PURPOSE: Although influenza is regarded as one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in children with cancer, the actual vaccine coverage remains poor. We conducted evaluation of immunogenicity and safety of influenza vaccine in children with cancer. METHODS: In this study, 25 children with cancer who received influenza vaccine (SK influenza IX vaccine(R)) at the Korea Cancer Center Hospital between October and December 2009 were analyzed. Blood samples of patients were collected twice (at the beginning of this study and at 30th day after vaccination) and their antibody titers were measured using the hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) assay. Immunogenicity of the influenza vaccine was assessed by seroprotection rate on days 0 and 30, seroconversion rate on day 30, and mean fold increase (MFI) of geometric mean titer (GMT) of HI between days 0 and 30. RESULTS: Any of the subjects in our study did not experienced serious adverse events after influenza vaccination. Seroprotection rates were 68% for H1N1, 40% for H3N2, and 36% for B. Seroconversion rates were 12% for H1N1, 16% for H3N2, and 20% for B. MFIs were 0.9 for H1N1, 1.2 for H3N2, and 1.8 for B. CONCLUSION: In the study, we found a limited protective immune response to influenza vaccine, among subjects with cancer. However, some subjects showed seroconversion, and there were no severe adverse events among all subjects, supporting the recommendation of annual influenza vaccination in children with cancer.
Child ; Humans ; Influenza Vaccines ; Influenza, Human ; Korea ; Vaccination

No abstract available.
Animals ; Medulla Oblongata* ; Putrescine* ; Rats*

PURPOSE: To compare the effect of indomethacin to aspirin in the closure of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants with respiratory distress syndrome. To evaluates the side effects of aspirin in very low birth weight infants. METHODS: We evaluated 25 VLBW infants treated with either indomethacin or aspirin for PDA as shown by their medical recorder. In 12 infants (mean gestational age 30.3+/-2.1 wk, mean birth weight 1232.0+/-314.3 gm) were treated with indomethacin, 0.1-0.25 mg per kilogram, every 12 hours for 3 doses. In another 13 infants (mean gestational age: 29.1+/-2.1 wk, mean birth weight: 1180.0+/-332.4 gm) aspirin was administered 10 mg per kilogram, every six hours for four doses. PDA and the degree of shunting were evaluated by echocardio-Doppler. The side effects were carefully assessed. RESULTS: There was PDA closure in 8/12 patients from the indomethacin group (66.7%) and in 9/13 patients from the aspirin group (69.2%). Six patients were further treated with indomethacin there was and PDA closure. A decrease of uresis in the aspirin group was not observed. Conclusions : Aspirin has some effect in the closure of PDA in VLBW infants without a decrease of renal function.
Aspirin* ; Birth Weight ; Ductus Arteriosus, Patent* ; Gestational Age ; Humans ; Indomethacin* ; Infant* ; Infant, Very Low Birth Weight* ; Medical Records

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of prophylactic intravenous aspirin and its effects on the mortality and morbidity associated with patent ductus arteriosus and intraventricular hemorrhage in very low birth weight infants with respiratory distress syndrome. METHODS: Thirty-three premature newborn infants with birth weight less than 1,500 gram who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit at Dong-A university hospital from March 2000 to March 2001, were included in this study. They were randomly assigned to receive either aspirin lysine, 10 mg/kg per dose, or saline between 12 and 24 hour of age and again every 6 hours for total 4 doses. Primary outcome was the presence of ductus arteriosus by echocardiography performed between 3 and 5 days of life. Secondary outcome variables included the presence of intraventricular hemorrhage and bronchopulmonary dysplasia, the duration of ventilator care and oxygen therapy, and the mortality rate. Side effects or complications such as oliguria, elevated serum creatinine concentration, thrombocytopenia, pulmonary hemorrhage, and necrotizing enterocolitis were recorded. RESULTS: Nineteen infants received normal saline (control group : birth weight, 1,189+/-203 gm; gestational age, 29.5+/-2.3 wk) and fourteen infants received aspirin lysine (aspirin group : birth weight, 1,162+/-199 gm; gestational age, 29.6+/-1.9 wk) (P>0.05). Eight of 19 infants in the control group (42.1%) and 1 of 14 infants in the aspirin group (7.1%) had patent ductus arteriosus (P<0.05). There were no significant differences between both groups in any of the secondary outcome variables or in the incidence of side effects. CONCLUSION: The prophylactic use of aspirin decreased the incidence of patent ductus arteriosus, but had no effects on the incidence of intracranial hemorrhage, respiratory outcomes, and mortality. No significant side effects were found due to aspirin. Further studies are needed to determine the efficacy and safety of prophylactic aspirin therapy before its routine use can be recommended.
Aspirin* ; Birth Weight ; Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia ; Creatinine ; Ductus Arteriosus ; Ductus Arteriosus, Patent* ; Echocardiography ; Enterocolitis, Necrotizing ; Gestational Age ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant* ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Very Low Birth Weight* ; Intensive Care, Neonatal ; Intracranial Hemorrhages ; Lysine ; Mortality ; Oliguria ; Oxygen ; Thrombocytopenia ; Ventilators, Mechanical

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to develop the Korean version of the Social Functioning Scale (KSFS) in the patients with schizophrenia. METHODS : KSFS was administered to 90 schizophrenic patients and 80 their parents and 90 normal controls for examining the reliability and validity. RESULTS : Data analysis showed statistically significant reliabilities and validities of KSFS. The test-retest reliability, rater vs. self-report reliability, and internal consistency for total scores of KSFS were 0.93, 0.44 and 0.94 respectively. Evidence for discriminant validity of KSFS comes from the results that the mean scores of schizophrenic patients were significantly higher than those of normal controls. Construct validity was assessed by calculating the 7 inter-areas correlations of the KSFS, and all areas were statistically significant. Significant correlations between the total scores of KSFS and those of SOFAS lend support for the concurrent validity of this instrument. Factor analyses were performed and two factors were extracted accounting for 63.7% of the variance. Sensitivity was assessed indirectly via the distribution and range of scores on the SFS. The normal control group showed a distribution around a higher mean with a moderate positive skew. CONCLUSION : KSFS was found to be a valid, reliable, and sensitive instrument which can be used to evaluate the degree of social functioning in the patients with schizophrenia.
Accounting ; Humans ; Parents ; Reproducibility of Results ; Schizophrenia ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and the effect of PTSD on quality of life (QoL) among coronary artery disease (CAD) patients.METHODS: The participants were 135 CAD patients who visited outpatient clinics in a university hospital in B city of Korea. Their PTSD symptoms and QoL were measured by structured questionnaires and analyzed with multiple hierarchical regression analysis.RESULTS: Among the 135 participants, 20.7% were classified as moderate risk, and 3.7% as high risk for PTSD. PTSD symptoms were significantly higher in participants who were diagnosed with CAD within 6 months (t=26.02, p < .001). The physical component of health-related QoL was influenced by gender (β=-.25, p=.003), recurrence of CAD (β=.21, p=.008), and PTSD symptoms (β=-.33, p < .001). The mental component of health-related QoL was influenced by religion (β=-.17, p=.044), body mass index (β=.17, p=.033), and PTSD symptoms (β=-.37, p < .001).CONCLUSION: Patients who had had a CAD diagnosis for less than 6 months were found to be vulnerable to PTSD, and PTSD was found to have a negative impact on the physical and mental components of their QoL. It is necessary to develop an intervention program for the effective prevention and management of PTSD symptoms in patients with CAD.
Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Body Mass Index ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Vessels ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Korea ; Quality of Life ; Recurrence ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

Although malignant melanoma usually occurs after the diagnosis of vitiligo-like depigmentation, the latter is rarely followed by the former. We herein report on such a case in which recognition of the vitiligo-like depigmentation preceded diagnosing the metastatic melanoma by several months. A 56-year-old woman had first developed vitiligo-like depigmentation on the forehead, eyelids, neck and back 18 months previously and thereafter she detected a hard mass in the left axilla 2 months previously. Based on the histologic findings, the axillary mass was diagnosed as metastatic melanoma. To evaluate the primary tumor focus, thorough examinations that included PET-CT, bone scan and sigmoidoscopy were performed, but we couldn`t find any the original primary tumor. Our case suggests that the vitiligo-like depigmentation could be a sign that heralds metastatic melanoma.
Axilla ; Eyelids ; Female ; Forehead ; Humans ; Melanoma ; Middle Aged ; Neck ; Sigmoidoscopy

We report a 57-year-old man with bilateral cranial nerve IX and X palsies who presented with severe dysphagia. After a mild head injury, the patient complained of difficult swallowing. Physical examination revealed normal tongue motion and no uvular deviation. Cervical X-ray findings were negative, but a brain computed tomography revealed a skull fracture involving bilateral jugular foramen. Laryngoscopy indicated bilateral vocal cord palsy. In a videofluoroscopic swallowing study, food residue remained in the vallecula and pyriform sinus, and there was reduced motion of the pharynx and larynx. Electromyography confirmed bilateral superior and recurrent laryngeal neuropathy.
Brain ; Brain Injuries* ; Cranial Nerve Diseases ; Craniocerebral Trauma ; Deglutition ; Deglutition Disorders ; Electromyography ; Glossopharyngeal Nerve ; Humans ; Laryngoscopy ; Larynx ; Middle Aged ; Paralysis* ; Pharynx ; Physical Examination ; Pyriform Sinus ; Skull Fracture, Basilar ; Skull Fractures ; Tongue ; Vocal Cord Paralysis

INTRODUCTION There are three factors for successful implantation. These are embryo quality, uterine receptivity, and synchronization between embryonic and endometrial development. Despite remarkable progress in investigating embryos in human IVF, there has been slow progress in exploring the implantation process. It may be due to two reasons as follow. First, it is difficult to directly investigate the mechanism of implantation in the human, because of ethical considerations. Second, there is no sensitive and widely accepted marker for assessing endometrial development. Since the finding of a novel standard for dating endometrial biopsy by Noyes et. al.,. in 1950, there have been many attempts to identify suitable markers for uterine receptivity. Those include ultrasonographic changes (Ueno et.al., 1991; Grunfeld et al.,1991), three dimensional morphological changes of the endometrium such as pinopode formation (Market or alphaf., 1987; Mantel or alphaf., 1991; Nikas et al., 1995; Psychoyos & Nikas, 1994), integrin expression (Ilesanmi et al., 1993; Lessey et.al., 1992; Lessey, 1994), and measurement of endometrial proteins (Hell, 1986;Fay & Crudzinskas, 1991). Investigations in the rat (cartel et al., 1991)and human (cartel et al., 1987; Nikas et al., 1995; Psychoyos & Nikas, 1994) suggested the presence of pinopodes as a marker for the receptive phase.4 chronological barrier in uterine receptivity could be one of the major factors limiting IVF pregnancy rates. If we were able to manage the 'implantation window' we may be able to improve implantation and pregnancy rates in the human IVF program. In 1987, Martel et al., found early appearance of pinopodes in stimulated cycles for IVF compared to natural cycles in humans (Marcel et al., 1987). This effect was found in patients stimulated with clomephene citrate/hMG/hCG. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the endometrial development in IVF patients stimulated with either by FSH/hMG/hCG or with GnRH agonist down regulation.
Animals ; Biopsy ; Down-Regulation ; Embryonic Structures ; Endometrium ; Female ; Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone ; Humans* ; Oocyte Retrieval* ; Oocytes* ; Pregnancy Rate ; Rats

Background: and Purpose We aimed to determine 1) the frequency of mammillary body (MB) atrophy in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and hippocampal sclerosis (HS), 2) the clinical significance of MB atrophy, and 3) the association between MB atrophy and volume changes in other subcortical limbic structures. Methods: We enrolled 69 patients with pathologically confirmed TLE with HS, who underwent a standard anterior temporal lobectomy, as well as 40 healthy controls. We used the FreeSurfer deep-learning tool of U-Net to obtain the volumes of the subcortical limbic structures, including the MB, hypothalamus, basal forebrain, septal nuclei, fornix, and nucleus accumbens. MB atrophy was considered to be present when the MB volume was decreased relative to the healthy controls. Results: MB atrophy was present in 18 (26.1%) of the 69 patients with TLE and HS. Among the clinical characteristics, the mean age at seizure onset was higher (25.5 vs. 15.9 years, p= 0.027) and the median duration of epilepsy was shorter (149 vs. 295 months, p=0.003) in patients with than without MB atrophy. The basal forebrain (0.0185% vs. 0.0221%, p=0.004) and septal nuclei (0.0062% vs. 0.0075%, p=0.003) in the ipsilateral hemisphere of HS were smaller in the patients with MB atrophy. Conclusions We observed ipsilateral MB atrophy in about one-quarter of patients with TLE and HS. The severity of subcortical limbic structure abnormalities was greater in patients without MB atrophy. These findings suggest that MB atrophy in TLE with HS is not rare, but it has little clinical significance.