When a soft tissue mass in the bony wall of the paranasal sinus is present, it is difficult to make a distinction between tumor and inflammatory mass on CT. Fungal sinusitis may have soft tissue attenuation on the bony wall of the sinus, bony sclerosis, focal bony destruction, and calcific area on CT. This is a report of four proven cases of fungal sinusitis, asperogillosis in 3 cases and mucormycosis in 1 case, All 4 patients had CT and one patient had MRI, On CT, bony sclerosis and destruction were well visualized in all cases. On MRI, mycetoma in the maxillary sinus was hypointense on T1 weighted images and more hypointense on T2 weighted images. Although CT appears to be the best modality for initial examination of the patient with sinusitis, the differentiation of fungal sinusitis from tumor mass or other entity may be better accomplished with MRI.
Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Maxillary Sinus ; Mucormycosis ; Mycetoma ; Sclerosis ; Sinusitis

PURPOSE: This study was undertaken to obtain better clinical insights and therapeutic approaches to the diverticular diseases of the colon by identifying the clinical characteristics of the right and left colonic diverticular diseases. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was made of 68 colonic diverticular patients treated between August of 1986 and July of 1997. Right colonic diverticular disease was present in 55 patients, left side disease in eight patients, and bilateral disease in five patients. According to the location of the colonic diverticular disease, various clinical parameters such as the nature of the diverticula, age and sex, diagnostic accuracy, and methods of treatment were assessed. RESULTS: The average age of 68 patients in this study was 50.94 years. Fifty two patients were male and sixteen were female. The disease was far more common in the right colon (80.9%) than the left colon (11.7%) and the right colonic diverticular disease was the most common source of confusion in diagnosis from acute appendicitis. Conservative management was tried in 30 of 35 patients above age 50 and obtained a good result without any complication. CONCLUSIONS: There has been a tendency toward increased incidence of annual colonic diverticular diseases in this study. The right colonic diverticular disease was far more common than the left side disease and the disease was more common in the male. In patients above age 50, initial conservative management is a reasonable approach, although early surgical exploration might be better in younger patients. Acute appendicitis should be ruled out before any treatment decision was made.
Appendicitis ; Colon ; Diagnosis ; Diverticulum ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Retrospective Studies*

No abstract available.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Fallopian Tubes* ; Female

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to identify factors associated with smoking relapse. METHODS: The study sample was recruited among subjects who were enrolled in the smoking cessation clinic of a public health center and had succeeded in quitting smoking for at least six months. A total of 159 male subjects were followed via mail survey one year later. The independent variables in the analyses were socio-demographic characteristics, smoking history and behavior, receipt of smoking cessation aids, health behaviors and components of the health belief model (HBM). The dependent variable was smoking relapse assessed one year after quitting. Ordered logit regressions were used to identify factors associated with smoking relapse. RESULTS: The relapse rate of the ex-smokers in our sample was 25.8%, and the occasional smoking rate was 17.0%. Univariate analyses revealed that only factors related to the HBM, such as perceived susceptibility to diseases (p<0.01), perceived severity of diseases (p<0.01), perceived health benefits of not smoking (p<0.01), perceived barriers to quitting smoking due to increasing stress and difficulty in social life (p<0.01), and self-efficacy (p<0.01) were associated with the likelihood of relapse for ex-smokers. Ordered logit analyses yielded two significant factors affecting the likelihood of relapse, the perceived barriers to quitting smoking and self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that higher levels of barriers to quitting smoking and lower levels of self-efficacy were significantly related to risk of smoking relapse. These findings may be useful for identifying those at highest risk for relapse and choosing the optimal strategies for prevention of relapse for ex-smokers.
Health Behavior ; Humans ; Insurance Benefits ; Male ; Postal Service ; Public Health ; Recurrence ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Smoking Cessation

The review of normal intravenous pyelography can give us important criteria of the diseases of the urinary system and the adjacent organs. Authors analyzed 200 cases of intravenous pyelography of normal Korean adults and measured the following points; the length of kidneys, the distance from midline to both poles, the slope degree of longitudinal axis, the ureteral length and width, the shortest distance from midline to abdominal ureters, the longest distance form midline to pelvic ureters, and configuration of urinary bladder. The results were obtained as follows; 1. The average length of kidneys in adult male was 12.53±0.78 cm on right, 12.83±0.82cm on left; in adult female, 12.08±0.72cm on right, 12.46±0.73cm on left. In the age distribution, the length gradually became shorter by getting old. In 20% of cases, right kidney was longer than left. 2. The average distance from both the renal poles to midline was longer in male compared to female. The distance from upper pole to the midline was longer in left side than right in male, but in the lower pole, there was no difference in both sexes. 3. The slope degree of the renal longitudinal axis was larger in male than in female, and lager in right kidney compared to left. 4. The length of ureter was longer on left, but there was no remarkable difference between both sexes. 5.The short set distance from midline to abdominal ureter, there was no remarkable difference between both sexes and also between right and left side. But concerning the longest distance from midline to pelvic ureter, it was longer in female; and especially in female, right side was shorter than left. 6. The longitudinal diameter of urinary bladder was longer in male, but horizontal diameter was longer in female.
Adult ; Age Distribution ; Female ; Humans ; Kidney ; Male ; Ureter ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Tract ; Urography

No abstract available.
Animals ; Isoproterenol* ; Plasma* ; Rats* ; Renin*

No abstract available.
Female ; Humans ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory* ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Outcome* ; Pregnancy* ; Renal Dialysis*

We performed dual color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for the bcr/abl fusion in CML using the peripheral blood smears without destruction of cell morphology to determine the bcr/abl fusion. Two patients of CML, one patient in accelerated phase and one patient in chronic phase, were selected. The blood smears were fixed in absolute methanol. FISH was performed with the Mbcr/abl translocation DNA probe mixture and the slides were stained with Wright's stain after FISH. The blood smears of both cases revealed distinct signals without destruction of cellular morphology. The normoblasts and lymphocytes revealed beautiful fused bcr/abl signals as well as granulocytes in both cases. The results provide a novel finding that the normoblasts and lymphocytes in CML are also neoplastic clonal cells which has not been demonstrated with a single-cell approach before.
DNA ; Erythroblasts* ; Fluorescence* ; Granulocytes ; Humans ; In Situ Hybridization ; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive* ; Lymphocytes* ; Methanol

No abstract available.
Lymphohistiocytosis, Hemophagocytic*

The hypotensive effect and side reactions of captopril (combination with hydrochlorthiazide in some cases) were evaluated in 42 patients with essential hypertension. The results were as follows: 1) Before medication and after 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks of medication, the over all average systolic & diastolic pressure were 178.2+/-42.6/111.3+/-21.1, 150.6+/-36.2/95.2+/-34.5, 140.3+/-31.4/93.6+/-24.3, 135.6+/-28.6/90.6+/-17.1, 130.9+/-20.5/87.9+/-16.4, 128.7+/-24.0/86.4+/-15.3mmHg respectively. After 10 weeks of medication, marked or moderate degree of hypotensive effect was observed in 98% of all cases (systolic pressure), 93% of all cases (diastolic pressure)(P<0.001, P<0.001). 2) There was no significant changes in heart rates before and after treatment. 3) There was no side effects which required discontinuing the medication, decreasing the dose or other treatment for side effects.
Blood Pressure ; Captopril* ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Hypertension