OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study is to compare the differences of fetal heart rate (FHR) variables between preterm and term pregnancies after acoustic stimulation using computerized analysis of fetal heart rate. METHODS: Eighty-two normal pre-term and term pregnancies entered to this study after conventional 20-minutes nonstress test(NST) and 10-minutes acoustic stimulation test (AST). Acoustic stimulations were performed using Fetal Acoustic Stimulator (Model 146, Corometrics, US). We analyzed the FHR response after acoustic stimulation using our on-line computerized FHR analysis system, HYFM-I & II software. The changes of loss of signal, baseline FHR, variability, number of fetal movements, and number of FHR accelerations were analyzed numerically. RESULT: The mean baseline FHR was increased in term pregnancies from 141+/-7.0bpm to 152.7+/-9.7bpm, and in preterm pregnancies from 144.6+/-6.8bpm to 156.8+/-10.2bpm, respectively. The mean baseline FHR was significantly increased in both term and preterm pregnancies (p<0.01. paired t-test). The variability of FHR was increased in term pregnancies from 18.2+/-6.4bpm to 22.6+/-5.0bpm and in preterm pregnancies from 17.8+/-5.5bpm to 22.7+/-5.9bpm, respectively. The variability of FHR was also significantly increased in both term and preterm pregnancies. (p<0.01. paired t-test) CONCLUSION: The mean baseline FHR and the variability of FHR was significantly increased both preterm and term pregnancies. But the difference of each FHR variables between preterm pregnancies and term pregnancies was not statistically significant in this study.
Acceleration ; Acoustic Stimulation* ; Acoustics* ; Female ; Fetal Heart* ; Fetal Movement ; Heart Rate, Fetal* ; Pregnancy

No abstract available.
Diagnosis*

No abstract available.
Panniculitis*

The aims of this study were to evaluate the clinicopathologic features of Helicobacter heilmannii-associated gastritis and to compare H. heilmannii-associated gastritis with H. pylori-associated gastritis. We reviewed 5,985 consecutive gastric biopsy specimens. All cases of chronic gastritis with Helicobacter infection were evaluated with the Updated Sydney System, and the grades of all gastritis variables were compared between H. heilmannii-associated gastritis and H. pylori-associated gastritis groups. There were 10 cases of H. heilmannii-associated gastritis (0.17%) and 3,285 cases of H. pylori-associated gastritis (54.9%). The organisms were superficially located within the mucous layer without adhesion to epithelial cells. Interestingly, in one case many intracytoplasmic H. heilmannii organisms were observed in parietal cells with cell damage. A case of low-grade mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma concomitant with H. heilmannii infection was detected. Compared to H. pylori-associated gastritis, H. heilmannii-associated gastritis showed less severe neutrophilic activity (p<0.0001), mononuclear cell infiltration (p=0.0029), and endoscopic findings of chronic gastritis devoid of erosion or ulcer (p=0.0309). In conclusion, we present the detailed clinicopathologic findings of H. heilmanniiassociated gastritis compared to H. pylori-associated gastritis. H. heilmannii-associated gastritis is uncommon and milder than H. pylori-associated gastritis, however it may be noteworthy with respect to the development of MALT lymphoma.
Stomach Neoplasms/etiology/pathology ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Lymphoma, Mucosa-Associated Lymphoid Tissue/etiology/pathology ; Humans ; *Helicobacter pylori ; *Helicobacter heilmannii ; Helicobacter Infections/*pathology ; Gastritis/*pathology ; Female ; Adult

PURPOSE: Anatomical change of the prostatic stroma, that is benign prostatic hyperplasia, results in a functional change which manifests as lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). We observed/investigated whether there are structural changes in the three-dimensional arrangement of muscle, collagen and elastin fibers of the prostatic urethra which can be another possible mechanism of LUTS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Hyperplastic nodules, which were surgically en bloc resected, and normal prostate from radical cystectomy specimens were examined. Surgical specimens were fixed in formalin and sectioned serially in a transverse plane along the lumen of the upper segment of the prostatic urethra. Additional sagittal sections were also made serially. All tissue blocks were 2mm thick. All slides were prepared with hematoxylin-eosin, Masson-trichrome and Verhoeff's elastin stain. RESULTS: Muscle and collagen fibers surrounding prostatic acini seemed poorly oriented and blended with the outermost fibers of the urethra. Muscle and stromal fibers surrounding the prostatic urethra seemed to be stretched and oriented mainly in the longitudinal direction with small fibroblastic nodules in the periurethral stroma. A periurethral gland structure was observed between the urethral wall in which the fiber was arranged longitudinally. Circular muscle fibers were not observed in the periurethral area, indicating that the surgical capsule resulted from urethral muscle fibers. CONCLUSIONS: Apparent changes to the 3-dimensional arrangement of collagen, elastin and muscle fibers surrounding the acini and prostatic urethra were not observed in the proximal prostatic urethra or the bladder neck, except that the fibers surrounding the urethra were stretched.
Collagen* ; Cystectomy ; Elastin* ; Fibroblasts ; Formaldehyde ; Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms ; Neck ; Prostate ; Prostatectomy ; Prostatic Hyperplasia* ; Urethra* ; Urinary Bladder

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the performance of four commercial nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs: Xpert C. difficile, BD MAX Cdiff, IMDx C. difficile for Abbott m2000, and Illumigene C. difficile) for direct and rapid detection of Clostridium difficile toxin genes. METHODS: We compared four NAATs on the same set of 339 stool specimens (303 prospective and 36 retrospective specimens) with toxigenic culture (TC). RESULTS: Concordance rate among four NAATs was 90.3% (306/339). Based on TC results, the sensitivity and specificity were 90.0% and 92.9% for Xpert; 86.3% and 89.3% for Max; 84.3% and 94.4% for IMDx; and 82.4% and 93.7% for Illumigene, respectively. For 306 concordant cases, there were 11 TC-negative/NAATs co-positive cases and 6 TC-positive/NAATs co-negative cases. Among 33 discordant cases, 18 were only single positive in each NAAT (Xpert, 1; Max, 12; IMDx, 1; Illumigene, 4). Positivity rates of the four NAATs were associated with those of semi-quantitative cultures, which were maximized in grade 3 (>100 colony-forming unit [CFU]) compared with grade 1 (<10 CFU). CONCLUSIONS: Commercial NAATs may be rapid and reliable methods for direct detection of tcdA and/or tcdB in stool specimens compared with TC. Some differences in the sensitivity of the NAATs may partly depend on the number of toxigenic C. difficile in stool specimens.
Bacterial Proteins/genetics ; Bacterial Toxins/genetics ; Clostridium Infections/*diagnosis/microbiology ; Clostridium difficile/*genetics/isolation & purification ; DNA, Bacterial/*analysis/metabolism ; Enterotoxins/genetics ; Feces/*microbiology ; Humans ; *Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Reagent Kits, Diagnostic ; Sensitivity and Specificity

PURPOSE: Cervical cancer is a major women's health problem in the world today. The purpose of this study was to estimate the incidence and mortality rates and to investigate risk factors for cervical cancer in Korean women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Reproductive factors, cigarette smoking, as well as the risk of incidence and death from cervical cancer were examined in a 12-year prospective cohort study of 475,398 Korean women aged 30 to 95 years who received health insurance from the National Health Insurance Corporation and who had a medical evaluation in 1992. Relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using the Cox proportional hazards model after adjusting for age, body mass index, cigarette smoking, alcohol use, menarche, parity, and Papanicolaou test status. RESULTS: This study showed that the RR of death due to cervical cancer among current smokers was two times higher compared with non- smokers (RR=2.00; 95% CI, 1.23-2.91). In addition, the RR of death due to cervical cancer among all women who smoked > 10 cigarettes/day was 2.4 times higher than the RR among women that had never smoked. More interestingly, those who had never been screened by Papanicolaou smears had twice the risk of death due to cervical cancer (RR =2.00; 95% CI, 1.37-1.81). CONCLUSION: Our prospective study concluded that current smokers had an increased risk of death due to cervical cancer. We suggest that the target age group for cervical cancer screening tests be reconsidered and should begin as early as possible.

No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: Recently the Korean society has been challenged with the rapid growth of obese population due to the improved socioeconomic status and lifestyle changes over the past decades. Not only has obesity been known as one of major risk factors for various diseases including cardiovascular diseases(e.g. hypertension, coronary heart disease and stroke) and diabetes mellitus, but it has also increased the death from obesity-related diseases. It has been required, however, to establish our own obesity criteria adjusted for Korean since much difference is expected to exist in the degree of obesity between white and Asian people. Therefore, this study was designed to provide with primary data to help establish new criteria through identifying the distribution of Body Mass Index(BMI), and then analysing its relatian with some obesity-related diseases. METHODS: This study calculated BMI and related it to some obesity-related diseases by analysing data from 1995 National Health Interview Surveys, in which a random sample of 5,750 Korean at the age of 15-69 had self-reported their heights, body weights and diagnoses with obesity-related diseases by physicians. Variables under consideration include potential risk factors(e.g. alcohol intakes, smoking, exercise, etc.) as well as demographics of the sample population. RESULTS: Average BMI(kg/m(2)) were 21.6+/- 2.6 for male and 21.7+/-4.8 for female(mean+/-SD), which increased in direct proportion to the increase of age until the age reached the group of 40-59, and then followed by the inverse in its relation with the age at 60 and over. It was revealed, however, that prevalences of obesity-related diseases such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus etc. were the highest among the population group with their BMI of 23.8~35.6. In short, this study identified the proportional relation of BMI with the prevalence of obesity-related diseases. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the prevalence for hypertension and diabetes mellitus was shown to be higher than the average among population with their BMI of 21.9~238, whose figure is much lower than both 26.4, the value of the 90th percentile proposed in MONICA prot and 25, the current WHO criteria of obesity. However, a Japanese study reported that the health risk began to increase at the BMI of 23 with risks for obesity-related diseases dramatically increased at the BMI of 26-27 and over, and concluded that because Asian has more body fats accumulated within the upper body part compared with the white, the Asian persons are more obese, though less in terms of BMI, than the white. Therefore, future works should be focused on establishing our own criteria for obesity with health risks through determining the association of BMI with prevalence of various diseases in Korea.
Adipose Tissue ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Body Height ; Coronary Disease ; Demography ; Diabetes Mellitus* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Korea ; Life Style ; Male ; Obesity ; Population Groups ; Prevalence* ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Social Class ; Weights and Measures

PURPOSE: Most of invasive Haemophilus influenzae diseases occur in children under 5 years of age, and are due almost exclusively to type b strain. Although antibodies to several surface antigens of H. influenzae play a role in conferring immunity, antibody to the type b capsular polysaccharide appeared to have the most important protective functions. However, the antibody response to vaccines or natural infections are quite differ according to the ages and ethnic groups. This study was performed to investigate the need of Hib vaccination and its appropriate time in Korean infants. METHODS: Three hundred and forty-five Korean infants and children who were relatively well without history of Hib vaccination or infection were enrolled in the study. All subjects did not receive blood transfusion or blood products and also had no any immunological abnormalities. Anti-PRP IgG was measured in the sera of subjects using ELISA. PRP-albumin was used as a coating antigen. RESULTS: Geometric mean titer (GMT) of anti-PRP IgG in the sera of neonates was 0.594 g/ml and was gradually decreased to 0.186 g/ml and 0.111 g/ml at 2 and 3 months of age, respectively. Ant-PRP IgG was significantly low after 3 months of age, and was gradually increased after 10 months of age. Anti-PRP IgG level p> or = 0.15 g/ml was observed in 70.8% (17/24) in neonatal group, 41.6% (10/24) and 18.7% (3/16) in 2 and 3 months of age. Only 8.7% (10/115) showed anti-Hib IgG levels of p> or = 1.0 g/ml, which has been considered as a level of longterm protection, was observed in 37.5% (9/24) in neonates, 12.5% (3/24) in 2 months of age and less then 10% thereafter. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that congenital passive immunity can be obtained enough in Korean infants and was rapidly decreased during the period of 3 months after birth. Hib vaccination will be recommended at early infancy (2 months of age) to provide appropriate antibodies in Korean children.
Antibodies ; Antibody Formation ; Antigens, Surface ; Blood Transfusion ; Child* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Ethnic Groups ; Haemophilus influenzae ; Haemophilus influenzae type b ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G* ; Infant* ; Infant, Newborn ; Influenza, Human* ; Parturition* ; Vaccination ; Vaccines