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*

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Humans

No abstract available.
Accidents, Traffic*

During a period of about one year (November' 66 to December' 67), the Yonsei University College of Medicine conducted a field trial of the oral contraceptive (Ovulen) in order to study its acceptability and use-effectiveness among IUD drop-outs in Koyang County. We can summarize the outstanding findings from this investigation as follows: 1. 61.4% of the IUD drop-outs interviewed (911 women) wanted to use the pill. Most of the reasons for not wanting to use it (352 women)pertained to either use of other contraceptive methods (98) or subfecundity (150) following IUD terminations. Only 83 out of 911 women gave reasons related to the difficulty of obtaining pills. Therefore, we can state that most IUD dropouts if still in need of a contraceptive methods are in favor of trying the pill, and especially so if this method is conveniently available. 2. The 467 women or 37% of those who terminated IUD use actually visited the clinic for medical screening, and only 11 of them or 2.4% were rejected because of pregnancy and other medical reasons such as cervical erosion, myoma, breast mass, etc. 5.5% or 25 of the 456 women who received the first cycle did not take a single pill during the study period. 3. When we defined those 431 women who took one or more tablets as acceptors we found that women over 30 years with 4 or more children, and/or with a higher educational level were the best prospects for recruitment. 4. In accuracy of use, about two thirds of the users started taking the pi1l on the 5th day as directed for the first thee cycles, but the percentages rose sharply to about 80% in later cycles. Tardiness in starting pill use in the first cycle may have occurred partly because they had to return to the clinic month1y to get each new cycle. Among acceptors who did not quit between cycles, 80 to 90% were regular users, missing two or less tablets in each cycle. 5. More than 60% of the users felt well and sometimes lost their pre-acceptance symptoms, especially dysmenorrhea. However, 27.4% (58 women) had side effects attributable to the pill compound such as nausea, vomiting, indigestion, breast tenderness, decreased lactation or breakthrough bleeding. 25.0% (53 women) also complained of medical diseases or symptoms not related to the pill, especially during the first three cycles. However as the confidence and experience of the client and the field workers grew, the incidence of unrelated medical complaints quickly fell to a lower level in the later cycles. 6. As of the end of this study, on December 31, 1967, 49.2% (212 women) had discontinued the use of the pill for medical reasons as well as for the non-medical reasons. Only one case terminated use due to a pregnancy after taking pills. The cumulative continuation rates (by the life table method) were 58.9%, 51.9%, 41.0% at the end of 3 months, 6 months and 12 months respectively. These rates are 1ower than in the U.S. studies. Even when we add the retaking group to the first segment, the continuation rate goes up only about 5% above the first segment rates mentioned above. Possible explanations are: different dosages, the newerness of the method, and the use of only one point for pill distribution in the county together with a monthly return for cycles 1,2,3, and 4-6, etc. 7. Based on the experiences gained by this field study, the action implications for adding up the pill service to the on-going IUD program were also discussed in connection with the cost, follow-up method, educative and inforamtional methods, record forms and the critieria of eligible population for the pill program.
Adult ; Attitude to Health ; *Contraceptives, Oral ; Female ; Human ; *Intrauterine Devices ; Korea ; Pregnancy ; *Rural Population

No abstract available.
Humans

Kallmann's syndrome is characterized by hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism resulting from insufficient release of GnRH and associated with anosmia or hyposmia, which has been related to agenesis of olfactory bulbs. We experienced a case of 17 year-old Kallmann's syndrome woman and a case of successful pregnancy of 29 year-old Kallmann's syndrome woman with hMG and hCG treatment and present two cases with a review of literatures.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Female ; Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Kallmann Syndrome* ; Olfaction Disorders ; Olfactory Bulb ; Pregnancy*

BACKGROUND: Hyperhomocysteinemia as a risk factor for cerebrovascular disease is well known. Our aim of this study was to demonstrate positive association between elevated homocysteine levels and cerebrovascular diseases in Koreans. METHODS: With a case-control design, 186 stroke (infarction 134, hemorrhage 52) patients, diagnosed by brain CT or MRI and 359 control patients were evaluated. We used multiple logistic regression analyses conditioned on the matching variables (sex, age, hypertension, DM, smoking, hyperlipidemia, hyperhomocysteinemia) and calculated odds ratio and 95% CIs. RESULTS: Multivariated adjusted odds ratios (OR) for cerebrovascular diseases associated with hypertension compared with normal blood pressure were 2.45 (95% CI, 1.16 to 5.15) in prehypertension and 3.33 (95% CI, 1.56 to 7.10) in stage 1 hypertension and 3.77 (95% CI, 1.32 to 10.74) in stage 2 hypertension. OR for cerebrovascular diseases associated with hyperhomocysteinemia compared with <10micromol/L were 2.06 (95% CI, 1.09 to 3.91) in 13.0 to 16.9micromol/L and 3.17 (95% CI, 1.70 to 5.90) in > or =17 micromol/L. CONCLUSION: Not only hypertension but also hyperhomocysteinemia was a significant risk factor for cerebrovascular diseases in Koreans.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Blood Pressure ; Brain ; Case-Control Studies ; Hemorrhage ; Homocysteine ; Humans ; Hyperhomocysteinemia* ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Logistic Models ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Odds Ratio ; Prehypertension ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Stroke

BACKGROUND: Up to the present, there has been little study on chronic fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome, and there is equally sparse relevant statistical data For this reason, we attempted to investigate the present status of fatigue, particularly its incidence and actual conditions. METHODS: The study subjects were 12,152 outpatients who visited family practice in hospitals all over Korea between July 24 and September 21, 1997. They were given a questionnaire which included questions reflecting the (U.S.) Center for Disease Control criteria defining chronic fatigue syndrome. RESULTS: Among the subjects, 861 people complained of fatigue in their response to the questionnaire and they became the focus of the study. Of this fatigue group, 426 people(49.4%) had rnanifested fatigue for more than 6 manths, and the male/female ratio was 54%/46%, respectively. People who re ported that fatigue impaired their ability to function on a daily basis made up 35.8% of the fatigue group and the percentage of people who had considered visiting a clinic duen to fatigue wasa unexpectedly high 52.8%. The reported causes of fatigue, in decreasing order, were. social interactio(mals 68.5%/ femals 45.1%); sleep disturbance(mals 26.8%/ femals 21.8%); and physical maladies(mals 24.2%/femals 26.5%). There were significant gender differences in social interaction relating to domestic problems(mals 4.7%/femals 16.7%) and emotional problems(mals 12.2%/femals 21.4%). Among 33 chronic fatigue syndrome patients who indicated what they thought were the causes of their problems, 68.8% reported physical maladies, 65.6% social life, 31.3% emotional problems, 21.9% sleep disturbance, and 21.9 % domestic problems. The associated symptoms of fatigue reported in both males and females, in decreasing order, included: myalgia, headache and neurologic symptoms. The prevalence of chronic fatigue was 0.27%. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that 7.1% of family practice outpatients complained of fatigue and that their daily activities or occupational life were disturbed as a result. This group demanstrates is serious need for medical assistance. Therefore, doctors should have more interest in fatigue, particularly in chronic fatigue syndrome, so as to provide real and versatile care.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Family Practice ; Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic ; Fatigue* ; Female ; Headache ; Humans ; Incidence ; Interpersonal Relations ; Korea ; Male ; Medical Assistance ; Myalgia ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Outpatients* ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires