No abstract available.
Diabetes Mellitus* ; Molecular Biology*

To demonstrate possible influences of general bone density on the mandible, histomorphometric analysis was carried out in mandibles and iliac bones and the correlation of the two bone densities was tested. Comparison of bony density in women and men over 60 years in the mandible was carried out too. Quantitative computed tomography (GCT) was taken in cross-section of mandibles at the same site where histomorphometric analysis was performed to evaluate the reliability of QCT. The analysis included 40 cadavers with no known disease affecting the bones. The subjects consisted of 15 females and 25 males with a mean age of 60.3 years. Spearman correlation analysis and Wilcoxon rank sum test was performed. The results were as follows. 1. There was statistically no correlation between the mandible and iliac bone in the walues of corrected cortical width (CCW), cortical porosity (POR) in cortex, and total bone volume(TBV), mean trabecular plate thickness (MTPT), mean trabecular plate density (MTPD), and mean trabecular plate separation (MTPS) in trabecular bone. 2. Comparison of women and men over 60 years, men had statistically higher bone density than women except for POR of buccal and lingual cortex, and MTPD of alveolar trabeculae in mandible. 3. There was statistically significant correlation between TBV of trabecular bone and CT NO., but not between POR and CT No. In mandible. According to the results above, there was no correlation between mandible and iliac bone density and between mandibular bony density and age. Further studies are required to support the results. A more noninvasive method to be able to measure the bone density of mandible should be developed and it is necessary to accumulate data on the normal values of bone density of mandible according to age and sex. Further study should be carried out about QCT to measure mandibular bony density using QCT.
Bone Density* ; Cadaver ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mandible* ; Porosity ; Reference Values

Elastofibroma is a rare disease which presents as a slowly-growing, solid, ill-defined fibroelastic mass occuring almost exclusively in elderly women and arising mainly from the connective tissue between the lower part of the scapula and chest wall. Of the 270 cases of elastofibroma which have been reported, 170 cases had developed in Japanese patients. Despite the fact that there have been only two case reports in Korea, there might be a higher prevalence of elastofibroma in Korea than expected because of geographical similarity. We experienced a case of elastofibroma occurring in a 56-year-old man. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of elastofibroma in Korean dermatologic of literature.
Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Connective Tissue ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; Prevalence ; Rare Diseases ; Scapula ; Thoracic Wall

PURPOSE: Either gated myocardial perfusion SPECT or attenuation corrected SPECT can be used to improve specificity in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. We investigated in this study whether gating or attenuation correction improved diagnostic performance of rest/stress perfusion SPECT in patients having intermediate pre-test likelihood of coronary artery disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-eight patients underwent rest attenuation-corrected T1-20l/dipyridamole stress gated attenuation-corrected Tc-99m-MIBI SPECT using an ADAC vertex camera (M:F=29:39, aged 59+/-12 years, coronary artery stenosis> or =70%. one vessel: 13, two vessel: 18, three vessel: 8, normal: 29). Using a five-point scale, three physicians graded the post-test likelihood of coronary artery disease for each arterial territory (1 normal, 2: possibly normal 3:equivocal, 4: possibly abnormal, 5: abnormal). Sensitivity, specificity and area under receiver-operating-characteristic curves were compared for each operator between three METHODS: (A) non-attenuation-corrected SPECT; (B) gated SPECT added to (A); and (C) attenuation-corrected SPECT added to (B). RESULTS: When grade 3 was used as the criteria for coronary artery disease, no differences in sensitivity and specificity were found between the three methods for each operator Areas under receiver- operating-characteristic curves for diagnosis of coronary artery disease revealed no differences between each modality (p>005). CONCLUSION: In patients at intermediate risk of coronary artery disease, gated SPECT and attenuation-corrected SPECT did not improve diagnostic performance.
Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Perfusion* ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

Acute thyroid abscess is an uneommon type of neck infection. We experieneed a case of staphylococcal thyroid abscess in 29 year old man, diagnosed by needle aspira~tion and culture of the aspirate. The patient had complained fever and slowly growing anterior neck swelling. Needle aspiration of the cold nodule prior to broad spectrum antibiotics was performed. After Surgical excision combined with antibiotics, he was discharged with elinical improvement. The laboratory diagnosis and clinical course was summarized and is reported with relevent references.
Abscess ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Clinical Laboratory Techniques ; Fever ; Humans ; Neck ; Needles ; Staphylococcus aureus ; Staphylococcus ; Thyroid Gland

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We investigated if gated and/or attenuation-corrected SPECT improved performance of experienced or in-experienced operators in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) or stenosed arteries in patients having intermediate or high pretest likelihood. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rest/dipyridamole stress gated attenuation-corrected SPECT was performed in 81 patients (M:F=48:33, 62+/-8.6 years old, of high (n=38) or intermediate (n=43) pre-test likelihood for CAD, 1 vessel; 14, 2 vessel; 19, 3 vessel disease; 31, normal; 17). Two experienced and one novice physicians graded 1 (normal) to 5 (definitely abnormal) for each artery 1) by conventional rest Tl-201/stress Tc-99m-MIBI SPECT, 2) 1) plus viewing gated SPECT (+gated) and 3) 2) plus attenuation-corrected SPECT (+AC gated). Areas under curves (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were compared. RESULTS: AUC was greater in patients with high likelihood than intermediate likelihood. Novice physician performed better in diagnosing RCA stenosis (AUC: 0.53 for usual, 0.58 for +gated, and 0.66 for +AC gated) in patients with intermediate likelihood. AUC was not different for the diagnosis of CAD and LAD or LCx. Performance of experienced physicians was not different regardless of pre-test likelihood. Novice operator's specificity increased from 53% to 73% for CAD, and 62% to 89% (p<0.05) for RCA in patients with intermediate likelihood. CONCLUSION: We conclude that gated attenuation-corrected SPECT was helpful only for novice physician to diagnose RCA stenosis by increasing specificity in patients with intermediate likelihood. Even for inexperienced physician, these methods were not helpful in patients with high pre-test likelihood or for LAD or LCX.
Area Under Curve ; Arteries ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

PURPOSE: To determine accurately the extent of the disease and risk of recurrence is important in enhancing the therapeutic success rate of breast cancer. Primary tumor state and axillary node invasion were some well known factors to predict the prognosis of breast cancer. However, some patients with early stage cancer developed systemic metastasis later despite of little possibility of recurrence based on some previously establised prognostic system. These results demand another approach to predict systemic metastases in patient without gross evidence of further recurrence. Micrometastases is a promising key to explain the recurrence in these patients and micrometastases in bone marrow could raised the ongoing recurrence in skeletal system which is the most frequent metastatic site in breast cancer. Therefore we tricd to determine the rate of micrometastasis in surgically resectable Korean breast cancer patients and the relationship with clinicopathological characteristics of the cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied bone marrow aspirate specimens from 38 patients with breast cancer who underwent curative resection at Chonnam University Hospital from January 1996 to February 1997. And reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect messenger RNA for cytokeratin 19 was performed. RESULTS: Metastases in bone marrow were detected in 8/38 patients (21.1%). No sta- tistically significant relationship existed between bone marrow metastasis and clinicopa- thological parameters for predicting prognosis that consisted of tumor state, lymph node invasion, histologic grade, steroid receptor, and c-erbB2 overexpression. In particular, bone marrow metastasis developed even from ductal carcinoma in situ. CONCLUSION: Bone marrow metastasis may be developed from the extremely early stage of breast cancer and we can not make the corelationship between the bone marrow metastasis and establised some prognostic factors. Based on these results, we recommand the evaluation of bone marrow metastasis in all breast cancer patients and require the close follow-up to allow more sensitive prediction of ongoing recurrence and higher curability.
Bone Marrow* ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating ; Humans ; Jeollanam-do ; Keratin-19 ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm Micrometastasis* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prognosis ; Receptors, Steroid ; Recurrence ; Reverse Transcription ; RNA, Messenger

No abstract available.

pose:Growth delay in asthmatic children has been reported, but the causes are unclear. In this study, we analyzed growth status in children with mild asthma and measured serum insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and insulin-like growth factor binding protein (IGFBP)-3 to evaluate the relationship between the growth status and growth factors. We also evaluated the difference in the relationship of height standard deviation score (HTSDS) according to weight standard deviation score (WTSDS) between children with asthma and controls. METHODS:58 children between the age of 9 months and 12 years, who visited Konkuk University Hospital between July 2002 to June 2003, with wheeze and responded to bronchodilators were enrolled as asthma group. 59 children between the age of 6 months and 14 years without any medical problem were enrolled as controls. Height and weight were measured for both groups and their standard deviation scores were calculated respectively. Blood samples were collected for serum IGF-I, IGFBP-3 levels and IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio were calculated from those values. The relationships between each growth status and growth factors were analyzed. RESULTS:The HTSDS and WTSDS were 0.17+/-.00, 0.38+/-.23 respectively for the asthma group; the HTSDS and WTSDS were 0.05+/-.95, 0.08+/-.06 respectively for the controls. IGF-I was 169.6+/-0.7 ng/mL, IGFBP-3 was 2146.0+/-36.5 ng/mL, and IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio was 0.08+/-.03 for the asthma group; IGF-I was 422.6+/-70.3 ng/mL, IGFBP-3 was 3409.6+/-61.1 ng/mL, and IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio was 0.12+/-.05 for the controls. In both groups, the concentration of IGF-I, IGFBP-3 and IGF-I/ IGFBP-3 ratio showed significant correlation with the age (P<0.01). In both groups, the correlation coefficient for WTSDS and HTSDS were 0.39 and 0.64, which were statistically significant. In the asthma group, the height gain was significantly smaller than the weight gain compared with controls (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: We concluded that in children with mild asthma the increment in HTSDS according to WTSDS is less than that of controls.
Asthma* ; Bronchodilator Agents ; Carrier Proteins ; Child* ; Humans ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3* ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor I* ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Weight Gain

PURPOSE: To report the clinical results of the vascularized fibular graft in the treatment of intractable infected nonunion of femur. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed 3 patients who were performed vascularized fibular graft in treated for intractable infected nonunion of femur. They had received an average of 5.6 times(4~8 times) surgical treatment at different hospitals. 1 case was of a infected nonunion in a fracture treated with internal fixation, the fracture having occurred after resection of a malignant tumor and transplantation of pasteurized autologous bone. 2 cases occurred after internal fixation in closed fractures. Surgical treatment was performed an average of 4 times(3~5 times) at our hospital and in all of the cases debridement of necrotic tissue and sequestrectomy. And vascularized fibular graft was performed. In all cases unilateral external fixation devices were used, of these, 1 case was changed into internal fixation. The final conclusion was made by assessment of functional outcomes and complications according to the standards of Paley. RESULTS: As a result, in all of the cases bone union was achieved, and in the last follow up the functional results were excellent in 2 cases and good in 1 case. There were not presented leg length discrepancy of more than 2 cm, and further loss of knee joint motion. After previous treatment, average 23.3 months(16~30 months) was taken to eliminate infection and achieve complete bone union via vascularized fibular graft in our hospital. CONCLUSION: In treatment of intractable infected nonunion of femur, fairly good results can be expected after firm fixation, through debridement and vascularized fibular graft.
Debridement ; External Fixators ; Femur* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Fractures, Closed ; Humans ; Knee Joint ; Leg ; Transplants*