No abstract available.
Emergencies* ; Emergency Medical Technicians* ; Humans ; Military Personnel* ; Republic of Korea*

PURPOSE: To compare the changes in strabismus angle and deviation between two groups: a bilateral lateral rectus recession (Group 1) and a unilateral lateral rectus recession in exotropia (Group 2). METHODS: A retrospective survey was conducted on 198 patients who had received exotropia surgery in our ophthalmology clinic from September 2003 to April 2007. A total of 116 patients were in Group 1, and 82 patients were in Group 2. RESULTS: The average deviations of the first postoperative month and the first postoperative year were -1.96 D +/- 4.75, 2.5 D +/- 7.82 for Group 1 and 0.77 D +/- 2.87, 5.94 D +/- 3.38 for Group 2. Revealing statistical significance between the 2 Groups: Group 1 had 30 failure cases (25.9%) and their 1 postoperative year average deviation was 5.42 D +/- 13.97, while Group 2 showed 24 failure cases (29.3%) and their 1-postoperative-year average deviation was 13.0-79 +/- 3.04. Group 1 had less strabismus angle and a greater standard deviation than Group 2, as Group 1 had more overcorrection. Among the 30 failure cases of Group 1, 9 were overcorrected and 21 were undercorrected, but all 24 failure cases in Group 2 were undercorrected. CONCLUSIONS: The strabismus angle after lateral rectus recession showed a wider variation and a larger difference in bilateral lateral rectus recession than in the unilateral lateral rectus recession.
Exotropia ; Humans ; Ophthalmology ; Retrospective Studies ; Strabismus

No abstract available.
Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip*

PURPOSE: In South Korean ferry disaster in 2014, the captain abandoned the ship with passengers including high school students still aboard. We noticed the resemblance of abandoning the ship with passengers still aboard the ferry (named the Sewol) and the ship Patna, which was full of pilgrims, in Joseph Conrad's novel "Lord Jim." The aim of this study is to see how medical students think about the role of a medical doctor as a captain of a ship by analyzing book reports on Conrad's "Lord Jim." METHODS: Participants included 49 third-year medical students. Their book reports were analyzed. RESULTS: If placed in the same situation as the character of Jim, 24 students of the 49 respondents answered that they would stay with the passengers, while 18 students indicated they would escape from the ship with the crew. Most of the students thought the role of a doctor in the medical field was like that of a 'captain.' The medical students reported that they wanted to be a doctor who is responsible for his or her patients, highly moral, warm-hearted, honest, and with high self-esteem. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, we found that "Lord Jim" induced the virtue of 'responsibility' from the medical students. Consequently, "Lord Jim" could be good teaching material for medical humanities.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Disasters ; Humanities ; Humans ; Ships* ; Students, Medical ; Teaching Materials ; United Nations ; Virtues

Despite widespread use of antibiotics and surgical procedures for treating peritonsillar abscess (PTA), symptoms of severe inflammation such as pain and trismus during treatment result in patient dissatisfaction. The goal of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy of systemic steroids on the clinical course of PTA. Two reviewers independently searched the databases (MEDLINE, Scopus, and the Cochrane Database) from inception to December 2014. Studies comparing systemic administration of steroids (steroid group) with placebo (placebo group), where the outcomes of interest were pain, body temperature, hospitalization, and oral intake during the posttreatment period, were included. Baseline study characteristics, study quality data, numbers of patients in the steroid and control groups, and outcomes were extracted. Sufficient data for meta-analysis were retrieved for 3 trials with a total of 153 patients. Pain-related parameters (patient-reported scores and trismus), body temperature, and dysphagia during the first 24 hours after treatment were significantly improved in the steroid group compared with placebo group. The discharge rate during the first 5 days of the posttreatment period was significantly higher in the steroid group than the control group. However, although more patients in the steroid group returned to normal activities and dietary intake at 24 hours after treatment, the differences between the groups were not significant and disappeared after 48 hours. In the treatment of PTA, systemic administration of steroids with antibiotics could reduce pain-related symptoms, as well as provide a benefit with respect to the clinical course. However, further trials with well-designed research methodologies should be conducted to confirm our results.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones* ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Body Temperature ; Deglutition Disorders ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Peritonsillar Abscess* ; Steroids ; Trismus

Masclura tricuspidata, also called as Cudrania tricuspidata, is one of the most common Moraceae family plants in East Asia. Its trivial name follows mulberry due to the similar morphology. Investigation of the bioactive constituents of M. tricuspidata leaves yielded a new xanthone derivative along with twenty known compounds through various chromatographic techniques. A new compound was defined as mascluraxanthone (3), a prenylated xanthone glucoside on the basis of 1D and 2D NMR and MS data. Twenty known compounds were identified as four xanthone derivatives (1-2 and 4-5), two flavans (6-7), six flavanol derivatives (8-13), a flavonone (14) and seven flavonol derivatives (15-21). Among the isolated compounds, flavanol and flavonoid derivatives with 3′,4′-OH groups showed antioxidant and anti-tyrosinase activities. Conclusively, the leaves of M.tricuspidata are rich in aromatic compounds including xanthones and flavonoids. In addition, these constituents showed antioxidant and anti-tyrosinase potentials, which might be useful for oxidative stress related diseases.

OBJECTIVES: Several lines of evidence suggest the serotonergic dysfunction involved in the biological susceptibility of suicide. Tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH), the rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of serotonin, plays a vital role in serotonin metabolism. In a case-control study, we investigated whether the TPH gene was a susceptible factor for suicidal behavior in depressive patients. METHODS: The subjects were 218 depressed patients who attempted suicide and visited emergency rooms in multi-medical centers. One hundred thirty hospitalized non-suicidal depressed patients and the 161 normal controls were matched with the suicidal group. Individuals in all 3 groups were evaluated independently by a Structured Clinical Interview for the purpose of establishing a DSM-IV criteria diagnosis (SCID). The severity of depressive symptoms was evaluated using Hamilton depression rating scale (HDRS). RESULTS: There was no significant difference in genotype distributions and allele frequencies of TPH intron 7 A218C polymorphisms among 3 groups. Furthermore, no significant difference in genotype counts and allele frequencies of the polymorphisms was found among lethal suicidal depressed patients, non-suicidal depressed patients and the normal controls. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the A218C polymorphism of the TPH gene is unlikely to have a major effect on the susceptibility of suicidal behaviors in depressive patients.
Case-Control Studies ; Depression ; Depressive Disorder ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Emergencies ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Humans ; Introns ; Serotonin ; Suicide ; Suicide, Attempted ; Tryptophan ; Tryptophan Hydroxylase

OBJECTIVES: There is increasing evidence that the cerebellum plays an important role in cognition and psychiatric symptoms as well as motor coordination. The concept of cognitive dysmetria has been making cerebellar function in schizophrenia the focus of current studies. In other words, disruption in the cortico-cerebellum-thalamic -cortical circuit could lead to disordered cognition and clinical symptoms of schizophrenia. The purposes of this study were to determine cerebellar dysfunction in male schizophrenic patients semiquantitatively with ICARS and to investigate the clinical and cognitive correlates of ICARS in patients. METHODS: We compared the scores of cerebellar neurologic sign using ICARS in 47 male patients with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of schizophrenia with 30 gender and age-matched healthy control subjects. The semiquantitative 100-point ICARS consists of 19 items divided into 4 unequally weighted subscores: posture and gait disturbances, kinetic functions, speech disorders and oculomotor disorders. All subjects were also assessed with cognitive function test. Cognitive functions were evaluated by Korean-Mini Mental Status Examination(K-MMSE), Verbal fluency test, and Clock drawing test. The patients were administered Korea version of Positive and Negative Symptom Scale(K-PANSS) to assess the symptom severity. RESULTS: Schizophrenic patients had significantly higher scores on the ICARS than control subjects with posture and gait disturbances, kinetic functions, and oculomotor disorders. They also showed more significant impairments in cognitive function tests than control subjects. There was a significant correlation between ICARS and negative symptoms of patients. In cognitive function test, Clock drawing test was significantly associated with negative symptoms. In addition, Clock drawing test was negatively correlated with the total score of ICARS. CONCLUSION: In this study, we confirmed that schizophrenic patients have significant impairments in cognitive and cerebellar function, and that those were related with negative symptoms of schizophrenic patients. These results support a role of the cerebellum in schizophrenia. It is meaningful that we used a structured, and reliable procedure for rating neurological soft signs, ICARS. We hope that future prospective studies using a similar design help that rate of neurological sign should have been visible with the progression of illness.
Cerebellar Ataxia ; Cerebellar Diseases ; Cerebellum ; Cognition ; Diagnosis ; Gait ; Hope ; Humans ; Iron-Dextran Complex ; Korea ; Male ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Posture ; Schizophrenia ; Speech Disorders

No abstract available.
Ilizarov Technique*

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the rate of delivery within the jurisdiction of local governments in Korea. Methods: Information regarding the population, number of women of childbearing age, and number of births was extracted from the Korean Statistics Information Service, National Health Insurance Service, and health map of the National Medical Center. We defined the rate of delivery within the jurisdiction of the local government as the ratio of the number of deliveries delivered by maternity facilities in the region to the total number of deliveries of pregnant women living in the region. Results: The average nationwide delivery rate in the jurisdiction of local governments was 48.0%. The Si area was the highest at 54.9%, and the Gun area was the lowest at 22.1%. Compared to 2014, the national average delivery rate in the jurisdiction decreased by 4.3%; however, the gun area increased by 4.9%. The geographic maternity service area was 122 in 2014; however, this number decreased to 104 in 2020. Conclusion The national average rate of delivery in the jurisdiction of local governments was 48.0%, and the rate decreased between 2014 and 2020.