The purposes of this study were to investigate the perception of community nutrition programs and the conditions to carry them out, for 32 directors of health centers where public health nutritionists are not employed. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. Nutrition intervention programs were not carried out actively except those for infants but the health center directors strongly felt the necessity of carrying out various nutrition programs. The factors that affect the selecting and priotizing of nutrition programs were the need of community residents, the perception of the local congressmen, and the head of the local government. The most urgent and important problem to be solved in order to intervene nutrition programs was employing public health nutritionists on a tenure basis. Other were securing necessary revenue, precise guidance, political support, hardwares, etc. These results showed the importance of employing public health nutritionists for intervening appropriate nutrition programs and improving the perception of nutrition services for health center directors, local congressmen and personnels in charge of formulating nutrition policies.
Head ; Humans ; Infant ; Local Government ; Nutrition Policy ; Nutritionists* ; Public Health*

We evaluated the role of endoseopic balloon dilatation for esophageal strictures caused by postoperative anastomosis in 5 cases, sclerotherapy in 4 cases, caustic injury in 6 cases, and malignancy in 16 cases. The success rate of balloon dilatation was 100% in postoperative anastomotic and post-scle- rotherapy strictures, 16.7% in caustic stricture, and 62.5% in malignant stricture. The addition of bougienage increased the final success rate of dilatation therapy from 16.7 to 66.7% in caustic stricture, and 62.5 to 93.8% in malignant stricture. The overall one-year recurrence rate in benign stricture was 34.5%. All of the recurrent strictures were successfully retreated by balloon dilatation. In conclusion, endoscopic balloon dilatation is a safe, effective, and easy method for the management of benign esophageal strictures except longstanding caustic stricture, and can be used as an auxiliary therapy prior to more definitive treatments such as esophageal intubation in malignant stricture.
Constriction, Pathologic* ; Dilatation ; Esophagus ; Intubation ; Recurrence ; Sclerotherapy

No abstract available.
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay*

No abstract available.
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay*

No abstract available.
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay*

The purpose of this study is to estimate the minimum optimal scale(MOS) of the self-employed health insurance associations. Considering the high proportion of operating expenses, the author have selected 254 regional health insurance associations from the 1990 Finance Report of the self-employed health insurance programs. both a quadratic function and a hyperbolic function were chosen for the analysis. The dependent variables are the average maintenance cost per insured person and per household, and the independent variables are the number of insured members and of household. The minimum optimal scale was obtained from the differentiation of the quadratic function. Major findings are summarized as follows: 1. The M.O.S. was calculated as 166,174 members (27,442 households) for the rural self-employed health insurance associations and 258,462 members (75,446 households) for the urban. Providing that both the rural and urban health insurance associations would e integrated, the M.O.S. be found to become 231,687 members (68,101 households) 2. Compared with the optimal minimum scale, the magnitude of the current health insurance association found to be much smaller, less than half of the optimal scale. 3. In order to reduce the operating cost, it is necessary to enlarge the operational scale of self-employed health insurance associations.
Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Insurance ; Insurance, Health* ; Korea* ; Urban Health

No abstract available.
Colon* ; Lymphangioma, Cystic*

We experienced a case of gastric carcinoid with melena and syncope, which had a metastasis to regional lymph nodes. The gastric carcinoid tumor with massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding, which required transfusion, is very rare disease. So we report a case of gastric carcinoid with massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding with a review of relevant literature.
Carcinoid Tumor* ; Hemorrhage ; Lymph Nodes ; Melena ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Rare Diseases ; Syncope

A marked accumulation of eosinophils occurs in several disorders, such as allergic diseases, parasitic infections, and cancers. Recently we experienced a case of clonorchiasis with a presentation of peripheral eosinophilia and eosinophilic infiltration in the liver. A 46-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of epigastric pain. The white boold cell count was 33,900/mm3 with 70% eosinophils. Two stool examinations were negative for parasite eggs. Skin test gave a positive test for Clonorchis sinensis. CT showed inhomogeneous enhancement with multiple subcapsular low attenuation in the liver. The pathological features of the liver, which were characterized by marked infiltration of eosinophils in the periportal and intralobular areas and no evidence of parasitic ova, granuloma, or tumor, suggested that the lesions were caused by the hypereosinophilic syndrome. He was treated with corticosteroids. During management, however, antibody against C. sinensis in serum using micro-ELISA was positive and a stool specimen gave a positive test for C. sinensis ova. We diagnosed clornorchiasis and administered praziquantel to him. Peripheral eosinophilia has improved.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones ; Angioplasty ; Arteries ; Cell Count ; Clonorchiasis* ; Clonorchis sinensis ; Eggs ; Eosinophilia* ; Eosinophils* ; Granuloma ; Humans ; Hypereosinophilic Syndrome ; Liver* ; Middle Aged ; Ovum ; Parasites ; Parasitic Diseases ; Praziquantel ; Skin Tests ; Stents

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary artery hypertension is characterized by persistent increase of vascular resistance, and is associated with right ventricle failure. We investigated changes of plasma renin, serum aldosterone, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) concentrations, ACE gene expressions and protein contents after bosentan treatment. METHODS: Six-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups: control (C) group, monocrotaline (M) group, and bosentan (B) group. Groups M and B were subcutaneously administered with 60 mg/kg of monocrotaline. In group B, 20 mg/kg/day of bosentan was administered by gavage twice a day. The rats were sacrificed after 1, 5, 7, 14, and 28 days. Changes of ACE gene expressions were analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Also, plasma renin, serum aldosterone, and ACE levels were measured. RESULTS: Serum aldosterone levels were significantly increased in group M compared with group C and significantly decreased after bosentan treatment on day 28. Serum ACE concentrations were significantly decreased compared with group M after bosentan treatment on day 28. Gene expressions of ACE were significantly increased in group M compared with group C on day 5 and significantly decreased after bosentan treatment on day 7 and 14. ACE protein contents significantly increased in group M compared with group C in week 2 and 4. It significantly decreased after bosentan treatment in week 2. CONCLUSIONS: The renin-angiotensin system is associated with pulmonary artery hypertension. To investigate the effects of bosentan on the renin-angiotensin system in pulmonary artery hypertension, further studies on the effects of bosentan according to different doses are required in the future.
Aldosterone ; Angiotensins ; Animals ; Gene Expression ; Heart Ventricles ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; Male ; Monocrotaline ; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A ; Plasma ; Pulmonary Artery ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Renin ; Renin-Angiotensin System ; Sulfonamides ; Vascular Resistance