The ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament of the spine(OPLL) is newly recongnized clinical entity,although compression of the spinal cord by an OPLL was reported by key as early as in 1839 in Guy's HospitalReport. OPLL was noticeable in lateral tomography as an abnormal dense radiopacity along the posterior margins ofthe vertebral body. Authors retrospectively analysed the diagnostic values and findings of lateral tomography ofthe cervical spine in 11 cases at Kang Nam General Hospital Public Corporation during 1 yr from July 1984 to June1985. The results were as follows; 1. Among suspected 11 cases of OPLL, 9 cases were confiremd as OPLL on lateraltomogram. 2. Age range was 25 years old to 55 years old and more prevalent age was over 5th decades & male wasmore involved than female. 3. Frequent involvement was C2-C5 level and number of vertebral bodies involved was 3.6in average. 4. This ossification developed 4 modes, a continuous type 11%, segmental 33%, mixed type 33%,circumscribed type in 22%. 5. OPLL thickness were from 2mm to 4.5mm and spnal canal narrowing ratio were form 25%to 44% and there were norational relationships between clinical symptom and thicknness of OPLL. 6. On diagnosis ofOPLL, lateral tomography is accurate and recommendable screening study due to easy, noninvasive, indisipensable and less harmful technique, compared to those of myelography or computed tomography.
Diagnosis ; Female ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Myelography ; Ossification of Posterior Longitudinal Ligament ; Retrospective Studies ; Spinal Cord ; Spine

A survey was carried out from August to December 2004 in Pusan, Korea to document the presence of free-living amoeba (FLA), including the genus Acanthamoeba, in both contact lens storage cases and domestic tap water. Acanthamoeba was isolated from 5 (4.2%) in 120 contact lens storage cases. Four house tap water samples from residents, whose contact lens storage cases had been contaminated by Acanthamoeba, were also found to be contaminated with Acanthamoeba. Therefore, the contamination rate of FLA and Acanthamoeba in domestic tap water was investigated in order to examine the role of domestic tap water in Acanthamoeba contamination of contact lens storage cases. FLA and Acanthamoeba were identified in 97 (46.8%) and 16 (7.7%) of the 207 domestic tap water samples, respectively. There were no significant differences between the contamination rates of FLA in tap water according to the filtration plant of origin. No FLA was detected in the tap water directly supplied by the water purification plants. Water storage tanks appear to promote FLA colonization, including Acanthamoeba, in domestic tap water. This increases the risk of Acanthamoeba contamination in contact lens storage cases as well as increasing the risk of Acanthamoeba keratitis.
Acanthamoeba/*isolation & purification ; Amebiasis/epidemiology ; Animals ; Comparative Study ; Contact Lenses/parasitology ; Data Collection ; Humans ; Korea/epidemiology ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Risk Factors ; Water/*parasitology ; Water Supply/*standards

An appreciation of the normal variation of the Talar Tilt angle under stress roentgenogram on the ankle joint may throw some light on the diagnosis and treatment in an ankle joint injuries. The purpose of this study is to show the normal range of the Talar Tilt angleof the ankle joint under various circumstances and has been to compare the results of each angle. The author have undertaken the neutral ankle mortise view and inversion and eversion stress roentgenogram in all ankles and measured its Talar Tilt angle. The data were based on study of free chosen 50 normal Korean adult male 25 and female 25 respectively. The results were summerized as follows; 1. Talar Tilt angle was O degree in neutral ankle mortise view. 2. In inversion stress roentgenogram, Talar Tilt angle ranged from 0 to 15 degrees, 97% of cases were less than 10 degrees. 3. In eversion stress roentgenogram, Talar Tilt angle ranged from 0 to 7 degrees. 4. In inversion stress roentgenoram, the difference between right and left of same male and female ranged from 0 to 7 degrees. 5. It is very important to check accurately Talar Tilt angle under the same method and same conditions.
Adult ; Ankle Joint ; Ankle ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Methods ; Reference Values

A computer progrem which performs obstetric calculation on Clipper Language using the datas from ultrasonography was developed from personal computer. It was designed for fast assessment of fetal development, prediction of gestagional age, and weight from ultrasonographic measurements which included biparietal diameter, femur length, gestational sac, occipito-frontal diameter, abdominal diameter, and etc. The Obstetricel-Ultrasound data-Base Managemant System was tested for its performance. The Obstetrical-Ultrasound Data-Base Management System was very useful in patient management with its convenient data filing, easy retrieval of previous report, prompt but accurate estimation of fetal growth and skeletal anomaly and production of equation and growth curve for pregnant women.
Female ; Femur ; Fetal Development ; Gestational Sac ; Humans ; Microcomputers* ; Pregnant Women ; Ultrasonography*

Astrovirus is frequently associated with diarrhea in children. It can not be readily isolated by cell culture, and an electronmicroscope is usually used for detection of this agent. Recently in 1995 a combined method of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was designed for easier detection of astrovirus, which is based on the conserved sequence in 3'-end of genomes of the 7 known serotypes of human astrovirus. As of yet there has not been any report of astrovirus data in Korea using the RT-PCR methods. The purpose of this study was to detect astrovirus incidence, severity of symptoms, seasonal variation and coinfection rate with rotavirus in Korean children inpatients with diarrhea. Fecal specimens from 61 young children hospitalized with gasteroenteritis Korea from Jan. 1996 through Mar. 1997. They were examined for astroviurs infection by RT-PCR method. Results are as follows: 1. Astrovirus was detected at 9.8% (6/61) from fecal specimens of children with severe diarrhea by EIA using monoclonal antibody coated plates. 2. Astorvirus was detected at 29.5% (18/61) from fecal specimens of children with severe diarrhea by RT-PCR. 3. The age of the 18 children affected by astrovirus ranged from 2 monthes to 7 years with mean of 3.0 years. 4. Mean hospital stay of the 1S children was 6.1 days. 5. Five (27.8%) astrovirus RT-PCR positive strains were confirmed in November and in December, respectively out of 18 specimens in total. 6. Astrovirus coinfection with rotavirus type G1 was confirmed in 15/16 specimens (93.8%), and with type G2 was in 1/16 specimens (6.3%).
Cell Culture Techniques ; Child* ; Coinfection ; Conserved Sequence ; Diarrhea ; Feces* ; Genome ; Humans ; Incidence ; Inpatients ; Korea ; Length of Stay ; Mamastrovirus ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Reverse Transcription* ; Rotavirus ; Seasons

Human rotavirus has now been established as the leading cause of gastroenteritis in young children worldwide. At least fourteen serotypes of group A rotavirus have been identified on the basis of antibody responses to major neutralizing glycoprotein, VP7 (G type for glycoprotein), present in the outer capsid of the virus. Serotype 1, 2, 3 and 4 are the most highly prevalent in human. In Korea, rotavirus is also the principal cause of severe nonbacterial diarrhea requiring hospitalization in infants and young children, which is commonly detected by EIA method. The epidemiology of rotavirus infection has been monitored by only serologic methods without electropherotyping in Korea. This study shows seasonal and age related variations .of rotavirus infection in Korea according to the genotype using the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Fecal specimens were obtained from 39 children hospitalized with acute watery diarrhea and gastroenteritis in Ewha Womans University MokDong Hospital in Seoul from Jan. to Dec. of 1996. All four (1, 2, 3, 4) major G serotypes were identified by amplification of segment of the gene for VP7 using RT-PCR. Rotavirus Gl 749 bp, G2 653 bp, G3 374 bp and G4 583bp were shown on 2.9 or 3.3% NuSieve agar gel. Results were as follows: 1) Rotavirus was detected at 53.8% (21/39) by EIA and 89.7% (35/39) by RT-PCR. 2) Serotype Gl, G2, G3, G4 when detected by RT-PCR accounted for 80.0% (28/35), 14.3% (5/35), 2.9% (1/35) and 2.9% (1/35), respectively. 3) Thirty five strains of rotavirus were detected at the frequency of 17.1% (6/35) in Oct., 20.0% (7/35) in Nov. and 20.0% (7/35) in Dec. 4) As for the age range, children affected by rotavirus were mostly under 1 years.
Agar ; Antibody Formation ; Capsid ; Child ; Child, Hospitalized* ; Diarrhea* ; Epidemiology ; Female ; Gastroenteritis ; Genotype* ; Glycoproteins ; Hospitalization ; Humans* ; Infant ; Korea ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Reverse Transcription* ; Rotavirus Infections ; Rotavirus* ; Seasons ; Seoul

No abstract available.
Pilomatrixoma* ; Vaccination*

Most instances of choriocarcinoma of the ovary are gestational in origin. In contrast, nongestational choriocarcinoma of the ovary is an exceedingly rare primary germ cell neoplasm that has worse prognosis than gestational neoplasm. We report a case of pure nongestational choriocarcinoma of the ovary in view of the rarity of its kind. The patient was a 35-year-old Korean unmarried woman who had suffered from vaginal bleeding and feeling of abdominal inflation for two months. The X-ray studies and CT scanning revealed a child head sized cystic mass on the right pelvic cavity and multiple nodular densities in both lung fields and the liver. The mass in pelvic cavity was excised and histologically confirmed to be a nongestational pure choriocarcinoma, arising from the right side ovary.
Child ; Male ; Female ; Humans

Control of tuberculosis is threatened by widesread emergence of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Rifampin is a key component among therapeutic regimens for the tuberculosis; therefore patients in whom resistance to this drug develop have a poor outlook, particularly if rifampin resistance is associated with resistance to other tuberculosis drugs. The purpose of this study was to detect the mutation in rpoB gene of rifampin resistant M. tuberculosis in Korea and to evaluate the usefulness of the method in clinical aspects. A sample of 80 M. tuberculosis was studied, and it included 40 rifampin resistance isolates and 40 rifampin sensitive isolates by conventional methods. The detection method involved the amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the Rif' region and the identification of mutations by single-strand DNA conformation polymorphism analysis (SSCP) of the amplification products (157 bp). Mutation were identified in 39 of 40 rifampin resistant isolates, and in 1 of 40 rifampin sensitive isolates.
Humans ; Korea ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis* ; Mycobacterium* ; Nucleic Acid Conformation ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Rifampin ; Tuberculosis

Control of tuberculosis is threatened by widespread emergence of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Understanding the molecular basis of resistance might lead to development of novel rapid methods for diagnosing drug resistance. Rifampin is a key component among therapeutic regimens for the tuberculosis; therefore, patients who have drug resistance do not convalesce satisfactorily. The molecular mechanism of resistance to rifampin in M. tuberulosis has been elucidated. Substitutions of a limited number of highly conserved amino acids encoded by the rpoB gene are responsible for the ""single-step"" high-level resistance of M. tuberculosis to rifampin. Currently, two genotype-based protocols allow drug test from minimally grown cultured materials: (i)mutation identification by direct sequencing of PCR-amplified material. and (ii)mutation screening by PCR-SSCP. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of the both methods. A sample of 75 isolates of M. tuberculosis was studied, and it inculded 36 rifampin-resistant strains and 39 rifampin-sensitive strains by conventional methods. Mutaions were identified in 36 rifampin-resistant isolates but in none of 39 sensitive isolates. All mutations were clustered within a region of 23 amino acids. Both methods allow detection of rifampin resistance in 2 to 3 days and will thus help in the early management of infection by M. tuberculosis.
Amino Acids ; Drug Resistance ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis* ; Mycobacterium* ; Rifampin ; Tuberculosis