Drowning is one of the most common causes accidental death worldwide, but its diagnosis remains a challenging task in forensic pathology. Several authors have suggested that diatom analysis be conducted via an enzymatic digestion method that uses proteinase K to provide objective evidence for drowning; we employed this method in our study because of its superior applicability as compared to the conventional disorganization methods. The purpose of this study was to examine the reclaiming ratio of diatoms from experimentally drowned animal organs, which could be influenced by diatom morphology. The authors injected 3 diatoms species (Cyclotella striata, Navicula incerta, and Pleurosigma angulatum) into a rat's airway and compared the detection rate to investigate the factors that influence the sensitivity of diatom analysis. The results are as follows: (1) Average reclaiming ratio in the lungs was 81.07 for Navicula incerta, 48.26 for Cyclotella striata, and 5.35 for Pleurosigma angulatum. (2) The detection rates from the closed organs in 15 experimental animals were highest in the kidney (73%, 11/15), followed by the heart (67%, 10/15), brain (60%, 9/15), and liver (53%, 8/15). (3) Two Cyclotella striata was detected in the kidney of postmortem control group which suggest the possibility of contamination during laboratory procedure. In conclusion, the authors propose that diatom size could be a significant influencing factor for diatom extraction from the organs of drowned bodies; therefore, the results of diatom analysis must be interpreted after considering the diatom population of the drowning medium at the scene and the possibility of contamination during the laboratory procedure.
Animal Structures ; Animals ; Brain ; Diatoms ; Digestion ; Drowning ; Endopeptidase K ; Forensic Pathology ; Heart ; Kidney ; Liver ; Lung

The subject were 653 male patients with uncomplicated gonorrhea at the VD Clinic of Choong Ku Public Health Center in Seoul from January to November 1985. 653 male patients with uncomplicated gonococcal infection were treated one of the following regimens. Five treatment regimens used were 2, 0 gm spectinomycin single 1M, 4 0 mega unit fortified procain penicillin G+2. 0 gm kanamycin sulfate IM preceded by 1 pgm probenecid PO, 6.0 mega unit fortified procain penicillin G+2 pgm kanamycin sulfate IM preceded by 1. 0 gm probenecid PO, 5, 0 rnega unit aqueous crystaline penicillin+2. 0 gm kanamycin sulfate irn preceded by 1, 0 gm probenecid PO and 9 tablets of cotrimoxazole+ 2. 0 gm kanamycin sulfate IM. There were no significant differences in the incidence of PGU among the five treatment groups. The overall PGU rate was 67.3% 59.2% and 53.6% at 3~5, 7~10 and 14 days after treatment respectively. The incidence of PGU at 7-10 days was not significantly higher than that of at 14 days after treatment. It is suggested that it is best to test PGU at 7 days after treatment. Because the longer one waits, the harder to follow the patients, and in earlier period, post-inflammatory irritation might be too frequent. It is also suggested that at 3 5 days after treatment examination of urethritis might serve to compare the effect of treatment regimens on the incidence of PGU.
Gonorrhea ; Humans ; Incidence ; Kanamycin ; Male ; Penicillins ; Probenecid ; Public Health ; Seoul ; Spectinomycin ; Tablets ; Urethritis*

Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome is one of the very rare genetic diseases which primarily affects face, hands and feet. At first, Freeman and Sheldon described this syndrome as cranio-carpo-tarsal dystrophy in 1938 and later Burian, as "whistling face" syndrome in 1963. There were 60 cases of reports in the world up to now, and only one paper with 5 cases in a family was reported in Korea. The authors report 2 cases of Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome associated with bilateral inguinal hernias and undescended tests in a family, briefly review the literature and alert orthopaedic surgeons to this condition.
Cryptorchidism ; Foot ; Hand ; Hernia, Inguinal ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Surgeons

OBJECTIVES: The object of this study was to help the clinicians understand the characteristics of the sailors who were admitted to the psychiatric ward through elucidating the transition in the psychiatric aspect of them. METHODS: The results obtained from psychiatric records of 98 sailors who were admitted to department of psychiatry in a general hospital, from March 1, 1985 to Feb. 28, 1994 were compared with the results obtained from 34 sailor inpatients in the same hospital from March 1, 1982 to Feb. 28, 1985. RESULTS: 1) The number of sailor inpatients showed declining tendency and the age of them showed increasing tendency. 2) The number of patients of somatoform disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and organic mental disorder was increased. The number of patients of schizophrenia and mood disorder was decreased. 3) The proportion of inpatients from overseas fishing ship was increased markedly. We must ave a countplan and careful consideration f3r them. 4) We could infer that the groups of low education, crew, overseas fishing ship and below S year of employment duration had high admitted patient occurrence rate. The proportion of psychosis in the groups that were primitive school graduated and 1-5 year of employment duration was high relatively to neurosis(statistically not significant). 5) According to psychological test, the majority of sailor inpatients had constricted thought content, emphasis of responsibility for the family, submissive attitude to an authoritive figure and paranoid tendency. The MMFI profile of neurotic patients showed the tendency of finking bad.
Neurocognitive Disorders ; Education ; Employment ; Hospitals, General* ; Humans ; Inpatients* ; Military Personnel* ; Mood Disorders ; Psychological Tests ; Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia ; Ships ; Somatoform Disorders ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

No Abstract Available.
Adult* ; Capsulorhexis* ; Cataract* ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Humans

INTRODUCTION: Excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy are key features of narcolepsy. Modafinil is psychostimulant used in the treatment of narcolepsy. In this study, we evaluated effects of modafinil on nocturnal sleep structure and sleep latency in multiple sleep latency test and clinical features. METHODS: Twelve narcoleptic patients (7 male, age: 22.9 +/- 2.6 yrs) were participated in the study. All of them had done nocturnal polysomnography (nPSG), multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), clinical symptoms scales and have repeated same procedure after taking 200 mg of modafinil. We have done linear mixed model analysis to describe effects of group, medication and nap time on these measures. RESULTS: Modafinil did not affect clinical scales except PSQI which had been reduced after medication. In this study, Modafinil reduced total sleep time, sleep efficiency and increased wake after sleep onset and percent of arousal during sleep in nocturnal polysomnography and prolonged mean sleep latency in multiple sleep latency tests in both group. DISCUSSION: Modafinil has stimulant effect of central nervous system but its effect on night sleep is less than other psychostimulants such as methylphenidate. We ascertained that modafinil affected total sleep time, sleep efficiency and percent of wake during sleep but did not effect on sleep structure. Modafinil was effective in the management of day time sleepiness. Modafinil can enhance alertness of control group without day time sleepiness.
Arousal ; Cataplexy ; Central Nervous System ; Humans ; Male ; Methylphenidate ; Narcolepsy* ; Polysomnography ; Weights and Measures

INTRODUCTION: Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is used as a way of studying nonlinearity of EEG. In this study, DFA is applied on sleep EEG of normal subjects to look into its nonlinearity in terms of EEG channels and sleep stages. METHOD: Twelve healthy young subjects (age: 23.8+/-2.5 years old, male:female=7:5) have undergone nocturnal polysomnography (nPSG). EEG from nPSG was classified in terms of its channels and sleep stages and was analyzed by DFA. Scaling exponents (SEs) yielded by DFA were compared using linear mixed model analysis. RESULTS: Scaling exponents (SEs) of sleep EEG were distributed around 1 showing long term temporal correlation and self-similarity. SE of C3 channel was bigger than that of O1 channel. As sleep stage progressed from stage 1 to slow wave sleep, SE increased accordingly. SE of stage REM sleep did not show significant difference when compared with that of stage 1 sleep. CONCLUSION: SEs of Normal sleep EEG showed nonlinear characteristic with scale-free fluctuation, long-range temporal correlation, self-similarity and self-organized criticality. SE from DFA differentiated sleep stages and EEG channels. It can be a useful tool in the research with sleep EEG.
Electroencephalography* ; Polysomnography ; Sleep Stages ; Sleep, REM

PURPOSE: Since the introduction of short vein bypass (SVB), many have reported its feasibility when long vein bypass (LVB) cannot be performed due to limited vein conduit. However, the presence of inflow-vessel disease may affect graft patency and thus require endovascular treatment prior to surgery. Our study aims to analyze the results between SVB and LVB. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 2009 to 2013, 27 bypass procedures were reviewed retrospectively. Outcomes such as patency rate, postoperative ankle brachial index (ABI) and limb salvage rate between SVB and LVB were compared. Wound healing time and primary patency rate were analyzed and the former was also analyzed according to the respective angiosome and revascularization type. RESULTS: There were 11 males and 16 females and the mean age was 66.6+/-12.3 years. Twenty four patients had TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus (TASC) D and 3 patients had TASC C lesions below knee. The 1-year cumulative patency rate between SVB and LVB were 63% and 66%, P=0.627. The limb salvage rate (100% vs. 73%; P=0.280) and postoperative ABI (0.592 vs. 0.508; P=0.620) were higher in the SVB group than in the LVB group, although the differences were not significant. There was no difference in wound healing time by angiosomal revascularization type. In situ vein graft showed higher patency rate than reversed greater saphenous vein (75% vs. 61%; P=0.00) CONCLUSION: The results of SVB were similar to those of LVB. SVB is feasible in the setting of limited conduit availability, in combination with endovascular treatment in the presence of proximal lesions.
Ankle Brachial Index ; Consensus ; Extremities* ; Female ; Humans ; Ischemia* ; Knee ; Limb Salvage ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Saphenous Vein ; Transplants* ; Veins* ; Wound Healing

Death by drowning is a major cause of unnatural death worldwide. It is therefore important to conduct forensic examination of immersed bodies following drowning, in order to determine the diagnosis of drowning, because no specific methods have been established thus far. Therefore, we performed a series of rat experiments to compare autopsy findings between seawater and fresh water drowning cases, which included the presence of pleural effusion and histologic findings of the lung. The results showed that the volume of pleural effusion increased in the seawater drowning group compared to the fresh water drowning group, and the total weight of lung was affected by the type of drowning medium and postmortem interval. However, histologic findings of the lung showed no significant difference between the 2 types of drowning mediums.
Animals ; Autopsy ; Drowning ; Fresh Water ; Lung ; Pleural Effusion ; Rats ; Seawater

Drowning is a leading cause of accidental deaths worldwide, but its pathological diagnosis remains a challenge for forensic pathologists owing to a lack of pathognomonic findings in drowning deaths and inconclusive autopsy findings caused by postmortem changes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the pathway taken by inhaled drowning medium through the airway after death in a variety of experimental conditions, including underwater pressurization. We used methylene blue dye to monitor the spread of drowning medium to the lungs. Results of theses experiments demonstrated that it is possible for a significant amount of downing medium to enter the airway during immersion after death. Our results suggest that autopsies of immersed bodies and interpretation of these findings should be performed with special care.
Animal Experimentation* ; Animals* ; Autopsy ; Diagnosis ; Drowning* ; Immersion ; Inhalation* ; Lung ; Methylene Blue* ; Postmortem Changes