• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.24-29
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• 2012

Background: The conventional method of aortic cross-clamping is very difficult and increases the risk of cerebral infarct due to embolism of the calcified aorta in these patients. Accordingly, we analyzed our experience with 11 cases of ascending aorta and aortic valve replacement with hypothermic circulatory arrest. Materials and Methods: From January 2002 to December 2009, 11 patients had ascending aorta and aortic valve replacement with hypothermic arrest at our hospital. We performed a retrospective study. Results: There were 5 males and 6 females, with a mean age of 68 years (range, 44 to 82 years). Eight patients had aortic stenosis, and 3 patients had aortic regurgitation. An aortic cannula was inserted into the right axillary artery in 3 patients and ascending aorta in 6 patients. Two patients with aortic regurgitation had a remote access perfusion catheter inserted though the right femoral artery. The mean cardiopulmonary bypass time was 180 minutes (range, 110 to 306 minutes) and mean hypothermic circulatory arrest time was 30 minutes (range, 20 to 48 minutes). The mean rectal temperature during hypothermic circulatory arrest was $21^{\circ}C$ (range, $19^{\circ}C$ to $23^{\circ}C$). No patient had any new onset of cerebral infarct or cardiovascular accident after surgery. There was no hospital mortality. Early complications occurred in 1 patient who needed reoperation due to postoperative bleeding. Late complications occurred in 1 patient who underwent a Bentall operation due to prosthetic valve endocarditis. The mean follow-up duration was 32 months (range, 1 month to 8 years) and 1 patient died suddenly due to unknown causes after 5 years. Conclusion: Patients with a calcified aorta can be safely treated with a technique based on aorta and aortic valve replacement under hypothermic circulatory arrest.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.254-259
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• 2010

Background: Diagnosing chronic pulmonary embolism at an early stage is difficult because of the patient’s nonspecific symptoms. This condition is not prevalent in Korea, and in fact, there have been only a few case reports on this in the Korean medical literature. We analyzed the surgical outcome of performing pulmonary thromboendarterectomy in patients with chronic pulmonary embolism. Material and Method: The study subjects included those patients who underwent surgery for chronic pulmonary embolism from 1996 to 2008. For making the diagnosis, echocardiography, chest CT and a pulmonary perfusion scan were performed on the patients who complained of chronic dyspnea. Result: Pulmonary endarterectomy was performed as follows: by incision via a mid-sternal approach (7 patients); by incision via a left posterolateral approach (1 patient); using the deep hypothermic circulatory arrest technique (4 patients); under ventricular fibrillation (3 patients); and under cardioplegic arrest (1 patient). The postoperative systolic pulmonary artery blood pressure significantly decreased from a preoperative value of $78.9{\pm}14.5\;mmHg$ to $45.6{\pm}17.6\;mmHg$ postoperatively (p=0.000). The degree of tricuspid regurgitation was less than grade II after surgery. Two patients died early on, including one patient who had persistent pulmonary hypertension without improvement and right heart failure. Conclusion: Patients who have chronic pulmonary embolism are known to have a poor prognosis. However, we think that early surgical treatment along with making the proper diagnosis before the aggravation of right heart failure can help improve the quality of a patient's life.

• Clinical Pain
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.116-119
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• 2020

Cervical transforaminal epidural steroid injection (TFESI) is commonly performed to provide relief of pain caused by radiculopathy. Intra-arterial injection of particulate steroid or direct needle injury can lead to spinal artery embolism or thrombosis. Also there is a possibility of vascular spasm. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of spinal cord infarction that occurred after TFESI with non-particulate steroid in Korea. A 47-year-old female patient underwent C7 TFESI at local pain clinic. Injected materials were dexamethasone and mepivacaine. Right after the intervention, she felt muscle weakness and decreased sensation. On physical examination, she had decreased sensation from C4 to T2 dermatome in light touch and pin-prick test. Proprioception and vibration were intact. The motor grades of upper extremities were grade 1. Cervical and thoracic spine MRI was checked. Diffusion-weighted image and apparent diffusion coefficient image showed long extension of spinal cord infarction from C2 to T1 level.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.211-215
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• 2009

Pulmonary thromboembolism occurs in old patients with risk factors, such as, immobilization, chronic medical disease, trauma, a hereditary hypercoagulable state, and others. However, we experienced a young man with a massive pulmonary thromboembolism attributed to immobilization due to computer gaming. The patient had been playing computer games in a seated position for at least five hour continually, and for twelve hours per day over a two-week period. The 36-year-old patient was transferred to our institute rule out the possibility of an acute myocardial infarction. Computer tomography revealed intraluminal filling defects in the distal main pulmonary artery and the left popliteal vein. He received thrombolytic therapy and subsequently recovered without complications. This case raises the possibility that prolonged computer gaming is a risk factor of thromboembolism in young adults.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.8-12
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• 2007

Objectives : This study aimed to investigate the circadian variation in stroke types, ischemic stroke subtypes, and Sasang constitutions. Methods : 295 patients with acute stroke within 14 days onset were included, who were admitted to Kyunghee Oriental Medical Center from October 2005 to May 2007. The stroke onset time was subdivided into four groups of 6-hour intervals in a day. Stroke types, ischemic stroke subtypes, and Sasang constitutions in four groups were examined. Results : Most ischemic stroke occurred between 6:01-12:00 hours (30.2%). For ischemic stroke subtypes, the peak period of small-vessel occlusion was between 6:01-12:00 hours (33.2%), large-artery atherosclerosis was most common between 12:01-18:00 hours (39.5%), and cardiac embolism was most frequent between 18:01-24:00 hours (50%). In terms of Sasang constitution, Soyeumin and Taeyeumin were most common between 6:01-12:00 hours (36.4% versus 41.5%, respectively), but the peak time of Soyangin was between 12:01-18:00 hours (35.2%). Conclusion :Most ischemic stroke events occurred in the mid-to-late morning hours in the present study and there was a circadian variation of onset in ischemic stroke subtypes and Sasang constitution.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.34-50
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• 1996

The present experiment was desinged to investigate the effects of Tongdosan water extracts on the Cardiovascular System in the Experimental Animals. Thus, the changes of blood pressure and heart rate were measured after oral admini- stration. Measurment of Mortality rate was observed for measuring the effect of Tongdosan water extract. Tongdosan water extract against pulmonary thrombo- embolism induced by collagen the mixture(0.1ml/10g, 2mg/kg B.W) plus serotonin(5mg/kg B.W) in mouse. The effect of Tongdosan water extract was examined by observing the change of collagen-induced platelet aggregation, coagulation activity, ex vivo and in vitro fibrinolytic activity of euglobulin fraction in rats. The results were summarized as followings. 1. Tongdosan dropped the blood pressure in spontaneous hypertensive rat. 2. The drug increased the auricular blood flow in rabbit. 3. The drug relaxed the artery contraction by pretreated norepinephrine in rat. 4. The drug inhibited the death rate of mouse which was led to thromboembo- lism by serotonin and collagen. 5. The drug inhibited the platelet aggregation in rat. 6. The drug prolonged the prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time on the test of plasma coagulation factor activity in rat, but was not valuable. 7. The drug reduced the fibrinogen lyses time of rat ex vivo assay and lyses area was increased. 8. Tongdosan reduced fibrinogen lyses time of rat in vitro assay. According to the above mentioned results, Tongdosan increased the blood flow and dropped the blood pressure by the dilation of blood vessel. And the drug presented the antithrombin acivity, inhibited the platelet aggregation.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.867-870
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• 2007

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is defined as venous and/or arterial thromboses, recurrent fetal losses, thrombocytopenia in combination with repeatedly positive tests for the lupus anticoagulant (LAC), and anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL). The pulmonary manifestation is APS are relatively rare. We report a rare case of antiphopholipid syndrome with systemic lupus erythematosus in a patient who presented with pulmonary hypertension secondary to a chronic pulmonary thromboembolism. A bilateral thromboendarterectomy was performed satisfactorily and the incision was extended to the left intrapleural pulmonary artery.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.246-251
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• 2015

Background: Upper limb ischemia is less common than lower limb ischemia, and relatively few cases have been reported. This paper reviews the epidemiology, etiology, and clinical characteristics of upper limb ischemia and analyzes the factors affecting functional sequelae after treatment. Methods: The records of 35 patients with acute and chronic upper limb ischemia who underwent treatment from January 2007 to December 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Results: The median age was 55.03 years, and the number of male patients was 24 (68.6%). The most common etiology was embolism of cardiac origin, followed by thrombosis with secondary trauma, and the brachial artery was the most common location for a lesion causing obstruction. Computed tomography angiography was the first-line diagnostic tool in our center. Twenty-eight operations were performed, and conservative therapy was implemented in seven cases. Five deaths (14.3%) occurred during follow-up. Twenty patients (57.1%) complained of functional sequelae after treatment. Functional sequelae were found to be more likely in patients with a longer duration of symptoms (odds ratio, 1.251; p=0.046) and higher lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels (odds ratio, 1.001; p=0.031). Conclusion: An increased duration of symptoms and higher initial serum LDH levels were associated with the more frequent occurrence of functional sequelae. The prognosis of upper limb ischemia is associated with prompt and proper treatment and can also be predicted by initial serum LDH levels.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.108-110
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• 2013

The relationship between malignancy and venous thromboembolism(VTE) has been well established. About 20% of all VTE cases are associated with cancer and thrombotic events are the second leading cause of death in cancer patients after death from cancer itself. Effective prophylaxis and treatment will reduce morbidity and may decrease overall mortality. We report a case of VTE in a patient with advanced gastric cancer who treated with low-molecular weighted heparin (LMWH). A 49-year-old man with heartburn was admitted to our hospital. On the endoscopic and radiologic imaging, the patient was diagnosed as an advanced gastric cancer with perigastric infiltration and liver metastasis. During the combination chemotherapy, he had pain and swelling of left lower leg. Doppler ultrasonography showed left posterior tibial venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism CT showed thromboembolism in subsegmental pulmonary artery branch in right lower lobe. He was treated with LMWH, Dalteparin once daily via subcutaneous injection, and his symptoms was subsided.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.39 no.9 s.266
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• pp.659-667
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• 2006

Background: Experimental studies of vascular remodeling in the pulmonary arteries have been performed actively. These models required a persistent vascular insult for intimal injury induced by chronic hypoxia, monocrotaline intoxication or chronic air embolism and characterized medial hypertrophy and neointimal formation by active synthesis of the extracellular matrix protein. The purpose of this study was to determine the pattern of pulmonary vascular remodeling after obstruction of the pulmonary vein. Material and Method: Obstruction of the right pulmonary vein with a metal clip was performed in Sprague-Dawley rats $(352{\pm}18g,\;n=10)$ to cause pulmonary vascular disease. Fifteen days later, experimental studies were done and finally the both lungs and hearts were extirpated for experimental measurement. Pulmonary arterial pressure, weight ratio of right ventricle (RV) to left ventricle (LV) and ventricular septum (S) (RV/LV +S weight ratio), and pulmonary artery morphology (percent wall thickness, %WT) were evaluated and compared with normal control groups. Result: Pulmonary hypertension $(38{\pm}12mmHg\;vs\;13{\pm}4mmHg;\;p<0.05)$ and right ventricular hypertrophy (right ventricular/left ventricular and septal weight ratio, $0.52{\pm}0.07\;vs\;0.35{\pm}0.04;\;p<0.05$) with hypertrophy of the muscular layer of the pulmonary arterial wall (percent wall thickness, $22.4{\pm}6.7%\;vs\;6.7{\pm}3.4%;\;p<0.05$) were developed by 15 days after obstruction of the pulmonary vein. Conclusion: Obstruction of the pulmonary vein developed elevation of pulmonary blood pressure and medial hypertrophy of the pulmonary artery. These results are a part of the characteristic vascular remodeling. Theses results demonstrate that obstruction of the pulmonary vein can develope not only high pulmoanry blood flow of contralateral lung but also intima injury inducing vascular remodeling.