Doxylamine is an antihistamine of the ethanolamine class. It is used primarily as a sleep-inducing agent. Clinicians should be aware of the complications in rhabdomyolysis patients who ingest doxylamine succinate and over-the-counter antihistamines. The easy availability of these substances increases the potential not only of intentional overdose by adults but also of inadvertent ingestion by children. Prompt intervention and careful assessment of renal function, urinary output, and serum creatine kinase levels may represent the difference between an uncomplicated and acute renal failure. Recognition of the potential for rhabdomyolysis and institution of vigorous treatment may prevent acute renal failure in patients who have taken an overdose of the drug. A 14-year-old male was found to have hematuria and oliguria. Evaluation of the patient revealed myoglobinuria, and a creatine kinase(CK) level of 117,563 IU/L. He was recovered by massive fluid administration, urine alkalization and mannitol infusion. We report a case of a suicide attempt in a child where ingestion of the doxylamine complicated by non-traumatic rhabdomyolysis with brief review related literatures.
Acute Kidney Injury ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Creatine ; Creatine Kinase ; Doxylamine* ; Eating ; Ethanolamine ; Hematuria ; Histamine Antagonists ; Humans ; Male ; Mannitol ; Myoglobinuria ; Oliguria ; Rhabdomyolysis* ; Succinic Acid ; Suicide

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to review the surgical results of 19 patients with idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia treated by percutaneous ballooning compression(PBC) of trigeminal gasserian ganglion under brief general anesthesia. METHODS: The mean patient age was 63.5 years(range, 27-78). The mean follow-up period was 24 months(range, 1-46). Three patients had already undergone radiofreqnency trigeminal rhizotomy and two patients had previously microvascular decompression. The balloon was inflated by injecting radio-contrast media 0.7-1cc in amount. The mean inflating time is 81 seconds(range, 60-90). RESULTS: During the procedure, brief intraoperative bradycardia and hypotension were noted in seven cases(36.7%). All patients had immediate relief of pain except 1 case. 18 cases(94.5%) of patients were satisfied or very satisfied with their pain relief. There were immediate, mild to moderate sensory complication of hypesthesia, dysesthesia or paraesthesia in all cases and the immediate motor complication-difficulty of mastication in 3 cases, transient 6th nerve palsy in 2 cases. The immediate motor and sensory complications disappeared or much improved after 3-4 months. CONCLUSION: It is the simple technique that can be performed effectively in a brief period of general anesthesia. This procedure might be one of attractive methods in the treatment of idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia.
Abducens Nerve Diseases ; Anesthesia, General ; Bradycardia ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hypesthesia ; Hypotension ; Mastication ; Microvascular Decompression Surgery ; Paresthesia ; Rhizotomy ; Trigeminal Ganglion* ; Trigeminal Neuralgia*

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss due to the initial manifestation of hematologic disease is very rare. Chronic myelogenous leukemia has been implicated as a causative factor of sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Leukemic infiltration, hemorrhage, infection, and hyperviscosity have been suggested as possible mechanisms in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia. A 49-year-old male presented unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss. The patient was found to have chronic myelogenous leukemia during the work-up for the hearing loss. The WBC count upon admission was 485,100/mm(3). Hemoglobin, hematocrit, and platelet count were within the normal limits. The patient underwent three cycles of leukapheresis and chemotherapy with interferon alpha and hydroxyurea for the treatment of leukemia. The hearing threshold level was 75 dB on admission. It improved to 35 dB when the WBC count fell to 294,000/mm(3), and finally settled at 32 dB two weeks after the termination of chemotherapy when the WBC count was 125,900/mm(3). We present a case of a chronic myelogenous leukemia patient who initially presented with sudden sensorineural hearing loss. We presume that cochlear vessel occlusion as a result of elevated blood viscosity was responsible for this patient's hearing loss. Early onset of sudden deafness in a chronic myelogenous leukemia patient may be due to the hyperviscosity syndrome and be possible to reverse hearing loss through early leukapheresis.
Blood Viscosity ; Drug Therapy ; Hearing ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Hearing Loss, Sudden* ; Hematocrit ; Hematologic Diseases ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hydroxyurea ; Interferon-alpha ; Leukapheresis ; Leukemia ; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive* ; Leukemic Infiltration ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Platelet Count

Canavan's disease is a hereditary disease that causes development delay by demyelinization of white matter in brain. The cardinal symptoms of Canavan's disease are head-lag, macrocephaly, developmental delay, blindness, epilepsy and hypotonia. Seven-month old baby delivered by Caesarean section at gestational age 40 weeks was complaining of an inability to keep head up. In past history, he was treated for congenital nystagmus. Chromosomal study was normal. Brain MRI showed delay of myelination of 5 months old. During neurodevelopment treatment in our hospital about development delay, macrocephaly was observed with head circumference 46 cm (90~97 percentile). He couldn't control his head yet. Brain MRI was done when he was 12-month old. There was no myelination in whole brain compared with that of same age group. The peak elevation of N-acetylaspartic acid (NAA) was showed in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). NAA was detected as high as 29.7 mmol/molCr, we diagnosed him as Canavan's disease. So we reported this case with a brief review of related literatures.
Aspartic Acid ; Blindness ; Brain ; Cesarean Section ; Epilepsy ; Female ; Genetic Diseases, Inborn ; Gestational Age ; Head ; Humans ; Macrocephaly ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Muscle Hypotonia ; Myelin Sheath ; Nystagmus, Congenital ; Pregnancy

Broncho-esophageal fistula(BEF) is an uncommon clinical entity which can cause severe suppurative lung disease. Acquired fistulas between the esophagus and tracheobronchial tree are relatively uncommon. They are caused by many diseases including malignancy and chronic inflammation such as tuberculosis and have favorable outcome with proper treatment. To our knowledge, there has been no description of patients with BEF due to the bronchiectasis. We report a case of broncho-esophageal fistula in association with bronchiectasis in a 35-year-old male patient with hemoptysis. Bronchoscopy revealed mild bleeding from the superior segment of the right lower lobe without specific endobronchial lesion. Barium esophagogram could not confirm the fistula. The diagnosis of a broncho-esophageal fistula was established by an esophagogastroscopy using fistulogram and subsequent bronchoscopy, in which the communication between the bronchial tree and the esophagus was demonstrated by instilling dye selectively through the fistulous opening using esophagogastroscopy and visualizing the fistula and the bronchial tree. The patient was treated with resection of the right lower lobe, extirpation of the diverticulum and surgical closure of the bronchial defect and fistula, but he suffered from pneumonia thereafter and eventually expired due to sepsis and multiple organ failure.
Adult ; Barium ; Bronchiectasis* ; Bronchoscopy ; Diagnosis ; Diverticulum ; Esophagus ; Fistula* ; Hemoptysis ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Lung Diseases ; Male ; Multiple Organ Failure ; Pneumonia ; Sepsis ; Tuberculosis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Speech audiometry is a useful test for obtaining practical information which could not be gotten from the pure-tone audiometer test. Nowadays, Hahm's Korean disyllabic word lists are the most commonly used word lists for the speech reception threshold test in Korea. The disyllabic word lists should be composed of spondaic words (equally stressed words). The aim of this study is to evaluate the characteristic frequency of Hahm's disyllabic word lists. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Two of the Hahm's disyllabic word lists were evaluated. The word lists were analyzed using an acoustic analysis program that has the MATLAB function. RESULTS: The percentage of disyllabic words in the Hahm's disyllabic word lists that had the spondaic words pattern were 33%. The characteristic frequencies of these words were equally stressed above 1,000 Hz. Other disyllabic words showed an unequally stressed pattern. The percentage of words that had the first syllable stressed pattern was 31% and the percentage of second syllable stressed pattern was 36%. CONCLUSION: Some words, which are commonly used in the Hahm's disyllabic words lists, had an unequally stressed pattern. A new Korean dissyllabic word list needs to use more balanced words that have the characteristic frequency of each word.
Acoustics ; Audiometry, Speech ; Korea ; Speech Reception Threshold Test

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Korean phonetically balanced (PB) word list (Ham's Korean PB Word List) is currently the most commonly used word list for speech discrimination test. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency characteristics of the Ham's Korean PB word list and to compare frequency characteristics of the Ham's Korean PB word list with that of the 21st Century Sejong words, which represent characteristics of the contemporary spoken Korean language. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: The 300 syllables most commonly used were collected from the words in 21st Century Sejong project. The 21st Century Sejong words were weighted according to the frequency of usage. The 21st Century Sejong words and words from the Ham's Korean PB word list were analyzed using an acoustic analysis program that has the MATLAB function. RESULTS: Syllables with frequencies above 2,000 Hz comprise 34% of the 21st Century Sejong words and 16% of the Ham's Korean PB word list. The Ham's Korean PB word list does not represent the high frequency characteristics of the contemporary spoken Korean language. The 21st Century Sejong words have more 'eu', 'i' and open syllables than the Ham's Korean PB word list. CONCLUSION: The Ham's Korean PB word list does not reflect the high frequency characteristics of the contemporary spoken Korean language included in the 21st Century Sejong words. Therefore, a new PB word list that incorporates a greater number of syllables with high frequency characteristics is required.
Acoustics* ; Audiometry, Speech ; Speech Acoustics ; Speech Discrimination Tests

Recent studies have implicated that seizure occurrence was infrequent in the patients with chronic subdural hematoma(CSDH): However, the exact incidence of seizure occurrence in the patients with CSDH is unclear and the efficacy of prophylactic treatment with anticonvulsants(AC) has not been fully determined. We have analyzed a series of 186 adult patients with CSDH who have been operated at our institute from January 1990 to December 1994 to eneasure the incidence of seizure occurrence and to assess the efficacy of prophylactic treatment with AC. The patients who had past history of seizure disorder or alcoholism were excluded in this study. The results were as follows: 1) Post-operative seizure occurred in only 6 patients(3.2%) and all of the presented seizures were generalized type. 2) Among six patients who presented post-operative seizure, two patients showed additional brain CT findings such as intracerebral hemorrhage or cerebral infarction other than chronic subdural hematoma. 3) Operative method did not show a significant influence on the incidence of seizure occurrence. 4) Prophylactic AC were used in 177 patients and the incidence of seizure occurrence in this group was 3.4% which showed no significant statistical difference with the incidence of seizure occurrence of 0% in 9 patients who were not treated with AC. Above results suggest that prophylactic treatment with AC in the patients with CSDH should be considered cautiously except for the patients with the additional brain parenchymal lesions or past history of seizure disorder.
Adult ; Alcoholism ; Anticonvulsants ; Brain ; Cerebral Hemorrhage ; Cerebral Infarction ; Epilepsy ; Hematoma, Subdural, Chronic* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Seizures*

Schwann cell, one of important components of peripheral nervous system, interact with neurons to mutually support the growth and replication of embryonal nerves and to maintain the different functions of adult nerves. The Ara-C, known as an antimitotic agent, have been used to have high effectiveness in eliminating fibroblasts during Schwann cell culture period. This enrichment effect is also known to be cummulative with each successive pulse of Ara-C applied and is due to a progressive loss of fibroblasts. But the cytotoxicity by Ara-C is also cummulative and noticeable over the period. To determine the most effective application time and interval of Ara-C in the Schwann cell culture, we observed the Schwann cell purity and density with the Ara-C treatment in plain and three-dimensional culture from dorsal root ganglion of new born rat. By culturing dispersed dorsal root ganglia, we can repeatedly generate homogenous Schwann cells, and cellular morphology and cell count with mean percentages were evaluated in the plain culture dishes and in the immunostainings of S-100 and GFAP in the three-dimensional culture. The Ara-C treated cultures showed a higher Schwann cell percentage (31.0%+/-8.09% in P4 group to 65.5%+/-24.08% in P2 group), compared with that obtained in the abscence of Ara-C (17.6%+/-6.03%) in the plain culture after 2 weeks. And in the three-dimensional culture, S-100 positive cells increased to 56.22%+/-0.67% and GFAP positive cells to 66.46%+/-1.83% in G2 group (p<0.05), higher yield than other groups with Ara-C application. Therefore, we concluded that the Ara-C treatment is effective for the proliferation of Schwann cells contrast to the fibroblasts in vitro culture, and the first application after 24 hours from cell harvesting and subsequent 2 pulse treatment (P2 group in plain culture and G2 group in three-dimensional culture) was more effective than other application protocols.
Adult ; Animals ; Cell Count ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Cytarabine* ; Fibroblasts ; Ganglia, Spinal* ; Humans ; Neurons ; Peripheral Nervous System ; Rats* ; Schwann Cells ; Spinal Nerve Roots*

In this case report, we describe a 71-year-old woman with right conal coronary artery-to-pulmonary trunk fistula. She visited the outpatient clinic of the nephrology department for long-term management of renal dysfunction. On transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) conducted as a part of cardiac evaluation, an abnormal Doppler color flow taking a course toward echocardiographic probe was incidentally detected outside the main pulmonary trunk, giving an impression of congenital coronary arteriovenous (AV) fistula. Computed tomography coronary angiography confirmed the presence of congenital coronary AV fistula from a conal branch of the right coronary artery to the main pulmonary trunk in the form of a ground cherry. Although the direction of Doppler color flow is not usual (i.e. toward, not away from, echocardiographic probe) in this case, congenital coronary AV fistula should be in the first priority among potential diagnoses when an abnormal Doppler color flow was found near the main pulmonary trunk on TTE.
Aged ; Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Arteries ; Arteriovenous Fistula ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Vessel Anomalies ; Coronary Vessels ; Echocardiography ; Female ; Fistula ; Humans ; Nephrology ; Physalis