No abstract available.
Follow-Up Studies* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Radiculopathy*

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

Purpose: : The purpose of this study was to investigate the Health-related Indicators according to the restricted activity and health-related quality of life of osteoarthritis patients based on Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey. Methods: : The data collected for this study used the IBM SPSS WIN21.0 statistical program. Analyzed for descriptive statistics, simple frequency and proportion, Chi-squared test. Results: : Restricted Activity was statistically significantly related to self-assessed health, stress, depression, suicidal ideation, and smoking. Health-related quality of life was statistically significantly related to self-assessed health, BMI, stress, depression, suicidal ideation, and walking practice. Conclusion : The findings of this study suggest that osteoarthritis patients need measures to minimize restricted activity and improve health-related quality of life.

An organizing hematoma with tumor-like presentation in association with a chronic subdural hematoma(CSDH) has not been reported. Most reported cases of an intracranial mass in association with a CSDH have been associated with primary or metastatic neoplasm. A 72-year-old man presenting with an intracranial contrast-enhancing mass in association with a CSDH in magnetic resonance images is reported. Operative exploration revealed the mass to be an organized hematoma adjoining cortical draining veins between the outer and inner membranes of a chronic subdural hematoma. This report adds another important differential diagnosis to various primary and metastatic neoplasms that have been reported in the literature when encountering an intracranial mass in association with a CSDH. Neurosurgeons should be aware of the possibility and, if necessary, should apply more diagnostic modalities than magnetic resonance images before deciding management plans.
Aged ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Hematoma ; Hematoma, Subdural, Chronic* ; Humans ; Membranes ; Veins

BACKGROUNDS: Gamma band oscillatory activity is considered to be related to congnitive functions and illustrates that the concept of event-related oscillations bridges the gap between single neurons and neural assemblies. An event-related gamma oscillation is the time - locked responses of specific frequency, and can be identified by computing the amplitude frequency characteristics of the averaged event-related potentials(ERPs) after stimulation. OBJECTIVES: We purposed to present experimental paradigm to investigate @-band oscillation activities from the recording of ERPs by using auditory oddball paradigm and investigate the difference of @-band activity between schizophrenia and normal controls. METHODS: The ERPs resulting from auditory stimuli with oddball paradigm in a group of schizophrenics(n=11) and also a group of age-, sex- and handedness matched normal controls, were recorded by 128 channel EEG. The @-band oscillatory activities were calculated by using time-frequency wavelet decomposition of the signal between 20 and 80Hz. The @-band oscillatory activities of both groups were compared by t-test. RESULTS: The @-band oscillatory of the leads Fz,Gz and Pz of both groups were represented well in the time - frequency maps. Significant increases of the @-band activity in normal controls compared with schizophrenics were observed around 160 msec. 350msec. and 800 msec after stimulation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggested that the increment in @-band oscillatory activity during cognitive operations and decreased @-band activity in schizophrenics may be associated with the cognitive dysfunctions and the pathophyiology of the schizophrenia.
Electroencephalography ; Evoked Potentials* ; Functional Laterality ; Neurons ; Schizophrenia

We report an extremely rare case of a diffuse hepatic hemangiomatosis without extrahepatic involvement in an adult. The imaging findings of this tumor were similar to those of a hepatic hemangioma and included contrast enhancement with a centripetal filling pattern of the entire hepatic tumor on the delayed phase of a dynamic CT and inhomogeneous diffuse uptake of the entire tumor on blood-pool images obtained five hours later on a 99mTc-labeled red blood cell scan. Despite its rarity, diffuse hepatic hemangiomatosis can be suggested in adult patients with diffusely involved hepatic tumors showing the radiological findings of a hepatic hemangioma.
Adult ; Female ; Gated Blood-Pool Imaging ; Hemangioma/*diagnosis/pathology/ultrasonography ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms/*diagnosis/pathology/ultrasonography ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Carbapenemase production has been reported worldwide in gram-negative bacteria, including Acinetobacter species. We detected carbapenemase-producing Acinetobacter pittii in clinical isolates in Daejeon, Korea. Twenty-one ertapenem-resistant A. pittii isolates screened with a disk diffusion method were characterized by using the Epsilon test, four multiplex PCR assays, and a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme. A total of 21 A. pittii isolates harbored the metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) gene bla(IMP-1) or bla(NDM-1). Nineteen isolates containing bla(IMP-1) were resistant to imipenem and meropenem, but two isolates harboring bla(NDM-1) were susceptible to them. The sequence types (STs) of the two New Delhi MBL (NDM-1)-producing A. pittii isolates were ST70 and ST207, which differed from the STs (ST63, ST119, ST396, and a novel ST) of the IMP-1-producing A. pittii. This is the first report on NDM-1-producing A. pittii isolates in Korea. Our results emphasize that the study of NDM-1-producing gram-negative bacteria should involve carbapenem-susceptible as well as carbapenem-resistant isolates.
Acinetobacter* ; Diffusion ; Gram-Negative Bacteria ; Imipenem ; Korea ; Multilocus Sequence Typing ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction

OBJECTIVES: Although most of the functional and structural neuroimaging studies have reported the association of the that cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia with the pathophysiology of the prefrontal cortex, their findings vary considerably. Based on the precise parcellation methods, this study was designed to investigate substructural abnormalities of the prefrontal cortex in patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: The subjects consisted of twelve patients with schizophrenia and 12 age- and sexmatched normal volunteers. Magnetic resonance images were obtained in all subjects, and parceled into 8 frontal substructures using the topographic landmarks. The frontal substructural volumes were compared between the two groups, and their correlations with the schizophrenic symptom severity were analysed in the patient group. RESULTS: In the comparison of substructural volumes, most frontal substructures of the patient group tended to be smaller than those of the normal comparison group; particularly the right supplementary motor area was significantly smaller(p<0.003). Negative symptoms tended to be inversely correlated with the frontal substructural volumes, particularly with the right superior frontal gyral volume(gamma= -0.70, p=0.01). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest the possibility of structural defects related to 'hypofrontality' in schizophrenia. These frontal structural defects may be the basis of neurocognitive deficits and neural circuital dysfunction in schizophrenia.
Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Neuroimaging ; Prefrontal Cortex ; Schizophrenia*

BACKGROUND: One of the key issues in electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring is accurate signal acquisition with less cumbersome electrodes. In this study, the L2 phase electro-deposited nanoporous platinum (L2-ePt) electrode is introduced, which is a new type of electrode that utilizes a stable nanoporous platinum surface to reduce the skin-electrode impedance. METHODS: L2-ePt electrodes were fabricated using electro-deposition technique. Then, the effect of the nanoporous surface on the surface roughness and the electrode impedance were observed from the L2-ePt electrodes and the flat platinum (FlatPt) electrode. The skin-electrode impedances of the L2-ePt electrodes, a gold cup electrode, and the FlatPt electrode were evaluated when placed on the hairy occipital area of the head in ten subjects. For the validation of using the L2-ePt electrode, a correlational analysis of the alpha rhythms was performed in the same subjects for simultaneous EEG recordings using the L2-ePt and clinically-used EEG electrodes. RESULTS: The results indicated that the L2-ePt electrode with a roughness factor of 200 had the lowest mean impedance performance. Moreover, the proposed L2-ePt electrode showed a significantly lower mean skin-electrode impedance than the FlatPt electrode. Finally, the EEG signal quality recorded by the L2-ePt electrode (r = 0.94) was comparable to that of the clinically-used gold cup electrode. CONCLUSION: Based on these results, the proposed L2-ePt electrode is suitable for use in various high-quality EEG applications.
Alpha Rhythm ; Electric Impedance ; Electrodes* ; Electroencephalography* ; Head ; Platinum*

Sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS), a disease caused by a complex of fungi, results in substantial economic losses for commercial growers of sweet persimmon (Diospyros kaki L.) in Korea. However, many species causing SBFS in Korea have not been identified and sources of inoculum are uncertain. Based on mycological characteristics, pathogenicity, and molecular data, the causal fungi were identified as Dissoconium sp. and Zygophiala wisconsinensis. This is the first report of SBFS of sweet persimmon in Korea.
Diospyros ; Fungi ; Korea