No abstract available.
Echocardiography* ; Heart Defects, Congenital*

No abstract available.
Hemodynamics* ; Nitroprusside*

No abstract available.
Child* ; Heart Diseases* ; Heart* ; Humans ; Physical Examination

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of lumbar stabilization exercise on lumbosacral region angle, lumbar strength, lower muscle strength, physical fitness, and low back pain of sedentary women. Twenty females who spend more than 6 hours a day as sedentary at working were recruited. The subjects were assigned to two different groups which are exercise group (n=10) and non-exercise group (n=10). Exercise program was consisted with Swiss ball and lumber stability exercise, and it was performed 60 min/day and 3 times/wk for 8 weeks. Two-way analysis of variance was conducted to analyze experimental data. As a result, there was no significant difference between groups in lumbar lordosis angle and lumbar sacral angle. However, Isometric lumbar extension strength, isokinetic knee flexion and extension peak torque in angular velocity were significantly different between groups, and the pain was reduced. To conclude, this study identified the effectiveness of lumbar stabilization exercise on lumbar muscular, strength, Sargent jump, sit and reach test and reduced pain.
Animals ; Female* ; Humans ; Knee ; Lordosis ; Low Back Pain ; Lumbosacral Region* ; Muscle Strength ; Physical Fitness* ; Sedentary Lifestyle ; Torque

No abstract available.
Lichen Nitidus* ; Lichens*

Tsutsugamushi fever is a serious febrile disease outwardly similar to malaria and various arboviral infections. The endemic area is Asia-Pacific. This disease are generally associated with disturbed habitats favoring large populations of vector larval trombiculid mites. Therapy with tetracycline, chloramphenicol or ciprofloxacin is currently recommanded. Unfortunately these drugs is suboptimal for children and pregnant women. Recently, azithromycin has been proven to be effective in therapy of scrub typhus. There is no evidence that azithromycin causes adverse reaction to developing fetus or children. We report four cases of tsutsugamushi fever in children successfully treated with azithromycin. This is the first report describing clinical application of azithromycin to tsutsugamushi fever in Korean children.
Azithromycin* ; Child* ; Chloramphenicol ; Ciprofloxacin ; Ecosystem ; Female ; Fetus ; Humans ; Malaria ; Pregnant Women ; Scrub Typhus* ; Tetracycline ; Trombiculidae

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) treatment was previously shown to improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction by enhancing neovascularization and cell survival. In this study, pressure overload-induced left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) was induced in mice by transverse aortic banding (TAB) for 2 weeks. We subsequently evaluated the effects of a 2-week treatment with PTH or saline on compensated LVH. After another 4 weeks, the hearts of the mice were analyzed by echocardiography, histology, and molecular biology. Echocardiography showed that hearts of the PTH-treated mice have more severe failing phenotypes than the saline-treated mice following TAB with a greater reduction in fractional shortening and left ventricular posterior wall thickness and with a greater increase in left ventricular internal dimension. Increases in the heart weight to body weight ratio and lung weight to body weight ratio following TAB were significantly exacerbated in PTH-treated mice compared to saline-treated mice. Molecular markers for heart failure, fibrosis, and angiogenesis were also altered in accordance with more severe heart failure in the PTH-treated mice compared to the saline-treated mice following TAB. In addition, the PTH-treated hearts were manifested with increased fibrosis accompanied by an enhanced SMAD2 phosphorylation. These data suggest that the PTH treatment may accelerate the process of decompensation of LV, leading to heart failure.
Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Echocardiography ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular/*drug therapy/pathology ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Parathyroid Hormone/pharmacology/*therapeutic use ; Phosphorylation/drug effects ; Random Allocation ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Smad2 Protein/metabolism

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is usually an idiopathic disease with a poor prognosis. Hypocalcemia is a rare and reversible cause of DCM. Here, we report a 50-year-old female with DCM, induced by idiopathic hypoparathyroidism, that improved after treatment with calcium.
Calcium/administration & dosage ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated/diagnosis/*etiology/physiopathology ; Dietary Supplements ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Humans ; Hypocalcemia/diagnosis/drug therapy/*etiology ; Hypoparathyroidism/*complications/diagnosis/drug therapy ; Middle Aged ; Recovery of Function ; Treatment Outcome ; Vitamin D/administration & dosage

Danon disease is characterized clinically by the triad of cardiomyopathy, myopathy and mental retardation. It was originally reported as a lysosomal glycogen storage disease with normal acid maltase by Danon. Danon disease results from mutations in lysosome associated membrane protein-2 (LAMP-2) gene. The LAMP-2 gene is located on Xq24-25. We report a case of suspected Danon disease in patient who had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and mental retardation along with abnormal findings in electromyography.
alpha-Glucosidases ; Cardiomyopathies ; Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic ; Glycogen Storage Disease ; Glycogen Storage Disease Type IIb ; Humans ; Intellectual Disability ; Lysosomes ; Membranes ; Muscular Diseases

BACKGROUND: The non-invasive differentiation of ischemic and nonischemic acute heart failure (AHF) not resulting from acute myocardial infarction is difficult and has therapeutic and prognostic implications. The aim of this study was to assess whether resting myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) can detect coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with decreased left ventricular (LV) systolic function and global hypokinesis presenting with AHF. METHODS: Twenty-one consecutive patients underwent low-power real-time MCE based on color-coded pulse inversion Doppler. Standard apical LV views were acquired during contrast IV infusion of Definity(R). Following transient microbubbles destruction, the contrast replenishment rate (beta), reflecting myocardial blood flow velocity, was derived by plotting signal intensity vs. time and fitting data to the exponential function: y (t) = A (1 - e(-beta(t-t0))) + C. RESULTS: Of the 21 (mean age 56.6 +/- 13.6 years) patients, 5 (23.8%) demonstrated flow-limiting CAD (> 70% of luminal diameter narrowing). The mean +/- standard deviation of LV ejection fraction was 29.6 +/- 8.6%. Quantitative MCE analysis was feasible in 258 of 378 segments (68.3%). There were no significant difference in "beta" and "Abeta" in patients without and with CAD (0.48 +/- 0.27 vs. 0.45 +/- 0.25, p = 0.453 for beta and 2.99 +/- 2.23 vs. 3.68 +/- 3.13, p = 0.059 for Abeta, respectively). No contrast-related side effects were reported. CONCLUSION: Resting quantitative MCE analysis in patients with AHF was feasible, however, the parameters did not aid in detecting of CAD.
Blood Flow Velocity ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Disease ; Diagnosis ; Echocardiography* ; Heart Failure* ; Humans ; Microbubbles ; Myocardial Infarction ; Phenobarbital ; Pilot Projects*