No abstract available.
Animals ; Ethanol* ; Killer Cells, Natural* ; Mice* ; Rats*

Optic disc pits are an uncommon congenital anomaly of the optic nerve head. Serous detachment of the macula is a well known complication in patients with an optic disc pit Although spontaneous reattachment has been reported, most eye with macular detachment associated with optic disc pit have a poor visual prognosis inspite of treatments. We have experienced a case of optic disc pit associated with serous macular detachment, that has been treated with argon pure green laser photocoagulation, reporting it with a review of literature.
Argon ; Humans ; Light Coagulation ; Optic Disk ; Prognosis

PURPOSE: This study was done to examine the effects of a smoking prevention program on primary school students. METHOD: The design for this study was a nonequivalent quasi-experimental control group pretest-posttest. The smoking prevention program was provided to grade 5 and 6 students selected from two schools in Jecheon.The experimental group consisted of 72 students and the control group, 73 students. A smoking prevention program composed of smoking prevention education (once a week for 40 minutes over a period of 8 weeks) and supportive environment for smoking prevention was developed by modifying several smoking prevention programs. The research was conducted from May 15 to October 10, 2003. RESULT: 1) After completion of the smoking prevention program, the mean scores for knowledge about smoking, attitude to smoking, and intention toward non-smoking were not significantly different between the experimental group and the control group. CONCLUSIONS: To affectively achieve the aims of a smoking prevention program, the effectiveness of the program should not be measured over the short term only. Long-term tracking of students educated in the program, to identify the rate of those who later become smokers needs to be done.
Education ; Humans ; Intention ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Child Health

Sexual dysfunction is a common problem in patients with end stage renal disease. The pathogenesis of this problem is complex, and includes psychological factors, vascular, and neurological disorders, drug therapy, uremic intoxication and hormonal disturbances. However, we don't have any valid report because pathogenesis and physiologic significance is not proved clearly. With the questionnaire that we provided to our patients, we evaluated the sexual dysfunction in patients with end stage renal disease, and we treated our patient with antidepressants for males and estrogen for females. The results are as follows: 1) Sixty patients among 70 answered the sexual question. Among these, 46 patients (76%) complained of sexual dysfunction, 75% of male patients and 58% of female patients complained of impotence and mensturation disturbance, respectively. Especially, female patients complained of loss of libido as a whole. Also they said that they never tried to do anything to recover their sexual dysfunction. 2) After starting dialysis, 57% of patients showed decrease in coital frequency than before. 58% of patients showed no significant change in subjective sezual symptoms after dialysis. 18% of patients showed significant change in sexual function after anemia treatment. 3) Eighty-eight percents of males and one hundred percents of females treated with antidepressants and estrogen, respectively showed no effect. Finally, we found that sexual dysfunction is a common problem in chronic renal failure, but they never try to recover their conditions. Our therapeutic approach was not effective, but dialysis in CRF patient must be used for lifting the value of life, not by way of life extension. In addition we can make more effective treatment through objective study and psychological examination.
Anemia ; Antidepressive Agents ; Coitus ; Dialysis ; Drug Therapy ; Erectile Dysfunction ; Estrogens ; Female ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic* ; Libido ; Life Expectancy ; Lifting ; Male ; Nervous System Diseases ; Psychology ; Value of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Upper gastrointestinal bleeding in cirrhotic patients is a serious emergency which is associated with high mortality. Cirrhotic patients commonly have, in additian to esophageal varices, other upper gastrointestinal lesions which accont for occasional bleeding episodes. Since the theapy of bleeding esophageal varices differs from the treatment of nonvariceal bleeding, delay and inaccuracy in determining the source of bleeding contribute ta high mortality. (continue...)
Emergencies ; Esophageal and Gastric Varices* ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Mortality

BACKGROUND/AIMS: HBV infection can be seen after organ transplantation. The presence of anti-Bs in serum means protection from HBV infection. If amino acids were mutated in 'a' determinant which was a common antigenic epitope of HBsAg, escape from humoral immunity can occur. Recently, in chronic HBV infected patients who received liver transplantation but reinfected by HBV, many authors reported mutations in 'a' determinant sequence. However, in renal transplantation, there were few reports about HBV infection and 'a' determinant mutation after transplantation. Therefore, we studied the incidence of HBV reinfection after renal transplantation and also tried to analyze 'a' determinant sequence in those patients. METHODS: We reviewed HBsAg-egative patients who received renal transplantation in our hospital, but turned HBsAg positive after transplantation. We selected two patients who were anti-Bs positive before transplantation but turned HBsAg positive after transplantation, and analyzed 'a' determinant of amino acid sequence of these patients. RESULTS: Among 1682 patients who were HBsAg negative before transplantation, 21 patients were turned HBsAg positive after transplantation. Among them, 6 patients were anti-Bs positive before transplantation. Sequence analysis of the 'a' determinant amino acid in two patients whose HBsAg turned positive after transplantation revealed no evidence of mutation in comparison with previously reported subtype 'a' determinant sequences. CONCLUSION: In renal transplantation, HBV could be reinfected in patients who had been anti-Bs positive before transplantation even without mutation in 'a' determinant region.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Amino Acids ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Humans ; Immunity, Humoral ; Incidence ; Kidney Transplantation* ; Liver Transplantation ; Organ Transplantation ; Sequence Analysis* ; Transplants ; United Nations

To objectively assess the difficulty in the procedures of corrosive esophageal strictures, the success rates, the number of sessions and balloon dilatation and complications were evaluated in 66 patients with esophageal strictures who underwent balloon dilatation. These patients were grouped into three according to the causes as corrosive esophageal strictures (n=24), non-corrosive benign strictures (n=22) and malignant strictures (n=22). Success rates were 29% in corrosive esophageal strictures, 86% in noncorrosive benign strictures, and 85% in malignant strictures. Required average number of sessions and balloon dilations were 3.4 and 7.4 in corrosive strictures and 1.4 and 2 in noncorrosive benign and malignant strictures, respectively. Esophageal rupture occured in 33% of corrosive strictures, 4% of each noncorrosive benign and malignant strictures. Pain in corrosive esophageal strictures was severest. In conclusion, balloon dilatation in corrosive strictures has low success rate and high complication rate and requires more frequent dilation, which implies that it is more difficult than other strictures.
Constriction, Pathologic* ; Dilatation* ; Humans ; Rupture

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The prognosis of primary hepatocellular carcinoma is extremely poor because of its large size, portal vein thrpombosis, extrahepatic metastasis and underlying liver cirrhosis. The aim, of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of ultrasound screening test for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma in high-ridk populations. METHODS: We analysed 119 patients who were diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma by ultrasonography screening test in Yonsei University Severance Hospital from the period of January 1990 to December 1996. RESULT: The mean follow-up duration to the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma was 30 months (range 3-75). The number of patients with single lesion was 89(75%). The mean diameter of the tumor was 3.0 cm (range 1-10) , 82 patients (70%) had masses measured less than 3cm in diameter. The Number of patients with elevated serum alphafetoprotein level above 400ng/ml was 29(25%). The median survival was 28 months in screening group, significant compared with 7 months in control group (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound follow-up in high-ridk group of hepatocellular carcinoma mede it possible to detect small tumors in a high percentage of cases. This may lead to an increase in the number of potentially curable tumors and hence an increase in the overall survival rate. So ultrasound screening test is important in the high-ridk group of hepatocellular carcinoma.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Diagnosis ; Early Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Mass Screening* ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Portal Vein ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate ; Ultrasonography*

Background: Neuroleukemiosis is a rare complication of leukemia. The diagnosis may be delayed owing to non-specific symptoms and the need for special diagnostic modalities. Case: A 70-year-old man in his sixth year of remission from acute myeloid leukemia was referred to the pain clinic for shooting and radiating pain in the left posterior leg. A lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging showed mild disc bulging of the L2-3, which was insufficient to explain the patient’s symptoms. With insufficient pain response to lumbar epidural block and piriformis injection, we examined both sciatic nerves using an ultrasound and identified an enlarged hypoechoic mass on the left sciatic nerve at mid-thigh level. After that, we biopsied the mass under general anesthesia, and histology confirmed it to be neuroleukemiosis. Conclusions Ultrasound is an inexpensive, non-invasive, simple, and quick diagnostic modality that can be used as a screening tool in the diagnosis of neuroleukemiosis.

The purpose of this study is to report our 5-year experience with fluoroscopic removal of blunt esophageal foreign body or impacted food in 15 consecutive patients who were referred by endoscopists because they couldn's remove it endoscopically. The foreign body or impacted food was a pieced of meat, a bean, a badug stone or a beef bone. Thirteen patients had underlying disease(11 of corrosive stricture, 2 of postoperative stricture) but 2 patients did not. We removed the object using one of the following 4 techniques: Basket extraction technique, Foley catheter technique, single balloon technique (dilatation of stenosis for passing the food into the stomach and for the treatment of the stricture as well), double balloon technique(removal of the foreign body by trapping it with two valvuloplasty balloons). Removal was successful in all patients. Esophageal perforation occurred in one patient using the single balloon technique, who treated nonoperatively by means of fasting, antibiotics and parenteral alimentation. No procedure related death occurred in these series. In conclusion, fluoroscopic removal of blunt esophageal foreign bodies of impacted food with various techniques is promising alternative to esophagoscopic removal.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Catheters ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Esophageal Perforation ; Fasting ; Foreign Bodies* ; Humans ; Meat ; Red Meat ; Stomach