BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is an important health concern among the postmenopausal women. Therefore, it is necessary to find out acceptable screening tools for osteoporotic patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Risk Index by OSTA as a screening test for osteoporosis. METHODS: The study population was 322 naturally caused menopausal women in Korea. Their was of femoral neck and lumbar spine BMD measured by DEXA. Risk Index by OSTA, based on weight and age, was calculated and the sensitivity and specificity for osteoporosis and osteopenia were evaluated. To find out the proper cut-off point for osteoporosis and osteopenia among the postmenopausal women in Korea, we also compared the sensitivity and specificity of each Risk Index value. RESULTS: The mean age and ages at menopause were 59.1(+/-6.2) and 50.7 (+/-2.7) years, respectively. The prevalence of osteoporosis was 9.6% with femoral neck BMD. For oeteoporosis, using a cut-off point of -1 yielded a sensitivity of 74.3% and a specificity of 52.2% with femoral neck BMD. Using a cut-off of -2 yielded a sensitivity of 87.3% and a specificity of 70.9%. The ROC curve showed an AUROC 0.88 for Risk Index in identifying osteoporosis. CONCLUSION: The Risk Index is an acceptable, simple and useful method in the diagnosis of osteoporosis with a Risk Index of -2 in Korean postmenopausal women.
Bone Diseases, Metabolic* ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Femur Neck ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening* ; Menopause ; Osteoporosis* ; Prevalence ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Spine

BACKGROUND: Antibiotics are used prophylactically in surgery to prevent postoperative infection. However, antibiotics administered in large doses can cause a bleeding diathesis as a result of platelet dysfunction. We wondered whether these antibiotics might impair platelet function by interfering with the initial step of platelet activation: the binding of agonists to their specific receptors on the platelet surface. METHODS: In 30 patients (male 18, women 12) undergoing primary elective knee arthroscopic surgery, the whole blood coagulation system was prospectively evaluated before, and 10 and 40 minutes after administration of 1 g of augmentin. All patients who had abnormal preoperative coagulation profiles or who received anticoagulant or antiplatelet, antibiotics therapy within 7 days prior to surgery were precluded. RESULTS: At 10 minutes after augmentin administration 25 of 30 patients had a significant impairment in all phases of whole blood coagulation as monitored by thromboelastography. In contrast, three of 30 patients had a significantly decreased coagulation time. Two of 30 patients had no significant changes of TEG variables. TEG variables were restored toward baseline in fourty minutes after augmentin administration. CONCLUSIONS: Augmentin can cause a significant but transient change in the viscoelastic properties of blood. Coagulation parameters of the TEG should be measured prior to augmentin administration to prevent and prospect a bleeding diathesis as a result of platelet dysfunction.
Amoxicillin-Potassium Clavulanate Combination ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Arthroscopy ; Blood Coagulation ; Blood Platelets ; Disease Susceptibility ; Female ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Knee ; Platelet Activation ; Prospective Studies ; Thrombelastography*

No abstract available.
MELAS Syndrome*

No abstract available.
Intestinal Pseudo-Obstruction*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Many people experience problems with a dry nasal mucous membrane, often without wondering why. The cause of problem is known as rhinitis sicca, senile rhinitis, and atrophic rhinitis, etc. A common form of treatment for patients who have such symptoms has been to begin by rinsing the inside of the nose with saline solution, to drop peanut oil, to apply antibiotic-ointment and moisturizing agents. Lanolin has been know as a safe skin moisturizing agent and used to treat dry nose. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of lanolin on a group of patients seeking treatment for dryness of the nose. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Ninety-three patients experiencing problems with dry nasal mucosa were selected from the out-patient clinic. Fifty-seven patients, average age 36.3 years old, were treated with 1:2 mixture of lanolin and vaseline ointment. Thirty-six patients, average age 32.0 years, were treated with vaseline ointment. Both ointments were applied three times a day for two weeks. The efficacy of treatment was determined with pre and post-treatment six symptoms on a visual analogue scale: nasal obstruction, crust formation, mucosal dryness, respiratory discomfort, sleep disturbance, and general discomfort. RESULTS: For subjects treated with lanolin, the average VAS value for nasal obstruction was 5.84+/-2.28 and it decreased to 2.89+/-1.29, while the corresponding values for subjects treated with vaseline were 4.39+/-1.77 decreasing to 3.11+/- 1.24 (p<0.05). Crust formation of lanolin treated subjects were 5.67+/-2.39 and it decreased to 2.09+/-1.46, while the vaseline treated subjects were 4.83+/-1.99 decreasing to 2.33+/-1.31 (p<0.05). Average total symptom improvement was 65.7% (from 27.95+/-9.30 to 9.86+/-4.58) in lanolin treated group, while it was 44.8% (from 20.9+/-76.59 to 11.64+/-4.18) in vaseline treated group. CONCLUSION: We found that the efficacy of lanolin was statistically signigicantly better than that of vaseline. During the study period, there was no local reactions have been reported, nor have any allergic reactions. The present study underlines the fact that the way to treat nasal mucosal dryness is to use lanolin ointment.
Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Lanolin* ; Mucous Membrane ; Nasal Mucosa ; Nasal Obstruction ; Nose* ; Ointments ; Outpatients ; Petrolatum ; Rhinitis ; Rhinitis, Atrophic ; Skin ; Sodium Chloride

PURPOSE: To report a case of a patient with posterior ischemic optic neuropathy and abducens nerve palsy who responded to steroid therapy. CASE SUMMARY: A 47-year-old man visited our clinic with decreasing visual acuity and abduction limitation in his right eye, which suddenly started 4 days earlier. The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 20/250 in the right eye and 20/20 in the left eye. Fundus examination showed normal in both eyes, and relative afferent pupillary defect was positive in the right eye. The visual field test showed a right central scotoma with inferior altitudinal field defect. In addition, the brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was done. Orbit MRI, fluorescein angiography (FAG), and carotid ultrasonography results were normal. Therefore, the patient was diagnosed with non-arteritic posterior ischemic optic neuropathy. The systemic steroid therapy was started and tapered over a period of 5 weeks. At one month after treatment, the BCVA was 20/20 and abduction limitation in the right eye improved.
Abducens Nerve ; Abducens Nerve Diseases ; Brain ; Eye ; Fluorescein Angiography ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Optic Neuropathy, Ischemic ; Orbit ; Pupil Disorders ; Scotoma ; Visual Acuity ; Visual Field Tests

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to investigate the executive function deficit and the lack of theory of mind in children with autistic disorder. METHODS: Forty children, aged between 11 and 15, were involved in this study: 14 autistic disordered, 12 non-autistic mentally retarded(psychiatric control), and 14 normal children(normal control). In addition to the "Sally-Ann" task to test theory of mind, three other neuropsychological tests were administered individually to assess executive function in all subjects. RESULTS: Significant group differences were found on the executive function and the theory of mind tests. Those deficits were more widespread in the autistic group than in the non-autistic mentally retarded group. The autistic group was impaired on the test requiring inhibition of prepotent responses compared to the two control groups. Both of the autistic and the non-autistic mentally retarded groups exhibited difficulties in predicting other's behavior based on their understanding of other's mental states. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that executive function and theory of mind deficits coexist in children with autistic disorder. This co-occurrence of deficits suggests the possibility that prefrontal cortex may be the neurological region responsible for causing autistic disorder.
Autistic Disorder* ; Child ; Executive Function* ; Humans ; Mentally Disabled Persons ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Prefrontal Cortex ; Theory of Mind

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Patients with nasal septal deviation usually manifest compensatory hypertrophy of the mucosa of unilateral nasal cavity. However, the histologic difference of the bilateral septal mucosa of both nasal cavities in patients with nasal septal deviation has not been extensively studied. Thus we tried to investigate histologic difference of both the septal mucosa of both sides in patients with nasal septal deviation. MATERIALS AND MEHTODS: Nasal mucosae taken from 15 patients with nasal septal deviation were studied. About 0.5 x 0.5 cm sized piece of septal mucosae were obtained from the corresponding site of both nasal cavities at 2 cm from the nostril and 2 cm inferior to the nasal dorsum. After staining by hematoxylin-eosin, the histologic differences of the bilateral nasal mucosa were examined under a light microscope. RESULTS: Surface epithelia of both nasal cavities showed squamous metaplasia or epithelial exfoliation. Inflammatory cell infiltration was more severe in the concave side compared with the convex side. The number of nasal gland were significantly higher in the convex side than in the concave side. CONCLUSIONS: The result of this study indicated that the concave and convex nasal mucosae in patients with nasal septal deviation have different histologic features in terms of inflammatory cell infiltration, and number of nasal glands.
Humans ; Hypertrophy ; Metaplasia ; Mucous Membrane ; Nasal Cavity* ; Nasal Mucosa*

Total abdominal hystrectomy is the most common surgery of Gynecology. It's complication are taken very important. Although neuropathy, especially femoral nerve injury, is rare, recently we have experienced a case of femoral neuropathy after total abdominal hystrectomy. We present this case with a brief review of literature.
Femoral Nerve* ; Femoral Neuropathy ; Gynecology

No abstract available.
Brain Neoplasms* ; Brain* ; Drug Therapy ; Medulloblastoma ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Neuroectodermal Tumors, Primitive