In order to understand epidemiologic characteristics of dioxins related health impacts, 107 diox in-related literatures published up to May, 1993 were thoroughly reviewed. The results obtained are as follows: 1. Review studies on dioxins can be classified into two types : one is studies concentrated on one specific subject related to dioxins such as the effects on skin, birth outcomes, metabolic machanisms in the human body, major sources of exposure to the general population, immunotoxicity, association between dioxins and cancers, and research methods on effects of dioxins. The other is review studies dealing with overall aspects of dioxins, among which the report published by Academy of Science of United Stateds of America in 1993 is the most recent one. 2. Judging by consistency of results and biological plausibility, there were three groups of diseases ; diseases having causal relationship, having possibilities of causal relationship, and having no causal relationship for the time being. 1) The diseases showing causal relationship were lung cancer, Hodgkin 'disease, non-Hodgkin 'lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chlordane, and polyneuropathy 2) the diseases showing possibilities of causal relationship were stomach cancer, lymphatic and haematopoietic cancer, multiple myeloma, skin cancer, diseases of digestive system, and CNS deformity among children born to the people exposed. 3) The diseases showing no causal relationship were oral and laryngeat cancer, esophageal cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, brain and CNS cancer, diseases of circulatory and respiratory systems. There were numerous diseases of digestive system, which showed difficulty in establishing definite causal relationship owing to the lack of consistency among researchers. 3. Even though papers dealt with dioxinrelated mortality and morbidity studies showed high mortality rate from accident, biological plausibility explaining causal relationship between them should be sought further. 4. There was a high prevalence of hearing loss among Vietnam veterans, and it seemed rather related to the explosive noise in combat than dioxin itself. 5. The current TCDD levels of Vietnam veterans were almost the same as those of the general population.
Americas ; Brain Neoplasms ; Child ; Chlordan ; Citrus sinensis* ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Digestive System ; Dioxins ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Hearing Loss ; Human Body ; Humans ; Kidney Neoplasms ; Lung Neoplasms ; Mortality ; Multiple Myeloma ; Noise ; Parturition ; Polyneuropathies ; Prevalence ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Respiratory System ; Sarcoma ; Skin ; Skin Neoplasms ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms ; Veterans ; Vietnam

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the gadolinium-enhanced MR imaging findings of cerebral venous angiomas, and to compare those findings with those of cerebral angiography. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed the findings of gadolinium-enhanced MR images of 11 cases with angiographically proved cerebral venous angiomas. We obtained Tl-and T2-weighted images with gadoliniumenhanced Tl-weighted images at a 0.5 T MR imager with a spin-echo technique. We analyzed the location and signal intensity of the lesion, pattern of contrast enhancement, the distribution of draining veins and medullary veins before and after contrast enhancement, and then compared with the findings of cerebral angiography. RESULTS: The characteristic central tubular signal void structure showed low signal intensity on Tl-weighted images and high signal intensity on T2-weighted images in all cases. After gadolinium enhancement, we could find a characteristic enhancement of all medullary and central veins in 7 cases. CONCLUSION: Gadolinium-enhanced MR image was useful in the diagnosis of venous angiomas especially in the detection of medullary veins. The invasive cerebral angiography could be replaced by this technique in this disease.
Central Nervous System Venous Angioma* ; Cerebral Angiography* ; Diagnosis ; Gadolinium ; Gadolinium DTPA* ; Hemangioma ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Veins

PURPOSE: In this study, symptom experience and quality of life(QoL) in patients with Bronchial asthma(BA) and Bronchiectasis(BRC) were examined to develop nursing strategies. METHOD: Data collection was done with 61 outpatients with BA and 43 outpatients with BRC in January and February, 2001. Data analyses were performed using SPSS Win 8.0. RESULT: The mean scores of symptom experience were 11.3 and 10.8 in patients with BA and BRC, respectively. The mean score of QoL was 18.0 in patients with BA and 19.2 in patients with BRC. There were statistically significant differences in the score of the symptom experience according to sex and occupation in patients with BA, and to the religion and occupation in patients with BRC. The mean score of QoL had significant difference according to the income in patients with BA, but had no significant differences in patients with BRC. The score of QoL had significantly correlated with the degree of symptom experience in patients with BA(p=.000) and with BRC(p=.022). CONCLUSION: The degree of symptom experience negatively correlated with QoL. Therefore, symptoms experienced by patients should be considered in development of nursing strategies for patients with BA and BRC.
Asthma* ; Bronchiectasis* ; Data Collection ; Humans ; Lung Diseases* ; Lung* ; Nursing ; Occupations ; Outpatients ; Quality of Life* ; Statistics as Topic

BACKGROUND: Infiltration of the skin and subcutaneous tissue with local anesthetic solutions may cause transient pain and discomfort. Heating local anesthetic solutions to body temperature has been suggested as a way of reducing the pain associated with injection. We designed a double blind crossover volunteer study to investigate the effect of warming lidocaine on the pain associated with subcutaneous injection. METHODS: Participants were 40 healthy adult volunteers,22 years of age and older, and they were the medical, nursing stay and medical students. They underwent 1ml subcutaneous injections of the study agent through 25-gauge needles. Following a standard crossover protocol, 'room temperature' lidocaine(20degrees C ) was injected into one midvolar forearm and body temperature' lidocaine(37degrees C ) into the opposite arm. Pain assessed by visual analogue pain scores and 'volunteer's comparison of pain on injection. RESULTS: Twenty-six volunteers thought that lidocaine at 20degrees C was more painful and four thought that lidocaine at 37degrees C was more painful, ten volunteers did not express a difference. Median pain score for injection at 20 degrees C was 37 and at 37 degrees C was 35.5. Difference of two median scores was 6.5. CONCLUSION: The simple procedure of warming to body temperature reduced the pain associated with subcutaneous injection of lidocaine. It is an inexpensive and practical method That should be considered for routine use in the ED.
Adult ; Arm ; Body Temperature* ; Forearm ; Heating ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Injections, Subcutaneous ; Lidocaine ; Needles ; Nursing ; Skin ; Students, Medical ; Subcutaneous Tissue ; Volunteers

No abstract available.
Spinal Muscular Atrophies of Childhood*

This study has been done for the purpose of investigating the degrees of death orientation and terminal care performance. The factors related to these two variables, and the relationship between death orientation and terminal care performance. The subjects of study were 128 nurses who implemented nursing care for terminally ill patients at C University Hospital in Kwang Ju city. The date were collected from March 13 to 19, 1996, by means of Death Orientation by Thorson Powell(1988) and Terminal Care Performance Scale by researcher. The data were analysed by t-test, ANOVA, Duncan test and Pearson's correlation coefficient. The Results of this study were summarized as follows; 1. The mean score of death orientation was 61.4. The degree of death orientation showed no significant difference depending on the general characteristics of nurses. 2. The mean score of terminal care performance was 45.5. In comparison of the degree of terminal care performance among three domains, the mean score of each item tended to show higher degrees in order of'Psychological domain(2.4)','Physical domain(2.2)',' Spiritual domain(1.9)'. 3. The degree of terminal care performance showed significant differences in age (F=11.48 p=.0001), marital status(t=10.49 p=.0015), religion(t=5.01 p=.0270), period of clinical experience(F=10.30 p=0.0001) and ward unit(F=3.73 p=.0036). The degree of terminal care performance in physical domain showed significant differences in age (F=7.26 p=.0010), marital status(t=9.72 p=.0023), period of clinical experience(F=7.03 p=.0013), ward unit(F=6.23 p=.0001). The degree of terminal care performance in psychological domain showed significant differences in age(F=8.73 p=.0003), marital status (t=4.22 p=.0419), religion(t=5.59 p=.0196), period of clinical experience(F=6.36 p=.0023), ward unit(F=3.33 p=.0075). The degree of terminal care performance in spiritual domain showed significant differences in age(F=8.30 p=.0004), marital status(t=10.45 p=.0016), religion(F=5.41 p=.0216), period of clinical experience(F=8.80 p=.0003). 4. The relationship between the degrees of death orientation and terminal care performance showed no correlation(r=-.026 p=.7746).
Gwangju ; Humans ; Marital Status ; Nursing Care ; Terminal Care* ; Terminally Ill

We evaluated the muscle fiber characteristics, the mean proportion of muscle fiber types and its range of individual difference in human vertebral muscle. Muscle samples used were from subjects who had a relatively brief history of spinal dysfunction such as compression fracture, disc hernia etc., and obtained from precisely defined superficial and deep sites on both sides of the vertebral column. In particular, samples were collected from three different levels of the column and flash-frozen sections of biopsied adult vertebral muscles were stained for H–E, trichrome, PAS, regular and reversed myosin ATPase, and SDH. Discrimination of muscle fiber types in H–E and trichrome stained sections was not evident. Three types of muscle fibers were, however, evident in PAS-stained sections according to the degree of positivity in observed vertebral muscles. The mean proportion of musele fiber types was different in regular and reversed myosin ATPase, and SDH stains and the majority of fiber types in human vertebral muscles was type I in three different levels of vertebral clumn. There was a decreasing tendency in percentage of type I fibers at both superficial and deep levels as the vertebral column descended. The size of muscle fibers was relatively larger in deep levels than in superficial levels of vertebral muscles. The human vertebral muscle showed moderately individual and regional differences in the mean size of fiber types. The evaluation for the combination patterns of various enzyme histochemical activities showed that the common musele fiber types(type I, II A and II B) were moderately reduced in the mean proportions and unusual rare muscle fiber types increased in number. And the decreasing tendency in the mean proportion of type as the vertebral column descended was not evident in the combination patterns of histochemical activities
Adult ; Coloring Agents ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Fractures, Compression ; Hernia ; Humans ; Individuality ; Muscles ; Myosins ; Spine

Transcatheter hepatic arterial embolization (THAE) is one of the treatment modalities that can be applied to hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) and metastatic tumors of the liver. Complications such as cholecystitis and gallbladder necrosis, are common with THAE, but liver and peripheral bile duct necrosis are rare, and intrahepatic stones with main bile duct necrosis have never been reported. To prevent intrahepatic spread during operative manupulation and to decrease the vascularity and size of the tumor, we performed a THAE on a huge-sized HCC five times before performing the hepatectomy. We succesfully undertook a right lobectomy after the THAE with lipiodol, gelform, and adriamycin. However, severe bile duct stricture and intrahepatic stones were confirmed during the operation.
Bile Ducts* ; Bile* ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Cholecystitis ; Constriction, Pathologic* ; Doxorubicin ; Ethiodized Oil ; Gallbladder ; Hepatectomy ; Liver ; Necrosis

No abstract available.
Sarcoma, Endometrial Stromal*

BACKGROUND: A fully automated enzyme-immunoassay (EIA) analyzer, Enzymun System, ES-300 (Boehringer Mannheim, Germany) uses streptavidin technology and performs single test or panels of up to 12 tests per run. We evaluated the results of ES-300 for anti-HCV by comparing the results with microplate-EIA, radioimmunoassay (RIA), and confirmatory test. METHODS: Total 79 sera (51 positive, 24 negative, 4 indeterminate results confirmed by Lucky HCD Confirm) were analysed. ES-300 with Enzymun-Test(R) Anti-HCV (Boehringer Mannheim, Germany) and microplate-EIA (Green Cross Center Innotest HCV 3.0(R)) were used. Fifty one sera were examined additionally by 2nd-generation RIA method, NANBDINE 125C(General Biologicals Corp., R.O.C.). And all results were compared to the results of Lucky HCD Confirm. RESULTS: The overall concordance rate of ES-300 and Innotest(R) was 72/79 (91.1%). The results of Lucky HCD Confirm on seven discrepant samples were five negative and two indeterminate. The results of ES-300 and NANBDINE 125C showed concordance rate of 90.2%. The sensitivity and specificity of ES-300 with regard to Lucky HCD Confirm were 94.5%, and 87.5%, respectively, and that of Innotest(R) were 98.2% and 66.7%, respectively. Clear distinction of positive and negative results by signal/cut off ratio was available in both EIAs. The positive predictive values of ES-300 and Innotest(R) were 94.5%, and 87.1%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: ES-300 showed relatively good results in sensitivity and positive predictive value with regard to confirmatory test. In EIA-positive persons, however, follow-up study would be necessary for reliable evaluation of HCV infection.
Humans ; Radioimmunoassay ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Streptavidin