No abstract available.
Nasal Bone*

Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have a higher burden of seizures, but few studies have examined seizures in HIV-infected individuals in Korea. A retrospective study was conducted to determine the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of seizures in patients with HIV infection. Among a total of 1,141 patients, 34 (3%) had seizures or epilepsy; 4 of these individuals had epilepsy before HIV infection, and the others showed new-onset seizures. Most patients exhibited moderate (200 to 500, n = 13) or low (below 200, n = 16) CD4 counts. The most common seizure etiology was progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (n = 14), followed by other HIV-associated central nervous system (CNS) complications (n = 6). Imaging studies revealed brain lesions in 21 patients. A total of 9 patients experienced only one seizure during the follow-up period, and 25 patients experienced multiple seizures or status epilepticus (n = 2). Multiple seizures were more common in patients with brain etiologies (P = 0.019) or epileptiform discharges on EEG (P = 0.032). Most seizures were controlled without anticonvulsants (n = 12) or with a single anticonvulsant (n = 12). Among patients with HIV infection, seizures are significantly more prevalent than in the general population. Most seizures, with the exception of status epilepticus, have a benign clinical course and few complications.
Adult ; Aged ; Anticonvulsants/therapeutic use ; Causality ; Comorbidity ; Electroencephalography/*statistics & numerical data ; Female ; HIV Infections/diagnosis/*epidemiology ; Humans ; Incidence ; Longitudinal Studies ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Risk Factors ; Seizures/*diagnosis/*epidemiology/prevention & control ; Treatment Outcome

No abstract available.
Prevotella*

BACKGROUND: The influenza is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. The primary target groups recommended for annual vaccination are healthcare workers and households which have frequent contact with persons at high risk and can transmit influenza to those persons at high risk. Members of these groups should be vaccinated against the flu so that they can avoid getting infected with continuously mutating influenza viruses. We assessed healthcare workers' knowledge and attitudes regarding influenza vaccination in order to help promote the vaccination rate. METHODS: This survey was carried out in two hospitals affiliated with the Catholic University School of Medicine, from December 2004 to January 2005. Of the 3,023 questionnaires distributed, 2,023 could be evaluated. RESULTS: The most frequently cited reason for receiving influenza vaccine was self-protection against influenza (55.4%). The most common reasons for not receiving influenza vaccine are personal health problems such as concurrent flu, pregnancy or breast-feeding (29.2%). There is no significant difference in the frequency of side effect between two groups receiving and not receiving vaccine. The most frequent side effect of influenza vaccination is flu-like syndrome; People receiving vaccine have more significant knowledge than those people not receiving vaccine about efficacy of flu vaccination, risk of influenza infection of healthcare workers and their need of flu vaccination. CONCLUSION: In order to promote the vaccination rate, education targeting people at high risk need to keep continuous and facilitate access to vaccination.
Delivery of Health Care* ; Education ; Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Influenza Vaccines ; Influenza, Human* ; Orthomyxoviridae ; Pregnancy ; Vaccination* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Eighty-nine isolates of Enterobacter spp. from two university hospitals were analyzed by phenotypic and genotypic characteristics for epidemiologic investigation. Most strains were isolated from sputum, urine, wound, pus and catheter tip. Most isolates of Enterobacter spp. were resistant to ampicillin, cefazolin and cefoxitin and 39% of E. cloacae isolates were also resistant to other cephalosporins and aminoglycoside antibiotics except amikacin but all strains were highly susceptible to imipenem and ciprofloxacin. Twenty-six antimicrobial resistance patterns were obtained from E. clacae, but E. aerogenes showed only 4 patterns. Fourty-two plasmid profiles were identified, but plasmid was not detected from 28.4% of E. cloacae and 58% of E. aerogenes. Six biotypes from E. cloacae and three biotypes from E. aerogenes were obtained by carbohydrate metabolism. Fourteen strains of E. cloacae carried conjugative R plasmids and these plasmids were further analyzed. Among them, ten plasmids showed identical antibiogram, molecular weight, and pI value by isoelectric focusing and nearly identical restriction endonuclease fragment pattern. Their parental strains had identical antibiogram, biotype, plasmid profile, and were isolated from 4 different specimens including 6 catheter tips of different patients. But most clinical isolates showed various types of combination and seemed to be different strains. These results indicate that the epidemic strain were present in this hospital and the combination of antibiogram and plasmid analysis can be used to discriminate the epidemic strains of multi-resistant E. cloacae.
Amikacin ; Ampicillin ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Carbohydrate Metabolism ; Catheters ; Cefazolin ; Cefoxitin ; Cephalosporins ; Ciprofloxacin ; Cloaca ; DNA Restriction Enzymes ; Enterobacter* ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Imipenem ; Isoelectric Focusing ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Molecular Weight ; Parents ; Plasmids ; R Factors ; Sputum ; Suppuration ; Wounds and Injuries

The ultimate goal of periodontal treatment is the regeneration of periodontal tissues which have been lost due to periodontal disease. Recently, many natural medicines have been studied for their potential of anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and regenerative effects in periodontal tissues. Safflower seeds have been traditionally used as a drug for treatment of fracture and blood stasis in oriental medicine. The objective of the present study is to examine the biologic effects of safflower seeds extract on bone formation and regeneration of rat calvarial defects. The calvarial defects were made with 8mm trephine bur and extract of safflower seeds were placed directly at these defects. 24 rats were divided into control and experimental groups, and each group was sacrificed at 1 week, 4 weeks and 8 weeks. To study a histopathology related to bone regeneration, Goldner's Masson Trichrome stain and histomorphologic measuring was done at each weeks. In the early phase of bone healing, less inflammatory infiltration and capillary proliferation was found in experimental group compared to control. Dense bony tissues and matured bone structures in defect areas were found in experimental groups. And area of new bone formation was significantly increased at 8 weeks in experimental group. These results indicate that direct local application of safflower seeds extract reduces the early inflammatory response and promotes the regeneration of new bone in calvarial defects of rats.
Animals ; Bone Regeneration* ; Capillaries ; Carthamus tinctorius* ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Osteogenesis ; Periodontal Diseases ; Rats* ; Regeneration

Based upon the concept that carcinogenesis is associated with apoptosis, specific therapies designed to enhance the susceptibility of cancer cells to undergo apoptosis could be developed. Thus, in this paper, it was designed to investigate whether, using rat animal model with chemical-induced hepatocellular carcinoma, TGF-1 in vivo could induce apoptosis in cancer. The chemical hepatocarcinogenic procedure of Solt-Farber method was used on Sprague-Dawley rats. Experimental groups were divided into group A treated with the standard Solt-Farber regimen of diethylnitrosamine (DEN) and 2-Acetaminofluorene (AAF), group B TGF-, group C TGF-1, and group D adriamycin after hepatocellular carcinoma developed. For detection of apoptotic cells, apoptotic indices were examined by the in situ end DNA labelling method. The expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen was examined by immunohistochemical staining. Apoptosis of rat hepatocellular carcinoma cells increased significantly to 4.92+/-2.32/HPF in the group C compared with the control group (A) (2.54+/-1.13/HPF; P<0.05). Two distinctly different populations of proliferating hepatocellular carcinoma cells were identified. The cells at G1/S boundary (weak granular staining) increased to 15.75+/-6.19/HPF and 6.45+/-2.93/HPF in the groups C and D, respectively, but decreased to 2.42+/-2.06/HPF in the group B compared with the control group (A) (6.38+/-2.18/HPF; p<0.05). The cells at S phase (strong granular staining) increased to 3.37+/-2.69/HPF in the group B but decreased to 0.32+/-0.47/HPF in the group D (p<0.05). In conclusion, these results indicate that the TGF-1 may be used as an effective anticancer agent.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Diethylnitrosamine ; DNA ; Doxorubicin ; Models, Animal ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; S Phase ; Transforming Growth Factor alpha ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1* ; Transforming Growth Factors*

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to define the risk factors of S. epidermidis acquisition and the epidemiology of strain variation in acute leukemia patients. METHODS: The participants were 155 patients of acute leukemia admitted in a University hospital for 11 months. 83 patients are the isolated group who had isolated S. epidermidis from body sites (blood, oral cavity, nares, rectum) and 72 patients are the not isolated group who had not isolated S. epidermidis. Isolates were analysed by CHEF and cluster analysis with dendrogram. Differences In proportions were tested with the Chi-square and Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: Ninety-one S. epidermidis were obtained from blood, oral cavity, nares, and rectum. The major proportion of positive culture was 81.3% from nares. Eight-nine S. epidermidis were isolated from healthcare workers. There were significant development of bacteremia in patients with S. epidermidis from nares. Resistance rate of S. epidermidis was 75.8% to methicillin, 86.3% to erythromycin, 81.l% to gentamicin, 68.9% to ciprofloxacin, 0% on vancomycin. There was significant difference on resistance rate between patients and healthcare workers' group. There was no relation between the strain of patients and those of healthcare workers. Sex age, diagnosis, length of stay, type of chemotherapy, duration of chemotherapy, Type of central venous catheter. duration of central venous catheter, prior antibiotic therapy, number of antibiotics, site of nosocomial infection, neutropenic period were not significantly different between S. epidermidis isolated group and not isolated group. Significant risk factors included duration of central venous catheter. hyper-alimentation, and folliculitis. CONCLUSION: Our result suggests that S. epidermidis in nares can be a risk factor of bacteremia. This research would be helpful for decreasing the S. epidermidis of immunocompromised patients.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bacteremia ; Central Venous Catheters ; Ciprofloxacin ; Cross Infection ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Epidemiology ; Erythromycin ; Folliculitis ; Gentamicins ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Length of Stay ; Leukemia* ; Methicillin ; Molecular Epidemiology* ; Mouth ; Rectum ; Risk Factors* ; Staphylococcus epidermidis* ; Staphylococcus* ; Vancomycin

STUDY DESIGN: A case report. OBJECTIVES: To report a case of cauda equine syndrome due to a lumbar intradural disc herniation. SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW: IDH is rare but there is a higher incidence of neurologic deficit in IDH. Therefore, it should be treated immediately. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 34-year-old male patient was presented with cauda equina syndrome due to a lumbar intradural mass and underwent surgical excision. RESULTS: Operative findings and the histologic study revealed an intradural disc herniation. CONCLUSIONS: IDH is very rare lesion but should be considered in a differential diagnosis if preoperative MRI demonstrates an intradural lesion.
Adult ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Incidence ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Polyradiculopathy

No abstract available.
Humans ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Pulmonary Embolism*