PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of scatter correction on the assessment of myocardial perfusion and left ventricular function by gated Tc-99m myocardial SPECT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subjects were 11 normal volunteers, 20 patients with non-cardiac chest pain and 13 patients with coronary artery diseases. We classified above 3 groups into normal and diseased groups. Scatter correction was done using dual-energy-window scatter correction method (DEW-SC). We compared acquired counts, image contrast, corrected maximum relative counts, indices of left ventricular function, extent and severity of perfusion defects calculated by 'CEqual program' between scatter non-corrected and corrected images. RESULTS: Scatter corrected studies was lower in counts by 18+/-3% than uncorrected studies, but image contrast were improved in all cases. Scatter correction using DEW-SC took 3 minutes to complete, and 512 kB memory to store. There were no significant differences among indices of left ventricular function between scatter non-corrected and corrected images. Although extents of perfusion defects were not significantly different, severity was severer in scatter corrected images. CONCLUSION: Scatter correction using DEW-SC is simple to do, and improves image contrast without changing other indices of myocardial perfusion and function.
Chest Pain ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Memory ; Perfusion* ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon* ; Ventricular Function, Left*

Ovarian leiomyoma is a rare form of the ovarian mesenchymal neoplasm and about 50 cases have been reported in the literature. It is believed that many cases may go unnoticed because they are usually small in size and frequently mistaken for the more common fibroma or fibrothecoma. Its origin is still controversial and many possibilities are considered including the smooth muscle in the blood vessel wall of the hilum or the multipotential ovarian stromal cell. Herein we describe two cases of ovarian leiomyoma with its characteristic histologic finding.
Blood Vessels ; Female ; Fibroma ; Leiomyoma* ; Muscle, Smooth ; Ovary* ; Stromal Cells

OBJECTIVE: It has been reported that the sleep apnea syndrome in the asthmatic patients is prevalent, however, the systematic study in this field using polysomnography has rarely been performed. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and the pulmonary function in asthmatic children. METHODS: This study enrolled 19 male and 12 female asthmatic children aged 6-13 years (average 8.2+/-1.7 years old). Complete overnight polysomnography and pulmonary function test were performed for the participants. RESULTS: Of the 31 asthmatic children, 21 (67.7%) met the diagnostic criteria of the pediatric sleep apnea and the average AHI was 1.7+/-1.5/h. The children with higher AHI showed poorer pulmonary function (FEV1/FVC ratio : p=0.002, FEV1%pred : p=0.047). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the prevalence of the pediatric sleep apnea could be very high among the asthmatic children and the severity of the sleep apnea correlates with the pulmonary function. However, the case-control study to compare the AHI between the asthma and control groups is absolutely necessary because few normative data are available for the children.
Aged ; Asthma ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Polysomnography ; Prevalence ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Sleep Apnea Syndromes

PURPOSE: Myocardial SPECT is an effective test for detecting coronary artery disease in the general population. But the diagnostic accuracy between sexes is not defined. The purpose of this study is to compare the diagnostic accuracy between males and females. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and seventy seven male and 98 female patients who underwent myocardial SPECT within 1 month of coronary angiography were studied. Myocardial SPECTs were considered abnormal if fixed or reversible perfusion defects were detected. Stenosis severity of > or = 50% luminal diameter reduction of any artery defined coronary artery disease (CAD). RESULTS: Overall sensitivity for detection of CAD was 98% in men and 97% in women (p=not significant). However, specificities, accuracies, and positive predictive values (PPV) in men and women were 49% vs 31% (p<0.05), 81% vs 57% (p<0.01), 78% vs 48% (P<0.01), respectively Diagnostic accuracies for detection of right coronary artery disease were not different in both sexes, however, accuracies for detection of left anterior descending artery disease and left circumflex artery disease were significantly lower in female (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: A significant difference of diagnostic accuracy between sexes, especially in LAD and LCx disease, was noted. Artifacts from breast attenuation might be a cause for the lower diagnostic accuracy in female.
Arteries ; Artifacts ; Breast ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Perfusion* ; Phenobarbital ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

PURPOSE: This study was performed to evaluate the effect of TGF-beta on proliferation, collagen synthesis, migration, and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) secretion of human RPE cells in vitro. METHODS: The cultured human RPE cells were treated with either TGF-beta1 or TGF-beta2 in concentrations of 0, 0.1, 1, 10 ng/ml respectively. The cell number was measured in 3, 6, 9 days, and the collagen synthesis and cell migration was measured. [3H]-thimidine uptake assay was done to evaluate the change of DNA synthesis. And the secretions of MMP1, MMP2, MMP3, MMP9, TIMP1 (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase), and TIMP2 were measured by electrophoresis and Western blot analysis. RESULTS: TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 significantly inhibited the proliferation of RPE cells in a concentration -and time-dependent manner (p<0.05). [3H]-thymidine uptake was decreased by TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 in a concentration-dependant manner. The collagen synthesis of RPE cells was significantly increased by high concentration of TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta 2. However, the migration of RPE cells was not affected by TGF-beta. As the concentration of TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 increased, the secretions of MMP1, MMP2, MMP3 and MMP9 decreased, while the secretion of TIMP1 and TIMP2 increased after 72 hours. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 may have critical effect on the development of PVR and provide clues to possible therapeutic solutions for controlling PVR process.
Blotting, Western ; Cell Count ; Cell Movement ; Collagen* ; DNA ; Electrophoresis ; Epithelial Cells* ; Humans* ; Retinaldehyde* ; Transforming Growth Factor beta ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; Transforming Growth Factor beta2 ; Vitreoretinopathy, Proliferative

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to evaluate the reliability of the Korean version of Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM) and to compare the sensitivity of the SCIM to functional changes of spinal cord injury (SCI) patients with that of the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). METHOD: Seventeen subjects with SCI were studied. The SCIM was translated and modified to convert as SCIM Korean-version. All patients were evaluated with the SCIM and the FIM by two raters every other week. To determine inter-rater reliability, the relationship between the SCIM scores obtained by two raters was evaluated by Kappa coefficient and linear regression. To determine relative sensitivity of the test to functional changes, changes in the scores on the SCIM and FIM were compared by McNemar test. RESULTS: The Kappa coefficient of the various individual tasks in SCIM ranged between 0.63 and 1.00. High correlations were also found between the total SCIM scores for the paired raters (r=0.99, p<0.01). The SCIM detected all the functional changes detected by FIM total scoring, but in 3 (14%) of 22 sequential test batteries, the FIM missed changes detected by SCIM total scoring. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrated that the SCIM is reliable and more sensitive than the FIM in reflecting the functional changes of SCI patients.
Humans ; Linear Models ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord*

No abstract available.
Esophagus* ; Melanoma*

Mobius syndrome is generally considered to be a static disorder of congenital origin, and is manifested as unilateral or bilateral facial weakness and lateral gaze limitation. In most instances the syndrome occurs sporadically, but rarely familial cases have been reported. We report a family of three members with Mobius syndrome; a 7-year-old girl, a 6-year-old boy, and their 29-year-old mother. Each patient revealed facial diplegia, and unilateral or bilateral lateral rectus palsy. Brain MRI scans showed normal and there were no definite brainstem dysfunctions on electrophysiologic studies.
Abducens Nerve Diseases ; Adult ; Brain ; Brain Stem ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Mobius Syndrome* ; Mothers

Mobius syndrome is generally considered to be a static disorder of congenital origin, and is manifested as unilateral or bilateral facial weakness and lateral gaze limitation. In most instances the syndrome occurs sporadically, but rarely familial cases have been reported. We report a family of three members with Mobius syndrome; a 7-year-old girl, a 6-year-old boy, and their 29-year-old mother. Each patient revealed facial diplegia, and unilateral or bilateral lateral rectus palsy. Brain MRI scans showed normal and there were no definite brainstem dysfunctions on electrophysiologic studies.
Abducens Nerve Diseases ; Adult ; Brain ; Brain Stem ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Mobius Syndrome* ; Mothers

PURPOSE: The Pediatric Risk of Mortality(PRISM) III score was developed from the Physiologic Stability Index(PSI) to assess pediatric ICU mortality and Provide an objective data as a severity index. Although the PRISM score has been applied to many comparisions and analyses in previous studies, there are few reports applied to pediatric intensive care patients in Korea. To evaluate the effectiveness of the PRISM III score as a severity index for expecting mortality and find important variables influencing mortality, we applied this scoring scale to pediatric neurologic patients admitted to the ICU and analyzed the data statistically. METHODS: Data collection was done by careful review of medical records and scored each clinical variable. The outcome at discharge was determined as non-survival, survival, and hopeless discharge. Determination of mortality in the hopeless discharge group was done within 48 hours after discharge by telephone interview. The study populations were classified into four groups; CNS infection(26 patients), acute encephalopathy(31 patients), status epilepticus(35 patients) and cerebrovascular disorder(4 patients). The difference of the PRISM III score between the survival group and non-survival group was compared by using the nonparametric Mann~Whitney test in the entire study population and for each diagnostic group. To confirm the degree of fitness between the actual mortality and Predicted mortality, the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test, a multiple logistic regression model was used. All clinical variables used for scoring were compared for survivals and non-survivals by the Chi-square test. f values <0.05 were considered significant. RESULTS: The PRISM III score was significantly higher in the non-survival groups than in the survival group. Predicted mortality from the PRISM III score has fitted to actual mortality According to the results of analyses in each diagnostic groups, the PRISM III score was higher in non-survivals of the acute encephalopathy and CNS infection groups, but statistically insignificant in the cerebrovascular disorders and status epilepticus groups. The important variables of the PRISM III score associated with mortality were mental state, Pupil reflex, systolic blood pressure, acidosis, blood sodium level blood creatinine level, blood glucose level, and PT/PTT. , CONCLUSION: The PRISM III score is helpful in predicting mortality in pediatric intensive care neurologic patients, especially those in the acute encephalopathy or the CNS infection groups. However, this score was not useful in the status epilepticus group, and insignificant in cerebrovascular group. Due to the smallness of the study group, more massive and comprehensive studies are needed as a follow up to this study.
Acidosis ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Cerebrovascular Disorders ; Creatinine ; Data Collection ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Critical Care* ; Interviews as Topic ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Medical Records ; Mortality* ; Pupil ; Reflex ; Sodium ; Status Epilepticus