No abstract available.
Sympathectomy

No abstract available.
Anemia, Refractory* ; Cyclosporine*

Background: Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease that presents as non-scarring hair loss and can affect all age groups. The clinical course of alopecia areata is unpredictable. Objective: This study aimed to analyze the characteristics, treatment response, and relapse rate of alopecia areata in patients of different ages with long-term follow-up. Methods: The medical records of 121 patients diagnosed with alopecia areata were retrospectively reviewed, and their prognosis was assessed on the basis of various indices. Results: A total of 121 patients, including 24 cases of childhood-onset, 83 adult-onset, and 14 late-onset alopecia areata, were analyzed. In the first episode, 72.7%, 14.7%, and 9.9% of patients had mild, moderate, and severe alopecia areata, respectively. A significant and complete response was observed in 66.7%, 89.2%, and 100% of childhood-onset, adult-onset, and late-onset patients, respectively. The duration of the initial episode showed a negative correlation with age. The overall frequency of relapse was 47.1%, whichc significantly declined with time, with a majority (63.3%) of relapses occurring in the first year. Younger age at initial presentation and thyroid diseases were strongly associated with poor prognosis. Conclusion Younger patients showed a tendency of poor prognosis regardless of the prognostic factors. A longer follow-up period might be required for the younger onset patients.

Background and Objectives: Several studies have proven that listening efforts cause neuroanatomical and physiological changes in the frontal lobe in adults with hearing loss as well as in the elderly with normal hearing. However, there is still a lack in research into how brain function changes when the cognitive load is increased based on noise level. We conducted a preliminary study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy to determine differences in listening effort according to varying listening conditions.Subjects and Method Five adults with normal hearing participated in the study. Listening effort was measured in three listening environments (resting, quiet, and noise) using NIRSIT Lite (OBELAB, Seoul, Korea). The measures variables were concentration changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (ΔHbO2) and the percent correct response rate. Results: As a result of ΔHbO2, channels 1 (p=0.045), 5 (p=0.042) and 7 (p=0.033) (right channels) showed significantly higher ΔHbO2 in the noise condition than in the resting condition. In addition, in channel 1, ΔHbO2 was significantly higher even in the quiet condition than in the resting condition (p=0.041). The percent correct response rate was significantly decreased in the noise condition (35.6%) as compared to the quiet condition (64.4%) (p=0.024). Conclusion We observed that a decrease in cerebral localization to compensate through the right hemisphere was presented with increased listening effort. The results of the study will be useful in situations where listening effort need to be accurarely measured.

Although ascending aortic aneurysm is a uncommon disease, it has fatal complications such as aortic rupture, dissection, or death. So, experts recommend a preemptive aortic operation. A 77-year-old man with hypertension visited for slow progressive exertional dyspnea and general weakness. Chest X-ray showed deviation of trachea to right, mediastinal widening, cardiomegaly, and bulging of right heart border to right. Transthoracic echocardiography(TTE) and transesophageal echocardiography(TEE) showed marked dilated ascending aorta with wall calcification associated with severe aortic regurgitation and pericardial effusion. Measured diameter of ascending aorta was 12 x 11 cm on Chest Computed Tomography (CT) scan, 8.35 cm on TTE, and 10.2 cm on TEE. Our exam found out the obstructive pneumonia and aortic regurgitation as consequences of complications of huge aneurysm. We report a case of huge ascending aortic aneurysm without any previous aortic operation, aortic complications, trauma, or other etiologic factors.
Aged ; Aneurysm ; Aorta ; Aortic Aneurysm* ; Aortic Rupture ; Aortic Valve Insufficiency ; Cardiomegaly ; Dyspnea ; Heart ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Pericardial Effusion ; Pneumonia ; Thorax ; Trachea

Quadricuspid aortic valves (QAVs) is a rare congenital malformation. We report two cases of QAV associated with aortic regurgitation. The one is incidentally diagnosed and uncomplicated, and the other is symptomatic and associated with infective endocarditis. In most cases, QAVs are associated with valve regurgitation, with a concurrent stenosis in some patients, while only a small number of QAVs are functionally normal. Once the diagnosis has been made, echocardiographic follow-up is recommended, because of progression to severe valve regurgitation and the risk of infective endocarditis.
Aortic Valve Insufficiency* ; Aortic Valve* ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Diagnosis ; Echocardiography ; Endocarditis* ; Humans

BACKGROUND: Burn is one of the most common illness in primary care. Most burns are partial skin thickness burns. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use ofSilvadene (silver sulfadiazine) ointment (antibacterial agent) and DuoDERMR (artificial syntheticmaterial). METHODS: The subjects of this study were 46 patients with partial skin thickness burns who had visited a general hospital burn clinic from May 1, 2002 to June 30, 2002. They were randomly assigned to the silvadine ointment or DuoDERMR group. The patients were evaluated for pain, the number of dressing change, the ease of dressing application and removal, limitation of activity, comfortableness, satisfaction with the appearance, sleep disturbance, treatment cost, and the number of days for complete epithelialization. RESULTS: DuoDERMR treated burns had a fewer dressing change (3.19 times vs 5.36 times), less time for dressing change (4.13 min vs 6.26 min) and less cost (P<0.01). But there was no statistical difference in the number of days for complete epithelialization (P=0.197) and it depended on the size of the wounds (P=0.005). The cost of treatment was related with the number of dressing change (P=0.000). CONCLUSION: Treatment methods had no effect on duration of treatment but artificial synthetic material was shown to reduce the time for dressing and the cost.
Bandages ; Burns* ; Health Care Costs ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Primary Health Care ; Skin* ; Wounds and Injuries

PURPOSE: We devised an intraoperatively identifiable mechanical axis (IIMA) as a reference of alignment in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between February 2010 and January 2011, primary TKAs were consecutively performed on 672 patients (1007 knees) using an IIMA as a reference in the coronal plane. RESULTS: The alignment of the lower extremity improved from a mean of 11.4+/-6.7degrees (-10.3-34.4degrees) of varus preop. to 0.7+/-3.5degrees (-5.2-8.6degrees) immediately after surgery. Mean alignment of the femoral component in the coronal plane was 89.3+/-2.3degrees (83.4-97.2degrees) postop. and mean alignment of the tibial component was 90.4+/-2.2degrees (85.1-94.2degrees) postop. CONCLUSION: This study showed that IIMA could be of considerable value as a new guider of alignment that is easily accessible and highly effective during total knee arthroplasty.
Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee/*methods ; Femur/surgery ; Humans ; Tibia/surgery

No abstract available.
Germ Cells* ; Klinefelter Syndrome* ; Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal*

PURPOSE: To assess proper soft tissue balancing of the varus arthritic knee between posterior oblique ligament (POL) release group and superficial medial collateral ligament (SMCL) release group. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study was performed on 186 patients who underwent minimally invasive surgery (MIS) total knee arthroplasty (TKA) from January 2011 to December 2011. Eighty-three patients were in the group of SMCL release and 103 patients were in the POL release group. We intended to use a 10 mm polyethylene insert (PE) during TKA, and retrospectively compared the actual thickness of PE between POL release group and SMCL release group. RESULTS: The mean PE thickness was 10.59+/-1.3 mm (range, 8 to 15 mm) in POL group and 11.88+/-1.8 mm (range, 10 to 18 mm) in SMCL group (p=0.001). We found a significant difference in the mean PE thickness between POL release group and SMCL release group. CONCLUSIONS: POL and deep MCL releases in MIS-TKA would be beneficial for varus deformity correction in the osteoarthritic knee.
Arthroplasty ; Benzeneacetamides ; Collateral Ligaments ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Humans ; Knee ; Ligaments ; Piperidones ; Polyethylene ; Retrospective Studies