BACKGROUND: Propafenone is a new class Ic antiarrhythmic compound.This study was performed to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of propafenone by double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized cross-over comparison of propafenone and disopyramide in patients with stable ventricular ectopy. METHODS: All patients were included in the study if they had an average of at least 30 PVC/hr on a 24-hour Holter recordings. During the 1st 7 days, two placebo tablets(identical in apperance to the propafenone and the disopyramide tablets) were administrated in a double-blind manner(run-in period). Then 1st treatment period lasting 1 week with one verum and the other placebo, wish-out period of 3 day,2nd treatment period lasting 1 week with cross-over drugs were followed. RESULTS: Twenty patients were enrolled. During the run-in period, VPCs were reduced to 18%, compared to the baseline data before the administration of placebo.During the treatment period,propafenone 600mg/day reduced VPCs by 43% and disopyramide 400mg/day reduced VPCs by -10% Propafenone was effective(80% or greater reduction of VPCs) in 7 of 20 patients. Disopyramide was not effective in all patients. Propafenone and disopyramide produced no significant change of paired VPCs and VT events. Propafenone had no effect on heart rate. It increased the PR interval(7.9%;p<0.01) and QRS interval(5.2%;p<0.01). The drug did not change QTc interval(-1.1%) significantly. There were no cardiovascular side effects. Propafenone produced nausea in one patient. Disopyramide produced dysuria in 2 patients. CONCLUSIONS: Propafenone was more effective in controlling VPC than disopyramide, and there was no major limiting side effects.
Cross-Over Studies* ; Disopyramide* ; Dysuria ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Nausea ; Propafenone* ; Ventricular Premature Complexes*

No abstract available.
Acute Coronary Syndrome* ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention*

Background: Hyponatremia is a common complication after transsphenoidal surgery (TSS) for pituitary adenomas. This study retrospectively reviewed various clinical factors of pituitary adenoma patients who underwent TSS and aimed to identify possible risk factors of postoperative hyponatremia. Methods: Total 1,343 patients who underwent TSS for their pituitary adenomas in a single institution were enrolled to this study. We identified and analyzed 93 patients (6.9%) with postoperative hyponatremia and compared them with other 1,250 patients in a control group. Patients’ age, sex, tumor extent based on the modified Hardy classification, tumor size and hormonal type of the tumors were analyzed in comparison between two groups. The results of pre- and post-operative combined pituitary function test and their comparison were analyzed to elucidate a possible association between postoperative hyponatremia and hypopituitarism. Results: The onset of postoperative hyponatremia was 7.8 days after surgery (range: postoperative day 3-13). The initial level of serum sodium (Na) level at the start of treatment was 123.5 mmol/L (range: 114-131 mmol/L) and the duration of treatment was 2.7 days (range: 1-9 days). Female predominance was evident in the hyponatremia group (77.4% vs. 61.4%, p=0.02). Preoperative hypopituitarism (58.5% vs. 71.5%, p=0.007) and postoperative hypocortisolism (33.7% vs. 23.4%, p=0.029) were related to postoperative hyponatremia. Other pre- and post-operative clinical factors were not associated with postoperative hyponatremia. Conclusion Postoperative hyponatremia is a common complication after TSS and is potentially fatal. Female patients were more likely to develop delayed hyponatremia. We demonstrated possible associations of delayed postoperative hyponatremia with preoperative and postoperative pituitary functions, but the mechanism behind it should be further investigated.

Background: Hyponatremia is a common complication after transsphenoidal surgery (TSS) for pituitary adenomas. This study retrospectively reviewed various clinical factors of pituitary adenoma patients who underwent TSS and aimed to identify possible risk factors of postoperative hyponatremia. Methods: Total 1,343 patients who underwent TSS for their pituitary adenomas in a single institution were enrolled to this study. We identified and analyzed 93 patients (6.9%) with postoperative hyponatremia and compared them with other 1,250 patients in a control group. Patients’ age, sex, tumor extent based on the modified Hardy classification, tumor size and hormonal type of the tumors were analyzed in comparison between two groups. The results of pre- and post-operative combined pituitary function test and their comparison were analyzed to elucidate a possible association between postoperative hyponatremia and hypopituitarism. Results: The onset of postoperative hyponatremia was 7.8 days after surgery (range: postoperative day 3-13). The initial level of serum sodium (Na) level at the start of treatment was 123.5 mmol/L (range: 114-131 mmol/L) and the duration of treatment was 2.7 days (range: 1-9 days). Female predominance was evident in the hyponatremia group (77.4% vs. 61.4%, p=0.02). Preoperative hypopituitarism (58.5% vs. 71.5%, p=0.007) and postoperative hypocortisolism (33.7% vs. 23.4%, p=0.029) were related to postoperative hyponatremia. Other pre- and post-operative clinical factors were not associated with postoperative hyponatremia. Conclusion Postoperative hyponatremia is a common complication after TSS and is potentially fatal. Female patients were more likely to develop delayed hyponatremia. We demonstrated possible associations of delayed postoperative hyponatremia with preoperative and postoperative pituitary functions, but the mechanism behind it should be further investigated.

Sebaceous trichofolliculoma, which is a variant of trichofolliculoma, is a rare disease that clinically show a centrally depressed lesion usually singly on the nose, and histologically a centrally located cavity, lined by squamous epithelium, with numerous sebaceous lobules connected to them. We describe a case of sebaceous trichofolliculoma in a 27-year-old woman who had several brown papules on the nose. We think that this is the first report of sebaceous trichofolliculloma in Korean literature.
Adult ; Epithelium ; Female ; Humans ; Nose ; Rare Diseases

BACKGROUND: Recently, body composition analyzer has been used widely clinically. Various indirectly measured values of body are calculated without direct measuring. The abdominal circumference that is presented by such instrument may be used for diagnosing abdominal obesity, but the reliable evidence of the accuracy and the validity may be not be enough for application to general population. For this reason, the author investigated the usefulness of automatically produced abdominal circumference for diagnosing abdominal obesity. METHODS: The medical records of 5,555 outpatients who had undergone body composition analysis in a tertiary hospital was collected. The usefulness of the automatically presented abdominal circumference for diagnosing abdominal obesity among general population was investigated. RESULTS: There was a significant positive correlation between abdominal circumference measured by body composition analyzer and measuring tape in the normal, the overweight, and the obese groups of both gender. But, the results were the same only in females in the underweight group. The most significant difference between the two values were 4.8+/-5.0 cm in normal male group and -5.7+/-5.5 cm in female obese group. The difference of the male obese group was lesser than that of the overweight, the normal and the underweight groups. The difference of the male overweight group was lesser than that of the normal group. The difference of the female obese group was lesser than that of the overweight, the normal and the underweight groups. The sensitivity and specificity to detect abdominal obese person among the total subjects was 76.3% and 79.1%, respectively. The specificity was higher in all male and the normal female groups, wheras the sensitivity was higher in the obese and the overweight female groups. CONCLUSION: Physicians should confirm the accuracy of abdominal circumference, especially in normal males and obese female group, although the automatically presented value is convenient and reflects the manually measured one very well which is useful to diagnose abdominal obesity.
Body Composition* ; Body Mass Index* ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Medical Records ; Obesity, Abdominal ; Outpatients ; Overweight ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Thinness ; Waist Circumference

Nevus sebaceus is a congenital cutaneous hamartoma which has a potential to develop both benign and malignant neoplasm in late life. The most common benign tumor developed within the nevus is syringocystadenoma papilliferum and the most common malignant tumor basal cell epithelioma. Although two different tumors often develop simultaneously on the lesion, it is rare to see more than two different tumors developing on the lesion of nevus sebaceus. In Korean literatures only three such cases were reported. We report an additional case of nevus sebaceus developing three different tumors, syringocystadenoma papilliferum, sebaceous epithelioma, and basal cell carcinoma, in a 67-year-old female patient.
Aged ; Carcinoma* ; Carcinoma, Basal Cell* ; Female ; Hamartoma ; Humans ; Nevus*

A 59 year old woman visited the hospital complaining of sore throat, chill, myalgia and whole body skin rash. There was abnormal finding of fever, sinus tachycardia, increased lactic dehydrogenase and elongation prothrombin time. We started treatment with acetaminophen and fluid because she had not specific history of visiting to the mountain or field, etc. After treatment increased aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase and thrombocytopenia appeared without symptomatic improvement so that we investigated tsutsugamushi antibodies and diagnosed her condition as Tsutsugamushi disease with polyuria. But the clinical manifestation in our case showed atypical symptom which had polyuria. There is no report on that in Korea and over the world therefore the author et al. report of case of Tsutsugamushi disease with polyuria, atypical symptom.
Acetaminophen ; Antibodies ; Aspartic Acid ; Exanthema ; Female ; Fever ; Humans ; Korea ; Myalgia ; Oxidoreductases ; Pharyngitis ; Polyuria ; Prothrombin Time ; Scrub Typhus ; Tachycardia, Sinus ; Thrombocytopenia

BACKGROUND: There are very few studies on change in body composition after smoking cessation. The purpose of our study was to assess the change in body composition as well as body weight after smoking cessation in men. METHODS: The subjects were 203 men who had received health examination from May in 2000 to April in 2001 on their first visit, and then from May in 2001 to May in 2002 on their second visit, at the department of family medicine of a university hospital. They were divided into groups of non-smokers, current smokers, and former smokers by smoking status. Their past medical history, obesity indexes, smoking status, physical activity, and nutrition intake were reviewed. Body composition of the study subjects was assessed by bioelectrical impedance analysis. RESULTS: After adjustment for age, nutrition intake, and physical activity as confounding factors, former smokers' body weight was significantly increased by 1.8+/-0.4 kg on second visit compared to non-smokers and current smokers. There was a significant difference in body muscle change between first and second visit, but not in body fat change among former smokers. Former smokers' body fat and muscle were significantly increased by 0.9+/-0.3 kg and 0.8+/-0.4 kg, respectively, compared to non-smokers. Former smokers' waist circumference was significantly increased by 2.5+/-0.7 cm on second visit compared with non-smokers and current smokers. CONCLUSION: In former smokers, body weight was increased by 1.8 kg after smoking cessation, which was attributed to increase of body muscle as well as body fat. Compared with non-smokers, former smokers' body muscle and fat were significantly increased on second visit.
Adipose Tissue ; Body Composition* ; Body Weight* ; Electric Impedance ; Humans ; Male* ; Motor Activity ; Obesity ; Smoke* ; Smoking Cessation* ; Smoking* ; Waist Circumference

PURPOSE: Nocodazole, a microtubule disrupting reagent, is known to arrest cells in the M phase, To gain insight on the regulatory mechanism of H2B histone gene expression by nocodazole in HL-60 cell, the binding pattern of nuclear proteins to cis element in the human H2B histone gene promoter has been investigated with DNase I footprinting and DNA mobility shift assay. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Northern blot hybridization was performed by the method of Virca et al. A Hinc II-Sac I fragment of pSPH28 was used as probe for Northern blot analysis of H2B histone mRNA. DNase I footprinting and DNA mobility shift assay were performed by the method of Lim et al. End labeled DNA oligomer (upper strand, 5'-CTTCACCTTATTTGCATAA GCGATTC-3') for octamer binding activity was mixed with nuclear extracts in a 20 ul reaction volume containing 60 mM KC1, 12 mM HEPES, pH 7.9, 5 mM MgCl2, 0.2 mM EDTA, 0.2 mM DTT, 12% glycerol, and 2 ug of poly [dI-dC]. RESULTS: The level of H2B histone mRNA rapidly was reduced at 24 hours in nocodazole-treated HL-60 cells and the mRNA was repressed in proportion to the concentration of nocodazole. Nocodazole-dependent repression of H2B histone gene was restored by replacement with nocodazole-free media. In DNase I footprinting analysis, one nuclear factor bound at 42 bp site (octamer motif) in the absence of nocodazole. In the presence of nocodazole, the binding of nuclear factor on octamer motif partially vanished. In DNA mobility shift assay, one DNA-protein complex (Octl) was formed when octamer motif was incubated with nuclear extract of HL-60 cell. After nocodazole treatment, Octl binding activity was reduced by time dependent manner. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that nocodazole-dependent repression of H2B histone gene is correlated with reduction of Octl binding activity in HL-60 cell.
Blotting, Northern ; Cell Division ; Deoxyribonuclease I ; DNA ; Edetic Acid ; Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay ; Gene Expression* ; Glycerol ; HEPES ; Histones* ; HL-60 Cells* ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Magnesium Chloride ; Microtubules ; Nocodazole* ; Nuclear Proteins ; Repression, Psychology ; RNA, Messenger