To evaluate the influence of intraoperative irradiation on the healing of jejunal anastomosis, an experimentalstudy was undertaken using a total of 150 rats. The bursting pressure of the normal jejunum was obtained in groupI. Group II was subjected to resection and anastomosis, and group III was irradiated on the anastomosed jejunumwith a single dose of 1,000 rads. Healing process was evaluated by measuring bursting pressure of the anastomosedjejunum on each postoperative day from 2nd to 14th, and on 21 th day. Bursting pressure was tested by inflatingthe loop of gut with water, and bursting sites were observed. The resuls obtained are summarized as follows; 1.The bursting pressure of the anastomosed jejunum retained normal strength by the 7th postoperative day in thenonirradiated group, whereas by the 11th postoperative day in the irradiated group. 2. Irradiation caused delay inthe healing of anastomosis of the jejunum until the 10th postoperative day; but after then, there was nosignificant difference in bursting pressure between both groups. 3. In the jejunal segments with normal strength,bursting occurred exclusively at the non-anastomotic site in both groups; Bursting started along the mesentericborder in the non-irradiated group, whereas rupture usually occurred on the antimesenteric border in theirradiated group. in the jejunal segments with subnormal strength, bursting usually started on the mesentericborder of the anastomotic site in both groups. The results indicate that intraoperative irradiation with a singledose of 1,000 rads causes no harmful effect on the healing of anastomosis of the jejunum in rats. Therefore, thisstudy suggests the possibility of more effective clinical application of intraoperative irradiation.
Animals ; Intestine, Small ; Jejunum ; Rats ; Rupture ; Water

BACKGROUND: Currently, serological assay, immunoblotting, and nucleic acid amplification test (NAT) are required as reentry tests for deferred donors with hepatitis C virus (HCV) or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening reactive result. However, immunoblotting must be performed even for serological nonreactive donors. In this study, the efficacy of immunoblot applications for serological nonreactive donors in donor reentry procedures was examined. METHODS: We analyzed non-qualified donors with immunoblot results from 2011 to 2015 in Korea and investigated reentry procedures related with HCV or HIV in other countries. RESULTS: Percentages of donors who could not be released due to immunoblot results even with serological nonreactive results were 54.2% (1,824/3,367) for HCV and 35.9% (4,300/11,964). In the case of 662 donors, their results were considered to be different using other assay kits or based on other criteria. In other countries, immunoblotting is not required as a donor reentry test. CONCLUSION: Indeterminate or reactive immunoblotting results in serological nonreactive donors were due to nonspecific reactions. It is not reasonable to apply immunoblotting to serological nonreactive donors. Therefore, we suggest that immunoblot assays be excluded from the reentry test.
Hepacivirus ; HIV* ; Humans ; Immunoblotting ; Korea ; Mass Screening* ; Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques ; Tissue Donors*

The simultaneous occurrence of a renal cell carcinoma and a urothelial carcinoma in the same kidney is uncommon. Here we report the case of a 79-year-old woman with ipsilateral synchronous renal cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma. She was referred to our hospital for gross hematuria and right flank pain. A computed tomography scan showed a 15x20 mm enhanced lesion on the upper calyx and a 12x15 mm mass on the lateral aspect of the right kidney. We thus suspected a renal pelvis tumor and performed right hand assisted laparoscopic nephroureterectomy with bladder cuff excision (HALSNU). Gross findings were multiple, pale yellowish papillary masses on the upper and lower major calices, of which the largest one measured 16x20 mm. A separated solid mass measuring 12x16 mm was also noted on the anterior midportion of the kidney. The former was a urothelial carcinoma and the latter was a chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. We present a rare case of a chromophobe renal cell carcinoma and a urothelial carcinoma in the same kidney.
Aged ; Carcinoma, Renal Cell ; Female ; Flank Pain ; Hand ; Hematuria ; Humans ; Kidney ; Kidney Pelvis ; Urinary Bladder

BACKGROUND: Recently, there are many reports about the association of Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) and the prognosis of hypoglycemic encephalopathy (HE), but those relationships have not yet been completely determined. As such, we researched for prognosis, according to a variety of clinical data, and the lesion's distribution on DWI. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 19 patients who were diagnosed as HE. In addition, those prognoses were analyzed by a variety of clinical data and characteristics of lesion's distribution, which were evaluated on DWI and Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) maps. Three months later, those prognoses were determined by each Modified Rankin Scale. Further, the time-dependent average Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), among the groups according to the characteristics of lesion's distributions in the initial DWI, was estimated. RESULTS: In this study, the difference of prognosis was not shown, according to all the clinical data, such as the severity or duration of the hypoglycemic state, but the group that did not have any pathologic lesion on the initial DWI demonstrated a better prognosis, in comparison with the groups-that exhibited any positive lesion on the initial DWI (p = 0.006). The group that had a focal pathologic lesion on the initial DWI showed a better prognosis than the diffuse lesion's group (p = 0.045). The groups with no lesion or focal lesion showed a faster recovery of GCS than the other groups with a positive lesion or diffuse lesion within the initial 1 week. CONCLUSIONS: We can identify that the characteristics of the lesion's distribution of DWI can be more helpful to predict of prognosis in HE than a variety of clinical data, such as the severity or duration of the hypoglycemic state.
Diffusion ; Glasgow Coma Scale ; Humans ; Hypoglycemia ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies

PURPOSE: No standard number of cores is obtained with a prostate needle biopsy. Routinely, we obtain 10 core biopsies but do not consider prostate volume or patient age. Consequently, we evaluated the clinical efficacy of prostate biopsy when taking into account prostate volume and patient age by use of the Vienna nomogram to suggest the proper number of cores. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS)-guided prostate needle biopsies were performed in 326 patients between November 2006 and June 2009. Group A (10 cores biopsy) was 131 patients. Group B (biopsy using Vienna nomogram) was 134 patients. We compared the cancer detection rate between the two groups, especially according to age and prostate volume. The chi-squared test was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The overall cancer detection rates in groups A and B were 33.6% and 32.1%, respectively. In older patients (age> or =60 years), group B had a higher detection rate than did group A (37.0% vs. 35.6%). For patients with a small prostate (<30 g), group B had a significantly higher detection rate than did group A (62.1% vs. 30.4%, p=0.023). CONCLUSIONS: There was no significant difference in the overall cancer detection rate. However, in patients with a small prostate and in older patients, the Vienna nomogram was more effective than a 10-core biopsy. The Vienna nomogram could help to establish guidelines for prostate biopsy in Korea that take into account the prostate volume and the age of the patient. It could also help urologists to reduce unnecessary cores when diagnosing prostate cancer in the elderly population and in those with small prostates.
Aged ; Biopsy ; Biopsy, Needle ; Humans ; Korea ; Nomograms ; Prostate ; Prostatic Neoplasms

BACKGROUND: A nucleic acid amplification test was adopted to detect transfusion-transmitted infectious agents. In the case of HTLV, however, there was no internal control (IC) because the laboratory developed polymerase chain reaction (laboratory-developed PCR) was used. In this study, noncompetitive IC was constructed for the laboratory-developed PCR of HTLV and the effectiveness was compared with the competitive test that was constructed in a previous study. METHODS: As a competitive IC, plasmid DNA, including the primer recognition sequence for the amplification of the HTLV pX region, was constructed. As a noncompetitive IC, an additional primer was constructed for the amplification of the housekeeping gene, the glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene. The performance of the competitive and noncompetitive IC was verified and compared using 10 HTLV positive samples and 10 negative samples. In addition, the detection limits in the assay adopting competitive IC and noncompetitive IC were compared. RESULTS: In the case of competitive IC applications, all 10 positive samples were positive and all 10 negative samples were negative. In the case of noncompetitive IC applications, however, one positive sample was not detected. The detection limit of the assay using competitive IC was 100 pg and that of the assay using noncompetitive IC was 1 ng. CONCLUSION: Although the manufacturing processes is not required using noncompetitive IC, the adoption of competitive IC is more effective to ensure the assay results because the ability of detection of the assay adopting competitive IC was better than that using noncompetitive IC.
DNA ; Genes, Essential ; Glyceraldehyde 3-Phosphate ; Limit of Detection ; Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques ; Oxidoreductases ; Plasmids ; Polymerase Chain Reaction

Corrections of author names are needed.

BACKGROUND: Transfusion transmissible emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) is a potential risk to the safety of blood transfusions due to the lack of donor screening assays. To prevent the spread of EIDs through blood transfusions, we attempted to predict the possibility of blood donations from people with EIDs using a public database. METHODS: We used the Disease Web Statistics System of the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Korean Statistical Information Service. We estimated the possibility of blood donations from people with EIDs using the public database combined with the database made available by the Blood Information Management System of the Korean Red Cross. RESULTS: Among the transfusion transmissible EIDs, Babesiosis, Leishmaniasis, West Nile fever, Chikungunya, and Dengue fever were reported in Korea. All of them were cases imported from abroad. Although the number of reported cases of Babesiosis, Leishmaniasis, West Nile fever, and Chikungunya were less than 10 per year until 2016, the reported cases of Dengue fever gradually increased from 2001, and there were 318 cases of Dengue fever in 2016. CONCLUSION: The possibility of blood donation from people with transfusion-transmissible EIDs was low because all reported transfusion-transmissible EIDs in Korea were from foreigners and blood donation from Koreans who returned from abroad was restricted for a period of a month. Nonetheless, preventive strategy for donation from people is necessary given the recent increase in Dengue fever.
Animals ; Babesiosis ; Blood Donors* ; Blood Transfusion ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Communicable Diseases, Emerging* ; Dengue ; Disease Outbreaks* ; Donor Selection ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Humans ; Information Management ; Information Services ; Korea ; Leishmaniasis ; Red Cross ; West Nile Fever

Spontaneous and post-traumatic renal intracystic hemorrhages are extremely rare, but are a potential danger to patients with cystic kidney disease. We report two cases of post-traumatic intracystic massive hemorrhage in renal cysts. One patient was a 27-year-old male who presented with left flank pain and gross hematuria after slipping on the stairs 2 days previously. The other patient was a 58-year-old male who presented with back pain due to an accident. The circulatory states of the two patients were deteriorated and renal intracystic hemorrhages were detected on computed tomography. One patient underwent a simple nephrectomy and the other patient was treated with arterial embolization. We present two cases of renal intracystic hemorrhage, emphasizing early diagnosis and the treatment of choice.
Male ; Humans ; Cysts

BACKGROUND: Continuous electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring is a widely used method of operative surveillance during a carotid endarterectomy. It is widely accepted that intraoperative EEG changes are closely related with increased risk of postoperative stroke. If there are factors affecting EEG changes on preoperative evaluations, they may be helpful in predicting postoperative neurologic deficits, selecting patients, and, furthermore, reducing morbidity. METHODS: We reviewed the cases of 47 patients who received a CEA from January 1995 to August 1997. There were 10 cases of intraoperative EEG changes. Dividing the 47 cases into two groups (10 cases of positive EEG changes vs. 37 cases of negative EEG changes), we compared several factors between the two groups, such as patient's characteristics (age, history of smoking, and presence of hypertension, diabetes, or heart disease), operative indication (asymptomatic, TIA, stroke), carotid lesions (site, extent of stenosis, presence of ulceration, stenosis of the contralateral carotid artery), and carotid angiographic findings. RESULTS: In the aspect of patient's characteristics, operative indications, and carotid lesions, there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups. In the carotid angiogram, the contralateral carotid angiogram is the only one statistically useful (p<0.001) in predicting intraoperative EEG changes, with a negative predicting value of 100%. The existence of collaterals in the vertebral angiograms showed differences in frequency between the two groups, but this was statistically not significant. CONCLUSION: The preoperative carotid angiogram might be considered as a useful evaluation for predicting intraoperative EEG changes. If more data are accumulated, the other factors should reviewed again. Recently, positron emission tomography (PET) and transcranial doppler (TCD) have been performedin some patients. We think that these studies, in conjunction with the carotid angiogram, will be more helpful as more data are accumulated.
Angiography ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Electroencephalography ; Endarterectomy, Carotid* ; Heart ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Stroke ; Ulcer