Fungi have been recognized as a significant cause of external otitis and it may be the primary pathogen or be part of a mixed infection. In the immunocompromised host, fungus is capable of producing infection in inner ear or middle ear. Otomycoses are most frequently caused by Aspergillus spp. and Candida sap. There are few reports that Aspergillus species other than A. fumigatus, A. niger and f. flavus have caused chronic otitis media. We report two cases of chronic otitis media caused by Aspergillus ferrous in Korea. One case is a 7-year-old girl who had recurrent serous otorrhea and otalgia for 4 years, was reattended otolaryngology clinics with otorrhea of 3 days durations and another is a 6-year-old girl who had serous otorrhea for 2 months and 3 day fever, was attended otolaryngology clinics with them. Microscopic appearance and colony morphology from ear discharge cultures revealed A. ferrous. The infection responded well to topical ketoconazole therapy. This report should help to raise medical personnel's awareness of such human opportunistic fungal ear infections.
Aspergillus* ; Candida ; Child ; Coinfection ; Ear ; Ear, Inner ; Ear, Middle ; Earache ; Female ; Fever ; Fungi ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Ketoconazole ; Korea ; Niger ; Otitis Externa ; Otitis Media* ; Otitis* ; Otolaryngology ; Otomycosis

PURPOSE:Decreased bone mineral density(BMD) has been reported in girls with Turner syndrome. Estrogen therapy is recommanded to improve sexual infantilism and decreased BMD. Short stature is also characteristic finding in patients with Turner syndrome. Treatment modality for short stature has included estrogen, anabolic steroids and growth hormone(GH). Recently GH therapy in GH deficient children could increase BMD in addition to improve short stature. We observed the treatment effects on bone mineral density in patients with Turner syndrome. METHODS: Bone Mineral Density in second to fourth lumbar spine area were measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry in 56 girls with Turner syndrome, before and after growth hormone and/or estrogen. All Turner girl was confirmed by clinical and chromosomal examination. RESULTS: 1) There was no significant difference in BMD according to karyotype. 2) The mean BMD of untreated Turner syndrome was 0.752+/-0.122g/cm2. 3) The mean BMD before and after GH treatment were 0.620+/-0.028g/cm2, 0.793+/-0.093g/cm2 respectively. The mean BMD before and after estrogen treatment were 0.761+/-0.125g/cm2, 0.918+/-0.141g/cm2 respectively. In combined group, the BMD were 0.752+/-0.087g/cm2 and 0.939+/-0.134g/cm2. Growth hormone was also effective to improve BMD as well as estrogen. But the changes of BMD were more significant in estrogen and combined group(p<0.05). 4) A significant positive correlation was found between age and BMD(p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS:Estrogen therapy can accelerate epiphysial maturation and compromise final height. Growth hormone therapy in Turner girls was effective for improvement bone mineral density as well as growth improvement. But growth hormone and estrogen combined therapy or Estrogen therapy is more effective to improve bone mineral density in Turner syndrome. Estrogen replacement can be delayed for a while on growth hormone treatment and the appropriated time of estrogen therapy should be elucidated.
Absorptiometry, Photon ; Bone Density* ; Child ; Estrogen Replacement Therapy ; Estrogens ; Female ; Growth Hormone ; Humans ; Karyotype ; Sexual Infantilism ; Spine ; Steroids ; Turner Syndrome*

OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to determine the usefulness of transvaginal ultrasonographic assessment of the uterine cervix and to compare the diagnostic performance of ultrasonographic and digital examination of the cervix in predicting a successful induction of labor. STUDY DESIGN: One hundred-one singleton term pregnancies without ruptured membranes admitted for the labor induction were included in this study. Digital examination and transvaginal ultrasonography of the uterine cervix were performed at the time of admission. Cervical parameters evaluated included cervical length, presence of funneling, funnel length, and funnel width. Labor induction was underwent by prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) vaginal suppository and/or pitocin intravenous infusion. Outcome variable was a successful labor induction within 48 hours after beginning of the induction. RESULTS: The prevalence of induction failure was 10.9% (11/101). Receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curve and multiple logistic regression analysis indicated a significant relationship between the successful induction of labor and cervical length <3.1 cm. The diagnositic indices of endocervical length was superior to those of Bishop's cervical score in predicting a successful induction of labor. In patients with cervical length <3.1 cm, the labor was induced successfully with fewer tablets of PGE2, less use of pitocin infusion, and shorter induction-delivery interval. CONCLUSION: Transvaginal ultrasonographical examination of the uterine cervix is more accurate than digital examination of the cervix in the prediction of a successful induction of labor in term gestation.
Cervix Uteri* ; Dinoprostone ; Female ; Humans ; Infusions, Intravenous ; Logistic Models ; Membranes ; Oxytocin ; Pregnancy* ; Prevalence ; Suppositories ; Tablets ; Ultrasonography

No abstract available.
Dinoprostone* ; Suppositories*

BACKGROUND: Various molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA hybridization have been introduced to diagnose the hepatitis B more accurately. Recently, Hybrid Capture Assay (HCA) was developed, which uses the signal amplification solution hybridization capture assay with chemiluminescent detector. So we evaluated the sensitivity and clinical utility of the HCA and PCRs for the detection of hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV DNA) and compared these results with serologic markers. METHODS: We analysed the 50 samples from the hepatitis B patients using enzyme immunoassay, HCA and nested PCRs with two different primer sets. The primers of PCR I and PCR II were targeted to pol and core region respectively. RESULTS: In 18 cases, HBV DNA were detected by HCA in which the positive rates by PCR I and PCR II were 55.6%, and 88.9%, respectively. And in 32 cases in which HBV DNA by HCA was negative, the positive rates by PCR I and PCR II were 6.2% and 31.3%, respectively. In 44 cases which were positive for HBsAg, the positive rates for HBV DNA were 38.6% by HCA, 27.3% by PCR I, and 56.8% by PCR II. In cases positive for HBeAg, the positive rates were 93.3% by HCA, 60.0% by PCR I and 80.0% by PCR II. In cases positive for anti-HBe and negative for HBeAg, the positive rates were 10.3% by HCA, 10.3% by PCR I, and 44.8% by PCR II. CONCLUSIONS: Both HCA and PCR compensated each other yet as to the accurate investigation of the viral replication in patients with hepatitis B and the sensitivity was better in HBV PCR with primers to core region than to pol region.
DNA ; Hepatitis B e Antigens ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis B virus* ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Polymerase Chain Reaction*

BACKGROUND: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continues to be a major cause of nosocomial infection and a molecular typing is necessary for proper epidemiologic investigations of sources and moles of spread in an outbreak. An nosocomial outbreak of MRSA in a neonatal intensive care unit at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital was suspected. To investigate the clonality of isolates and control the spread of nosocomial outbreak, we performed plasmid restriction analysis of MRSA isolates from patients and medical staffs. METHODS: We studied 7 MRSA strains (umbilicus 4, blood 1, urine 1 and pus 1) from patients in a neonatal intensive care unit and the MRSA strains from nares and hands surveillance cultures of 26 medical staffs (4 medical doctors and 22 nurses). All MRSA strains were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and plasmic analysis after EcoRI restriction. We analyzed the plasmid patterns of MRSA isolated from patients and compared with those from medical staffs. RESULTS: Ten MRSA strains (from 7 nares and 3 hands) were isolated from surveillance cultures of 26 medical staffs. Seven out of 10 MRSA strains from medical staffs revealed identical pattern of antibiogram which was the same pattern in all 7 MRSA strains from seven patients. Plasmid restriction patterns were classified 6 groups from A to F showing 2-10 bands. Six out of 7 MRSA strains from the patients showed group A(A1 5, A31) and 5 out of 10 MRSA strains from the medical staffs showed group A(A1 1, A21, A32, A41) and remainders showed different plasmid restriction analysis patterns. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that plasmid restriction analysis is a rapid, inexpensive, and good discriminating molecular typing of MRSA outbreak and is useful for the epidemiologic investigation of MRSA outbreaks in the clinical laboratory.
Cross Infection ; Disease Outbreaks ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care, Neonatal ; Medical Staff ; Methicillin Resistance* ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus* ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Molecular Epidemiology* ; Molecular Typing ; Plasmids* ; Suppuration

Eleven patients with proved Bronchiolo-aveolar cell carcinoma were found in the chest department of thenational menical center from 1975 to 1981. The incidence of Bronchiolo-alveolar cell carcinoma is recentlyincreased as primary lung carcinoma. The result as follow. 1. The ratio of male and female was 5:6 and anincidence of 4.4% among total primary lung cancer patients. The highest incidence (3 of cases) was seen in thesixth decade, and the remaining cases were evenly distributed in the third, fourth, and fifth decades of life.Among them youngest was 29 years old and the oldest was 66 years old. 2. Clinical and radiological initialdiagnosis prior to the final diagnosis were as follows; pulmonary tuberculosis; 7 cases, pneumonia; 1 case,bronchiectasis; 1 case, and lung cancer; 2 cases. 3. Radiological examination of chest presented several pictures;most commonly, homogenous or patchy infiltrations; 6 cases, nodular or mass like densities; 2 cases, disseminatednodular or military patterns; 2 cases, and reticular pattern; 1 case. 4. Bronchogram reveald no contributablefindings except one case of complete tappering obstruction of the segmental bronchus. Therefore we arrive at theconclusion that early diagnosis will result in increased resectability and improved survival so aggressivediagnositic work-up for suspicious pulmonary infiltrate is necessary.
Bronchi ; Diagnosis ; Early Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Male ; Military Personnel ; Pneumonia ; Thorax ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

No abstract available.
Lutein* ; Luteinizing Hormone* ; Puberty, Precocious*

BACKGROUND: Obesity in adolescents has been shown to be significantly associated with long term mortality and morbidity. Leptin secreted by adipose tissue regulates body weight, and obese people show high leptin levels as well as leptin resistance. The objective of this study was to examine the relationships of leptin concentration with various indices of obesity, cardiovascular risk factors, and diet in adolescents. METHODS: We conducted cross sectional study with sixty eight obese (28 male and 40 female) and 80 normal weight adolescents (40 male and 40 female), aged 12 18y, from an urban area in South Korea. Weight, height, body fat, waist and hip circumference, blood pressure, and fasting serum glucose, total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol, triglyceride, and leptin were measured, and a 24 dietary recall obtained. RESULTS: Females had, on average, two times higher leptin concentrations per fat mass than males. Circulating leptin was strongly associated with body fat (male:r=0.69, p<0.01; female:r=0.67, p<0.01), and waist circumference (male:r=0.65, p<0.01; female:r=0.64, p<0.01). The correlations between log.leptin and some cardiovascular risk factors were weakly positive. None of the association between log.leptin and nutrient intakes were significant. In a multiple regression model, body fat, gender, and waist circumference were found to be significant independent determinants of leptin concentration. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that female adolescents have higher leptin levels compared to male adolescents, independent of the concomitant variation in total body fat mass. Although leptin concentration did not have direct association with diet intakes, there was significant correlations with obesity indices and several cardiovascualr risk factors in Korean adolescents.
Adipose Tissue ; Adolescent* ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Body Height ; Body Weight ; Cholesterol, HDL ; Diet* ; Fasting ; Female ; Hip ; Humans ; Korea ; Leptin* ; Male ; Mortality ; Obesity* ; Risk Factors* ; Triglycerides ; Waist Circumference

Left ventricular hypertrophy(LVH) is one of common cardiovascular complications in hypertensive patients and it is well known that hypertensive cardiac disease accompained by LVH is still common cause of congestive heart failure in spite of treatment of hypertension. The authors assessed the prevalence of anatomical and functional abnormalities of left ventricle by EKG, chest X-ray and echocardiography in 45 essential hypertensive patients and also in 20 normal controls. Average values of left ventricular posterior wall thickness(LVPWd), interventricular septal thickness(IVSd), left ventricular mass(LVM), and left ventricular mass index(LVM/BSA) by echocardiography in hypertensive groups with LVH by EKG or chest X-ray were significantly higher than those of hypertensive groups without LVH by EKG or chest X-ray(P<0.005). Among 27 hypertensive patients with LVH by EKG and chest X-ray increased LVPWd was found in 24 patients(18%) and increased LVH in 26 patients(19%). Increased LVPWd and LVM were found in 3 patients(23%) among 13 hypertensives without LVH by EKG and chest X-ray. Hypertensive patients with increased LVH showed LVH by EKG and chest X-ray more frequently than those with increased LVPWd. Also, hypertensive patients without increased LVM showed MVH by EKG and chest X-ray less frequently than those without increased LVPWd. Therefore, echocardiography appears to be superior to routine chest X-ray and EKG for defecting LVH in hypertensive patients, especially without LVH by these tests. In conclusion, even though estimation of LVM by echocardiography seems to be a better method than single measurement of LVPWd, it seems thant estimation of LVM together with LVPWd will be more valuable in diagnosis of LVH in hypertensive patients.
Diagnosis ; Echocardiography* ; Electrocardiography ; Heart Diseases ; Heart Failure ; Heart Ventricles ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular* ; Prevalence ; Thorax