No abstract available.
Adult* ; Epiglottitis* ; Humans

OBJECTIVE: Recommended dosage of quetiapine for patients with schizophrenia is from 150 mg to 750 mg, which is based on randomized controlled study. But there are trends of increasing quetiapine dosage in clinical practice. Therefore, we evaluated the clinical aspect of schizophrenic patients who took quetiapine by naturalistic non-intervention study. METHODS: Schizophrenia outpatients in 88 mental hospitals were selected and 170 psychiatrists evaluated Clinical Global Impressions Scale for Severity (CGI-S) before starting quetiapine medication and CGI-S, Clinical Global Impressions Scale for Improvement (CGI-I), quetiapine dosage and medication compliance at 6 weeks after starting quetiapine medication. Overall efficacy and difference of efficacy between drug-naive patients and medication-switch patients were evaluated. We clustered the patients into 4 groups by using cluster analysis with three variables such as quetiapine dose at week 6, baseline CGI-S, and end-point CGI-S. We compared clinical aspect of each cluster with analysis of variance. RESULTS: 841 patients were enrolled. Efficacy of quetiapine was replicated, and improvement rate defined as CGI-I < or =2 was 55.9%. Drug-naive patients show more improvement in CGI-I than medication-switch patients, and efficacy for patients with insufficient treatment was also reported. Dosage for each clustered group was 25-350 mg, 400-500 mg, 600-700 mg and 750-1,500 mg. 750-1,500 mg group shows more decrease in CGI-S than 400-500 mg group and 600-700 mg group. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that there is a cluster of patients who take more benefits in reducing symptoms and show more compliance in high-dose quetiapine.
Cluster Analysis ; Compliance ; Dibenzothiazepines ; Hospitals, Psychiatric ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Outpatients ; Psychiatry ; Schizophrenia ; Quetiapine Fumarate

No abstract available.
Kidney Transplantation* ; Pregnancy*

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to determine whether Prunus mume extracts have an antimicrobial effect against Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) and Streptococcus sobrinus (S. sobrinus). METHODS: The study used crushed and dried Prunus mume, to which 80% methanol was added to obtain extracts. The extracts then underwent a demarcation process, sequentially using hexane, chloroform, and ethyl acetate, all of which have different polarities, followed by a reduction in pressure . The disc diffusion method was then used to measure the clear zone diameter to identify the antimicrobial effect of Prunus mume extracts using the different solvents. The methanol extracts that presented antimicrobial activity against S. mutans and S. sobrinus were then selected, and their optical densities (3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 h after cultivation) were measured to identify growth retardation effects based on extract concentration (0.01, 0.1, 1, and 5 mg/ml). RESULTS: A clear zone was observed in methanol and ethyl acetate for S. mutans when the antimicrobial effect of Prunus mume extracts of each solvent against oral microorganisms was measured via the disc diffusion method. A clear zone was observed in hexane, chloroform, methanol, and ethyl acetate, when the extracts were tested for antimicrobial activity against S. sobrinus. The extract concentration of 1 mg/ml retarded growth with a statistical significance (P<0.05) from 6 h onwards, as determined when the optical density was measured hourly and the growth curves of S. mutans and S. sobrinus were plotted. CONCLUSIONS: Prunus mume extracts retarded the growth of S. mutans and S. sobrinus with increase in time and concentration. Therefore, Prunus mume extracts hold the potential to be used for developing an oral antimicrobial agent to control dental caries.
Bacteria* ; Chloroform ; Dental Caries ; Diffusion ; Methanol ; Methods ; Prunus* ; Solvents ; Streptococcus mutans ; Streptococcus sobrinus

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Facial Nerve* ; Paralysis*

To provide ideas for the recognition of neonatal and infantile liver diseases caused by cytomegalovirus(CMV) infection, histopathological examinations were made on hepatic tissues obtained by biopsy or autopsy from 23 patients. All patients were sero-positive for IgM anti CMV and had no other known or suggested etiologic factors for their liver disease. There were five different types of liver diseases: 8 cases of giant cell hepatitis(34.8%), 4 cases of biliary atresia(17.4%), 5 cases of biliary atresia with changes of neonatal hepatitis(21.7%), 4 cases of diffuse hepatic fibrosis(17.4%) and 2 cases of hepatic necrosis with CMV inclusion(8.7%). The diffuse hepatic fibrosis involved both the hepatic lobules and portal areas without evidences of regeneration. This type of liver disease appeared to be a chronic progressive illness that began during the first week of life, and in 3 of 4 cases, the liver biopsy was dong at 5 to 9 months after birth. The two patients showing CMV inclusion in their liver were premature of debilitated, and died within I month after birth. Diffuse hepatic necrosis as well as the cytomegalic change of bile duct epithelium was characteristic. The findings suggest that the pattern of CMV liver disease depends on the major site of hepatic injury, the status of status of patient's defense mechanism and the chronicity of illness.
Infant ; Male ; Female ; Infant, Newborn ; Humans ; Biopsy

No abstract available.
Ultrasonography, Prenatal*

The T cell responses to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) were analyzed in acute hepatitis patients, chronic active hepatitis (CAH) patients and asymptomatic carriers. Neither proliferative responses nor substantial cytokine production of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in response to HBsAg was detected. For further studies, HBsAg- reactive T cell lines were prepared from PBMC of the hepatitis patients and asymptomatic carriers. No proliferative response of the T cell lines was observed. Interestingly, however, T cell lines obtained from acute hepatitis patients were found to produce IFN-r, but not IL- 4, in response to HBsAg stimulation, whereas T cell lines obtained from CAH patients and carriers were not. Results of this study suggest that HBsAg-reactive T cells producing Thl type cytokines may play an important role in the viral clearance during acute infections, while defects in those T cells may be responsible for the viral persistency.
Cell Line ; Cytokines ; Hepatitis ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens* ; Hepatitis, Chronic ; Humans ; T-Lymphocytes*

OBJECTIVES: Ginseng has a long history of being used in insomnia treatment and there is some evidence from animal studies of its sleep-enhancing property. From this, it can be assumed that ginseng has sleep-promoting effect in humans. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Korean red ginseng on change of sleep architecture in humans. METHODS: A total of 20 healthy young males with regular sleep and wake habits and without any psychiatric nor cognitive problems were selected based on review of sleep questionnaires and sleep diaries they completed followed by an interview with a board-certified psychiatrist. The subjects were randomly assigned to red ginseng or placebo for 2 weeks of trial. The total daily dose of ginseng was 4,500 mg. The polysomnographic recordings were made at baseline and at 2 weeks after. The effects of red ginseng and placebo on sleep were assessed by comparing the changes in polysomnographic variables between the two groups. RESULTS: A total of 15 subjects, 8 from red ginseng group and 7 from placebo group, were included to undergo polysomnographic procedures. The red ginseng group showed tendencies to increase stage 3 sleep (p=0.087) and to decrease stage 2 sleep (p=0.071) from the baseline compared with the placebo group. CONCLUSION: Korean red ginseng tends to increase deep sleep and decrease shallow sleep. Our result is in line, at least in part, with previous findings that Korean red ginseng increased total and NREM sleep in rats. Further studies with higher ginseng dosage, larger sample size and longer trial duration should be conducted to confirm the sleep stabilizing and balancing effects of Korean red ginseng.
Animals ; Humans ; Male ; Panax ; Polysomnography ; Psychiatry ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Rats ; Sample Size ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders