Investigation of Genetic Evidence for Sasang Constitution Types in South Korea

In Sasang constitutional medicine, both disease susceptibility and drug response are considered to be related to the characteristics of an individual's physiology and psychology: a theory which is central to traditional Korean medicine. Based on such observable characteristics, Sasang constitutional medicine classifies people into four constitutional types. Genetic studies of Sasang constitution would help reveal the inheritance patterns and models of the typological traits and, moreover, help with traditional medical diagnosis and treatment. To investigate the heritable aspect of Sasang constitution, we collected various pedigrees from South Korea. The study population has 101 pedigrees composed of 593 individuals. The determination of the Sasang constitution type of each individual was performed by doctors who diagnose the Sasang constitutional type of individuals as part of their professional practice. We calculated estimates of familial correlation and heritability. Parent-Offspring pairs showed the strongest familial correlation of Sasang constitutional type, with the correlation values of 0.21 and 0.28, followed by sibling pairs with the value ranging between 0.14 and 0.25. From the heritability analysis conducted with the Variance-Component method, the heritability of TE (Tae-Eum) type, SY (So-Yang) type, and SE (So-Eum) type were 55%, 41%, and 47%, respectively. This pattern of heritability was consistent with different set of analyses, which suggest the robustness of our result. Our result clearly shows that the Sasang constitution type is heritable, and further genetic analysis based on our result will shed light on the biological mechanism of Sasang constitution.

A Rare Ileal Intussusception Caused by a Lipoma of the Ileum

Adult intussusception is a rare disease and it differs from childhood intussusception in its presentation, cause and treatment. Most of the cases have an underlying lesion within the intussusception that requires surgical resection. Making the diagnosis can be delayed because of the nonspecific and chronic symptoms, and many cases are diagnosed during performance of emergency laparotomy for treating the obstructive symptoms. A computed tomography (CT) scan is most useful for making the diagnosis of adult intussusception and is helpful in revealing the underlying lesion, although a barium enema can help to diagnose colonic intussusceptions. Surgical resection remains the recommended treatment for nearly all cases, but there is controversy about whether or not the intussusception should be initially reduced before resection. Gastrointestinal lipomas are rare benign tumors that can occur anywhere along the gut, and the small bowel is the second most common site for gastrointestinal lipomas after the colon. Intussusception of the ileum by a lipoma is very rare. We report here on a case of ileo-ileal intussusception that was caused by a lipoma of the ileum in a 35-year-old man who complained of abdominal pain of one week duration. The diagnosis of an ileo-ileal intussusception caused by a lipoma of the ileum was suspected preoperatively according to the typical CT findings, so we tried to initially reduce the intussusception during laparotomy. But manual reduction was impossible due to the edema of the lesion, and an ileum of some length had to be resected.

Studies on the sensory changes and somatosensory evoked potential in thalamic stroke

BACKGROUND: The thalamus is a subcortical gray-matter composed of several groups of nuclei. Though there are some characteristic clinical findings in thalamic stroke syndrome, it is not easy to identify their own function in each nuclei. We demonstrated this study to figure out the relationships between anatomic nucleus, sensory symptoms, and electrophysiologic findings in thalamic stroke. METHODS: Sixteen thalamic stroke patients were studied. Fifteen cases showed thalamic lacunar infarction by magnetic resonance imaging and one case showed thalamic hemorrhage by computed tomography. We compared their sensory symptoms and signs, somatosensory evoked potentials(SSEP), the size of lesions, and the location of lesions on imaging studies. RESULTS: There were 12 cases of a lesion on ventroposterolateral(VPL) nucleus(Group I) and 4 cases of a lesion on the other nuclei(Group II). All 8 cases which had a sensory deficit in Group I, and 2 cases - one with sensory deficit and the other without in Group II, showed abnormal SSEP findings. There were 9 cases in Group I and 3 cases in Group II with thalamic pain and there was no relationship between SSEP and thalamic pain. Five were pure sensory strokes in 6 patients with a small lesion(less than 0.5 cm), and pure sensory strokes were only 3 in 10 patients with relatively a large lesion (between 0.5 and 1.5 cm). CONCLUSION: There was significant relationship between sensory deficit and SSEP. SSEP can be used as a objective method in estimating the sensory deficit of thalamic stroke. We could ascertain the fact that other nuclei as well as VPL nucleus were associated with the development of pain in thalamic stroke, and there was significant relationship between the size of lesion and the clinical feature of stroke.