No abstract available.
Female ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Ectopic*

PURPOSE: After delivery, eating brown seaweed soup is a typical Korean tranditional habit. But, excessive intake of iodine transiently inhibits biosynthesis and secretion of thyroid hormones if a certain threshold of iodine is reached in the serum. The aim of our study was to demonstrate whether the observed the elevations of TSH level in the breast fed neonatal infants was caused by mother's eating brown seaweed soup or not. METHODS: We performed neonatal TSH test by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(FRELISA Screenig TSH) and cheked TSH level for 178 newborns with a appropriate gestational age. We divided the study subject into 3 groups, the group used breast feeding, mother had taken brown seaweed soup and blood sampled at 6th day after birth was categorized Group A, formular feeding, blood sampled at the 4th days after birth was categorized Group B, breast feeding and had taken brown seaweed soup and blood sampled at the 19th day after birth was categorized Group C. RESULTS: 1) The mean TSH level was 1.5+/-1.3 uU/ml in Group A, 3.3+/-2.5uU/ml in Group B, 1.7+/-l.3uU/ml in Group C(Group A vs Group B: p<0.05, Group A vs Group C: p<0.05). 2) There was no statistical significances between the TSH levels and the amount of brown seaweed soup which mother had one day, the duration which mother had brown seaweed soup and duration of breast feeding. CONCLUSIONS: Mother had taken brown seaweed soup about 3 times a day in korea at present days, There was no significant changes of TSH levels in the beast fed newborn infants after the korean mother had taken brown seaweed soup.
Breast Feeding* ; Breast* ; Eating* ; Gestational Age ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn* ; Iodine ; Korea ; Mothers ; Parturition ; Seaweed* ; Thyroid Hormones

Pain and pain management have long been items of central concern in dentistry. Although they are given little attention in orthodontics, virtually every patient wearing orthodontic appliances experiences and complains of some extent of pain, and someones have suffered from severe throbbing pain. A form of stimulation-produced analgesia, Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) is a non-invasive, non-pharmacologic pain control techniques. The clinical application of TENS to orthodontic patients may lead to better patient compliance. And I want to discuss some basic knowledge of this TENS.
Analgesia ; Dentistry ; Humans ; Orthodontic Appliances ; Orthodontics ; Pain Management ; Patient Compliance ; Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation*

A Case of double pylorus, in 56 year old man, was diagnosed by fiberoptic gastroscopy and upper gastrointestinal series. Two ovoid large openings of pyloric canal divided by smooth thickened septum were observed endoscopically And the relevant literatures on tihe subject were reviewed.
Gastroscopy ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Pylorus*

The purpose of this study was to describe growth changes of soft tissue profile in koreans with normal occlusion and to get differences between male and female. The biennial serial cephalometric radiographs of 26 samples (15 males, 11 females) with normal occlusion from 8.5 years to 18.5 years of age were used in this study. The following results were obtained : 1. Both sexes had lower facial parts more protruded at 18.5 years of age than 8.5 years of age : in total facial convexity angle, male showed a decrease(P<0.01) and female showed no significant difference(P>0.05). 2. In the growth changes of soft tissue thickness, male outgrew female in the areas of nose and upper and lower lips, and female outgrew male in the pogonion area 3. In the growth changes of upper facial height and upper part of lower facial height, male's was higher than female's growth (P<0.05). 4. The ratio of the upper facial height over the lower facial height showed a decrease at 18.5 years of age than 8.5 years of age(P<0.01). The ratio of upper vs lower part of lower facial height and that of upper lip height vs lower lip height showed no significant difference(P>0.05). 5. Male showed a sustained change into older age compared with female in soft tissue profiles
Female ; Humans ; Lip ; Longitudinal Studies* ; Male ; Nose

The mammalian ovary has been known as receiving its innervation by sympathetic and sensory neurons of the peripheral nervous system from the brain. Recently, there were several functional reports that the vagus nerves were also regulating the ovarian function, but the vagus nerve had not been identified by clear morphological evidence. A viral transneuronal tracing technique has been used to demonstrate the morphological evidence for the central vagal involvement in ovarian innervation in brain areas. Bartha strain of pseudorabies virus injection was made into the ovary of Sprague Dawley rats. In experimental group, the vagus nerve of the same injection side was removed right after ovarian injection. At five days after initial injection, all the rats were sacrificed and brains were processed for immunohistochemistry. Several central nuclei including hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus showed strong bilateral positive labelings after unilateral injection in control rats, but the positive labelings were disappeared or decreased in several hypothalamic nuclei and nuclei of the vagus nerve. In conclusion, these results provide the morphological evidence that vagus nerve has neural connection to ovary and by which the central nervous system may maintains the state of ovulation and reproduction as a possible parasympathetic routes in mammals.
Animals ; Brain ; Central Nervous System ; Female ; Herpesvirus 1, Suid ; Immunohistochemistry ; Mammals ; Ovary ; Ovulation ; Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus ; Peripheral Nervous System ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reproduction ; Sensory Receptor Cells ; Vagus Nerve

PURPOSE: To compare T2-weighted MR cholangiography (T2-MRC) and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted MRC (enhanced T1-MRC) in the assessment of biliary anatomy in donor candidates for living related liver transplantation (LRLT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-three potential donors underwent MR examination for preoperative evaluation. Using the single-shot half-Fourier RARE sequence, T2-weighted single-section and coronal images were obtained, and enhanced T1-MRC was performed, using 3D GRE sequences after the administration of mangafodifir trisodium. To assess the hilar ductal branching pattern and determine diagnostic confidence, two reviewers first evaluated the unpaired T2-MRC and enhanced T1-MRC images, and then paired T2-MRC and enhanced T1-MRC images together. In particular, in 12 cases in which direct cholangiographys were performed, the feasibility of single duct-to-duct anastomosis was assessed using the unpaired and the paired sets sequentially. RESULTS: The reviewers' confidence tended to be higher for enhanced T1-MRC than T2-MRC, but the difference was not statistically significant. For both reviewers, confidence was significantly higher for the paired set than for T2- or enhanced T1-MRC alone (p < .001). The types of biliary anatomy determined in the paired set matched the consensus reading in 33 (100%) and 30 cases(91%) assessed by reviewer 1 and 2, respectively. The separate interpretation of T2- and enhanced T1-MRC findings matched the consensus interpretation in 30 (91%) and 28 cases (85%), respectively, assessed by reviewer 1, and 26 (79%) and 28 cases (85%), respectively, assessed by reviewer 2. The possibility of single anastomosis was accurately predicted in 91.6% of cases in T2-MRC, and 100% at enhanced T1-MRC and the combined set. CONCLUSION: In the evaluation of the biliary anatomy of potential donors for LRLT, the combined use of T2-MRC and enhanced T1-MRC may improve diagnostic confidence and decrease the occurrence of a non diagnostic or equivocal interpretation at T2-MRC alone.
Adult* ; Cholangiography* ; Consensus ; Humans ; Liver Transplantation ; Liver* ; Tissue Donors*

BACKGROUND: To monitor the performance of histocompatibility testing laboratories, HLA proficiency survey in Korea has been conducted biannually since 1996. In this report, we summarized the results of the surveys performed in recent two years (2005-2006). METHODS: A total of four proficiency surveys were performed, in which 59-61 laboratories participated. Each survey included three tests for HLA class I (serology and DNA) and class II (DNA) typing and six tests for HLA crossmatch. RESULTS: The overall concordance of serologic typing was 98.9% (355/359) for HLA-A, 97.5% (350/ 359) for HLA-B, and 94.7% (337/356) for HLA-C. The antigens assigned correctly by less than 95% of the participating laboratories were A26 (93.8%), B38 (94.2%), Cw3/Cw10 (90.9%), Cw6 (94.4%), and Cw8 (74.3%). The overall concordance rates of DNA typing were 99.6% (533/535) for HLA-A, 99.8% (539/540) for HLA-B, and 100% (392/392) for HLA-C. Correct assignment of HLA-DRB1 and -DQB1 was reported by 99.2% (98.1-100%) and 96.7% (88.9-100%) for the generic level and 100% and 95.8% (75-100%) for the allelic level, respectively. On the average 3.8% (0-7.7%) of the total laboratories showed unacceptable results in the crossmatch tests. CONCLUSIONS: The rates of correct antigen identification and of unacceptable crossmatch were similar to those of previous surveys, which were considered satisfactory. The Korean proficiency survey program may have contributed to a high quality of HLA tests today and should be continued for further improvements of the tests tomorrow.
Alleles ; Data Collection ; HLA Antigens/*blood/genetics ; HLA-A Antigens/blood/genetics ; HLA-B Antigens/blood/genetics ; HLA-C Antigens/blood/genetics ; HLA-DQ Antigens/blood/genetics ; HLA-DR Antigens/blood/genetics ; Haplotypes ; Histocompatibility Testing/*standards ; Humans ; Korea ; Laboratories ; Quality Control

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA quantification is necessary for starting and monitoring of antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B. This study was intended to assess the clinical performance of Abbott RealTime HBV Quantification kit (Abbott Laboratories, USA). METHODS: The performance was evaluated in terms of precision, linearity, detection sensitivity, cross-reactivity, and carry-over. A correlation with the Real-Q HBV Quantification kit (BioSewoom Inc., Korea) was also examined using serum samples from 64 patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B and underwent lamivudine therapy in Asan Medical Center. We verified the trueness of the system by comparing the outputs with the assigned values of the BBI panel (BBI Diagnostics, USA). RESULTS: Within-run and between-run coefficients of variation (CV) were 3.56-4.71% and 3.03-4.98%, respectively. Linearity was manifested ranging from 53 to 10(9) copies/mL and the detection sensitivity was verified to be 51 copies/mL. None of hepatitis C virus showed cross-reactivity. No cross-contamination occurred when negative and positive samples were alternatively placed in a row. It showed a good correlation with the Real-Q HBV (r2=0.9609) and the test results for the BBI panel were also well agreed to the assigned values (r2=0.9933). CONCLUSIONS: The performance of Abbott RealTime HBV Quantification kit was excellent; thus, it should be widely used in starting and monitoring of antiviral therapy in Korean patients with chronic hepatitis B.
Computer Systems ; DNA, Viral/*blood ; Hepatitis B virus/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/*virology ; Humans ; Polymerase Chain Reaction/*methods ; Reagent Kits, Diagnostic ; Viral Load/*methods

The purpose of this study was to develop a nutrition education website for children, especially those around the 4th-6th grade levels. Among the already existing websites providing nutritional information for children, 7 websites with comparable amounts of information were evaluated in terms of their topics, credibility, content, ease of use, and aesthetics. In addition, a survey was conducted to assess the need for nutrition information among 305 elementary students. The food pyramid was the topic offered most often on those websites. Information on nutrients, digestion, food safety, nutrition labeling, and healthy eating habits were available on the websites. Some of those websites also provided games or quizzes to attract the children's interest. However, seine of the websites did not give any information on the person responsible for providing the information, which is most important in determining the credibility of the website. Other problems were that some information was too difficult for children, and some of the websites did not provide a way to search for information. According to the survey results, the topics that children wanted to know about were 'desirable weight', 'cooking', 'correct food choice', 'weight control method', 'calories consumed during exercise' but, they did not have a high interest in 'asking questions', 'books with nutrition messages', 'under weight', 'negative effect of weight control' and 'helping hungry children'. Based on these results, we developed a new nutrition education web-site, ifood' (http://ifood.or.kr). We focused on helping children develop healthy eating habits by providing information which is easy and practical for children. However, we neither included the program to assess their dietary intake, nor provided entertaining background sounds, which children like. Also, the game section is composed mainly of quizzes. Therefore, we need to further develop exciting games to teach nutrition to children. In the near future, the newly developed website should be evaluated by children regarding understandability and coverage of the contents as well as usability and design, and then revised to improve the educational effect.
Child* ; Digestion ; Eating ; Education* ; Esthetics ; Food Labeling ; Food Safety ; Humans ; Internet