• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.205-212
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• 2009

Purpose : Chronic urticaria is a disorder characterized by the appearance of wheals for more than 6 weeks; in most cases, the etiology is unknown. This study was aimed to discover the clinical aspects, the etiologic factors, and the course of chronic urticaria. Methods : 51 children who were diagnosed with chronic urticaria in the past 4 years, and who had had follow-ups more than 6 months after diagnosis in the pediatric department of Soonchunhyang University Hospital in Bucheon, were enrolled in the study. The laboratory findings, clinical aspects, and courses were retrospectively investigated by medical record review and telephone interview. Results : The median age of children with chronic urticaria was 4 years (8 months to 16 years) and the ratio of male to female was 1.4:1. Of the total, 39.2% of patients had a history of atopy. Angioedema occurred concurrently with urticaria in 11.8% of patients, and dermographism was seen in 41.2%. Results of thyroid function tests were normal and thyroid autoantibodies were absent in all cases. Regarding etiology, most cases (74.5%) were forms of idiopathic urticaria. Urticaria was induced by physical factors in 19.6% of patients. Open challenge tests revealed that 3 patients were allergic to food additives (glutamate 2, glutamate, and sulfite 1). In this study, most of the patients reported good response after medication of 1st- or 2nd-generation antihistamines alone. Follow-up at 6 months revealed that 70.6% of patients had experienced remission, and 84.8% of children who had follow-up at 1 year presented remission. Conclusion : Chronic urticaria in most patients was idiopathic. Remission occurred within 1 year of diagnosis, in most cases so chronic urticaria in children seems to have good prognosis.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.383-390
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• 2008

Purpose : This study was aimed to analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with acute interstitial pneumonia who had presented similar clinical patterns from March to June, 2006 and to describe our experience of treatment and to identify risk factors associated with prognosis. Methods : The clinical characteristics, radiologic and histopathologic findings and response to steroids of 15 patients (non-survival group [n=7] and survival group [control, n=8]) with acute interstitial pneumonia were investigated through the review of medical records. Results : The mean age of the patients was 26 (range: 3-48) months. Cough, cyanosis and fever were frequent symptoms. The most frequent radiologic findings on admission were pneumomediastium and extensive ground glass opacity. Surgical lung biopsy was performed on 8/15 (53.3%) patients and diffuse alveolar damage was found. Mechanical ventilation was applied for 9/15 (60.0%) patients for 40 (range: 1-99) days. Five patients in survival group received steroid treatment and 7 patients in non-survivial group (P=0.20). One patient in survival group received steroid pulse treatment and 4 patients in non-survival group (P=0.12). Seven patients died all of respiratory failure. The survival rate was 53.4%. Conclusion : The patients with acute interstitial pneumonia which occurred on spring 2006 showed high mortality because of rapidly and extensively progressing pulmonary fibrosis and air leakage. Therefore, we should consider surgical lung biopsy and steroid application earlier. We should recognize this acute interstitial pneumonia occurring on spring in domestics and need to investigate the cause and treatment in large scale.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 2001

Objective : Glioblastomas, the most common type of primary brain tumors, are highly invasive and cause massive tissue destruction at both the tumor invading edges and in areas that are not in direct contact with glioma cells. As a result, patients with high-grade gliomas are faced with a poor prognosis. Such grim statistics emphasize the need to better understand the mechanisms that underlie glioma invasion, as these may lead to the identification of novel targets in the therapy of high grade gliomas. Protein kinase C(PKC) is a family of serine/threonine kinases and an important signal transduction enzyme that conveys signals generated by ligand-receptor interaction at the cell surface to the nucleus. PKC appears to be critical in regulating many aspects of glioma biology. The purpose of this study was to assess accurately the role of PKC in the invasion regulation of human gliomas based on hypothesis that protein kinase C(PKC) is functional in the process of glial tumor cell invasion. Method : To test this hypothesis, U-87 malignant glioma cell line intracellular PKC levels were up and down regulated and their invasiveness was tested. Intracellular PKC level was characterized using PKC activity assays. Invasion assays including barrier migration and spheroid confrontation were used to study the relationship between PKC concentration and invasiveness. Result : The cell line which were treated by PKC inhibitor tamoxifen and hypericin exhibited decreased PKC activity and decreased invasive abilities dose dependently both in matrigel invasion assay and tumor spheroid fetal rat brain aggregates(FRBA) confrontation assay. However, the cell line that was treated by PKC activator 12-O-tetradecanylphorbol-13acetate(TPA) did not exhibit increases in either PKC activity or invasive ability. Conclusion : These studies suggest that PKC may be a useful molecular target for the chemotherapy of glioblastoma and other malignancies and that a therapeutic approach based on the ability of PKC inhibitors may be helpful in preventing invasion.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1215-1221
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• 2000

Objective : The clinical prognosis and biological behavior of atypical and especially malignant meningiomas are well known to be worse than benign meningioma, but the degree of biological aggressiveness in each classical subtypes of benign meningioma is controversy. This study was performed to see whether there is a difference in the proliferative activity between each different histological subtypes of benign meningioma as well as atypical meningioma. Methods : Paraffin-embedded surgical specimens of 27 meningiomas, including two recurrent tumors, were studied to evaluate proliferative activity by immunohistochemical method with monoclonal antibodies to proliferating cell nuclear antigen(PCNA) and MIB-1. The specimens consisted of 8 cases of meningothelial, 9 cases of transitional, 5 cases of fibroblastic subtypes and 5 cases of atypical meningiomas. Results : Mean PCNA labeling indices of meningothelial, transitional and fibroblastic meningiomas were $4.82{\pm}5.10%$, $9.01{\pm}4.25%$ and $5.66{\pm}5.32%$, but that of atypical meningiomas was $27.62{\pm}19.67%$, noting a higher value compared to all three subtypes of benign meningiomas. Mean Ki-67 labeling indices of the above 3 subtypes were $0.43{\pm}0.85%$, $0.44{\pm}1.08%$ and $0.24{\pm}0.18%$, and that of atypical meningiomas was also revealed to be of higher value ($0.84{\pm}0.59%$). PCNA and Ki-67 labeling indices were not statistically different between histological subtypes of benign meningioma(p>0.05), but the differences of both immunolabeling between benign and atypical meningiomas were statistically significant(p<0.05). Conclusion : Immunolabeling of PCNA and Ki-67 in intracranial meningiomas reveals no prognostic difference between meningothelial, transitional and fibroblastic subtypes in classical benign meningiomas by measuring expression of PCNA and Ki-67, but it seems to be helpful in differentiating benign and atypical meningioma, later showing more proliferative activity and biological aggressiveness.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.375-380
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• 2010

Background: Primary cardiac tumors are extremely rare. The most common type are benign myxomas, and these are almost completely curable with early surgery. Malignant tumors, however, such as sarcomas, are difficult to remove surgically, and their prognosis is known to be poor. In this study, data on patients who had undergone surgical treatment of cardiac tumor in the authors' hospital were collected and analyzed. Material and Method: The subjects included 28 patients who had undergone surgical treatment of cardiac tumor from August 1993 to December 2008. Their medical records were reviewed and retrospectively analyzed. Result: The patients were aged from 20 to 76 years (mean age: $54.2{\pm}15.6$), and 11 were male (39%) and 17 female (61%). Fifteen of them (54%) underwent emergency surgery to improve heart failure symptoms. The most common preoperative symptom was dyspnea (15 cases, 54%). Preoperative echocardiography was performed on all the patients. The average size of the tumor as measured during the operation was $7.0{\pm}6.9cm$ (the average length of the long axis was 2∼40 cm), and the sites of tumor attachment were the interatrial septum (18 cases, 64%), the left atrium (9 cases, 32%), the mitral valve annulus (2 cases, 7%), and the left ventricle (2 cases, 7%). The operation was performed with an incision through both atria in all the patients, and a complete excision was made in 25 cases (89%). According to the biopsy results, there were 4 cases of sarcoma (14%), 1 case of lipoma (4%), and 23 cases of myxoma (82%). The three cases in which the tumors were not completely excised were sarcomas. No operative deaths occurred after the operations. Outpatient follow-up was possible for 24 cases (86%), with a mean follow-up period of $46.8{\pm}42.7$ months. Late death occurred in 3 of the 24 patients; each of these patients had sarcomas. Of these patients, the first had undergone two repeat surgeries, the second had metastatic sites removed, and the last had only chemotherapy. The average recurrence time was $12.7{\pm}10.8$ months, and the average metastasis time was $20.5{\pm}16.8$ months. Conclusion: Most cardiac tumors are benign myxomas. In principle, they should be surgically treated because they can create risks such as embolism, and can be radically treated when surgically removed. In most cases, however, malignant sarcomas are already considerably advanced with severe infiltration into the neighboring tissues at the time of diagnosis. The surgical removal of malignant sarcomas is known to be difficult because of the advanced stage and degree of infiltration. We suggest that excision of the removable portion of the tumor sites to alleviate symptoms such as heart failure can improve quality of life.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.149-158
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• 1996

Purpose : To get an accute steepness of dose gradients at outside the target volume in intracranial lesion and a less limitation of beam selection avoiding the high dose at normal brain tissue, this Photon Knife Radiosurgery System was developed in order to provide the three-dimensional dose distribution through the reconstruction of CT scan and the combined stereotactic trans-multiarc beam mode based on linear accelerator photon beam. Materials and methods : This stereotactic radiosurgery, Photon Knife based on linear accelerator photon beam was provided the non-coplanar multiarc and trans-multiarc irradiations. The stereotactic trans-multiarc beam mode can be obtained from the patient position in decubitus. This study has provided the 3-dimensional isodose curve and anatomical structures with the surface rendering technique. The dose distribution from the combined two trans-multiarcs (2M 2TM) was compared to that of four non-coplanar multiarcs (4M) with same collimator size of 25 mm in a diameter and total gantry movements. Results : In this study, it shows that the dose distributions of stereotactic beam mode are significantly depended on the selected couch and gantry angle in same collimator size. Practical dose distribution of combined stereotactic trans-multiarc beam has shown a more small rim thickness than that of the non-coplanar multiarc beam mode in axial, sagittal and coronal plane in our study. 3-Dimensional dose line displayed with surface rendering of irregular target shape is helpful to determine the target dose and to predict the prognosis in follow-up radiosurgery. Conclusions : 3-Dimensional dose line displayed with surface rendering of irregular target shape is essential in stereotactic radiosurgery. This combined stereotactic trans-multiarc beam has shown a less limitation of the selection couch and gantry beam angles for the target surrounding critical organs. It has shown that the dose distribution of combined trans-multiarc beam greatly depended on the couch and gantry angles. In our experiments, the absorbed dose has been decreased to $27%$ / mm in maximum at the interval of $50\%$ to $80\%$ of isodose line.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.281-286
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• 1999

Purpose : Brain metastases are the most frequent metastatic neurologic complication of systemic cancer. Even if the prognosis of brain metastases is grave, with available treatments, most patients experience effective palliation of neurologic symptoms and meaningful extension of life. We evaluated the clinical features and prognostic factors of the patients who were diagnosed as solid tumors with brain metastasis and received radiotherapy for brain metastases. Materials and Methods: Between January 1987 and January 1998, 71 patients with brain metastases from solid malignancy were included. We reviewed neurologic symptoms and signs of patients and evaluated improvememt of neurologic symptoms and signs. Survival durations after brain metastasis were ana lysed according to several factors such as age, performance status, primary malignancies, the pre-sence of brain metastasis at initial diagnosis of primary tumor, multiplicity of brain metastass, the presence of metastases other than brain, and treatment method. Results: Frequent symptoms associated with brain metastasis were headache (47.9$\%$), motor weakness (40.8$\%$), nausea and vomiting (19.7$\%$) and mental change (19.7%). Palliation of these symptoms was accomplished in 64.9$\%$ of cases. The overall median survival time was 16 weeks and 1- and 2-year survival rates were 15.0$\%$ and 5.1$\%$ respectively. Patients without extracranial metastases (n=27) had longer median survival than patients with extracranial metastases (33 weeks vs 10 weeks, p=0.0018). In patients with single brain metastasis (n=37), the median survival time was longer in patients treated with surgery plus radiotherapy than in patients treated with radiotherapy alone (40 weeks vs 16 weeks, p=0.0438). Conclusion: Patients who has brain metastases only constitute a prognostically favorable group and they may be benefited from radiotherapy and surgery if indicated.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 1999

Purpose : This study was done to analyze prognostic factors and patterns of failure of patients with histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix. Materials and Methods : From June 1988 to December 1990, a retrospective analysis was undertaken for 45 patients who were treated with curative radiation therapy for adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix at the department of Therapeutic Radiology of Keimyung University Hospital. According to FIGO staging classification, f2 patients were stage Ib, 9 patients were lla, 19 patients were IIB, and 5 patients were lIIb. Median age of the patients was 54 years. The radiation therapy consisted of a combination of external and intracavitary irradiation. Only the pelvis was treated for external irradiation, but 6 patients were treated with extended field irradiation including paraaortic nodes. Intracavitary irradiation was performed with high dose rate sources (Co-60). Neoadiuvant chemotherapy was undertaken for 10 patients. Median and maximum follow-up duration was 64 and 116 months, respectively. Results : The overall 5-year survival rate was 55.2$\%$, and the 5-year survival rates for stage Ib, IIa, IIb, and IIIb were 100$\%$, 50.8$\%$, 46.8$\%$, and 40$\%$ (3-year survival rate), respectively. Of the many clinicopathologic variables evaluated for prognosis, only the stage and the tumor size were significant prognostic factors. Statistically, pelvic failure rates for stage Ib, IIa, IIb, and IIIb were 0$\%$, 33.3$\%$, 57.9$\%$, and 60$\%$, respectively. Distant metastasis rates were 0$\%$, 33.3$\%$, 21.1$\%$, and 40$\%$ for stage Ib, IIa, IIb, and IIIb, respectively. Especially the 6 patients who were irradiated with extended field to treat the paraaortic nodes were free of distant metastasis all. But, 9 patients (23.1$\%$) of the 39 patients who were not irradiated the paraaortic nodes were suffered and expired from uncontrolled distant metastasis. Conclusions : As compared with other studies, the survival rates were similar, but distant metastasis rates including paraaortic nodes metastasis were likely somewhat higher than expected, especially for patients with stage II. So, we think that the effect of prophylactic paraaortic nodes irradiation should be studied prospectively, especially for patients with pelvic nodes involvement or advanced stage of disease.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2009

Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness and prognostic factors for patients treated with postoperative radiation therapy following surgery or with radiation therapy alone for squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 132 esophageal cancer patients treated with postoperative radiation therapy following surgery or patients who were treated with radiation therapy alone at our institution from 1989 to 2006. Thirty-five patients had stage II disease, 88 patients had stage III disease and nine patients had stage IV disease. Tumors were located at the upper esophagus in 18 patients, the mid esophagus in 81 patients and the distal esophagus in 33 patients. Sixty patients were treated with radiation therapy alone and 72 patients were treated with postoperative radiation therapy following surgery. Eight patients received a dose less than 40 Gy and 78 patients received a dose of 40 to 50 Gy. The remaining 46 patients received a dose of 50 to 60 Gy. The majority of patients who underwent postoperative radiation therapy received a dose of 45 Gy. Results: Actuarial survival rates for all of the patients at two years and five years were 24% and 5%, respectively. The median survival time was 11 months. Survival rates for patients who underwent postoperative RT at two years and five years were 29% and 8%, respectively. The corresponding survival rates for patients who received radiation alone were 18% and 2%, respectively. Survival rates at two years and five years were 43% and 15% for stage II disease, 22% and 2% for stage III disease and 0% and 0% for stage IV disease, respectively; these findings were statistically significant. Two-year survival rates for patients with upper, middle and distal esophageal cancer were 19, 29% and 22%, respectively. Although there was a trend of slightly better survival for middle esophageal tumors, this finding was not statistically significant. Complete response to radiation was achieved in 13 patients (22%) and partial response to radiation was achieved in 40 patients (67%) who received radiation alone. No response to radiation was noted in seven patients (12%). A statistically significant difference in survival rates was seen between patients that had a complete response and patients that had a partial response. Two-year survival rates for patients that had a complete response versus patients that had a partial response were 31% and 17%, respectively. There were no survivors for patients with no response as determined at two-year follow-up. Conclusion: We conclude that radiation therapy is an effective treatment for esophageal cancer. Stage and response to radiation therapy were noted to be prognostic factors. A more effective treatment modality is needed to improve long term survival because of the relatively dismal prognosis for this tumor.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.121-132
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• 2008

To establish the diagnosis and treatment plan for skeletal Class II malocclusion, patient's skeletal morphology, prognosis as well as the treatment effect is one of the important factor to consider. Therefore, the present study classified analyzed the difference between initial(T1) and after use of activator(T2), and after finish of direct multi-bonding system treatment(T3) for Class II malocclusion during growth period according to the treatment result(effective body length) and morphology of vertical skeletal type. The experimental group was classified into two groups(1 group, 2 group) according to the effective body length change between before and after use of activator, showed good treatment effect of activator for patient with small mandible and large differential between maxilla and mandible, and short anterior facial height. And the difference between 1 and 2 group in the experimental group before treatment(T1) disappeared in the finished treatment(T3). But in contrast, the initial difference of T1 stage between a and b group in the control group did not disappear in the finished treatment(T3). In short, experimental group's treatment effect was much better than contrast group and the treatment effect was maintained and got stable results at comparison experimental group with contrast group. Through this study, we can find activator's treatment effect and stable retention of that in growing Class II malocclusion patients. By estimate of activator treatment effect through these results, we can establish the correct diagnosis and treatment plan for adolescent Class II malocclusion estimate of activator treatment effect and lead the ideal facial growth pattern.