We reviewed 92 eyes(65 patients) of diffuse diabetic macular edema which were treated with grid laser photocoagulation and followed up for more than 4 months from March 1992 to March 1997. There were improvements of visual acuity in 24 eyes(26.1%)and non changes in 50 eyes(54.3%), and 18 eyes(19.6%) showed worsened visual acuity. Initial visual acuity, presence of clinically significant macular edema and severity of retinopathy had not significant effects on visual outcome(P>0.05). Patients with grid photocoahulation without panretinal photocoagulation showed significantly good results than panretinal photocoagulation before or after grid photocoagulation(p<0.05).
Humans ; Light Coagulation* ; Macular Edema* ; Visual Acuity

It is the purpose of this study to compare the postoperative results of 168 patients with exotropia of basic and simulated divergence excess type over 40 prism diopters; 86 patients had bilateral rectus muscle recessions and 82 patients underwent lateral rectus muscle recession and medial rectus muscle resection. The patients in the former group had averaged 13.7 years of age and 8.2 months of postoperative follow-up period. Those in the latter group averaged 22.9 years and had been followed up for 7.1 months. The postoperative success rates are as follows: 66.7%(57/86) in the bilateral rectus muscle recession group and 68.1%(58/82) in the lateral rectus muscle recession and medial rectus muscle resection group(P>0.05). And the success rates of those older than 16 years without amblyopia are 60.0%(18/30) in the former group and 75.0%(24/32) in the latter group(P>0.05). The lateral rectus muscle recession and medial rectus muscle resection group showed somewhat higher rates of success even though it proved statistically insignificant.
Amblyopia ; Exotropia* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans

No abstract available.
Silicones* ; Transplants*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Burns* ; Lymphocyte Subsets* ; Lymphocytes* ; Mice* ; Spleen* ; Thymus Gland*

OBJECTIVES: Patient's behavior features are important factors which influences the clinical judgement including diagnosis. However, most psychiatrists build up a picture of patients' behavior from an amalgamation of their own brief observations and nurses' reports, which often lack in the objectiveness. Several behavioral scales have been developed to alleviate this difficulty, but the poor efficiency and reliability of these scales have made them less useful. The recently developed Ward Daily Behavior Scale is an objective tool for evaluating all the daily noteworthy behaviors of patients, and is easily applicable to wide ranges of diagnoses and ages. This study tried to prove the reliability and validity of the Ward Daily Behavior Scale-Korean version. METHODS: The 112 patients, 63 males and 49 females, at a chronic psychiatric inpatient ward were selected as subjects. Experienced and unexperienced nurses rated patients' behaviors independently with the Ward Daily Behavior Scale-Korean version, after observing behaviors of subjects for 8 hours during day duty time. And then we tested the inter-rater reliability, internal consistency, and concurrent validity of this scale. RESULTS: The Ward Daily Behavior Scale-Korean version proved to be both reliable and valid for measuring of behaviors of psychiatric inpatients. CONCLUSIONS: The Ward Daily Behavior Scale-Korean version will be a valuable tool to observe and quantify patients' behavior in psychiatric wards.
Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Male ; Mianserin* ; Psychiatry ; Reproducibility of Results ; Schizophrenia* ; Weights and Measures

Purpose: To proceed effectively with clinical research requires an understanding of the fundamental principles of study design and biostatistical methods. In this article, we identified and summarized basic clinical research designs and some of the key biostatistical methods that have been commonly used in clinical research. Materials and Methods: In an observational study, cross-sectional, case- control and Cohort designs were illustrated and compared. In a clinical trial study, parallel group design and cross-over designs were described according to their characteristics. Also, the biostatistical methods for their usages classified and summarized. Results: Understanding and evaluating research design are part of the process researchers must use to determine both the quality and usefulness of their research. Adequate applications to biostatistical methods are need; i.e., descriptive statistics, Student's t-test, ANOVA, nonparametrics, categorical data analysis, correlation and regression, and survival analysis. Conclusions: Research findings are used by clinical researcher to guide their practice and reduce their uncertainty in clinical decision making. However, to understand how to interpret research results, it is important to be able to understand basic statistical concepts and types of study design. Clinicians should also appropriately choose the biostatistical methods to suit their purposes.
Biostatistics ; Cohort Studies ; Cross-Over Studies ; Decision Making ; Observational Study ; Research Design* ; Statistics as Topic ; Uncertainty

BACKGROUND: The cryopreservation of Red Blood Cells have been proved to have many advantages in western countries. However, in Korea, clinical application of frozen-thawed blood is still in its early stage. We tried autologous frozen-thawed blood transfusion and evaluated the effects and complications. METHODS: Nine units of whole blood were collected from the autologous (n=1) and allogeneic bone marrow donors (n=3) and made packed RBCs by a centrifugation method. We made frozen RBCs using high glycerol method and stored them in -80degrees C freezer for 1 month. Eight units of frozen RBCs were thawed and washed by Cobe spectra (Cobe, USA). Autologous transfusions were done to the patient and donors while the bone marrow collection procedures were in process for bone marrow transplantation and we carefully observed its effects and complications. RESULTS: The mean RBC recovery rate were 89.8% and the supernatant plasma hemoglobin, K+, LD, osmolality, and simulation test were satisfactory to the allowable limit. After transfusion, the hemoglobin value was significantly elevated being comparable to that of the fresh blood. A case showed mild hematuria related to this transfusion but soon it disappeared in a day. CONCLUSION: The autologous frozen-thawed blood transfusions were safe and as much effective as the fresh blood. It would be essential to have skillful techniques in post-thaw washing process.
Blood Transfusion* ; Bone Marrow Transplantation ; Bone Marrow* ; Centrifugation ; Cryopreservation ; Erythrocytes ; Glycerol ; Hematuria ; Humans ; Korea ; Osmolar Concentration ; Plasma ; Tissue Donors*

Two trials of external quality assessment were performed in 2002. Thirteen test items of immunoassay with eight control materials were surveyed. The response rate of external quality assessment for Immunoassay Subcommitee were 94.3% and 94.5% in each trial. Eight control materials were consisted of 6 home-made pooled sera and 2 commercial control sera. The results are summarized as follows. 1. Laboratories participating in external quality control program of immunoassay were 233 to 241 laboratories and the response rate were 94.3% and 94.5% in 2002. 2. Chemiluminiscence immunoassay autoanalyzer was widely introduced comparing to previous years and now it is the most popular analyzer in the field of immunoassay testing. 3. Still some test items show wide variations of the test results of the same control material. But, generally the quality of the participating laboratories seems to be thought being improved.
Immunoassay* ; Korea* ; Quality Control

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of conization of the cervix in patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. STUDY DESIGN: Cold-Knife conization was performed in total 436 patients from June 1994 to May 2000. Indications and complications of conization were studied. And the results of cervical cytology, cervical histology, colposcopic findings and pathologic diagnosis of conization specimens were evaluated in comparison with the pathologic diagnosis of hysterectomy specimens and follow-up check of the patients. RESULTS: Followings are results summarized. 1. Patients distribution according to cone biopsy results was 31.0% for CIS, 43.3% for CIN III, 14.7% for CIN II, 7.6% of CIN I, 3.4% for CNI, respectively. 2. The rate of agreement between colposcopy-directed biopsy and conization was 63.1%. 3. The positive rate of resection margin was 15.1%. 4. The recurrence rate in clear resection margin group was 7.0%. But there was no recurrence after hysterectomy in cases with positive resection margin of conization specimen, and the recurrence rate of positive resection margin without hysterectomy group was 10.5%. 5. The incidence of delayed hemorrhage (bleeding after 2 weeks) in hemostatic suture group and electric cauterization only group was 4.7% (13/279) and 15.6% (23/157), respectively. CONCLUSION: We conclude that conization of the cervix as the surgical treatment was effective in CIN patients with careful patient selection.
Biopsy ; Cautery ; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia* ; Cervix Uteri ; Conization* ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hysterectomy ; Incidence ; Patient Selection ; Recurrence ; Sutures

Paraquat intoxication is a fatal problem. Most of paraquat intoxications happen through oral administration. But there is no clinical data for parenteral paraquat intoxication, so we will describe its fatal progression and clinical course. A 52-year-old male injected paraquat solution on his thigh. Initial serum level of paraquat was 42.7 microgram/mL and urgent hemoperfusion was performed and his serum level of paraquat was reduced by 5.2 microgram/mL. But the patient expired due to respiratory failure and hypoxemia. Different from oral paraquat poisoning, serum level of the drug increases rapidly in intramuscular intoxication. So the paraquat in blood rapidly accumulates in tissue, especially lung parenchyme. We removed his paraquat in blood rapidly, but could not get rid of tissue concentration, so we lost him even with lowered serum paraquat level. Through this case, it is thought that the paraquat intoxication via intramuscular injection can make up a extremely poor prognosis even with very a little amount of paraquat.
Administration, Oral ; Anoxia ; Hemoperfusion ; Humans ; Injections, Intramuscular* ; Lung ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Paraquat* ; Poisoning ; Prognosis ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Thigh