OBJECTIVE: To evaluate prospectively the efficacy and accuracy of transvaginal sonography(TVS), saline infusion sonohysterography(SIS) and hysteroscopy in the exploration of the uterine cavity. METHODS: 71 consecutive patients were evaluated with SIS who showed abnormal TVS findings, using saline instilled through endocervically placed balloon catheter with concurrent vaginal sonography. Among them, 41 patients also underwent hysteroscopy and surgery. Transvaginal sonography, sonohysterography, hysteroscopy were compaired with pathologic reports. RESULTS: Fifty-five of 71 sonohysterogram(77.5%) showed abnormal findings, Among them 41 patients have done hysteroscopy and biopsy. According to pathologic reports, sixteen patients were noted to have myoma(39.0%), twelve patients had polyps (21.3%), and both showed most frequent lesions. TVS, SIS, and hysteroscopy had a sensitivity of 94.4%, 91.1%, 94.4%, and a specificity of 40%, 42.8%, 60.0%, respectively and showed not so much different in detection rate. In case of submucosal myoma and polyps, hysteroscopy showed 100% sensitivity, and 92% specificity and showed much higher detection rate compared with SIS (81.2%, 92.0%). CONCLUSION: Transvaginal sonography and sonohysterography are good office diagnostic test in case of detecting variable gynecologic intrauterine abnormalities.
Biopsy ; Catheters ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; Humans ; Hysteroscopy* ; Myoma ; Polyps ; Prospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Uterine Hemorrhage*

BACKGROUND: There has been a lot of changes in prehospital medical environment with development of EMSS(emergency medical service systems). Especially in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the patients could survive when they are moved to the hospitals earlier. The purpose of this research is to know the status of EMSS in Korea by analyzing CPR(cardiopulmonary resuscitation) outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients at 3 hospital in the western area of Seoul and Incheon. METHODS: From July 1997 to June 1998, we collected data about out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims at Ewha Womens University Mokdong Hospital, Catholic University Medical College St. Mary Hospital, and Kachon University Chung Ang Gil Hospital. We used same record form based on the 'Utstein Style'. RESULTS: CPR were performed in 265 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients at 3 hospitals. One hundred twelve(42.3%) patients recovered the spontaneous circulation at least once and eight(3.0%) patients discharged alive. One hundred ninety four(73.2%) patients died of medical causes, one hundred two(38.5%) cardiogenic and ninety two(34.7%) non-cardiogenic, and seventy(26.4%) patients died of traumatic causes. Initial EKG showed VT/VF(ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation) in thirty one(11.7%) patients, asystole in one hundred fifty one(57.0%) patients and other rhythms in eighty three(31.3%) patients. Among one hundred two cardiogenic cardiac arrest patients, two(2.0%) patients was discharged alive. CONCLUSION: Overall survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac angst patients was 3% which was poorer than that of the western country. The proportion of the cardiogenic cause was 3% which was only hart of the western country. VT/VF is relatively not common as a initial EKG rhythm. These differences might be due to difference in the prevalence pattern of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest as well as prematurity of the EMSS.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Heart Arrest ; Humans ; Incheon ; Korea ; Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest* ; Prevalence ; Seoul ; Survival Rate

No abstract available.
Adult* ; Hamartoma* ; Humans ; Thorax*

Recently, westernized diet and lifestyles have led to obesity and various adult diseases resulting in a negative influence on the quality of life. There has been an increased interest in choosing proper diet and regular exercise in order to lead a healthy life. The number of people looking for dietary supplements has increased steadily. Dietary supplements are products intended to help maintain or improve the health of consumers. However, if customers take dietary supplements excessively, they may be harmful due to side effects, misuse, abuse and overdose. I performed a toxicologic review of the dietary supplements, glucosamine and chitosan, which are widely used in the country in order to provide the proper understanding of safety of these products.
Adult ; Chitosan ; Diet ; Dietary Supplements ; Glucosamine ; Humans ; Life Style ; Obesity ; Quality of Life

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to develop the Korean version of Adolescent Symptom Checklist(ASC) which was devised by Thomas et al.(1988), to investigate descriptive data of somatic symptoms which our adolescents reported and to find the correlation between somatic symptom and self-esteem. And furthermore we compared our results with those of foreign countries. METHOD: The subject group was composed of 794 students who go to commercial or academic high school in kwangju city. They completed self rating questionnaires which include ASC, Self-esteem scale and somatization and depression subscales of SCL-90-R. The descriptive statistics, reliability and validity of ASC, means of somatic symptom and self-esteem for each group and correlation of somatic symptom and self-esteem were examined. We would consider an adolescent as belonging to high risk group if their score on the ASC was one or more standard deviations above the mean. RESULTS: Seventeen point eight percent of all subjects were in high risk group and the pacentage was higher than 11-15% of foreign countries. Sixty nine point four percent had visited to hospital due to their somatic symptoms during the past 12months and 26.2% were treated by doctors recently. Internal consistency(Cronbach a .89) was high. Inter-item correlations were all positive and ranged from .09 to .58 with a mean of .29 and item-total correlations varied from .35 to .60 with a mean of .48. The ASC was significantly correlated with the somatization and depression subscales of SCL-90-R. Somatic symptoms of female group were much more frequent than those of male group. The higher their grade is, the more somatic symptoms they complained. There were signiticant negative correlations between somatic symptoms and self-esteem in all groups. CONCLUSION: By the result of this study, we suggest that ASC can be used as a tool for evaluation of adolescent's somatic symptoms. We showed that the frequency of somatic symptoms in adolescents were higher in females than in males, and were higher in upper grade than in lower grade. We also showed that the more somatic symptoms they complained, the lower self-esteem they had.
Adolescent* ; Depression ; Female ; Gwangju ; Humans ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results

No abstract available.
Herpes Zoster*

A defective HIV-1 helper virus DNA, pHyPC, was assembled by deleting the RNA packaging signal, env, nef and the 3'LTR sequences. HIV-1 like virus particles that carry the HIV-1 receptor, CD4 were generated by coexpression of pHyPC and plasmid DNAs encoding different chimeric CD4 proteins. The CD4 particles, sharing the CD4 ectodomain, precisely fused to different membrane anchors. CD4(+) particles specifically bound to HIV-1 Env expressing cells, but any signs of infection into these cells were not detected. Binding was only partially blocked by either polyclonal anti-CD4 antibodies or by high concentrations of soluble CD4. Suprisingly, CD4(+) particles also adsorbed to HeLa, CHO, NIH3T3 and COS-7 cells in the absence of HIV-1 Env expression. Adsorption was comparable in strength and speed to the highly specific CD4-Env interaction. CD4(-) particles exhibited only background levels of binding. Cell binding was CD4- dependent, but it was independent of the cell type from which the CD4(+) particles originated. Interestingly, CD4-dependent/Env-independent binding was only found when CD4 was present on virus particles. This suggests that the micro-environment of CD4 on virus particles uniquely expose this new cell binding activity. Its high affinity could explain in part why infection of Env(+) cells by CD4(+) particles was not detected. Further experiments will be required to evlauate whether this strong membrane interaction could represent one step in the multiple-step viral entry process.
Adsorption ; Animals ; Antibodies ; COS Cells ; DNA ; Helper Viruses ; HIV-1* ; Membranes ; Plasmids ; Product Packaging ; RNA ; Virion

Methylene blue is a very effective reducer of drug-induced methemoglobinemia. It has dose-dependent oxidation or reduction properties. In most cases, a dose of 1 to 2 mg/kg IV given over 5 minutes and immediately followed by a 15- to 30-mL fluid flush to minimize the local pain is both effective and relatively safe. The onset of action is quite rapid, and the effects are usually seen within 30 minutes. The dose may be repeated after 30 to 60 minutes and then every 2 to 4 hours as needed. The total dose should not exceed 7 mg/kg as a single dose or 15 mg/kg within 24 hours. Repeated treatment may be needed for treating compounds that have prolonged elimination or those compounds that undergo enterohepatic recirculation (e.g., dapsone). Methylene blue can cause dose-related toxicity. At high doses, methylene blue can also induce an acute hemolytic anemia and rebound methemoglobinemia. The reasons for treatment failure with methylene blue include ineffective GI decontamination, the existence of other forms of hemoglobin (e.g., sulfhemoglobin), a low or high dose of methylene blue and the toxicokinetics of some agents, such as aniline, benzocaine or dapsone.
Anemia, Hemolytic ; Aniline Compounds ; Benzocaine ; Dapsone ; Decontamination ; Hemoglobins ; Methemoglobinemia ; Methylene Blue ; Treatment Failure

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of parental stress, social support, and coping behavior on burnout among mothers caring for children with cerebral palsy. METHODS: Participants in this cross-sectional, descriptive study were 185 mothers who completed a self-report structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation and multiple linear regression analyses with IBM SPSS Win 22 program. RESULTS: Parental stress and coping behavior were strong predictors of burnout among mothers of children with cerebral palsy. These variables explained 50.0% of the variance in burnout. Social support was not a predictor of burnout. A higher level of burnout was associated with higher levels of parental stress and lower levels of social support and coping behavior. CONCLUSION: Mothers of children with cerebral palsy are vulnerable to burnout. These results show that effective strategies for reducing parental stress and improving positive coping behavior are needed to reduce burnout in these mothers.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Cerebral Palsy* ; Child* ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Mothers* ; Parenting ; Parents ; Stress, Psychological

No abstract available.
Child ; Histiocytoma, Benign Fibrous ; Humans