Pathological laughing and crying(PLC) is a condition that is characterized by episodic, brief, contextually inappropriate, uncontrollable outbursts of laughing and/or crying. It can be observed in patients with various neurological disorders. PLC often causes distress in interpersonal functioning and activities for patients and their families. PLC can be recognized easily with proper understanding of the condition and its nature. Also it generally shows good response to various pharmacological treatments. This review aims to encourage the diagnosis and treatment of PLC by providing definition and clinical presentation of PLC, analysis of its pathophysiology and various current treatment options.
Crying* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Nervous System Diseases

A case of papillary eccrine adenoma on the right hand of a 84-year-old woman is reported. The tumor was 1 cm in diameter, occupying the whole thickness of the dermis. Histologically, the tumor was composed of dilated tubules of various sizes with intraluminal papillary projections, and was surrounded by a fibrous stroma. An immunohistochemical study revealed that the proliferating tubules were composed of the outermost layer of alpha-smooth muscle actin-positive and the inner layer of keratin 14-negative cells. This antigen expression pattern was comparable to that of the normal eccrine secretory coil, which indicates that the tumor differentiated toward the secretory coil of an eccrine sweat gland.
Adenoma* ; Aged, 80 and over ; Dermis ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Sweat Glands

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is well recognized as a disability category with high incidence and prevalence as well as considerable impact on survivors and their families. Neuropsychiatric symptoms such as cognitive deficit, psychosis, depression, mania, anxiety are common after TBI. Treatment of the neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with TBI should result in decreased handicap, improved quality of life, and decreased societal impact. This article discusses the clinical approach to treating patients with neuropsychiatric complications following TBI.
Anxiety ; Bipolar Disorder ; Brain ; Brain Injuries ; Depression ; Humans ; Incidence ; Prevalence ; Psychotic Disorders ; Quality of Life ; Survivors

A case of malignant eccrine acrospiroma of the anterior chest wall is reported. This mass had been present for 20 years and during rescent 5 years it showed frequent ulceration and bleeding suggesting malignant transformation. Microscopically, several foci malignant transformation from preexisting benign eccrine acrospiroma are seen and in immunohistochemical staining, the tumor cells both benign and malignant portion, show positive reaction to cytokeratin.

PURPOSE: Air bubbles developed during phcoemulsification procedure are known to be harmful to corneal endothelial cells and balanced salt solution(BSS) contained within plastic bag(Bag BSS) has been thought to be more prone to the air bubble formation than the one encased within bottle(Bottle BSS). For the above reason, we tried to see whether there is any difference in corneal endothelial cell changes between two groups of patients who underwent phacoemulsification using Bag BSS and Bottle BSS respectively. METHODS: 85 cataract eyes of 60 patients were randomly assigned to two groups of Bag BSS(43 eyes) and Bottle BSS(42 eyes), on which phacoemulsification was performed through scleral tunnel incision followed by silicone PCL placement. Corneal endothelial cells were examined using specular microscopy postoperatively at 1 month and compared with preoperative specular microscopic data. RESULTS: The percent loss of corneal endothelial cell density at postoperative 1 month for the Bag BSS group(13.02+/-0.7%) was not significantly different from the Bottle BSS group(12.8+/-8.1%)(p>0.05). Coeffcient of variation in cell size(p>0.05) and mean endothelial cell size(p>0.05) also showed no significant difference between the two groups. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, Bag BSS and Bottle BSS have similiar protective effect on the corneal endothelial cell damage during phocoemulsification.
Cataract ; Corneal Endothelial Cell Loss ; Endothelial Cells ; Humans ; Microscopy ; Phacoemulsification ; Plastics* ; Silicones

PURPOSE: The cornea of the keratoconus patient that is one of the contraindications in refractive surgery shows severe topographic asymmetry and the lower curvature is much steeper than the upper one. In this study, we evaluated whether the mild to moderate topographic asymmetry which does not fall under the Rabinowitz-McDonnell's keratoconus criteria(I-S value>3.0 D) would affect the LASIK results. METHODS: The maximal diopter difference in central 3 mm-zone(MDD-3) of the pre-LASIK topography, the postoperative best uncorrected visual acuity(UCVA) and the postoperative best corrected visual acuity(BCVA) were analyzed in 248 eyes of 124 patients retrospectively. We divided the patients into 2 groups according to the magnitude of MDD-3(MDD-3<1.0 D in group 1 and MDD-3> OR =1.0 D in group 2). In the same manner, the patients were divided into 2 groups according to the magnitude of MDD-5(MDD-5<1.0 D in group A and MDD-5> OR =1.0 D in group B) using 5 mm-zone. RESULTS: Between group 1 and 2, statistically significant difference was not observed in postoperative UCVA and BCVA(p>0.05). Between group A and B, statistically significant difference was not observed in postoperative UCVA and BCVA(p>0.05), either. CONCLUSIONS: This suggests that the mild pre-LASIK topographic asymmetry would not affect the visual acuity after LASIK.
Cornea ; Humans ; Keratoconus ; Keratomileusis, Laser In Situ* ; Refractive Surgical Procedures ; Retrospective Studies ; Visual Acuity

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of preoperative keratometric value on corneal flap dimensions, records of 81 eyes of 45 patients who had LASIK were analyzed retrospectively. METHOD: Corneal thickness and diameter , and keratometric value were measured preoperatively. RESULTS: In this study, SCMD Turbokeratome was set for making a corneal flap with 150 micron thickness and 8.25 mm diameter. In reality, however, the mean corneal flap thickness was 110.7+/-15.7 micron and the mean corneal flap diameter was 7.89+/-0.33 mm. The lower mean preoperative keratometric value, the thicker(r=-0.325, p=0.003) and the smaller(r=0.460, p=0.009) diameter flap was made. When we divided eyes into three groups according to their keratometric values, eyes with keratometric values lower than 42.5 D resulted in corneal flap with 116.70+/-12.6 micron thickness and 7.65(0.28mm diameter as opposed to 102.16+/-13.41 micron thickness and 8.05+/-0.37 mm diameter flap in corneas having keratometric values above 44.5 D(p<0.05). CONCLUSION: When a LASIK flap was made using SCMD manual keratome, steeper corneas tend to have larger and thinner corneal flaps. In conclusion, for making the corneal flap according to the intended thickness and diameter in LASIK, preoperative keratometric value should be considered carefully.
Cornea ; Humans ; Keratomileusis, Laser In Situ* ; Retrospective Studies

No abstract available.
DNA* ; Nucleolus Organizer Region*

PURPOSE: To evaluate the spherical aberrations of the anterior and posterior surfaces of normal corneas using Pentacam in a Korean sample population and determine their ranges and changes with age. METHODS: We used Pentacam (Oculus Inc.,Germany) to measure the anterior and posterior corneal spherical aberrations of 240 eyes in 240 patients with normal corneas who visited our clinic. The means and ranges of spherical aberrations and their changes with age were determined. We examined both eyes of 90 patients to confirm the inter-ocular symmetry in spherical aberration. RESULTS: The mean age of the 240 patients (M:F=103:137) was 49.8 years (range: 20-79), and the mean spherical aberrations of the anterior and posterior surfaces of the cornea were 0.230+/-0.078 micrometer, and -0.04+/-0.021 micrometer, respectively. The mean total corneal spherical aberration was 0.19+/-0.087 micrometer. There were no differences between males and females, and inter-ocular symmetry was observed in all tested patients. There was a tendency for the values of anterior, posterior and total corneal spherical aberration to increase with age. Ranges of spherical aberrations were from -0.177 micrometer to 0.423 micrometer in the anterior cornea, from -0.083 micrometer to 0.034 micrometer in the posterior cornea, and from -0.238 micrometer to 0.410 micrometer in the total cornea. CONCLUSIONS: In a Korean population, the mean total corneal spherical aberration was 0.19 micrometer, which was shown to increase with age. Some patients were shown to have an extreme value. Based on these results, a preoperative analysis for corneal spherical aberration may be helpful when selecting aspheric intraocular lenses.
Cataract ; Cornea ; Eye ; Female ; Humans ; Lenses, Intraocular ; Male

No abstract available.
Cervix Uteri* ; Female