No abstract available in English.
Amputation

The use of a pneumatic tourniquet is potentially associated with injury to underlying muscles, vessels, and nerves if excessive pressure occurs beneath the toumiquet. In order to minimize the risk of soft tissue injury, the lowest tourniquet pressure that maintains a bloodless operative field should be used. A clinical study was undertaken to evaluate the pneumatic tourniquet setting required for adequate hemostasis in upper extremity surgery. From March to September in 1984, the subcutaneous soft tissue pressure of the 20 upper extremities beneath a pneumatic toumiquet in the arm were measured directly and the following results were obtained. 1. The underlying subcutaneous soft tissue pressure was not affected by adult, age, arm circumference, and blood pressure of normal range. 2. The underlying subcutaneous soft tissue pressure showed direct correlation with the tourniquet pressure respectively. 3. A tourniquet preasure of more than 250 mmHg was not rarely required in a normotensive individual.
Adult ; Arm ; Blood Pressure ; Clinical Study ; Hemostasis ; Humans ; Muscles ; Reference Values ; Soft Tissue Injuries ; Tourniquets ; Upper Extremity

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the factor influencing the quality of life of married immigrant women in Korea. METHODS: The subjects included 169 married immigrant women from 3 cities. Data collection was conducted by using 33 questionnaires. The SPSS/WIN 18.0 program was also used. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis, stepwise multiple regression were all conducted. RESULTS: The results indicated that the general influencing factors related to the quality of life of married immigrant women are age, education career, nationality, family type, menopause, exercise, salt intake and social support. CONCLUSION: Based on the study results, nursing intervention and social - cultural, economical and social support network, including the consideration of a comprehensive approach, is needed in order to improved the quality of life.
Data Collection ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Ethnic Groups ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Menopause ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the effects of vasopressin and desmopressin on the contractile and relaxative responses of rabbit cavernosal smooth muscle. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Isometric tension studies were conducted to investigate the effects of vasopressin(10(-14)-10(-8)M) and desmopressin(10(-14)- 10(-8)M) on the contraction and relaxation responses of rabbits cavernous muscle strips in an organ bath. The effects of pretreatment with phenylephrine(10(-5)M), L-NAME(10(-5)M) and indomethacin(10(-5)M) on the contraction and relaxation responses of the vasopressin and desmopressin were also investigated. The statistics were analyzed by Student's t-test and ANOVA. RESULTS: Vasopressin contracted the strips in a dose-dependent manner, while desmopressin did not. The phenylephrine-induced contraction was dose-dependently increased by vasopressin, but it was dose-dependently relaxed by desmopressin. L-NAME pre-treatment did not block the relaxation response, but indomethacin pre-treatment did. Vasopressin- induced contraction occurred the via V(1) receptor, while desmopressin- induced relaxation occurred via the V(2) receptor. CONCLUSIONS: Vasopressin, in pathophysiological circumstances, would worsen erectile dysfunction. On the contrary, desmopressin, which may induce an endothelium-dependent relaxation of the cavernous smooth muscles, would be good for erectile function.
Baths ; Caves ; Contracts ; Deamino Arginine Vasopressin ; Erectile Dysfunction ; Indomethacin ; Male ; Muscle, Smooth ; Muscles ; NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester ; Rabbits ; Relaxation ; Vasopressins

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Treatment of chronic hepatitis B with interferon results in a sustained loss of hepatitis B virus DNA and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and remission of liver disease only in a proportion of cases. Recently, mutations of hepatitis B virus (HBV) core gene have been reported as being related to the failure of interferon treatment in chronic hepatitis B. This study investigated whether core gene mutations of HBV are related to non-response to interferon therapy and whether the recurrence of HBeAg and HBV DNA in initial responders to interferon therapy is associated with the emergence of HBV core gene mutants. METHODS: The precore/core gene sequence was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct sequencing of PCR product in serum samples obtained before interferon treatment from 10 responders and 10 non-responders to interferon therapy. In addition, precore/core gene sequence was determined in serum samples obtained before interferon treatment and after recurrence from 10 patients who showed recurrence of HBeAg and HBV DNA after initial response to interferon therapy. RESULTS: In samples from 10 responders, there were 7 missense mutations and 71 silent mutations. However, there were 43 missense mutations and 109 silent mutations in samples from 10 non-responders. In samples obtained before interferon treatment from the 10 patients who showed recurrence after initial response, 8 missense mutations and 74 silents mutations were found. The nucleotide sequences from the samples obtained after the recurrence showed 6 silent nucleotide substitutions compared with the sequences from the samples obtained before interferon treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Mutations in the core protein of HBV occur more frequently in non-responders than responders to interferon therapy of chronic hepatitis B and may be a factor responsible for the failure of interferon treatment. The recurrence of HBeAg and HBV-DNA in initial responders to interferon therapy is not associated with the emergence of the HBV core gene mutants.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Antiviral Agents/*therapeutic use ; DNA, Viral/genetics ; English Abstract ; Female ; Hepatitis B Virus/*genetics ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/*drug therapy/virology ; Human ; Interferon-alpha/*therapeutic use ; Male ; *Mutation ; Viral Core Proteins/*genetics

Recently the use of I-PSS (International prostate symptom score) is highly recommended for the evaluation of symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and many linguistic translations have been made. Regardless the validity and reliability of linguistic translation, there might be several social and cultural factors which affect to the symptom severity in BPH. We tried to show the prevalence of prostatism and the effect of social and cultural background which could affect to the results I-PSS questionnaire in Korea. A total of 841 men (40~79 years) who visited 4 health care center were included. Because of 107 men had medico-surgical history relating to voiding, final eligible subjects were 734. Total symptom scores increased by age decades (40~49, 50~59, 60~ 69, 70~79; median 7, 8, 11, 12 respectively). The rate of mild (0~7); moderate (8~19); and severe (20~35) symptom in 40th, 50th, 60th and 70th were 55.5%; 39.3%; 1.2%, 45.4%; 46.5%; 8.1%, 30.4%; 53.9%; 15.7% and 28.1%; 43.8%; 28.1% respectively. One cause of these high prevalence of prostatism in Korea is relatively very small proportion of readily treated BPH patients in general population (0.5%). Another factor of the high prevalence of prostatism is thought to be the different social and cultural concept to voiding status. These factors limit comparability of I-PSS questionnaire between different countries.
Delivery of Health Care ; Humans ; Korea* ; Linguistics ; Male ; Prevalence* ; Prostate ; Prostatic Hyperplasia ; Prostatism* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results ; Translations

No abstract available.
Humans ; Hypogonadism* ; Male*

Purpose: This multiinstitutional study was to investigate the accuracy of the Kattan nomograms for the prediction of recurrence after definitive surgery for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in Korean patients and develop a nomogram revised to complement the shortcomings. Materials and Methods: Clinical and pathological data of 1,866 patients with RCC who had been followed for at least 2 years after surgery in each participating institutes were reviewed as well as evidence of disease recurrence, defined to include local recurrence and distant metastasis. Accuracy of the Kattan nomograms' predictability in tumors 7cm or less was tested by calculating the area under the receiver-operating characteristics curve (AUC) and actuarial recurrence-free survival by Kaplan- Meier method. We used the Cox proportional hazard analysis to identify significant variables and develop prediction nomogram, and internally validated by bootstrapping method. Mean follow-up was 56.5 months (24-184). Results: Recurrence occurred in 12.5% of the patients and correlated with the pathological stage, with 4.3%, 7.9%, 15.0%, 22.6%, 38.4%, 58.3% for stages T1a, T1b, T2, T3a, T3b/c and T4, respectively (p<0.001). The AUC of the Kattan nomograms was 0.276. Factors significantly predictive of recurrence were T stage (p<0.0001), presentation (p=0.006), preoperative hemoglobin (p=0.023) and gender (p=0.032). Actuarial 60-month recurrence- free survival was 87.9% and using the prognostic factors, nomogram predicting 60-month recurrence-free survival was constructed. Conclusions: Korean nomogram complementing the preexisting nomograms for the prediction of recurrence-free survival after definitive surgery for RCC has been constructed, which may be useful in patient prognostication, counseling and follow-up planning.
Academies and Institutes ; Area Under Curve ; Carcinoma, Renal Cell* ; Complement System Proteins ; Counseling ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kidney Neoplasms ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Nomograms* ; Recurrence

Serous effusions have been most commonly associated with ascites, pericardial effusion, and heart failure. But, they have been considered to be an unusual form of complication in hypothyroidism and pleural effusion, which has been observed as an isolated finding in hypothyroidism is apparently rare and complete analysis of these types of hypothyroid-associated pleural effusions has yet not been described. We report a case of hypothyroidism associated with unilateral pleural effusion in a 77 year-old male patient who was improved through levothyroxine sodium with brief review of the literature.
Aged ; Ascites ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Hypothyroidism* ; Male ; Pericardial Effusion ; Pleural Effusion* ; Thyroxine

Xanthogranulomatous cystitis is a rare benign chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology. Herein, an extensive case presenting as a mass around the dome of bladder, with infiltration of perivesical fat and a part of omentum, is reported.
Cystitis* ; Omentum ; Urinary Bladder