Identification of Lacrymaria velutina (Pers. Ex Fr.) Konrad & Maubl. from Micheon-myeon, Jinju-city, Korea

We identified Lacrymaria velutina of the Coprinaceae in Korea. The unusually large and sturdy fruiting body, fibrillose to fibrillose-scaly cap and stalk without a volva with an obscure superior hairy ring zone or hairy annulus, and blackish brown, warted spores distinguished this species from closely related Psathyrella species. An illustrated account of the microscopic traits is presented. Fruiting bodies with obtusely hemispherical caps, 2.5~6 cm, becoming convex with age; surface dry, densely fibrillose-scaly with split margin; stipe, 4.5~6 cm, equal, hollow, fibrillose, dry, whitish above the superior ring zone, light brown below; crowded gills, adnexed, dark black at maturity. Pileipellis typically cellular with the gill edge appearing white and beaded. Blackish brown basidiospores that discolor in concentrated sulfuric acid. Spores elliptical, warted, 9~11 x 6~8 microm, with prominent snout-like germpores. Cheilocystidia abundant, 57~68 x 19~25 microm, and narrowly elongated clavate, often clustered in threes or fours. Pleurocystidia rarely present, 45~47.5 x 12~13 microm, and clavate to utriform. This trait distinguishes our sample as L. velutina from other Psathyrella spp. of the Coprinaceae, which have smooth spores. This taxon was clarified by the observation that Psathyrella spores fade in concentrated sulfuric acid. A molecular phylogenetic study revealed that our specimen was Lacrymria velutipes, which is closely related to Lacrymaria lacrymabunda. Moreover, those two species are clearly distinguishable from other Psathyrella species, which agreed with the morphologically distinctive traits described above. We believe that this is the first report of this taxon, which has not been described in Korea.

Identification of Diachea leucopodia on Strawberry from Greenhouse in Korea

We have detected the slime mold, Diachea leucopodia (GNU06-10) in a strawberry greenhouse located in Sancheong-gun, Gyeongnam. Typical fruiting bodies had developed gregariously on the strawberry leaves, petioles, and plant debris on ground soil habitat, and also surprisingly on plastic pipes and a vinyl covering. Field samples were examined via stereomicroscopy, light microscopy, and SEM for the determination of morphological characteristics. Dark-brown to black spores formed gregariously within the stipitate cylindrical sporangium, and were covered by an iridescent peridium, which may be intact at maturity, or may have disintegrated. The upper portion of the peridium generally breaks up to expose the spores, whereas the lower portion was usually persistent. The results of energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) analysis showed that lime was present in the stalk and columella but absent from the spores, capillitium, and peridium. The above characteristics confirm its taxonomic position in the genus Diachea. However, this genus is intermediate in character between the Physarales and Stemonitales of the Myxogastromycetidae. Hence, this genus had been classified as a member of the Stemonitales until the mid-1970's, on the basis of its iridescent peridium and noncalcareous capillitial system, similar to Comatricha of the Stemonitaceae. By way of contrast, emphasis on morphological characteristics, most notably the calcareous stalk and typical columella, places Diachea within the order Physarales. The presence of a phaneroplasmodium during the trophic stage and lime deposition in its sporophores, as was confirmed in this work, supported the inclusion of Diachea in the Physarales, and the noncalcareous capillitial system verified its identification as a member of the Didymiaceae. Further characteristics of the species D. leucopodia include the following: phaneroplasmodium, spore globose 7.5 microm in diameter, very minutely roughened; sporangia 500 microm x 1mm, more or less cylindrical, gregarious, stalked 1.2mm; stalk and columella white.

Intraabdominal Aortic Obstruction with Severe Low Back Pain and Acute Paraplegia: Case Report

Acute intraabdominal aortic obstruction ends in progressive fatal course or severe permanent disability unless it is diagnosed and treated promptly. However, the incidence of such disease is very rare, so there is very little chance for a neurosurgeon to encounter a patient with acute intraabdominal aortic obstruction. The authors present a case of 62-year-old man with severe low back pain and acute paraplegia caused by acute intraabdominal aortic obstruction.

Intradural Lumbar Disc Rupture

The intradural lumbar disc herniation which was first described by Dandy in 1942 is unusual. The pathogenesis is obscure and preoperative diagnosis is not easy. The patient usually have more severe neurologic deficits than those found in the much more common extradural disc herniations. We experienced two cases of the intradural lumbar disc herniation who had previous disc operations and the symptoms and neurologic signs were improved after removal of the intradural sequestration of disc fragments.

The Efficacy of Titanium Mesh Cage in Tuberculous Spondylitis Treated with Anterior Intervertebral Fusion

OBJECTIVE: The maintenance of the correction of kyphotic deformity is one of the difficult problem in tuberculous spondylitis after anterior debriment and fusion with tricortical bone graft. The goal of this study is to find out the efficacy of titanium mesh cage impacted with autogenous bone chip in tuberculous spondylitis treated with anterior intervertebral fusion. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twelve patients were treated with anterior intervertebral fusion using titanium mesh cage for tuberculous spondylitis from January 1996 to June 1999. We analized the changes in the correction of kyphotic deformity, changes of ESR and CRP, fusion state and recurrence after anterior intervertebral fusion with titanium mesh cage. RESULTS: Clinical symptoms were improved in all twelve patients without any neurologic complications. The mean kyphotic angle corrected was 7.3 degrees immediately after operation, but the loss of correction of kyphotic angle was 2.2 degrees after 3 months and 2.6 degrees after 6 months. We found that the loss of correction of kyphotic deformity occurred mainly within the first 3 months after surgery. Only one patient, suffered from acute hepatic failure after first operation and had an insufficient anti-tuberculous medication therapy, showed recurrence of tuberculous spondylitis after 6 months. The patient underwent a second operation with posterior fixation procedure with good outcome. The changes of ESR and CRP were not specifically important factor to reveal recurrence of tuberculosis of the spine in our series. CONCLUSION: The surgical procedure of tuberculous spondylitis using titanium mesh cage with bone chip seems to be an effective procedure to minimize loss of the correction of kyphotic deformity without any aggravating inflammatory change and recurrence with titanium mesh cage, when sufficient debridement and anti-tuberculous chemotherapy are achieved.

The Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA in the Patients with Essential Tremor and Parkinson's Disease

No abstract available.

Simultaneous Ipsilateral Posteroventral Pallidotomy and Ventrolateral Thalamotomy for Advanced Parkinson's Disease

Stereotactic thalamotomy has traditionally provided good relief of tremor for patients with intractable tremor dominant in Parkinson's disease. However bradykinesia, dyskinesia and rigidity are less reliably treated with this technique. Although posteroventral pallidotomy(PVP) can alleviate dyskinesias appendicular bradykinesia and rigidity, tremor may not be completely ameliorated. Between January 1993 and May 1997, the authors performed posteroventral pallidotomy(PVP) on 69 patients with Parkinson's disease who had bradikinesia, rigidity, drug induced dyskinesia and tremor. Of these patients who had only PVPs 17(25%) patients had severe tremor, 20(29%) patients moderate tremor and 32(46 %) patients mild or no tremor after the surgery. We have combined ventrolateral thalamotomy(VLT ) and PVP in 37 patients with moderate to severe tremor. Of the 37 patients, who had both PVP and VLT, 27(73%) patients showed good improvement, and fair improve-ment in 10(27%). Except for 6 cases with transient dysarthria we did not encounter any other operative complications from the ipsilateral combined PVP and VLT. The combination of the two procedures appear to provide excellent relief for the majority of symptoms in patients suffering from advanced Parkinsons disease with rigidity bradykinesia, dyskinesia and tremor.

Glioblastoma Following Surgery of Cavernous Malformation: Case Report

The authors report a case of left parietal glioblastoma developed five years after surgical removal of the frontal cavernous malformation. A 36-year-old woman presented with history of seizure for 13 years and left frontal parasagittal mass on MRI. The mass was removed uneventfully, and the histopathologic examination revealed a cavernous malformation. Her seizure disappeared after the surgery. Five years later, the patient developed new symptoms of right leg weakness and paresthesia. Imaging studies followed by pathological study revealed left parietal, parasagittal glioblastoma, which was located posterior to the previous surgical field. Following surgery, she is now on regular follow up with radiation therapy and chemotherapy. The authors report this rare occurence of the glioblastoma following surgical removal of cavernous malformation with review of pertinent literatures.

The Influence of Different Concentrations of Cryoprotectants on Neuronal Cell Viability

Apromising technique for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and other various neurodegenerative disorders is the transplantation of fetal neural tissue. There must, however, be a prompt and reliable source, and one solution is cryopreservation, where tissue viability can maintained for prolonged periods. Fetal neural tissue is, however, known to be susceptible to freeze-storage damage during cryopreservation. In this study, we examined the influence of different concentrations of cryoprotectants upon the survival of rat fetal neurones. Fetal rat brain tissue was frozen with 7-15% dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO) and 10-50% fetal bovine serum(FBS) as cryoprotectants, then stored for a period of 5 months. Post-storage neuronal cell viabilty was assessed by vital staining followed by determination of cell density. Average total viability of frozen cells with 7% DMSO and 10-50% FBS was less than 50%. Cryopreserved cells with 10-50% DMSO and 10-50% FBS showed almost the same viability(around 70%). The highest viability was obtained with 15% DMSO+20% FBS combination(76%) and 10% DMSO+10% FBS combination(75%). Theoretically, the higher the concentration of cryoprotectants, the higher the viability: however, the best result was achieved stated above, when the combination of cryoprotectants was at the concentrations stated above.

Clinical Analysis of Basilar Skull Fracture (BSF)

188 consecutive cases with basilar skull fractures(BSF) out of 2676 head injury patients who were treated in Chung-Ang Gil Hospital from July 1993 to June 1995, were analyzed. These fractures are difficult to diagnose by ordinary X-ray examinations, routine head computed tomography(CT) and are frequently inferred by clinical signs. Therefore, it's diagnosis is somtimes delayed or missed in initial assessment of trauma patients. They are different from cranial vault fractures in several aspects other than difficulties in the diagnosis. It involves more commonly the cranial nerves(CN), makes cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) fistulae and leads to central nervous system(CNS) infections if the CSF fistulae are not detected or treated early and properly. The authors reviewed the clinical features, radiological findings, rate of delayed diagnosis, complications and outcomes. The most common feature of BSF was otorrhea(64.4%) and followed by rhinorrhea(39.4%), raccoon eye(32.4%) and hemotympanum(24.5%). In only 6.4% of cases, the fracture lines were detected by ordinary skull radiographs and diagnosed as BSF. In contrast, the high resolution skull base CT confirmed the fractures in 62.2%. Clinical diagnoses were made in 14.9%. Commonly combined craniofacial lesions were cranial vault fractures(51.1%), intracranial hemorrhages(46.3%), and facial bone fractures(34.0%). Most of CSF leakages(89.7%) were noted within 24 hours after injury and most of the leakages (87.7%) had ceased by conservative management within 2 weeks, but 5.1% that did not respond to conservative treatment and lumbar CSF drainage, needed invasive operative repair. The incidence of meningitis was 3.2% and the prophylactic antibiotics had no benificial effect on lowering the infection rate. Facial nerve was the most frequently involved cranial nerve followed by vestibulo-cocchlear, oculomotor, and olfactory nerve in decreasing order of frequency. The onset of facial palsy was immediate in 31.8% and the remainder were delayed more than 24 hours after head injury. Of 188 patients, 21 cases(11.2%) were delayed in the diagnosis of BSF.

Six Cases of Thoraco-lumbar Tuberculosis Treated by Anterior Decompression and Fusion with or withought Instrumentation

The anterior decompression and fusion have been the choice of surgical treatment for spinal tuberculosis since 1960. From April 1995 to April 1996, we operated on six patients of thoraco-lumbar tuberculosis. The procedure consisted of anterior decompression through corpectomy, stabilization with anterior instrument and bone graft with or without Titanium MESH. MRI provides a valuable information about the extent of the disease in multiple planes, thereby helping surgeons in planning of the operation. The thoracic spine was involed in four patients, the lumbar spine in two. On average, two vertebral bodies were involved. Anterior and middle column of spine were involved in all patients, but posterior column was intact in all patients. Disc space involvement was seen in all patients. Paraspinal abscess was observed in three patients. Epidural compression of the spinal cord or cauda equina was noted in all patients. Four patients showed neurological improvements and relief of pain. However, the recovery of two remaning paraplegic patients was not remarkable. There was no single case associated with persistence or recurrence of infection after instrumentation.

A Case of Live Sparganum in Spinal Epidural Space

Clinical experience with a rare case of sparganosis invading the spinal epidural space was reported with review of the literatures. A 58-year-old man who had food hakit of eating raw snakes was hospitalized with chief complaint of low back and left leg pain.

The Effect of Halothane-induced Acidosis on Focal Cerebral Ischemia in Rat

The current study was performed to investigate the influence of acidosis on focal cerebral ischemia in view of morphometric assay and neuropathological examination. The acidosis was induced by increment of halothane concentration and by decreasing respiratory rate. The mean pH were 7.423+/-0.012 in control group and 7.184+/-0.038 in acidosis group. Twenty-four hours after MCA occlusion(MCAO), neutral red staining and perfusion fixation was performed. The ischemic area was measured and morphometric analysis was undertaken. In acidosis group, the infarct area was 25.23+/-4.78% of the total cerebral area;in control group, the infarct area was 27.69+/-4.05%. The histopathological findings were examined under light microscopy, in which the field scanning was carried out from the midline by 0.5mm interval at cortical and basal ganglia levels. These results indicated that although there was no satistically significant difference in infarct area between acidosis and control group, increased acidosis aggravated the extent of histopathologic ischemic neuronal damage.

Cathepsin D in Glial Tumors: Comparative Study with PCNA and Cell Cycle Analysis

No abstract available.

The Surgical Management of the Brachial Pleuxs Injuries / 대한정형외과학회잡지

Microsurgery offers a more effective approach to the brachial plexus lesions than any treatments previously available. The authors have performed operation to the injured plexus by microsurgical techniques since 1980. We selected 15 patients whom we could follow more than one year and had results as follow. 1. The causes of injuries were traffic accident(7 cases), gun-shot injury(4 cases), stab wound(3cases), and belt injury (1 case). 2. Two patients had preganglionic lesion and 13 patients had postganglionic lesions, among which seven cases were supraclavicular and six cases were infraclavicular. Most frequently injured site was in upper two roots and upper trunk (7 cases). 3. All of them were treated by surgical intervention, 12 cases by interfascicular nerve graft using autogenous sural nerve, one case by intercostal neurotization, one case by neurolysis, and one case by exploration only. 4. Elbow flexor and deltoideus were involved easily by injury than other muscles, but they had best prognosis to the microsurgical treatment. 5. The recovery of wrist and finger function was poor but they were frequently preserved from injury.