The comparative detectability of the artificial periapical defects among Ektaspeed Plus film, digitized and digora images was evaluated. The artificail defects were made in the cancellous bone and cancellous-cortical junction with the size of 1.0x0.8mm2, 1.4x1.1mm2 and 2.8x2.2mm2. The defects in cancellous-cortical junction extended into cortical bone with the depth of 0, 0.5 and 1.0 mm. The results were as follows : 1. In junctional defects Ektaspeed Plus film for 2.8x12.2mm2 defect showed the highest detectability. But siginificant difference were only found between Ektaspeed Plus films and digitized images(p<0.05). 2. Almost all defects within cacellous bone were not detected except a few digitized and Digora images for the size of 2.8x2.2mm2. Digora images for them showed significant differences with Ektaspeed Plus films and digitized images(p<0.05). 3. The sensitinity of all imaging modalities were 0.9 or 1.0 in junctional defects for the size of 1.4x2.2mm2 and 2.8x2.2mm2. For cancellous defects, Digora image showed the highest sensitivity of 0.6 for the size of 2.8x2.2mm2. 4. Siginificant differences for change of exposure time were found in most group of Ektaspeed Plus films and digitized images(p<0.05). But there was no significant differences in Digora images for cacellous defects.
Radiography, Dental, Digital*

PURPOSE: Purpose of this study was to investigate the status of depression in academic high school students and path analysis model for exploring the mediating role of entrapment to depression in relation to academic stress and perceived social support. METHODS: Measurements were four reliable questionnaires measuring academic stress, social support, entrapment, and depression. Data were collected from students in 17 high schools in Seoul. RESULTS: Students (n=5,346) completing the questionnaires indicated depression & entrapment from academic stress. Depression was more prevalent in girls, those whose parents' household income was less than two million won, who did not live with father or mother or both due to divorce, separation, or death, and those who smoked or used alcohol. Entrapment was more prevalent in students similar to cases of depression and in seniors. According to the proposed path model, 48.6% of depression was explained by academic stress, social support, and entrapment. The indirect effect of entrapment as a mediator between academic stress and depression was verified and larger than the direct effect of academic stress on depression. CONCLUSION: Considering levels of depression and entrapment demonstrated by these students, better mental health programs with diverse strategies should be developed for their psychological well-being.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Adolescent ; *Depression ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Questionnaires ; Republic of Korea ; Social Support ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Stress, Psychological ; Students/*psychology ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore status and relationships of anger and its expression type to biopsychosocial health in Korean adolescents. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used four reliable survey questionnaires that measure anger, depression, resilience, and psychosomatic symptoms. Data were collected from 18,752 students of 36 middle schools and 23 high schools located in 23 administrative districts in Seoul, Korea. RESULTS: The Korean adolescents who completed the questionnaires indicated moderate level of trait anger. 45% of them demonstrated using one of three undesirable types of anger expression such as dysfunctional anger-in and anger-out, high level anger-in, or high level anger-out. Also, level of trait anger and types of anger expression were significantly associated with resilience, depression, and psychosomatic health status. CONCLUSION: School-based mental health education such as anger management programs for Korean adolescents might be necessary to help them develop desirable and effective coping skills and strategies.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Adolescent* ; Anger* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Depression ; Education ; Humans ; Korea ; Mental Health ; Psychophysiologic Disorders ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seoul

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore status and relationships of anger and its expression type to biopsychosocial health in Korean adolescents. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used four reliable survey questionnaires that measure anger, depression, resilience, and psychosomatic symptoms. Data were collected from 18,752 students of 36 middle schools and 23 high schools located in 23 administrative districts in Seoul, Korea. RESULTS: The Korean adolescents who completed the questionnaires indicated moderate level of trait anger. 45% of them demonstrated using one of three undesirable types of anger expression such as dysfunctional anger-in and anger-out, high level anger-in, or high level anger-out. Also, level of trait anger and types of anger expression were significantly associated with resilience, depression, and psychosomatic health status. CONCLUSION: School-based mental health education such as anger management programs for Korean adolescents might be necessary to help them develop desirable and effective coping skills and strategies.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Adolescent* ; Anger* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Depression ; Education ; Humans ; Korea ; Mental Health ; Psychophysiologic Disorders ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seoul

OBJECTIVE: We performed this study to evaluate the effects of Sil-Select and Percoll in sperm preparation. METHODS: Semen samples of 22 patients with normal sperm parameters by WHO criteria were divided into two equal parts and prepared with Percoll and Sil-Select. After completion of semen preparation procedures with Percoll and Sil-Select, sperm concentration, motility and morphology using strict criteria were evaluated in each group and all semen samples were fixed and stained for transmission electron microscopy(TEM). RESULTS: There were no significant diffrences in sperm concentration, percentage of motile spermatozoa and percentage of normal spermatozoa in morphology evaluation using strict criteria under light microscopy between Percoll and Sil-Select-treated groups. However, the percentage of normal shape and position of acrosome, and normal helix assembly of mitochondria under TEM were significantly higher in the Sil-Select-treated group compared to Percoll-treated group (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that Sil-Select is less detrimental to the acrosome and mitochondria of spermatozoa in sperm preparation compared to Percoll.
Acrosome ; Humans ; Male ; Microscopy ; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission ; Mitochondria ; Semen ; Spermatozoa*

Recent global warming trends may have a significant impact on vector-borne viral diseases, possibly affecting vector population dynamics and disease transmission. This study measured levels of hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) antibodies against Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and neutralizing antibodies against Akabane virus (AKAV) and Aino virus (AINV) for Thoroughbred horses in Korea. Blood samples were collected from 989 racehorses in several provinces, between October 2005 and March 2007. Sera were tested using either an HI assay or a virus neutralization test. Approximately half (49.7%; 492/989) of the horses tested were antibody-positive for JEV. The HI titer against JEV was significantly correlated with racehorse age (p < 0.05). Horses with an HI antibody titer of 1: 160 or higher accounted for 3.9% of the animals tested, indicating that vectors transmitting arthropod- borne viruses bit relatively few horses. In contrast, 3.8% (19/497) and 19.5% (97/497) of horse sera collected in March 2007 were positive against AKAV and AINV, respectively. The presence of antibodies against AKAV and AINV may indicate the multiplication of AKAV and AINV in these horses.
Aging ; Animals ; Encephalitis Virus, Japanese/*isolation & purification ; Hemagglutination Inhibition Tests/veterinary ; Horse Diseases/blood/*epidemiology ; Horses ; Korea/epidemiology ; Orthobunyavirus/*isolation & purification ; Seroepidemiologic Studies

Eosinophilic gastroenteritis, which shows characteristic eosinophilic inflammation, involves any part of the intestine from esophagus to colon. The immunopathogenesis is expected to be associated with IgE-mediated or non-IgE-mediated reaction, but the precise mechanism is not revealed yet. The clinical manifestation is variably dependent on the extent of eosinophilic infiltration. Usually the symptoms, such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, wax and wane for a few months result in failure to thrive, which implicates the importance of early detection. Although the diagnosis is made through clinical and histopathologic evidences, we should suspect the illness in a case of anemia, hypoalbuminemia, and peripheral eosinophilia. Recently, we experienced a case of non- IgE-mediated eosinophilic colitis in a 11-year-old male who complained of diarrhea, right lower abdominal pain, body weight loss, was diagnosed with peculiar histopathologic finding of sigmoid colon specimens obtained by sigmoidoscopy.
Abdominal Pain ; Anemia ; Body Weight ; Child* ; Colitis* ; Colon ; Colon, Sigmoid ; Diagnosis ; Diarrhea ; Eosinophilia ; Eosinophils* ; Esophagus ; Failure to Thrive ; Gastroenteritis ; Humans ; Hypoalbuminemia ; Inflammation ; Intestines ; Male* ; Sigmoidoscopy ; Vomiting

PURPOSE: This study evaluated the pretreatment expression patterns of MDM2, p53, and pRb proteins to determine if the expression patterns could predict the outcome of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and aid in the decisions for the selection of treatment modalities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-one patients that were treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy for stage I~IVa esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were selected for this study. Radiotherapy was administered with daily 1.8~2 Gy fractions up to a median dose of 54 Gy for primary tumors, and with four cycles of cisplatin/5- fluorouracil chemotherapy that was administered every 4 weeks, the first two cycles of which were administered concurrently with radiotherapy. Expression of MDM2, p53, and pRb was investigated by immunohistochemical analysis using pretreatment biopsy specimens. RESULTS: MDM2, p53, and pRb were detected with high immunoreactivity in 19.6%, 27.5%, and 66.7% of the patients, respectively. However, there was no significant correlation between expression of these factors and clinical outcome. By the use of multivariate analysis with nine covariates-age, tumor location, tumor length, stage, pathological response, clinical response, MDM2 expression, p53 expression, and pRb expression, only pathological response and stage were significant factors for cause-specific survival. CONCLUSION: Expression of MDM2, p53, and pRb was not found to be clinically significant for predicting outcomes after CCRT in this study. Further studies with a larger patient population and longer follow-up periods are needed to re-evaluate the expression pattern and to identify new predictors for CCRT response.
Biopsy ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Chemoradiotherapy* ; Drug Therapy ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Fluorouracil ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Multivariate Analysis ; Radiotherapy

Background: Appropriate platelet transfusion is essential for patient blood management and allocating limited healthcare resources. Therefore, this study evaluated the appropriateness of platelet transfusion in two tertiary hospitals. Methods: At Chonnam National University Hospital (Hospital A) and Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital (Hospital B), 1,470 platelet transfusions (299 and 1,171 cases at Hospitals A and B, respectively) during a single month were reviewed retrospectively using the Korean Transfusion Guidelines (5th edition). Results: The most common indications were therapeutic transfusion to ensure hemostasis (54.8%) at Hospital A and to prevent spontaneous bleeding in patients with hematologic/oncologic diseases (65.8%) at Hospital B. Overall, 87.3% and 76.3% of transfusions were appropriate at Hospitals A and B, respectively. According to the different transfusion indications, the therapeutic transfusions were appropriate in more than 80% of cases in both hospitals.The appropriateness of prophylactic transfusions against spontaneous bleeding was 80.7% and 69.3%, respectively, and those before surgery or invasive procedures were 72.0% and 66.2%, respectively. Of the 38 and 278 inappropriate transfusions in Hospitals A and B, respectively (as determined by pre-transfusion platelet counts), most cases had platelet counts between 50 and 100×109 /L in Hospital A (23 cases) and between 20 and 50×109 /L in Hospital B (198 cases). Conclusion The two hospitals differed in terms of transfusion indications, appropriateness, and cases of inappropriateness. The indications and appropriateness of platelet transfusion should be reviewed in real practice on a hospital-by-hospital basis to improve transfusion management.

Primary gastrointestinal lymphomas originating from the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) have been reported with increasing frequency. The stomach is the most frequent site of MALT lymphoma, and a relationship with Helicobacter pylori infection has been studied. However, primary MALT lymphoma arising from the ampulla of Vater is extremely rare, and its relationship with Helicobacter pylori infection is still obscure. We report here a case of a 71-year-old man with marginal zone B cell lymphoma of MALT with large B cell lymphoma of the ampulla of Vater that was not associated with Helicobacter pylori. A pancreaticoduodenectomy was performed, and the pathologic examination of the resected specimen confirmed the diagnosis. The patient tolerated just one course of systemic chemotherapy, but has been doing well for 18 months after surgery.
Aged ; Ampulla of Vater* ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Lymphoid Tissue ; Lymphoma ; Lymphoma, B-Cell ; Lymphoma, B-Cell, Marginal Zone ; Pancreaticoduodenectomy ; Stomach