No abstract available.
Agenesis of Corpus Callosum

The prevalence of allergic diseases have been increasing over the last few decades. These diseases have become a global public health problem and a burden to health care resources. Allergen exposure in the high risk group is one of the numerous factors contributing to the developing and worsening allergic diseases. Thus, prevention is a very important strategy in treating allergic diseases. This review focuses on environmental risk factors and possible preventive methods in combating allergic diseases.
Delivery of Health Care ; Health Promotion ; Hypersensitivity ; Prevalence ; Public Health ; Risk Factors

Congenital absence of the major salivary glands, especially of the parotid gland, is a rare disorder whose etiopathogenesis is poorly understood. Aplasia of the parotid glands may be unilateral or bilateral and may occur alone or in association with the absence of other salivary glands or with other developmental anomalies of the first branchial arch, such as hypoplasia or aplasia of the lacrimal glands, hemifacial microsomia, mandibulofacial dysostoses, and multiple congenital anomalies. Various degree of xerostomia and dental caries with early loss of teeth may occur due to decreased salivary production. The authors experienced a case of unilateral parotid aplasia in a 22-year old female who had painless swelling in the right parotid region. We present this case with review of literature.
Branchial Region ; Dental Caries ; Female ; Goldenhar Syndrome ; Humans ; Lacrimal Apparatus ; Mandibulofacial Dysostosis ; Parotid Gland ; Parotid Region ; Salivary Glands ; Tooth ; Xerostomia ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The change of voice quality on menstrual cycle is regarded as general in professionals. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the changes of acoustic parameters during menstrual cycle in general population. METHODS: Twenty young adults were asked to produce vowel /a/, /i/ , and /u/ and to read book audibly at the proliferative phase of the menstrual cycle and premenstrual phase. And then, the sound of the voice in each case was recorded and analyzed by the Computerized Speech Lab. (CSL, Kay Elemetrics, Model 4300B, USA). The statistical analyses were performed using paired t-test to compare several variables of data. RESULTS: Compared with the acoustic parameters between two periods, there were no significant differences in all subjects. But the acoustic parameters with book-reading loudly during menstrual cycles revealed slight changes in voice quality. CONCLUSION: The change of voice quality, especially the fatigue of voice may be concerned with menstrual cycle, so more careful voice habituation was required during the menstrual period.
Acoustics ; Fatigue ; Female ; Humans ; Menstrual Cycle* ; Voice Quality* ; Voice* ; Young Adult

Cyclopia is rare congenital craniofacial anomaly, in which the eyes are fused together and located in a single orbit. It is consistently associated with severe holoprosencephaly, which is the failure of cleavage of the prosencephalon with a deficit in the midline facial development. chromosomal study revealed 47, X( ), +13 (Patau syndrome).
Holoprosencephaly ; Orbit ; Prosencephalon ; Trisomy*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The kinds of offending allergens in our environment have changed in accordance with the changes wrought in the living environment. Thus, the study of offending allergens in allergic rhinitis is important. This study attempted to find out annual and seasonal distribution of offending allergens in patients of allergic rhinitis and to investigate the common offending allergens. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A series of allergic skin tests were performed for 3,159 allergic rhinitis patients from Jan. 1981 to Jun. 1990 at the allergic clinic, St.Benedict Hospital, Pusan, Korea, and the results were reviewed. The allergic study included 1) an allergic skin test, 2) a nasal smear for eosinophil. RESULTS: The following summary shows the results of this study: 1) The ratio between male and female of allergic rhinitis patients was 1.15:1 with the peak age being the teens and the twenties (60.6%). 2) The peak season of allergic rhinitis was winter (29.6%), followed by autumn, spring and summer. 3) The common offending allergens were dust and mites (35.9%), pollens (31.2%), epithelials (24.8%). 4) The most common offending allergen was D. farinae (52.5%), followed by D. pteronyssinus, cat fur, Alder pollens and Hazel pollens. 5) 29.6% of patients reacted positive to the skin tests for perennial types of allergens only and 5.2% of patients demonstrated pure pollinosis. CONCLUSION: The most common offending allergen was found to be the dust mite, and the most common pollen was from Alder trees. Perennial types of allergic rhinitis exceeded seasonal types in their occurence.
Adolescent ; Allergens* ; Alnus ; Animals ; Busan ; Cats ; Dust ; Eosinophils ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Mites ; Pollen ; Rhinitis* ; Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal ; Seasons ; Skin Tests ; Trees

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: With the currently available diagnostic procedure, hearing impaired children are diagnosed at an early age and hearing aids are fitted soon thereafter. Thus, appropriateness of using available correction methods for adult ears and ear models for determining and predicting hearing aid characteristics for these children need to be examined. The objectives of this study are to create a database of resonance frequency and length of external auditory canal (EAC) in all age groups and to adjust the peak frequency response of hearing aid system to take account of the changing resonance peak frequency as child gets older. MATERIALS AND METHOD: We studied 437 ears with no age limitation. We measured rear ear unaided response (REUR) with Rastronics frequency response analyzer and external ear canal length using silastic tube under microscopic or otoscopic finding. Statistical analyses were performed to determine age differences. RESULTS: Ear canal length increased with age, and an adult value was achieved by the age of 14 years. Resonance frequency decreased with age, and reached to an adult value by the age of 9 years. There was significant relationship between ear canal length and resonance frequency. CONCLUSION: Alteration in resonance frequency with age may have practical implications by affecting the insertion gain of hearing aid system in children. The data may be used as useful adjustment factors to correct the current hearing aid system in children.
Adult ; Child ; Ear ; Ear Canal* ; Hearing ; Hearing Aids ; Humans

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although it is widely accepted that nasal obstruction leads to snoring and sleep apnea, the relationship between these variable factors is not clear. Moreover, while nasal blockage in human is known to produce sleep- disordered breathing, it is controversial whether nasal obstruction itself produces obstructive apnea and whether it causes changes in the sleep stages. The purpose of this study is to measure changes in sleep physiology by nasal blockage alone and to evaluate whether the nasal blockage itself ca>i produce the sleep apnea syndrorm or not. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Normal thirty subjects, 15 males and 15 females, who had sleep apnea episodes <2 by polysomnography during sleep, were evaluated using Alice III polysomnography after both nostrils opened, unilateral nostril blockage, and bilateral nostril blockage. The parameters of measurement were hypopnea and apnea episodes and apnea type, apnea index (AI), respiratory disturbance index (RDI), SO and sleep stages. A statistical analysis was performed using a wicoxon signed rank test. RESULTS: Bilateral nasal blockage induces significantly increased apnea and hypopnea episodes, AI, and RDI but induces significantly decreased mean and lowest O. saturation. Also, bilateral nasal blockage significantly prolonged S,-NREM sleep and decreased REM sleep (p(0.05). However, these changes did not correspond with the criteria of the sleep apnea syndrome. CONCLUSION: Unilateral nasal obstruction does not cause any significant changes in the measured parameters compared to the normal nose of unblocked state. Bilateral nasal obstruction does not induce the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome by itself. However, it causes changes in the sleep stages and increases sleep apnea episodes significantly.
Apnea ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Nasal Obstruction* ; Nose ; Physiology ; Polysomnography ; Respiration ; Sleep Apnea Syndromes* ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive ; Sleep Stages ; Sleep, REM ; Snoring

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Some patients who have undergone tonsillectomy complain of voice change, but few studies for the mechanism of voice change were found. To solve this problem, study of voice change after tonsillectomy and adenotonsillectomy was done. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed voice change of 22 patients who underwent tonsillectomy and 15 patients who underwent adenotonsillectomy at CSL (computerized speech laboratory), St. Benedict Hospital. With the measured cross sectional area of vocal tract and its length from the glottis on MR images, we presented the change of cross sectional area schematically after tonsillectomy. RESULTS: Acoustically, the frequencies of the second formant of /e/ and /i/ increased and that of the first formant of /u/ decreased significantly after tonsillectomy and the frequency of the second formant of /o/ and those of the second and third formants of /i/ and /u/ increased significantly after adenotonsillectomy. It was also showed acoustically that the formant bandwidths of /a/ and /hana/ after tonsillectomy and those of /e/ and /hana/ after adenotonsillectomy increased due to nasalization. Anatomically, it was showed that the cross sectional area of oropharyngeal cavity increased and coupling effect of vocal tract happened after tonsillectomy. CONCLUSION: This study showed that acoustic characteristics and vocal tract shapes of the patients did change following tonsillectomy and adenotonsillectomy. It is imperative that we explain to patients about the postoperative voice change. Research should also be done to find ways to induce better voice changes following the operations.
Acoustics* ; Glottis ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Tonsillectomy* ; Voice*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Crying is the only mode of communication, which simultaneously reflects a variety of complex neurophysiologic and laryngeal functions in neonates. Acoustic analysis of crying, as an early noninvasive screening measure of the neurophysiological integrity, can reveal important information about the biological status of neonate. The purpose of this research was to establish normative acoustic data on healthy neonatal crying. This study also attempted to find out the differences in the pattern of healthy neonatal crying according to body weight, sex and delivery type (normal spontaneous vaginal delivery and Cesarean section). SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Crying of 33 healthy full term neonates (19 males, 14 females) were sampled within 1 wk postpartum. All neonates were free of any respiratory, laryngeal, CNS pathology according to the charts reviewed at one month. All neonates were considered to have normal hearing as they passed a hearing screening test using Evoked Otoacoustic Emission (EOAE). Body weight, sex, delivery type and Apgar score (1 min, 5 min) were measured. The acoustic characteristics of neonatal crying were analyzed by CSL (Computerized Speech Lab) using parameters such as fundamental frequency (F0), Jitter (%), Shimmer (%), NHR and formant frequency (F1, F2, F3). Statistics were analyzed by independent T-test, pearson's correlation coefficients (p<0.05, by SPSS ver 10.0). RESULTS: Mean body weight and Apgar score (1 min, 5 min) of all subjects were within normal range. Mean fundamental frequency (F0) value of healthy full term neonatal crying was 411.1 Hz. This value showed a shift to higher frequencies in neonates born by spontaneous vaginal delivery (SVD) than Cesarean section (C-sec) delivery, and so, in males than females. But statistic significance in F0 between delivery types, and between sex were not found (p-value 0.158, 0.508). Mean Jitter (%), Shimmer (%) and NHR value were 2.02, 8.34 and 0.32, respectively. These values showed a shift to higher in neonates born by C-sec delivery than SVD, and also in males than females. But statistical significance in these parameters between delivery types, and between sex were not found (p-value 0.442, 0.841, 0.301, 0.082, 0.070, 0.244). Formant frequency F1, F2 and F3 were 1882.4 Hz, 3877.9 Hz and 6053.6 Hz, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in these values between sex, and delivery types (p-value 0.619, 0.785, 0.953, 0.255, 0.698, 0.636). For the healthy full term neonates, F0 value had a tendency to decrease as the body weight increases. But there was no significantly strong negative correlations between them. (r=-0.324, p-value 0.066). Other acoustic parameters didn't show any statistically significant relevance with body weight, either. CONCLUSION: Body weight, sex and delivery type had little influence over acoustic parameters of healthy full term neonatal crying. However, this acoustic analysis of crying could be helpful in differentiating between normal and abnormal neonates, and in screening CNS dysfunction, neurophysiologic and laryngeal abnormality.
Acoustics* ; Apgar Score ; Body Weight* ; Cesarean Section ; Crying* ; Female ; Hearing ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Pathology ; Postpartum Period ; Pregnancy ; Reference Values