Known or newly found CA and CHA variations could be systematically described in detail. The authors propose a hypothetical anatomic model for summarizing the observed CHA variations.

ObjectiveTo assess the technical success and complication rates of the radiologic placement of central venous ports via the internal jugular vein.Materials and MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed 1254 central venous ports implanted at our institution between August 2002 and October 2009. All procedures were guided by using ultrasound and fluoroscopy. Catheter maintenance days, technical success rates, peri-procedural, as well as early and late complication rates were evaluated based on the interventional radiologic reports and patient medical records.ResultsA total of 433386 catheter maintenance days (mean, 350 days; range 0-1165 days) were recorded. The technical success rate was 99.9% and a total of 61 complications occurred (5%), resulting in a post-procedural complication rate of 0.129 of 1000 catheter days. Among them, peri-procedural complications within 24 hours occurred in five patients (0.4%). There were 56 post-procedural complications including 24 (1.9%, 0.055 of 1000 catheter days) early and 32 (2.6%, 0.074 of 1000 catheter days) late complications including, infection (0.6%, 0.018 of 10000 catheter days), thrombotic malfunction (1.4%, 0.040 of 1000 catheter days), nonthrombotic malfunction (0.9%, 0.025 of 1000 catheter days), venous thrombosis (0.5%, 0.014 of 1000 catheter days), as well as wound problems (1.1%, 0.032 of 1000 catheter days). Thirty six CVPs (3%) were removed due to complications. Bloodstream infections and venous thrombosis were the two main adverse events prolonging hospitalization (mean 13 days and 5 days, respectively).ConclusionRadiologic placement of a central venous port via the internal jugular vein is safe and efficient as evidenced by its high technical success rate and a very low complication rate.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Objective: To determine the accuracy of the use of multi-detector row CT (MDCT) to predict vascular anatomy in living kidney donors and to reveal the prevalence of vascular variations in a Korean population. Materials and Methods:A total of 153 living kidney donors that had undergone preoperative CT and nephrectomy, either with open or laparoscopic surgery, were selected retrospectively. The initial CT results were compared with the surgical findings and repeated review sessions of CT scans were performed to determine the causes of mismatches in discordant cases. Results:The accuracy of CT angiography was 95% to predict the number of renal vessels. Four arteries and two veins were missed during the initial CT interpretation due to perception errors (for two arteries and two veins) and technical limitations (two arteries). The prevalence of multiple renal arteries and veins, early branching of a renal artery and late confluence of a renal vein were 31%, 5%, 12%, 17%, respectively. The circumaortic renal vein and the bilateral inferior vena cava were found in two cases each (1.3%). One case (0.7%) each of a retroaortic renal vein and a supradiaphragmatic originated renal artery were found. Conclusion: MDCT provides a reliable method to evaluate the vascular anatomy and variations of living kidney donors.enal transplantation is associated with better survival and quality of life in end-stage renal disease patients than performing dialysis, and living donor renal transplantation has been shown to offer better graft survival than cadaver donor renal transplantation. However, adequate preoperative living kidney donor evaluation is mandatory to reduce the possible occurrence of surgical complications that can threaten the graft, and sometimes the survival of the recipient (1).The usefulness of single section helical computed tomography (CT) for the preoperative evaluation of living kidney donors has been well established (2 4). Several investigators have also described the use of multi-detector row CT (MDCT) for the preoperative evaluation of living kidney donors (5, 6).The study presented here is the largest to date in terms of the number of cases among studies that have examined the accuracy of MDCT that is reconstructed at a 1.00 1.25 mm slice thickness to predict renal vascular anatomy in living renal donors. We also evaluated the cause of misinterpretations by CT. In addition, the prevalence of renal vessel variations in a Korean population was determined.

Methylation of CpG islands inactivates transcription of tumor suppressor genes including p16 (CDKN2A). Inhibitors of DNA methylation and histone deacylation are recognized as useful cancer therapeutic chemicals through reactivation of the expression of methylated genes. However, these inhibitors are not target genespecific, so that they lead to serious side effects as regular cytotoxic chemotherapy agents. To explore the feasibility of methylated gene-specific reactivation by artificial transcription factors, we engineered a set of Sp1-like seven-finger zinc-finger proteins (7ZFPs) targeted to a 21-bp sequence of the p16 promoter and found that these 7ZFPs could bind specifically to the target p16 promoter probe. Then the p16-specific artificial transcription factors (p16ATFs) were made from these 7ZFPs and the transcription activator VP64. Results showed that transient transfection of some p16ATFs selectively up-regulated the endogenous p16 expression in the p16-active 293T cells. Moreover, the transient transfection of the representative p16ATF-6I specifically reactivated p16 expression in the p16-methylated H1299 and AGS cells pretreated with a nontoxic amount of 5'-azadeoxycytidine (20 and 80 nM, respectively). In addition, stable transfection of the p16ATF induced demethylation of p16 CpG island and trimethylation of histone H3K4, and inhibited recruitment of DNA methyltransferase 1 and trimethylation of H3K9 and H3K27 in the p16 promoter in H1299 cells without 5'-aza-deoxycytidine pretreatment. Notably, inhibition of cell migration and invasion was observed in these p16-reactivated cells induced by transient and stable p16ATF transfection. These results demonstrate that p16ATF not only specifically reactivates p16 expression through demethylation of CpG islands, but also restores methylated p16 function.

High-quality bulk β-Ga2O3 single crystals have been grown by optimized edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) method.