458 female workers working in the small and medium scaled industries in Inchon area were surveyed to study their general characteristics, health behavior, working and environmental conditions, current health status etc. Self-administered questionnaire was developed by authors and distributed to the female workers with the explanation by trained interviewer on the purpose of survey and the method how to answer. The results were as follows: t. General characteristics showed that most(75.3%) of workers were living in their own home, and their age distribution was relatively even from teenagers to the forties. The level of education was high school graduate(including drop-out) in 69.4%, suggesting that the education level of female workers was increasing gradually. The marrital status was 69% in unmarried, and 31% in married state. 2. Survey on their health status showed that more than 20% of female workers complained that they have some kind of disease and most of them complained that they have chronic symptoms more than three kinds. Also, they complained at least two or three symptoms in physical, mental or sensoryneural symptoms respectively. But their medical care utility rate was only 22%. 3. There were no significantly correlated variables between health status and general characteristics(by x2-test). Among the variables on the health behavior, only alcohol drinking was significant to health status. Perceived health status related to the working environment was significantly different to the degree of work satisfaction and awareness for the exposure to harzadous materials. 4. Multivariable analysis showed that work satisfaction, awareness for the exposure to harzadous materials, alcohol drinking, type of employment were significantly related to the physical or mental health index, and also marrital status was to the physical health index. Work satisfaction, awareness for the exposure to harzadous materials, marrital status were related to the sensoryneural health index. Alcohol drinking, work satisfaction, awareness for the exposure to harzadous materials, marrital status were significantly related to the number of complained chronic symptoms. In summary, this study showed that inspite of wide and various range of the general characteristics of female industrial workers in Korea comparing to the past, there was high prevalence of disease due to the poor working conditions and low work satisfaction etc. Therefore, more detailed disease preventive policies or improvement of the work environment, and systematic management to raise the work satisfaction of female workers are urgently needed. And also, occupational health policies increasing the access to health care to provide the adequate health service for the workers who have perceived need are necessary.
Adolescent ; Age Distribution ; Alcohol Drinking ; Education ; Employment ; Female* ; Health Behavior ; Health Services ; Health Services Accessibility ; Humans ; Incheon ; Job Satisfaction ; Korea ; Mental Health ; Occupational Health ; Prevalence ; Single Person ; Surveys and Questionnaires

A cases is reported of congenital atlanto-occipital fusion in a 12-years-old girl. The lesion was treated by occipito-cervical arthrodesis by iliac bone grafting with wiring. The congenital atlanto-occipital fusion has not progressed in this 2 years of observation. This is presented with a review of literature.
Arthrodesis ; Bone Transplantation ; Female ; Humans

Chondroblastoma is a rare primary bone tumor which originates from cartilage, and represents approximate 1% af all bone tumor. The chondroblastoma arises most frequently from the epiphysis of the long bones with the humerus being the commonest site. It afflicts usually the young under 25 years with greater incidence in male. As there is no cartilage cell on craniofacial bone which is mainly fromed by intramembranous ossification, the chondroblastoma on the craniofacial bone is extremely rare. But the chondroblastoma recurred frequently in craniofacial bone when the mass is excised incompletely or curretted and, as the tumor has the outstanding ability of local invasiveness, it destructs the adjacent bone. In addition, it is difficult to diagnose differentially from sarcoma or giant cell tumor histopathologically. Due to the entities described above, it is necessary to remove the entire tumor mass as complete as possible, to treat with radiation pre or postoperatively for preventing from recurrence, and to observe for a long time. The chondroblastoma on temporal bone is rare and is difficult to diagnose and treat successfully. So we'd like to present a case of chondroblastoma which was originated from temporal side of TMJ with literatural review.
Cartilage ; Chondroblastoma ; Epiphyses ; Giant Cell Tumors ; Humans ; Humerus ; Incidence ; Male ; Recurrence ; Sarcoma ; Temporal Bone ; Temporomandibular Joint*

BACKGROUND: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with metabolic syndrome including insulin resistance, hypertension, dyslipidemia, central obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. In NAFLD, insulin resistance plays an important role in the progression of liver damage. In this study, we evaluated insulin resistance, plasma adiponectin, hepatic steatosis, and their association in adults with normal liver transaminase concentrations. METHODS: We analyzed 111 subjects, aged over 20 years old, who visited the Health Management Center at Chung-Ang University Hospital between May 2006 and August 2006. They had neither history nor clinical evidence of diabetes, cardiovascular or liver disease. They were divided into three groups by the degree of hepatic steatosis based on ultrasound findings. Anthropometric parameters were measured and blood samples were drawn after eight hours of fasting. RESULTS: Hepatic steatosis had a positive correlation with body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, triglycerides, HOMA-IR, and QUICKI. Moreover, it had a negative correlation with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and adiponectin. Triglycerides, Adiponectin, and QUICKI were independent variables in predicting the degree of hepatic steatosis. CONCLUSION: This finding suggests that triglycerides and plasma adiponectin are independent predictors of hepatic steatosis in adults with normal liver transaminase concentrations.
Adiponectin ; Adult ; Aged ; Blood Pressure ; Body Mass Index ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Cholesterol ; Dyslipidemias ; Fatty Liver ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Insulin Resistance ; Lipoproteins ; Liver ; Liver Diseases ; Obesity, Abdominal ; Plasma ; Triglycerides ; Waist Circumference

PURPOSE: The lithogenic risk factors were compared between the first time stone patients and recurrent stone patients according to age and gender. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed stone metabolic studies on first time stone formers (67 men and 42 women) and the recurrent stone formers (40 men and 20 women). We analyzed the groups' excretion differences for the lithogenic and inhibitory constituents such as calcium, uric acid, oxalate, sodium and citrate; we measured volume from the 24-hour urine samples and calcium, uric acid, sodium, potassium, chloride and phosphate from the serum samples. Hypercalciuria, hyperoxaluria, hypocitraturia and a low 24-hour urine volume (<1,500ml) were compared between the two groups according to age and gender. RESULTS: Hypocitraturia was the most common metabolic abnormality in all the groups. The incidence of hypocitraturia was higher in the recurrent stone formers (50.0%) than in the first time stone formers (48.6%), but this was not statistically significant. A low urine volume was shown to have more significant association (p<0.05) for recurrent stone formers (33.3%) compared to the first time stone formers (18.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Hypocitraturia was the most common lithogenic risk factor for stone patients. In the recurrent stone formers, a low urine volume is the risk factor that differentiates them from the first time stone formers.
Calcium ; Citric Acid ; Fluid Therapy ; Humans ; Hypercalciuria ; Hyperoxaluria ; Incidence ; Male ; Oxalic Acid ; Potassium ; Risk Factors* ; Sodium ; Uric Acid ; Urinary Calculi

PURPOSE: To quantify the cardiac dose reduction during breathing adapted radiotherapy using Real-time Position Management (RPM) system in the treatment of left-sided breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-two patients with left-sided breast cancer underwent CT scans during breathing maneuvers including free breathing (FB), deep inspiration breath-hold (DIBH), and end inspiration breath-hold (EIBH). The RPM system was used to monitor respiratory motion, and the in-house self respiration monitoring (SRM) system was used for visual feedback. For each scan, treatment plans were generated and dosimetric parameters from DIBH and EIBH plans were compared to those of FB plans. RESULTS: All patients completed CT scans with different breathing maneuvers. When compared with FB plans, DIBH plans demonstrated significant reductions in irradiated heart volume and the heart V25, with the relative reduction of 71% and 70%, respectively (p < 0.001). EIBH plans also resulted in significantly smaller irradiated heart volume and lower heart V25 than FB plans, with the relative reduction of 39% and 37%, respectively (p = 0.002). Despite of significant expansion of lung volume using inspiration breath-hold, there were no significant differences in left lung V25 among the three plans. CONCLUSION: In comparison with FB, both DIBH and EIBH plans demonstrated a significant reduction of radiation dose to the heart. In the training course, SRM system was useful and effective in terms of positional reproducibility and patient compliance.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Cardiac Volume ; Feedback, Sensory ; Heart ; Humans ; Lung ; Patient Compliance ; Radiotherapy* ; Respiration* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

No abstract available.
Chordoma*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Babesiosis* ; Clindamycin ; Humans ; Male* ; Quinine

No abstract available.
Animals ; Babesiosis* ; Clindamycin ; Humans ; Male* ; Quinine

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to compare the shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) with the rigid ureteroscopic stone removal (URS) in order to establish the efficacy in treating upper ureteral stones according to the stone size. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed 328 patients who have been treated for upper ureteral stones between January 1999 and December 2002. 227 patients were treated with SWL, and 101 patients were treated with URS. We analyzed the success rates of the stone removal, reasons for failure, and complication rates of each procedure. RESULTS: The overall success rate of the URS was 93.1%. In terms of stone size, the success rates were 94.5% (<10mm) and 91.3% (>10mm), respectively. With the SWL treatments, the overall success rates after the first, second, and third sessions were 59%, 78%, and 92.5%, respectively. According to the stone size, the success rates were 96.5% (<10mm) and 85.7% (>10mm) after third sessions, respectively. The success rate was significantly affected by the size of the stone in the SWL group, but this was not the case with the URS group. The associated complication rates of URS and SWL were 11% and 7%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, URS was relatively more efficacious than SWL when the stone was larger than 10 mm. The proper selection of patients for in situ SWL or URS would improve the results of the initial treatment.
Humans ; Lithotripsy* ; Shock* ; Ureter* ; Ureteral Calculi ; Ureteroscopy