OBJECTIVE : To analyze the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) mutation in recurrent spontaneous abortion associated with hyperhomocysteinemia. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The blood Sample of habitual aborter with high fasting homocysteine level was tested by PCR-RFLP method. RESULTS: The patient was found to be a homozygosity for MTHFR gene mutation that was confirmed by the finding which is consistent with the mutation at the nucleotide 677 C to T, Corresponding to Ala to Val. CONCLUSIONS: Hyperhomocysteinemia due to MTHFR mutation is a cause of recurrent spontaneous abortion. Therefore, the MTHFR mutation should be examined in the workup of recurrent spontaneous abortion showing hyperhomocysteinemia.
Abortion, Spontaneous* ; Fasting ; Female ; Homocysteine ; Humans ; Hyperhomocysteinemia* ; Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (NADPH2)* ; Pregnancy

No abstract available.
Fibronectins* ; Osteogenesis*

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to present the basic reference data of age and sex specific gait parameters for Korean adults. METHOD: The basic gait parameters were extracted from 70 healthy adults, 38 men and 32women, 21 to 69 years of age using VICON 340 Motion Analyzer. RESULTS: The temporal gait parameters and kinematic parameters of Korean adults were similar to other western reference data. CONCLUSION: Significant sex differences exist in the maximal pelvic tilting, pelvic internal rotation and foot internal rotation and plantar flexion. There is a statistically significant age variability for the hip and knee flexion at stance phase.
Adult* ; Foot ; Gait* ; Hip ; Humans ; Knee ; Male ; Sex Characteristics

Intramural hematoma(IMH) and penetrating aortic ulcer have been increasingly recognized as causes of acute aortic pathology in addition to aortic dissection. The presence of the intimal tear and a flap traversing the aortic lumen is considered to be a most reliable differential point of aortic dissection and IMH. Transesophageal echocardiography(TEE) has become a valuable modality for the diagnosis, prognosis and management of acute aortic syndrome with the unique advantages of portability and the ability to obtain high-resolution real time images. Endovascular Stent-graft placement over the primary entry tear may be an alternative to open surgery because it can close the intimal tear, which leads to thrombosis of the false lumen, excluding flow through the intimal tear and redirecting aortic flow exclusively into the true lumen. We report 88 year-old male with aortic dissection in descending thoracic aorta, successfully treated with endovascular Stent-graft implantation, which was mimicking intramural hematoma by its appearance and subclinical intimal tear diagnosed exclusively by TEE against other imaging studies.
Aged, 80 and over ; Aorta, Thoracic* ; Diagnosis ; Hematoma* ; Humans ; Male ; Pathology ; Prognosis ; Thrombosis ; Ulcer

Pulmonary embolism is the impaction of material into branches of the pulmonary arterial bed. It usually occurs in patients with primary hypercoagulable states or secondary hypercoagulable states like cancer, preganancy, and estrogen replacement therapy. We report a case of a pulmonary embolism in a patient with positive lupus anticoagulant who received estrogen replacement therapy. The patient was referred due to suddenly developed shortness of breath and echogenic mass densities in the right atrium on 2 dimensional echocardiography. The patient was markedly improved with intravenous urokinase and subsequent oral anticoagulant therapy. Related articles are also reviewed.
Dyspnea ; Echocardiography ; Estrogen Replacement Therapy* ; Estrogens* ; Female ; Heart Atria ; Humans ; Lupus Coagulation Inhibitor* ; Pulmonary Embolism* ; Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator

This paper presents the results of a survey for the causes of sensori-neural hearing impairment in Korea. The subjects were 1,676 children of total 2,928 enrolled in 16 Deaf Schools; two schools in each area of Seoul, busan, Kyoungbook, Kyoungna, Kyounggi and Chunbug, and each one in Chungnam, Chungbug, Chunnam and Jaeju. The data were collected by questionnaire with 28 items distributed to their parents. The filling in the check lists were performed by their class teacher, interviewer, for 18 months from September, 1975 to February, 1976. The questionable or missed problems were reaffirmed. The results obtained were as follows. Most of the reasons, 78.5% were acquired characters that could be developed during pregnant period, the time of delivery and the time of after birth. The pure hereditary reasons except the cases complexed with one or two were only 11.3%. Those who could not be defined with any reasons were 10.2%. Among the acquired causes, 5.8% of total subjects were developed for pregnance; 3.3%, during delivery; and 69.7%, after birth. In the pregnant period, the drug intoxications were 2.4% of total subjects, several diseases such as influenza, bleeding, surgical operation, venereal disease and rubella etc. were about one percent, and the accompanied with some symptoms of pregnancy intoxication and traumatic events were 2.4%. During time, the cases with delayed rhythmical pain were 16 persons, the immaturities were 11, the asphyxial cases were nine, the errors of forceps delivery were seven, the cases of low body weight inspite of full term were our, the cases with cesarian section were three, the head injuries were two, and the accompanied with three kinds of above reasons were three. During after birth, the cases with acute communicable diseases were 35.4% of total subjects, the fever unknown origin were 16.1%, the chronic otitis media were 3.7%, the meningitis were 3.5%, the gastric and nutritional diseases were 3.5%, the drug intoxications were 4.8%, the blood diseases were 0.3% and the other causes were 2.2%. Here by acute communicable diseases, some importances were measle, 10.1% of total subjects; meningitis, 7.3%; convulsion with some reasons, 4.9%; poliomyelitis. 3.2%; encephalitis, 2.4%; and mumps, rubella, pertusis, scarlet fever, and small pox were somewhat played a role in. Among 59 cases with brain diseases, 53 were concussion by the accidents, such as traffic and falling or sliping down etc., the cerebral paralysis and hydrocephalus were two, respectively. And the blood diseases were severe newjaundice in all five cases. If we were summarized with the above mentioned, most of the hearing impairments were introduced by the combined reasons with familial or hereditary factors and the acquired, than by a simple disease. Among the congenital or hereditary hearing impairments classified to now a day, we suppose that the many cases with the acquired causes during pregnancy, delivery and after birth were complexed. Subsequently, the maternal and child health should be more and more developed in our country, also.
Body Weight ; Brain Diseases ; Busan ; Child Health ; Child* ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Communicable Diseases ; Craniocerebral Trauma ; Encephalitis ; Fever ; Hearing Loss* ; Hearing* ; Hematologic Diseases ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Influenza, Human ; Korea ; Meningitis ; Mumps ; Otitis Media ; Paralysis ; Parents ; Parturition ; Poliomyelitis ; Pregnancy ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Rubella ; Scarlet Fever ; Seizures ; Seoul ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases ; Surgical Instruments

BACKGROUD: Fatigue is one of the most common problems encountered in family practice but its diagnosis and management are neither standardized nor simphfied. This basehne study was conducted to find out the clinical characteristics, dinical courses, and outcomes of fatigued patients. METHODS: This study included 163 fatigued patients who visited a department of a university hospital based family practice due to fatigue as their primary or secondary complaint. We dassified fatigue which persisted for more than 6 months as acute fatigue, less than 6 months as acute fatigue. Retrospective review of medical record was used to collect all rehted dinical characteristics and telephone interview was done to follow the course and outcomes of fatigue. RESULTS: Of the total 163 fatigued patients, 105 patients(64.4%) were men. Fifty two patients(31.9 %) visited the dinic for complete health check up due to fatigue. The rate of response to telephone interview was 62.6%. Fifty five patients(33.7%) were acute fatigue, 75 patients(46.0%) chronic fatigue, and 33 patients (20.2%) unknown duration of fatigue. Accordirg to the causes of fatigue, 11.7% of patients corresponded to organic cause, 60.7% psychiatric cause, 27.6% unknown cause. Specified organic causes of fatigue, chronic hepatitis was the most common disease followed by alcohol liver disease, arthritis, anemia, viral syndrome and hyperthyroidism As psychiatric causes af fatigue, stress was the most common cause followed by overwork, alcohol abuse, depression, and anxiety. Reassurance and observation(71.8%), drug tberapy(17.8%) were the mast common treatments. Those who felt their function decreased below 50% were 7.6% of total 102 patients. On the survival analysis, 58.2% of acute fatigue patients, 62.4% of chronic fatigue patients, 67.0% of unknown patients had fatigue for 2 years since the initial visit. CONCLUSIONS: As the cause af fatigue in a family practice, psychiatric causes were more frequent than organic causes. As psychiatric causes of fatigue, stress was the most common cause followed by overwork and alcohol abuse. Only one third of the fatigued patients had improved two years later.
Alcoholism ; Anemia ; Anxiety ; Arthritis ; Depression ; Diagnosis ; Family Practice* ; Fatigue ; Hepatitis, Chronic ; Humans ; Hyperthyroidism ; Interviews as Topic ; Korea* ; Liver Diseases ; Male ; Medical Records ; Retrospective Studies

Hyperhomocysteinemia has been recognized as an independent risk factor which causes atherosclerosis. The genetic mutation in MTHFR, an enzyme required for efficient homocysteine metabolism, produces a thermolabile enzyme with reduced activity. It has been suggested that thermolabile MTHFR is associated with vascular disease due to increased plasma homocysteine concentration. This study is a preliminary research for identifying the relationship between the MTHFR gene mutation and hypertensive subjects by examining the prevalence of 677 C-- Africa ; Atherosclerosis ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Genotype ; Health Services ; Homocysteine ; Humans ; Hyperhomocysteinemia ; Hypertension ; Metabolism ; Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (NADPH2)* ; Plasma ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Vascular Diseases

Proteomics is one of the most important issues in the post-genomic area, because it can greatly contribute to identifying protein biomarkers for disease diagnosis and drug screening. Protein array is a key technology for proteome researches and has been analyzed by various methods including fluorescence, mass spectrometry, atomic force microscopy and surface plasmon resonance (SPR). SPR biosensor is a promising technology in proteomics, since it has various advantages including real-time measurement of biomolecular interactions without labeling and the simple optical system for the device. SPR biosensors have a strong potential for analyzing proteomes by SPR imaging and SPR spectroscopic imaging, even though the challenge is to produce proteins on a proteomic scale.
Animals ; *Biosensing Techniques ; Humans ; Protein Array Analysis ; *Proteomics ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; *Surface Plasmon Resonance/instrumentation/methods

Marchiafava-Bignami disease (MBD) is a fatal disorder characterized by demyelination of the corpus callosum. MRI, suggestive of corpus callosum demyelination with associated white matter involvement in both cerebral hemispheres, indicates a diagnosis of MBD. In this case, MR diffusion-weighted findings taken at an acute stage of MBD revealed lesions not only in the corpus callosum but also in the cerebral cortex. Lower apparent diffusion coefficient values of the corpus callosum and cortical lesions were associated with poor clinical outcome.
Middle Aged ; Male ; Humans ; Demyelinating Diseases/*pathology ; Corpus Callosum/*pathology ; Brain/*pathology ; Alcoholism/complications