Two cases of congenital multiple joint laxity are reported here. One was a 18-year-old boy, in whom the hypermobility of the joints was striking that 4 criterias (Carter & Wilkinson, 1964) could be observed. The other was a 18-year-old male who showed positive findings in three of the five diagnostic criterias. In both no familiar occurrence was noted.
Adolescent ; Humans ; Joint Instability ; Joints ; Male ; Strikes, Employee

Nedocromil sodium is an anti-inflammatory medication for the treatment of mild to moderate asthma. The most common side effect of the nedocromil sodium is an unpleasant and bitter taste. However it is rare, less than 3%, to stop the treatment because of this side effect. Other side effects includes cough, headache, throat irritation and nausea which are reported as mild and transient. A 7-year-old female had a severe headache and dizziness during the treatment of asthma with nedocromil sodium. The symptoms subsided after nedocromil sodium was replaced by budesonide. We experienced a case of a severe headache and dizziness due to nedocomil sodium that lead to withdraw of the nedocromil sodium.
Asthma ; Budesonide ; Child ; Cough ; Dizziness* ; Female ; Headache* ; Humans ; Nausea ; Nedocromil* ; Pharynx ; Sodium

PURPOSE: This study was performed to find out the role of routine lumbar puncture in children presented with their first seizure with Fever. METHODS: This study included 220 children, over a 5 year period, from April 1999 to March 2003, who visited or were admitted at Dae Dong Hospital with their first febrile convulsion. Lumbar puncture was performed in all children. We analyzed their age, family history, type of seizure, duration of seizure, cause of fever, and the results of lumbar puncture. RESULTS: In the sex distribution, males(58.6%) outnumbered females(41.4%) and the ratio was 1.2:1. 81.7% of the patients had febrile convulsion from 6 months- to 3 years of age(P<0.05). 30.5% also had family history of febrile convulsion. The types of seizure were generalized tonic-clonic(72.7%), generalized tonic(17.7%), and generalized clonic(6.4 %). For the duration of seizure, 90.4% of the patients were estimated less than 15 minutes(P<0.05). The causes of fever were pharyngotonsilitis(40.5%), gastroenteritis(19.1 %), pneumonia or bronchitis(13.2%), meningitis(11%), otitis media, urinary tract infection, and exanthem subitum. However, 9.1% of the patients were diagnosed meningitis, with 18 of 20 patients under 3 years of age. CONCLUSION: In the first seizure with fever, lumbar puncture is a useful method for meningitis, especially under 3 years of age.
Child* ; Exanthema ; Fever* ; Humans ; Meningitis ; Otitis Media ; Pneumonia ; Seizures* ; Seizures, Febrile ; Sex Distribution ; Spinal Puncture* ; Urinary Tract Infections

There are many studies on the neurobehavioral symptoms due to organic solvent exposure using questionnaire. However there is little published evidence on validity and reliability of the questionnaire on the neurobehavioral symptoms. In present study, the authors tested the validity and reliability of our questionnaire, which was designed for screening neurobehavioral disturbance in organic solvent exposer. Questionnaire was administered to the workers of one paint manufacturing plant and one coil manufacturing plant. In order to evaluate validity of the questionnaire, the average questionnaire scores of two plants were compared. The average score of paint manufacturing plant were higher than that of coil manufacturing plant and the difference was statistically significant. After adjustment of age, duration of employment, education, smoking history and alcohol consumption, significance was maintained. Test-retest reliability was evaluated by kappa statistics. More than 50% of question items showed values of kappa above 0.4, Cronbach coefficient alpha whoch reflects internal consistency of the questionnaire was 0.86. Overall the data showed that validity and reliability of the questionnaire were generally acceptable.
Alcohol Drinking ; Education ; Employment ; Mass Screening ; Paint ; Plants ; Questionnaires* ; Reproducibility of Results* ; Smoke ; Smoking

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: It is not clear how to make a stable bonding between zirconia ceramic and resin cement. And the study about surface treatment of zirconia ceramic or bonding resin cement are not enough. PURPOSE: To measure and compare the shear bond strength of some resin cements on zirconia ceramic after different surface treatments. MATERIAL AND METHOD: 48 ceramic discs were made of 3 ceramic materials, zirconia ceramics Zi-Ceram), heat-pressed ceramics (IPS Empress 2) and slip cast alumina ceramics (In-Ceram). According to the surface treatments of ceramic specimens and resin cements, specimens were classified into 6 groups and each group was composed of 8 specimens. For the surface treatment of Zi-Ceram group (test group), sandblasting and diamond bur preparation were applied and Superbond C&B and Panavia F were bonded respectively. For IPS Empress 2 group (control group), Variolink II was bonded after sandblasting, acid etching, silanization and for In-Ceram ALUMINA group (control group), Panavia F was bonded after sandblasting. After storing specimens in distilled water for 24 hours, the shear bond strength was measured by the universal testing machine. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: 1. Zi-Ceram group with Superbond C&B cement showed higher bond strength than with Panavia F cement regardless to the surface treatments (p<0.05). 2. In Zi-Ceram group with Superbond C&B cement, sandblasting treatment group (12.1MPa) showed higher bond strength than diamond bur treatment group (7.7MPa) (p<0.05). In Zi-Ceram group with Panavia F cement, there were no significant differences in the bond strength according to the surface treatments (p>0.05). 3. Zi-Ceram group with sandblasting and Superbond C&B cement (12.1MPa) showed the highest bond strength. The bond strength of this group was not significantly different from In-Ceram ALUMINA group (10.4MPa) (p>0.05) and lower than IPS Empress 2 group (15.9MPa) (p<0.05).
Aluminum Oxide ; Ceramics* ; Dental Instruments ; Resin Cements* ; Water

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess the relationship between long-term exposure to air pollution and lung cancer in the Republic of Korea. METHODS: Using the Annual Report of Ambient Air Quality in Korea, Annual Report of National Cancer Registration, and Annual Report on the Cause of Death Statistics, we calculated the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) and standardized incidence ratio (SIR) of lung cancer for both sexes in 74 areas from 7 Korean metropolitan cities. We performed random intercept, Poisson regression using empirical Bayes method. RESULTS: Both SMRs and SIRs in the 7 metropolitan cities were higher in women than in men. Mean SIRs were 99.0 for males and 107.0 for females. The association between PM(10) and lung cancer risk differed according to gender. PM(10) was not associated with the risk of lung cancer in males, but both incidence and mortality of lung cancer were positively associated with PM(10) in females. The estimated percentage increases in the rate of female lung cancer mortality and incidence were 27% and 65% at the highest PM(10) category (> or = 70 microgram/m(3)), compared to the referent category (<50 microgram/m(3)). CONCLUSIONS: Long-term exposure to PM(10) was significantly associated with female lung cancer incidence in 7 Korean metropolitan cities. Further study is undergoing to estimate the relative risk of PM(10) using multi-level analysis for controlling individual and regional confounders such as smoking and socioeconomic position.
Air Pollution/*adverse effects ; Environmental Exposure/*adverse effects ; Female ; Humans ; Korea/epidemiology ; Lung Neoplasms/*epidemiology/mortality ; Male ; Sex Distribution ; Urban Health

A study has been conducted on developing questionnaire to serve as on site diagnostic tools for the early detection of neuropsychiatric impairment among workers chronically exposed to low-level organic solvents. Two drafts of tentative questionnaire have been developed as follows ; several question items were selected from questionnaires which were administered to workers exposed to organic solvents in previous studies and were grouped into each symptom category based on the presence of its association using Guttman scaling method, then these selected items were reviewed by neuropsychiatry specialists. The final draft of the questionnaire (total symptom score=36) was developed by selecting 33 question items which had more than a 0.88 Guttman coefficient of reproducibility in each symptom category from a pilot study in which these tentative questionnaires were administered to workers manufacturing soles. Three plants using organic solvents and one plant never using organic solvents as a control group were selected to test the reliability and validity of the developed questionnaires. The major organic solvent in the workplace environment detected by a personal air sampler and GC/MSD was toluene. The concentration of toluene in air from the department using organic solvent was statistically different from that of the department never using organic solvent. The concentration of toluene from almost all of the workplace did not exceed the allowable level. There was no statistically significant difference between the concentration of urinary hippuric acid from the workers of the department using organic solvent and that of the department never using it. Total symptom score of the plant never using organic solvents was 9.8 and those of the three plants using organic solvents were 15.6, 14.7, and 13.7 respectively. In order to evaluate the validity of the questionnaires, the workers from two different department of the plant in which usage of organic solvents are totally different were compared. The total symptom score was 17.8 for workers of the department using organic solvent and 13.5 for the department never using organic solvent and scores of each symptom group between exposure and non-exposure group also showed statistically significant difference. The finding that total symptom score of the usefulness of the developed questionnaire to assess the health effects of chronic exposure to organic solvents. The correlation coefficient, which was calculated to evaluate the test-retest reliability, was 0.581(p=0.001). The coefficient of Crohnbach which reflects the internal consistency of the questionnaire was 0.91. In conclusion, the reliability of the questionnaire was well maintained over the time lapse between the two administrations of the questionnaire and despite the seasonal difference.
Humans ; Neuropsychiatry ; Pilot Projects ; Plants ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results ; Seasons ; Solvents ; Specialization ; Toluene

Laryngeal schwannoma is extremely rare. We report the CT and MRI findings of a case occurring in a 65-year-oldwoman, and describe the pathologic correlation. Pre-contrast CT scanning revealed a right supraglot-tic mass witha slightly hyperdense central part and a hypodense peripheral part. Post-contrast CT scanning re-vealed anenhanced hyperdense central part and a rim-like hypodense peripheral part. The density of the pe-ripheral part waslower than that of muscle. The mass showed homogeneous low signal intensity on T1-weighted MR images, homogeneoushigh signal intensity on T2-weighted MR images, and an enhanced high signal intensity central part and a lowsignal intensity peripheral part on gadolinium enhanced T1-weighted images. The enhanced central part correlatedwith Antoni A areas and the peripheral part, showing low attenuation, correlated with Antoni B areas.
Gadolinium ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neurilemmoma* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Choledochal cyst is a congenital anomaly with classic triad of abdominal pain, jaundice and right upper abdominal mass. Bile peritonitis caused by cyst rupture is relatively not rare in infancy. The mechanism of rupture must be epithelial irritation of the biliary tract by refluxed pancreatic juice caused by pancreatico-biliary malunion associated with mural immaturity in infancy, rather than an abnormal rise in ductal pressure or congenital mural weakness at a certain point. We experienced a case of bile peritonitis caused by spontanenous rupture of choledochal cyst in a 10-month-old girl presented with abdominal distension, persistent fever, diarrhea, irritability and intractable ascites. She was presumed as having bile peritonitis by bile colored ascitic fluid with elevated bilirubin level and diagnosis was made by 99mTc DISIDA hepatobiliary scan showing extrahepatic biliary leak. The perforated cyst was surgically removed and the biliary tree was reconstructed with a Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy.
Abdominal Pain ; Ascites ; Ascitic Fluid ; Bile* ; Biliary Tract ; Bilirubin ; Choledochal Cyst* ; Diagnosis ; Diarrhea ; Female ; Fever ; Humans ; Infant* ; Jaundice ; Pancreatic Juice ; Peritonitis* ; Radionuclide Imaging* ; Rupture ; Rupture, Spontaneous* ; Technetium Tc 99m Disofenin

Ullrich's disease is a congenital muscular dystrophy clinically characterized by generalized muscle weakness, multiple contractures of the proximal joints, and hyperextensibility of the distal joints. All the patients develop rigidity of spine, often assoicated with scoliosis, failure to thrive, and early and severe respiratory involvement, irrespective of their levels of motor function. Intellectual development is normal. The biopsied muscles show dystrophies including remarkable variation in the fiber size, notably proliferated endomysial connective tissues, and a lot of degenerated and regenerated fibers. The expression of merosin and dytrophin is normal. Recent studies have demonstrated that collagen VI is deficient in the muscles of the patients with Ullrich's disease, and some result from recessive mutations of the collagen VIalpha 2 gene(COL6A2). And a marked reduction of fibronectin receptors in the extracellular matrix of skin and cultured fibroblasts of these patients is also reported. These results suggest that collagen VI deficiency may lead to the reduction of fibronectin receptors and that any abnormalities of cell adhesion may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. A case of Ullrich's disease has not been reported yet in Korea. So, we describe a male patient with Ullrich's disease with a brief review of the literature.
Cell Adhesion ; Collagen ; Connective Tissue ; Contracture ; Extracellular Matrix ; Failure to Thrive ; Fibroblasts ; Humans ; Integrin alpha5beta1 ; Joints ; Korea ; Laminin ; Male ; Muscle Weakness ; Muscles ; Muscular Dystrophies ; Receptors, Fibronectin ; Scoliosis ; Skin ; Spine