BACKGROUND: From 1980s the methamphetamine(phillopon) was suddenly spread to our country and it becomes a serious social problem. Although the proportion of transfusion associated hepatitis C declined after introduction of Anti-HCV assay as screening test of blood donors, the overall prevalence of hepatitis C has remained the same, primarily because of increase of the proportion of hepatitis C patients among intravenous drug abusers. So we studied about prevalence of Anti-HCV, and other viral infectious disease transmission by intravenous drug abuse. METHODS: Total 202 drug abusers who had been admitted to Taegu Medical Center in 1994-1996 were tested for the presence of Anti-HCV. Epidemiologic data and histories related to drug use were obtained, as were serum test for hepatitis B, aminotransferase, HIV. RESULTS: The overall seropositivity of anti-HCV was 79.2%. Patients In HCV positive group were significant old age(34.0 yrs) and had long duration of injection(3.0 yrs) and the number of patient who had elevated aminotransferase level were significantly more than HCV negative group(p<0.05). No significant difference in sex, prevalence of HBs Ag and Anti HBc were observated between HCV positive group and negative group. The prevalence of Anti HBc was 52.1% and HBs Ag was 4.2%, but anyone was not detected for AIDS. CONCLUSIONS: The seropositivity of Anti-HCV in intravenous drug users in Taegu, Korea was 79.2%, comparable to that in Europe and U.S.A. This finding suggest that its time to hurry up for medical and public walfare service personal to concern and education of drug abusers, and inview of preventive medical care the need of general public information and education is pressing.
Blood Donors ; Daegu ; Disease Transmission, Infectious ; Drug Users* ; Education ; Europe ; Hepatitis B ; Hepatitis C ; HIV ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Prevalence ; Social Problems ; Substance Abuse, Intravenous

BACKGROUND: The normal sinus heart rate standard of 60 to 100 beats per minute was set by the NYHA(New York Heart Association) in 1928. It has long been accepted to physicians, but clinical studies and experience suggest that both these limits are too high. Thus we reexamined to define operationally normal sinus heart rate that are scientifically and clinically acceptable. METHODS: Total 1,930 subjects(aged 20 to 92 years) were analyzed and evaluated for age, sex, body mass index(BMI), systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and resting heart rates by electrocardiogram. We used Pearson's correlation test and t-test to analyze these data. RESULTS: Among 1930 subjects, 982 cases were male(51%) and 948 cases were female (49%), whose mean age was 48 years in male and 51 years in female. For the entire sample, mean heart rate and standard deviation was 68 +/- 11 beats/min. There was statistically significant difference between male(67+/-11 beats/min) and female(68+/-10 beats/min)(P<0,05). The prevalence of sinus tachycardia and bradycardia, calculated by current normal standard of 60 to 100 beats/min, was 22.0% (424 cases) and 0.9% (18 cases). Mean +/- two standard deviation yields rounded extremes of 46 to 89 beats/min for normal sinus heart rate. A positive correlations between resting heart rate and age(r=0.11), systolic blood pressure(r =0.17), diastolic blood pressure(r=0.12) were found(P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Two extremes of the normal sinus heart rate standard of 60 to 100 beats/min are set too high. They result in lower sensitivity for tachycardia and lower specificity for bradycardia. We propose that normal range for sinus heart rate should be 50 to 90 beats/min which is statistically justified, more realistic for clinical investigation.
Blood Pressure ; Bradycardia ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Heart Rate* ; Heart* ; Humans ; Male ; Prevalence ; Reference Values ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tachycardia ; Tachycardia, Sinus

PURPOSE: Our study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of gastric aspirate examination (GAE) in the early identification of early onset sepsis. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was done for a total 291 neonates who were admitted with high risk for early onset sepsis to Nowon Eulji Hospital neonatal intensive care unit between Jan. 1999 and Jan. 2003. Contents of gastric aspirate via nasogastric tube were analyzed with wet smear, gram stain and culture. Positive blood culuture was our definitive criterion for sepsis. GAE was considered positive when five or more leukocytes per high power field were counted on wet smear or when any bacteria were present on gram stain or when any organism grew on culture. RESULTS: Positive results in gastric aspirate examination are 57 patients (19.6%) in wet smear, 28 patients (9.6%) in gram stain, 30 patients (10.3%) in culture and positive result in blood is 27 patients (9.3%). There are no statistically correlation between gastric aspirate examinations and early onset sepsis. CONCLUSION: We concluded that gastric aspirate examinations are of limited value in predicting the diagnosis of early onset sepsis in neonate.
Bacteria ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care, Neonatal ; Leukocytes ; Retrospective Studies ; Sepsis*

Hallermann-Streiff syndrome is a rare disease; approximately 150 cases have been reported in the world literature. The syndrome consists of proportionate nanism; hypotrichosis; atrophy and extreme thinness of skin, particulary over the facial area; an usual "bird-like" face with mandibular hypoplasia; a prominent thin, pointed nose; congenital cataracts; and severe dental abnormalities. We report a case of Hallermann-Streiff syndrome in premature who showed intrauterine growth retardation with proportionate nanism, brachycephaly, a beaked nose, "bird like" face, hypoplasia of the mandible, microphthalmia, congenital cataract, neonatal teeth, and widening of sagittal suture were all found on our patient.
Animals ; Atrophy ; Beak ; Cataract ; Craniosynostoses ; Dwarfism ; Fetal Growth Retardation ; Hallermann's Syndrome* ; Humans ; Hypotrichosis ; Mandible ; Microphthalmos ; Nose ; Rare Diseases ; Skin ; Sutures ; Thinness ; Tooth

This study was performed to determine the effects of nitric oxide on human sperm cell function. Semen samples were obtained from normal healthy volunteers. Motile spermatozoas collected by swim-up method were incubated up to 24 hours in Ham's F-10 medium supplemented with a various concentration of sodium nitroprusside (nitric oxide releasing agent). Sperm motility, hyperactivation, acrosome reaction rate, and acrosin activity were determined. The results are as follows; 1. 1mM of SNP resulted in a significant decrease in sperm motility (44.8%+/- 8.9%:78.1%+/-6.3%, and hyperactivation (10.4%+/-6.4%:477%+/-9.5%) after incubation for 3 hours compared with the control group (Ham's F-10 alone), but had no effect on acrosome reaction. 2. At 100muM SNP, sperm motility was reduced after incubation for 6 hours (54.8%+/- 3.2%) compared with that of the control group (82.7% +/- 8.9%), but hyperactivation and acrosome reaction were not affected. 3. However, a lower concentration (less than 101M) of SNP had no effect on sperm motility and hyperactivation for 8 hours of incubation but significantly decreased them when incubation periods were increased up to 24 hours compared with the control group. On the other hand, 1muM and l0muM SNP significantly increased the acrosome reaction rate in both acrosomal status (17.3%+/-5.2%,23.5%+/-4.7%, respectively) and acrosin activity (34.3muIU+/- 10.5muIU, 45.6muIU+/-5.6muIU, respectively) as compared with the control group (7.0%+/-4.0%, 9.5muIU+/-3.4muIU). These results indicate that SNP, NO releasing agent, has a dose-dependent effects on the sperm cell function. Therefore it may positively affect the fertilization by promoting acrosomal reaction at a lower concentration (less than 101M).
Acrosin ; Acrosome Reaction ; Fertilization ; Hand ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans* ; Nitric Oxide* ; Nitroprusside ; Semen ; Sperm Motility ; Spermatozoa*

Crohn' s disease is a chronic inflammatory disease that may affect any part of the gastrointestinal system and multiple extraintestinal organs. Right lower quadrant abdominal pain with fever may be mistaken as a acute appendicitis. Pancreatitis has rarely been reported as a complication of Crohn' s disease. However, we experienced one case of Crohn' s disease with pancreatitis : the histologic examination after appendectomy of a 12-year-old female child who complained about abdominal pain and high fever.
Abdominal Pain ; Appendectomy* ; Appendicitis ; Child ; Crohn Disease* ; Female ; Fever ; Humans ; Pancreatitis

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of A ClinicianAdministered PTSD Scale(CAPS). METHODS: CAPS was administered to 28 PTSD subjects, 30 non-PTSD subjects, and 36 normal subjects. Interrater reliability for the CAPS was established by interviewing 10 PTSD subjects. The interviews were conducted by 2 interviewers simultaneously. The authors adminstered to all the subjects Impact of Event Scale(IES), Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), State Trait Anxiety Inventory I, II (STAI-I, II) for measuring concurrent validity. RESULTS: The value of Cronbach's alpha and interrater agreement were .95 and .89, respectively. The CAPS was highly correlated with IES(r=.80), BDI(r=.70), STAI-II(r=.56). But the CAPS was not correlated with STAI-I(r=.20). The CAPS showed an overall agreement with clinical diagnosis of 82.1%. CONCLUSIONS: The CAPS shows a reasonable degree of reliability and validity. The CAPS could be a valuable tool to diagnose PTSD.
Anxiety ; Depression ; Diagnosis ; Reproducibility of Results* ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic*

PURPOSE: Long-term use of topical medication is needed for glaucoma treatment. One of the most commonly prescribed classes of hypotensive agents are prostaglandin analogs (PGs) used as both first-line monotherapy; as well as in combination therapy with other hypotensive agents. Several side effects of eye drops can be caused by preservatives. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of PGs with varying concentrations of benzalkonium chloride (BAC), alternative preservatives, or no preservatives on human conjunctival fibroblast cells. METHODS: Primary human conjunctival fibroblast cells were used in these experiments. Cells were exposed to the following drugs: BAC at different concentrations, bimatoprost 0.01% (with BAC 0.02%), latanoprost 0.005% (with BAC 0.02%), tafluprost 0.0015% with/without 0.001% BAC and travoprost 0.004% (with 0.001% Polyquad) for 15 and 30 minutes. Cell cytotoxicity was evaluated by phase-contrast microscopy to monitor morphological changes of cells, Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay to cell viability, and fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis to measure apoptosis. RESULTS: BAC caused cell shrinkage and detachment from the plate in a dose-dependent manner. Morphological changes were observed in cells treated with bimatoprost 0.01% and latanoprost 0.005%. However, mild cell shrinkage was noted in cells treated with tafluprost 0.0015%, while a non-toxic effect was noted with travoprost 0.004% and preservative-free tafluprost 0.0015%. CCK-8 assay and FACS analysis showed all groups had a significantly decreased cell viability and higher apoptosis rate compared with the control group. However, travoprost 0.004% and preservative-free tafluprost 0.0015% showed lower cytotoxicity and apoptosis rate than other drugs. CONCLUSIONS: This in vitro study revealed that BAC-induced cytotoxicity is dose-dependent, although it is important to emphasize that the clinical significance of toxicity differences observed among the different PGs formulations has not yet been firmly established. Alternatively preserved or preservative-free glaucoma medications seem to be a reasonable and viable alternative to those preserved with BAC.
Apoptosis ; Cell Line ; Cell Survival/drug effects ; Conjunctiva/drug effects/*pathology ; Fibroblasts/drug effects/pathology ; Glaucoma/drug therapy/pathology ; Humans ; Preservatives, Pharmaceutical/*pharmacology ; Prostaglandins, Synthetic/*pharmacology

There is some controversy regarding the effect of general inhalation anesthesia on platelet function. In 20 patients undergoing long operations over 3 hours, and anesthetized with either nitrous oxide-oxygen and enflurane (A group) or nitrous oxide-oxygen and halothane (B group), we could not find any clinically significant impairment of coagulation. Platelet functions were consecutively evaluated on the samples collected at preinduction, during anesthesia (3 hours) and at postoperation (24 hours) using an aggregometer and several aggregating agents including ADP, epinephrine, collagen and ristocetin. There were no statistically significant changes between the maximum aggregation rate of preinduction and that duirng anesthesia in either group.
Adenosine Diphosphate ; Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, Inhalation ; Anesthetics, Inhalation* ; Blood Platelets* ; Collagen ; Enflurane ; Epinephrine ; Halothane ; Humans ; Inhalation* ; Ristocetin

PURPOSE: Keratitis-ichthyosis-deafness (KID) syndrome is a congenital ectodermal disorder presenting the triad of vascularizing keratitis, erythrokeratoderma, and sensorineural deafness. Ocular manifestations such as hyperkeratinization of the eyelids, loss of eyelashes, keratoconjunctivitis sicca, corneal erosions, ulceration, neovascularization, and scarring opacity may be absent or mild, but if present and severe, they can lead to major visual loss. We report a patient with KID syndrome with severe ocular manifestations and the histologic characteristics of a corneal lesion. CASE SUMMARY: A 5-year-old boy was referred to the Ophthalmology Department for bilateral hyperkeratinization of eyelids, bare eyelashes, and corneal opacity. He showed hyperkeratotic skin lesions and sensorineural hearing loss. Molecular analysis showed a mutation in the GJB2 gene and confirmed the diagnosis of KID syndrome. Initial conservative treatment did not preserve ocular surface integrity, and instead it was maintained by surgical procedures including superficial lamellar keratectomy with amniotic membrane transplantation. The histologic characteristics of corneal lesions are abnormal epithelial differentiation, absence of connexin 26 expression, and partial destruction of the basement membrane.
Amnion ; Basement Membrane ; Cicatrix ; Connexins ; Corneal Opacity ; Deafness ; Ectoderm ; Eyelashes ; Eyelids ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Humans ; Ichthyosis ; Keratitis ; Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca ; Ophthalmology ; Preschool Child ; Skin ; Transplants ; Ulcer