PURPOSE: Pharmacotherapy using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors(SSRls) for men with primary premature ejaculation(PE) is promising. Specially, a strategy taking a pill "as needed" may offer an attractive option. To investigate the possibility of self therapy, patients treated for PE with sertraline "as needed" basis were evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Since 1996 we have treated 24 males with sertraline "as needed" basis for primary PE. We chose sertraline among SSRIs because alarge dose need not to be divided and peak plasma levels occurring 4-8 hours after oral administration makes 5 p.m. suitable for the time of administration. Five p.m. is the time the ordinary men usually fix their evening schedule including intercourses. Each patient was started on 50mg qd for 2 weeks and then the dose was adjusted to 50 or 100mg only on the day of intercourse. RESULTS: After 6 weeks, 18 men continued to take medication and 6 had dropped out. Of 18 men, mean ejaculation latency were 23 +/-19sec before treatment, 5.9 +/-4.2min after 2wks 50mg qd, 5.1 +/-3.8min after 2wks 50/100mg pm and 4.5 +/-2.7min after 4wks 50/100mg prn and mean sexual satisfaction scores ('5"=extremely satisfied, "0"=extremely unsatisfied) of men were 0.8 +/-0.8 before treatment, 3.8 +/-1.2 after 2wks 50mg qd, 3.4 +/-1.0 after 2wks 50/100mg pm and 3.2 +/-0.7 after 4wks 50/100mg pm. And mean sexual satisfaction scores of partners were 1.1 +/-0.7 before treatment, 3.2 +/-1.6 after 2wks 50mg qd,3.1 +/-1.4 after 2wks 50/100mg pm and 3.3 +/-1.2 after 4wks 50/100mg pm. Side effects were intermittent excessive delay in 1 patient, fatigue in 2 patients, numbness in 1 patient. CONCLUSIONS: If our results were supported by additional clinical long term study, self therapy with sertraline given pm at 5 pm in treatment of PE could be as attractive as self injection therapy in the treatment of erectile dysfunction.
Administration, Oral ; Appointments and Schedules ; Drug Therapy ; Ejaculation ; Erectile Dysfunction ; Fatigue ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Humans ; Hypesthesia ; Male ; Plasma ; Premature Ejaculation* ; Serotonin ; Sertraline*

Black spot of sweet persimmon, caused by Alternaria alternata, occurred in an orchard in Gyeongnam province, Korea in 2012. The symptom was appearance of 0.5 to 4 cm black spots on the surface of fruit. The pathogen was isolated from flesh of disease lesions. The causal agent was identified as A. alternata by morphological characteristics and sequencers of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) 1 and ITS4 regions of rRNA. Artificial inoculation of the pathogen resulted in development of disease symptoms and the re-isolated pathogen showed characteristics of A. alternata.
Alternaria* ; Diospyros* ; Fruit* ; Korea

Severe bark decay disease was observed on oak logs at a shiitake cultivation farm in Geochang-gun, Gyeongnam province. The symptoms observed were fruiting bodies that had developed on the top and side surface of oak logs. As a result, the bark came off easily exposing the sapwood. Slime mold specimens collected from oak logs showed developing fruiting bodies comprising of stalks, hypothallus, capillitium, and columella, and the causal agent of bark decay disease was identified as Stemonitis splendens on the basis of morphological characteristics. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Stemonitis splendens causing bark decay of oak logs used for shiitake mushroom cultivation in Korea.
Fruit ; Fungi ; Korea ; Shiitake Mushrooms

The funding acknowledgment in this article was omitted as published.

The funding acknowledgment in this article was omitted as published.

No abstract available.
Pancreatic Pseudocyst*

PURPOSE: The role of immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma(RCC) is being evaluated by a number of investigators. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of a low-dose subcutaneous regimen of interferon-alpha(IFN-alpha) in combination with intravenous administration of 5-fluorouracil(5-FU) with or without interleukin-2 (IL-2) in patients with advanced RCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 16 patients with advanced RCC were treated with an 8-week cycle of 6 to 9 MU/M2 IFN-alpha given 1 to 3 times a week during the 8 week period, and sequentially combined with 5 to 20 MU/M2 IL-2 given 3 times a week for 4 weeks and 750mg/M2 5-FU once a week for 4 weeks. 5 patients were treated with only IFN-alpha and 5-FU. Treatment schedule was identical except for the exclusion of IL-2 in this group. Among those 16 patients treated with 3-drug regimen(including IL-2), 10 patients had measurable metastatic lesions, and 4 patients had measurable metastatic lesions among 5 patients treated with 2-drug regimen(without IL-2). RESULTS: Among 19 consecutive men and 2 women treated, 14 had measurable metastatic lesion. 10 out of 14 patients with measurable metastatic lesions were treated with 3- drug regimen, and objective tumor regressions were achieved in 4 patients(40%) consisting of complete response in 1(10%) and partial response in the other 3(30%). Metastatic sites were lung in 3 patients, bone in 1 patient. 3 of the 4(75%) patients with pulmonary metastasis showed complete or partial response. Median response duration(complete plus partial response) was 14.3 months(range 11 to 22+). Stable disease lasting 3 months was noted in 1 patients(10%). Other 4 patients out of 14 patients with measurable metastatic lesions were treated with 2-drug regimen, and partial remission lasting 9 months was noted in 1 patient(25%). There were only mild to moderate side effects; maximum toxicity grade of 0 in 10 patients, grade I in 3, II in 7, III in 1 according to the World Health Organization classification. None of the patients experienced major IL-2 related toxicity and no toxic deaths occurred. CONCLUSIONS: This combination immunochemotherapy may be a promising regimen with modest toxicity in advanced RCC. The most favorable response can be expected in pulmonary metastasis. Most of side effects were tolerable. Three-drug regimen including IL-2 showed better response rate than two-drug regimen, suggesting a major role of IL-2. A large prospective randomized trials are required to confirm whether the combination immunochemotherapy has an effect on advanced RCC or not.
Administration, Intravenous ; Appointments and Schedules ; Carcinoma, Renal Cell* ; Classification ; Female ; Fluorouracil* ; Humans ; Immunotherapy ; Interferon-alpha* ; Interleukin-2* ; Lung ; Male ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Research Personnel ; World Health Organization

PURPOSE: This study sought to determine whether abdominal obesity is a risk factor for impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and hypertriglyceridemia and to verify whether moderate effect of abdominal obesity on the relationship between IFG and hypertriglyceridemia in Korea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was used for the analysis. The study population included 5,938 subjects aged 20 year old drawn from non-diabetic participants in a health examination survey. The subjects were classified according to the presence of abdominal obesity based on waist circumference, IFG based on their fasting blood glucose level, and hypertriglyceridemia on their fasting triglyceride. RESULTS: The multivariate-adjusted odds ratios for the occurrence of hypertriglyceridemia were 2.91 in the abdominal obesity group as compared with the nonobesity group and 1.31 in subjects with IFG compared with the normoglycemia controls. Abdominal obesity was found to be positively moderated in the interaction between waist circumference and fasting blood sugar. CONCLUSION: The moderate effect between abdominal obesity and IFG contributes to the development of hypertriglyceridemia in Korea.
Adult ; Aged ; Blood Glucose/*metabolism ; Fasting/blood ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertriglyceridemia/*blood/*pathology ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Obesity, Abdominal/*physiopathology ; Triglycerides/blood ; Waist Circumference/physiology ; Young Adult

Schizandra chinensis Baillon is a traditional folk medicine plant that is used to treat and prevent several inflammatory diseases and cancer in Korea, but the underlying mechanisms involved in its anti-allergic activity are not fully understood. This study was designed to investigate mechanisms of anti-allergic activity of a Schizandra chinensis Baillon water extract (SCWE) in immunoglobulin E (IgE)-antigen complex-stimulated RBL2H3 cells and to assess whether gastric and intestinal digestion affects the anti-allergic properties of SCWE. Oxidative stress is an important consequence of the allergic inflammatory response. The antioxidant activities of SCWE increased in a concentration-dependent manner. RBL-2H3 cells were sensitized with monoclonal anti-dinitrophenol (DNP) specific IgE, treated with SCWE, and challenged with the antigen DNP-human serum albumin. SCWE inhibited beta-hexosaminidase release and expression of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-13, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) mRNA and protein in IgE-antigen complex-stimulated RBL2H3 cells. We found that digested SCWE fully maintained its antioxidant activity and anti-allergic activity against the IgE-antigen complex-induced activation of RBL-2H3 cells. SCWE may be useful for preventing allergic diseases, such as asthma. Thus, SCWE could be used as a natural functional ingredient for allergic diseases in the food and/or pharmaceutical industries.
Asthma ; beta-N-Acetylhexosaminidases ; Digestion ; Drug Industry ; Immunoglobulin E ; Immunoglobulins ; Interleukin-13 ; Interleukins ; Korea ; Medicine, Traditional ; Oxidative Stress ; Plants ; RNA, Messenger ; Schisandra ; Serum Albumin ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; Water

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the prognostic significance of changes in body composition in patients with newly diagnosed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients (n=178) newly diagnosed with HCC participated in the study between 2007 and 2012. Areas of skeletal muscle and abdominal fat were directly measured using a three-dimensional workstation. Cox proportional-hazards modes were used to estimate the effect of baseline variables on overall survival. The inverse probability of treatmentweighting (IPTW) method was used to minimize confounding bias. RESULTS: Cutoff values for sarcopenia, obtained from receiver-operating characteristic curves, were defined as skeletal muscle index at the third lumbar vertebra of ≤ 45.8 cm/m2 for males and ≤ 43.0 cm/m2 for females. Sarcopenia patients were older, more likely to be female, and had lower body mass index. Univariable analysis showed that the presence of sarcopenia and visceral to subcutaneous fat area ratio (VSR) were significantly associatedwith prognosis. The multivariable analyses revealed that VSR was predictive of overall survival. However, in the multivariable Cox model adjusted by IPTW, sarcopenia, not VSR, were associated with overall survival. CONCLUSION: The presence of sarcopenia at HCC diagnosis is independently associated with survival.
Abdominal Fat ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Body Composition ; Body Mass Index ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Intra-Abdominal Fat ; Liver* ; Male ; Methods ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Prognosis* ; Sarcopenia* ; Spine ; Subcutaneous Fat