• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2009

The prevalence of patent foramen ovale (PFO) in healthy persons was estimated as about $10{\sim}25%$ and was up to 40% in patients with stroke. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) was considered to be the most sensitive method to detect PFO and was used as the gold standard. Transcranial doppler sonography (TCD) of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) during a contrast (saline bubble) injection has recently been proposed as an alternative detecting method for PFO. In this study, we would like to know the difference between TCD value and TEE value in subjects with cryptogenic ischemic stroke. We performed TCD and TEE tests to detect PFO on 64 patients (30 women and 34 men, mean age was 59.4 years) with cryptogenic ischemic stroke. PFO prevalence through TCD was 45.3% (29 of 64 patients) and the prevalence through TEE was 34.4% (22 of 64 patients). There was no statistical significance between PFO test and TCD test (P=0.206). But TCD had a sensitivity of 90.9% (20 of 22 patients), specificity of 78.6% (33 of 42 patients), positive predictive value of 69.0% (20 of 29 patients), and negative predictive value of 94.3% (33 of 35 patients). We concluded that TCD was a highly sensitive method for detecting a right-left shunt. Therefore, the non-invasive TCD test is a method more effective than the anti-invasive TEE test in the cost and evaluation of the existence or nonexistence of right to left shunt in addition to the screening method of the cerebrovascular disorder. Considering these points, TCD test could be recommended for patients with cryptogenic ischemic stroke as a useful and convenient method for screening of the existence or nonexistence of a right to left shunt caused by PFO.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.47-50
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• 2020

A 21-year-old female patient complaining of hemiparesis was diagnosed with right middle cerebral artery infarction. No risk factor was found, despite an extensive young-age stroke work-up, except her history of marijuana use. The patient had smoked marijuana for treating depression for more than five years. Magnetic resonance angiography showed multifocal intra- and extracranial stenoses, suggesting cannabinoid-induced vasculopathy. Since the use of illicit drugs has increased nationwide, physicians should consider it as a possible cause of a stroke due to an unknown etiology.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.78-82
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• 2020

Carotid web is a disease that is rarely found in patients with ischemic stroke, whereas it is more frequently observed in cryptogenic stroke patients. Fibromuscular dysplasia is known as the cause of carotid web, and it has been reported that carotid web causes blood flow disturbance, resulting in both thrombus and embolic stroke. Carotid web is confused with carotid dissection because fibromuscular dysplasia causes relatively rigid fibrous structures to grow into the lumen of the carotid artery and this creates a double lumen that is seen on duplex sonography. In addition, carotid web is web-shaped and may be confused with other carotid artery diseases such as ulcerative plaque. However, carotid web tends to be thicker at the beginning and thinner at the end, and it also has no flutter. Therefore, this study reports on four cases of carotid web with the overall description of the carotid web and the characteristic findings of duplex sonography in patients with carotid web.