PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between tooth loss and sub-clinical atherosclerosis in Korean adults. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The subjects were part of a cohort study conducted in Ansan city by the Korea University medical school as part of the Korean Genome project. 749 subjects over than 40 years old were evaluated. After taking panoramic radiography, the amount of tooth loss was calculated. The intima-media thickness (IMT) was assessed by using ultrasonography at the common carotid artery. Traditional cardiovascular risk factors for atherosclerosis were also evaluated. The relationship between tooth loss and the IMT was evaluated using ANOVA with Scheffe's multiple comparison method in univariate analysis. Multiple regression analysis was also performed to determine the significance between the IMT and tooth loss. RESULTS: With age, tooth loss increased, but there was no significant increase in other traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Univariate analysis revealed the IMT to be positively related with the amount of tooth loss. Regression analysis of the IMT in the anterior and posterior tooth loss revealed that only the posterior tooth loss was significantly related with the IMT at all sites of the common carotid artery (right far wall, P = .015; left far wall, P = .008; right near wall, P < .001; left near wall, P = .001). CONCLUSION: This study verified the positive relationship between the increased tooth loss at the posterior area and the accumulation of atheroma in arteries.
Adult ; Arteries ; Atherosclerosis ; Carotid Artery, Common ; Carotid Intima-Media Thickness ; Cohort Studies ; Genome ; Humans ; Korea ; Plaque, Atherosclerotic ; Radiography, Panoramic ; Risk Factors ; Schools, Medical ; Tooth ; Tooth Loss

PURPOSE: To report the anatomic and visual results of vitrectomy without scleral buckling in rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. METHODS: Primary vitrectomy without scleral buckling for the treatment rhegmatogenous retinal detachment was done in 41 eyes (41 patients) and followed up for a mean period of 21.5 months(range 6~65 months). Indications of primary vitrectomy were uncertain preoperative breaks, the presence of large breaks, the presence of breaks near equator, multiple breaks, proliferative vitreoretinopathy not related to breaks and presence of inferior vitreous hemorrhage. RESULTS: The anatomic success rate after a single operation was 90.2%. Visual acuity was improved or stable in 37 eyes (90.2%). Progression of lens opacity (35.7%) and formation of epiretinal membrane (12.2%) constituted the major complications after primary vitrectomy. CONCLUSIONS: Primary vitrectomy without scleral buckling can be a safe, effective method to repair primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachments in selective cases.
Cataract ; Epiretinal Membrane ; Retinal Detachment* ; Retinaldehyde* ; Scleral Buckling ; Visual Acuity ; Vitrectomy* ; Vitreoretinopathy, Proliferative ; Vitreous Hemorrhage

PURPOSE: To report herein on Nystagmus Acuity Estimator Function (NAEF) based on the foveation time, obtained by analyzing waveforms of infantile nystagmus patients and comparing the results with the patients' actual visual acuity. METHODS: Electro-oculographic data of 27 patients with infantile nystagmus were reviewed. Data of patients only with jerk type nystagmus and reliable visual acuity were analyzed. The foveation time was measured, and NAEF was calculated and compared with the patients' actual best corrected visual acuity. RESULTS: A correlation analysis of the patients' best corrected visual acuity with NAEF was performed, and the retrieved coefficient was 0.4266. The p-value calculated using the Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.0282, implying that high NAEF correlates positively with visual acuity. CONCLUSIONS: Estimated visual acuity, calculated based on the waveforms, positively correlates with the patients' actual visual acuity with statistical significance. However, since the foveation time can be measured only in the patients with jerk-type nystagmus waveforms, further study should be performed on the measurement of the foveation time with other waveforms. Furthermore, the present study shows that such analysis is possible with electrooculogram settings in most general hospitals.
Electrooculography ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Visual Acuity

PURPOSE: To report two cases of ocular ischemia following scleral encircling. METHODS: A 21-year-old man with glaucoma and a 76-year-old woman without any medical problem were transferred to our department for surgery to treat retinal detachment. After retrobulbar anesthesia and limbal peritomy of conjunctiva, the 4-rectus muscles were isolated. Scleral encircling was performed with No. a 42 band (4.0 mm in width) after cryotherapy done completely around retinal tear. RESULTS: Following surgery, One patient experienced ophthalmic artery occlusion and while the other patient experienced central retinal artery occlusion. Vision was not restored in either cases despite IV injection of 250 ml of 15% mannitol solution and anterior chamber paracentesis. CONCLUSIONS: In the cases where patients are of old age or suffer from glaucoma, we strongly recommend that the surgeons perform the scleral encircling carefully.
Aged ; Anesthesia ; Anterior Chamber ; Conjunctiva ; Cryotherapy ; Female ; Glaucoma ; Humans ; Ischemia* ; Mannitol ; Muscles ; Ophthalmic Artery ; Paracentesis ; Retinal Artery Occlusion ; Retinal Detachment ; Retinal Perforations ; Young Adult

Pars interarticularis fracture is a common finding in young soccer players with low back pain. Spondylolysis in young adults involves a defect of the pars interarticularis, occurring as a result of repeated hyperextension and rotation. Here, we describe the case of a 26-year-old male elite soccer player who was diagnosed with L3 spondylolysis 2 years previously. He visited Incheon Himchan Hospital again because of low back pain. Radiographs showed consecutive spondylolysis at the L3 and L4 levels. Physicians should be aware that repeated performance of athletic movements, such as those during soccer, might lead to consecutive levels of spondylolysis.
Adult ; Athletes ; Fractures, Stress ; Humans ; Incheon ; Low Back Pain ; Male ; Soccer* ; Spondylolysis* ; Sports ; Young Adult

An epidemiologic investigation was carried out to identify the source of infection of typhoid fever outbreak, which was occurred in Nam-Gu, Pusan city from April 20 to June 28, 1996. The distribution of 83 reported cases (55 confirmed cases and 28 suspected cases) by sex and age group showed that this epidemic would be occurred by the exposure to a common source with low toxic pathogen because 55.4% of cases were under 20 years old and most of the adults cases were female. The epidemic curve showed a unimodel curve with a peak on about 15 May and tailed down to 23 June, suggesting that the exposure was constant. These results supposed that the contamination of a public water supply would be the source of infection. The analysis of reported cases and population survey conducted to household members and community contacts living in the epidemic area, led the conclusion that the source of infection was tap water supplied through the Dae Youn pumping station, based on the following findings: (1) There were singificant differences of incidence rate among regions (Tong) even though in the same Dong and the spot map of incident cases distributed in accord with the water supply by Dae-Youn pumping station. (2) Among reported cases, 21 cases, including 17 confirmed cases, stated they had used only tap water. (3) The analysis of tap water from the house which had seven typhoid cases, revealed the contamination of E coli and the dilution of residual chlorinated concentration. (4) The outbreak of typhoid fever was stopped after the replacement of The worn-out pipe line of tap water supply to the new one.
Adult ; Busan* ; Escherichia coli ; Family Characteristics ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Typhoid Fever* ; Water ; Water Supply ; Young Adult

Invasive diseases caused by Trichosporon beigelii are rare, usually fatal, opportunistic infections that occur exclusively in immunocompromised patients. This fungus has been known to produce cutaneous involvement in immunocompetent hosts, and is rarely reported to cause systemic disease in patients with cardiac valve replacement. In this report, we described a case of invasive Trichosporon beigelii pneumonia in a 9-year-old boy who presented with persistent cough and dyspnea for 1 week. He showed no abnormality in immunologic function tests and had no predisposing factors. Trichosporon beigelii was isolated from the bronchoalveolar lavage culture.
Bronchoalveolar Lavage ; Causality ; Child ; Cough ; Dyspnea ; Fungi ; Heart Valves ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Male* ; Opportunistic Infections ; Pneumonia* ; Trichosporon*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explain differences of cesarean section rates according to San-Yin-Jiao(SP6) acupressure for women in labor. METHOD: A noneqivalent control group pre test - post test design was used to explain differences of cesarean section rates according to SP6 acupressure. The participants were 209 women who were assigned to one of three groups SP6 acupressure(n=86), SP6 touch(n=47), and control group(n=76). For 30 minutes, the SP6 acupressure group received SP6 acupressure,and the SP6 touch group received SP6 touch for the duration of each uterine contraction. The Control group was encouraged to deep breath and relax for the duration of each uterine contraction for 30 minutes. RESULT: The rates of cesarean section were 12.8%, 29.8%, and 22.4% for the SP6 acupressure group, SP6 touch group, and control group respectively. There was a significant difference among groups (p=0.049). Cesarean section rateswere significantly different between the SP6 acupressure and non-SP6 acupressure group(p=0.035). CONCLUSION: This finding shows that 30 minutes of SP6 acupressure was effective in decreasing the cesarean section rate. Therefore, SP6 acupressure during labor could be applied as an effective nursing intervention.
*Acupressure ; Cesarean Section/*statistics & numerical data ; Female ; Humans ; Labor Pain/*therapy ; Pregnancy

PURPOSE: The developing brain has been reported to be extremely susceptible to toxicity of ischemia and/or hypoxia during a restricted developmental period. Hippocampal neuronal cell death is a typical type of perinatal hypoxic brain lesion and often coexists with other forms of cerebral hypoxic injuries. In the present study, we examined whether transcriptional changes of NR2A and NR2B subunits of the N-Methyl-D-aspartate(NMDA) receptors related to the neuronal cell death to hypoxic toxicity are involved in developing neurons in the hippocampus. METHODS: We examined the lesion produced by in vivo direct exposure of 92% N2 and 8% O2 for 2 hours at postnatal day 7. Hippocampal sections from the 7th and 14th days after hypoxia were obtained, and the amount of the NR2A and NR2B mRNA subunits were measured by in situ hybridization using the antisense probe to the NR2A and NR2B subunits. To determine the effects of molecular changes of NMDA receptor subunits, morphological changes of neurons and/or accompanying astrocytosis were evaluated by H&E and immunohistochemical stain. RESULTS: Fourteen days after hypoxia, the expression of NR2B significantly increased whereas NR2A showed distinct reduction compared with that of control rat pups. At this time, unexpectedly, neurons in CA3 region showed prominant reduction of the actual numbers and accompanied reactive astrocytosis. CONCLUSION: Alteration of NR2A and NR2B expression to hypoxic insults, suggest the possibility that changes of the NR2 subunits which can alter the function of the NMDA receptor play a crucial role in the occurrence of developmentally specific hippocampal neuronal injury.
Animals ; Anoxia ; Brain ; Cell Death ; Gliosis ; Hippocampus* ; In Situ Hybridization ; Ischemia ; N-Methylaspartate* ; Neurons ; Rats* ; Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate* ; RNA, Messenger

PURPOSE: Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is known to have systemic dissemination with poor prognosis, but very few cases have been reported in Korea. Therefore, we analyzed clinical features and prognosis of MCL by comparing 3 cases of ocular adnexal MCL and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma. METHODS: The medical records of patients with ocular adnexal MALT lymphoma and MCL from Chungnam National University Hospital and Pusan National University Hospital from January 1999 to April 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. Immunohistochemical examination was selectively used to diagnose lymphoma subtypes. Systemic dissemination, treatment response, and recurrence were identified using radiological testing and bone marrow aspiration. RESULTS: This study included 39 patients with ocular and ocular adnexal MALT lymphoma and 1 patient with MCL from Chungnam National University Hospital and 53 patients with MALT lymphoma and 2 patients with MCL from Pusan National University Hospital. All 3 (100%) patients diagnosed with ocular adnexal MCL were over 60 years of age. However, 28 of 92 (30.4%) patients diagnosed with MALT lymphoma were over 60 years of age. In MALT lymphoma, 3 of 92 patients presented with systemic dissemination and most patients recovered with radiotherapy. Conversely, all 3 patients with MCL showed systemic dissemination and recurrence after radiotherapy or chemotherapy, therefore, additional chemotherapy was required. CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to MALT lymphoma, ocular and ocular adnexal MCL usually presented with systemic dissemination and complete remission was difficult even though many regimens of chemotherapy were attempted. Because MCL can be misdiagnosed as MALT lymphoma, careful evaluation should be performed.
Bone Marrow ; Busan ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Korea ; Lymphoid Tissue ; Lymphoma ; Lymphoma, B-Cell, Marginal Zone* ; Lymphoma, Mantle-Cell* ; Medical Records ; Prognosis ; Radiotherapy ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies