No abstract available.
Female ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Ectopic*

No abstract available.
Female ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Ectopic*

This study investigated the epidemiology (prevalence, risk factors, and impact on quality of life) of knee pain and its severity in elderly Koreans. The subjects (n=3,054) were participants aged > or =50 yr from the fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted in 2010. Knee pain was defined as pain in the knee lasting > or =30 days during the most recent 3 months; severity was categorized as mild, moderate, or severe. EQ-5D was used to measure quality of life. The prevalence of knee pain was 23.1% (11.7% in men, 31.9% in women). The prevalences of mild, moderate, and severe knee pain were 4.3%, 9.1%, and 9.7%, respectively (2.8%, 5.4%, and 3.5% in men and 5.4%, 12.0%, and 14.4% in women). Old age, female gender, a low level of education, a manual occupation, obesity, and radiographic osteoarthritis were risk factors for knee pain, and were associated with increased severity of knee pain. Excluding men with mild knee pain, people with knee pain had significantly lower quality of life than those without knee pain. Early interventional approaches are needed to reduce the medical, social, and economic burden of knee pain in elderly Koreans.
Age Factors ; Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Female ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Obesity/complications ; Odds Ratio ; Osteoarthritis, Knee/complications/epidemiology/radiography ; Pain/*epidemiology/etiology ; Prevalence ; *Quality of Life ; Questionnaires ; Republic of Korea ; Risk Factors ; Severity of Illness Index ; Sex Factors

BACKGROUND: The analysis of the papers on the primary care quality assessment in Korea was performed to summarize existing papers, estimate the level of primary care quality, and suggest the directions and areas of the future research. METHODS: Primary care quality-related papers were selected via internet web search engines which were Korean Journal of Family Medicine homepage, KMbase, and KoreaMed. Further papers were added after consultation to primary care quality assessment specialists in Korea. RESULTS: The number of related papers was 29. Data collection was done mostly via mail or telephone questionnaire to suppliers, primary care physicians. Papers on resource capacity area were 11, on services delivery 4, on outcome by service 2, and on clinical performance 12. The total primary care score was low. The themes of clinical performance studies were common diseases in Korea. CONCLUSION: Research volume on primary care quality assessment was poor, especially on outcome area. Data collection methods and quality indicators are needed to diverse. Future researches using OECD health care quality indicators are needed to make international comparison possible, which finally contributes to primary care quality improvement in Korea.
Data Collection ; Humans ; Internet ; Korea ; Physicians, Primary Care ; Postal Service ; Primary Health Care ; Quality Improvement ; Quality Indicators, Health Care ; Quality of Health Care ; Republic of Korea ; Search Engine ; Specialization ; Telephone

Tracheal bronchus is an aberrant bronchus that arises most often from right tracheal wall above the carina. It is a rare congenital anomaly, which is usually asymptomatic but occasionally associated with recurrent pneumonia, chronic bronchitis and bronchiectasis. Anomalies found in association with tracheal bronchi include respiratory(tracheal hypoplasia, tracheal stenosis, cystic lung lesion), gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal systems. Tracheal bronchus has been diagnosed by conventional tomography, bronchography and bronchoscopy in the past. Technical advances have greatly enhanced the utility of this diagnostic modality. So chest CT, even three-dimensional reconstruction, is of particular importance in the evaluation of mediastinal, pleural and lung parenchymal lesions. We experienced a case of duodenal atresia and tracheal bronchus in 6-month-old child who suffered from recurrent pneumonia and dyspnea. So we report with a brief review and its related literatures.
Bronchi* ; Bronchiectasis ; Bronchitis, Chronic ; Bronchography ; Bronchoscopy ; Child ; Dyspnea ; Humans ; Infant ; Lung ; Musculoskeletal System ; Pneumonia ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Tracheal Stenosis

OBJECTIVES: Many studies have demonstrated that suicide is related to low serum cholesterol level, whereas conflicting results have also reported. The aims of the present study are to determine whether suicidal attempters have low lipid concentration and to identify the relationship between suicidal attempt severity and serum lipid levels. METHODS: Subjects were 50 suicidal attempters who visited the emergency room in Korea University Medical Center between July 1998 and June 1999. All subjects had been interviewed by psychiatrist and evaluated with Risk-rescue rating, HDRS and BPRS. They were diagnosed as major depressive disorder (n=29), personality disorder (n=19), and schizophrenia (n=2). Serum lipid levels in 50 suicidal attempters were compared with those in 50 nonsuicidal psychiatric inpatients corresponding to the age, sex and diagnosis of the suicidal attempters. We also examined the Spearman's rank correl-ations between the serum lipid levels and risk-rescue score. RESULTS: The serum total cholesterol level (t=-3.29, p=.001), total lipid level (t=-2.62, p=.01), and LDL level (t=-2.64, p=.011) in suicidal attempters were significantly lower compared with non-suicidal controls. In major depressive patients, total cholesterol level, total lipid level, and LDL level in suicidal attempters were significantly lower than those of nonsuicidal controls. In personality disorder patients, however, only serum total cholesterol level was significantly lower. Risk-rescue rating score was negatively correlated with serum total cholesterol level (t=.-293, p=.039), and positively corre-lated with BPRS (t=.544, p< 001), and HDRS (t=.488, p=.001). CONCLUSION: The lipid levels in suicidal attempter were significantly lower. Suicidal attempt severity was also significantly correlated with serum total cholesterol level. These findings suggest that low serum cholesterol should be related with severe violent suicidal attempt.
Academic Medical Centers ; Cholesterol ; Depressive Disorder, Major ; Diagnosis ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Korea ; Personality Disorders ; Psychiatry ; Schizophrenia ; Suicide

BACKGROUND: Sexual Problems of the elderly carry weight with the quality of life. Sexual desire and behavior among the aged in the community are well known, but not at nursing homes. METHODS: The study subjects were 131 residents at two nursing homes in Po-hang and Gyeong-ju city from May 1st 2007 to May 22nd 2007. We interviewed the residents using 10-items which were made by investigators. 31 subjects were excluded due to impossible interview. We analyzed 100 subjects. RESULTS: Subjects were 45% men and 55% women, aged 63 to 92 and the mean age was 77 years old. Men and Women felt sexual desires in 64.4% and 18.2%, performed sexual activity in 35.6% and 5.5%. Obscene jokes and patting were common among sexual behaviors. CONCLUSION: Men's sexual desire was much higher than women, but sexual behaviors were rare in all subjects except obscene jokes.
Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Nursing Homes ; Quality of Life ; Research Personnel ; Sexual Behavior

BACKGROUND: Current researeh indicates that making among young adults tends to persist into later life. Furthermare, numerous studies have proven the harmful effects of female stmoking on their offspring. These trends have produced a wide variety of(social, medical and economic) problems. This study is aimed at obtaining basic information to help prevent patential smokers from trying their first cigarette as well as to instruct to stop smoking. This study involves the following: a) investigating general factors affecting the smoking status of college students in addition to the deterents to smoking b) seeking to understand the familial influence on smoking status c) resesrching how smokers, ex-smokers and non-smakers perceive their familial influence on their smoking status. METHODS: In June 1998, a self-administered questiannaire was distributed to 800 students of two junior colleges by random sampling in Po'hang. 720 were returned and 642 displayed adequate respanses. The questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS and EXCEL software. RESULTS: Among the tatal of 642 subjects studied, 220 were males(34.3%) and 422 femaks(66.7%). Of the male subjets 149(67%) were smokers, 46(21% ) were ex-smokers and 25(11.3%) were non smokers. Of the female subjcts 22(5.2%) were smokers, 399(92.9%) were ex-smokers and 11(2.6%) were non smokers. The number of cigarettes smoked per day was as follows:79 subjects(46.2%) smoked 10-20 cigarettes, 55(33.2%) smoked less than 10 and 37(21.6%) smoked more than a pack of cigarette. When considering the related factors which affect student smoking it is evident that there is a growing tendency toward smoking among male students when they have dose friends who are smokers and who cansume alcohol on a weekly basis. About the motives of smoking, there was a significant difference between the following two cases. Those(36.2%) who successfully quit smoking had started to smoke through solicitation by friends, but only 2.7% were successful if they had started to smoke to relieve stress When it comes to the influence of familial factors on successful versus unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking, the status of family smokers, whether or not smokers made their habit obvious to family members and whether or not the family allowed smoking did nat have any noticeable statistical difference between continuation of smoking and smoking cessation. However there was an obviaus difference among ex-smokers, non smokers and smokers when they responded as to whether or not their family had an effect on smoking status and smoking cessation:ex-smokers(38.4%), non-smokers(30.6%) and smokers(17.0%). CONCLUSIONS: In the light of the related factors attributed to the continuation of smoking in this study, it was revealed that there was a higher possibility of current smoking when the subject were a male and have close friends who smoked and had a higher level of average alcohol cansumption. this study also indicated that the continued smoking rate was higher among irdividuals who started smoking because of stress than those who began smoking as a result of peer pressure. There was no significant relatianship between smoking status and familial influence on smoking cessation between smokers and ex-smokers, but ex-smokers and non smokers had more awarness of familial influence than smokers.
Female ; Friends ; Humans ; Male ; Smoke* ; Smoking Cessation ; Smoking* ; Tobacco Products ; Young Adult ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: A previous Korean study recommended minimal 50 cases of Esophgogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) to achieve technical competency, based on director's opinion. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the achievement of EGD's technical skills during the first 50 EGD cases. METHODS: The data were collected from the first 50 EGDs consecutively performed by six family medicine residents trained the EGD procedure in one residency program from 2004 to 2006. Technical competency of the EGD procedure was evaluated in 4 steps divided with anatomical landmarks (the gastroesophageal junction, the antrum, the fundus of the stomach, and the second portion of the duodenum). Authors measured the procedure time of EGDs performed by residents in 4 steps and calculated the rate of success cases satisfied with author's own criteria made by procedure time. RESULTS: The success rate of EGD procedure in all steps was 26.7% at 10 EGDs, but sharply increased to 80.0% at 30 EGDs, reached 88.0% at 50 EGDs. Fail to perform esophageal intubation and retroversion to the fundus of the stomach was none after 30 EGDs. However, in steps from gastroesphageal junction to the antrum of the stomach and from the antrum of the stomach to the second portion of the duodenum, the failure rate kept up less than 10% during the first 50 EGDs. A statistically significant reduction of the procedure time in success cases was observed between 20 and 30 EGDs in all steps. CONCLUSION: The technical competency of EGD was achieved approximately 90% during the first consecutive 50 EGDs.
Achievement ; Duodenum ; Esophagogastric Junction ; Gastroscopy ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Intubation ; Stomach

PURPOSE: Valproic acid (VPA) has been used as an anticonvulsant for a long time. Recently, there are many reports on VPA activity with regards to intracellular signal transduction, including differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. We experienced several hematologic toxicities during the long-term use of VPA. Therefore, we investigated whether VPA has effects on short-term or long-term hematopoiesis with respect to differing concentrations. METHODS: We obtained bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNC) from a 5 week old female C3H/He strain mouse. The BMMNC were cultured in semi-solid media mixed with VPA according to the concentrations of colony forming unit for granulocyte-monocytes (CFU-GM). The concentrations of VPA were used as follows: 0.01 mM, 0.1 mM, 1 mM, and 10 mM (therapeutic level: 0.07~1.1 mM). We performed long-term liquid culture under VPA to compare the frequency of long-term culture initiating cells (LTC-IC) according to various VPA levels. RESULTS: The number of CFU-GM was highest with 1 mM of VPA (45.2+/-13.5), with higher therapeutic level than control (25.7+/-11.9), in 0.01 mM of VPA (26.5+/-12.1) and in 0.1 mM of VPA (26.6+/-12.2). In 10 mM of VPA, a toxic level of VPA, was the lowest at 1.6+/-1.1 (P< 0.01). In long-term culture, the frequency of LTC-IC was increased in 0.1 mM of VPA (67.7+/-16.3%), lower therapeutic level than in control (5.5+/-10.6%). In 1 mM of VPA, the high therapeutic level decreased to 81.6+/-9.3%. With toxic levels of VPA, 10 mM, there was no hematopoiesis. CONCLUSION: The VPA might enhance short-term hematopoiesis at high therapeutic levels, while preserving LTC-IC in long-term hematopoiesis under low therapeutic concentrations. Therefore, we suggest that VPA to be used within a low therapeutic level to escape from hematopoietic suppression when using VPA as long-term medication for seizure control.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; Bone Marrow ; Female ; Granulocyte-Macrophage Progenitor Cells ; Hematopoiesis ; Humans ; Mice* ; Seizures ; Signal Transduction ; Stem Cells ; United Nations ; Valproic Acid*