BACKGROUND: Patients with chest pain are common among outpatients. Several researches shows that chest pain patients can suffer from psychiatric illnesses such as hypochondriasis, depression, anxiety, somatization, panic disorder and so on. This study aims to examine the pschogenic symptoms in patients with noncardiac chest pain METHODS: In this study, the 98 people who have undergone treadmill test for chest pain during the three months from June 1st to September 30 of 1998 were selected, and the 98 patients were asked to respond to the prepared questionnaire and SCL-MPD(symptom check list-minor psychiatric disorders) before they underwent treadmill test. And then, they were classified into two groups. One group consisted of patients with noncardiac chest,pain, and the other group of patients with cardiac chest pain. These two groups were compared in 10 measures, and the compared results were analyzed by t-test. RESULTS: Among the 25 patients with cardiac chest pain, 15 patients were males and 10 patients (38%) were females, and among the 44 patients with noncardiac chest pain, 31 patients (70%) were males, 13 patients (30%) were females. The average age was 47 years old. The average age in patients with noncardiac chest pain was 48, and the 46 for those patients with cardiac chest pain . In the statistical analysis between the patients with cardiac chest pain and those with noncardiac chest pain, significant difference(p<0.005) was shown in the measures such as somatization, depression, phobic anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, neurasthenic, hypochondriacal, anxiety, anger-hostility, interpersonal sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: As in the analysis the patients with noncardiac chest pain showed significant difference in the symptom check list-minor psychiatric disorder compared to those with cardiac chest pain. We conclude that primary care physician should take more interest in evaluating psychiatric symptoms in patients with noncardiac chest pain.
Anxiety ; Chest Pain* ; Depression ; Exercise Test ; Female ; Humans ; Hypochondriasis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Outpatients ; Panic Disorder ; Physicians, Primary Care ; Thorax* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

No abstract available.
Brain ; Trigeminal Nerve Diseases

BACKGROUND & PURPOSE: Subcortical aphasia is derived from infarction, hemorrhage or tumor in subcortical area, such as striatocpsular region, thalamus, paraventricualr white matter and corona radiata. To our knowledge, there have been few studies on subwrtical aphasia in Korea. OBJECTIVE: 1) To evaluate various lesion sites and clinical features associated with subcortical aphasia. 2) To evaluate type and characteristics of subcortical aphasia by Modified Western Aphasia Battery(MWAB) test. 3)To predict the mechanisms of subcortical aphasia and to relate type of aphasia to hypoperfusion are a ascertained by brain SPECT. METHODS: We analysed 19patients wing brain CT/MRI and neurolinguistical method of MWAB, who presented language disturbance of aphasic nature due to subcortical strokes. Cerebral blood flow was measured in 10 out of 19 patients using brain SPECT. RESULTS & CONCLUSION: 1) The lesion sites responsible for subcortical aphasia were caudate nucleus, putamen, internal capsule, thalamus, paraventricular white matter and corona radiata. Hemiparesis and dysarthria were more common in subcortical aphasia than in cortical one. 2) Subcortical aphasia was characterized by higher incidence of anomic type and more rapid recovery than cortical aphasia. Most subcortical aphasia following thalamic lesions revealed characteristic features of Preservation of repetition and prominent deficits in naming. 3) Ten cases of subcortical aphasia showed both cortical and subcortical hypoperfusion, suggesting that subcortical aphasia be derived from secondary hypoperfusion of the cortical language area. In most of the patients, the types and severity of subcortical aphasia correlated with the location and extent of cortical hypoperfusion area.
Aphasia* ; Brain* ; Caudate Nucleus ; Dysarthria ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infarction ; Internal Capsule ; Korea ; Paresis ; Putamen ; Stroke ; Thalamus ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate smoking characteristics and nicotine dependence severity in bipolar disorder comparing those of schizophrenia. METHODS: 70 bipolar and 123 schizophrenic patients, diagnosed using DSM-IV-TR criteria and treated at the Severance Mental Health Hospital, were interviewed regarding socio-demographic variables, smoking characteristics and Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), designed to evaluate the intensity of smoking. RESULTS: The rate of current smoking was 60.0% in the bipolar group, and 50.4% in the schizophrenia group. No significant difference was seen in terms of the rate of current smoking between the groups. Rates of having ever smoked also did not differ between bipolar (73%) and schizophrenic patients (65%). Daily cigarette consumption of bipolar patients (15.9 cigarettes/day) was significantly lower than that of schizophrenic patients (21.2 cigarettes/day), but FTND score didn't appear to differ between bipolar and schizophrenic patients. Bipolar females showed higher rate of current smoking (44%) than schizophrenic females (17%). Among bipolar patients, antipsychotics dose was not correlated with daily cigarette consumption and FTND total score. Age of disease onset didn't appear to differ between smokers and non-smokers in bipolar group. CONCLUSION: Although daily consumption was significantly lower in the bipolar group, the rate of smoking and smoking severity in bipolar disorder were as high as in schizophrenia. This fact suggests that the bipolar disorder might be related to the nicotinic acetylcholine system dysfunction as like schizophrenia.
Acetylcholine ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Bipolar Disorder* ; Female ; Humans ; Mental Health ; Schizophrenia* ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Tobacco Products ; Tobacco Use Disorder

BACKGROUND: Nasopalatine duct cysts (NPDCs) are considered the most common non odontogenic cysts of the maxilla. Although the recommended treatment is complete removal of the lesion, complications, such as hematoma or fistula, can occur, especially in extensive cases. The aim of the present paper was to introduce transnasal endoscopic marsupialization as an efficient and useful treatment for NPDC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective review of 5 patients with extensive NPDCs (>2 cm) protruding into their nasal cavities was performed. All patients underwent endoscopic endonasal marsupialization. In order to survey the long-term, subjective outcomes, telephone interviews were conducted. RESULTS: The mean age of the included patients with NPDC was 32 years and all were male. Most of the patients had facial pain (100%) and nasal obstruction (80%), and somepatients complained of palate swelling (60%). There were no perioperative complications. The mean OPD follow-up duration was 3.7 months and a telephone survey was conducted with 4 patients at a mean of 27.5 postoperative months. Patients complained of some crust formation in the nasal cavity, but no cyst relapse or other significant complications were reported. CONCLUSIONS: A large NPDC protruding into the nasal cavity can be easily and efficiently managed with endoscopic endonasal marsupialization as a substitute for complete enucleation.
Facial Pain ; Fistula ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Male ; Maxilla ; Nasal Cavity* ; Nasal Obstruction ; Odontogenic Cysts ; Palate ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Telephone

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of obesity based on body mass index data and to assess the long-term effect of breast feeding on obesity among children in elementary schools. METHODS: A total of 997 children in 1st grade were recruited from 3 public primary schools in Gangdong-gu and 1 private primary school in Nowon-gu, Seoul. A questionnaire was used gather demographic background and lifestyle-related information infant feeding methods and duration. RESULTS: There were 101 boys (24.6%) and 100 girls (25.0%) identified as a obese group (BMI 85 percentile). The birth weight was higher in the obese group (3.34+/-0.46) than in the normal body mass index group (3.24+/-0.43). The parental body mass index was higher in the obese group than the normal group. Average hours of daily watching TV, video or computer use was higher in the obese group (2.2+/-1.2) than in the normal body mass index group (2.0+/-1.0). In the obese group, children ate more than the normal group. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, there seemed to be some risk reduction for obesity in the breast fed group for at least 7 months, compared to the never breast fed group, but had no statistical significance. CONCLUSION: Whether child was breast fed or not nor the duration of breast feeding did not seem to reduce the risk of developing obesity.
Birth Weight ; Body Mass Index ; Breast ; Breast Feeding ; Child* ; Feeding Methods ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Obesity* ; Parents ; Prevalence ; Risk Reduction Behavior ; Seoul* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: Pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus has spread rapidly and prompt diagnosis is needed for successful treatment and prevention of transmission. We investigated clinical predictors, validated the use of previous criteria with laboratory tests, and evaluated the clinical criteria for H1N1 infection in the Korean population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed clinical and laboratory evaluation data from outpatient clinics at Severance Hospital in Seoul, Korea between November 11 and December 5, 2009. RESULTS: This analysis included a total of 828 patients. Of these, 372 (44.9%) patients were confirmed with H1N1 infection by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The most common and predictive symptom was cough (90.3%, OR 8.87, 95% CI 5.89-13.38) and about 40% of H1N1-positive patients were afebrile. The best predictive model of H1N1 infection was cough plus fever or myalgia. The sensitivities, specificities, positive predictive values, and negative predictive values of our suggested criteria were 73.9%, 69.5%, 66.4%, and 76.6%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Cough was the most common independent symptom in patients with laboratory-confirmed H1N1 infection, and while not perfect, the combination of cough plus fever or myalgia is suggested as clinical diagnostic criteria. Health care providers in Korea should suspect a cough without fever to be an early symptom of H1N1 infection.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Humans ; Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype/*metabolism ; Influenza, Human/*diagnosis/*epidemiology/virology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pandemics ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Republic of Korea ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sensitivity and Specificity

No abstract available.

Autoimmune thyroid disease associated with Moyamoya syndrome has mostly been reported as Graves' disease, and not as Hashimoto's thyroiditis. We report a case of a 70-year-old man with right posterior cerebral artery territorial infarction and bilateral distal internal carotid artery occlusion, which suggests Moyamoya syndrome, but who was diagnosed as Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
Aged ; Carotid Artery, Internal ; Graves Disease ; Humans ; Infarction ; Moyamoya Disease ; Posterior Cerebral Artery ; Thyroid Diseases ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroiditis

OBJECTIVE: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in cell survival, differentiation, and cell death as well as in neural plasticity. Recent studies have suggested that BDNF is involved in the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of the genetic variations of the BDNF gene with bipolar disorder in Korea. We also studied the possible association of these genetic variants with clinical features. METHODS: The allelic and genotypic distributions of Val66Met polymorphism of the BDNF gene were analyzed using a polymerase chain reaction-based method in 184 bipolar patients and 214 controls. Analysis was performed to investigate an association of the Val66Met polymorphism of the BDNF gene and the clinical features in bipolar patients. RESULTS: No significant difference was found between bipolar patients and controls in the genotype and allele frequencies for the investigated BDNF polymorphism. However, the age of onset of bipolar disorder among the Val/Val (25.57), Val/Met (30.42) and Met/Met (32.45) genotype groups were significantly different (p=0.037). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that Val66Met polymorphisms are unlikely to contribution to the genetic predisposition to bipolar disorder as a whole. But Val66Met polymorphism may be associated with age of onset of the disorder, further studies designed to investigate the relationship in a larger population may be warranted.
Age of Onset ; Bipolar Disorder ; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor ; Cell Death ; Cell Survival ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Genetic Variation ; Genotype ; Humans ; Korea