No abstract available.
Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G* ; Immunoglobulins* ; Immunotherapy* ; Infertility* ; Pregnancy*

No abstract available.
Brain Death* ; Brain* ; Humans ; Organ Transplantation* ; Tissue Donors* ; Transplants*

BACKGROUND: Socio-economic factors, culture, and the health care delivery system are all associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, their significance and prevalence in Korea have not been precisely determined. The purposes of this study were to identify factors related to increased CVD risk among Koreans, and compare the results with those of previous studies. METHODS: This study is an analysis of secondary data collected through the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. For the purposes of this research, CVD is defined as medically diagnosed hypertension, stroke, angina, and myocardial infarction. Of the 38,746 survey participants, we analyzed 4,727 subjects who suffered from CVD. RESULTS: Before the age of 50, men have a greater risk of CVD than women while a woman's risk of CVD after 50 begins to rise with age. Socioeconomic factors such as education, income, single living pattern, chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes mellitus (DM), depression, rheumatic arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, body mass index and waist circumference, lipids, physical activity, and diet are all associated with the prevalence of CVD. A multi-variate analysis demonstrated that CKD (odds ratio, OR=5.266, P<0.001) and DM (OR=2.872, P<0.001) are the strongest independent predictors of CVD among Koreans. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of CVD among Korean was about 12.2%. While most risk factors had similar influence on the development of CVD, depression, CKD, and DM showed stronger correlations than those seen in studies performed in other countries. Our results show that a greater importance should be placed on strict and early management of these diseases.
Body Mass Index ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Chronic Disease ; Delivery of Health Care ; Depression ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diet ; Female ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Korea ; Male ; Motor Activity ; Myocardial Infarction ; Nutrition Surveys ; Prevalence ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic ; Rheumatic Fever ; Risk Factors ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Stroke ; Waist Circumference

Prostaglandins which are produced from amnionic cells are known to play a major role in uterine contraction and cervical dilatation in human. Recently it is reported that aspirin increases the expression of PGHS-1 and PGHS-2 in trophoblast cells from placenta. We examined here the changes of immunoreactive prostaglandin H synthase (PGHS) level by aspirin in cultured cells from amniotic fluid and human amnionic WISH cells. PMA (10-7 M), an activator of protein kinase C increased the induction of PGHS-2 in both cells with or without fetal calf serum. PGHS-2 protein was also increased significantly by 10-4 M aspirin at 6 hours in both cells in the presence of serum but it was not increased in the absence of serum. The expression of PGHS-1 protein was enhanced by asprin but not by PMA in the absence of serum. Other anti-inflammatory drugs such as acetaminophen, indomethacin, dexame- thasone, and mefenamic acid increased the PGHS-2 protein level in WISH cells. PMA-induced PGHS-2 expression in WISH cells was not decreased by aspirin, on the contrary, the level was increased additively. Our results show that the increased expression of PGHS in amnion cells or other amniotic fluid cells by aspirin and other several anti-inflammatory drugs is through an unidentified effect rather than feedback effect by depletion of prostaglandin.
Acetaminophen ; Amnion* ; Amniotic Fluid ; Aspirin* ; Cell Line* ; Cells, Cultured* ; Cyclooxygenase 2 ; Female ; Humans ; Indomethacin ; Labor Stage, First ; Mefenamic Acid ; Placenta ; Pregnancy ; Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases* ; Prostaglandins ; Protein Kinase C ; Trophoblasts ; Uterine Contraction

No abstract available.
Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory*

No abstract available.
Kidney Transplantation*

No abstract available.
Veins

No abstract available.
Endothelial Cells*

No abstract available.
Sternotomy*

BACKGROUND: It is well known that Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is hardly controllable organism among pathogens of nosocomial infection. The MRSA infection control measures have been initiated at a brand new tertiary care teaching hospital which was opened in June, 1994. However, the control measures did bring out little effect. In 1997, reenforcement of all control measures were practiced in intensive care units. The measures brought out a significant improvement in reducing the incidence of MRSA infection, subsequently the same control measures were implemented through-out the entire inpatient area. METHODS: The following control measures have been reenforced since March 1997: first, application of thorough surveillance of confirmed MRSA infected patients: second, providing cohort care: third, enforcing handwashing practices after patient contact; fourth, establishing infected patients isolation zone: fifth, tagging infected patient's bed and medical record, providing disinfectant spray for washing hands, identifying and treating carriers among patient contact staffs, separate disposal of contaminated wastes, and finally repeating education of nursing staff and family members of the patients. Each month the number of incidence in MRSA nosocomial infection were followed and the leu supervisors were notified the outcome. RESULTS: The incidence of MRSA infection started to decline soon after the initiation of the control measures, from 132% in March 1997 to 5.8% in July 1997. In 1998, the infection rate maintained close to 2-3%. There had been 467 MRSA infected cases (5.7%) out of 8,253 discharges during the study period; among them 319 cases were infected once; 40 cases twice; 15 cases three times: four cases four times and 1 case seven times. The order of preference of organs infected are lungs (56.3%), wounds(11.8%), blood (7.9%), and urinary tract (1.9%). The highest incidence of this infection was found in Medicine (34.8%) and Neurosurgery (22.8%) CONCLUSION: The implementation and reenforcement of infection control measures are key to successful control of nosocomial infection, in particular, hand washing of patient contact staffs and eradication of carriers could be the most effective measures.
Cohort Studies ; Cross Infection* ; Education ; Hand ; Hand Disinfection ; Hospitals, Teaching ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infection Control ; Inpatients ; Intensive Care Units* ; Critical Care* ; Lung ; Medical Records ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus* ; Neurosurgery ; Nursing Staff ; Tertiary Healthcare ; Urinary Tract