Authors decided to test whether differences occurred in automated and subjective refraction in untreated, PRK, and LASIK-treated eyes. Ninety six eyes of 50 patients(96 eyes) who underwent PRK(57 eyes) or LASIK(39 eyes) for myopia and myopic astigmatism were routinely autorefracted with the CANON RK-3 before subjective refraction was done, using several parameters. This two procedures were done preoperation and 3 months after operation. In comparing the postoperative(PRK, LASIK) results, automated refraction showed more myopia and higher cylinder power, without significant difference in refractive axis, than those of subjective measurement. The difference of cylinder power were found in the cases of large ablation depth(above 100micrometer), high degree of eccentric ablation(above 0.25 mm), LASIK operation. The significant differences of cylinder power and axis were found in the cases of high degree of eccentric ablation(above 0.25 mm). So we recommend the method of subjective refraction before PRK and LASIK operation instead of using automated refraction. Postoperatvely, we also should evaluate the postoperative status of the patient by subjective refraction. And we should decide the amount of ablation in case of retreatment by subjective refraction, instead of autorefraction. We have to be cautious of evaluating the automated refraction results after operation, especially in cases of large ablation depth, high degree of eccentric ablation, and LASIK.
Astigmatism ; Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Humans ; Keratomileusis, Laser In Situ ; Myopia ; Retreatment

PURPOSE: The authors evaluated the possibility of protein C and protein S as risk factors for retinal vein occlusion (RVO). METHODS: We evaluated the medical histories and performed laboratory tests, including protein C and protein S, in patients who were diagnosed with RVO by fundus examination and fluorescein angiography. The same data were obtained from a healthy control group. We analyzed mean activity and the ratio of patients with decreased levels of protein C or protein S. RESULTS: Forty-seven patients with RVO in this study consisted of 14 with central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) and 33 with branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). Sixteen normal subjects were also enrolled in this study as controls. There are no cases that presented decreased protein C activity. However, there was a statistically significant difference in the number of cases with protein S deficiency between the patients and the control group (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Deficiency of anticoagulant proteins, especially protein S, may be a risk factor of retinal vein occlusion. Examination of the coagulation system may be useful in the systemic evaluation of RVO patients.
Fluorescein Angiography ; Humans ; Protein C* ; Protein S Deficiency ; Protein S* ; Retinal Vein Occlusion* ; Retinal Vein* ; Retinaldehyde* ; Risk Factors*

In the present study, culture conditions to secrete proteinases from C. albicans, C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis were examined. All three Candida species were found to secrete proteinases from acceleration phase to stationary phase, although the proteinase activities in culture filtrate were maximal during late exponential or early stationary phase. The proteinase activity in the culture filtrate of C. albicans cells grown at 30'C, was much higher than those grown at either 20 or 37'C. In culture of C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis, the highest activity was found in culture filtrate grown at 37C. C. albicans secreted proteinases well in medium at initial pH 4.0-7.0. The optimal initial pH of medium for proteinase secretion was 7.0 for C. tropicalis and 5.0-6.0 for C. parapsilosis. All three Candida species secreted proteinases to greater amount in aerobic state. The most effective carbon source for proteinase secretion was xylose, glucose, maltose and sucrose for C. albicans, xylose for C. tropicalis and trehalose for C. parapsilosis. The effects of proteins, hydrolyzed proteins, ammonium sulfate as a sole nitrogen source on proteinase secretion were examined. Bovine serum albumin was the most effective nitrogen source of those tested and a little proteinase activity was detected in the culture filtrates when yeast cells were incubated in the medium containing ammonium sulfate. C. parapsilosis secreted proteinases to greater amount than the other Candida species in all nitrogen sources under study, indicating that C. parapsilosis proteinase would not be a inducible but a constitutive enzyme.
Acceleration ; Ammonium Sulfate ; Candida albicans* ; Candida* ; Carbon ; Glucose ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Maltose ; Nitrogen ; Peptide Hydrolases* ; Serum Albumin, Bovine ; Sucrose ; Trehalose ; Xylose ; Yeasts

Nine patient with paralyzed strabismus of large deviation(Seven patients with lateral rectus or medial rectus muscle palsy and two patients with double elevator palsy) had full tendon transposition procedure. If remained strabismus was large postoperatively, recession of anatagonist of paralyzed muscle and botulinum toxin infection was performed respectively. Five patients achieved single binocular vision within central 10 degree of visual field. And six patients achieved less than 10 prism diopter of deviation in primary position. Our method compares favorably with previously descrived transposition procedure for muscle palsy in terms of the amount of correction and the extent of the window of single binocular vision with low risk of anterior ischemia syndrome.
Botulinum Toxins ; Elevators and Escalators ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Paralysis ; Strabismus* ; Tendons* ; Vision, Binocular ; Visual Fields

The fibrillar coat of Candida albicans is of interest as its significance in antigenicity, antiphagocytosis, and adherence to host tissues. The partial biochemical properties and ultrastructure of fibrillar coat induced by rabbit sera were examined. The induced fibrillar layer was destroyed by treatments of lyticase, proteinase K and dithiothreitol. The total protein concentration of fibrillar cell wall lysate was higher than that of non-fibrillar cell wall lysate, but the total sugar concentration was similar. On SDS-PAGE analysis, the protein profiles between in fibrillar cells and in non-fibrillar cells were shown to be different. In fibrillar cells, the major bands of cell wall lysate were 83, 66, 54, 47, 33, and 26 kDa in dithiothreitol-treated lysate. The proteins of 26 and 19 kDa were predominant in lyticase-treated lysate. Although the fibrillar thickness and protein amount of cell wall lysate were increased in according to the incubation time, the protein profiles did not changed. These results suggest that the proteins of 83, 66, 54, 47, 33, 26, and 19 kDa may be major constituents of fibrillar coat in C. albicans.
Candida albicans* ; Candida* ; Cell Wall ; Dithiothreitol ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Endopeptidase K

Intraocular pressure(IOP) and side effects of adding Trusopt to beta blockers was studied in 39 eyes of 22 glaucoma patients that was inadequately controlled with beta blockers alone. Routine eye examination and IOP measurement were performed before the additive therapy. Trusopt eye drops were topically applied three times a day with previously used three kinds of beta blockers. IOP was measured at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 month after the combined therapy. Mean IOP was 18.1+/-5.2mmHg before combined therapy; 15.3+/-4.0mmHg after 1week, 15.2+/-3.2mmHg after 1 month and 15.0+/-3.4mmHg after 3 month of therapy. Side effects of combined therapy were bitter taste(20.5%), burning sensation(9.6%) redness(5.1%), discomfort(5.1%), and ocular pain(5.1%). These results indicate that adding Trusopt in patients treated with beta blockers cause a further reduction of IOP that may prove to be clinically useful in glaucoma therapy.
Burns ; Glaucoma* ; Humans ; Ophthalmic Solutions

To investigate whether anti-Candida proteinase antibody could be a diagnostic marker, we examined seroreactivity to proteinase in sera from 90 healthy controls and 8 of C. albicans culture-positive patients. Previously we purified proteinases of C. albicans, C. tropicalis, and C. parapsilosis using a series of chromatographic steps consisting of DEAE- Sepharose, Sephacryl S-200, and size-exclusion HPLC. ELISA and Western blot technique were adopted to examine seroreactivity of C. albicans proteinase with sera. On ELISA, the seroreactivities of healthy controls and C. albicans-cultured patients were 0.601 +- 0.014 (mean+SEM), and 0.695 +- 0.079, respectively (P=0.084, t-test). In C. albicans-cultured patients, the positive rate was 62.5% (5/8) and the positive rate of healthy controls was 39% (35/90). On Western blot analysis, C. albicans proteinase molecule was blotted by all sera tested. But the intensity of blotted band was different with the same dilution of sera; the intensity of C. albicans proteinase molecule band blotted by 2 sera of 3 healthy control's sera was distinctively lower than that by C. albicans-cultured patients sera. However, all sera including C. albicans-cultured patient's sera did not blot the proteinase secreted by C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis. It is necessary to collect sequential sera of patients with candidiasis and to establish a cut-off value for ELISA or serum dilution for Western blot analysis that will give reliable test sensitivity and specificity.
Blotting, Western ; Candida albicans* ; Candida* ; Candidiasis ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Peptide Hydrolases ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sepharose

Rotator cuff tears are a common cause of debilitating pain, reduced shoulder function, and weakness. Despite improvements in the understanding of the disease process and advances in surgical treatment, recent studies have reported that healing of massive rotator cuff tears is not as predictable as that of smaller rotator cuff tears. These high failure rates are a result of both mechanical and biologic factors that may affect the patients' intrinsic capacity to heal. Most research studies have concentrated on tissue engineering as a means for improvement of healing in rotator cuff repair, including the use of scaffolds, growth factors, and mesenchymal stem cells. There has been much interest in the development of various scaffolds that provide adequate strength as well as stimulate and enhance healing potential. The purpose of this paper is to review the current basic science and clinical application of extracellular matrix scaffolds, which are currently the most widely used scaffolds for repair of rotator cuff tears.
Biological Factors ; Extracellular Matrix ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; Rotator Cuff ; Shoulder ; Tendons ; Tissue Engineering

Panoramic radiography, which can show dental characteristics in one film and evaluate postmortem information, may be highly valuable in human identification. The purpose of this study is to evaluate usefulness of human identification with dental characteristics shown in panoramic radiography through panoramic radiographies of 300 randomly selected patients who visited Yonsei University Dental Hospital. Dental characteristics of each film were classified into 8 types and diversity of dental characteristics was evaluated by turning the informations into codes. Diversity of panoramic radiography using both maxillary and mandibular dental characteristics was 99.58%. When mandibular dental characteristic (98.99%) was used alone, the diversity was found to be higher than that of maxillary dental characteristic (97.92%). Maxillary dental characteristics showed diversity in the order of right molars (92.32%), left molars (92.02%), and incisors (41.54%), while that of mandible was in the order of right molars (96.09%), left molars (95.70%), and incisors (18.97%). As a result, human identification using panoramic radiography proved to be useful not only when the whole teeth are present but also when only molars are present. Therefore, it is expected to be applied more economically and practically in identifying a large number of victims from mass disasters as well as wars.
Disasters ; Forensic Anthropology* ; Humans* ; Incisor ; Mandible ; Molar ; Radiography, Panoramic* ; Tooth

We analyzed 5,504 ICU patients who were admitted between Mar. 1985 and Feb. 1989 to obtain better guidance and management in the ICU. The results of analysis are as follows ; 1) The total number of patients was 5,504; 792 patients in 1981, 771 patients in 1986, 1,036 patients in 1987, 1.393 patients in 1988, and 1.512 patients in 1989. There were continual increment annually since 1986, and 95% increment in 1989 compared to 1985. 2) The male patients were 3,681 and female patients were 1,823, and the ratio of male to female patients was about 2:1. The most frequent age group was 40-49 and the rate of which was 23.%. 3) The mean admission day was 5.9 days. There were continual increment annually and 13.3 % increment in 1989 compared to 1985, The number of patients stayed in the ICU for 1-2 days was highest and the rate of which was 36.1%. 4) The number of patients of neurosurgical department was 49.5% being the highest among all the patients. 5) The mortality rate was 10.4% and shows decreasing tendency annually. The mortality rate of 1-2 admission day was highest (13.3%). In age distribution, the mortaUty rate under the 10 years old was highest (17.4%) and in distribution by department, highest in the pediatric patients (24.5%). From the above results, we can conclude that in spite of increase in number of patients and admission days, the mortality rate has decreased annually due to improved equipments, support of nursing care, and specially qualified staffs.
Age Distribution ; Child ; Female ; Gangwon-do* ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units* ; Critical Care* ; Male ; Mortality ; Nursing Care