New Meroterpenoids from a Penicillium sp. Fungus

Two meroterpenoids (1 and 2) along with twelve known compounds (3 – 14) were isolated from the culture broth of a Penicillium sp. fungus collected from Chuja-do, Korea. Based on the results of a combination of spectroscopic analyses, the new compounds, preaustinoids E (1) and F (2), were determined to be epimeric austin-type penta-cyclic lactones.

A New Sesterterpene from the Korean Sarcotragus sp. Sponge

Sarcotragin C (1), a new sesterterpene metabolite was isolated from a Sarcotragus sp. sponge collected from Chuja Island, Korea. On the basis of the combined spectroscopic analyses, the structure of this compound was determined to be a linear norsesterterpene containing a leucine-derived gamma-lactam moiety. This compound exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against K562 and A549 cell-lines.

Clinical Review of Post-transplantation Diabetes Mellitus after Liver Transplantation / 대한이식학회지

PURPOSE: Liver transplantation (LT) can cure abnormality of glucose metabolism, but cause altered glucose metabolism with immunosuppressive treatment. Up to now, almost all studies have been performed in cadaveric donor liver transplantation (CDLT). We underwent study in CDLT and also living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) recipients. METHODS: Among 397 adult-to-adult LT recipients between January 1994 and August 2001, we selected 81 patients who could be followed more than 12 months by using the table of random sampling numbers. We reviewed the change of blood glucose and risk factors, complications and survival retrospectively between post-transplantation diabetes mellitus (PTDM) and no PTDM patients. RESULTS: Clinical data showed 34 : 47 in frequency of PTDM to no PTDM. Age, family history of DM, preoperative DM history over 6 months had a significant risk of PTDM. There was no difference of PTDM frequency between CDLT and LDLT and its subgroup. The worse post-transplant graft function causes the more incidence of PTDM (P=0.051). FK506 had higher relation with PTDM than cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetile (P=0.058). The incidence of DM after operation has been decreased by 6 months, but thereafter no further. There were 18 of De Novo DM among 34 PTDM patients, and only 1 preoperative DM patient improved after LT. Between PTDM and no PTDM group, there were no significant difference of complication rate and 5-year survival rate. CONCLUSIONS: The types of graft would not affect the incidence of PTDM if the graft function were preserved. Other clinical data showed similar results to previous reports.

Analysis for Influencing Factor of the Organ Procurement Rate in Brain Dead Donors / 대한이식학회지

PURPOSE: The number of patients waiting for organ transplantation continues to grow as technical and pharmacological advances increase the success rate of transplantation procedures, while organs are donated by few of the thousands of potential donors who die every year. The organ transplantation continues to be the best treatment for many end-stage diseases of the heart, liver, kidneys, and other organs. Many organ procurement failures have been attributed to a failure to identify patients with nonsurvivable central nervous system injury or disease as potential organ donors or failure to maintain a hemodynamic stability or failure to request consent for donation from next to kin. This study has been done for investigating the factors that influence the organ procurement rate in brain dead donors. METHODS: Of the 259 brain dead donors in the Asan Medical Center, from January 1991 to April 2003, 189 brain dead donors donated solid organs excluding conea. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records and the data of the transplantation center. A hemodynamic stability is defined as systolic blood pressure more than 90~100 mmHg with the use of low-dose vasopressor (dopamine less than 10microgram/ kg/min). RESULTS: From January 1991 to April 2003, the procurement rates of liver, heart, kidney and pancreas were 39% (n=75), 40% (n=76), 97% (n=184) and 17% (n=33), respectively. The procurement rates according to age were 26% in 50 years (n=11). The major. causes of death among potential organ donors were traffic accident (59%) and cerebrovascular events (33%). In traffic accident, the procurement rates of liver, heart, kidney and pancreas were 42% (n=47), 37% (n=41), 98% (n=109) and 16% (n=18), and in cerebrovascular events, 33% (n=21), 38% (n=24), 97% (n=61) and 19% (n=12). Multiple organs were donated in the hemodynamically stable donors. CONCLUSION: Aggressive resuscitation and hemodynamically stabilization of all brain dead donors are important factors that may increase procurement rates.

Results from the Types of Surgical Treatment for Hepatic Cyst

PURPOSE: Symptomatic and/or malignant changes in hepatic cysts require surgical treatment, but there are few comparative studies with respect to the safety and long-term effectiveness. We compared the resection and non-resection of hepatic cysts from the view point of recurrence and complications. METHODS: We reviewed 24 patients who underwent surgery for hepatic cysts between 1990 and 2001 at a single institution. There included 15 resections and 9 non-resections. RESULTS: The median age was 59 years, with a male to female sex ratio of 9: 15. The median size of the dominant cyst was 12 cm, and 22 patients presented with symptoms. We treated 12 simple cysts, 3 polycystic liver diseases (PCLD), 3 cystadenomas, 1 cystadenocarcinoma, 2 hamartomas, 1 hydatid cyst, 1 traumatic cyst and 1 other. The causes requiring an operation were peritoneal irritation in 7, a mass effect such as early satiety or jaundice in 5, possible malignancy in 4, associated hepatobiliary diseases in 3, increase of cyst sizes in 2 and another disease in 2. We performed 5 right lobectomies, 2 left lobectomies, 1 left lateral segmentectomy, 3 non-anatomical resections, 3 cyst excisions, and 1 total hepatectomy for liver transplantation in the resection group. 6 unroofings and 3 fenestrations were performed in the non-resection group, in which a laparoscopic approach was applied in 3 cases. The incidence of postoperative complications were uncommon in both groups, whereas resection decreased the recurrence rate significantly (P=0.003). CONCLUSION: Resection is a safe and effective procedure to lower the recurrence of all cystic lesions in the liver.

Recurrence and Management of Hepatitis C after Liver Transplantation / 대한간학회지

BACKGROUND/AIMS: End-stage liver disease caused by viral hepatitis C has been increasing recently in Korea. In this study, we investigated the clinical progress, recurrence, and management of hepatitis C patients who underwent liver transplantation. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical progress and management of 16 patients (2.7%) with hepatitis C among 587 liver transplant patients from August 1992 to August 2002. RESULTS: Eleven cases among 16 patients were males. The median age was 56 +/- 6 (42-62) years and the median follow-up period was 6 +/- 13 (1-41) months. Thirteen cases underwent living donor liver transplantation and three had cadaveric whole liver transplantation. Clinical recurrence occurred in nine cases (56.3%) and mean time of recurrence was 5.2 months. Histological recurrence cases were eight (50%). A positive result of HCV RNA PCR was found in 90.9%, and all cases of clinical and histological recurrence in groups in the same periods were PCR-positive. Among eight cases showing histological recurrence, five patients were managed by ribavirin monotherapy, two patients received interferon and ribavirin combination therapy, and one patient was not treated at all. The serum aminotransferase level was normalized in six cases (75%) of them. CONCLUSIONS: We observed that the HCV reinfection rate of a transplanted liver was high in this study, as in other reports in the literature. The prevention of HCV recurrence and the management of post-recurrent cirrhotic change are crucial for graft and patient survival. We think customized protocols are needed for every situation of recurrent hepatitis C.

Clinical Analysis of the New Handling Method of Pancreatic Cut Surface in Pancreatoduodenectomy / 한국간담췌외과학회지

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Pancreatoduodenectomy is a common procedure for benign or malignant periampulary diseases. But the morbidity and mortality of the procedure are usually high. Being related with morbidity and mortality, the most important procedure of pancreatoduodenectomy is how handle the remnant pancreas. We analysed retrospectively the efficiency of the new method for low morbidity and low mortality in handling of the remnant pancreas in the procedures of pancreatoduodenectomy. METHODS: 118 consecutive patients who had undergone a pancreatoduodenectomy and pancreaticojejunostomy performed by one surgeon, between September 1994 and June 1999, were evaluated retrospectively. The cases were analysed by age, sex, pathologic dianosis, operation time, the amount of transfusion during operation, the hospital stay, postoperative complications and state of survival. RESULTS: The average age of 118 patients was 57.6 years, and the male and female ratio was 1.19:1. The classification by patholoic diagnoses were distal common bile duct cancers (29%), the ampulla of Vater cancers (23%), the pancreas head cancers (14%), the duodenal cancers (1.7%) and the others (32%) including benign diseases. The average operation time was 8 hours 3 minutes, the average amount of transfusion was 0.84 unit and the average hospital stay was 26.1 days. There are 12 (10.2%) postoperative complications. The most were 6(5%) cases of delayed gastric emptying, and the others were 2 (1.7%) cases of leakage of pancreaticojejunostomy, 1 (0.8%) case of ARDS, 1 (0.8%) case of gastroduodenal artery bleeding, 1 (0.8%) case of remnant pancreas bleeding, and 1 (0.8%) case of pseudoaneurysmal bleeding of gastroduodenal artery. The 2 cases of leakage of pancreaticojejunostomy developed at the patients of duodenal cancer and ampulla of Vater cancer. The patient who diagnosed by ampulla of Vater cancer died for sepsis due to leakage of the pancreaticojejunostomy (1/118, 0.8%). CONCLUSION: We had good results in pancreatoduodenectomy and pancreaticojejunostomy by a new method that protect the anastomotic leakge from pancreaticojejunostomy site. This method include pancreas transection by elctrocoagulation, not doing sutures of remnant pancreas to prevent ischemic change of pancreatic cut surface and complete drainage of pancreatic juice using stent that was inserted at remnant pancreatic duct and externally ligated by vicryl with keeping the lumen.

AVF Creation Using Synthetic Graft

PURPOSE: Graft interposition arteriovenous fistula (GAVF) graft has been used for the chronic renal failure patients when autogenous arteriovenous fistular procedure is not feasible. Reported, mean first year primary patency rate of GAVF was 40~60%, and the secondary patency being 50~70%. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the patency rate of our AVF using synthetic graft, and factors influencing on the patency rate. METHOD: To evaluate the patency rate of GAVF and the causes of GAVF occlusion, we analyzed 430 cases of GAVF from January 1998 to December 2000. 430 graft interposition was performed on 357 patients, accounting 36.9% of the total 1163 AVF procedure. RESULT: The primary patency rate were 69.8% at the first and 66.6% at the second year. The mean occlusion free interval was 15.8 months. The secondary patency rate was 82.0% at the first year, and 71.2% at the second year. The mean secondary patency interval was 18.5 months. Early occlusion within 1month of surgery has been due to a misjudgement in evaluation of adequate artery and vein (11/16, 68.8%). Majority of the occlusion occurred after 5 months of surgery (37.8%). In late occlusion cases, the common causes were somewhat different. They were intimal hyperplasia at venous anastomosis site and improper hemostasis or sudden changes of hemodynamics during dialysis. CONCLUSION: These data lead us to conclude that a skilled judgement of a surgeon is still the most important factor for successful AVF graft surgery in early outcome. Intimal hyperplasia at venous anastomosis site remains to be the main cause of long term failure.