No abstract available.
Pancreas*

Consecutive twelve patients' twelve eyes with complicated pars planitis underwent pars plana vitrectomy at our center in the period from January 1988 to December 1990. Patients' ages ranged from 24 to 60(mean 39.9)years and all were male. Nine patients had histories of topical or systemic steroid therapy and at the time of surgery, all eyes were quiet from active inflammation. With various degrees of vitreal opacities, five eyes had macular pucker or membrane only and in other seven eyes, retinal detachments of either tractional or tractional-rhegmatogenous origin were arisen. In the later group, macular hole was associated in two eyes. Surgical procedures combined were membrane peeling(five eyes), scleral buckling(ten eyes), fluid/air-gas exchange(eight eyes), lensectomy(two eyes) and photocoagulation(two eyes). During the follow-up period ranged from four to twenty-one(mean 7.75)months after first operations, the uveitis recurred or continued to be activated in four eyes and as a complication, retinal detachment occurred in two eyes which had macular pucker only preoperatively. One refused reoperation and the other was reattached successfully by second operation. Final visual acuities were improved in eight eyes, stationary in one and worsen in three. The causes of worsen vision were retinal detachment, macular edema and macular slanting by buckle respectively. Preoperatively, the majority of eyes(10 eyes: 84%) had less than 0.09 vision and postoperative vision turned over better than 0.09 in 7 eyes(59%). Although we did not confirm extinguished therapeutic effects of vitrectomy on the pars planitis perse, our results revealed some positve role of surgical intervention in the complicated pars planitis.

BACKGROUND: The incidence and causative dermatophytes of tinea cruris has been changed with time. Although clinical and mycologic studies of whole dermatophytosis have been reported many times, there have been only a few studies about tinea cruris reported. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate clinical and mycological features of tinea cruuis. METHODS: We evaluated the clinical and mycologic aspects of tinea cruris in 598 patients with tinea cruris from January 1985 to December 1997 in Yeungnam University Hospital. RESULTS: The incidence of tinea cruris was 20.8% of 2,878 total dermatophytoses. The ratio of male to female patients was 23.9:1. And most of them were in their twenties and thirties. Most(82.1%) of them involved both sites of the groin. Concurrent dermatophytic infections of tinea cruris were noted in 29.4% of the cases and the most common one was tinea pedis(22.4%). Three hundred and thirty eight dermatophytes were isolated from 598 patients with tinea cruris. They were Trichophyton(T.) rubrum(95.3%), T. mentagrophytes(4.4%), Epidermophyton floccosum(1.2%), Microsporum canis(0.9%). CONCLUSION: Tinea cruris is a male predominant dermatophytosis, the most common causative organism is T. rubrum, and tinea pedis seems to be an important reservoir.
Arthrodermataceae ; Epidermophyton ; Female ; Groin ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Microsporum ; Tinea Pedis ; Tinea*

The authors experienced two cases of cervical epidural AVM resembling that of tumor. It is the purpose of this report to point out by means of two cases the problem involved in establishing the diagnosis. To our knowledge, our two cases of cervical epidural AVM is the first report in Korea.
Diagnosis ; Korea

The survival of skin flap has vital importance in plastic surgery. Many clinical and experimental researches have been carried out to increase the survival of skin flap. As a result of these researches, many drugs have been used clinically and experimentally for increasing the survival of skin flap, and prostaglandin E1 is known to be used for improving peripheral circulatory disturbance. The pharmacophysiologic mechanisms of the effect of prostaglandin E1 are 1) increasing blood flow by dilatation of smooth muscle of small sized vessels, 2) inhibition of aggregation of platelets, 3) increasing arteriolar blood flow by improving fluidity of erythrocytes, 4) preclusion of free-radical formation, 5) decreasing the endothelial cell damage by down- regulation of sensitivity for eosinophils, 6) making the endothelial cell be refractory to adrenergic stimulation, and 7) promotion of secretion of erythropoietin in the kidney. In this terms, in order to validate effectiveness of preoperative administration of prostaglandin E1 as a pharmacological flap delay, following experimental study was performed. Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 4 groups and caudally based 2x8 cmsized flap was elevated on dorsal surface. In group 1, normal saline (0.25 ml/kg) was injected intraperitoneally as control, in group 2, 1 microgram/kg of prostaglandin E1 was injected intraperitoneally for preoperative seven days, in group 3, 1 microgram/kg of prostaglandin E1 was injected intraperitoneally for seven preoperative days, and in group 4, 1 microgram/kg of prostaglandin E1 was injected intraperitoneally for seven days preoperatively and for seven postoperative days. On the seventh postoperative day, the animals were sacrificed and the flap survival area was measured. The following results were obtained. 1. On the seventh postoperative day, the flap survival rates of group 2, 3, 4 were higher than that of group 1 with a statistical significance. 2. On the seventh postoperative day, the flap survival rate of group 3 was higher than group 2, but there was no statistical significance. 3. On the seventh postoperative day, the flap survival rate of group 4 was higher than that of group 2 and 3 with a statistical significance.In conclusion, preoperative administrations of prostaglandin E1 increase flap survival equally as when it is administrated postoperatively, and the improvement in flap survival can be enhanced by continuous administration of prostaglandin E1 in preoperative and postoperative period. So it is expected that surgical flap delay procedure is replaced by pharmacological flap delay by the use of prostaglandin E1 preoperatively.
Alprostadil* ; Animals ; Dilatation ; Endothelial Cells ; Eosinophils ; Erythrocytes ; Erythropoietin ; Humans ; Kidney ; Male ; Muscle, Smooth ; Postoperative Period ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Skin ; Surgery, Plastic ; Surgical Flaps ; Survival Rate

No abstract available.
Cicatrix* ; Contracture* ; Forearm* ; Hand*

No abstract available.

A Listeria monocytogenes infection is relatively rare in healthy adults. However, the chance of an infection increases almost 17 times in pregnancy due to changes in the immune function. A Listeria monocytogenes infection results in characteristic gross and microscopic features in the placenta, including multiple yellowish nodules showing microscopic intervillous abscess and intervillositis. We describe the placental findings of a Listeria monocytogenes infection that was complicated by maternal sepsis, myocarditis and congestive heart failure. The infection was discovered in the 34th week of a twin gestation in a 28 year-old woman. This case should emphasize the importance of this condition to pathologists. Antibiotic treatment was started based on the placental histologic findings before a maternal blood culture confirmed growth of Listeria monocytogenes. Both the mother and twin babies were healthy at the time of this report.
Abscess ; Adult ; Female ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Listeria monocytogenes* ; Listeria* ; Mothers ; Myocarditis ; Placenta ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Twin* ; Sepsis

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a self-limited infection of the skin caused by Leishmania tropica, a protozoan parasite transmitted by Phlebotomus sandfly. This disease is endemic in tropical and subtropical zone, but recently many cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis were reported in Korean among the peoples who had been worked in the Middle East. We experienced five cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis developed in Korean who had been worked in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Skin lesions of various sized, central ulcerated and marginal elevated, with serosanguinous discharge and some crust were scattered on exposed area, especially both extremities. Histopathologic findings showed hyperkeratosis, acanthosis, pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia, dermal infiltration of histiocytes, lymphocytes, plasma cells and neutrophils, and numerous Leishman-Donovan bodies in and around histiocytes. About 1-4 months treatment with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and metronidazole, two cases were healed with hyperpigmented scar and two cases were improved but one case was not responded.
Cicatrix ; Extremities ; Histiocytes ; Hyperplasia ; Jordan ; Leishmania tropica ; Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous* ; Lymphocytes ; Metronidazole ; Middle East ; Neutrophils ; Parasites ; Phlebotomus ; Plasma Cells ; Psychodidae ; Saudi Arabia ; Skin ; Trimethoprim, Sulfamethoxazole Drug Combination ; Ulcer

BACKGROUND: The positive reactions of carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA) show varying degrees in the tissue of all sweat gland neoplasms by immunohistochemistry. The CEA secreted from sweat glands presents a high value, compared with that of serum. OBJECTIVE: The study was to evaluate the sweat CEA value in relation to serum CEA value by sex, smoking status and blood type in healthy subjects. METHOD: Fifty-two healthy subjects(M : 43, F :9) aged 21-30, participated in the study. 2ml sweat was collected from the face and chest after intense exercises and 3ml blood was collected from their antecubital veins. Roche Core CEA enzyme immunoassay was used for the measurement of sweat and serum CEA. RESULTS: Sweat CEA values were 102.0+4100.5ng/ml in males and 70.6+458.5ng/ml in females, with their mean valueof 96.6+/-94.9ng/ml. Sweat CEA values were 108.3+/-103.5ng/ml in 27 smokers and 83.9+/-84.8ng/ml in 25 nonsmokers(p>0.05, t-test). Sweat CEA values were higher among the males and the smokers. Serum CEA values were 2.5+/-1.7ng/ml in males and 1.6+/-0.8ng/ml in females, with its mean value of 2.4+/-1.6ng/ml. There was no difference between serum values of smokers and nonsmokers. Sweat CEA values were about 40 times higher than those of serum, with no correlation of sweat and serum CEA(correlation coefficient=-0.16, P>0.05). In the blood type study, sweat CEA values were 123.1+/-131.8ng/ml in A type and 66.1+/-55.0ng/ml in B type(P>0.05), whereas serum CEA values were higher in AB type and lower in O type(P<0.05, ANOVA). CONCLUSION: Sweat CEA values are extraordinarily high in contradistinction to serum. Sweat CEA values are not affected by sex, smoking status and blood type. There seems to be no association between CEA values of sweat and serum.
Carcinoembryonic Antigen* ; Exercise ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Immunohistochemistry ; Male ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Sweat Gland Neoplasms ; Sweat Glands ; Sweat* ; Thorax ; Veins