No abstract available.
Evoked Potentials, Visual* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn*

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of tuberculosis has been based on the detection of tubercle bacilli by acid-fast stain of smear or cultures, and recently the serologic diagnosis of tuberculosis has been provided a means of sensitive and specific detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We evaluated the utility of enzyme immunoassay using determiner Tuberculosis Glicolipids(TBGL) antibody kit(Kyowa Medex Co. Ltd, Japan) to detect anti-TBGL antibody for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. METHODS: Anti-TBGL antibody assay was performed to the form 44 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis(17 patients with smear positive, 7 patients with only culture positive, 20 patients with clinically active tuberculosis) and 80 controls (30 healthy controls, 24 patients with non-tuberculous respiratory diseases, 26 patients with inactive tuberculosis). We compared the sensitivity and specificity of anti-TBGL antibody with culture and AFB stain. RESULTS: Anti-TBGL antibodies were detected in 16 of 17(94%) smear positive patients, 4 of 7 patients with only culture positive and 16 of 20(80%) smear negative patients who had been clinically diagnosed as active pulmonary tuberculosis. Nine(35%) out of 26 patients with inactive tuberculosis, one(4%) out of 24 patients with non-tuberculous respiratory diseases and no one of healthy control had a positive antibody response. Overall sensitivity, specificity of the anti-TBGL antibody assay were 82%, 88%, respectively and sensitivities and specificities of culture and AFB smear 64%, 97%, and 49%, 100%, respectively. Anti-TBGL antibody titers in patients with active tuberculosis were significantly higher than control grup(P<0.05). Conclusions : The anti-TBGL antibody assay was sensitive, rapid and convenient. This assay will be useful as a tool for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in combination with other conventional methods.
Antibodies ; Antibody Formation ; Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques* ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary*

BACKGROUND: Core hypothermia after induction of anesthesia results from an core-to-peripheral redistribution of body heat and a loss of body heat to environment. The purpose of this study is finding body temperatures during operation by either general of epidural anesthesia and evaluates content of total body heat. METHODS: We measured tympanic membrane temperature, 4 point skin temperature (mid calf, mid thigh, upper extremity, nipple). And we calculate mean skin temperature, mean body temperature, total body heat content changes based on tympanic membrane temperature and 4 point skin temperature. RESULTS: Tympanic membrane temperature of the first group decreased significantly after 10 minutes of induction (p<0.005), the second group decreased after 45 minutes of induction. Although upper extremity temperature has continuously increased as time passed, there was no significant difference in both group. Lower extremity temperature has significantly increased after 30 minutes of induction in the first group, and the second group has significantly increased after 10 minutes of induction (p<0.05). Mean skin temperature hasdecreasd temperaturily in both group after 10 minutes of induction and increased as time passed. Mean body temperature of the first group has significantly decreased after 10 minutes of induction (p<0.05) and second group has no significant changes. Total body heat content has continuously decreased after induction with no significance. CONCLUSIONS: General anesthesia reveals more significant decrease than epidural anesthesia. Both groups show significant decrease of body temperature after induction. We think that we need to close attention to temperature changes after induction for preventing possible side effects due to core hypothermia.
Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, Epidural* ; Anesthesia, General* ; Body Temperature Changes* ; Body Temperature* ; Hot Temperature ; Hypothermia ; Lower Extremity ; Skin Temperature ; Thigh ; Tympanic Membrane ; Upper Extremity

BACKGROUND: There are many reports showing the efficacy of polymerase chain reaction(PCR) for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum. but only few reports in extrapulmonary specimens. Because of the difficulty in establishing a diagnosis of tuberculosis in the extrapulmonary specimens there have been considerable interest in the development of a rapid sensitive diagnostic test that might be useful. Therefore we used PCR for detection of M. tuberculosis DNA in extrapulmonary specimens and compared the results of conventional acid-fast stain, culture methods and PCR assay. METHODS: Total of 63 clinical samples(10 cerebrospinal fluids, 12 pleural fluids, 1 pericardial fluid, 3 bone marrow aspirates, 1 ascitic fluid, 25 fine needle aspirates of lymph nodes, 7 urine, 1 stool and 3 tissue biopsies) in Ewha Womans University Tongdaemun hospital were analysed by the PCR. We performed the PCR using a species-specific M. tuberculosis DNA fragment(mtp 40 gene) as primers that was cloned and sequenced at recent and a 396-bp fragment was specifically amplified. We analyzed sensitivity and specificity of AFB culture and PCR for the diagnosis of extrapulomonary tuberculosis. RESULTS: The positivity of AFB smear, culture and PCR were 2(10%), 4(20%), 13(65%) out of total 20 cases diagnosed as clinically active extrapulmonary tuberculosis. respectively. All of 2 smear-positive samples and 2 of 4 culture-positive and smear-negative samples were PCR-positive. And 9 of 14 smear and culture negative specimens also gave detectable DNA products in PCR The specificity of PCR(95.4%) is compared with those of smear and culture(100.0%). CONCLUSIONS: This results suggest that the PCR assay is a sensitive and rapid diagnostic alternative to classical procedures for the diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis.
Ascitic Fluid ; Bone Marrow ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Clone Cells ; Diagnosis* ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; DNA ; Female ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Needles ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sputum ; Tuberculosis*

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of chronic deprivation of estradiol on the serotonin level in Sprague-Dawley rat's cerebral cortex and hippocampus. METHODS: One hundred of female Sprague-Dawley rats were taken care for seven to eight weeks, then they were randomly assigned into two group; fifty rats underwent bilateral oophorectomy & the remaining rats were the control group. Six months after oophorectomy, brain tissue was extracted from cerebral cortex and hippocampus and then homogenated: this was done in the both groups. The upper layer of the homogenated substance was taken and frozen and finally dried up. The next process was marking with PITC, quantification through HPLC and comparing with authentic serotonin. Protein quantity was measured by using Bradford method. RESULTS: Comparison between the bilateral oophorectomy group and the control group for serotonin content in the cerebral cortex was 134.2+/-14.3 nmol/mg protein(mean+/-SEM) and 122.5+/-11.6 nmol/mg protein in each group. As for the serotonin content in the hippocampus was 148.8+/-13.9 nmol/mg protein and 132.9+/-13.7 nmol/mg protein in each group. It shows that, there was no significant difference in the serotonin level, in the two areas mentioned above. CONCLUSION: The effect of estradiol on the serotonin level may be dependent on the hormonal change duration. Chronic effect of hypoestrogenism might have no effect on tryptophan hydroxylase and monoamine oxidase, thus not changin the serotonin level. These data supported the previous findings that chronic hypoestrogenism had no effect on serotonin level.
Animals ; Brain ; Cerebral Cortex* ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Estradiol ; Female ; Female* ; Hippocampus* ; Humans ; Monoamine Oxidase ; Ovariectomy* ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley* ; Serotonin* ; Tryptophan Hydroxylase

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis continues to be a major threat to health throughout the world, with an estimated 8 to 10 million new cases and 3 million deaths annually. And control of the disease is further threatened by the emergence of drug resistance. Recent major advances have been made in unravelling the molecular basis of M. tuberculosis resistance to isoniazid, streptomycin, quinolones and rifampin. And rifampin resistance is the useful indicator for the occurance of the multi-drug resistance. Hence, the rapid detection of rifampin resistant strain of M. tuberculosis is the key to have successful anti-tuberculosis therapy. Here we present our experience using PCR and line probe assay (INNO-LiPA) for easy and rapid detection of rifampin resistance of M. tuberculosis. METHODS: Thirty rifampin resistant and twenty susceptible strains of M. tuberculosis were collected from the routine culture and analyzed with INNO-LiPA. And results were compared with conventional antibiotic susceptibility testing. After amplification of the region of the RNA polymerase(rpoB), the amplified product is hybridized with a set of 10 oligonucleotides immobilized onto a membrane strip. From the pattern obtained the presence or not of rifampin resistance M. tuberculosis can be assessed. RESULTS: Ninety three percent of patients who had rifampin resistant strain revealed the multidrug resistance while only two showed resistance to rifampin only. The INNO-LiPA test results were generally agreeable with that of the conventional susceptibility testing(90%). The mutations in codon 531 (absence of 55 probe) were most commonly observed. In 55.2% of the 31 rifampin resistance M. tuberculosis confirmed on mutation by R-probes on the INNO-LiPA strips. CONCLUSIONS: The line probe assay after polymerase chain reaction is a fast and convenient method to detect both presence of M. tuberculosis complex strains and its resistance to rifampin in clinical specimens. We have suggested that detection of rifampin resistance may play a key role in monitoring multi-drug resistance. Consequently, the INNO-LiPA test may constitute an important tool for the control of tuberculosis.
Codon ; Drug Resistance ; Drug Resistance, Multiple ; Humans ; Isoniazid ; Membranes ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis* ; Mycobacterium* ; Oligonucleotides ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Quinolones ; Rifampin* ; RNA ; Streptomycin ; Tuberculosis

No abstract available.
Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation*

No abstract available.
Sarcoma, Endometrial Stromal*

In systemic hypertension, capillary resistance is highly elevated and' contractility of vascular smooth muscle is elevated. This is due to increased calcium uptake into the sarcoplasmic reticulum of the vascular smooth muscle. Recently, nifedipine, an antihypertensive medication which inhibits calcium uptake into the vascular smooth muscle is commonly used. It decreases the contractility of the vascular smooth muscle and causes the vessels to relax, which in turn lowers the blood pressure. In 1987, according to Rodriguez-Sargent et al. the increased incidence of cataract in Dahl-salt sensitive rats(DSR) was due to increasd water and sodium contents and decreased potassium content. In this investigative study on hypertension, the water, Sodium and potassium contents in Spontaneous Hypertensive Rats(SHR) were measured. After treatment with nifedipine in SHR, we observed decreased blood pressure along with the changes in water, sodium and potassium contents of the lenses. The following results were obtained from our experiments. 1. In normal SDR, The blood pressure did not decrease with nifedipine injection. 2. After 3-7 days of nifedipine injection bidaily, the blood pressure of SHR did not decrease. 3. After 2 weeks of nifedipine injection bidaily, the blood pressure of the SHR decreased slightly and after 4 weeks of nifedipine injection bidaily, the blood pressure of SHR decreased significantly. 4. Water and sodium contents of SHR were higher than that of SDR and the potassium content was similar to that of SDR. 5. The elevated water and sodium contents of SHR decreased along with decrease of blood pressure, and after 2 weeks of nifedipine injection, showed similar level as the contents of SDR lenses. 6. Potassium contents of SHR lenses showed no change were similar to SDR lines except the 4 weeks nifedipine injection group which showed higher potasslum contents.
Animals ; Blood Pressure* ; Calcium ; Capillary Resistance ; Cataract ; Hypertension ; Incidence ; Muscle, Smooth, Vascular ; Nifedipine* ; Potassium ; Rats* ; Sarcoplasmic Reticulum ; Sodium ; Water*

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to develop nursing practice guidelines and algorithms for the pre- and postoperative care of gastric cancer patients. METHODS: The guidelines and algorithms were developed based on a literature review and subject-matter experts' knowledge. The usefulness and applicability of the developed guidelines and algorithms were evaluated by the expert group. RESULTS: The guidelines comprised 64 recommendations and algorithms for admission care, preoperative care on the day before the operation, preoperative care on the operation day, immediate postoperative assessment, postoperative care, and discharge care of gastric cancer patients. After appropriate evaluation, the experts declared the guidelines to be both useful and applicable. CONCLUSIONS: The guidelines developed in this study can be used for patient care and for training nursing students and novice nurses. In addition, these guidelines can be integrated into the electronic nursing record system for clinical decision support in the future. This will improve the quality of clinical nursing and the expertise of nurses.
Electronics ; Electrons ; Humans ; Nursing Records ; Patient Care ; Postoperative Care ; Preoperative Care ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Students, Nursing