Efficacy of Prenatal Ultrasonographic Diagnosis of Congenital Anomalies

During a 6-year period, from January 1990 to December 1995, 101 neonates with congenital anomalies were admitted to the division of pediatric surgery of Youngdong Severance Hospital. Fifty eight of them had prenatally detectable anomalies by ultrasonography and all of them had prenatal screening more than once with ultrasound. The abnormalities were prenatally detected in 24 neonates (41%). The detection rate was 70% in patients who had the prenatal screening at our hospital, whereas, the rate was 24% when it was performed at other medical facilities. Duodenal and jejunoileal atresias showed the highest detection rate (86%) and the next was the abdominal mass. The esophageal atresia was suggested by maternal polyhydramnios in 3 patients (25%). The only one patient with diaphragmatic hernia (17%) and no patients with gastroschisis were prenatally detected. The mean interval from birth to operation was 32 hours in the prenatally detected patients and 50 hours in the nondetected. The complication rate and the mortality after emergency operation were 20% and 7% in the detected group and 58% and 23% in the nondetected, respectively. The average period of the hospitalization was 20 days in the detected group and 39 days in the nondetected. We conclude that the prenatal detection of anomalies was necessary in order to give adequate care to the mothers and the babies, including early transfer to the tertiary care hospital, the decision of the optimal timing of delivery and of the timing of operation for babies. The prenatal diagnosis was also helpful to reduce the operative complication and the mortality.

Effcts of Hemodialysis and Contiuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis on Thyroid Function in Chronic Renal Failure / 대한신장학회잡지

The changes of thyroid hormones are expected in patients with chronic renal failure(CRF) because the kidney plays an important role in metabolism and excretion of thyroid hormones. In spite of many studies about this issue, there have not been full consensus about the nature and mechanism of thyroid hormone changes. We undertook the present study to reveal the dialysis effects on these hormones. We measured basal levels of serum total T3 (T3), total T4(T4), free T4(FT4), reverse T3(rT3) and TSH, and then calculated the ratio of T3/T4, rT3/T3 and rT3/T4. The following groups were identifed : Group I-10 cases of normal controls, Group II-18 cases of pre-dialysis or treated conservatively, Group III-20 cases treated by maintenance hemodialysis(HD), Group IV-18 cases treated by continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis(CAPD). Patients from group II, III and IV revealed significantly decreased levels of T3 and T4, and increased ratio of rT3/T4 in comparison to the control group(P36months), the mean concentrations of free T4 levels revealed signifcantly decreased in comparison to the short-term dialysis group(P<0.05). Thyroid dysfunction are observed in CRF patients with partial recovery after dialysis therapy. Especially, CAPD achieves significantly improved thyroid dysfunction compared to HD, but further study would be necessary.