PURPOSE: The aims of this study were to describe general characteristics and needs of home health care, and to find the differences between home health care needers and non-needers. METHOD: In this study, 642 subjects participated who lived in Muan, Jollanam-do. Data were collected in August 2001 using a self-reported questionnaire. The questionnaire was a revised and simplified form of the Organization of Community Health System Program at the Seoul National University. Collected data were analyzed through Kruskal-Wallis test. t-test. and Chi-squire for cross-sectional analysis. RESULT: The average age of the subjects was 52.6 years and 33.3% of them aged over 65 years. Twenty six percent of them had chronic degenerative diseases. The percentages of hypertension patients and D.M. patients were 6.4% and 2.5%, respectively. The number of family members was 2.95 on the average, 2.19 in cases of families with the elderly and 3.33 in cases of families without the elderly. The rate of disability of the elderly was 10.5%. Marital status (p=.000), the number of family members (p=.000), education (p=.000), job (p=.000) and health insurance (p=.027) were significantly different between home care needers and non-needers. Home care needers had less living expenses (p=.001), more frequent hospital admissions (p=.004), higher chronic disease rate (p=.000) and more frequent visits to public health center (p=.027) than non-needers. Home care needers who wanted free service were twice as many as non-needers. CONCLUSION: Home care need was very high in rural areas and the needers had worse characteristics (low educational level. low income, no job and no family). Therefore, it is necessary to develop cheaper and more accessible services for home care needers in rural areas.
Aged ; Chronic Disease ; Community Health Planning ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Education ; Home Care Services ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Insurance, Health ; Marital Status ; Public Health ; Seoul ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Common complications in a patient with IgG subclass deficiency include recurrent respiratory infections and concomitant inflammatory lung disease. The most effective therapy in these patients is the administration of intravenous immunoglobulin. The authors report a case of severe aspirin-sensitive asthma and recurrent pneumonia with combined IgG1, and IgG3 subclass deficiency in a 19-year-old man. The patient was treated with 0.4g/kg at monthly intervals for 6 months, and is still receiving 0.2g/kg every 2 weeks at our clinic. After the replacement of intravenous immunoglobulin, the patient has clinically improved.
Aspirin* ; Asthma* ; Humans ; Immunization, Passive* ; Immunoglobulin G* ; Immunoglobulins* ; Lung Diseases ; Pneumonia ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; Young Adult

Absence of one tube and a corresponding ovary is very rare anomaly.We reported a case of absence of one tube and a corresponding ovary and reviewthe literature briefly.
Female ; Ovary*

Cyclooxygenase (COX) is an enzyme involved in the conversion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandins(PGs), and exists in two forms, COX-1 and COX-2. COX has been reported to be involved in early implantation by secretion of PGs which causes permeability of vessels and reaction of decidual cells around the implantation site. Recently, in mice and sheep studies, COX-1 and COX-2 expression in the endometrium has been reported to be different according to implantation and stages of the estrous cycle, but expression of COX-1 and COX-2 in human endometrium during the menstrual cycle has not yet been established. The purpose of this stuffy was to observe the variances of COX-1 and COX-2 expression by immunohistoehemical staining in endometrial samples obtained from human hysterectomy specimens and biopsies of women of reproductive age according to different stages of the menstrual cycle. Also, we attempted to observe COX-1 and COX-2 expression in the epithelial and stromal cells of the endometrium obtained during the mid-secretory phase, which were cultured separately. COX-2 showed a cyclic pattern of expression according to the different stages of the menstrual cycle and was strongly expressed particularly at the mid-secretory phase which corresponds to the time of implantation. However, COX-1 tended to be increased in the early proliferative, and mid- and late secretory phases, but was also expressed in the whole menstrual cycle showing no particular pattern. In the separately cultured cells COX-1 was expressed in epithilial cells and COX-2 in the stromal cells. The above results suggest that since COX-2 is expressed at the same time as implantation and cultured cells display a specific secretory pattern, COX-2 has inductive endocrine enzyme properties and has an important effect on endometrial cells during implantation. Also, COX-2 expression in endometrial cells may be utilized as a useful marker of endometrial maturation.
Animals ; Arachidonic Acid ; Biopsy ; Cells, Cultured ; Cyclooxygenase 1* ; Endometrium* ; Estrous Cycle ; Female ; Humans* ; Hysterectomy ; Menstrual Cycle ; Mice ; Permeability ; Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases ; Sheep ; Stromal Cells

No abstract available.
Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid* ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage* ; Early Diagnosis* ; Pneumocystis carinii* ; Pneumocystis* ; Pneumonia, Pneumocystis*

An increase in the dose of chemotherapy enhances the response of many experimental and clinical cancers, but the extent of chemotherapy dose escalation and repeated use is often limited by myelosuppression. The side effects of chemotherapy including bleeding and infection due to myelosuppression have resulted in delayed therapy and a reduction in the therapeutic dose, therefore it is necessary to overcome myelosuppression especially leukopenia in patients with gynecologic malignancies who recieved chemotherapy. This study is undertaken to investigate the clinical effects of rhG-CSF(recombinant human Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor) in 29 patients with gynecologic malignancy who recieved chemotherapy. It was given at a dose of 100 microgram bid/day subcutaneously until significantly increase of leukocyte count in leukopenic patient. The results showed, the rhG-CSF has significantly increased the number and function of leukocyte. The use of rhG-CSF was effective and useful to treat chemotherapy induced leukopenia and to accelerate the recovery from this complications.
Drug Therapy* ; Hemorrhage ; Humans* ; Leukocyte Count ; Leukocytes ; Leukopenia*

Three cases of successful pregnancy outcome after intensive care in the patients with rare mullerian anomaly of complete uterine septum, hypoplastic cervical duplication and longitudinal vaginal septum in infertility clinic are reported. These presented three cases are the reports of supporting the embryologic hypothesis of bidirectional mullerian development which fusion and resorption begins at the isthmus and proceeds simultaneously in both the cranial and caudal directions rather than the classical views of unidirectional(caudal to cranial) mullerian development. Thus, we present here three cases of rare mullerian anomaly and their pregnancy outcomes in an attempt to alert gynecologist to the possible occurrence of such a malformation. In 2 cases, successful pregnancy outcomes were achieved after abdominal or hysteroscopic uterine septotomy before pregnancy and in the last case, successful pregnancy outcome intensive obstetric care was achieved even under uncorrected uterine anomaly and complete removal of uterine septum resulted in uneventful postoperative courses at the same time of cesarean section.
Cesarean Section ; Female ; Humans ; Infertility ; Critical Care* ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Outcome* ; Pregnancy*

Paroxysmal itching is a rare symptom in multiple sclerosis and it was first reported in 1975 by Osterman and Westerberg. It has been suggested that paroxysmal itching may be due to the activation of axons in CNS via abnormal synapses between demyelinated axons. Carbamazepine, phenytoin, and ibuprofen are known to be effective in the treatment of paroxysmal itching. We report a case of paroxysmal itching of 4 months' duration in a 41-year-old female with multiple sclerosis who suffered from severe paroxysmal itching on the left side of her neck and chest. The itching did not respond to carbamazepine, but it was partially controlled with ibuprofen.
Adult ; Axons ; Carbamazepine ; Female ; Humans ; Ibuprofen ; Multiple Sclerosis* ; Neck ; Phenytoin ; Pruritus* ; Synapses ; Thorax

The two most common causes of acute arterial occlusion are embolism and thrombosis in sity. They are mainly originated from the cardiovascular sources. About 70-80 per cent of occlusions occur in the axial limb vessels. Therapeutic options include supportive measures, pharmacologic treatment, surgery, and non-operative interventions. There have been several successful case reports using percutaneous aspiration thromboembolectomy with the advent of new instruments and technical imprevement. We report a case of 70-year-old male with acute anterior wall myocardial infaction who experienced acute embolic arterial occlusion of the left popliteal artery from mural thrombus in the left ventricular apex. It wan managed successfully by percutaneous aspiration thromboembolectomy.
Aged ; Embolism ; Embolism and Thrombosis ; Extremities ; Humans ; Male ; Popliteal Artery ; Thrombosis

This study was undertaken to develop species-specific forward and universal reverse PCR primers for the detection of Streptococcus sobrinus. These primers target the variable regions of the 16S ribosomal RNA coding gene (rDNA) and their specificity was tested against 10 strains of S. sobrinus strains and 20 different species of oral bacteria using serial dilutions of the purified genomic DNA of S.sobrinus ATCC 33478T . Our data show that species-specific amplicons were obtained from all the S. sobrinus strains tested but not from other species. Both direct and nested PCR could detect as little as 400 pg and 4 fg of genomic DNA from S. sobrinus ATCC 33478T , respectively. This result suggests that these PCR primers are highly specific and sensitive and applicable to the detection of S. sobrinus.
Bacteria ; Clinical Coding ; Collodion ; DNA ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Streptococcus ; Streptococcus sobrinus