OBJECTIVES: Alzheimer's disease(AD) and mild cognitive impairment(MCI) affect several nervous structures involved with the autonomic nervous system. Association between neuropsychiatric deficits and heart rate variability has been observed. But cardiac autonomic function in AD has been scarcely studied and the results reported are conflicting. We investigated autonomic function in normal control, MCI, AD using heart rate variabil-ity(HRV) technique. METHODS: Time and frequency-domain variability of 5-min R-R interval series was comparatively evaluated in 26 normal control subjects, 22 MCI subjects and 34 AD subjects. Analysis of variance(ANOVA) was used to compare the differences across groups. Correlations between MMSE-KC and HRV components were performed using Pearson's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: No significant difference was observed among the groups in time, frequency-domain analysis of HRV (p>0.05). HRV were not found to be significantly correlated with the degree of cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS: There were no differences in HRV with MCI, AD subjects when compared with normal controls. Further investigation is required to use HRV technique as noninvasive parameters of MCI and AD.
Alzheimer Disease ; Autonomic Nervous System ; Heart ; Heart Rate ; Mild Cognitive Impairment

BACKGROUND: The APACHE scoring system of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has been being used for serious patients. The scoring system is composed of acute physiologic variables and chronic disease. METHODS: Among patients who underwent emergency operations from 1992 to 1997 because of gastrointestinal perforation, we analyzed 110 cases with five kinds of diseases: duodenal ulcer perforation, small bowel perforation, perforated appendicitis, gastric ulcer perforation and colon perforation. RESULTS: The results were as follows: 1) The preoperative APACHE II scores ranged from 0 to 21. The scores of 64 cases (60.9%) were from 0 to 5. 2) There were no death in case for which pre-peration APACHE II score was from 0 to 10, 25% of the mortality occurred in cases with scores from 11 to 15, 50% in those with scores from 16 to 20, and 100% in those with scores above 21. 3) The APACHE II score decreased continuously from the 3rd to the 7th postoperative day. 4) The preoperative APACHE II scores in gastric ulcer perforation patients were significantly higher than those in duodenal ulcer perforation patients. In the cases of gastric and duodenal ulcer perforations, the APACHE II scores in patients who underwent primary closure were higher than the scores in those who underwent a more definitive operation. 5) In death cases, all of their APACHE II scores were higher at the 3rd postoperative than at the 7th postoperative day, but their APACHE III scores continuously increased postoperatively. CONCLUSIONS: It is thought that the APACHE scoring system is more reliable than clinical experience in the classification of patients by operative risk and in estinating the result and giving a prognosis. Thus, the principle of treatment should be established by estinating patient's score before the operation. Careful preoperative management is necessary for patients with scores more than 10. Because patientswith scores more than 21 have very a high mortality, operative time and method must be carefully decided. The APACHE III scoring system seems to be more sensitive than the APACHE II scoring system in predicting deaths and further investigations and clinical applications should be performed.
APACHE* ; Appendicitis ; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (U.S.) ; Chronic Disease ; Classification ; Colon ; Duodenal Ulcer ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Mortality ; Operative Time ; Prognosis ; Stomach Ulcer

No abstract available.
Leiomyoma*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Rats* ; Urinary Bladder*

No abstract available.
Paget's Disease, Mammary*

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins* ; Rats* ; Urinary Bladder Neck Obstruction* ; Urinary Bladder*

We reviewed the 43 medical records of patients with cellulitis or erysipelas who had been admitted at the depar1ment of dermatology of Seoul National University Hospital and followed them up for mean 21.6 months. The results were as follows. 1. The sex ratio of patients with cellulitis was 1:1.4 and the average age was 49 years. 2. The lower extremity as the most frequently invloved site of cellulitis with the frequency of 58.1% (25 cases), with the head and neck being involved in 16 cases(37.2%) and trunk and upper extremity in 1 case each(2.3% ). 3. The portals of infecticin were suspected in 33 cases(76% ), where tinea pedis was detect,ed in 18 cases(41.9%), previous skin infeection 10 cases(23.3%) and trauma in 9 cases(20.9%). 4. Initial systemic symptoms were fever(76.7%), chill(65.1%) and headache(37.2%). Erythema(100%), local heating(90,7%), tenderness(88.4%), swelling(86.0%), ulcer(16.3%), bulla(14.0%), lymphangitis(9.2%) and lymphadenit,is(9.2%) were found in the skin lesions. 5. The laboratory findings revealed leukocytosis in 35.7%, elevaed ESR in 86.8% positive 6. ASO titer in 63.0% and positive CRP in 80%, Microorganism. were detected in only 1 of 15 blood cultures, in 2 of 4 bulla fluid cultures and in 7 of 9 bus cultures. There was no growth of causative microorganisms in 3 tissue cultures and 9 saline needle aspiration cultures. Penicillin was used as primary antibiotics in 19 cases, which changed to another antibiotics due to lack of improvement in 3 cases and cefazolin was used in 21 cases, which changed in 2 cases due to the same reason. 7. Average admission priod was 11 days(range from 3 to 20 days) and 30.2% of patients wit.h cellulitis experienced recurrence, but 48% on low extrernity in contrast with 6.7% on head and neck.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Cefazolin ; Cellulitis* ; Dermatology ; Erysipelas ; Head ; Humans ; Leukocytosis ; Lower Extremity ; Medical Records ; Neck ; Needles ; Penicillins ; Recurrence ; Seoul ; Sex Ratio ; Skin ; Tinea Pedis ; Upper Extremity

Brain size is a useful parameter describing ontogenic character and function. Despite its potential contribution to functional study and diagnosis of disease, it has been hampered by poor assessment tools in vivo and postmortem changes. Recent development of medical imaging techniques such as MRI and CT enable us to understand brain structures in vivo. Many morphometirc studies of the brain has given us new insights in the field of functional neuroanatomy and neuropsychiatric diseases. In spite of these advances, volumetric data of normal Korean brain is not available yet. As an initial approach to Korean standard brain size, we measured the cerebellar volume between 20 and 80 years old Koreans. The MRI films free from lesions in brain was analyzed and measured by NIH image program. The Korean cerebellar volume were ranged between 86.2cm(3) and 141.3 cm(3) and average male cerebellum volume was significantly larger than that of female[male : 118.2+/-11.2cm(3)] > female : 108.0+/-9.6cm(3), P=0.1021E-07<0.05]. And we could not find volume change according to aging process. This is the first report on normal Korean cerebellar volume and the presence of gender difference in the Korean cerebellar volume. These data will be used for the standard useful in studying cerebellar function and cerebellum associated disorders in the future.
Aged, 80 and over ; Aging ; Brain ; Cerebellum ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic Imaging ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Male ; Neuroanatomy ; Postmortem Changes