This study was performed for the purpose of evaluation of plasma PGE2, levels in patients with gastric carcinomas. To carry out this study twenty-one gastrectomy patients with gastric carcinoma were selected. Serial plasma PGE2 levels were measured before and after operation by radioimmunoassay. Plasma PGE2 was also measured in five normal healthy volunteers or of patients with gastric ulcer. The conclusion drawn therefrom were as followed: 1) In normal healthy volunteers, plasma PGE2 level was 50.2+/-16.5 pg/ml which ws higher than that of parients with gastric ulcer, 20.7+/-15.4 pg/ml, (p<0.001). 2) In patients with diffuse type of gastric carcinoma, preoperative and postoperative plasma PGE2 levels were 25.7+/-12.1 pg/ml, and 23.1+/-8.7 pg/ml, rewpectively. In parients with intestinal type of gastric carcinoma, preoperative and postoperastive plasma PGE2 levels were 26.2+/-8.9 pg/ml and 24.1+/-11.2 pg/ml, respectively. In both types of gastric carcinoma, plasma PGE2 levels were lower than that of normal healthy volunteers and there was no significant difference compaired with the levels in patients with gastric ulcer. 3) In diffuse and intestinal types of gastric carcinoma, postoperative PGE2 levels were lower that those of preoperative state but it was not significant. 4) In early and advanced gastric carcinoma, preoperative PGE2 levels were 29.0+/-11.7 pg/ml and 24.8+/-9.9 pg/ml, respectively. There was no significant difference by the depth of invasion. From the result as mentioned above, it is concluded that plasma PGE2 levels of patients with gastric carcinoma and it is presumable that there is a factor decreasing plasma PGE2 levels in patients with gastric carcinoma or ulcer.

Metastases to the sinonasal tract are infrequent occurrences from primaries below the clavicles. The total number of reported cases to date is less than 100. There is, however, complete unanimity concerning the histologic type of metastatic neoplasm most often encountered. An interesting phenomenon, generally attributable only to breast and renal cell carcinoma, is the late recurrence of the malignant tumor, even 10 or more years after operation. A 61 year-old-male was admitted to ENT due to frequent epistaxis and right facial swelling. CT scan revealed a huge soft tissue density mass I right maxillary sinus with extension into nasopharynx and deviation of nasal septum. The histologic diagnosis was metastatic renal cell carcinoma. He had left nephrectomy because of renal cell carcinoma, 14 years ago. We report a case of metastatic renal cell carcinoma of maxillary sinus in view of rarity, and a brief review of the literature related to this type of tumor is presented.
Male ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis

Merkel cell carcinoma is a relatively uncommon, cutaneous, neuroendocrine neoplasm that was first recognized by Toker in 1972. Occasionally it is found concurrent with squamous cell carcinoma or basal cell carcinoma and in them cases, the coexistence of them is suggesive of presenting the effect of a common carcinogenic influence on two distinct precursor cells. Now the authors report a case of Merkel cell carcinoma associated with squamous cell carcinoma arising in the overlying epidermis, and a brief review of literatures is introduced. The patient was a 75-year-old female, who had noticed a reddish brown, ulcerated mass on the right buttock. It had progressively enlarged to become lemon-size during last 4 months. The right buttock mass excised measured 10x8x3 cm and was gray white, solid, with an ill-defined marigin. Histologically the tumor was located in the dermis and was lacking in connection with the epidermis in which invasive squamous cell carcinoma developed. The neoplastic cells were arranged in a diffuse, lymphoma-like pattern or trabecular arrangement and their cytologic details were reminiscent of small cell carcinoma of the lung, On electron microscopy the cells displayed many neurosecretory granules averaging about 100nm in diameter, intermediate filaments and desmosomes. Immunohistochemically a ball-like immunostaining for keratin, resembling an inclusion body, was seen, but other markers, including neuron-specific enolase, vimentin, S-100 protein and leukocyte common antigen, were unrewarded.
Female ; Humans

To evaluate the effect of pterygium on corneal astigmatism and visual acuity, we checked the corneal curvature and visual acuity before and after the operation for pterygium in 126 eye. In the cases of Grade I, the mean change of the horizontal corneal curvature was +0.32D and the mean change of the vertical corneal curvature was +0.07D (P<0.05). In the cases of Grade II, the mean change of the horizontal corneal curvature was +0.54D(P<0.01) and the mean change of the vertical corneal curvature was +0.09D(P<0.05). All of the horizontal and vertical corneal curvature increased after removal of the pterygium, especially the horizontal curvature increased more than the vertical curvature. As the pterygium invades the cornea more extensively, the corneal curvature increased more markedly. After the operation for pterygium the visual acuity was improved 1 to 2 lines at the Han`s visual acuity table in some cases, but there was no statistical significance (P>0.5).
Astigmatism* ; Cornea ; Pterygium* ; Visual Acuity*

To examine among patients with vertebral compression fracture the extent to which signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) values at the lumbar vertebral compression fracture site vary on diffusion-weighted MR images according to varying b values on the 1.5T MR device. Diffusion-weighted MR images of 30 patients with compression fracture due to chronic osteoporosis who underwent vertebral MRI from Jan. 2008 to Nov. 2009 were respectively obtained using a 1.5-T MR scanner with the b values increased from 400, 600, 800, 1,000 to 1,200 s/mm2. For diffusion-weighted MR images with different b values, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was assessed at three sites: the site of compression fracture of the lumbar vertebral body at L1 to L5, and both the upper and lower discs of the said fracture site, while for ADC map images with different b values, the SNR and ADC were respectively assessed at those three sites. As a quantitative analysis, diffusion-weighted MR images and ADC map images with b value of 400 s/mm2 (the base b values) were respectively compared with the corresponding images with each different b value. As far as qualitative analysis is concerned, for both diffusion-weighted MR and ADC map images with b value of 400 s/mm2, the extent to which signal intensity values obtained at the site of compression fracture of the lumbar vertebral body at L1 to L5 vary according to the increasing b values were examined. The quantitative analysis found that for both diffusion-weighted MR and ADC map images, as the b values increased, the SNR were relatively lowered at all the three sites, compared to the base b value. Also, it was found that as the b values increased, ADC values were relatively lowered at all the three sites on ADC map images. On the other hand, the qualitative analysis found that as the b values increased to more than 400 s/mm2, the signal intensity gradually decreased at all the sites, while at the levels of more than 1,000 s/mm2, severe image noises appeared at all of the three sites. In addition, higher signal intensity was found at the site of compression fracture of the lumbar vertebral body than at the discs. Findings showed that with the b value being increased, both the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) values gradually decreased at all the sites of the lumbar vertebral compression fracture and both the upper and lower discs of the fracture site, suggesting that there is a possibility of a wider range of applications to assessment of various vertebral pathologies by utilizing multi b values in the diffusion-weighted MRI examination.
Diffusion ; Fractures, Compression ; Hand ; Humans ; Noise ; Osteoporosis ; Signal-To-Noise Ratio

To evaluate the potential value of 1H Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for detecting and characterizing invasive ductal carcinoma of breast. We conducted 1H Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), using a 3.0T MR scanner, on 40 patients who were histologically diagnosed to have invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC); tumor areas of the patients were designated as experimental samples, and non-tumor areas as control samples. The peak at 3.2 ppm is characteristically intense and observed in 34 cases of the total 40 invasive ductal carcinoma (sensitivity 86.2%; specificity 100%; positive predictive value 100%; negative predictive value 60%). In constrast peak at 1.3 ppm is characteristically intense and observed in normal breast (sensitivity 86.2%; specificity 100%; positive predictive value 100%; negative predictive value 60%). The study shows that 1H MRS can effectively discriminate invasive ductal carcinoma from normal breast in most cases. It also demonstrates the feasibility of localized in vivo 1H MRS technique as a new diagnostic modality in the detection of breast tumor.
Breast ; Carcinoma, Ductal ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Magnetics ; Magnets ; Sensitivity and Specificity

BACKGROUND: Although postoperative back pain has been reported to occur, as a frequent complication of anesthesia and surgery, it is usually mild and self-limited. However, we experienced cases of uncontrolled postoperative back pain in patients even after IV-PCA administration. These patients' back pain was relieved by the traditional diclofenac sodium intramuscular injection, so we evaluated the efficacy of diclofenac sodium on uncontrolled postoperative back pain by IV-PCA. METHODS: We studied 16 patients who complained of postoperative back pain even with IV-PCA for postoperative pain control. When NRS pain score was above 5, the patients were treated with a diclofenac sodium 75 mg intramuscular injection. Postoperative back pain and operation site pain was measured by NRS before and after diclofenac sodium injection. RESULTS: There was a significant decrease in the pain score of postoperative back pain after diclofenac sodium injection without a dramatic improvement of operation site pain. CONCLUSIONS: Diclofenac sodium plays a useful role in the control of acute postoperative back pain.
Anesthesia ; Back Pain* ; Diclofenac* ; Humans ; Injections, Intramuscular ; Pain, Postoperative

By using the MR T2 map technique, this study intends, first, to measure the change of T2 values of cartilage between healthy people and patients with osteoarthritis and, second, to assess the form and the damage of cartilage in the knee-joint, through which this study would consider the utility of the T2 map technique. Thirty healthy people were selected based on their clinical history and current status and another thirty patients with osteoarthritis of the knee who were screened by simple X-ray from November 2007 to December 2008 were selected. Their T2 Spin Echo (SE hereafter) images for the cartilage of the knee joint were collected by using the T2 SE sequence, one of the multi-echo methods (TR: 1,000 ms; TE values: 6.5, 13, 19.5, 26, 32.5. 40, 45.5, 52). Based on these images, the changes in the signal intensity (SI hereafter) for each section of the cartilage of the knee joint were measured, which yielded average values of T2 through the Origin 7.0 Professional (Northampton, MA 01060 USA). With these T2s, the independent samples T-test was performed by SPSS Window version 12.0 to run the quantitative analysis and to test the statistical significance between the healthy group and the patient group. Closely looking at T2 values for each anterior and lateral articular cartilage of the sagittal plane and the coronal plane, in the sagittal plane, the average T2 of the femoral cartilage in the patient group with arthritis of the knee (42.22+/-2.91) was higher than the average T2 of the healthy group (36.26+/-5.01). Also, the average T2 of the tibial cartilage in the patient group (43.83+/-1.43) was higher than the average T2 in the healthy group (36.45+/-3.15). In the case of the coronal plane, the average T2 of the medial femoral cartilage in the patient group (45.65+/-7.10) was higher than the healthy group (36.49+/-8.41) and so did the average T2 of the anterior tibial cartilage (i.e., 44.46+/-3.44 for the patient group vs. 37.61+/-1.97 for the healthy group). As for the lateral femoral cartilage in the coronal plane, the patient group displayed the higher T2 (43.41+/-4.99) than the healthy group did (37.64+/-4.02) and this tendency was similar in the lateral tibial cartilage (i.e., 43.78+/-8.08 for the patient group vs. 36.62+/-7.81 for the healthy group). Along with the morphological MR imaging technique previously used, the T2 map technique seems to help patients with cartilage problems, in particular, those with the arthritis of the knee for early diagnosis by quantitatively analyzing the structural and functional changes of the cartilage.
Arthritis ; Cartilage ; Cartilage, Articular ; Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Knee ; Knee Joint ; Osteoarthritis ; Osteoarthritis, Knee

The purpose of this study is to compensate for susceptibility and a ferromagnetic body artifact using CFA and TGV on MR Imaging. A total of 30 patients (15 men and 15 women, mean age: 45 years) were performed on head and neck diseases. MR Unit used a 1.5T superconducting magnet (GE medical system, High Density). This study have investigated by changing with CFA and TGV (70, 90, 110, 130, 150) searching for compensation values about susceptibility and a ferromagnetic body artifact in 60 kg standards of body weight (p<0.05). As a quality results, Image qualities were obtained at different score from CFA and TGV (70, 90, 110, 130, 150=3.23+/-0.35, 4.31+/-0.02 4.23+/-0.21, 5.12+/-0.25, 7.13+/-0.72, 8.31+/-0.01, 5.21+/-0.15, 6.14+/-0.08, 5.23+/-0.72, 5.91+/-0.06, p<0.05). Absolute CNRs (TG, CNRpre, CNRpost) were acquired with (70:-1.44+/-0.11, -2.7+/-0.04, 90:-2.18+/-0.42, -4.41+/-0.43, 110:-2.89+/-0.43, -5.23+/-0.02, 130:-2.34+/-0.05, -5.26+/-0.01, 150: -2.09+/-0.08, -3.87+/-0.12, p<0.05). In conclusions, this study could be compensated for metal and flow artifacts surrounding the tissues having artifact by changing CFA and TGV.
Artifacts ; Body Weight ; Compensation and Redress ; Female ; Head ; Humans ; Magnets ; Male ; Neck

PURPOSE: Tuberous sclerosis is an autosomal dominant multisystemic neurocutaneous syndrome characterized by the development of multiple hamartoma distributed through the body, skin, brain, heart, kidney, and lung. The classic triad is seizure, mental retardation, and facial angiofibroma. We experienced a case of a tuberous sclerosis associated with the facial lesion and multiple masses on scalp, forehead, and right lower extremity. METHODS: This a 34-year-old male patient had subependymal giant cell astrocytoma in brain and multiple angiomyolipoma in both kidneys. Tangential excision with razor blade and dermabrasion were done on the centrofacial area. We excised other lesions and the mass on scalp was excised and covered with split thickness skin graft. RESULTS: The histopathological finding revealed that the facial lesion was angiofibroma and the others were multiple fibroma. CONCLUSION: In our case of tuberous sclerosis, we chose the tangential excision to remove the large nodules of angiofibroma, and then dermabrasion was used to smooth the final contour. The patient appeared to have a good results from this treatment modality. But, tuberous sclerosis is an disease that needs long term follow-up to check up the recurrence of skin problem.
Adult ; Angiofibroma ; Angiomyolipoma ; Astrocytoma ; Brain ; Dermabrasion ; Extremities ; Fibroma ; Forehead ; Hamartoma ; Heart ; Humans ; Intellectual Disability ; Kidney ; Lung ; Male ; Neurocutaneous Syndromes ; Recurrence ; Scalp ; Seizures ; Skin ; Tuberous Sclerosis