BACKGROUND: Recently elderly people have increased in Korea and increased demands of medical service. This study was carried out to identify diseases and health service utilization patterns of geriatric inpatients to provide better understanding and basis planning to meet the needs of expanding geriatric population. METHOD: We use data of `Patient Survey in Korea` in 1999 and analyzed characteristics of disease structure and utilization patterns of health care service of 54,013 cases of discharged patients aged 65 years or more. RESULT: The proportion of the elderly in total discharged patients is 14.7%. Male to female ratio is 1:1.3 and most common age group was between 65 and 69 years old. 84.2% of elderly patients were admitted at secondary or tertiary health care facilities. The most common disease in geriatric inpatients is malig- nancy in male and vascular disease in female. The average duration of hospitalization is 14.2 days. They stay longer than the nation wide average hospital length and stay longest when they are admitted by mental and behavioral disorders. CONCLUSION: Geriatric patients are admitted mostly with chronic degenerative diseases such as neoplasm and vascular disease. Elders prefer to be admitted to tertiary hospitals and oriental hospitals. They stay more in hospital.
Aged ; Delivery of Health Care ; Female ; Health Services* ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Inpatients* ; Korea ; Male ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Vascular Diseases

The purine antimetabolite 6-Mercaptopurine (6-MP) has been in clinical use for over 30 years and is still a widely used agent in the treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The bioavailibility, clinical efficacy and toxicity of 6-MP administered orally for maintenance therapy of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia are highly variable in many studies, as well as at differnt times in same patient. there are many factors affecting the bioavailibility of 6-MP. The most notably factor being that concomitantly administered drugs and foods might contribute to a decrease in the bioavailibity of this drug. In our sociocultural environment milk is a major constituent of child's foods. Cow's milk contains a high concentration of xanthine oxidase, which could potentially transform 6-TM into 6-thioxanthine (6-TX) and 6-thiouric acid (6-TUA) which have no more therapeutic effects. In this study, we evaluated the effect of various milk products on the bioavailability of 6-MP. Incubation at 37degrees C for 30 min raw or pasteurized milk resulted in transformation of a large quantity of clinically relevant concentration of 6-MP into 6-TUA. The concomitant adminstration of folic acid and allopurinol has markedly inhibitory effect on the 6-MP destroying activity of milk at clinically relevant concentrations. These observations may help to optimize modalities of administration of 6-MP for the treartment of patients with childhood leukemia.
6-Mercaptopurine* ; Allopurinol ; Biological Availability* ; Child ; Complement Factor B ; Folic Acid ; Humans ; Leukemia ; Milk* ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; Xanthine Oxidase

No abstract available.
Accidents, Traffic* ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Injury Severity Score*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Antigen-Antibody Complex* ; Bacteria* ; Mice*

No abstract available.
Rabbits*

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins ; Infant, Newborn* ; Lactoglobulins ; Milk Proteins* ; Milk* ; Mothers* ; Postpartum Period*

BACKGROUND: Careful manipulation of hair grafts is essential for a good yield of transplanted hair. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate some of the factors responsible for poor graft yield, such as dehydration of the graft and the temperature and duration of preservation. METHODS: First, for the dehydration study, isolated single hair follicles were left on dry gauze for 0, 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes at room temperature. Secondly, to evaluate the effect of preservation temperature and time on the hair graft, follicles were preserved in saline for 5 minutes as a control, then for 6, 24, and 48 hours both at room temperature and at 4℃, respectively. Viability of preserved follicles was judged based on organ culture. RESULTS: Elongation of hair folliciles was seen in 96%, 94%, 94%, 83%, and 68% for 0-, 5-, 10-, 20-, and 30-minute air-exposed groups, respectively. Survival was seen in 95%, 92%, 40% and 34% at room temperature and 96%, 94%, 76% and 50% at 4℃ for follicles preserved in saline for 5 min (control), then for 6, 24, and 48 hours, respectively. CONCLUSION: We suggest that, alone with careful manipulation of hair units, high survival can be achieved with the avoidance of graft dehydration and preservation of the grafts at low temperatures if the operation time extends for more than 6 hours.
Dehydration* ; Hair Follicle ; Hair* ; Organ Culture Techniques ; Transplants*

Background: Rixubis (recombinant factor IX, nonacog gamma) is indicated for the control and prevention of bleeding episodes, perioperative management, and routine prophylaxis in hemophilia B patients. This real-world, postmarketing surveillance study aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Rixubis in adult and pediatric hemophilia B patients in South Korea. Methods: This prospective, observational, multicenter study (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT029 22231) was conducted in hemophilia B patients between April 2015 and April 2019, who were observed for up to 6 months after the initiation of Rixubis treatment. Safety was evaluated based on the number and severity of adverse events (AEs) and serious AEs (SAEs). Hemostatic effectiveness was assessed by physicians and patients by using a four-point scale and rated as excellent, good, fair, or no response based on treatment type. Results: In all, 58 patients were enrolled from four centers by seven physicians during the study period. The safety and effectiveness analysis sets included 57 and 54 patients, respectively. Overall, 11 AEs were reported in eight patients (14.0%), of which three were SAEs and occurred in three patients (5.3%). All 11 AEs were reported as unexpected and mild in severity, with no anaphylactic reaction, and 10 AEs (90.9%) resolved. The majority of AEs (10) were unrelated to Rixubis. Of the 142 hemostatic effectiveness assessments, 123 (86.6%) were reported as good or excellent. Conclusion Rixubis demonstrated an acceptable safety and effectiveness profile in the treatment of bleeding, perioperative management, and prophylaxis in hemophilia B patients in a real-world setting in South Korea.

BACKGROUND: Neck flexion by head elevation using an 8 to 10 cm thick pillow and head extension has been suggested to align the laryngeal, pharyngeal and oral axis and facilitate tracheal intubation. Presently, the laryngeal view and discomfort for tracheal intubation were evaluated according to two different degrees of head elevation in adult patients. METHODS: This prospective randomized, controlled study included 50 adult patients aged 18 to 90 years. After induction of anesthesia, the Cormack Lehane grade was evaluated in 25 patients using a direct laryngoscope while the patient's head was elevated with a 4 cm pillow (4 cm group) and then an 8 cm pillow (8 cm group). In the other 25 patients, the grades were evaluated in the opposite sequence and tracheal intubation was performed. The success rate and anesthesiologist's discomfort score for tracheal intubation, and laryngeal, pharyngeal and oral axes were assessed. RESULTS: There were no differences in the laryngeal view and success rate for tracheal intubation between the two groups. The discomfort score during tracheal intubation was higher in the 8 cm group when the patient's head was elevated 4 cm first and then 8 cm. The alignment of laryngeal, pharyngeal and oral axes were not different between the two degrees of head elevation. CONCLUSIONS: A pillow of 8 cm height did not improve laryngeal view and alignment of airway axes but increased the anesthesiologist discomfort, compared to a pillow of 4 cm height, during tracheal intubation in adult patients.
Adult* ; Airway Management ; Anesthesia ; Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Head ; Humans ; Intubation* ; Intubation, Intratracheal ; Laryngoscopes ; Neck ; Prospective Studies ; Vocal Cords

FISH is suggested as a possible method to detect the numerical and structural abnormalities of chromosomes in interphase nucleus. We performed this study to discuss the clinical usefulness of FISH in uncultured amniocytes and to set up the cut-off value for further study. We collected amniotic fluid samples from patients whose chromosome studies were recommended due to screen positive for Down and Edword syndrome in triple marker test using maternal serum. The centromeric probe for chromosome 18 and the locus-specific probe for chromosome 21 were used and the results were compared to their karyotypes. We could find 2 cases of trisony 21 and 2 cases of trisony 18 and the other cases represented normal karyotypes. The accuracies were 91% for disomy 18, 89% for trisomy 18, 92% for disomy 21 and 88% for trisomy 21. Therefore FISH technique is a possible method to detect the chromosomal abnormalities in uncultured amniocytes and the use of locus-specific probe for chromosome 21 would be more useful for detecting the aneuploidy of chromosome 21 than 13/21 centromeric probe.
Amniotic Fluid ; Aneuploidy ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18 ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 21 ; Down Syndrome* ; Female ; Fluorescence* ; Humans ; In Situ Hybridization* ; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence ; Interphase ; Karyotype ; Trisomy