We studied the incidence and morphological variation of the metopic suture in Korean. Ninety-six adult Korean dried skulls and 141 cases of antero-posterior skull roentgenograms from age of 1 month to 80years old. We divided metopic suture into complete and incomplete type. Incidence of complete type was 8.3% in dried skulls. In roentgenograms the incidence was decreased according to aging, especially around 6-8 years old, and over 20 years old age group the incidence was 4.0%. The incidence of incomplete type was 32.3%.
Adult ; Aging ; Humans ; Incidence ; Skull ; Sutures*

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of self-management relaxation training through biofeedback and progressive muscle relaxation methods. The effectiveness of the experimental methods was tested by measuring the degree of symptoms of stress(SOS), the McNair's profile of Mood STates(POMS), the levels of ephinephrine, norepinephrine, pulse rate, blood pressure and natural killer cells. The subjects of this study were sixty six nursing students divided into four groups two groups were the biofeedback and progressive muscle relaxation groups, the other two groups served as control groups. One was a group of sophomores with no experience at all, the other a junior group without self-management or relaxation training. This study was condicted for eight weeks of clinical practice from April, 26th 1998 to June, 20th 1998. Biofeedback training was done with software developed by J&J company(1-410 form for abdominal respiration training). Progressive muscle relaxation training was done with an audiotape recorded according to Jacobson's Theory. The data were analyzed with frequencies, means, and analysis of cobariance using the SPSS program and the significance level of statistics was 5%. The results of the study are : 1) The importance of clinical practice stress reduction is shown in that the level of symptoms of stress in the experimental groups in clinical practice was higher than in the group receiving only a lecture. 2) The relaxation training methods of biofeeback and progressive muscle relaxation were effective in reducing the symptoms of stress under the clinical practice stress conditions. 3) The effectiveness of the biofeedback training relaxation method to reduce symptoms of stress was higher than that of progressive muscle relaxation. 4) The relaxation training methods of biofeedback and progressive muscle relaxation were effective in reducing stressful mood states. 5) The relaxation training methods of bioffedback and progressive muscle relaxation were not effective in reducing epinephrine and norepinephrine levels. 6) The relaxation training methods of biofeedback and progressive muscle relaxation were effective in increasing the number of natural killer cells. 7) The relaxation training methods of biofeedback and progressive muscle relaxation were effective in decreasing high systolic and diastolic values of blood pressure and high pulse rates. In summary, the relaxation methods of biofeedback and progressive muscle relaxation in reducing clinical practice stress were effective in lowering the level of symptoms of stress and the profile of stressful mood states. They were also effective in lowering high blood pressure and pulse rates. The relaxation methods were effective in increasing the number of natural killer cells as part of the immune function. However, relaxation methods were not effective symptoms of stress was more effective than the progressive muscle relaxation method.
Biofeedback, Psychology* ; Blood Pressure ; Epinephrine ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Killer Cells, Natural ; Muscle Relaxation ; Norepinephrine ; Relaxation* ; Respiration ; Self Care* ; Students, Nursing ; Tape Recording

STUDY DESIGN: Authors experienced three cases of malignant schwannoma arising from multiple neurofibromatosis and invading the vertebrae. OBJECTIVE: To report treatment results and preventive idea in three cases of malignant schwannoma transformed from neurofibromatosis within the retroperifoneal area and invading the vertebrae. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: The patients with neurofibromatosis are clearly at increased risk to develop the malignant schwannoma. A review of Korean literature revealed no such cases. RESULTS: The first case presented in the L4 body and was treated by surgical excision and chemotherapy, but she expired due to secondary metastasis in six months after diagnosis. The second case was treated by diagnostic biopsy and chemotherapy with adriamycin, ifosfamide, DTIC, mesna. He eventually lived for 14 months. After a diagnostic biopsy, the third case died due to lung metastasis before we could begin the treatment. CONCLUSION: We recommend that neurofibromatsis patients be regularly followed-up and if necessary, CT examination of spine or abdomen should be done. If a malignant schwannoma is detected, then early treatment can be started.
Abdomen ; Biopsy ; Dacarbazine ; Diagnosis ; Doxorubicin ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Ifosfamide ; Lung ; Mesna ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neurilemmoma* ; Neurofibromatoses ; Spine*

Diagnostic angiographic evaluations were done in 33 patients with gastrointestinal bleeding for recent 5 yearsat Department of Radilogy, Seoul National University hospital. On 11 patients of them, therapeutic interventionalprocedures were made and the results were analysed. 1. In a total of 33 cases, there were 18 cases of upper GIbleeding and 15 cases of lower GI bleeding. The most frequent causes were peptic ulcer in the former andintestinal typhoid fever in the latter. 2. Bleeding sites were localized angiographically in 28 cases, so thedetection rate was 85%. Four of the five angiographically negative cases were lower GI bleeding cases. 3. The mostfrequent bleeding site was left gastric artery(7/33). The next was ileocecal branch of superior mesentericartery(6/33). 4. Among the 11 interventional procedures, Gelfoam embolization was done in 7 cases and Vasopressininfusion was tried in 4 cases. They were successful in 4 and 3 cases, suggesting 57% and 47% success ratesrespectively.
Diagnosis ; Gelatin Sponge, Absorbable ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Peptic Ulcer ; Seoul ; Typhoid Fever

No abstract available.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group/*genetics ; Chromosome Deletion ; Chromosome Disorders/complications/*diagnosis ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18 ; Cyanosis/*etiology ; Female ; Heart Septal Defects, Atrial/complications/*diagnosis ; Humans ; Infant ; Karyotyping ; Republic of Korea

BACKGROUND: The serum des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (PIVKA-II) is a tumor marker complementary to alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) for diagnosing primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A combination assay of the tumor markers was found to be useful for early diagnosis of HCC. So we investigated the clinical relevance of the measurement of serum PIVKA-II and AFP levels in patients with HCC. METHODS: The serum PIVKA-II levels were measured in 64 cases of HCC, 16 cases of cirrhosis, 32 cases of chronic hepatitis, and 23 healthy controls with a revised PIVKA-II ELISA Kit (Eisai, Tokyo, Japan), with the simultaneous determination of the serum AFP value using the AFP immunoassay kit (Elecsys, Roche, Germany). RESULTS: The positive rates of PIVKA-II and the AFP value in HCC were 53.1% and 68.8%, respectively, and were significantly higher than 17.6% and 29.4% in liver cirrhosis, and 3.1% and 0% in chronic hepatitis. No signficant correlation between the two tumor markers was found. The correlation between PIVKA-II levels and the size of tumor in HCC was found. No relation of the clinical characteristics to positive rates of PIVKA-II and AFP was found. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of PIVKA-II were 53.1%, 94.4% and 73.8%, and those of AFP were 68.8%, 93.1% and 80.9%, respectively. The sensitivity and accuracy in the combination assay for detection of HCC were higher than those in each assay, especially in HCC with the diameter of the tumor mass at less than 3 cm. CONCLUSIONS: It was demonstrated that the combination assay of PIVKA-II and AFP could increase the diagnostic value for HCC and could be useful in early diagnosis of HCC.
alpha-Fetoproteins* ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Early Diagnosis ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Fibrosis ; Hepatitis, Chronic ; Humans ; Immunoassay ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Prothrombin ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Biomarkers, Tumor

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess toxicities of cryoprotectants. METHODS: Toxicities of two cryoprotectants, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and 1,2-propanediol (PROH), were investigated using a murine embryo model. Female F-1 mice were stimulated with gonadotropin, induced ovulation with hCG and mated. Two cell embryos were collected and cultured after exposure to either DMSO or PROH. Embryo development was evaluated up to the blastocyst stage. Blastocysts were stained with bis-benzimide to evaluate the cell count and with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick labeling (TUNEL) to assess apoptosis. RESULTS: The total cell count of blastocysts that were treated with DMSO at the 2-cell stage was significantly lower than that were treated with PROH (75.9+/-27.0) or the control (99.0+/-18.3) (p<0.001). On comparison of two cryoprotectant treated groups, the DMSO treated group showed a decreased cell count compared with the PROH treated group (p<0.05). Both DMSO (14.2+/-1.5) and PROH (11.2+/-1.4) treated groups showed higher apoptosis rates of cells in the blastocyst compared with the control (6.2+/-0.9, p<0.0001). In addition, the DMSO treated group showed more apoptotic cells than the PROH treated group (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The potential toxicity of cryoprotectants was uncovered by prolonged exposure of murine embryos to either DMSO or PROH at room temperature. When comparing two cryoprotective agents, PROH appeared to be less toxic than DMSO at least in a murine embryo model.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; Blastocyst ; Cell Count ; Cryoprotective Agents ; Dimethyl Sulfoxide ; DNA Nucleotidylexotransferase ; Embryonic Development* ; Embryonic Structures* ; Female ; Gonadotropins ; Humans ; Mice ; Ovulation ; Pregnancy ; Propylene Glycol

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the changes of shoulder proprioception in normal subjects, according to the direction of the evoked fatigue on the shoulder muscle group. METHOD: 20 healthy volunteers (14 males and 6 females, age 20~35 years) with entirely normal shoulders participated in this study. Before fatigue exercises, the proprioception tests were performed during active reposition (ARP) and passive reposition (PRP) of dominant shoulder, using isokinetic dynamometer, System 3 Pro (Biodex medical system, New York, USA). Three trials each of active and passive repositioning (2degrees/sec) were recorded. We also estimated the results of the peak torque shoulder movements. The subjects performed maximal efforts with five repetitions on the direction of flexion, abduction, internal rotation and external rotation. The mean values of maximal concentric voluntary contraction (MVC: peak torque of each muscle group contraction) were recorded. We repeated fatigue exercises until the peak torque dropped to 30% three times consistently, then retested the proprioception of shoulder joints. We compared the proprioceptive changes of the shoulder with pre-fatigue test and post-fatigue test on the direction of shoulder movements. RESULTS: There were significant differences of shoulder proprioception between pre-fatigue test and post-fatigue test of ARP in shoulder abduction and external rotation (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: In our study, the proprioception of shoulder joint decreased more prominently on external rotation and abduction movements under severely provoked muscle fatigue around the shoulder joint.
Contracts ; Exercise ; Fatigue ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Muscle Fatigue ; Muscles ; New York ; Proprioception ; Shoulder ; Shoulder Joint ; Torque

Background: Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) involves young or middle-aged adults, and its incidence is increasing along with increasing use of steroids in the management of organ transplantation and adjuvant therapy for malignant neoplasms. To date, no pharmacological agent has been proven to prevent or retard the progression of ONFH, and surgical procedures including joint preservation procedures and hip arthroplasties are main treatments for the disease. Although ONFH is the most common or second most common disease for hip arthroplasty in East Asian countries, the trend of surgical procedures in this region remains unknown. Thus, we evaluated trends in surgical treatment of the disease in South Korea. Methods: We identified patients with ONFH from the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment (HIRA) database, a nationwide medical claims database of South Korea, between January 2007 and December 2018 and calculated the proportions of following surgical procedures at each year: total hip arthroplasty (THA), hemiarthroplasty (HA), core decompression/multiple drilling, femoral osteotomy, and vascularized bone grafting. Results: The total number of procedures increased from 3,824 in 2007 to 6,929 in 2018. Overall, the rate of THA (86%) was far greater than other procedures. From 2007 to 2018, the percentage of THA among the procedures increased from 80% to 91%, while that of joint preservation procedures decreased from 11% to 5%. Conclusions The total number of surgical procedures performed for ONFH increased and the percentage of THA increased, while that of joint preservation procedures decreased from 2007 to 2018 in South Korea.

OBJECTIVE: The present study was performed to investigate the efficiency of partial laser assisted hatching (p-LAH; lased 1/2 ZP width from ZP edge) on hatching of mouse blastocysts. METHODS: We used non-contact 1.48 micrometer diode laser (MTM, Switzland) to create a precise hole on zona pellucida. 2-cell embryos were collected from the mouse (ICR) oviduct at 48 hours after hCG administration. Collected 2-cell embryos were cultured in the P-1 medium supplemented with 0.4% BSA. For experiments, embryos at 8-cell stage were used after 20~22 hours in culture. After conventional (c-LAH) or partial laser assisted hatching, the embryos were further cultured in P-1 medium supplemented with 0.4% BSA for 3 days. To compare efficiency of complete and partial laser assisted hatching, hatching rate, hatching time and blastocyst diameter and zona pellucida thickness at hatching time were investigated. Embryos were examined every 12 hours. Blastocyst diameter and zona pellucida thickness at hatching time were measured with an ocular micrometer. RESULTS: Hatching rates of p-LAH group (84.2%) was significantly higher than that of control group (39.3%), but there was no difference between the p-LAH (84.2%) and c-LAH (91.2%). p-LAH group was hatched 12 hours earlier than control group, but hatched 12 hours later than c-LAH group. The diameter of blastocyst at hatching time of p-LAH group (113.1+/-6.4 micrometer) was smaller than that of control group (122.2+/-5.0 micrometer), but larger than that of c-LAH group (102.2+/-2.7 micrometer). Zona pellucida thickness at hatching time of p-LAH group (6.4+/-0.9 micrometer) was thicker than that of control group (4.5+/-1.5 micrometer), but thinner than that of c-LAH group (10.0+/-0.8 micrometer). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that p-LAH may maintains the cell arrangement of early embryos to ensure successful development and prevent precocious hatching of blastocyst when compare to c-LAH and conventional (acidic tyrode) AH. Thus, p-LAH may provide a valuable and effective AH technique for human ART program.
Animals ; Blastocyst ; Embryonic Structures* ; Humans ; Lasers, Semiconductor ; Mice* ; Oviducts ; Zona Pellucida