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*

The classification for pneumoconiosis which was developed by International Labour Office(ILO) on the basis of Radiological findings of simple chest radiography has been widely used for the study and diagnosis of pneumoconiosis. But many problems have been revealed during the pneumoconiosis study using this classification. Those problems come from simple radiography itself or classification systems. Among those, inter-reader and intra-reader variability are the severest problems, even though many efforts have been devoted to lessen the variability. With introduction of computed tomography (conventional CT and HRCT), we are learning many new aspects about the occupational lung diseases, especially pneumoconiosis. So the studies for pneumoconiosis using tomography are reviewed, focusing on silicosis, coalworkers' pneumoconiosis, and asbestosis. But in our country, the studies of that kind are very scant. It is necessary to study and diagnose pneumoconiosis by CT, because that is the need of workers and the responsibility of physicians working in the field of occupational medicine. CT is superior to simple radiography in early detection, determination of severity, and follow-up of pneumoconiosis. But simple radiography is and should be the main method for the study and diagnosis of pneumoconiosis. Although, because of radiation hazard, cost, time, and geographical availability, the method can not and should not be used on the routine basis, we have to consider the use of CT, if possible and if necessary. Before using CT widely, we should develop the standardized criteria regarding to scanning methods and reading criteria. If not, the same problems as those of simple radiography will be occurred, and then there will be no progress in occupational medicine and workers' health.
Asbestosis ; Classification ; Diagnosis* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Learning ; Lung Diseases ; Occupational Medicine ; Pneumoconiosis* ; Radiography* ; Silicosis ; Thorax

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

To find the factors affecting reading agreement of pneumoconiotic findings of simple chest P-A films and to develop the definite quality assurance (Q.A) program for the reading of pneumoconiosis, I gathered the reading reports of the previously developed forty four chest films from nationwide thirty nine radiologists and compared those with the findings decided by the stepwise panel readings of the highly qualified eight radiologists. The reading agreement of profusion by complete or short classification was higher in the radiologists with sufficient reading experiences of pneumoconiosis during residency training. It was also higher in the radiologists with reference to ILO standard films or those working in the agencies for pneumoconiosis within one category of profusion by complete classification. Other factors were not related with the reading agreement of profusion. In small opacity and pleural thickening, there were not any consistent and meaningful findings between the reading agreement and radiologists' characteristics. From the above results, it is necessary to develop the Q.A program to improve the reading agreement of pneumoconiotic findings, especially small opacity and pleural lesions.
Classification ; Internship and Residency ; Pneumoconiosis ; Reading ; Thorax