Well-Tolerated and Undiscovered Common Atrium until Late Adulthood.

Common atrium is a rare congenital heart disease characterized by complete absence of the interatrial septum, and is commonly accompanied by malformation of the atrioventricular valve. Most patients with common atrium experience symptoms during childhood. Here, we describe a patient with common atrium who experienced his first obvious symptom at 48 years of age.

Clinical aspects of pregnancy and delivery in patients with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).

Background: Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a condition that often develops in young women and, consequently, physicians should frequently manage and monitor pregnant patients with this disorder.

Methods: We reviewed the charts of 30 women with chronic ITP delivered in 31 pregnancies from January 1995 to December 2003.

Results: Fifteen patients were diagnosed with ITP before pregnancy and sixteen patients were diagnosed during pregnancy.

[Outbreak of hepatitis by Orientia tsutsugamushi in the early years of the new millenium].

Background/aims: Orientia -tsutsugamushi infection is an acute febrile disease due to the accidental transmission through human skin of forest dwelling vector Leptotrombidium larva. The authors observed liver dysfunctions in patients diagnosed with tsutsugamushi disease (Scrub typhus) in the past 3 years and report the data in the hope of bringing attention to this disease in the differential diagnosis of autumn-season hepatitis, especially of non-A, non-B and non-C hepatitis.

Methods: Medical records of 22 patients diagnosed with tsutsugamushi disease by the hemagglutinin method between October 2000 and November 2002 were reviewed.

[Relationship of propranolol pharmacokinetic parameters with portosystemic shunt in CCl4-induced cirrhotic rats].

Background/aims: This study was designed to determine the relationship of propranolol pharmacokinetic parameters with portosystemic shunt in CCl4-induced cirrhotic rats.

Methods: Cirrhotic rats(n=6) were induced by intramuscular injection of CCl4 in olive oil(two time per weeks) for 12 weeks. Controls (n=6) were injected intramuscularly with the same dose of olive oil for 12 weeks.