OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop a health information web site evaluation categories with items for diabetes mellitus in order to offer verified health information, and to propose directions for development of web sites. METHODS: A preliminary evaluation categories with items was developed using domestic and foreign web site evaluation standards for health information and through a review of the literature. The evaluation categories with items was composed of 'evaluation for web site attributes' and 'evaluation for content information on diabetes mellitus'. Through expert validity tests and a feasibility test of the preliminary tool, the health information Web site evaluation tool for diabetes mellitus was finalized. RESULTS: This evaluation categories with items included 'evaluation for web site attributes' and 'evaluation for content information on diabetes mellitus'. 'Evaluation for web site attributes' included 8 categories with 28 items. The 'evaluation for content information on diabetes mellitus' included 7 categories with 40 items. 'Evaluation component for content' and 'evaluation of category content' included 4 items on 'accuracy', 6 on 'harmfulness' and 3 on 'comprehensibility'. CONCLUSION: From this study guidelines are propose for providing health information for diabetes mellitus, so that health information providers will be able to offer consumers verified good quality health information themselves.
Diabetes Mellitus*

No abstract available.
Korea* ; Otitis Media* ; Otitis* ; Risk Factors*

Computer-Assisted Instruction(CAI) is one kind of teaching method to teach leaners knowledge, attitude, and technical aspect of course contents through utilizing a computer as a learning material. CAI is focused on the concept of interaction and individualized learning. Thus in teaching and learning process CAI is considered the individual differences of learners. And learners can study course contents repeatedly through utilizing courseware. Based on the importance of individualized learning program through utilizing a computer the courseware of infection control was developed to acquire and apply the appropriate knowledge for controlling infection for learners.
Individuality ; Infection Control* ; Learning ; Teaching

Primary chondrosarcoma of the extraskeletal soft tissue is extremely rare. Extraskeletal chondrosarcoma was first described as entity in 1953 by Stout and Verner, who were able to collect a series of seven cases. Because of the rarity of this lesion in extremities, neither the clinical course nor the preferred method of treatment has been clearly established. Authors report a case of extraskeletal chondrosarcoma which occurred on the right forearm of a thirty-nine-year-old man. The lesion was completely excised with free resection margins. There was no recurrence or metastasis for four years follow up.
Chondrosarcoma ; Extremities ; Follow-Up Studies ; Forearm ; Methods ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Recurrence

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

PURPOSE: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the modalities children with atopic dermatitis. METHODS: The data were collected from 933 children ages under 12 years who were diagnosed with atopic dermatitis for over 1 year. RESULTS: Moisturizer was the most frequent prescription from hospitals and immune modulator was the most satisfactory therapy. The most common cause of non-compliance was the concern about the side effects of drug such as steroid. In addition, 71.5% of children reported previous or current use of alternative therapy and most common source of information on alternative therapy was from mass media. CONCLUSION: Various therapies have been utilized to manage atopic dermatitis and the use of alternative therapy is in common in Korea. It is suggested for all care providers to be more aware of alternative therapies.
Child ; Complementary Therapies ; Dermatitis, Atopic ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Media ; Prescriptions

BACKGROUND: Smoking-related chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic asthmatic bronchitis, which are the most important causes of chronic airflow obstruction (CAO), can occur together in a pat,ient and the prognoses of these two diseases are different each other. OBJECTIVE AND METHOD: To estimate the extent of asthmatic component in patients with CAO and to evaluate the role of atopy as a predictable index for reversibility of airflow obstruction, 89 CAO patients who were older than 40 years were examined retrospectively. RESULT: Only 15 patients (16.8%) showed an increase of >15% in FEV20 to inhaled salbutamol (short-term responder). However, 18 out of 32 patients (56.3%), who were not responded significantly to inhaled bronchodilator and performed a follow-up lung function study, showed an increase of ) 15% in FEV20 to anti-asthmatic therapy including corticosteroid for 3-4 weeks (long-term responder). Peripheral blood eosinophil count only was different between short-term responder and short-term nonresponder, and there was no difference in all of the measurements between short-term responder and long-term responder. However, there were significant differences in smoking, wheezing on auscultation, peripheral blood eosinophil counts, serum total IgE levels, and MAST atopy score between long-term responder and long-term nonresponder. The increase in FEV, following shortor long-term therapy was related to peripheral blood eosinophil counts and MAST atopy score, and it was significantly great,er in patients with high eosinophil counts or high atopy score. CONCLUSION: About 2/3 of patients with CAO who were older than 40 years had an asthmatic component ap atopy may be useful to predict good bronchodilator response to anti-asthmatic therapy.
Albuterol ; Auscultation ; Bronchitis ; Eosinophils ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; Lung ; Prognosis ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive* ; Respiratory Sounds ; Retrospective Studies ; Smoke ; Smoking

PURPOSE: Lymph node metastasis is one of the most important prognostic factors for patients with papillary thyroid cancer. In this study we compared the diagnostic accuracy of neck CT with that of ¹⁸F-FDG PET-CT for the preoperative evaluation of lymph node metastasis. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of 56 patients who received surgery for papillary thyroid cancer at the Department of Surgery, Konkuk University Medical Center, from August, 2006 to January, 2009. All the patients were checked with neck CT and ¹⁸F-FDG PET-CT preoperatively for evaluating their lymph node status. RESULTS: Neck CT showed a sensitivity of 40%, a specificity of 74.2%, a positive predictive value of 55.6%, a negative predictive value of 60.5% and an accuracy of 58.9%. ¹⁸F-FDG PET-CT showed a sensitivity of 48%, a specificity of 80.6%, a positive predictive value of 66.7%, a negative predictive value of 65.8% and an accuracy of 66.1%. ¹⁸FFDG PET-CT had greater sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy than did neck CT (P=0.02) for predicting lymph node metastasis in patients with papillary thyroid cancer. CONCLUSION: ¹⁸F-FDG PET-CT can be more dependable than neck CT for preoperatively assessing lymph node metastasis in patients with papillary thyroid cancer.
Academic Medical Centers ; Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes* ; Medical Records ; Neck* ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms*

OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this study is to compare model performance of machine learning methods with that of a previous study in which a nonlinear mixed effects model was created using NONMEM(R) for the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data for propofol. The secondary objective was to evaluate if a pharmacodynamic model describing the relationship between the dose of propofol and bispectral index (BIS) outperform that describing the relationship between a pharmacokinetic model derived-predicted concentrations of propofol and BIS. METHODS: Data were collected during a study involving the infusion of propofol into healthy volunteers. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic models were constructed using artificial neural networks (ANNs), support vector machines (SVMs), and multi-method ensembles and were compared with the nonlinear mixed effects method as implemented by NONMEM(R). Model performance was assessed by goodness-of-fit statistics, paired t-tests between predicted and observed values for each model and scatterplots. RESULTS: In pharmacokinetic analysis, ensemble I, the mean of ANN and NONMEM(R) predictions, achieved minimal error and the highest correlation coefficient. SVM produced the highest error and the lowest correlation coefficient. In pharmacodynamic analysis, ANN exhibited the best performance. An ANNModel describing the relationship between the dose of propofol and BIS was not inferior to an ANN model describing the relationship between predicted concentrations of propofol derived from an ANN pharmacokinetic model and BIS. CONCLUSIONS: In pharmacokinetic analysis, ensemble combined with ANN achieved slightly better performance than NONMEM(R). The relationship between the dose of propofol and BIS can be predicted without considering pharmacokinetics of propofol.
Machine Learning ; Propofol ; Support Vector Machine

We report a 62-year-old woman with a simultaneous occurrence of posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) and Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). The simultaneous presence of PRES in GBS is unusual and can easily escape recognition, with potentially serious consequences for the patient. Previous reports showed that the simultaneous or initial manifestation of PRES in GBS is more common in elderly female. The preponderance of female in older age may be due to age and gender related difference in sympathetic nerve activity.
Aged* ; Female ; Guillain-Barre Syndrome* ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Posterior Leukoencephalopathy Syndrome* ; United Nations