OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to present the basic reference data of age and sex specific gait parameters for Korean adults. METHOD: The basic gait parameters were extracted from 70 healthy adults, 38 men and 32women, 21 to 69 years of age using VICON 340 Motion Analyzer. RESULTS: The temporal gait parameters and kinematic parameters of Korean adults were similar to other western reference data. CONCLUSION: Significant sex differences exist in the maximal pelvic tilting, pelvic internal rotation and foot internal rotation and plantar flexion. There is a statistically significant age variability for the hip and knee flexion at stance phase.
Adult* ; Foot ; Gait* ; Hip ; Humans ; Knee ; Male ; Sex Characteristics

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of long- and short-term energy drinks on anxiety-like, depressionlike, and cognitive behavior in adolescent rats. Methods: Adolescent rats (age six weeks) were randomly classified into a control group (CON), a long-term administration group (LT), and a short-term administration group (ST). The LT group was orally administered 1.5 mL/100 g (body weight) of energy drink twice daily for 14 days, the ST group was orally administered for one day, and the control group applied the same amount of normal saline. Later, an open-field test, a forced swim test, novel object recognition test, and an 8-arm radial maze test was conducted to assess the rats’ anxiety, depression, and cognitive function. Results: There were different effects in the long- and short-term groups of energy drink administration. In the LT group, anxiety- and depressive-like behavior increased because of increased movement in the side corner and decrease of immobility time. Also, the time to explore novel objects decreased, and the number of correct responses was reduced, indicating a learning and memory function disorder. However, the ST group was not different from the control group. Conclusion These results indicate that long-term consumption of energy drinks can increase anxiety-like, depression-like behavior, and this can lead to decrease in learning and memory functions. Thus, nurse and health care providers should understand the impact of energy drink consumption in adolescence to provide appropriate practices and education.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the age-related risk factors, clinical manifestations, and prognosis in infectious keratitis. METHODS: Records of patients with infectious keratitis who visited one of the two tertiary medical centers at Jeolla-do from January 2000 to December 2007 were reviewed. Risk factors depending on patient age distribution standardized over and under the age of 60 were reviewed retrospectively by analyzing sex, age, previous history of trauma, systemic disease, previous ocular disease, causative organism and treatment. RESULTS: A total of 757 patients (757 eyes) visited either one of the two tertiary medical centers. The mean age was 58.2+/-18.0 (4 to 93) years, and patients included 437 males (57.7%), and 320 females (42.3%). The most common risk factor among all age groups was trauma, especially due to vegetable matter. The second most frequent risk factor among the younger patients was contact lens use (19.2%), and common risk factors among the elderly were previous ocular disease (20.0%), systemic disease (15.5%), and ocular surgery (9.7%). The most prevalent causative organisms among all age groups were Gram-positive bacteria, in particular Staphylococcus epidermidis. Elderly patients had a higher frequency of corneal perforation than did younger patients. In addition, elderly patients had a worse prognosis and more often required surgical treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Infectious keratitis has more severe clinical manifestations and complications and a worse prognosis in elderly than in younger patients. Elderly patients have more diverse risk factors. Prevention should aim at avoiding ocular trauma, especially by vegetable matter, and at controlling ocular surface diseases, such as exposure keratitis and bullous keratopathy.
Age Distribution ; Aged ; Corneal Perforation ; Female ; Gram-Positive Bacteria ; Humans ; Keratitis ; Male ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Staphylococcus epidermidis ; Vegetables

Prolonged ischemic-reperfusion induces cellular damages and apoptosis in rat skeletal muscle. Reactive oxygen species generated during reperfusion time induce expression of various genes and apoptosis. Among apoptosis-related gene products, Bcl-2 and Bax regulate the apoptotic response by inhibiting and promoting cell death, respectively. The purpose of this study was to observe the age-related alertation of expression profile of Bcl-2 and Bax in rat tibialis anterior muscle and soleus muscle following ischemia-reperfusion. 9 weeks, 30 weeks, and 65 weeks old male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into control and ischemia groups. Ischemia group was divided into 3 subgroups based on reperfusion time. For ischemia, left commom iliac artery was occulded for 4 hours using rodent vascular clamps. The animals were sacrificed at hours 0, 3 and 24 after onset of reperfusion and tibialis anterior and soleus muscles were removed. Muscle tissues were embedded in paraffin and 6 micrometer sections were made. The expression level of Bcl-2 and Bax were examined using immunohistochemical methods. The results obtained were as follows; 1. In control group, immunoreactivities (IMRs) of Bcl-2 and Bax were weak or moderate in 30 weeks old rats and were trace in 9 and 65 weeks old rat. 2. In control group, IMRs of Bcl-2 and Bax in tibialis anterior muscle were more higher than those in soleus muscle, but not significantly. 3. In ischemia group, IMRs of Bax were increased with aging. 4. In ischemia group, IMR of Bax in tibialis anterior muscle was higher than that in soleus muscle. These results suggested that the increased IMR of Bax may be related to increasing of ischemic injury, and both old skeletal muscle and tibialis anterior muscle are susceptabile to ischemic injury of rat skeletal muscle.
Male ; Humans ; Rats ; Animals

Prolonged ischemic-reperfusion induces cellular damages and apoptosis in rat skeletal muscle. Such injury takes place in the phase of reperfusion following ischemia induction in part via regulating of apoptosis-related gene inductions. The present study was performed to examine the age-related alertation of expression of apoptosis in rat tibialis anterior and soleus muscles following ischemia-reperfusion. 9 weeks, 30 weeks, and 65 weeks old male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 2 groups such as controls and ischemia. For ischemia, left commom iliac artery was occulded for 4 hours using rodent vascular clamps. The tibialis anterior and soleus muscles were removed 0, 3, and 24 hours after onset of reperfusion. Muscle samples were embedded in paraffin and 6 micrometer sections were made. The apoptotic reactions was detected using TUNEL methods. The results obtained were as follows; 1. In control groups, the number of apoptosis was increased with aging, but not significantly. 2. In ischemia groups, the number of apoptosis was increased at 3 hours after ischemia, and decreased at 24 hours after ischemia. 3. In ischemia groups, the number of apoptosis was increased with aging. 4. In ischemia groups, the number of apoptosis in the tibialis anterior muscle was higher than that in soleus muscle. These results suggested that the ischemic injury of the rat skeletal muscle is increased with aging and that tibialis anterior muscle is more susceptabile to ischemic injury than soleus muscle.
Male ; Humans ; Rats ; Animals

Facial dyspigmentation in Asian women often poses diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. Recently, a distinctive bilateral hyperpigmentation of face and neck has occasionally been observed. This study was performed to investigate the clinico-pathological features of this dyspigmentation as well as proper treatment approaches. We retrospectively investigated the medical records including photographs, routine laboratory tests, histopathologic studies of both lesional and peri-lesional normal skin and patch test of thirty-one patients presented acquired bizarre hyperpigmentation on face and neck. The mean age of patients was 52.3 years and the mean duration of dyspigmentation was 24.2 months. In histologic evaluations of lesional skin, a significantly increased liquefactive degeneration of basal layer, pigmentary incontinence and lymphocytic infiltration were noted, whereas epidermal melanin or solar elastosis showed no statistical differences. Among 19 patients managed with a step-by-step approach, seven improved with using only topical anti-inflammatory agents and moisturizer, and 12 patients gained clinical benefit after laser therapy without clinical aggravation. Both clinical and histopathologic findings of the cases suggest a distinctive acquired hyperpigmentary disorder related with subclinical inflammation. Proper step-by-step evaluation and management of underlying subclinical inflammation would provide clinical benefit.
Anti-Inflammatory Agents ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperpigmentation ; Inflammation ; Laser Therapy ; Medical Records ; Melanins ; Neck* ; Patch Tests ; Retrospective Studies ; Skin

No abstract available.
Amniocentesis* ; Female ; Humans ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second*

BACKGROUND: Pediatric dermatoses show different clinical presentations and responses to treatment than that in adults. However, data on inpatient pediatric dermatology are limited in the current medical literature. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to analyze patterns of dermatologic consultations in pediatric inpatients. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of inpatient pediatric (age <18 yrs) consultation requests received by the dermatology department from January 2012 to December 2014. The age, sex, diagnosis, requesting department, and reason for consultation were recorded. RESULTS: Among 27,323 inpatients, 581 (2.1%) had undergone consultation. Of these, 318 (54.7%) were boys and 263 (45.4%) were girls (M: F=1.2:1). Patients ranged in age from newborn to 17 years, and 22.4% were under 1 year. Most of the consultation requests (57.7%) were made by pediatrics, followed by neurosurgery (7.7%) and general surgery departments (7.7%). The most common diagnostic categories included eczema (26.3%), skin appendigeal diseases (18.7%), infectious disease (17.7%), neoplasms (12.8%), and drug eruptions, erythema, and urticaria (7.1%). The most common reasons for consultation were dermatologic diseases or conditions (82.5%), skin lesions of a systemic disease (9.5%), and diseases related to treatment (6.5%). CONCLUSION: Information obtained from this study can not only improve the quality of patient care but also inform clinicians about the array of pediatric dermatology conditions in the hospital setting.
Adult ; Communicable Diseases ; Dermatology* ; Diagnosis ; Drug Eruptions ; Eczema ; Epidemiology ; Erythema ; Female ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Inpatients* ; Neurosurgery ; Patient Care ; Pediatrics ; Referral and Consultation* ; Retrospective Studies* ; Skin ; Skin Diseases ; Urticaria

No abstract available.
Eyebrows* ; Tattooing*

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to identify gene- gene and gene-environmental factor on cervical carcinogenesis in Korean women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We evaluated 185 women patients who had cervical cancer with 345 normal control healthy women. The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the p53 codon 72, the p21 codon 31 and the IRF-1 intron 6 were evaluated from extracted DNA of peripheral blood with an automatic DNA sequencer. The difference of each SNP, gene-gene and gene-environmental interaction between normal controls and patients, were evaluated in an adjusted environmental background. RESULTS: With regard to environmental factors, the cervical cancer increased in the women with a lower level of education, a younger age at first sexual intercourse and with the increased number of children borne. The women who had p53 (Arg/Arg), IRF-1 (T/T) and an education of less than 6 years showed a 14.7 fold increased risk of cervical cancer than those women who had p53 (~Pro), IRF-1 (~C) and an education of more than 15 years. The women who had p53 (Arg/Arg), p21 (Ser/Ser) and more than 3 children showed a 6.4 fold increased risk of cervical cancer than those women who had p53 (~Pro), p21 (~Arg) and had borne no child. The women who had p53 (Arg/Arg), IRF-1 (T/T) and had experience of first sexual intercourse before the age of 22-years showed a 5.5 fold increased risk of cervical cancer than those women who had p53 (~Pro), IRF-1 (~C) and had experience of first sexual intercourse after the age of 26-years. CONCLUSION: We found that the level of education, the age at first intercourse, and the number of children borne, were independent risk factors in cervical carcinogenesis. The specific combination of p53, p21 and IRF-1 gene-gene and gene-environmental interactions were significantly noted in the cervical carcinogenesis of Korean women.
Carcinogenesis ; Child ; Codon ; Coitus ; DNA ; Education ; Female ; Genes, p53 ; Humans ; Introns ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Risk Factors ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*