Serum is free of cellular components. Because DNA is located in the nuclei or mitochondria of cells, serum could be assumed DNA free. Few previously published case reports to date have used serum for DNA typing. Here, we report on human genotyping via short tandem repeat (STR) analysis using serum as a sample, and discuss problems involved in the process.
DNA Fingerprinting* ; DNA* ; Humans ; Microsatellite Repeats* ; Mitochondria

It is well known that the spatial patterns of basement membrane[BM] components show a close correlation with the morphogenetic process in developing organs during pre- and postnatal period. But little is known about the chronological changes in BM components during the development of thyroid gland. To investigate the correlation of the distribution of BM components with the development of the thyroid gland, immunohistochemical localization of the BM components was performed, using rat fetuses[from 15 to 21 days of gestation] and pups[from 1 to 14 days]. According to the histological features with H.E. staining, prenatal development[El5-21] of the rat thyroid could be divided into 3 representative stages : 1] Undifferentiated primordium of thyroid epithelia, forming cell cords or cell nests [until El5 day]. 2] An intervening stage of cell proliferation with the pattern of lobulation[El6-17 days]. 3] Stage of maturing follicles[El8-21 days]. It could be concluded that differentiation of the thyroid follicle are terminated during the prenatal period and growth in size and number occurs during the first two weeks after birth. By the immunohistochemical localization of laminin[LM], fibronectin[FN], type IV collagen[CIV], the basement membranes investing thyroid follicles could be clearly delineated at 15 days of gestation. Reactivity for LN and CIV associated with BM increased with advancing development, while that of FH was apparently weakened during the 2 weeks after birth. On the other hand immunoreactivity for CIV in the same age group increased, compared to that of previous swage of development. These results indicate that BM components were expressed in distinct spatial patterns with advancing development of thyroid gland. Based on these observations, it could be concluded that these BM components are important determinants in epithelial growth and differentiation during thyroid development.
Animals ; Basement Membrane* ; Cell Proliferation ; Collagen Type IV ; Fibronectins ; Hand ; Humans ; Laminin ; Parturition ; Pregnancy ; Rats* ; Thyroid Gland*

In order to nursing practice of the patient in Oriental medicine, it is suggested that the fundamental recognition of Oriental medicine should be preceded. It is, however, difficult that we comprehend Oriental medicine generally since it is different from Western medicine in the point of th symptom. We have thought that is to be carried out to select and analyze a disease by the sense of Oriental medicine for the establishment of Oriental medical nursing. So we have tried out the analysis of Tae-Yang. In view of the results so far achieved, it has been suggested that Tae-Yang Symptom applies to the first step of Sanghan Yug Kyung Symptom and consists of Palsy, Sanghan, Onbyung, Dropsy, and Congestion. In the Oriental medicine, Tae-yang Symptom is recognized to be concerned with a common cold and the respiratory, renal and hepatic diseases. In the points of Orintal medicine, it is noticed that Tae-Yang Symptom is caused by the wind and cold evil, is related to human resisting force, and is fused with each other. And the treatment of Tae-Yang Symptom is various by the cause and the pathological mechanism. In the points of Western medicine, it is difficult to comprehend that various disease germs revolving each disease are implied by identical symptom. The summary of this study are as follows ; 1. In the outer-caused diseases, so called Tae-Yang Symptom, it is an important index to the patient's resisting force and the type of a disease whether he sweats, chills and the pulse is tense or not. 2. the treatments are various according the body's resisting force and the type of symptoms ; harmonizing Yung & Wee to Weakness of surface, soporifics flourishing of evils, and antifebriles to On-byung. 3. If Tae-Yang Symptom is not cured, it progresses to develop complications ; Dropsy & congestion, the former brings about renal diseases and the latter hepatic diseases. According to the results mentioned above, we have come to the conclusion that the Oriental - medical nursing must emphasis the body's sesiting force and the type of symptoms rather than the name of a disease.
Chills ; Common Cold ; Edema ; Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) ; Humans ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Nursing* ; Paralysis ; Sweat ; Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation ; Wind

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the current state of home health nursing (HHN) for elders and to provide basic data on policy alternatives for establishing home medical care in the advanced general hospital. METHODS: This study was conducted as a secondary data analysis, using electronic medical record (EMR) data of older patients who received HHN more than once from the S advanced general hospital between January 2016 and December 2018. RESULTS: A total of 1,790 patients received HHN visits, with 22,477 visits being made. The mean age was 76.8±7.3 years old, 96.0% of elders had health insurance and 24.6% had orthopedics problems. Of the 1,168 people who visited emergency rooms, the most frequent symptom was pain (23.4%) and all patients visited the hospital at least once and at most 163 times outpatient care during HHN. Causative diseases were degenerative knee joint osteoarthritis (0.6%), surgery for right knee replacement (4.0%), and for dressings (9.7%) in the HHN service content analysis. CONCLUSION The progress towards an aging society and the introduction of community care are expected to further enhance the need for HHN which should be able to provide comprehensive and continuous visiting health care services to the older patients. The results of this study are expected to help doctors solve problems not solved by HHN, reduce unnecessary emergency room or outpatient visits, and readmission, while at the same time contributing to the improvement of patient quality of life through efficient patient health care.

Unmet healthcare is an important indicator to measure accessibility of healthcare services. To examine the latest status of unmet healthcare needs in South Korea, four different data which is composed of nationally representative sample of South Korean population were used; the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES, 2007–2020), the Community Health Survey (CHS, 2008–2020), the Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, 2011–2018), and the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS, 2006– 2020). The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs were 6.4% (KNHANES), 5.4% (CHS), and 12.2% (KHP). Annual percentage change (APC) which identifies trend for the follow-up period was -9.9%, -9.1%, and -5.5%, respectively. The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost were 1.0% (KNHANES), 0.4% (CHS), 2.2% (KHP), and 0.4% (KOWEPS). The APC was -11.3%, -17.0%, -12.2%, and -21.2%, respectively. Overall, the low-income and the elderly population reported a higher rate of unmet health care needs. Although the overall experience rate of unmet medical care due to cost decreased over the past decade, the disparity between the lowest and highest income groups still remained in 2020. Disparity between income levels and age groups is a challenge to address in healthcare system, and these results suggest the need for adequate health coverage for the low-income and the elderly populations.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a major environmental factor that leads to acute and chronic reactions in the human skin. UV exposure induces wrinkle formation, DNA damage, and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Most mechanistic studies of skin physiology and pharmacology related with UV-irradiated skin have focused on proteins and their related gene expression or single- targeted small molecules. The present study identified and analyzed the alteration of skin metabolites following UVB irradiation and topical retinyl palmitate (RP, 5%) treatment in hairless mice using direct analysis in real time (DART) time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) with multivariate analysis. Under the negative ion mode, the DART ion source successfully ionized various fatty acids including palmitoleic and linolenic acid. From DART-TOF-MS fingerprints measured in positive mode, the prominent dehydrated ion peak (m/z: 369, M+H-H2O) of cholesterol was characterized in all three groups. In positive mode, the discrimination among three groups was much clearer than that in negative mode by using multivariate analysis of orthogonal partial-least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). DART-TOF-MS can ionize various small organic molecules in living tissues and is an efficient alternative analytical tool for acquiring full chemical fingerprints from living tissues without requiring sample preparation. DART-MS measurement of skin tissue with multivariate analysis proved to be a powerful method to discriminate between experimental groups and to find biomarkers for various experiment models in skin dermatological research.
alpha-Linolenic Acid ; Animals ; Biomarkers ; Cholesterol ; Dermatoglyphics ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; DNA Damage ; Fatty Acids ; Gene Expression ; Humans ; Mass Spectrometry* ; Metabolome* ; Mice* ; Mice, Hairless ; Multivariate Analysis ; Pharmacology ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Skin Physiological Phenomena ; Skin*

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the psychosocial characteristics of the employees working at a university hospital and investigated the factors affecting their quality of life (QOL) under COVID-19. Methods: This study enrolled 1,191 healthcare workers from a university hospital, including doctors, nurses, administrative officer and technicians. Besides demographic information, depression, anxiety, somatization, insomnia, resilience, and QOL were assessed. Results: The nurses presented significantly higher scores for anxiety, depression and showed significantly higher insomnia scores and significantly lower resilience scores. The occupations showed significant differences in the QOL and sub-groups, including the overall quality of life and general health (F=4.774, p<0.001), psychological domain (F=6.230, p<0.001), and environment domain (F=5.254, p<0.001). There was a positive correlation between the QOL and resilience (r=0.608, p<0.01). However, depression (r=-0.502, p<0.01), anxiety (r=-0.425, p<0.01), somatization (r=-0.364, p<0.01), and insomnia (r=-0.385, p<0.01) showed negative correlations with the QOL. Resilience was the most important factor influencing the QOL. Conclusion The results of this study showed that low resilience adversely affected the QOL and the mental health of the healthcare workers, which consequently had a direct effect on the quality of medical care given to patients.

No abstract available.
Endometrium* ; Female ; Humans

PURPOSE: Using the spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), we studied the difference in the choroidal morphology between the choroidal neovascularization (CNV) area and the area surrounding CNV. METHODS: This retrospective study consisted of 19 patients with myopic CNV lesion in eye; fellow eyes were used as controls. All eyes were analyzed by measuring the choroidal thickness and large choroidal vessel size using SD-OCT. Eyes with CNV were divided into groups; the neovascular lesion was defined as group 1, the surrounding area as group 2. Subfovea of the fellow eye was defined as group 3. RESULTS: The choroidal thickness was 80.00 +/- 68.31 in group 1, 63.44 +/- 67.75 in group 2 and 71.11 +/- 65.69 microm in group 3. There was a significant difference between group 1 and group 2 (p = 0.038). There were no significant differences between group 1 and 3 or between group 2 and 3 (p = 0.365, p = 0.314). The large choroidal vessel size was 57.47 +/- 39.78 in group 1, 40.45 +/- 34.69 in group 2 and 45.63 +/- 37.00 microm in group 3. There was a significant difference between group 1 and group 2 (p = 0.025). There were no significant differences between group 1 and 3 or between group 2 and 3 (p = 0.123, p = 0.325). CONCLUSIONS: Choroidal thickness and large choroidal vessel size at the center of the CNV were greater than in the area surrounding CNV. The results suggest that although the CNVs were due to a thinned choroid caused by severe choroidal ischemia, the development of CNV requires maintenance of choriocapillaris and large choroid vessels.
Choroid* ; Choroidal Neovascularization* ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, Optical Coherence

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine the differences of expression of TGF-betaS(TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2) in the human proliferative endometrium, secretory endometrium, and the decidua during early pregnancy. And we also have studied the endometrial expression of TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 in the menopause and compared that to the expression in the endometrium and decidua. METHODS: We have studied the expression of TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 by immunohistochemical staining method in the proliferative endometrium, secretory endometrium, decidua during early pregnancy, and menopausal endometrium. RESULTS: In the epithelial cells, TGF-beta1 was moderately expressed in the secretory phase and was weakly expressed in the proliferative phase and menopause. In the stromal cells, TGF-beta1 was not expressed in the whole menstrual phase and menopause. And in the epithelial cells, TGF-beta2 was moderately expressed in the proliferative phase, secretory phase, and menopause. In the stromal cells, TGF-beta2 was not expressed in the whole menstrual phase and menopause. Especially, TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 were markedly expressed in the decidua during early pregnancy compared to the expression in the proliferative, secretory endometrium, and menopausal endometrium. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that TGF-beta1 may have an important role in the epithelial cells during the secretory phase, not stromal cells. And TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 may have a paracrine and autocrine role in the decidua/trophoblast interaction during pregnancy , especially in the normal pregnancy.
Decidua ; Endometrium* ; Epithelial Cells ; Female ; Humans* ; Menopause ; Menstrual Cycle* ; Pregnancy ; Stromal Cells ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; Transforming Growth Factor beta2