GH concentration in plasma decline with age. GH and GH response to GHRH are influenced by sex hormones, thereby changing around the menopause. In several aspects, features of aging resemble those of a state of GH deficiency. It has been argued the declining GH function, along with other factors, might be a causal factor in osteoporosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate that postmenopausal osteoporosis in ovariectomized rat could be prevented by rhGH. Fifty-four Sprague-Dawley rats(weight 140-200g) were devided 3 groups. Group 1(n=18) was sham operation; Group 2(n=18) was ovariectomized and received subcutaneous injection with 0.05 cc normal saline; Group 3(n=18) was ovariectomized and received subcutaneous injection with 0.2 IU rhGH. Group 2 and 3 were injected daily, 6 day per week. Each group was devided three subgroups(n=6) and were sacrificed at 6 week, 10 week, 14 week, respectively. Group 2 showed a significant increase in body weight, femur length, serum IGF-1 level, serum PICP and ICTP level at 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 14 weeks and a significant decrease in ash weight of tibia, width of bony spicules, at 14 weeks than Group 1. Group 3 demonstrated a significant increase in body weight, femur length, serum IGF-1, serum PICP and ITCP levels and a insignificant decrease in ash weight of tibia and width of bony spicules, at 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 14 weeks than Group 1. At 14 weeks, Group 3 showed a significant increase in serum IGF-1, Serum PTH, Serum PICP. From these data, we conclude that although rhGH administration leads to an activation of bone turnover and more stimulation of bone formation, it does not prevent a bone loss in ovariectomized rat.
Aging ; Animals ; Body Weight ; Female ; Femur ; Gonadal Steroid Hormones ; Humans* ; Injections, Subcutaneous ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor I ; Menopause ; Osteogenesis ; Osteoporosis* ; Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal ; Ovariectomy ; Plasma ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Tibia

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical course of esodeviation after exotropia surgery in older patients (older than 15 years) and to compare it with that in younger patients (15 years or younger). METHODS: The medical records of all surgeries for exodeviation from December 2004 to February 2007 were reviewed and 82 patients were found with consecutive esodeviation. The patients were divided into two groups according to their age: Group A (patients older than 15 years) and Group B (patients age 15 or younger). The clinical course of esodeviation in Group A was compared to that in Group B by means of survival analysis. RESULTS: The median survival times of the esodeviation were 2.0+/-0.1 months in Group A and 1.0+/-0.1 months in Group B (p=0.40). The prevalence of consecutive esotropia at six months was 0% in Group A and 6.1% in Group B (p=0.32). The myopic refractive error, worse sensory condition, and a larger preoperative exodeviation in Group A did not affect the clinical course of the two groups differently. CONCLUSIONS: The postoperative esodeviation of patients older than 15 years after exotropia surgery tended to persist longer during the early postoperative period than that of patients 15 years or younger, however, the difference did not persist at postoperative six months.
Adult ; Age Factors ; Child ; Esotropia/*etiology/physiopathology ; Exotropia/*surgery ; Female ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meiers Estimate ; Male ; Oculomotor Muscles/*surgery ; *Postoperative Complications ; Vision, Binocular/physiology ; Visual Acuity/physiology

BACKGROUND: At present, there are many instruments to diagnose anxiety and depression. However, most of the instruments have a number of questions. Therefore, we have many difficulties in applying them to the primary care. The purpose of this study was to measure the reliability and the validity of a Korean-translated Goldberg s short screening scale for anxiety and depression, which were developed for screening of anxiety and depression in primary care. METHODS: 178 asymtomatic subjects and 58 patients(anxiety 15, depression 43) aged from 18 to 64 years old were selected. The patients were diagnosed by psychiatrist according to DSM-IV criteria. This study was performed for 3 months, from May to August 1996. The reliability of this instrument was measured by internal consistency reliability. The validity of this instrument was measured by three methods. The first method was the comparison of the score between the patients and the control group. The second method was to measure the relationships of this instrument with the other instruments such as Self-rating Depression Scale and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The last method was to measure the relationship of this instrument with Comprehensive Global Assessment. In addition, we calculated the sensituvity and specificity at the cut off values. RESULTS: The Cronbach's a value was 0.736 for the anxiety and 0.749 for the depression. Goldberg anxiety scale was significantly associated with state in STAI(r=0.279, P<0.001), and trait in STAI(r=0.125, P=0.041). However, Goldberg depression scale was not sigficantly associated with SDS. Goldberg anxiety scale as well as Goldberg depression scale were significantly associated with CGA(r=0.433, P=0.001; r=0.695, P=0.001). The seore of Goldberg anxiety scale was significantly higher in the anxious patients than in the control group(P=0.047). The score of Goldberg depression scale was significantly higher in the depressive patients than in the control group(P<0.001). For anxiety scale of Goldberg scale, the sensitivity and the specificity was 60% and 68% at score 3. For depression scale of Goldberg scale, the sensitivity and the specificity was 80% and 68% at score 2. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that the value of Cronbach's a in Goldberg scale was 0.736 for anxiety and 0.749 for depression. For the validity, the scores of Goldberg scale were higher in patient group than in asymptomatic group. However, the relationships of Goldberg scale with other screening instruments were variable. So further study for the validity of Goldberg scale is requested.
Anxiety* ; Depression* ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Humans ; Mass Screening* ; Middle Aged ; Primary Health Care ; Psychiatry ; Sensitivity and Specificity

By finding the documents of Korean physical anthropology in one place easily, everyone can use them fruitfully. We developed internet site to search them, which published from early 20th century to present days. We also analyzed documents of physical anthropology and databased the tables which is considered to be kernel of results. The advantage of this internet site is followings. We classified the documents of physical anthropology by body regions and we also classified them in detail to reach them easily. The documents are also divided into materials and its methods to search conveniently. Everyone can search a data by classification and also by using a keyword they can find document or data. There are 3 steps to search. First step is searching the title of document and author, second step is searching the name of table including the first step and the last step is searching items in table. If they don't know the contents they can search data by index. We added some pictures and explanations to restore the document or table, which are difficult and hard to understand the point. By these additions, we could understand them briefly. We could quote from past data and also we could easily compare previous data with ours by using this search engine.
Anthropology ; Anthropology, Physical* ; Body Regions ; Classification ; Internet* ; Search Engine*

PURPOSE: It is important to diagnose paragonimiasis in early active stage because it can be dured by chemotherapy. However, it is difficult to make a correct diagnosis of cerebral paragonimiasis in the early active stage, and the radiographic findings of cerebral paragonimiasis have been rarely reported. Thus, this experimental study was designed to produce early active cerebral paragonimiasis and to demonstrate radiologic-pathologic correlations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 8 cats, 7-8 metacercariae of Paragonimus westerrnani were directly introduced into the brain parenchyma of each cat's after trephination of the skull. In anogher 16 cats, the juvenile worms and the adult worms that had developed for varying periods (2 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks and 12 weeks) in the lunges of another cats were introduced into the brain parenchyma of each cat's with the same procedures described above. Follw-up MR images and chest radiographs were obtained at 2 days, 1 weeks, 2 weeks, 4 weeks and 8 weeks after innoculation. The autopsies and histopathological examinations of the cat's brain were undertaken in 22 cats. In 9 cats that were suspected with pulmonary lesions on chest radiograph, the soft tissue radiographs of inflated-fixed lungs were obtained. RESULTS: In one cat with innoculation of adult worm, acute suppurative inflammation of the brain parenchyma was demonstrated. But the other cats with innoculction of adult worm or juvenile worm and the cats with innoulation of metacercaris did not reveal any evidence of acute cerebral paragonimiasis. More than half of the introduced metacercariae(5 out of 8 cats) were found in the lung parenchyma, while only 25%(4 out of 16 cats) of the adult worm innoculated cats were. CONCLUSION: Acute suppurative inflammation suggesting acute stage cerebral paragonimiasis was obtained in one case of adult worm innoculated cat. Most of the innoculated metacercariae and some of the juvenile worms or adult worms were migrated to the lungs.
Adult ; Animals ; Autopsy ; Brain ; Cats* ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Lung ; Metacercariae ; Paragonimiasis* ; Paragonimus ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Skull ; Trephining

No abstract available.
Intracranial Hypotension*

OBJECTIVE: This paper presents data from a retrospective study of endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) in patients with shunt malfunction and proposes a simple and reasonable post-operative protocol that can detect ETV failure. METHODS: We enrolled 19 consecutive hydrocephalus patients (11 male and 8 female) who were treated with ETV between April 2001 and July 2010 after failure of previously placed shunts. We evaluated for correlations between the success rate of ETV and the following parameters : age at the time of surgery, etiology of hydrocephalus, number of shunt revisions, interval between the initial diagnosis of hydrocephalus or the last shunt placement and ETV, and the indwelling time of external ventricular drainage. RESULTS: At the time of ETV after shunt failure, 14 of the 19 patients were in the pediatric age group and 5 were adults, with ages ranging from 14 months to 42 years (median age, 12 years). The patients had initially been diagnosed with hydrocephalus between the ages of 1 month 24 days and 32 years (median age, 6 years 3 months). The etiology of hydrocephalus was neoplasm in 7 patients; infection in 5; malformation, such as aqueductal stenosis or megacisterna magna in 3; trauma in 1; and unknown in 3. The overall success rate during the median follow-up duration of 1.4 years (9 days to 8.7 years) after secondary ETV was 68.4%. None of the possible contributing factors for successful ETV, including age (p=0.97) and the etiology of hydrocephalus (p=0.79), were statistically correlated with outcomes in our series. CONCLUSION: The use of ETV in patients with shunt malfunction resulted in shunt independence in 68.4% of cases. Age, etiology of hydrocephalus, and other contributing factors were not statistically correlated with ETV success. External ventricular drainage management during the immediate post-ETV period is a good means of detecting ETV failure.
Adult ; Drainage ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Ventriculostomy

OBJECTIVE: The epidural fluid collection (EFC) as a complication of cranioplasty is not well-described in the literature. This study aimed to identify the predictive factors for the development of EFC as a complication of cranioplasty, and its outcomes. METHODS: From January 2004 to December 2012, 117 cranioplasty were performed in our institution. One-hundred-and-six of these patients were classified as either having EFC, or not having EFC. The two groups were compared to identify risk factors for EFC. Statistical significance was tested using the t-test and chi-square test, and a logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Of the 117 patients undergoing cranioplasty, 59 (50.4%) suffered complications, and EFC occurred in 48 of the patients (41.0%). In the t-test and chi-test, risk factors for EFC were size of the skull defect (p=0.003) and postoperative air bubbles in the epidural space (p<0.001). In a logistic regression, the only statistically significant factor associated with development of EFC was the presence of postoperative air bubbles. The EFC disappeared or regressed over time in 30 of the 48 patients (62.5%), as shown by follow-up brain computed tomographic scan, but 17 patients (35.4%) required reoperation. CONCLUSION: EFC after cranioplasty is predicted by postoperative air bubbles in the epidural space. Most EFC can be treated conservatively. However, reoperation is necessary to resolve about a third of the cases. During cranioplasty, special attention is required when the skull defect is large, since EFC is then more likely.
Brain ; Epidural Space ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Reoperation ; Risk Factors ; Skull

OBJECTIVE: This paper aims at investigating the fitness of available computer mouse interfaces to each level of cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) patients ranging from C4 to C7. METHOD: Several commercially available computer mouse interfaces were selected for performance evaluation. They were head pointer, touch screen, button mouse, big-ball mouse, and mouse pad. Usual mouse with rubber pad was also tested for the C6-C7 SCI patients. The performance of each interface was evaluated in terms of average click rate of moving target box and patient's satisfaction. RESULTS: The results that the touch screen and the head pointer were superior to other interfaces in terms of click rate. However, in terms of the satisfaction ratio, C4-C5 SCI patients preferred the head pointer and C6-C7 SCI patients preferred the big-ball mouse. The difference in click rate and satisfaction ratio was attributed to the convenience of the interface, i.e., the necessity and type of orthosis when using the mouse interface. CONCLUSION: The results showed that the patients' preference was determined mainly by the convenience. Therefore, the convenience of the interface must be fully considered in the design and selection of computer interface for the SCI patients.
Animals ; Head ; Humans ; Mice* ; Orthotic Devices ; Rubber ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord*

The Korean Society of Nuclear Medicine (KSNM) is celebrating its 60th anniversary in honor of the nuclear medicine professionals who have dedicated their efforts towards research, academics, and the more comprehensive clinical applications and uses of nuclear imaging modalities. Nuclear cardiology in Korea was at its prime time in the 1990s, but its growth was interrupted by a long pause. Despite the academic and practical challenges, nuclear cardiology in Korea now meets the second leap, attributed to the growth in molecular imaging tailored for many non-coronary diseases and the genuine values of nuclear myocardial perfusion imaging. In this review, we describe the trends, achievements, challenges, and perspectives of nuclear cardiology throughout the 60-year history of the KSNM.