Many believe the reduction in the number of mobile segments causes an increased strain in the unfused segments, predisposing them to early degeneration. This degeneration of the adjacent segment could be a cause of low back pain after spinal fusion. The clinical manifestations supporting the increased stress of the unfused segments are the significant incidence rates of spondylolisthesis, spondylolysis acquisita and spinal stenosis. However, there was a paucity of reports in the literature on the histological observation at the adjacent, unfused sgements. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to observe the histological changes of the unfused, mobile segments following fixation in the cat spine. The cat lumbar spines from L6 to L7 were fixed posteriorly with acrylic cement and wires. Histological and histochemical observation of the upper adjacent segment were performed after H-E, trichrome, reticulin and Safranin-O staining at postoperative 6 and 12 months, respectively. The results were as follows: 1. There were mild degenerative changes in the intervertebral disc, but no evidence of definitive degeneration in the articular cartilage of the facet joints at postoperative 6 months in the spinal fixation group. 2. The marked degenerative changes of the intervertebral disc were shown at postoperative 12 months in the spinal fixation group. Of 5 cats sacrificed at 12 months, 3 cats had irregular configuration of the fiber's arrangement of the annulus fibrosus. 3. At postoperative 12 months in the spinal fixation group, marked degeneration was noted on the articular cartilage of the adjacent facet joints. Through this study, it is clarified that degenerativce changes of the intervetebral disc and facet joint at the adjacent segments will develop after certain period of time following spinal fusion. Especially the facet joints of the adjacent, unfused segment were found to be most vulnerable to the adverse effects. This may be responsible for the back pain in the future after spine fusion.
Animals ; Back Pain ; Cartilage, Articular ; Cats* ; Incidence ; Intervertebral Disc ; Low Back Pain ; Reticulin ; Spinal Fusion ; Spinal Stenosis ; Spine* ; Spondylolisthesis ; Spondylolysis ; Zygapophyseal Joint

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the role of HPV 16 and 18 in adenocarcinoma in situ(ACIS) of the uterine cervix. METHODS: Seventeen cases of primary cervical adenocarcinoma in situ were analyzed for HPV DNA by polymerase chain reaction. HPV 16 and 18 DNA extracted from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded histologic tissue sections by polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: 35.3% and 23.5% of ACIS were positive for HPV 16 and HPV 18 DNA, respectively. From the normal tissue, 11.8% were positive for HPV 16. Human papillomavirus positive patients were younger than negative patients but statistically insignificant(mean age 42.1 vs 51.7 years). CONCLUSIONS: These results show that HPV type 16 and 18 were closely related to etiology of the ACIS of the uterine cervix.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Cervix Uteri* ; DNA ; Female ; Human papillomavirus 16 ; Human papillomavirus 18 ; Humans* ; Papilloma* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction

Weber-Christian disease is a relapsing, febrile, nodular, nonsuppurative inflammation of the subcutaneous fat tissue. Many authors reported these cases which illustrate the great variability of the clinical manifestation, such as acute or chronic, fulminating or transient, febrile or non febrile, systemic or cutaneous. Two of our cases have had recurrent painful subeutaneous nodules without fever for several years. Biopsy showed a nonspecific inflammatory panniculitis with lymphocytes chiefly, and small amount of histiocytes and foamy cells. It should be suggested Weber-Christian disease when subcutaneous nodules appear recurrently same areas of the whole body surface except anterior aspects of tibia even if no fever as systemic manifestation. Treatment with steroid and chloroquine diphosphete produced good improvement.
Biopsy ; Chloroquine ; Fever ; Histiocytes ; Inflammation ; Lymphocytes ; Panniculitis ; Panniculitis, Nodular Nonsuppurative* ; Subcutaneous Fat ; Tibia

Urticaria is a common disease and a well known reaction pattern of the skin eharacterized by erythema or wheals and edema, that is the results of a local leakage ef plasma, from minute vessels into the connective tissue of the dermis. Seven hundred and sixty cases of urticaria visited to this department from January 1973 to December 1974 were studied clinically in various ways. Patients were classified as acute and chronic urticaria-acute form when the hives have been present for less than 8 weeks and chronic form when the hives lasted longer. In all patients, a detailed history, a complete physical examination, a total and differential leukocyte count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and routine stool examination were performed. Foods were incriminated as the exciting causes of urticaria by history, diet elimination test and ingestion test. An ice cube test was done for corroboration of cold allergy. Cholinergic urticaria, was diagnosed by the appearance of small wheals surrounded by erythema after exercise, emotional disturbances or hot drinks. The diagnosis of urticaria due to drug was based on the history of urticaria following the taking of a certain drug. Infection as the inciting cause was determined by history and physical examination. The results: 1. The incidence of urticaria is 4. 6% to total number of dermatologic patients. 2. Among the 760 urticaria patients, acute cases were 498 which were 2 times more than chronic cases, and female patients were 474 cases that revealed marked high incidences than male patients. 3. The age of the patients ranged from 2 months to 87 years, and the patients between 20 and 39 years occupied more than half of the all patients. 4. Abnormal hematologic findings were more marked in acute form; leukocytosis and neutrophilia were dominate in acute form, and lymphocytosis and eosinophilia were more marked in chronic form. 5. Among the etiologic factors, the bacterial infection was the most frequent which occupied 22. 4% of the all urticaria patients. 6. Seven cases of urticaria due to parasites were clonorchis sinensis, in which I had experienced the complete recovery with the treatment of subcutaneous injection of clonorchis sinensis antigen (1: 10,000) 0.01- 0.1ml at the interval of one week. 7. In this study, the inciting or perpetuating causes could not be found in 50.8% of patients-46.2% of acute form and 59.5% of chronic form.
Affective Symptoms ; Bacterial Infections ; Blood Sedimentation ; Clonorchis sinensis ; Connective Tissue ; Dermis ; Diagnosis ; Diet ; Eating ; Edema ; Eosinophilia ; Erythema ; Female ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Ice ; Incidence ; Injections, Subcutaneous ; Leukocyte Count ; Leukocytosis ; Lymphocytosis ; Male ; Parasites ; Physical Examination ; Plasma ; Skin ; Urticaria*

No abstract available.
Fingers*

No abstract available.
Spondylosis*

No abstract available.
Patella*

Leg length discrepancy in the growing children was developed by multiple causes; such as congenital, infection, traumatic, and mechanical facotrs etc. The discrepancy have been treated by several methods including bony lengthening which is preferable method, but epiphysiodesis also has been one of the valuable methods in which was applied to the treatment of mild to moderate leg length discrepancy in the growing children. We report on patients(15 cases) with leg length discrepancy treated by percutaneous epiphysiodesis since July 1986. There were 8 males and 7 females and the average age of them was 12.6 years old. And we also performed an experimental study which was to find out the effectiveness of the pereutaneous physeal destruction comparing the techningues between curette and drill in the bony models. The causes of leg length discrepancy were trauma in 8 cases and osteomyelitis in 2 cases, congenital dislocation of the hip in 2 cases, poliomyelitis, Legg-Galve-Perthes disease, congenital hemihypertropy in each 1 case. The average preoperative leg length discrepancy was 2.6cm(range:1.9-3.7cm), and average anticipated discrepancy without operation have been 3.7cm(range:2.2-6.3cm) at maturity. The final discrepancy was 0.9cm after 43 months follow-up. According to the result by experimental study, percutaneous epiphysiodesis with curette technique would be more effective and safe than drill thchnique. Percutaneous epiphysiodesis might be one of the useful methods for the treatment of mild to moderate degree of leg length discrepancy in the growing children, and also could be applied combining with bony lengthening for treatment of severe degree of leg length discrepancy.
Child ; Dislocations ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hip ; Humans ; Leg ; Male ; Methods ; Osteomyelitis ; Poliomyelitis

Hyponatremia is a dangerous electrolyte disturbance in patients on chemotherapy and may cause sudden death if not detected early. SIADH (syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone) is one of the known causes of hyponatremia in patients undergoing chemotherapy. Few chemotherapeutic agents, however, are reported to cause SIADH. The current study reports that SIADH developed in a 55 year old woman on S-1 (80 mg/m2) and cisplatin (60 mg/m2) chemotherapy for the peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer. The patient underwent a total gastrectomy, a splenectomy, and a segmental resection of the transverse colon for gastric cancer. She had used thiazide and betablocker to treat hypertension for 12 years. She admitted to our hospital with complaining of general weakness, dysarthria, loss of appetite, and urinary discomfort. The serum level of sodium and potassium were 94 mEq/L and 2.2 mEq/L respectively. The hyponatremia completely resolved uneventfully after 3% saline infusion, which led to normalized electrolyte balance. The patient was discharged on the 13th hospital day.
Appetite ; Cisplatin ; Colon, Transverse ; Death, Sudden ; Drug Therapy ; Dysarthria ; Female ; Gastrectomy ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hyponatremia ; Inappropriate ADH Syndrome* ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Potassium ; Sodium ; Splenectomy ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Water-Electrolyte Balance

PURPOSE: The TNM staging system showed limitation in stratifying patients into different prognostic groups with gastric cancer. Since the treatment for stage IV gastric cancer with distant metastasis (M1) is defined as non-curative one, we hypothesized that the survival rate of stage IV gastric cancer with M1 is different to that of stage IV gastric cancer with no distant metastasis (M0), which will provide a rationale to subdivide stage IV into IVa and IVb. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From June 1992 to December 2005, of 1,630 gastric cancer patients who underwent surgery, 308 patients with stage IV gastric cancer were selected and analyzed. The clinicopathologic characteristics and survival of the patients, according to distant metastasis, were determined retrospectively. Median follow-up period was 13 months (range: 1~154 month). RESULTS: 5 year survival rate of M0 and M1 group was 35% and 16% respectively with statistic significance (P=0.0000). When the survival rate of M0 group was analyzed according to the difference of T and M factor, T1-3N3M0 and T4N1-2M0 group showed no significant statistical difference (P=0.1898). CONCLUSION: Given the result in this study, we suggest that the stage IV gastric cancer be subclassified into stage IVa and IVb according to M factor.
Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Neoplasm Staging ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Survival Rate