BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Idiopathic restrictive cardiomyopathy is a very rare and poorly recognized disease in children. This study is performed to describe the clinical course and to define potential predictors of outcome. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We reviewed the medical records and diagnostic studies of 11 consecutive patients during the period from Jan.1991 to Aug. 2000. RESULTS: The age at diagnosis was 1.2-13 years (median 7 years) and the duration of follow up was 3-90 months (median 3.6 years). All except one were symptomatic (dyspnea in ten, chest pain in four). The chest pain was associated with significant ST depression on both resting and exercise ECG, suggesting myocardial ischemia. Two had complete heart block as either initial or terminal event. Cardiac catheterization was done in nine ( mean pulmonary arterial wedge pressure 23+/-6mmHg, systolic pulmonary arterial pressure 47+/-14mmHg, mean right atrial pressure 11+/-9mmHg). Echocardiographic dimensional ratio of left atrium and aorta (LA/Ao) was 2.41+/-0.58. Mitral E/A inflow ratio was 2.72+/-1.42, E wave deceleration time was 93.6+/-44.2ms. During follow up, six died. The 2 year and 5 year cumulative survival rates were 54.5% and 18.8% respectively. The predictor for nonsurvivor were pulmonary venous congestion and LA/Ao >2.5(p<0.05). Verapamil was tried in 6 cases without favorable effect in all. CONCLUSION: Considerable numbers of restrictive cardiomyopathy have myocardial ischemia associated with ST depression and chest pain. The patients with pulmonary venous congestion and severe left atrial enlargement (LA/Ao>2.5) were at risk for death, requiring prompt definitive treatment such as cardiac transplantation.
Aorta ; Arterial Pressure ; Atrial Pressure ; Cardiac Catheterization ; Cardiac Catheters ; Cardiomyopathy, Restrictive* ; Chest Pain ; Child* ; Deceleration ; Depression ; Diagnosis ; Echocardiography ; Electrocardiography ; Follow-Up Studies ; Heart Atria ; Heart Block ; Heart Transplantation ; Humans ; Hyperemia ; Medical Records ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Pulmonary Wedge Pressure ; Survival Rate ; Verapamil

No abstract available.
DNA*

Low back pain patients an controls of shipyard workers were surveyed between June 1995 and september 1995 to identify risk factors of industrial low back pain. The patients were 17 male workers who had got medical treatment for over 3 days because of industrial back pain controls were 51 male workers who had not have musculoskeletal disorder for one year before the survey. By univariate analysis, the workers who did overtime work 4 times or more for the last 2 weeks showed odds ratio of 3.67 on low back pain with the workers who did less overtime work. Carrying heavy materials was also associated with the low back pain and the odds ratio increased with the increase of carrying weight. work space and work posture were not associated with the low back pain significantly. The welder had higher odds ratio than the other workers on low back pain. The duration of employment and job satisfaction did not affect the risk of low back pain. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that frequency of overtime work for the last 2 weeks and carrying heavy materials among the risk factors were associated significantly with the low back pain. We found that important risk factors of low back pain of shipyard workers are work intensity factors such as overtime work and carrying heavy weight.
Back Pain ; Employment ; Humans ; Job Satisfaction ; Logistic Models ; Low Back Pain* ; Male ; Odds Ratio ; Posture ; Risk Factors*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of supportive nursing intervention on the anxiety and nursing satisfaction of mothers with children undergoing open-heart surgery. METHODS: The research design involved a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest non synchronized design. The subjects consisted of 43 mothers of children who were expected to undergo open heart surgery, and were divided into two groups; an experimental group of 22 and a control group of 21. The experiment was administered to the experimental group a total of four times, following supportive nursing intervention protocols. The research tools used were Spielberger's State Anxiety Inventory for anxiety and Park Jung-Eun's nursing satisfaction. The data were analyzed using the chi-square-test, and t-test with SPSS/WIN 12.0 program. RESULTS: Hypothes 1, 'The experimental group who are given supportive nursing intervention will have a lower anxiety score than the control group' was supported(t=5.658, p=.000). Hypothesis 2, 'The experimental group who are given supportive nursing intervention will have a higher nursing satisfaction score than the control gropu wasl supported(t=-9.549, p=.000). CONCLUSION: The supportive nursing intervention protocol was effective in reducing anxiety and increasing the nursing satisfaction of mothers with children undergoing open-heart surgery.
Anxiety* ; Child* ; Humans ; Mothers* ; Nursing* ; Research Design ; Thoracic Surgery

No abstract available.
Cadherins* ; Carcinogenesis* ; Urinary Bladder*

Necleolar organizer regions(NORs) ARE LOOPS OF DNA which transcribe to ribosomal RNA by RNA polymerase I. Since NOR-associated proteins are argyrophilic, silver staining method has been used for demonstration of AgNORs. The numbers and/or configurations of NORs may reflect the activities of cells in hyperplastic and neoplastic conditions. To evaluated the applicability of AgNORs in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma, the author had performed silver staining on the routinely processed, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections of 14 cases of normal liver(control), 23 cirrhotic liver, and 21 hepatocellular carcinoma. The results are summarized as follows: 1) The mean number of AgNORs per nucleus(mAgNOR) of normal liver, cirrhotic liver and hepatocellular carcinoma was 1.45+/-0.07, 2.53+/-0.38 and 5.52+/-1.63, respectively. The difference of mAgNOR between normal and cirrhotic liver, and between cirrhotic liver and hepatocellular carcinoma was statistically significant, respectively(p<0.01). 2) The percentage of nuclei showing five or more AgNORs per nucleus(pAgNOR) was 0.07% in normal liver, 7.59% in cirrhotic liver, and 60.49% in hepatocellular carcinoma. 3) AgNORs in hepatocellular carcinoma were large, pleomorphic and irregularly clumped, in addition to increase of mAgNOR and high pAgNOR. In conclusion, the increase of mAgNOR, high pAgNOR and large, irregular AgNORs are regarded as an additional helpful finding for the histopathological diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular

Male genital tract inflammatory conditions may be associated with unexplained infertility. The presence of cytokine such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) was reported in the semen of infertile men. However, the effect of these cytokines on human sperm function is still unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the in-vitro effects of TNF-alpha on human sperm motility with computer assisted sperm analysis. Washed sperm from 16 normal men were incubated without and with TNF-alpha(0.1, 10, 1000 ng/ml). The changes of parameters of sperm motility were recorded at different time intervals (0, 5, 24 hour). There was no significant change of parameters of sperm motility in the incubation with TNF-alpha. It is suggested that TNF-alpha alone does not interfere with the sperm motility and more studies are needed.
Cytokines ; Humans ; Infertility ; Male ; Semen ; Sperm Motility* ; Spermatozoa* ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*

Certine heavy metals which may lead peoples to poisonous status are widely used in industry and their used have been increasing along with rapid industrialization of this country. Such an increasement of metal uses aggravates the status of environmental pollution affecting foodstuffs which are the most important life supporting factor of animal and human being. Concerning the safety measures to minimize food-borne transmission of such hazardous metals, surveillance is the backbone of them and probably more so with a potential problem such as intoxication. Theoretically, this surveillance should include the determination of levels of heavy metal toxicants in foods, the determination of food consumption patterns and typical total diet, and the estimation of total load the metal contaminant from all sources of exposure including air, water, and occupational sources. In recent year, actually, such estimates on the total daily intake of some heavy metals from foods have been made in several developed countries and a wide variation of date by season, locality, and research method was recognized. Also in this country, this kind of research data is vitally needed to make up for the serious shortage or lack of references to estimate the total amount of heavy metal intake of the people. In this study, a modification model for estimation of the total daily intake of cadmium copper, nickel, zinc, and lead through foods was applied and concentrations of the above metals in crops cultivated in this country were measured with atomic absorption spectrophotometer to get the following results. 1.Level of heavy metal concentration in crops. Generally, the levels of such metals in essential crops such as rice, cucumber, radish, chinese cabbage, apple, pear, grape, and orange are similar or lower than those in Japan and other developed countries. By the way, a striking result on cadmium concentration was increasement of its concentration in rice from 0-0.035ppm in 1970 to 0.11ppm in this study. However, the value is still far below the Japanese Permissible Level of 1.0ppm. 2. Estimation of total daily intake per from foods. A new model for estimation was devised utilizing levels of metal concentration in food, amount of food consumed, and other food factors. Based on the above method, the daily intake of cadmium was estimate to be 70.53 microgram/man/day in average which was as high as the Limit Value of ILO/WHO(up to 71.4 microgram/man/day). Also, 3.89mg of Zinc, 1.65mg of cuppor, 0.32mg of lead were given as the total daily intake per capita by this research. 3. Efficacy of washing or skinning to decrease the amount of metals in crops. After washing the crops sufficiently with commercial linear alkylate sulfonate, the concentration of heavy metals could bae reduced to 50-80% showing decreasement rate of 20-50%. Also, after skinning the fruits, decreasement rate of the heavy metal concentration showed 0-50%.
Absorption ; Animals ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Brassica ; Cadmium ; Citrus sinensis ; Copper ; Developed Countries ; Diet ; Environmental Pollution ; Fruit ; Humans ; Japan ; Metals ; Metals, Heavy ; Nickel ; Pyrus ; Raphanus ; Seasons ; Skin ; Strikes, Employee ; Vitis ; Water ; Zinc

No abstract available.
Skin*

PURPOSE: This study was done to explore factors relating to number of falls among community-dwelling elders, based on gender. METHODS: Participants were 403 older community dwellers (male=206, female=197) aged 60 or above. In this study, 8 variables were identified as predictive factors that can result in an elderly person falling and as such, supports previous studies. The 8 variables were categorized as, exogenous variables; perceived health status, somatization, depression, physical performance, and cognitive state, and endogenous variables; fear of falling, ADL & IADL and frequency of falls. RESULTS: For men, ability to perform ADL & IADL (beta32=1.84, p<.001) accounted for 16% of the variance in the number of falls. For women, fear of falling (beta31=0.14, p<.05) and ability to perform ADL & IADL (beta32=1.01, p<.001) significantly contributed to the number of falls, accounting for 15% of the variance in the number of falls. CONCLUSION: The findings from this study confirm the gender-based fall prediction model as comprehensive in relation to community-dwelling elders. The fall prediction model can effectively contribute to future studies in developing fall prediction and intervention programs.
*Accidental Falls ; Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Cognition ; Depression/pathology ; Fear ; Female ; Health Status ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Motor Activity ; Program Development ; Sex Factors ; Somatoform Disorders/pathology