BACKGROUND: Korea is an epidemic area of hepatitis B. There are needs for longitudinal study to measure quantity of hepatitis B infection status in Korea. This study was designed to observe natural course of hepatitis B markers in the same person for three years. The objective of this study was to investigate incidence of new infection and persistence of previous infection. METHODS: The study subjects were clients who visited a health examination center in Seoul twice with an interval of three years, from 1995 to 2000. They replied as nonvaccinee on both occasions for hepatitis B by self-administered questionnaire. Hepatits B markers were measured by radioimmunoassay on all visits. There were 103 subjects with 61 men and 42 women. RESULTS: The positive rate of hepatitis B surface antigen was 20.4% initially, which changed to 18.5% after three years. The positive rate of hepatitis B surface antigen was 20.4% initially, that was changed as 18.5% after three years. The positive rate of hepatitis B surface antibody was 61.2% initially, which increased to 66.0% after three years. The positive rates of hepatitis B surface antibody in men were 63.9% initially and 68.9% after three years, which showed statistically significant trend. (P=0.08). The positive rate of hepatitis B core antibody was 89.3%, which remained the same after three years. There was no positive conversion case of hepatitis B surface antigen. The negative conversion rate of hepatitis B surface antigen was 2/63(3.2%). The positive conversion rate of hepatitis B surface antibody was 7/40(17.5%), and negative conversion rate of that was 2/63(3.2%). The positive conversion rate of hepatitis B core antibody was 3/11(27.3%), and negative conversion rate of that was 3/92(3.3%). CONCLUSION: Hepatitis B markers changed in the direction of increase of infection incidence, rather than natural disappearance of markers in nonvaccinees. The mechanism was postulated as occurrence of new infection mainly, but the possibility of double infection by variants of hepatitis B virus could not be ruled out. We confirmed that positive rate of hepatitis B marker in males was not only higher cross-sectionally, but also increased higher longitudinally. We suggest a follow-up study of hepatits B markers to be performed because hepatits B markers showed dynamic changes. We think the high risk groups of hepatitis B infection have a priority in follow-up study.
Female ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Longitudinal Studies ; Male ; Radioimmunoassay ; Seoul ; Surveys and Questionnaires

No abstract available.
Female ; Humans ; Vaginosis, Bacterial*

PURPOSE: The determination of skeletal age is important for the analysis of growth and growth disorders in children. The aim of this study is to investigate the difference of bone age comparing Greulich-Pyle (GP) and Tanner Whitehouse (TW3) methods. We also evaluated the reproducibility of results of each method by different observers (interobserver variation) and by same observer (intraobserver variation). METHODS: Bone ages were assessed from left hand-wrist radiographs of 200 children (108 males and 92 females) aged 7 to 15 years by GP and TW3 methods. To evaluate the reproducibility of each method, 102 radiographs were assessed independently by three observers and 100 radiographs were reassessed by one same observer using both methods. RESULTS: The average bone age by GP and TW3 were 10.65+/-2.24 years and 10.48+/-2.18 years, respectively (P<0.01). There is significant correlation between GP and TW3 methods (R(2)=0.94, P<0.01). The interobserver variation of GP and TW3 was not different significantly (0.51+/-0.44 years by GP vs 0.54+/-0.42 years by TW3). The intraobserver variation also was not different significantly (0.48+/-0.44 years by GP vs 0.45+/-0.37 years by TW3). CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that bone age by TW3 method was slightly younger than that by GP method but similar, and the reproducibility of both methods were not different. Therefore, both GP and TW3 methods are useful for estimation of bone age in Korea children.
Age Determination by Skeleton ; Aged ; Child ; Growth Disorders ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Observer Variation ; Reproducibility of Results

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to establish the distribution and obstetric outcomes in women with congenital uterine malformations. METHODS: A review of the medical records from the department of obstetrics and gynecology from January 1995 to June 2004 were diagnosed 79 patients with congenital uterine malformations. All of the cases were divided into groups according to classification of ASRM (American Society for Reproductive Medicine), which is based on the degree of failure of normal development of the female genital tact. The obstetric outcomes were compared between the groups. Statistical processing of the material was carried with Pearson chi square test. RESULTS: 79 patientss with congenital uterine malformations were diagnosed by operation or imaging studies. Symmetric congenital uterine malformations, consisting of bicornuate uterus (45.6%), septate uterus (19.0%), and uterus didelphys (31.6%), were the most common, constituting 96.2% of the malformations. Two patients (2.5%) had unicornuate uterus and one patient (1.3%) had arcuate uterus. No cases of the agenesis type and T-shaped uteri were found. 196 pregnancies occurred in the 74 patients. Only 43.4% of the pregnancies reached term, while 8.2% resulted in preterm delivery, and 48.4% terminated as miscarriages. CONCLUSION: Obstetric complications occur more frequently among women with congenital uterine malformations than among women in general. Knowledge concerning of congenital uterine malformations is important in recognizing and managing the obstetric complications that may result.
Abortion, Spontaneous ; Classification ; Female ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Obstetrics ; Pregnancy ; Uterus

To evaluate the significance of placental histology, a collaborative histological and cytogenetic study was performed on the products of 88 spontaneous abortions, and subsequently bcl-2 immunostaining was performed on 62 cases. The morphometric parameters included were DCIRCLE, FORMSHAPE, CPRATIO, and the expression of bcl-2 immunostainig was graded in four categories (I to IV). The results were as follows: 1) 40% (n=35) were chromosomally abnormal: trisomies predominated (57%, n=20) and was followed by triploidy (14%, n=5), double trisomy (6%, n=2), monosomy X (6%, n=2), inversion (9) (6%, n=2). 2) mean of DCIRCLE in chromosomally abnormal pregnancy was 40 micrometer larger than that in chromosomally normal pregnancy (p=0.012, one side t-test), while no difference was found in FORMSHAPE and CPRATIO between chromosomally abnormal and normal pregnancy. 3) bcl-2 expression was found in syncytiotrophoblast and cytotrophoblast. bcl-2 expression was weaker in chromosomally abnormal pregnancy with intensity I and II of 59% than chromosomally normal pregnancy with intensity I and II of 24%. 4) In comparison bcl-2 expression with DCIRCLE, in chromosomally normal abortion one (10%) in I & II and one (3%) in III & IV showed large DCIRCLE (above 360 micrometer), while 11 (85%) in I & II and 3 (33%) in III & IV in chromosomally abnormal pregnancy. It would mean that bcl-2 protein is necessary in preservation of pregnancy and placental morphology. Abnormal villous diameter and weak bcl-2 expression may be suggestive of chromosomal anomaly. Besides other histologic parameters, application of bcl-2 immunostaining and morphometric analysis probably give more sensitive and specific results in identifying chromosomally abnormal abortion.
Abortion, Spontaneous ; Cytogenetics ; Female ; Humans ; Placenta* ; Pregnancy* ; Triploidy ; Trisomy ; Trophoblasts ; Turner Syndrome

BACKGROUND: This study was performed to analyze cytologic diagnosis of noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features (NIFTP) and its impact on the risk of malignancy (ROM) in the Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology (TBSRTC). METHODS: Five thousand five hundred and forty-nine cases of thyroid fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) diagnosed between 2012 and 2014 were included in this study. Diagnostic categories based on TBSRTC were compared with final surgical diagnoses, and the ROM in each category was calculated both when NIFTP was included in malignant lesions and when excluded from malignant lesions. RESULTS: Of the 5,549 thyroid FNAC cases, 1,891 cases underwent surgical resection. In final diagnosis, 1,700 cases were revealed as papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), and 25 cases were reclassified as NIFTP. The cytologic diagnoses of NIFTP were non-diagnostic in one, benign in five, atypia of undetermined significance (AUS) in 14, follicular neoplasm in two, and suspicious for malignancy in three cases. Collectively, NIFTP/encapsulated follicular variant of PTC (EFVPTC) were more frequently classified as benign, AUS, or follicular neoplasm and less frequently categorized as malignant compared to conventional PTCs. Exclusion of NIFTP from malignant diagnoses resulted in a slight decrease in malignancy rates in non-diagnostic, benign, AUS, follicular neoplasm, and suspicious for malignancy categories without any statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: The decrease in the ROM was not significant when NIFTP was excluded from malignant lesions. In thyroid FNACs, NIFTP/EFVPTCs were mostly classified into indeterminate categories. Therefore, it might be feasible to separate NIFTP/EFVPTC from conventional PTC on FNAC to guide clinicians to conservative management for patients with NIFTP/EFVPTC.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroid Neoplasms

OBJECTIVES: A web-based survey has been administered annually since 2005 throughout Korea to assess the prevalence of adolescent health risk behaviors among middle and high school students. The aim of this study was to evaluate the test-retest reliability of the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBWS) questionnaire. METHODS: A convenience sample of 2298 middle and high school students participated in self-administered questionnaire surveys twice, approximately two weeks apart, in 2008. The percent agreement, kappa statistics, and prevalence rates at the first and second surveys were computed for the core subset of 39 self-reported health risk behavior indices of the KYRBWS. RESULTS: Among 39 indices, seven indices had kappas > or = 0.81 and all of the indices had kappas > or = 0.41. Based on non-overlapping 95% confidence intervals, three indices had significantly different prevalence rates between the first and second surveys. In the subgroup analyses by school grade and gender, two indices had significantly different reliability estimates between middle and high school students. There were no significantly different reliability estimates between male and female students, except for one index. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that the reliability estimates for the KYRBWS questionnaire are varied, but generally reliable over time. The indices with low reliability estimates need to be evaluated further in order to determine whether the indices should be modified or deleted from future versions of the KYRBWS.
Adolescent ; *Adolescent Behavior ; Alcohol Drinking/*epidemiology ; Child ; Confidence Intervals ; Data Collection ; Female ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity/epidemiology ; Internet ; Male ; Oral Health ; Pregnancy ; Prevalence ; *Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; *Risk-Taking ; Sexual Behavior ; Smoking/*epidemiology ; Substance-Related Disorders/*epidemiology ; Time Factors

OBJECTIVES: Self-reported anthropometric values, such as height and weight, are used to calculate body mass index (BMI) and assess the prevalence of obesity among adolescents. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of self-reported height, weight, and BMI of the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey questionnaire. METHODS: A convenience sample of 137 middle school students and 242 high school students completed a self-administered questionnaire in 2008. Body height and weight were directly measured after self-reported values were obtained from the questionnaire survey. Sensitivity, specificity, and kappa statistics were computed in order to evaluate the validity of the prevalence of obesity (BMI > or = 95th percentile or > or = 25 kg/m2) based on self-reported data. RESULTS: Self-reported weight and BMI tended to be underestimated. Self-reported height tended to be overestimated among middle school females and high school males. Obese adolescents tended to underestimate their weight and BMI and overestimate their height more than non-obese adolescents. The prevalence estimate of obesity based on self-reported data (10.6%) was lower than that based on directly measured data (15.3%). The estimated sensitivity of obesity based on self-reported data was 69.0% and the specificity was 100.0%. The value of kappa was 0.79 (95% confidence interval, 0.70-0.88). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that self-reported height and weight may lead to the underestimation of BMI and consequently the prevalence of obesity. These biases should be taken into account when self-reported data are used for monitoring the prevalence and trends of obesity among adolescents nationwide.
Adolescent ; Adolescent Behavior ; *Body Height ; *Body Mass Index ; *Body Weight ; Confidence Intervals ; Data Collection ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Obesity/*epidemiology ; Prevalence ; Questionnaires ; Republic of Korea ; Risk-Taking ; Sensitivity and Specificity

It is important to initialize Image Plate (IP) completely for removing residual latent image by sodium lamp for reliability and repeatability of computed radiography (CR) system. The purpose of this study was to evaluate latent images of computed radiography (CR) images respect to delay time after erasure of foregone latent image and its effect, and erasure level. Erasure thoroughness for CR acceptance test from American Association of Physicist in Medicine (AAPM) Report 93 (2006) was also evaluated. Measurements were made on a CR (Agfa CR 25; Agfa, BELGIUM) system. Chest postero-anterior (PA), Hand PA, L-spine lateral radiographs were chosen for evaluation. Chest phantom (3D-torso; CIRS, USA) was used for Chest PA and L-spine lateral radiography. For Hand PA radiography, projections was done without phantom. Except Hand PA radiographs, noise was increased with delay time, and ghost image was appeared on overexposed area. Effect of delay after erasure on latent image was not seen on naked eye, but standard deviation (SD) of pixel value on overexposed area was relatively higher than that of other areas. On Hand PA and Chest PA radiographs, noise were not occurred by adjustment of erasure level. On L-spine lateral images at lower erasure level than standard level, noise including ghost image were occurred because of high tube current. Erasure thoroughness of CR system in our department was to be proved by these evaluation. The results of this study could be used as a baseline for IP initialization and reliability of CR images.
Eye ; Hand ; Noise ; Sodium ; Thorax

Elevated high-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels and metabolic syndrome are considered important predictors of cardiovascular mortality. This study examined the influence of the alcohol consumption level on the hs-CRP level and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in South Koreans. The study subjects were 3,884 participants (≥19 years) from the KNHANES in 2015. The subjects were divided into four groups according to their alcohol consumption; None (none-alcohol consumption), Low (less than 15 g/day), Medium (15~29.9 g/day), and High (over than 30 g/day). The odds ratio for high-risk hs-CRP of men was significantly lower in the Low or Medium groups compared to the None group. In women, the odds ratio for high-risk hs-CRP was not decreased in the Low or Medium groups but was significantly higher in the High group than in the None group. Compared to nondrinkers, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was lower in the Low group and Medium group in both men and women, whereas it was significantly higher in the High group in men only. In particular, the prevalence of low HDL-cholesterol was lower in all drinking groups. When the confounding factors were adjusted, the odds ratio for low HDL-cholesterol appeared to decline in the Low groups in both men and women. On the other hand, in the Medium group, women showed an elevated odds ratios of high blood pressure (HBP) and high fasting plasma glucose but men showed an elevated odds ratios of HBP and high triglyceride levels. The overall results suggest that low alcohol consumption is more appropriate than medium alcohol consumption. Nevertheless, more study will be needed to evaluate the appropriate alcohol consumption level.
Alcohol Drinking ; Blood Glucose ; C-Reactive Protein ; Drinking ; Fasting ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Male ; Mortality ; Nutrition Surveys ; Odds Ratio ; Prevalence ; Triglycerides