This study was carried out to investigate the light and electron microscopic findings of the livers of rats after an intraperitoneal injection of cadmium chloride. The Sprague-Dawley rats were intraperitoneally injected with cadmium chloride dissolved in water, once a day for three days. These animals were sacrificed at 1, 3, 8, and 24 hr after the last injection. Control groups of the rats were also sacrificed in the same manner. The liver was extirpated and examined by both light and electron microscopy. The results obtained are as follows: The parenchyma of the liver shows focal neutrophilic infiltration and spotty necrosis. The hepatocytes show fatty change, ballooning degeneration, swelling of the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria, increase numbers of secondary lysosomes and residual bodies. Focal patic venules and sinusoids of the liver are congested. The Kupffer cells are increase in number. Therefore, it can be concluded that the cadmium is directly acted to hepatocytes resulting in cellular injuries and deposits in the fat droplets of the cytoplasm of the hepatocytes, not Ito cells as previously suggeted.
Rats ; Animals

Mail questionnaire was administrated to 370 practising physicians and 388 pharmacists in Taegu city selected by systematic sampling to examine utilization states and opinion of pharmacy under medical care insurance programme and the attitude to the functional division between physicians and pharmacists from April to May 1992. Regarding the opinion on the outcome of drug-store under medical insurance, 71.2 percent of practicing physician answered failure but 13.4 percent of practicing pharmacists answered failure in contrast. Fifty percent of practicing physician asserted introducing functional division between physician and pharmacist while 66.9 percent of practicing pharmacist answered drug-store under medical insurance itself is successful programme. Average daily numbers of preparation of medicine was 32.2 case. Percentage of utilization of drug-store under medical insurance to average daily cases of preparing of medicine was 20 percent, percentage of utilization with physician's prescription was 0.7 percent. And 58.7 percent of practicing physician experienced outside the institute prescription. Regarding the opinion on the pros and cons of enforcing functional division between physician and pharmacist, 59.2 percent of practicing physician preferred pros and 17.7 percent cons ,but 38 percent of practicing pharmacist preferred pros and 45.5 percent cons. And pharmacist know better the content of functional division between physician and pharmacist, practicing emphasized to prevent misuse or abuse of medicine but practicing pharmacist emphasized to display physician and pharmacist's professional ability. And as an opinion on implementation style of functional division between physician and pharmacist in pros respondents, practicing physician favored mandatory enforcement (52.3%), while practicing pharmacist favored partial incomplete functional division (81.7%). As the method of prescription if functional division between physician and pharmacist will be enforced, both practicing physician and pharmacist preferred generic name (44.0%, 89%) mostly, but physician preferred brand name (35.3%) secondly. Regarding the reason for not implementing functional division between physician and pharmacist up to date, both physician and pharmacist answered problem of business right between physician and pharmacist, followed by lack of recognition, and interest of people and lack of the governmental willness. Regarding the opinion on prior decision of condition for enforcing functional division between physician and pharmacist, practicing physician and pharmacist named uneven distribution of medical facilities and drug-store between rural and urban, inequality of physician and pharmacist manpower and the problem of manpower demand and supply mostly, and practicing physician pointed out establishing attitude of acceptance on the part of pharmacist and practicing pharmacist favored establishing attitude of acceptance on the part of physician, which was different attitudes between physician and pharmacist. Following conclusion was reached; 1. Current drug-store under medical insurance program yield insufficient outcome, so we should consider program conversion from drug-store under medical insurance program to functional division between physician and pharmacist. 2. There were problem of business right and conflicts between physician and pharmacist at enforcing functional division between physician and pharmacist, so the government should search for formulating plan to resolve the problem and have neutral willness for the protection of the national health.
Commerce ; Daegu* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Humans ; Insurance ; Pharmacists* ; Pharmacy ; Postal Service ; Prescriptions ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Socioeconomic Factors

Kidney artery stenosis such as atherosclerosis induces ischemic nephropathy which is caused by the reduction of blood supply to the kidneys. Since useful experimental animal models for the kidney artery stenosis is very limited, the pathophysiology of the ischemic nephropathy induced by the renal artery stenosis remain to be defined. In the present studies, I developed the mouse experimental model of kidney artery stenosis by the reduction of renal artery diameter to the out side diameter of 31-guage needle.The reduction of renal artery diameter reduces kidney size and mass. There is the severe shrink of glomeruli, tubular atrophy and infiltration of l eukocytes. In the kidney subjected to the experiment of the reduction of renal artery diameter. The expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin in the kidney partially tied the renal artery is much greater than that in the contralateral kidney. These results demonstrate that the reduction of renal artery diameter induced renal fibrosis, the reduction of renal blood flow and kidney size and that the experimental models may be useful to study the pathophysiology of ischemic nephropathy induced by renal artery stenosis as well as chronic renal failure which is involved in renal fibrotic responses.
Actins ; Animals ; Arteries ; Atherosclerosis ; Atrophy ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Fibrosis* ; Kidney ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Mice* ; Models, Animal ; Models, Theoretical ; Renal Artery Obstruction ; Renal Artery* ; Renal Circulation

The primary cilium is an organelle which consists of a microtubule in the core and a surrounding cilia membrane, and has long been recognized as a “vestigial organelle”. However, new evidence demonstrates that the primary cilium has a notable effect on signal transduction in the cell and is associated with some genetic and non-genetic diseases. In the kidney, the primary cilium protrudes into the Bowman's space and the tubular lumen from the apical side of epithelial cells. The length of primary cilia is dynamically altered during the normal cell cycle, being shortened by retraction into the cell body at the entry of cell division and elongated at differentiation. Furthermore, the length of primary cilia is also dynamically changed in the cells, as a result and/or cause, during the progression of various kidney diseases including acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease. Notably, recent data has demonstrated that the shortening of the primary cilium in the cell is associated with fragmentation, apart from retraction into the cell body, in the progression of diseases and that the fragmented primary cilia are released into the urine. This data reveals that the alteration of primary cilia length could be related to the progression of diseases. This review will consider if primary cilia length alteration is associated with the progression of kidney diseases and if the length of tissue primary cilia and the presence or increase of cilia proteins in the urine is indicative of kidney diseases.
Acute Kidney Injury ; Cell Body ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Division ; Cilia* ; Epithelial Cells ; Ischemia ; Kidney Diseases* ; Kidney* ; Membranes ; Microtubules ; Organelles ; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic ; Signal Transduction

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to examine whether the neurocognitive deficits of schizophrenia may be associated with certain features of symptomatology or a stable vulnerability of disease itself. METHOD: The 42 schizophrenic patients and 35 matched normal controls with sex, age, and education level were examined for their sustained attention, sensory register, executive function, concentration and attention, and verbal memory and learning in the acute and remitted stages of schizophrenia using Degraded Stimulus Continuous Performance Test, Span Apprehension Task, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Digit Span, and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, respectively. RESULTS: The schizophrenic patients showed significant deficits in the sustained attention, sensory register, executive function, and verbal memory and learning compared with the normal controls in both acute and remitted stages of schizophrenia. Regarding the concentration and attention, the schizophrenic patients showed significant deficits in the backward digit span compared with the normal controls during acute stages, but there was no difference between two groups in the forward and backward digit span during remitted stages. No difference was evident in the sustained attention, sensory register, executive function, and verbal memory and learning between acute and remitted stages of schizophrenia. But the forward and backward digit span of schizophrenic patients showed significant improvement in the remitted stages compared with acute stages. CONCLUSIONS: The sustained attention and sensory register deficits in the visual information processing associated with schizophrenia, detected by high-processing-load version of the Degraded Stimulus Continuous Performance Test and Span Apprehension Task, are highly possible to be stable vulnerability indicators. Executive functioning deficit in the schizophrenic patients detected by Wisconsin Card Sorting Test is not likely to be dependent on symptoms, so it is difficult to conclude that it is a stable vulnerability indicators of schizophrenia. In the digit span task, the forward digit span is more likely to be a episodic indicator but the backward digit span is likely to be a mediating vulnerability indicator. And the forward and backward digit span tasks seem to be tap different cognitive abilities that are differentially associated with the diathesis for schizophrenia. Some forms of the verbal memory and learning deficits associated with schizophrenia appear to be a stable vulnerability indicators.
Automatic Data Processing ; Disease Susceptibility ; Education ; Executive Function ; Humans ; Learning ; Memory ; Negotiating ; Schizophrenia* ; Verbal Learning ; Wisconsin

Tyrosine kinase A (TrkA)is an essential component of the high affinity nerve growth factor (NGF) receptor necessary to the mediate the biological effects of the neurotrophins, NGF. This study examined the distribution of TrkA-immunoreactivity (IR)cells in the postnatal rat cerebral cortex and the changes that occur in postnatal development as a result of the expression of this protein. TrkA-IR was detected at postnatal day (PD)3, PD6, PD9 and PD15. Base upon their somatodendritic morphology, the most commonly labeled cell type was the pyramidal neurons. At PD3 and PD6, layer I, II, III and V was immunopositive for TrkA, at PD9, not only at layer I, II, III, and V but also at layer VI. At PD15, the TrkA-positive cells were distributed in all layers. These TrkA-positive cells were not detected at PD0. In contrast, there was significant increase in the percentage of cells exhibiting TrkA-IR with development and the highest level was detected at PD15. These results suggest that the cerebral cortex expresses TrkA strongly during the postnatal period. Moreover, the postnatal development-related increase in the expression of TrkA-cells shows that NGF may have a trophic effect on these cerebral cortex neurons from the postnatal period.
Animals ; Animals, Newborn ; Cerebral Cortex/*growth&development/*metabolism ; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/*physiology ; Neurons/*metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Receptor, trkA/*metabolism

We experienced a case of clipping of an intracranial aneurysm of a 63 year old male with a subarachnoid hemorrhage under general anesthesia. Preoperative electrocardiography showed complete Left Bundle Block (LBBB) without subjective symptoms. Among the intraventricular blocks, bundle branch block is the most common type and in particular, complete LBBB may progress to the more serious condition of complete heart block. Consideration of anesthetic management in such patients requires a knowledge of normal cardiac physiology, neurophysiology, the circulatory effects of various anesthetic agents and the pathophysiology of these diseases, to prevent any hypertension in response to intubation and surgery. We report upon the anesthetic management of a patient for clipping of an intracranial aneurysm with complete LBBB, which was performed successfully without complication.
Anesthesia, General ; Anesthetics ; Bundle-Branch Block* ; Electrocardiography ; Heart Block ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Intracranial Aneurysm* ; Intubation ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neurophysiology ; Physiology ; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

The authors observed 190 cases of intussusception who were admitted to the Department of Pediatrics of Hanyang University Hospital from May, 1972 to August, 1977. And we had clinical analysis of these patients with a review of literatures. The results of clinical analysis of these patients were summarized as following. 1. In age distribution, 86.3% of the these patients were summarized as following. 2. Sex ratio of male to female was about 2:1 3. In seasonal distribuution, there were prevalent in Spring. 4. 75.9% of them were over 50 percentiles of development standard of Korean nomal infants and children by body weight. 5. The etiologic causes were found only in 1.7% of them and the other were idiopathic. 6. The most common anatomical type was ileo-colic type (77.4%) 7. The cardinal symptoms and signs were vomiting (82.1%), abdominal pain(81.6%), mucous bloody stool(67.9%), and palpable abdominal mass(62.1%), in order. 8. The reduction rate with barium enema was 78.2% and was high in the following cases ; (1) early visiting to the hospital, and (2) ileo-colic and colo-colic in type. 9. The rate of complication after surgery was 2.1% of all observed cases and mortality rate was 1.05%. The recurrence after first reduction occurred in 8.95% of all.
Age Distribution ; Barium ; Body Weight ; Child* ; Enema ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Intussusception* ; Male ; Mortality ; Pediatrics ; Recurrence ; Seasons ; Sex Ratio ; Vomiting

BACKGROUND: Typhoid fever, caused by Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi, remams an important public health problem in Korea, and asymptomatic chronic carriers play a role in the endemicity. However, the molecular studies of S. typhi isolates are very limited. We characterized clinical isolates of S. typhi by molecular and phage typing tools for the extent of genetic diversity and relatedness among the isolates. METHODS: A total of 49 S. typhi isolates from sporadic cases of typhoid fever were collected in 3 university hospitals in Seoul during 1992 to 1998 and examined for in vitro susceptibility to 14 antimicrobials by disk diffusion method, ribotyping using PstI restriction enzyme, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) using XbaI and Vi phage typing. The distribution of the epidemiological types and genomic DNA relatedness were analyzed. RESULTS: Forty-five out of 49 isolates were susceptible to all drugs tested. Thirty-two out of 47 were typable by phage typing and 56.3% possessed the phage type El or Ml. Forty-nine isolates divided into 6 different ribotypes (A to F) and 19 different PFGE types (AO through A17, BO) by ribotyping and PFGE analysis, respectively. Based on the 3 typing systems, 32 isolates divided into 17 different epidemiological types. The E1-A-A12 (phage type-ribotype-PFGE type) was most prevalent (18.8Fo) and isolated only in 1998, but distributed in various areas of isolation. The next prevalent M1-A-A1 (15.6%) was isolated from 1992 through 1998. The genetic relatedness based on PFGE analysis revealed that F (coefficient of similarity) values are 0.64 to 1.0 and 0.52 for A subtypes and BO type, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the circulating S. typhi strains in Seoul city show considerable genetic diversity, whereas most of them seems to be clonally related.
Bacteriophage Typing ; Bacteriophages ; Diffusion ; DNA ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field ; Genetic Variation ; Hospitals, University ; Korea ; Public Health ; Ribotyping ; Salmonella enterica* ; Salmonella typhi ; Salmonella* ; Seoul* ; Typhoid Fever

Primary hyperhidrosis has been associated with an increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system. Conventional nonsurgical therapies are inconvenient and only temporarily effective. Endoscopic thoracic sympathicotomy (ETS) is a minimal invasive procedure of thoracic sympathetic block and has been used successfully and safely in the treatment of primary palmar and axillary hyperhidrosis. Sympathicotomy results in an initial sympathovagal imbalance with a parasympathetic predominance, which is restored in a long-term basis. ETS is commonly performed to treat hyperhidrosis but there are some rare complications including cardiac arrest. In our hospital, we experienced 2 cases of patients who suffered from sudden cardiac arrest during right ETS, which was performed soon after left ETS. We're going to report these cases and consider about possible causes.
Anesthesia, General* ; Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Heart Arrest* ; Humans ; Hyperhidrosis ; One-Lung Ventilation* ; Sympathetic Nervous System