This study was performed to evaluate the effects on hearing of video tape manufacturing workers exposed to organic solvents. The experimental groups included solvents exposed group 51 and unexposed group 57 workers. All workers was examined air and bone conduction sensitivity by pure tone audiometer. The mean age of solvents exposed group was 34.1 and nonexposed group was 35.8. The mean duration of solvents exposed group was 7.3years. High frequency hearing loss prevalence of both groups was 23.5% in the group exposed to organic solvents and 17.5% in nonexposed group. There is no statistical significants in the prevalence of high frequency hearing loss. According to comparison of mean auditory threshold value by frequencies, on the air conduction test, right was statistically significant in the 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000Hz, except 8000Hz. Left 250, 500, 1000Hz was statistically significant. On the bone conduction test, left250, both 500, 1000, 2000, 4000Hz, except right 250Hz, was statistically significant difference. Generally, auditory sensitivity threshold of the exposed group was higher than the nonexposed group.
Auditory Threshold ; Bone Conduction ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing* ; Prevalence ; Solvents*

Far Eastern countries including Korea show the high prevalence of hepatitis B virus carriers, so that the incidence of liver cirrhosis is higher than in western countries. But pregnancies with liver cirrhosis are rarely encountered in clinical settings, since liver cirrhosis usually develops after childbearing ages and often causes the disturbance of estrogen metabolism, resulting in severe menstrual irregularity and infertility. Therefore, little is known about the interactions between liver cirrhosis and pregnancy. Liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension are not contraindications to pregnancy but necessitate intensive monitoring throughout pregnancy because the complications of liver cirrhosis, which pose additional risks during pregnancy, are numerous and unpredictable. We report 3 cases of pregnancies in patients with liver cirrhosis with brief review of the literature.
Estrogens ; Hepatitis B virus ; Humans ; Hypertension, Portal ; Incidence ; Infertility ; Korea ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver* ; Metabolism ; Pregnancy* ; Prevalence

BACKGROUND: The number of patients suffering from acute myocardial infarction is on the increase in Korea due to the westernization of life style. Recent improvement of therapeutic stratigies have shown early mortality benefits in acute myocardial infarction. But we don't have data how many patients died and what's the cause of death in these patients. This study aimed to find out the mortality rate, cause of death and it's relevant prognostic factors of myocardial infarction (MI) patients who admitted alive, and to construct a database which will be used to develop a risk stratification strategy for the implementation of new preventive therapeutic modalities, such as implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). METHODS: Seven hundred and forty two MI patients admitted to our hospital from March, 1999 to August, 2002 were included in this study. The risk factors and survivals were evaluated by medical record searching and telephone survey in these patients. RESULTS: The average age was 64 years-old and 67% was male. During the mean follow up 20.7+/-15.4 months, total 105 cardiac death (14.2%) was occurred and cumulative mortality rate at 1 year and 2 year was 5.69% and 10.80%, respectively. Of the total 129 death, in-hospital death was 68 (cardiac death 48, non-cardiac death 20) and out of hospital death was 60 (cardiac death 57, non-cardiac death 4). When it comes to cause of death, most common cause of cardiac death was malignant arrhythmia. The proportion of malignant arrhythmia in cardiac death was 81.3% and 72% of in-hospital and out of hospital death, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that old age, low LV ejection fraction and no percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) treatment were independent risk factors for cardiac mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Myocardial infarction shows still high mortality rate despite the recent development of therapeutic strategy. As post-MI patients with low LVEF or no PCI shows high mortality, the early reperfusion therapy should be encouraged. Additionally, because malignant arrhythmia was one of the most in cause of cardiac death, ICD therapy to prevent sudden cardiac death should be considered in an active manner.
Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Cause of Death* ; Death ; Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Defibrillators, Implantable ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Korea ; Life Style ; Male ; Medical Records ; Middle Aged ; Mortality* ; Multivariate Analysis ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention ; Reperfusion ; Risk Factors ; Telephone

PURPOSE: To demonstrate the usefulness of diffusion-weighted MR imaging(DWI) in patients with small acuteinfarction by comparing it with fast spin-echo T2-weighted MR imaging(FSE T2WI). MATERIAL AND METHOD: Weretrospectively analyzed the results of FSE T2WI in 26 consecutive patients who on DWI showed small discretehyperintensities of less than 1.5cm and whose final clinical diagnosis, within one week of clinical attack, wasacute inforction. Lacunar infarcts accounted for 24 cases and 2 small cortical infarcts for two. The onset ofsymptoms occurred within 12 hours (hyperacute stage) in two patients, within 24 hours in seven, within 3 days innine, and within one week in eight. Infarcts as seen on FSE T2WI were categorized as follows : (-) for cases ofimpossible localization with non-visualization ; (+/-) for cases of equivocal localization with faint visualizationand/or poor differentiation from combined chronic infarcts and chronic ischemic changes, or from subarachnoid CSFin cases of cortical infarction ; and (+) for cases of adequate localization with clear visualization andmoderately good differentiation from the associated brain changes, or from subarachnoid CSF in cases of corticalinfarction. These infarcts were analyzed according to the time of onset of symptoms. RESULT: For the localizationof small acute infarctions, DWI was markedly superior to the category(-), moderately superior to the category(+/-).With regard to the onset of symptoms, DWI was markedly or moderately superior to FSE T2WI in 2/2 (100%) ofhyperacute stage diagnosed within 12 hour of clinical attack, in 4/7(57%) diagnosed within 24 hours, in 5/9 (56%)diagnosed within 3 days, and in 1/8 (13%) diagnosed within 1 week(p<0.05). In 12/26 cases(46%), small acuteinfarcts were localized by DWI better than by FSE T2WI. CONCLUSION: Because the signal was unchanged or itsintensity was poor, small infarcts at the acute stage were frequently difficult to localize by FSE T2WI. Inaddition, differentiation of these from combined chronic infarcts and chronic ischemic change was poor. DWI canlocalize small acute infarcts even when the results of FSE T2WI are negative or inconclusive.
Brain ; Cerebral Infarction* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Infarction ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Stroke, Lacunar

The cytotoxic effects of oxygen free radicals and the antioxidative effect of ginseng saponin (SPN) on cardiac endothelial cell cultures derived from 3-day old rats were studied. Reactive oxygen species were generated by hypoxanthine (HX) and xanthine oxidase (XO) mixture to the culture medium. Exposure of cardiac endothelial cells to this oxygen-radical-generating system resulted in significant time-dependent decrease of MTT activity and increase of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release. These results correlated well with the morphological examination of randomly selected cultured cardiac endothelial cells, which showed large cytoplasmic vacuoles, disordered organelles, pronounced increase of endoplasmic reticular swelling, and decreased maintenance of membrane integrity. The decrease in cell viability and increase of LDH release induced by the oxygen free radicals in cardiac endothelial cell cultures were blocked during the first two hours by antioxidants such as ginseng saponin (SPN), deferoxamine (DFX), and ginseng saponin/deferoxamine mixture (SPN/DFX). These antioxidative effects were significantly greater in the SPN-treated group than in the other antioxidant-treated groups. Especially, the cells of the SPN-treated group showed well developed cytoskeletons, which enabled them to firmly attach to the culture vessel. In conclusion, these results indicate that ginseng saponin has a significant antioxidative effect on cardiac endothelial cells in culture and plays an important role in stimulating the formation of cytoskeleton and maintaining the integrity of cell membrane.
Animals ; Antioxidants ; Cell Membrane ; Cell Survival ; Cytoplasm ; Cytoskeleton ; Deferoxamine ; Endothelial Cells* ; Free Radicals ; Hypoxanthine ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase ; Membranes ; Organelles ; Oxygen ; Panax* ; Rats ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Saponins* ; Vacuoles ; Xanthine Oxidase

We report an unusual case of adult minimal change nephrotic syndrome relapsed after 15-year of complete remission. In this case, the disease had occurred to the patient for the first time when he was 52 years old; relatively high age, and had been remitted with steroid therapy. After 15 years of complete remission, he visited our hospital with the symptoms of the generalized edema and the pitting edema of both lower extremities that occurred 15 days ago. Massive proteinuria(15, 865 mg/day) and hypoalbuminemia(1.7 g/dL) were detected. The pathologic evaluation of the biopsied specimen of the kidney showed the global sclerosis in 19% of glomeruli in light microscopic finding and the fusion of epithelial foot processes in electron microscopic finding. He was treated with pulse steroid therapy (methylprednisolone 500 mg/day iv for 3 days) and then, with oral prednisolone (60 mg/day). Generalized edema and proteinuria disappeared after 14 days of treatment, and there has been no relapse ever since. Adult-onset minimal change nephrotic syndrome relapses within 4 years after complete remission in 90 % of relapsed patients. The relapse after more than 5 years of complete remission, like this case, is very rare, especially in the case of late-onset disease. However, the possibility of relapse of the minimal change nephrotic syndrome after several years of its remission should be considered constantly and the long-term follow-up more than 10 years may be needed.
Adult ; Edema ; Follow-Up Studies ; Foot ; Humans ; Kidney ; Lower Extremity ; Middle Aged ; Nephrosis, Lipoid* ; Prednisolone ; Proteinuria ; Recurrence ; Sclerosis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: As shown in previous studies, pentraxin 3 (PTX3) can be a useful inflammatory marker for metabolic syndrome and central obesity. Serum PTX3 levels are also an independent factor associated with visceral fat area. The aim of this study was to assess the role of PTX3 as an inflammatory maker in patients with central obesity undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) following an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: From December 2007 to June 2008, 40 subjects (mean age: 61+/-11 years, M : F=34 : 6) with STEMI who underwent primary PCI were enrolled. We determined waist circumference, waist/hip ratio, body mass index (BMI), and visceral and total fat area via fat computed tomography (FAT-CT), and compared them with serum PTX3 concentrations. RESULTS: The serum PTX3 concentration was closely related to FAT-CT-estimated visceral fat area (r=0.41, p<0.01) and total fat area (r=0.38, p=0.01), respectively. The serum PTX3 concentration was not related to waist circumference (r=0.27, p=0.20), waist circumference/hip ratio (r=0.25, p=0.16), BMI (r=0.04, p=0.80) and lipid profiles, respectively. Among the parameters determining metabolic syndrome, an increasing visceral fat area had the strongest association with PTX3 concentrations. CONCLUSION: In patients with STEMI, PTX3 is associated with central obesity and it is significantly and independently correlated with visceral fat area. FAT-CT-estimated visceral fat area is the most reliable factor associated with serum PTX3 levels in patients with STEMI and central obesity.
Body Mass Index ; C-Reactive Protein ; Humans ; Intra-Abdominal Fat ; Myocardial Infarction ; Obesity, Abdominal ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention ; Serum Amyloid P-Component ; Waist Circumference