No abstract available.
Humans ; Infant, Newborn*

We present a case of ovarian leiomyoma without related clinical symptoms in a 68-year-old woman. Leiomyoma arising primarily in the ovary is rare. However, it is believed that there are actually more cases than those reported because this condition is usually mistaken for a fibrothecoma or parasitic leiomyoma. Most cases previously reported were incidentally presented and coexisted with other ovarian lesions. The present case was characterized by a 9 cm, round lobulated mass that totally replaced the left ovary without uterine leiomyoma or coexisting ovarian lesions.
Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Leiomyoma* ; Ovary*

During inflammation of the colon, cells of the gut mucosa produce or express numerous inflammatory mediators, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1beta (IL-1 beta), and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1). These mediators have been implicated as contributory factors to the inflammatory process, which results in colitis during inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Rebamipide is an anti-gastric ulcer drug with anti-inflammatory properties in vivo and in vitro. The effects of Rebamipide on IBD have not been largely evaluated. Therefore, this study investigated the potential of Rebamipide to regulate the production of inflammatory mediators such as TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and ICAM-1. Mice with trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis (IBD animal model), were treated intrarectally with 2 mM Rebamipide. Body weight, macro- and micro-histological scores, and activity were evaluated. As an index of tissue edema, the thickness of the colonic wall was measured between the serosal surface and the luminal surface of the mucosa. TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta, and ICAM-1 were detected by immunohistochemical staining. Rebamipide treatment of mice exhibiting TNBS-induced colitis dramatically improved the clinical and histopathological findings of inflammation. In addition, Rebamipide suppressed TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta, and ICAM-1 expression in TNBS-treated animals. Taken together, these findings suggest that Rebamipide is a potential therapeutic agent for treating patients with IBD.
Animals ; Body Weight ; Colitis ; Colon* ; Down-Regulation* ; Edema ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1* ; Interleukin-1beta ; Mice ; Mucous Membrane ; Phenobarbital ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha* ; Ulcer

PURPOSE: Most burn scar contractures are curable with skin grafts, but free flaps may be needed in some cases. Due to the adjacent tissue scarring, local flap is rarely used, and thus we may consider free flap which gives us more options than local flap. However, inappropriate performance of free flap may lead to unsatisfactory results despite technical complexity and enormous amount of effort. The author will discuss the points we should consider when using free flaps in treating burn scar contractures METHODS: We surveyed patients who underwent free flaps to correct burn scar contractures from 2000 to 2007. We divided patients into two groups. The first group was those in which free flaps were inevitable due to exposure of deep structures such as bones and tendons. The second group was those in which free flap was used to minimize scar contracture and to achieve aesthetic result. RESULTS: We performed 44 free flap on 42 patients. All of the flaps were taken well except one case of partial necrosis and wound dehiscence. Forearm free flap was the most common with 21 cases. Most of the cases(28 cases) in which free flaps were inevitable were on the wrist and lower limbs. These were cases of soft tissue defect due to wide and extensive burns. Free flaps were done in 16 cases to minimize scar contracture and to obtain aesthetic outcome, recipient sites were mostly face and upper extremities. CONCLUSION: When using free flaps for correction of burn scar contractures, proper release and full resurfacing of the contracture should be carried out in advance. If inadequate free flap is performed, secondary correction is more challenging than in skin grafts. In order to optimize the result of reconstruction, flap thickness, size and scar of the recipient site should be considered, then we can achieve natural shape, and minimize additional correction.
Burns ; Cicatrix ; Contracture ; Forearm ; Free Tissue Flaps ; Humans ; Lower Extremity ; Necrosis ; Skin ; Tendons ; Transplants ; Wrist

PURPOSE: Cardiovascular risk assessment of atherosclerotic arterial occlusive diseases is a critical component of preoperative care. Many indexes have been developed to help identify patients at high risk for perioperative cardiac events. We sought to study guideline implementation and clinical outcomes in cardiovascular risk assessment. METHOD: We studied 75 patients who underwent preoperative cardiac risk assessment between 2003 and 2006 at the Kyung Hee University Medical Center. The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) guidelines were used to stratify the patients. RESULT: The mean age of patients was 67.9 years. When stratified into risk categories according to the ACC/AHA guidelines, 2 patients was high risk group, 51 intermediate risk group, and 22 low risk group. There were 3 perioperative cardiac complications (4.0%) including 2 mortalities (2.7%). There was a trend toward a higher frequency of cardiac complications when there was discordance with the ACC/AHA guidelines, but there was no significant difference (discordance 7.1%, concordance 0%, P=0.251). The guidelines recommended cardiac testing for 44 patients, but 12 patients (27.3%) were tested. The guidelines did not recommend for 31 patients, but additional cardiac tests were done for 10 patients (32.3%) and mainly associated with low risk group. CONCLUSION: Differences between clinician practice and guideline recommendations existed and did not result in a higher frequency of cardiac complications.
Academic Medical Centers ; Arterial Occlusive Diseases* ; Heart ; Humans ; Mortality ; Preoperative Care ; Risk Assessment*

Idiopathic hypertrophic pachymeningitis (IHP) is a rare, chronic nonspecific and granulomatous inflammatory disorder of the dura with unknown etiology. The diagnosis can be established by open biopsy and exclusion of all other specific granulomatous and infectious diseases. We report a typical case of spinal IHP occurring in a long segment of cervical and thoracic dura from C6 to T8. The patient was 56-yr-old female, who had been suffered from pain on her upper back and both arms for 3 months and recent onset motor weakness of both legs. During the 9 months of follow-up period, she experienced the improvement of her neurologic symptoms with combined therapy of partial excision and corticosteroid medication. Since early surgical intervention and subsequent pulse ste-roid therapy are mandatory for this disease to avoid irreversible damage of nervous system, the identification of this unique disease entity is essential on frozen diagnosis. A few cases have been reported in Korean literature.
Case Report ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Human ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Meningitis/diagnosis/*pathology/therapy ; Middle Age ; Spinal Diseases/diagnosis/*pathology/therapy

PURPOSE: To investigate whether allelic polymorphism of haptoglobin (Hp) is associated with premature rupture of membrane (PROM), the Hp phenotypes of pregnant women with PROM were analyzed. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The Hp phenotypes of 221 pregnant Korean women (187 control and 34 PROM patients) were determined by benzidine/hydrogen peroxide staining, following native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of hemoglobin-mixed sera. The Hp allele frequencies were calculated from the data of Hp phenotypes, and overall association with PROM was evaluated using Pearson Chi-Square test. RESULTS: The polymorphic distribution of the patients cohort who underwent a normal delivery (control group) was similar to that of healthy Koreans. In contrast, however, patients with PROM showed significantly higher occurrence of the Hp 1-1 phenotype than control group (23.5% vs 8.0%). Hp 2-2 phenotype was lower in PROM cohort (38.2%) than in the control group (48.7%). The Hp1 allele frequency in PROM group was significantly higher than that in the control group (0.426 vs 0.297, p = 0.034) with odds ratio of 1.762 (95% CI: 1.038 - 2.991). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that pregnant Korean women who possess Hp1 allele (expressed as Hp 1-1 phenotype) have higher incidence of PROM than women with Hp2 allele (expressed as Hp 2-2 phenotype). This is the first study that evaluated the significance of Hp polymorphism with respect to the development of PROM.
Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group/*statistics & numerical data ; Female ; Fetal Membranes, Premature Rupture/*ethnology/*genetics ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease/ethnology ; Haptoglobins/*genetics ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea/epidemiology ; Phenotype ; *Polymorphism, Genetic ; Pregnancy

Coronary arterioventricular fistula is a rare form of congenital malformation of coronary artery. A 29-year-old man presented with a 4-year history of shortness of breath and recently developed chest discomfort during exertion. A huge, dilated coronary arterioventricular fistula from right coronary artery to left ventricle was diagnosed with transthoracic echocardiography, transesophageal echocardiography and coronary angiography. This finding was confirmed by selective administration of the microbubble into the right coronary artery during transthoracic echocardiography monitoring. The opening of the fistula at the level of left ventricle was obliterated with autologous pericardium and the patient recovered and discharged uneventfully.
Adult ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Vessels* ; Dyspnea ; Echocardiography ; Echocardiography, Transesophageal ; Fistula* ; Heart Ventricles* ; Humans ; Microbubbles ; Pericardium ; Thorax

OBJECTIVE: We focused the objective of this study on the obstetrical and statistical aspects of the unmarried mother, especially teenage pregnancy and 20's pregnancy. METHODS: The 112 well-documented records in the 130 unmarried mothers who delivered at Gangnam general hospital public corporation from 1998 to 2000, were enrolled in our study. Unmarried mothers were divided into three age groups; teenage group, 20's group and 30's group, then, each group was analyzed by liable methods, SPSS (Version 10.0.7) and data were processed by Student's t-test and accepted as the significant meaning within p-value less than 0.05, 95% significant level. RESULTS: In this study, teenage mothers were delivered lower birth weight babies than those of other groups (p=0.000001). Sex partners of teenage mothers, most school boy friends, were similar age to those mothers and low economic state. Despite desire of bringing up children (teenage 11% versus 20's 36%), they gave up their babies because of monetary matters and social bias. And teenage mothers felt stronger affection for babies than 20's. Teenagers' and 20's unmarried mothers have poor information about contraception (teenage group 42%, 20's 31%). CONCLUSION: The unmarried mothers have been constituting many social problems. Fortunately, the absolute number of the unmarried mothers have not increased but the teenage pregnancy has the majority of unmarried mothers (> OR =50%). It is necessary for unmarried mothers to take the education of contraceptive measures, the social systems of bringing up the boarder babies and the retraining courses of unmarried mothers.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Birth Weight ; Child ; Contraception ; Education ; Female ; Friends ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Illegitimacy* ; Male ; Mothers ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy in Adolescence ; Single Person* ; Social Problems

OBJECTIVE: We focused the objective of this study on the obstetrical and statistical aspects of the unmarried mother, especially teenage pregnancy and 20's pregnancy. METHODS: The 112 well-documented records in the 130 unmarried mothers who delivered at Gangnam general hospital public corporation from 1998 to 2000, were enrolled in our study. Unmarried mothers were divided into three age groups; teenage group, 20's group and 30's group, then, each group was analyzed by liable methods, SPSS (Version 10.0.7) and data were processed by Student's t-test and accepted as the significant meaning within p-value less than 0.05, 95% significant level. RESULTS: In this study, teenage mothers were delivered lower birth weight babies than those of other groups (p=0.000001). Sex partners of teenage mothers, most school boy friends, were similar age to those mothers and low economic state. Despite desire of bringing up children (teenage 11% versus 20's 36%), they gave up their babies because of monetary matters and social bias. And teenage mothers felt stronger affection for babies than 20's. Teenagers' and 20's unmarried mothers have poor information about contraception (teenage group 42%, 20's 31%). CONCLUSION: The unmarried mothers have been constituting many social problems. Fortunately, the absolute number of the unmarried mothers have not increased but the teenage pregnancy has the majority of unmarried mothers (> OR =50%). It is necessary for unmarried mothers to take the education of contraceptive measures, the social systems of bringing up the boarder babies and the retraining courses of unmarried mothers.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Birth Weight ; Child ; Contraception ; Education ; Female ; Friends ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Illegitimacy* ; Male ; Mothers ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy in Adolescence ; Single Person* ; Social Problems