PURPOSE: To evaluate outcome and morbidity in patients with vulvar cancer treated with radiotherapy, concurrent chemoradiotherapy or postoperative radiotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The records of 24 patients treated with radiotherapy for vulvar cancer between July 1993 and September 2009 were retrospectively reviewed. All patients received once daily 1.8-4 Gy fractions external beam radiotherapy to median 51.2 Gy (range, 19.8 to 81.6 Gy) on pelvis and inguinal nodes. Seven patients were treated with primary concurrent chemoradiotherapy, one patient was treated with primary radiotherapy alone, four patients received palliative radiotherapy, and twelve patients were treated with postoperative radiotherapy. RESULTS: Twenty patients were eligible for response evaluation. Response rate was 55% (11/20). The 5-year disease free survival was 42.2% and 5-year overall survival was 46.2%, respectively. Fifty percent (12/24) experienced with acute skin complications of grade III or more during radiotherapy. Late complications were found in 8 patients. 50% (6/12) of patients treated with lymph node dissection experienced severe late complications. One patient died of sepsis from lymphedema. However, only 16.6% (2/12) of patients treated with primary radiotherapy developed late complications. CONCLUSION: Outcome of patients with vulvar cancer treated with radiotherapy showed relatively good local control and low recurrence. Severe late toxicities remained higher in patients treated with both node dissection and radiotherapy.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Chemoradiotherapy ; Disease-Free Survival ; Humans ; Lymph Node Excision ; Lymphedema ; Pelvis ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Sepsis ; Skin ; Treatment Outcome ; Vulvar Neoplasms

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to demonstrate the benefits of ultrasonography-guided intra-articular steroid injection in the hip (UISIH) for the treatment of partial tear or degeneration of the round ligament of the femur and to determine the prognostic factors for this treatment. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the records of 40 patients who were diagnosed with a partial tear or degeneration of the round ligament of the femur and who underwent UISIH between August 2014 and November 2018. The inclusion criteria were a lack of history of UISIH or other interventional procedure and the presence of follow-up records after the hip injection. The short-term clinical outcome was evaluated at the first follow-up appointment after UISIH. Possible prognostic factors for UISIH such as age, sex, injection side, and average follow-up time were analyzed using the chi-square test, the Fisher exact test, and the t test. Results: UISIH was found to have been effective in 35 of the 40 patients (87.5%) at the first follow-up visit. The average follow-up time was 43 days. No significant differences were observed in the clinical outcome of UISIH with respect to age, sex, injection side, or follow-up time. Conclusion In this study, we demonstrated that UISIH was a safe and effective treatment in patients with a partial tear or degeneration of the round ligament of the femur over the course of short-term follow-up. Age, sex, injection side, and follow-up time were not identified as prognostic factors for this treatment.

PURPOSE: To assess the usefulness of two spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) instruments (Cirrus(R), Spectralis(R)) for evaluating optic nerve head and peripapillary structures. METHODS: Images of optic nerve complex were obtained from 136 eyes of 136 patients using enhanced depth imaging technique of 2 SD-OCT instruments. Optic nerve head and peripapillary structures were investigated for their visibility and morphological features in total eyes and glaucomatous eyes. Effect factors for laminar thickness measurement were evaluated and the reproducibility of the lamina cribrosa thickness measured by the 2 OCT instruments was analyzed. RESULTS: Lamina cribrosa thickness was better identified using Spectralis(R) OCT in total and glaucomatous eyes. Short posterior ciliary artery (in total eyes) and peripapillary choroid (in total and glaucomatous eyes) were also better identified using Spectralis(R) OCT (p < 0.001). A cup-disc ratio < or = 0.6 was the significant effect factor for laminar thickness measurement (p < 0.05). Interobserver reproducibility was excellent using both OCT instruments. Intraobserver reproducibility was excellent using Spectralis(R) OCT and moderate using Cirrus(R) OCT. CONCLUSIONS: Spectralis(R) OCT was better for visualizing optic nerve head and peripapillary structures and showed better reproducibility than Cirrus(R) OCT. Thus, the Spectralis(R) may be helpful for detecting and understanding features of the optic nerve complex.
Choroid ; Ciliary Arteries ; Glaucoma ; Humans ; Optic Disk ; Optic Nerve* ; Tomography, Optical Coherence*

No abstract available.
Gait* ; Humans ; Spinal Cord Diseases*

We investigated the optimal culture conditions for Cryptosporidium muris in a human stomach adenocarcinoma (AGS) cell line by determining the effects of medium pH and of selected supplements on the development of C. muris. The optimum pH of the culture medium required for the development of C. muris was determined to be 6.6. The number of parasites significantly increased during cultivation for 72 hr (p < 0.05) at this level. On the other hand, numbers decreased linearly after 24 hr of incubation at pH 7.5. When cultured in different concentrations of serum, C. muris in media containing 5% FBS induced 4-7 times more parasites than in 1% or 10% serum. Of the six medium supplements examined, only 1 mM pyruvate enhanced the number of C. muris in vitro. Transmission electron microscopic observation showed the developmental stages of C. muris in the cytoplasm of the cells, not in an extracytoplasmic location. The growth of C. muris in AGS cells provides a means of investigating its biological characteristics and of testing its response to therapeutic agents. However, a more optimized culture system is needed for the recovery of oocysts on a large scale in vitro.
Adenocarcinoma ; Animals ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cryptosporidium/*growth & development ; Culture Media ; Human ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Stomach/*parasitology ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

No abstract available.
Hernia*

PURPOSE: To assess the combined effectiveness of angioinfarction and immunotherapy for improving survival in patients with stage IV renal cell carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS:During the past 3 years, 13 patients of stage IV renal cell carcinoma were treated with angioinfarction and immunotherapy. Angioinfarction was performed on these 13 patients using absolute ethanol and occlusive baloon catheter. After angioinfarction, Interferon alpha was used for immunotherapy. For our analysis, 12 control patients of stage IV renal cell carcinoma without treatment were included in the study. Survival has been calculated according to the Kaplan and Meier method. RESULTS: The 1 year survival rate and median survival time in patients treated with angioinfarction and immunotherapy, were 46% and 13 months and in patients without treatment, 16% and 4 months, respectively. CONCLUSION:The combined treatment of angioinfarction and immunotherapy is of considerable value for improving survival in patients with stage IV renal cell carcinoma
Carcinoma, Renal Cell* ; Catheters ; Ethanol ; Humans ; Immunotherapy* ; Interferon-alpha ; Survival Rate

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the retention of the two denture adhesives with a silicone edentulous model and a resin denture base in vitro study. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The experimental groups were used two denture adhesives and classified into 5 subgroups each. Subgroups were divided by the number of times the saliva sprayed. The control group was used synthetic saliva only. Dislodging tensile strengths were applied to the resin denture base using Instron in 3 directions : vertical, lateral, and anterior-posterior. RESULTS: The retention of two denture adhesives was increased significantly than saliva alone (P < .05). In each denture adhesives, the retention of saliva sprayed first was decreased than denture adhesive alone, but it didn't have significant differences. Whenever saliva sprayed repeated, the retention was decreased significantly than saliva sprayed first (P < .05). In each denture adhesives, vertical retentive force was highest than lateral and anterior-posterior retentive forces, and anterior-posterior retentive force was higher than lateral retentive force. This results were significantly different (P < .05). Significant differences of the retentive ability among two denture adhesives were not observed. CONCLUSION: From the results, use of the denture adhesives resulted in improved retentive ability of denture. Especially retentive force was highest in vertical direction.
Adhesives ; Denture Bases ; Denture, Complete ; Dentures ; Retention (Psychology) ; Saliva ; Silicones ; Tensile Strength

Researchers have endeavored to identify the etiology of inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Though the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases remains unknown, dysregulation of the immune system in the host gastrointestinal tract is believed to be the major causative factor. Omics is a powerful methodological tool that can reveal biochemical information stored in clinical samples. Lipidomics is a subset of omics that explores the lipid classes associated with inflammation. One objective of the present systematic review was to facilitate the identification of biochemical targets for use in future lipidomic studies on inflammatory bowel diseases. The use of high-resolution mass spectrometry to observe alterations in global lipidomics might help elucidate the immunoregulatory mechanisms involved in inflammatory bowel diseases and discover novel biomarkers for them. Assessment of the characteristics of previous clinical trials on inflammatory bowel diseases could help researchers design and establish patient selection and analytical method criteria for future studies on these conditions. In this study, we curated literature exclusively from four databases and extracted lipidomics-related data from literature, considering criteria. This paper suggests that the lipidomics approach toward research in inflammatory bowel diseases can clarify their pathogenesis and identify clinically valuable biomarkers to predict and monitor their progression.

No abstract available.
Humans ; Hypophosphatemia*