BACKGROUND: The majority of patients undergoing stem cell transplantation (SCT) require a blood transfusion until the complete engraftment. Because blood transfusion rules for patients with ABO-incompatible SCT are complicated, we developed an ABO-incompatible transfusion management system (ABO-ITMS) for accurate blood transfusion and improved manageability. METHODS: A committee composed of medical doctors, technicians, and a programmer developed ABO-ITMS during the eight months from July 2013 to February 2014. The program has been linked with other databases, including clinical and laboratory databases and resulted in a new subsystem of the health information system. Server computer's operating system was Window Server 2008, and the database manager program was Oracle 11g. Programming language was ASP.Net (VBScript, C #), and the server and client computer were used to connect to the web server using a web browser. RESULTS: ABO-ITMS was designed to follow three main steps by hematologic oncology clinic, laboratory physician, and blood bank. In the first step, a hematologic-oncology clinic doctor inputs SCT recipients' data and appropriate ABO group for each phase of post-transplantation. Laboratory physician enters the isoagglutinin titer and ABO group at the second step. Finally, blood bank workers enter the results of type, screening, and antibody identification. The patient's SCT information and the previous immunohematologic test results are shown on the screen. CONCLUSION: ABO-ITMS can replace the existing complicated system and workflow. ABO-ITMS will contribute to reducing medical error and improving quality of SCT recipient care.
Blood Banks ; Blood Transfusion* ; Health Information Systems ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Medical Errors ; Programming Languages ; Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Web Browser

The frequency of multiple gastric cancers has recently been on the increase due to the development of improved diagnostic methods, such as endoscopy, chromoscopy, and pathological methods. To prevent relapse by a remnant cancer, it is critical to determine the surgical area after evaluating the entire synchronous multiple gastric cancer area using closed endoscopy and a radiological evaluation prior to surgery. There have been no prior reports of a diagnosis of quintuple gastric cancer before surgery, although; a diagnosis of quadruple gastric cancer has been previously reported. Here we describe a 65-year-old male patient who received a diagnosis of early quintuple gastric cancer by endoscopy before surgery.
Aged ; Endoscopy ; Humans ; Male ; Recurrence ; Stomach Neoplasms

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Recently, living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) has been frequently performed in Korea because of the limited availability of a cadaveric donor (CD). We evaluated the clinical features of patients with biliary complications after liver transplantation and we compared the incidence of biliary complications according to the type of donor and the anastomotic type of the biliary tract. METHODS: Between May 1996 and July 2004, 300 patients (CDLT 102/LDLT 198) underwent liver transplantation at Samsung Medical Center. The patients who experienced biliary complications during the follow-up period were enrolled to the study and we retrospectively reviewed their cases. RESULTS: Sixty-seven cases (23%) of biliary complications were noticed in 53 patients (18%). The complications consisted of 20 cases (7%) of bile leakage, 38 cases (13%) of biliary strictures, 7 cases (2%) of biliary stones, and 2 cases (1%) of biliary stenosis due to other cause. There was no significant difference on the incidence of complications between CDLT (15/102; 14.7%) and LDLT (38/198; 19.2%) (p=0.42). In addition, there was no significant difference between choledocho-choledochostomy (43/237; 18.1%) and hepatico-jejunostomy (10/ 63; 15.9%)(p=0.85) CONCLUSIONS: The incidence rate of biliary complication after liver transplantation was 23%, and there was no difference according to the type of donor and the anastomotic type of biliary tract.
Adult* ; Bile ; Biliary Tract ; Cadaver ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Liver Transplantation* ; Liver* ; Living Donors ; Retrospective Studies ; Tissue Donors

BACKGROUND: Uncomplicated myocardial infarction is often the harbinger of future cardiac events such as unstable angina, recurrent myocardial infarction or death. The prognostic utility of exercise test(pre-discharge low level exercise test) in patients recovering from acute myocardial infarction(AMI) has been documented by many studies. However there are few data of the safety and value of a symptom-limited exercise test early after AMI. We performed this study to assess the safety of test and the prevalence of abnormal response to symptom-limited exercise test and to determine the ability to predict future cardiac events. METHODS: The study group comprised 91 patients(male ; 73, Anterior infarction ; 43, Q-wave infarction ; 68, Thrombolysis ; 58, Age ; 57+/- years) with uncomplicated AMI. Symptom-limited exercise tests were performed before discharge(8.7+/-0.5 days after infarction) using modified Bruce protocol. Exercise test was considered positive if there was new > or =1mm horizontal or downsloping ST segment depression at 0.08sec after J point compared with baseline. The patients were followed for the development of new cardiac events. RESULTS: 1) The mean duration of exercise test was 14.2 min(range 4.3 - 21.5)and the mean workload(Metabolic Equivalents : METs) was 6.0 METs(range 2.1 - 17.0). There were no complications during exercise test and post-recovery phase. 2) There were positive test in 31 patients(34%), ST segment elevation in 10(11%), and inadequate blood pressure(BP) response in 10 patients(11%). 3) During the follow-up period(1-50 months, mean 12.5 months), 9 patients experienced post-myocardial infarction angina and revascularization therapy, respectively, and 1 patient had cardiac death and recurrent myocardial infarction, respectively. 4) The patients with cardiac events had a significantly higher degree in stenosis of infarct-related artery(90+/-3 vs 78+/-3, p<0.05) and lower systolic BP on peak exercise(136+/-7 vs 156+/-4, p<0.05). 5) The positive exercise test was associated with cardiac events in the follow-up period but ST-segment elevation, inadequate BP response, the use of thrombolytic agents, and non-Q wave infarction did not predict future cardiac events. CONCLUSIONS: The symptom-limited exercise tests early after acute myocardial infarction appear to be safe and will identify more patients with inducible myocardial ischemia relatively. The posive test can predict cardiac events and the prognosis of patients of this group can be improved with aggressive management and careful follow-up.
Angina, Unstable ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Death ; Depression ; Exercise Test* ; Fibrinolytic Agents ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Infarction ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Prevalence ; Prognosis

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of three different culture media on the development of canine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos. Canine cloned embryos were cultured in modified synthetic oviductal fluid (mSOF), porcine zygote medium-3 (PZM-3), or G1/G2 sequential media. Our results showed that the G1/G2 media yielded significantly higher morula and blastocyst development in canine SCNT embryos (26.1% and 7.8%, respectively) compared to PZM-3 (8.5% and 0%) or mSOF (2.3% and 0%) media. In conclusion, this study suggests that blastocysts can be produced more efficiently using G1/G2 media to culture canine SCNT embryos.
Animals ; Blastocyst/cytology ; Cloning, Organism/*veterinary ; Culture Media/metabolism ; Dogs/*embryology ; Embryo Culture Techniques/*veterinary ; *Embryonic Development ; Nuclear Transfer Techniques/*veterinary