No abstract available.
Korea* ; Pneumoconiosis*

No abstract available.
Asthma, Occupational* ; Paint* ; Urethane*

After medical insurance came into effect in Korea, health care system has undergone tremendous changes. Changing patterns of newly established clinics is one of them. To investigate changes and trends, a total of 10,184 clinics which were newly established from 1981 to 1990 were analysed. Data were obtained from the file of contracting medical facilities of the Federation of Medical Insurance Societies. The proportion of newly establishied clinics has increased gradually, so that they amount to 13% of the total medical facilities in Korea. Meanwhile, the number of newly established medium-size hospitals and general hospitals have decreased. The number of newly established clinics per 100, 000 populations has increased in the all areas, but the rate of increase has decreased in the cities except in 6 major cities in 1990. The rate of increase in newly established clinics surpasses that of population increase. This study has identified the trend of young physicians' early driving into their solo medical practice than before. This indicates chance of the medical specialty training nowadays toughen due to the limited openings in residency programs. However, the sex ratio of physicians at newly established clinics has not changed. The decreasing tendency to open medical practice without beds and the increasing size of clinics are found in this study(The size has been measured in terms of medical manpower, of beds, and of medical equipment in this study). Two thirds of general practitioners have opened their clinics without beds, although such trend has been less in the case of specialists. All three indicators show increasing size, especially in the case of rural clinics. However, among them, the number of medical equipments has increased most significantly from 8.9 items in 1981 to 12.9 in 1990.
Delivery of Health Care ; General Practitioners ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Insurance ; Internship and Residency ; Korea* ; Sex Ratio ; Specialization

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Pneumoconiosis* ; Thorax*

We studied the association of nonspecific bronchial hyperresponsiveness with general characteristics, exposure concentration, respiratory symptoms, chest x-ray findings, past histories and pulmonary function. We determined bronchial hyperresponsiveness by methacholine challenge test. And we conducted a respiratory symptom questionnaire and performed spirometry on 111 workers occupationally exposed to isocyanates in various industries. About 21.6% of subjects had bronchial hyperresponsiveness. No significant differences were observed between the hyperresponsive and non-responsive group with respect to age, sex, employment period, height, and smoking histories cough and breathlessness were significantly associated with the bronchial hyperresponsiveness. The hyperresponsive group had more experience of bronchitis and asthma in the past than the non-responsive group. The lower FEV1 and FEV1 % were closely related with bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Bronchial hyperrespoosiveness seems to be associated with some of respiratory symptoms, past histories and pulmonary function parameters in workers exposed to isocyanates.
Asthma ; Bronchitis ; Cough ; Employment ; Isocyanates* ; Methacholine Chloride ; Occupations ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Spirometry ; Thorax

No abstract available.
Estradiol* ; Female ; Menstrual Cycle* ; Superovulation*

Miescher syndrome comprises congenital acanthosis nigricans, hypertrichosis, failure to thrive and short stature, dysmorphism especially of the jaws and oral cavity, insulin-resistant diabetes mellitus, and a characteristic general appearance. This report concerns a rare case of 12-year-old girl having insulin resistant diabetic mellitus with Miescher syndrome. The relevant literature was reviewed.
Acanthosis Nigricans ; Child ; Diabetes Mellitus* ; Failure to Thrive ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertrichosis ; Insulin ; Jaw ; Mouth

This study describes an evaluation of the sonographic, cholangiographic, pathological, and immunological findings, and the protective effect shown by rats reinfected with Clonorchis sinensis. Eight experimental rat groups were, namely, a normal control, a primary infection control, a reinfection I (reinfection 7 week after treatment following 3-week infection), a reinfection II (reinfection 2 week after treatment following 8-week infection), a reinfection III (exploration of the intrahepatic bile ducts 1 week after reinfection 4 week after treatment following 4-week infection), a superinfection, a secondary infection control, and an infection following immunization group. Sonographic and cholangiographic findings showed moderate or marked dilatation of the bile duct confluence in the primary infection control, reinfection II, and secondary infection control groups. Juvenile worms survived in the intrahepatic bile ducts 1 week after reinfection following treatment in the reinfection III group. It was concluded that reinfecting juvenile worms found during the first week following reinfection failed to survive or grow further. Anatomical, pathophysiological, or immunological changes may induce protection from reinfection in rats.
Animals ; Anthelmintics/administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; Antibodies, Helminth/blood ; Antigens, Helminth/administration & dosage/immunology ; Bile Duct Diseases/parasitology/*pathology/ultrasonography ; Bile Ducts, Intrahepatic/parasitology/*pathology/ultrasonography ; Cholangiography ; Clonorchiasis/parasitology/*pathology/ultrasonography ; Clonorchis sinensis/*pathogenicity ; Immunization ; Praziquantel/administration & dosage/therapeutic use ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sound Spectrography ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Pneumoconiosis, especially Coal-workers' Pneumoconi6sis(GWP), is the principal occupation-related disease in Korea because of the large number of affected workers. Coal mines and miners have been reduced abruptly during recent 8 years, but coal mining should be kept in Korea. Recently, pneumoconiotic workers are increasing in manufacturing industry. It is necessary to know the characteristics of CWP to prevent the development of CWP and manage employed or retired pneumoconiotic workers. Furthermore, it is also necessary to study CWP to protect workers from pneumoconiosis in manufacturing industry. Of the total of 6,452 workers who were diagnosed as CWP initially during the 20 years from 1973 to 1992, X-ray category was as follows: category 1(35.2%), category 2(23.1%), suspicious (0/1 category, 13.4%), category 3(5.7%), large opacity (3.5%), unknown by. complete classification (19.1%). The patients' cardiopulmonary disability was as follows: no disability 79.3%, slight 14.2%, mild 4.1%, moderate 1.9%, severe 0.5%. The patients' X-ray category and disability were not related with the initially exposed age or job position, but their severity was positively related with the exposed duration that was adjusted by the initially exposed age. Also, the patients' X-ray category and disability had positive relationship each other. The cumulative exposure dose of silica/was more important than that'of respirable dust in the. development of large opacity CWP. The annual incidence density of CWP was 73.2 persons in 1982 and 75.8 persons in 1986per 10,000 person years. Afterthen it has been gradually decreasing and was in the range of 20-30 persons in the period of 1989-1992.
Classification ; Coal ; Coal Mining ; Dust ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Korea* ; Pneumoconiosis* ; Risk Factors*