From March 1982 to June 1985, Serum FSH, LH and prolactin were taken in 85 normal males, 37 benign prostatic hyperplasia and 7 prostatic carcinomas, Radioimmunoassay resulted in the following findings. 1. Serum FSH is seen to increase steadily with age in both normal subjects and patients with BPH. No difference was found in the value of the FSH between the 2 group. 2. Serum LH is seen to increase sharply after 70 years of age but level of LH in the benign prostatic hyperplasia do not reflect this age related increment. 3. Serum prolactin is seen to remain relatively unchanged in the normal male through adult life. No difference was observed between patients with BPH and normal age-matched control.
Adult ; Gonadotropins* ; Humans ; Male ; Prolactin* ; Prostatic Diseases* ; Prostatic Hyperplasia ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Radioimmunoassay

Toxic epidermal necrolysis(TEN) is a severe drug induced life-threatening disease and an acute illness. This disease is characterized by rapid onset of widespread necrosis resulting in sloughing of epidermis. The incidence of TEN is very rare, with approximately 0.5 to 1.4 cases per million per year. but TEN has a high mortality rate of 25-40 percent. Therapy for TEN is primarily aimed at supportive care. Treatment with systemic corticosteroid, immunosuppresive agent such as cyclosporine, cyclophosphamide, pentoxifyllin or plasmapheresis have not been shown to improve outcome. Recently, administration of high dose intravenous immunoglobulin(IVIG) has been shown to result in rapid improvement in patients with TEN. There have been several reports of the benefit of IVIG in adult patients with TEN. However we could not find using IVIG in pediatric patient with TEN in Korea. We have experienced improvement in a 2 years old boy with TEN after using high dose IVIG.
Adult ; Child ; Child, Preschool* ; Cyclophosphamide ; Cyclosporine ; Epidermis ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins* ; Immunoglobulins, Intravenous ; Incidence ; Korea ; Male* ; Mortality ; Necrosis ; Plasmapheresis ; Stevens-Johnson Syndrome*

An inflammation of an epiploic appendage is a relatively rare cause of acute abdominal pain. It can be clinically misdiagnosed as either acute appendicitis or diverticulitis. Judicious interpretation of imaging with ultrasound or computed tomography may lead to an early diagnosis and prevent unnecessary surgical or medical treatment. Conservative treatment of symptoms is usually sufficient. We have experienced a case of epiploic appendagitis treated by conservative management and report this case with the review of the literature.
Abdomen* ; Abdominal Pain ; Appendicitis ; Diverticulitis ; Early Diagnosis ; Inflammation ; Ultrasonography

BACKGROUND: Aerobic training can be defined as any physical exercise that increases the heart rate and enhances the body's intake of oxygen long enough to benefit the condition of body. Running, cycling, and swimming are examples of aerobic activities. This type of exercise optimises immune functions. Recently several experimental findings suggested that the regular swimming training increase immune response, but there have been very few reports which compare warm water exercise with cold water exercise in spleen lymphocytes. METHODS: This study was designed to examine the effects of regular swimming training on Index, the number of lymphocytes, proliferative activity and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by splenocytes in BALB/c mice. Thirty six mice (6 week old) were performed 10 weeks of regular swimming training and they were divided into 6 groups according to the regular swimming training (CRG: control resting group, CEG: control exercise group, WRG: warm water trained resting group, WEG: warm water trained exercise group, CORG: cold water trained resting group, COEG: cold water exercise group). Analytical items were weight change, spleen index, the number of lymphocytes, proliferative activity and production of ROS. All data were expressed as mean and standard deviation by using SPSS package program (ver. 10.0). RESULTS: The swimming training significantly decreased body weight, and increased spleen index, the number of lymphocytes and proliferative activity in the presence or absence of Con A and LPS added conditions. For the WRG and CORG, the quantity of ROS from splenocytes was higher than CRG, whereas, ROS by spleen lymphocytes was lower following 90 min acute exercise stress. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that the swimming training not only increases the number of lymphocytes but also increases proliferative activity by splenocytes in vitro.
Animals ; Body Weight ; Exercise ; Heart Rate ; Lymphocytes* ; Mice* ; Oxygen ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Running ; Spleen* ; Swimming* ; Water

BACKGROUND: At present, epidural steroid injection is one of the most frequently used methods in the treatment for low back pain.. But this method is nonspecific and results in a widespread of injected agent around the target point. Therefore we thought direct injection to the nerve root is more specific and effective. METHODS: The authors evaluated the effects of lumbar paravertebral steroid injection in 39 patients with low back pain and radicular pain, retrospectively. We used triamcinolone 40mg(1ml) and 0.25% bupivacaine 3ml as injection agents and used pain relief scale(PRS) score for assessment of the effect. RESULTS: One week after injection, the patients of PRS score less than 5 were 65% in spinal stenosis and 85% in herniated intervertebral disc(HIVD). The patients of effective response more than 4 weeks after injection were 48% in spinal stenosis and 68% in HIVD, more than 12 weeks were 22% and 38%, respectively. The patients of PRS score less than 5 were 45% at the time of follow-up study. CONCLUSIONS: We think paravertebral steroid injection is effective in patients with low back pain and radicular pain. Therefore, this technique could be alternative method to epidural steroid injection.
Bupivacaine ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Low Back Pain* ; Retrospective Studies ; Spinal Nerve Roots* ; Spinal Nerves* ; Spinal Stenosis* ; Triamcinolone

BACKGROUND: Mediastinoscopy is generally performed to confirm mediastinal lymph node metastasis in lung cancer patients. It still remains controversial whether mediastinoscopy should be performed in all patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We studied the clinical value of mediastinoscopy in preoperative staging in NSCLC. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We retrospectively studied 90 NSCLC patients who underwent radiological evaluation and mediastinoscopy followed by surgical resection from March 2002 to December 2004. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy of each evaluation method were assessed and compared. RESULT: Specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy of mediastinoscopy were superior to those of radiological evaluation, but there was no significant difference in sensitivity. The sensitivity of mediastinoscopy was 28.6% in 62 patients with radiological N0/1 disease and 72.7% in 28 patients with radiological N2/3 disease. Seven of eight patients in whom positive nodes were not detected by the mediastinoscopy had subcarinal lymph node metastasis. CONCLUSION: Considering its invasiveness, the difficulty to reach certain node stations, and its low sensitivity in radiological N0/1 disease, mediastinoscopy should be selectively performed in radiological N2/3 disease rather than in all radiological cancer stages.
Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; Lymph Nodes ; Mediastinoscopy* ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity

PURPOSE: To determine whether intracellular localization of intravenously injected infection specific MoAb can be localized in the infected cells, immunohistochemical staining was obtained in animals infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One mg of intact mouse MoAb against mwobacteria (group I, n=10) and F(ab')2 (group II, n=6) were intravenously injected to the rabbits of each groups infected with M. tuberculosis H37RV. Immunohistochemical staining using an anti-mouse antibody was obtained at the 1,3, 5, 7 and 8th days in Group I and at the 1, 2, 3rd days in group II by streptavidin biotin method. For the control study, I mg of non specific polyclonal human IgG (group III, n=10) and 100 microgram of normal rabbit IgG F(ab')2 (group IV, n=6) were injected to the rabbits and guinea pigs respectively. RESULTS: Both groups (group I & II) showed a positive Ag-Ab reaction within the cytoplasm of monocytes. A weak but positive reaction was observed intracellularly in group III, however no positive reaction in group IV. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest intracellular Ag-Ab reaction plays an important role in the localization of infection by immunoscintigraphy using a specific MoAb fragments.
Animals ; Biotin ; Cytoplasm ; Guinea Pigs ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Mice ; Monocytes ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Rabbits ; Streptavidin ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary*

BACKGROUND: Pulse oximetry has been recommended as a standard of care for ICU, CCU, Post Anesthetic Care Unit as well as general anesthesia. The device provides valuable data regarding blood oxygenation. But there are some limitations and inaccuracies of pulse oximetry. The purpose of the present study is to assess the knowledge of pulse oximetry in the doctors and nurses who frequently use pulse oximeter in their practice. METHODS: We investigated 29 doctors(resident) and 41 nurses who answered a structured questionnaire about pulse oximetry. Questions were given about the knowledge of equipment, factors affecting readings, normal values in various patients, values in hypothetical clinical situations, education experience and source of information about pulse oximetry. RESULTS: Only 20% of doctors understood how a pulse oximeter worked and about 60% of doctors and 80% of nurses were confused about factors influencing readings. About 30% of doctors and 12% of nurses had received formal training about the pulse oximetry. Sources of information about pulse oximetry were operating manual, senior, books and journal. CONCLUSION: Our survey revealed that most of resident doctors and nurses using pulse oximeter were untrained, lacked knowledge of the basic principles and factors influencing saturation values in pulse oximetry. Therefore the systematic training program is important for doctors and nurses to use of pulse oximeter.(Korean J Anesthesiol 1996; 31: 791~796)
Anesthesia, General ; Education ; Humans ; Oximetry* ; Oxygen ; Reading ; Reference Values ; Standard of Care

BACKGROUND: Pulse oximetry has been recommended as a standard of care for ICU, CCU, Post Anesthetic Care Unit as well as general anesthesia. The device provides valuable data regarding blood oxygenation. But there are some limitations and inaccuracies of pulse oximetry. The purpose of the present study is to assess the knowledge of pulse oximetry in the doctors and nurses who frequently use pulse oximeter in their practice. METHODS: We investigated 29 doctors(resident) and 41 nurses who answered a structured questionnaire about pulse oximetry. Questions were given about the knowledge of equipment, factors affecting readings, normal values in various patients, values in hypothetical clinical situations, education experience and source of information about pulse oximetry. RESULTS: Only 20% of doctors understood how a pulse oximeter worked and about 60% of doctors and 80% of nurses were confused about factors influencing readings. About 30% of doctors and 12% of nurses had received formal training about the pulse oximetry. Sources of information about pulse oximetry were operating manual, senior, books and journal. CONCLUSION: Our survey revealed that most of resident doctors and nurses using pulse oximeter were untrained, lacked knowledge of the basic principles and factors influencing saturation values in pulse oximetry. Therefore the systematic training program is important for doctors and nurses to use of pulse oximeter.(Korean J Anesthesiol 1996; 31: 791~796)
Anesthesia, General ; Education ; Humans ; Oximetry* ; Oxygen ; Reading ; Reference Values ; Standard of Care

PURPOSE: Enterovirus infection is a type of viral infection that occurs relatively frequently in children during summer. It has clinical symptoms of non-specific fever, aseptic encephalomeningitis, gastrointestinal diseases, skin rash and, hand-foot-mouth disease. However, it can also occcaisionally, result in fatal symptoms like myocarditis, epicardial inflammation, transverse myelitis, quadriplegia and etc. There have been epidemic enterovirus studies, but not in the Chungnam area. Therefore, we undertook this study in order to comprehend the cause viruses in this area. Methods: We enlisted 157 children hospitalized with enteroviral infections at Soonchunhyang University hospital in Cheonan between May and August 2005. Cerebrospinal fluids or feces were collected during the acute phase after hospitalization, and observed the cytopathic effects caused by enterovirus and using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RESULTS: The number of children hospitalized due to possible enteroviral infection during the period of study was 157. The number of children who tested positive with the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction totalled 32 cases (20.4 percent). Among the children with entroviral diseases, 20 were male and 12 were female, thus the sex ratio of male to female was 1.67:1. Their clinical symptoms included fever most frequently (93.7 percent), was followed by headaches (90.0 percent), meningeal irritation signs (65.0 percent), and abdominal pain (30.0 percent). As for the type of isolated enterovirus, there were 17 cases of echovirus 18 and 6 cases of coxsackievirus B5. Furthermore, there were 2 cases of echovirus 9, 1 case of coxsackievirus A6 and coxsackievirus B3, respectively. But 5 cases were not determined by genotype. CONCLUSION: Echovirus 18 is circulating in Korea. We reported on identified enteroviruses, including echovirus 18, using RT-PCR in the Chungnam area during the summer of 2005.
Abdominal Pain ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Child* ; Chungcheongnam-do* ; Echovirus 9 ; Enterovirus ; Enterovirus B, Human ; Enterovirus Infections ; Exanthema ; Feces ; Female ; Fever ; Gastrointestinal Diseases ; Genotype ; Headache ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Korea ; Male ; Meningoencephalitis ; Myelitis, Transverse ; Myocarditis ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Quadriplegia ; Reverse Transcription ; Sex Ratio