[Background] Over the last thirty years, majority of researches on clinical effectiveness of acupuncture have been explanatory (or experimental) randomized controlled trial. The benefits of acupuncture in clinical trials are stillcontroversial and most studies concluded that further control studies were required. Standardized combinations of acupuncture points for all the experimental subjects in various past studies have been criticized because such treatments do not reflect current routine clinical treatment.
[Objective] This paper aims to review pragmatic clinical trials on the effect of acupuncture treatment and to develop the ideal clinical research methodology of acupuncture study.
[Method] Clinical studies of acupuncture relevant with pragmatic or individualized trials were searched mainly in Pubmed and Science direct databases. All articles were fully reviewed by researchers, and data were evaluated by usage of a standardized form.
[Results & Suggestion] Pragmatic acupuncture researches were tried for various symptoms (eg. low back pain, hypertension, depression during pregnancy, sleep quality in HIV disease, chronic poststroke leg spasticity, headache, etc). Individualized acupuncture treatments based on oriental disease pattern diagnosis reflexes practical treatments which is more effective than unified and fixed acupuncture treatments without any theoretical basis of oriental medical philosophy.
[Conclusion] To overcome the controversies and limitations of past explanatory acupuncture trials, more individualized and tailored acupuncture trials with the theoretical basis of oriental medical diagnosis is highly recommended. Also clear definition and categorization of pattern identification should be established for further active clinical researches and applications of acupuncture.

No abstract available.
Escherichia coli* ; Escherichia* ; Humans*

No abstract available.
Jaundice, Chronic Idiopathic*

No abstract available.
Mass Screening* ; Prospective Studies*

Hyalinizing trabecular adenoma is an uncommon benign thyroid tumor that is recently described in the literature. This tumor is easily confused with medullary carcinoma on surgical specimens and with papillay carcinoma on cytologic specimens. Herein we report the cytologic characteristics of a case of histologically proven hyalinizing trabecular adenoma of the thyroid gland. Cytologically, the aspirate showed trabecular or individually dispersed polygonal cells with finely stippled chromatin pattern, nuclear grooves, and eosinophilic nuclear pseudoinclusions. No colloid materials were noted in the background.
Adenoma ; Animals ; Carcinoma, Medullary ; Chromatin ; Colloids ; Eosinophils ; Hyalin ; Mediastinum ; Puromycin Aminonucleoside* ; Puromycin* ; Rats* ; Thyroid Gland

Retinal prosthesis is regarded as the most feasible method for the blind caused by retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration. One of the prerequisites for the success of retinal prosthesis is the optimization of the electrical stimuli applied through the prosthesis. Since electrical characteristics of degenerate retina are expected to differ from those of normal retina, we investigated differences of the retinal waveforms in normal and degenerate retina to provide a guideline for the optimization of electrical stimulation for the upcoming prosthesis. After isolation of retina, retinal patch was attached with the ganglion cell side facing the surface of microelectrode arrays (MEA). 8x8 grid layout MEA (electrode diameter: 30micrometer, electrode spacing: 200micrometer, and impedance: 50 k omega at 1 kHz) was used to record in-vitro retinal ganglion cell activity. In normal mice (C57BL/6J strain) of postnatal day 28, only short duration (<2 ms) retinal spikes were recorded. In rd/rd mice (C3H/HeJ strain), besides normal spikes, waveform with longer duration (~100 ms), the slow wave component was recorded. We attempted to understand the mechanism of this slow wave component in degenerate retina using various synaptic blockers. We suggest that stronger glutamatergic input from bipolar cell to the ganglion cell in rd/rd mouse than normal mouse contributes the most to this slow wave component. Out of many degenerative changes, we favor elimination of the inhibitory horizontal input to bipolar cells as a main contributor for a relatively stronger input from bipolar cell to ganglion cell in rd/rd mouse.
Animals ; Electric Stimulation ; Electrodes ; Ganglion Cysts ; Macular Degeneration ; Mice ; Microelectrodes ; Prostheses and Implants ; Retina ; Retinal Diseases ; Retinal Ganglion Cells ; Retinaldehyde ; Retinitis Pigmentosa ; Visual Prosthesis

A 32-year-old woman presented with cough and hemoptysis. The radiologic findings showed increased interstitial markings in the right lung, a slightly decreased ling volume in the RLL and a hypoplastic right pulmonary arte ry with collaterals in the mediastinum and subpleural area. The pulmonary angiography showed an abrupt occlusion of the right lower pulmonary artery. The echocardiographic findings indicated pulmonary hypertension. A doppler leg ultrasonograph disclosed that the left politeal vein was occluded with collateral veins, not filling the defect in the venous lumen. The D-dimer increased 1.0 micro gram/ml. This condition was initially misdiagnosed as a congenital pulmonary artery agenesis. Finally, a chronic pulmonary thromboembolism with a deep vein thrombosis was confirmed.
Adult* ; Angiography ; Cough ; Echocardiography ; Female* ; Hemoptysis* ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; Leg ; Lung* ; Mediastinum ; Pulmonary Artery ; Pulmonary Embolism ; Veins ; Venous Thrombosis

Cardiovascular disease is the most important cause of unexpected sudden death. Although ischemic heart disease by coronary atherosclerosis is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death, other diseases such as cardiomyopathy, congenital heart disease, valvular heart disease and rarely myocarditis can produce sudden cardiac death. Myocarditis is an inflammatory process of the myocardium characterized by an interstitial inflammatory infiltrate and an injury to myocytes adjacent to the inflammatory cells. The clinical expression of myocarditis ranges from the asymptomatic state to fulminant fatal congestive heart failure. Because myocardial involvement is subclinical in most acute infectious disease, the majority of patients have no specific complaints referable to the cardiovascular system. It is possible that it causes a medicolegal problems in case of sudden death. Therefore, author reviewed the clinical and pathological findings of 18 myocarditis autopsy cases. The victims 'age was varied 4-month-59-year olds. 5 (28%) were male and 13 (72%) were female. 15 cases received medical treatment due to clinical symptoms(URI symptoms: 2 cases, tonsillitis and tonsillar abcess: 3 cases, GI symptoms: 5 cases, URI & GI symptoms: 3 cases, pneumonia: 1 case, operation due to ovarian tumor: 1 case) and were associated with medicolegal problem. By the results of this study, important gross findings were pericardial effusions, characteristic cardiomegaly, and pulmonary edema.
Asymptomatic Diseases ; Autopsy ; Cardiomegaly ; Cardiomyopathies ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Cardiovascular System ; Communicable Diseases ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Death, Sudden ; Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Female ; Heart Defects, Congenital ; Heart Failure ; Heart Valve Diseases ; Humans ; Male ; Muscle Cells ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Myocarditis* ; Myocardium ; Palatine Tonsil ; Pericardial Effusion ; Pneumonia ; Pulmonary Edema ; Tonsillitis

PURPOSE: To assess the role and efficacy of radiologic intervention in the adult patients with esophagobronchial fistula. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Radiologic intervertion was performed in 4 patients with esophagobronchial fistula. We tried direct occlusion of fistula tract by glue(histoacylate 0.4cc + lipiodol 0.3cc) and coil in 2 patients and performed presurgical wire insertion by using 8F curved catheter via esophageal opening of fistula tract. The latter procedure was carled out to detect the fistula tract easily at operation. RESULTS: Direct occlusions of fistula tract by glue and coil were performed only to fail in 2 patients. Pre-surgical wire incertion by using 8F curred catheter under guidance of fluroscopy in 3 patients were helpful in detecting fistula tract at operation. CONCLUSION: Direct occlusion of the fistulous tract in esophagobronchial fistulas was ineffective. However, presur- gical wire insertion by using cured catheter under fluroscopy guidance is helpful to detect the fistula tract easily at operation.
Adhesives ; Adult* ; Catheters ; Ethiodized Oil ; Fistula* ; Humans

No abstract available.
Angioplasty*