A micro-computed tomographic evaluation of root canal filling with a single gutta-percha cone and calcium silicate sealer

Objectives@#The purpose of this study was to evaluate the void of root canal filling over time when a calcium silicate sealer was used in the single gutta-percha cone technique. @*Materials and Methods@#Twenty-four J-shaped simulated root canals and twenty-four palatal root canals from extracted human maxillary molars were instrumented with ProFile Ni-Ti rotary instruments up to size 35/0.06 or size 40/0.06, respectively. Half of the canals were filled with Endoseal MTA and the other half were with AH Plus Jet using the single gutta-percha cone technique. Immediately after and 4 weeks after the root canal filling, the samples were scanned using micro-computed tomography at a resolution of 12.8 μm. The scanned images were reconstructed using the NRecon software and the void percentages were calculated using the CTan software, and statistically analyzed by 1-way analysis of variance, paired t-test and Tukey post hoc test. @*Results@#After 4 weeks, there were no significant changes in the void percentages at all levels in both material groups (p > 0.05), except at the apical level of the AH Plus Jet group (p < 0.05) in the simulated root canal showing more void percentage compared to other groups. Immediately after filling the extracted human root canals, the Endoseal MTA group showed significantly less void percentage compared to the AH Plus Jet group (p < 0.05). @*Conclusions@#Under the limitations of this study, the Endoseal MTA does not seem to reduce the voids over time.

The Corneal Topographic Changes in Sutureless Cataract Surgery

In order to compare the visual outcome and amount of surgically induced outcome between 3.1mm clear corneal incision group and 6.0mm scleral tunnel incision group in sutureless cataract surgery, 55 eyes(44 patients) were evaluated retrospectively. Clear corneal incision group and scleral tunnel incision group was consisted of 35 eyes and 20 eyes respectively and all patients were followed up by 2months postoperatively. Twenty two eyes(65%) from clear corneal incision group and 14 eyes(70%) from scleral tunnel incision group showed the uncorrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better at postoperative first day. As measurement of surgically induced astigmatism corneal topography using CVK(computerized videokeratography) was applied. The corneal flattening was significantly more prominent at the distances of 0.75, 1.5, and 2.5mm along the 90-degree meridian at one week postoperatively in clear corneal incision group than scleral tunnel incision(p0.05). The change of surgically induced astigmatism between one day and eight weeks was within the range of one diopter in both groups. There was moderate corneal edema along the incisional meridian at one week and recovered to preoperative levet at four weeks postoperatively in clear corneal incisional group. Conclusively, clear corneal incision in catarad surgery showed early visual rehabilitation and small surgical astigmatism such like scleral tunnel incision.

Safety Study of Hypoallergenic Mascara for Human Eyes

We performed in vitro tests, experiments on rabbits and clinical trials to treat dermatologic and ocular irritation using mascaras with different ratios of components. Two kinds of mascaras with high concentration of polymers caused moderately severe vascular constriction in the chorioallantoic membrane(CAM) vascular assay and showed significant conjunctival injection and eye discharge following instillation on rabbits' eyes compared to low concentration of polymers. There was no significant difference in the skin reactions caused by mascara with a low concentration of polymers of which safety was confirmed by using above tests and repeat insult patch test involving 20 adult females. Hypoallergenic mascara with a low concentration of polymers showed no subjective symptoms but mild rashes on lids appeared in 1 case, conjunctival injection in 3 cases and corneal erosions in 4 cases among the 40 female adult subjects including 8 contact lens wearers. However the cases improved spontaneously without any treatment. There was no statistically significant change of tear break-up time(BUT) between contact lens wearers and non wearers for both before and after mascara use(P>0.05). In this study, it has been confirmed that the new mascara is safe in animal experiments for ocular irritation and CAM vascular assay as well as human patch test for contact allergy revealed the safety as a ocular cosmetic.

An Approach for Endotracheal Intubation in Acromegaly Patient / 대한마취과학회지

Acromegaly is a chronic,debilitating disease by excessive growth hormone production due to pituitary adenoma. Anesthesiologists are frequently confronted with problems such as excessive mandible protrusion, macroglossia and tracheal stenosis, which make intubation very difficult and risky in acromegalic patients.So, the authors tried to predict difficult intubation because acromegalic patients have anatomical change of airway.With X-ray film of acromegalic patient, measuring atlanto-occipital gap(2.5 mm), mandible ramus angle(8.4 cm), mandibulo-hyoid distance (35 mm), level of hyoid bone (between 4th and 5th cervical bone) provide clues to perceive difficult intubation. By abnormal data of these measurements, we can anticipate the difficult intubation with moderate accuracy compared with normal patient. It is prudent to consider using other methods such as fiberoptic bronchoscopic intubation, blind endotracheal intubation and transtracheal jet ventilation when difficult endotracheal intubation is predicted in those patients. (Korean J Anesthesiol 1995; 29: 310~314)

The Clinical Effect of Augmented Surgery for Partially Accommodative esotropia

In the partially accommodative esotropia, conventional operation based only on the nonaccommodative angle often results in undercorrection. To decrease the incidence of postoperative undercorrection, the authors augmented the amount of the surgical correction to be the average of the near deviation with and without correction. In this study we compared augmented surgery to conventional surgery in patients who underwent bilateral medial rectus recessions. 36 patients with hypermetropia of +2.50 or more, were retrospectively studied. The follow up on each group was at least 3 months. Of the 18 patients in nonaugmented group, 8(44%) had postoperative deviations of 10 prism diopters or less and 10(56%) showing a undercorrection. Of the 18 patients of augmented surgery, 14(78%) had postoperative deviations of 10 prism diopters or less and 2(11%) was exotropic while wearing full hyperopic correction. But of the 2 patients with a consecutive exodeviation, 1 was corrected to orthophoria by reducing the spectacle correction and 1 after removing spectacles. The overall success rate of 89% for the augmented surgery is much higher than that of the conventional surgery. We conclude that the augmented surgery provides better postoperative alignment than the conventional surgery and recommend this augmented surgery in partially accommodative esotropia.

Ocular Protrusion and Spontaneous Regression in Bilateral Retinoblastomas

Retinoblastoma is the most common intraocular malignant tumor in childhood. The early diagnosis can be made in children having strabismus, decreased visual acuity, or family history of retinoblastoma. As the tumor grows larger, it produces leukocoria, iris heterochromia, secondary neovascular glaucoma due to rubeosis iridis, ocular protrusion due to mass, optic nerve extension and distant metastasis. Rarely, this tumor shows spontaneous regression to induce phthisis. We recently experienced a case of bilateral retinoblastoma in a 2 year old girl who presented with the protruded right eyeball due to the massive growth of retinoblastoma, simultaneously with the phthisicae left eyeball due to spontaneous regression of retinoblastoma.