No abstract available.
Depression*

Polydipsia occurs frequently in chronic schizophrenic patients, some of whom develop hyponatremia. Although the underlying pathophysiology of polydipsia among psychiatric patients, recent reports indicate that clozapine treatment improves polydipsia-hyponatremia in schizophrenia. Two schizophrenic patients with polydipsia, followed for more than two years, showed improvement on clozapine. Case 1 was a patient without history of hyponatremia who improved from polydipsia and psychosis. Case 2 was an inpatient with polydipsia and hyponatremia who showed improvement of polydipsia and did nor recur hyponatremia. The limited information provided by these case reports suggest the need for controlled studies of the clozapine effect on schizophrenic patients with polydipsia.
Clozapine* ; Humans ; Hyponatremia ; Inpatients ; Polydipsia* ; Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia*

In almost all countries, older adults present higher suicide rates than young people and generally, lifetime suicide risk and the wish to die are positively correlated with increase in age. In Korea, the number of the population in the elderly has been increased more rapidly than other age groups. Through analyzing the officially reported suicidal statistics, we found that the rates and number of elderly suicide in Korea have been increased since 1985, and suicide was most prevalent among 'old and old' and tended to be more prevalent among men, like western world. Some studies about the elderly suicide were reviewed. A community survey reported that 14.6% of the elderly aged 65 years and over in rural area had repeated feelings that they wanted to die during the pervious 2 weeks, and the significant associated factors with the wish to die were depressive disorder, age 85 and over, and poor economical status. But there have been a few studies about the elderly suicide, suicide attempt and death thought in Korea. The needs to understand suicide among the elderly is becoming more urgent and should generate more research. Knowledge of the conditions leading to suicide will aid clinicians and public policy makers by facilitating the effective development of intervention and prevention programs.
Adult ; Aged* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Depressive Disorder ; Humans ; Korea* ; Male ; Public Policy ; Suicide* ; Western World

No abstract available.
Dementia*

Nevus lipomatosus cutaneus superficialis is a very rare skin disease which appears at birth or within the firat two decades of life. This uncommon condition is due to collections of ectopic fat cells within the upper and mid-dermis. There are two clinical forms. The first form is a lesion of zonal distribution, present from birth or childhood, usually on the buttocks or the lower back. The second form, a dome or sessile, papule, begins in adult life and is less restricted in distribution, and occurs also on the limbs Coalescence of soft, yellowish papules tends to form cerebriform plaques. The authors experienced two cases of typical nevus lipomatosus cutaneus superficialis. The first case was a 23-year male who had asymptomatic, soft, skin colored, and pea sized confluent nodules on the right lower back area since at birth. The second case was a 35-year female who had asymptomatic, multiple, soft, skin colored from rice to walnut sized confluent nodules on the coccygeal area which developed at the age of 27. Diagnosis was confirmed by clinical and histopathological findings.
Adipocytes ; Adult ; Buttocks ; Diagnosis ; Extremities ; Female ; Fluconazole ; Humans ; Juglans ; Male ; Nevus* ; Parturition ; Peas ; Skin ; Skin Diseases

Epidermolytic hyperkeratosis is a rare disease which is extremely variable in its severity. In some patients it may be so severe and generalized during the neonatal period as to be lifethreatening, in others, it is relatively inconspicuous. A bullous eruption is the characteristic finding of the epidermolytic hyperkeratosis The bullous episodes soon become less frequent and more localized and may eventually cesse, but continue into adult life after the age of 20 years in at least 20% of cases. A case of epidermolytic hyperkeratosis is represented. The patient was a 25-year-old male who had ichthyosiform erythroderma and the frequent episades of bullous eruption. The bullous eruption had been subsided under the treatment with oral penicillin administration. The histopathological features of the bullous lesion on his abdomen revealed the features of epidermolytic hyperkeratosis.
Abdomen ; Adult ; Blister ; Dermatitis, Exfoliative ; Humans ; Hyperkeratosis, Epidermolytic* ; Male ; Penicillins ; Rare Diseases

Korea is rapidly aging society and psychiatric disorders of the elderly increasing Korea is rapidly becoming an aging society and psychiatric disorders of the elderly are increasing significantly in importance. Interviewing the elderly requires special skills because of their physical weakness and cognitive impairments such as difficulty concentrating. There are various diagnostic tools for them, for more accurate diagnosis. Representative scales include the Mini-Mental Status Examination for dementia, the Geriatric Depression Scale for depression, and the Confusional Assessment Method for delirium. Differential diagnosis of psychiatric disorders from cerebral and physical disorders is important.
Aged ; Aging ; Delirium ; Dementia ; Depression ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Geriatric Psychiatry ; Humans ; Korea ; Weights and Measures

This study was undertaken for the clinical analysis and evaluation on 121 patients with incompetent internal os of the cervix, who were admitted and treated with McDonald operation or Shirodkar operation at the Soonchounhyang Medical Center from January 1991 to December 1995. The results of this study were as follows : 1. The incidence of this IIOC was 1.1% of 11,116 cases of total delivery. 2. The mean age of IIOC was 31.7 years old. 3. The average number of gravida was 3.2. 4. The most common contributary factor was previous history of artificial abortion (51.2 %), and midtrimester abortion (17.4 %), cervical laceration due to previous vaginal delivery (8.3 %) etc. was followed. 5. The success rate of operation was 76 %, and the highest success rate (85.7 %) was reveald with period from 15th weeks to 16th weeks of gestation. 6. When cervical dilatation was abscent or small, the success rate of operation was high. 7. The factors of failed operation were preterm labor (58.7 %), PROM (34.5 %), and PIH, bleeding. 8. The delivery method after operation was vaginal delivery in 83 cases (68.6%) and cesarean section in 38 cases (31.4 %).
Cervix Uteri* ; Cesarean Section ; Female ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Incidence ; Labor Stage, First ; Lacerations ; Obstetric Labor, Premature ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second

Many methods of correcting secondary cleft lip nose deformity have been introduced, but a single best method that can be uniformly adjusted for all cases does not exist. Since it is difficult to make the nostril of the cleft side symmetric with that of normal side, the authors tried to formulate the basis for correction of unilateral secondary cleft lip nose deformity according to the varying amounts of deformed nostril. We then adopted 4 different methods of correcting the soft tissue and nostril deformity in 63 patients from 1996 to 1998 and surveyed the results. Our principles were as follows: 1) Alar rim incision was done in cases of different-shaped cleft-side nostrils with nearly the same measured area in comparison to the normal side. 2) When deformity of the alar-columellar web was severe, we performed modified Z-plasty. 3) When the nostril of the cleft-side nostril was smaller than the normal side with slight asymmetry, reverse W-plasty was done. 4) We adopted a reverse-U incision when there was a discrepancy in height with moderate asymmetry compared with the normal nostril. After dissection, repositioning of alar cartilage was done by same method in each case. A nasal stent was kept in position for at least 6 months postoperatively in almost all cases. After follow-up of 6 to 24 months, we concluded that our choice was correct in selecting the optimal operative method, considering the characteristics of deformity of the cleft side nostril in an effort to make it symmetric with that of the normal side.
Cartilage ; Cleft Lip* ; Congenital Abnormalities* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Nose* ; Stents

The search for the ideal augmentation material of facial soft tissues has been an ongoing effort for many years. Injectable soft tissue substitutes provide an affordable, non-surgical alternative for correcting contour defects in facial skin. A safe and effective material for this purpose should respect certain characteristics that it should be biocompatible, non-antigenic, nonpyrogenic, noninflammatory, noninflammatoy, nontoxic, easy to use, stable after injection, non-migratory, long-lasting but reabsorbable, natural looking and not too expensive. Although many biomaterials are currently on the market, none meets all the above criteria. The recent development of hyaluronic acid gels(Restylane ) for dermal implantation is therefore particularly interesting in treating the aging face. Restylane is produced in cultures of Equine streptococci by fermentation in presence of sugar, the hyaluronic acid chains are then chemically stabilized through permanent epoxidic cross-links that the manufacturer reports to alter only about 1% of the hyaluronan molecular network. The resulting viscoelastic transparnet gel, suitable for intradermal infection, has a concentration of 20 mg/ml, is delivered in disposable syringes (0.7 ml) ready for use, using a 30 gauge needles. The twenty-one patients in thirty area were treated with facial intradermal implantation of hyaluronic acid gel for augmentation therapy of wrinkles and folds for recoutouring. The results were evaluated in all patients by subjective judgment by the physician and the patients. This study provides a clinical evaluation of safety and efficacy of a cross-linked stabilized non-animal hyaluronic acid gel to determine its characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, and side-effects in Korean. We concluded that Restylane implantation was soft, easy to use and long lasting effective materials in augmentation therapy of soft tissue of face.
Aging ; Biocompatible Materials ; Fermentation ; Humans ; Hyaluronic Acid ; Judgment ; Needles ; Skin ; Syringes