No abstract available.
Heart* ; Thoracic Surgery*

No abstract available.
Abscess*

No abstract available.
Adult* ; Fistula* ; Humans

Fourteen consecutive patients underwent application of V.S.P(Variable Screw Placement) spinal plate between January 1989 and July 1989. Operative indications were spondylolisthesis, spinal stenosis, segmental instability, herniated disc with instability, pseudoarthrosis. unstable fracture, and failed surgery syndrome. Our patients consist of 8 cases of spondylolisthesis, 4 cases of fracture-dislocation, one case of spondylolysis with instability, one case of herniated disc(L1- 2 interspace). Overall results showed 36% excellent, 50% good, 7% fair, 7% poor. Two deep wound infections were observed. Screw alignment and the angular relationship of each screw to the spinal plate is considered as important technical factors in minimizing screw failure.
Humans ; Intervertebral Disc Displacement ; Pseudarthrosis ; Spinal Stenosis ; Spine* ; Spondylolisthesis ; Spondylolysis ; Wound Infection

Nuclear medicine imaging is widely used in pain medicine. Low back pain is commonly encountered by physicians, with its prevalence from 49% to 70%. Computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are usually used to evaluate the cause of low back pain, however, these findings from these scans could also be observed in asymptomatic patients. Bone scintigraphy has an additional value in patients with low back pain. Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is defined as a painful disorder of the extremities, which is characterized by sensory, autonomic, vasomotor, and trophic disturbances. To assist the diagnosis of CRPS, three-phase bone scintigraphy is thought to be superior compared to other modalities, and could be used to rule out CRPS due to its high specificity. Studies regarding the effect of bone scintigraphy in patients with extremity pain have not been widely conducted. Ultrasound, CT and MRI are widely used imaging modalities for evaluating extremity pain. However, SPECT/CT has an additional role in assessing pain in the extremities.
Diagnosis ; Diagnostic Imaging ; Extremities ; Humans ; Low Back Pain ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Nuclear Medicine ; Prevalence ; Radionuclide Imaging* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Ultrasonography

This study represents an attempt to present an analysis of early surgical results in 15 cases of aortic surgery conducted at Chonnam University Hospital between February 1994 to August 1995. The subject, 9 males and 6 females, ranged in age from 32 to 73 years with a mean age of 55.07+/-11.76 years. The patients were treated for dissecting aortic aneurysm in nine, atherosclerotic aneurysm in 4, and traumatic aortic aneurysm in two. There were 9 cases of median sternotomy, 4 cases of posterolateral thoracotomy, and 2 cases of thoracoabdominal incision. Graft replacement of ascending aorta and/or partial or total aortic arch were performed in 9 patients, descending aorta and/or thoracoabdominal aorta in 3 and total aorta in 1. Two traumatic aortic aneurysms were closed directly. Associate procedures were resuspension of aortic valve in three patients and elephant trunk procedure, coronary reimplantation and aortic valve replacement in one patient. Nine patients underwent operation for ascending aorta and/or aortic arch with retrograde cerebral perfusion during deep hypothermia and circulatory arrest. Perfusion pressure was maintained below 25 mmHg and the mean duration of circulatory arrest was 56.67+/-29.25 minutes. Three patients underwent graft replacement of desending thoracic and thoracoabdominal aorta during deep hypothermia and circulatory arrest. Three patients died of traumatic bile peritonitis, multioragn failure, and rupture of residual dissecting aortic aneurysm by malignant hypertension. Postoperative complications included reoperation for bleeding in 4 patients, temporary confusion in 3, pulmonary complication in 3, and pericardial effusion in 1.
Aneurysm ; Aorta ; Aorta, Thoracic ; Aortic Aneurysm ; Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic* ; Aortic Valve ; Bile ; Elephants ; Female ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hypertension, Malignant ; Hypothermia ; Jeollanam-do ; Male ; Perfusion ; Pericardial Effusion ; Peritonitis ; Postoperative Complications ; Reoperation ; Replantation ; Rupture ; Sternotomy ; Thoracotomy ; Transplants

BACKGROUND: Different types of injury to the sciatic nerve branches produces different levels of each kind of nociception. In this study, we undertook to identify the nature of the partial sciatic nerve injury that affects nociceptive reaction to subcutaneous formalin injection, and to determine the branch of the sciatic nerve involved. METHODS: Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 4 groups, control group (n = 9) in which a sham operation was performed, a sural nerve transection group (n = 5), a tibial nerve transection group (n = 5), and a common peroneal nerve transection group (n = 5). Under enflurane anesthesia, sural, tibial, or common peroneal nerves were injured and responses to formalin test were compared for the four groups 24 hours after surgery. RESULTS: Pain behavior in the tibial and common peroneal nerve transected groups reduced in phase 2, but not in phase 1, while sural nerve transected group showed no change in response in either phase. CONCLUSIONS: Tibial and common peroneal nerves mainly affect phase 2 reaction in the formalin test in this partial sciatic nerve injury model.
Anesthesia ; Animals ; Control Groups ; Enflurane ; Formaldehyde* ; Models, Animal ; Nociception ; Pain Measurement* ; Peroneal Nerve ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sciatic Nerve* ; Sciatic Neuropathy ; Sural Nerve ; Tibial Nerve

Arteriovenous malformation (AVM) consists of an abnormal connection between artery and vein without any interposed capillary bed, and is usually congenital. However, acquired AVM is quite rare, and is usually caused by injury, which induces direct arteriovenous shunting. Acquired digital AVM is a distinct entity, which was first described by Kadono et al. in 2000, and was thought to result from shunts between an artery and a vein in a finger tip. We report a case of acquired digital AVM in a 44-year-old women. The patient showed punctate hyperketatotic ectasia on the pulp of the right thumb. Histological finding showed dilated venous and arterial vessels in upper and lower dermis, and shunts between arteriols and venules.
Adult ; Arteries ; Arteriovenous Malformations* ; Capillaries ; Dermis ; Dilatation, Pathologic ; Female ; Fingers ; Humans ; Thumb ; Veins ; Venules

BACKGROUND: Leprosy is an infectious disease with two polar forms, tuberculoid leprosy (TT) and lepromatous leprosy (LL), that are characterized by strong cell-mediated immunity (CMI) and CMI anergy, respectively. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) is a family of growth factors involved in essential physiological processes, including development, differentiation, tissue repair, cell growth control and inflammation. Cellular signaling by TGF-beta family members is initiated by the assembly of specific cell surface receptors that activate transcription factors of the Smad family. Deregulation of the TGF-beta-Smad signaling pathway has been implicated in developmental disorders and several human diseases. Recently, ELISA & immunohistochemistry revealed high expression of TGF-beta isoforms in LL. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate TGF-beta-Smad signaling in various forms of leprosy. METHODS: We investigated the involvement of TGF-beta by immunohistochemical staining for Smad 2 and 3 in skin biopsies from six patients of BL and four patients of TT. RESULTS: The inflammatory cells, keratinocytes and fibroblasts in BL showed strong positivity for both Smad 2 and 3, whereas those in TT showed little positivity. CONCLUSION: The high expression of Smad 2/3 in BL could represent high expression of TGF-beta, which possibly contributes to local CMI anergy and other clinical characteristic features of leprosy.
Biopsy ; Communicable Diseases ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Fibroblasts ; Humans ; Immunity, Cellular ; Immunohistochemistry ; Inflammation ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Keratinocytes ; Leprosy* ; Leprosy, Lepromatous ; Leprosy, Tuberculoid ; Physiological Processes ; Protein Isoforms ; Receptors, Cell Surface ; Skin ; Transcription Factors ; Transforming Growth Factor beta

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Spontaneous progression of severe congestive heart failure is structurally characterized by cellular degeneration and multiple foci of myocardial cell death. The cardiac troponin I (cTnI), one of the subunits of the troponin regulatory complex, binds to actin and inhibits interaction between actin and myosin. cTnI is uniquely expressed in the adult human myocardium, and an increase in its circulating levels is highly indicative of myocardial injury. In this study, we addressed the usefulness of cTnI as a sensitive and specific molecular marker for severity in patients with congestive heart failure. MethodscTnI, creatinin kinase-MB (CK-MB), and myoglobin were assessed in 59 patients with severe congestive heart failure diagnosed by the echo-cardiography and gated equilibrium blood pool heart scan. Also we assesed cTnI, creatinin kinase-MB (CK-MB), and myoglobin in 25 persons without cardiac disease in echocardiography. RESULTS: 1) The cTnI con-centration was 89.6+/-69.3 pg/mL in patients with congestive heart failure and its level was greater than that of the control group (22.4+/-17.1, p=0.001). 2) The cTnI level differed significantly according to left ventricular ejection fraction (EF), 117.3+/-73.8 pg/mL in patients with EF\<40% (28 patients), 66.3+/-44.5 pg/mL in patients with EF> or =40% (31 patients), 22.4+/-17.1 pg/mL in the control group (25 persons) (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: cTnI was useful as a specific and sensitive serum molecular marker in patients of congestive heart failure. And its level reflected the severity of congestive heart failure.
Actins ; Adult ; Cell Death ; Echocardiography ; Equidae ; Estrogens, Conjugated (USP)* ; Heart ; Heart Diseases ; Heart Failure* ; Humans ; Myocardium ; Myoglobin ; Myosins ; Stroke Volume ; Troponin I* ; Troponin*