Simple diagnostic approach to childhood fecal retention using the Leech score and Bristol stool form scale in medical practice.

Background And Aim: To assess fecal retention, plain abdominal radiography is frequently used to complement the clinical history and physical examination, and three scoring systems have been proposed by Barr, Blethyn, and Leech on a single abdominal radiography. The aim of the present study was to find simple and useful diagnostic tools for an approach to fecal retention by correlation of the three scoring systems with the clinical characteristics.

Methods: This study included 76 children (5.

Hepatic fibrosis scan for liver stiffness score measurement: a useful preendoscopic screening test for the detection of varices in postoperative patients with biliary atresia.

Objective: Even after successful Kasai portoenterostomy, progressive hepatic fibrosis in postoperative patients with biliary atresia (BA) can be associated with portal hypertension and esophageal or gastric varices. Therefore, early diagnosis and close follow-up of varices are important. We investigated the correlation between the liver stiffness scores measured by FibroScan and the presence of esophageal or gastric varices to examine the usefulness of FibroScan as a preendoscopic screening test for varices.

Living Donor Liver Transplantation in a Korean Child with Glycogen Storage Disease Type IV and a GBE1 Mutation.

Glycogen storage disease type IV (GSD-IV) is an autosomal recessive disease caused by a deficient glycogen branching enzyme (GBE), encoded by the GBE1 gene, resulting in the accumulation of abnormal glycogen deposits in the liver and other tissues. We treated a 20-month-old girl who presented with progressive liver cirrhosis and was diagnosed with GSD-IV, as confirmed by GBE1 gene mutation analysis, and underwent living related heterozygous donor liver transplantation. Direct sequencing of the GBE1 gene revealed that the patient was compound heterozygous for a known c.

Coinfection of viral agents in Korean children with acute watery diarrhea.

Currently, there are a few reports on viral coinfection that causes an acute watery diarrhea in Korean children. So, to evaluate the features of coinfectious viral agents in children with acute watery diarrhea, we enrolled 155 children with acute watery diarrhea from July 2005 to June 2006. Fecal samples were collected and evaluated for various viral infections such as rotavirus, norovirus, adenovirus and astrovirus.

Gastric volvulus associated with agenesis of the left lobe of the liver in a child: a case treated by laparoscopic gastropexy.

Association of gastric volvulus with agenesis of the left lobe of the liver is very rare and mostly reported in adults. We report a case of gastric volvulus associated with agenesis of the left lobe of the liver in a child, which was successfully treated by laparoscopic gastropexy.

Lamivudine therapy for korean children with chronic hepatitis B.

Purpose: Lamivudine is known to be very effective in suppressing hepatitis B virus replication and virus induced necroinflammation. The aim of this study was to evaluate lamivudine therapy efficacy, predictive factors, breakthrough, prevalence of YMDD mutation, and relapse rate in Korean children with chronic hepatitis B.

Materials And Methods: Between August 1999 and February 2005, 60 children on lamivudine therapy for chronic hepatitis B were enrolled.

Nodular gastritis and pathologic findings in children and young adults with Helicobacter pylori infection.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the pathologic characteristics of nodular gastritis in children and young adults infected with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori).

Materials And Methods: A total of 328 patients were enrolled in this study, and the diagnosis of H.

Using MR cholangiopancreatography to reveal anomalous pancreaticobiliary ductal union in infants and children with choledochal cysts.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether MR cholangiopancreatography can accurately depict anomalous pancreaticobiliary ductal union in children with choledochal cysts.

Subjects And Methods: Twenty children (age range, 1 month-13 years; mean age, 4.6 years; all girls) who were diagnosed with choledochal cyst by sonography underwent MR cholangiopancreatography with a single-shot fast spin-echo sequence.

Magnetic resonance cholangiography for the diagnosis of biliary atresia.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of magnetic resonance cholangiography (MRC) for the diagnosis of biliary atresia in infantile cholestatic jaundice.

Methods: Forty-seven consecutive infants with cholestatic jaundice underwent single-shot MRC. The diagnosis of biliary atresia was made by MRC based on the nonvisualization of extrahepatic bile ducts and excluded on the basis of the complete visualization of extrahepatic bile ducts.