• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2018

Posttraumatic delayed vertebral collapse, known as Kummell's disease, is increasing in number of patients. This disease is already progressive kyphosis due to vertebral collapse at the time of diagnosis and it causes intractable pain or neurologic deficit due to intravertebral instability. Treatment is very difficult after progression of the disease, and the range of treatment, in hospital day, and cost of treatment are both increased. Clinical features, pathogenesis and radiologic findings of these disease groups were reviewed to determine risk factors for delayed vertebral collapse. The purpose of this article is to suggest appropriate treatment before vertebral collapse for patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture who have risk factors for posttraumatic delayed vertebral collapse.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.231-234
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• 2011

Kummell's disease is a spinal disorder characterized by delayed post-traumatic collapse of a vertebral body with avascular necrosis. Although definitive treatment for Kummell's disease has not been established, it has been reported that percutaneous vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty has shown good results. However, these procedures are not recommended for severely collapsed vertebral bodies because of the risk of cement leakage or technical difficulties. Authors report a rare case of spontaneous reduction in vertebral height by the insertion of a working cannula into the vertebral body in Kummell's disease.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.117-121
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• 2021

An ayu (Plecoglossus altivelis) farm in Korea recently experienced an epidemic of vertebral column deformities where about 90% of fry displayed a vertebral column that was grossly opaque along either the cranial part of the column or its entire length. Abnormal fish were lordotic, scoliotic and/or kyphotic about midway down the spine. Examination of serial sections of whole fish showed only histological lesions in the vertebral column and suggested some disturbance in the early development of the vertebral centrum. Such abnormalities included a frayed spinal or notochord sheaths with irregular thickening and compression, mal-absorbed notochord cells, thickening of around cell layer and hypercellularity on both facets of the notochord sheath. No parasites, fungi, or bacteria were detected. While this lesion has only been reported once in the past, this is the first report of histopathological findings.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.16-20
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• 2021

Recently, a new method of evaluating left atrial size called vertebral left atrial size (VLAS) was introduced in dogs. Total 155 dogs were examined at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital of Chungnam National University. In this study, myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) stage and VLAS showed a significant correlation in those dogs. Also, the relationship between C-reactive protein (CRP) and VLAS has yet to be examined. We found a strong positive correlation between VLAS and CRP-a significant increase in CRP was observed with increasing VLAS values. Thus, it would be beneficial to measure VLAS besides employing the current radiological and echocardiographic methods when evaluating heart size. Measuring VLAS could be an additional diagnostic tool for diagnosing MMVD in dogs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.146-149
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• 2002

It is reported that the mechanical properties of vertebral trabecular bone depend on the density and the mass of bones. Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease caused by low bone mass and microstructure deterioration of trabecular bone. Silva and Gibson (1997) studied the treatment of age-related bone loss using drug therapy. Vertebroplasty is a minimally invasive surgery for the treatment of osteoporosis vertebrae. This procedure includes puncturing vertebrae and filling with Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). However, the relative effect of drug therapy and bone cement for osteoporosis treatment is not reported yet. In this study, several 2D models of human vertebral trabecular bone are analyzed by finite element method. The mechanical behaviors of the vertebral trabecular bone treated by the drug therapy and the bone cement are compared. This study shows that bone cement treatment is more effective strategy than drug therapy to prevent the degradation of bone strength.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.46-48
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• 2007

Distant metastasis of squamous cell carcinoma from the anal canal is an uncommon event. However, hematogenous spread to the vertebrae may occur in the course of this disease. The route of metastasis from the anal canal seems to be Batson's vertebral venous system. A 52-year-old female patient presented with lower back and right leg pain of one-week history. She has undergone radiotherapy and chemotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal and then was followed by surgical resection. Three months later, magnetic resonance images of the lumbar spine disclosed a well-enhanced mass of L5 vertebral body compressing the thecal sac. Surgical decompression and biopsy were performed. Histopathological study confirmed carcinoma of the squamous cell origin. We report a ra re case of vertebral metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal with a pertinent review of literature.

• The Journal of Churna Manual Medicine for Spine and Nerves
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.93-113
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• 2014

Objectives : This study aims to evaluate domestic/foreign clinical studies related to the traction therapy and analyse points to consider about cervical/lumbar traction therapy. Methods : Seven databases were searched for related articles about cervical/lumbar traction therapy from 1950 to 2014. Fourteen clinical studies and several systemic reviews were included among 144 studies searched. Out of fourteen clinical studies, four were case series and ten were controlled trials. Results : Most of included studies reported favorable effects of traction group compared to baseline of controlled group. The various mechanical factors most relevant to traction are 1) angle of pull and direction, 2) traction force, 3) duration of traction and frequency of treatment. Conclusions : We found various mistake in the applications of statistical methodologies of traction therapy targeting patients of cervical, lumbar vertebral disease. It is necessary for more randomized controlled trials to evaluate effect of cervical/lumbar traction therapy targeting patients of cervical, lumbar vertebral disease.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2009

Background/aim : Atherosclerotic disease at the origin of the vertebral arteries is one of the risk factors for vertebrobasilar ischemic disease. Assessment and visualization of the origin of the vertebral arteries with color doppler sonography is a non-trivial task. The aim of this study is to increase the visualization rate of the origin of the vertebral arteries with color doppler sonography. Materials and Methods : Color doppler sonography for the vertebral arteries included carotid arteries was performed to 198 patients. We first examined the vertebral artery in the upper neck in the direction of the subclavian artery to distinguish its origin more easily. If the vertebral artery origin was not visualized in natural position, the examiner pushed the transducer toward a clavicle or pushed the shoulder of patient by the other hand. The technical methods for visualization of the vertebral artery origin were classified into three grades: natural position, pushing the transducer, and pushing the shoulder of patient according to the depth (3.0 cm and shallower, deeper than 3.0 cm) of the origin. Results : The origin of the vertebral arteries could be visualized in 97% on the right and in 92% on the left. The origin of the vertebral arteries could be visualized in 98.6%, 1.4%, and 0.0% in natural position, pushing the transducer, and pushing the shoulder of patient, respectively, at shallower than 3.0 cm on the right side. The origin of the vertebral arteries could be visualized in 81.2%, 14.6%, and 4.2% in natural position, pushing the transducer, and pushing the shoulder of patient, respectively, at deeper than 3.0 cm on the right side. The origin of the vertebral arteries could be visualized in 85.4%, 10.7%, and 3.9% in natural position, pushing the transducer, and pushing the shoulder of patient, respectively, at shallower than 3.0 cm on the left side. The origin of the vertebral arteries could be visualized in 55.7%, 30.4%, and 13.9% in natural position, pushing the transducer, and pushing the shoulder of patient, respectively, at deeper than 3.0 cm on the left side. Conclusion : If the examiner pushes the transducer toward a clavicle or pushes the shoulder of patient by the other hand, when the vertebral artery origin during the color doppler sonography is not visualized in natural position, visualization rate of the origin of the both vertebral arteries is increased.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.48-50
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• 2014

Brucellosis is caused by gram-negative, aerobic, non-motile, facultative, intracellular coccobacilli belonging to the genus Brucella. A 50-year-old man working as an employee was admitted to neurosurgery clinic with severe low back, radicular right leg pain and hypoesthesia in right L4-5 dermatomes for 2 months. Brucella tube agglutination (Wright) test was positive in serum sample of the patient with a titer of 1/640. Brucella melitensis was isolated from blood culture. X-ray and MRI of the lomber spine showed massive collapse of L4 vertebral body. Neural tissue was decompressed and then posterior L3-5 short segment transpedicular screw fixation and stabilization was performed. Brucella melitensis was isolated from microbiologic culture of pathologic specimen. Antibiotic therapy was given as doxycycline 200 mg/day and rifampicin 600 mg/day for 6 months. Brucellosis is a systemic zoonotic infection and still an important public health problem in many geographical parts of the world. Vertebral body collapse caused by brucellosis occurs very rarely but represents a neurosurgical emergency because of its potential for causing rapidly progressive spinal cord compression and permanent paralysis. Neurosurgeons, emergency department personnel as well as infectious disease specialists should always keep a high index of suspicion and include brucellosis in the differential diagnosis of vertebral body collapse.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.880-890
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• 2020

Objective: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are known to be at risk of osteoporosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between thoracic vertebral bone density measured on chest CT (D_Thorax) and clinical variables, including survival, in patients with COPD. Materials and Methods: A total of 322 patients with COPD were selected from the Korean Obstructive Lung Disease (KOLD) cohort. D_Thorax was measured by averaging the CT values of three consecutive vertebral bodies at the level of the left main coronary artery with a round region of interest as large as possible within the anterior column of each vertebral body using an in-house software. Associations between D_Thorax and clinical variables, including survival, pulmonary function test (PFT) results, and CT densitometry, were evaluated. Results: The median follow-up time was 7.3 years (range: 0.1-12.4 years). Fifty-six patients (17.4%) died. D_Thorax differed significantly between the different Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease stages. D_Thorax correlated positively with body mass index (BMI), some PFT results, and the six-minute walk distance, and correlated negatively with the emphysema index (EI) (all p < 0.05). In the univariate Cox analysis, older age (hazard ratio [HR], 3.617; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.119-6.173, p < 0.001), lower BMI (HR, 3.589; 95% CI, 2.122-6.071, p < 0.001), lower forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV₁) (HR, 2.975; 95% CI, 1.682-5.262, p < 0.001), lower diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide corrected with hemoglobin (DL_CO) (HR, 4.595; 95% CI, 2.665-7.924, p < 0.001), higher EI (HR, 3.722; 95% CI, 2.192-6.319, p < 0.001), presence of vertebral fractures (HR, 2.062; 95% CI, 1.154-3.683, p = 0.015), and lower D_Thorax (HR, 2.773; 95% CI, 1.620-4.746, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with all-cause mortality and lung-related mortality. In the multivariate Cox analysis, lower D_Thorax (HR, 1.957; 95% CI, 1.075-3.563, p = 0.028) along with older age, lower BMI, lower FEV₁, and lower DL_CO were independent predictors of all-cause mortality. Conclusion: The thoracic vertebral bone density measured on chest CT demonstrated significant associations with the patients' mortality and clinical variables of disease severity in the COPD patients included in KOLD cohort.