STUDY DESIGN: Ninty eight patients with multilevel spinal stenosis who were treated with posterior decompression and instrumented posterolateral fusion were reviewed retrospectively. All patients were divided two groups by pathologic level and surgery level. One is complete level decompression group (whole pathologic levels were decompressed) and the other is limited level decompression group (less than pathologic levels were decompressed). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Many patients with spinal stenosis haute multilevel pathology, which is very difficult problem to make surgical strategy for determination of decompression level. METHOD: Patients were reviewed using combination of clinical records, follow-up examinations and radiographs. Posterior decompression and instrumented posterolateral fusion were performed in all patients using pedicle screw fixation (TSRH 49 cases, Diapason 37 cases, CCD 12 cases) and either autogenous bone graft alone or autograft with allograft. The average follow-up period was 19.7 months. RESULTS: In the clinical results by the criteria of Kirkalldy-Willis, there was no difference between complete level decompression group and limited level decompression group. By the bone graft mothorts, fusion rate was no difference between autograft alone group and autograft with allograft group, but fusion periods were more shorter in autograft alone group than in autograft with allograft group(P>0.05). CONCLUSION: In multilevel spinal stenosis, the segments that associated with neurologic symptoms or seyeie stenosis on radiograph must be decompressed but the segments that not associated with neurologic symptoms and mild stenosis on radiograph do not need preventive decompression.
Allografts ; Autografts ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Decompression ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Pathology ; Retrospective Studies ; Spinal Stenosis* ; Transplants*

No abstract available.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis* ; Mycobacterium* ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Hyperplasia* ; Prostate* ; Transurethral Resection of Prostate* ; Urinary Bladder Neck Obstruction

STUDY OBJECT: To date, the study of critical illness in the emergency department has been limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the length of stay and procedures performed on critical care patient in ED, and to be help to establish Emergency physicians' education program. METHOD: We reviewed patient's medical record, who visited ED, Korea Univ. Hospital from Jan. 1996 to Jun. 1996 and admitted to ICU. We analyzed data to age, sex, clinical diagnosis, length of stay, and critical procedures in ED. RESULTS: The 12,721 patients visited ED during the study period, the 441 of 12,721 (3.50%) patients admitted to ICU. 56 patients were excluded whose medical re cords were incomplete. The study populations consisted of 165 women and 220 men. The mean age were 52 year old (median,58 year old). The mean length of stays were 606.1 (1445.9 minutes (median, 180 minutes)). One hundred sixty one of these patients (41.8 %) received one or more critical procedures. The medical critical patients were 252 cases, and surgical critical patients were 133 cases. The mean length of stay of medical critical patients was 738.8 (1748.9 minutes (median, 177.5 minutes)) in medical department,44.0% of them received critical procedures in ED. The surgical critical patients averaged 354.9 (410.7 minutes (median, 190 minutes)) and 37.6% received critical procedures. CONCLUSION: Critical ill patients stay in the ED with a substantial amount of time, before addition to the ICU. Critical ill patients who have hemodynamiccal unstable conditions, compromised cardiopulmonary functions, and neurologic deficities, were managed in ED frequently. Typical critical care procedures are commonly performed by emergency physicians. Therefore, it is important for emergency physician to prepare to critical ill patients.
Critical Care* ; Critical Illness ; Diagnosis ; Education ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Length of Stay ; Male ; Medical Records ; Middle Aged

No abstract available.
Pregnancy*

We compared the left ventricular ejection fraction by echocardiography with the ejection fraction determined by computerized radionuclide ventriculography in 59 patients who were admitted to the Soon Chun Hyang University Hospotal under the impression of cardiovascular disease from May 1984 to August 1985. The results were as follow : 1) In all patients the ejection fractions by both methods were significantly correlated with each other(r=0.77, P<0.001). 2) In 10 patients with ischemic heart disease the ejection fractions by both methods were not correlated significantly(r=0.42, P>0.10). 3) Except the 10 patients with ischemic heart disease, the ejection fractions by both methods were correlated significantly(r=0.87, P<0.001). 4) In conclusion, though the ejection fraction by the above 2 methods represent the left ventricular function well, the ejection fraction by echocardiography can not represent the left ventricular function precisely in patients in patients with ischemic heart disease because of abnormal left ventricular wall motion and left ventricular function more precisely than that by echocardiography.
Cardiovascular Diseases ; Echocardiography* ; Humans ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Radionuclide Ventriculography* ; Stroke Volume ; Ventricular Function, Left

To analyze the correlation between biological phenotypes of HIV-1 isolates and disease progression, we selected 9 long-term non-progressors (LTNP) and 12 rapid progressors (RP) from HIV-1 infected Korean. We isolated HIV-1 isolates by culture of PBMC of LTNP and RP with normal PBMC and measured HIV-1 p24 antigen production. The HIV-1 isolation rate from LTNP was 55.6% (5/9). And 4 HIV-1 LTNP isolates were non-syncytium inducing (NSI) phenotype and showed slow/low replication. The HIV-1 isolation rate from RP was 91.7% (l1/12) which was higher than that from LTNP. Besides 3 RP HIV-1 isolates which showed syncytium inducing (SI) phenotype, 8 RP HIV-1 isolates showed NSI phenotype in normal PBMC and MT-2 cell line. All RP HIV-1 isolates replicated more rapidly than LTNP HIV-1 isolates. Comparing the replication kinetics and syncytium forming capacity of HIV-1 isolates from LTNP and RP, we suggest that the difference of biological phenotype of HIV-1 isolates could be related with disease progression of HIV-1 infected persons.
Cell Line ; Disease Progression ; Giant Cells ; HIV-1* ; Humans ; Kinetics ; Korea* ; Phenotype

No abstract available.
Amino Acid Sequence* ; HIV* ; Phenotype*

Rat thalamocortical slices maintain synoptic connections between thalamus and cortex. When perfused with low Mg++-ACSF, thalamocortical slices exhibited two main types of spontaneous bursting activity. One is monotonic burst of 3-15 Hz and another is multiphasic bursts which have a tonic burst firing period and a late phase of clonic burst firing. These bursts are similar in frequency and during to EEG recordings from human generalized seizures. Exploiting the advantages of in vitro preparations, the electrophysiological action of taurine were studied. Exogeneous application of taurine profoundly decreased spontaneous bursting activities, which it caused only slight reduction of electrically evoked response in cortical layer. Taurine-induced current was blocked by 40 uM bicuculline, GABA receptor antagonist, in acutely isolated coritcal neurons. These results suggest that endogeneous taurine may regulate the hyperexcitablility through GABAa receptor.
Animals ; Bicuculline ; Electroencephalography ; Fires ; Humans ; Neurons ; Rats* ; Receptors, GABA ; Seizures* ; Taurine* ; Thalamus

Rat thalamocortical slices maintain synoptic connections between thalamus and cortex. When perfused with low Mg++-ACSF, thalamocortical slices exhibited two main types of spontaneous bursting activity. One is monotonic burst of 3-15 Hz and another is multiphasic bursts which have a tonic burst firing period and a late phase of clonic burst firing. These bursts are similar in frequency and during to EEG recordings from human generalized seizures. Exploiting the advantages of in vitro preparations, the electrophysiological action of taurine were studied. Exogeneous application of taurine profoundly decreased spontaneous bursting activities, which it caused only slight reduction of electrically evoked response in cortical layer. Taurine-induced current was blocked by 40 uM bicuculline, GABA receptor antagonist, in acutely isolated coritcal neurons. These results suggest that endogeneous taurine may regulate the hyperexcitablility through GABAa receptor.
Animals ; Bicuculline ; Electroencephalography ; Fires ; Humans ; Neurons ; Rats* ; Receptors, GABA ; Seizures* ; Taurine* ; Thalamus