The study conducted from May to September in 1994 to investigate applicability of the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly-Screening version(HHIE-S) in parallel with the puretone audiometer to the initial screening test of noise-induced hearing loss(NIHL) in some noise-exposed workers. Subjects were selected by systemic sampling that took every fifth person from 6,700 workers taking the annual occupational health examination by the department of Health Maintenance of Dongsan Hospital Keimyung University in Taegu. The authors administered the pure-tone audiometric test and self-reported questionnaire of HHIE-S including items of sociodemographic and job-related variables concurrently. The final subjects analysed were 1,019(488 males and 531 females) excluding fourteen persons who had many missing values in their questionnaires. The reliability coefficients of HHIE-S scale by Cronbach's alpha were 0.84. In the univariate analysis of hearing handicap measured by the HHIE-S, work duration, military service and the hearing threshold loss at 1kHz and 4kHz was the only selected variable explaining the hearing handicap in males and hearing threshold loss at 1kHz and 4kHz, age, and work duration were selected in females. In ROC curves for HHIE-S scores against NIHL as gold standard which was defined by the follow-up audiogram as more than 30dB of the average of 0.5/1/2kHz and 50dB at 4kHz, the optimal cutoff for the parallel HHIE-S appeared to be 8. The results suggest that HHIE-S appeared to have some reliability and validity in this data and might be used in screening NIHL in parallel with pure-tone audiometer in noise-exposed workers.
Daegu ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hearing ; Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced* ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening* ; Military Personnel ; Occupational Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results ; ROC Curve

The purpose of this study was to find educational needs of toddler's mother in child-caring experience. The subject of the study was toddler's mother who visited one health care center in J city for immunization and had a child or children between twelve and thirty six months old. The subjects were 37 mothers. The instrument used for this study was a semi-structured questionnaire developed by researcher and based on Objective Content Test of Garretson(1967). The Collected data were analized by two researchers using the method of content Analysis. The results of this study are summarized as follows ; 1) Of the large categories, the need of the highest frequency was 'prevention and management of disease and injury', that of the lowest 'growth and development'. 2) In 'physical care' category, 'care of sleeping' was the highest. In 'nutrition and eating-habitual management' category, 'weaning management' was the highest. In 'prevention and management of disease and injury' category, 'disease management' was the highest. In 'discipline and teaching' category, 'discipline' was the highest. 3) In comparison with preceding references, the educational needs of child-caring which had not been shown in preceding references but had been shown in this study were hair-caring, kind of weaning diet, method of cure and nursing, management of deformity, and so on. In conclusion, educational needs of toddler's mother in child-caring experience were matter-of-fact and inclusive. Needs in management of special situation such as disease were higher than usual parenting procedure or method. In addition, there were higher needs in questions happened through child-caring experience or confirmation of procedures practicing now. Then, it is suggested that parent education program should be developed on the basis of educational needs found in this study to be more effective in preparing mothers's child-caring.
Child ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diet ; Education ; Humans ; Immunization ; Mothers* ; Nursing ; Parenting ; Parents ; Weaning ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

We investigated the occurrence of color vision loss in 70 organic solvent mixtures exposed workers and in 47 controls. Color Vision was assessed with a color arrangement test designed to identify the defective color sense, the Han Double 15-Hue Test. The results of the test were no significant difference between exposed workers and controls in the proportion of subjects who committed one or two errors. Quantitative analysis, using color confusion index(CCI), showed no signifiant difference between exposed workers and controls. A significant linear correlation was present between age and CCI in both exposed workers(CCi=0.0056age + 0.94; r=0.23; p<0.05) and controls(CCI=0.0066age + 0.86; r=0.33; p<0.05). Qualitative analysis of the patterns on the hue circle showed that the prevalence of acquired dyschromatopsia was 21% in both and no significant difference. Multiple regression analyses showed that age was significantly related to color vision loss. These results did not provide evidence of a relationship between organic solvents exposure and incidence of color vision loss. In field studies for monitor the people at risk of the acquired color vision loss involving low-dose organic solvents exposed workers, both quantitative and qualitative information should be considered.
Color Vision ; Incidence ; Prevalence ; Solvents

We present a case of mucous gland adenoma arising from the main bronchus of the lower lobe of the left lung in terms of clinicopathologic, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural aspects as well as review of related literatures. The patient, a 31-year-old female, was admitted to Catholic University Medical College Hospital with complaints of coughing and purulent sputum for about seven years. The chest CT showed a severely calcified tumor in the left lower lobe of the lung. Grossly, the calcified tumor arising from the main bronchus protruded into the lumen and showed bronchiectasis of the lower lobe and atelectasis of the upper lobe of the lung. The tumor was pale brown-gray and sharply circumscribed and showed some small cystic spaces filled with mucoid material. Microscopically, most of the tumor showed dystrophic calcification. The growth pattern of the tumor is composed of cysts, tubules, and glands lined by cytologically bland columnar, cuboidal, or flattened mucus secreting cells. Electron micrograph of tumor cells showed some round or oval mucous granules measuring 0.5-1.8 micrometer.
Adenoma* ; Adult ; Bronchi* ; Bronchiectasis ; Cough ; Female ; Humans ; Lung ; Mucus ; Pulmonary Atelectasis ; Sputum ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

OBJECTIVES: In order to evaluate the relationship between daily mortality and air pollution in Deagu for the period by the data from January 1993 to December 1997. METHODS: Deaths from accident(International Classification of Disease, Revision 9; 800-999 and Revision 10; V01- Y89) were excluded, Daily counts of deaths were analysed by general additive poisson model on the current day to 5 days before death, with controlling for effects of year, season, weather, weekday and holiday. The air pollutants examined included total suspended particulate (TSP), sulfur dioxide (SO,), nitrogen dioxide (NO,), carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (03). RESULTS: Mortality was associated with NO, SO and CO in the air. Total mortality was estimated to increase by 1. 6 % (95 % CI 0. 3-3 %) with each 10 ppb rise in NOy on the current day and the preceding 1 day, 9. 4 % (95 % CI 7 13 %) with each 100 ppb rise in SOy and 2. 7 % (95 % CI 0. 1 5 %) with each 1 ppm rise in CO on the current day. The NO was more evident for the elderly who were 65 years and more. Cardiovascular-specific mortality was associated with the levels of CO on the current day. Respiratory-specific mortality was associated with the levels of TSP and NO 5 days before death. Excess mortality risk is clearly evident in the upper range of NO levels and increased monotonically with NO. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that the air pollution status below the current Korean ambient air quality standard might have an adverse effect on daily mortality. Then, it is impertive that the strategy for control of the air pollution-related daily mortality should be developed.
Aged ; Air Pollutants ; Air Pollution* ; Carbon Monoxide ; Classification ; Daegu* ; Holidays ; Humans ; Mortality* ; Nitrogen Dioxide ; Ozone ; Seasons ; Sulfur Dioxide ; Weather

To elucidate the role of p53 and nm23 in the development, progression, and metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer, we studied 91 paraffin sections of the primary non-small-cell lung cancers and the 34 paraffin sections of their metastatic lymph nodes using the immunohistochemical method. The results are as follows: 1) The incidence of p53 protein expression was positively correlated with the staging of lung cancers (p<0.025). 2) The incidence of p53 protein expression was higher in the lung cancers with lymph node metastasis than in those without lymph node metastasis (p=0.009). 3) The incidence of nm23 protein expression was lower in the adenocacinomas than in the squamous cell carcinomas (p=0.032). 4) The incidence of nm23 protein expression was lower in the lung cancers with lymph node metastasis than in those without lymph node metastasis (p=0.026). The expression of nm23 protein between the primary lung cancers and corresponding metastatic lymph nodes showed positive correlation (Kendall's Tau-b correlation coefficient=0.47140, p=0.0068). 5) The expression of p53 was not correlated with the expression of nm23 protein (Kendall's Tau-b correlation coefficient=0.11387, p=0.2800). The above results suggest that an overexpression of p53 protein and a downregulation of nm23 protein are associated with tumor progression and metastasis in non-small-cell lung cancer.
Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Down-Regulation ; Incidence ; Lung Neoplasms ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paraffin

Sarcomatoid carcinomas are malignant epithelial neoplasms in which the tumor cells assume a partial or complete spindle cell pattern of growth, leading to the erroneous classification of some true carcinomas as sarcomas. These spindle cells are malignant and manifest various amount of both vimentin and cytokeratin. Positive reaction of some of the spindle cells for cytokeratin antibodies is confirmatory. Clinical features do not differ significantly from those of patients with high-grade transitional cell carcinoma. So far, 13 cases of sarcomatoid transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis have been reported in English and Korean literature. In this report, we describe clinicopathologic features of recently observed two cases of sarcomatoid transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis and summarize the pathologic findings of previously reported cases with review of the literature.
Antibodies ; Carcinoma ; Carcinoma, Transitional Cell* ; Carcinosarcoma ; Classification ; Humans ; Keratins ; Kidney Pelvis* ; Sarcoma ; Vimentin

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the changes in heart rate variability (HRV) in elderly patients with or without hypertension before and after combined spinal-epidural anesthesia (CSE). METHODS: Elderly hypertensive (group H, n = 28) and non-hypertensive patients (group C, n = 32) were recruited. We analyzed the spectral components of HRV, total power (< or = 0.4 Hz), low and high frequency power expressed as natural logarithm (LnTP, LnLF, and LnHF), normalized HF (HFnorm), normalized LF (LFnorm), and LF/HF ratio, from 5-minute electrocardiography recordings. We also measured blood pressures (systolic; SBP, diastolic; DBP, mean; MAP), heart rate (HR) and analgesia level before and after CSE. Each group was divided into two subgroups (< or = T7 [L] or > or = T6 [H]) according to fixed analgesia level. RESULTS: Before CSE, group H showed significantly lower LnLF than that of group C (P < 0.05). Fifteen and 10 min after CSE, decrease of SBP and increase of HR in group HH were significantly greater compared with group CL and lesser with group CH, respectively. LnTP, LnLF and LnHF in both control groups (CL and CH) were significantly decreased 15-20 min after CSE compared with pre-CSE values. LnLF and LnHF in group HH were significantly lower than those in group HL 10-15 min after CSE. But there were no significant changes of LFnorm, HFnorm and LF/HF in all four groups. CONCLUSIONS: The group H showed significantly lower LnLF than that of group C before CSE. In group HH, LnLF and LnHF were significantly lower than those in group HL 10-15 min after CSE, but the balance of the autonomic nervous system was not changed significantly.
Aged* ; Analgesia ; Anesthesia* ; Autonomic Nervous System ; Electrocardiography ; Heart Rate* ; Heart* ; Humans ; Hypertension

Tamoxifen and radiotherapy are used in breast cancer treatment worldwide. Radiation recall dermatitis (RRD), induced by tamoxifen, has been rarely reported. Herein, we report a RRD case induced by tamoxifen. A 47-year-old woman had a right quadrantectomy and an axillary lymph node dissection due to breast cancer. The tumor was staged pT2N0; it was hormone receptor positive, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative. The patient received adjuvant chemotherapy followed by tamoxifen and radiotherapy. After 22 months of tamoxifen, the patient developed a localized heating sensation, tenderness, edema, and redness at the irradiated area of the right breast. The symptoms improved within 1 week without treatment. Three weeks later, however, the patient developed similar symptoms in the same area of the breast. She continued tamoxifen before and during dermatitis, and symptoms resolved within 1 week.
Breast ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Dermatitis ; Edema ; Female ; Heating ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Lymph Node Excision ; Middle Aged ; Radiodermatitis* ; Radiotherapy ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor ; Sensation ; Tamoxifen*

The authors conducted a cross-sectional study to evaluate the differences of screening test results between clerks and laborers in an occupational health center in Taegu, 1992. A total of 10,207 workers was included in the study of these, male were 5,597 and female 3,610. Constitutional variables included were items of health examination and some confounding variables(sex, age, body weight and work duration). All analyses were conducted separately for each sex through the use of multiple logistic regression analysis on occupation, controlling for age, work duration, and body weight. laborers showed abnormal hearing test more often than clerks in both sexes. The blood pressure that showed statistical significance in univariate analysis in both sexes lost its significance after controlling covariates. Liver function and urine protein had statistically significant differences between two occupational groups in males and visual correction did in females. The results suggest that there are differences clerks and laborers in some of screening tests and analytic studies are needed to identify the causes of the differences.
Blood Pressure ; Body Weight ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Daegu ; Female ; Hearing Tests ; Humans ; Liver ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Mass Screening* ; Occupational Groups ; Occupational Health ; Occupations