A total of 23 human fetal hearts from 18 to 40 weeks of gestation were provided for histologic and morphometric studies. The fetuses were the products of spontaneous or artificial abortions and were found to have no congential anomalies or associated lesions at autopsy. Maxima thickness of the left anterior, left lateral, left posterior, right anterior, right lateral, right posterior ventricular wall, and of the interventricular septal wall were measured and the left / right wall thickness ratio was calculated. The cross-sectional area of each ventricle parallel to the base of the heart at about 3-5mm below from the origin of the aorta was measured under drawing attachment-equipped light microscope with the application of point counting or cut-and-weigh method. Data were analyzed by the Anderson-ell ABSTAT dBASE ll statistical package program. The ventricular wall consisted of endocardium, myocardium and epicardium. The myocardium showed epithelial character by stratification of barrel-shaped myocardial cells, but the epithelial character progressively changed to as in adult myocardial tissue from the myocardial area close to the epicardium with increasing fetal age. However, any significant histologic difference between the left and the right ventricular wall at the same fetal age was not found. The growth pattern of both ventricular wall, the interventricular septal wall, and of the cross sectional area were linear (p<0.01). However, there was no significant difference in the wall thickness between the left and right ventricle at the same fetal age, and the left / right thickness ratio was nearly constant with increasing fetal age. The cross sectional area was greater in the right than in the left ventricle in the fetuses after 18 weeks of gestation (p<0.01), and there was no significant difference in the morphometric values between point counting and cut-and-weigh method (p>0.1).
Adult ; Aorta ; Autopsy ; Endocardium ; Fetal Heart* ; Fetus ; Gestational Age ; Heart ; Heart Ventricles ; Humans* ; Methods ; Myocardium ; Pericardium ; Pregnancy

BACKGROUND: Pusan is geographically far away from the indigenous area of malaria. It is the area where the tourists and foreigners travel through frequently because of the port. We investigated the situation in Pusan concerning malaria through the examination of malaria patients who contracted it recently. We found the ways to decrease erroneous diagnosis presuming malaria on the basis of these studies. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 28 confirmed cases of malaria with the chief complaint of repeated high fever, who were admitted and treated in the Pusan Adventist Hospital and Pusan Samsun Hospital from June 1997 to August 2000. RESULTS: 25 cases were indigenous and 3 patients were imported cases contracted overseas. Peripheral blood smears revealed Plasmodium vivax in all indigenous cases, whereas 2 were P. falciparum and 1 case was P. vivax in the imported cases. Yeonchon-goon(9 cases) was the most prevalent area in the indigenous cases. Africa and Southeast Asia(3 cases) were the contracted areas in the imported cases. 27 cases were men and 1 case was a woman among the 28 cases, and the incidence was high peak in 8-10 month. Most of the patients(72.1%) were in the their 20's, and most of all had worked in the military bases near the demilitarized zone(DMZ). Thrombocytopenia and leukopenia were found more frequently by the laboratory findings. 23 of the cases(82%) were suspected to be malaria, before we confirmed it by peripheral blood smears. CONCLUSION: The number of patients with indigenous malaria from the other areas in Korea and patients with malaria from foreign countries will be expected to increase. Before we confirmed the malaria by peripheral blood smears, the cases suspected of malaria were 82.1%. This is a high diagnostic rate due to careful history taking and physical examination. The doctors decreased the rate of erroneous diagnosis of malaria and should be careful in the choice of the proper drugs.
Africa ; Busan* ; Diagnosis ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Female ; Fever ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Leukopenia ; Malaria* ; Male ; Medical Records ; Military Facilities ; Physical Examination ; Plasmodium vivax ; Retrospective Studies ; Thrombocytopenia

In clinical settings, electrodiagnosis is used for the differential diagnosis of neuropathy and myopathy, as well as detremining severity and localization of lesions in the neuromuscular system. By many authors, various methods of the study and factors influencing the results were verified so far. However, the results vary according to methods or influencing factors during electrodiagnostic studies. Since there has been no standardization in methods of the study and study environment, we sometimes feel difficulties in interpretation of study results and in exchage of findings of study among laboratories. In this study, we have collected standards and norms used by different electrodiagnostic laboratories in Korea, hoping that we can come up with one nationwide standards and norms in Korea.
Diagnosis, Differential ; Electrodiagnosis* ; Hope ; Korea* ; Muscular Diseases

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to analyze relationships between injury-related variables, demographic variables, disability, handicap and life satisfaction of persons with spinal cord injury. METHOD: Data was collected through personal interviews of 96 persons with spinal cord injury. Neurologic variables, demographic variables, FIM (functional independence measure) scores and CHART (Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique) scores were obtained. Life domain satisfaction measure, a self-administered questionnare containing 12 items, was used to assess the life satisfaction. RESULTS: Life satisfaction was related with the total CHART score (p=0.00), severity of disability (p=0.02), annual family income (p=0.019) and employment status (p=0.008). Life satisfaction was not related with the level of injury, age, duration of injury, sex or marital status (p>0.05). Social integration was the most strong predictor of life satisfaction (p=0.00). Economic-self sufficiency (p=0.004) and FIM scores (p=0.018) were also predictors of the life satisfaction. CONCLUSION: The result of this study provides an evidence that social integration and employment warrant a priority in rehabilitation efforts to promote the quality of life following spinal cord injury.
Employment ; Humans ; Marital Status ; Quality of Life* ; Rehabilitation ; Spinal Cord Injuries ; Spinal Cord*

OBJECTIVE: To collect the informations of the traumatic spinal cord injury persons in Suwon city. METHOD: Seventy-five traumatic spinal cord injury persons were evaluated by the neurological level, American Spinal Injury Association scale, Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and questionnaire on their voiding methods, complications, etc. RESULTS: The leading cause of 75 persons with traumatic spinal cord injury was a traffic accident. Among them, paraplegics were 46 persons. The most common complication was a pressure sore which was also the leading cause of their rehospitalization. Twenty-six persons voided by reflex. Among five dimensions of CHART, the physical independence score was the highest and the economic self sufficiency score was the lowest. The total CHART scores were significantly correlated with BDI scores, FIM scores, and level of injury. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that physical impairment, disability and depression affect the handicaps of spinal cord injury persons. These data could be used to develop a social rehabilitation program for the spinal cord injury persons in the community.
Accidents, Traffic ; Depression ; Gyeonggi-do* ; Humans ; Pressure Ulcer ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reflex ; Rehabilitation ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord* ; Spinal Injuries

No abstract available.
Lymphocytes*

The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychological characteristics of mothers of children with disabilities. This study was performed under the hypotheses that, at the initial diagnosis of the children's disabilities, (1) the mothers suffered from serious psychological distress; (2) the more severe the child's disability was, the more serious the mother's psychological distress was; and that (3) the mother's psychological distress might be resolved within 8 weeks of rehabilitational interventions. The results were as follows: 1) mothers of children with disabilities showed significant (p<0.05) somatization, depression, anxiety, hostility, and phobic anxiety more so than the control group; 2) there was no significant difference in T scores of 9 dimensions of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revision (SCL-90-R) of the mothers at the initial diagnosis of children's disabilities according to severity of child's disability; 3) there was no significant difference in T scores of 9 dimensions of SCL-90-R in mothers of children with disabilities between at initial evaluation and after 8 weeks of rehabilitational interventions. In conclusion, : 1) mothers of children with disabilities suffered from serious psychological distress at the initial diagnosis of their child's disability; 2) the severity of the child's disability had little influence on the degree of the mother's initial psychological distress; 3) this distress did not resolve with only 8 weeks of rehabilitational interventions. Therefore, effective rehabilitational programs should provide sufficient opportunities for repeated follow-up interviews which offer not only adequate information on the children's disabilities but also psychological support for the mothers.
Adult ; Affective Symptoms/etiology/psychology ; *Child ; Child, Preschool ; Developmental Disabilities/diagnosis/rehabilitation ; *Disabled Persons/rehabilitation ; Female ; Human ; Infant ; Male ; Mothers/*psychology ; Time Factors

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether there is a difference in nerve conduction studies depend on the body mass index (BMI) of subjects METHOD: Twenty normal healthy volunteers were enrolled for the study. A routine usual sensory and motor nerve conduction study and a sensory nerve conduction study using the near nerve needle technique were performed. BMI was calculated as weight (kg) divided by height (m) squared. In order to evaluate the effect of BMI on the various measure ments of the nerve conduction study, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. RESULTS: The sensory nerve amplitudes of median, ulnar and sural nerves correlated significantly (p<0.05) with BMI. However, no correlation was noted between BMI and sensory nerve amplitude by near nerve needle technique. There was no statistical differences noted in the measurements of latency of examined motor and sensory nerves neither the velocity of examined motor nerves. CONCLUSION: In clinical practice, the effect of BMI should be taken into account when the interpretation of abnormal sensory nerve study has to be soli.
Body Mass Index* ; Healthy Volunteers ; Needles ; Neural Conduction* ; Obesity ; Sural Nerve ; Weights and Measures

A portable ultrasound scanner has been developed to provide a noninvasive technique of measuring the bladder urine volume. This study was undertaken to determine if bladder volumes could be accurately measured in a group of spinal cord injury patients on a clean intermittent catheterization program, using a portable ultrasound scanner(BladderManager PCI 5000). We assessed the effects of different patient positions, presence of central obesity and bladder types by the urodynamic study on the accuracy of measurements as well as the inter-tester difference. Ultrasound measurements of urine volume performed by two physicians were compared to the volumes obtained by catheterization in 17 spinal cord injury patients. Subjects were tested in the seated and supine positions. The results showed a good correlation between the catheterized volumes and ultrasound measurements (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.97, r2=0.88). The mean % error was 18% for the catheterized volumes within the ranges of 45ml-640ml. But the ultrasound measurements revealed a significantly higher % error for the bladder volumes less than 200ml. Ultrasound measurements were more accurate in a supine position and among the non-obese subjects(p<0.05). There was no significant difference in the ultrasound measurements between areflexic type bladder and hyperreflexic type bladder neither in the inter-tester measurements. We conclude that the Bladder Manager PCI 5000 is not an accurate tool for the assesssment of post-void residual urine volumes, however it can be a useful tool for the patients with neurogenic bladder who are performing volume-directed clean intermittent catheterization, in reducing the unnecessary catheterization or preventing the bladder overdistensions.
Catheterization ; Catheters ; Humans ; Intermittent Urethral Catheterization ; Obesity, Abdominal ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord* ; Supine Position ; Ultrasonography ; Urinary Bladder* ; Urinary Bladder, Neurogenic ; Urodynamics

The importance of neuropathy in the pathogenesis of foot lesions has been well recognized in diabetes. Blood flow in ischemic limbs has been extensively investigated but the circulation of limbs affected by peripheral neu ropathy has received little attention. Some studies on blood flow in peripheral neuropathy have shown a remarkable increase in resting flow, transcutaneous venous oxygen tension, and vascularity, along with loss of the spontaneous variations which occur normally with sympathetic activity of the foot in patients with diabetes. The aim of present study is to find out the effects of somatic and autonomic nervous function in early change of blood flow of foot in diabetic patients, We have studied fifty-one patients of non-insulin-dependent(type II) diabetes with no history of hypertension of diabetic foot ulcers. The evidence of neuropathy was screened by nerve conduction studies and sympathetic skin response of both lower extremities. Blood flow of dorsalis pedls and posterior tibial arteries was measured by portable doppler machine and presented as pressure index(ankle-to-arm systolic pressure ratio). The patients with sympathetic dysfunction showed significant decrease in pressure index compared to normal control and diabetic patients with normal sympathetic function, suggesting that changes of the blood flow occur in diabetic patients with sympathetic dysfunction.
Blood Pressure ; Diabetic Foot ; Extremities ; Foot* ; Hemodynamics* ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Lower Extremity ; Neural Conduction ; Oxygen ; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases ; Skin ; Tibial Arteries ; Ulcer