No abstract available.
Abdomen, Acute*

No abstract available.
Anxiety Disorders* ; Anxiety*

No abstract available.
Emergencies* ; Emergency Medicine* ; Internship and Residency*

Neurofibromatosis, or von Recklinghausen's disease, is a hereditary, harmartomatous disorder that primarilyinvolves neuroectoderm and mesoderm. The estimated incidence is 1 in 2,500 to 3,000 births. The clinical featuresare skin manifestations such as cafe-au-lait spots, skeletal manifestations primarily in volving vertebrae,central and peripheral nervous manifestations, and other associated abnormalities with increased risk ofmalignancy. The authors analysed the radiologic findings of 18 cases of patients with neurofibromatosis whovisited Pusan Kosin Medical Center and Taegu Dongsan Medical Center during the last five years. All were proven bysurgery, biopsy and other diagnostic criteria. The results obtained were as follows: 1. The male ot female ratiowas 11:7 and the age ranged from 11 months to 51 years. 2. All the cases fulfilled the diagnotic criteria of Croweand associates. 3. Bone manifestations were present in 44% of the cases. The other radiologic findings wereintrathoracic meningocele, bilateral acoustic neurinomas, mediastinal or chest wall mass shadows, and peripheralsoft tissue masses. 4. One of the soft tissue masses was proved to be malignant.
Biopsy ; Busan ; Cafe-au-Lait Spots ; Daegu ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Meningocele ; Mesoderm ; Neural Plate ; Neurofibromatoses ; Neurofibromatosis 1 ; Neurofibromatosis 2 ; Parturition ; Skin Manifestations ; Thoracic Wall

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans ; Plasma* ; Renal Veins* ; Renin* ; Veins*

A study of effect of local hypothermia upon the spinal cord was performed in cats. With a cuff, a cooler, to which was attached connecting tubes to a refrigerator, the experimental technique was deviced to cool the spinal cord locally at midthoracic level. Cold liquid, saline at a temperature of +/-1.1 degrees C, was circulated in closed system through the tubing into the cuff which was snugly rested on the dorsal surface of the spinal cord as a heat exchanger. The temperatures were measured with thermocouples at various sites in the spinal cord before, during, and after the cooling every two minutes upto twenty minutes. In the cord underneath the cuff, the mean precooling temperature of 35.4 degrees C in normal control group was lowered to 11.0 degrees C during the first two minutes of cooling. After this in initial rapid drop in temperature, there was a further gradual reduction of 4.5 degrees C upto 20 minutes cooling to be 6.5 degrees C. The lowest mean temperatures recorded throughout cooling were 4.3 degrees C at dorsal surface and 6.9 degrees C at center of the cord. And the temperature lowering was nearly not noted beyond the cord 1 cm apart from an edge of cuff in rostral and caudal directions. For comparison, the temperature in the cord that had not been injured was also measured. The rate of cooling in the cord underneath the cuff seemed to be faster than in the control group of animal in which the cord was not injured. Another design of this experiment was an evaluation of the protective effect of local hypothermia with respect to cord edema and injury associated cord hemorrhage. Immediately after intravenous administrations of fluorescin the spinal cords were contused with impaction injury. These injured cords were removed ar different time intervals after trauma, and spread or distribution of fluorescin in frozen sectioned specimens was observed under ultraviolet illumination with fluorescence microscope. In all cooling groups, pathological pictures were reduced in its degree and extent more than those in the control group, and that, earlier the cooling after the injury to the cord, better the result was outcome. It would be well to say that local hypothermia might be within the margin of safety and beneficial in the management of spinal cord injury in this experiment.
Administration, Intravenous ; Animals ; Cats ; Edema ; Fluorescence ; Hemorrhage ; Hot Temperature ; Hypothermia* ; Lighting ; Spinal Cord Injuries ; Spinal Cord*

No abstract available.
Arrhythmias, Cardiac*

No abstract available.
Ductus Arteriosus, Patent* ; Endarteritis*

OBJECTIVES: Epidemiological and clinical studies have suggested that low cholesterol levels or clinical trals to reduce cholesterol concentrations may be associated with suicide, violent behavior or depression. The aim of the present study was to determined i) whether suicidal psychiatric patients is characterized by decreased serum cholesterol concentration ; ii) whether significant difference of cholesterol levels might be present according to the psychiatric diagnosis, and iii) whether significant association between suicide severity and cholesterol levels might be present. METHOD: The subjects were 102 psychiatric patients who were admitted to emergency ward following an attempted suicide during the period from January 1994 to July 1997 and 102 age, and sex matched psychiatric controls who were consecutively admitted to a psychiatric ward during the same period, and 102 age, sex matched healthy normal controls. The suicide attempters were divided into 5 grades according to the suicide severity. Serum cholesterol concentrations were measured by a enzymatic method. RESULTS: The serum cholesterol level in suicidal attempters were found to be significantly lower compared with both psychiatric and normal controls. This significant relationship between suicidal attempt and low cholesterol level was observed only in depressive patients, but not in schizophrenics or personality disorder patients. Low cholesterol was significantly associated with the severity of the suicide. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the previous finding that low cholesterol level might be associated with an increased risk of suicide. The fact that the significant relationship was observed only in depressive disorder, but not in schizophrenia or personality disorder raises the possibility that the association between low serum cholesterol and suicidal behavior may have relevance to biological mechanisms in depression. It is hypothesized that low cholesterol levels would be associated with depression by modifying the serotonin, the production of interleukin 2 and melatonin metabolism.
Cholesterol* ; Depression ; Depressive Disorder ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Humans ; Interleukin-2 ; Melatonin ; Mental Disorders ; Metabolism ; Personality Disorders ; Schizophrenia ; Serotonin ; Suicide* ; Suicide, Attempted

OBJECTIVE: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), one of the most abundant and important neurotrophins, is known to be involved in the development, survival, maintenance, and plasticity of neurons in the nervous system. Some studies have suggested that BDNF may play a role in the pathophysiology of several psychiatric illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia. Similarly, it is likely that the alteration of BDNF may be associated with the neuro-modulation that contributes to the development of somatization disorder. METHODS: The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is an abnormality of plasma BDNF levels in patients with somatization disorder, and to analyze the nature of the alteration after pharmacotherapy using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: The plasma BDNF levels of the patients with a somatization disorder were significantly lower compared with those of the control volunteers (83.61±89.97 pg/mL vs. 771.36±562.14 pg/mL); moreover, the plasma BDNF levels of those patients who received an antidepressant were significantly increased after the treatment (118.13±91.45 pg/mL vs. 72.92±88.21 pg/mL). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that BDNF may play a role in the pathophysiology of somatization disorder.
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor* ; Depression ; Drug Therapy ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Nerve Growth Factors ; Nervous System ; Neurons ; Plasma* ; Plastics ; Schizophrenia ; Somatoform Disorders* ; Volunteers