No abstract available.
Stomach

A possible therapeutic effect of acetyl-L carnitine (ALCAR) on peripheral nerve injuries and the expression of Jun, the protein products of immediate-early genes(IEGs), in the spinal cord were investigated after sciatic nerve injury in Sprague-Dawley rats. Experimental animals were divided into 3 groups: intact sciatic nerve as a control group, surgical repair alone, and surgical repair with ALCAR treatment. Toe-spreading response, pinprick response, and compound action potential were measured to evaluate the recovery of sciatic nerve injury. Recovery of behavioral function and electrophysiological function both improved in the surgical repair with ALCAR treatment group. Weak basal expression of Jun was shown in the ventral horn the of spinal cord in the control group. In the surgical repair alone group or the surgical repair with ALCAR treatment group, Jun expression persisted until 28 days after injury in the ventral horn of the spinal cord. Moreover, the surgical repair with ALCAR treatment group showed more increased expression of Jun than the surgical repair alone group. These results suggest that ALCAR facilitates the functional recovery after peripheral nerve injury.
Acetylcarnitine ; Action Potentials ; Animals ; Carnitine* ; Horns ; Peripheral Nerve Injuries ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sciatic Nerve* ; Spinal Cord

Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is an uncommon heritable disorder of elastin characterized by cutaneous, ocular and vascular abnormalities. Typical skin lesion shows yellowish papules and redundant skin folds on the neck, axilla and groin due to degeneration and calcification of elastic fibers in deep dermis. As in all heritable disorders of connective tissue, no curative therapy is presently know. Redundant and unsightly skin folds about the neck can be improved by surgery, but irregular papular lesion on skin does not improved by surgery. A-44-year-old female who had a skin lesion and angioid streak was treated as follows: Skin folds on the neck were excised successfully without any significant problem such as intraoperative bleeding, wound dehiscence or hypertrophic scar formation. To evaluate whether we could smooth the irregular skin surface due to multiple papules, laserbrasion with a SLT contack Nd:YAG laser system was performed experimentally on a limited area which was located on the right supracla-vicular area about 2 x 3cm in size. An acceptable aesthetic appearance was achieved with surgical excision 12 months after the operation. Biopsy of the laserbrasion site revealed disappearance of the calcium deposit. This study emphasizes the possibility of using laserbrasion in solving troblesome skin lesion of the PXE.
Angioid Streaks ; Axilla ; Biopsy ; Calcium ; Cicatrix, Hypertrophic ; Connective Tissue ; Dermis ; Elastic Tissue ; Elastin ; Female ; Groin ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Neck* ; Pseudoxanthoma Elasticum ; Skin ; Wounds and Injuries

BACKGROUND: Since the initial report on anesthesia for the renal transplantation from Peter Bent Brighan Hospital in 1962, the anesthesia for kidney transplantation has been reviewed and discussed by many authors. We have performed 200 renal transplantations from August 1990 to October 1996. No cadaveric donor was used and all except two cases was the first graft. METHODS: Anesthetic procedures in the recipients were as follows; 1) The recipient was dialysed within 24 hrs prior to operation. 2) Premedication was done as glycopyrrolate and fentanyl, or glycopyrrolate and diazepam. 3) Thiopental and vecuronium, or thiopental and succinylcholine were used for anesthetic induction. 4) N2O-O2-relaxant (vecuronium) with halothane or isoflurane were used for maintenance. 5) Neostigmine or pyridostigmine were also used to antagonize against the relaxant. 6) CVP was maintained around 10~17 cmH2O. RESULTS: The results were as follows; 1) The mean ages of donors and recipients were 35.3 and 37.4, respectively. The ratio of male to female of donors and recipients was 1.6 : 1 and 1.6 : 1, respectively. 2) One hundred and ten cases (55.0%) were living unrelated donors and 90 cases (45.0%) were living related donors. 3) Overall graft and patient survival rate was 96.9 and 98.0 at 1 year, 94.1 and 95.1 at 3 years. CONCLUSIONS: Most patients with renal failure have several common problems that are of significance to anesthesiologists, including anemia, bleeding tendency, electrolyte imbalance, acidosis, hypertension, hyper- or hypovolemia, and previous therapy with steroids and immunosuppressants, etc. Therefore anesthesiologists should keep in mind the risk factors above mentioned for the anesthetic management of patients with renal failure.
Acidosis ; Anemia ; Anesthesia ; Cadaver ; Diazepam ; Female ; Fentanyl ; Glycopyrrolate ; Halothane ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hypovolemia ; Immunosuppressive Agents ; Isoflurane ; Kidney Transplantation* ; Male ; Neostigmine ; Premedication ; Pyridostigmine Bromide ; Renal Insufficiency ; Risk Factors ; Steroids ; Succinylcholine ; Survival Rate ; Thiopental ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants ; Unrelated Donors ; Vecuronium Bromide

No abstract available.
Lymphadenitis*

PURPOSE: ICAM-1(Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1) is a cell adhesion molecule which facilitates the binding of LAK(Lymphokine Activated Killer )cell and cytotoxic T cell to tumor cell. This study investigates the role of ICAM-1 in transitional cell carcinoma(TCC) of bladder. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Immunohistochemical stain for ICAM-1 was done in 42 paraffin embedded tissue of primary TCC of bladder. And we compared the expression of ICAM-1 and the degree of immune cell infiltration, tumor grade, stage and survival rate of the patients. RESULTS: Immunohistochemical examination demonstrated expression of ICAM-1 on 17 of 42 bladder TCC but not on five normal transitional cells. The more frequently immune cells infiltrated, the more frequently ICAM-1 was expressed(p=0.018). And ICAM-1 was frequently expressed in higher histopathological grade and higher stage tumors(p=0.035, p=0.002). Survival rate was lower in ICAM-1 expressed tumors than in ICAM-1 non-expressed tumors even though it is insignificant statistically(p=0.11). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that ICAM-1 plays an important role on immune therapy for bladder TCC, and ICAM-1 expression in bladder TCC could be another prognostic factor and used as a response predictor for immune therapy such as intravesical BCG instillation.
Carcinoma, Transitional Cell* ; Cell Adhesion ; Humans ; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1* ; Mycobacterium bovis ; Paraffin ; Survival Rate ; Urinary Bladder*

Most gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) arise from the proper muscle layer of the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract and have a low malignant potential. They are sometimes accompanied by symptoms, but in most cases are detected by chance. Endoscopic surgery of subepithelial tumors in the upper GI tract has been actively performed, and its merits include the need for fewer medical devices compared with other surgical procedures and post-resection organ preservation. However, because endoscopic procedures are still limited to small or pilot studies, a multidisciplinary approach combining laparoscopy and endoscopy is needed for more effective and pathologically acceptable management of GISTs. Many new endoscopic surgeries have been developed, and this review describes the current status of and the new approaches for endoscopic surgery of GISTs in the upper GI tract.
Endoscopy ; Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors* ; Laparoscopy ; Organ Preservation ; Pilot Projects ; Upper Gastrointestinal Tract*

OBJECTIVES: The level of 4-hydroxyproline (4-Hyp) in human urine was measured using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a fluorescence detector. This method is useful for medical examinations and investigating the radicals induced by physical, chemical, mental stresses. This method is superior to many published several methods in terms of its low cost and ability to analyze many samples. METHODS: The urine from workers in a tire manufacturing company (22 male pre- and post-shift workers) and 18 office-workers as controls were analyzed. Data concerning age, the cumulative drinking amount and the cumulative smoking amount was collected with a questionnaire. The optimum applied amount of dansyl-Cl, the optimum reaction temperature and time, the recoveries and the optimum pH of the eluent and buffer were determined. 4-Hyp from human urine was derivatized with dansyl-Cl (dimethylamino-naphthalene-1-sulfonyl chloride) after removing the alpha-amino acid by a treatment with phthalic dicarboxaldehyde (OPA) and cleaned with Bond Elut C18 column. The 4-Hyp derivatives were separated on a reversed phase column by gradient elution with a phosphate buffer (5 m mol, pH 8.0) and acetonitrile, and detected by fluorescence measurements at 340 nm (excitation) and 538 nm (emission). RESUJLTS: The detection limit for the urinary free 4-Hyp was 0.364 micro mol/l. The recovery rate of 4-Hyp was 99.7 %, and the effective pH of the phosphate buffer and borate buffer were 3.0 and 8.0, respectively. From statistical analysis, age, drinking and smoking did not affect the urinary free 4-Hyp in both the controls and workers. The range of urinary 4-Hyp in the controls, pre-shift, and post-shift workers were 0.33-16.44, N.D-49.06, and 0.32-56.27 micro mol/l. From the pared-sample t-test, the urinary 4-Hyp levels in post-shift workers (11.82+/-16.73 n mol/mg Cre) were 2-fold higher than in pre-shift workers (5.36+/-5.53 n mol/mg Cre) and controls (4.91+/-4.89 n mol/mg Cre). CONCLUSIONS: This method was developed with high sensitivity, accuracy, and precision. The present method was effectively applied to analyze the urinary free 4-Hyp in both controls and workers.
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid* ; Chromatography, Liquid ; Drinking ; Fluorescence ; Humans* ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Hydroxyproline* ; Limit of Detection ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Smoke ; Smoking

OBJECTIVES: The level of 4-hydroxyproline (4-Hyp) in human urine was measured using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a fluorescence detector. This method is useful for medical examinations and investigating the radicals induced by physical, chemical, mental stresses. This method is superior to many published several methods in terms of its low cost and ability to analyze many samples. METHODS: The urine from workers in a tire manufacturing company (22 male pre- and post-shift workers) and 18 office-workers as controls were analyzed. Data concerning age, the cumulative drinking amount and the cumulative smoking amount was collected with a questionnaire. The optimum applied amount of dansyl-Cl, the optimum reaction temperature and time, the recoveries and the optimum pH of the eluent and buffer were determined. 4-Hyp from human urine was derivatized with dansyl-Cl (dimethylamino-naphthalene-1-sulfonyl chloride) after removing the alpha-amino acid by a treatment with phthalic dicarboxaldehyde (OPA) and cleaned with Bond Elut C18 column. The 4-Hyp derivatives were separated on a reversed phase column by gradient elution with a phosphate buffer (5 m mol, pH 8.0) and acetonitrile, and detected by fluorescence measurements at 340 nm (excitation) and 538 nm (emission). RESUJLTS: The detection limit for the urinary free 4-Hyp was 0.364 micro mol/l. The recovery rate of 4-Hyp was 99.7 %, and the effective pH of the phosphate buffer and borate buffer were 3.0 and 8.0, respectively. From statistical analysis, age, drinking and smoking did not affect the urinary free 4-Hyp in both the controls and workers. The range of urinary 4-Hyp in the controls, pre-shift, and post-shift workers were 0.33-16.44, N.D-49.06, and 0.32-56.27 micro mol/l. From the pared-sample t-test, the urinary 4-Hyp levels in post-shift workers (11.82+/-16.73 n mol/mg Cre) were 2-fold higher than in pre-shift workers (5.36+/-5.53 n mol/mg Cre) and controls (4.91+/-4.89 n mol/mg Cre). CONCLUSIONS: This method was developed with high sensitivity, accuracy, and precision. The present method was effectively applied to analyze the urinary free 4-Hyp in both controls and workers.
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid* ; Chromatography, Liquid ; Drinking ; Fluorescence ; Humans* ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Hydroxyproline* ; Limit of Detection ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Smoke ; Smoking

Repairing of lacrimal canalicular laceration has some controversies on the golden time of surgery, the suture method, and the materials for stent. Recently, intubation of silicone tubes has become popular for repair of lacrimal canalicular injuries. Thirty-two cases of injured lacrimal canaliculi were repaired with use of silicone tube stents. The surgery can be done with monocanalicular(10 patients) or bicanalicular(22 patient) methods. The follow-up period was from two to eighteen months(mean ten months). Seven cases using the monocanalicular method and nineteen cases using the bicanalicular method were successful. Three cases of monocanalicular method had epiphora with canalicular obstruction due to early loss of the silicone tube. In monocanalicular method, postoperative complications were punctal granuloma(1 case), punctal slits(2 cases), and early loss of the silicone tube(3 cases). In bicanalicular method, postoperative complications were persistent epiphora during the period of intubaion(4 cases), conjunctival irritation sign(3 cases) and loop retraction(1 case). In conclusion, the success rate of bicanalicular stents were higher than that of monocanalicular stents for canalicular laceration. But the bicanalicular stent had some complications including cosmetic problem, possibility of injuries to the normal canaliculus during intubation, conjuntival irritation sign, and loop retraction.
Follow-Up Studies ; Intubation* ; Lacerations ; Lacrimal Apparatus Diseases ; Postoperative Complications ; Silicones* ; Stents ; Sutures