No abstract available.
Vasculitis*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Young Adult*

No abstract available.
Fluorides*

To provide the information necessary for the insurance medicine management plan, price discount rates among the insurance medicines were studied. A total of 2,107 items of insurance medicine of which prices were discounted via government inspections of real transactional process of insurance medicine were analysed. The conclusions are as follows; 1. Among the variables relevant to the characteristics of manufacturers, price discount rates of insurance medicines were statistically significant with production rankings of manufacturers, incorporation year, existence of investments by foreign corporation, existence of a research institute, and enrollment in the exchange. And among the variables relevant to the properties of medicines, the number of enrolled items which have the same components, classification, the date of new enrollment, the sales of items, and the number of raw materials in the items were statistically significant. 2. Stepwide multiple regression was done to identify the factors which affect the price discount rates of insurance medicines. The number of enrolled items which have the same components, production rankings of manufactures, classification number (medicines for function of tissue cells), incorporation year (1940-1949), existence of investments by foreign corporations, classification number (anti-germ medicines), number of raw materials in the items, the sales of items, and medicines whose major objective is not treatment were significant variables and the R2-value for these variables was 21.2%. Considering all of the above results, for management of insurance medicines, it seems important that the real transactional prices of insurance medicines should be identified systematically, focusing on the properties which affect the price discount rates of insurance medicines.
Academies and Institutes ; Classification ; Commerce ; Insurance* ; Investments

Service diversification is recognized as an important strategy against turbulent environmental change. This study is designed to find out the trend of service diversification in Korean health care organizations and also to identify factors associated with the degree of service diversification. Data were collected from 69 hospitals out of 71 hospitals with over 300 beds. Important findings are summarized below. 1. Types of diversification are closely related to hospital size. Large hospitals have a tendency to provide sophisticated service requiring specialized skills and equipment, while small hospital have concentrated their efforts on health screening programs. 2. The more competitive and bigger hospitals are, the greater number of services that provide. Also, hospitals operating rational management information systems provide more services. Contrary to the expectation, hospitals with a low performance during last 3 years showed more service diversification. 3. A trend of more diversification was observed in hospitals whose chief executive officer used a prospector strategy. 4. A multiple regression analysis revealed that bed size, competitive environment, degree of rational management, and the growth pattern were significantly associated with teh service diversification.
Delivery of Health Care ; Health Facility Size ; Hospital Bed Capacity ; Management Information Systems ; Mass Screening

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to evaluate whether maternal serum human chorionic gonadotropin(hCG) level measured during second trimester could be used as a predictor of pregnancy-induced hypertension. METHODS: Between March 1996 and November l997, 505 pregnant women undergoing second trimester(14-22 weeks of amenorrhea) triple marker screening for neural tube defect and Down syndrome who delivered at our institution were reviewed. All samples were assayed in the same laboratory and medical records were reviewed about medical and obstetrical history. RESULTS: Maternal serum human chorionic gonadotropin level(multiples of the median, MoM) was significantly higher in the pregnancy-induced hypertension group than in the control group. With the use of 2. l multiples of the median as a cutoff value, the sensitivity of human chorionic gonadotropin as a screening marker for development of pregnancy-induced hypertension was 38.7%, the specificity was 95.9%, positive predictive value was 38.7% and negative predictive value was 95.9%. Conlusion: We suggest that second trimester maternal serum human chorionic gonadotropin levels can be used clinically as an early predictive marker for pregnancy-induced hypertension.
Chorion ; Chorionic Gonadotropin* ; Down Syndrome ; Female ; Humans ; Humans* ; Hypertension* ; Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced ; Mass Screening ; Medical Records ; Neural Tube Defects ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second* ; Pregnancy* ; Pregnant Women ; Sensitivity and Specificity

There are increasing interest and need for information on health care consumer with the significance of hospital marketing and strategic planning being increasingly emphasized. This study was conducted to investigate the criteria for selection of medical facilities according to the characteristics of health care consumer by the types of medical services on a sample of 1,500 population aged 20 years and above. Major findings are as follows; 1. When considering the criteria for selection of medical facilities into two factors, namely, quality or convenience factors, convenience factor was the major contributor for outpatient and dental services whereas it was quality factor for inpatient services. 2. Females and those residing in large cities selected medical facilities based on convenience factor in the outpatient services. In the case of inpatient service, persons who considered their present health status to be good and whose ages were 50 years old and above choose medical facilities based on quality factor. 3. Persons who considered medical facilities to be profit-making tended to choose medical facilities based on convenience factor for outpatient services. There were no differences in the cases of inpatient and dental services. 4. There was no significant difference on the criteria for selection of medical facilities according to the decision maker for selection or trust on medical facilities. On the use of health service information, selection of medical facilities was based on qPality factor for those who made more use of the information in the cases of outpatient and dental services. 5. Analysis using the logistic regression model on the criteria for the selection of medical facilities with the characteristics of health care consumer as independent variables was performed. The selection of medical facilities was significantly related with residential area, sex, and use of information on medical facilities for outpatient services and with age, average monthly income, and perception of health status for inpatient services. For dental services significant association with residential area and use of information on medical facilities was seen. The results of this study, despite some limitations, can be used as baseline data for marketing and strategic planning of hospital management.
Delivery of Health Care ; Female ; Health Services ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Logistic Models ; Marketing ; Middle Aged ; Outpatients ; Patient Selection

BACKGROUND: Herpes zoster is an important and troublesome disease. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was the elucidation of the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of herpes zoster through patient assessrnent. METHODS: During a 5- Year period, January 1990 to December 1994, 215 patients with herpes zoster were assessed with regard to annual and monthly frequency in occurrence, age and gender incidence. Associated conditions, dermatomic distributions, the relationship of onset of pain and skin lesions, Multi-CMI test and complications were also evaluated. RESULTS: 1. The annual freguency of herpes zoster ranged from 0.88% to 1.78% (mean 1.23%) during the 5-year period. The highest number of herpes zoster patients was observed in winter (p<0.001) especially in January. 2. Herpes zoster was found to most frequently afflict persons aged 50-59 (27.9%). 71% of the patients were over 40 years of age. 3. In 76 patients (41.8%), neuralgia occurred several days (4 days mean) before the development of skin lesions. In 92 patients (50.5%), pain and skin lesions developed simultaneously while skin lesion development occurred before the onset of pain in 14 patients (7.7%). 4. Among the patients, 42.8% had associated conditions such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, pulmonary tuberculosis, liver diseases, peptic ulcer, hypothyroidism, pharyngitis, fracture, etc. 5. The dermatomic invclvement of herpes zoster patients having one dermatome was most frequent in thoracic dermatome ca. es (52.6%). Others included cervical (16.7%), trigeminal (11.6%), sacral (6. 0%), lumbar (4.2%), facial (0.5%). Cases having two different dermatomes constituted 8.4%. 6. The most common complication of herpes zoster was postherpetic neuralgia although instance of ophthalmologic compiications, secondary bacterial infection, scar formation, Ramsay-Hunt syndrome, keloid formation, and urinary difficulty were also documented. 7. Multi-CMI (Cell-mediated immunity) tests were done on 88 herpes zoster patients. Thirteen of them (14.8%) were found to have comparatively depressed scores. Ten of the 79 single dermatome involvement patients (12.7%) and three of the 9 two dermatome involvement patients (33.3%) exhibited similar scores. CONCLUSION: These results are in accordance with those of previous reports with the exception of the higher incidence ot two different dermatome involvements and seasonal variation.
Bacterial Infections ; Cicatrix ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Herpes Zoster* ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; Hypothyroidism ; Incidence ; Keloid ; Liver Diseases ; Neuralgia ; Neuralgia, Postherpetic ; Peptic Ulcer ; Pharyngitis ; Seasons ; Skin ; Tuberculosis

No abstract available.
Crowns* ; Glass*

No abstract available.
Pancreaticoduodenectomy*