatively well-defined heterogeneous enhancing mass in the right inferior liver with a large exophytic component containing a fat component and progressive delayed enhancement. The patient underwent right inferior sectionectomy. The pathological diagnosis was confirmed as angiomyolipoma, 12.3×9.2×5.0 cm in size, with tumor necrosis in 20% of the tissue. Hepatic angiomyolipoma is known as a benign tumor, but in our case, because of the large tumor size and coagulative necrosis, this tumor had malignant potential; surgical resection was deemed to be appropriate, and close follow-up monitoring was essential postoperatively.

Posterior transarticular screw fixation is known to be one of the best surgical method for the atlanto-axial instability. Between April 1995 and February 1997, this technique was used in the treatment of 21 patients(10 men, 11 women) suffering from this condition. The average age at the time of operation was 39 years(range, 17 to 63). and mean follow-up period was 14(mean 3 to 25) months. The indication for fusion were nine cases, type II-A odontoid process fracture; three cases, type II-P odontoid process fracture; three cases, os odontoideum; three cases transverse ligament laxity due to rheumatoid disease; and three cases, transverse ligament injury without bone fracture. Eleven operations involved cases were operated with posterior C1, 2 transarticular screw fixation using a 3.5 mm cortical screw augmented th interlaminar iliac graft and sublaminar wire fixation. The other ten patients underwent the same surgery without sublaminar wire fixation. In two cases d screw were misplaced; one was placed lateromedially and the other caused widening of the joint capsule space, but there were corrected by reoperation. Patients were ambulated with Philadelphia neck collar on the first post-operation day. At the end of three months follow-up, bone union was seen in all cases, and the following conclusions may be drawn: 1) Immediately after surgery, ambulation is possible; 2) The rate of occurrence of bone union is high; 3) A halo vest is not needed; 4) Sublaminar wiring is also unnecessary.
Follow-Up Studies ; Fractures, Bone ; Humans ; Joint Capsule ; Ligaments ; Male ; Neck ; Odontoid Process ; Reoperation ; Transplants ; Walking

PURPOSE: We retrospectively compared our initial experience with the hand-assisted laparoscopic and retroperitoneoscopic radical nephrectomy for suspected renal cell carcinoma MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed 26 hand-assisted laparoscopic and 9 retroperitoneoscopic radical nephrectomies performed for suspected renal cell carcinoma from December 1999 to January 2003. All data were collected from medical records and by personal contacts. RESULTS: Although days of oral intake was shorter in the retroperitoneoscopic radical nephrectomy than the hand-assisted laparoscopic radical nephrectomy(1.8 versus 2.3, p=0.027), the mean operative time, analgesics use, and postoperative stay for retroperitoneal group were not significantly different from the values of the hand-assisted group. CONCLUSIONS: Retroperitoneoscopic radical nephrectomy offers shorter days of oral intake comparable to that of hand-assisted laparoscopy. However, no significant differences in operative time, analgesics use, and postoperative stay were noted. Therefore, we believe that both techniques produce similar surgical results. Further randomized studies are needed.
Analgesics ; Carcinoma, Renal Cell ; Hand ; Hand-Assisted Laparoscopy ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Medical Records ; Nephrectomy* ; Operative Time ; Retroperitoneal Space ; Retrospective Studies

No abstract available.
Epinephrine* ; Heart Arrest*

To evaluate the differences between current and past surgical treatment of intussusception, the medical records of 48 intussusception patients who underwent surgical treatment over 4 years (1975-1978, Group A) were reviewed and compared to the medical records of 75 intussusception patients who underwent surgical treatment over 4 years (1995-1998, Group B). Sex ratio is male predominant in both group (2.7:1 vs 1.6:1) and mean age of operation is 6.7+/-5.0 month (Group A) and 8.1+/-7.0 month (Group B). Major symptoms and signs of both groups are vomiting, hematochezia and irritability. White blood cell count of peripheral blood in both groups had no significant difference (12,417+/-4,446/mm3 vs 12,297+/-4,531/mm3). In operation methods, group A had significantly higher bowel resection rate over group B (31.3% vs 14.7%, p<0.05). In group A, 2 patients were died after operation, but group B have no operative mortality. Admission period after operation is significantly short in Group B (7.5+/-2.7 day vs 5.4+/-2.1 day, p<0.01). These results suggest there were no significant difference in characters of patients between Group A and B. But surgical treatment of intussusception in 1990s was more conservative than that in 1970s. We expect that recent surgical treatment lead early recovery from operation and early discharge from hospital.
Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Intussusception* ; Leukocyte Count ; Male ; Medical Records ; Mortality ; Sex Ratio ; Vomiting

No abstract available.