The various and serious types of disaster occur everyday and everywhere on the earth. There is no doubt that it is very timely to discuss about the effectiveness and preparedness of disaster. The purpose of this study is to develop a curriculum on the disaster management through reviewing disaster concepts and the disaster management system. For the empirical relevance of the study, researchers participated in a couple or more disaster training program, reviewed references, and consulted to the experts working on action parts in the area. As a result, the 'Integrated Disaster Management System Model(IDMSM)' was designed, in which four dimensions were explained. Then the 'Disaster Curriculum Model(DCM)' was explored with its theoretical framework based on the system model. The developed curriculum is composed of four levels ; the introductory course, the fundamental course, the advanced course, and the expert course. From this DCM, basically the course-outlines of two subjects in the introductory course, 18 subjects in the fundamental course(5 of direct services, 13 of indirect services) were developed. Also each course-outline was explored by its course objective, learning objectives, contents, and its length. Finally to make the most of the results, suggestions are proposed. The governmental considerations on the policy should support the systematic and integrated educational program to practice, appointing [Disaster School] or [Disaster Training Center] of relevance and accountabilities. The further study should explore the higher levels of the DCM through interdisciplinary efforts, and develop the text materials. The further study should explore the higher levels of the DCM through interdisciplinary efforts, and develop the text materials.
Curriculum* ; Disasters* ; Education ; Learning

Five patients with “definite” or “classical” rheumatoid arthritis who had failed to respond to salicylates, non-steroid anti-inflmmatory agents, steroids, and gold, were treated with D-Penicillamine. In a follow-up ranging from 3 weeks to 4 months, two patients had complete remission and one had major improvement. In one patient penicillamine had to be discontinued because of side effects and in another the time interval is too short at this reporting to assess the results.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Penicillamine ; Salicylates ; Steroids

PURPOSE:To identify the main toxic gas released from salted radish in rice bran(Dan-Mu-Ji) and to introduce the radiological findings of the patient who was exposed to the gas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Chest radiographs and CT scans of one survivor among three men who were exposed to the gas from Dan-Mu-Ji were reviewed. Gas obtained from the closed bottle containing Dan-Mu-Ji was analized by using the gas chromatography. RESULTS: The radiographic examinations of the survivor were suggestive of pulmonary edema with it's rapidly improving consolidations in both lung. The headspace gas within the bottle containing Dan-Mu-Ji was mainly composed with carbon dioxide, ethyl alcohol and hydrogen sulfide, of which hydrogen sulfide was considered the main toxic gas released. CONCLUSION: Under the anaerobic condition, Dan-Mu-Ji released toxic hydrogen sulfide. Inhalation of hydrogen sulfide might produce non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema.
Anoxia* ; Carbon Dioxide ; Chromatography, Gas ; Ethanol ; Humans ; Hydrogen Sulfide ; Inhalation ; Lung ; Male ; Pulmonary Edema ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Raphanus* ; Survivors ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

The precore (G1896A) and core promoter (A1762T, G1764A) mutations of the hepatitis B virus gene are known to be associated with changes in immunologic phase or the progression to complicated liver disease in adults. We analyzed these mutations in chronically HBV-infected children. Serum was collected from 37 children with chronic HBV infection from March 2005 to September 2008. HBV DNA extraction and nested PCR were followed by sequencing of the PCR products. The children were 6.7 +/- 4.6 yr old. All of 37 children had HBV genotype C. Of the cohort, 31 (83.8%) were HBeAg-positive and 6 (16.2%) were HBeAg-negative; the former group comprised 18 (48.6%) who were in the immune-tolerance phase (ITP) and 13 (35.2%) in the immune-clearance phase (ICP). Most of the patients had HBV DNA levels of > 1.0 x 10(8) copies/mL. In the ITP group, only 1 (5.5%) had core promoter mutations, and none had the precore mutation. In the ICP group, only 2 (15.4%) had core promoter mutations; the remaining 6 patients had HBV DNA levels of < 2.0 x 10(3) copies/mL and no core promoter/precore mutations. The very low incidence of the precore/core promoter gene mutation, in children, suggests that these mutations may be the result of life-long chronic HBV infection.
Adolescent ; Alanine Transaminase/blood ; Aspartate Aminotransferases/blood ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cohort Studies ; DNA, Viral/blood ; Female ; Genotype ; Hepatitis B Core Antigens/*genetics ; Hepatitis B virus/*genetics ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/immunology/*virology ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Mutation ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Sequence Analysis, DNA

No abstract available.
Atrial Natriuretic Factor* ; Humans* ; Lymph Nodes* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction*

PURPOSE: We explored the prognostic significance of obesity for the surgical and hormonal treatment of prostate cancer in correlation with the other prognostic factors such as Gleason's sum, the clinicopathologic stage, and the pre- and post treatment prostate specific antigen (PSA) changes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective review was performed on 132 consecutive patients who had received androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) (108 patients) or radical prostatectomy (24 patients) under the diagnosis of prostate cancer via transrectal prostatic biopsy from July 1993 to May 2003 in our hospital. Obesity was evaluated in terms of the body mass index (BMI), and the patients were categorized into four groups according to the National Institute of Health (NIH) classification. The relationship between the BMI and the other prognostic factors were statistically analyzed by One-way ANOVA test and the Spearman correlation coefficient. RESULTS: There were no significant associations between the BMI and any of the measured clinical and pathological parameters except for the time to hormone failure and biochemical recurrence. In the ADI group, the mean time to hormone failure was significantly longer in case of the low BMI group compared to the normal and overweight groups (p<0.006). Sperman's correlation analysis showed a significant inverse correlation between the BMI and the PSA free survival after radical prostatectomy. CONCLUSIONS: These findings showed that the BMI is closely related to the failure to hormone treatment after ADI and the BMI was also related to the biological failures after radical prostatectomy.
Biopsy ; Body Mass Index ; Classification ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Obesity* ; Overweight ; Prostate* ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; Prostatectomy* ; Prostatic Neoplasms* ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies

Pulmonary Embolism, one of the causes of maternal death, is a life threatening disease that needs early and accurate diagnosis. We have exprerienced a case of a fatal pulmonary embolism which was diagnosed by lung perfusion scan on the postoperative 1 day after cesarean delivery and was managed with heparin therapy. We present this case with a brief review of literatures.
Diagnosis ; Heparin ; Lung ; Maternal Death ; Perfusion ; Pulmonary Embolism*

Cardiac dendritic cells are considered to play an important role in the immunoresponse of the heart. However, It is unknown that changes of shapes and numbers of these cells in the heart. The aim of this study is to reveal age-related changes of MHC class II positive dendritic cells in cardiac muscle of rat. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (1 month, 12 months, and 24 months old) were used in this study. Animals were deeply anesthetized with 3.5% chloral hydrate (1 mL/100 g) and hearts removed. Immunostaining was done according to standard methods used routinely. In brief, tissue sections were incubated with primary antibodies generated in mouse anti-rat MHC class II antibody for single immunostains. Tissue sections were observed by using light microscope and dendritic cells were counted. Average numbers of MHC class II-positive dendritic cells were 1.4 cells per unit area (0.2 mm2) at 1 month old rat, 2.8 cells at 12 months old rat, and 4.6 cells at 24 months old rat, and then numbers of dendritic cells were increased according to ages. According as age increases, cytoplasmic processes of MHC class II-immunoreactive dendritic cells became longer and more complex and aggregated together. It's suggested that age-related changes of MHC class II positive dendritic cells in the cardiac muscle would be related to immunity.
Animals ; Antibodies ; Chloral Hydrate ; Cytoplasm ; Dendritic Cells* ; Heart ; Humans ; Male ; Mice ; Myocardium* ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

OBJECTIVES: Glioblastomas, the most common type of primary brain tumors, are highly invasive and cause massive tissue destruction at both the tumor invading edges and in areas that are not in direct contact with glioma cells. As a result, patients with high-grade gliomas are faced with a poor prognosis. Such grim statistics emphasize the need to better understand the mechanisms that underlie glioma invasion, as these may lead to the identification of novel targets in the therapy of high grade gliomas. Protein kinase C(PKC) is a family of serine/threonine kinases and an important signal transduction enzyme that conveys signals generated by ligand-receptor interaction at the cell surface to the nucleus. PKC appears to be critical in regulating many aspects of glioma biology. The purpose of this study was to assess accurately the role of PKC in the invasion regulation of human gliomas based on hypothesis that protein kinase C(PKC) is functional in the process of glial tumor cell invasion. METHOD: To test this hypothesis, U-87 malignant glioma cell line intracellular PKC levels were up and down regulated and their invasiveness was tested. Intracellular PKC level was characterized using PKC activity assays. Invasion assays including barrier migration and spheroid confrontation were used to study the relationship between PKC concentration and invasiveness. RESULT: The cell line which were treated by PKC inhibitor tamoxifen and hypericin exhibited decreased PKC activity and decreased invasive abilities dose dependently both in matrigel invasion assay and tumor spheroid fetal rat brain aggregates(FRBA) confrontation assay. However, the cell line that was treated by PKC activator 12-O-tetradecanylphorbol-13acetate(TPA) did not exhibit increases in either PKC activity or invasive ability. CONCLUSION: These studies suggest that PKC may be a useful molecular target for the chemotherapy of glioblastoma and other malignancies and that a therapeutic approach based on the ability of PKC inhibitors may be helpful in preventing invasion.
Animals ; Biology ; Brain ; Brain Neoplasms ; Cell Line ; Drug Therapy ; Glioblastoma ; Glioma* ; Humans ; Phosphotransferases ; Prognosis ; Protein Kinase C* ; Protein Kinases* ; Rats ; Signal Transduction ; Tamoxifen

OBJECTIVES: Tumor markers have been clinically used to diagnose and monitor the progression of various tumor or to assess their response to therapy. This study focuses on the evaluation of tumor markers in Chronic renal failure patients, compared with normal controls. METHODS: The following 9 kinds of serum tumor markers, such as carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA), squamaus cell carcinoma-related antigen(SCC), CYFRA 21-1, CA(carbohydrate antigen) 125, CA 19-9, alpha-fetoprotein(AFP), prostate specific antigen(PSA), human chorionic gonadotropin(hCG) and CA 72-4 were measured in 56 persons without chronic renal failure(CRF) as controls, in 132 patients with chronic renal failure(56 patients on conservative management, 41 patients on chronic hemodialysis, and 35 patients on CAPD) who did not present any evidences of neoplasia. RESULTS: 1) The mean level of CEA in CRF patients was significantly higher than that of controls(p<0.001), and that of CRF patients on hemodialysis was significantly higher than that of patients on conservative management(p<0.05). 2) The mean level of SCC in CRF patients was significantly higher than that of controls(p<0.001), and the mean levels of SCC did not differ significantly among three groups of CRF patients. 3) The mean level of CYFRA in CI4F patients was significantly higher than that of controls(p<0.001), and that of CRF patients on hemodialysis was significantly higher than those of patients on conservative management and on CAPD respectively (p<0.05). 4) The mean level of CA 125 in CRF patients was significantly higher than that of controls (p<0.001), and that of CRF patients on CAPD was significantly lower than that of controls(p<0.05). 5) Positive percent for CYFRA 21-1 in all CRF patients was 89.7%, and SCC 82.9%, CEA 60.3%, CA 125 48%, CA 19-9 22.4%, PSA 7.9%, CA 72-4 6.1%, hCG 4.7% and AFV 3.2% respectively. CONCLUSION: The present study shows that tumor markers such as CEA, SCC, CYFRA 21-1, CA 19-9 and CA 125 are elevated above reference values in a substantial number of patients according to the reference values commonly used in normal persons, making them unreliable for monitoring malignancies in uremic patients. While the other tumor markers such as AFP, PSA, hCG and CA 72-4 are reliable for the same purpose. These results must be taken into account when serum levels of tumor markers are measured in CRF patients
Chorion ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic* ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory ; Prostate ; Reference Values ; Renal Dialysis ; Biomarkers, Tumor*