BACKGROUND: Administration of hepatitis B vaccine has played a major part in the management of public health in this country. There were many researches to assess the immunogenecity, safety, long term effectiveness, dose, and route of administration of hepatitis B vaccine. But there was lack of validation of the recommendation that hepatit.is B vaccine should be administered in adults with negative HBsAg and AntiHBs, in an endemic area with high prevalence of HBsAg. Authors tried to establish a proper candidate for hepatitis B vaccination evaluating viral markers of hepatitis B in adults vaccinated. METHODS: 172 hepatitis B vaccinated subjects(35.0%) were drawn from 491 adults who have visited at health care center, Asan Kangnung Hospital from April 1st to May 31th, 1997. They were asked designed questions about the beginning year, frequency of vaccination, and the presence of family members with HBsAg in a direct line. RESULTS: Of the subjects(172), 2.3% were HBsAg(+), 63.4% AntiHBs(+), 68.6% AntiHBc(+). Among the HBsAg(-) adults(149) who had been vaccinated more than three times, 70.4%(105) were AntiHBs(+), of whom 66.6%(70) were AntiHBc(+) and 29.6%(44) were AntiHBs(-), of whom 56.8%(25) were AntiHBc(+). In the subjects(20) with family history of HBsAg, 80% were AntiHBc(+), which is higher than 61.2% in the group(129) without family history. Among the HBsAg(-) and AntiHBc(-) adults(54) who had been vaccinated more than three times, AntiHBs(+) group was not significantly differnt from AntiHBs(-) group in comparison of age and years after initial vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: The two thirds(68.9%) of vaccinated subjects showed AntiHBc(+), which means reflection of previous exposure to Hepatitis B virus. Accordingly, vaccination is not thought to be required for these. Consequently, all individuals are thought to have to be pretested for the presence of AntiHBc as well as HBsAg and AntiHBs in Korea.
Adult* ; Biomarkers ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Delivery of Health Care ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens* ; Hepatitis B Vaccines ; Hepatitis B virus* ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Korea ; Prevalence ; Public Health ; Vaccination

Buerger's disease (thromboangiitis obliterans) is an inflammatory, nonatherosclerotic, occlusive disease of small- and medium-sized arteries and veins that involves distal vessels of the extremities. Patients show symptoms related to ischemia of distal lower extremities and upper extremities (claudication, gangrene, rest pain, distal cyanosis). We report a case of progressive ascending motor weakness of the lower extremities in a Buerger's disease patient due to a metastatic bone tumor on the T3 level after lumbar epidural block and continuous cervical epidural block.
Arteries ; Extremities ; Gangrene ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Lower Extremity ; Spinal Cord Compression* ; Spinal Cord* ; Thromboangiitis Obliterans* ; Upper Extremity ; Veins

Background: Hypertension results from an impaired baroreceptor reflex and enhanced sympathetic activity. The prevalence of hypertension differs among ethnicities and is more frequent in South Asians than in Caucasians, suggesting that baseline autonomic nervous system functions and their regulation may also differ among ethnic groups. In most studies, the reference values for clinical autonomic function tests are obtained from heterogeneous ethnic populations, or ethnic factors are not considered in the study design. Obtaining reference data in a homogenous ethnic group and comparing them within various ethnic groups could be helpful to detect ethnic differences in autonomic functions. The aim of this study was to identify normative reference values for standard autonomic reflex measurements in a homogeneous Korean population. Methods: A total of 181 healthy Korean volunteers (age, 20–74 years) underwent standard autonomic function tests: heart rate difference during deep breathing, Valsalva maneuver, and the quantitative sudomotor axon-reflex test. Mean and 5th and 95th percentile values were obtained for each age group. We also analyzed factors (age, sex, and body mass index) that can influence autonomic functions. Results: The heart rate difference during deep breathing and expiratory-inspiratory ratio were higher in males than in females and were inversely related to age. The Valsalva ratio was inversely related to age. Males had higher sweat volumes at all body areas evaluated than those of females, and only forearm sweat volume was significantly different between the age groups. Conclusions: Cardiovagal function was affected by age and sex in Koreans. Sudomotor function was affected by sex, and only forearm sweat volume was affected by age and sex. These results represent preliminary normative clinical autonomic data in a Korean population comprised of a single ethnicity
Hypertension

The percutaneous pinning is a simple, effective method for the treatment of displaced supracondylar fractures of the humerus in children. But there is some controversy in the number of pins used and the method of pin insertion. The cross pinning method provides more stability at the fracture site but the risk of ulnar nerve damage is higher than in lateral pinning method, The senenty-one displaced extension type supracondylar fractures were treated by closed reduction and percutaneous cross pinning from January 1991 to October 1994. Among them, the medial pin was inserted in elbow extension in twenty-eight cases and in forty- three cases the medial pin was inserted in elbow flexion. Ulnar nerve injury occured postoperatively in six cases, in which the pin was inserted with the elbow in flexion position. These results may suggest that when percutaneous cross pinning method is selected to fix the supracondylar fracture of the humerus, it would be safer to insert one or two lateral pins with the elbow in full flexion position followed by one medial pin in extension position in order to reduce the risk of loss of reduction and ulnar nerve damage.
Child ; Elbow ; Humans ; Humerus ; Methods ; Ulnar Nerve

Skip lesion is not uncommon feature in osteosarcoma and considered to be importantly associated with poor prognosis factor, and thus, should be excised with the main mass. The accurate pre-operative evaluation of the intramedullary extent of osteosarcoma is essential, because it determines the level of bone resection. Among the reliable detection methods, bone scan has a drawback of high rate of false negative results and regional MRI has a difficulty to cover the whole involved lesions without clinical suspicion. The authors report a case of osteosarcoma of the distal femur with a proximal skip lesion that was not detected by either regional MR imaging or by bone scan, but which was visualized by FDG-PET/CT.
Complement System Proteins ; Femur ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Osteosarcoma ; Prognosis

In the partially accommodative esotropia, conventional operation based only on the nonaccommodative angle often results in undercorrection. To decrease the incidence of postoperative undercorrection, the authors augmented the amount of the surgical correction to be the average of the near deviation with and without correction. In this study we compared augmented surgery to conventional surgery in patients who underwent bilateral medial rectus recessions. 36 patients with hypermetropia of +2.50 or more, were retrospectively studied. The follow up on each group was at least 3 months. Of the 18 patients in nonaugmented group, 8(44%) had postoperative deviations of 10 prism diopters or less and 10(56%) showing a undercorrection. Of the 18 patients of augmented surgery, 14(78%) had postoperative deviations of 10 prism diopters or less and 2(11%) was exotropic while wearing full hyperopic correction. But of the 2 patients with a consecutive exodeviation, 1 was corrected to orthophoria by reducing the spectacle correction and 1 after removing spectacles. The overall success rate of 89% for the augmented surgery is much higher than that of the conventional surgery. We conclude that the augmented surgery provides better postoperative alignment than the conventional surgery and recommend this augmented surgery in partially accommodative esotropia.
Esotropia* ; Exotropia ; Eyeglasses ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hyperopia ; Incidence ; Retrospective Studies

Schwannoma, also referred to as neurilemmoma, neurinoma, and perineural fibroblastoma, is the most frequent solitary tumor of the peripheral nerves. It is an encapsulated sheath tumor consisting or two components: a highly ordered cellular component( Antoni A area) and a loose, myxoid tomponent( Antoni B area ). It is usually solitary and may be benign or malignant, solid or cystic, encapsulated or diffuse. It rarely occurs in the retroperitoneal space. We report a very rare case of Schwannoma developed in the muscular layer of the bladder wall and review the relevant literatures.
Neurilemmoma* ; Peripheral Nerves ; Retroperitoneal Space ; Urinary Bladder*

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) cause neurologic dysfunction by blocking the voltage-gated sodium channels located in all of the peripheral nerves and muscles. We experienced two patients presenting with generalized motor weakness after ingestion of pufferfish. The nerve conduction study showed diffuse slowing of motor and sensory nerve conduction velocity, prolonged motor terminal latency and decreased sensory nerve action potentials without temporal dispersion or conduction block. Abnormal findings of nerve conduction study improved rapidly without any deterioration. Clinical symptoms and signs ameliorated in accordance with findings of nerve conduction study without any neurologic sequelae. These imply that tetrodotoxication is reversible and functional neurologic disorder. We suggest that nerve conduction studies can be available in serial monitoring of tetrodotoxication as an objective means.
Action Potentials ; Eating ; Humans ; Muscles ; Nervous System Diseases ; Neural Conduction ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Peripheral Nerves* ; Tetraodontiformes ; Tetrodotoxin ; Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels

Very late stent thrombosis after implantation of drug eluting stent is rare, but its consequences are potentially fatal. Stent thrombosis may be occurred in perioperative period because of interruption of anticoagulation therapy and intraoperative hypercoagulability. We report a case of very late stent thrombosis in a 49-year-old male patient during total gastrectomy. ST-segment elevation in lead II occurred during the surgery and followed by cardiac arrest. After external cardiac massage and electrocardioversion, normal sinus rhythm was restored. Postoperative 12 lead ECG showed ST-segment elevation in leads II, III, aVF and serum cardiac enzymes such as CPK, CK-MB, and Troponin T were markedly elevated. Postoperative coronary angiography showed complete occlusion of the right coronary artery stent. Emergency percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty was performed and the patient recovered uneventfully.
Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Vessels ; Electrocardiography ; Emergencies ; Gastrectomy ; Heart Arrest ; Heart Massage ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Perioperative Period ; Stents ; Thrombophilia ; Thrombosis ; Troponin T

Paralytic shellfish poisoning results from consumption of mollusks that have fed on dinoflagellates capable of producing neurotoxins such as saxitoxin. The saxitoxin is concentrated in the shellfish and acts by decreasing sodium-channel permeability, thereby blocking neuronal transmission in skeletal muscles. Symptoms including paresthesia, perioral numbness, perioral tingling, nausea, vomiting, extremity numbness, extremity tingling, dizziness, ataxia, dysphagia, and weakness have been reported. In serious cases, respiratory hold may occur up to 6~24 hours after ingestion. Generally, the treatment for paralytic shellfish poisoning is supportive care, but mechanical ventilation is needed in serious cases acompanied by respiratory hold. We experienced two cases of paralytic shellfish poisoning. Respiratory hold was presented in one case and only mild paresthesia in the other case. After supportive management, including mechanical ventilation in former case, both patients were discharged without sequalae.
Ataxia ; Deglutition Disorders ; Dinoflagellida ; Dizziness ; Eating ; Extremities ; Humans ; Hypesthesia ; Mollusca ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Nausea ; Neurons ; Neurotoxins ; Paresthesia ; Permeability ; Respiration, Artificial ; Saxitoxin* ; Shellfish ; Shellfish Poisoning* ; Vomiting