Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is an autoimmune polyneuropathy that presents with acute onset and rapid progression of ascending quadriparesis and hyporeflexia, which can be triggered by various conditions. However, GBS following cerebral infarction is very rare. We describe herein a patient with facial diplegia, ophthalmoplegia, and areflexia that occurred during acute cerebral infarction. The symptoms were improved after intravenous immunoglobulin treatment. The details of this case suggest that GBS is triggered by immune dysregulation after acute cerebral infarction.
Cerebral Infarction* ; Guillain-Barre Syndrome* ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins ; Ophthalmoplegia ; Polyneuropathies ; Quadriplegia ; Reflex, Abnormal

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although disequilibrium is common type of dizziness in older people, it is sometimes difficult to identify a specific cause for this problem. The diffuse brain pathology including subcortical ischemia and atrophy can be a cause for patients with disequilibrium of unknown cause. Aim of this study is to identify the eye movements and neuroimaging features in patients with disequilibrium. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a prospective investigation in patients with disequilibrium of unknown cause. We collected information on demographic characteristics and clinical features of disequilibrium. The impact of dizziness on everyday life was assessed by 25-item dizziness handicap inventory (DHI). Vestibular function test (VFT) includes smooth pursuit, saccade, optokinetic nystagmus, and rotatory chair test. Subcortical white matter lesions and brain atrophy were graded from brain magnetic resonance image (MRI). RESULTS: This study included 14 patients (12 female and 2 male), aged between 64 and 84 years, mean age 74.01+/-6.02 years. The score of DHI was 39.4+/-11.8 (20-58). Eye movements were abnormal in 13 patients and normal in only one patient. The degree of subcortical ischemia was mild in 7, moderate in 4, and severe in 3 patients. Ventricular brain ratio was 0.23+/-0.03. However, there was no significant relationship between MRI findings and the degree of oculomotor alterations (result of VFT). CONCLUSION: Patients with disequilibrium of unknown cause are usually elderly women. Alterations in oculomotor movements and diffuse brain pathology including white matter lesions and atrophy were observed in patients with disequilibrium of unknown cause.
Aged ; Atrophy ; Brain ; Brain Diseases ; Brain Ischemia ; Dizziness ; Eye Movements ; Female ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neuroimaging ; Nystagmus, Optokinetic ; Prospective Studies ; Pursuit, Smooth ; Saccades ; Vestibular Function Tests

Angiogenesis is a fundamental biological process including endothelial cell adhesion, migration, invasion and tube formation. Integrin receptors of endothelial cells play important roles in angiogenesis. They mediate cell-cell contact and cell adhesion to extracellular matrix. Roles of integrins have been described for a number of cell types. ECV304 endothelial cells were known to overexpress alpha3beta1 integrin and to form tube like structure in 3-D Matrigel culture. However the function of alpha3beta1 integrin in endothelial cells remains to be determined. Therefore, we have investigated morphological characteristics of ECV304 cells and roles of alpha3beta1 integrin in angiogenesis. To elucidate several characteristics, ECV304 endothelial cells were compared with HUVEC in the aspect of morphology, localization of integrins, angiogenesis pattern. In addition, role of alpha3beta1 integrin were analyzed in the aspect of endothelial cell binding, migration, invasion and tube formation on Matrigel. The result showed that alpha3beta1 integrin overexpressed ECV304 endothelial cells showed strong adhesiveness to extracellular matrix proteins, and high migration and invasion activities. Furthermore, expression of alpha3beta1 integrin was increased according to time course during in vitro culture and was continuously strong in ECV304 cells on 3-D Matrigel culture. These results indicate that alpha3beta1 integrin is able to be a critical component in control of angiogenesis by regulation of cell adhesion, migration, invasion and tube formation of ECV304 endothelial cells.
Adhesiveness ; Biological Processes ; Cell Adhesion ; Endothelial Cells* ; Extracellular Matrix ; Extracellular Matrix Proteins ; Integrin alpha3beta1* ; Integrins

There is concerns about the perceived decline in the knowledge of gross anatomy of the medical students and postgraduate trainees. It is partly caused by the introduction of integrated medical curriculum and the shortage of basic medical science program and the extension of clinical clerkship consequently. There is widespread variability in the teaching style and anatomical curricular content at the medical school in Korea. Despite these changes in the anatomical education, there have been few attempts to assess the opinions of senior clinical teachers on the state of anatomical knowledge of students and the place of anatomy teaching within the curriculum. We sought the views of the clinical teachers on the adequacy of the anatomical knowledge of current students and recent graduates of 5 medical schools in Pusan and Gyeongsang-Nam do areas. Most of the clinical teachers were of the opinion that current medical students have an insufficient anatomical knowledge. They indicated the causes of decline were the clinical irrelevant anatomical teaching content and weakness of identity of anatomy by the introduction of the integrated medical education program. There was widespread support for both the concepts of spreading anatomy teaching throughout the medical course, and an optional, clinically related final year student project in the anatomy.
Busan ; Clinical Clerkship ; Curriculum ; Education ; Education, Medical ; Humans ; Korea ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Medical*

Granulocytic sarcoma is a localized tumor that's composed of immature cells of the granulocytic series. The tumor may be involved anywhere in the body, but we present here a rare case that involved the gastrointestinal tract (and especially the stomach). Granulocytic sarcoma may represent the initial manifestation of blast transformation or it may herald the onset of acute leukemia from myelodysplastic syndrome. We report here on a case of gastric granulocytic sarcoma in a patient with transformed acute leukemia from myelodysplastic syndrome. A 56-year-old male who was suffering with myelodysplastic syndrome (RARS) for 5 years presented with upper abdominal pain. Gastrofiberoscopy revealed an elevated lesion with central erosion at the posterior wall of the gastric upper body, which histologically proved to be a granulocytic sarcoma. The peripheral blood smear and bone marrow examination showed acute myeloid leukemia.
Abdominal Pain ; Bone Marrow Examination ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Leukemia ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; Lymphocyte Activation ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes ; Sarcoma ; Sarcoma, Myeloid ; Stress, Psychological

No abstract available.
Cerebral Hemorrhage ; Parkinson Disease

OBJECTIVE: We studied whether frontal skull base fracture has an impact on the occurrence and recovery of anosmia and/or ageusia following frontal traumatic brain injury (TBI). METHODS: Between May 2003 and April 2005, 102 consecutive patients who had hemorrhage or contusion on the frontal lobe base were conservatively treated. Relevant clinical and radiographic data were collected, and assessment of impaired smell and taste sensation were also surveyed up to at least 12 months post-injury. RESULTS: Among 102 patients, anosmia was noted in 22 (21.6%), of whom 10 had ageusia at a mean 4.4 days after trauma. Bilateral frontal lobe injuries were noted in 20 of 22 patients with anosmia and in all 10 patients with ageusia. Frontal skull base fracture was noted in 41 patients, of whom 9 (21.4%) had anosmia and 4 (9.5%) had ageusia. There was no statistical difference in the occurrence of anosmia and ageusia between patients with or without fracture. Of the 22 patients with anosmia, recovery from anosmia occurred in nine (40.9%) at the interval of 6 to 24 months after trauma, of whom six had frontal skull base fracture and three were not associated with fracture. Recovery of anosmia was significantly higher in patients without fracture than those with fracture (p<0.05). Recovery from ageusia occurred in only two of 10 patients at the interval of 18 to 20 months after trauma and was not eminent in patients without fracture. CONCLUSION: One should be alert and seek possibile occurrence of the anosmia and/or ageusia following frontal TBI. It is suggested that recovery is quite less likely if such patients have fractures on the frontal base, and these patients should wait for at least 6 to 18 months to anticipate such recovery if there is no injury to the central olfactory structures.
Ageusia* ; Brain Injuries ; Contusions ; Frontal Lobe ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Olfaction Disorders* ; Sensation ; Skull Base ; Smell

OBJECTIVES: This 3-year longitudinal study was conducted to evaluate the influence of self-rating health perception on health care utilization and all cause-death risk. METHODS: The hypothesis was tested using a community-based samples, among which subjects 3,414 were interviewed in 1995. Self-rating health perception was assessed by single-item question. Three components of health care utilization amount(number of visits, number of medications, yearly health care expenses) per year were measured using medical insurance data during 3-year follow-up period among subjects in district health care insurance. There were 123 deaths from all causes among 3,085 subjects interviewed. RESULTS: The results showed that those who had poor health perception revealed more increases in the amount of health care utilization than good health perception group (p<0.05). After adjusting for age and sex, the poor health perception group had higher death risk over 3 years than good health perception group(hazard ratio=1.88). but, after adjusting health care utility, supplementary, was not significant. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that self-rating health percep-tion was associated with difference in health care utilization and all cause-death risk.
Delivery of Health Care* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Insurance ; Longitudinal Studies

Actinomycosis is a chronic suppurative and granulomatous disease caused by Actinomyces species and characterized by sulfur granule formation. Depending on the site of primary infection, it is generally classified as cervicofacial, thoracic and abdominal type. Abdominal actinomycosis is often difficult to diagnose before operation because of low frequency and no characteristic clinical features of the disease. As it progresses chronically, it can be misdiagnosed such as cancer, inflammatory bowel disease or other abscess. The diagnosis is usually based on histologic demonstration of sulfur granules in pus or surgically resected specimen. In vast majority of cases, treatment has consisted of long-term antibiotic therapy coupled with surgical resection. We experienced a case of colonic actinomycosis initially diagnosed as Dieulafoy's ulcer and confirmed by colonoscopic biopsy. Treatment with intravenous penicillin for 4 weeks was successful independently, and we report this case with a brief review of literatures.
Abscess ; Actinomyces ; Actinomycosis* ; Biopsy ; Colon ; Colonoscopy ; Diagnosis ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Penicillins ; Sulfur ; Suppuration ; Ulcer*

OBJECTIVE: Cancer pain has been treated by gamma knife radiosurgery(GKS), targeted to the pituitary gland-stalk, as an alternative new pain control method. The purpose of this study is to prove the efficacy and the safety of this treatment. METHODS: Seven patients with intractable cancer pain underwent pituitary gland-stalk irradiation by gamma knife. Selections for patient inclusion in this treatment protocol were no other effective pain treatment options, general condition rated as greater than 40 on Karnofsky Performance Scale, and pain relief by morphine though not satisfactory. The target was the junction between the pituitary stalk and the neurohypophysis. The maximum dose was 150~160Gy with one isocenter in 8mm collimator or two isocenters in 4mm collimator keeping the radiation dose to the optic nerve less than 8Gy. RESULTS: In all seven cases, the significant pain reduction was obtained during immediate post-GKS period without serious complications except one patient who developed transient hypopituitarism and diabetes insipidus. Pain relief was observed within several days, and this effect was prolonged for a quite long time. At a follow up of 1.5 to 13 months, pain recurred in two patients and no hormonal and visual dysfunctions were observed. CONCLUSION: Despite insufficient experience, the efficacy and the safety of GKS for intractable cancer pain were demonstrated in seven patients. This treatment has the potential to ameliorate cancer pain, and GKS will play a more important role in the treatment of intractable pain.
Clinical Protocols ; Diabetes Insipidus ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hypopituitarism ; Morphine ; Optic Nerve ; Pain, Intractable ; Pituitary Gland ; Pituitary Gland, Posterior ; Pituitary Irradiation* ; Radiosurgery