No abstract available.
Infection Control* ; Seoul*

BACKGROUND: As information technology evolves rapidly computer-based surveillance systems for nosocomial infection have been developed. Well designed computerized system could provide an opportunity for improving, enlarging, and conducting hospital-wide surveillance more efficiently in the situation with limited resources. Recently, we launched a new computerized monitoring system in a hospital where digital medical information system has been operated without paper chart. METHODS: We developed a new surveillance program based on the total Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. Numerous critical medical information can be easily accessible through this system without further work. This includes major demographic data, essential information from the inpatient medical record, the laboratory information system, and the pharmacy information, Comprehensive Clinical Data Repository (CDR) system was also developed. CDR is potentially very useful to conduct a hospital-wide surveillance by integrating all the available information. RESULTS: This system consists of several programs in the EMR and the CDR environment. In the EMR system, inquiry for patients with fever, case ascertainment and registration of nosocomial infections, inquiry for patients with indwelling devices, microbiological reports, and data on antibiotic prescriptions were included. The CDR has integrated comprehensive inquiries for frequency of major pathogens in clinical isolates and their trends of antibiotic resistance, nosocomial infection rates based on the duration of the devices or hospitalization, and the history of antimicrobial usage based on defined daily dosage. Data obtained from the EMR and the CDR systems could be easily accessed by infectious diseases specialists and healthcare workers of infection control services at any place within the hospital. A new reporting system has been built up to facilitate identification of notifiable diseases among the list of diagnoses on the EMR. In addition, the "Alert" notice was designed to highlight isolation precautions for indicated cases. CONCLUSION: This new computerized surveillance program might be a valuable model to which other hospitals can refer to develop newer version of programs in the future.
Clinical Laboratory Information Systems ; Communicable Diseases ; Cross Infection ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diagnosis ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Electronic Health Records* ; Fever ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Infection Control ; Information Systems ; Inpatients ; Medical Records ; Pharmacy ; Prescriptions ; Specialization

PURPOSE: This study was done to examine the association among irrational belief, mental health, and self-efficacy, and explored the mediation of self-efficacy in the relationship between irrational belief and mental health of Korean soldiers. METHODS: A cross sectional study design was employed. The participants were 118 soldiers who signed consent forms. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: Irrational beliefs were positively correlated with mental health problems, and self-efficacy was negatively correlated with irrational beliefs and mental health problems. Self-efficacy acted as a mediator in the relationship between irrational beliefs and mental health problems. CONCLUSION: The study results suggest that effective interventions to reduce mental health problems of soldiers should apply strategies to change irrational belief and increase self efficacy. These results also provide more empirical support to the hypothesis that self-efficacy serves as a mediator in a mental health.
Consent Forms ; Humans ; Mental Health* ; Military Personnel* ; Negotiating* ; Self Efficacy

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Chronic Disease ; Glycemic Index

OBJECTIVE: Korea (ranked 16th) and Japan (ranked 13th) show similar rankings, skills, and performance in basketball. However, the countries differ in size and the number of players in the national women's basketball system. The current study aimed to compare the psychological factors (anxiety, and temperament and character) and the national teams' players' characteristics between 80 Korean (WKBL players) and 76 Japanese (WJBL players) female basketball players in six professional teams each. METHODS: All players were asked to complete demographic characteristics including age, career years, position, number of past and presents positions, and clinical scales, including sports anxiety, state anxiety, trait anxiety, and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Hierarchical logistic regression analyses among individual factors, physical factors, basketball status, anxiety factors, and temperamental conditions were conducted. RESULTS: In all basketball players, all five models were significantly associated with national team players. The TCI factors were the strongest predictive factors for Korean national team players, while the anxiety factors were the strongest predictive factors for Japanese national team players. WKBL players in all positions showed higher sports anxiety and harm avoidance than WJBL players. WJBL players scored higher on self-directedness and cooperativeness than WKBL players. CONCLUSION: For predicting national team players, temperament and character were crucial factors in WKBL players where anxiety was the most important one for WJBL players.
Anxiety ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Basketball ; Female ; Humans ; Japan ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Psychology ; Sports ; Temperament ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between endometriosis and polymorphisms of N-acetyl transferase 2 (NAT2), glutathione S-transferase M1 (GSTM1), and cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A1 genes in Korean infertile patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 303 infertile patients who had undertaken diagnostic laparoscopy during January, 2001 through December, 2003 at Samsung Cheil Hospital enrolled in this study. The patients were grouped according to laparoscopic findings: minimal to mild endometriosis (group I: n=147), moderate to severe endometriosis (group II: n=57), normal pelvic cavity (n=99). Peripheral blood was obtained and genomic DNA was extracted. The genotypes of each genes were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). For NAT2, RFLP was used to detect the wild type (wt) and mutant (mt) alleles, enabling classification into slow (mt/mt) or fast (wt/wt or wt/mt) acetylation genotypes. For GSTM1, PCR was used to distinguish active (+/- or +/+) from null (-/-) genotypes. For CYP1A1, MspI digestion was used to detect the wild type (A1A1), heterozygote (A1A2) or mutant (A2A2) genotypes. RESULTS: The genotype frequencies of NAT2 slow acetylator was 12.8%, 10.9%, 12.8% in group I, group II and control, respectively. The genotype frequencies of GSTM1 null mutation was 55.3%, 41.8%, 53.2% in group I, group II and control, respectively. The genotype frequencies of CYP1A1 MspI polymorphism was 16.3%, 9.1%, 18.1% in group I, group II and control, respectively. No significant difference was observed between endometriosis and normal controls in the genotype frequencies of the NAT2, GSTM1, CYP1A1 MspI polymorphism. CONCLUSION: The NAT2, GSTM1, CYP1A1 gene polymorphism may not be associated with the susceptibility of endometriosis in Korean women.
Acetylation ; Alleles ; Classification ; Cytochrome P-450 CYP1A1 ; Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System* ; Cytochromes* ; Digestion ; DNA ; Endometriosis* ; Female ; Genotype ; Glutathione Transferase* ; Glutathione* ; Heterozygote ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Transferases*

Nail-patella syndrome is a relatively rare autosomal dominant disorder characterized by dysplastic nail, hypoplastic or absent patella, and dislocation of radial head and iliac horns. In addition, renal abnormalities have been reported. The usual clinical signs of the renal involvement are asymptomatic proteinuria, microscopic hematuria, and in some cases progression to end stage renal disease. We present the case of adult with nail-patella syndrome, who developed proteinuria. Electron microscopy revealed irregular thickening of the glomerular basement membrane with areas of rarefaction, giving rise to a pathognomonic "moth-eaten" appearance.
Adult ; Animals ; Dislocations ; Glomerular Basement Membrane ; Head ; Hematuria ; Horns ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Microscopy, Electron ; Nail-Patella Syndrome* ; Patella ; Proteinuria

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the shed endometrial tissues in menstrual fluid (MF) have adhesive potentials, using human amniotic membrane (AM). METHODS: The MF from 20 patients with regular menstruation was collected with Wallace catheter by aspiration from the uterine cavity on the second or third day of the menstrual period. The AM was obtained from the placenta of term delivery without any complication. The MF was washed and diluted fivefold with Hams F-10 medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. The cell suspension was placed on either epithelial layer (EP) or extracellular matrix layer (ECM) of the AM. After 5 days of culture, the adhesion sites were observed under a stereomicroscope. For histological observation, each cultured AM was prepared for the serial paraffin section. RESULTS: The adhesion sites of endometrial tissues in MF were found both ECM (20/20) and EP (11/20) of the AM. The size of adhesion sites in each AM were highly variable from microscopic to macroscopic size. CONCLUSION: We found that the shed endometrial tissues in MF have adhesive potential to epithelial layer in addition to extracellular matrix layer of amniotic membrane. This adhesive potential may be related to pathogenesis of endometriosis. We suggest that this culture system can be useful as an in-vitro model for endometriosis.
Adhesives* ; Amnion* ; Catheters ; Endometriosis* ; Extracellular Matrix ; Female ; Humans ; Menstruation ; Paraffin ; Placenta

Benign symmetric lipomatosis is characterized by diffuse symmetric deposits of nonencapsulated fat, generally affecting the cervical and upper dorsal regions. There is a history of alcohol abuse in nearly all the cases. It is rarely reported in non-drinkers. Herein we report a 63-year-old man presenting with one year's history of multiple ill-defined symmetric soft mass on posterior neck, upper trunk and upper extremities without the history of alcohol abuse. We ad-ministered corticosteroid orally due to osteoarthritis of the knee for a long time.
Alcoholism ; Humans ; Knee ; Lipomatosis* ; Middle Aged ; Neck ; Osteoarthritis ; Upper Extremity