No abstract available.
Intensive Care Units* ; Critical Care*

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the changes to postural sway velocity and trunk repositioning errors and the frequency of falls in stroke patients. METHODS: Fifty-five stroke patients, divided into three groups (no falls group: 20, one fall group: 19, repeated falls group: 16), stood quietly with eyes open and closed on a force platform while postural sway velocity was quantified by the center of pressure measures. Trunk repositioning errors were measured in standing while the subjects performed forward flexion movements. RESULTS: We found a significant difference between the groups for postural sway velocity in medial-lateral and anterior-posterior directions with eyes open and closed (P<0.05). With the eyes closed, there were significant differences between the three groups in the postural sway velocity (P<0.05) and the trunk repositioning errors changed significantly (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that the increase in falls may increase visual dependence for postural control velocity and trunk repositioning errors. These results may be useful in balance training to prevent falls in stroke survivors.
Eye ; Humans ; Stroke ; Survivors

No abstract available.
Child* ; Colon* ; Humans

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Cerebrospinal Fluid* ; Child* ; Humans ; Lactic Acid*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Hypothyroidism* ; Siblings*

Service diversification is recognized as an important strategy against turbulent environmental change. This study is designed to find out the trend of service diversification in Korean health care organizations and also to identify factors associated with the degree of service diversification. Data were collected from 69 hospitals out of 71 hospitals with over 300 beds. Important findings are summarized below. 1. Types of diversification are closely related to hospital size. Large hospitals have a tendency to provide sophisticated service requiring specialized skills and equipment, while small hospital have concentrated their efforts on health screening programs. 2. The more competitive and bigger hospitals are, the greater number of services that provide. Also, hospitals operating rational management information systems provide more services. Contrary to the expectation, hospitals with a low performance during last 3 years showed more service diversification. 3. A trend of more diversification was observed in hospitals whose chief executive officer used a prospector strategy. 4. A multiple regression analysis revealed that bed size, competitive environment, degree of rational management, and the growth pattern were significantly associated with teh service diversification.
Delivery of Health Care ; Health Facility Size ; Hospital Bed Capacity ; Management Information Systems ; Mass Screening

No abstract available.
Family Practice* ; Humans ; Smoke* ; Smoking*

We present a case of eccrine spiradenoma occurring on the trunk in a 33 year old woman. She developed a pea sized, pinkish tender nodule on the anterior chest 8 years ago. On histologic examination, there were several lobules surrounded by thin connective tissue septa in dermis. The lobules themselves consisted of small dark staining cells and large pale-staining cells, forming solid cords or ducts.
Adult ; Connective Tissue ; Dermis ; Female ; Humans ; Peas ; Thorax

BACKGROUND: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of lower respiratory infection in infants and young children, but the pathogenesis of RSV-induced inflammation is not well defined. MATERIAL AND METHOD: In order to examine the potential interactions between virus-infected airway epithelial cells and neutrophils, we studied the ability of neutrophils to adhere to yirus-infected airway epithelial cell monolayers by myeloperoxidase assay. Also we measured the ability of airway epithelial cells to secrete interleukin-8(IL-8) and inter-cellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1) in virus-infected airway epithelial cell cultures by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). The degree of IL-8 and ICAM-1 gene expression in the RSV-infected BEAS-2B cell cultures were analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR). RESULTS: The RSV-infected BEAS-2B cell resulted in significantly enhanced level of neutrophil adherence compared to the uninfected control(p (0.001). IL-8 and ICAM-1 production significantly increased by RSV infection(p<0.05). There was a significant positive correlation between neutrophil adherence and IL-8 level(r=0.73, p=0.002), and ICAM-1 level (r=0.843, p=0.001) in RSV-infected cells. The degree of both IL-8 and ICAM-1 mRNA expression increased in the RSV-infected cells compared with the uninfected ones. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that RSV infection significantly enhances the production of IL-8 and ICAM-1 in airway epithelial cells which then results in increased neutrophil adherence.
Cell Culture Techniques ; Child ; Epithelial Cells* ; Gene Expression ; Humans ; Infant ; Inflammation ; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 ; Interleukin-8 ; Neutrophils* ; Peroxidase ; Respiratory Syncytial Viruses* ; RNA, Messenger