PURPOSE: Lentinus edodes is used in both foods and drugs, and is also known to be an antioxidant agent. Some investigators have noted that renal scarring following pyelonephritis is closely related to inflammation or free oxygen radicals, rather than to direct injury due to bacterial infection. The efficiency of the antioxidant agent, lentinus edodes, in preventing the renal scarring caused by experimental pyelonephritis was evaluated in rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty eight male Sprague Dawley rats (n=28) were injected into both renal parenchyma with 0.1ml of a solution containing Escherichia coli (10(8)/ml). The control group, consisting of 4 rats, received an injection of isotonic saline instead of the bacterial solution. Three days after surgery, the animals were given the following treatments: in the pyelonephritis group, 7 rats received isotonic saline for 5 days; in the antibiotics treatment group, 6 rats were treated with an antibiotic only, ciprofloxacin, for 5 days. In the lentinus edodes treatment group, 5 rats were treated with lentinus edodes only. In the combined group, 6 rats received both lentinus edodes and ciprofloxacin. The kidneys were harvested 6 weeks after infection, and histopathologically examined for renal scarring. RESULTS: Delayed treatment with antibiotics-only or lentinus edodes-only had no effect on the scarring compared with the untreated controls. However, the addition of lentinus edodes to the delayed antibiotic therapy significantly inhibited the renal scarring compared with the pyelonephritis, antibiotic-only treated and the lentinus edodes-only treated groups (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The administration of lentinus edodes in combination with antibiotics significantly reduced the renal scar formation in pyelonephritis.
Animals ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bacterial Infections ; Cicatrix* ; Ciprofloxacin ; Escherichia coli ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Kidney ; Lentinula* ; Male ; Pyelonephritis* ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Research Personnel ; Shiitake Mushrooms*

PURPOSE: Pseudohypoparathyroidism(PHP) is caused by a defect of G protein and receptor despite of normal parathyroid hormone(PTH) secretion. It is a rare disorder characterized by hypocalcemia, hyperphophatemia, elevated PTH levels and albright hereditory osteodystrophy(AHO). We retrospectively reviewed the clinical characteristics of PHP. METHODS: We reviewed clinical features, laboratory findings, and outcome to treatment of 8 PHP patients, diagnosed at Seoul National University Hospital from 1988 to rool. RESULTS: Male to Female ratio was 1.7:1 and mean age at diagnosis was 11.8 years old. The initial average height SDS was 0.13+/-.08 and the average weight SDS was 0.43+/-.31. The most common symptom was seizure. Only one patient had typical AHO, three patients had mental retardation. Brain MRI or CT showed basal ganglia calcification in 3 patients. All patients treated with vitamin D and calcium supplementation could maintained normal serum levels of calcium and phophorus. CONCLUSION: PHP should be suspected in patient with seizure of unknown origin, aged above 5 year-old. AHO and mental retardation could be adjuvant signs to the diagnosis of PHP. But definite diagnosis could be made by laboratory work up.
Basal Ganglia ; Brain ; Calcium ; Child, Preschool ; Diagnosis ; Female ; GTP-Binding Proteins ; Humans ; Hypocalcemia ; Intellectual Disability ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Pseudohypoparathyroidism* ; Retrospective Studies ; Seizures ; Seoul ; Vitamin D

No abstract available.
Female ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Ectopic*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to survey health requirements of middle-aged women and their families and to provide guidelines for developing nursing interventions by describing the process of family health maintenance experienced by middle-aged women and its conceptual system. METHODS: To get saturated data, each of four researchers conducted two or three times of in-depth interview with eight middle-aged women aged between 40-64 years old and living in Seoul and Chuncheon from the 10th to the 30th of October 2004 and each interview was continued one or two hours. The Grounded theory adopted by Strauss & Corbin (1998) is a substantive theory that can explain the experiencing process of middle-aged women. RESULTS: We found that the casual condition of family health maintaining by middle-aged women was "confidence of health belief", and "pouring by body moving" was found to be its phenomenon. A textual condition that might respond to the phenomenon was "fatal roles acceptance", and intervening conditions that promote their family health were "retracing" and "gathering health information". These intervening conditions impacted middle-aged women's confidence in family health and led them to take actions/interactions such as "being a model of health", "adapting to circumstances", "do-it-myself", "taking-care" "harmonious mind" and "the pursuit of cleanness". These actions/interactions produced results such as "being stronger", "being unmanageable" and "being fruitful". CONCLUSIONS: Health confidence and practical health behaviors were observed in the process that the middle-aged female participants experienced unmanageable circumstances but they accepted their roles and responsibilities and recognized that they must be get stronger. The behaviors of health-together-with were divided into enthusiastic type, adaptation type and self-sacrificing type. Therefore middle-aged woman with the understanding of family health maintaining process as well as the theoretical system and practical principals needs to implement the intervention in acceptable level of family health process of preventing psychological and physical problems.
Family Health* ; Female ; Gangwon-do ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Nursing ; Seoul

BACKGROUND: Left ventricular hypertrophy is a major cardiovascular risk factor for sudden death, acute myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure. The left ventricle is generally thought to adapt to sustained arterial hypertension with increased total peripheral resistance by developing concentric hypertrophy. In recent years, the echocardiogrphy has been developed as a noninvasive method for evaluation of left ventricular geometry and left ventricular mass. However, left ventricular adaptation to hypertension has been shown to be more complex than expected. In fact, many patients with mild to moderate hypertension exhibit normal left ventricular mass and wall thickness, other hypertensive patients have eccentric ventricular hypertrophy that is not related to systolic dysfunction, but rather to increased cardiac output and preload and in some hypertensive patients absolute and relative wall thickness is increased with normal ventricular mass(concentric remodeling). There are differences in the hemodynamics, systolic function and diastolic function in each group. METHODS: From september 1992 to August 1994, in 144 patients with untreated essential hypertension and 50 age and gender matched normal adults studied by two-dimensional, M-mode and Doppler echocardiography. In the present study we used echocardiographically derived left ventricular mass and relative wall thickness to assess the patterns of ventricular geometric adaptation to systemic hypertension and their relations to systemic hemodynamics, left ventricular load and contractile performance. RESULTS: Hypertensive group was 144 cases(M:F=68:76), the mean age 56+/-13years. Normotensive group was 50 cases(M:F=22:28), the mean age 52+/-9years. Among hypertensive patients, left ventricular mass index and relative wall thickness were normal in 42 cases(29%), 24 cases(17%) had increased relative wall thickness with normal ventricular mass(concentric remodelin),48 cases(33%) had both increased relative wall thickness and ventricular mass(concentric hypertrophy), 30 cases(21%) had increased left ventricular mass with normal relative wall thickness(eccentric hypertrophy). Concentric hypertrophy and normal left ventricle group are more common in untreated hypertensive patients in Korea. Systemic hemodynamics showed tendency to paralleled ventricular geomety. In groups with concentric remodeling and hypertrophy, perpheral resistance was increased. Cardiac index was midly increased in eccentric hypertrophy. Diastolic dysfunction was prominent tn concentric hypertrophy. CONCLUSION: Each patterns of left ventricular geometry had different systemic hemodynamics, ventricular pressure overload and ventricular volume overload. Therefore, appropriate selection of antihypertensive agent for the patients with each patterns of hypertrophy reduce the left ventricular hypertrophy and may improve the prognosis.
Adult ; Cardiac Output ; Death, Sudden ; Echocardiography ; Echocardiography, Doppler ; Heart Failure ; Heart Ventricles ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Hypertrophy ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular* ; Korea ; Myocardial Infarction ; Prognosis ; Risk Factors ; Vascular Resistance ; Ventricular Pressure

OBJECTIVES: From February 1995 to April 1998, those patients who had visited for evaluation of infertility, shown abnormal endometrial pattern on hysterosalpingography underwent resectoscopic operation. We evaluated about its therapeutic effect, recurrence rate of uterine adhesion and effectiveness of its assisted method. METHOD: We have reviewed 45 cases of intrauterine adhesion, classified as a central type, marginal type and multiple type. We used 26F resectoscope made in Storz for operation and inserted Lippes loop or pediatric foley catheter for prevention of readhesion. For promoting reepithelialization, conjugated estrogens(premarin) 5mg daily for 30 - 50 days were given and then 10mg of medroxyprogesterone acetate(provera) were added daily for the last 10 days. We evaluated the uterine cavity condition preoperatively and postoperatively by using hysterosalpingography. RESULT: In 45 cases, 41 cases were followed up postoperatively. 21 cases were markedly improved, 12 cases were improved and 8 cases were not improved or recurred on hysterosalpingography. In 41 cases, for prevention of readhesion 20 cases were used pediatric foley catheter and 5 cases(25%) were recurred. 21 cases were used Lippes loop and 3 cases(14%) were recurred. Pregnancy outcome was as follows;15 cases were pregnant and 10 cases delivered a viable infant, 3 cases aborted spontaneously, 1 case was ectopic pregnancy and laparoscopic salpingectomy was done, 1 case was ongoing pregnancy. CONCLUSION: This report suggests that resectoscopic operation is very effective in the treatment of intrauterine adhesion(therapeutic rate of 81%) and that the use of Lippes loop seems like to have the less recurrence rate than the use of pediatric foley catheter in prevention of postoperative readhesion, but more experience and further follow-up are necessary to obtain more detailed conclusions.
Catheters ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hysterosalpingography ; Infant ; Infertility ; Medroxyprogesterone ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Outcome ; Pregnancy, Ectopic ; Recurrence ; Salpingectomy

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between socioeconomic status and chewing discomfort and identify the role of food insecurity in the association's causal pathway in a representative sample of Korean elders.MATERIALS/METHODS: We conducted cross-sectional analyses of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2013–2015) data for elders aged ≥ 65 years.Socioeconomic status indicators used included household income and education level.Chewing discomfort was assessed according to the self-reported presence of chewing problems. Food security was surveyed using a questionnaire based on the US Household Food Security Survey Module. RESULTS: The odds ratios of chewing discomfort in the 1st and 2nd income quartiles were 1.55 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15–2.10) and 1.40 (95% CI, 1.03–1.90), respectively, compared to participants in the highest income quartile. Participants with the lowest education level were 1.89 (95% CI, 1.30–2.75) times more likely to have chewing discomfort than those without chewing discomfort. After including food security in the final model, the logistic coefficients were attenuated in the income and education quartiles. CONCLUSIONS Low socioeconomic status was associated with chewing discomfort. In addition, the results confirm that food insecurity can mediate the association between socioeconomic inequalities and chewing discomfort among the elderly.

Three reports published in the 20th century have functioned as standard guidelines for medical education: the General Professional Education of the Physician report by the Association of American Medical Colleges, Tomorrow's Doctors from the General Medical Council of the UK, and Korean Physicians for the 21st Century by the Korean Association of Medical Colleges. At the moment, a great deal of innovation is occurring in Korean medical societies. However, these innovations bring to mind the parable of the blind men and an elephant in which each blind man feels part of an elephant with his hands and misunderstands the elephant's nature because he cannot see the whole animal. In the same way, there is no comprehensive picture of 'what is the good doctor' for here and now. Korean society is changing more and more rapidly in the 21st century due to influences such as an influx of immigration and resulting multiculturalism. We could not predict these changes even in the 1990s, when Korean Association for Medical Colleges was preparing its report. In light of a dynamically changing society, we must review and revise our definitions of a 'physician for here and now' every ten or twenty years.
Animals ; Cultural Diversity ; Education, Medical ; Education, Professional ; Elephants ; Emigration and Immigration ; Hand ; Humans ; Light ; Male ; Needs Assessment ; Societies, Medical

BACKGROUND: There are only a few studies regarding the causes of treatment failure for tuberculosis. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the causes of intractable tuberculosis. METHODS: M.tuberculosis, differentiated MOTT (Tycobacterium Other Than Tuberculosis) were isolated, and the RFLP (Restriction fragments length polymorphisms) pattern was analyzed from 204 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and 53 suffering from neck tuberculosis. The IL-1β, IL-12, *1 IFNγ and *2 TNFαblood levels were measured. All patients were regularly followed for 18 months after treatment. RESULTS: There was no correlation between the RFLP patterns of M.tuberculosis treatment failure. From the 204 cases, 31.9% were intractable. The characteristics of patients with intractable tuberculosis were old age, being male and recurrent cases. The causes of treatment failure were identified as follows ; a decrease in the IL-12(59.4%) concentration, drug resistant strain(54.7%), irregular medication(15.4%), MOTT(6.2%) and a heavy infection(4.6%). The causes of all cases of intractable tuberculosis could be investigated. The IL-12 concentration in the blood was significantly lower in the intractable cases, where it disclosed a maximum sensitivity(64.7%) and specificity(75.4%) at 165.0 pg/ml. Most of the 53 cases on neck node tuberculosis were treated successfully. Therefore, we were unable to analyze the cause of treatment failure. CONCLUSION: A decrease in the blood IL-12 concentration and drug resistant strains were identified as the most significant causes of treatment failure for tuberculosis. In Korea, infection by clusters were prevalent, but no difference in the clinical course between clusters and non-clusters could be found.
Humans ; Interleukin-12 ; Korea ; Male ; Neck* ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Treatment Failure* ; Tuberculosis* ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

It has been known that estradial(E2) level is concerned with the quality, number and growing of follicles. Determination of the serum levels of E2 has been used to predict the oocyte maturity. We experienced the rare case who has significantly low serum E2 level(551.26 pg/ml) in spite of multiple ovarian responses by sonographic finding, but from her we obtained 23 oocytes on MCD#16 after COH with ultrashort protocol(HP-FSH 150 IU, daily). The numbers of retrieved oocyte were 23 and fertilization rate was 56.6%, so the result of IVF-ET was successful twin pregnancy. Serum estradiol level and sonographic finding are essential to measure the number and growing of follicles, but E2 levels may be too unreliable to be used as sole parameter for the number and maturity of oocytes.
Estradiol* ; Fertilization ; Humans ; Oocytes ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Twin ; Ultrasonography