Human diphyllobolthriasis is chiefly caused by infection with Diphyllobothrium latum(D. latum) through eating raw or unproperly cooked fish such as salmon, trout or perch. D. latum is worldwidely distributed, but not a common parasite of humans, and its prevalence in Korea is not high. The first worm-proven case of D. latum infection was first reported in 1971 and about 30 cases have been reported in Korea until now. However, with the increasing popularity of eating raw salmon, trout and perch, this tapeworm infection tends to increase in Korea. Most of the patients infected by D. latum have not showed the specific symptoms and only non-specific gastrointestinal symptoms(anorexia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain). We report a case which includes a chain whitish, threadlike tapeworm segments spontaneously discharged in the patients stool. On reviewing the literature, the present case is the first report of D. latum infection by eating cultured salmon. The patient was treated with 600mg single dose of Praziquantel.
Cestoda ; Cestode Infections ; Diarrhea ; Diphyllobothrium* ; Eating ; Humans ; Korea ; Nausea ; Parasites ; Perches ; Praziquantel ; Prevalence ; Salmon ; Trout ; Vomiting

No abstract available.
Adult* ; Humans ; Risk Factors*

The word "Delayed" in the legend of Figure 2 should have been written as "Controls."

No abstract available.
Hypertriglyceridemia*

BACKGROUND: Recently in Korea, the rate of addictive drug abuse is rapidly increasing in men on salary, housewives, and even in adolescents, who have been considered to be free from drugs, which presents a serious problem to the society. Especially, the habituation to gateway drug, such as cigarettes and alcohol, before 15 years old, would lead to the increased possibility of other drug abuse, including illicit drugs. Thereupon in this study, we intended toreview the effect of adolescents smoking an the drug abuse and deviated behaviors. METHODS: On September, 1997, randomly selected were 12 classes, an the basis of 2 classes per grade, from the two schools which was located each in Seoul and Buchean. And survey was dane on 610 students with non non-nominl, self-reported questionnaire. RESULTS: The rate of adolescent smoking was 28.1% in male students and had increasing tendency of "the higher the grades, the higher the smoking rate"(17.0% in the 1st gade, 31.5% in the 2nd grade, 35.9% in the 3rd grade). The smoking rate of female students was 12.3%. From the 2nd grade of middle school to the 2nd grade of high school was the critical period when the smoking habit was initiated in almost 90% of the students. The experiencing rates of drug abuse in studied subjects were as follows : drinking(79.0%), stimulants(4.8%), sedatives(4.1%), hypnotics(3.1%), glue sniffing(1.5%), butane gas(0.7%), marijuana/hemp(0.2%). They were higher in the smoking group than in the nansMoking group, showing statistical significances in most items except hypnotics and marijuana/hemp. Also simihr results were shown in deviated behaviors between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: With the concerted efforts of family, school, society and natian, we as family physicians should make efforts to delay and prevent adolescent's smoking, which is a gateway to drug abuse and deviated behaviors, and to increase people's recognition of health risks caused by smoking, and to provide proper program for adolescents to stop smoking.
Adhesives ; Adolescent ; Critical Period (Psychology) ; Female ; Humans ; Hypnotics and Sedatives ; Korea ; Male ; Physicians, Family ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; Seoul ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Street Drugs ; Substance-Related Disorders* ; Tobacco Products ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Obesity is one of the well-known risk factors of breast cancer. We evaluated the relationship between serum adiponectin and resistin levels and breast cancer risk in 41 biopsy-proven breast cancer patients and 43 age- and body mass index-matched controls. The mean serum adiponectin level was lower in the breast cancer group than the control group (6.93+/-3.2 microgram/mL, vs. 7.60+/-3.5 microgram/mL), but this difference did not reach statistical significance (p=0.37). There was a statistically significant difference in serum resistin levels between the groups (breast cancer group 5.23+/-6.9 ng/mL vs. control 1.46+/-2.0 ng/mL; p<0.001). The risk of breast cancer was significantly increased in the highest tertile group for serum resistin level compared to the lowest tertile group (adjusted odds ratio 2.77 [95% CI 1.40-5.50]). The lymph node metastasis was significantly increased in the patients with less than the median adiponectin level (p=0.017). In the patients whose resistin level was higher than the median, the frequency of tumor with the highest histological grade was significantly increased (p=0.025). In conclusions, both the low serum adiponectin levels and high resistin levels are likely to be associated with increased breast cancer risk in Korean women.
Resistin/*blood ; Odds Ratio ; Middle Aged ; Insulin Resistance ; Humans ; Female ; Case-Control Studies ; Breast Neoplasms/*blood/etiology/pathology ; Adult ; Adiponectin/*blood

OBJECTIVES: We compared the effects of two different nano-sized calcium supplements (synthesized by wet-chemical method or the dry-grinding method of calcium carbonate) and one micro-sized calcium supplement (calcium carbonate) on intestinal absorption and bone turnover in 20 young women. MATERIALS & METHODS: This study was carried out with a three week cross-over design. The subjects ingested one of three different calcium supplements (1 dose of 500 mg Ca++) at 8 AM, which was repeated three times weekly. Serum and urine samples were collected before and after the calcium load using a time table (serum sampling 0, 2 hr, 4 hr, 8 hr after loading; urine sampling 0, 4 hr, 8 hr after loading). RESULTS: Serum ionized calcium and parathyroid hormone concentrations significantly changed in response to all calcium supplements loading, the difference among calcium supplements was not significant. However, the postload urinary excretion of calcium and the N-telopeptide/creatinine ratio were significantly different among three calcium supplement over time by repeated measured ANOVA. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest the effect of nano-sized calcium supplements synthesized by the wet-chemical method is superior to the other calcium supplements in intestinal calcium absorption and bone turn-over.
Absorption ; Calcium ; Cross-Over Studies ; Intestinal Absorption ; Parathyroid Hormone

No abstract available.

PURPOSE: Breast cancer has been reported as the most common cancer of women in the United States, Western Europe and Korea and about 210,000 and 10,000 women in United States and Korea every year, respectively are diagnosed with it. Breast cancer is curable with an early diagnosis, and many researchers have made efforts to find a marker for this malady, heat shock protein (HSP) consists of 6 groups, it is highly preserved throughout both the prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and it acts as a molecular chaperone that's involved in protein folding. HSPs have been recently reported to be related with breast cancer. In this study, we investigated the changes of expression of HSP60 in tissues and cell lines of breast cancer. METHODS: We obtained breast cancer tissues and normal tissues from breast cancer patients, and we purchased several cancer cell lines from American tissue culture correction. We treated the tissues and the cell lines of human breast cancer with heat shock protein. Proteins and mRNAs were isolated from the tissues and the cells and then we performed Western blotting, reverse transcriptase-Polymerase chain Reaction and fluorescence activated cell sorter analysis on them. RESULTS: On Western blot, HSP60 was more overexpressed in the tissues and the cell lines of breast cancer than in the normal breast tissues and cell lines. The expression of HSP60 showed 2 types of molecular weight differences in the tissues and cell lines of breast cancer, and specifically, low HSP60 was over-expressed in the cancer tissues. There was no difference between the breast cancer cell lines and the normal cell lines in the expressions of HSP60 mRNA, according to the treatment with heat shock. Also, there was no relationship between phosphorylation and the structural difference of HSP60 protein, according to HSP60 protein's molecular weight. The expression of HSP60 has been mostly reported at the mitochondria; however, in this study, it was more predominantly detected at the cytoplasm than at the mitochondria in the breast cancer cell lines. CONCLUSION: We conclude that HSP60 may be used as a diagnostic marker for breast cancer. Detailed investigation of the usefulness and significance of the HSP60 expression as a prognostic factor is required in further studies.
Blotting, Western ; Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Cell Line ; Chaperonin 60 ; Cytoplasm ; Early Diagnosis ; Eukaryotic Cells ; Europe ; Female ; Fibrinogen ; Fluorescence ; Heat-Shock Proteins ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Korea ; Mitochondria ; Molecular Chaperones ; Molecular Weight ; Phosphorylation ; Protein Folding ; Proteins ; RNA, Messenger ; Shock ; United States

OBJECTIVES: Vitamin D deficiency has been shown to influence the development of some cardiovascular disease. In this study, the association between the existence of coronary artery plaque and vitamin D was examined among participants who were not previously diagnosed with coronary artery disease. METHODS: A total of 339 participants (246 men and 93 women) who visited a health examination center for check-up including blood test for serum vitamin D level and coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) were selected for this study. RESULTS: Among the total 339 participants, 106 displayed coronary artery plaques. The serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) level of the group with plaque was lower than that of the group without (17.7 ± 7.72 ng/mL vs. 19.6 ± 7.12 ng/mL, P = 0.0316). The group with plaque had higher incidence rates of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia than that without (P = 0.0078, P = 0.0065, and P = 0.0174, respectively). The former displayed higher serum glucose and glycated hemoglobin levels than the latter (P = 0.0055 and P = 0.0137, respectively). The group with plaque showed higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure than that without (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0012, respectively). Stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that 25(OH)D (coefficient, −0.06; odd ratio, 0.9433; 95% confidence interval, 0.8967–0.9924), age, and sex were independently related with presence of coronary artery plaque. CONCLUSIONS: Relatively low vitamin D level was observed among participants with plaque, which was determined through CCTA during a health examination. Plaque formation and serum 25(OH)D level showed inverse relationship.
Angiography* ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Dyslipidemias ; Hematologic Tests ; Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Incidence ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Vitamin D Deficiency ; Vitamin D* ; Vitamins*