BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to explore the prevalence of and the factors affecting constipation in elementary school students in urban and rural areas. METHODS: Study subjects were 585 grade 5 and 6 students. We conducted self-administered questionnaires during October, 2009. Outcome measure was the prevalence of constipation evaluated by the Rome III Diagnostic criteria for functional constipation. Independent variables were gender, grade, residence, mother's employment status, self-rated health status, number of family members, bowel movement habit, and health behavior (nutrition, exercise, and stress). RESULTS: The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that females, grade 5 students, those with working mothers, and those physically inactive reported having constipation significantly more often. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed that the female gender, increasing age, mother's employment status, and physical inactivity were risk factors for constipation in elementary school students. To improve bowel function in children, health education programs and school health promotion programs targeting healthy life habits should be implemented.
Child ; Constipation* ; Employment ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Health Education ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Mothers ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Prevalence* ; Risk Factors ; School Health Services ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Few have reported fungal sinusitis confined in only sphenoidal sinus which caused orbital complication. Reportedly, early surgical treatment can lead to visual recovery especially in its involvement of optic nerve. We report a patients who was hospitalized due to sudden decrease in visual acuity and headache, and was histopathologically diagnosed as having aspergillosis confined in sphenoid sinus, but failed to show restoration of visual acuity after the operation using nasal endoscope.
Aspergillosis ; Endoscopes ; Headache ; Humans ; Optic Nerve* ; Orbit ; Sinusitis ; Sphenoid Sinus ; Sphenoid Sinusitis* ; Visual Acuity

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to identify factors that affect medical service performance in rural health sub-centers and to develop a method to improve health sub-center performance that takes advantage of these insights. METHODS: This study included 1,242 South Korean health sub-centers that had been in operation at least since December 31, 2009 as units of analysis. After adjusting for population differences between areas, the performance of medical service among health sub-centers was analyzed according to medical services performed per person. We performed t-tests, ANOVA, Scheffe's tests and multiple regression analyses. RESULTS: The following were significant variables affecting the medical service performance of rural health sub-centers: number of hospitals and clinics, presence of community health practitioner posts, distance from health sub-centers to main public health centers, distance from health sub-centers to the nearest emergency medical facilities, and proportion of the local population aged 65 and over. In contrast, the proportion of the local population between ages 0-4 and the placement of public health doctors that had already completed their internship were not significant variables. CONCLUSIONS: The medical service performance of health sub-centers located in rural areas is significantly affected by local population and health care environment characteristics, and therefore, it is imperative to develop strategies to provide differentiated service based on these factors.
Aged ; Delivery of Health Care ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Imidazoles ; Internship and Residency ; Nitro Compounds ; Public Health ; Rural Health

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of public health facilities rebuilding on the hypertension control in the rural area. METHOD: 6 health centers and 59 health subcenters in some Chung-chung province was surveyed. And 29,503 patients were finally selected who had records of prescription about hypertension at list once in those health facilities from July 1th, 2005 to June 30th, 2006. Demographic variable of patients and whether medical doctor was a medical specialist or not, and whether the facilities were recently rebuilded or not was measured. RESULTS: The Overall control rate was 53.9%. Women had higher hypertension control rate than men. And 60s and 70s years old are had higher hypertension control rate than 40s and 80s years old. Patients who had been treated from medical specialist had higher hypertension control rate than general doctor. And patient who treated in rebuilded public health facilities had higher hypertension control rate. CONCLUSIONS: Rebuilding of public health facilities were related to increasing control rate of hypertensive patients.
Facility Design and Construction ; Female ; Health Facilities ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Male ; Prescriptions ; Public Health ; Rural Health Services ; Specialization

Airway hyperresponsiveness is a consistent feature of asthma. Since the airway smooth muscle is hyperresponsive to a number of different stimuli operating through many different mechanisms, it is attractive to speculate that the abnormality may reside in the airway smooth muscle itself. Animal model of asthma is needed to unravel possible mechanisms underlying airway hyperresponsiveness and also to develop new therapeutic approaches. However, there are few reports showing that airway smooth muscle from animal asthma model is indeed hyperresponsive. In addition, sensitizing and provoking doses of allergen were different each other ambng the studies on animal asthma model. The aim of this study was to determine an appropriate sensitizing and provoking dose of allergen to induce a maximum airway hyperresponsiveness. Eighty-four male Sprague-Dawley rats were actively sensitized with a subcutaneous injection of 0, 10, or 1000/gg ovalbumin(OA) and 14 days later they were provoked with 0, 1, or 5 % OA aerosols. One day after the provocation, serum levels of OA-specific IgE, cell numbers in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), and in vitro isometric contractile responses of the isolated tracheal smooth muscle(TSM) to 120 mM KC1, acetylcholine(ACh, 0.1~ 1000/micro meter), electrical field stimulation (EFS, 0.5~100Hz), serotonin(5-HT, 0.014 100/micro meter), and OA(10, 50, or 250 micro gram/ml) were measured. The results were as follows; 1) When 38 OA-sensitized rats were exposed to OA aerosols in vivo early asthmatic responses(EAR) were observed in 20(52.6%) rats. In vitro isometric contractile forces of TSM from rats with EAR were stronger than those from rats without EAR. 2) The maximal contractile responses to KC1 and EFS were significantly higher in rats only sensitized with OA compared with those in controls. The maximal response to ACh was significantly related to OA-specific serum IgE level(r=0.40, p%0.05), and the latter was in turn significantly related to the BALF eosinophil count(r=0.67, p<0.01). 3) When 10 microgram OA-sensitized rats were analyzed, the maximal response to KC1, ACh, EFS, and 250 micro gram/ml OA were lower in OA-provoked rats compared to those in saline-provoked control rats, in which 5% OA-provoked rats had a lower response than 1% OA-provoked rats. 4) The sensitivity of TSM to ACh was significantly higher in 10/micro gram OA-sensitized & OA-provoked rats, and the sensitivity to EFS was also significantly higher in 10/~g OA-sensitized & 5% OA-provoked rats compared to that in controls(p<0.05). 5) There was a significant correlation between the sensitivity of TSM to EFS and the counts of eosinophil or of lymphocytes in BALF(for eosinophil, r=-0.30; p<0.05, for lymphocyte, r=-0.35; p<0.05), or OA-specific serum IgE level(r=-0.46, p<0.01) in OA-sensitized & OA-provoked rats. This relationship was maintained in the data obtained only from 10 micro gram OA-sensitized & 5% OA-provoked rats. 6) The ratio of EFS-sensitivity to ACh-sensitivity was significantly lower in OA-sensitized & OA-provoked rats compared to that in controls or rats only sensitized with OA(p%0.05). 7) The Schultz-Dale phenomenon occurred in an in vitro dose-dependent manner. However, the inhaled provocation with OA in vivo resulted in a decrease in the contractile response to OA in vitro. There was a significant correlation between OA-specific serum IgE level and isometric response to 250 micro gram/ml OA(r=0.36, p<0.01). These results suggest that sensitization and provocation in vivo with OA in rats induces hypersensitivity of airway smooth muscle to cholinergic stimuli through an allergic inflammatory mechanism. The sensitivity was highest when sensitized to 10 micro gram OA and exposed to 5% OA aerosols.
Aerosols ; Animals ; Asthma* ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ; Cell Count ; Ear ; Eosinophils ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Immunoglobulin E ; Injections, Subcutaneous ; Lymphocytes ; Male ; Models, Animal ; Muscle, Smooth* ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Calcium deposits in the basal ganglia and in the other areas of the brain may occur as idiopathic disease or secondary to metabolic disturbances including hypoparathyroidism. Fahr's syndrome is characterized by secondary cerebral calcification and variable clinical manifestations of movement disorder, cognitive impairment, and behavioral changes. We report a 48 year-old man with Fahr's syndrome due to idiopathic hypoparathyroidism who presented with recurrent epileptic seizures. Brain CT showed multiple calcifications of the Fahr type in the basal ganglia, thalami, cerebellar white matter and dentate nuclei, and centrum seiovale. Brain MRI diffusion-weighted image showed high signal intensity in the right anterior temporal region.
Basal Ganglia ; Brain ; Calcium ; Epilepsy ; Humans ; Hypoparathyroidism ; Movement Disorders

No abstract available.
Foreign Bodies* ; Statistics as Topic*

Purpose: This study examined the eating-out patterns of Korean infants and school-aged children and compared diet quality. Methods: Data were obtained from the 2016–2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The subjects were 306 children aged 3 to 11 years old that ate dinner at restaurants. Percentage energy intakes of 24 food groups were calculated, and cluster analysis was used to identify eating-out patterns. Diet quality was assessed by calculating percentage energy and nutrient intakes using one-third of the 2015 Dietary Reference Intakes for Korean (KDRIs), nutrient adequacy ratio (NAR), mean adequacy ratio (MAR), and index of nutritional quality (INQ). Results: Cluster analysis identified 2 eating-out patterns, that is, a ‘rice-centered’ (53%) and a ‘mixed diet’ (47%) pattern. For those with the mixed diet pattern, ratios of carbohydrates, protein, and fat to total calories were 48:20:31, whereas for the rice-centered pattern, ratios were 62:15:21 (p < 0.001). Intakes of energy and most nutrients in the mixed diet pattern were excessive, but the intakes of the most nutrients in the rice-centered pattern were much lower than their KDRIs. MARs were higher for the mixed diet pattern than the rice-centered pattern (0.74 vs. 0.66) (p < 0.001), and INQs for vitamin C (p = 0.007) and calcium (p = 0.018) were lower for the rice-centered pattern, whereas INQ for iron (p = 0.003) was lower for the mixed diet pattern. Conclusion The quality of meals for infants and school-aged children depended on eating-out patterns, but the rice-centered and mixed diet patterns both failed to provide an appropriately balanced meal pattern. The results of this study suggest that healthy menus need to be developed for children in restaurants.

Toxic epidermal necrolysis (T~EN) is a severe mucocutaneous disease characterized by epidermal necrosis possibly extended to the entire body surface and involving multiple internal organs. Digestive tract may be involved too, but there is few report about gastrointestinal lesion in patient with TEN. Recently we experienced a case of TEN with gastrointestinal bleeding in previously healthy 32-year-old woman. The condition developed three days after the initiation of treatment with NSAID and progressed caudally, involving 60 percent of the skin surfaces. During a period of admission gastrointestinal bleeding was noticed. The gastrofiberscopy showed diffuse superficial mucosal lesion with oozing from swollen friable and erythematous mucosa. The skin lesion was progressed inspite of withdrawal of causative agents. The patient was expired due to combined septic shock 10 days later. We report this case with gastrofiberscopic findings and a brief review of literature.
Adult ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Mucous Membrane ; Necrosis ; Shock, Septic ; Skin ; Stevens-Johnson Syndrome*

As the use computed tomographic (CT) scanning spread, the diagnosis of blowout fractures of the medial orbital wall increased. Now, the diagnosis of blowout fracture in the medial wall are not uncommon. Conventionally, the surgery of blowout fractures in medial orbital wall was performed by the various approach with external incision. The conventional method had seveal possible disadvantages, including an external scar, incomplete reduction, increased mobidity rate and general anesthesia. Recently, endoscopic reconstruction of the medial orbital wall has provided good functional and cosmetic results. We performed endoscopic transnasal reduction surgery without external incision in 12 cases of medial blowout fracture under local anesthesia. The fractured bony fragments were removed after the intranasal ethmoidectomy and the entrapped medial rectus was released. And then a sheet of silicone late or uncinate process were placed on the fracture site. For the maintain of the position of fractured wall, Merocel packing or urinary ballon catheter were used in orbital fracture site for 1-3 weeks. There were no specific complications related to this procedure. Result of the surgery in all cases were satisfactory. In this article, we discussed the surgical procedure, the benifit of the transnasal endoscopic approach, the indications for surgery, and possible comlications.
Anesthesia, General ; Anesthesia, Local ; Catheters ; Cicatrix ; Diagnosis ; Orbit* ; Orbital Fractures ; Silicones