No abstract available.
Humans ; Infertility* ; Luteinizing Hormone, beta Subunit*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Acute laryngeal trauma is a very rare injury. Controversy still exists in regards to its proper management. The aim of this study was to present clinical findings and management of acute laryngeal trauma. MATERIALS AND METHODS:We analyzed medical records of 15 patients with acute laryngeal trauma from 1987 to 1997 retrospectively. RESULTS: The most common cause of injury was traffic accident. Hoarseness (93.3 %), odynophagia (86.7 %), subcutaneous emphysema (60.0 %) were the common presenting symptoms and thyroid cartilage was the most common site of fracture. The correlation between dyspnea (p=0.03) and subcutaneous emphysema (p=0.08) and major injury was high. Esophageal examination was performed on 11 patients and revealed no injury. All four patients with vocal cord palsy and minor injury findings improved. Patients with major injury showed bad results of airway and voice, and result of voice was worse that of airway. CONCLUSION: If presenting symptoms are emphysema and dyspnea, major injury should be considered. Routine esophageal examination may be skipped in blunt minor injury. Vocal cord palsy with minor injury finding may not be an operative indication in blunt injury.
Accidents, Traffic ; Dyspnea ; Emphysema ; Hoarseness ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Retrospective Studies* ; Subcutaneous Emphysema ; Thyroid Cartilage ; Vocal Cord Paralysis ; Voice ; Wounds, Nonpenetrating

Magnetic resonance images frequently demonstrate asymmetrical mucosal volume in the nasal area of asymptomatic patients. To further evaluate this phenomenon, sequential MR examinations of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses were performed three to four times during a 3 to 8 hours period in ten normal volunteers. The study demonstrated that the mucosal volume changes alternated from side to side during this period in eight volunteers. Changes were also observed within the ethmoid sinuses, nasal septum and nasolacrimal ducts. Awareness of MR findings of nasal cycle may reduce the likehood of inflammatory disease being confused with normal physiologic changes, and also may provide another method in the study of this physiologic phenomenon.
Ethmoid Sinus ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Methods ; Nasal Cavity ; Nasal Septum ; Nasolacrimal Duct ; Paranasal Sinuses ; Volunteers

OBJECTIVES: This research was performed to identify family violence by male adolescencts, and to examine the characteristics of male adolescent delinquents in terms of domestic viloence. METHODS: We surveyed 677 male adolescents including 238 delinquents from BBS(Big brothers and sisters) in Pusan, 209 criminal adolescents from adolescent correctional institution in Pusan, 230 high school students through questionnaire, MMPI(Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), and PBI(Parental Bonding Instrument), and then compared these three groups by Chi-square test, T-test, and Anova. RESULTS: In most cases, male delinquent adolescents were placed in poorer socio-economic conditions than those of students, but in better socio-economic conditions than those of criminal adolescents. In general, the assaulters were senior family members, physically stronger than sufferers, and have bad brotherliness. Compared with normal students, the serious problem of violence including violence to the ancestors in delinquent and criminal adolescents. On results of MMPI and PBI test, there were significant difference between violent group and non-violent group on the Sc score and Passive aggressive index in adolescent delinquents and parental overprotection in normal students. CONCLUSION: Generally the characteristics of family violence by male delinquent adolescents were intermediate between those of criminal adolescent and students, these results were same as those of previous socio-psychiatric study, and so the intervention in criminal adolescents is needed for the pre-vention of family violence.
Adolescent* ; Busan ; Criminals ; Domestic Violence* ; Humans ; Male ; MMPI ; Parents ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Siblings ; Violence

OBJECTIVES: Clinical documents (CDs) have evolved from traditional paper documents containing narrative text information into the electronic record sheets composed of itemized records, where each record is expressed as an item with a specific value. We defined medical record (MR) items to be information entities with a specific value. These entities were then used to compile form-based clinical documents as part of an electronic health record system (EHR-s). METHODS: We took a reusable bottom-up developmental approach for the MR items, which provided three things: efficient incorporation of the local needs and requirements of the medical professionals from various departments in the hospital, comprehensive inclusion of the essential concepts of the basic elements required in clinical documents, and the provision of a structured means for meaningful data entry and retrieval. This paper delineates our experiences in developing and managing medical records at a large tertiary university hospital in Korea. RESULTS: We collected 63,232 MR items from paper records scanned into 962 CDs. The MR item database was constructed using 13,287 MR items after removing redundant items. During the first year of service users requested changes to be made to 235 (1.8%) attributes of the MR items and also requested the additional 9,572 new MR items. In the second year, the attributes of 70 (0.5%) of the existing MR items were changed and 3,704 new items were added. The number of registered MR items increased by 72.0% in the first year and 27.9% in the second year. CONCLUSIONS: The MR item concept provides an easier and more structured means of data entry within an EHR-s. By using these MR items, various kinds of clinical documents can be easily constructed and allows for medical information to be reused and retrieved as data. The success of the use of MR items in a large tertiary university hospital system provides evidence that verifies our approach as being an efficient means of user-oriented and structured data entry, enabling the easy reuse of medical records.
Electronic Health Records ; Electronics ; Electrons ; Medical Records

In order to evaluate the hypotensive effect of the lisinopril, a long acting angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, 10 to 30mg of lisinopril were administered in 35 hypertensive Korean adults during six weeks after a week observation for washout with stepwise increments of the dose according to the response of the patients blood pressure in every two weeks. The results were ; 1) The supine blood pressures were decreased from 163.7+/-16.6/99.8+/-9.3mmHg to 140.7+/-15.5/87.4+/-9.9mmHg at the end of six weeks' drug therapy(p<0.001). The standing blood pressures were also decreased conferrably and to the some lower levels. 2) In 14 patients to whom the drug was administered longer period(12 to 28 weeks) the blood pressure lowering effects were maintained at the level of that of 6th week. 3) Hematologic examination and blood chemistry revealed no discernible abnormal findings before and after the treatment. 4) In those patients who showed no adequate blood pressure control with other classes of antihypertensive drugs the lisinopril was effective in lowering their blood pressures by adding small doses. 5) During the period of the study a few probably drug-related symptoms developed but not troublesome except dry cough and dry mouth shich forced to stop administering the drug after completion of six weeks' period in one patients. From above results we concluded that lisnopril is effective and safe for the treatment of hypertension in Korean adults.
Adult ; Antihypertensive Agents ; Blood Pressure ; Chemistry ; Cough ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Lisinopril* ; Mouth ; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A

The overt effects of the anticancer drugs such as cisplatin and taxol appear to be DNA modification and microtubule stabilization respectively. But the mechanism by which these drugs affect tumor cell cycle perturbation and their correlation to apoptosis and cytotoxicity are not well understood, especially in combined sequential treatment of cisplatin and paclitaxel (taxol). In this study, to elucidate the action mechanisms as a function of cell cycle changes and cytotoxicities and to determine the adequate treatment sequence of cisplatin and taxol to acquire more enhanced cytotoxic effects when they are combined, we evaluated the cell cycle perturbations and its correlation to cytotoxic effects, which is measured by the extents of apoptosis and the fractions of cellular debris and live cells after combination treatment of cisplatin and taxol changing their treatment sequences in NIHOVCAR-3 ovarian cancer cell line. Our results were as follows; (1) The accumulation in S phase inhibited the entrance of tumor cells to G2M phase when the cisplatin treatment was preceded to taxol in their combination. (2) The tumor cells were not accumulated in S phase but most of them entered to and accumulated in G2M phase and they were leading to cell death when the taxol treatment was preceded to cisplatin in their combination. (3) Apoptotic peaks in taxol pretreatment group were detected earlier and persisted longer than that of cisplatin pretreatment group. (4) The cytotoxicities represented by the decreased fractions of live cells and the increased fractions of cellular debris were higher in taxol pretreatment group than those of cisplatin pretreatment group. These results suggested that the taxol pretreatment is more effective in combination of cisplatin and taxol and the relative decrease in the cytotoxicity in cisplatin pretreatment group was considered to be derived from the inhibition of entrance of tumor cells to G2M and protected them from the action by taxol. From these results, we concluded that the taxol pretreatment will enhance the cytotoxic effects to tumor cells when cisplatin and taxol will be administered and it indicates that correlations between cell cycle perturbation, apoptosis and cell death have to be considered in the future combination treatment of other drugs and in the development of new treatment regimens.
Apoptosis ; Cell Cycle* ; Cell Death* ; Cell Line* ; Cisplatin* ; DNA ; Microtubules ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Paclitaxel* ; S Phase

BACKGROUND: Duration of action varies in conditions with reduced plasma cholinesterase activity. To evaluate the action duration and recovery of mivacurium under the experimental hepatic failure and cholestasis, the pharmacodynamic studies were done. METHODS: The pharmacodynamic studies were done using a common peroneal nerve-anterior tibialis muscle preparation in 18, either sex, adult cats (weight, 2.0~4.0 kg). For the hepatic failure, galactosamine chloride (4.25 mmol/kg) was given 16 hours prior to the pharmacodynamic study. The cholestasis was made by the ligation of CBD and cystic duct 8 days prior to the pharmacodynamic study. All the cat had 4XED95 of mivacurium. The action durations and recovery indices were measured. And plasma cholinesterase activities were checked. RESULTS: The duration of mivacurium was prolonged significantly with either hepatic failure (14.96 4.44 min.) or cholestasis (11.21+/- 5.11 min.) group compared to control group (5.27 +/-0.67 min.) and also the recovery indices were significantly increased in the hepatic failure (4.58+/- 1.40 min.) and cholestasis (3.21+/- 1.00 min.) groups, as compaired with the control group (1.57+/- 0.40 min.). CONCLUSION: The mivacurium-induced neuromuscular blockade is prolonged by the experimental hepatic failure and cholestasis, and the effects may be caused by the hepatic dysfunction, impairment of direct biliary excretion.
Adult ; Animals ; Cats* ; Cholestasis* ; Cholinesterases ; Cystic Duct ; Galactosamine ; Humans ; Ligation ; Liver Failure* ; Neuromuscular Blockade* ; Plasma

Betaine derivatives are considered major ingredients of shampoos and are commonly used as antistatic and viscosity-increasing agents. Several studies have also suggested that betaine derivatives can be used as antimicrobial agents. However, the antifungal activity and mechanism of action of betaine derivatives have not yet been fully understood. In this study, we investigated the antifungal activity of six betaine derivatives against Malassezia restricta, which is the most frequently isolated fungus from the human skin and is implicated in the development of dandruff. We found that, among the six betaine derivatives, lauryl betaine showed the most potent antifungal activity. The mechanism of action of lauryl betaine was studied mainly using another phylogenetically close model fungal organism, Cryptococcus neoformans, because of a lack of available genetic manipulation and functional genomics tools for M. restricta. Our genome-wide reverse genetic screening method using the C. neoformans gene deletion mutant library showed that the mutants with mutations in genes for cell membrane synthesis and integrity, particularly ergosterol synthesis, are highly sensitive to lauryl betaine. Furthermore, transcriptome changes in both C. neoformans and M. restricta cells grown in the presence of lauryl betaine were analyzed and the results indicated that the compound mainly affected cell membrane synthesis, particularly ergosterol synthesis. Overall, our data demonstrated that lauryl betaine influences ergosterol synthesis in C. neoformans and that the compound exerts a similar mechanism of action on M. restricta.
Anti-Infective Agents ; Betaine ; Cell Membrane ; Cryptococcus ; Cryptococcus neoformans ; Dandruff ; Ergosterol ; Fungi ; Gene Deletion ; Genetic Testing ; Genomics ; Humans ; Malassezia ; Methods ; Skin ; Transcriptome

Protein identification by peptide mass fingerprinting using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of fight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) can analyze unambiguously identity of the spots from a 2-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) gel. This study developed a technique for 2-DE of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. enteritidis) by improving the dissolution conditions by 2-DE using a pH 4 - 7 immobilized pH gradient (IPG) strip. This report examines the protein components from the patterns of the S. enteritidis protein. The most abundant protein displayed a great number of clusters within the pH 4.5 - 7 range with a molecular mass ranging from 35-80 kDa. Some of these spots were identified as metabolic related enzymes. The protein fraction was also analyzed using an immobilized pH gradient strip. Different proteins were identified on the spot according to the elongation factors. In addition, this study showed that the 2-DE analysis of S. enteritidis provides useful information regarding the S. enteritidis proteome, and this approach might provide a strategy for identifying bacterial proteins using a proteome technology.
Bacterial Proteins/analysis/*chemistry/isolation & purification ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional ; Enzymes/chemistry/genetics/isolation & purification ; Molecular Weight ; Salmonella enteritidis/*chemistry/growth & development ; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization