No abstract available.
Vena Cava, Inferior*

No abstract available.
Tumor Lysis Syndrome*

No abstract available.
Hemangioma*

BACKGROUND: Rotavirus activity in Korea has been reported beginning in October, peak in November, continuing in winter and ending in spring. But the peak month and the incidence of rotavirus seems to be changed recently. So we investigated the trends of rotavirus activity for the last 10 years in Hanyang University Hospital (HUH). Also latex agglutination test was compared with automated enzyme-linked fluorescent immunoassay for the detection of rotavirus in stool specimens. METHODS: Stool specimens (3,636 from HUH, 1989-1998; 1,171 from Hanyang University Kuri hospital, HUKH, 1996-1998) from pediatric patients with acute diarrhea were tested for rotavirus,. Sixty specimens were tested by latex agglutination test (Sliders Rota-kit 2, bioMerieux Vitek, France) and enzyme-linked fluorescent immunoassay (VIDAS Rotavirus, bioMerieux Vitek, France) according to the instructions from the manufacturer. RESULTS: The annual incidence of rotavirus diarrhea from 1989 to 1998 was 47%, 32%, 33%, 25%, 26%, 24%, 24%, 17%, 17%, 14%, respectively. Positive rate of rotavirus was 25% for the 10year period in HUH, 20% for the recent 3 years in HUKH. Peak month was November (46%) in the first 5 year, but November incidence decreased to 17% in the last 5 year, and the peak moved to January, February, and March (34%, 35%, 33%, respectively). Epidemic period was from October to February during the first 5 year, but from December to April during the last 5 year period. The agreement rate of the two methods was 90% and VIDAS Rotavirus showed significantly higher sensitivity compared to Sliders Rota-kit 2. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of rotavirus diarrhea decreased gradually for the last 10 years and the peak month of rotavirus activity was changed from November to January, February, and March. The VIDAS Rotavirus was more sensitive than the Sliders Rota-kit 2 for the detection of rotavirus in stool.
Diarrhea ; Epidemiology ; Gastroenteritis* ; Humans ; Immunoassay ; Incidence ; Korea* ; Latex Fixation Tests ; Rotavirus*

BACKGROUND: Diagnosis of tuberculosis is more complicated because of low sensitivity and time consuming procedures of the conventional diagnostic methods as well as nonspecific clinical features. Recently the serologic diagnosis of tuberculosis has been reported as one of rapid sensitive and specific methods. We evaluated the ability of a rapid ICT Tuberculosis assay(AMRAD/ICT Diagnostics, Syndey, Australia) to detect pulmonary tuberculosis. METHODS: ICT Tuberculosis assay was performed to the sera from 50 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (24 patients with smear positive, 26 patients with smear negative) and 105 controls (48 patients without tuberculosis, 57 healthy controls). RESULTS: Antibodies were detected in 22 of 24 (92%) smear positive patients and 22 of 26 (85%) smear negative patients who had been clinically diagnosed as having active pulmonary tuberculosis. Two (4.2%) out of 48 patients without tuberculosis and 1 (1.8%) out of 57 healthy controls had a positive antibody response. The overall sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value of the ICT Tuberculosis assay were 88%, 97%, 94%, and 94%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The ICT Tuberculosis assay was not only sensitive and specific but also rapid and simple. This assay will be useful as a diagnostic method of pulmonary tuberculosis in combination with sputum smear and X-ray.
Antibodies ; Antibody Formation ; Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sputum ; Tuberculosis* ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary*

Recently introduced tramadol structually similar to morphine, was a new category in analgesia. Also it was reported that that drug could be used in the shale of balanced anesthesia. So we carried out the experiment for evaluation of its effect on sympathoa-drenal system activity, indexed by plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine levels, to compare with other methods of balanced techniques in 18 Patients. Patients in group 1 who received Thalamonal-N2O-O2, patients in group 2 were given pethidine. diazepam-N2O-O2, patients in group 3 were tramadol. diase7am-N2O-O7, Venous samples were obtained before induction of anesthesia, after induction but before skin incision and immediately after skin incision. Sequential results of plasma epinephrine(pg/ml)were 62.0+16.8(mean+s.e.), 134.3+18.7, 127.3+26.2 in group 1, 65.8+13.1, 79.7+13.1, 91.3+22.5 in group 2 and 74.0+24.9, 88.0+17. 1, 108.4+23.2 in group 3. Values of norepinephrine(pg/ml) were 212.5+27.1, 167.7+23.9, 236.2+34.4 in group 1, 213.8+59.1, 162.0+33.2, 246.8+55.7 in group 2 and 236.0+39.6, 197.7+59.4, 208.4+25.6 in group 3. Those values did not differ significantly between three groups. Theae data revealed that this method of balanced anesthesia using tramadol could effectively block the sympathetic response to anesthestic and surgical stress as other method of balanced techniques.
Analgesia ; Anesthesia ; Balanced Anesthesia* ; Catecholamines* ; Epinephrine ; Humans ; Meperidine ; Morphine ; Norepinephrine ; Plasma* ; Skin ; Tramadol*

BACKGROUND: Widal test has been one of the most important diagnostic tests for typhoid and is still widely used. Widal test has been useful diagnostic tool for typhoid in endemic areas, while it has been largely abandoned in developed countries. Since 1990, occurrance of typhoid has been markedly decreased in Korea, we studied diagnostic usefulness and criteria of Widal test from 1990 to 1997. METHODS: Using rapid slide titration method (Stained Salmonella suspensions, Murex Biotech Ltd., Dartford, England), the Widal test was done in 116 nontyphoid salmonellosis patients, 75 patients with proven typhoid fever, and 173 cases of clinically suspected typhoid fever patients. Stastical analysis was done with discriminant analysis in culture proven salmonellosis. RESULTS: Fifty-four culture proven cases of Salmonella paratyphi (S. paratyphi) A and S. paratyphi B showed no significant cutoff value in O antibodies. Salmonella typhi (S. typhi) O titer at the 1:160 and above showed lower sensitivity (37.3% vs. 69.3%) and specificity (91.4% vs. 93.1%) compared to S. typhi H titer at the 1:320 and above in diagnosis of culture proven cases of typhoid. We applied D (0.01xH titer+0.001xO titer-1.635) score which result from discriminant analysis. Positive D score (> or =0.21) showed sensitivity of 72% and specificity of 92.2% in culture proven cases of typhoid. In clinically suspected patients, positive D score showed 39.3% of sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that the Widal test for O antibodies of S. paratyphi A and S. paratyphi B is not useful for diagnosis of paratyphoid fever. In the present study S. typhi H antibodies are more diagnostic than S. typhi O antibodies. We appled D score and positive D score showed increased sensitivity of Widal test than application of O antibody titer.
Antibodies ; Developed Countries ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; Humans ; Korea ; Paratyphoid Fever ; Salmonella ; Salmonella Infections ; Salmonella paratyphi A ; Salmonella typhi ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Suspensions ; Typhoid Fever

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) is not yet standardized but broth dilution or agar dilution are considered as standard methods. In the broth microdilution method, antibiotic dilutions of different concentrations are made each time, but most of it is discarded because only small volumes of dilutions are used. To improve this tedious procedure and the waste of reagents, antibiotic solutions in 96-well microplates were frozen at -20 degrees C to evaluate their useful storage periods. METHODS: Various concentrations of metronidazole(MTZ) and clarithromycin(CLR) solutions were divided into ten plates of 96-well microplates, sealed and stored at -20 degrees C. The broth microdilution susceptibility test was done with fresh and preserved antibiotic dilutions each month on 5 occasions for 4 strains(initial minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC) for MTZ 1, 4, 16, 64 ug/mL, initial MIC for CLR <0.125, <0.125, <0.125, 32 ug/mL) of H. pylori. The difference of MIC values of more than +/-2 log2 diluti on was considered significant. RESULTS: For both MTZ and CLR, the difference of MIC values of fresh and frozen antibiotic solutions was within +/-1 log2 dilution and the results of susceptibility test were the same for 7 months. CONCLUSIONS: Various concentrations of frozen MTZ and CLR solutions could be used for at least 7 months for the antimicrobial susceptibility testing of H. pylori.
Agar ; Anti-Bacterial Agents* ; Clarithromycin ; Helicobacter pylori* ; Helicobacter* ; Indicators and Reagents ; Metronidazole

Acardia is a very rare congenital anomaly occurring in less than 1 in 35,000 deliveries. Acardiac parabiotic twin has been reported only in multiple, monochronic pregnancies. This anomalous fetus is sustained in utero by parasitic anastomoses to the circulation of its usually normal co-twin and is therefore not compatible with extrauterine survival. A case of an acardiac parabiotic twin is described, and the literature concerning the incidence, classification and etiology of acardiac is reviewed.
Classification ; Fetus ; Humans ; Incidence ; Pregnancy

OBJECTIVE: Our object is to evaluate the detailed mechanisms of support and regression of the human corpus luteum. METHODS: To investigate the regulation of luteal function by gonadotropins, cytokines, and prostaglandins, the frequency of apoptosis and expression of Fas, Fas-L, Bcl-2, Bax, p53, caspase-8 were examined in cultured human luteal cells after treatment with various doses of FSH (30, 100, or 300 ng/mL), LH (30, 100, or 300 ng/mL), TGFbeta1 (1, 10, or 100 ng/mL), TNFalpha (1, 10, or 100 ng/mL), or PGF2alpha (1, 10, or 100 ng/mL) for 24 h. Cells were tested for apoptosis by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate-digoxigenin nick end labeling TUNEL) method and cell death detection ELISA. Immunostaning was performed using anti-Fas, Fas ligand, Bcl-2, Bax, and p53 antibodies. RESULTS: Incidence of apoptosis determined by TUNEL method in the group without treatment was 1.7+/-0.5% (0 h), 10.8+/-1.6% (24 h), and 12.9+/-1.2% (48 h), respectively. Spontaneous increase was significant at the latter time points. Significant suppression of incidence of apoptosis was observed with LH and TGFbeta1 (P<0.05). On the other hand, significant induction of incidence of apoptosis was observed with TNFalpha and PGF2alpha (P<0.05). Immunostaining revealed that p53 and Bax expressions after treatment with LH or TGFbeta1 were significantly lower than those without treatment. Bcl-2 and caspase-8 expressions were not significantly affected by any substance addition. Also we found that inductions of apoptosis by TNFalpha and PGF2alpha were not correlated with the expression of Fas, Fas ligand, Bcl-2, Bax, p53 and caspase-8. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that LH and TGFbeta1 may be involved in the support of luteal function via suppression of apoptosis, and that TNFalpha and PGF2alpha may contribute to luteal regression via its induction in human corpus luteum during early luteal phase. Also, Fas, Fas-L, Bax and p53 may play roles in this apoptosis controlled by LH, and TGFbeta1.
Antibodies ; Apoptosis* ; Caspase 8 ; Cell Death ; Corpus Luteum ; Cytokines* ; Deoxyuridine ; Dinoprost ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Fas Ligand Protein ; Female ; Gonadotropins* ; Hand ; Humans* ; In Situ Nick-End Labeling ; Incidence ; Luteal Cells* ; Luteal Phase ; Luteolysis ; Prostaglandins ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha