Lumbosacral radiculoplexopathy in colon cancer treatment is a very rare but serious complication after radiation. We report here a 66-year-old man with slowly progressive lower limb weakness which arose 30 years after local radiation treatment for colon cancer. Electrophysiological studies revealed signs of denervation confined to the lower limbs. Other causes were excluded by clinical presentation, serological, cerebrospinal fluid and imaging studies. This case shows that delayed radiation-induced lumbosacral radiculoplexopathy can occur 30 years after the initial treatment.
Colonic Neoplasms

In order to investigate the level of lead exposure of workers in litharge making industry and to evaluate how lead exposure, personal habit such as smoking and drinking affect the prevalence of lead related symptoms and other study variables, we investigate 114 workers(24 office workers and 90 lead exposed workers) in a litharge making industry. Study variables chosen were blood lead(PbB), zinc protoporphyrin in whole blood(ZPP), Hemoglobin(Hb), hematocrit (Hct), SGOT and SGPT. symptom questionnaires which had 15 lead exposure related symptoms were provided to all workers and filled up by themselves and reconfirmed by physician. The results obtained were as follows; 1. The mean value of PbB, ZPP and SGOT in lead exposed group were higher than those of non-exposed group, and there were no differences of means in other study variables. 2. The smoking and drinking rate of study subjects were 65.8% and 71.0% as a whole. Smoking rates were lower in non-exposed group than exposed group, but drinking rate were not. 3. There were no differences of mean values of study variables between smoker and non-smoker in non-exposed and exposed group, but there was a difference of mean value of SGOT between drinker and non-drinker in lead exposed group. 4. while the symptom prevalence of lead exposed group were higher in neuromuscular category than non-exposed group, those of non-exposed group were higher or same with exposed group in gastrointestinal and general symptom category. 5. The symptom prevalence of smoker were higher than non-smoker regardless of exposure. 6. The symptom prevalence of drinker were only higher in gastrointestinal symptom category than non-drinker. 7. In multiple stepwise regression analysis of lead related symptoms as dependent variable and blood lead, smoking habit, drinking habit and work duration as independent variables, drinking habit contributed to the gastrointestinal symptom category, whereas blood lead and smoking contributed to the neuromuscular symptom category. For the total symptoms work duration and smoking habit contributed significantly.
Alanine Transaminase ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; Drinking ; Hematocrit ; Humans ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Zinc

For the evaluation of the 51Cr labelled in-vivo crossmatching test as a transfusion safety test, We examined the viability of the thransfused autologous and heterologous 51Cr labelled red cell at 1 hour and 24 hour in 6 normal volunteers and 4 patients whose RBC had been stored in CPDA-1 media from 1 day to 30 day. In both autologous transfusion control group(n=3) and allogeneic transfusion control group(n=3), the in-vivo RBC survival rate were more than 70% at 1 hour and 24 hour compared to that of basal 3 minute result(percent counted as 100%), and the eluted free radioisotope activity was less than 5% compared to that of whole blood. The crossmatch incompatible patient group also satisfied the safe transfusion criteria. The mean labelling efficiency which was tested in three patients was more than 95% and also satisfactory to reliable test. We concluded that in-vivo crossmatching test using 51Cr radioisotope would give us valuable informations about transfusion safety, especially in serologically incompatible patients.
Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Survival Rate

No abstract available.
Asthma* ; Child* ; Humans

No abstract available.
Hernia, Inguinal* ; Urinary Bladder*

The authors experienced a case of typical pellagra in 45-year old male. He has been a heavy alcoholic history about 30 years duratian. Well-marginated erythematous created scaly patches, hyperpigmentation and fissures developed on both forearms and both ear lobes, both periorbicular areas, and Casals and klace on the aa0erior neck repeatedly. The skin leaions were aggravated in summers, improving a little in winters from 3 years ago. The psychoneurotic symptoms, neurologic disturbances, and GI troubles accompanied the skin lesions. Diagnosis was made by the characteristic clinical findings. He was treated with nicotinamide and vitamin B complex, and most of symptoms improved much. Authors reported the case and reviewed the literatures.
Alcoholics ; Diagnosis ; Ear ; Forearm ; Humans ; Hyperpigmentation ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neck ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Niacinamide ; Pellagra* ; Skin ; Vitamin B Complex

With development of immunochemical methods for anlysis of serum proteins, quantitative determination of serum immunoglobulin levels and purification of them have been made possible in recent years. There are numerous reports about immunoglobulin levels in various diseases. A search of the literature reveals very few reports of quantitative immunoglobulin determinations in allergic dermatoses. The present study was conducted to find quantitative changes of serum immunoglobulins in a few allergic dermatoses. To quantify the IgG, IgA and IgM, one hundred and two sera were analysed form 30 normal control group, 30 contact dermatitis patients, 12 stopic dermatitis patients and 30 urticaria patients by modified Oudin's capillary tube method. The results are as follows. 1.In contact dermatitis the IgG was significantly increased to compare with control group(p<0.01) 2.In atopic dermatitis the IgA was significantly increased to compare with control group(p<0.01) 3.In urticaria the IgG was increased (p<0.05) 4.The IgM has no differences between allergic dermatoses and control group.
Blood Proteins ; Capillaries ; Dermatitis ; Dermatitis, Atopic ; Dermatitis, Contact ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin A ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulin M ; Immunoglobulins ; Skin Diseases* ; Urticaria

Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), Keratomileusis In Situ (KM), Laser Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK), and clear lens extraction have been performed for high myopic patients. Among the above surgical procedures KM and LASIK are applied to young patients in general. However, comparison of clinical results of these two procedures was not reported yet in Korea. To evaluate the clinical results of KM (n=16) and LASIK (n=11) for high myopic patients between -15 diopter (D) and -23 diopter (D), spherical equivalent (S.E) and uncorrected visual acuity were studied for more than ten months, retrospectively. The mean S.E. was changed from -17.36 D before operation to -3.70 D ten months after operation in KM, whereas it was from -17.41 D to -0.31 D in LASIK. At ten months after operation, uncorrected visual acuity equal or better than best corrected visual acuity before operation was 43. 8% in KM and 63. 6% in LASIK. This results show that the clinical result of LASIK were superior to that of KM for high myopia.
Humans ; Keratomileusis, Laser In Situ ; Korea ; Myopia* ; Photorefractive Keratectomy ; Retrospective Studies ; Visual Acuity

BACKGROUND: Ureteral stone(UTS) and acute pyelonephritis are the most common causes of nontraumatic acute flank pain in adults. Urography(IVU) is known as the most ideal diagnostic modality of obstructive uropathy to date. However, it has many practical limitations in overcrowding Korean emergency department to perform IVU as the diagnostic test of UTS. So we have performed prospective analytic study to compare IVU with its alternative diagnostic modalities. METHOD AND RESULTS: Our study was performed at Asan Medical Center from March, 1998 to July, 1999. We performed urinalysis, KUB, grayscale ultrasonography, and IVU in 243 patients, suspected to have UTS, based on histories, physical examination. After excluding patients with undetermined results(n=7) or spontaneous passage of stone before IVU(n=24), 212 patients were enrolled in our study. All of the other diagnostic tests were performed within one hour after emergency room presentation except IVU (53+/-24 hours). Diagnostic agreement among tests are as follows: Urinalysis shows good agreements with KUB(0.53) and IVU(0.62). KUB shows good agreement with IVU(0.48). Ultrasonography shows good agreement with IVU(0.58). Sensitivity(%), specificity(%), positive predicitive value(%), negative predicitive value(%), accuracy(%), and odds ratio of each diagnostic methods are as follows: Urinalysis is 91, 19, 78, 42, 74, 3.88; KUB is 55, 33, 72, 19, 50, 2.49; ultrasonography is 58, 92, 96, 41, 66, 45.61, and IVU is 81, 96, 98, 62, 84, 107.72. CONCLUSION: Although IVU seems to be the most ideal diagnostic modality for the UTS to date, it takes too long time for emergency physicians to confirm the diagnostic using IVU. We can performed other diagnostic modalities within one hour. However, emergency physicians suffer from poor diagnostic accuracy. Therefore, it is concluded that we are in need of more accurate alternative diagnostic modalities for UTS.
Adult ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Diagnosis* ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Flank Pain ; Humans ; Odds Ratio ; Physical Examination ; Prospective Studies ; Pyelonephritis ; Ultrasonography* ; Ureter* ; Urinalysis

No abstract available.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast*