Despite its rare occurrence, early diagnosis and appropriate treatment for neonatal herpes simplex virus infection are mandatory due to its high morbidity and mortality. In Korea, there has been no epidemiologic data on neonatal herpes simplex virus infection, and even case reports are rare. We observed a 16-day-old neonate who presented with fever and seizures. We diagnosed her with meningoencephalitis caused by herpes simplex virus type 2 based on the polymerase chain reaction test, and treated her with intravenous acyclovir and anticonvulsants. The seroprevalence of herpes simplex virus type 2 sharply increases in women in their 30s, and the average age for childbirth has increased to older than 30 years of age in Korea; we therefore expect that the incidence of neonatal herpes simplex virus type 2 infection will rise in Korea, and more attention should be directed to neonatal herpes simplex virus type 2 infection. We report this newborn patient's case along with a literature review.
Acyclovir ; Anticonvulsants ; Early Diagnosis ; Female ; Fever ; Herpesvirus 2, Human* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea ; Meningoencephalitis* ; Mortality ; Parturition ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Republic of Korea ; Seizures ; Seroepidemiologic Studies ; Simplexvirus

PURPOSE: To evaluate central corneal thickness and pachymetry maps in myopic eyes. METHODS: 104 eyes of 52 myopic patients were investigated using the Orbscan (Orbtek, Inc., USA). The pachymetry maps were designated as round, oval, decentred round, and decentred oval. Corneal thickness was evaluated at the central, eight-paracentral, and the thinnest sites on each of the corneas. We studied difference of corneal thickness under sex and myopic degree. And got the symmetry of the cornea under location of the thinnest sites. RESULTS: Superior cornea had the greatest average thickness (605.5+/-35.3 mu m). Average central corneal thickness (+/-SD) was 552.2 (+/-34.9) mu m. All corneas had the thinnest sites on 0.86 mm from the visual axis and most of all inferotemporal area (76.0%). There was no significant difference of corneal thickness in sex and myopic degree. Average thickness of the thinnest sites was 544.2 (+/-35.6) mu m and significantly thinner than center. 61.5% of the persons had symmetrically located thinnest corneal sites and most of all (57.7%) had temporal side symmetry. In the pachymetry maps, oval pattern was 47.1% of 104 eyes, andround, decentred oval, decentred round were observed in 43.3%, 5.8%, and 3.8% of eyes, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Of all myopic eyes evaluated in this study, the thinnest sites were on average 0.86 mm from the visual axis. And oval type was the most common pachymetry map pattern.
Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Cornea ; Corneal Pachymetry* ; Humans

The mainstay of schizophrenia treatment is pharmacological therapy using various antipsychotics including first- and second-generation antipsychotics which have different pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic property leading to differential presentation of adverse events (AEs) and treatment effects such as negative symptoms, cognitive symptoms and cormorbid symptoms. Major treatment guidelines suggest the use of antipsychotic monotherapy (APM) as a gold standard in the treatment of schizophrenia. However, the effects of APM is inadequate and less potent to achieve symptom remission as well as functional recovery in real practice which has been consistently reported in numerous controlled clinical trials, large practical trials, independent small studies and systematic reviews till today. Therefore antipsychotic polypharmacy (APP) regardless of the class of antipsychotics has been also commonly utilized for many reasons in real world practice. However, APP has also crucial pitfalls including increase of total psychotics including antipsychotics, high-doses of antipsychotics used, poor compliance, drug-drug interaction and risks for developing AEs, all of which are paradoxically related to poor clinical outcomes, whereas APP has also substantial advantages in reduction of re-hospitalization, severe psychopathology and targeted control of concurrent symptoms. Given currently limited therapeutic options, it is also important to properly utilize APP in order to maximize its clinical utility and minimize its risk for better treatment outcomes for patients with schizophrenia, based on risk/benefit with full understanding of pharmacological and clinical issues on APP. The present paper intends to address intriguing and important issues in the use of APP in real world practice.

OBJECTIVE: The present study is to provide whether open-label studies (OLS) may properly foresee the efficacy of randomized, placebo-controlled trials (RCTs) using OLSs and RCTs data for aripiprazole in the treatment of MDD, with the use of meta-analysis approach. METHODS: A search of the studies used the key terms "depression and aripiprazole" from the databases of PubMed/PsychInfo from Jan 2005 through July 2013. The data were selected and verified for publication in English-based peer-reviewed journals based on rigorous inclusion criteria. Extracted data were delivered into and run by the Comprehensive Meta Analysis program v2. RESULTS: The pooled SMDs for the primary efficacy measure was statistically significant, pointing out the significant reduction of depressive symptoms after aripiprazole augmentation (AA) to current antidepressant treatment in OLSs (pooled SMD=-2.114, z=-9.625, p<0.001); similar results were also found in RCTs (pooled SMD=-2.202, z=-6.862, p<0.001). The meta-regression analysis revealed no influence of the study design for treatment outcome. CONCLUSION: There was no difference in the treatment effects of aripiprazole as an augmentation therapy in both OLSs and RCTs, indicating that open-label design may be a potentially useful predictor for treatment outcomes of controlled-clinical trials. The proper conduction of OLSs may provide informative, useful and preliminary clinical data and factors to be involved in controlled-clinical trials, by which we may have better understanding on the role of AA (e.g., dosing issues, proper duration of treatment, specific population for AA) implicated in the treatment of MDD in clinical practice.
Depression ; Depressive Disorder, Major* ; Publications ; Treatment Outcome ; Aripiprazole

The methods for the early diagnoses of breast cancer are mammography, physical examination, breast self-examination(BSE). This study was conducted to investigate the knowledge and practice of BSE by structured questionnaire which included questions on general characteristics, performance of mammography, physical examination of breast, knowledge and practice of BSE. The subjects in this study were 412 females between 20 and 69 years old who visit to the Health Care Center of College of medicine of Inje University from December 1997 to February 1998. The results were as follows: 1. Women who have gotten the regular mammography are 8.19% of these subjects and women who have gotten the regular physical examination by doctors are 4.19% of these subjects. 2. Regarding BSE, 77.4% of these subjects said that they knew BSE and 3.88% of these subjects said that they practiced BSE regularly. It was that women who knew BSE were more younger, better-educated and higher economic status(p=0.001) and lived a normal life with her husband(p=0.033). And women who practiced BSE regularly were more younger, and married(p=0.001). 3. The most common barrier to doing BSE is 'Do not see the needs/Worry unnecessarily', and the most common reasons for doing BSE is 'Early detection'. 4. The overall frequency and percentage distribution of recommended BSE step in Korea is lower than U.S.A.
Aged ; Breast Neoplasms ; Breast Self-Examination* ; Breast* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Mammography ; Physical Examination ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: This retrospective naturalistic study was designed to compare the clinical characteristics including psychopathology of two groups of patients, long-term maintenance group and short-term drop-out group, who were taking risperidone. METHOD: Datas were collected for 210 schizophrenic patients with complete medical records among 580 patients who were enrolled with risperidone administration from January 1996 to December 1996 in 8 affiliated hospital of the Catholic University. The short-term drop-out patients group were assigned to whom treatment period was less than 6 month, and the long-term maintained patients group, treatment period was more than 2 years. We assessed demographics, psychopathology, and other variables related with medication based on past medical records. RESULTS: Among subjects of 210, short-term drop-out patients group were 67(31.9%) and long-term maintained patients group were 143(68.1%). Demographics and psychopathology were not significantly different between two groups. The starting and maximal dosage of risperidone was not significantly different between two groups but the maintenance dosage of risperidone was lower in long-term medicated patients group than short-term drop-out patients group(t=3.698, p<0.05). Additionally, the result of this study showed differences in experiences of past antipsychotic use as following. The number of no previous use of antipsychotic was 39(58.2%), the number of high potency antipsychotic use was 27(40.3%), and the number of low potency antipsychotic use was 1(1.5%) in short-term drop-out group. The number of no previous use of antipsychotic was 58(40.6%), the number of high potency antipsychotic use was 77(53.8%), the number of low potency antipsychotic use was 8(5.6%) in long-term maintained group(X 2=6.559, df=2, p<0.05). CONCLUSION: According to these results, administration of low therapeutic dosage should be recommended for long-term maintenance as if possible. Multi-center based retrospective naturalistic study like this would be useful for getting informations about efficacy and some other aspects of antipsychotic administration in practical field.
Demography ; Hospitals, University* ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Psychopathology ; Retrospective Studies ; Risperidone*