It would seem logical that a left to right shunt may be localized to that chamber in which an increase in oxygen content beyond the normal variation is first seen, while this is generally true, there are certain limitations to such direct diagnostic interpretation. The interpretation of an observed difference in oxygen content is influenced by the result of extremely poor mixing or of a change in respiratory, circulatory or metabolic steady states. This is one of the major challenges to proper interpretation. The purpose of this study was to analyze the blood oxygen content in various chambers of the right side of the heart in patients without shunt and to study the difference in oxygen content between the various chambers. The right heart catheterization was performed in 19 cardiac patients without shunt in Cardiac Laboratory in Hospital. 1. The blood oxygen content was 12.36+/-2.23 volume per cent (mean+/-standard error) in superior vena vava, 12.59+/-2.23 volume per cent in inferior vena cava, 12.59+/-2.23 volume per cent in mid-right atrium, 12.92+/-1.90 volume per cent in mid-right ventricle and 12.26+/-2.13 volume per cent in main pulmonary artery. 2. The mean difference of oxygen content was 0.16 volume per cent between superior vena cava and right atrium, 0.08 volume per cent between right atrium and right ventricle, and 0.06 volume per cent between right ventricle and main pulmonary artery.

In order to understand the epidemiologic characteristics and trends of Leptespirosis in Korea, year book of acute infectious disease and literatures published were thoroughly reviewed. The results obtained are as follows: 1. The outbreak of Leptospirosis in Korea has decreased during recent years. Most of the patients occured in Semptember, October, and November. Seventy nine percent of reported patients occured in north Choongchung, south Choongchung, and Kyunggi province in 1987-1991. 2. Leptospires isolation rates were ranged from 0.2% to 16.0% among normal healthy person, higher in rural residents than military personnels. 3. Total of 92 strains were isolated from human in six years from 1984 to 1990. Its main serogroups were Icterhaemorrhagiae and Canicola, predominantly consisted of serovar lai, copenhageni and canicola. Eighteen strains of Biflexa were also isolated from healthy persons and patients. 4. The proportion of Leptospirosis among patients with acute febrile episode has decreased since 1985. Sero-positive rate of male among patients with acute febrile episode is higher than that of female. Sixty percent of sero-positive patients with acute febrile episode was older than 40-year of age. The seropositive rates were consistently the highest in harvest season than other seasons. Residents of north Choongchung, north Chunlla, south Chunlla, Kyunggi, and north Choongchung provinces showed higher seropositive rates than those of other ones. Main serogroups positive to most sera of Koreans were Icterohaemorrhagiae and Canicola. 5. The sero-positive rate of normal healthy persons ranged from 2.0 to 25. 6% ; the sero-positive rate of rural area was 4 to 8 times higher than that of healthy urban people. Little difference was observed in sero-positive rate by age group among above 40 years old people, although it was higher in male by sex, in farmers by occupation and in some provinces by area.
Adult ; Communicable Diseases ; Female ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Korea* ; Leptospirosis* ; Male ; Military Personnel ; Occupations ; Seasons

The treatment of frozen shoulder should initially be conservative, with the emphasis on passive stretching of the capsular structures. If the patient's clinical progress stalls or the condition worsens, and his or her life style is disturbed enough, manipulation under gerneral anesthesia is indicated. The Authors practiced the passive manipulation under the general anesthesia on 7 patients of frozen shoulder, who had been treated at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Yonsei University, Wonju College of Medicine, from March 1988 to April 1989. The results obtained were as follows:l. All seven patients achieved nearly full range of motion with minimal or no pain. 2. After 3 months of follow-up, all seven patients showed neither signs of readhesions nor recurrence of pain. 3. There were no complications, such as humerus shaft fracture and dislocation of shoulder.
Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, General ; Bursitis ; Dislocations ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gangwon-do ; Humans ; Humerus ; Life Style ; Muscle Stretching Exercises ; Range of Motion, Articular ; Recurrence ; Shoulder

In Korea, the nosocomial infection control program is not well estabilished. This study was carried out to investigate the incidence rate of nosocomial infection occurred among patients of 18 hospitals for 7 days ; cases of hospital infection per 10,000 patients discharged during the same period in Korea. The study was done in 18 volunteer hospitals and nosocomial infection cases for 7 days were collected retrospectively. The result was as follows; 1. The incidence rate of nosocomial infection for 7 days was 578 cases per 10, 000 patients discharged. 2. Pneumonia was the most prevalent nosocomial infection ; the incidence rate 112.7 cases per 10,000 discharges. The incidence rate of urinary tract infection was 85. 7 cases and that of septicemia was 36. 7 cases per 10, 000 discharges. 3. The incidence rate of nosocomial infection among patients of neurosurgery department was the highest(2,742 cases per 10,000 discharges). And the incidence rate of nosocomial infection was 6 times higher among the patients of intensive care unit than that of general ward. The reasons of higher nosocomial infection rate of intensive care unit and neurosurgery appeared to be due to many invasive procedures. Thus the priority in nosocomial infection control program must be given to those groups.
Cross Infection* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Intensive Care Units ; Korea* ; Neurosurgery ; Patients' Rooms ; Pneumonia ; Retrospective Studies ; Sepsis ; Urinary Tract Infections ; Volunteers

The congenital dislocation. of the hip is a common congenital disease in the orthopedic field. It is well known that the early diagnosis and effective treatment is very important for the patient to provide a favorable function in the whole life. The Pavlik harness made an important contribution to the treatment of children before standing age. The authors report a clinical experience of 34 patients(35 hips) with congenital dislocation of hip who were treated with Pavlik harness at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery of Chonnam University Hospital. There were total 230 patients(237 hips) diagnosed as congenital dislocation of hip for 10 years from 1978 to 1987. Fifty-one patients(52 hips) of them were treated with Pavlik harness. Only 34 patients(35 hips) were included in this study excluding 17 patients(17 hips) because of inappropriate records or follow-up. The follow-up period ranged from 1 year to 6 years with an average of 2 years and 5 months. The results are as follows ; 1. The most patients were girls, comprising 33 girls and 1 boy. 2. The age of children was 124.6days in average ranging from 13 to 201 days. 3. Of the 35 hips treated with Pavlik harness, satisfactory reduction was obtsined in 30 hips(85.7%). For 5 failed cases, the authors performed closed reduction under the general anesthesia in 3 cases and open reduction in 2 cases. 4. The causes of reduction failure were impossible reduction in 3 cases, nonconcentric reduction in 1 case and repeated redislocation in 1 case. 5. The acetabular and metaphyseal-edge angle improved from the average 33 and 5.8 degrees at the first visit to the average 19.9 and 30.6 degree at the final follow-up (20.7 and 29.2 degrees in normal side). 6. When compared with the value of the 30 hips which were reduced successfully, the initial acetabular angle of 5 failed cases was similar but the metaphyseal-edge angle of them was very low. 7. There was no reduction failure in 27 hips which had metaphyseal-edge angle above 10 degrees. But 5 reduction failures were observed in 8 hips with below −11 degrees. 8. An avascular necrosis was observed in only one patient. In conclusion, the Pavlik harness proved to be a successful means in treating patients with congenital dislocation of hip under 7 months of age with particularly above −10 degrees in metaphyseal-edge angle.
Acetabulum ; Anesthesia, General ; Child ; Dislocations ; Early Diagnosis ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hip ; Humans ; Jeollanam-do ; Male ; Necrosis ; Orthopedics

Chronic osteomyelitis with protracted clinical course and pretibial skin loss imposes on every orthopaedic surgeon as one of the most difficult problems to deal with. All the conservative treatment hitherto reported have left much to be revised and they often accompany, to the despair of both surgeon and patient, recurrence of the lesion. The authors have had the opportunity of treating such four cases, in which the extensive removal of sclerotic bone as well as soft tissue adjacent to the focus was done, and lo cover the defect thus produced, the soleus muscle transferred anteriorly, followed by skin graft. It proves to have been successful and the rationale to meet the wider clinical applicability of this procedure is described.
Humans ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Osteomyelitis ; Recurrence ; Skin ; Transplants

BACKGROUND: Family counseling is an essential part of family practice in which patients are cared in psychosocial dimension as will as in physical dimension and the family is dealt with as a whole unit. However, it is little applied in practice. The department of family medicine has made efforts to activate family counseling. This study was done to estimate the patients response on the effect of family counseling that we have performed, and to investigate what clinical problems counseling was held and in what situations the counseling was perceived to be useful by the patients. We hope this study will be useful to establish some useful data and ideas for the development of family counseling in family practice in Korea. METHODS: The subjects of this study are 53 households who received family counseling at the department of family medicine from Oct. 1, 1994 to May 31, 1995. 64 households received counseling during this peroid, but 11 persons who could not be reached by the phone were excluded. Patients demographic charateristics, patients chief complaints, physicians assessrnent on the complaints and major prolems presented in the counseling sessions were identified from the medical records. Patients own estimation of the effect of counseling and the reasons for termination of counseling were inquired through the telephone interview. Finally the association between the usefulness of counseling and some factors was statistically analyzed. RESULTS: Subjects were predominently women(84.9%), especially middle aged. The most common chief complaint was headache complained by 10 subjects (18.9%), and the second and the third were abdominal pain complained by 8 (15.1%) and chest discomfort complained by 7(13.2 %), respectively. The list of physicians assessment included depression(34.0%), physical symptom per se without any assessment(20.8%), family problem(15.1%), somatization(13.2%), and anxiety(9.45). More than half of the subjects(60.4%) had only one session, 26.4% two sessions and 7.5% more than 4 sessions. The most common problem presented in the counseling was marital conflict(28.3%), the second was trouble with in-laws(15.1%), and the third was chronic illness in the family(9.4%). 32.1% replied that the counseling was very helpful, 28.3% somewhat helpful, 17% little helpful, 20.8% never helpful, and 1.9% not sure. The session was experienced to be more useful in the group of duration of symptom less than 6 months, than in the group of longer duration(p<0.05), and in the group with motivation for counseling than in the group without motivation(p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: About 60% of subjects replied the counseling was useful to them. Symptom duration and patients motivation to participate in counseling showed significant association with the effect of family counseling.
Abdominal Pain ; Chronic Disease ; Counseling* ; Family Characteristics ; Family Practice ; Headache ; Hope ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Korea ; Medical Records ; Middle Aged ; Motivation ; Thorax

BACKGROUND: Family counseling is an essential part of family practice in which patients are cared in psychosocial dimension as will as in physical dimension and the family is dealt with as a whole unit. However, it is little applied in practice. The department of family medicine has made efforts to activate family counseling. This study was done to estimate the patients response on the effect of family counseling that we have performed, and to investigate what clinical problems counseling was held and in what situations the counseling was perceived to be useful by the patients. We hope this study will be useful to establish some useful data and ideas for the development of family counseling in family practice in Korea. METHODS: The subjects of this study are 53 households who received family counseling at the department of family medicine from Oct. 1, 1994 to May 31, 1995. 64 households received counseling during this peroid, but 11 persons who could not be reached by the phone were excluded. Patients demographic charateristics, patients chief complaints, physicians assessrnent on the complaints and major prolems presented in the counseling sessions were identified from the medical records. Patients own estimation of the effect of counseling and the reasons for termination of counseling were inquired through the telephone interview. Finally the association between the usefulness of counseling and some factors was statistically analyzed. RESULTS: Subjects were predominently women(84.9%), especially middle aged. The most common chief complaint was headache complained by 10 subjects (18.9%), and the second and the third were abdominal pain complained by 8 (15.1%) and chest discomfort complained by 7(13.2 %), respectively. The list of physicians assessment included depression(34.0%), physical symptom per se without any assessment(20.8%), family problem(15.1%), somatization(13.2%), and anxiety(9.45). More than half of the subjects(60.4%) had only one session, 26.4% two sessions and 7.5% more than 4 sessions. The most common problem presented in the counseling was marital conflict(28.3%), the second was trouble with in-laws(15.1%), and the third was chronic illness in the family(9.4%). 32.1% replied that the counseling was very helpful, 28.3% somewhat helpful, 17% little helpful, 20.8% never helpful, and 1.9% not sure. The session was experienced to be more useful in the group of duration of symptom less than 6 months, than in the group of longer duration(p<0.05), and in the group with motivation for counseling than in the group without motivation(p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: About 60% of subjects replied the counseling was useful to them. Symptom duration and patients motivation to participate in counseling showed significant association with the effect of family counseling.
Abdominal Pain ; Chronic Disease ; Counseling* ; Family Characteristics ; Family Practice ; Headache ; Hope ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Korea ; Medical Records ; Middle Aged ; Motivation ; Thorax

We experience a 1 day old female patient with congenital esophageal atresia and tracheoeso-phageal fistula combined with a subglottic laryngeal stenosis which was 2 mm in diamete. At the time of surgery, an attempt was made to intubate, but it was impossible to pass a tube beyond the vocal cord which was mormal in size and shape. Thus a gastrostomy was performed only under mask with pure oxygen and local anesthesia. The child died one day later due to respiratory failure. Congenital subglottic laryngeal stenosis combined with esophageal atresia and tracheoeso-phageal fistula is very rare, but it is a very critical anomaly to anesthesia and resuscitation. Therefore, in the case of esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula with signs of respiratory obstruction, the possible presence of subglottic laryngeal stenosis should be considered and accurately assessed.
Anesthesia* ; Anesthesia, Local ; Child ; Esophageal Atresia* ; Female ; Fistula ; Gastrostomy ; Humans ; Laryngostenosis* ; Masks ; Oxygen ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Resuscitation ; Tracheoesophageal Fistula* ; Vocal Cords

Electrocardiography has been long an important tool in cardiac diagnosis and, with advances in electrocardiography, the accuracy of the electrocardiographic diagnosis has been greatly increased. Though the most accurate methods for quantitative diagnosis of mitral valvular disease are cardiac catheterization and ventriculography, these procedures are time consuming, expensive, and not without risk, thus, it would be helpful if routine catheterization of the heart could be avoided in patients who are potential condidates for mitral valvulotomy. This could be done if reliable electrocardiographic criteria could be found for estimating the amount of obstrcution and leak at the mitral valve. As mitral valvular dysfunction progress, changes (hypertrophy and/or dilation) in the left atrium and both ventricles are inevitable. Many authors attempted to characterize the electrocardiographic findings of such changes according to the specific lesion of the mitral valve. In addition to atrial fibrillation, characteristic P wave changes and their diagnostic significance have been reported (Macruz et al., 1958; Arevalo et al., 1963: Morris et al., 1964). The diagnostic importance of QRS voltage difference in precordial leads has been stressed in the differential diagnosis of specific lesions of mitral valvular disease (Janton et al., 1954: Bateman and January, 1955: Wierum and Glenn, 1957: Bentivoglio et al., 1958: Imperial et al., 1960). Semle and Pruitt(1960) reported that a mean QRS electrical axis of +91degrees or more degrees was the most frequent positive single index of increased total pulmonary resistance in mitral stenosis, and Fowler et al. (1955) stated that precordial lead V1 was very helpful in evaluating the degree of pulmonary hypertension. In Korea there are only a few reports on the electrocardiographic changes in mitral valvular disease and the correlation of electrocardiographic findings and hemodynamics (Oh et al., 1961: Kim, 1970: Kim, 1971). It would be evident that the various electrocardiographic findings noted in western races can't be applied to Koreans. The main objectives of this study are: 1. To determine the electrocardiographic characteristics of pure mitral valvular disease and the differentiation between the specific lesions of pure mitral stenosis, pure mitral insufficiency and combined lesions of mitral stenosis and insufficiency. 2. To know whether the characteristic electrocardiographic changes of mitral stenosis are directly related to the narrowed valve area or to the hemodynamic abnormalities secondary to obstruction. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: 139 cases of isolated mitral valvular disease were reviewed: of these 93 were cases of pure mitral stenosis, 18 were pure mitral insufficiency, and 28 were combined mitral stenosis and insufficiency. Of the total patients, 68 were male and 71 were female. The ages ranged from 10 to 54 years with an average of 35.6 years. Diagnosis was based on cardiac catheterization and supplemented by cienangiocardiography. The conventional 12 lead electrocardiogram was taken at normal sensitivity and at a paper speed of 25mm/sec. The mitral valve area was estimated according to the Gorlin's formula and cardiac output was determined by the direct Fick's principle. The electrocardiograms were analyzed with respect to: 1. Rhythm (atrial fibrillation and sinus rhythm) 2. Presence or absence of P-mitrale 3. Terminal P force in lead V1 (by the method of Morris et. al., 1964) 4. Mean QRS electrical axis in frontal plane 5. QRS voltage in percordial leads(V1S, V5R, V6R & V1S+V(5-6)R) 6. R/S ratio in lead V1 7. Conduction disturbance of right bundle branch block In patients with pure mitral stenosis the electrocardiographic findings of atrial fibrillation P-mitrale, terminal P force in lead V1 were correlated with the hemodynamic data of mean pulmonary artery pressure, mean pulmonary arterial wedge pressure and mitral valve area. An attempt was made to ascertain whether or not a quantitative correlation could be found. A patient showing electrocardiographic pattern of right bundle branch block was excluded in the evaluation of QRS voltage in lead V1 and mean QRS electrical axis in frontal plane. RESULTS AND SUMMARY: 1. P wave abnormality, which was noted in most (131/139) cases, is apparently a characteristic and most frequent electrocardiographic finding in mitral valvular disease. Of the P weve abnormalities the development of atrial fibrillation and P-mitrale were thought to be related to the duration of the illness rather than to the types of lesion or hemodynamic abnormalities secondary to valvular dysfunction. However, the terminal P force in lead V1 was thought to be related to the mean pulmonary arterial wedge pressure rather than to narrowing of the valve. 2. 15 patients showed the electrocardiographic pattern of right bundle branch block. In patients with mitral stenosis this electrocardiographic pattern was noted at almost all levels of mean pulmonary artery pressure, mean pulmonary arterial wedge pressure, mitral gradient and mitral valve area. 3. Mean QRS electrical axis and QRS voltage in precordial leads; There was no case which deviated leftward more than +30degrees even among cases with a predominant or pure mitral insufficiency. Although the difference of mean value in mean QRS electrical axis and QRS voltage in precordial leads according to the types of the lesion was significant, this difference was generally not helpful in the differential diagnosis in individual patients because of much overlapping among cases. 4. There was no definite electrocardiographic criteria to differentiate clearly the types of mitral valvular disease. However, the following aspects of electrocardiogram may be useful in differential diagnosis. a. Difference of QRS voltage in precordial leads: The volage of V1S and V1S+V(5-6)R in all patients with pure mitral insufficiency was over 1mm and 11mm respectively. That of V1S+V(5-6)R in all patients with pure mitral stenosis was below 39mm. b. R/S ratio in lead V1: There was no case showing "R wave only" in lead V1 among patients with pure or predominant mitral insufficiency. c. Mean QRS electrical axis in frontal plane: The mean QRS electrical axis of all patients with pure mitral stenosis deviated rightward more than +60degrees in all except one case. None of the patients with pure mitral insufficiency deviated rightward more than +110degrees. 5. Relationship between hemodynamics and electrocardiography in paitents with mitral stenosis: Among the hemodynamic abnormalities, mean pulmonary artery pressure showed a close relationship with the following aspects of the electrocardiogram. a. R/S ratio in lead V1:The mean value of mean pulmonary artery pressure (45.9+/-3.8mmHg) in groups showing R/S>1 was significantly elevated as compared with that (34.8+/-1.5mmHg) of groups showing R/Sdegrees1. b. Mean QRS electrical axis in frontal plane: There was a weak positive correlation (r=+0.53) between mean pulmonary artery prersure and QRS electrical axis in the frontal plane. The QRS axis of all patients with a mean pulmonary artery pressure of 41mmHg or more was +91degrees or more except for one case. c. Terminal P force in lead V1: The difference of mean value in mean pulmonary artery pressure according to the size of terminal P force in lead V1 was significant in all cases.
Atrial Fibrillation ; Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Bundle-Branch Block ; Cardiac Catheterization ; Cardiac Catheters ; Cardiac Output ; Catheterization ; Catheters ; Continental Population Groups ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Electrocardiography* ; Female ; Heart ; Heart Atria ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; Korea ; Male ; Mitral Valve ; Mitral Valve Insufficiency ; Mitral Valve Stenosis ; Pulmonary Artery ; Pulmonary Wedge Pressure