PURPOSE: Hyperhomocysteinemia is accepted as an independent risk factor for peripheral arterial disease (PAD). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the correlation between the preoperative plasma homocysteine concentration and restenosis after therapeutic revascularization. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical records of 58 consecutive patients (they were confined to Trans Atlantic Inter-Society Consensus [TASC] type C & D) among 103 patients who were diagnosed as having infrainguinal PAD and who were treated with bypass surgery or endovascular surgery from July 2003 to July 2009. We analyzed the effect of several factors such as gender, age, the plasma lipid profile and the protein C, protein S, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, ankle-brachial index (ABI), and homocysteine levels, which are all considered to be risk factors for restenosis. Multivariate and univariate analyses were performed to assess the effect of possible confounders. RESULTS: The subjects were 50 men and 8 women (mean age: 63.8+/-10.9). There were 33 (56.9%) cases of bypass surgery and 25 (43.1%) cases of endovascular surgery. Of them, 19 cases (32.8%) showed restenosis after revascularization. In the patients with restenosis, 18 cases (94.7%) showed a preoperative high plasma homocysteine level and 1 case (5.2%) showed a normal level. A lower ABI and hyperhomocysteinemia were significantly more common in the patients with restenosis (P=0.025, P<0.001). There were no significant differences of the other factors, except for the plasma homocysteine level on multivariate analysis (P=0.001). CONCLUSION: We can regard the preoperative hyperhomocysteinemia level as a predictive marker of restenosis after revascularization. Special attention may need to be given to the patients who have a lower preoperative ABI and hyperhomocysteinemia after revascularization.
Ankle Brachial Index ; C-Reactive Protein ; Consensus ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Female ; Fibrinogen ; Homocysteine ; Humans ; Hyperhomocysteinemia ; Hypertension ; Male ; Multivariate Analysis ; Peripheral Arterial Disease ; Plasma ; Protein C ; Protein S ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors

PURPOSE: We studied the attitudes of general population and medical personnels toward premature infants to establish basic data about prematurity. METHODS: Ten students from Yeungnam University College of Medicine conducted field surveys on the general population at residential and commercial districts, and on medical personnels at private local clinics and hospitals in Taegu with a prepared questionaire from July 25, 1996 to August 20, 1996. Statistical analysis was done by Chi square test using SPSS computerized program. RESULTS: The respondents who have never heard about premature babies are 4.6% of 502 total respondents. Sixty percent of the respondents acquired information about prematurity from mass media (television, newspaper, radio), and television was the most frequentl among them (60%). Because the percentage of respondents who know the correct meaning of prematurity is lower in those who acquired information from mass media than those from medical personnels or books on childcare, it was observed that information about prematurity is delivered inaccurately through mass media. Fifty percent of the respondents regard premature babies as handicapped or retarded babies, sixty-five percent of the respondents want their babies, not to be treated not because of economical burden but possibilities of residual handicap or death. CONCLUSION: Delivery accurate information about recent advances in intensive care for premature babies through mass media, i.e. television, newspaper and radio, is necessary to inform the general population and to help parents or family members of a premature baby participate in making a decision on whether to continue treatment for the baby or not.
Daegu ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Disabled Persons ; Ethics ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature* ; Critical Care ; Mass Media ; Periodicals ; Parents ; Television

No abstract available.
Animals ; Evoked Potentials* ; Rats*

We report a 43-year-old male who suffered cognitive dysfunction after an electric injury. He underwent evaluation for cognitive dysfunction and cerebral glucose hypometabolism at 1 week and 6 months. In contrast to the progressive decline of frontal lobe functions and visuospatial functions, memory and depressive mood were improved. SPM99 showed hypometabolic areas in the frontal and occipital lobes which were widened. Moreover new cingulate lesions appeared. This illustrates that the progression of derangement of cerebral glucose metabolism is correlated with neuropsychological impairment.
Adult ; Electric Injuries* ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Frontal Lobe ; Glucose ; Humans ; Male ; Memory ; Metabolism ; Neuropsychology ; Occipital Lobe ; Positron-Emission Tomography

No abstract available.

Although cervical epidural abscess is rare, it should be strongly suspected in any patient with unexplainable neck pain and fever, especially when the patient has a predisposing factor for this infectious process. The authors report a case of cervical epidural abscess in a 39-yr-old man with an aorto-duodenal fistula, which complicated the interposition of artificial graft for abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture, which had undertaken 40 months before. Timely detection and intervention rendered him a full neurological recovery. This extremely rare case is presented with a literature review.
Adult ; Aneurysm, Dissecting/complications ; Aneurysm, Dissecting/surgery ; Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal/complications ; Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal/surgery ; Aortic Diseases/complications* ; Aortic Rupture/complications ; Aortic Rupture/surgery ; Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation ; Cervical Vertebrae* ; Duodenal Diseases/complications* ; Duodenal Ulcer/complications ; Enterococcus ; Epidural Abscess/etiology* ; Epidural Abscess/microbiology ; Epidural Abscess/surgery ; Fistula/complications* ; Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections/complications ; Human ; Male ; Peptic Ulcer Perforation/complications ; Salmonella Infections/complications ; Staphylococcal Infections/complications

BACKGROUND: The HLA system is known to be the most polymorphic gene cluster in the human genome. HLA allele and haplotype distribution varies widely among different ethnic groups. In this study, we examined the frequency of HLA class I alleles and haplotypes in 309 healthy Koreans. METHODS: We typed HLA-A, -B, and -C genes at the allelic level in 109 unrelated Korean individuals using a sequence-based typing. With the additional data of 200 healthy Koreans from dbMHC (http: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mhc/), allele and haplotype frequencies were estimated by the maximum likelihood method. Serological typing results of 49 individuals were compared with the results highly resolved. RESULTS: A total of 22 HLA-A, 41 HLA-B, and 21 HLA-C alleles were found in this study. Alleles showing frequencies of more than 10% in each HLA locus were A*2402 (22.5%), A*0201 (15.7%), A*3303 (14.4%), A*1101 (11.0%), B*5101 (12.1%), Cw*0102 (18.8%), and Cw*1402 (10.2%). The most common A-B-C haplotypes at a frequency of more than 3% were A*3303-B*5801-Cw*0302 (5.2%), A*2402-B*5101-Cw*1402 (4.5%), A*1101-B*1501-Cw*0401 (4.3%), A*3303-B*4403-Cw*1403 (4.0%), A*3001-B*1302-Cw*0602 (3.7%), and A*0207-B*4601-Cw*0102 (3.2%). Misassignment of HLA-C antigen by serotyping was detected in 11 (22.4%) of 49 individuals. CONCLUSIONS: Our results will be useful as a basic data for studies on anthropology, disease association, and bone marrow transplantation. Misidentification of HLA-C by serotyping is so high that it would be desirable to perform a DNA typing especially in unrelated bone marrow transplantation.
Alleles* ; Anthropology ; Bone Marrow Transplantation ; DNA Fingerprinting ; Ethnic Groups ; Genome, Human ; Haplotypes* ; Histocompatibility Testing ; HLA-A Antigens* ; HLA-B Antigens ; HLA-C Antigens ; Humans ; Multigene Family ; Serotyping

OBJECTIVE: To translate the MD Anderson Dysphagia Inventory (MDADI) which is a self-administered questionnaire that assesses effect of dysphagia on the quality of life for patients with head and neck cancer, into Korean and to verify the validity and reliability of the Korean version of MDADI. METHODS: We performed 6 steps for the cross-cultural adaptation which consisted of translation, synthesis, back translation, review by an expert committee, cognitive debriefing, and final proof reading. A total of 34 dysphagia patients with head and neck cancers from Seoul National University Hospital answered the translated version of the questionnaire for the pre-testing. The patients answered the same questionnaire 2 weeks later to verify the test-retest reliability. RESULTS: One patient was excluded at second survey because he changed his feeding strategy. Overall, 33 patients completed the study. Linguistic validations were achieved by each step of cross-cultural adaptation. We gathered statistically strong construct validity (Spearman rho for subdomain scores to total score correlation range from 0.852 to 0.927), internal consistency for subdomains (Cronbach's alpha coefficients range from 0.785 to 0.889) and test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient range from 0.820 to 0.955) CONCLUSION: The Korean version of the MDADI achieved linguistic validations and demonstrated good construct validity and reliability. It can be a useful tool for screening and treatment planning for the dysphagia of patients with head and neck cancers.
Deglutition Disorders ; Head ; Head and Neck Neoplasms ; Humans ; Linguistics ; Mass Screening ; Neck ; Quality of Life ; Reproducibility of Results ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: While plateletpheresis donation results in less red blood cell loss and therefore less depletion of storage iron, repeated plateletpheresis can also lead to iron depletion. To determine the safety of regular plateletpheresis donations, this study estimated donor's iron status according to age, gender, number of donations, and donation interval. METHODS: The study population included 5,109 plateletpheresis donors (4,824 males, 285 females), who passed the hemoglobin (Hb) criteria for plateletpheresis donation of 12.0 g/dL or more in an inclusion period (September 2013~November 2013). During donor screening, serum ferritin levels were measured for assessment of iron status of plateletpheresis donors. RESULTS: Mean age of donors was 30.4 years (range: 17~59). Donors with a history of donation of more than 3 years accounted for 89.3% and 74.0% in males and females, respectively. Mean donation interval and annual donation number in male (female) donors was 11.9 (7.2) weeks and 4.2 (8.7) times, respectively. Approximately 37.8% of male donors and 64.2% of female donors had a serum ferritin level of less than 15 ng/mL. Serum ferritin levels showed correlation with donation interval, as the percentage of donors with a low ferritin level decreased with increase in donation interval (rho: 0.191~0.438, P<0.001). Serum ferritin levels also showed correlation with annual plateletpheresis number (rho: -0.261~-0.411, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Depleted iron store was observed in nearly 40% of donors who had acceptable Hb levels for plateletpheresis donation. Hb pre-donation screening is not sufficient to reduce the risk of iron deficiency in regular plateletpheresis donors.
Anemia, Iron-Deficiency ; Blood Donors ; Donor Selection ; Erythrocytes ; Female ; Ferritins* ; Humans ; Iron ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Plateletpheresis* ; Tissue Donors*

BACKGROUND: Determination of the hemoglobin (Hb) levels of prospective blood donors has been performed on capillary blood obtained by finger prick using a gravimetric CuSO4 method. Noninvasive Hb testing devices based on pulse oximetry technology have recently been developed. This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of two noninvasive Hb testing devices, NBM 200 and Pronto-7 as a predonation Hb screening test. METHODS: Hb levels of 993 blood donors (727 males, 266 females) were measured using five methods: two noninvasive methods, CuSO4 method, HemoCue, and hematology analyzer (Sysmex KX-21N). The hematology analyzer was considered as the reference method. RESULTS: Compared with Hb levels of the hematology analyzer, the bias was 0.7 g/dL for NBM 200, 0.1 g/dL for Prtonto-7, and 0.4 g/dL for HemoCue. The intraclass correlation coefficients of Hb measurements compared to the hematology analyzer were 0.57 (95% CI: 0.25~0.73) for NBM 200, 0.73 (95% CI: 0.69~0.75) for Pronto-7, and 0.87 (95% CI: 0.69~0.93) for HemoCue. The ability to detect Hb <12.5 g/dL and > or =12.5 g/dL was 16.4% and 99.2% for NBM 200, 55.8% and 95.9% for Pronto-7, 60.0% and 98.6% for HemoCue and 81.8% and 95.2% for the CuSO4 method, respectively. CONCLUSION: Unsatisfactory results were obtained using the noninvasive Hb testing devices for a predonation Hb screening test, although they have the apparent advantage of reducing pain and stress in donors thereby increasing donor satisfaction. However, for application in the blood donation setting, performance of these devices should be improved.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Blood Donors ; Capillaries ; Fingers ; Hematology ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Oximetry ; Prospective Studies ; Tissue Donors