Low back pain patients an controls of shipyard workers were surveyed between June 1995 and september 1995 to identify risk factors of industrial low back pain. The patients were 17 male workers who had got medical treatment for over 3 days because of industrial back pain controls were 51 male workers who had not have musculoskeletal disorder for one year before the survey. By univariate analysis, the workers who did overtime work 4 times or more for the last 2 weeks showed odds ratio of 3.67 on low back pain with the workers who did less overtime work. Carrying heavy materials was also associated with the low back pain and the odds ratio increased with the increase of carrying weight. work space and work posture were not associated with the low back pain significantly. The welder had higher odds ratio than the other workers on low back pain. The duration of employment and job satisfaction did not affect the risk of low back pain. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that frequency of overtime work for the last 2 weeks and carrying heavy materials among the risk factors were associated significantly with the low back pain. We found that important risk factors of low back pain of shipyard workers are work intensity factors such as overtime work and carrying heavy weight.
Back Pain ; Employment ; Humans ; Job Satisfaction ; Logistic Models ; Low Back Pain* ; Male ; Odds Ratio ; Posture ; Risk Factors*

No abstract available.
Antibodies* ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Chiroptera* ; Encephalitis Virus, Japanese* ; Encephalitis, Japanese* ; Humans ; Korea*

No abstract available.
Skin*

Genotoxic agents can induce various DNA lesions. DNA-Protein Crosslinks(DPCs) were known as the important DNA lesions which could impair gene expression because DPCs had a high probability of resisting repair and persisting through cell cycle. This repair resistance of DPCs could have biological significance but had not been evaluated clearly yet. Most of the studies that have evaluated the repair of DPCs only compared the extent of DPCs repair with other DNA lesions. We injected K2CrO4, a genotoxic agent, into Sprague-Dawley rats intraperitoneally(5mg/kg) and isolated blood lymphocytes 12 hours later. These lymphocytes were cultured in the mitogen added growth media and mitogen free media separately. The degree of the repair of DPCs was monitored for 4 days by the K-SDS assay. 4 day later, the amount of DPCs decreased by 4.6% in the mitogen added media but in creased by 10.9% in the mitogen free media. These results showed that DPCs induced by K2CrO4 were not repaired easily and the DPCs were biologically significant DNA lesions. We thought the decrease of DPCs in the mitogen added media was not due to the repair of DPCs, but from the increase of normal cell proliferation. Therefore, it is very important to consider the proliferation of normal cells when estimating the repair of DPCs.
Animals ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Proliferation ; DNA ; Gene Expression ; Lymphocytes* ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to estimate the effect of mandibular advancement device (MAD) and to evaluate the influence of the advancement amount of mandible in the application of MAD for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients. METHODS: From the patients who were diagnosed as OSA by polysomnographic study at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital from January 2007 to February 2009, the patients who chose MAD as treatment option were included in this study. All the patients' data including clinical records and polysomnographic studies (both pre- and post-treatment) were reviewed and analyzed. RESULTS: Successful results were obtained in 65 patients of 86 patients (75.6%). In the follow-up period, mild discomfort of anterior teeth or temporomandibular joint (TMJ) were described in 28 patients, especially in the cases the amount of mandibular advancement were more than 7.0 mm. There was no direct relationship between the amount of mandibular advancement and clinical outcome. CONCLUSION: MAD was effective treatment option for the OSA patients regardless of severity. For the prevention of potential dental complications, the amount of mandibular advancement should be considered at the time of MAD treatment.
Adenine Nucleotides ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Mandible ; Mandibular Advancement ; Mycophenolic Acid ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive ; Temporomandibular Joint ; Tooth

No abstract available.
Aeromonas* ; Enterotoxins*

To study the relation between ectoparasite, Rickettsia and hantaan virus in bats, four order of Athropoda were collected from Rhinolophus ferrumequinum captured in Cheju and Eptesicus serotinus captured in Chungnamin from July 1989 to March 1998. Also antibody of Rickettsia and hantaan virus were detected by immunofluoroscent antibody technique and RT-PCR. The results are as follows. 1. Five species of Acarina were identified from E. serotinus: Leptotrobidium subakamushi of Trombiculidae, Macronyssus coreanus, Steatonyssuss spinosuss and Steatonychus superans of Macronyssidae, Argas vespertilionis of Metastigmata. 2. Ischnopsyllus needhami of Siphonaptera and Cimex of Hemiptera were identified from E. serotinus. 3. Cyteribia uenoi and Brachytarsina kanoi of Diptera were identified from R. ferrumequinum. 4. The positive rate of rickettsial antibodies in E. serotinus were 17.58%, 15.15%, 22.22%, 52.73% against R. tsutsugamushi, R. typhi, R. sibirica and R. thai tick typhus, respectively. The high positive rate of antibody related to the high content of Arthropoda. 5. The Positive rate of hantaan virus IFA antibodies were 3.4% (27 of 802) and hanntan virus infection rate 36.7% (22 of 60) by RT-PCR in bats. According these result, we showed that certain species of Athropoda isolated play a role as vector of Rickettsia in E. serotinus. Also bats play a role as a reservoir of hantaan virus in nature.
Antibodies ; Argas ; Arthropods ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Bedbugs ; Chiroptera* ; Diptera ; Hantaan virus* ; Hemiptera ; Humans ; Jeju-do ; Rickettsia* ; Siphonaptera ; Ticks ; Trombiculidae ; Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne

No abstract available.
Chiroptera* ; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome* ; Korea*

Because of advances of technologies in the field of genomic epidemiology in the recent years, specimen collection, storage and analysis became an essential part of research methodologies. DNA is now being used in epidemiologic studies to evaluate genetic risk factors and specimens other than the fresh whole blood can be used for PCR. Therefore, All nucleated cells, such as buccal swabs and urine specimens, are suitable for DNA analysis. For an unlimited source of genomic DNA, EBV transformation of lymphocytes can be used for immortalization. However, the type of specimen collected in genomic epidemiologic studies will depend on the study where the epidemiologist play a leading role for the design. We also briefly described various kinds of analysis for SNP that is an essential part of the genomic epidemiology.
Biological Specimen Banks ; DNA ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Epidemiology* ; Genome ; Herpesvirus 4, Human ; Lymphocytes ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Risk Factors ; Specimen Handling

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of combined treatment of metallic biliary stent placement and radiotherapy in malignant biliary obstruction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between January 1992 and February 1994, 22 patients with malignant biliary obstruction were treated with metallic biliary stent placement and radiotherapy. The causes of the obstruction included cholangiocarcinoma(n=14), gallbladder carcinoma(n=4), colon cancer(n=2), pancreatic head cancer (n=1), and stomach cancer(n=1). According to the sites of obstruction level, patient were divided into 2 groups; hilar obstruction(n=18) and common bile duct obstruction(n=4). The patients received dose of 45 Gray/18 fraction by external radiotherapy and 20Gy/8f by high dose rate brachytherapy with iridium--192 source through percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage(PTBD) catheter. The duration of stent patency after placement, survival period and survival rate by Kaplan Meier method were calculated in dead and alive patients, respectively. RESULTS: In all 22 patients, the duration of stent patency was 5.5(1.3--18.5)months. Survival periods after stent placement and PTBD were 5.3(2.0--8.5 )months and 7.9(4.0--14.7)months respectively in 9 dead patients and 7.7(1.3--21.0)months and 9.5(2.3--23.0)months in 13 alive patients. In all 22 patients, the survival rates in 6, 12 and 18 months were 78.9%, 47.5 % and 35.6 %, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results with combined metallic biliary stent placement and radiotherapy for the palliative treatment of malignant biliary obstruction in this study was more favorable, as compared with those of the other authors with only metallic biliary stent placement.
Brachytherapy ; Catheters ; Colon ; Common Bile Duct ; Gallbladder ; Head and Neck Neoplasms ; Humans ; Palliative Care ; Radiotherapy* ; Stents* ; Stomach ; Survival Rate