OBJECTIVE: To compare the safety and efficacy of intravaginal misoprostol versus intracervical dinoprostone (prostaglandin E2 gel) for cervical ripening and labor induction. METHODS: 60 patients with indication for labor induction and unfavorable cervices were randomly assigned to receive either intravaginal misoprostol or intracervical dinoprostone. 50 microgram tablets of misoprostol were placed in the posterior vaginal fornix every 4 hours for a maximum of 3 doses or dinoprostone 0.5mg was placed into the endocervix every 6 hours for a maximum of 2doses. No more medication was given after either spontaneous rupture of membranes or beginning of active labor. RESULTS: Among 60 patients enrolled, 30 received misoprostol and 30 received dinoprostone. The average interval from start of induction to active labor was shorter in misoprostol group (6.5+/-3.2 hours) than in the dinoprostone group (10.7+/-7.3 hours) (p<0.05). Oxytocin augmentation of labor occurred more often in the dinoprostone group (36.7%) than in the misoprostol group (10.0%) (p<0.05). There was a higher prevalence of fetal distress (23.3% versus 3.3%) and tachysystole (16.6% versus 6.6%) in the misorprostol group than in the dinoprostone group(p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Vaginally administered misoprostol is an effective agent for cervical ripening and induction of labor. Furthermore, the cost of misoprostol ( 360/200microgram) is much less than that of dinoprostone ( 42,000/0.5mg). Cost benefits from administration of misoprostol are evident, especially in clinics under system of diagnosis-related group (DRG) : however when given at this dosage, it is associated with a higher prevalence of fetal distress and tachysystole than dinoprostone. Further studies to compare the safety of misoprostole to that of dinoprostone and to delineate an optimal dosing regimen for misoprostol are needed.
Cervical Ripening* ; Cost-Benefit Analysis ; Diagnosis-Related Groups ; Dinoprostone* ; Female ; Fetal Distress ; Humans ; Membranes ; Misoprostol* ; Oxytocin ; Pregnancy ; Prevalence ; Prospective Studies* ; Rupture, Spontaneous ; Tablets

PURPOSE: To compare the incidence between author's first and current report on urinary tract stone in patient with spinal cord injury and to evaluate the effectiveness of recent developed in medical technology and care on in treating the patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed urinary tract stone in 257 patients with paraplegia or quadriplegia after spinal cord injury. These patients were diagnosed retrospectively by KUB and intravenous urography at the Korea Veterans Hospital during 10years from January, 1984 to December, 1993. We evaluated and compared the overall incidence, incidence of specific location of urinary tract, recurrent rate, incidence according to the level of spinal cord injury, and the duration of development in urinary tract stone. RESULTS: Total patients were 257 with 186(72.4%) paraplegia and 71(27.6%)quadriplegia. Overall incidence of the stone was 16.0% in this study and 38.1% in the first study. Incidence of the stone in individual organ ;5.5% in kidney, 1.2% in ureter, and 13.6% in urinary bladder. The recurrent rate was 29.3% in this study and 40.6% in the first study. Incidence of the stone according to the level of spinal cord injury was as follows;15.6% in cervix, 17.1% in upper thorax, 17.9% in lower thorax and 13.9% in lumbar. The stone developed during the first 4 years and between 12 to 16 years following spinal cord injury was 28.3% each. CONCLUSION: Overall incidence and recurrent rate of urinary tract stone was obviously decreased since the first study. Highest incidence of the stone occurred in urinary bladder and in patient with lower thoracic spinal cord injury, which is similar to first report. Peak incidence of the stone was in the first 4years, and another peak was in 12-16years after spinal cord injury. The decreased overall incidence of urinary tract stone maybe attributable to the development in medical technology and care, and active rehabilitation.
Cervix Uteri ; Female ; Hospitals, Veterans ; Humans ; Incidence ; Kidney ; Korea ; Paraplegia ; Quadriplegia ; Rehabilitation ; Retrospective Studies* ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord* ; Thorax ; Ureter ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Calculi* ; Urinary Tract* ; Urography

PURPOSE: To compare the incidence between author's first and current report on urinary tract stone in patient with spinal cord injury and to evaluate the effectiveness of recent developed in medical technology and care on in treating the patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed urinary tract stone in 257 patients with paraplegia or quadriplegia after spinal cord injury. These patients were diagnosed retrospectively by KUB and intravenous urography at the Korea Veterans Hospital during 10years from January, 1984 to December, 1993. We evaluated and compared the overall incidence, incidence of specific location of urinary tract, recurrent rate, incidence according to the level of spinal cord injury, and the duration of development in urinary tract stone. RESULTS: Total patients were 257 with 186(72.4%) paraplegia and 71(27.6%)quadriplegia. Overall incidence of the stone was 16.0% in this study and 38.1% in the first study. Incidence of the stone in individual organ ;5.5% in kidney, 1.2% in ureter, and 13.6% in urinary bladder. The recurrent rate was 29.3% in this study and 40.6% in the first study. Incidence of the stone according to the level of spinal cord injury was as follows;15.6% in cervix, 17.1% in upper thorax, 17.9% in lower thorax and 13.9% in lumbar. The stone developed during the first 4 years and between 12 to 16 years following spinal cord injury was 28.3% each. CONCLUSION: Overall incidence and recurrent rate of urinary tract stone was obviously decreased since the first study. Highest incidence of the stone occurred in urinary bladder and in patient with lower thoracic spinal cord injury, which is similar to first report. Peak incidence of the stone was in the first 4years, and another peak was in 12-16years after spinal cord injury. The decreased overall incidence of urinary tract stone maybe attributable to the development in medical technology and care, and active rehabilitation.
Cervix Uteri ; Female ; Hospitals, Veterans ; Humans ; Incidence ; Kidney ; Korea ; Paraplegia ; Quadriplegia ; Rehabilitation ; Retrospective Studies* ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord* ; Thorax ; Ureter ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Calculi* ; Urinary Tract* ; Urography

In this article neuroanatomical and verbal developmental process were introduced, followed that disorders and assessment of language function were reviewed. Finally, the causes and assessment of developmental dyslexia as a childhood disorder related to verbal function were reviewed.
Dyslexia ; Neuropsychology

No abstract available.
Heart Valve Prosthesis* ; Heart Valves*

PURPOSE: This cross-sectional study was designed to identify anger-expression typesof adolescent women and investigate the relation between the identified anger-expression types and their problem behaviors and health status. METHOD: One hundred ninety nine high school freshmen were recruited from September to November, 2003. Data wasanalyzed using descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, chi-square-test, ANOVA, and Duncan's multiple comparison test. RESULT: Three anger-expression types in adolescent women were found; Anger-out/in, Anger-control/in, and Anger- control type. Adolescent women with frequently using the anger-out/in type and with higher state anger reported more delinquent behaviors, more health risk behaviors, and higher psychosomatic symptoms. However, adolescent women with lower state anger and frequently using the anger-control type reported more depression scores. CONCLUSION: There is a need to further clarify the relationship between anger-expression typesand depression in adolescent women. The findings suggest the necessity of a development of the program for lowering the anger level and controlling the unfavorable anger expression types such as the anger-out in.
Adolescent ; *Adolescent Behavior ; *Anger ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; *Expressed Emotion ; Female ; *Health Status ; Humans ; Male ; Risk-Taking

Patient survival is one of the most important measures for the evaluation of progress in cancer patient care across the wide spectrum from diagnosis to treatment. The optimal monitoring method for cancer patient survival is to estimate survival based on representative data from cancer patients in the population, which is only achievable through using population-based cancer registration data. Relative survival is used to compare the survival experience in a study cohort that expected to result from background population mortality rates. This technique is useful when the cause of death is not accurate or not available, since it provides a measure of excess mortality in a group of patients with a certain disease. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the procedures for estimating relative survival using the statistical software Stata. For this survival analysis to show the procedure, the example data set was randomly selected from the National Cancer Incidence Database, which was used in a recent article reporting the overall relative survival of cancer patients diagnosed during 1993-2002 in Korea.
Cause of Death ; Cohort Studies ; Dataset ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Mortality ; Patient Care ; Survival Analysis*

Layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons (L2/3 PyNs) of the cortex extend their basal dendrites near the soma and as apical dendritic tufts in layer 1, which mainly receive feedforward and feedback inputs, respectively. It is suggested that neuromodulators such as serotonin and acetylcholine may regulate the information flow between brain structures depending on the brain state. However, little is known about the dendritic compartment-specific induction of synaptic transmission in single PyNs.Here, we studied layer-specific serotonergic and cholinergic induction of long-term synaptic plasticity in L2/3 PyNs of the agranular insular cortex, a lateral component of the orbitofrontal cortex. Using FM1-43 dye unloading, we verified that local electrical stimulation to layers 1 (L1) and 3 (L3) activated axon terminals mostly located in L1 and perisomatic area (L2/3). Independent and AMPA receptor-mediated excitatory postsynaptic potential was evoked by local electrical stimulation of either L1 or L3. Application of serotonin (5-HT, 10 μM) induced activity-dependent longterm depression (LTD) in L2/3 but not in L1 inputs. LTD induced by 5-HT was blocked by the 5-HT2 receptor antagonist ketanserin, an NMDA receptor antagonist and by intracellular Ca2+ chelation. The 5-HT2 receptor agonist α-me-5-HT mimicked the LTD induced by 5-HT. However, the application of carbachol induced muscarinic receptor-dependent LTD in both inputs. The differential layer-specific induction of LTD by neuromodulators might play an important role in information processing mechanism of the prefrontal cortex.

Layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons (L2/3 PyNs) of the cortex extend their basal dendrites near the soma and as apical dendritic tufts in layer 1, which mainly receive feedforward and feedback inputs, respectively. It is suggested that neuromodulators such as serotonin and acetylcholine may regulate the information flow between brain structures depending on the brain state. However, little is known about the dendritic compartment-specific induction of synaptic transmission in single PyNs.Here, we studied layer-specific serotonergic and cholinergic induction of long-term synaptic plasticity in L2/3 PyNs of the agranular insular cortex, a lateral component of the orbitofrontal cortex. Using FM1-43 dye unloading, we verified that local electrical stimulation to layers 1 (L1) and 3 (L3) activated axon terminals mostly located in L1 and perisomatic area (L2/3). Independent and AMPA receptor-mediated excitatory postsynaptic potential was evoked by local electrical stimulation of either L1 or L3. Application of serotonin (5-HT, 10 μM) induced activity-dependent longterm depression (LTD) in L2/3 but not in L1 inputs. LTD induced by 5-HT was blocked by the 5-HT2 receptor antagonist ketanserin, an NMDA receptor antagonist and by intracellular Ca2+ chelation. The 5-HT2 receptor agonist α-me-5-HT mimicked the LTD induced by 5-HT. However, the application of carbachol induced muscarinic receptor-dependent LTD in both inputs. The differential layer-specific induction of LTD by neuromodulators might play an important role in information processing mechanism of the prefrontal cortex.

Pseudoepitheliomatous, keratotic and micaceous balanitis is a rare distictive clinical entity that represents a histologic spectrum ranging from hypertrophic hyperpalstic penile dystrophy to verrucous carcinoma. This condition is thought to be a malignant growth potential by resistance to treatment and its tendency toward local recurrence. We report two cases with similar clinical presentation of hyperkeratotic plaque and micaceous scaly patches on the glans penis that were compatible with pseudoepitheliomatous, keratotic and micaceous balanitis. Histopathologically, case 1, 48 year-old male was progressed to squamous cell carcinoma and case 2, 78 year-old male, was shown pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia without malignant changes.
Aged ; Balanitis* ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Carcinoma, Verrucous ; Humans ; Hyperplasia ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Penis ; Recurrence