BACKGROUND: To provide basic data to help construct regional EMSS. METHOD: Using preformed questionnaire, authors investigated prospectively data of 214 patients transferred directly to emergency medical center from other hospitals from May 11 to june 10,1998. RESULTS: 1. Total 214 patients were transferred directly to the emergency medical center of KNUH (14.4% of total), and 63.5% of patients excluding children were non-traumatic patients. 2. The peak age group was 5th decade (19.6%) with mean age of49.6 years old. The male to female ratio was 1.8 : 1. 3. The period between 08 : 00 to 16 : 00 was the most frequent arrival time of transfer patients (42.5%), and the proportion of patients for surgical departments were more common than those for other departments (53.7%). 4. the majority of patients were transferred from secondary hospitals (91.6%), but among them the proportion of mild non-traumatic and mild traumatic patients was 52.3%, and 72.0%. 5. The decision-maker for transfer was a patient himself or family members in 32.3% of severe and 26.8(/) of mild non-traumatic patients, compared with 37.5% of severe and 26.8% of mild traumatic patients. 6. The physician-to-physician communication prior to the patient's transfer was not carried out in 90.8% of severe and 85.9% of mild non-traumatic patients, compared with 75.0%of severe and 67.0%of mild traumatic patients. 7. The hospital ambulance was the most common mode of transfer (64.5%), but non-emergency vehicles such as a taxi or a private car was used for transfer in 21.5% of severe non-traumatic patients, and 12.5% in severe traumatic patients. 8. Transfer accompanied by medical personnel took place in 15.4% of severe non-traumatic patients, 25.0% in severe traumatic patients, and in 27.0% of severe non-traumatic patients, and 44.4% in severe traumatic patients transferred 4 by hospital ambulance. 9. Transfer took less than 1 hour in 66.9% of non-traumatic patients, and 45.2% of traumatic patients, but it took 1 hour or more in 27.7% of severe non-traumatic patients, and 43.7% of severe traumatic patients. 10. Transfer record accompanied the patient in 90.2% of total, but radiologic film and results of laboratory tests did not in 36.9% and 56.9% of severe non-traumatic patients, and in 12.5% and 43.7% of severe traumatic patients. CONCLUSION: It is considered that an appropriate triage system, interhospital transfer guidelines, good transfer records, cooperative interhospital communication, emergency medical information center, public information with education about regional EMSS, improvement of equipment in ambulance, and training of emergency personnel are necessary for effective and well-organized EMSS.
Ambulances ; Child ; Education ; Emergencies* ; Female ; Humans ; Information Centers ; Male ; Prospective Studies ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Triage

To determine the causes of and related factors to childhood injuries, the emergency room records and inpatient medical records were reviewed for 4,849 injured children out of 15,790 pediatric patients(<15 years old) who visited the emergency rooms of 3 university hospitals and 2 general hospitals in Taegu from 1 January to 31 December 1987. Out of total injured children, 54.6% were 3-8 years old and the male to female ratio of the total injured children was about 2 : 1. The leading causes of injury were falls and slips (29.1%) and traffic accident(28.2%). The frequency of injury was higher in May-October than the rest of months and 51.6% of the injuries occurred between 15 and 20 o'clock. Falls and slips took place most frequently at the stairway(25.7%). The most common interpersonal violence was inflicted injuries(85.6%) and there were 11 child rapes. Dog bites accounted for 67.6% of all biting injuries and it occurred 2.9 times more in male than in female. CO intoxication was the most common cause of poisoning (45.3%) and scalding accounted for 85.2% of all burns. Common places of drownings were river (32.2%), swimming pool (22.6%) and construction site(19.3%). To prevent childhood injuries, it is recommended to eliminate the hazardous environmental factors, to provide safe playgrounds, to educate the children for safety from kindergarten and the general public through mass communication, to establish a strict safety standard for houses, public buildings and facilities, and playgrounds.
Animals ; Burns ; Child ; Daegu* ; Dogs ; Drowning ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Female ; Hospitals, General ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Male ; Medical Records ; Poisoning ; Rape ; Rivers ; Swimming Pools ; Violence

No abstract available.
Female ; Fetal Heart* ; Heart Rate, Fetal* ; Pregnancy ; Telemetry*

To investigate the maternal and child factors associated with early detection of cerebral palsy, 74 mothers of cerebral palsy children who were born since January 1, 1980 and being treated at Taegu Rehabilitation Center for the Handicapped, Rehabilitation Center of Taegu University, St. Paul Children's House and Pusan Welfare Association of Cerebral Palsy Children were interviewed from February to April 1987. There is no association between age of child when parents noticed the child's abnormality and educational level of father but it tend to be detected earlier when education level of mother is college or above compared with high school or under. There is a trend of earlier detection of child's abnormality although statistically not significant in case father is professional or managerial worker, monthly income of father is over 610,000 won, child is first-born, age of the parents is 34 years or under, child is a boy, and child has periodic well-baby check-up. The child's abnormality is detected earlier when mothers had 7 prenatal visits or more compared with those who had 6 visits or less (P<0.05). Parents noticed the child's abnormality first in 85.1% of the case whereas doctors detected it first in 2.7% and this percentage was not different whether the child had periodic well-baby check-up or not. The first physician's diagnosis of the children was cerebral palsy in 36.5% and the rest was normal, need for observation, uncertain, etc. Parents took the child to doctor for diagnosis 2-3 months after they noticed the child's abnormality and after the child was diagnosed as cerebral palsy parents either took no therapeutic measure or brought the child to physiotherapy or acupuncture or gave herb medicine before they started specific rehabilitative therapy. For early detection of the cerebral palsy children, teaching of evaluation method for child development should be reinforced both in medical school and clinical training course and should train the specialist for diagnosis and treatment of crippling conditions. Also, public education needed for the importance of early detection of crippling conditions and currently available methods for diagnosis and treatment.
Acupuncture ; Busan ; Cerebral Palsy* ; Child Development ; Child* ; Daegu ; Diagnosis ; Disabled Persons ; Education ; Fathers ; Humans ; Male ; Mothers ; Parents ; Rehabilitation Centers ; Schools, Medical ; Specialization

The authors studied neuroticism, using Eysenck's Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI), in 3,893 male college students and 1,976 female college students of Yeungnam University. There was significant difference in the mean averages of total neuroticism scores between male and female students, male students scored 13.45±.44, female students scored 16.89±7.19. The items relating to (16) Do you sometimes feel happy, sometimes depressed, without any apparent reason? (38) Do you daydream a lot? (1) Do you have dizzy turns? (2) Do you get palpitations or thumping in your heart? And (35) Do you worry about your health? were scored highly in male, and the items relating to (16) Do you sometimes feel happy, sometimes depressed, without any apparent reason? (1) Do you have dizzy turns? (38) Do you daydream a lot? (8) Do you worry too long over humiliating experiences? (9) Do you consider yourself rather a nervous person? Were scored highly in female. Three hundreds and ninety eight male students (10.3%) showed seriously high neuroticism scores of 24 or higher, while 256 female student (13.0%) showed high neuroticism scores of 26 or higher. In a comparison between male students in different school grades, freshman showed the highest level of neuroticism scores. Among the psychosocial factors, there were strong tendencies toward higher neuroticism scores in the students who were dissatisfied with their colleges or departments, and who had pessimistic views of self-image in the past, present, or future in both groups. The male students whose educational fees were paid by their parents, and whose spending money per month was under 10,000 won, showed higher neuroticism scores. The female students whose educational fees were paid by their brothers or sisters, and whose maturation locations were U-P, and who resided in dormitory or other residencies, shoed higher neuroticism scores.
Fantasy ; Fees and Charges ; Female ; Heart ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Male ; Parents ; Personality Inventory ; Psychology ; Siblings

Apocrine carcinoma is a rare type of mammary cancer, which shows partial or total apocrine differentiation in either ductal or lobular carcinoma. The malignant transformation of apocrine epithelium of the breast was first described by Krompecher in 1916. It is well known that their relationship to true apocrine glands of the skin is only a morphological similarity, and this histological difference does not affect the prognosis. The authors experienced two cases of apocrine carcinoma of the breast which involved infiltrating ductal carcinoma of a 64-year old woman and intraductal carcinoma of a 69-year old woman respectively. Electron microscopic examination and brief review of literature was done.
Female ; Humans

Choriocarcinoma associated with a normal pregnancy is rare. Futhermore, choriocarcinoma coexistent with a viable pregnancy is even rarer and associated with a greater risk of hepatic and cerebral involvement. So timely diagnosis of the disease is important for successful treatment and aggressive diagnostic procedures may therefore warranted. The patient should be treated with primary intensive combination chemotherapy(EMA-CO) and the selective use of irradiation and surgical therapy. We experienced a case of metastatic choriocarcinoma of lung and kidney following preterm delivery at 34th week of pregnancy and so present it with brief review of literature.
Choriocarcinoma* ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Kidney ; Lung ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy*

BACKGROUND: Diabetic ketoacidosis(DKA) is serious acute metabolic complication and the most important cause of high morbidity and mortality of diabetes. The object of this study is to examine the clinical characteristics of patients with DKA who had a prior history of diabetes or not. METHOD: Authors reviewed retrospectively the medical records of 49 cases adimitted to Kyungpook National University Hospital from January 1991 to June 1997 with a diagnosis of DKA and classified cases as type I, type II and newly diagnosed diabetics according to prior history of diabetes. RESULTS: 1. Of 49 cases of DKA, 24(49%) were classified as type I, 17(35%) as type II from data available in the medical records, and 8(16%) had DKA as the initial manifestation of the disease. 2. The male to female ratio was 0.5 : 1 in type I, 1.1 : 1 in type II and 1.7 : 1 in newly diagnosed diabetics, and the mean age was 24.4 in type I, 57.9 in type II and 23.9 years old in newly diagnosed diabetics. 3. The mean duration between initial diagnosis of diabetes and the occurrence of DKA was 2.6 in type I and 6.9 years in type II diabetes. The occurrence of DKA within 2 years of initial diagnosis of diabetes was 54% in type I and 18% in type II diabetes, but the occurrence of DKA after 5 years of initial diagnosis of diabetes was 17% in type I and 47% in type II diabetes. 4. The precipitating factors of DKA were identified in 88% in type I, 76% in type II and 38% in newly diagnosed diabetics, and the most common precipitating factor was omission of treatment in both type I and type II(type I: 56%, type II: 35%). 5. The altered mental status was correlated with increased osmolality (p<0.05), but not with other laboratory values such as pH, bicabonate, glucose, anion gap and dehydration status(p>0.05). CONCLUSION: It is necessary to conduct early aggressive evaluation for early diagnosis and proper treatment of DKA, because DKA occurs in patients with prior history of type II diabetes and without prior diabetic history as well as patients with prior history of type I diabetes.
Acid-Base Equilibrium ; Dehydration ; Diagnosis ; Early Diagnosis ; Female ; Glucose ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Male ; Medical Records ; Mortality ; Osmolar Concentration ; Precipitating Factors ; Retrospective Studies

No abstract available.
HIV-1* ; Humans* ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*

PURPOSE: It has been suggested in our previous study that the level of xanthine oxidase(XO) activity, glutathione(GSH) and malonydialdehyde(MDA) in renal tissue following renal ischemia/reperfusion(I/R) could be used as marker of oxidant stress. Present study was undertaken to investigate the serum level of XO activity. GSH and MDA following renal I/R and to elucidate potential use of the serum level of GS H and MDA as makers of renal function following I/R injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats(200-250gm) were divided into 3 groups : group A - occlusion of bilateral renal arteries for 60 min, group B - pretreatment allopurinol(20mg/Kg). a radical scavenger, plus occlusion of renal arteries, and group C(control group) - sham operation. In group A and B, recirculation of renal arteries were performed for 30min. XO activity, xanthine dehydrogenase(XD) type conversion ratio, level of GSH and MDA were measured from venous blood. RESULTS: Both XO activity(nM/mg/min) and XD type conversion ratio(%) were increased in group A(XO; 0.173+/-0.012, XD; 60.44+/-4.32) and decreased in group B(XO; 0.136+/-0.01, XD; 45.40+/-4.78) compared to control group(XO; 0.153+/-0.012, XD; 46.93+/- 3.45). The level of GSH(microM/g tissue), a scavenger of oxygen free radical(OFR), was also decreased in group A(0.130+/-0.021) compared to group B(0.179+/-0.021) and control group(0.186+/-0.017). In addition, the level of MDA(nM/g tissue), which is a stable end product of lipid peroxidation, was significantly increased in group A(0.076+/-0.006) compared to group B(0.057+/-0.005) and control group(0.053+/-0.004). CONCLUSIONS: From these results, it is suggested that renal I/R injury is highly correlated with the production of OFR. Furthermore. the serum levels of MDA and GSH might be used as early markers of oxidant stress in association with renal I/R injury.
Animals ; Glutathione* ; Humans ; Lipid Peroxidation ; Male ; Malondialdehyde* ; Oxygen ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Renal Artery ; Xanthine Oxidase* ; Xanthine*