The increase of health care expenditures is an important problem in the almost countries. Also, suppression of the health care expenditures is an important problem in the health field of Korea since the national health insurance for total people in 1989. Thus, it is very important to grasp the change of the health care expenditures of family and proportions of the health care expenditures to total expenditures of family, because they are the basis of national health care expenditures in Korea. While the health care expenditures of urban family were increased during 1980-1993 by 12.8% annually, the total expenditures of urban family were increased by 14.8% annually. consequently, the proportions of health care expenditures to total expenditures were decreased from 5.98% to 4.76%. The proportions of health care expenditure for 3 years to come were predicted to 4.75% in 1994, 4.67% in 1995, and 4.63% in 1996 by the time-series ana]ysis. That is, it was predicted that they would be decreasing slowly. The product elasticity of health care expenditure was less than 1 in the multiple regression analysis, so the health care is normal good rather than superior good. Therefore, it seems that the household economy is able to bear the expense pursuing the improvement of quality of health care by actualizing the medical insurance fee.
Delivery of Health Care* ; Elasticity ; Family Characteristics ; Fees and Charges ; Hand Strength ; Health Expenditures* ; Humans ; Insurance ; Korea ; National Health Programs ; Quality of Health Care

To investigate the factors influencing workers' perception and attitude toward special periodic health screening test for workers, a survey with self-administered questionnaires was performed on 279 workers who had special periodic health screening test from september 1 to October 15, 1994. A study model was developed by modifying the health belief model. The end and intermediate response variables of the model were the voluntary participation and necessity perception on the special screening for workers, and The result of analysis was consistent with the study model. Rates for the necessity perception and voluntary participation on the special1 screening for workers were 77.2%, 79.2%, respectively. Factors influencing on the voluntary participation were necessity perception, benefit of special screening for workers, and cue to action. And on the necessity perception were susceptibility and severity to occupational disease, knowledge to special screening for workers, and support of company. General and occupational characteristics influencing on the susceptibility and severity to occupational disease were sex, age, educational level, work duration, and health education. On the knowledge to special screening for workers were age, educational level, work duration, and locus-of-control. On the benefit of special screening for workers were age, locus-of-control, pride on health, and health education. Therefore, to increase the voluntary participation and necessity perception on the special periodic health screening for workers, l) if a worker is judged as occupational disease, the judgment should be widely known in his workplace, 2) the screening result forms should be directly sent to the workers themselves, 3) for the positivity of employers, the campaign and education program subjected to them should be planned, 4) health education should give the first consideration to the younger, lower educational level, and newly employed women, and its frequency should be increased and it should be more frequently dealt with occupation-related subjects, and 5) the employers should have a careful concern in not being disadvantageous to workers due to result of screening.
Cues ; Education ; Female ; Health Education ; Humans ; Judgment ; Mass Screening* ; Occupational Diseases ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: Alteration of p53 and telomerase activity may be responsible for gastric carcino- genesis. In this study, we tried to observe modulation of telomerase activity by wild type p53 in gastric cancer cell lines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used five gastric cancer cell lines (KATO-III, AGS, SNU-1, SNU-5, SNU-16). In order to find p53 mutation, we used western blot and PCR-SSCP. The TRAP-eze kit which supplied by Oncor (Gaithersburg, MD) was used to detect telomerase activity of the five gastric carcinoma cell lines. The wild type p53 gene was transfected by electroporation method. RESULTS: The expression of p53 protein was increased in four gastric carcinoma cell lines and one cell line (KATO-III) did not express. We found p53 point mutation in exon 5 and 8, and the p53 gene was deleted in KATO-III. The telomerase activity were observed in all five gastric carcinoma cell lines and there were no difference in telomere repeat length among five cell lines. After transfection with wild type p53, we could not find the change of telomerase activity in KATO-III. CONCLUSION: Although activation of telomerase activity and mutation of p53 gene may be needed in gastric carcinogenesis, the telomerase activity was not affected by restoration of p53 function in gastric carcinoma cell lines.
Blotting, Western ; Carcinogenesis ; Cell Line* ; Electroporation ; Exons ; Genes, p53* ; Point Mutation ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Telomerase* ; Telomere ; Transfection

Primary tumors of the heart are rare, three quarter of the tumors are benign, and nearly half of the benign heart tumors are myxomas. Cardiac myxoma usually originate in the left atrium about 75 percent, however, only 3 to 4 percent of myxoma are detected in the left ventricle. We report on a 32 years old woman with left ventricular myxoma who presented with shortness of breath, chest tightness, and general weakness. Acute pulmonary embolism and left ventricular myxoma were found on a perfusion lung scan and echocadiogram. A mass located on septal wall of left ventricle was excised en bloc. The patient recovered uneventfully and careful follow up has be performed periodically.
Adult ; Dyspnea ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Heart ; Heart Atria ; Heart Neoplasms ; Heart Ventricles ; Humans ; Lung ; Myxoma* ; Perfusion ; Pulmonary Embolism* ; Thorax

The management of thyroid nodules, about which widely differing views have been expressed for many years, is still a controversial subject. The primary reason for concern about thyroid nodules is that they might be malignant.The incidence of carcinoma in patients with multinodular goiters has reported to be considerably lower than in patients with a single nodule. In this retrospective study of 510 cases of thyroidectomies over a 14-year period, 151 patients with factors predisposing them to neoplasia, such as Grave's disease and thyroiditis, were eliminated. The remaining 93 patients with clinically evident multinodular goiters were compared with remaining the 226 patients with a solitary cold nodule. The incidence of carcinoma in the 266 patients with a solitary cold nodule was 15.4%. In the 93 patients with clinically evident multinodular goiters, the incidence of carcinoma was 18.3%. The difference is not significant. It is of interest that male patients with multinodular goiters had the highest incidence of carcinoma at 25.0%, whereas, males with a solitary cold nodule had an incidence of only 17.9%. In conclusion, once known factors that predispose patients to neoplasia are eliminated, there does not seem to be a significant difference in the incidence of thyroid carcinoma between patients with operatively and histopathologically proved solitary cold nodules and those with multinodular goiter.
Goiter* ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms* ; Thyroid Nodule ; Thyroidectomy ; Thyroiditis

Gastritis cystica polyposa(GCP) is a polypoid cystic lesion showing all the histological features of the hyperplastic polyps and the cysts penetrating through the mucularis mucosae. Most reported GCP lesions were developed at gastraenterostomy stomas. It is rare that GCP develops without history of previous gastroenterostomy. In 1990, however, Kim et al reported a GCP presenting as a submucosal tume-like lesion in a 69-year-old man. Recently, we had experienced two consecutive cases of GCP diagnosed by endoscopic polypectomy. The first case was 49-year-old housewife without history of previous gastric surgery. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy(EGD) showed a 2.0x1.5x1.5cm sized lobulated polypoid lesion with a broad stalk on the anterior wall of the distal antrum. The second case was 45-year-old woman without history of previous gastric surgery. EGD revealed a 1.0 x 1.0 x l.0 cm sized polypoid lesion with a pedicle on the greater curvature aspect of the upper body and two duodenal ulcers with pseudodiverticulum formation. These lesions were endoscopically polypectomized and diagnosed as GCP by the histologic examination.
Aged ; Duodenal Ulcer ; Female ; Gastritis* ; Gastroenterostomy ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Mucous Membrane ; Polyps

No abstract available.
Leukemia, Plasma Cell* ; Plasma Cells* ; Plasma*

No abstract available.
Myelodysplastic Syndromes*

Tuberculosis of the pancreas is a very rare disorder, little reported in the literature. Several theories of the pathogenesis of pancreatic tuberculosis have been proposed. Direct invasion of the pancreas by Mycobacterium tuberculosis is rare; most commonly the pancreas is spared even when liver and spleen are severely involved by miliary dissemination. More common is the involvement of abdominal lymph nodes which, as caseating masses, subsequently invade the pancreas. Pancreatic tuberculosis is a treatable and preventable disease; however, major challenges remain in diagnosis. There have been several reports including the endoscopic retrograde pancreatographic(ERP) findings, however, our case of pancreatic tuberculosis showed quite unusual ERP findings. We report a 54-year old man suffering from chronic epigastric pain and weight loss who was diagnosed intraabdominal tuberculosis with pancreatic involvement. Abdominal ultrasonography showed ill-defined hypoechoic mass at pancreatic head, peripancreatic lymph nodes enlargement and intra- and extrahepatic bile ducts dilatations. Endoscopic retrograde pancreatogram showed blurring and irregularity of the second branch of pancreatic duct at head and the parenchymal abnormal pooling of the contrast dye was noted. Percutanieous transhepatic cholangiogram revealed the complete obstruction of the distal common bile duct. At explo-laparotomy, massive necrosis and fibrous adhesions were noticed around the extrahepatic bile duct and pancreas head and multiple pericholedochal lymph nodes enlargement and several whitish-yellow nodules on the surface of the liver were noted. The extrahepatic bile duct was dilated and the common bile duct at the suprapancreatic portion was compressed by the lymph nodes and necro-inflammatory tissues which invaded the pancreatic head posteriorly. The microscopic findings of the nodules on liver surface and lymph nodes revealed the typical findings of the tuberculosis.
Bile Ducts, Extrahepatic ; Common Bile Duct ; Diagnosis ; Dilatation ; Head ; Humans ; Liver ; Lymph Nodes ; Middle Aged ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Necrosis ; Pancreas ; Pancreatic Ducts ; Spleen ; Tuberculosis* ; Ultrasonography ; Weight Loss

We report a case of closure of the coronary artery fistula with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-covered stent at the proximal left anterior descending artery along with simultaneous stenting at the stenosed middle segment of the left anterior descending artery. The successful experience proved that this kind of stent is a feasible and safe supplement to catheter-based devices in treating coronary artery fistula, although further evaluation is needed.
Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary ; Arteries* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Fistula* ; Polytetrafluoroethylene ; Stents* ; Vascular Fistula