We have treated total 37 cases of femoral neck fracture in children who were under the 16 years old in age at the Catholic University Medical College since 1985, followed them for average 21 months to analyse their types of fracture and treatment, complications and prevention of complications, and obtained the following results. 1. According to the Delbet's classification, type I was 1 case, II were 18(49%), most common, III were 10 and IV were 8 cases. Their ages were average 8.2 years and boys were predominant in 27 cases. 2. Thirty-six cases were treated with open reduction and internal fixation within 1-13 days after fracture, but only one type IV was treated with closed reduction, followed by hip spica cast for 6 to 9 weeks in all. 3. The fixation devises were removed at average 8.7 months after operatio. 4. fifteen complications were observed in 11 cases(37%), that were AVN(3 cases), early physeal closure(8 cases), coxa vara(3 cases), coxa valga and limb shortening(each 1 case), and their causes were severe fracture displacement(2 cases), penetration of fixation devices to physis(8 cases), incomplete reduction and loss of initial reductio (1 case) etc, but were not correlated with their method of fracture treatment. Conclusively, the femur neck fracture in children could favorably be treated with open reduction and internal fixation to reduce their complications. Physeal early closures due to penetration of screws and pin were most common cause of complications, and their long-term follow-up should be necessary.
Child ; Classification ; Coxa Valga ; Extremities ; Femoral Neck Fractures ; Femur Neck ; Femur ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hip ; Humans ; Methods

Clinicla observation was made on 277 children with convulsion who were admitted to the Pediatric Department of Chosun University Hospital during 3 years period from Jan, 1975 to Dec. 1977. There were 165 boys and 122 girls and the results were as follow: 1. The incidence of convulsive disorders among the admission patients were 19.8% 2. The most common cause of convulsion in children was febrile convulsion.(27.8%) 3. Tetanus neonatorum was the most common cuase of convulsion in neonatal period(41.1%) 4. Febrle convulsion was the most frequent cause from 1 month to 6 month(42%) 5. The most common cause of convulsion in 6 months to 2years was febrile convulsion(46.6%). 6. In children from 2 years, to 6 years idiopathic epilepsy was the most frequent casue of convulsion.(27%). 7. Idiopathic epilepsy was the most common cause of convulsion from 6 years to 15 years(41.1%) 8. Convulsion was most frequent in children from 6 month to 2 years(26.4%) 9. The most etiologic factor of febrile convulsions were bronchopneunia, pharyngotonsillitis, diarrhea imbalance and sepsis etc.
Child* ; Diarrhea ; Epilepsy ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Seizures* ; Seizures, Febrile ; Sepsis ; Tetanus

Autoimmune hemolytic anemia due to antibody formation against the A or B antigen in renal transplant recipients has been reported on rare occasions. We experienced a case of autoimmune hemolytic anemia which developed 11 days after renal transplantation during CsA and prednisolone administration as immunosuppressive agents. The patient was a 46 year old male, blood group was Rh(+) A, who had received a kidney from his Rh(+) O, HLA haploty'pe identical elder brother. He was transfused with three units of Rh(+) A RBCs preoperatively and his hemoglobin level was 9.2g/dl 1 day after transplantation. After 11 to 12 days posttransplantation, the hemoglobin level dropped to 3.8g/dl. A peripheral blood smear showed marked spherocytosis and polychromatophilia. The reticulocyte count was increased to 4.2%, and total bilirubin was increased to 2.91mg/dl. The LDH was raised to 561 IU/L and the plasma Hb level was 6.Smg/dl. Blood bank tests confirmed that the autoantibody cause hemolytic anemia was anti-A. If transplant recipients of blood groups A, B, or AB, who recieve organs from blood group 0 donors, have hemolytic anemia and ABO discrepancy, the possibility of AIHA due to anti-A or anti-B should be considered.
Anemia, Hemolytic ; Anemia, Hemolytic, Autoimmune* ; Antibody Formation ; Bilirubin ; Blood Banks ; Blood Group Antigens ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents ; Kidney ; Kidney Transplantation ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Plasma ; Prednisolone ; Reticulocyte Count ; Siblings ; Tissue Donors* ; Transplantation*

OBJECTIVES: Memory deficits in patients with schizophrenia have been well established, but it is still unclear how memory performance changes during verbal learning tasks. This study was designed to assess the pattem of verbal learning and memory performance to test the inefficiency of encoding processes in learning of schizophrenia. METHOD: Subjects consisted of 26 patients with schizophrenia who were unmedicated for atleast seven days and 22 normal controls who were matched for age,sex,and education. Verbal memory and learning were evaluated with computerized tasks composed of three consecutive immediate recall trials, a yes/no recognition test, and a delayed recall trial of a word list. RESULTS: Thepatients with schizophrenia showed significant learning deficits characterized by impaired immediate recall performance and poor learning of a word list. However, both verbal recognition performance and forgetting were comparable in both groups. Word clustering correlated significantly with recall performance. Clustering of patients decreased significantly over immediate and delay recall tasks and showed poor increase during consecutive recall tasks. CONCLUSION: Thest findings indicate that verbal learning and mnemonic strategy are impaired but learned information appears to be preserved in patients with schizophrenia. The results are consistent with the notion that a learning deficit is closely related with impaired encoding precesses in schizophrenia.
Education ; Humans ; Learning ; Memory Disorders ; Memory* ; Memory, Short-Term ; Schizophrenia* ; Verbal Learning

OBJECTIVES: It has been reported that first episode polarity affected the course and the prognosis of bipolar disorder. However, there is remarkable paucity of information regarding first episode polarity in bipolar disorder. We investigated the clinical characteristics related to the first episode polarity of bipolar patients who had been hospitalized. METHODS: Analyses were based on the medical documents of 520 bipolar patients who had been hospitalized in 4 hospitals. We examined clinical features of the current episode, demographics, past treatment history, suicidal attempt history, family history and comorbidity. Clinical characteristics were compared between manic onset and depressive onset patients. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 36.7 years old; they had 2.1 number of admission history and 6.6 years of illness duration. The patients beginning with depressive onset was 39.4%, and they had more diagnosis of bipolar II disorder, more number of suicidal attempts and reported more depressive mood during index admission than manic onset patients. CONCLUSION: Depressive onset is a common presentation in bipolar disorder. It is necessary to give more attention to depressive episode in bipolar disorder. Prospective study needs to explore the correlation of first-episode of polarity and course of the illness in the future.
Bipolar Disorder* ; Comorbidity ; Demography ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Prognosis

No abstract available.
DNA*

Japanese encephalitis is one of the leading causes of acute encephalitis in Asia. But in Korea, the number of Japanese encephalitis cases has dropped considerably due to mass vaccination and vector control. Especially, there were no case reports under the age of 9 years during the last ten years. We will describe a case of a previously healthy 7-month old boy who presented with fever and seizure. The patient was diagnosed with Japanese encephalitis, based on the cerebrospinal fluid and serum antibody analyses for the Japanese encephalitis virus. Typical brain magnetic resonance image findings of Japanese encephalitis were observed. The patient received extensive conservative treatment including high dose intravenous corticosteroid treatment and immunoglobulin. In spite of severe hemodynamic instability, the patient survived, and he is currently in a vegetative state with respiratory assist by a home ventilator. Although the incidence of Japanese encephalitis dropped dramatically in Korea, pediatricians should always consider the diagnosis as one of the possibilities for patients with encephalitis, especially if the patient is not immunized for JEV. Since there is no specific treatment for JEV, timely and comprehensive conservative care is critical to reduce the mortality and morbidity.
Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Brain ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Diagnosis ; Encephalitis ; Encephalitis Virus, Japanese ; Encephalitis, Japanese* ; Fever* ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins ; Incidence ; Infant* ; Korea ; Male ; Mass Vaccination ; Mortality ; Persistent Vegetative State ; Seizures* ; Ventilators, Mechanical

BACKGROUND: A bronchial asthma is characterized with airway inflammation, tissue damage, and deposition of extracellular matrix protein, which may be mediated, in part, through released matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1). Recent studies suggest that interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) may attenuate the inflammation of bronchial asthma. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of rIFN-gamma administered by ultrasonic nebulization through the airway on airway hyperresponsiveness and expression of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in murine model of asthma. METHODS: Six-week-old female BALB/c mice were sensitized by means of intraperitoneal injection of ovalbumin (OVA) or saline, and then exposed to aerosolized OVA or saline. The rIFN-gamma treatment group pretreated with inhalation of aerosolized rIFN-gamma 1 day before OVA or saline inhalation. Twenty-four hour later after last challenge, the airway hyperreactivity was measured by placing mice in a barometric plethysmography. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids, peripheral blood, and lung tissue were obtained from individual mouse twenty-four hours after measurement of airway hyperreactivity. RESULTS: The administration of aerosolized IFN-gamma decreased OVA induced eosinophil recruitment in BAL fluid, specific IgE to OVA, airway hyperresponsiveness, and MMP-9 expression on bronchial tissue. The active MMP-9 was not observed in IFN-gamma pretreated-group in contrast to OVA-group in gelatin zymography of BAL fluids. CONCLUSION: Our study indicates that aerosolized IFN-gamma prevents pathophysiologic alterations of bronchial asthma including expression of MMP-9, and therefore IFN-gamma may be a good therapeutic strategy in clinical practice.
Animals ; Asthma* ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage ; Eosinophils ; Extracellular Matrix ; Female ; Gelatin ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; Inflammation ; Inhalation ; Injections, Intraperitoneal ; Interferon-gamma ; Lung ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 ; Mice ; Ovalbumin ; Ovum ; Plethysmography ; Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-1* ; Ultrasonics

With the recent rapid increase in obesity worldwide, metabolic syndrome (MetS) has gained significant importance. MetS is a cluster of obesity-related cardiovascular risk factors including abdominal obesity, atherogenic dyslipidemia, high blood pressure and impaired glucose tolerance. MetS is highly prevalent and strongly associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease, putting a great burden on human society. Therefore, it is very important to reduce MetS risk, which can improve patients’cardiovascular prognosis. The primary and most effective strategy to control each component of MetS is lifestyle change such as losing body weight, keeping regular exercise, adopting a healthy diet, quitting smoking and alcohol drinking in moderation. Many studies have shown that lifestyle modification has improved all components of MetS, and reduces the incidence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Here, the Korean Society of CardioMetabolic Syndrome has summarized specific and practical methods of lifestyle modification in the management of MetS in the healthcare field.