No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Animals* ; Virulence*

No abstract available.
Population Characteristics*

The clinical value of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of anti-HBc IgM was evaluated by testing 202 sera from acute viral hepatitis B (AVHB), hepatitis B (HB), chronic hepatitis (CAH), chronic liver disease (CLD), cirrhosis, primary hepatoma, HBsAg carrier, acute viral hepatitis A (AVHA), hepatitis A (HA), non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis and miscellaneous conditions other than hepatic disease, and 19 additional various hepatic disease cases were examined for anti-delta. In clinical situations the accurate diagnosis of HB is not always possible and the differential diagnosis seems to be very important especially in making decisions of treatment and estimation of prognosis. In overall cases the highest positive rate of anti-HBc IgM was found in AVHB as shown as 74.3% (26/35) comparing to other conditions in which the positive rate was extremely low (2.1%). The anti-HBc IgM appeared to be highly specific to AVHB (83.9%) as compared to the other. The positive rate of HBsAg was high in AVHB, CAH and HBsAg carrier (100.0%) followed by CLD, cirrhosis and HB (up to 70.8%). The ALT activities and ALPalb fractions were significantly high in AVHB (p less than 0.005). The correlation between the positivity of anti-HBc IgM and highly abnormal ALT appeared be high. AVHB was confined mostly to 10-20 age group and the male to female ratio was about 6 to 1. Subgroup of AVHB II with positive anti-HBc IgM appeared to have a greater chance being positive for HBsAg and ALPalb. The S/N ratio of anti-HBc IgM was as high as 20 which was unique to AVHB.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Biological Markers ; Child ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Hepatitis/*diagnosis ; Hepatitis Antibodies/*analysis ; Hepatitis B/diagnosis/immunology ; Hepatitis B Antibodies/analysis ; Hepatitis Delta Virus/*immunology ; Humans ; *Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Immunoglobulin M/immunology ; Isoenzymes/immunology ; Male ; Middle Aged

The purpose of this study was to measure hospitalized patients' satisfactions with hospital foodservices, and thereby identify areas for improvement and provide basic data for the introduction of total quality management with hospital foodservices. This survey was carried out questionnaires by 382 hospitalized patients into 7 hospitals in Deagu, Busan, Changwon. The subjects were 50.5% male and 49.5% female. Sixty-two percent of the subjects were over 40age, 31.4% were only educated to middle school or below, 28.3% were hospitalized for 7~14 days. The result of evaluation for hospital foodservice during the length of hospitalization are as follows : Taste, seasoning, temperature, apperance of foods were higher in the short hospitalized patients than in the long hospitalized patients, especially kind and combinazation of food were significantly higher(p<0.001). The result of the foodservice with appetite status was significantly higher score(3.33) in the good appetite patients than in the bad appetite patients score(2.00)(p<0.001). As the hospitalization rooms were the significantly difference in the taste(p<0.05), seasoning(p<0.001), apperance(p<0.01) of the foods, amount of service(p<0.01), variety of menu(p<0.05), combinazation of foods(p<0.01) and opinion of patients(p<0.05).
Appetite ; Busan ; Daegu ; Female ; Food Quality ; Gyeongsangnam-do ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seasons ; Total Quality Management

The purpose of this study was to measure patients satisfaction and expectation with hospital foodservices, and thereby identify areas for improvement and provide basic data for the introduction of total quality management with hospital foodservices. This survey was carried out on 383 hospitalized patients of 7 hospitals in Deagu, Busan, Changwon with 350 beds to determine the quality satisfaction with foodservices. The subjects were 50.5% male and 49.5% female. 62.6% of the subjects were over 40 age, 31.4% were only educated to middle school or below, 28.3% were hospitalized for 7 - 14 days. The mean score for taste of diet was 2.79, temperature 3.23, appearances 2.96. Most subjects agreed with following foodservice characteristics that meals of movement (4.03 ), dress of employees (3.84 ), kindness of employees and meals arrived exactly the same time every day (3.47 )and cleanliness of foods (3.34 )and dishes (3.33 ). The unsatisfied quality attributies were information provide (2.82 ), variety of the meals (2.91 ), mixing of meals (2.95 ), the opportunity to meet with a dietitian (2.97 )and prompt dealings with meal complaints (3.01 ). Most subjects expectation that the decrease the multiple of menus, increase provide of fruits in hospital meals and selective menus in hospital foodservices operations. In conclusion, it would seem to be desirable that hospital foodservices departments introduce selective menus, quality assurance, and increase the meal rounding of dietitians in the patient foodservice.
Busan ; Daegu ; Diet ; Female ; Food Quality ; Fruit ; Gyeongsangnam-do ; Humans ; Male ; Meals ; Nutritionists ; Total Quality Management

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The aims of this study were to determine subgoups of functional dyspesia and to evaluate the short-term effect of cisapride in patients with functional dyspepsia in Korea. METHODS: 1025 patients, with a mean age of 42.6 years, with symptoms of functional dyspepsia, were recruited consecutively and upper gastrointestinal symptoms were investigated by interview in 41 hospitals in Korea. In an open, multicenter trial, 1025 patients received Smg of cisapride three times a day (TID) for at least .2 weeks for the treatment of symptoms of functional dyspepsia. When necessary, the dose of cisapride was increased to 10mg TID and the duration of therapy was extended to 4 weeks. RESULTS: The most frequently reported symptoms of functional dyspepsia were epigastric discomfort or fullness (85%), bloating (70%), belching (53%), early satiety (52%) and epigastric pain (46%) retrospectively. Subgroups of functional dyspepsia were as follows; dysmotility-like 73.5%, ulcer-like 39.7%, reflux-like 13.0%, and unspecified dyspepsia 14.0%. However, 33.2% of subjects with functional dyspepsia could be classified into more than one subgroup. Upper gastrointestinal symptoms were decreased to average 50.3% (range; 42.2 to 59.2%) after 2 weeks of cisapride treatment and to 25% (19.2 to 29.9%) after 4 weeks. cisapride therapy resulted in good or excellent improvement in 59.0% of the patients after two weeks, in 75% of patients after 4 weeks. Adverse events were occurred in 52 patients (5.8% of all patients), most commonly, loose stools or diarrhea (3.5%), abdominal pain (1.1%), and dizziness (0.3%). The majority of adverse events was mild and transient in nature and led to premature discontinuation of treatment in 4 patients. CONCLUSIONS: Although the majorities of patients with functional dyspepsia have dysmotility like symptoms in Korea, there is such overlap among the dyspepsia subgroups. Most patients responded well to a short therapeutic trial with cisapride without significant side effects.
Abdominal Pain ; Cisapride* ; Diarrhea ; Dizziness ; Dyspepsia* ; Eructation ; Humans ; Korea* ; Retrospective Studies