No abstract available.
Drinking Behavior* ; Drinking* ; Humans

No abstract available.
Humans ; Smoking* ; Tobacco Products*

This study was for investigating relations between distributions of monoamines-norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine-on the visual system and their functions. Distributions of these monoamines in the lateral geniculate body, pulvinar, lateral posterior nucleus, and suprachiasmatic nucleus were investigated. Brain of a squirrel monkey was removed and frozen sectioned. Immunocytochemical study was performed for the tissue of the brain. Results showed that the anterior part of the lateral geniculate body contained more monoamines than the posterior part. More serotonins were distrbuted at the magnocellular part, and more dopamines were found at the parvocellular part. In pulvinar, more norepinephrines were distributed at the medial part, while serotonins were evenly distributed at all parts. In lateral posterior nucleus and suprachiasmatic nucleus, three kinds of monoamines were distributed with high density. Among the three, density of the serotonin showed the highest value. The lateral geniculate body relates with visual perception such as visual acuity, form and color perception, and stereopsis, while the pulvinar relates with visual functions, such as visual attention, sensory integration, and differentiation. Since norepinephrine and serotonine are distributed with high density in the pulvinar than in the lateral geniculate body those two monoamines are expected to playa major role for visual functions. Inferior part of the pulvinar relates with visual imagination, and the lateral posterior nucleus relates with integration of visual sensory. Relatively high distribution of dopamine in these two parts means that dopamine may playa major role for visual imagination and integration. As suprachiasmatic nucleus relates with controlling biorhythm, dense distribution of monoamines in suprachiasmatic nucleus implies that the monoamines may work for controlling biorhythm.
Brain ; Color Perception ; Depth Perception ; Dopamine ; Geniculate Bodies ; Imagination ; Lateral Thalamic Nuclei ; Norepinephrine ; Periodicity ; Pulvinar ; Saimiri* ; Sciuridae* ; Serotonin ; Suprachiasmatic Nucleus ; Visual Acuity ; Visual Perception

No abstract available.
Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain*

Herpes zoster ophthalmicus is an infectious disease caused by varicella-zoster virus. It has no predilection for sex, race, or age, though the incidence and severity of zoster is greater in the elderly. The usual site of herpes zoster ophthalmicus is the skin and eye innervated by the gasserian ganglion that receives fibers from the ophthalmic division of the trigeminal nerve. A most serious lesion is corneal ulceration, frequently complicated by other evidence of keratitis, by uveitis, and by secondary glaucoma. The treatment of zoster is difficult and frustrating for no specific therapy is known.
Aged ; Communicable Diseases ; Continental Population Groups ; Corneal Ulcer ; Glaucoma ; Herpes Zoster Ophthalmicus* ; Herpes Zoster* ; Herpesvirus 3, Human ; Humans ; Incidence ; Keratitis ; Skin ; Trigeminal Ganglion ; Trigeminal Nerve ; Uveitis

Pseudohypoaldosteronism (PHA) is rare herediary salt wasting syndrome due to peripheral resistance to aldostrone. PHA type I, subdivided into isolated renal insensitivity to aldosterone of autosomal dominant inheritance and multiple target organ defect of autosomal recessive inheritance, and PHA type II show similar clinical manifestations except hypertension which is limited to type II. PHA type I is charaterized by hyponatremia, hyperkalemia, high plasma aldosterone and renin activity. Variable degrees, completely asymptomatic to severe fatal, of salt loosing manifestationsdehydration, hypotension, failure to thrive, and renal tubular acidosis usually start during infancy. Sodium loss not only from kidney but also from sweat gland, salivary gland and colon may occur in some cases. Recently we experienced two cases of PHA, a 27 days of age male newborn infant with charateristic clinical symptoms and typical laboratory manifestations of PHA, confirm diagnosed as PHA type I of isolated renal defect by pilocarpin iontophoresis showing normal sodium concentration in sweat gland, and his asymptomatic 6 year-old brother with the history of salt loosing symptoms treated until second year of life diagnosed as PHA type I by markedly elevated plasma aldosterone and renin activity. Brief review and related literatures were also presented.
Acidosis, Renal Tubular ; Aldosterone ; Child ; Colon ; Failure to Thrive ; Humans ; Hyperkalemia ; Hypertension ; Hyponatremia ; Hypotension ; Infant, Newborn ; Iontophoresis ; Kidney ; Male* ; Plasma ; Pseudohypoaldosteronism* ; Renin ; Salivary Glands ; Siblings* ; Sodium ; Sweat Glands ; Vascular Resistance ; Wasting Syndrome ; Wills

Decreased number of the Neuropeptide-Y[NPY] immunoreactive neurons in the corpus striatum and primary motor cortex of aged rat was detected by the immunohistochemical method. The animals were categorized into control and aged group and we used 10 Sprague-Dawley rat weighing 250-300gm for control group. 10 Sprague-Dawley rat weighing over 600gm for aged group. The number of NPY-immunoreactive neurons in corpus striatum and primary motor cortex were counted under the light microscope and the following results were obtained. 1. The NPY-immunoreactive neurons were evenly distributed in corpus striatum and in the primaty motor cortex, the NPY-immunoreactive neurons were concentrated within the layer II, III and layer V, VI. The typical NPY-immunoreactive perikarya was multipolar shape. 2. Decreased number of NPY-immunoreactive neurons were detected in some areas of corpus striatum and primary mortor cortex of the aged rat. 3. Decrease of NPY-immunoreactive neurons were most prominent in the caudate-putamen and there were moderate decrease of NPY-immunoreactive neurons in the primary motor cortex, mild decrease of NPY-immunoreactive neurons in the nucleus accumbens but the NPY-immunoreactive neurons were not observed in the globus pallidus in both control and aged rat. NPY is supposed to act as a neurotransmitter of local circuit neurons in the striatum and may exert its potent vasoconstrictor effects on cerebral vessels which influences on the microcirculation of cerebral cortex and striatum. So our results seems to provide an important data on change of the function in the striatum and primary motor cortex of aged rat brain.
Aging ; Animals ; Brain ; Cerebral Cortex ; Corpus Striatum* ; Globus Pallidus ; Microcirculation ; Motor Cortex ; Neurons* ; Neuropeptide Y* ; Neuropeptides* ; Neurotransmitter Agents ; Nucleus Accumbens ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Tear film consists of lipid layer, aqueous layer, and mucinous layer, and it acts as protection of cornea, nutritional supply, and refraction. The assumption of this study is that the use of contact lens may induce the rapid drainage of tear film, and may make it become thin, and may affect the function of corneal epithelium, and may induce several complication. The author analysed 168 volunteers of medical students. The volunteers consisted of junior and senior grades in Ewha Womans University were classified into two groups. One group was the users of contact lenses(70), and the other group was non-users of contacts lenses who have not any other ocular problems control group(98). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of tear secretion in fitting contact lens. The results were as follows; 1. Mean value and standard deviation of Schirmer test showed; contact lens group was 20.5 +/- 8.0mm/5min, and control group was 21.2 +/- 8.2mm/5min. There was no statistical significance between two groups. 2. The author could not obtain the statistical difference the users of soft contact lenses and the users of hard contact lenses, because the number of the users of hard contact lenses was so small in contrast to that of the users of soft contact lenses. 3. There was no significant correlation between daily wearing time and the result of Schimer test. 4. The correlation between the wearing period of contact lens and the result of Schirmer test showed; the longer wearing period of contact lens was, the longer wetting length of Schirmer test paper was, but it was not statistically significant. The authors concluded that the use of contact lens does not affect the secretion of tear.
Contact Lenses ; Contact Lenses, Hydrophilic ; Cornea ; Drainage ; Epithelium, Corneal ; Female ; Humans ; Mucins ; Students, Medical ; Tears* ; Volunteers

PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of continuous nutritional education and oral mucositis management on the nutritive status of patients who received hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). METHODS: After randomly allotting 72 patients who received HSCT to either an experimental group or a control group, intensive and continuous care for preventing malnutrition was conducted in the experimental group while usual routine care was conducted in the control group. The changes of the body scale, blood chemistry profile, oral intake calories, nausea and vomitus, and oral stomatitis scores were measured at three points during their hospitalization using a oral assessment guide and nutrition analysis program: admission, HSCT, and discharge day. The differences between the scores of two groups were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of covariance. RESULTS: The number of total lymphocytes was significantly improved in the experimental group after transplantation (p<.001). Nausea and vomiting score was significantly decreased in the experimental group during the conditioning regimen (p<.001). CONCLUSION: It was found that continuous nutritional education and oral mucositis control is an effective intervention by improving immune condition. Further investigations concerning direct examination of oral intake with controlling the effect of the chemotherapy are needed to ultimately discern the impact of varying oral nutrition patterns during HSCT.
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Lymphocytes ; Malnutrition ; Nausea ; Nutritional Status ; Stomatitis ; Transplants ; Vomiting

Pneumocystis carinii causes serious pulmonary infection in immunosuppressed patients. This study was undertaken to observe the cytoskeletal proteins of P. carinii by immuno-electron microscopy. P. carinii infection was experimentally induced by immunosuppression of Sprague-Dawley rats for seven weeks, and their lungs were used for the observations of this study. The gold particles localized actin, tropomyosin, and tubulin. The actin was irregularly scattered in the cytoplasm of the trophic forms but was much more concentrated in the inner space of the cell wall of the cystic forms called the inner electron-lucent layer. No significant amount of tropomyosin was observed in either trophic forms or cystic forms. The tubulin was distributed along the peripheral cytoplasm and filopodia of both the trophic and cystic forms rather than in the inner side of the cytoplasm. Particularly, in the cystic forms, the amount of tubulin was increased and located mainly in the inner electron-lucent layer of the cell wall where the actin was concentrated as well. The results of this study showed that the cell wall of P. carinii cystic forms is a structure whose inner side is rich in actin and tubulin. The location of the actin and tubulin in P. carinii suggests that the main role of these proteins is an involvement in the protection of cystic forms from the outside environment by maintaining rigidity of the cystic forms.
Actins/analysis ; Animals ; Cytoskeletal Proteins/*analysis ; Fungal Proteins/*analysis ; Histocytochemistry ; Microscopy, Immunoelectron ; Pneumocystis/*chemistry/cytology ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Tropomyosin/analysis ; Tubulin/analysis