BACKGROUND: This study was performed to compare efficiency of embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived dopaminergic (DA) neurons from E12 mesencephalic neuronal-precursor derived DA neuron, and to assess the value of these neurons as a donor cells to transplant in Parkinson's disease. METHODS: ES cell-derived DA neurons from E12 mesencephalic neuronal-precursor derived DA neuron were transplanted in Parkinsonian rats and analyzed TH immunoreactivity and apomorphin-induced rotation test. RESULTS: Transplanting of ES cell derived DA neurons into the rat striatum caused gradual increase of expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity 6 weeks after transplant in host striatum. Rotation behavior was gradually on the decrease, 6 weeks after transplant of ES cell derived DA neurons. In case of E12 mesencephalic precursor derived DA neurons, the TH immunoreactivity expressed 6 weeks after transplant in striatum, and the behavioral restoration of DA-mediated motor asymmetry sustained gradually. However, transplanted ES cell derived DA neurons appeared in wide regions among the needle tract with a relatively high density of TH immunoreactivity in comparison to the E12 mesencephalic precursor DA neurons, and graft volume of ES cell derived DA neurons were larger than E12 mesencephalic precursor derived DA neuron. In addition, both cells did not appear cancerous change after transplantation. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that ES cell is more efficient than E12 mesencephalic precursor derived dopaminergic neuron and will supply efficient donor cells for transplantation in Parkinson's disease.
Animals ; Dopaminergic Neurons* ; Embryonic Stem Cells ; Humans ; Needles ; Neurons ; Parkinson Disease ; Rats* ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants ; Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase

BACKGROUND: To help medical students learn anatomy effectively in limited hours, a regional anatomy book enhancing students' memorization was developed.METHODS: Only anatomical terms essential for basic cadaver dissection are included along with schematic figures which enable memorization of complicated anatomical structures. Learning comics and comic strips that depict anatomy mnemonics and jokes were appended and sentences were written to be comfortably readable. The electronic book titled “Visually Memorable Regional Anatomy” has been distributed without payment or registration. With the help of 246 volunteer students from three Korean medical schools, the book's learning effects were evaluated.RESULTS: These students' book reading led to increase in their anatomy scores, including written examination scores and tag examination scores. It was an encouraging result that almost 20% of students spontaneously read the book no matter who presented their lecture or examination. A webpage version of the book was visited by thousands of users.CONCLUSION: The book with unique features may suggest a new perspective in the field of anatomy learning. After having acquaintance with essential structures from reading the book, students are able to and willing to study more from other resources.
Anatomy, Regional ; Books, Illustrated ; Cadaver ; Education ; Humans ; Internet ; Learning ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Medical ; Volunteers

BACKGROUND: To help medical students learn anatomy effectively in limited hours, a regional anatomy book enhancing students' memorization was developed. METHODS: Only anatomical terms essential for basic cadaver dissection are included along with schematic figures which enable memorization of complicated anatomical structures. Learning comics and comic strips that depict anatomy mnemonics and jokes were appended and sentences were written to be comfortably readable. The electronic book titled “Visually Memorable Regional Anatomy” has been distributed without payment or registration. With the help of 246 volunteer students from three Korean medical schools, the book's learning effects were evaluated. RESULTS: These students' book reading led to increase in their anatomy scores, including written examination scores and tag examination scores. It was an encouraging result that almost 20% of students spontaneously read the book no matter who presented their lecture or examination. A webpage version of the book was visited by thousands of users. CONCLUSION The book with unique features may suggest a new perspective in the field of anatomy learning. After having acquaintance with essential structures from reading the book, students are able to and willing to study more from other resources.

No abstract available.
Pneumonia* ; Squalene*

Immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) can involve any organ. The majority of reported cases involve IgG4-RD of the biliary tract or pancreas, while only two cases of pericarditis have been reported. A 58-year-old man visited the outpatient clinic of our institution with a seven-day history of progressive dyspnea. Based on his transthoracic echocardiogram and transesophageal echocardiogram, he was diagnosed with constrictive pericarditis. The histopathology of his pericardiectomy revealed the cause of constrictive pericarditis to be IgG4-RD. Prednisolone (40 mg) was initiated after the pericardiectomy. As the patient's symptoms resolved, he was discharged and followed-up on an outpatient basis. This is the first case report of constrictive pericarditis caused by IgG4-RD in Korea.
Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Biliary Tract ; Dyspnea ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulins* ; Inflammation ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; Outpatients ; Pancreas ; Pericardiectomy ; Pericarditis ; Pericarditis, Constrictive* ; Prednisolone

During the period from November 1982 to April 1986, a radioisotope cisternography was conducted on 29 patients with hydrocephalus at Seoul National University Hospital, and a ventriculoperitoneal shunting was performed on 15 patients. To correlate the preoperative radioisotope cisternography patterns with the results of ventriculoperitoneal shunting, we classified the radioisotope cisternography findings into five patterns and compared them with the surgical results. The cisternographic patterns are as follows: Type I: No ventricular activity, normal migration, Type II: No ventricular activity, delayed migration, Type III-A: Transient ventricular activity, clearance by usual migration, Type III-B: Transient ventricular activity, clearance without usual migration, Type IV: Persistent ventricular activity, inadequate clerance. All patients operated on were Type III(seven patients) or Type IV(eight patients). Of the eight Type IV patients, seven (88%) showed clinical improvements within two weeks after the shunting, while an improvement occurred in only one (14%) of seven Type III patients. We have concluded that when there is a prolonged ventricular retention of the isotope, the surgical shunting is successful suggesting that the radioisotope cisternography has a significant preoperative prognostic value.
Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Seoul ; Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The importance of health-related quality of life (HrQoL) has been increasingly emphasized when assessing and providing treatment to patients with chronic, progressive, degenerative disorders. The 39-item Parkinson's disease questionnaire (PDQ-39) is the most widely used patient-reporting scale to assess HrQoL in Parkinson's disease (PD). This study evaluated the validity and reliability of the translated Korean version of the PDQ-39 (K-PDQ-39). METHODS: One hundred and two participants with PD from 10 movement disorder clinics at university-affiliated hospitals in South Korea completed the K-PDQ-39. All of the participants were also tested using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE), Korean version of the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Scale (K-MADS), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and non-motor symptoms scale (NMSS). Retests of the K-PDQ-39 were performed over time intervals from 10 to 14 days in order to assess test-retest reliability. RESULTS: Each K-PDQ-39 domain showed correlations with the summary index scores (rS=0.559-0.793, p<0.001). Six out of eight domains met the acceptable standard of reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient > or =0.70). The Guttman split-half coefficient value of the K-PDQ-39 summary index, which is an indicator of test-retest reliability, was 0.919 (p<0.001). All of the clinical variables examined except for age, comprising disease duration, levodopa equivalent dose, modified Hoehn and Yahr stage (H&Y stage), UPDRS part I, II and III, mood status (K-MADS), cognition (K-MMSE), daytime sleepiness (ESS) and (NMSS) showed strong correlations with the K-PDQ-39 summary index (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The K-PDQ-39 has been validated for use in the Korean-speaking PD population. The questionnaire is a valid and reliable assessment tool for assessing the HrQoL of Korean PD patients.
Cognition ; Depression ; Humans ; Levodopa ; Movement Disorders ; Parkinson Disease ; Quality of Life ; Reproducibility of Results ; Republic of Korea ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Non-motor symptoms are common in Parkinson's disease (PD), and are the primary cause of disability in many PD patients. Our aim in this study was to translate the origin non-motor symptoms scale for PD (NMSS), which was written in English, into Korean (K-NMSS), and to evaluate its reliability and validity for use with Korean-speaking patients with PD. METHODS: In total, 102 patients with PD from 9 movement disorders sections of university teaching hospitals in Korea were enrolled in this study. They were assessed using the K-NMSS, the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), the Korean version of the Mini-Mental Status Examination (K-MMSE), the Korean version of the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (K-MADS), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire 39 (PDQ39). Test-retest reliability was assessed over a time interval of 10-14 days in all but one patient. RESULTS: The K-NMSS was administered to 102 patients with PD. The internal consistency and reliability of this tool was 0.742 (mean Cronbach's alpha-coefficient). The test-retest correlation reliability was 0.941 (Guttman split-half coefficient). There was a moderate correlation between the total K-NMSS score and the scores for UPDRS part I [Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, (rS)=0.521, p<0.001] and UPDRS part II (rS=0.464, p=0.001), but there was only a weak correlation between the total K-NMSS score and the UPDRS part III score (rS=0.288, p=0.003). The total K-NMSS score was significantly correlated with the K-MADS (rS=0.594, p<0.001), K-MMSE (rS=-0.291, p=0.003), and ESS (rS=0.348, p<0.001). The total K-NMSS score was also significantly and positively correlated with the PDQ39 score (rS=0.814, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The K-NMSS exhibited good reliability and validity for the assessment of non-motor symptoms in Korean PD patients.
Depression ; Hospitals, Teaching ; Humans ; Korea ; Movement Disorders ; Parkinson Disease ; Reproducibility of Results ; Surveys and Questionnaires

A novel robotic mirror therapy system was recently developed to provide proprioceptive stimulus to the hemiplegic arm during a mirror therapy. Validation of the robotic mirror therapy system was performed to confirm its synchronicity prior to the clinical study. The mean error angle range between the intact arm and the robot was 1.97 to 4.59 degrees. A 56-year-old male who had right middle cerebral artery infarction 11 months ago received the robotic mirror therapy for ten 30-minute sessions during 2 weeks. Clinical evaluation and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were performed before and after the intervention. At the follow-up evaluation, the thumb finding test score improved from 2 to 1 for eye level and from 3 to 1 for overhead level. The Albert's test score on the left side improved from 6 to 11. Improvements were sustained at 2-month follow-up. The fMRI during the passive motion revealed a considerable increase in brain activity at the lower part of the right superior parietal lobule, suggesting the possibility of proprioception enhancement. The robotic mirror therapy system may serve as a useful treatment method for patients with supratentorial stroke to facilitate recovery of proprioceptive deficit and hemineglect.
Arm ; Brain ; Clinical Study ; Exoskeleton Device ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hemiplegia ; Humans ; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Methods ; Middle Aged ; Neurological Rehabilitation ; Parietal Lobe ; Pilot Projects* ; Proprioception* ; Stroke ; Thumb ; Upper Extremity*

BACKGROUND: The secondary prevention of stroke which is defined as the control of risk factors and continuous antithrombotic therapy if indicated plays an important role in decreasing stroke recurrence. Unlike most developed countries, the stroke mortality in Korea has yet to be on the decline. It is well known that treatment non-compliance for secondary prevention after a stroke is associated with stroke recurrence and poor functional outcome. There has been no investigation about outpatient treatment compliance of Korean stroke patients who were previously hospitalized. This study aimed to explore the behavior and preference for treatment of stroke patients after discharge and to assess the recurrence rate of stroke for those patients who were not compliant with therapy for secondary prevention and their reasons for not being compliant. METHODS: Study subjects included three hundred thirty-eight stroke patients who were admitted to the Hallym Stroke Center between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of 1995. Those who died during hospitalization and those who were discharged to go home on impending death were excluded. The mean age was 63.6 years and the male to female ratio was 1.2 to 1. Telephone inquiries were performed with patients or caregivers regarding the recurrence of stroke, the reasons for non-compliance with secondary preventive management and other kinds of care they received for stroke. RESULTS: Among two hundred six patients (60.9%) not given a follow up on the out-patient basis, 110 patients completed telephone interviews and 102 patients were found to be non-compliant. Nineteen patients (17.7 %) of this non-compliant group reportedly had a recurrent stroke. The age, level of education, and Rankin score were factors which influenced the compliance of patients. Non-compliant patients were currently under the care of: 1) oriental medicine and/or acupuncture (n=56); 2) alternative medicine (n=17); 3) inadvertent over-the-counter drugs (n=16); and 4) no treatment at all (n=26). The reasons for non-compliance included: 1) biased preponderance of oriental medicine (n=44); 2) ignorance about the importance of secondary prevention (n=36); 3) inconvenience of the bureaucratic procedure of hospitals (n=34); 4) economic burden (n=17); 5) dissatisfaction with medical care (n=10); and 6) other reasons (n=6). CONCLUSIONS: Secondary prevention care for Korean stroke patients seems to be inadequately achieved. The proper education of patients and their caregivers about the importance for the secondary prevention of stroke is needed to decrease stroke recurrence in Korea.
Acupuncture ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Caregivers ; Complementary Therapies ; Compliance* ; Developed Countries ; Education ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gyeonggi-do* ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Korea ; Male ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Mortality ; Nonprescription Drugs ; Outpatients ; Patient Education as Topic ; Recurrence ; Risk Factors ; Secondary Prevention* ; Seoul* ; Stroke* ; Telephone