No abstract available.
Cholesteatoma* ; Semicircular Canals* ; Temporal Bone* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed*

Leiomyoma and adenomyosis of the uterus are the most common gynecologic disorders in an enlarged uterus. The characteristic US and MR findings in differentiation between both lesions were prospectively evaluated in 30 patients. Of 30 patients, 15 were leiomyomas, 6 were adenomyosises, 8 were leiomyomas and adenomyosises, and 1 was a normal pregnancy, histologically. The total number of leiomyom nodules were 49 while adenomyosises were 14 (9 diffuse and 5 focal). Among 49 myomas nodules, 36 were correctly diagnosed by sonography. The characteristic US findings of uterine leiomyoma were well defined nodules (36), hypoechoic peripheral rim (16), and whorl-like internal echoes (13). Forty four of the 49 myoma nodules were correctly diagnosed by MRI. The characteristic MR findings of myoma were well defined nodules (43), peripheral low signal intensity rim on T1WI (13) and T2WI (9), and peripheral high signal intensity rim on T2WI (5). Among 14 adenomyosises, 9 were correctly diagnosed by sonography. The characteristic US findings of adenomyosis were diffuse uterine hypertrophy more than 5.5cm in AP diameter with endometrial displacement and no significant echo change in myometrium All 14 adenomyosis as were correctly diagnosed from MRI. On T2WI, adenomyosis appeared as ill defined localized or diffuse thickening of the junctional zone more than 1cm in thickness. It was our conclusion that to differentiate between leiomyoma and adenomyosis focused on should be the detection of existence of nodule in leiomyoma, the primary sign, not on the secondary indirect sign.
Adenomyosis* ; Animals ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertrophy ; Leiomyoma* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Mice ; Myoma ; Myometrium ; Pregnancy ; Prospective Studies ; Uterus

BACKGROUND: Acute variceal bleeding is a serious complication of liver cirrhosis, which has an attendant mortality of approximately 60% over two years, and a variety of treatments, such as balloon tamponade, endoscopic varix ligation, sclerotherapy, histoacryl injection and vasoactive drugs, have been used. The aims of the present trial were to compare the effectiveness and complications of somatostatin and vasopressin in the treatment of acute variceal bleeding. METHODS: Forty-three cirrhotic patients, with endoscopically proven acute variceal bleeding, were included in this trial. Both drugs were given as continuous intravenous infusions for 48 hours. Twenty patients received the somatostatin (250 mcg per hr after a bolus of 50 mcg) and twenty-three the vasopressin (0.4 units per min). RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the two groups in relation to age, sex, etiology of cirrhosis, Child-Pugh classification, characteristics of bleeding episode, laboratory findings before randomization and units of transfused blood during therapy. Rebleeding, within 6 hours after beginning of therapy, was regarded as failure to control initial bleeding, and was observed in 3 (13.0%) of the patients who received vasopressin and in 1 (5.0%) treated with somatostatin (p> 0.05). Five patients in both the somatostatin (25.0%) and vasopressin (21.7%) groups rebled during the first 5 days following the initial therapy (p> 0.05). Meaningful complications related to the use of vasopressin were observed in 5 patients (chest pain or abdominal pain requiring nitroglycerin), but no complications were associated with the use of somatostatin (p< 0.05). The mortalities during hospitalization were similar in both the treatment groups. Two of the vasopressin and 1 of the somatostatin group died due to the uncontrolled rebleeding, and 1 of the vasopressin group died due to hepatic failure (2 weeks later after theropy). CONCLUSION: This study showed no differences in the effectiveness of somatostatin and vasopressin, but the somatostatin group had a lower risk of the complications.
Comparative Study ; Esophageal and Gastric Varices/*drug therapy/etiology ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage/*drug therapy/etiology ; Hemostatics/*administration & dosage/adverse effects ; Human ; Infusions, Intravenous ; Liver Cirrhosis/*complications/mortality/therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prospective Studies ; Somatostatin/*administration & dosage/adverse effects ; Treatment Outcome ; Vasopressins/*administration & dosage/adverse effects

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The role of a school's nutrition environment in explaining students' eating behaviors and weight status has not been examined in an Asian setting. The purpose of this study was to create a school nutrition environment index and to pilot test the index in elementary and middle schools in urban South Korea. SUBJECTS/METHODS: This study used a mixed-methods approach. Environment assessment tools were developed based on formative research, which comprised literature reviews, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. Key elements from the formative research were included in the assessment tool, which consisted of a structured survey questionnaire for school dietitians. Fifteen school dietitians from 7 elementary and 8 middle schools in Seoul completed the questionnaire. RESULTS: The formative research revealed four main sections that guided a summary index to assess a school's nutrition environment: resource availability, education and programs, dietitians' perceptions and characteristics, and school lunch menu. Based on the literature reviews and interviews, an index scoring system was developed. The total possible score from the combined four index sections was 40 points. From the 15 schools participating in the pilot survey, the mean school nutrition-environment index was 22.5 (standard deviation ± 3.2; range 17-28). The majority of the schools did not offer classroom-based nutrition education or nutrition counseling for students and parents. The popular modes of nutrition education were school websites, posters, and newsletters. CONCLUSIONS: This paper illustrates the process used to develop an instrument to assess a school's nutrition environment. Moreover, it presents the steps used to develop a scoring system for creation of a school nutrition environment index. As pilot testing indicated the total index score has some variation across schools, we suggest applying this instrument in future studies involving a larger number of schools. Future studies with larger samples will allow investigation of the validity and reliability of this newly developed tool.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Counseling ; Education ; Feeding Behavior ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Korea* ; Lunch ; Nutritionists ; Parents ; Periodicals as Topic ; Reproducibility of Results ; Republic of Korea ; Seoul

BACKGROUND: Acute variceal bleeding is one of serious complications of liver cirrhosis that has an attendant mortality of approximately 60% during two years and a variety of treatments like balloon tamponade, sclerotherapy and vasoactive drugs have been used. The aim of the present trial was to compare the effectiveness and complications of somatostatin and vasopressin in the treatment of acute variceal bleeding. METHODS: Fourty-three cirrhotic patients with endoscopically proven acute variceal bleeding were included. Both drugs were given as continuous intravenous infusions for 48 hour. Twenty patients received somatostatin (250 mcg per hour after a bolus of 50 mcg) and twenty-three recieved vasopressin (0.4 units per min). RESULTS: There was no significant difference between two groups in relation to age, sex and etiology of cirrhosis, Child-Pugh classification, characteristics of bleeding episode, laboratory findings before randomization and units of transfused blood during therapy. Rebleeding within 6 hour after beginning of therapy, that is failure of initial control of bleeding, was observed in 3 (13.0%)patients receiving vasopressin and in 1 (5.0%) of those treated with somatostatin (p>0.05). Five patients (25.0%) in the somatostatin group and 5 (21.7%) in the vasopressin group rebled during 5 days after initial therapy (p>0.05). The meaningful complications related with vasopressin were observed in 5 patients (chest pain or abdominal pain requiring nitroglycerin) but serious complications of somatostatin were not found. Mortalities during hospitalization were similar in both treatment groups. Two of the vasopressin group and one of the somatostatin group died because of the uncontrolled rebleeding and one of the vasopressin group died due to hepatic failure. CONCLUSION: This study shows that the effectiveness of somatostatin and vasopressin was not different but somatostatin had a lower risk of the complication than vasopressin.
Abdominal Pain ; Balloon Occlusion ; Classification ; Esophageal and Gastric Varices* ; Fibrosis ; Hemorrhage ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Infusions, Intravenous ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver Failure ; Liver* ; Mortality ; Prospective Studies* ; Random Allocation ; Sclerotherapy ; Somatostatin* ; Varicose Veins ; Vasopressins*

BACKGROUND: Adequate depth of anesthesia requires a sufficient amount of the agent to secure unconsciousness and other components of anesthesia as needed for that particular surgical procedure, without jeopardizing vital organ functions. To evaluate the relationship of depth of anesthesia to EEG, we studied the effects of increasing minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of isoflurane (arousal, 1, 1.3, 1.5 MAC) on power spectral analysis of the EEG. METHODS: To determine 1 MAC, we studied sixty patients undergoing general anesthesia who were randomly allocated to receive isoflurane at several predetermined end-tidal concentration. A minimum of 15 min was allowed between induction and skin incision to allow steady state condition. Patients were observed for gross purposeful movement for 60 seconds after incision. The MAC was calculated using maximum likelihood solution to a logistic regression model. Another forty patients were randomly allocated to have their EEGs recorded. General anesthesia was induced with oxygen and isoflurane only. After loss of consciousness, succinylcholine 1.5 mg/kg was given and intubation followed. The EEG was recorded awake and after 15 min at steady state conditions of 1, 1.3 and 1.5 MAC isoflurane had been achieved. Spectral edge frequency 95% (SEF95), median spectral frequency (MSF), total power (TP) and relative power in the delta, theta, alpha and beta band were calculated. RESULTS: The MAC of isoflurane was 1.21 vol% (20 - 40 years) and 1.09 vol% (40 - 60 years). The distribution of spectral EEG indices of the EEGs were established and compared. The threshold value of SEF95 14 Hz to differentiate between arousal and 1.3 and 1.5 MAC had a sensitivity of 60.5% (1.3 MAC), 71% (1.5 MAC) and specificity of 74.4% (1.3 and 1.5 MAC) and that of MSF 5 Hz had a sensitivity of 71% (1.3 MAC), 81.5% (1.5 MAC) and specificity of 48% (1.3 MAC), 48.8% (1.5 MAC). CONCLUSIONS: With regard to the dose-related decrease in SEF95 and MSF under increasing end- expiratory concentrations of isoflurane as described in the present study, future studies may have todetermine whether EEG feedback control of volatile anesthetic administration may be used successfully. It seems that if neglected parts by MSF and SEF95, which are really true values are considered in the future studies, those would increase the sensitivity and specificity of EEG could be used as tool for determining depth of anesthesia.
Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, General ; Arousal ; Electroencephalography* ; Humans ; Intubation ; Isoflurane* ; Logistic Models ; Neurofeedback ; Oxygen ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Skin ; Succinylcholine ; Unconsciousness

PURPOSE: CT and MR findings of cerebral fat embolism syndrome(CFES) have been rarely reported, because its diagnosis had been made on the basis of only clinical features in the majority of the cases. The purpose of this study is to describe the clinical, CT, and MR findings in six patients of CFES. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Brain CT and MR findings were retrospectively analyzed in six patients with CFES that was diagnosed on the basis of clinical and MRI findings. All six patients had long bone fractures and showed typical delayed clinical manifestations 2-3 days later. Both CT and MRI were examined in all of six patients. Initial CT scan was performed within 48 hours after trauma in all patients, andfollow-up CT scan was done in 2-11 days in two patients. MRI was done within 2-7 days after trauma in three patients, and 13 days, 18 days, and 45 days in other three patients. Follow-up MRI studies were performed in 2-60 weeks in four patients. Clinical and laboratory findings were analyzed retrospectively with medical records. CT and MRI findings were evaluated with regard to presence or absence of diffuse brain swelling and focal abnormalities of signal intensity(density). RESULTS: CT scans obtained within 2 days after trauma showed diffuse cerebral swelling in five patients and normal findng in one patient. On Tl-weighted MRI, diffuse cerebral swelling was shown in three cases and high signal spots suggesting cerebral petechial hemorrhage were noted in both caudate nuclei and thalami in two cases. On T2-weighted images, high signal spots which were shown on Tl-weighted image were not visible. In all of six cases, multiple lesions of high signal were observed mainly in the cerebral white matters, cerebellum and brain stem, probably representing ischemia/infarct or edema. On the follow-up MRI studies performed within a period from weeks to one month after trauma, the size and the number of the lesions were significantly decreased and these findings were well corresponded with clinical course. CONCLUSION: MR findings' of CFES include diffuse cerebral swelling, petechial hemorrhage and mi- croinfarcts, which characteristically improved in short period. In cases suspected of having CFES, MRI is more useful than CT for initial and follow-up studies because of its high detection rate of lesions and correspondence with clinical course.
Brain ; Brain Edema ; Brain Stem ; Cerebellum ; Diagnosis ; Edema ; Embolism, Fat* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Fractures, Bone ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Medical Records ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Long-term data on antiviral therapy in Korean patients with hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB) are limited. This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of entecavir (ETV) and lamivudine (LAM) over 240 weeks. METHODS: Treatment-naive patients with HBeAg-negative CHB were randomized to receive ETV 0.5 mg/day or LAM 100 mg/day during the 96 week double-blind phase, followed by open-label treatment through week 240. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients with virologic response (VR; hepatitis B virus [HBV] DNA<300 copies/mL) at week 24. Secondary objectives included alanine aminotransferase (ALT) normalization and emergence of ETV resistance (week 96), VR and log reduction in HBV DNA levels (week 240), and safety evaluation. RESULTS: In total, 120 patients (>16 years old) were included (ETV, n=56; LAM, n=64). Baseline characteristics were comparable between the two groups. A significantly higher proportion of ETV-treated patients achieved VR compared to LAM at week 24 (92.9% vs. 67.2%, P=0.0006), week 96 (94.6% vs. 48.4%, P < 0.0001), and week 240 (95.0% vs. 47.6%, P < 0.0001). At week 96, ALT normalization was observed in 87.5% and 51.6% of ETV and LAM patients, respectively (P < 0.0001). Virologic breakthrough occurred in one patient (1.8%) receiving ETV and 26 patients (42.6%) receiving LAM (P < 0.0001) up to week 96. Emergence of resistance to ETV was not detected. The incidence of serious adverse events was low and unrelated to the study medications. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term ETV treatment was superior to LAM, with a significantly higher proportion of patients achieving VR. Both treatments were well tolerated.
Alanine Transaminase ; DNA ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis B, Chronic* ; Hepatitis* ; Hepatitis, Chronic* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Lamivudine*

Background: Hand hygiene is considered the simplest and most cost-effective method of infection prevention. Regular observation and feedback on hand hygiene compliance are key strategies for its enhancement. This study evaluated the effectiveness of hand hygiene surveillance, including direct observation and feedback, by comprehensively analyzing the reported hand hygiene compliance within the Korean National Healthcare-Associated Infections Surveillance System from 2019 to 2022. Methods: Participating medical institutions included general hospitals and hospitals with infection control departments that consented to participate. Hand hygiene surveillance was conducted using direct observation. Collected data, including healthcare workers, clinical areas, hand hygiene moments, and hand hygiene compliance, were recorded to calculate hand hygiene compliance rates. Additionally, the volume of alcohol-based hand sanitizers used per patient per day was investigated as an indirect indicator of hand hygiene compliance. The study was conducted from July 2019 to December 2022. Results: Hand hygiene compliance increased from 87.2% in Q3 2019 to 89.9% in 2022. Nurses and medical technologists showed the highest compliance rates, whereas doctors showed the lowest compliance rates. Intensive care units excelled in compliance, whereas emergency de partments lagged. Compliance was highest after patient contact and lowest when the patient’s surroundings were touched. Larger hospitals consumed more alcohol-based hand sanitizers than smaller hospitals did. Conclusion This study confirmed an improvement in hand hygiene compliance through sustained surveillance, indicating its contribution not only to preventing infection transfer within healthcare facilities but also to fostering a culture of hand hygiene in the country.

Background: Hand hygiene is considered the simplest and most cost-effective method of infection prevention. Regular observation and feedback on hand hygiene compliance are key strategies for its enhancement. This study evaluated the effectiveness of hand hygiene surveillance, including direct observation and feedback, by comprehensively analyzing the reported hand hygiene compliance within the Korean National Healthcare-Associated Infections Surveillance System from 2019 to 2022. Methods: Participating medical institutions included general hospitals and hospitals with infection control departments that consented to participate. Hand hygiene surveillance was conducted using direct observation. Collected data, including healthcare workers, clinical areas, hand hygiene moments, and hand hygiene compliance, were recorded to calculate hand hygiene compliance rates. Additionally, the volume of alcohol-based hand sanitizers used per patient per day was investigated as an indirect indicator of hand hygiene compliance. The study was conducted from July 2019 to December 2022. Results: Hand hygiene compliance increased from 87.2% in Q3 2019 to 89.9% in 2022. Nurses and medical technologists showed the highest compliance rates, whereas doctors showed the lowest compliance rates. Intensive care units excelled in compliance, whereas emergency de partments lagged. Compliance was highest after patient contact and lowest when the patient’s surroundings were touched. Larger hospitals consumed more alcohol-based hand sanitizers than smaller hospitals did. Conclusion This study confirmed an improvement in hand hygiene compliance through sustained surveillance, indicating its contribution not only to preventing infection transfer within healthcare facilities but also to fostering a culture of hand hygiene in the country.