• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.146-149
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• 1998

Herpes zoster is a viral disease characterized by skin rash and persistent pain. Early treatment with epidural analgesia provides very effective pain relief and reduces the incidence of postherpetic neuralgia. However, epidural analgesia in elderly, deliberated or hypovolemic patients may complicate circulatory depression such as hypotension and bradycardia. Even if temporary, a major decrease in blood pressure may decrease coronary blood flow of patients with arteriosclerosis and ischemic accident may occur. We experienced a case of unstable angina pectoris after lumbar epidural blockade in a herpes zoster patient with chronic stable angina pectoris.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.271-274
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• 2006

Unstable angina is a critical phase of coronary heart disease, with widely variable symptoms and prognoses. Recently, despite the advances in surgical revascularization, catheter-based revascularization and medical treatment, an increasing number of patients with angina pectoris are refractory to medical therapy and; therefore, can not be considered as candidates for coronary artery bypass grafting or interventional angioplasty. These patients are often treated with narcotics for pain relief, and forced to severely reduce their levels of activity and productivity. It has become clear that alleviating the pain caused by myocardial ischemia may be possible by altering the sympathetic afferent nerve fibers. Sympathetic blockade can be produced using high thoracic epidural analgesia. Herein, the case of a patient with intractable angina and poor ventricular function, who received high thoracic epidural analgesia to relieve ischemic chest pain, is reported.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.525-533
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• 2019

Objectives: This study aimed to describe the use of traditional Korean medicine to relieve chest pain, insomnia, and dyspnea in a patient with unstable angina pectoris Methods: To relieve the symptoms, the patient was treated with a range of traditional Korean medicine, including acupuncture, moxibustion, and an herbal medicine (Gamiondam-tang-gagam). The numerical rating scale (NRS) was used to measure the patient's status and improvements in the frequency of symptoms. Results: After the treatment, the NRS score for chest pain, insomnia, and dyspnea decreased from 10 to 0. In addition, chest pain and insomnia almost subsided. Conclusions: This report suggests that Gamiondam-tang-gagam can be effective in relieving chest pain, insomnia, and dyspnea.

• The Journal of the Society of Stroke on Korean Medicine
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.72-79
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• 2014

A 44-year-old male complained of chest pain. Two years ago he was diagnosed with angina pectoris for stenosis of coronary artery in coronary angiography. Despite of medication, his chest pain aggravated to cardiovascular society classification class III. His electrocardiogram, cardiac enzymes were normal. Accordingly we diagnosed him with unstable angina. And we pattern differentiated him with heart heat syndrome considering his other symptoms. He wanted conservative care instead of coronary artery intervention generally recommended for treating unstable angina. We treated him for 13-days with tongxinluo, modified daochi-san, acupuncture, smoking prohibition which were thought to be effective for treating unstable angina based on experimental, clinical studies. Within the therapeutic period, frequency of chest pain and frequency of taking nitroglycerin were on the decrease.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.393-398
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• 1987

Unstable angina pectoris is often premonitory to an acute myocardial infarction. Surgical revascularization in this syndrome is of great potential benefit and relatively low mortality. A patient with unstable angina pectoris is reported. A 65-year-old man complained of dyspnea and pain in the left anterior chest. The pain was brought on by mild exercise, occurred at rest and sleeping time. The pain worsened over a month period and more aggravated in intensity and duration. Physical examination showed no abnormalities except hypertension and laboratory data were within normal limits. His anginal pain was not relived by nitroglycerin ingestion. Preoperative coronary angiograms revealed significant obstruction [>90%] of left anterior descending coronary artery. Aorto-left anterior descending coronary bypass with autogenous saphenous vein used as conduit was performed. The postoperative course was uneventful and he was discharged on 16th postoperative day in a healthy condition.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.876-880
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• 1995

The optimal surgical approach to the patients with coronary artery disease combined with carotid artery stenosis is controversial. We report two cases of successful surgical management of the patients with combined obstructive coronary and carotid artery disease. The first case was a 69-year-old female who had unstable angina pectoris and a past medical history of left carotid endarterectomy. She was revealed to have triple vessel coronary disease and nearly total occlusion of right internal carotid artery. She was undergone staged right carotid endarterectomy 10 days before coronary bypass surgery. The second case, a 54-year-old male with a past medical history of left hemiparesis and dysarthria, was admitted due to unstable angina pectoris. He was revealed to have triple-vessel coronary disease and more than 90% stenosis of left internal carotid artery and 50% stenosis of right internal carotid artery. In the latter case, a combined coronary bypass surgery and left carotid endarterectomy was done. In both cases, postoperative neurologic complications were not observed.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.191-195
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• 1994

Twenty-four patients with left main coronary artery stenosis exceeding 50% underwent coronary artery bypass grafting from January 1991 through June 1993. Four patients [17%] had stenosis only in left main coronary artery and 20 patients [83%] had associate lesion[s] in left anterior descending , circumflex, or right coronary artery. Sixteen patients [67%] had higher degrees of stenosis [>70%] in left main coronary artery. Preoperatively 18 patients [75%] had unstable angina pectoris even during aggressive medical treatment. Preoperatively aggressive medical treatment was performed to relieve the symptom in patients with unstable angina. All patients were perioperatively treated with continuous infusion of isosorbide dinitrate to stabilize symptomatic and hemodynamic states. Twenty patients underwent elective coronary bypass surgery and 4 patients urgent operations due to severe unstable angina. There was no thirty-day mortality or late death. Angina recurred in 1 patient, but coronary angiographic study showed good patency of grafts and the symptom was relieved with medical treatment. We concluded that coronary artery bypass grafting can be safely performed by perioperative efforts, including continuous infusion of isosorbide dinitrate, for hemodynamic stabilization in patients with left main coronary artery stenosis.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1369-1375
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• 1992

During a 17-month period 32 consecutive patients underwent coronary artery bypass graft. The mean age of these patients was 45.3 years [range 39 to 71 years]. There were 18 men and 14 women. Preoperatively 11 patients had stable angina pectoris and 12 patients of unstable angina pectoris. 28% [9 patients] had of myocardial infarction history. The patterns of disease were single vessel involvement [4 casis], double vessel involvement [11 cases], triple vessel involvement [12 caese] and 5 cases of left main coronary artery disease. Thirty-seven percent [12/32] were in New York Heart Association class IV. Myocardial revascularization was performed under emergency conditions in 3 patients. We performed 13 case of double anastomosis, 12 case of triple anastomosis and 4 case of 4 anstomosis [mean 2.59 anastomosis per patient]. The left internal mammary artery was used in 68.7%. 90% of the patients receieved two or more grafts. Complications occurred in 8 patients [25%]. All patients were followed up for a mean of 8.6 months [2 to 17 months]. There was no hospital and late death. Postoperatively 87% were in New York Heart Association class I or II and 96% of the patient were free from angina.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 1989

To evaluate diagnostic accuracy of $^{99m}Tc-pyrophosphate$ (PYP) myocardial scan, we analysed 160 $^{99m}Tc-PYP$ scans (acute transmural myocardial infarction 87 cases, acute subendocardial infarction; 20 cases, unstable angina pectoris; 7 cases, other disease; 46 cases). These scans were requested by the physician in Seoul National University Hospital from Sep. 1982 to Oct. 1987. And the diagnosis was confirmed by clinical course and laboratory examinations. 1) The diagnostic sensitivity of $^{99m}Tc-PYP$ scan in acute transmural myocardial infarction was 91.2% (62/68) if scintigraphy was performed within 7 days after infarction, 57.1% (8/14) between 8th and 14th day, 20% (1/5) and after 15 days. 2) The diagnostic sensitivity of $^{99m}Tc-PYP$ scan in acute subendocardial infarction was 75% (12/16) if scintigraphy was performed within 7 days after infarction and 0% after 8 days. 3) The diagnostic specificity of $^{99m}Tc-PYP$ scan in acute myocardial infarction was 94.3% (5/53). Among 5 cases of false positive scans, 1 case was unstable angina pectoris, 2 cases were old myocardial infarction with left ventricular aneurysm, 1 case was old myocardial infarction and the remaining 1 case was cardiomyopathy.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.581-585
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• 1998

Postoperative autotransfusion is known as an effective method for blood conservation. We tried to examine whether the autotransfusion of shed mediastinal blood in patients with unstable angina would be valuable for reducing postoperative homologous transfusion by observing the hourly tendency of bleeding and transfusion. Between August and October, 1997, 26 patients with unstable angina underwent coronary arterial bypass surgery by a single surgeon at Asan Medical Center. In retrospective analysis, we found 90% of the patients received homologous transfusions and 85% of them were in the intensive care unit at the same day after operation. In many patients, the cause of transfusion was not anemia but volume replacement. Mean bleeding through the chest tubes was 340 cc for the first 5 hours and 69%(18 pts) showed more than 200 cc of bleeding, the amount generally considered as a initiating point for autotransfusion. Despite the adoption of multiple methods for blood conservation, 90% of the patients needed homologous transfusion. Moreover, many of them had received unnecessary transfusions. We conclude that some kind of blood for transfusion is needed during the immediate postoperative period, and the adoption of postoperative autotransfusion may help in reducing homologous transfusion.