No abstract available.
Colon* ; Humans* ; Substance P* ; Tetrodotoxin*

BACKGROUND: Since the first successful kidney transplantation from a brain death donor (BDD) was done in 1979, organ transplantations from BDD have steadily increased. The number of BDDs have been increasing year by year. The purpose of this study is to analyze clinical status of organ donor from BDDs. METHODS: We analyzed retrospectively the status of BDDs registerd for organ transplant program in Asan Medical Center from January, 1992 to March, 1997. RESULTS: The male to female ratio was 3 : 1, and the age distribution was the highest in twenties. The distribution of cause of brain death was the highest in motor vehicle accidents. The distribution of acquired organ was the highest in kidney, heart, liver in order. The distribution of days stayed in ICU before organ donation was the highest in 2 days. The choice of agent for inotropic support of the myocardium is dobutamine. The donors have been transfused with packed red blood cell (PRBC) to maintain the hematocrit between 25~35%. Two units of PRBC should be readily available at all times for transfusion. The failure of organ donation was mainly very poor organ condition. CONCLUSIONS: We wish that these results were made use of bases of status of organ donation from BDDs.
Age Distribution ; Brain Death* ; Brain* ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Dobutamine ; Erythrocytes ; Female ; Heart ; Hematocrit ; Humans ; Kidney ; Kidney Transplantation ; Liver ; Male ; Motor Vehicles ; Myocardium ; Organ Transplantation ; Retrospective Studies ; Tissue and Organ Procurement ; Tissue Donors* ; Transplants

BACKGROUND: This study investigated the overall status of diabetes control and screening for diabetic microvascular complications in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus attending primary care clinics in Korea. METHODS: In this cross-sectional observational study, 191 primary care clinics were randomly selected across Korea from 2015 to 2016. In total, 3,227 subjects were enrolled in the study. RESULTS: The patients followed at the primary care clinics were relatively young, with a mean age of 61.4±11.7 years, and had a relatively short duration of diabetes (mean duration, 7.6±6.5 years). Approximately 14% of subjects had diabetic microvascular complications. However, the patients treated at the primary care clinics had suboptimal control of hemoglobin A1c levels, blood pressure, and serum lipid levels, along with a metabolic target achievement rate of 5.9% according to the Korean Diabetes Association guidelines. The screening rates for diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy, and neuropathy within the past 12 months were 28.4%, 23.3%, and 13.3%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The overall status of diabetes management, including the frequency of screening for microvascular complications, was suboptimal in the primary care clinics. More efforts should be made and more resources need to be allocated for primary care physicians to promote adequate healthcare delivery, which would result in stricter diabetes control and improved management of diabetic complications.
Blood Pressure ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diabetes Complications ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; Diabetic Nephropathies ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Observational Study ; Physicians, Primary Care ; Primary Health Care ; Tertiary Care Centers

The most critical point in the assessment of adherence to dietary guidelines is the development of a practical definition for adherence, such as a dietary pattern score. The purpose of this study was to develop the Korean Diet Score (KDS) based on the Korean Food Balance Wheel and to examine the association of KDS with various lifestyle characteristics and biochemical factors. The dietary data of 5,320 subjects from the 4th Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey were used for the final analysis. The food guide was composed of six food group categories; 'grain dishes', 'fish and meat dishes', 'vegetable dishes', 'fruits', 'milk' and 'oils and sugars'. Based on the recommended serving numbers for each group, the scores measuring adherence to this food guide were calculated from the dietary information from the 24-hour dietary recall questionnaire, and then its correlation with various characteristics was assessed. KDS was significantly associated with several clinical, lifestyle and socioeconomic factors as well as diagnosed disease history. The higher quintile group of KDS showed a significantly lower level in fasting blood glucose, systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, current smoking and drinking as well as higher leisure time activity, house income and education. Furthermore, the KDS quintile group of women was inversely associated with hypertension, osteoporosis and diabetes. A higher KDS quintile was characterized with a higher intake of several critical nutrients, such as Ca, Fe and vitamins as well as a desirable nutrition balance such as the ratio of macronutrients. Our results demonstrate that KDS is a beneficial tool in assessing the adherence to a healthy diet based on the Korean dietary guidelines. We suggest that KDS could be a useful indicator for evaluating the dietary balance of the Korean population.
Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Diet ; Drinking ; Fasting ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Korea ; Leisure Activities ; Life Style ; Meat ; Osteoporosis ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Triglycerides ; Vitamins

When treated with protopine and alkalized extracts of the tuber of Corydalis ternata for one year, significant decrease in glutamate level and increase in glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) activity was observed in rat brains. The expression of GDH between the two groups remained unchanged as determined by Western and Northern blot analysis, suggesting a post-translational regulation of GDH activity in alkalized extracts treated rat brains. The stimulatory effects of alkalized extracts and protopine on the GDH activity was further examined in vitro with two types of human GDH isozymes, hGDH1 (house-keeping GDH) and hGDH2 (nerve-specific GDH). Alkalized extracts and protopine activated the human GDH isozymes up to 4.8-fold. hGDH2 (nervespecific GDH) was more sensitively affected by 1 mM ADP than hGDH1 (house-keeping GDH) on the activation by alkalized extracts. Studies with cassette mutagenesis at ADP-binding site showed that hGDH2 was more sensitively regulated by ADP than hGDH1 on the activation by Corydalis ternata. Our results suggest that prolonged exposure to Corydalis ternata may be one of the ways to regulate glutamate concentration in brain through the activation of GDH.
Animals ; Berberine Alkaloids/pharmacology ; Brain/*drug effects/enzymology ; Corydalis/*chemistry ; Enzyme Activation/drug effects ; Glutamate Dehydrogenase/genetics/*metabolism ; Glutamic Acid/*metabolism ; Isoenzymes/genetics/metabolism ; Plant Extracts/pharmacology ; RNA, Messenger/analysis/metabolism ; Rats ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

The vast majority of ampullary tumors are epithelial in nature and are either adenoma or adenocarcinoma. Rarely lymphoma or mucinous and squamous elements may be found. Primary lymphoma of pancreaticobiliary region are exceedingly rare, and mostly nodal. Recently, we have experienced a 29-year-old woman with primary malignant lymphoma of the ampulla of Vater with recurrent acute pancreatitis and jaundice. On duodenoscopy, bulging ampulla with normal overlying duodenal mucosa was observed. Endoscopic sphincterotomy was done and tumor inside the ampulla was exposed. ERCP showed high grade biliary and pancreatic ductal strictures extending from the papillary orifice, with upstream ductal dilatation, respectively. With endoscopic biopsy alone, the tumor was confirmed as B-cell lymphoma histologically.
Adenocarcinoma ; Adenoma ; Adult ; Ampulla of Vater* ; Biopsy ; Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Dilatation ; Duodenoscopy ; Female ; Humans ; Jaundice ; Lymphoma* ; Lymphoma, B-Cell ; Mucins ; Mucous Membrane ; Pancreatic Ducts ; Pancreatitis ; Sphincterotomy, Endoscopic