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

No abstract available.
Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory*

No abstract available.
Kidney Transplantation*

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.
Veins

No abstract available.
Endothelial Cells*

No abstract available.
Endoderm* ; Endodermal Sinus Tumor*

No abstract available.