Breast feeding is one of many factors that have been associated with the development of lower respiratory tract illnesses. To assess the relation between breast feeding and subsequent experience of lower respiratory tract illness, we performed this study, retrospectively, on 366 infants who had been admitted to the pediatric ward, St. Francisco General Hospital, or had been brought to the well baby clinic from November, 1992 to March, 1993. The results were as foolows: 1) Among 366 infants, the number of all first illnesses observed at each interval were 259 cases (70.8%), of which 198 (54.1%) were associated with wheezing illnesses and 61 (16.7%) with non-wheezing lower respiratory illnesses. 2) Duration of breast feeding regardless of-whether other foods were given, was categorized as 3 grups, i. e., none or for less than a month (group), one to 4 months (group B), and 4 or more months (group C). Incidences of wheezing illnesses in the first 4 months of life were lower in group B(10.1%) and group C (8.4%) than group A (27.3%), respectively (p<0.01). Wheezing illnesses beyond 4 months of life and non-wheezing illnesses in all intervals seemed to be unrelated to the duration of breast feeding. 3) Considering a variety of other fisk factors, including sharing a room, parental childhood reapiratory trouble, sex and maternal education, children who received minimal breast feeding (group A) had the greater risk of early wheezing illnesses in the simultaneous exposure to sharing a room than group B and C (p<0.005). Our results suggest that decreased breast feeding is associated with a higher incidence of wheezing illnesses in the first 4 months of life, particularly in combination with other risk factors, such as sharing a room.
Breast Feeding* ; Breast* ; Child ; Education ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant ; Parents ; Respiratory Sounds ; Respiratory System* ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors

Down syndrome is the most common autosomal chromosomal abnormality characterized by mental and growth retardation, and by various typical features including prominent epicanthal fold, oblique palpebral fissure, flat nasal bridge, short and broad hand, wide toe interspace, etc. The overall incidence has been shown to be 1:800 deliveries, increasing with advancing maternal age. However, twin cases are extremely rare, and thus far only 500 cases were reported worldwide. We have recently observed 10-day-old male monozygotic twins with Down syndrome, born to a mother of 30 years of age with one normal child. Both have VSD confirmed by 2D-echocardiography, in addition to various typical features. Cytogenetic examination revealed that both have karyotypes of 47, XY, +21. This is the first report in Korea as the authors are aware of.
Child ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Cytogenetics ; Down Syndrome ; Hand ; Humans ; Incidence ; Incontinentia Pigmenti* ; Karyotype ; Korea ; Male ; Maternal Age ; Mothers ; Toes ; Twins, Monozygotic

OBJECTIVE: We wanted to evaluate the status of self-expandable nitinol stents implanted in the P2 and P3 segments of the popliteal artery in Korean patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 189 consecutive patients who underwent endovascular treatment for stenoocclusive lesions in the femoropopliteal artery from July 2003 to March 2009, and 18 patients who underwent stent placement in popliteal arterial P2 and P3 segments were finally enrolled. Lesion patency was evaluated by ultrasound or CT angiography, and stent fracture was assessed by plain X-rays at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months and annually thereafter. RESULTS: At the 1-month follow-up, stent fracture (Type 2) was seen in one limb (up to P3, 1 of 18, 6%) and it was identified in seven limbs at the 3-month follow-up (Type 2, Type 3, Type 4) (n = 1: up to P2; n = 6: P3). At the 6-month follow-up, one more fracture (Type 1) (up to P3) was noted. At the 1-year follow-up, there were no additional stent fractures. Just four limbs (up to P2) at the 2-year follow-up did not have stent fracture. The primary patency was 94%, 61% and 44% at 1, 3 and 6 months, respectively, and the group with stent implantation up to P3 had a higher fracture rate than that of the group that underwent stenting up to P2 (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: We suggest that stent placement up to the popliteal arterial P3 segment and over P2 in an Asian population can worsen the stent patency owing to stent fracture. It may be necessary to develop a stent design and structure for the Asian population that can resist the bending force in the knee joint.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Alloys ; Angiography ; Arterial Occlusive Diseases/radiography/*therapy/ultrasonography ; Chi-Square Distribution ; Female ; Fluoroscopy ; Humans ; Korea ; Leg/blood supply ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Peripheral Vascular Diseases/radiography/*therapy/ultrasonography ; *Popliteal Artery ; Prosthesis Failure ; Retrospective Studies ; *Stents ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color ; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex ; Vascular Patency

OBJECTIVE: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer and gastric cancer. Histological examination and culture are considered to be the most specific tests, and rapid urease test and serological test are rapid but less specific tests. 'I he aim of this study was to investigate the efficiency of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay as a procedure for the diagnosis of H, pylori infection in gastric biopsy specimens. METHODS: Biopsy specimens were obtained from the gastric antrum within 2cm from the pyloric channel of 42 patients during endoscopy and submitted for the histological examination, CLO test, and PCR assay. At the same time, another biopsy specimens were obtained from the lesion for the diagnosis of the diseases. Also, blood was sampled for the measure of the value of IgM and IgG. RESULTS: As the result of the histopathological examination, chronic gastritis was diagnosed in 13 patients, gastric ulcer in 11, duodenal ulcer in H, and gastric cancer in 10. By the histological examination of the antrum, H, pylori were found in 77% of chronic gastritis, 55% of gastric ulcer, 75% of duodenal ulcer, and 40% of gastric cancer. As a whole, the bacteria was identified in 62%, 60%, 88%, 90%, 69% of patients by histological test, CLD test, IgM, IgG, and P(;R respectively. The gold standard we used for the presence of bacteria was histological examination. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, ancl negative predictive value for PCR assay were 92%, 69%, 83% and 85% respectively. The results of other test were as follows. CLO test: 89%, 88%, 92%, 82%, IgM:92%, 19%, 65%, 60%, IgG:100%, 25%, 68%, 100%. CONCLUSION: CR is a very sensitive but some- what less specific test for the detection of H. pylori. This is mainly due to the contamination of H. pylori during endoscopy and biopsy. So, minimization of the contamination would make PCR clinically useful test.
Bacteria ; Biopsy* ; Diagnosis ; Duodenal Ulcer ; Endoscopy ; Gastritis ; Helicobacter pylori* ; Helicobacter* ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulin M ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Pyloric Antrum ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Serologic Tests ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Stomach Ulcer ; Urease

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that cytotoxin associated gene A (cagA) is a marker of more virulent strains of H. pylori and cagA bearing H. pylori is more pathogenic in the gastrointestinal diseases. On the other hand, according to several reports H. pylori causes the cell proliferation, which may be an important mechanism of gastric carcinogenesis. So, we studied to elucidate whether there is the association of the cagA positive H. pylori infection with cell proliferation on the gastric mucosae of the patients with gastritis and gastric cancer or not. METHODS: In this study, 27 gastritis and 35 gastric cancer patients were included. PCR assay for the detection of H. pylori(ureA PCR) and cagA bearing H. pylori(eagA PCR) were performed on the gastric mucosal biopsy specimen. Immunohistochemical study using the MIB 1 Ab against Ki 67 antigen was carried out to evaluate the cell proliferation. RESULTS: The prevalence of H. pylori infection was 85.2%(23/27) in the patients with gastritis and 54.3%(19/ 35) in the patients with gastric cancer. The prevalence of cagA+ strain of H. pylori was 52.2%(12/23) and 47.4%(9/ 19) in the patients with gastritis and gastric cancer. In the patients with gastritis, the degree of cell proliferation was not different in the ureA positive(24.8%) and ureA negative(21.7%) gastric mucosae. Moreover, the difference of cell proliferation was not observed according to the presence or absence of cagA gene(29.4% vs 19.9%) among the ureA positive gastric mucosae. In the patients with gastric cancer, cell proliferation indices were 25.5% and 27.5% in the ureA postive and cagA negative gastric mucosae, 28.1% and 22.2% in the cagA positive and cagA negative group among the ureA positive gastric mucosae. There was no significant difference statistically. CONCLUSIONS: There was no association of cagA+ strain of H. pylori with cell proliferation in the gastric mucosae of the patients with gastritis and gastric cancer. It was presumed that more studies are needed to elucidate the role of H. pylori infection in the gastric carcinogenesis.
Biopsy ; Carcinogenesis ; Cell Proliferation* ; Gastric Mucosa* ; Gastritis* ; Gastrointestinal Diseases ; Hand ; Helicobacter pylori* ; Helicobacter* ; Humans ; Ki-67 Antigen ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Urea

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Several rescue therapies have been recommended to eradicate Helicobacter pylori infection in patients with a failure of first-line eradication therapy, but they still fail in more than 20% of cases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of levofloxacin, metronidazole, and lansoprazole (LML) triple therapy relative to quadruple therapy as a second-line treatment. METHODS: In total, 113 patients who failed first-line triple therapy for H. pylori infection were randomly assigned to two groups: LML for 7 days and tetracycline, bismuth subcitrate, metronidazole and lansoprazole (quadruple) for 7 days. RESULTS: According to intention-to-treat analysis, the infection was eradicated in 38 of 56 patients (67.9%) in the LML group and 48 of 57 (84.2%) in the quadruple group (p=0.042). Per-protocol analysis showed successful eradication in 38 of 52 patients (73.1%) from the LML group and 48 of 52 (92.3%) from the quadruple group (p=0.010). There were no significant differences in the adverse effects in either treatment group. CONCLUSIONS: LML therapy is less effective than quadruple therapy as a second-line treatment for H. pylori infection. Therefore, quadruple therapy should be considered as the primary second-line strategy for patients experiencing a failure of first-line H. pylori therapy in Korea.
2-Pyridinylmethylsulfinylbenzimidazoles ; Bismuth ; Helicobacter ; Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Korea ; Metronidazole ; Ofloxacin ; Organometallic Compounds ; Tetracycline

BACKGROUND: Many studies have shown that angiogenesis plays an important role in the growth and progression of solid tumors, including gastric carcinoma. Vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) is the most potent known inducer of microvascular hyperpermeability; in addition, it is a selective mitogen for endothelial cells. In this study, we studied that the relationship between angiogenesis and the expression of VEGF in gastric carcinoma. METHODS: 23 early gastric carcinomas and 28 advanced gastric carcinomas obtained by surgical resection were studied. Expression of the VEGF was semiquantitatively analyzed in paraffin sections by immunohistochemical method. Histologic sections immunostained for CD31 antigen were evaluated for microvessel density. RESULTS: The VEGF was mainly localized to the cytoplasm of carcinoma cells. Expression of the VEGF was significantly higher in advanced gastric carcinoma than in early gastric carcinoma (p< 0.05). Expression of the VEGF was correlated with the tumor depth and the stage(p< 0.05). The VEGF positivity was significantly higher in moderately and poorly differentiated gastric carcinoma than in well differentiated gastric carcinoma(p< 0.05). But the expression of the VEGF by Lauren,s classification was not significant between intestinal type and diffuse type(p> 0.05). The expression of CD31 was higher in advanced gastric carcinoma than in early gastric carcinoma. In gastric carcinoma, a correlation was observed between CD31 expression and the stage of the disease, the degree of histological differentiation. Also VEGF and CD 31 expression was observed significant correlation. CONCLUSION: VEGF is an important angiogenic factor associated with progression of the gastric carcinoma. Neovascularization assessment by CD 31 immunostaining was another efficient method for defining groups of tumors with aggressive clinical course.
Angiogenesis Inducing Agents ; Antigens, CD31 ; Classification ; Cytoplasm ; Endothelial Cells ; Endothelial Growth Factors ; Microvessels ; Paraffin ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A*

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Therapies of functional dyspepsia (FD) are limited. DA-9701 is a novel prokinetic agent formulated with Pharbitis semen and Corydalis Tuber. We aimed to assess the efficacy of DA-9701 compared with itopride in FD patients. METHODS: Patients with FD randomly received either itopride 50 mg or DA-9701 30 mg t.i.d after a 2-week baseline period. After 4 weeks of treatment, 2 primary efficacy endpoints were analyzed: the change from baseline in composite score of the 8 dyspeptic symptoms and the overall treatment effect. Impact on patients' quality of life was assessed using the Nepean Dyspepsia Index (NDI) questionnaire. RESULTS: We randomly assigned 464 patients with 455 having outcome data. The difference of the composite score change of the 8 symptoms between the 2 groups was 0.62, indicating that DA-9701 was not inferior to itopride. The overall treatment effect response rate was not different between the groups. When responder was defined as > or = 5 of the 7 Likert scale, responder rates were 37% of DA-9701 and 36% of itopride group. Patients receiving DA-9701 experienced similar mean percentage of days with adequate relief during the 4-week treatment period compared with those receiving itopride (56.8% vs 59.1%). Both drugs increased the NDI score of 5 domains without any difference in change of the NDI score between the groups. The safety profile of both drugs was comparable. CONCLUSIONS: DA-9701 significantly improves symptoms in patients with FD. DA-9701 showed non-inferior efficacy to itopride with comparable safety.
Corydalis ; Dyspepsia* ; Humans ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Semen

Salmonella infection occurs in 5 different clinical forms; gasteroenteritis, enteric fever, bacteremia, chronic carried state and localization at one or more sites. Extraintestinal pyogenic infections caused by salmonella species include soft tissue abscesses, bone and joint infections, cholecystitis, liver abscess and splenic abscess etc. Pancreatic abscess due to Salmonella typhi is a very rare extraintestinal manifestation of salmonellosis. Infection pathways may be considered as reflux of infected bile through the pancreatic duct, hematogenous spread from a distant site or lymphatic spread from the intestinal tract. Treatment of pancreatic abscess needs surgical intervention and antibiotics therapy. We have experienced a case of a 40-years-old female with pancreatic abscess due to Salmonella typhi. She was treated with ultrasonography-guided catheter drainage and intravenous ceftriaxone for 18 days. After 14 days, the sonographic examination revealed the abscess cavity in pancreas almost disappeared. We report this case with review of literatures.
Abscess* ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bacteremia ; Bile ; Catheters ; Ceftriaxone ; Cholecystitis ; Drainage ; Female ; Humans ; Joints ; Liver Abscess ; Pancreas ; Pancreatic Ducts ; Salmonella Infections ; Salmonella typhi* ; Salmonella* ; Typhoid Fever ; Ultrasonography

BACKGROUND/AIMS: This randomized, double-blind, phase III, multicenter trial was carried out to compare the efficacy and safety of revaprazan, a novel acid pump antagonist, with that of omeprazole in patients with more than one of gastric ulcers. METHODS: Two hundred and ninety two subjects were randomized to 4~8 weeks of treatment with either revaprazan 200 mg or omeprazole 20 mg. The primary efficacy parameter was the cumulative healing rate determined by endoscopy after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment, and the secondary efficacy parameter was an improvement rate of pain. RESULTS: The intention-to-treat analysis revealed revaprazan and omeprazole to have similar cumulative healing rates (93.0% and 89.6%, respectively; p=0.3038). The per-protocol analysis revealed revaprazan and omeprazole to also have similar cumulative healing rates (99.1% and 100%, respectively; p= 0.3229). In both analyses, there were no significant differences in an improvement rate of pain between the two groups. Both drugs were well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS: Revaprazan has similar efficacy to omeprazole in the treatment of patients with gastric ulcer with a once a day application of revaprazan 200 mg or omeprazole 20 mg over a 4 to 8-week period. In terms of safety, revaprazan was well tolerated.
Endoscopy ; Humans ; Omeprazole ; Stomach Ulcer*