PURPOSE: To evaluate the side effects, pattern of failure, and survival rate according to the sequence of postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy, patients with stages II and lll rectal cancer who had undergone curative resection were randomized to early radiotherapy group (arm I) or 'late radiotherapy group (arm II)', then we intend to determine the most effective sequence of the radiotherapy and chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From January 1996 to March 1999, 3 13 patients with curatively resected stages II and III rectal cancer have been randomized to early' or late radiation therapy group and recei ved combined chemotherapy (5-FU 375 mg/m/day, leucovorin 20 mg/m, IV bolus daily D1-5, 8 cycles) and radiation therapy (whole pelvis with 45 Gy/25 fractions/5 weeks). Arm I received radiation therapy from day 1 with first cycle of chemotherapy and arm II received radiation therapy from day 57 with third cycle of chemotherapy after completion of first two cycles. Preliminary analysis was performed with 228 patients registered up to Jun 1998. Two out of the 228 patients were excluded because of double primary cancer. Median follow-up period was 23 months. RESULTS: Local recurrence occurred in 11 patients (9.7%) for arm I and 9 patients (8%) for arm II. There was no significant difference between both groups (p=0.64). However, distant metastasis was found in 22 patients (19.5%) for arm I and 35 patients (31.0%) for arm II and which showed statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=0.046). And neither 3-year disease-free survival (70.2% vs 59.2%, p=0.2) nor overall survival (89.4% vs 88.0%, p=0.47) showed significant differences. The incidence of leukopenia during radiation therapy and chemotherapy was 78.3% and 79.9% respectively but leukopenia more than RTOG grade 3 was only 2.1% and 6.0% respectively. The incidence of diarrhea more than 10 times per day was significantly higher in the patients for arm I than for arm II (71.2% vs 4 1.6%, p=0.02) but this complication was controlled with supportive cares. CONCLUSION: Regardless of the sequence of postoperative adjuvant radiation therapy and chemotherapy a fter curative resection for rectal cancer, local recurrence rate was low with combined chemoradiotherapy. But distant metastasis rate was lower in early radiation therapy group than in late radiation therapy group and the reason is unclear. Most patients completed these treatments without severe complication, so these were thought to be safe treatments but the treatment compliance should be improved.
Arm ; Chemoradiotherapy ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant* ; Compliance ; Diarrhea ; Disease-Free Survival ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Leucovorin ; Leukopenia ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pelvis ; Prospective Studies* ; Radiotherapy* ; Radiotherapy, Adjuvant ; Rectal Neoplasms* ; Recurrence ; Survival Rate

Pulmonary vascular air embolism is a rare and, universally, almost a fatal complication of positive pressure ventilation in newborn infants. Here, we report a case of this unusual complication in a very-low-birth-weight infant who showed the clinical and radiological features of this complication along with pulmonary hypoplasia and massive hydrops. The possible pathogenesis has been discussed and a brief review of related literature has been presented.
Edema ; Embolism, Air ; Humans ; Hydrops Fetalis ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Very Low Birth Weight ; Positive-Pressure Respiration ; Pulmonary Embolism

A 56-year-old man presented with right coronary arterial spasm accompanied by ST segment elevation in the inferior leads. A reperfusion arrhythmia, accelerated idioventricular rhythm (AIVR), developed 1 hour after a nitroglycerin infusion. The AIVR was sustained for 5 days without hemodynamic instability, and resolved spontaneously during hemodynamic monitoring in the coronary intensive care unit.
Accelerated Idioventricular Rhythm ; Angina Pectoris ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Middle Aged ; Myocardial Infarction ; Nitroglycerin ; Reperfusion ; Spasm

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the effects of bracket material type on enamel decalcification during orthodontic treatment, this study analyzed the adhesion level of mutans streptococci (MS) to orthodontic bracket materials in vivo. METHODS: Three different types of orthodontic bracket materials were used: stainless steel, monocrystalline sapphire, and polycrystalline alumina. A balanced complete block design was used to exclude the effect of positional variation of bracket materials in the oral cavity. Three types of plastic individual trays were made and one subject placed the tray in the mouth for 12 hours. Then, the attached bacteria were isolated and incubated on a mitis salivarius media containing bacitracin for 48 hours. Finally, the number of colony forming units of MS was counted. The experiments were independently performed 5 times with each of the 3 trays, resulting in a total of 15 times. Mixed model ANOVA was used to compare the adhesion amount of MS. RESULTS: There was no difference in colony forming units among the bracket materials irrespective of jaw and tooth position. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that the result of quantitative analysis of MS adhesion to various orthodontic bracket materials in vivo may differ from that of the condition in vitro.
Aluminum Oxide ; Bacitracin ; Bacteria ; Bacterial Adhesion ; Dental Enamel ; Jaw ; Mouth ; Orthodontic Brackets ; Plastics ; Stainless Steel ; Stem Cells ; Tooth

Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder caused by genetic deficiency or decreased function of C1-esterase inhibitor. It is characterized by swelling of subcutaneous and submucosal tissues of the extremities, gastrointestinal tract, and upper airways which can be life-threatening. Thus, early recognition and treatment of the disease are important. Short- and longterm prophylaxes are used to decrease the severity and frequency of attacks. Icatibant is a selective bradykinin B2-receptor antagonist, earlier treatment of acute attacks and hospital admission. The authors present a case of 47-year-old woman who was diagnosed with type II HAE, danazol as a long term. Her symptoms improved dramatically after drug treatment. The unpredictability and recurrence of HAE attacks could have a negative impact on social life and quality of life. This case shows that timely and proper treatment could improve quality of life and reduce morbidity and mortality. (

Purpose: To develop a deep learning model that can predict the axial lengths of eyes using ultra-widefield (UWF) fundus photography. Methods: We retrospectively enrolled patients who visited the ophthalmology clinic at the Seoul National University Hospital between September 2018 and December 2021. Patients with axial length measurements and UWF images taken within 3 months of axial length measurement were included in the study. The dataset was divided into a development set and a test set at an 8:2 ratio while maintaining an equal distribution of axial lengths (stratified splitting with binning). We used transfer learning-based on EfficientNet B3 to develop the model. We evaluated the model’s performance using mean absolute error (MAE), R-squared (R2), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We used vanilla gradient saliency maps to illustrate the regions predominantly used by convolutional neural network. Results: In total, 8,657 UWF retinal fundus images from 3,829 patients (mean age, 63.98 ±15.25 years) were included in the study. The deep learning model predicted the axial lengths of the test dataset with MAE and R2 values of 0.744 mm (95% CI, 0.709–0.779 mm) and 0.815 (95% CI, 0.785–0.840), respectively. The model’s accuracy was 73.7%, 95.9%, and 99.2% in prediction, with error margins of ±1.0, ±2.0, and ±3.0 mm, respectively. Conclusions We developed a deep learning-based model for predicting the axial length from UWF images with good performance.

Purpose: The microenvironment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) with extensive desmoplastic stroma contributes to aggressive cancer behavior. Angiotensin system inhibitors (ASIs) reduce stromal fibrosis and are a promising therapeutic strategy. The purpose of this study was to examine how ASIs affected the oncological results of patients who had their PDAC removed. Materials and Methods: A retrospective assessment was conducted on the clinicopathological and survival data of patients who received curative resection for PDAC at Severance Hospital between January 2012 and December 2019. Results: A total of 410 participants (228 male and 182 female), with a median follow-up period of 12.8 months, were included in this study. Patients were divided into three groups, based on ASI use and history of hypertension: group 1, normotensive and never used ASI (n=210, 51.2%); group 2, ASI non-users with hypertension (n=50, 12.2%); and group 3, ASI users with hypertension (n=150, 36.6%). The three groups did not differ significantly in terms of age, sex, kind of operation, T and N stages, or adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapy. Moreover, there was no discernible difference in disease-free survival between those who used ASI and those who did not (p=0.636). The 5-year overall survival (OS) rates in groups 1, 2, and 3 were 52.6%, 32.3%, and 38.0%, respectively. However, the OS rate of ASI users was remarkably higher than that of non-users (p=0.016). Conclusion In patients with resected PDAC, ASI is linked to longer survival rates. Furthermore, for individuals with hypertension, ASI in conjunction with conventional chemotherapy may be an easy and successful treatment option.

PURPOSE: We compared characteristics and outcomes of pulmonary tuberculosis in homeless and non-homeless patients. METHODS: A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted in a Seoul municipal medical center between January 2007 and December 2011. All adult patients diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis were included. We classified these patients into homeless and non-homeless and compared the disease characteristics, risk factors, mortality, treatment completion rate, and resistance rate. RESULTS: All 157 patients were diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis (75 homeless and 82 non-homeless). Most homeless patients were male (97.3%) and had higher emergency medical service (EMS) use (77.3%). Additionally, most homeless patients used alcohol l(76%) and smoked (77.3%). When compared with the non-homeless group, the homeless group had a higher in-hospital mortality rate (14.7%; adjusted odds ratio (OR), 4.69; 95% confident interval (CI), 1.03-21.34), and were more likely to be admitted for (adjusted OR=3.27(1.07-9.97)), but not to complete tuberculosis treatment (adjusted OR=9.10(2.24-36.98)). CONCLUSION: Pulmonary tuberculosis showed higher mortality in homeless than non-homeless patients. Additionally, homeless had a lower treatment completion rate and fewer resistant microorganisms.
Adult ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Emergency Medical Services ; Hospital Mortality ; Humans ; Male ; Odds Ratio ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

BACKGROUND: Mild iron deficiency anemia is known to be asymptomatic in most of the cases. In view of this, we studied response of the mild anemics to the maximal exercise loading test to learn whether or not they respond similarly to the normals. METHODS: The maximal exercise loading tests by Bruce's protocol were carried out in 22 female asymptomatic anemics with hemoglobin level of between 10.0gm/dL and less than 12.0gm/dL, and the results were compared with those of 44 non-anemic matched controls with mean hemoglobin level of 13.1gm/dL. The ages in both groups were in their 30's to 40's, and even the anemics were otherwise normal clinically and on various laboratory tests. RESULTS: There were no significant difference between two groups in VO2 max, HR max, VCO2 max and VE max and their derivatives including VT/VC and VE/MVV. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that in patients with mild iron deficiency anemia, the cardiorespiratory response to maximal exercise loading is not different from the normals, and suggest that oxygen transport to tissues is not affected even at maximal exercise. probably by adaptive compensatory mechanism.
Anemia* ; Anemia, Iron-Deficiency ; Female ; Humans ; Oxygen

PURPOSE: Coronary artery disease is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in dialysis patients. Some observational studies proposed that coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) might provide higher survival benefit than percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in dialysis patients. There were not many studies of the comparison between the methods of coronary artery reperfusion therapy. Therefore, we compared the long term survival between PCI and CABG groups in dialysis patients. METHODS: We selected 104 patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) who had PCI (N=75) or CABG (N=29) in Ilsan-Paik Hospital from December 1999 to February 2010. We collected data from medical records and performed a retrospective analysis in ESRD patients hospitalized for the first coronary revascularization procedure. RESULTS: There was no difference in the basic characteristics between the two groups. However, the frequency of more than 3-vessel lesions or less than 30% ejection fraction was higher in the group of CABG than that of PCI. One and three-year survival rates were higher in the PCI group than those in the CABG group. However, there was no difference in the 5 year survival rate between the groups. In subgroup analysis for severe patients with 3-vessel coronary diseases or less than 30% of ejection fraction, there were no statistical differences in the 1, 3 and 5 year survival rates between the groups. In subgroup analysis for the patients maintaining dialysis more than three months, 1, 3, and 5 year survival rates were not statistically different. CONCLUSION: In ESRD and dialysis patients, there was no difference in the long-term survival between PCI and CABG.
Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary ; Coronary Artery Bypass ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Disease ; Coronary Vessels ; Dialysis ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Medical Records ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention ; Reperfusion ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Transplants