It is known that penicillinase-producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae (PPNG) are frequently found in South-East Asia and the infection does not respond to the recommended does of penicillin. N. gonorrhoeae cultures isolated during June 1977 to June 1979, from Yonsei Medical Center patients were tested for beta-lactamase production. Among the 127 isolates tested one was positive by the rapid iodometric method. The culture also gave a positive result by the method of Hodge et al. No zone of inhibition was observed when its susceptility was tested with a 10 unit penicillin disk. The patient who yielded the organism was a 51-year-old housewife living in Seoul. Neither she nor her husband had ever traveled abroad. This result documented the presence of PPNG in this community. In the future laboratories may require careful watch to detect further spreading of PPNG.
Female ; Gonorrhea/drug therapy ; Human ; Korea ; Neisseria gonorrhoeae/enzymology* ; Neisseria gonorrhoeae/isolation & purification ; Penicillins/therapeutic use ; beta-Lactamases/isolation & purification*

Species in the genus Trametes (Basidiomycota, Polyporales) have been used in natural medicine for a long time. Many studies reported that mycelia or fruiting bodies of Trametes spp. exhibited effects of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antimicrobial activities.However, comparative analysis in this genus is scarce due to limitation of morphological identification and the sample number. In this study, the 19 strains of seven Trametes species were chosen to generate a five-gene-based phylogeny with the 31 global references. In addition, 39 culture extracts were prepared for 13 strains to test for anticancer and antibacterial activities. Strong anticancer activities were found in several extracts from T. hirsuta and T. suaveolens. Anticancer activities of T. suaveolens, T. cf. junipericola and T. trogii were first described here. The antibacterial ability of T. versicolor and T. hirsuta extracts has been confirmed. The antibacterial activities of T. suaveolens have been reported at the first time in this study. These results suggest an efficient application of the genus Trametes as the drug resources especially for anticancer agents.

BACKGROUND: The survival rate of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is low in Korea. We believe the cause of this low survival rate is caused by the absence of instrumentation, the lack of manpower and by poor education quality of in-hospital CPR. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current state of resident education with respect to cardiopulmonary resuscitation and its likely effect. METHODS: We surveyed anesthesiologists who attended the Korean Society of Anesthesiologist Congress. The questionnaire items concerned the followings; 1) The type of supplementary materials used during CPR education; 2) The Duration and frequency of CPR education according to resident grades and hospital scales; 3) The actual CPR participation frequency in a year; 4) The composition of the CPR teams in wards and ICUs; and 5) The effectiveness of CPR education as assessed by anesthesiologists. RESULTS: Most of participating anesthesiologists in this survey worked at large hospitals with more than 500 beds. They had received an irregular schedule of CPR education. Most education programs consisted of lectures, and education time was less than 2 hours. The number of actual CPR participations was about 10 per year. Usually the trainees, other than certified anesthesiologists, had resuscitated patients in wards. Most of the responders believed that current education was ineffective. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that CPR education is not fully effective. If we want to increase the survival rate of CPR, we should pay more attention to the education program and to its utility and training requirements.
Appointments and Schedules ; Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation* ; Education* ; Humans ; Korea ; Lectures ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Survival Rate ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVES: Few studies have attempted to explain the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity in Korea. Especially the studies on same race with different SES at same time are good for SES influence estimation. The present study highlights the influence of SES of parents on adolescent obesity. The subjects are the same race, but live in different areas, with different SES, Seoul and Yangpung in Korea, and Yanbian in China. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted in Mar-Jun 1996. We carried out anthropometry, 24 hour-recall diet survey, self-reported questionnaire about sociodemographic characteristics and physical activity. For SES indicators, we used income and education of parents. RESULTS: The relationship between SES of parents, defined as educational status, and obesity in boys in Korea and China is direct, but not significant. The relationship is inverse and non-significant among Korean girls. However, for the Korean girls in severe obesity, the relationship is significant. For the Korean-Chinese girls, there is an inverse relationship between the education level and obesity but a direct relationship between the income level of parents and obesity. For the Korean adolescent, there are a direct association between the SES of parents and the nutrients factors such as energy, protein, and fat intake. The energy expenditure of adolescent has no relationship with SES of parents. CONCLUSION: Among boys, the higher the SES, the greater the risk of obese. Among girls in Korea and Korean-Chinese, on the other hand, the lower the educational status of parents, the greater the risk of obese.
Adolescent* ; Anthropometry ; China ; Continental Population Groups ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Diet Surveys ; Education ; Educational Status ; Energy Metabolism ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Korea ; Motor Activity ; Obesity ; Obesity, Morbid ; Parents* ; Pediatric Obesity* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seoul* ; Social Class*

Although previous studies revealed the association of physical activity with mortality rate, it is unclear whether there is a linear trend between physical activity and mortality rate. In this study, the association of physical activity with the risk of all-cause mortality was analysed using Cox's proportional hazard model for a cohort of 14,204 healthy Korean men aged 40-59 years followed up for 4 years(Jan. 1993 - Dec. 1996). Physical activity and other life style were surveyed by a postal questionnaire in December 1992. Total of 14,204 subjects were grouped into quartiles by physical activity. Using death certificate data, 123 deaths were identified. The second most active quartile had a lowest mortality rate with relative risk of 0.44(95% C.I.: 0.23-0.84) compared with most sedentary quartile, showing a J-shape pattern of physical activity-mortality curve. By examining the difference in proportion of cause of the death between most active quartile and the other quartiles, there was no significant difference of proportional mortality from cardiovascular deaths, cerebrovascular deaths or deaths from trauma. The covariates were stratified into two group between which the trend of RR was compared to test the effect modification. There was no remarkable effect modification by alcohol intake, smoking, body mass index, calorie consumption, percent fat consumption. In conclusion, moderate activity was found to have more protective effect on all-cause mortality than vigorous activity and that the J-shape pattern of physical activity-mortality curve was not due to the difference of mortality pattern or effect modification by alcohol intake, smoking, body mass index, calorie consumption and percent fat consumption.
Body Mass Index ; Cohort Studies* ; Death Certificates ; Humans ; Life Style ; Male ; Mortality* ; Motor Activity* ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seoul* ; Smoke ; Smoking

BACKGROUND: This study is aimed to identify Gaucher disease(GD) patients(pts.) in Korea in order to better understand the incidence, clinical phenotype and its natural history and to establish pt. registry. The registry is to provide collective data, which will lead to early diagnosis, effective treatment and better management of pts. METHODS: (1)Questionnaires designed to identify GD pts. were sent to all members of Korean Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Society in 1997 and other inquiring physicians. (2) All published papers on GD were searched in Korean Medical Journals to Feb. 1988. RESULTS: Review of data obtained from questionnaire survey and literature search yielded a total of 44 pts. in 31 pedigrees. 33 of them were reported as type I(chronic, non- neuronopathic), 6 pts. as type II(acute, neuronopathic) and 5 pts. as type III(subacute, neuronopathic). As for the most common type I pts, all 33 but one were diagnosed in infancy and childhood(7mon~18y.o), 11 of them died during childhood(1yr~18y.o), 10 pts. were not known whether alive or dead and 12 pts. are alive and followed up. All 6 type II pts. were diagnosed during infancy and 4 of them died before age of two. All 5 type III pts. in 2 families developed myoclonic seizures in late teens and two died in early twenties and three of them being followed up by neurologists. CONCLUSION: A total of 44 GD pts. in 31 Korean families are identified, which is consistant with autosomal recessive mode of inheritance pattern in all three clinical phenotypes. As of Feb. 1988, 18 pts. were registered in Korean Gaucher Registry; 12 type I pts, 2 type II pts. and 4 type III pts. In case of type I pts., early onset in younger age and rapid progression of disease resulted in high mortality and morbidity compare to GD pts. among Caucasian esp. the most prevalent Ashkenazi Jewish population. Therefore, early diagnosis and effective treatment with Enzyme Replacement Therapy will be desirable for better management of Korean GD pts.
Adolescent ; Early Diagnosis ; Enzyme Replacement Therapy ; Gaucher Disease* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Inheritance Patterns ; Korea ; Mortality ; Natural History ; Phenotype ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seizures

PURPOSE: This study analyzed the tumor response, overall survival, progression free survival and related prognostic factors in patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer subjected to bladder preserving treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between August 1995 and June 2004, 37 patients with muscle invasive (transitional cell carcinoma, clinically stage T2-4) bladder cancer were enrolled for the treatment protocol of bladder preservation. There were 33 males and 4 females, and the median age was 67 years (range 38~86 years). Transurethral resection of the bladder (TURB) was performed in 17 patients who underwent complete resection. The median radiation dose administered was 64.8 Gy (range 55.8~67 Gy). The survival rate was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: An evaluation of the response rate was determined by abdomen-pelvic CT and cystoscopy at three months after radiotherapy. A complete response was seen in 17 patients (46%). The survival rate at three years was 54.7%, with 54 months of median survival (range 3~91 months). During the study, 17 patients died and 13 patients had died from bladder cancer. The progression free survival rate at three years was 37.2%. There were 24 patients (64.9%) who had disease recurrence: 16 patients (43.2%) had local recurrence, 6 patients (16.2%) had a distant recurrence, and 2 patients (5.4%) had both a local and distant recurrence. The survival rate (p=0.0009) and progression free survival rates (p=0.001) were statistically significant when compared to the response rate after radiotherapy. CONCLUSION: The availability of complete TURB and appropriate chemoradiotherapy were important predictors for bladder preservation and survival.
Chemoradiotherapy ; Clinical Protocols ; Cystoscopy ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Radiotherapy ; Recurrence ; Survival Rate ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* ; Urinary Bladder*

OBJECTIVE: The biological rhythm is closely related to mood symptoms. The purpose of this study was to assess the differences in biological rhythms among subjects with mood disorder [bipolar I disorder (BD I), bipolar II disorder (BD II), major depressive disorder (MDD)] and healthy control subjects.METHODS: A total of 462 early-onset mood disorder subjects were recruited from nine hospitals. The controls subjects were recruited from the general population of South Korea. Subject groups and control subject were evaluated for the Korean language version of Biological Rhythms Interview of Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (K-BRIAN) at the initial evaluation.RESULTS: The mean K-BRIAN scores were 35.59 [standard deviation (SD)=13.37] for BD I, 43.05 (SD=11.85) for BD II, 43.55 (SD=12.22) for MDD, and 29.1 (SD=8.15) for the control group. In the case of mood disorders, biological rhythm disturbances were greater than that in the control group (p<0.05). A significant difference existed between BD I and BD II (BD I Bipolar Disorder ; Cohort Studies ; Depression ; Depressive Disorder, Major ; Korea ; Mood Disorders ; Neuropsychiatry ; Periodicity

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to compare the genetic architecture of schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) in a Korean population by analyzing polygenic risk scores (PRS) derived from large-scale psychiatric disorder genome-wide association study data, based on genetic information collected from SCZ, BD, and healthy control groups. Methods: The study included 713 Korean patients with SCZ, 1,317 with BD, 526 healthy controls. Genotyping was performed using the Korean Biobank Array. PRS-continuous shrinkage method was used to calculate the PRS. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to determine the association between SCZ or BD disorder and PRS after adjusting for sex. Results: ANCOVA revealed significant differences in PRS values by diagnosis for PRS for SCZ (F=215.281, p<0.001), PRS for BD (F=13.811, p<0.001), and PRS for major depressive disorder (F=6.042, p=0.002). Post-hoc analysis showed that PRS for SCZ was highest in SCZ, followed by BD, and healthy controls. PRS for BD was elevated in both BD and SCZ compared to healthy controls. Conclusion Our study revealed quantitative differences in genetic architecture between SCZ and BD compared to healthy controls, while also suggesting a shared genetic background between the two disorders.

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to compare the genetic architecture of schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) in a Korean population by analyzing polygenic risk scores (PRS) derived from large-scale psychiatric disorder genome-wide association study data, based on genetic information collected from SCZ, BD, and healthy control groups. Methods: The study included 713 Korean patients with SCZ, 1,317 with BD, 526 healthy controls. Genotyping was performed using the Korean Biobank Array. PRS-continuous shrinkage method was used to calculate the PRS. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to determine the association between SCZ or BD disorder and PRS after adjusting for sex. Results: ANCOVA revealed significant differences in PRS values by diagnosis for PRS for SCZ (F=215.281, p<0.001), PRS for BD (F=13.811, p<0.001), and PRS for major depressive disorder (F=6.042, p=0.002). Post-hoc analysis showed that PRS for SCZ was highest in SCZ, followed by BD, and healthy controls. PRS for BD was elevated in both BD and SCZ compared to healthy controls. Conclusion Our study revealed quantitative differences in genetic architecture between SCZ and BD compared to healthy controls, while also suggesting a shared genetic background between the two disorders.