No abstract available.
Nicotine* ; Tobacco Use Cessation Products*

No abstract available.
Nicotine* ; Tobacco Use Cessation Products*

No abstract available.
Perfusion*

No abstract available.
Polycystic Kidney Diseases*

Purpose: This study examined the effects of the directions of neck rotation on the muscle activity of the upper trapezius and lower trapezius while rotating a shoulder externally. Methods: Twenty-five healthy males participated in this study. The subjects were asked to rotate their shoulder externally with 90° shoulder abduction and 90° elbow flexion in three different neck rotations (neutral, ipsilateral, and contralateral) in the prone position. The muscle activities of the upper and lower trapezius were measured using surface electromyography. One way repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare the muscle activity of the upper and lower trapezius depending on the different neck turning directions. Results: In the upper trapezius, turning the neck in the ipsilateral direction while turning a shoulder externally decreased the muscle activity significantly, but the muscle activity was increased significantly by turning the neck in the contralateral direction. On the other hand, in the lower trapezius, turning the neck in the ipsilateral direction increased the muscle activity significantly, but the muscle activity was decreased significantly by turning the neck in the contralateral direction decreased it significantly. Conclusion When someone has an imbalance of shoulder function, turning the neck in the ipsilateral direction while turning the shoulder externally in the prone position is effective in decreasing the activity of the upper trapezius and increasing the activity of the lower trapezius. Therefore, these results could be used as basic evidence for researching patients with shoulder problems.

Purpose: This study examined the effects of the directions of neck rotation on the muscle activity of the upper trapezius and lower trapezius while rotating a shoulder externally. Methods: Twenty-five healthy males participated in this study. The subjects were asked to rotate their shoulder externally with 90° shoulder abduction and 90° elbow flexion in three different neck rotations (neutral, ipsilateral, and contralateral) in the prone position. The muscle activities of the upper and lower trapezius were measured using surface electromyography. One way repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare the muscle activity of the upper and lower trapezius depending on the different neck turning directions. Results: In the upper trapezius, turning the neck in the ipsilateral direction while turning a shoulder externally decreased the muscle activity significantly, but the muscle activity was increased significantly by turning the neck in the contralateral direction. On the other hand, in the lower trapezius, turning the neck in the ipsilateral direction increased the muscle activity significantly, but the muscle activity was decreased significantly by turning the neck in the contralateral direction decreased it significantly. Conclusion When someone has an imbalance of shoulder function, turning the neck in the ipsilateral direction while turning the shoulder externally in the prone position is effective in decreasing the activity of the upper trapezius and increasing the activity of the lower trapezius. Therefore, these results could be used as basic evidence for researching patients with shoulder problems.

OBJECTIVE: The identification of cancer stem-like cells is a recent development in ovarian cancer. Compared to other cancer cells, cancer stem-like cells present more chemo-resistance and more aggressive characteristics. They play an important role in the recurrence and drug resistance of cancer. Therefore, the target therapy of cancer stem-like cell may become a promising and effective approach for ovarian cancer treatment. It may also help to provide novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. METHODS: The OVCAR3 cell line was cultured under serum-free conditions to produce floating spheres. The CD44⁺CD117⁺ cell line was isolated from the human ovarian cancer cell line OVCAR3 by using immune magnetic-activated cell sorting system. The expression of stemness genes such as OCT3/4, NANOG and SOX2 mRNA were determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. OVCAR3 parental and OVCAR3 CD44⁺CD117⁺ cells were grown in different doses of paclitaxel and salinomycin to evaluate the effect of salinomycin. And growth inhibition of OVCAR3 CD44+CD117+ cells by paclitaxel combined with salinomycin was determined by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. RESULTS: Tumor spheroids generated from the OVCAR3 cell line are shown to have highly enriched CD44 and CD117 expression. Treatment with a combination of paclitaxel and salinomycin demonstrated growth inhibition of OVCAR3 CD44+CD117+ cells. CONCLUSION: The present study is a detailed investigation on the expression of CD44 and CD117 in cancer stem cells and evaluates their specific tumorigenic characteristics in ovarian cancer. This study also demonstrates significant growth inhibition of cancer stem-like cells by paclitaxel combined with salinomycin. Identification of these cancer stem-like cell markers and growth inhibition effect of salinomycin may be the next step to the development of novel target therapy in ovarian cancer.
Cell Line ; Drug Resistance ; Humans ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; Ovarian Neoplasms* ; Paclitaxel ; Parents ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Recurrence ; Reverse Transcription ; RNA, Messenger

The Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome is a well- known chromosome abnormality in adults with B-lineage ALL, and is associated with a poor prognosis. This study compared the clinical manifestations and prognosis in adult Ph-positive and Ph-negative ALL patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical records of adult patients newly diagnosed as B-lineage ALL, between January 1995 and February 2001. Fifty five patients were included in this study. We divided the patients into Ph-positive and Ph-negative groups. RESULTS: Eighteen of the 55 patients (32.7%) were found to have the Ph chromosome. At initial diagnosis, the Ph-positive patients had higher circulating leukocyte counts, lower platelet counts and had a greater tendency to bleed, than the Ph-negative group. The complete remission rates were 83.3% and 83.8% for the Ph-positive and the Ph-negative groups, respectively. Four of the Ph-positive, and 13 of the Ph-negative, patients underwent allogenic bone marrow transplantation. The median follow-up for the surviving patients was 39.3 months. The three-year survival rates were 10.4% and 51.8% for the Ph-positive and the Ph-negative groups, respectively. The median disease-free survival was 7.7 months for the Ph-positive group, but did not reach the median value in the Ph-negative group. Among the Ph-positive patients, age was the only factor that had an impact on the disease outcome. CONCLUSION: In adult B-lineage ALL, the Ph-positive patients had similar complete remission rates to other patients; however, the remission was of shorter duration, with a higher relapse rate in the Ph-positive patients. More effective treatments are needed to improve the survival of the Ph-positive patients.
Adult* ; Bone Marrow Transplantation ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Diagnosis ; Disease-Free Survival ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Leukocyte Count ; Philadelphia Chromosome ; Platelet Count ; Prognosis* ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate

BACKGROUND: Resistant organisms are now a growing and frequent problem in community-acquired infections. There is little information on the etiology and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of community-acquired urinary tract infection (CA-UTI) at a tertiary-care hospital. METHODS: We evaluated the distribution of etiological organisms with their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of CA-UTI in the patients visiting a tertiary-care hospital during the period of three years from 2001 through 2003. RESULTS: In total, 1,753 bacterial isolates yielded a significant growth as pathogens of CA-UTI in this study. The most common pathogen was Escherichia coli (38.3%), followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (10.8%), Enterococcus faecalis (7.3%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (6.4%), coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS) (5.4%) and Staphylococcus aureus (5.2%). The prevalence of E. coli was significantly higher in females (P < 0.001), whereas P. aeruginosa, E. faecalis, and S. aureus were significantly more common in male group (P < 0.001). The susceptibility rate of E. coli was 26.0% to ampicillin, 65.8% to gentamicin, 51.3% to co-trimoxazole, and 62.5% to ciprofloxacin. The susceptibility patterns of Enterobacteriaceae other than E. coli were different from those of E. coli. Extended spectrum beta-lactamase was detected in 7.9% of E. coli and 15.6% of K. pneumoniae. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates a diversity of etiological organisms and a high rate of resistance to commonly used antimicrobials of CA-UTI in patients visiting a tertiary-care hospital.
Ampicillin ; beta-Lactamases ; Ciprofloxacin ; Coagulase ; Community-Acquired Infections ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Enterobacteriaceae ; Enterococcus faecalis ; Escherichia coli ; Female ; Gentamicins ; Humans ; Klebsiella pneumoniae ; Male ; Pneumonia ; Prevalence ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; Staphylococcus aureus ; Trimethoprim, Sulfamethoxazole Drug Combination ; Urinary Tract Infections* ; Urinary Tract*

Sectional anatomy of human brain is useful to examine the diseased brain as well as normal brain. However, intracerebral reference points for the axial, sagittal, and coronal planes of brain have not been standardized in anatomical sections or radiological images. We made 2,343 serially-sectioned images of a cadaver head with 0.1 mm intervals, 0.1 mm pixel size, and 48 bit color and obtained axial, sagittal, and coronal images based on the proposed reference system. This reference system consists of one principal reference point and two ancillary reference points. The two ancillary reference points are the anterior commissure and the posterior commissure. And the principal reference point is the midpoint of two ancillary reference points. It resides in the center of whole brain. From the principal reference point, Cartesian coordinate of x, y, z could be made to be the standard axial, sagittal, and coronal planes.
Aged ; Anatomy, Cross-Sectional ; Brain/*anatomy & histology/radiography ; Brain Mapping ; Cadaver ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Male ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed