Craniopharyngioma is a benign, slow-growing tumor that constitues 3-9% of all intracranial tumors, and arises from epithelial remnants of the Rathke's pouch. We analized MR (2.0T) findings of ten cases with surgically proved craniopharyngioma retrospectively. CT was avilable in five cases, and Gd-DTPA was used in six cases. Characteristic findings of craniopharyngioma in MRI included multilocularity and variable signal intensities within each loculus that were more prominent in T1WI. Detection rate of calcification in MR was 60%. Six cases with Gd-DTPA enhancement revealed irregular or rim-like enhancement. MRI provides useful informations regarding the location, extent and biochemical characteristics of the oraniopharyngioma as well as its relationship to the neighboring structures which will be valuable in planning surgical resection.
Craniopharyngioma* ; Gadolinium DTPA ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Pheniramine ; Retrospective Studies

PURPOSE: It has been reported that serum prostate specific antigen(PSA) generally increase in direct proportion to clinical status of prostate cancer, but some reports suggest that PSA level is not correlated with clinical stage in 10% of the patients of prostate cancer. We evaluate the value of PSA about clinical status of prostate cancer through comparing disease status and PSA of patient at initial diagnosis of prostate cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A clinical study was retrospectively made on sixty patients with prostate adenocarcinoma. The patients were admitted to the Department of Urology between January of 1992 and December of 1996. Results were obtained through statistical analysis of the correlation between PSA level and clinical status by performing serum PSA, chest X-ray, bone scan, pelvic CT or pelvic MRI. At the time of the analysis patients were diagnosed with prostate adenocarcinoma pathologically. RESULTS: Mean PSA level of patients with bone metastasis and no metastasis was 125.4 and 97.89ng/m1, respectively and correlation between the two groups was not observed, so bone scan could not be replaced by measuring serum PSA. The number of hot uptake In bone scan wasn't correlated with serum PSA level. Gleason score wasn't correlated with serum PSA level. Multiple comparisons in groups which were classified by bone metastasis and lymphatic metastasis had no statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: As the result of the above observations, we predict that there is a problem in evaluating clinical status with PSA as compared with the value at initial diagnosis or as a predictor of recurrence in patients with radical prostatectomy.
Adenocarcinoma ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neoplasm Grading ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Prostate* ; Prostate-Specific Antigen* ; Prostatectomy ; Prostatic Neoplasms* ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Thorax ; Urology

Bladder stone formation may be associated with the intravesical foreign body. Frequency of bladder foreign body in female is less than male. We present a case of bladder stone formation for nylon suture materials in a 47-year-old female patient who has been treated by bladder neck suspension for stress incontinence. Patient was successfully treated by surgical removal of suture materials without recurrence of stress incontinence.
Female ; Foreign Bodies* ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neck* ; Nylons ; Recurrence ; Sutures ; Urinary Bladder Calculi* ; Urinary Bladder*

Since 1949, lithium has been widely used for treatment of manic depressive disorder. It has also been used for agranulocytosis after anticaneer chemotherapy and partially for hyperthyroidism. But it is well known that the long term administration of this drug is associated wih various antithyroid effects such as hypothyroidism, simple goiter, nodules and even thyrotoxicosis. Although the exact mechanism for leading hypothyroidism or goiter is still unknown, the incidence of lithium-induced hypothyroidism is 1-37% during lithium atment. We had an experience of newly developing goiter with or without hypothyroidism during lithium treatment in 4 MDP patients. Among our patients, the duration of lithium administration was from 0.7 months to 11 years, and the development of thyroid abnormality was impossible to predict. They were treated with thyroxine while lithium was discontinued causing favorable outcome. We suggest that routine thyroid function test include thyroid autoimmune antibody screening in patients planning to undergo lithium treatment.
Agranulocytosis ; Antithyroid Agents ; Depressive Disorder ; Drug Therapy ; Goiter* ; Humans ; Hyperthyroidism ; Hypothyroidism ; Incidence ; Lithium Carbonate* ; Lithium* ; Mass Screening ; Thyroid Function Tests ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyrotoxicosis ; Thyroxine

Down syndrome is perhaps the most common genetic condition associated with mental retardation. In cytogenetic examination, trisomy 21 is in 95% of Down syndrome, and the others are mosaicism, translocation or deletion. There are many associated diseases with Down syndrome such as, thyroid function abnormality, congenital heart disease, intestinal blockage, and so on. Hypothyroidism appeared in 15% before adolescent in Down syndrome patients. In Korea, there were several reports of Down syndrome with hypothyroidism in childhood but not in adulthood. And we had three cases of hypothyroidism with Down syndrome in adulthood. Cytogenetic examination revealed trisomy 21 in the 2 cases and 1 case of mosaicism. Antithyroid antibody was positive in one case. None of these cases was admitted due to symptoms of hypothyroidism. It is very difficult to make the diagnosis of hypothyroidism in Down syndrome because of similarity in symptoms between Down syndrome and hypothyroidism. Thus, periodic thyroid function test should be made in Down syndrome, and this could be a part of improving quality of life in Down syndrome.
Adolescent ; Adult* ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Cytogenetics ; Diagnosis ; Down Syndrome* ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Hypothyroidism* ; Intellectual Disability ; Korea ; Mosaicism ; Quality of Life ; Thyroid Function Tests ; Thyroid Gland

We investigated a correlation of serum prostate specific antigen(PSA) and preoperative prostatic volume measured by transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) in 66 patients with pathologically con- firmed benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), as aids in the early detection of prostate cancer and in the improvement of specificity in BPH. The preoperative serum PSA value was also measured in 18 patients with pathologically confirmed prostate cancer and 15 men without prostatic disease as normal control using Tandem-R PSA radioimmunometric assay. There was a highly significant correlation between natural logarithm transformed PSA(In PSA) and non-transformed prostatic volume by linear regression analysis(r=0.6668, p<0.0001). Given above data, we determined a volume adjusted 95th percentile upper confidence limit for n PSA as an appropriate cutoff between normal and abnormal PSA value, according to prostatic volume in BPH. In the patients with BPH and prostate cancer, sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic accuracy and positive predictive value were 94%, 72%, 68% and 48%, respectively. A statistical results by the volume-adjusted cutoff for in PSA was similar to that at 10 ng/ml as cutoff for PSA value. Above 40ml in prostatic volume, however, a false positive rate was decreased in inverse proportion to prostatic volume in BPH. In summary, the prostatic volume must be considered in BPH patients with elevated serum PSA value, negative digital rectal examination and negative TRUS of prostate. And when the volume adjusted PSA cutoff is clinically applied to BPH patients for the early detection of prostate cancer, we thought that the false positive rate can be decreased in BPH patients.
Diagnosis* ; Digital Rectal Examination ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Male ; Prostate* ; Prostatic Diseases ; Prostatic Hyperplasia* ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Ultrasonography*

PURPOSE: The detection of telomerase activity is a new and useful method in diagnosis of bladder transitional cell carcinoma(TCC) in urine samples. But the detection method of telomerase activity is not easily performed in clinical settings because it uses radio-isotope and electrophoresis. We evaluated the test results of telomerase PCR-ELISA and compared them with the results of urinary cytology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In order to evaluate the feasibility of telomerase PCR-ELISA method in bladder TCC, 36 bladder washing samples of patients with bladder TCC and 10 bladder washing samples of benign urologic diseases were examined for telomerase activity. RESULTS: The overall sensitivity and specificity of the telomerase test was 76.5%(26/36) and 80.0%(4/5). The sensitivity of telomerase test was higher than that of urinary cytology in low grade bladder TCC. Sensitivity of the telomerase test according to the nuclear grade of bladder TCC was 61.5% in grade I, 92.3% in grade II, 75% in grade III. In contrast, the sensitivity was 38.5% in grade I, 66.7% in grade II, 87.5% in grade III in urinary cytology. There was no correlation between the tumor stages and the sensitivity of telomerase test. CONCLUSIONS: We have shown that the sensitivity and specificity of telomerase PCR-ELISA method is similar to the results of telomerase tests previously reported using radioisotope. Furthermore, the telomerase test is more sensitive in detecting bladder tumor of low grade than urinary cytology. These findings suggest that telomerase PCR-ELISA method can be used conveniently and widely for the detection of bladder tumor in clinical practice.
Diagnosis* ; Electrophoresis ; Humans ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Telomerase* ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* ; Urinary Bladder* ; Urologic Diseases

Sodium nitrorusside (SNP) is used for induced hypotension to decrease bleeding in operation site by direct relaxation of vascular smooth muscles. It is known that the infusion of SNP increases plasma renin activity (PRA) and this activation of renin-angiotensin system is one of physiologic mechanism opposing the hypotensive action. Captopril, the renin-angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, could reduced the dose of SNP during induced hypotension through blocking of the cardiovascular effect of renin-angiotensin system. The present study investigates the effect of captopril on PRA, aldosterone, elecholamines and electroytes and whether the pretreatment with captoril can reduce the dose of SNP. Forty patients who needed the induced hypotension for maxillofacial reconstructive surgery were studied. They were pertained to ASA class I and II and classified to 4 groups. Ten patients were pretreated with captopril 3 mg/kg, 10 min. before induction. And ten patients were 1 mg/kg, the other ten patients were 0.5 mg/kg and remainder served as control group. Blood samples for analysis were drawn according to the time sequence of SNP infusion; Stage 1; after the induction and before SNP infusion Stage 2; 30 min. after SNP (when mean arterial pressure was 60-70 torr) infusion Stage 3; before stopping infusion of SNP Stage 4; 30 min. after stopping infusion of SNP The results were as follows: 1) The duration of anesthesia were not stastically different among four groups. 2) Total dose of SNP were significantly decreased in each captopril group. 3) PRA and each value of control group were significantly increased compared with stage l. But there were no significant increase in stages 2, 3, 4 compared with control group PRA. 4) Aldosterone level of all captopril groups were decreased in all stage compared with control group. 5) Epinephrine and norepinephrine were significantly incerased in control group and returned to control level after stopping of SNP infusuon. In captopril group 3 mg/kg, norepinephrine of stage 2.3.4 were not significantly increased than stage l. Epinephrine in captopril 3 mg/ kg group, there were no significant changes except for stage 2. 6) While sodium was decreased in stage 3,4 compared with stage 1 in control group, potassium and chloride were not changed. In summary, captopril can reduce significantly the total dose of SNP required to produce induced hypotension during operation.
Aldosterone* ; Anesthesia ; Arterial Pressure ; Captopril* ; Catecholamines* ; Electrolytes* ; Epinephrine ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hypotension* ; Muscle, Smooth, Vascular ; Nitroprusside* ; Norepinephrine ; Plasma* ; Potassium ; Relaxation ; Renin* ; Renin-Angiotensin System ; Sodium*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study to access MR findings of the lipomatous soft tissue tumor based on histopathologic correlation and its predictability of the histopathologic diagnosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the MR findings and photomicrographs of 9 patients with histopathologically proven lipomatous soft tissue tumors as follows;classic lipoma(4), fibrolipoma(1), lipoblastoma(2), atypical l ipoma(1) and well-differentiated liposarcoma(1). RESULTS: All cases of lipoma showed the same signal intensities as subcutaneous fat which is composed of mature fat cells. Linear low signal intensity lesions corresponded to fibrous connective tissues within lipomas. Two cases of lipoblastoma showed heterogeneous signal intensity with areas of high signal intensity brighter than subcutaneous fat on T2WI, corresponding to myxoid matrix of cytoplasm of immature lipoblasts, and the areas of myxoid degeneration within tumors. Both atypical lipoma and liposarcoma showed heterogeneous signal intensity with ill-defined margins due to presence of lipoblasts and infiltration to adjacent muscle bundles. CONCLUSION: MR image findings were well correlated with histopathologic findings of lipomatous soft tissue tumor, especially with maturity of fat cells and the signal intensity of mesenchymal components within the tumors. MR may predict the pathologic diagnosis of lipoblastoma by presence of myxoid degeneration within Ihe tumor, but atypical lipoma and liposarcoma revealed similar MR findings.
Adipocytes ; Connective Tissue ; Cytoplasm ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Lipoblastoma ; Lipoma ; Liposarcoma ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Retrospective Studies ; Subcutaneous Fat

No abstract available.
Candidiasis* ; Fluconazole*