OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of chronic deprivation of estradiol on the serotonin level in Sprague-Dawley rat's cerebral cortex and hippocampus. METHODS: One hundred of female Sprague-Dawley rats were taken care for seven to eight weeks, then they were randomly assigned into two group; fifty rats underwent bilateral oophorectomy & the remaining rats were the control group. Six months after oophorectomy, brain tissue was extracted from cerebral cortex and hippocampus and then homogenated: this was done in the both groups. The upper layer of the homogenated substance was taken and frozen and finally dried up. The next process was marking with PITC, quantification through HPLC and comparing with authentic serotonin. Protein quantity was measured by using Bradford method. RESULTS: Comparison between the bilateral oophorectomy group and the control group for serotonin content in the cerebral cortex was 134.2+/-14.3 nmol/mg protein(mean+/-SEM) and 122.5+/-11.6 nmol/mg protein in each group. As for the serotonin content in the hippocampus was 148.8+/-13.9 nmol/mg protein and 132.9+/-13.7 nmol/mg protein in each group. It shows that, there was no significant difference in the serotonin level, in the two areas mentioned above. CONCLUSION: The effect of estradiol on the serotonin level may be dependent on the hormonal change duration. Chronic effect of hypoestrogenism might have no effect on tryptophan hydroxylase and monoamine oxidase, thus not changin the serotonin level. These data supported the previous findings that chronic hypoestrogenism had no effect on serotonin level.
Animals ; Brain ; Cerebral Cortex* ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Estradiol ; Female ; Female* ; Hippocampus* ; Humans ; Monoamine Oxidase ; Ovariectomy* ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley* ; Serotonin* ; Tryptophan Hydroxylase

No abstract available.
Humans

No abstract available.
beta-Thalassemia* ; Thalassemia*

OBJECTIVES: This study analyzed smartphone obesity-management applications developed in Korea and the quality of the information that they provide. METHODS: Obesity-management smartphone applications were searched using the keywords 'obesity + management,' 'weight + management,' 'weight + loss,' 'weight + exercise,' 'weight + diet,' 'weight + calories,' and 'diet,' with a search application programming interface (provided by Apple) between September 23 and September 27, 2013. These applications were then classified according to their main purpose, type of interventions used, price, type of developer, and user ratings. The information quality of the applications was analyzed using the Silberg scale. RESULTS: In total, 148 smartphone applications for obesity management were found. The main purpose of most of these applications (70.95%) was to provide information regarding weight control. The most frequently used intervention (34.62%) was to provide information on exercise management. More than half of the applications (58.78%) were free of charge. The mean of users' rating of these applications was 3.68 out of 5. The quality of information provided by these applications was evaluated as 4.55 out of 9: specifically, 1.79 out of 3 for authorship, 0.22 out of 2 for attribution, 1.29 out of 2 for disclosure, and 1.25 out of 2 for currency. Only three of the applications (2.88%) had a score on the Silberg scale greater than or equal to 7 points. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that the quality of information provided by smartphone applications in the healthcare domain urgently need to be evaluated to prevent users being misinformed by these applications.
Authorship ; Delivery of Health Care ; Disclosure ; Korea ; Mobile Health Units ; Obesity ; Telemedicine ; Weight Loss

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopy with peritoneal carbon dioxide insufflation is a standard procedure in many gynecological departments. And more prolonged gynecological laparoscopic operations are being performed in recent years, and a steeper head-down position is required. Despite laparoscopic operations have many advantages, peritoneal insufflation of CO2 to create the pneumoperitoneum necessary for laparoscopy induces intraoperative hemodynamic changes that complicate anesthetic management of laparoscopy.The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of general anesthesia on hemodynamics during loparoscopic hysterectomy. METHODS: Twenty six women undergoing laparoscopic hysterectomy were randomly allocated to either a propofol (Group 1, n=13) intravenous anesthesia or a enflurane (Group 2, n=13) anesthesia with fentanyl-N2O/O2-vecuronium. Hemodynamic parameters were measured before induction (T1), 5 min after induction (T2), 5 min after head-down (T3), 5, 10, 15, 20 min after pneumoperitoneum (T4, T5, T6, T7), 5, 10 min after deflation (T8, T9). The MAP, HR, CI, SVRI, SI were measured by transthoracic electrical bioimpedence method and automated blood pressure device. RESULTS: The mean arterial pressure were increased during pneumoperitonem in both groups and heart rate were increased in Group 2. The cardic index were decreased in both groups after induction by 27.4 % in Group 1 and 25.7% in Group 2. The systemic vascular resistanace index were increased in both groups from head-down to after deflation by 68.3% in Group 1, 73.1% in Group 2 maximally. No significant changes of stroke index were observed during surgery in Group 1. CONCLUSIONS: Laproscopy with CO2 insufflation induces significant hemodynamic changes includig increases of MAP, SVR and a reduction of CI. And usual intraoperative hemodynamic monitoring; the blood pressure and heart rate give no information on the reduction in cardic output.
Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, General* ; Anesthesia, Intravenous ; Arterial Pressure ; Blood Pressure ; Carbon Dioxide ; Enflurane ; Female ; Heart Rate ; Hemodynamics* ; Humans ; Hysterectomy* ; Insufflation ; Laparoscopy ; Pneumoperitoneum ; Propofol ; Stroke

PURPOSE: This study was performed to evaluate the results of surgical treatment of Nirschl procedure for intractable lateral epicondylitis of the elbow. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the functional records of surgically treated 21 cases from the 196 cases of lateral epicondylitis, which had been followed up at least 12 months from March 2000 to May 2003. Surgery was generally considered to be indicated if six months of conservative treatments since the first diagnosis had led to no improvement of the symptoms. The patients were evaluated by assessing of Pain Analog Scales (PAS) score. The objective outcomes of all patient after surgery were investigated according to the criteria by Roles and Maudsley. RESULTS: The mean PAS score followed up for 12 months postoperatively, had indicated significant improvements (p<0.001): 0.31 points (range, 0-2) at rest, 1.22 points (range, 0-3) at daily activities, and 2.25 points (range, 0-5) at sports and occupational activities. According to the Roles and Maudsley scores, there were 12 excellent, 7 good, 2 fair from the total of 21 cases; therefore, 19 (90%) cases showed the satisfactory results. CONCLUSION: The surgical treatment using the Nirschl procedure for intractable lateral epicondylitis of the elbow is considered as one of recommendable methods for the cases of no response at the conservative treatment.
Diagnosis ; Elbow ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Sports ; Weights and Measures

Excessive calcium is thought to be a critical step in various neurodegenerative processes including ischemia. Calbindin D28k (CB), calretinin (CR), and parvalbumin (PV), members of the EF-hand calcium-binding protein family, are thought to play a neuroprotective role in various pathologic conditions by serving as a buffer against excessive calcium. The expression of CB, PV and CR in the ischemic rat retina induced by increasing intraocular pressure was investigated at the transcript and protein levels, by means of the quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, western blot and immunohistochemistry. The transcript and protein levels of CB, which is strongly expressed in the horizontal cells in both normal and affected retinas, were not changed significantly and the number of CB-expressing horizontal cells remained unchanged throughout the experimental period 8 weeks after ischemia/reperfusion injury. At both the transcript and protein levels, however, CR, which is strongly expressed in several types of amacrine, ganglion, and displaced amacrine cells in both normal and affected retinas, was decreased. CR-expressing ganglion cell number was particularly decreased in ischemic retinas. Similar to the CR, PV transcript and protein levels, and PV-expressing AII amacrine cell number were decreased. Interestingly, in ischemic retinas PV was transiently expressed in putative cone bipolar cell types possibly those that connect with AII amacrine cells via gap junctions. These results suggest that these three calcium binding proteins may play different neuroprotective roles in ischemic insult by their ability to buffer calcium in the rat retina.
Amacrine Cells ; Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Calcium ; Calcium-Binding Protein, Vitamin D-Dependent ; Calcium-Binding Proteins ; Cell Count ; Ganglion Cysts ; Gap Junctions ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Intraocular Pressure ; Ischemia ; Neurons ; Proteins ; Rats ; Retina

PURPOSE: The purpose was to describe comparative analysis of the surgical outcome of percutaneous K-wire fixation of bony mallet fingers reduced with towel clip and 18-gauge needle. METHODS: We analyzed the bony mallet finger patients with more than twelve months follow-up after percutaneous K-wire fixation. The patients were randomly divided into two groups. Eighteen fingers were treated with closed reduction using towel clip and 18 other fingers were treated with closed reduction using 18-gauge needle. RESULTS: Radiographs showed bony union and no subluxation in all cases after K-wire removal. The average extension lag was 2.8degrees/1.9degrees, and range of motion of distal interphalangeal joint was 70.3degrees/75degrees respectively. According to Crawford's criteria, excellent results were obtained in 9/11 fingers, good results in 8/7 fingers, and poor result in 1/0 finger, respectively. CONCLUSION: 18-gauge needle reduction in percutaneous K-wire fixation is considered less invasive and useful method for treatment of bony mallet finger with comparable results with towel clip reduction.
Fingers ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Joints ; Needles ; Range of Motion, Articular

PURPOSE: To estimate the arrival-to-patient contact delays when accessing patients in high-rise buildings and evacuating them to the hospital, compared with accessing patients in ground-level premises. METHODS: This was a prospective study carried out, between 20 and 31 October, and between 30 November and 7 December, 2008, on emergency calls received at the Bun-dang fire station. The first thirty-five consecutive cases were enrolled in two groups where appropriate: evacuations in high-rise buildings, and evacuations in ground-level premises, respectively. Cases of road traffic accidents and road calls were excluded because they did not entail crew entering into buildings. The times were clocked using a stopwatch by an emergency medicine resident riding with the paramedics. We set forth to determine whether the intervals, recorded in the high-rise group, between: 1) time when the ambulance arrived at the scene and time of arrival at the patient's side; 2) time of leaving the premises with the patient and time when the ambulance starts its journey to the hospital, would differ significantly from that recorded in the ground-level group. RESULTS: 35 runs were analyzed in each group. The median value from arrival to patient contact was 0.34 minutes for the ground-level group compared with 2.08 minutes for the high-rise group (95% CI: p=0.000). The median value from the time of leaving the building with the patient to the time when the ambulance turned its engine on to start its journey to the hospital were 1.00 minutes and 3.08 minutes for the ground-level and high-rise groups, respectively (95% CI: p = 0.000). CONCLUSION: There were significant delays when accessing and evacuating patients in high-rise buildings. We suggest modifications to buildings and elevators to help minimize these delays.
Accidents, Traffic ; Allied Health Personnel ; Ambulances ; Elevators and Escalators ; Emergencies ; Emergency Medical Services ; Emergency Medicine ; Fires ; Humans ; Korea ; Prospective Studies ; Reaction Time

BACKGROUND: Implantation of xenogenic chromaffin cells into the spinal subarachnoid space can produce analgesia in neuropathic pain models. However, transplantation of xenogeneic chromaffin cell has a potential risk of viral or bacterial infections from animals to humans including encephalopathy due to prion transmission. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of developing a homogeneic source of therapeutic chromaffin cells. METHODS: Anti-allodynic effects of human chromaffin cells (HCCs) were evaluated in a neuropathic pain model in rats induced by chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve. HCCs encapsulated with alginate-poly-L-lysine-alginate were intrathecally implanted into rats (n = 10), while empty capsules were intrathecally implanted as a control (n = 8). Levels of norepinephrine from encapsulated HCCs before and after nicotinic stimulation were measured. We then perfomed a behavior test (cold allodynia) with acetone. In addition, to assess the potential contribution to pain reduction of opioid peptides released from the HCCs, all animals were injected with naloxone. RESULTS: The concentration of norepinephrine after nicotine stimulation was significantly increased compared to basal levels. Intrathecal implantation of encapsulated HCCs, significantly reduced cold allodynia as compared to rats receiving empty capsules (P < 0.05). Fifteen minutes after the injection of naloxone, cold allodynia significantly decreased in rats with HCCs (P < 0.05), while the degree of cold allodynia in control animals was unaltered. CONCLUSIONS: From these results, it appears that HCCs have a possibility as an analgesic source for transplants delivering pain-reducing neuroactive substances.
Acetone ; Analgesia ; Analgesics ; Animals ; Bacterial Infections ; Capsules ; Chromaffin Cells ; Cold Temperature ; Constriction ; Humans ; Hyperalgesia ; Naloxone ; Neuralgia ; Nicotine ; Norepinephrine ; Opioid Peptides ; Rats ; Sciatic Nerve ; Subarachnoid Space ; Transplants