Plexiform neurofibroma is considered a pathognomic of Von Recklinghousen's disease, which involves the deep and large nerve trunk. These are large irregular nerve fascicles which result from an increase in endoneural matrix within individual nerve facicles, without an increased number of nerve fibers. We experenced a case of Von Recklinghausen's disease in a 24 year-old male who had variable cutaneous skeletal, and CNS lesions. He presented multiple neurofibromas, cafe-au-lait spots, and axillary freckles as common cutaneous lesions of NF-I and giant pigmentation, sacral hypertrichosis, and plexiform neurofibroma as unusual cutaneous lesions. Also he had a scoliosis, bowing deformity of the humerous and wedging deformity of the body of the 5th cervical spine as a skeletal manifestation and cortical calcification in the occipital area as a CNS manifestation.
Cafe-au-Lait Spots ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Humans ; Hypertrichosis ; Male ; Melanosis ; Nerve Fibers ; Neurofibroma, Plexiform* ; Neurofibromatoses ; Neurofibromatosis 1 ; Pigmentation* ; Scoliosis ; Spine ; Young Adult

Kawasaki disease is an acute vasculitis of infancy and early childhood characterized by high fever, rash, mucositis, lymphadenopathy and coronary artery damage. The failure to indentify a causative organism using convetional culture and serological techniques, and the lack of response to antibiotics indicate that the disorder is probably not due to any known bacterial or viral pathogens. During the acute phase of the disease, the alterations of T and B cell functions, changes of cytokine and immunoglobulin levels have been reported. This study was performed to investigate the changes of immunoglobulins levels in patients with Kawasaki disease. IgG, IgA, IgM and IgG subclasses were measured using immunoprecipitation and EIA in the sera of patients with Kawasaki disease. The results were as follows: 1) Acute phase reactants such as CRP and ESR were significantly increased in Kawasaki patients compared to those in control patients(p<0.01). 2) Serum IgG levels in Kawasaki disease were markedly increased than those in control patients, while serum IgA and IgM levels showed no significant changes (P: No Significance). 3) IgG1 and IgG4 were predominantly increased increased in the sera of Kawasaki patients, while IgG2 and IgG3 were not significantly increased (P: No Significance). With these results, unidentified infectious organism with abnormal immune response could be suggested as an etiologic factor of Kawasaki disease.
Acute-Phase Proteins ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Child* ; Coronary Vessels ; Exanthema ; Fever ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin A ; Immunoglobulin G* ; Immunoglobulin M ; Immunoglobulins ; Immunoprecipitation ; Lymphatic Diseases ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome* ; Mucositis ; Vasculitis

No abstract available.
Cardiac Catheterization* ; Cardiac Catheters* ; Cardiovascular Diseases* ; Child* ; Cineangiography* ; Heart Defects, Congenital ; Humans

The motivation and timing of the decision to be a physician were examined for premedical students of three universities in Taegu. The primary motivation for seeking a career in medicine was the spirit of service to mankind, but the economic reward was also important value. A number of students could not make a decision to enter a medical school just before admission test. There was a correlation between the motivation, timing and autonomy of decision to be a physician with the academic satisfaction of premedical students. The students who motivated by a spirit of service, made a decision earlier or got a autonomy in decision-making to enter a medical performed a better premedical preparation.
Daegu ; Humans ; Motivation ; Reward ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Premedical

PURPOSE: A low birth weight (LBW) rate is associated with perinatal morbidity and mortality. Many different factors are related to birth weight and LBW. This study examined the effects of various factors on birth weight. METHODS: The study was conducted from January 1997 to August 1997 through direct interview with mother and medical history. Sample were drawn from 1,248 pairs of mothers and infants. The variables assessed included birth weight, gender, gestation age, birth order, maternal age, education, frequency of antenatal care, maternal complication and illness, parental smoking habit, alcohol and caffeine intake. The obtained data were coded and inputted into a computer using a SAS statistic package and estimated by multiple regression and logistic regression. RESULTS: The rate of LBW was 7.9% and premature rate was 3.4%. The variables affecting birth weight were maternal smoking habits, maternal complication and illness, gestation age, caffeine intake and gender. After adjusting for extraneous factors through multiple regression, we found that shortened gestation age, female infant, maternal complication and illness significantly played an important role in the decrease of birth weight. After logistic regression in the group of LBW infants, it was shown that the variables associated with LBW were maternal complication and illness, shortened gestation age, old age over 35 years, inadequate prenatal care, and female infant. CONCLUSION: Birth weight and LBW were more related to gestation age, gender, maternal complication and illness than maternal smoking habit, alcohol and caffeine intake.
Birth Order ; Birth Weight* ; Caffeine ; Education ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Logistic Models ; Maternal Age ; Mortality ; Mothers ; Parents ; Parturition* ; Pregnancy ; Prenatal Care ; Smoke ; Smoking

The AIDS is a serious health problem worldwide today and also in Korea. Increasing knowledge and modification of behavior by health education is an important goal of human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) prevention strategies. And school health education is an important part of health education. This study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge and attitude about AIDS in teachers and professors in Taegu City and to provide the basic data for school health education. A self-administered questionnaire was given to 1,124 teachers and professors from April to June 1992. Indeed, the majority of the teachers and professors have a lot of knowledges about AIDS, but many of them also have misconceptions. The level of knowledge about AIDS was positively associated with attitude toward infected students. The sources of knowledge about AIDS were mainly TV, newspapers and magazines, but a few of the subjects obtained their knowledge from health education programs. This study suggest., that the reinforcement of health education for the teachers, professors and students be needed to provide the accurate knowledge on AIDS and adequate knowledge sources and materials for school health education on AIDS should be developed.
Daegu* ; Education ; Health Education ; Humans ; Korea ; Periodicals ; Periodicals as Topic ; School Health Services

The oral cavity is easily accessible for direct exposure of a malignant disease. 1 percent of the oral malignant tumors are of metastatic origin and approximately 10 percent to 25 percent of the 1 percent fraction originate from the lungs. A case of metastatic lung carcinoma to the gingiva in a 88-year-old male is reported. He complained of pain and swelling between right maxillary 1st premolar and 2nd molar. Although surgical excision of the lesion has been done, the gingival lesion developed as a quickly growing mass and recurred 2 weeks after surgical excision. The gingival mass was histopathologically diagnosed as an undifferentiated carcinoma. Epithelial layer was continuous without ulceration and it seems that the cancer cells are originated from primary tumor. Infiltrated cancer cells were pleomorphic and dyskeratotic. The cells had 2 or more nuclei, not showing squamous or glandular differentiation. Immunohistochemical study revealed the cells originated from the epithelial cells. The prognosis is poor, because prognosis depends on surgical elimination of the primary tumor.
Aged, 80 and over ; Bicuspid ; Carcinoma ; Epithelial Cells ; Gingiva ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; Lung* ; Male ; Molar ; Mouth ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Periodontium* ; Prognosis ; Ulcer

A multi-locus probe. called pHK-450. detecting multiple variable DNA fragments, was constructed by cloning of the 450 bp fragments into pCR(TM) vector, which could be obtained from amplification of the variable region of the D8S210 locus of human genome with a primer set of UF1. UR1, and UR2. The sequence data shows that the variable region is entirely G-C rich on one strand consisting of tetranucleotide repeat unit (GGAA)n at both margins and internally diversed regions with simple irregular repeat units of GGAA, GGAG, or GGGAA. The genetic complexixty of the resulting individual-specific DNA patterns was investigated by studying a Korean pedigree(both parents and 10 children). HaeIII and HinfI-generated DNA fragments are inherited to their children in a Mendelian manner with segregation ratio of 1:1.05 and 1:1.14. respectively. In the HinfI-digested genomic DNAs, the segregation of up to 25 variable DNA fragments from both parents could be analysed in a single sibship. Most of these variable DNA fragments detected by pHK-450 probe are not paired as allele, which suggests that they may be derived from 23 heterozygous loci. In the HaeIII-digested genomic DNA, 26 variable DNA fragments are segregated from both parents to 10 children. Excluding one allelic and three linked DNA fragments, 22 out of 26 scored DNA fragments may be derived from 23 hetrozygous loci. To determine the variability of DNA fragments, DNA samples from 113 unrelated Korean were digested with HinfI and hybridized using pHK-450 probe. Pairwise comparisons of individual variable DNA fragments show that the polymorphic patterns were highly specific to an individual. The mean probaility(X) that fragments in A individual is present in B individual is 0.0337. From the degree of maxiaml sharing, band approximate estimates of mean allele frequency and homozygosity is calculated being 0.187 and the mean heterozygossity is 89.69%. For pHK-450 probe, the probability that all 10 resolved DNA fragments in the 5-30 kb size range in an individual A are also present in a second unrelated individual B is (0.337)(10) or 7.1 X 10(-6).The above results suggest that the Muiti-locus probe, pHK-450, is suitable for rapid polymorphic marker generation and can be applied to individual identification in forensic medicine
Alleles ; Child ; Clone Cells ; Cloning, Organism ; Colon* ; DNA ; Forensic Medicine ; Gene Frequency ; Genome, Human ; Humans ; Microsatellite Repeats ; Parents

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to assess the level of agreement among survey instruments used to study dementia and to determine the prevalence rate of suspected dementia using different instruments. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total 171 subjects older than 65 in Gyeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, were surveyed from February to October 2003. The age, sex and educational level were examined through interview surveys, and cognitive function was evaluated using three survey instruments including MMSE-K, S-SDQ, and KDSQ. RESULTS: The cognitive function scores obtained with the MMSE-K showed significant difference according to age. For sex and educational level significant differences were observed with all three survey instruments. The kappa index, the level of agreement between the questionnaires, was 0.302 between MMSE-K and S-SDQ, 0.401 between MMSE-K and KDSQ, and 0.762 between KDSQ and S-SDQ. The prevalence rate of suspected dementia based on the criteria suggested by MMSE-K, S-SDQ, and KDSQ was 27.5%, 15.2%, and 17.0% respectively. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that caution is needed when comparing the measured cognitive function scores and analyzing the prevalence of dementia; this is because the prevalence of dementia and cognitive functions vary according to the questionnaires used.
Aged* ; Dementia ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires

No abstract available.
Hair* ; Hypopigmentation* ; Scalp* ; Ureter*