It is recognized not only by the health experts but also by the public that venereal diseases are remarkably increasing in these days. Therefore, every available measure for declining of the diseases are planned and implemented through case-finding, diagnosis, treatment, education and research. The author intended to compare and analyse infection rates of venereal diseases between reporting from the Ministry of Health and author's private V.D. clinic during 1961-1971. The following results are obtained through the study: 1. According to the report of the Ministry of Health, 45.0% of total examinees were sick with gonorrhea and 6.5% with syphilis, in one hand, on the other hand 78.7% with gonorrhea and 16.3% with syphilis at the author's clinic. 2. By both the report of the ministry and author, highest infection rates were found in 196601968, and this fact was considered by the higher infection rate of G.I. in same years. 3. Contrarily, the lowest infection rates were found out in 1970-1971 through both reports.
Diagnosis ; Education ; Gonorrhea ; Hand ; Korea* ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases* ; Syphilis

BACKGROUNDS: Sexually transmitted disease is class 3 major communicable disease group in Korea, and nationwide surveillance is required to control it. It is necessary to investigate the trends and current characteristics of STDs for effective control. METHODS: We analysed the laboratory data of those who visited a health center in Seoul for venereal disease examination and had abnormal results from Jan 1, 1991 to Dec 31, 1994. Venereal disease examination was composed of serum VDRL(quantitative), Gram staining and culture of urine or urethral discharge. RESULTS: There were 1196 male cases(97.6%) among the total 1226 cases. Mean age was 31.1+/-8.4, and the most common age group was 25-34 yr-old(60.8%). Diagnosis was as follows : syphilis 48 cases(3.9%), gonorrhea 388 cases(31.6%), Nongonoccocal urethritis 773 cases(63.1%), others 10 cases(0.8%), mixed infection of syphilis and gonorrhea 2 cases(0.2 %), mixed infection of syphilis and NGU 5 cases(0.4%). The proportion of PPNG among gonorrhea was as follows : 1991 48.1%, 1992 38.0%, 1993 32.9%, 1994 58.8%. The fraction of NGU among whole urethritis patients increased year by year, 1991 68.0%, 1992 69.4%, 1993 73.3%, 1994 55.3%. There were more WBCs on Gram staining of gonorrhea cases than NGU cases(p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The STD patients among beneficiaries of a health center were mainly young male. Common diagnosis was as follows, NGU, gonorrhea, syphilis. The proportion of PPNG among gonorrhea decreased initially, then increased in 1994, and the fraction of NGU among whole urethritis cases increased initially, then increased in 1994.
Coinfection ; Communicable Diseases ; Diagnosis ; Gonorrhea ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Seoul* ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases* ; Syphilis ; Urethritis

BACKGROUNDS: Sexually transmitted disease is class 3 major communicable disease group in Korea, and nationwide surveillance is required to control it. It is necessary to investigate the trends and current characteristics of STDs for effective control. METHODS: We analysed the laboratory data of those who visited a health center in Seoul for venereal disease examination and had abnormal results from Jan 1, 1991 to Dec 31, 1994. Venereal disease examination was composed of serum VDRL(quantitative), Gram staining and culture of urine or urethral discharge. RESULTS: There were 1196 male cases(97.6%) among the total 1226 cases. Mean age was 31.1+/-8.4, and the most common age group was 25-34 yr-old(60.8%). Diagnosis was as follows : syphilis 48 cases(3.9%), gonorrhea 388 cases(31.6%), Nongonoccocal urethritis 773 cases(63.1%), others 10 cases(0.8%), mixed infection of syphilis and gonorrhea 2 cases(0.2 %), mixed infection of syphilis and NGU 5 cases(0.4%). The proportion of PPNG among gonorrhea was as follows : 1991 48.1%, 1992 38.0%, 1993 32.9%, 1994 58.8%. The fraction of NGU among whole urethritis patients increased year by year, 1991 68.0%, 1992 69.4%, 1993 73.3%, 1994 55.3%. There were more WBCs on Gram staining of gonorrhea cases than NGU cases(p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The STD patients among beneficiaries of a health center were mainly young male. Common diagnosis was as follows, NGU, gonorrhea, syphilis. The proportion of PPNG among gonorrhea decreased initially, then increased in 1994, and the fraction of NGU among whole urethritis cases increased initially, then increased in 1994.
Coinfection ; Communicable Diseases ; Diagnosis ; Gonorrhea ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Seoul* ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases* ; Syphilis ; Urethritis

PURPOSE: To identify differences between three-phase bone scan and SPECT/CT (TBS) and WBC SPECT/CT (WS) and compare diagnostic accuracies of each modality in patients with suspicious post-traumatic osteomyelitis (OM).METHODS: Twenty-one patients with suspicious post-traumatic OM were enrolled. All patients performed TBS and WS within 1 week. Foci ofMDP andWBC accumulation were divided into three categories: bone (OM), soft tissue (soft tissue inflammation; STI), negative for inflammation (NI). Confirmative diagnosis was made upon operative pathology or long-term clinical follow-up.RESULTS: Of 21 patients, four OM, eight STI, nine NI were finally diagnosed. TBS diagnosis was correct in three of four positive cases and nine of 17 negative cases. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) of TBS were 75 %, 52.9 %, 57.1 %, 27.3 %, 90 %. WS diagnosis was correct in two of four positive cases and 17 of 17 negative cases. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, NPV were 50 %, 100 %, 81.0 %, 100 %, 89.5 %. Twelve of 21 cases showed agreement between TBS and WS. TBS misdiagnosed nine cases (six STI and two NI as eight OM; one OM as one STI), while WS misdiagnosed four cases (two OM as two STI; two STI as two NI). Combining results from TBS and WS led to better diagnostic accuracy (91.7 %) than either TBS or WS alone.CONCLUSION: TBS and WS showed moderate agreement in assessment of clinically suspected post-traumatic OM. WS better evaluated inflammation than TBS. WS tended to underestimate inflammation whereas TBS tended to overestimate inflammation. Combining TBS and WS enhanced diagnostic accuracy.
Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Osteomyelitis ; Pathology ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases

BACKGROUND: Condyloma acuminatum is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) associated with the human papillomavirus (HPV). Although it is a relatively common disease, there has been no epidemiological and clinical study of condyloma acuminatum performed in Korea since 1978. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the clinical features of condyloma acuminatum in Korean patients, to identify the genotypes of HPV, as well as determine factors associated with recurrence of condyloma acuminatum. METHODS: We studied 80 patients (60 men and 20 women) diagnosed with condyloma acuminatum. We analyzed age, sex, duration of the disease, number and locations of lesions, underlying diseases and co-infection with STDs, treatment modalities, and number of relapses. Additionally, 26 patients were analyzed for HPV subtypes. We also evaluated factors affecting recurrence of condyloma. RESULTS: Mean age at the time of diagnosis was 36.9±17.7 years and mean duration of disease was 7.2±16.5 months. The most common sites of involvement were found to be the penile shaft in men and the labia majora in women. We observed that 28 patients showed relapse with a mean duration of 1.5±4.5 months. HPV genotyping revealed that type 6, 11, and 44 genotypes that are associated with a low risk of malignancy were detected in 76.9% of cases, and type 16, 18, 51, 52, and 66 genotypes associated with a high risk of malignancy were detected in 15.3% cases. A significant relationship was observed between the recurrence rates of condyloma acuminatum and the rates of co-infection with STDs and the number of lesions. CONCLUSION: We report a recent epidemiological and clinical review analyzing genotypes of HPV in Korean patients presenting with condyloma acuminatum.
Clinical Study ; Coinfection ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Genotype* ; Humans* ; Korea ; Male ; Recurrence ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases

PURPOSE: We wanted to investigate the usefulness of Mycofast (MYCOFAST(R) Evolution 2, International Microbio, France) for Ureaplasma urealyticum (U. urealyticum) and Mycoplasma hominis (M. hominis) in association with nongonococcal genitourinary infections. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 530 patients visited our department for genitourinary infection symptoms or for the evaluation of sexually transmitted disease. The genital swabs were first vortexed in Mycofast transport broth. A volume of 100mul of liquid sample was innoculated to each well of the Mycofast broths and 0.5mul of liquid sample was innoculated to A7 agar culture media (International Microbio, France). The Mycofast broths were incubated at 35-37 degrees C for 36 hrs, and the A7 agar culture media was incubated for 4 days. We compaired Mycofast with A7 agar culture for the sensitivity, specificity, the positive and negative predictive values and the antibiotic susceptable profiles. RESULTS: Of the 530 samples submitted, 165 samples were positive by the A7 agar culture and 162 samples were positive by Mycofast. 157 samples were positive by both methods. Of the 365 samples that were negative by the A7 agar culture, 360 samples were also negative by the Mycofast. In this study, Mycofast had a sensitivity and specificity of 95% and 98%, respectively, and a positive and negative predictive value of 96% and 97%, respectively. The Mycofast drug susceptibility tests indicate a high susceptibility to doxycyclin as follows: U. urealyticum: 86.3%; M. hominis: 85.0% and both organisms with simultaneous isolation: 75.8%. CONCLUSIONS: Mycofast was an easy test to perform and it proved to be a practical and reliable method for isolating the Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma species for making the diagnosis of nongonococcal genitourinary infections, and it showed the added benefit of determining the limited susceptibilities of the isolated strains.
Agar ; Culture Media ; Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Mycoplasma ; Mycoplasma hominis ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases ; Ureaplasma ; Ureaplasma urealyticum

Hypertension is the primary disease that endangers human health. A convenient and accurate blood pressure measurement method can help to prevent the hypertension. This paper proposed a continuous blood pressure measurement method based on facial video signal. Firstly, color distortion filtering and independent component analysis were used to extract the video pulse wave of the region of interest in the facial video signal, and the multi-dimensional feature extraction of the pulse wave was preformed based on the time-frequency domain and physiological principles; Secondly, an integrated feature selection method was designed to extract the universal optimal feature subset; After that, we compared the single person blood pressure measurement models established by Elman neural network based on particle swarm optimization, support vector machine (SVM) and deep belief network; Finally, we used SVM algorithm to build a general blood pressure prediction model, which was compared and evaluated with the real blood pressure value. The experimental results showed that the blood pressure measurement results based on facial video were in good agreement with the standard blood pressure values. Comparing the estimated blood pressure from the video with standard blood pressure value, the mean absolute error (MAE) of systolic blood pressure was 4.9 mm Hg with a standard deviation (STD) of 5.9 mm Hg, and the MAE of diastolic blood pressure was 4.6 mm Hg with a STD of 5.0 mm Hg, which met the AAMI standards. The non-contact blood pressure measurement method based on video stream proposed in this paper can be used for blood pressure measurement.
Humans ; Blood Pressure/physiology* ; Blood Pressure Determination/methods* ; Algorithms ; Hypertension/diagnosis* ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases

BACKGROUND: STDs are major communicable disease group in Korea. This study was carried out to evaluate the current status of sexually transmitted diseases in Seoul. METHODS: We collected the laboratory data of those who visited 11 Public Health Centers in Seoul for venereal disease examination and analyzed abnormal results from Jan 1, 1993 to Dec 31, 1995. The diagnoses of STDs were made by VDRL quantification, TPHA test, Gram's stain, and culture of urine or urethral discharge. RESULTS: There were total of 10,302 patients. There were 7,836 male cases(76.1%) and 2,466 female cases (23.9%). Mean age was 30.6+/-9.7, and the most common age group was 25-34 yearn of age(42.1%). Diagnoses were as follows ; syphilis 2,036 cases(19.8%), gonorrhea 2,249 cases(21.8%), nongonococcal urethritis 4,973 cases(48.3%), vaginitis 954 cases(9.3%), mixed infection of syphilis and gonorrhea 13 cases(0.1% ), mixed infection of syphilis and NGU 50 cases(0.5%), mixed infection of syphilis and vaginitis 27 cases(0.3%). The proportion of PPNG among gonorrhea was as follows ; 43.4% in 1993, 55.1% in 1994, 43.8% in 1995. There were more WBCs on Gram's staining in gonorrhea cases than in NGU cases. CONCLUSIONS: The STD patients seen in 11 Public Health Centers in Seoul were mainly young men. Common diagnoses were as follows ; NGU, gonorrhea, syphilis, vaginitis. The proportion of PPNG increased at first and then decreased.
Coinfection ; Communicable Diseases ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Gonorrhea ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Public Health* ; Seoul* ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases* ; Syphilis ; Urethritis ; Vaginitis

Neutrophil Elastase(NE) is a kind of neutral proteinase. Its value in the diagnosis of male genital tract infection has attracted increasing attention in recent years. NE has special diagnostic value in screening the typical genital tract infection caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Ureaplasma urealyticum and Trichomonas, as well as other kinds of genital infection, such as leukocytospermia and periorchitis. NE has been considered as a specific marker of the male genital tract infection.
Chlamydia trachomatis ; Genital Diseases, Male ; blood ; diagnosis ; microbiology ; Humans ; Leukocyte Elastase ; blood ; Male ; Neisseria gonorrhoeae ; Prognosis ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Bacterial ; blood ; diagnosis ; microbiology ; Ureaplasma urealyticum

OBJECTIVESTo validate our revised syndromic algorithms of the management of sexually transmitted diseases and determine their sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and cost-effectiveness.

METHODSPatients with either urethral discharge, vaginal discharge or genital ulcer, were selected during their first visits to three urban sexually transmitted disease clinics in Fujian Province, China. They were managed syndromically according to our revised flowcharts. The etiology of the syndromes was detected by laboratory testing. The data were analyzed using EPI INFO V6.0 software.

RESULTSA total of 736 patients were enrolled into the study. In male patients with urethral discharge, the sensitivities for gonococcal and chlamydial infections were 96.7% and 100%, respectively, using the syndromic approach. The total positive predictive value was 73%. In female patients with vaginal discharge, the sensitivity was 90.8%, specificity 46.9%, positive predictive value 50.9%, and negative predictive value 89.3% for the diagnosis of gonorrhea and/or chlamydial infection by syndromic approach. In patients with genital ulcer, the sensitivities were 78.3% and 75.8%, specificities of 83.6% and 42.9%, and positive predictive values of 60.0% and 41.0% for the diagnosis of syphilis and genital herpes, respectively, using the syndromic approach. Cost-effectiveness analysis indicated that the average cost of treatment for a patient with urethral discharge was RMB 46.03 yuan using syndromic management, in comparison with RMB 149.19 yuan by etiological management.

CONCLUSIONSThe syndromic management of urethral discharge was relatively effective and suited clinical application. The specificity and positive predictive value for syndromic management of vaginal discharge are not satisfactory. The revised flowchart of genital ulcer syndrome could be suitable for use in clinical settings. Further validation and revision are needed for syndromic approaches of vaginal discharge and genital ulcer.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Algorithms ; Cost-Benefit Analysis ; Female ; Health Care Costs ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Urethral Diseases ; therapy ; Vaginal Discharge ; therapy