No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: In 1996, our emergency department(ED) had 148.4 patients per day and an average time for managing simple and uncomplicated patients was 248 minutes. To relieve congestion, delay and conflict in ED, we have developed Fast Track to treat patients with minor illness rapidly and effectively. The Fast Track area is located in a separate area in front to the main department. The efficiency and effectiveness of new system and patients satisfaction were investigated. METHODS: All ambulatory patients(> 15 years of age) were triaged and treated at Fast Track by emergency physicians. Patients, triaged as severe illness, were moved directly to main ED and the other patients with minor illness were managed in Fast Track. We analysed the patients who were managed at Fast Track from Jan. 1st 1997 through Nov. 30th 1997. The total time staying in Fast Track from beginning of trige to final decision such as discharge or admission was recorded retrospectively. A questionnaire was obtained from random patients in the same period to evaluate the patient's satisfaction. RESULTS: The number of patients who were managed in Fast Track was 13,378, and it was 55.8% of all adult patients who visited ED during the period. The average staying time was decreased significantly with time, (140.9+/-2.9 minutes in June, 125.4+/-2.8 minutes in July, and 97.7+/-1.0 minutes after July). The 75 percentile weighted average time was also decreased significantly; 196 minutes in June, 107 minutes in July, 135 minutes from August to November(p<0.01). The questionnaire were obtained from 107 patients. The results were revealed that 90 of 107 patients(84.1%) were satisfied with emergency care at Fast Track, and the remaining patients expressed unsatisfied comments such as long waiting time(4.7%), overcrowding(1.9%), unsatisfactory care(1.9%). CONCLUSION: The Fast Track system could decrease patient's staying time and improve patient's satisfaction. In addition, the efficiency and effectiveness of the acute care in ED would be enhanced by managing minor illness in Fast Track rapidly and effectively.
Adult ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Medical Services ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Retrospective Studies ; Tertiary Care Centers*

The purpose of this study was to provide fundamental data by figuring out fatigue differences in patients on hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. The subjects for this study were 49 patients on hemodialysis and 54 patients on peritioneal dialysis at C university medical center in Seoul Results were as follows: 1. The average fatigue score in peritoneal dialysis patients tended to be higher in patients on peritoneal dialysis(42.22) than in patients on hemodialysis(39.41). Peritoneal dialysis patients showed higher score than hemodialysis patients in some general characteristics in groups with male, ones in 20's, 40's, 50's, married, college degree, having religion, having occupation, and not take regular nap. 2. The percents of this subjects with feel fatigue at the time of survey was higher in peritoneal dialysis patients(68.5%) than in hemodialysis patients(57.1%). The percentages of the subjects who feel fatigue in peritioneal dialysis patients was higher than hemodialysis patients, and the high tendencies in peritoneal dialysis patients in were obsemed in groups with male, ones in 30's, to have college degree, periods so of 1-2years in peritoneal dialysis, region, men without occupation, regular exercises, regular nap etc.
Academic Medical Centers ; Dialysis* ; Exercise ; Fatigue* ; Humans ; Male ; Occupations ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Renal Dialysis ; Seoul

No abstract available.
Humans ; Nursing* ; Students, Nursing*

The object of this study was to determine the radiation effect on the urinary bladder and to establish the basic date for optimal fraction schedule on the whole abdominal irradiation of the mice. Although radiation damage of the urinary bladder is one of the dose-limiting factor for treatment of lower abdominal cancer, such as uterine cervical or rectal cancer, systematic histopathological study of total dose and recovery duration is very rare, especially in conventional fractionation regimen of clinical use. Authors used 198 mice and analyzed histopathological findings according to total dose (40&50 GY) and recovery duration (1-15 weeks after completion of irradiation) The results were summarized as follows: 1. No definite difference of radiosensitivity was noted between male and female group. 2. Most of mucosal injuries were recovered within 14 weeks in 40 GY irradiated group. 3. Vascular injury and change of connective tissue were prominent and persisted even mild degree until 15 weeks after completion of irradiation in 50 GY irradiated group. 4. Although follow up duration of this study (105 days) was not enough to compare life span of mice, this study emphasized that precious schedule for treatment planning was necessary for preventing or reducing of late complication.
Animals ; Appointments and Schedules ; Connective Tissue ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Mice* ; Radiation Effects ; Radiation Tolerance ; Rectal Neoplasms ; Urinary Bladder* ; Vascular System Injuries

BACKGOUND: Because heterogeneity of the human tyrosinase gene has been reported, it is of vital significance to know the correct nucleotide sequence of tyrosinase in Koreans in order to study the molecular basis of oculocutaneous albinism. OBJECTIVE: This study was done to analyze the nucleotide sequence of tyrosinase gene in Koreans. METHODS: All exons were amplified from genomic DNAs and sequenced directly from three healthy Koreans. RESULTS: The nucleotide sequence of the tyrosinase gene in Koreans encode 511 amino acids with a molecular weight of 58,000. CONCLUSION: The nucleotide sequence of coding region is the same with that of pHTrl(Shibahara et al. Tohoku J Exp Med 156: 403-414, 1988). As we couldn't observe any polymorphisms in Koreans these results suggested the homogeneity of Korean people.
Albinism, Oculocutaneous ; Amino Acids ; Base Sequence ; Clinical Coding ; DNA ; Exons ; Humans* ; Molecular Weight ; Monophenol Monooxygenase* ; Population Characteristics ; Sequence Analysis*

Primary cystic neoplasia of the liver is rare. We report a cystadenoma with mesenchymal stroma (CMS) and a cystadenocarcinoma, and make a review of literature with particular reference to their histogenesis. The CMS has many similarities to the ovarian mucinous cystadenoma; occurring almost exlusively in female, being lined by mucus-secreting epithelial cells, and containing dense ovarian-like stroma. These features suggest that CMS may arise from the ectopic ovarian tissue within the liver. Cystadenocarcinoma may have its origin in CMS or cystadenoma without mesenchymal stroma of CMS. Cholangiocarcinoma arising from the congenital hepatic cysts can be differentiated only when it contains benign epithelia.
Female ; Humans ; Cysts

BACKGROUND: Clinical features of atopic dermatitis(AD) have been well described according to age in the English literature. In Korea there have been some reports about clinical analyses of AD. However, there is no report about the clinical characteristics of adult AD. OBJECTIVE: We tried to characterize the clinical features of adult AD by comparing them with the childhood/infantile type. In addition we aimed to study the prognostic factors that may be related to the persistence of dermatitis into adult life. METHODS: Patients with AD were divided into the adult and childhood/infantile types according to the patient's age. Sixty three adult patients were compared with 107 childhood/infantile patients. Various clinical characteristics of AD were compared between these groups. RESULTS: Orbital darkening, foot eczema, and extensor involvement were more frequently observed in the childhood/infantile type, whereas flexural lichenification, especially in the antecubital fossa, prurigo papules in the extensor part of the extremities, cheilitis, forehead lichenification, Hertoghe's sign, nipple eczema, and anterior neck fold involvement were more frequent in the adult type. Light sensitivity was more prominent in the adult type. Later age at onset of AD was observed in adult patients. The incidence of respiratory atopy (asthma and allergic rhinitis) was higher in the adult group. CONCLUSION: In the adult type flexural involvement with lichenification became more prominent and prurigo papules were more frequently observed in the extensor part of the extremities. Later onset of AD and association with respiratory atopy were considered to be bad prognostic factors.
Adult* ; Age of Onset ; Cheilitis ; Dermatitis ; Dermatitis, Atopic* ; Eczema ; Extremities ; Foot ; Forehead ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Neck ; Nipples ; Orbit ; Photophobia ; Prurigo

Leiomyomas are benign tumors of smooth muscle origin and are very rare in the female genital tract. To date, approximately 35 cases of urethral leiomyoma have been reported in the literature. A 34-year-old woman presented with a 3-year history of a mass at the urethral meatus. Physical examination showed 2 x 1.5 cm lump at the urethral meatus, posterior lip. Histologically the tumor was mainly composed of benign cigar shaped smooth muscle izells which were arranged in interlacing fascicles without cellular atypia or mitosis. Immunohistochemistry confirmed leiomyoma with positive staining for vimentin, desmin and muscle specific actin.
Female ; Humans

No abstract available.
Blood Platelets* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature* ; Phototherapy* ; Platelet Count*