Transmitral left ventricular diastolic inflow velocities determined by pulsed Doppler in 47 normotensives, 80 hypertensives and 44 age-matched hypertensives were measured to evaluate the effects of age and left ventricular hypertrophy on left ventricular diastolic fuction in normotensives and hypertensives. The results were as follows: 1) The peak E velocity in normotensives(77.82+/-13.53cm/sec) was significantly different from those of hyeprtensives(58.13+/-11.80cm, p<0.01) and age-matched hypertensives(59.31+/-10.94cm/sec, p<0.01). The peak E/A in normotensives(1.31+/-0.45) was significantly different from those of hypertensives(0.83+/-0.21,p<0.01) and age-matched hypertensives(0.83+/-0.20, p<0.01). 2)In normotensives, simple linear regression analysis revealed strong inverse correlations of peak E with age(r=-0.758, p<0.01), peak E/A with age(r=-0.748, p<0.01), but no significant correlation of peak E and peak E/A with LVMI(p>0.05). Stepwise regression analysis revealed that age was the most important correlate of peak E and peak E/A in normotensives(peak E: R
Heart Diseases ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular* ; Linear Models

The pinching motion is thought to be one of fundamental hand functions, the power of which has been quantified by measuring it isometrically with variously devised pinch-meters. The present authors describe the investigations on the pinching power of 350 healthy persons, 200 male and 150 female Koreans, by the use of Preston Pinch Gauge. Six kinds of pinch were chosen: (1) thumb index finger tip pinch (1-2TP), (2) thumb-middle finger tip pinch (1-3TP), (3) thumb-index finger pulp pinch (1-2PP), (4) thumb-middle finger pulp pinch (1-3PP), (5) thumb-index-middle finger pulp pinch (3PP), (6) key pinch (KP), which were classified again into 19 kinds according to the shape of thumb, index, middle, or other fingers during each pinch. We describe those as principal type, hyperextension-flexion type, hyperextension type and other type into four. It should be justified to calculate the mean normal value of principal type pinching power in Korean. Principal type of pinch involves 1-2TP, 1-3TP, 1-2PP, 1-3PP, 3PP and KP, as to Hyperextension type of 1-2PP, 1-3PP, 3PP and KP. Other type of pinch involving 1-2TP, 1-3TP, 1-2PP, 1-3PP, 3PP and KP is different from Principal type simply because of the shape of nonjoining fingers during pinch. Generally, the pinching power of Principal type was clearly highest among the four types except for pulp pinches.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Female ; Fingers ; Hand ; Humans ; Male ; Reference Values ; Thumb

According to literatures, the different types of fractures can occur as a result of arm wrestling ; Spiral fracture of the humeral shaft associating often with a bntterfly fragment, fracture of medial epicondyle of the humerus, and the marginal radial head fracture with anterior dislocation. The last type is very rarely reported. In addition to the fracture occurrence, other injuries such as muscular strain of the arm, and sprain or luxation of the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints can be taken place. However, it is thought that the most of those injuries by arm wrestling have been treated simply by general practioners unreported. The arouse the attention of the jury of the game, wrestlers and the surgenons, the cases of bony injuries sustained during the arm-wrestling are reported. Thirteen patients were treated by us since 1977. Among them, five cases had fractures of the humeral shaft, and eight cases had fractures of medial epicondyle of the humerus. Among the five shaft fractures, three were treated by conservatively, and two by operatively. Among 8 avulsion fractures of the medial epicondyle only two were treated conservatively, and 6 operatively. One patient sustained the medial epicondylar avulsion fracture twice for which K-wire fixation treatment was done. The results of treatment were all satisfactory. However, because of the possibility of wrestlers sustaining such injuries. Arm wrestling should not be considered a totally benign sport.
Arm ; Dislocations ; Elbow ; Head ; Humans ; Humerus ; Shoulder ; Sports ; Sprains and Strains ; Wrestling ; Wrist Joint

Crossed renal ectopia is an unusual congenital anomaly, probably produced by abnormal development of the ureteral bud. The deformity itself produces no symptoms and the clinical presentation generally is for obstruction and infection. The pediatric patients present most often with multiple congenital anomalies, especially of the skeletal system. We report the two cases of crossed renal ectopia with fusion with review of literatures.
Congenital Abnormalities ; Humans ; Ureter

INTRODUCTION: In traditional society, the roles of housewives were to do housework, to look after her children and to give her family emotional stability. With rapid social and economic change, the traditional sense of value changes and the concepts of sexual roles, too. However, they are in a transition period yet. These discord and tension followed by role change appeared as the form of psychological instability or social pathological problem in modern family. Thus, this study aimed to avaluate the effect of employment on depression of housewives who play importent roles in family and their commumity. METHODS: From May to July 1996, the questonnaires were distributed to 179 housewives who have university education background(including community college), and have one or more children and live in Bundang-Ku of Sungnam city, making a distinction between working housewives and nonworking housewives. Regarding the subjects of this study, the non-working housewives are restricted to full-time housewives who have no job, and working housewives who have full-time job. As tools of measurement, we used BDI questionnaires consisted of 15 items in Korean. We performed statistical analysis among the data by means of SPSS/PC+. We analyzed statistical data for significance using one-way ANOVA and analyzed categorical data for significance using S-test. RESULTS: The average score on BDI for working housewives was 12.22(standard deviation 7.42) and this is rather higher than that of non-working housewives(10.80, standard deviation : 7.42). But the number of children increased, the BDI score were higher significantly in both groups. And the BDI score was high in working Housewives groups whose husbands had professional job or dommerce job, whose family system is a multi-generation family, and who feel a lot of fatigue after work. In case of non-working housewives, the BDI score was high with age(especially between 50-59), duration of marriage, lower income and Duvalls family life cycle 6, 7. CONCLUSIONS: There is no difference in depression tendency between working housewives and nonworking housewives. But in case of working housewives, some factors have influence on their depression tendency, the number of children, husbands job, family type, degree of fatigue after work. And in case of non-working housewives, the factors are the number of children, age, duration of marriage, income, family life cycle.
Child ; Depression* ; Education ; Employment ; Fatigue ; Gyeonggi-do ; Housekeeping ; Humans ; Marriage ; Seoul* ; Spouses ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: Intramuscular stimulation (IMS) shows good results in the treatment of chronic pain patients who did not respond to other treatments such as oral analgesics, trigger point injection, nerve block and epidural steroid injection. Fluoroscopy Guided Interventional Musculoskeletal Adhesiolysis and Nerve Stimulation (FIMS) was used to stimulate the correct anatomic point using fluoroscopy. We present the results of FIMS in spinal stenosis. METHODS: 106 patients with ages ranging from 39 to 87 years were enrolled in this study. All the patients were postoperatively evaluated for the clinical outcomes such as numeric rating scale (NRS) for pain at 1 month, reduction in the analgesics dose, and the overall satisfaction rate. The patients considered to have received clinical benefit from FIMS were evaluated for the recurrence of pain by either a follow-up or telephone interview. RESULTS: FIMS reduced the level of pain compared with the pretreatment (P < 0.001). In addition, 61% of patients reported that they were satisfied. There were no procedural related serious complications. Three months after FIMS, there was continuing pain relief in 50% of the patients treated successfully. CONCLUSIONS: FIMS is a safe and effective treatment modality for spinal stenosis.
Analgesics ; Chronic Pain ; Fluoroscopy* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Nerve Block ; Recurrence ; Spinal Stenosis* ; Trigger Points

CT and MR findings of nine cases with intratemporal facial nerve nouromas were described and compared with CT findings of 3 cases with facial nerve palsy and facial nerve canal erosion which may mimic facial nerve neuroma. The tympanic segment of the facial nerve was involved in 8 cases, mastoid segment in 7 cases and labyrinthine segment in 5 cases. The lesions were easily diagnosed with high resolution CT with bone algorythms by showing the expansion of bony structures along the course of the facial nerves. In 4 cases with large vertical segment tumors. Extensive destruction of mastoid air cells and external auditory canals posed difficulty in making a diagnosis. Two out of 5 cases with labyrinthine segment imvolvement were presented as middle cranial fossa masses. MRI with enhancement was performed in 4 cases and was useful in characterizing the lesion as a tumor with its superior sensitivity to enhancement. Three cases of facial neuroma-mimicking lesion including post-inflammatory perineural thickening. Perineural extension from parotid adenoidcystic carcinoma, and congenita: cholesteatoma showed irrgular erosion or mild expansion of the facial nerve canal which may be helpful for differential diagnosis from neuromas.
Cholesteatoma ; Cranial Fossa, Middle ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Ear Canal ; Facial Nerve* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Mastoid ; Neuroma* ; Paralysis

PURPOSE: This study was to monitor the effects of forming desirable eating and exercise habits and change the blood lipid levels by developing and applying E-Mail educational programs for a hyperlipidemia health check-up. METHOD: The research design used a nonequivalent control group pre-post test. Ninety-nine subjects (Exp.=50, Cont.=49) were selected randomly and the male subjects agreed to a hyperlipidemia health check-up at a comprehensive medical screening center. This study verified validity and reliability through factor analysis on a life habit measurement tool. The data was analyzed with SPSS win 12.0 using an chi-square-test,t-test, ANOVA and ANCOVA. RESULT: Eatingand exercise habit scores of the experimental group which were educated through E-Mails changed considerably more than that of the control group which was not educated. Total-cholesterol and LDLcholesterol in the experimental group was considerably lower than that in the control group, but HDL-cholesterol increased considerably. Triglycerides, however, didn't show change. CONCLUSION: An E-Mail educational program may be applied as a hyperlipidemia health check-up nursing intervention strategy.
Adult ; Cholesterol/blood ; *Electronic Mail ; Health Status ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias/*nursing/psychology ; Middle Aged ; Nursing Theory ; *Patient Education as Topic ; Reproducibility of Results ; Self Care

Pulmonary vascular hypertension is characterized by migration and proliferation of smooth muscle cells accompanying abnormal synthesis and accumulation of extracellular proteins in vascular wall. The aim of this study is to define the role of endogneous TGF-betas and PDGF in the process of remodeling vessels through determining the temporal and spatial distribution of these growth factors in hypertensive pulmonary vessels in monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension in rat. Sprague-Dawley rats were sacrificed 12 hours, 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 14, 21, 28, and 56 days after treatment. The morphometric analysis of medial thickening and immunohistochemical study using antibodies to TGF-beta1, TGF-beta2, TGF-beta3, and PDGF were performed. Immunoreactivities for TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta3 were increased from the 14th day in the medial smooth muscle cells and PDGF showed increased expression from the 21st day in the medial smooth muscle cells. No difference in TGF-beta2 immunoreactivity was found between control and experimental groups. The expression of TGF-beta1, TGF-beta3 and PDGF increased in medial layers with the progressive thickening of pulmonary arteries which was considered to have close relation to medial hypertrophy of pulmonary arterioles. In the case of PDGF, however, the morphologic change occurred before increase in immunoreactivity was observed in the medial layer of pulmonary arterioles. Moreover, the function of isoforms of TGF-beta has yet to be completely elucidated; the different affinity to receptors and the degree of expression of these receptors that are supposed to affect the function of growth factors. Thus, further studies are needed.
Animals ; Antibodies ; Arterioles ; Hypertension ; Hypertension, Pulmonary* ; Hypertrophy ; Immunohistochemistry ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Monocrotaline ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle ; Protein Isoforms ; Pulmonary Artery ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Transforming Growth Factor beta* ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; Transforming Growth Factor beta2 ; Transforming Growth Factor beta3

Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma(CTCL) is a rare cutaneous malignant disease and is typically a disease of older adults. There is no optimal treatment for CTCL, which ranges from topical steroid to systemic chemotherapy. Hence until curative therapy is found, therapies that keep CTCL in check and prevent progression to more advanced lymphoma may be desirable alternatives and may presetve quality of life. Herein we report our experience in treating a stage 11B CTCL patient with triple combination of interferon alfa, oral retinoid, and psoralen plus WA(PWA) therapy.
Adult ; Drug Therapy ; Ficusin ; Humans ; Interferon-alpha* ; Interferons* ; Lymphoma ; Lymphoma, T-Cell, Cutaneous* ; Photochemotherapy* ; Quality of Life ; T-Lymphocytes