Fourty cases of postpartum heart failure occuring in Korean women in the Dept. of Int. Med., Pusan University Hospital are reported, with and analysis of clinical data including frequency, age, time of onset, clinical features, hemoglobin, liver function, electrocardiographic and chest X-ray findings. The following results were obtained. 1. The cases were mostly found in 20-29 years age group, 50% of the total cases. 2. Eighteen cases of fourty patients experienced the symptoms during the 2nd week after delivery and 12 cases complained the symptoms during 4th week. 3. Only six cases noted onset of heart disease following the 4th pregnancy, whereas sixteen patients experienced this phenomenon after the first gestation, eight patients after the 2nd gestation and ten patients after the 3rd pregnancy. 4. At the admission the patients were suffering from paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, orthopnea, exertional dyspnea and generalized edema. Physical findings revealed cardiomegaly, gallop rhythm, edema, pulmonary fine rales and systolic murmur in frequency. 5. Electrocardiograms were available at the time of presentation in thirty patients. Twenty four patients had left ventricular hypertrophy, 18 patients sinus tachycardia, 3 patients lower voltage. 6. The chest X-ray film showed the cardiomegaly in 15 cases, 83.3% of the obtained 18 cases, 12 cases pulmonary edema, 3 cases pericardial effusion. 7. The venous pressure was measured in 15 patients. In 5 cases the venous pressure was normal and in 10 increased above 150mmH2O. 8. With prompt treatment by rest, salt restriction, diuretics and digoxin the clinical symptoms improved in 31 cases but 9 patients died at the admission.
Busan ; Cardiomegaly ; Digoxin ; Diuretics ; Dyspnea ; Edema ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Heart Diseases ; Heart Failure* ; Heart* ; Humans ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular ; Liver ; Pericardial Effusion ; Postpartum Period* ; Pregnancy ; Pulmonary Edema ; Respiratory Sounds ; Systolic Murmurs ; Tachycardia, Sinus ; Thorax ; Venous Pressure ; X-Ray Film

PURPOSE: To evaluate the values of C-reactive proteins(CRP) for predicting the severity and results of treatment for acute pyelonephritis in women, we compared the severity of symptoms and signs, the laboratory findings and the initial serum CRP according to the early response to treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 298 female patients who were diagnosed with acute uncomplicated pyelonephritis between January 2002 and Match 2007. All the medical records were reviewed for a variety of factors, and the baseline characteristics and CRP level were compared between the patients with an early response to treatment and those without according to the 3rd hospital day urine analysis. RESULTS: The initial white blood cell(WBC) counts, the CRP level, the neutrophil ratio and severity of symptoms were significantly higher in the delayed response groups than those in the early response groups. The age, history of previous pyelonephritis, symptom duration, body mass index(BMI), and the number of positive blood and urine cultures were not different between the two groups. According to the results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis, the CRP level, neutrophil ratio and mild symptoms were independent predictive variables that affected the delayed response. The odds ratios(95% CI) were 1.078(1.028-1.131) for the CRP, 1.030(1.001-1.060) for the neutrophil ratio and 9.268(1.072-80.166) for the severe symptoms. The differences between the areas under the ROC curves for CRP and the WBC counts and for the CRP level and neutrophil ratio were statistically significant(p<0.001 and p<0.05, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: We found that the discriminatory power of the initial CRP level was high with regard to predicting an early response. So, we were able to determine a CRP level that would be useful in guiding hospitalization.
Acute-Phase Proteins ; C-Reactive Protein* ; Female ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Medical Records ; Neutrophils ; Pyelonephritis* ; Retrospective Studies ; ROC Curve

OBJECTIVE: The authors evaluated the accuracies and ease of use of several commonly used microanastomosis training models (synthetic tube, chicken wing, and living rat model). METHODS: A survey was conducted among neurosurgeons and neurosurgery residents at a workshop held in 2009 at the authors' institute. Questions addressed model accuracy (similarity to real vessels and actual procedures) and practicality (availability of materials and ease of application in daily practice). Answers to each question were rated using a 5-point scale. Participants were also asked what types of training methods they would chose to improve their skills and to introduce the topic to other neurosurgeons or neurosurgery residents. RESULTS: Of the 24 participants, 20 (83.3%) responded to the survey. The living rat model was favored for model accuracy (p < 0.001; synthetic tube -0.95 +/- 0.686, chicken wing, 0.15 +/- 0.587, and rat, 1.75 +/- 0.444) and the chicken wing model for practicality (p < 0.001; synthetic tube -1.55 +/- 0.605, chicken wing, 1.80 +/- 0.523, and rat, 1.30 +/- 0.923). All (100%) chose the living rat model for improving their skills, and for introducing the subject to other neurosurgeons or neurosurgery residents, the chicken wing and living rat models were selected by 18 (90%) and 20 (100%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Of 3 methods examined, the chicken wing model was found to be the most practical, but the living rat model was found to represent reality the best. We recommend the chicken wing model to train surgeons who have mastered basic techniques, and the living rat model for experienced surgeons to maintain skill levels.
Animals ; Cerebral Revascularization ; Chickens ; Microsurgery ; Neurosurgery ; Rats ; Wings, Animal

This project was a service-cum-research effort with a quasi-experimental study design to examine the health benefits of an integrated Family Planning (FP)/Maternal & Child health (MCH) Service approach that provides crucial factors missing in the present on-going programs. THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES WERE: 1) To test the effectiveness of trained nurse/midwives (MW) assigned as change agents in the Health Sub-Center (HSC) to bring about the changes in the eight FP/MCH indicators, namely; (i) FP/MCH contacts between field workers and their clients (ii) the use of effective FP methods, (iii) the medically supervised deliveries, (iv) prenatal care by medically qualified personnel, (v) medically supervised deliveries, (vi) the rate of induced abortion, (vii) maternal and infant morbidity, and (viii) preinatal & infant mortality. 2) To measure the integrative linkage (contacts) between MW & HSC workers and between HSC and clients. 3) To examine the organizational or administrative factors influencing integrative linkage between health workers. STUDY DESIGN: The above objectives called for quasi-experimental design setting up a study and control area with and without a midwife. An active intervention program (FP/MCH minimum "package" program) was conducted for a 2 year period from June 1982-July 1984 in Seosan County and "before and after" surveys were conducted to measure the change. SERVICE INPUT: This study was undertaken by the Soonchunhyang University in collaboration with WHO. After a baseline survery in 1981, trained nurses/midwives were introduced into two health sub-centers in a rural setting (Seosan county) for a 2 year period from 1982 to 1984. A major service input was the establishment of midwifery services in the existing health delivery system with emphasis on nurse/midwife's role as the link between health workers (nurse aids) and village health workers, and the referral of risk patients to the private physician (OBGY specialist). An evaluation survey was made in August 1984 to assess the effectiveness of this alternative integrated approach in the study areas in comparison with the control area which had normal government services. METHOD OF EVALUATION: a. In this study, the primary objective was first to examine to what extent the FP/MCH package program brought about changes in the pre-determined eight indicators (outcome and impact measures) and the following relationship was first analyzed. b. Neverthless, this project did not automatically accept the assumption that if two or more activities were integrated, the results would automatically be better than a non-integrated or categorical program. There is a need to assess the "intergration process" itself within the package program. The process of integration was measured in terms of interactive linkages, or the quantity & quality of contacts between workers & clients and among workers. Intergrative linkages were hypothesized to be influenced by organizational factors at the HSC clinic level including HSC goals, sltructure, authority, leadership style, resources, and personal characteristics of HSC staff. The extent or degree of integration, as measured by the intensity of integrative linkages, was in turn presumed to influence programme performance. Thus as indicated diagrammatically below, organizational factors constituted the independent variables, integration as the intervening variable and programme performance with respect to family planning and health services as the dependent variable. Concerning organizational factors, however, due to the limited number of HSCs (2 in the study area and 3 in the control area), they were studied by participatory observation of an anthropologist who was independent of the project. In this observation, we examined whether the assumed integration process actually occurred or not. If not, what were the constraints in producing an effective integration process. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: A) PROGRAM EFFECTS AND IMPACT. 1. Effects on FP use: During this 2 year action period, FP acceptance increased from 58% in 1981 to 78% in 1984 in both the study and control areas. This increase in both areas was mainly due to the new family planning campaign driven by the Government for the same study period. Therefore, there was no increment of FP acceptance rate due to additional input of MW to the on-going FP program. But in the study area, quality aspects of FP were somewhat improved, having a better continuation rate of IUDs & pills and more use of effective Contraceptive methods in comparison with the control area. 2. Effects of use of MCH services: Between the study and control areas, however, there was a significant difference in maternal and child health care. For example, the coverage of prenatal care was increased from 53% for 1981 birth cohort to 78% for 1984 birth cohort in the study area. In the control area, the same increased from 41% (1981) to 65% (1984). It is noteworthy that almost two thirds of the recent birth cohort received prenatal care even in the control area, indicating that there is a growing demand of MCH care as the size of family norm becomes smaller. 3. There has been a substantive increase in delivery care by medical professions in the study area, with an annual increase rate of 10% due to midwives input in the study areas. The project had about two times greater effect on postnatal care (68% vs. 33%) & delivery care (45.2% vs. 26.1%). 4. The study area had better reproductive efficiency (wanted pregnancies with FP practice & healthy live births survived by one year old) than the control area, especially among women under 30 (14.1% vs. 9.6%). The proportion of women who preferred the 1st trimester for their first prenatal care rose significantly in the study area as compared to the control area (24% vs 13%). B) EFFECTS ON INTERACTIVE LINKAGE. 1. This project made a contribution in making several useful steps in the direction of service integration, namely; i) The health workers have become familiar with procedures on how to work together with each other (especially with a midwife) in carrying out their work in FP/MCH and, ii) The health workers have gotten a feeling of the usefulness of family health records (statistical integration) in identifying targets in their own work and their usefulness in carrying for family health. 2. On the other hand, because of a lack of required organizational factors, complete linkage was not obtained as the project intended. i) In regards to the government health worker's activities in terms of home visiting there was not much difference between the study & control areas though the MW did more home visiting than Government health workers. ii) In assessing the service performance of MW & health workers, the midwives balanced their workload between 40% FP, 40% MCH & 20% other activities (mainly immunization). However, 85-90% of the services provided by the health workers were other than FP/MCH, mainly for immunization such as the encephalitis campaign. In the control area, a similar pattern was observed. Over 75% of their service was other than FP/MCH. Therefore, the pattern shows the health workers are a long way from becoming multipurpose workers even though the government is pushing in this direction. 3. Villagers were much more likely to visit the health sub-center clinic in the study area than in the control area (58% vs. 31%) and for more combined care (45% vs. 23%). C) ORGANIZATION FACTORS (ADMINISTRATIVE INTEGRATIVE ISSUES). 1. When MW (new workers with higher qualification) were introduced to HSC, it was noted that there were conflicts between the existing HSC workers (Nurse aids with less qualification than MW) and the MW for the beginning period of the project. The cause of the conflict was studied by an anthropologist and it was pointed out that these functional integration problems stemmed from the structural inadequacies of the health subcenter organization as indicated below; i) There is still no general consensus about the objectives and goals of the project between the project staff and the existing health workers. ii) There is no formal linkage between the responsibility of each member's job in the health sub-center. iii) There is still little chance for midwives to play a catalytic role or to establish communicative networks between workers in order to link various knowledge and skills to provide better FP/MCH services in the health sub-center. 2. Based on the above findings the project recommended to the County Chief (who has power to control the administrative staff and the technical staff in his county) the following; i) In order to solve the conflicts between the individual roles and functions in performing health care activities, there must be goals agreed upon by both. ii) The health sub-center must function as an autonomous organization to undertake the integration health project. In order to do that, it is necessary to support administrative considerations, and to establish a communication system for supervision and to control of the health sub-centers. iii) The administrative organization, tentatively, must be organized to bind the health worker's midwives's and director's jobs by an organic relationship in order to achieve the integrative system under the leadership of health sub-center director. After submitting this observation report, there has been better understanding from frequent meetings & communication between HW/MW in FP/MCH work as the program developed. Lessons learned from the Seosan Project (on issues of FP/MCH integration in Korea). 1) A majority or about 80% of the couples are now practicing FP. As indicated by the study, there is a growing demand from clients for the health system to provide more MCH services than FP in order to maintain the achieved small size of family through FP practice. It is fortunate to see that the government is now formulating a MCH policy for the year 2,000 and revising MCH laws and regulations to emphasize more MCH care for achieving a small size family through planning practice. 2) Goal consensus in FP/MCH should be made among the health workers & administrators, especially to emphasize the need of care of "wanted" child. But there is a long way to go to realize the "real" integration of FP into MCH in Korea, unless there is a structural integration FP/MCH because a categorical FP is still first priority to reduce the rate of population growth for economic reasons but not yet for health/welfare reasons in practice. 3) There should be more financial allocation: (i) a midwife should be made available to help to promote the MCH program and coordinate services, (ii) there should be a health sub-center director who can provide leadership training for managing the integrated program. There is a need for "organizational support", if the decision of integration is made to obtain benefit from both FP & MCH. In other words, costs should be paid equally to both FP/MCH. The integration slogan itself, without the commitment of paying such costs, is powerless to advocate it. 4) Need of management training for middle level health personnel is more acute as the Government has already constructed 90 MCH centers attached to the County Health Center but without adequate manpower, facilities, and guidelines for integrating the work of both FP and MCH. 5) The local government still considers these MCH centers only as delivery centers to take care only of those visiting maternity cases. The MCH center should be a center for the management of all pregnancies occurring in the community and the promotion of FP with a systematic and effective linkage of resources available in the county such as i.e. Village Health Workers, Community Health Practitioner, Health Sub-center Physicians & Health workers, Doctors and Midwives in MCH center, OBGY Specialists in clinics & hospitals as practiced by the Seosan project at primary health care level.
Abortion, Induced ; Administrative Personnel ; Child ; Child Health ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Cohort Studies ; Community Health Workers ; Consensus ; Contraception ; Cooperative Behavior ; Delivery of Health Care ; Encephalitis ; Family Characteristics ; Family Health ; Family Planning Services* ; Female ; Hand ; Health Personnel ; Health Services ; House Calls ; Humans ; Immunization ; Infant ; Infant Mortality ; Insurance Benefits ; Clinical Trial* ; Jurisprudence ; Korea* ; Leadership ; Live Birth ; Local Government ; Midwifery ; Organization and Administration ; Parturition ; Population Growth ; Postnatal Care ; Pregnancy ; Prenatal Care ; Primary Health Care ; Referral and Consultation ; Social Control, Formal ; Specialization

Pulmonary Langerhans' cell histiocytosis is an uncommon granulomatous disorder of unknown cause. The authors retrospectively evaluated radiographs and computed tomographic findings of five patients with biopsy-proven pulmonary Langerhans' cell histiocytosis. The main structural abnormalities consisted of small nodules and cystic air spaces, but one case showed only pneumothorax due to bullae rupture. Its distribution has been known predominently in the upper lung fields, but in our cases, the lung lesions were distributed in the entire lung fields or predominently in the lower lung fields. We propose that pulmonary Langerhans' cell histiocytosis is extremely variable of its structural abnormalities and distribution.
Histiocytosis* ; Humans ; Lung ; Pneumothorax ; Retrospective Studies ; Rupture

BACKGROUND: Thymopentin(TP-5) is an immunomodulatory agent which may be a promising new drug in the treatment of patients with severe atopic dermatitis. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of thymopentin for treatment of severe atopic dermatitis. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Fifteen patients with severe atopic dermatitis received subcutaneous injections of 50mg thymopentin three times per week for 6 weeks. Clinical extent and severity parameters were assessed at baseline, at regular intervals during therapy and 4 weeks posttherapy. Use of antihistamine and topical steroid were permitted. RESULT: Significant reduction in severity scores and body surface area involvement was observed and no significant side effects were noted(p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Thymopentin may be considered to be an effective adjunctive therapeutic agent in the treatment of severe atopic dermatitis. Further studies will be needed to determine the action mechanism of thymopentin.
Body Surface Area ; Dermatitis, Atopic* ; Humans ; Injections, Subcutaneous ; Thymopentin*

OBJECTIVE: To assess the results of superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery anastomosis (SMA) in atherosclerotic disease (ASD) and in adult moyamoya disease (MMD) by comparing the complications that arise. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed patients with ASD or adult MMD treated by means of SMA, between December 2004 and December 2006, at our neurovascular center. During this period, we performed 115 SMAs on 108 patients: 61 on ASD patients (61 SMAs; the ASD group) and 47 on adult MMD patients (54 SMAs; the MMD group). RESULTS: We found a higher incidence of permanent neurological deficits (PNDs) and a lower incidence of transient neurological deficits (TNDs) in the MMD group than in the ASD group (p-value=0.047). Patients with a preoperative stroke (cerebral infarction/hemorrhage) history were more likely to develop postoperative PND than were the patients with a preoperative history of transient ischemic attack (TIA), in both the ASD (p-values=0.012 and 0.033, respectively) and MMD groups (p-values=0.000 and 0.015, respectively), regardless of overall patients (n=108) and single SMA group (n=62). Delayed seizure (seizure occurring > 1 month after SMA) occurred only in 8 MMD patients (8/47, 17.0%; p-value=0.003) out of all 108 patients and in 2 patients (2/10, 20%, p-value=0.014) out of the single SMA group. CONCLUSION: Regardless of whether the diagnosis is ASD or MMD, patients with TIA preoperatively seem more prone to develop postoperative TND, and patients with a stroke history seem more prone to develop PND in both ASD and MMD groups. However, MMD patients appear more likely to experience a delayed seizure attack after SMA than ASD patients are.
Adult ; Cerebral Arteries ; Humans ; Incidence ; Ischemic Attack, Transient ; Moyamoya Disease ; Retrospective Studies ; Seizures ; Stroke

OBJECTIVE: Extracranial carotid artery aneurysm is a rare vascular disease. In this study, we present our experience with extracranial carotid artery aneurysm and we review the related articles with addressing different treatment options and their results. METHODS: Between 2003 and 2011, 11 patients (mean age : 52.7 years) were diagnosed to harbor extracranial carotid artery aneurysms. Five patients underwent various surgeries and 2 patients were treated by endovascular methods. Four patients were managed conservatively. RESULTS: There were no perioperative/periprocedural mortality or morbidity related to the treatment of extracranial carotid artery aneurysms. During follow-up (mean follow-up : 39.3 months), 1 patient died of an unrelated cause and 2 other patients underwent stenting and/or angioplasty due to asymptomatic progressive stenosis of the treated site. CONCLUSION: Aneurysm can be treated with low periprocedural risk by utilizing various therapeutic modalities. Long-term follow-up is mandatory to check for stenosis around the treatment site.
Aneurysm ; Angioplasty ; Carotid Arteries ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Stents ; Vascular Diseases

Treating diseases in the field of neurosurgery has progressed concomitantly with technical advances. Here, as a surgical armamentarium for the treatment of cerebral aneurysms, the history and present status of the keyhole approach and the use of neuroendoscopy are reviewed, including our clinical data. The major significance of keyhole approach is to expose an essential space toward a target, and to minimize brain exposure and retraction. Among several kinds of keyhole approaches, representative keyhole approaches for anterior circulation aneurysms include superciliary and lateral supraorbital, frontolateral, mini-pterional and mini-interhemispheric approaches. Because only a fixed and limited approach angle toward a target is permitted via the keyhole, however, specialized surgical devices and preoperative planning are very important. Neuroendoscopy has helped to widen the indications of keyhole approaches because it can supply illumination and visualization of structures beyond the straight line of microscopic view. In addition, endoscopic indocyanine green fluorescence angiography is useful to detect and correct any compromise of the perforators and parent arteries, and incomplete clipping. The authors think that keyhole approach and neuroendoscopy are just an intermediate step and robotic neurosurgery would be realized in the near future.
Aneurysm ; Arteries ; Brain ; Fluorescein Angiography ; Humans ; Indocyanine Green ; Intracranial Aneurysm* ; Lighting ; Neuroendoscopy* ; Neurosurgery ; Parents

PURPOSE: The increased use of antibiotics may be the main factor responsible for the development and spread of bacterial resistance. This study demonstrated the relation between quinolone use and the rate of isolating ciprofloxacin-resistant(CIPRO-R) Escherichia coli(E.coli) in patients with urinary tract infection(UTI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 2001 to 2006, we determined antimicrobial use for 2,803 in terms of the defined daily dose(DDD) and the antimicrobial use density(AUD), and we surveyed the isolation rates of CIPRO-R E.coli in UTIs in both inpatients and outpatients. We also analyzed the correlation between the number of prescriptions and the resistance rates. RESULTS: Of the 637(22.7%) CIPRO-R E.coli isolates, 297(46.6%) were from inpatients and 340(53.4%) were from outpatients. There was a statistically significant correlation between the rate of isolating CIPRO-R E.coli and the amount of quinolone use for the inpatients(r=0.815, p<0.05) as well as the outpatients(r=0.804, p<0.05). A logistic regression analysis identified previous quinolone use as the independent risk factor(odd ratio: 2.604 [95% confidence interval(CI): 1.639-4.137]) for CIPRO-R E.coli in inpatients. Also, these CIPRO-R E.coli showed low sensitivity to ampicillin and trimethoprim/sufamethoxazole(TMP/SMX) in the inpatients(10.4%, 27.3%) and outpatients(5.1%, 27.1%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows a significant correlation between ciprofloxacin resistance and quinolone use, and previous quinolone use seems to be the risk factor for CIPRO-R E.coli bacteriuria. It is necessary to keep antimictrobial therapy under constant surveillance for the prevention of CIPRO-R E.coli.
Ampicillin ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bacteriuria ; Ciprofloxacin ; Escherichia ; Escherichia coli ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Logistic Models ; Outpatients ; Prescriptions ; Quinolones ; Risk Factors ; Urinary Tract ; Urinary Tract Infections