No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Heart* ; Thoracic Surgery*

BACKGROUND: Clinical trials have shown that b-adrenergic blocking drugs are effective and well tolerated in patients with mild to moderate congestive heart failure. Carvedilol is a mild b1-selective adrenergic blocking agent with vasodilating properties due to a blocker and antioxidant and anti-proliferative properties. This study assessed the efficacy and safety of carvedilol in patients with moderate to severe congestive heart failure caused by idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. METHODS: We enrolled 27 patients with moderate to severe congestive heart failure with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 35% by MUGA scan. Each patient was randomly assigned to either control (n-9) or carvedilol (n-18, target dose 25 mg bid) for 6 months while background therapy with digoxin, diuretics, and ACE inhibitor remained constant. RESULTS: Compared to the control group, patients in the carvedilol group showed significant increase of left ventricular ejection fraction (p<0.05). In addition, patients in the carvedilol group had a tendency to show a decrease in left ventricular end-diastolic dimension and heart rate. Also, the carvedilol group had a greater frequency of symptomatic improvement than the control group. There was neither serious side effects nor hospitalization. CONCLUSION: These finding indicate that carvedilol produces important clinical benefits in patients with moderate to severe heart failure treated with digoxin, diuretics, and ACE inhibitor without serious side effects.
Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ; Digoxin ; Diuretics ; Heart Failure* ; Heart Rate ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Stroke Volume

OBJECTIVES: Recently, the number of female gamblers has increased, therefore, the proportion of women is around one third of all the pathological gamblers. However, the majority of previous studies on pathological gambling have been performed with only male subjects and tended to generalize those results to females. The authors have investigated the gender differences in level 3 gambling in terms of characteristics of gambling and associated psychiatric symptoms. METHODS: 166 participants (104 males, 62 females) who came to a casino have been evaluated for their sociodemographic data and the characteristics of gambling. Participants completed the following self-reported questionnaires: The Korean Version of South Oaks Gambling Screen (KSOGS), The Korean Version of Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), The Korean Version of Beck Anxiety Scale (BAI), The Korean Version of Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), The Korean Version of Behavioral Activation/Inhibition System Scale (K-BAS/BIS), CAGE (The CAGE Questionnare), The Korean Version of Eating Attitudes Test (KEAT). RESULTS: Female level 3 gamblers had significantly later age of onset for their gambling behavior than male. Female level 3 gamblers were significantly more depressed and male level 3 gamblers had more severe alcohol use problems. The proportion of the participants with more severe eating problems was significantly higher in female level 3 gamblers than their male counterparts. CONCLUSION: This study suggests the importance of considering the associated depressive symptoms and eating problems in female gamblers.
Age of Onset ; Anxiety ; Depression ; Eating ; Female* ; Gambling ; Humans ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS) is a multiple congenital anomaly characterized by distinctive facial features, upper limb malformations, growth and cognitive retardation. The diagnosis of the syndrome is based on the distinctive clinical features. The etiology is still not clear. Mutations in the sister chromatid cohesion factor genes NIPBL, SMC1A (also called SMC1L1) and SMC3 have been suggested as probable cause of this syndrome. We experienced a case of newborn with CdLS showing bushy eyebrows and synophrys, long curly eyelashes, long philtrum, downturned angles of the mouth and thin upper lips, cleft palate, micrognathia, excessive body hair, micromelia of both hands, flexion contracture of elbows and hypertonicity. We detected a NIPBL gene mutation in a present neonate with CdLS, the first report in Korea.
Codon, Nonsense ; Codon, Terminator ; De Lange Syndrome/diagnosis/*genetics/ultrasonography ; Heterozygote ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Proteins/*genetics ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

The distance fmm skin to the lumber epidural space was measured in 60 male patients receiving epidural analgesia. The mean distance was found to be 4.45cm. The epidural depths were identified most frequently at 4.0 to 4.5cm deep and over 90% of total cases were less than 5.5cm deep. The epidural depths had correlations with weight and PI(P < 0.001), but not correlated with height.
Adult* ; Analgesia, Epidural ; Epidural Space* ; Humans ; Male* ; Skin*

Neonatal ascites is an uncommon problem with many etiologies. The common causes include hematologic diseases, bowel perforation, obstructive uropathy, cardiovascular diseases, chylous ascites, intrauterine infection, and meconium peritonitis. Recently, the wide application of sonography has greatly narrowed the list of differential diagnosis of neonatal ascites. Meconium peritonitis is readily diagnosed if calcification in the abdomen or scrotum can be seen radiologically or sonographically in a neonate with abdominal distension at birth. We report a case of generalized meconium peritonitis without intraabdominal calcification by radiologic and sonographic study and notable meconium hydrocele at birth.
Abdomen ; Ascites ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Chylous Ascites ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Hematologic Diseases ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Meconium* ; Parturition ; Peritonitis* ; Scrotum ; Ultrasonography

PURPOSE: The clinical findings of early neonatal hypocalcemia are variable and it is difficult to find relationship between the symptoms and hypocalcemia due to complex causes. The purpose of this study is to establish the relationship between early neonatal hypocalcemia and clinical manifestations and to propose a guideline for appropriate treatment of early neonatal hypocalcemia, especially in asymptomatic cases. METHODS: Study subjects were all sick babies admitted to nursery and NICU and randornly selected 43 healthy babies at Sun General Hospital from January 1996 to December 1996. We examined serum calcium level within 72 hours after birth. Then we evaluated prospectively clinical findings according to each disease category in hypocalcemic cases and analysed the relationship of time course of clinical findings with hypocalcemia and compared serum calcium concentration followed by each therapy after 3 days. RESULTS: The results were as follows. 1) The incidence of early neonatal hypocalcernia was high in premature infants, low birth weight infants, infants with neonatal asphyxia, hyaline membrane disease and transient tachypnea. 2) Tremor, seizure, apnea, dyspnea, abdominal distension, cyanosis, and vomiting were frequently presented symptoms in early neonatal hypocalcemia. 3) In the cases of early hypocalcemia with symptoms, these symptoms persisted continuously after norrnalization of serum calcium concentration. 4) Among asymptomatic hypocalcernic group, mean serum calcium levels changed from 6.7 mg/dL to 8.7 mg/dL in 23 cases of no treatment, from 5.4 mg/dL to 10.3 mg/dL in 4 cases of calcium gluconate infusion, and from 6.3 mg/dL to 8.7 mg/dL in 7 cases of feeding low phosphorus containing milk. None persisted in hypocalcemic state irrespective of treatment methods. CONCLUSION: It is difficult to regard these symptoms as a rule to treatment because these symptoms were present after normalizaton of serum calcium concentration. In addition, asymptomatic hypocalcemia was improved shortly without any treatment without any problem. We conclude that for asymptomatic hypocalcemia, withholding dangerous calcium gluconate infusion would be perrnissible.
Apnea ; Asphyxia ; Calcium ; Calcium Gluconate ; Cyanosis ; Dyspnea ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Hyaline Membrane Disease ; Hypocalcemia* ; Incidence ; Infant ; Infant, Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; Milk ; Nurseries ; Parturition ; Phosphorus ; Prospective Studies ; Seizures ; Solar System ; Tachypnea ; Tremor ; Vomiting

No abstract available.
Humans ; Prostate* ; Prostatic Neoplasms*

No abstract available.
Hemangiopericytoma* ; Lung*