Blindness is a worldwide health problem which affects at least 10 million people presently. The leading causes of preventable blindness in the world are trachoma, onchocerciasis, and xerophthalmia. The causes of blindness have been surveyed in many countries throughout the world, however they have varied with the country and nation. Even though there have been few reports on blindness in Korea, the nationwide surver has not been done yet. Before the survey is done, the blindness should be defined. But the definition of blindness varies in accordance with social, economical and educational status of that country. To standerdize the definition of blindness, the International Association for the Prevention of Blindness defines the visual acuity for distant vision of 5/200 or less of the better eye. In Korea. blindness has been defined. variably from visual acuity of counting finger/1 m to 20/200 or less, by serveral authors. In this survey. 1,369 patients who have visual acuity of 20/200 or less in one eye or in both eyes have been observed statistically from January 1972 to October 1978. 1. Number of blind patient .......... 1,369 (3.55%). 2. Type of blindness; Number of binocular blindness .......... 312 (22.79%), Number of monocular blindness .......... 1,057 (77.21%), Number of blindnel!s involving the left eye .......... 552(40.32%), Number of blindness involving the right eye .......... 505 (36.89%). 3. The sex and age of the blind patient; 803 persons (58.7%) were male and 566 persons (41.3%) were female. 219 persons (16.0%) were between 21 and 30 years of age, which was the highest rate. 113 person (8.3%) were over 71 years of age, which was the lowest rate. But the age distribution of blind patient shows decrescent as the age decrease. 4. The rate of the etiology of the blind eye; Trauma (23.02%), Eye disease (13.03%). Prenatal influences (7.20%). Systemic disease (5.59%), Tumor (0.77%), and unknown etiology (50.38%). 5. The rate of the site of the blind eye; Lens (32.90%). cornea (17.25%), retina (13.09%), optic nerve (8.86%). and uveal tract (3.69%). 6. The rate of the blind eye disease; Cataract (32.48%). corneal opacity (16.89%), optic nerve atrophy (7.20%), degeneration of the retina (7.08%), glaucoma (6.19%), phthisis bulbi (5.65%), anophthalmos (3.45%), uveitis (3.27%), and retinal detachment (3.21%). 7. The rate of the blind eye by visual acuity; Absolute blindness and visual acuity between 4/200 or above and less than 10/200 (19.2%), hand movement (19.0%). finger count/1m or less (18.6%). light perception only (16.5%), and visual acuity between 10/200 or above and less than 20/200 (4.5%). 8. Aside from absolute blindness (negative light perception), the causes of the blindness were the diseases of the lens, the cornea, and the retina. The prevalence of blindness due to the diseases of the cornea or optic nerve was the highest below the age of 20, and that due to lens diseases the highest over 41 year old.
Adult ; Age Distribution ; Anophthalmos ; Atrophy ; Blindness ; Cataract ; Cornea ; Corneal Opacity ; Educational Status ; Eye Diseases ; Female ; Fingers ; Glaucoma ; Hand ; Humans ; Korea ; Lens Diseases ; Male ; Onchocerciasis ; Optic Nerve ; Prevalence ; Retina ; Retinal Detachment ; Telescopes ; Trachoma ; Uveitis ; Visual Acuity ; Xerophthalmia

Normally the cornea has a water content varying between 76-78%, a state of relative dehydration maintained through its own metabolism by the active transport of water and ions across its limiting membrane, the epithelium and endothelium. If the metabolism is grossly disturbed or if the effectivity of the limiting membrane is impaired, the living cornea will swell by the absorption of the fluid. Corneal edema are developed due to trauma, inflammation, glaucoma, degeneration, and neuropathic and metabolic conditions. Essential corneal edema are encountered for which no cause can be found, the condition apparantly occuring without other ocular pathology. A 29 years old Korean lady has been found to have bilateral essential edema of the cornea.
Absorption ; Adult ; Biological Transport, Active ; Cornea ; Corneal Edema* ; Dehydration ; Edema ; Endothelium ; Epithelium ; Glaucoma ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Ions ; Membranes ; Metabolism ; Pathology ; Water

PURPOSE: This study was performed to design a safe air-pressure reduction system which can absorb rapidlyrising intraluminal pressure during intussusception, and comparison with other reduction systems to test itsclinical availability. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The air-pressure reduction system consisted of a pressure gauge,air insufflators, a pressure controller, buffers, and rapid exhaustion devices, and to determine itsabsorbability, it was connected with a bowel model. By using it in 20 infants with intussusception, we comparedthe absorbability of our air-pressure reduction system with preexisting systems. RESULTS: While extraluminalpressure was applied to the bowel model in which baseline intraluminal pressure was set to 120mmHg, this rose to176mmHg (56mmHg high to standard, 100%) in the direct infusion system, but to only 130 mmHg (10mmHg high tostandard, 17.9%) in a system connected to a large buffer of 10,500 mL capacity. Immediately after the applicationof extraluminal pressure for less than 1 sec, this air-pressure reduction system showed better absorbability thanthe hydrostatic reduction system. Applying this system to 20 infants with intussusception, this was successfullyreduced in 19 cases(95%), without complications. CONCLUSION: In this experiment, it was proved that the systemabsorbed rapid intraluminal pressure elevation. Its use would help prevent bowel perforation during air reductionoccurring during intussusception.
Buffers ; Humans ; Infant ; Intussusception*

The present study was attempted to investigate the effect of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) on secretion of catecholamines (CA) and to establish whether there is the existence of a noncholinergic mechanism in adrenomedullary CA secretion from the isolated perfused rat adrenal gland. The perfusion into an adrenal vein of VIP (3 X 10-6 M) for 5 min or the injection of acetylcholine (ACh, 5.32 X 10-3 M) resulted in great increases in CA secretion. Tachyphylaxis to releasing effect of CA evoked by VIP was not observed by the repeated perfusion. The net increase in adrenal CA secretion evoked by VIP still remained unaffected in the presence of atropine or chlorisondamine. However, the CA release in response to ACh was greatly inhibited by the pretreatment with atropine or chlorisondamine. The releasing effects of CA evoked by either VIP or ACh were depressed by pretreatment with nicardipine, TMB-8, and the perfusion of Ca2+-free medium. Moreover, VIP- as well as ACh-evoked CA secretory responses were markedly inhibited under the presence of (Lys1, Pro2.5, Arg3.4, Tyr6)-VIP or naloxone. CA secretory responses induced by ACh and high K+ (5.6 X 10-2 M) were potentiated by infusion of VIP (3 X 10-6 M for 5 min). Taken together, these experimental results indicate that VIP causes CA release in a fashion of calcium ion-dependence, suggesting strongly that there exists a noncholinergic mechanism that may be involved in the regulation of adrenomedullary CA secretion through VIP receptors in the rat adrenal gland, and that VIP may be the noncholinergic excitatory secretagogue present in the chromaffin cells.
Acetylcholine ; Adrenal Glands ; Adrenal Medulla* ; Animals ; Atropine ; Calcium ; Catecholamines ; Chlorisondamine ; Chromaffin Cells ; Naloxone ; Nicardipine ; Perfusion ; Rats* ; Receptors, Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide ; Tachyphylaxis ; Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide ; Veins