Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in Korea. According to the report from Korean national statistical office, the mortality rate of stroke was 73.2/100,000 persons in 2000. In Western countries, stroke mortality rates declined gradually from 1970, which accelerated markedly around 1990. Since then, there has been no further decrease in stroke mortality rates until now and the situation has been similar in Korea. In the past, hemorrhagic stroke in Korea similar to other Far East Asian countries. However, the ratio of hemorrhagic to ischemic stroke has been reversed since mid-1980s. This trend might be due to the westernization of diet and life style as well as better control of hypertension. The case fatality rate from one of the large hospital-based stroke registry was 7.2% within 30 days after the onset of acute ischemic stroke, which is similar to those of other series from western countries with an advanced medical care systems. It may be attributed to the inclusion of more asymptomatic or milder patients with small lesions detected by neuroimaging. Importantly, the delay of hospital visit after the onset of stroke and the lower compliance for secondary prevention remain serious problems in managing acute stroke in Korea. Despite recent advances in the diagnosis and management of stroke, there has not been a nationwide population-based epidemiologic data on stroke in Korea. Therefore the application of Internet technology to develop multi center cooperative hospital-based registry could be an important step toward a long-waited nationwide stroke registry.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Cause of Death ; Compliance ; Diagnosis ; Diet ; Epidemiology* ; Far East ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Internet ; Korea* ; Life Style ; Mortality ; Neuroimaging ; Secondary Prevention ; Stroke*

Vascular dementia is defined as a clinical syndrome of acquired intellectual impairment resulting from a brain injury due to a cerebrovascular disorder. It incorporates various vascular pathophysiological mechanisms and changes in the brain, and has diverse cause and clinical manifestations. The main suptypes of vascular dementia include 1) multi-infarct dementia, 2) strategic infarct dementia, and 3) subcortical vascular dementia. Both multi-infarct dementia and strategic infarct dementia show heterogeneity in etiologies, changes of the brain, as well as clinical manifestations. On the contrary, subcortical vascular dementia is suggested to be a more homogenous group. To better understand the clinical features of vascular dementia, cases corresponding to each subtype of vascular dementia are briefly discussed this review.
Brain ; Brain Injuries ; Cerebrovascular Disorders ; Dementia ; Dementia, Multi-Infarct ; Dementia, Vascular* ; Population Characteristics

Acute and chronic immune injury, drug toxicity, and cardiovascular complications remain a critical challenge following kidney transplantation. Success from these hurdles is closely associated with the ability to monitor patients and responsively adjust their medication. Metabolic and biochemical profiling (metabolomics) may enable detection of early changes in cell signal transduction regulation and biochemistry with high sensitivity and specificity. However, metabolomics have not been studied extensively in the field of kidney transplantation. This review describes the basic principles of metabolomics, summarizes recent studies, and suggests future perspectives.
Biochemistry ; Biomarkers ; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions ; Humans ; Kidney Transplantation* ; Metabolomics* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Signal Transduction

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Triflusal(TR), 2-acetoxy-4-trifluoromethyl banzoic acid, is a platelet aggregation inhibitor structurally related to aspirin, proven to possess both in vitro and in vivo platelet antiaggregatoy activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of TR with different dosages on platelet function using platelet aggregation, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) secretion, and thromboxane generation after TR administration. METHODS: Twenty healthy volunteers (age 25-41years, 15 males 5 females) were randomly divided into two groups of ten subjects who were receiving one of two regimens (TR 300mg/day; TR 900mg/day) for seven days. Platelet functions including platelet aggregation by impedance methods using whole blood with ADP (5, 10uM) and collagen (1,2uM), ATP secretion and thromboxane B2 generation were determined. RESULTS: The inhibitory effect of platelet aggregation was observed in both groups. The degree of inhibitory effect was depended on the dosage of TR and the types of aggregating agent. Thromboxane B2 concentrations were significantly decreased by TR ingestion in both groups (p<0.01), but there was no differences in ATP secretion. CONCLUSIONS: This study show that TR exerts a remarkable platelet antiaggregation effect and inhibition of thromboxane synthesis in whole blood. In addition, the fact that TR does not affect ATP secretion means selective blocking of the platelet cyclooxygenase pathway.
Adenosine Diphosphate ; Adenosine Triphosphate ; Aspirin ; Blood Platelets* ; Collagen ; Eating ; Electric Impedance ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans* ; Male ; Platelet Aggregation* ; Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases ; Thromboxane B2

We attempted to identify parasite DNA in the biliary stones of humans via PCR and DNA sequencing. Genomic DNA was isolated from each of 15 common bile duct (CBD) stones and 5 gallbladder (GB) stones. The patients who had the CBD stones suffered from cholangitis, and the patients with GB stones showed acute cholecystitis, respectively. The 28S and 18S rDNA genes were amplified successfully from 3 and/or 1 common bile duct stone samples, and then cloned and sequenced. The 28S and 18S rDNA sequences were highly conserved among isolates. Identity of the obtained 28S D1 rDNA with that of Clonorchis sinensis was higher than 97.6%, and identity of the 18S rDNA with that of other Ascarididae was 97.9%. Almost no intra-specific variations were detected in the 28S and 18S rDNA with the exception of a few nucleotide variations, i.e., substitution and deletion. These findings suggest that C. sinensis and Ascaris lumbricoides may be related with the biliary stone formation and development.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Animals ; Ascaridida/genetics/isolation & purification ; Ascaris lumbricoides/genetics/isolation & purification ; Base Sequence ; Clonorchis sinensis/genetics/isolation & purification ; Common Bile Duct/*parasitology ; DNA, Helminth/*genetics ; DNA, Ribosomal/genetics ; Face/parasitology ; Female ; Gallbladder/parasitology ; Gallstones/*parasitology ; Helminths/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Polymerase Chain Reaction/*methods ; RNA, Ribosomal, 18S/genetics ; RNA, Ribosomal, 28S/genetics ; Sequence Alignment

No abstract available.
Animals ; Captopril* ; Cisplatin* ; Nifedipine* ; Rats*

OBJECTIVE: As an electronic health record system is implementing in Korean health care sectors, concerns about key functionalities of electronic health record systems are increasing. The purpose of this study was to identify core functions and set the priority in electronic health record systems under the Korean contexts in order to assure and improve the quality of the systems. METHODS: A survey was conducted using questionnaire developed by the study team based on literature review. The subjects were medical record administrators working at medical record department in general hospitals. RESULTS: The response rate was 59.8%(55/92). The functions which more than ninety percent of subjects responded as necessary right now and/or in near future related to 'drug alert', 'clinical guideline', 'chronic disease management', 'automated real-time surveillance', 'coded data', 'result reporting', 'de-identifying data', 'disease registry', and 'provider-provider communication and connectivity'. CONCLUSION: The results showed the high prioritized functions were decision support and health information/data management.
Electronic Health Records* ; Health Care Sector ; Hospitals, General* ; Humans ; Medical Record Administrators ; Medical Records ; Needs Assessment* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

No abstract available.
Animals ; Dinoprostone* ; Female ; Humans* ; Menstrual Cycle* ; Oviducts*

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to assess the change of heart rate variability (HRV) at resting, upright, and psychological stress in anxiety disorder patients. METHODS: HRV was measured at resting, upright, and psychological stress states in 60 anxiety disorder patients. We used visual analogue scale (VAS) score to assess tension and stress severity. Beck depression inventory (BDI) and state trait anxiety inventories I and II (STAI-I and II) were used to assess depression and anxiety severity. Differences between HRV indices were evaluated using paired t-tests. Gender difference analysis was accomplished with ANCOVA. RESULTS: SDNN (Standard deviation of normal RR intervals) and low frequency/high frequency (LF/HF) were significantly increased, while NN50, pNN50, and normalized HF (nHF) were significantly decreased in the upright position compared to resting state (p < 0.01). SDNN, root mean square of the differences of successive normal to normal intervals, and LF/HF were significantly increased, while nHF was significantly decreased in the psychological stress state compared to resting state (p < 0.01). SDNN, NN50, pNN50 were significantly lower in upright position compared to psychological stress and nVLF, nLF, nHF, and LF/HF showed no significant differences between them. CONCLUSION: The LF/HF ratio was significantly increased after both physical and psychological stress in anxiety disorder, but did not show a significant difference between these two stresses. Significant differences of SDNN, NN50, and pNN50 without any differences of nVLF, nLF, nHF, and LF/HF between two stresses might suggest that frequency domain analysis is more specific than time domain analysis.
Anxiety ; Anxiety Disorders* ; Autonomic Nervous System ; Depression ; Equipment and Supplies ; Heart Rate* ; Humans ; Stress, Psychological*

Transient global amnesia(TGA) is not a rare event in the elderly, which is characterized by transient inability to form the new memory traces plus retrograde amnesia with benign prognosis. The etiology is unknown, but suggested causes have included transient ischemic attack, migraine, epilepsy, brain tumor, drug intoxication, other toxic/metabolic disturbances, or hysteria. Especially, TGA associated with ischemic stroke is important on the elderly patients and necessary to be differentiated with other causes, for stroke prevention. As far as we know, the case of TGA due to cerebral infarction confirmed by brain imaging study is extremely rare in the literature. We report the case of 67 year-old female patient with typical TGA showing ischemic lesion on the right temporal area on MRI and discussed its significance as one of the cause of TGA.
Aged ; Amnesia, Retrograde ; Amnesia, Transient Global* ; Brain Neoplasms ; Cerebral Infarction ; Epilepsy ; Female ; Humans ; Hysteria ; Infarction* ; Ischemic Attack, Transient ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Memory ; Migraine Disorders ; Neuroimaging ; Prognosis ; Stroke