BACKGROUND: To investigate the possibie difference, if any, between office blood pressure(BP) and home BP may be important in the diagnosis and treatment of hypersensive patients. This report deails the difference between the two BP's and the usefulness of digital electronic sphygmomanometer(DES) for self-monitoring of home BP. METHODS: The BP's of 14 patients with essential hypertension were measured with mercury sphygmomanometers at outpatient department by physician and with DES at home(twice a day) by the patients. Patients were followed up every 2 weeks for 4 weeks and previous 2 weeks' average home BP's were compared with the office BP's of each 2 weeks' end. RESULTS: There was a significant difference between office and home BP(both systolic and diastolic) ; office average BP(151/95mmHg) was higher than home average BP(136/86mmHg). CONCLUSION: Caution may be needed in the interpretation of office BP unless it is measured several times after adequate rest.
Blood Pressure* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Outpatients ; Sphygmomanometers*

PURPOSE: To examine the effect of artificial tear use on central corneal thickness (CCT) in dry and normal eyes as a standard diagnosis for indicating dry eye. METHODS: Thirty eyes of 30 patients with symptomatic dry eyes and 25 eyes of 25 controls were examined in this study. Artificial tear therapy consisting of 6 drops/day was given to both groups for 2 weeks. The CCT was measured with ultrasonic pachymetry before and after the therapy. Results were analyzed with a paired t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test. RESULTS: The mean CCT in the dry eye group before and after the 2 weeks of therapy was 528.9+/-17.3 micrometer and 556+/-25.3 micrometer, respectively, which is an increase of 5.28% (27.1+/-9.2 micrometer, p<0.01). The mean CCT in the control group before and after the 2 weeks of therapy was 546.3+/-36.5 micrometer and 549.6+/-39.3 micrometer, respectively, which is an increase of 0.61% (3.3+/-2.8 micrometer, p=0.08). CONCLUSIONS: The CCT in the dry eye group increased significantly compared to the eyes in the control group after use of artificial tears. The results indicate that the increase could be used as a standard in the diagnosis and follow-up of dry eyes, and the increase in thickness should be considered in intraocular pressure measurements as well as in refractive surgical procedures.
Eye ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Intraocular Pressure ; Ophthalmic Solutions ; Refractive Surgical Procedures ; Tears ; Ultrasonics

PURPOSE:To report a case of a granular cell tumor in the form of cilliary body tumor. CASE SUMMARY: A 42-year-old women visited our clinic with blurred vision of the right eye, which began was 1 month earlier ago. Her medical history was unremarkable. Slit-lamp examination revealed a ciliary body tumor and complicated cataract due to a mass lesion. For treatment, an excisional biopsy of the ciliary body tumor and phacoemulsification were performed. The pathologic finding confirmed the diagnosis of a granular cell tumor. There was no evidence of a recurrent lesion of the tumor at the 6-month postoperative follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: We confirmed a granular cell tumor in the form of a cilliary body tumor based on pathologic findings.
Adult ; Biopsy ; Cataract ; Ciliary Body ; Eye ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Granular Cell Tumor ; Humans ; Phacoemulsification ; Vision, Ocular

PURPOSE: To report a patient with melanocytoma of the ciliary body. METHODS: A 52-year-old woman, who transferred from a private ophthalmic clinic to our hospital after a cataract operation due to a mass behind the iris, was evaluated. The patient had a dark brown mass with a smooth surface confirmed by ultrasonogram, CT, and MRI. The mass was removed by en bloc resection. RESULTS: The tumor had a gross finding of a dark brown, soft, and smooth surface 0.5x0.5x0.5 cm in size. Histopathologic examination revealed a melanocytoma originating in the ciliary body. There was no evidence of metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: A very rare ciliary body melanocytoma was discovered with a good surgical result obtained by its removal.
Cataract ; Ciliary Body ; Female ; Humans ; Iris ; Melanoma ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis

PURPOSE: To identify the normal range of factors which can be measured with Ocular Response Analyzer (ORA, Reichert Inc., Depew, NY, USA) in normal Korean, and to analyze factors affecting ORA by measuring intraocular pressure (IOP) of noncontact tonometer (NCT) and central corneal thickness (CCT). METHODS: Three hundred and one normal Korean subjects who did not have specific ophthalmological diseases and surgeries in the past were recruited for this study. Corneal hysteresis (CH), corneal response factor (CRF), corneal-compensated IOP (IOPcc), and Goldmann correlated IOP (IOPg) were measured using ORA. In addition, IOP of NCT and CCT were measured and the results and factors analyzed. RESULTS: The mean CH measured among normal Korean subjects in this study was 10.70 mmHg. The mean CRF was 10.40 mmHg. CH and CRF were significantly higher in the juvenile group. IOPcc and IOPg as measures of IOP using the ORA had significant correlation with IOP of NCT. In particular, IOPcc appeared to be independent of CCT. CONCLUSIONS: CH and CRF were different according to age, indicating a difference in biomechanical properties of the cornea. In particular, IOPcc is more important as it is independent of corneal thickness and should be compensated in general measurements of IOP reflecting biomechanical properties.
Cornea ; Intraocular Pressure ; Reference Values

The sensitivity and specificity of ST segment change on ECG for detection of coronary artery disease(CAD) by pacing stress test were assessed. Among 28 cases with chest pain(mean age 52, M/F : 21/7), 10 patients had normal coronary angiographic finding(Group I), and 18 had coronary artery disease(Group II). Pacing stress test showed high specificity(100%), but low sensitivity(61%) for the diagnosis of CAD. Especially in patients with 1 vessel disease, the sensitivity was only 50%, and positive results were not attained unless there was at least 90% or more stenosis in any of the major branches(LAD, RCA or LCX). But in patients with multivessel disease, the sensitivity was much higher(83%). Lateral(V4-6) or inferior leads(2, 3, aVF) showed ischemic ST segment depression most commonly. Therefore one of the inferior lead and V5 may be a minimum requirement for monitoring pacing-induced ST segment changes. Time constant during isovolumic relaxation showed statistically significant prolongation after pacing only in CAD patient group, suggesting pacing-induced impairment of early left ventricular relaxation.
Constriction, Pathologic ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Depression ; Diagnosis* ; Electrocardiography ; Exercise Test ; Humans ; Relaxation ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Thorax

PURPOSE: To evaluate the therapeutic effect of cyclosporin A, corticosteroid, autologous serum in patients with severe dry eye syndrome. METHODS: Patients (72 eyes) with severe dry eye syndrome were classified into four groups were treated for 3 months. Each group was treated with 0.05% cyclosporin A, 1% rimexolone, 20% autologous serum, and artificial tears. Before and after treatment (2, 4, 8, 12 weeks), Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI), tear film break-up time (BUT), Schirmer test, corneal sensitivity, and lissamine green staining score were measured. RESULTS: After treatment, OSDI, tear film BUT, Schirmer test, corneal sensitivity, and the lissamine green staining score were improved in groups using cyclosporin A, autologous serum and corticosteroid(p<0.05), but clinical effects did not improve in the group using artificial tears except for corneal sensitivity (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Antiinflammatory theraphy is more effective than the conventional symptomatic theraphy in patients with severe dry eye syndrome.
Cyclosporine ; Dry Eye Syndromes* ; Humans ; Ophthalmic Solutions ; Tears

PURPOSE: This study was done to determine whether maturatin alters endothelium- dependent responses in pulmonary arteries. METHODS: Vascular rings of pulmonary arteries, with and without endothelium, taken from rabbits of 3 and 30 days of age were suspended in organ chambers filled with Krebs-Henseleit solution, bubbled with 95% O2-5% CO2 and maintained at 37degrees C. Immediately after mounting, the rings were stretched progressively until a maximal response to KCl was achieved. The rings were incubated with indomethacin and allowed to equilibrate before contraction and relaxation study. RESULTS: When the endothelium was intact in arterial rings from 3-day-old rabbits, acetylcholine (ACH) (10-6 M) relaxed preconstricted rings with histamine (5x10-6 M) (98.1 4.7% relaxation, mean SD). In rings without endothelium, KCl (10-2 to 9x10-2 M) and histamine (5x10-8 to 10-5 M) caused concentration-dependent contractions. When normalized to maximal contractions achieved to each agonist, the concentration-effect curves to KCl and histamine in rings without endothelium were similar to both ages. Rings with endothelium showed a progressive shift to the right of the concentration- effect curve to histamine. Relaxation to sodium nitroprusside were unaffected by age. In preconstricted ring, ACH (10-8 to 5x10-6 M) caused relaxations in rings with endothelium which were greater at 30-day compared to 3-day-old rabbits. CONCLUSION: These study demonstrates that endothelium-dependent relaxation increase with age, possibly due to changes in the release and/or effect of endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF or nitric oxide) from pulmonary arteries during the neonatal period.
Acetylcholine ; Endothelium ; Endothelium-Dependent Relaxing Factors ; Histamine ; Humans ; Indomethacin ; Infant, Newborn* ; Nitroprusside ; Pulmonary Artery* ; Rabbits ; Relaxation*

The purpose of this studs is to evaluate the Scientific soundness. reliability and harmfulness of medical information on world wide web in Korea. We focused this study just in "hepatitis" information, considering the high incidence of this disease in Korea. 689 web pages relating to hepatitis were collected by means of Lycos Korea search engine. and finally 182 web pages were selected. These 182 web paces were analyzed as category (western/oriental/folk medicine and as subject (prevention/diagnosis/treatment/others). Alter this analysis, these web paces were evaluated by investigators composed of two family physicians and one gastroenterologist. They analyzed the information on the criteria of "scientific soundness" "omission/ . exaggeration" and "harmfulness". The major results were as follows: 1. 133 web pages (73.3%) were scientifically sound. But the web pages relating to oriental and folk medicine revealed relatively low scientific soundness. compared with western medicine wet) pages. Also, the scientific soundness revealed low especially in the web pages that mainly described the treatment of hepatitis. 2. The web pages that had the omission of essential information was 9,3% . and those of the exaggeration" was 26% These results were related to the scientific soundness. The rate of the omission was relating high in the web pages related to the folk medicine (34.6% ), and the rate of exaggeration was remarkably high in die web pages related to the oriental medicine (89.5%), Both rates of the omission (20.9%) and exaggeration (67.2%) revealed especially high in the web pages that mainly described treatment of hepatitis. 3. The web pages that had the harmful information was also had the scientific unsoundness. The rate was high in the web pages related to the folk medicine, and the rate of web pages that had direct persuasion of harmful acting was as remarkably high in the oriental medicine. Also these rates were high in the web pages that mainly describe the treatment of hepatitis. This investigation showed that the large part of internet health information about `hepatitis in korea had the scientific soundness, but also revealed there were mails information that could give unhealthy influence to internet navigators it Korea. The most powerful element that could give unhealthy influence to internet navigators was lack of the scientific soundness, and this unhealthy information mainly revealed in the oriental or folk medicine web pages. especially in the treatment information.
Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Internet ; Korea* ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Medicine, Traditional ; Persuasive Communication ; Physicians, Family ; Postal Service ; Research Personnel ; Search Engine

BACGROUND: In modern society, thin appearance is treated as ideal, making the majority of the normal weight group think that they are fat. Therefore, exercise and diet, numerous unhealthy methods were frequently chosen by normal weight group for weight control. The authors gave a definition of Ideal Body Weight and attempted to propose a new classification of obesity to the normal weight group who do not view themselves as they should. METHODS: The test subjects were 261 adults, who visited the IJUH Health Promotion Center between May 15, 2002 and June 30, 2002. After the subjects were measured anthropometric values such as height and weight, the self-recorded questionnaires including 12 questions were collected. The grades of somatotype drawing were 1~9 by BMI. The subjects chose 1 somatotype drawing that was thought to be obese man and woman. RESULTS: The data were collected from 261 subjects. For female somatotype drawing, 81.7% of the men and 49.1% of the women thought the drawings of normal weight were obese (P <0.001). For male somatotype drawing, 47.7% of the men and 29.3% of the women thought the drawings of normal weight were obese (P <0.01). For women's weights, 81.7% of the men and 82.1% of the women thought the normal weight was obese. For men's weights, 20.3% of the men and 23.6% of the women thought the normal weight was obese. Women thought the normal weight was obese more than in men. CONCLUSION: Women thought the normal weight was obese more than in men. Many men and women thought below the BMI 25 was obese.
Adult ; Body Mass Index ; Classification ; Diet ; Female ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Ideal Body Weight ; Male ; Obesity* ; Somatotypes ; Weights and Measures ; Surveys and Questionnaires