Twenty-four hands of eighteen patients of carpal tunnel syndrome were treated with two or times injection of 5 mg dexamethasone and three weeks splinting at the department of orthopedic surgery, Korea University Hospital From Jan. 1980 to Feb.1985. The results obtained were as follows; 1. Physical findings consisted of sensory disturbances in sixteen hands, positive Tinel sign in thirteen, positive Phalen test in eighteen and thenar atrophy in eight. 2. On electromyographic study, delay of motor conduction velocity of the median nerve was noted in twelve cases and sensory nerve velocity in fifteen. 3. Fifteen patients(eighteen cases) were followed up from 6 months to 30 months. Twelve cases(60%) were improved and three cases were recurred.
Atrophy ; Carpal Tunnel Syndrome ; Clinical Study ; Dexamethasone ; Hand ; Humans ; Korea ; Median Nerve ; Orthopedics ; Splints

No abstract available.
Diagnosis*

Since an exact ABO blood type match is essential for transfusion therapy, any ABO discrepancies should be resolved prior to the issuing of blood. The authors confirmed the ABO blood group of a 50-year-old male using genotyping. On a routine blood group test, the cell type was A+; however, anti-B was undetected in his serum. To determine the cause of this ABO discrepancy, an adsorption elution test and saliva test were performed. The presence of a weak B substance was suspected despite no evidence of the B antigen on red blood cells. Polymerase-chain-reaction restriction-fragment-length-polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and sequencing analysis of exons 6 and 7 demonstrated that his blood type was A1Bweak (the A allele tested as the A105 subtype, while the B allele was most similar to the B302 subtype). Again, using genotyping, we subsequently confirmed the A1Bweak blood type in a leukemic patient who was in complete remission.
Adsorption ; Alleles ; Erythrocytes ; Exons ; Humans ; Leukemia ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Saliva

BACKGROUND: ABO antibody titration is useful for the evaluation of ABO-incompatible bone marrow or solid organ transplantations, yet the results quite vary between different test methods used. We compared the results of microcolumn agglutination and tube methods. METHODS: Anti-A and anti-B isoagglutionin titers were determined in 63 healthy individuals (23 O, 20 A, and 20 B blood groups) using 4 different methods: immediate spin tube (tube), microcolumn agglutination without anti-human globulin (AHG) (CAT), tube with AHG (tube-AHG) and microcolumn agglutination with AHG (CAT-AHG). RESULTS: The median (range) titers of anti-A and anti-B in group O individuals by tube, CAT, tube-AHG, and CAT-AHG methods were 64 (8-512), 64 (8-512), 128 (8-2,048), and 128 (16-2,048); 64 (16-128), 128 (16-256), 128 (16-512), and 256 (16-512), respectively. The median (range) titers of anti-A in group B and anti-B in group A individuals by the four methods were 64 (16-128), 128 (8-128), 128 (8-256), and 256 (8-256); 64 (8-128), 64 (8-128), 32 (8-128), and 64 (8-256), respectively. The isoagglutinin titer measured by CAT-AHGmethod was the highest. The titers measured by CAT and CAT-AHG methods were 0-1 titer higher than those by tube and tube-AHG methods, respectively. Whatever method was used, the isoagglutinin titers were higher in women than in men. CONCLUSIONS: CAT-AHG was the most sensitive method among the four methods tested. Since AHG titer values are critical for the clinical management and CAT has less manual procedures than tube method, CAT-AHG method could be used for the standardization of ABO antibody titration in different institutions.
Agglutination ; Animals ; Bone Marrow ; Cats ; Female ; Humans ; Organ Transplantation ; Transplants

The term'ectopic pregnancy'refers to a gestation in which the fertilized ovum impl-ants on any tissue other than the mucous membrane lining the uterine cavity. The number of patients per year with an ectopic pregnancy is increasing. So we revi- ewed clinical characteristics of 503 cases of ectopic pregnancies, who were admitted and treated at the department of obstetrics and gynecology of Yeungnam University from July, 1991 to December, 1995. The results were as follows; 1. The incidence of ectopic pregnancy was 1 in 30 deliveries. 2. The most common age group was 26~30 years of age(34.5%). 3. According to obstetrical history, nullipara was 35.7% and the cases who experienced artificial abortion was 50.9%. 4. In past history, 50.9% of total cases has artificial abortion and 10.1% experienced previous ectopic pregnancy, tubal sterilization was 8.0%. 5. For chief complaints, lower abdominal pain was observed in 359 patient(71.0%), am- enorrhea in 238 patients(47.3%), and vaginal spotting in 209 patients(42.1%). 6. In oder of incidence, the site of ectopic pregnancy was fallopian tube(91.5%), cervix (1.4%) and ovary(0.8%). In tubal pregnancy, the most frequent implantation site was am- pullar portion in 373 cases(74.2%) and ruptured tubal pregnancies were 306 cases(60.8%). 7. The interval between last menstrual period(LMP) and onset of symptoms was gene- rally 6~8 weeks(36.3%). 8. 65.4% of total cases were treated by salpingectomy, 14.1% by pelviscopic operati- on, and 5.8% by salpingo-oophorectomy.
Abdominal Pain ; Cervix Uteri ; Female ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Incidence ; Metrorrhagia ; Mucous Membrane ; Obstetrics ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Ectopic* ; Pregnancy, Tubal ; Salpingectomy ; Sterilization, Tubal ; Zygote

Major pelvic ganglia (MPG) neurons are classified into sympathetic and parasympathetic neurons according to the electrophysiological properties; membrane capacitance (Cm), expression of T-type Ca2+ channels, and the firing patterns during depolarization. In the present study, function and molecular expression of ATP-sensitive K+ (K(ATP)) channels was investigated in MPG neurons of male rats. Only in parasympathetic MPG neurons showing phasic firing patterns, hyperpolarizing changes were elicited by the application of diazoxide, an activator of K(ATP) channels. Glibenclamide (10microM), a K(ATP) channel blocker, completely abolished the diazoxide-induced hyperpolarization. Diazoxide increased inward currents at high K+ (90 mM) external solution, which was also blocked by glibenclamide. The metabolic inhibition by the treatment with mitochondrial respiratory chain inhibitors (rotenone and antimycin) hyperpolarized the resting membrane potential of parasympathetic neurons, which was not observed in sympathetic neurons. The hyperpolarizing response to metabolic inhibition was partially blocked by glibenclamide. RT-PCR analysis revealed that MPG neurons mainly expressed the K(ATP) channel subunits of Kir6.2 and SUR1. Our results suggest that MPG neurons have K(ATP) channels, mainly formed by Kir6.2 and SUR1, with phenotype-specificity, and that the conductance through this channel in parasympathetic neurons may contribute to the changes in excitability during hypoxia and/or metabolic inhibition.
Animals ; Anoxia ; Diazoxide ; Electron Transport ; Fires ; Ganglia ; Ganglion Cysts* ; Glyburide ; Humans ; Male* ; Membrane Potentials ; Membranes ; Neurons* ; Rats*

OBJECTIVE: Angiogenesis is central role to both the proliferation and metastasis of malignant tumor. The intense interest in angiogenesis has also lead to a re-examination of the activity of established cytotoxic agents which are known to be an antiangiogenic effect anecdotally. In this study, anti-angiogenic effect of cisplatin, paclitaxel and thalidomide was evaluated in human ovarian cancer cell lines and cervical cancer cell line. METHODS: Human ovarian cancer cell line A2780, cisplatin resistant human ovarian cancer cell line A2780-CDDP, human breast cancer cell line MCF-7, and squamous cell uterine cervical carcinoma cell line SiHa were used to evaluate the level of mRNA and protein expression of VEGF, bFGF and TSP-1, 2 before and after the treatment with cisplatin, paclitaxel, and thalidomide using RT-PCR, protein extraction, and Western blot. The results were analyzed with Wilcoxon signed rank test in the SAS ver 8.1. RESULTS: Targeted mRNAs were synthesized as 212 bp VEGF, 238 bp bFGF, and 492 bp band sized except mRNA of TSP-2 via RT-PCR. The protein of VEGF and bFGF were appeared as 21KDa and 17 KDa size, however, the protein of TSP-1 was not appeared through western blot. No effect of cisplatin on protein expression was measured in these cell lines, but paclitaxel influenced the expression of bFGF in MCF-7 cell line and the expression of TSP-1 in MCF-7 and SiHa cell lines. TSP-1 expression was influenced by thalidomide in A2780 cell line. The protein expression of VEGF and bFGF were not influenced following treatment with cisplatin, paclitaxel, and thalidomide. CONCLUSION: These results were suggested that bFGF and TSP-1 will be used as a target gene for the assay of antiangiogenic effect of paclitaxel in breast and uterine cervical cancer tissue and TSP-1 will be used as that of thalidomide in ovarian cancer. Furthermore, thalidomide will be tried as an adjunctive agent for the improvement of the survival in the case of the patient with ovarian cancer.
Blotting, Western ; Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Cell Line* ; Cisplatin ; Cytotoxins* ; Humans ; MCF-7 Cells ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Paclitaxel ; RNA, Messenger* ; Thalidomide ; Thrombospondin 1 ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

Mixed field agglutination is an important, but rare phenomenon of ABO blood grouping. Contrary to adults, neonatal red blood cells are immature and they present a weak ABO expression, and sometimes this result in a mixed field agglutination pattern. We report here on a case of a neonate who presented with mixed field agglutination on the ABO blood grouping during serologic testing and the neonate had a normal ABO genotype.
Adult ; Agglutination ; Blood Grouping and Crossmatching ; Erythrocytes ; Genotype ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Serologic Tests