Primary care lays the foundation of national healthcare systems, but it has been weak in playing its role correctly because of legal and environmental attributes surrounding the healthcare industry in Korea. This study is conducted to concretize the definition and scope of primary care and to deduce its standard functions to contribute to establishing the healthcare delivery system and appropriate healthcare systems embracing socio-environmental leverage. The term primary healthcare institution was adopted based on literature review to achieve the research goal. The principle diseases appropriate for the primary healthcare institution based on ambulatory care sensitive conditions were analyzed, and the standard functions were deduced by matching these diseases with current procedural terminologies using CrossCoder package. Based on the analysis, the primary healthcare institution-specific diseases were 53 specific diseases under 23 broad disease groups. The standard functions were deduced in three categories of the standard functions of the entire primary healthcare institutions with 100% frequency, common standard functions with 70% frequency, and peculiar standard functions specific to diseases or body systems. These functions included outpatient evaluation and measurement, various factor tests through blood collection, and X-ray. Establishing the standard functions for the primary healthcare institution can promote patient reliability on primary care, alleviate health demand congestion toward large-sized advanced healthcare institutions. Furthermore, it contributes to establishing and reinforcing other healthcare policies related to the healthcare reimbursement system and referral system, and fosters primary care physician education. Most importantly, it reduces the national health expenditures by realizing efficient and effective healthcare delivery.
Ambulatory Care ; Delivery of Health Care ; Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) ; Health Care Sector ; Health Expenditures ; Humans ; Korea ; Outpatients ; Physicians, Primary Care ; Primary Health Care ; Referral and Consultation

The causal relationship between heat shock protein (HSP) and second window of cardioprotective effect is still undetermined. In the present study, we assessed whether HSP-producing substances, amphetamine and ketamine, afforded protection against reperfusion-induced ventricular fibrillation (VF) and these protective effect remained after the inhibition of HSP72 production by quercetin, a mitochondrial ATPase inhibitor. Adult mongreal male cats (n=60, 2.5 ~ 4 kg) were used in this study. Experimental animals were divided into five groups; control group (n=15), amphetamine ('A', n=11) group, ketamine ('K', n=9) group, amphetamine-ketamine ('AK', n=16) group and amphetamine-ketamine-quercetin ('AKQ', n=9) group. Twenty-four hours after the drug treatment, an episode of 20-min coronary artery occlusion was followed by 10-min reperfusion. The incidence of reperfusion-induced VF in the AK and AKQ groups was significantly lower than that in control group (p<0.01). After the ischemia/reperfusion procedure, western blot analysis of HSP72 expression in the myocardial tissues resected from each group was performed. HSP72 production in the AK group was marked, whereas HSP72 was not detected in the AKQ and control groups. These results suggest that the suppressive effect against reperfusion-induced VF induced by amphetamine and ketamine is not mediated by myocardial HSP72 production but by other mechanisms.
Adenosine Triphosphatases ; Adult ; Amphetamine ; Animals ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac* ; Blotting, Western ; Cats ; Coronary Vessels ; Heat-Shock Proteins* ; Hot Temperature* ; HSP72 Heat-Shock Proteins* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Ketamine ; Male ; Quercetin ; Reperfusion* ; Ventricular Fibrillation

No abstract available.
Interleukin-6* ; Myxoma*

Torsion of the accessory spleen is a rare entity that can have variable clinical presentations. We report case involving an 11-year-old boy with severe abdominal pain and a mass that was found to be due to infarction of the accessory spleen, which was twisted on its pedicle. CT revealed a low-attenuating mass with peripheral inflammatory changes in the left upper abdomen. The mass was pathologically confirmed as torsion of the ac-cessory spleen with infarction.
Abdomen ; Abdominal Pain ; Child ; Humans ; Infarction* ; Male ; Spleen*

Several forms of colonic complications are rarely observed during the clinical course of acute pancreatitis, and potentially fatal in some cases. Colonic lesions associated with acute pancreatitis can be divided into several groups from a pathogenic point of view. Possible pathogenesis includes 1) spread of pancreatic enzymes through the retroperitoneum to mesocolon, causing pericolitis, 2) external inflammatory compression by mesocolic mass secondary to necrosis of fatty tissue, and 3) hypotension due to shock, and thrombosis of mesenteric arteries. These might lead to colonic infarction, fistula formation, perforation, and obstruction during follow-up. We report two cases of colonic obstruction following acute pancreatitis with possible different mechanisms and review Korean cases. One patient developed colonic obstruction due to severe necrotizing pancreatitis, possibly as a result of pericolitis, and the other developed stenosis as a result of ischemic colitis induced by acute pancreatitis.
Acute Disease ; Colonic Diseases/*diagnosis/etiology ; Constriction, Pathologic/diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Intestinal Obstruction/*diagnosis/etiology/surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pancreatitis/complications/*diagnosis ; Pancreatitis, Acute Necrotizing/complications/*diagnosis ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The management of small-bowel perforations associated with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) or endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST) is still controversial. The purpose of this study was to analyze the treatment and outcome of patients with ERCP-related perforations in a single tertiary medical center. METHODS: Of 18,379 cases of ERCPs performed between January 1990 and December 2003, twenty-six patients (0.14%) with perforation were identified and medical chart were reviewed retrospectively. RESULT: EST were performed in 10,231 patients and perforation occurred in 18 patients. Four out of 18 patients with small-bowel perforation related to EST underwent surgical operation and the rest 14 patients recovered with conservative treatment alone. Of the rest 8 perforation patients unrelated to EST, perforation occurred during the insertion of endoscope in 7 patients and catheter manipulation in 1 patient. All but one perforations associated with mechanical injury by endoscope itself were managed with an emergent laparotomy, and the one patient with perforation related to catheter manipulation recovered with conservative treatment. CONCLUSIONS: A small-bowel perforation related to endoscope per se usually required a surgery, but sphincterotomy related perforations rarely did so. The prevalence and mortality rate of small-bowel perforations associated with ERCP and/or EST were 0.14% and 0%, respectively, in a single tertiary medical center.
Catheters ; Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde ; Endoscopes ; Humans ; Laparotomy ; Mortality ; Prevalence ; Retrospective Studies ; Sphincterotomy, Endoscopic