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

PURPOSE: To report the anatomic and visual results of triple surgery in patients with cataract and rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. METHODS: This retrospective study examined 11 cases of phakic detachment. All 11 eyes had both rhegmatogenous retinal detachment and cataract. For these, a triple procedure involving pars plana vitrectomy, cataract surgery and posterior chamber intraocular lens (PCL) insertion was performed. Intraocular lens (IOL) power calculation was performed in the diseased or both eyes. RESULTS: A clear intraoperative view of the fundus was obtained in all cases. The retina was reattached by triple surgery in 9 eyes. In one failed case, there had been extensive detachment with preoperative proliferative vitreoretinopathy grade C type 1. In the other case, retinal detachment recurred due to a new break. The two failed eyes obtained anatomic success by reoperation. Preoperative visual acuity (hand movement/10cm to 0.2) was improved (finger count/20cm to 0.8). There were 2 visual imbalances of -8.0 diopter and -10.0 diopter due to miscalculation of IOL power. CONCLUSIONS: In selective cases, combined triple surgery spares the patient repeat surgery and can offer a more rapid visual rehabilitation by clearly identifying the breaks and avoiding delays in detachment repair. To avoid miscalculation, IOL power must be calculated in both eyes, especially in cases of macular detachment.
Cataract Extraction* ; Cataract* ; Humans ; Lens Implantation, Intraocular* ; Lenses, Intraocular* ; Rehabilitation ; Reoperation ; Retina ; Retinal Detachment* ; Retinaldehyde* ; Retrospective Studies ; Visual Acuity ; Vitrectomy* ; Vitreoretinopathy, Proliferative

BACKGROUND: The estimation of coronary flow velocity(CFV) is essential for assessing the impaired coronary flow reserve in patients whith angina pectoris and normal coronary arteries. But, intracoronary blood flow velocity measurement remains invasive,requiring cardiac catheterization and can not be repeated without risk during serial follow-up study. Transesophageal Doppler echocardiography(TEE) is a new noninvasive method of assessing CFV in the proximal portion of left anterior descending coronary artery. This study was performed to clarify the value of TEE in evaluating CFV, to compare the coronary flow patterns among various cardiac diseases, to estimate the coronary flow dynamics according to change of blood pressure, and to evaluate the parameters influencing CFV. METHODS: We studied 95 subjects, 51 men and 44 women, mean age 46. Normotensive subjects were 29, hypertensive patients 41, aortic stenosis 5, aortic regurgitation 4, mitral stenosis 8, and others 8. After transthoracic echocardiography(H-P Sonos 1000,2.5 MHz), transesophageal echocardiography was performed using a 5-Hz(omniplane)transesophageal probe connected to a H-P Sonos 1000 to assess CFV in the proximal portion of left anterior descending coronary artery. Doppler evaluation of left anterior descending coronary blood flow velocity was obtained in restiong conditions and after sublingual administraion of nitroglycerim(0.6mg), Blook pressure and heart rate were monitored thoughout the entire procedure. RESULTS: 1) The detection rate of CFV by TEE was 89.5%. 2) The morphology of CFV in proximal left anterior descending coronary artery was biphasic(greater diastolic and smaller systolic). 3) The baseline CFV in hypertensive patients was greater than in normotensive subjects(p<0.05) but there was no difference between two groups in diastolic/systolic CFV ratio. 4) The diastolic CFV and diastolic/systolic CFV ratio in patients with aortic stenosis were greater than in normotensive subjects(p<0.05). 5) The CFV was significantly decreased after administration of nitroglycerin(p<0.05) and the decrement of CFV correlated closely with the decrement of systolic(r=0.65, p<0.05) and diastolic blood pressure(r=0.57, p<0.05). 6) Major parameters influencing CFV were systolic blood pressure and heart rate. CONCLUSION: The CFV is influenced by various parameters and the TEE may be a useful, noninvasive tool to investigate the coronary flow dynamics.
Angina Pectoris ; Aortic Valve Insufficiency ; Aortic Valve Stenosis ; Blood Flow Velocity ; Blood Pressure ; Cardiac Catheterization ; Cardiac Catheters ; Coronary Vessels ; Echocardiography, Doppler* ; Echocardiography, Transesophageal ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Heart Diseases ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Male ; Mitral Valve Stenosis

PURPOSE: To investigate the accuracy and reproducibility of Optical Low Coherence Reflectometry (OLCR) corneal thickness measurements compared with the Orbscan system and ultrasound pachymeter (IOPac, Mentor). METHODS: Two examiners measured corneal thicknesses of 78 normal eyes and in 36 eyes that had undergone LASIK, and five sequential measurements of corneal thickness with OLCR, Orbscan system, Mentor, and IOPac were performed. Remeasurements of corneal thickness in 24 normal eyes were performed after two days to investigate intra-examiner reproducibility. RESULTS: The average corneal thickness measured in normal subjects was 536.3+/-23.8 micrometer in OLCR, 542.4+/-25.3 micrometer in the Orbscan system, 535.4+/-23.7 micrometer in Mentor, and 534.2+/-24.1 micrometer in IOPac. The average corneal thickness measured in patients who had undergone LASIK was 487.3+/-30.8 micrometer in OLCR, 492.5+/-36.5 micrometer in the Orbscan system, 487.5+/-30.8 micrometer in Mentor, and 485.3+/-30.8 micrometer in IOPac. There was no statistically significant difference between the four pachymeters. The inter-examiner and intra-examiner reproducibilities were shown to be highly reliable. CONCLUSIONS: The OLCR showed similar measurments of corneal thickness with the Orbscan system and ultrasound pachymeter, and showed no difference in reproducibility with different examiners.
Corneal Pachymetry* ; Humans ; Keratomileusis, Laser In Situ ; Mentors ; Ultrasonography*