No abstract available.
Moyamoya Disease*

BACKGROUND: Recently elderly people have increased in Korea and increased demands of medical service. This study was carried out to identify diseases and health service utilization patterns of geriatric inpatients to provide better understanding and basis planning to meet the needs of expanding geriatric population. METHOD: We use data of `Patient Survey in Korea` in 1999 and analyzed characteristics of disease structure and utilization patterns of health care service of 54,013 cases of discharged patients aged 65 years or more. RESULT: The proportion of the elderly in total discharged patients is 14.7%. Male to female ratio is 1:1.3 and most common age group was between 65 and 69 years old. 84.2% of elderly patients were admitted at secondary or tertiary health care facilities. The most common disease in geriatric inpatients is malig- nancy in male and vascular disease in female. The average duration of hospitalization is 14.2 days. They stay longer than the nation wide average hospital length and stay longest when they are admitted by mental and behavioral disorders. CONCLUSION: Geriatric patients are admitted mostly with chronic degenerative diseases such as neoplasm and vascular disease. Elders prefer to be admitted to tertiary hospitals and oriental hospitals. They stay more in hospital.
Aged ; Delivery of Health Care ; Female ; Health Services* ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Inpatients* ; Korea ; Male ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Vascular Diseases

Angiokeratoma circumscriptum is present at birth or early childhood and is an uncommon dermatosis characterized by papules and small nodules that may coalesce to form plaques. Histopathologically, there are varying degrees of hyperkeratosis, papillomatosis, and irregular acanthosis. In the papillary dermis, greatly dilated capillaries are observed, The acanthotic epidermis encircles the vascular spaces(blood cysts) where, occasionally, organized thrombi may be found. The use of pulsed-dye lasers to treat cutaneous vascular lesions is based on the theory of selective photothermolysis. We report a case of an angiokeratoma circumscriptum in an 48-year-old woman for whom the flashlamp pulsed tunable dye laser proved to be a highly successful means of treatment.
Angiokeratoma* ; Capillaries ; Dermis ; Epidermis ; Female ; Humans ; Lasers, Dye* ; Middle Aged ; Papilloma ; Parturition ; Skin Diseases

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanism of endothelium-dependent and independent responses to endothelins (ETs) in porcine coronary artery. METHODS: The vascular rings of left anterior descending artery or left circumflex artery from 7 pigs were suspended in conventional organ chambers for the measurement of isometric force. To evaluate relaxation responses, vascular rings with endothelium were exposed to ET-1 and ET-3. To evaluate contraction responses, vascular rings with and without endothelium were exposed to ET-1 and ET-3 in the presence or absence of BQ 123 (ET(A) receptor antagonist) or TAK-044 (ET(A) and ET(B) receptor antagonist). RESULTS: Transient relaxation responses of vascular rings occurred after exposure of ET-1 and ET-3. These transient responses disappeared after preincubation with N-nitro-L arginine. There was an increased contractions of vascular rings according to increasing concentration of ET-1 and ET-3. The initial responses were enhanced in vascular rings without endothelium in ET-1 and ET-3. In vascular rings with endothelium, the contraction responses were more reduced in vascular rings with preincubation of BQ 123 than in vascular rings without BQ 123 in ET-1. In vascular rings without endothelium, the contraction responses were more reduced in vascular rings with preincubation of TAK-044 than in vascular rings without TAK-044 in ET-1. CONCLUSION: ET(B) receptor on the endothelium might mediate the transient vasodilator responses to ET-1 and ET-3 through release of nitric oxide in porcine coronary artery. ET(A) and ET(B) receptor on vascular smooth muscle cells might mediate vasoconstrictor responses to ETs.
Arginine ; Arteries ; Coronary Vessels* ; Endothelins* ; Endothelium ; Muscle, Smooth, Vascular ; Nitric Oxide ; Receptors, Endothelin ; Relaxation ; Swine

No abstract available.
Animals ; Cats* ; Reflex*

BACKGROUND: Systemic anticoagulation therapy has been recommended to prevent subacute thrombosis after intracoronary stening. Recent data, however, suggest that antiplatelet therapy might be an effective alternative to anticoagulation therapy. We evaluated the effect of antithrombotic regimens on subacute thrombosis and short-term clinical course after successful implantation of Cordis coronary stent, which is a flexible, balloon expandable, radiopaque tantalum stent. METHOD: Two hundred and seventy-five consecutive patients with 290 lesions were treated with 356 Cordis stents implantation. According to post-stent antithrombotic regimen, patients were divided into three groups ; 165 patients with 175 lesions received aspirin 200mg/day, ticlopidine 500mg/day and warfarin for one month(Group 1), 66 patients with 69 lesions received aspirin and ticlopidine(Group 2) and 44 patients with 46 lesions received aspirin alone(Group 3) after successful Cordis stenting. RESULTS: The overall procidural success rates were 97.7% in group 1, 98.6% in group 2 and 100% in group 3. More than 65 percents of the patients were eligible for elective stenting aspirin, ticlopidine and warfarin, 0% in patients with aspirin and ticlopidine, and 6.8% in patients assigned to the treatment with aspirin alone. CONCLUSION: The Cordis coronary stent is an effective endovascular stent in various clinical indications including unstable angina and acute myocardial infarction. Antiplatelet therapy using aspirin and ticlopidine after successful Cordis coronary stenting is promising alternative to anticoagulation therapy to overcome the drawbacks of stenting. However, post-stent antithrombotic therapy with aspirin alone is associated with significant rate of stent thrombosis.
Angina, Unstable ; Aspirin ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Humans ; Korea* ; Myocardial Infarction ; Stents* ; Tantalum ; Thrombosis ; Ticlopidine ; Warfarin

Interest in the prevalence of patent foramen ovale(PFO) and its relation to embolic stroke has increased with the sophistication of methods for noninvasive cardiac assessment. The effect of foramen ovale closure on the risk for subsequent strokes is promised. A 22-year old woman was presented with sudden onset of cerebral infarct. She had a patent formen ovale, and right to left shunt during the Valsalva maneuver, which was diagnosed by transesophageal contrast echocardiography. Transcatheter closure of PFO was performed with Rashkind PDA umbrella under the guidance of transesophageal echocardiography. Transcatheter closure of PFO can be accomplised with little morbidity and may reduce the risk of embolic episode.
Echocardiography ; Echocardiography, Transesophageal* ; Female ; Foramen Ovale ; Foramen Ovale, Patent* ; Humans ; Prevalence ; Stroke* ; Valsalva Maneuver ; Young Adult

No abstract available.
Neurons* ; Reflex*

Two cases of abnormalities of the left ventricular wall(left ventricular aneurysm or diverticulum) are presented. A saccular deformity of the left ventricle may be and aneurysm or a diverticulum. In one case, the defect seems to be subcalvular aneurysm(or fibrous diverticulum) or aneurysm of the membranous ventricular septum; this lesion seems to be a natural consequence of spontaneous closure of a defect of the membranous septum. The other case, it seems that the defect is ventricular aneurysm with syndrome of myocardial infarction and normal coronary arteries, or double or accessory chambered left ventricle. The thromboembolic phenomenon was noted on a left frontoparietal lobe of brain. Both cases have the diagnosis supported by cardiac catheterization and angiography. The clinical, angiographic and pathologic characteristic of diverticulum and aneurysm of the heart are reviewed, and an attempt is made to clarify the concept of aneurysm and diverticulum of the heart.
Aneurysm* ; Angiography ; Brain ; Cardiac Catheterization ; Cardiac Catheters ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Coronary Vessels ; Diagnosis ; Diverticulum* ; Heart ; Heart Ventricles* ; Myocardial Infarction ; Ventricular Septum

BACKGROUND: This study was performed to investigate the relationship between the extent of hippocampal resection and the postsurgical memory outcome in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). METHODS: In 36 patients with TLE, the longitudinal distances of pre-surgical hippocampus and post-surgical hippocampal remnant were measured on 3 mm thick coronal MRI images perpendicular to the long axis of hippocampus. Memory tests were performed before and 1 year after the surgery. The relationships of the extent of hippocampal resection (EHR) and the asymmetry index of Wada retention memory scores (WAI) with postsurgical memory outcomes were tested. RESULTS: The ratios of post-surgical/pre-surgical scores in immediate and delayed verbal memory and immediate, delayed and recognition visual memory were not significantly correlated with the EHR. Only verbal recognition memory was positively correlated with the EHR. In TLE of the dominant hemisphere, the ratios of post-surgical/pre-surgical scores of verbal and visual memories were not significantly correlated with the EHR, but the WAIs were significantly correlated with the delayed visual memory changes (p<0.05). In TLE of the non-dominant hemisphere, the ratios of post-surgical/pre-surgical scores of delayed verbal and immediate visual memory (in percentiles) were positively correlated with the EHR (p<0.05). However, a linear regression analysis showed that none of postsurgical memory subtypes were significantly correlated with the EHR. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that the extent of hippocampal resection itself does not have a significant relationship with the outcome of postsurgical memory in patients with mesial TLE.
Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe* ; Hippocampus ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Memory* ; Temporal Lobe*