PURPOSE: Frailty is a wasting syndrome common in old age and to confer high risk for morbidity and mortality. There is a growing consensus of the definition of frailty, but until now the diagnostic criteria is not clear yet. In the older male patients, almost of studies about testosterone replacement therapy performed to normal healthy population. And also only few studies were performed to the frail elderly patients. So we would like to investigate the effficacy of testosterone supplementation in the frail elderly. METHODS: Since May to Sep 2001, ambulatory elderly patients who were 65 years and over were recruited in the outpatient clinic of Asan Medical Center. All of them showed the typical characteristics of frailty symptom-weight loss, loss of muscle mass, weakness, fatigability, anorexia, inactivity. The patients who have sleep-apnea or previous history of prostate cancer were excluded. All patients were checked the serum PSA, total testosterone level, routine CBC, lipid, liver function test and evaluated prostate status with US or digital rectal examination, and treated with oral formula testosterone unde- canoate 80 mg daily. All patients were surveyed with ADL, IADL before the testosterone therapy and 3month later. RESULTS: A total of 6 male frail patients(mean age: 80+/-8.5) were enrolled. During 3 month Follow-up period, one was expired, 5 were finished the study. Before the testosterone replacement, mean total testos- terone level was 3.0+/-0.5 ng/ml and mean PSA was 1.3+/-0.7 ng/ml. After 3 months, blood hematocrit, cholesterol, total testosterone were not changed significantly and the body weight also showed insig- nificant increase. But after 3 months, all of them reported the increased well-being sensation, improved fatigability, weakness and improved ADL level. There were no significant adverse effects associated with testosterone replacement. CONCLUSION: In male frail elderly patients, the testosterone replacement therapy can be used safely, and can be improve the frailty associated symptom and ADL ability.
Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Anorexia ; Body Weight ; Cholesterol ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Consensus ; Digital Rectal Examination ; Follow-Up Studies ; Frail Elderly* ; Hematocrit ; Humans ; Liver Function Tests ; Male ; Mortality ; Prostate ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Sensation ; Testosterone* ; Wasting Syndrome

No abstract available.
Metabolism*

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Licensure*

Lung ultrasound (LUS) is an emerging tool for intensivists to diagnose and monitor thoracic diseases of critically ill patients. It is easily applied at the bedside in real time and is free of radiation hazards. In the intensive care units (ICUs) lung ultrasound can be used to diagnose pneumothorax and interstitial syndrome. It can also be used to monitor changes in the lung. However, the major limitations of LUS is that it is highly operator dependent and cannot be applied in patients with thoracic dressings, subcutaenous emphysema or pleural calcifications. This article reviews the basic principles of lung ultrasound and discusses how it can be used in ICUs.
Bandages ; Critical Illness* ; Emphysema ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Lung* ; Pneumothorax ; Thoracic Diseases ; Ultrasonography*

Failure to thrive (FTT) is defined when the weight of a child is below 3rd percentile or when there is sudden weight loss in history. If organic cause of the weight loss is not found, it is called non-organic failure to thrive(NETT). Relatively little attention has been paid to NFTT in Korea for various reasons and the incidence is not known. 25 NFTT infants, aged 3 to 36 months, and 25 controls, matched by age and sex of the infants and age and education of the mothers, were studied through interviews, questionnaires and MMP1. None of the NFTT and control infants had signs of developmental delay on Korean DDST, but the NFTT babies had more negative attitudes toward foods and were viewed by their mothers as more 'difficult' compared to the controls. Screening of home situations were similar in both groups. There was no difference in reports of mothers' childhood, marital status, mental states or current relations with extended family members. Analysis of MMPI of mothers of NFTT babies showed lower T-scores in Hs (hypochondreiasis) and Hy (hysteria) and higher in Mf (masculinitty-feminity) scales than those of mothers of the controls. But most the scores of scores of MMPI of mothers were within normal limits. Conclusion:Multiple factors seem to play roles in the development of NFTT, the babies' attitudes toward food and temperament being the major ones. The relative improtance of any single factor varies according to each particular infant. Contrary to the findings of other Engligh reports, mothers' mental status was found to play negligible role in the development of NFTT in this study.
Child ; Education ; Failure to Thrive* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant* ; Korea ; Marital Status ; Mass Screening ; MMPI ; Mothers ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Temperament ; Weight Loss ; Weights and Measures

No abstract available.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome*

A scale to screen children's behavior was developed to be used by pediatrician before examining the children brought to them for possible behavioral or developmental problems. The scale consisted of 2 parts. In the first part, there were 15 subjective questions about children's behavior and development which parents can answer in short sentences and in the second part, there were 36 behavioral items with answers in 1 to 7 grades and "yes" or "no", depending whether the each behavior caused any problem to parents. Concern score was the sum of answers of 15 subjective questions, intensity sore the sum of answers of 36 items and problem score the sum of the answers whether the behavior was a problem to parent or not. From July, 992 to October, 1993, the mothers who brought their children to the department of pediatrics of Ewha Woman's University Hospital with concern of children's behavior or development were asked to fill out the questionnaire before seeing the pediatrician. "Problem" children who were diagnosed to have one of behavioral or developmental disorders were 168 and control children in well baby clinical or with acute pediatric problems were 121 in numbers. The results were as follow: @WN 1) Diagnoses of "problem" children were, in order of frequency, infantile autism, mental retardation, developmental language disorder, Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. 2) All of concern, intensity and problem scores were significantly higher in "problem" children compared with those of control. 3) Specificities of concern of concern, intensity and problem scores were high but only concern sore had high sensitivity, specificity, positive prodictive value and negative predictive value. 4) Concern score can be used in screening "problem" children with score 7 as cut-off point. In conclusion, in this behavioral scale, concern score which reflect subjective view of parents on children's behavior and development can be used in screening of children with behavioral and developmental problems.
Asperger Syndrome ; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity ; Autistic Disorder ; Child ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Intellectual Disability ; Language Development Disorders ; Mass Screening* ; Mothers ; Parents ; Pediatrics ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Sensitivity and Specificity

No abstract available.
Humans ; Parturition* ; Spouses*

No abstract available.
Humans ; *Peer Review, Research