The aim of the investigation was to study the efficacy and safety of Famotidine (Gaster), a new, potent, histamine H-receptor antagonist. The Famotidine (40 mg p.o.h.s) was administered to 22 patients with 33 peptic ulcers for 4 weeks. Follow up checking was done at 2 week and 4 week by endoscopy and physical examination. All patients were carefully evaluated at regular intervals for adverse drugh reactions by clinical and laboratory examinations. By the end of study, 97% of the ulcers were healed by endoscopically and rapid and complete relief of epigastric pain was observed in all patients. Famotidine treatment was well tolerated and no alterations in laboratory tests were noted. Therfore, Famotidine was proved effective in the treatment of peptic ulcers (especially multiple ulcers) and was well tolerted on the short-term basis.
Endoscopy ; Famotidine* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Histamine ; Humans ; Peptic Ulcer* ; Physical Examination ; Ulcer

The p53 oncoprotein, a product of the tumor suppressor gene encoded on the short arm of chromosome 17, has been noted in a number of human tumors as a tumor suppressor and some what has been related with cellular apoptosis. Thus, mutant p53 inhibits apoptosis. Like the mutant p53 oncoprotein, the bcl-2 oncoprotein expressed in various epithelial and nonepithelial cells plays a major role in inhibiting cellular apoptosis. To elucidate the role of bcl-2 and mutant p53 oncoprotein expression in gastric adenocarcinomas, immunohistochemical stains were carried out in 60 cases of gastric adenocarcinomas including 10 cases of early gastric cancer. We studied the expression patterns of the bcl-2 and the mutant p53 protein according to age, sex, histologic differentiation, tumor location, tumor size, lymph-node involvement, and depth of tumor invasion. The results were as follows: 1) p53 protein expression was detected in 39 of 60 cases (65%), and bcl-2 protein expression was detected in 29 of 60 cases (48%). 2) The p53 and the bcl-2 expression rates for early gastric cancer were 60% and 50%, and those for advanced gastric cancer were 66% and 40%, respectively. 3) There was no significant correlation of p53 or bcl-2 expression with sex, age, histologic differentiation, tumor location, tumor size, and lymph-node involvement; however, the expression of p53 was correlated with the depth of tumor invasion (p=0.049). Based on the present study, the expression of p53 is thought to be correlated with tumor progression and may be a useful prognostic factor in gastric adenocarcinomas.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Apoptosis ; Arm ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 17 ; Coloring Agents ; Genes, bcl-2* ; Genes, p53* ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Stomach Neoplasms

Attention has been called to the sudden expansion of a pituitary tumor by hemorrhage within it, causing sudden loss of vision. Management of the pituitary apoplexy should be regarded as a neurological emergency. The outstanding clinical features of acute pituitary apoplexy were sudden headache, depressed consciousness, opthalmoplegia, meningismus and signs of compression of the optic nerve or chiasm. The authors report two cases of pituitary apoplexy, one was chromophobe adenoma and pathological diagnosis was not obtained in the other. The first case was 45-year-old man admitted to the Department of Neurosurgery, Catholic Medical Center on June 20, 1977, with headache, double vision and impared left side visual acuity. On April 26, 1977, he experienced sudden severe headache and diplopia then became drowsy. The headache and impairment of consciousness improved subsequently. He was admitted to a university hospital following the onset. The work up at the hospital revealed an enlarged sella with hazy dorsum sellae on plain skull films. The carotid angiogram revealed an elevation of the A1 segments bilaterally and cisternal pneumogram revealed an evidence of suprasellar extension of the pituitary tumor. He was advised to have immediate surgery. The patient, however, refused the surgery and noticed the impaired visual acuity and diplopia were persisting. The studies in this hospital revealed marked impairment of left side vision and oculomotor nerve palsy of the left eye. The carotid angiogram and cisternal pneumogram revealed the no evidence of sellar mass or suprasellar extension of the tumor. The second case was 59-year-old woman admitted to the neurosurgical ward on September 30, 1977, after a sudden onset of severe bifrontal headache, vomiting, bilateral ocular pain and drowsy mental state. She was drowsy with panopthalmoplegia of the right side, and spinal fluid was xanthochromic. Skull X-ray, carotid angiogram and air study revealed an evidence of pituitary tumor with minimal suprasellar extension. Removal of pituitary tumor through the trans-sphenoidal approach was performed, and the tumor was proved to be chromophobe adenoma. Panopthalmoplegia was progressively improved postoperatively.
Adenoma, Chromophobe ; Consciousness ; Diagnosis ; Diplopia ; Emergencies ; Female ; Headache ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Meningism ; Middle Aged ; Neurosurgery ; Oculomotor Nerve Diseases ; Optic Nerve ; Pituitary Apoplexy* ; Pituitary Neoplasms ; Skull ; Visual Acuity ; Vomiting

The antihypertensive effect of clonidine was evaluated in 129 patients with essential hypertension of mild to moderate severity with a dosage of one tablet(0.075mg) a day for 71 patients of Group I and two tablets a day for 58 patients of Group II. The results were as follows : 1) Of 71 patients of Group I, 34 patients(47.9%)showed good antihypertensive effect(greater than 15 mmHg drop in mean diastolic pressure) and 11 patients(15.5%) showed fair effect(10-14 mmHg drop in mean diastolic pressure). 2) Of 58 patients of Group II, 39 patients(67.2%) showed good effect and 7 patients(12.1%) showed fair effect. 3) The side effect observed was transient and tolerable dry mouth, which developed in 5.6% of Group I patients and 13.6% of Group II patients.
Clonidine* ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Mouth ; Tablets

OBJECTIVE: To classify the findings of magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar interspinous ligaments in relation to the lumbar disc herniation, disc degeneration, and lordosis. METHOD: The subjects were 45 herniated intervertebral disc(HIVD) patients and 35 normal subjects on MRI finding. The magnetic resonance features of the interspinous ligament were classified into five categories according to their signal intensities: type 1A (low intensity on T1- and T2- weighted images without hypertrophy of spinal process); type 1B (same signal pattern as in type 1A with hypertrophy of spinal process); type 2 (low intensity on T1- and high intensity on T2-weighted images); type 3 (high intensity on T1-weighted images); type 4 (others). RESULTS: The most common type in both HIVD patients and normal subjects was type 3. The mean age and disc degeneration grade of the type 1B ligaments were significantly higher. Lordosis of type 1B of L5-S1 interspinous ligament was increased with significant difference. CONCLUSION: The classification of the MRI findings of interspinous types didn't show statistical difference between HIVD patients and normal subjects, but was helpful in assessing the degree of the degeneration of the intervertebral disc and age.
Animals ; Classification* ; Humans ; Hypertrophy ; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration ; Intervertebral Disc* ; Ligaments* ; Lordosis ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the curvature of the cervical spine and various clinical parameters and to identify the validity of new curvature measurement methods. METHOD: The cervical spine curvature was assessed on lateral view of plain radiographs by three measurement indices. Index 1 is the ratio of length of line drawn by C2-C7 posteroinferior points and the longest length of vertical line to the posterior curve of C2-C7. Index 2 is the angle formed by three points of index 1. Index 3 is the sum of each distance from line drawn by C2-C7 posteroinferior point to C3-C7 posterior mid-points. The difference of each group and the relationship between pain scale and three indices were statistically analyzed by t-test and Pearson's correlation test. RESULTS: Sixty-three percent of control group patients showed a straight or kyphotic curvature and younger women group was more likely to have a straight curvature than other age groups. The newly designed measurement methods reflect the diagnostic significance of cervical curvature type measurement. Cervical lordosis did not exactly correlate with pain scale, symptom duration and the difference of clinical diagnosis. But the patients showing interval changes of pain scale were revealed the correlative change of curvature indices with each correlation coefficient of -0.43, -0.69 and -0.55 respectively. CONCLUSION: The altered cervical curvature is less valuable for the diagnostic significance and did not relate to the pain scale and duration, but cervical curvature reflect the interval change of the pain scale.
Animals ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Lordosis ; Neck Pain* ; Spine*

OBJECTIVE: To survey the prevalence of cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) and to analyze the ergonomic factors in the paper reviewing workers. METHOD: Five hundreds and twenty subjects of paper reviewers were collected from 'National Medical Insurance Association' who had been exposed to risky working environment regarding CTDs. The subjects were first screened by occupational medicine specialists and confirmed by physiatrist. The subjects were also examined by serologic test, radiologic imaging, and electro diagnostic study. Ergonomists analyzed the job element to identify the risk factors by baseline checklist of CTDs. RESULTS: Among the workers, 51 (9.8%) of 520 were confirmed to CTDs, the prevalance of myofascial pain syndrome was 22 (43.1%), that of medial epicondylitis was 13 (25.5)%, lateral epicondylitis 8 (15.7%) and others. Pain scale of National Industrial Occupational Safety Health Institute symtoms criteria was highest in the shoulder girdle and the next was in the neck, in the wirst and fingers. The ergonomic risk score was highest 2.56 in the 'verifying' job, and the next 2.20 in 'the 2nd examination' job and 'the 1st examination' job, 1.72 in 'correcting' job. CONCLUSION: The result would be helpful for the prevention and management of CTDs in the paper reviewing workers.
Checklist ; Cumulative Trauma Disorders* ; Fingers ; Human Engineering ; Insurance ; Myofascial Pain Syndromes ; Neck ; Occupational Health ; Occupational Medicine ; Prevalence* ; Risk Factors ; Serologic Tests ; Shoulder ; Specialization

PURPOSE: Angiogenesis plays an important role in the growth, progression and metastasis of solid tumors. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was thought to be one such angiogenic factor and was also thought to be a selective mitogen for endothelial cells. The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate for prognostic significance of VEGF in stomach cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sections of formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded from 55 stomach cancer were stained immunohistochemically for VEGF. The rate of VEGF expression and correlation between expression of VEGF and other prognostic factor of stomach cancer were studied. RESULTS: There were 20 cases (36.4%) of VEGF-positive and 35 cases (63.6%) of VEGF- negative. There were no significant difference between VEGF expression and the histologic type, differentiation, depth of invasion of histologic stage, lymph node involvement. The frequency of hepatic recurrence was higher in patients with VEGF-positive tumor than that af patient with negative tumor (p=0.007). The prognosis of the patients with VEGF positive tumor was worse than that of patients with VEGF negative tumor (p=0.0214). CONCLUSION: There was a closely significant between positive expression of VEGF and a high incidence of hepatic metastasis, low survival rate. The expression of VEGF could be considered to be one of useful prognostic factor in human gastric carcinoma
Angiogenesis Inducing Agents ; Endothelial Cells ; Humans* ; Incidence ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paraffin ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Stomach* ; Survival Rate ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A*

This is a report of 23 year old soldier who developed sudden onset of flaccid paraplegia and loss of all sensory modalited below the level of T4. The clinical entities of hematomyelia were sudden onset of pain, repidly developing pyramidal signs and paraplegia. The mainly involving sites of this disease were cervical and thoracic regions. The causative factors were hemorrhagic diasthesis, vascular malformation and inflammatory process as well as trauma and neoplasms affecting the spinal cord. We experienced a case of hematomyelia which did not combine with vascular anomaly, inflammatory process, hemophilia or trauma history.
Hemophilia A ; Humans ; Military Personnel ; Paraplegia ; Spinal Cord ; Spinal Cord Vascular Diseases* ; Vascular Malformations ; Vascular Neoplasms ; Young Adult

A 20-year-old male patient was admitted to this hospital because of headache and high fever on October 10, 1974. He has insidiously develope frontal headache and high fever for these 10 days, followed by vomiting, convulsions, aphasia and motor weakness on the left extremities and subsequently fell into semicomatose state. Hemogram showed marked leukocytosis, 22500/mm3, and cerebrospinal fluid cell count revealed increased leukocyte, 1210/mm3. Simple skull Roentgenograms showed no significant abnormalities except for suspicious haziness on the left frontal sinus. Carotid angiogram showed distal shift of the anterior cerebral artery, medial displacement of the middle cerebral artery and small avascular area on the left temporo-parietal area. Brain scan showed high activities on the entire left cereral hemisphere. On October 12, 1974 a large fronto-temporo-parietal osteoplastic craniotomy was done. Yellowith green, foul odored pus gushed out from the subdural space of the entire operating fields. Preteus mirabilis was isolated in pus culture. He was discharged with good recovery two months later.
Anterior Cerebral Artery ; Aphasia ; Brain ; Cell Count ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Craniotomy ; Empyema, Subdural* ; Extremities ; Fever ; Frontal Sinus ; Headache ; Humans ; Leukocytes ; Leukocytosis ; Male ; Middle Cerebral Artery ; Mirabilis ; Odors ; Seizures ; Skull ; Subdural Space ; Suppuration ; Vomiting ; Young Adult