PURPOSE: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been recognized as an important childhood liver disease, especially where the prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing. The purpose of this study is to clarify the usefulness of elevated serum aminotransferase activities and their ratio for predicting the presence of fatty liver and its severity in obese children. METHODS: Forty-four children (M/F 29/15, age 4 to 16 years) with obesity (weight excess>20%) were analyzed retrospectively with medical records based on degree of obesity, bioelectrical impedence, serum aminotransferase activities, lipid profiles and ultrasonography. RESULTS: 1) Ultrasonography was carried out in 34 cases. Elevated serum ALT was found in 89.7% (26/29) of the patients diagnosed as fatty liver by ultrasonography and decreased AST/ALT ratio (<1) was found in 96.6% (28/29). There was a strong correlation between elevated serum ALT (>45 IU/L) or decreased AST/ALT ratio (<1) and the fatty liver in obese children (p<0.05). 2) There was no significant correlation between the serum ALT or AST/ALT ratio and the degree of fatty liver (p>0.05). 3) There was a significant correlation between total cholesterol, triglyceride and fatty liver (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Serum ALT activity and AST/ALT ratio were useful to predict the presence of fatty liver diagnosed by ultrasonography in obese children, whereas they were not useful to predict the degree of fatty liver. Therefore, to prevent fatty liver progressing to advanced liver disease, it is necessary to manage and monitor the obese children continuously, especially those who have predicting factors of fatty liver.
Child* ; Cholesterol ; Fatty Liver* ; Humans ; Liver Diseases ; Medical Records ; Obesity ; Pediatric Obesity ; Prevalence ; Retrospective Studies ; Triglycerides ; Ultrasonography

An unbalanced translocation is frequently the result of inheritance of an unbalanced haploid set from a parent with a balanced translocation. Families in which one parent is a balanced translocation carrier fall into the following classes : Those in which none of the possible abnormal offsprings is viable; Those in which one type of offspring, usually the one with the smaller deletion, is born alive; Those in which two types of abnormal offspring are viable. We report a neonate whose karyotype was 46,XX,der(2)t(2;7)(q21;p21.2),der(20)t(2;20)(q21;p13). She was small for her gestational age and had multiple anomalies such as exophthalmos, corneal opacity, short neck, tongue tie, clinodactyly, atrial septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus and ventriculomegaly. Moreover, her mother's karyotype was 46,XX,der(2)t(2;7)(q21;p21.2),del(16)(q22.1),der(20)t(2;20)(q21;p13) but her father had normal karyotype. The same derivative chrosomes were found between mother and her infant, except for del(16)(q22.1) in her mother and these same unbalanced translocations in a two-generation family are extremely rare.
Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2* ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 20* ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 7 ; Corneal Opacity ; Ductus Arteriosus, Patent ; Exophthalmos ; Fathers ; Gestational Age ; Haploidy ; Heart Septal Defects, Atrial ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Karyotype ; Mothers ; Neck ; Parents ; Tongue ; Wills

PURPOSE: Rotavirus is one of the most important causes of nosocomial infections among children. The aim of this study is to determine the risk of nosocomial rotavirus infections and to evaluate the effectiveness of breast-feeding and probiotics in the prevention of nosocomial rotavirus infections. METHODS: This study was carried out on admitted children without diarrhea between March 1, 2003 and February 29, 2004. Three hundred ninety patients aged 4 days to 13 years during this study were available. We examined the feces of all children for rotavirus by latex agglutination on admission, during hospital, and after discharge, to see whether they developed diarrhea or not. RESULTS: Nosocomial rotavirus infections was significantly increased with children under 12 months of age(P=0.008). The monthly attack rate was great between December and March(P=0.046). Prolonged hospital stay was associated with an increased attack rate of nosocomial rotavirus infections (P=0.003). The risk of nosocomial rotavirus infections was not associated with the number of roommates and whether or not they were breast-fed or fed on probiotics. CONCLUSION: Nosocomial rotavirus infections are significantly more likely to occur in children under 12 months of age, admitted between December and March, and with prolonged hospital stays. Prompt identification and isolation of children with nosocomial rotavirus infections, even without diarrhea, may decrease rates of nosocomial rotavirus infections.
Agglutination ; Child* ; Cross Infection ; Diarrhea ; Feces ; Humans ; Latex ; Length of Stay ; Probiotics ; Risk Factors* ; Rotavirus Infections* ; Rotavirus*

Small cell carcinoma of the gallbladder is a type of neuroendocrine tumor and very rare. We report ultrasound, CT and MR findings of a small cell carcinoma of the gallbladder that was confirmed by pathology. Small cell carcinoma of the gallbladder was seen as a well-defined mass with peripheral rim enhancement in the gallbladder. In spite of the large size of the mass, direct and extensive invasion of the liver was not detected. However, there were many metastatic lymph nodes.
Carcinoma, Small Cell ; Gallbladder ; Liver ; Lymph Nodes ; Neuroendocrine Tumors

BACKGROUND: It has been sugested that excessive airway narrowing in asthma may be detected by a decrease in forced vital capacity (FVC). A volume differrence between slow vital capacity (SVC) and FVC may be used as a surrogate index of airway collapse. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between an airway collapsibility index (CI) and airflow limitation or airway hyperresponsiveness in asthma. METHODS: Forty-six patients with suspected asthma and 21 normal control subjects were enrolled. CI was defined as a difference between SVC and FVC, and measured before and after a methacholine (MCh) bronchoprovocation test. Positive response to MCh was defined as a fall of FEV1 by more than 12%. RESULTS: CI significantly increased from 1.10+/-3.86% to 5.52+/-7.91% after MCh in the positive MCh group (n=19, p<0.01). Not only FVC but also SVC was significantly decreased after MCh. One-fifth of the decrease in FVC was caused by the increase in CI. Both FVC and SVC were significantly related to baseline FEV1 values and in percent change after MCh. Although CI was also significantly related to FEV1 in percent change after MCh. CI was significantly higher in the positive MCh group than in the control and was not significantly related to baseline FEV1 values. Furthermore, the relationship of CI values between before and after MCh was significant (r=0.622, p<0.01). CI was not significantly different according to the severity of MCh-PC20. CONCLUSION: Because the relationship between CI and the severity of airflow limitation or MCh-PC20 was less significant. CI may be better than FVC to represent the characteristic of excessive airway narrowing in asthma.
Asthma* ; Humans ; Methacholine Chloride ; Vital Capacity

The legends of Fig. 1 were marked incorrectly.

Age-related body composition changes such as sarcopenia and obesity affect functional decline in the elderly. We investigated the relationship between body composition parameters and functional limitation in older Korean adults. We enrolled 242 men and 231 women aged > or = 65 yr from the Korean elderly cohort. We used appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) divided by height2 (ASM/Ht2) and ASM divided by weight (ASM/Wt). The isokinetic strength of knee extensor muscles were measured using an isokinetic device. Functional limitations were assessed using the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) score less than nine. Men within the bottom tertile of ASM/Ht2 confer an increased risk for functional limitation compared with those within the top tertile (OR, 6.24; 95% CI, 1.78-22.0). However, in women, subjects within the lowest ASM/Wt tertile had a higher risk compared with those within the highest tertile instead of ASM/Ht2 (OR, 7.60; 95% CI, 2.25-25.7). Leg muscle strength remained the strong measure even after controlling for muscle mass only in women. Only large waist circumference was positively associated with functional limitation only in women. We might consider a different muscle index to assess functional limitation according to the gender.
Aged ; Aging ; *Body Composition ; Body Mass Index ; Female ; Humans ; Knee/*physiology ; Male ; Muscle Strength/*physiology ; Muscle, Skeletal/physiology ; Obesity/*epidemiology/metabolism ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Sarcopenia/*epidemiology/metabolism ; Sex Factors ; Waist Circumference

There were few studies about anatomic characteristics in Korean humerus recently. In addition, there was no comparison between Westerner (European and American) and Korean in anatomic characteristics of humerus. The aims of this paper are therefore to investigate anatomic characteristics in Korean humerus and to compare them with those of Westerner humerus. The seventy-two humerus (male : 66, female : 6) were scanned by computed tomography and three dimensional (3D) models of humerus were then reconstructed from acquired cross-section images. The twenty-one anatomic characteristics of the humerus were analyzed and were measured for each humerus. From the results, humeral head vertical diameter in the present study was generally bigger than that in the previous study (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between the anatomic characteristics of the right and left humerus in the present Korean (p>0.05). Humeral head inclination angle, greater tuberosity lateral offset distance, humeral head height in Korean were generally bigger than those in Westerner (p<0.05). This study may contribute to develop an optimal implants and prostheses for the treatment of humerus fractures of Koran.
Female ; Humans ; Humeral Head ; Humerus ; Prostheses and Implants

No abstract available.
Wound Healing* ; Wounds and Injuries*

Recent literatures suggest that pulmonary embolus secondary to renal cell cancer may be more common than previously suspected. A 63-year-old man, who suffered a massive tumor embolism to the right main pulmonary artery after surgery for renal cell carcinoma with vena caval and renal vein invasion, was treated by emergency pulmonary embolectomy using cardiopulmonary bypass. Renal cell carcinoma occasionally extends into the inferior vena cava as a tumor thrombus. In such patients, removal of the tumor thrombus from the inferior vena cava has to be performed in addition to radical nephrectomy. However, the massive pulmonary tumor embolism is a major potential hazard during radical surgical resection. To prevent intraoperative pulmonary embolisms, scheduled use of cardiopulmonary bypass with the cooperation of cardiovascular surgeons is recommended in addition to the standard proximal vena caval occlusion technique of clipping and clamping.
Carcinoma, Renal Cell* ; Cardiopulmonary Bypass ; Constriction ; Embolectomy ; Embolism ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating* ; Nephrectomy ; Pulmonary Artery ; Pulmonary Embolism ; Renal Veins ; Thrombosis ; Vena Cava, Inferior