BACKGROUND: The eosinophil chemotactic and activating effects of eotaxin and the known association of eosinophils with asthma suggest that eotaxin expression is increased during an asthma attack. This study was aimed to determine whether the plasma eotaxin levels are higher in patients during as asthma attack and to correlate the eotaxin levels with the disease activity, severity and response to therapy. METHOD: A case-control study of the plasma eotaxin levels was performed in 100 patients with exacerbated asthma and 48 age-and sex-matched subjects with stable asthma. RESULTS: The plasma eotaxin levels were significantly higher in the 100 patients with exacerbated asthma (233±175 pg/ml) than in the 48 subjects with stable asthma(169±74 pg/ml). A tread toward higher eotaxin levels was observed in asthmatic subjects who were taking oral steroids (332±225 pg/ml) than in those who were not (214±159 pg/ml) and higher levels were found in those admitted to the hospital (275±212 pg/ml) than in those discharged after receiving only emergency treatment (190±115 pg/ml). The eotaxin levels inversely correlated with the FEV1 (r=-0.25, p<0.01). The eotaxin levels were higher in moderate persistent (323±256 pg/ml) and severe persistent asthmatics (276±170 pg/ml) than in mild intermittent asthmatics (160±60 pg/ml). CONCLUSION: Eotaxin expression is directly associated with asthma exacerbation, impaired pulmonary function and the disease severity.
Asthma* ; Case-Control Studies ; Emergency Treatment ; Eosinophils ; Humans ; Plasma* ; Steroids

BACKGROUND: Infiltration of eosinophils and activated T cells into the airway is a characteristic feature of allergic inflammation such as asthma. IL-4 has been shown to mediate adhesion of eosinophils and T cells to endothelial cells by inducing VCAM-1 expression on endothelial surface. IL-13 shares a number of biologic properties with IL-4. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the effects of IL-13 on the adhesion of eosinophils to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and on the expression of VCAM-1 in HUVEC. METHOD: HUVEC was incubated for 24h with IL-13 (10ng/ml), IL-4 (10ng/ml) and TNF-a (10ng/ml). Surface expression of VCAM-1 in HUVEC was detected using irnmuno-cytochemical stain and reverse transcription-polymearse chain reaction (RT-PCR), and the adhesion of eosinophils to HUVEC was quantitated using eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) assay. RESULTS: The VCAM-1 expression on IL-13-treated HUVEC increased more than in the expression on medium-treated HUVEC (p<0.05). The adhesion of eosinophil to IL-13- treated HUVEC also increased more than in the adhesion to medium-treated HUVEC (p<0.05). The VCAM-1 expression was synergistically induced by TNF-a and IL-13 (p<0.05). IL-13 induced VCAM-1 expression and adhesion of eosinophils to HUVEC, similar to IL-4. IL-13 also induced VCAM-1 mRNA expression, with greater expression than with medium and TNF-a(p<0.05). IL-13-induced surface VCAM-1 was associated with expression of mRNA transcripts and adhesion of eosinophils to HUVEC(r=0.89, r=0.93, p<0.05). CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that IL-13 stimulates HUVEC to express surface VCAM-1 and has a possible role in promoting VCAM-1/VLA-4 dependent accumulation of eosinophils during allergic and other inflammatory responses.
Asthma ; Endothelial Cells* ; Eosinophil Peroxidase ; Eosinophils* ; Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells ; Inflammation ; Interleukin-13* ; Interleukin-4 ; RNA, Messenger ; T-Lymphocytes ; Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1

No abstract available.
Sturge-Weber Syndrome*

PURPOSE: This study aimed to determine the effects of puerperium maternal anxiety, quality of marital relationship, and postpartum blues on late postpartum depression. METHODS: Participants were 130 postpartum women who delivered healthy babies, and answered self-administered questionnaires, such as Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS-K), Spielberger's State Anxiety Inventory, and Quality of Marital Relationships during the 1st week of delivery and 4–6 weeks postpartum. Data were analyzed using t–test, ANOVA, Spearman's rho correlation coefficient, and hierarchical stepwise multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The point prevalence of postpartum depression (EPDS-K ≥10, cut-off score) was 23.1% at early postpartum and 16.9% at late postpartum. Predictors of late postpartum depression were early postpartum depression (β=0.86), the difference between early and late postpartum anxiety (β=0.19), and the difference between early and late Quality of Marital Relationships (β=−0.13) (F=70.52, p<0.001). The total vatiance explained was 76.5%. CONCLUSION: It is recommended that a maternal management system should be established at maternity hospitals to screen new mothers' depression and anxiety risks during the early postpartum stage.
Anxiety* ; Depression* ; Depression, Postpartum* ; Female ; Hospitals, Maternity ; Marriage* ; Postpartum Period* ; Prevalence

No abstract available.
Granulomatous Disease, Chronic* ; Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole Combination

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop a model of an elderly health promotion center after witnessing the effect of a social support program on dependent variables in older adults at a local community health center. METHOD: The subjects were 60 female adults over 65 years dwelling in a rural area, and they were divided into experimental and control groups each with 30 people. A social support program was implemented 6 hours a day, 3 times a week, for 4 months in the experimental group. Included was health assessment, health education, counseling, consultation, exercise, physical & occupational therapy, primary care, recreation, lunch & transfer service. Data was collected from May 1stto September 14th, 2002 by questionnaires, and analyzed by x2-test, t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression using SAS. RESULT: The social support program in the elderly was very effective on all dependent variables of physical health (t= 4.68, p= .001), health knowledge (t= 3.60, p= .001), life satisfaction (t= 8.65, p= .001), and health promoting behaviors (t= 5.23, p= .001). CONCLUSION: The Social Support Program at a Community Health Center was effective on health promoting behaviors in the elderly.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; *Community Health Centers ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Health Education ; *Health Promotion ; *Health Services for the Aged ; Humans ; Korea ; *Rural Health Services ; Social Support

PURPOSE: To identify the recognition of patients, families, nurses, and physicians about clinical decision-making and biomedical ethics. METHODS: Data were collected from October 23 to 30, 2012 using the structured questionnaires. A total of 200 data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 version. RESULTS: Response about 'who should receive the first notice of a cancer diagnosis?' was significant difference statistically. Cancer patients had preferences to be notified their diagnosis first. Patients responded the person who made decision of treatment options would be physician first and then themselves. Families, nurses, and physicians answered that decision-maker would be both of patient and family. All four groups answered that the person who made decision about care-giver after discharge was patient and their family. Nurses and physicians who didn't aware of the advanced directive were over 30.0%, and patients and family who didn't aware of that were over 60.0%. Lastly, the rate of positive answer about making attempt of advanced directive after legalization was over 80.0%. CONCLUSION: Patient's attitude about making decisions is different from family's attitude. Nurses and physicians have to put emphasis on the patient's autonomy & self-determination and family members' needs.
Bioethics* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis(LAM) is a rare disease of unknown etiology that occurs mainly in woman in her reproductive age. We recently experienced two cases of bilateral diffuse cystic lesion of the lung on chest X-ray and HRCT. The first case, a 26-year-old female, who had been diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis be the presence of clinical manifestation such as mental retardation, bilateral renal angiomyolipoma, adenoma sebaceum and generalized seizure, was admitted due to recently developed hemoptysis. Chest PA showed diffuse ground-glass opacity with radiolucent cystic lesions of various sizes on both lung fields. HRCT showed innumerable small cystic lesions with suspicious diffuse ground-glass opacity on both lung fields. The second case, a 30-year-old female was admitted due to dyspnea and spewing of blood-tinged sputum for 2 weeks, shortly after delivery. Chest PA showed diffuse reticular and ground-glass opacities on both lung field. HRCT showed multiple well-difined and relatively uniform size air cysts with a uniform wall thickness on entire both lung fields, with small amount of right pleural effusion. By thoracoscopic lung biopsy she was diagnosed with pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis. We report these cases with a brief review of the literatures.
Adult ; Angiomyolipoma ; Biopsy ; Dyspnea ; Female ; Hemoptysis ; Humans ; Intellectual Disability ; Lung ; Lymphangioleiomyomatosis ; Pleural Effusion ; Rare Diseases ; Seizures ; Sputum ; Thorax ; Tuberous Sclerosis

PURPOSE: We performed invasive thermometry to verify the elevation of local temperature in the liver during hyperthermia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three 40-kg pigs were used for the experiments. Under general anesthesia with ultrasonography guidance, two glass fiber-optic sensors were placed in the liver, and one was placed in the peritoneal cavity in front of the liver. Another sensor was placed on the skin surface to assess superficial cooling. Six sessions of hyperthermia were delivered using the Celsius TCS electro-hyperthermia system. The energy delivered was increased from 240 kJ to 507 kJ during the 60-minute sessions. The inter-session cooling periods were at least 30 minutes. The temperature was recorded every 5 minutes by the four sensors during hyperthermia, and the increased temperatures recorded during the consecutive sessions were analyzed. RESULTS: As the animals were anesthetized, the baseline temperature at the start of each session decreased by 1.3degrees C to 2.8degrees C (median, 2.1degrees C). The mean increases in temperature measured by the intrahepatic sensors were 2.42degrees C (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.70-3.13) and 2.67degrees C (95% CI, 2.05-3.28) during the fifth and sixth sessions, respectively. The corresponding values for the intraperitoneal sensor were 2.10degrees C (95% CI, 0.71-3.49) and 2.87degrees C (1.13-4.43), respectively. Conversely, the skin temperature was not increased but rather decreased according to application of the cooling system. CONCLUSION: We observed mean 2.67degrees C and 2.87degrees C increases in temperature at the liver and peritoneal cavity, respectively, during hyperthermia. In vivo real-time thermometry is useful for directly measuring internal temperature during hyperthermia.
Anesthesia, General ; Animals ; Fever* ; Glass ; Liver* ; Peritoneal Cavity ; Skin ; Skin Temperature ; Swine ; Thermometry ; Ultrasonography

Transplanting fetal kidney cells (FKCs) can regenerate kidney. This requires in vitro expansion in cell number to acquire enough cells for transplantation. However, FKCs may change their cellular characteristics during expansion and, thus, may not regenerate kidney tissue upon transplantation. We investigated how cell culture period affects cellular characteristics and in vivo regenerative potential of FKCs. As the passage number increased, cell growth rate and colony forming ability decreased while senescence and apoptosis increased. To examine in vivo regenerative potential, FKCs cultured through different numbers of passages were implanted into the parenchyma of kidneys of immunodeficient mice using fibrin gel for 4 wk. Histological analyses showed passage-dependent kidney tissue regeneration, and the regeneration was better when cells from lower number of passages were implanted. This result shows that in vitro culture of FKCs significantly affects the cell characteristics and in vivo tissue regenerative potential.
Animals ; Apoptosis/physiology ; Cell Aging/physiology ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Cell Proliferation ; Cells, Cultured ; Colony-Forming Units Assay ; Female ; Fetal Tissue Transplantation/methods/physiology ; Fetus/cytology/*physiology ; Kidney/embryology/*physiology ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice, Nude ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Regeneration/*physiology