PURPOSE: To investigate audiometery and characteristics related to tinnitus in tinnitus patients. and to understand the relationship between the discomfort of tinnitus and the quality of life. Methods: The subjects were 110 patients with tinnitus. The data were collected using tinnitus handicap questionnaire. quality of life, and pure tone audiometry, which measured hearing level in dB and frequency in Hz matching of tinnitus. RESULTS: Majority of tinnitus patients (75.5%~81.8%) had normal auditory sensation. but 82.7% of patients indicated that they have heard tinnitus frequently. or always, and the major sounds of tinnitus were wing, wung, wang, The matching sounds of tinnitus had various range in hearing level(dB) and frequency(Hz). Tinnitus patients reported moderate levels of the discomfort of tinnitus and the quality of life, and there were negative correlation between the discomfort of tinnitus and the quality of life(r=-.314, p .00l). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that special attention is needed for tinnitus patients because the physical. psychological. and social impacts of tinnitus could be decrease their quality of life, Specialized nursing intervention considering specific conditions related to tinnitus is required to solve various health problems of tinnitus patients.
Audiometry ; Hearing ; Humans ; Nursing ; Quality of Life* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Sensation ; Social Change ; Tinnitus*

Grape is one of the most popular and widely cultivated fruits in the world. Although grape skin and seeds are waste product of the winery and grape juice industry, these wastes contain large amounts of phytochemicals such as flavonoids, phenolic acids, and anthocyanidins, which play an important role as chemopreventive and anticancer agents. We evaluated efficacies of grape skin and seeds on hepatic injury induced by dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) in rats. Treatment with DMN significantly increased levels of serum alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, and bilirubin. Diet supplementation with grape skin or seeds (10% daily for 4 weeks) prevented these elevations. The grape skin and seeds also restored serum albumin and total protein levels, and reduced the hepatic level of hydroxyproline and malondialdehyde. Furthermore, grape skin and seeds reduced DMN-induced collagen accumulation, as estimated by histological analysis of liver tissue stained with Sirius red. Grape skin and seeds also reduced hepatic stellate cell activation, as assessed by alpha-smooth muscle actin staining. In conclusion, grape skin and seeds exhibited in vivo hepatoprotective and antifibrogenic effects against DMN-induced liver injury, suggesting that grape skin and seeds may be useful in preventing the development of hepatic fibrosis.
Actins ; Alanine Transaminase ; Alkaline Phosphatase ; Animals ; Anthocyanins ; Antineoplastic Agents ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; Bilirubin ; Collagen ; Diet ; Dietary Supplements ; Dimethylnitrosamine ; Fibrosis ; Flavonoids ; Fruit ; Hepatic Stellate Cells ; Hydroxyproline ; Liver ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Malondialdehyde ; Muscles ; Phenol ; Rats ; Seeds ; Serum Albumin ; Skin ; Vitis ; Waste Products

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Female ; Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone* ; Humans ; Leiomyoma* ; Single Person*

OBJECTIVE: Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP), a novel hypothalamic neuropeptide, has been suggested to play a role in ovarian folliculogenesis. The present study evaluated the effect of PACAP on the growth of preantral follicles. METHODS: Preantral follicles were mechanically isolated from ovaries of 21-day-old rats and cultured in groups for 3 days in serum-free medium in the absence or presence of PACAP-38 (10-6 M). RESULTS: Treatment with PACAP-38 resulted in an increase in follicle diameter by 75% whereas treatment with follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) increased follicle diameter by 65%. PACAP-38 treatment enhanced the granulosa cell proliferation as measured by thymidine incorporation analysis. Furthermore, the production of progesterone by cultured granulosa cells and GFSHR-17 cell line was stimulated by PACAP-38. Interestingly, PACAP enhanced FSH action on stimulation of SF-1 and aromatase gene expression. CONCLUSION: The present results demonstrate that PACAP stimulated preantral follicle growth by potentiating proliferation and by stimulating steroidogenesis.
Animals ; Aromatase ; Cell Line ; Female ; Follicle Stimulating Hormone* ; Gene Expression ; Granulosa Cells ; Neuropeptides ; Ovarian Follicle* ; Ovary ; Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide* ; Progesterone ; Rats ; Thymidine

No abstract available.
Hysterectomy*

Celastrus orbiculatus (CO) has been used as a traditional herb medicine to treat fever, chill, joint pain, edema, rheumatoid arthritis and bacterial infection in China and Korea. In this study, we investigated anticarcinogenic effects of Celastrus orbiculatus (CO). CO was extracted with methanol (COM), and then further fractionated into four different types: methanol (COMM), hexane (COMH), butanol (COMB) and aqueous (COMA) partition layers. We determined the cytotoxicity of these four partitions in four kind of cancer cell lines, such as HepG2, MCF-7, HT29 and B16F10 Cells by MTT assay. Among various partition layers of CO, the COMM showed the strongest cytotoxic effects on cancer cell lines we used. We also observed quinone reductase (QR) induced effects in all partition layers of CO on HepG2 cells. The QR induced effects of COMM on HepG2 cells at 80 microgram/mL concentration indicated 3.28 to a control value of 1.0. The COMM showed the highest induction activity of quinone reductase on HepG2 cells among the other partition layers. Although further studies are needed, the present work suggests that CO may be a chemopreventive agent for the treatment of human cells.
Anticarcinogenic Agents ; Arthralgia ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Bacterial Infections ; Celastrus* ; Cell Line ; China ; Edema ; Fever ; Hep G2 Cells ; Humans ; Korea ; Methanol ; NAD(P)H Dehydrogenase (Quinone)*

In this study, we investigated the anticancer activity of the fin of Thunnus Thynnus (TT ). TT was extracted with methanol (TTM ), and then further fractionated into four subfractions by using solvent partition method, affording hexane (TTMH ), methanol (TTMM ), butanol (TTMB )and aquous (TTMA )soluble fractions. We determined the cyto-toxicity of these four fractions in four kind of cancer cell lines, such as HepG2, MCF-7, B16-F10 and HT29 by MTT assay. The TTMM showed the strongest cytotoxic effect at the concentration of 150 microgram/mL, displaying 95% on the HepG2 cell lines and 82% on MCF-7 cell line. The morphological changes such as membrane shirinking and blebbing of cells were also observed by TTMM treatment in HT29 cell. In addition, we observed that quinone reductase (QR ) activity was elevated by only TTMM and TTMH treatments in HepG2 cell. QR activity was increased to around 2.0 and 1.8 times in TTMM and TTMH treated HepG2 cell at 100 microgram/mL, respectively, compared to that in control. Although further studies are needed, the present work could suggest that the fin of TT has a potential to be usable as a chemo-preventive agent against cancer.
Blister ; Cell Line ; Hep G2 Cells ; HT29 Cells ; Humans ; MCF-7 Cells ; Membranes ; Methanol ; NAD(P)H Dehydrogenase (Quinone)*

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to suggest direction and strategy of safety education proper to elementary school children. METHOD: The subject of this survey consisted of 313 3rd-5th grade from 4 elementary schools in Kyungi-Do and Kwangwon-Do. Data were collected from March to May, 2002 using a questionnaire about "safety education needs", "knowledge about injury prevention", "attitude about injury prevention. RESULT: 1. The degree of safety education needs showed averaged 77.50 on the basis of 100 points. 2. The degree of knowledge and attitude about injury prevention showed averaged 72.81 and 81.74 seperately on the basis of 100 points. 3. With the respect to the demographic characteristics, there were stastically significant differences in safety education need according to children's grade(F=8.692, p=.003), sex(t=-2.059, p=.040), family type(t=-2.229, p=.027) and in knowledge & attitude about injury prevention, there statiscally significant difference according to experience of injury prevention education(t=3.058, p=.003; t=5.308, p=.000) each. 4. The level of safety education needs is correlated at signficant level with knowledge and attitude about injury prevention of childrens(r=.166, p=.048; r=.265, p=.001) and between knowledge and attitude about injury prevention, there was significant correlation (r=.427, p=.000). CONCLUSION: From this results, nurses can plan safety education program appropriate to children's needs, level of knowledge and attitude about injury prevention.
Child* ; Education* ; Gangwon-do ; Humans ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cardiac troponin T (cTnT) has been used as a very sensitive marker of cardiac injury caused by ischaemia, myocarditis, and cardiomyopathy. After cardiac injury, the fetal cTnT isoform expression in the heart and serum cTnT increases. To investigate the increased levels of serum cTnT, and the expression of fetal cTnT isoform in the heart, that can predict myocardial injury, we measured serum cTnT levels and the fetal cTnT isoform expression at various time points during the early phase of myocardial toxicity induced by adriamycin (ADR) in rat. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected, intraperitoneally, with ADR (5 mg/kg) twice a week for 2 weeks. Control rats were injected with saline. Serum cTnT levels were measured by ELISA. The ratio of fetal/adult (F/A) cTnT isoform expression (%) was semi-quantified by RT-PCR using total RNA from frozen hearts. RESULTS: Serum cTnT levels did not increase by 1 week after ADR injection, but increased significantly after 2 weeks. The ratio of F/A cTnT in the heart significantly increased from day 1, peaked at 1 week and persisted until the end of 2 week. CONCLUSION: The expression of the fetal cTnT isoform occurred from 1 day after ADR injection when the serum cTnT levels were still normal. Although the serum cTnT level is a very sensitive, and an early marker, of cardiac damages, the fetal cTnT isoform expression in the endomyocardial biopsy specimen may be a more sensitive and an earlier marker in the ADR-induced myocardial damage.
Animals ; Biopsy ; Cardiomyopathies ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ; Doxorubicin ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Heart ; Humans ; Male ; Myocarditis ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; RNA ; Troponin T* ; Troponin*