A 20-year-old woman presented with 2-year history of low back pain. She is a basketball player. There was neither major traumatic episode nor history of febrile illness, On plain roentgenograms, sclerosis and slightly decreased height of L5 vertebral body was detected while the intervertebral disc spaces were intact. We found that L5 body was destructed by materials showing high signal intensity on T2 weighted images and connecting the two adjacent disc spaces on MRI. The initial diagonsis included bone tumors. Vertebrectomy was done and the intravertebral material was revealed as degenerated nucleus pulposus.
Basketball ; Female ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc ; Low Back Pain ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Sclerosis ; Young Adult

No abstract available.

A 36-year-old woman was presented with extensive anterior wall myocardial infarction. We tried to perform direct coronary angiography for the purpose of primary stenting. However, coronary angiogram revealed normal coronary arteries without intracoronary thrombi. We continued further evaluations to find out the cause of normal coronary myocardial infarction. The findings of severe hypertensive retinopathy and concentric left ventricular hypertrophy suggested that she had secondary hypertension. The detailed history, laboratory and radiological findings revealed the pheochromocytoma. The tumor was successfully removed by operation.
Adult ; Anterior Wall Myocardial Infarction ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Vessels ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hypertensive Retinopathy ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Pheochromocytoma* ; Stents

BACKGROUNG AND OBJECTIVES: Diabetes mellitus is a significant risk factor for adverse outcome after PTCA, which is associated with an increased late mortality and target lesion revascularization (TLR) rates. The beneficial role of coronary stenting on the clinical and angiographic outcomes of diabetic patients is not clearly defined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the early and mid-term outcomes in diabetic patients undergoing elective stenting of native coronary lesions compared with those in non-diabetic patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between July 1997 and June 1998, coronary stenting was performed on 46 lesions in 38 diabetic patients and 126 lesions in 117 non-diabetic patients. Follow-up angiography at mean day of 189+/-45 was performed in 58.7% (91 patients) and analysed by quantitative coronary angiography (QCA). RESULTS: There was a higher incidence of multi-vessel disease in diabetic patients than non-diabetic patients but not statistically significant (71.1% vs 51.3%, p=0.106). There were no differences in major procedural complications and in-hospital events (myocardial infarction, angina and death) in diabetics and non-diabetics. During the follow-up, the incidence of target lesion revascularizton (TLR) and cardiac event free survival did not differ between two groups. CONCLUSION: Coronary stenting in diabetics resulted in a low rate of immediate procedural com-plications and early major adverse cardiac event (MACE), similar to non-diabetics. There were no differences in the mid-term clinical and angiographic outcomes in diabetics and non-diabetics.
Angiography ; Coronary Angiography ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Disease-Free Survival ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infarction ; Mortality ; Risk Factors ; Stents*

Many factors including social rejection, family problems, loss of educational opportunity, fear, prejudice and ignorance, compound the inherent paychologicaI stress of leprosy. In ligh.t of these problems this present study was undertaken to evaluate the psychologica.l status of 1cprosy patients. The subjects of the present study were 220 patients staying at home and 304 control people living in similar isolated areas to resettlemert villages. A self reprort symptom inventory,, SCL--90 symptom check list 90) was used and the group", were analysed and compand by many factors. The results of this study are follows. -countinue-
Humans ; Leprosy* ; Prejudice ; Social Distance

The T cell responses to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) were analyzed in acute hepatitis patients, chronic active hepatitis (CAH) patients and asymptomatic carriers. Neither proliferative responses nor substantial cytokine production of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in response to HBsAg was detected. For further studies, HBsAg- reactive T cell lines were prepared from PBMC of the hepatitis patients and asymptomatic carriers. No proliferative response of the T cell lines was observed. Interestingly, however, T cell lines obtained from acute hepatitis patients were found to produce IFN-r, but not IL- 4, in response to HBsAg stimulation, whereas T cell lines obtained from CAH patients and carriers were not. Results of this study suggest that HBsAg-reactive T cells producing Thl type cytokines may play an important role in the viral clearance during acute infections, while defects in those T cells may be responsible for the viral persistency.
Cell Line ; Cytokines ; Hepatitis ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens* ; Hepatitis, Chronic ; Humans ; T-Lymphocytes*

No abstract available.
Hand*

To provide ideas for the recognition of neonatal and infantile liver diseases caused by cytomegalovirus(CMV) infection, histopathological examinations were made on hepatic tissues obtained by biopsy or autopsy from 23 patients. All patients were sero-positive for IgM anti CMV and had no other known or suggested etiologic factors for their liver disease. There were five different types of liver diseases: 8 cases of giant cell hepatitis(34.8%), 4 cases of biliary atresia(17.4%), 5 cases of biliary atresia with changes of neonatal hepatitis(21.7%), 4 cases of diffuse hepatic fibrosis(17.4%) and 2 cases of hepatic necrosis with CMV inclusion(8.7%). The diffuse hepatic fibrosis involved both the hepatic lobules and portal areas without evidences of regeneration. This type of liver disease appeared to be a chronic progressive illness that began during the first week of life, and in 3 of 4 cases, the liver biopsy was dong at 5 to 9 months after birth. The two patients showing CMV inclusion in their liver were premature of debilitated, and died within I month after birth. Diffuse hepatic necrosis as well as the cytomegalic change of bile duct epithelium was characteristic. The findings suggest that the pattern of CMV liver disease depends on the major site of hepatic injury, the status of status of patient's defense mechanism and the chronicity of illness.
Infant ; Male ; Female ; Infant, Newborn ; Humans ; Biopsy

Collet-Sicard syndrome is one of the syndromes of the multiple lower cranial nerve palsies, characterized by unilateral paralysis of 9th through 12th cranial nerves. The present report describes a 34-year-old woman who had hoarseness, dysarthria, and loss of taste developed after febrile illness. Brain MRI, both T1WI and T2WI, showed high signal intensity in the left jugular foramen. Gd-GTPA contrast injection revealed thickening and enhancement of the left tentorium. Angiography disclosed nonvisualization of the left transverse and sigmoid sinus, and reconstruction of the left internal and external jugular vein by collaterals from the angular, facial, and posterior fossa veins. The patient improved spontaneously two months later. This is the first report of Collet-Sicard syndrome resulting from jugular vein thrombosis.
Adult ; Angiography ; Brain ; Colon, Sigmoid ; Cranial Nerve Diseases ; Cranial Nerves ; Dysarthria ; Female ; Hoarseness ; Humans ; Jugular Veins* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Paralysis ; Thrombosis* ; Veins

Neonatal hepatitis(NH) and congenital extrahepatic biliary atresia(BA) are two major causes of neonatal cholestasis. The method of therapeutic trials for each disease is essentially different. Nonetheless it is very difficult to differentiate these diseases histologically, since most of the hepatic changes are mutual in both of them. This study is to aimed to find out major differences between the two by scoring various histological parameters. A total of 63 consecutive liver biopsies taken from 54 patients with suggested NH and BA were examined by applying morphometric scoring system. The detailed clinical histories, laboratory data including serology for HBsAg and TORCH infection and radiologic operative findings were reviewed. Among 54 patients, 27 were diagnosed as NH and 20 as BA. In two cases, features of both diseases were coexistent. The pathological diagnosis was not compatible with the final diagnosis in 5 cases(10.7%). In all of these 5 cases, biopsy had been performed at the age of one to two months. The seropositivity for TORCH was 59.3%(16.27) in NH, but 25.0%(5/20) in BA. Serum AST, ALT and alpha-fetoprotein values were higher in NH, and total bilirubin in BA. Of various histological parameters, scores of portal fibrosis, bile duct and ductular proliferation and bile thrombi were much higher in BA, and at the age of less than 2 months, extramedullary hemopoiesis(EMH) was found much more frequently in NH. Giant cell transformation of hepatocytes(GCT) was more commonly observed in NH. The numbers of GCT and EMH were particulary plentiful when the patients' sera were positive for HBsAg or TORCH. These results indicate that portal fibrosis, biliary proliferation and bile thrombi are the three major histologic features of BA, and therefore erroneous histological diagnosis may ensue when scores of those features are low as in some early BA.
Infant, Newborn ; Humans ; Biopsy