BACKGROUND: Smoking increases the risk of respiratory, cardiac diseases and cancer. This study is to ascertain the relationship between passive smoking, the modes of residence, its location and the immunoglobulin values as well as the eosinophil counts in relation to child patients suffering from bronchial or cardiac asthma. METHODS: The research was conducted at a general hospital with cooperation of 242 patients who had been hospitalized 1991 through 1995. We compared the average values of immunoglobulin between the groups of exposed and non-exposed to smoking by T-test. A same work for residential modes was done by T-tests, while the data regarding the residing locality were processed by ANOVA. RESULTS: Each values of TEC, IgE, IgA, and IgM in both groups has been analysed but spelling no significant differences. The group residing in apartments showed lower value of IgM than those of flats. CONCLUSIONS: The reason the IgM value of apartments is lower than that of flats is due to the difference of living quarters. This signifies the modes of residence may as well affect the IgE value.
Asthma ; Child* ; Eosinophils ; Heart Diseases ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin A ; Immunoglobulin E ; Immunoglobulin M ; Immunoglobulins* ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Tobacco Smoke Pollution*

Rehabilitation of young children with hearing impairment can be defined as a teaching/learning process where the role of the clinician is to facilitate the acquisition of listening, speech and language in a normal developmental order. The young children with hearing impairment are helped by hearing aids and cochlear implants to learn language. Auditory (re)habilitation in young children with hearing impairment is to acquire auditory skills at four stages : sound detection, sound identification through imitation, sound discrimination, and comprehension. Without appropriate auditory training and early intervention, children with hearing impairment cannot develop spoken language. Speech acquisition is a perceptual as well as an oral process. To maximize the speech acquisition in children with hearing impairment, indepth understanding of the characteristics of the children, the parents' motivation and cooperation, a well-designed educational program, and the high competence of the health care professionals are important. Therefore, listening is not an isolated skill, and the auditory development in children with hearing impairment should be achieved in a comprehensive approach. Young children with hearing impairment need supports and guidance from health care professionals whose holistic approach balances auditory learning with the parallel development of the children's other learning processes.
Child* ; Cochlear Implants ; Comprehension ; Correction of Hearing Impairment* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Early Intervention (Education) ; Hearing Aids ; Hearing Loss* ; Humans ; Learning ; Mental Competency ; Motivation ; Rehabilitation ; Speech Perception*

The Postpoliomyelitis syndrome (PPS) is characterized by new neuromuscular symptoms such as muscle weakness, joint pain, fatigue, and occasional new neuromuscular impairments. Although the development of PPS shows individual differences, it usually occurs many years after the recovery from an acute paralytic poliomyelitis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence and the clinical features of PPS. The subjects were 33 patients(26 males and 7 females) who had partial recoveries of motor function, ten or more years of functional stabilities, and residual muscle atrophies. The mean age was 36.8?7.7 years with the range of 23 - 59 years. The average onset age of acute poliomyelitis was 2.3 - 1.5 years. The questionnaires asking their current physical conditions and three major categories of PPS symptoms, weakness, fatigue, and pain were used. As the sequelae of poliomyelitis, 66.7% of the subjects showed scoliosis and 39.4% had claw toes. Thirty six percents of the subjects were using orthoses including wheelchair, KAFO, and crutches. According to the questionnaire study, 72.5% of subjects had at least one of the three major symptoms. And 36.4% of them reported all of three categories of PPS symptoms. The onset age of the new neuromuscular symptoms was 34.2?8.3 years which was about 32 years after the original acute poliomyelitis. Further researches to investigate the importance and the impacts of proper managements and to develop educational plans for the PPS including exercise programs, cardiopulmonary and energy-conservation trainings are recommended.
Age of Onset ; Arthralgia ; Crutches ; Fatigue ; Hammer Toe Syndrome ; Humans ; Incidence ; Individuality ; Male ; Muscle Weakness ; Muscular Atrophy ; Orthotic Devices ; Poliomyelitis* ; Postpoliomyelitis Syndrome ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Scoliosis ; Wheelchairs

To create an experimental glaucoma model in rabbit and to study the effect of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) on rabbits ocular tissues, we treated trabecular meshwork of 7 adult pigmented rabbits with Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. And then we studied the IOP lowering effect of topical verapamil in experimental glaucoma model. The IOP and outflow facility were measured with an applanation pneumotonograph (Alcon, Texas). During sustained rap elevation, 50ul of 0.25% verapamil was instilled in one eye and normal saline in the fellow eye. The IOP was measured 1, 2, 4, 8 hours after instillation. The measurement was repeated twice at 2 weeks interval. After 5 weeks, the IOP increased from an average baseline IOP of 16.6mmHg to 25.51mmHg, an increase of 55.6%. The outflow facility was decreased from 0.21 microliter/min/mmHg to 0.09 microliter/min/mmHg. There were statistically significant reductions in IOP in both verapamil and placebo-treated eyes(p<0.05). The reduction was greater in verapamil-treated eyes than in placebo-treated eyes(p<0.05). Maximal reduction of IOP was observed 2 hours after single-drop of verapamil, with significant reduction of IOP up to 4 hours duration(p<0.05). During the observation period of this study, cupping of the optic nerve head developed. Histopathologic examination revealed extensive scarring of the anterior chamber angle structure. There are marked hyaline degeneration of retinal ganglion cells in temporal retina.
Adult ; Anterior Chamber ; Cicatrix ; Glaucoma* ; Humans ; Hyalin ; Intraocular Pressure ; Optic Disk ; Rabbits* ; Retinal Ganglion Cells ; Trabecular Meshwork ; Verapamil*

The Scheimpflug photography was used to evauate objectively changes in lens opacity at a month interval in 143 eyes of 78 patients affected by early cataract. from Dec. 1993 to Dec. 1994. A total of 48 patients were treated daily with 1.5g bendazac-lysine, and 30 patients constituted the control group. We checked visual acuity and analyzed change of lens opacity by using axial densitometry and retroillumination of Scheimpflug photography after Bendaline(R) medication up to 9 months After treatment, improvement or no change of subjective visual acuity was observed in 65 eyes(78.3%) of treated group, whereas decrement in 35 eyes (58.3%) of control group. In the axial densitometry, the nuclear opacity began to improve after 3 months of medication and opacities of lens between anterior supranucleus and posterior capsule were statistically significant improved after 5 months of medication (p<0.05). There's no correlation in the change of opacity area under retroillumination (p>0.05). The result show that bendazac lysine may be effective in improvement of visual acuity and delay the formation of lens opacity in early cataract.
Cataract* ; Densitometry ; Humans ; Lysine ; Photography ; Visual Acuity

Nerve fiber bundle index(NFBI) is a new index which detects visual field depression in 21 nerve fiber bundle zones, reflecting the topographical arrangement of visual field defects. We applied this index to 39 eyes with normal visual field and 131 eyes with early glau-comatous field defect(mean defect Area Under Curve ; Depression ; Glaucoma* ; Nerve Fibers* ; ROC Curve ; Visual Fields

OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to investigate the prognostic value of multi-sensory evoked potentials (MSEPs) in neonatal period for the early diagnosis of delayed motor development, especially cerebral palsy. METHOD: The MSEPs studies composed of auditory brainstem evoked potentials (AEPs), visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and somatosensory evoked potentials were taken on 237 neonates, 136 boys and 101 girls, using Viking IV machine. Follow up MSEPs were repeated in every 4 or more weeks for those who showed abnormal responses in any of the MSEPs. Each neonate was also evaluated for motor development as an outpatient or by telephone interview. RESULTS: Among 237 neonates, 6.4% showed delayed development, and 4.6% were cerebral palsy: 3.8%, spastic type; 0.8%, athetoid type, and the others revealed normal motor development. AEP was useful method to predict motor development when this was done at 39.7 0.4 weeks of postmenstrual age (PMA). VEPs failed to show the validity, but there was the typical waveform change in accordance with increase of the postmenstrual age. Median nerve SEPs were valuable for prediction of motor development which were taken at PMA 40.7 0.6 weeks. After 45.3 1.5 weeks of PMA, median nerve SEPs did not reflect motor development outcome significantly. However, posterior tibial SEPs significantly reflect motor outcome regardless of the time of examination. CONCLUSION: Median and posterior tibial SEPs done before 40weeks of PMA are useful tool to predict motor development outcome. When any of these tests showed abnormal findings, follow up study is recommended and posterior tibial SEP study is thought to be the most useful for its predictability. It is necessary to correlate the AEPs and VEPs with hearing and vision whenever abnormal findings are found.
Brain Stem ; Cerebral Palsy ; Early Diagnosis ; Evoked Potentials* ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory ; Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory ; Evoked Potentials, Visual ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hearing ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Interviews as Topic ; Median Nerve ; Muscle Spasticity ; Outpatients

PURPOSE: To assess the efficiency of a fluoroscopy-guided double balloon technique in removal of esophageal foreign bodies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seven patients with esophageal foreign bodies were treated by fluoroscopy-guided double balloon technique. They suffered from dysphagia. Foreign bodies were meats(n=3), a pig bone, a beef bone, a tablet, and a chinese cabbage leaf. Three patients had underlying diseases:corrosive stricture (n=2) and postoperative stricture(n=1). Double balloon technique for removal of the foreign bodies was performed by trapping a foreign body with two valvuloplasty balloons under fluoroscopic guidance. After removal of a foreign body, stricture sites in three patients were dilated by single balloon. RESULTS: Foreign bodies were removed successfully in all patients with improvement of symptoms. Three patients with stricture were successfully treated by single balloon dilatation. There was no complication with the procedure. CONCLUSIONS: Removal of esophageal foreign bodies with fluoroscopically guided double balloon technique is effective and promising alternative to esophagoscopic removal. In addition, balloon technique is effective in the treatment of underlying esophageal stricture.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Brassica ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Deglutition Disorders ; Dilatation ; Esophageal Stenosis ; Foreign Bodies* ; Humans

Nasal step index(NSI) is an index of light sensitivity of the nasal step area, the early sign of visual field defects in glaucoma. It represents the asymmetry between the upper-nasal and lower-nasal quadrant within 30 degree field. We applied this index to 66 eyes with normal visual field and 204 eyes with mild-to-moderate glaucomatous visual field defect (mean defect(MD)or=1.04), respectively. AUC values related to the validity of this study were NSI-1:0.38, NSI-2;0.44 and MD;0.83 in early glaucoma patients. But AUC values in high NFBI patients were NSI -1;0.50, NSI -2;0.50, MD;0.82. Therefore, NSI is shown to have lesser diagnostic value than MD in detection of early glaucoma in this study.
Area Under Curve ; Glaucoma* ; Humans ; Nerve Fibers ; Photophobia ; Visual Fields

Myasthenia gravis is a chronic neuromuscular disease with the chief complaints of muscle weakness and generalized fatigue. Many difficult problems may be encountered in the anesthetic management and the postoperative respiratory management. The authors anesthetized 2 cases of myasthenia gravis for thymectomy with success and these experiences are presented in this report with a brief review of the literature relevant to anesthetic management in patients with myasthenia gravis.
Fatigue ; Humans ; Muscle Weakness ; Myasthenia Gravis* ; Neuromuscular Diseases ; Thymectomy*