• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.181-184
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• 1999

Systolic coronary arterial narrowing, secondary to myocardial bridging which is capable of producing chest pain, myocardial infarction and ventricular fibrillation is a known but an uncommon entity. A supra-arterial myotomy in a case of myocardial bridge causing medication-refractory angina is described. Under the partial sternotomy incision, we performed a supra-arterial myotomy in the left anterior descending coronary artery without cardiopulmonary bypass. The postoperative course was uneventful.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.595-605
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• 1986

From February 1986 through September 1986, the authors have experienced 6 cases of coronary artery bypass graft for patients with unstable angina. There were five males and one female who ranged from 39 to 65 years [mean, 53.3 years]. The extent of coronary disease was as follows: one-, two- and three-vessel diseases, all 2 cases respectively, and among them, 1 case had left main disease. Distal anastomoses were performed first with using saphenous vein grafts as conduits in all cases and sequential bypass methods were employed in 5 cases. Numbers of vein grafts were two in 2 cases and one in 4 cases. The mean time wasted for one distal anastomosis was 36 minutes. Post operative complications were leg-wound disruption [2 cases], transient psychosis [1 case] and perioperative myocardial infarction [MI] [1 case]. Sixty three year-old male patient associated with cardiomegaly, prior MI, ventricular arrhythmia, cardiac dysfunction and endocrinologic diseases preoperatively was expired in the operating room due to perioperative Ml. All survivors were asymptomatic and on discontinuing medical therapy on follow-up varying from 1 to 8 months.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.164-168
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• 1988

Between November, 1984, and May, 1986, 93 patients underwent combined valvular and coronary artery operation. They were 70 male and 23 female, the age ranging from 29 to 82. From this population 89 patients underwent single valve replacement and 4 patients underwent double valve replacement. Patients with mitral valve disease were in the majority present in the age group between 50 till 70, where as in the group after 60 years, patients with aortic valve disease were dominant. The main indication for aortic valve replacement was aortic stenosis and the indication for mitral valve replacement was equal between mitral stenosis and mitral incompetence, the later was due to papillary dysfunction after myocardial infarction. Dyspnea was a very frequent symptom and it was found in nearly all patients. 28 patients had a previous myocardial infarction and severe left ventricular dysfunction. The grafts were placed prior to valve replacement and periods of myocardial ischemia were kept at a minimum by maintaining coronary perfusion throughout the operation. It is our opinion that simultaneous valve replacement and myocardial revascularization does not increase the risk of cardiac valve replacement substantially.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1563-1569
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• 1992

From Jan. 1981 to Dec. 1991, we had treated 25 patients with congenital coronary art-eriovenous fistulas [CAVF] in Seoul National University Hospital. A retrospective review was made to delineate the course and the management of CAVF and to clarify the role of surgical treatment. Fifteen patients were male and 10 were female with The mean age of 17.4 years[from 3 months to 58 years]. The most frequent symptom was dyspnea on exertion[56%]. Other symptoms were angina and palpitation. Sixty-eight percent of the patients were symptomatic. Fifty-three percent of patients less than 20 years old were symptomatic and 100% of patients over 20 years old were symptomatic. Three patients had multiple CAVFs. The fistula drained into the right ventricle in 13, pulmonary artery in 9, left ventricle in 4, right atrium in 2, and left atrium in 1. Thirteen patients had other associated cardiac lesions. The mean pulmonary-to-systemic blood flow[Qp /Qs] in the isolate CAVF group was 2.19. All patients were operated on to correct the fistulas and other associated cardiac lesions. All patients were followed from 1 month to 11 years without late death. Postoperative complication rate was 24% -significant arrhythmia [3], recurred CAVF[1], psychosis[1], pneumonia [1]. Symptomatic improvement was evident postoperatively. Below 20 years old, 94% of patients were asymptomatic, but above 20 years old, symptoms persisted in 25%. In summary, early elective repair of CAVF is indicated in all patients because of higher complication rate and frequent persistent symptoms in older patients.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.163-194
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• 2017

Coronary artery disease has increased in Korea as the country enters the aged society. It is well known that the incidence of coronary artery disease is related to aging, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and dietary habit. For effective treatment of significant coronary stenosis, close coordination between cardiac surgery and cardiology team is essential. Especially cardiologists' decision whether to do the stent placement or CABG is very important because the cardiologists usually start to consult the patients for their treatment. Recently, non-surgical interventions(that is stent placement) in cardiology field have dramatically increased as the national insurance system removed the limitation of the number of stents deployed. However, accidents are often caused by inappropriate use of stents, especially in patients with triple coronary disease or left main disease with heavy coronary calcifications. Another aspect of stent placement is to cope with an emergency case in the event of coronary rupture or pericardial tamponade during coronary interventions without cardiac surgeons. In the past two years, the Korea Consumer Agency (Consumer Dispute Coordination Committee) analyzed eight cases of medical dispute settlement. Only two hospitals were manned with both cardiologists and cardiac surgeons. Seven patients died of procedures of stenting and five patients died on the day of the procedure. Among the 8 cases, 5 cases showed 3 vessel disease and the rest of the cases had either severe calcification, complete occlusion or poor coronary antomies for stenting According to a 2017 national data registry of coronary stenting, less than 3 drug-eluting stents were implanted in 98% of all patients. In 2015, the number of stent procedures was 38,922, and approximately in 800 (2%) cases, more than four stents were used per patient. We emphasize that it is necessary to seriously consider the cost-benefit analysis between stent and CABG. The patient has the right to choose the right procedure by asking the liability of 'instruction explanation obligation'. He should be well informed of the pros and cons of both procedures to avoid overuse of stent. It can be solved by intimate discussion of individual cases with the cardiac surgeon and the patient. Unilateral dialogue with the patient, forceful restriction on the number of stenting, lack of surgeon's backup in difficult cases should all be avoided. It is also necessary to solve the problem not only at the hospital level, such as multidisciplinary integrated medical care, but also a nationwide solution such as expanding cardiac surgeons as essential personnel to public officials.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.210-217
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• 1993

To compare the myocardial viability in patients suffering from total occlusion of the right coronry artery (RCA) with the angiographic collaterals, intracoronary injection of Thallium-201 (T1-201) was done to 14 coronary artery disease (CAD) patients (pts) with total occlusion of RCA and into four normal subjects for control. All 14 CAD pts had Grade 2 or 3 collateral circulations. There were 14 male and 4 females, and their ages ranged from 31 to 70 years. In nine pts, T1-201 was injected into left main coronary artery (LCA) ($300{\sim}350{\mu}Ci$) to evaluate the myocardial viability of RCA territory through collateral circulations. The remaining five pts received T1-201 into RCA ($200{\sim}250{\mu}Ci$) because two had intraarterial bridging collaterals and three had previous successful PTCA. Planar & SPECT myocardial perfusion images were obtained 30 minutes, and four to five hours after T1-201 injection. Intravenous T1-201 reinjection (six pts) or $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ (two pts) were also performed in eight CAD pts. Intracoronary myocardial perfusion images were compared with intravenous T1-201 (IV T1-201) images, ECG, and ventriculography. Intracoronary T1-201 images proved to be superior to that of IV T1-201 due to better myocardial to background uptake ratio and more effective in the detection of viable tissue. We also found that perfusion defects were smaller on intracoronary T1-201 images than those on the IV T1-201. All of the 14 CAD pts had either mostly viable myocardium (seven pts) or large area of T1-201 perfusion (seven pts) in RCA territory, however ventriculographic wall motion and ECG did not correlate well with intracoronary myocardial perfusion images. In conclusion, total RCA occlusion patients with well developed collateral circulation had large area of viable myocardial in the corresponding territory.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.288-297
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• 2002

Purpose: Soft tissue attenuation and scattering are major methodological limitations of myocardial perfusion SPECT. To overcome these limitations, algorithms for attenuation, scatter correction and resolution recovery (ASCRR) is being developed, while quantitative myocardial SPECT has also become available. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of an ASCRR-corrected quantitative myocardial SPECT method for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). Materials and Methods: Seventy-five patients (M:F=51:24, $61.0{\pm}8.9$ years old) suspected of CAD who underwent coronary angiography (CAG) within $7{\pm}12$ days of SPECT(Group-I) and 20 subjects (M:F=10:10, age $40.6{\pm}9.4$) with a low likelihood of coronary artery disease (Group-II) were enrolled. Tl-201 rest/ dipyridamole-stress Tc-99m-MIBI gated myocardial SPECT was performed. ASCRR correction was peformed using a Gd-153 line source and automatic software (Vantage-Pro; ADAC Labs, USA). Using a 20-segment model, segmental perfusion was automatically quantified on both the ASCRR-corrected and uncorrected images using an automatic quantifying software (AutoQUANT; ADAC Labs.). Using these quantified values, CAD was diagnosed in each of the 3 coronary arterial territories. The diagnostic performance of ASCRR-corrected SPECT was compared with that of non-corrected SPECT. Results: Among the 75 patients of Group-I, 9 patients had normal CAG while the remaining 66 patients had 155 arterial lesions; 61 left anterior descending (LAD), 48 left circumflex (LCX) and 46 right coronary (RCA) arterial lesions. For the LAD and LCX lesions, there was no significant difference in diagnostic performance. In Group-II patients, the overall normalcy rate improved but this improvement was not statistically significant (p=0.07). However, for RCA lesions, specificity improved significantly but sensitivity worsened significantly with ASCRR correction (both p<0.05). Overall accuracy was the same. Conclusion: The ASCRR correction did not improve diagnostic performance significantly although the diagnostic specificity for RCA lesions improved on quantitative myocardial SPECT. The clinical application of the ASC-RR correction requires more discretion regarding cost and efficacy.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2005

This study investigated which recumbent posture can give rise to the highest vagal modulation in patients with coronary artery disease(CAD), among three recumbent postures; namely, the supine, left lateral, and right lateral postures. For this purpose, 43 patients as CAD group and 31 patients as control group were studied. Heart rate variability(HRV) was measured on these patients for three recumbent postures in random order Normalized high-frequency power was the highest, whereas normalized low-frequency power was the lowest in the right lateral postures, among the three recumbent postures.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.224-227
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• 2023

Median sternotomy is a standard surgical technique used for left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation. However, if sternotomy has a prohibitive surgical risk, LVAD implantation can be performed through only left thoracotomy. We managed a patient with end-stage heart failure who had recently undergone coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) elsewhere. The patient also had a deep sternal wound infection and bacteremia. Because of refractory cardiogenic shock, we performed extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). After multiple mediastinal washouts and omental flap placement, ECMO was converted to extracorporeal LVAD (from the left ventricular apex to the descending aorta) through a left thoracotomy. The extracorporeal LVAD was maintained for 18 days and replaced by the HeartMate 3 LVAD. The patient was discharged in good condition 115 days after CABG.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.966-972
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• 1997

Between June 1994 to August 1996, 13 patients underwent emergency coronary artery bypass operations. There were 3 males and 10 females and ages ranged from 56 to 80 years with the mean of 65.5 years. The indications for emergency operations were cardiogenic shock in 12 cases and intractable polymorphic VT(ve'ntricular tachycardia) in 1 case. The causes of cardiogenic shock were acute evolving infarction in 6 cases, PTCA failure in 4 cases, acute myocardial infarction in 1 case, and post-AMI VSR(ventricular septal rupture) in 1 case. Pive out of 13 patients could go to operating room within 2 hours. However, the operations were delayed from 3 to 10 hours in 8 patients due to non-medical causes. In 12 patients, 37 distal anastomoses were constructed with only 3 LITA's(left internal thoracic arteries) and 34 saphenous veins. In a patient with post-AMI VSR, VSR repair was added. In a patient with intractable VT and critical sten sis limited to left main coronary artery, left main coronary angioplasty was performed. Pive patients died after operation with the operative mortality of 38.5%. Three patients died in the operating room due to LV pump failure, one patient died due to intractable ventricular tachycardia on postoperative second day, and one patient died on postoperative 7th day due to multi-organ failure with complications of mediastinal bleeding, low cardiac output syndrome, ARF, and lower extremity ischemia due to IABP. In 8 survived patients, 3 major complications (mediastinitis, PMI, UGI bleeding) developed but eventually recovered. We think that the aggressive approach to critically ill patients will salvage some of such patients and the most important factor for patient salvage is early surgical intervention before irreversible damage occurs.