No abstract available.
Aneurysm, False*

No abstract available.
Otitis Externa* ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

BACKGROUND: Whole body 131I scan is routinely performed in the postoperative evaluation of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma to detect recurrence and functioning metastasis. Previous reports suggested that posttreatment whole body scan had higher rate of detecting metastatic lesions that were not visualized by pretreatment images. We observed the frequency of discordance of the two scans and analysed the clinical significances. METHODS: Forty-one patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma underwent radioactive iodine-131 whole body scans after administration of diagnostic dose (4 mCi) and then therapeutic dose (100~200 mCi of iodine-131). The median age of the patients was 46.9 +/- 15.7 years (range, 17~76). RESULTS: In 16 of the 41 patients (39.0%), pretreatment scan showed additional uptakes that were not seen in the pretreatment scan. Serum thyroglobulin was elevated in 13 of the 16 patients. Of the 22 patients who had been received radioactive iodine therapy previously, eight patients showed new additional lesions in the therapeutic scans but there was no significance according to the history of radioactive iodine therapy, Addisional uptakes after therapeutic dose were noted in neck area in 9 cases, lung in 2 cases, bone in 4 cases and mediastinum in one case. Diffuse hepatic uptake was definitely seen in 7 cases and there were 2 cases whose scans showed liver uptake without any thyroid uptake. CONCLUSION: Posttreatment whole body scan is more sensitive to detect residual tissues and metastasis compared to the usual pretreatment diagnostic whole body scan, and it is suggested that posttreatment whole body scan should be routinely performed after 'I therapy in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma for exact evaluation.
Humans ; Iodine ; Liver ; Lung ; Mediastinum ; Neck ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Recurrence ; Thyroglobulin ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms* ; Whole Body Imaging

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to evaluate successful aging (SA) in elderly individuals and to determine the factors that influence SA. METHODS: The subjects included 207 elderly individuals from D city, Korea. The data were obtained between July 1 and August 30, 2008. The participants were assured of anonymity and confidentiality. For the evaluation, Kim & Shin's SA scale, Lawton's instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scale, Jon's self-esteem scale, Kee's geriatric depression scale short form-Korean (GDSSF-K), and Hong's productive activities scale were used. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson correlation coefficients; multiple regression analysis was performed using the SPSS/WIN 10.0 program. RESULTS: The maximum score for SA was 34, and the mean score was 22.62. It was found that SA was significantly correlated to IADL, self-esteem, depression, and productive activity. Depression was the most powerful predictor of SA and it accounted for 40.6% of the total variance in SA. Self-esteem, productive activity, living situation, economic status, and age together accounted for 62.1% of the total variation in SA. CONCLUSION: Depression, self-esteem, and productive activity were identified as variables that influence SA. On the basis of these results, we conclude that nurses should assist elderly individuals in order to facilitate SA. Moreover, individualized nursing management strategies must be developed in order to facilitate SA.
Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Aging ; Anonyms and Pseudonyms ; Confidentiality ; Depression ; Humans ; Korea

PURPOSE: Although alpha-fetoprotein is one of the most commonly used tumor markers in Korea, most of the radioimmunoassay kits for alpha-fetoprotein have been imported from foreign countries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of a recently developed domestic immunoradiometric kit for alpha- fetoprotein (Riakey AFP IRMA CTR, Sin-Jin Medics, Seoul, Korea). MATERALS AND METHODS: We evaluated intra- and inter-assay precision, recovery rate, parallelism, and sensitivity of serum alpha-fetoprotein measurement using Riakey AFP IRMA CTR kit. The values of alpha-fetoprotein measured by Riakey AFP IRMA CTR kit were compared with those measured by two foreign commercial kits (alpha-fetoproteina of Radim and alpha-feto.riabead of Abbott). RESULTS: Intra-assay coefficients of variation on three different levels were 5.3% for 18.9 ng/ml, 3.4% for 133 ng/ml and 1.6% for 330 ng/ml. Inter-assay coefficients of variation were 9.7% for 20.9 ng/ml, 3.2% for 137 ng/ml and 4.1% for 330 ng/ml respectively. Recovery rate tests on all three different levels showed within 100+/-10%. Parallelism was also good and the sensitivity was 0.63 ng/ml. There was strong correlation between the measurement of alpha-fetoprotein by Riakey AFP IRMA CTR and that by two foreign commercial kits(r=0.98). CONCLUSION: The first Korean domestic immunoradiometric kit for alpha-fetoprotein, Riakey AFP IRMA CTR, performed well for clinical use.
alpha-Fetoproteins* ; Fetal Proteins ; Immunoradiometric Assay* ; Korea ; Radioimmunoassay ; Seoul ; Biomarkers, Tumor

BACKGROUND: Recently technetium-99m sestamibi (99mTc MIBI), which dose not require withdrawal of thyroid hormone, has been used for imaging of thyroid carcinoma. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical usefulness of Tc MIBI scintigraphy after total thyroidectomy for thyroid carcinoma. The results were compared with those of standard 131I scintigraphy. METHODS: One hundred twelve patients with a median age of 44 years (range, 14-76 years) were included in the study. After optimal endogenous thyroid stimulating hormone stimulation (>50 mIU/mL), whole body scintigraphy using 4 mCi of 'I and 20 mCi of Tc sestamibi were done simultaneously. Concomitantly serum thyroglobulin and anti-thyroglobulin antibody levels were checked. If abnormal findings on any of the scintigraphic methods or high levels of thyroglobulin (> 10ng/mL) were detected, diagnostic imaging studies were done to confirm the existence of the disease. And high dose (150-200 mCi) 'I was administered as therapy and then whole body scans were performed again after the therapy. The presence or absence of thyroid cancer was established by pathologic, radiologic, and/or high dose I scan findings. RESULTS: In 11 patients, Tc MIBI scan revealed positive accumulations which were not found on 131I scan, of whom 6 had elevated thyroglobulin levels. In these cases, 5 cases were interpreted to have normal thyroid remnant and 6 cases showed pathologic findings (2 lung, 1 lymph node, 1 lung and lymph node, 1 local recurrent cancer, and 1 false positive accumulation of 99mTc MIBI). Metastasis or residual cancer were confirmed histologically in 1 and radiologically in 4 cases. Negative 99mTc MIBI scans, despite of positive I scans, occurred in 9 patients, of whom 2 had abnormal thyroglobulin levels. Seven cases were interpreted to have thyroid remnant, 2 cases were confirmed to have lung metastasis, and another one was misinterpreted due to breast shadow. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, these results suggest that 99mTc MIBI scan may have similar sensitivity and specificity for the detection of residual or metastatic differentiated thyroid carcinoma. The 99mTc MIBI scan, especially in cases of negative 131I scan despite of abnormal thyroglobulin levels, can be used as a very useful complementary diagnostic tool.
Breast ; Diagnostic Imaging ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Humans ; Lung ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm, Residual ; Radionuclide Imaging* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi ; Thyroglobulin ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms* ; Thyroidectomy ; Thyrotropin ; Whole Body Imaging

No abstract available.
Sturge-Weber Syndrome*

No abstract available.
Anemia, Hypoplastic, Congenital*

No abstract available.
Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome*

No abstract available.
DNA* ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis* ; Mycobacterium* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction*