OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to determine the smoking status and its associated factors in military life among young Korean men to provide date for smoking prevention in military areas as a part of the health promotion program for soldiers. METHODS: 1,033 infantrymen serving in 17 military units, which are located in suburbs of K city, were enrolled in this study. A questionnaire on the soldiers smoking status and other various characteristics was obtained from October 2nd to 12th, 2000. Logistic regression analysis was performed on the various variables in order to determine the factors related to smoking. RESULTS: 1) 830(80.3%) out of 1033 subjects had smoked cigarettes and 759 persons(73.4%) were regular smokers. 2) Among the 734 soldiers who started smoking before their military service, 714 soldiers(97.2%) continued to smoke after, while 45 soldiers(15.0%) among the 299 non-smokers started smoking after joining the army. 3) Through the logistic regression analysis, the education level, specialty in the army, smoking amongst the friends they met before military service, smoking amongst soldiers in the army, dating girl friends, drinking, satisfaction with their army lives and the presence of convenient smoking places at the barracks were significant factors related to the prevalence of smoking in soldiers. CONCLUSION: the factors related with incidence of smoking in the army are the complicated interactions among the individuals personal background, general charcterisitcs of the solider and the special environment in the barracks. Therefore, to improve national soldiers' health, an active non-smoking campaign and education should be pushed to discourage smoking in the barracks.
Drinking ; Education ; Female ; Friends ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Incidence ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Military Personnel* ; Prevalence ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Tobacco Products

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Humans ; Quality of Life* ; Renal Dialysis* ; Renal Insufficiency*

No abstract available.
Biofeedback, Psychology* ; Headache* ; Humans ; Muscle Tonus*

Adult ; Connective Tissue ; Extremities ; Head ; Histiocytoma, Malignant Fibrous ; Humans ; Maxilla ; Neck ; Radiotherapy ; Sarcoma

Femur ; Hematoma ; Muscle Weakness ; Pain, Postoperative ; Surgery, Oral ; Transplants

PURPOSE: Nitric oxide (NO) and phosphodiesterases (PDEs) play key roles in mediating relaxation of corpus cavernosal smooth muscle by increasing intracellular cGMP level. Here, we investigated effects of NO-donor (sodium nitroprusside, SNP) and penile specific type-V PDE inhibitor (zaprinast) in human and rabbit corpus cavernosal cells and tissues in vitro. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The cultured smooth muscle cells and tissues of human and rabbit corpus cavernosum were treated with increasing concentrations of SNP or zaprinast for 5 and 20 minutes, respectively, and intracellular cGMP levels were measured by radioimmunoassay. Organ bath study was performed to measure the relaxation effects of drugs on precontracted corpus cavernosal muscle strips. RESULTS: Although both NO-donor and type-V PDE inhibitor effectively stimulated the accumulation of cGMP in a dose-dependent manner, magnitude of cGMP increase and specificity of drug were found to be species-dependent. In human corpus cavernosal tissues, cGMP was increased upto 10- and 5-folds by SNP and zaprinast, respectively. However, magnitude of increase was much less in cultured smooth muscle cells. In rabbit, SNP effect was most prominent in cultured cells and effects of SNP and zaprinast were modest in tissues. Both agents also resulted in effective relaxation of human and rabbit cavernosal tissue strips. Similar patterns of dose-response curves were shown between results from the organ bath studies and cGMP radioimmunoassay with cavernosal smooth muscle cells. CONCLUSIONS: Present results show that effects of SNP and zaprinast are not coincident in different species, suggesting possible species-specificities of these two agents. Measurement of cGMP changes in cultured cavernosal smooth muscles cells could be reflected to the relaxation effects of drugs on corpus cavernosal muscle strips.
Baths ; Cells, Cultured ; Cyclic GMP ; Erectile Dysfunction ; Humans* ; Male ; Muscle, Smooth* ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle ; Negotiating ; Nitric Oxide ; Nitroprusside ; Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases ; Radioimmunoassay ; Relaxation* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Signal Transduction*

In the management of postoperative fluid collection, the conventional percutaneous drainage method can be employed. Because of abdominal incisions and various types of surgical drains and/or T-tubes, the application of this method is not always easy, however. We inserted a drainage catheter through a pre-existing percutaneous track formed by a surgical drain located adjacent to the site of abnormal fluid collection. There was no need to remove the drain nor make an additional puncture in the abdominal wall. A dilator was inserted along the drain, and a guide wire was used to negotiate its intraperitoneal track and readch the accumulated fluid. The procedure was simple and safe. We briefly deseribe our experience of this modified percutaneous drainage technique, as used in three cases involving postoperative fluid collection.
Abdominal Wall ; Catheters ; Drainage* ; Punctures

PURPOSE: Although acute nonspecific mesenteric lymphadenitis (ANML) is probably common cause of abdominal pain in children, which can be severe enough to be an abdominal emergency, the clinical features of mesenteric lymphadenitis are not clear. Also, a differential diagnosis with acute appendicitis (APPE) is indispensable to avoid serious complications. The clinical features of ANML were determined, and the risk factors for differential diagnosis with APPE were analyzed. METHODS: Between November 2000 and May 2001, data from 26 patients (aged 1 to 11 years) with ANML and 21 patients (aged 2 to 13 years) with APPE were reviewed. ANML was defined as a cluster of five or more lymph nodes measuring 10 mm or greater in their longitudinal diameter in the right lower quadrant (RLQ) without an identifiable specific inflammatory process on the ultrasonographic examination. There were risk factors on patient's history, physical examination, and laboratory examination; the location of abdominal pain, abdominal rigidity, rebound tenderness, fever, nocturnal pain, the vomiting intensity, the diarrhea intensity, the symptom duration, and the peripheral blood leukocytes count. RESULTS: Of the 26 ANML patients and 21 APPE patients, abdominal pain was noted on periumbilical (76.9% vs 14.2%), on RLQ (11.5% vs 71.4%), with abdomen rigidity (7.6% vs 80.9%), with rebound tenderness (0.0% vs 76.1%)(p<0.05), in the lower abdomen (11.5% vs 14.2%), and at night (80.8% vs 100.0%) (p>0.05). The clinical symptoms were vomiting (38.4% vs 90.4%), the vomiting intensity (1.5+/-0.7 [1~3] /day vs 4.5+/-2.9 [1~10] /day), diarrhea (65.3% vs 28.5%) (p<0.05), and fever (61.5% vs 76.2%)(p>0.05). The period to the subsidence of abdominal pain in the ANMA patients was 2.5+/-0.5 (2~3) days. The laboratory data showed a significant difference in the peripheral blood leukocytes count (8,403+/-1,737 [5,900~12,300] /mm3 vs 15,471+/-3,749 [5,400~20,800] /mm3)(p<0.05). Discriminant analysis between ANML and APPE showed that the independent discriminant factors were a vomiting intensity and the peripheral blood leukocytes count and the discriminant power was 95.7%. CONCLUSION: The clinical characteristics of ANML were abrupt onset of periumbilical pain without rigidity or rebound tenderness, a mild vomiting intensity, normal peripheral leukocytes count, and relatively short clinical course. If the abdominal pain persist for more than 3 days, and/or the vomiting intensity is more than 3 times/day, and/or the peripheral leukocytes count is over 13,500/mm3, abdominal ultrasonography is recommended to rule out APPE.
Abdomen ; Abdominal Pain ; Appendicitis* ; Child ; Diagnosis, Differential* ; Diarrhea ; Emergencies ; Fever ; Humans ; Leukocytes ; Lymph Nodes ; Mesenteric Lymphadenitis* ; Physical Examination ; Risk Factors ; Ultrasonography ; Vomiting

OBJECTIVE: Systemic lupus erythematceus(SLE) is an autoimmune disease and manifests with a variety of clinical and immunologic features in the multisystem SLE occurs worldwide in all ethnic groups but the prevalence and clinical man'ifestations of SLE may differ depending on ethnic groups and age. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical and laboratory features of 167 patients with SLE at the Yeungnam University Hospital, Kyungpook National University Hospital and Keimyung University Hospital between January 1984 to February 1993. RESULTS: 1) The male to female ratio was 1:19.8 and the mean age was 28.1. Seventy six patients(42. 1%) were diagnosed to have SLE in the third decade. 2) The prevalence of positive ARA criteria for SLE revealed that antinuclear antibody (ANA) was 96.4%, cutaneous disorder 73.6%, hematologic disorder 72.5%, immunologic disorder 71.3%, arthralgia or arthritis 70.1%, renal disorder 55.7%, serositis 40.7%, oral ulcer 28.7% photosensitivity 25.7% and neuropsychiatric disorder 19.7%. 3) The malar rash was the most common manifestation in mucocutaneous disorder, arthralgia or arthritis in musculoskeletal disorder, proteinuria in renal disorder, pericarditis and pleuritis in cardiopulmonary disorder, psychosis in neuropsychiatric disorder, anemia in hematologic disorder, and hypocomplementemia in immunologic disorder. 4) Renal biopsy was performed in 65 cases among which the most common histologic type was diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis(53.9%). CONCLUSION: These data suggested that clinical manifestations of SLE in Korean patients revealed similar to those of Western(Caucasian+Black) except that photosensitivity, serositis, neuropsychiatric disorders were less frequent in Korean.
Anemia ; Antibodies, Antinuclear ; Arthralgia ; Arthritis ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Biopsy ; Ethnic Groups ; Exanthema ; Female ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic* ; Male ; Oral Ulcer ; Pericarditis ; Pleurisy ; Prevalence ; Proteinuria ; Psychotic Disorders ; Retrospective Studies ; Serositis