No abstract available.
Electroencephalography* ; Humans ; Neurologic Manifestations* ; Seizures*

To measure the mutagenic activity of micro-organic pollutants in drinking water, mutagenic test was conducted using Salmnella typhimurium TA 98 strain on the water sample taken from three water supply station and six tap water in Seoul in July and November 1987. The results were as follows : 1. The average amounts of organic matters in raw, treated, and tap water sampled in July were 0.38mg/l, 0.28mg/l, and 0.45mg/l, respectively, and sampled in November were 0.34mg/l, 0.24mg/l, and 0.22mg/l, respectively. The amount of organic matters of tap water sampled in November did not increase while that of tap water sampled in July increased compare to those of raw or treated water. 2. The amount of organic matters is the highest in neutral fraction compare to acidic and basic fractions. 3. In the five out of six tap water and raw water of Paldang and Kuui station sampled in July, the mutagenic ratios were greater than two (both direct and indirect mutagenicity). 4. In the three out six tap water and raw and treated water of Kuui station sampled in November, the mutagenic ratios were greater than two. 5. While mutagenic were low in acidic and basic fraction, they were high in neutral fraction. The samples which had high mutagenic activity in the total amount also showed high mutagenic activity in neutral fraction. 6. While mutagenic activity was decreased after the treatment of water, it was increased in tap water as the distance from the water supply station increases.
Drinking Water* ; Drinking* ; Seoul* ; Water ; Water Supply

No abstract available in English.
Clinical Study ; Femur ; Hip Fractures

Background & Objective: Although the clinical manifestations and outcomes of neuralgic amyotrophy have been previously described, some controversies remain. Thus, we evaluated clinical manifestations and outcomes of patients with neuralgic amyotrophy. Methods: We evaluated the clinical and electrodiagnostic data, and the outcomes, of 32 patients with neuralgic amyotrophy.Of the 32 patients, 26 were followed-up for one year after onset of the disease.Results:The initial symptoms were pain (50.0%), pain with weakness (21.9%), other sensory symptoms without weakness (6.3%), and painless weakness or atrophy (21.9%). The commonly involved nerves were the median (75.0%), radial (68.8%), suprascapular (50.0%), ulnar (50.0%), axillary (46.9%), and musculocutaneous (40.6%) nerves. The initial symptoms were not associated with nerve involvement. Of all patients, 59% recovered fully, 16% had residual mild weakness without functional disability, and 6% experienced persistent severe weakness and were unable to return to work. Some patients were not evaluated because they were lost to follow-up. Conclusions: Painless weakness as an initial symptom of neuralgic amyotrophy may be more common than previously noted. Of all patients, 75% enjoyed favorable outcomes by one year after disease onset. These results will be useful when planning treatment strategies and will deepen our understanding of prognosis of neuralgic amyotrophy.
Brachial Plexus Neuritis

The authors report eight cases of thoracic stenosis due to ossification of ligamentum flavum. Motor and sensory deficits were found in all cases and urinary incontinence was found in one case. Diagnosis was made from simple x-rays, myelography, computerized tomography, myelography-CT, and magnetic resonance imaging. Treatment consisted of sufficient posterior decompressive laminectomy and medial facetectomy which resulted in satisfactory improvement in 6 cases, fair course in 1 case and poor course in 1 case.
Constriction, Pathologic* ; Diagnosis ; Laminectomy ; Ligamentum Flavum* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Myelography ; Urinary Incontinence

Spinal stenosis has several types of etiology such as degenerative, spondylolisthetic and postoperative, etc. Operative management for spinal stenosis is adequate decompression and stabilization of the unstable lumbar spine created by the decompressive procedure. We analysed 52 operative cases of spinal stenosis delete from January 1994 to October 1996. The following results were obtained 1) The male and female ratio was 1:1.9 and mean age was 52.1 years old 2) Mean follow-up period was 20.3 months 3) The involved site was one level in(28)(53.9%), two level in(19)(36.5%), and three levels in(5)(9.6%) 4) For decompression method, total laminectomy combined with foraminotomy and facetectomy was employed procedure. 5) For stabilization, bilateral posterolateral fusion was performed in major damaged facet joint and transverse process. Instrumentation was combined in 61.5% delete of all cases 6) According to the criteria of Kirkaldy-willis, excellent and good results were shown in 90.6% of fused group with instrumentation and 85% of fused group without instrumentation.
Decompression ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Foraminotomy ; Humans ; Laminectomy ; Male ; Spinal Stenosis* ; Spine ; Zygapophyseal Joint

Branchial cleft cysts and branchial anomalies develop from the branchial cleft apparatus that persists after fetal development. The most common anatomical site for the occurrence of branchial cleft cysts is in the cervical area, generally anterior to the sternomastoid muscle in the upper or middle portion of the neck. A mediastinal branchial cleft cyst is extremely rare and few cases have been reported. We report the case of branchial cleft cyst found in the anterior mediastinum with literature review.
Branchial Region ; Branchioma ; Fetal Development ; Mediastinal Cyst ; Mediastinum ; Muscles ; Neck ; Thorax ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

BACKGROUNDS/AIMS: Growth of tumors and their metastases is dependent on factors that stimulate vessel formation (angiogenesis). Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is closely related to angiogenesis in various human cancers. The aim of this study was to determine the value of serum VEGF levels in hepatocellular carcinomas as a tumor marker. METHODS: We measured serum VEGF levels, by enzyme immunoassay, and platelet counts in healthy controls (n=22), liver cirrhosis (LC; n=4) and hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC; n=14). RESULTS: The mean serum VEGF levels in controls and the patients with LC and HCC were 251.8+/-121.5 (mean+/-SD), 163.4+/-82.1 and 557.8+/-520.3pg/ml, respectively. The levels were significantly elevated in the HCC group, compared with the control group (p<0.05). Serum VEGF levels in the HCC group were highly correlated with platelet counts (r=0.915, p<0.05). Conclusions : We consider that serum VEGF is a possible tumor marker for HCC. Serum VEGF may be partly derived from platelets.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Platelet Count ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A*

OBJECTIVE: Stenotrophomonas maltophilia has been emerging as an important nosocomial pathogen in recent years in patients with impaired host- defense mechanism or who has been exposed to large amount of inocula. This organism is usually resistant to multiple (commonly used) antimicrobial agents, particularly to those of the beta-lactam class. To evaluate the clinical feature of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia infection and in vitro anti- microbial susceptibility, we performed a retrospective study. METHODS: We analyzed the result of in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility test for 200 isolates of S. maltophilia and the annual isolation rate during the period between January 1990 and December 1994 in our institution, and performed a retrospective study for the available records of 165 cases among them. The data were obtained with only the first isolation of the organism for each patients. RESULTS: Total of 165 initial isolates, the isolates were from wounds in 50(30.3%), urine in 47(28.5%), the respiratory tract in 37(22.4%), blood in 9(5.5%), bile in 6(3.6%), and miscellaneous sources in 16(9.7%). The 84.2% of isolates were hospital-acquired isolate and 58.3% of these patients had received antecedent antibiotic therapy: polymicrobial growth was demonstrated in 61.9% of the cases. In vitro antimicrobial susceptibiiity test, ofloxacin was active against the isolates in 89.2%, moxalactam in 85.9%, ciprofloxacin in 83.9%, TMP-SMX(trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole) in 64.2%, As expected, S. maltophilia isolates were, in general, not susceptible to cephalosporins, penicillins. The annual isolation rate at Kyung Hee University hospital was not increased significantly from 1990 to 1994, 19.53 per 10,000 patients dismissals in 1990, 13.56 in 1994. The major underlying diseases of patients were malignancy(17.6%), cerebrovascular disorder(17%), diabetic mellitus(13.3%). Mortality rate is 10.3%. CONCLUSION: S. maltophilia has been emerging as an important nosocomial pathogen in immunocompromised patients, especially those receiving broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy. And this organism is resistant to multiple antimicrobial agents, particularly to those of the beta-lactam class. When antimicrobial treatment is necessary, the clinician should be guided by results of in vitro susceptibility testing because of the notable in vitro resistance of S. maltophilia to commonly used antibiotics. And when S. maltophilia has been recovered from a patient, wound and contact isolation is warranted.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Anti-Infective Agents ; Bile ; Cephalosporins ; Ciprofloxacin ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Mortality ; Moxalactam ; Ofloxacin ; Penicillins ; Respiratory System ; Retrospective Studies ; Stenotrophomonas maltophilia ; Stenotrophomonas* ; Wounds and Injuries

Clinically, multiple system atrophy is difficult to differentiate from other basal ganglia disorders such as idiopathic Parkinson's disease or other types of cerebellar ataxia. The "hot cross bun"sign is a radiological sign which, it has been claimed, is highly specific for multiple system atrophy, and we describe four cases in which this sign occurred. In one patient, multiple system atrophy was clinically diagnosed, but in the other three, the respective clinical diagnosis was spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, type 2 (genetically), and old cerebellar hemorrhage. We therefore suggest that the hot cross bun sign reflects degeneration of transverse pontocerebellar fibers and is not a pathognomic sign of multiple system atrophy.
Basal Ganglia Diseases ; Cerebellar Ataxia ; Diagnosis ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Movement Disorders* ; Multiple System Atrophy ; Parkinson Disease ; Spinocerebellar Ataxias