PURPOSE: To determine the proper time frame in which to assess retinal attachment status and to evaluate the superior retinal attachment status by performing B-scan ultrasonography in different positions on patients who have undergone pars plana vitrectomy and gas tamoponade. METHODS: In this prospective study, 23 patients (23 eyes) who had undergone pars plana vitrectomy and gas tamponade were investigated between June 2005 and February 2006. SF6 (18%) was injected into the vitreous cavity of 15 eyes, and C3F8 (14%) was injected into the vitreous cavity of 8 eyes. At postoperative day 1, day 3, week 1, week 2, and week 4, B-scan ultrasonography was performed in the supine, sitting, prone, right decubitus, and left decubitus positions. RESULTS: The proper time to evaluate the retinal attachment status was three days post-operatively in 10 eyes (66.7%) with SF6 (18%) injections and two weeks post-operatively in six eyes (75%) that had C3F8 (14%) injections. The superior retinal attachment status can be evaluated from the summation of B-scan ultrasonography results performed in the right decubitus and left ducubitus positions. CONCLUSIONS: The proper time to evaluate the retinal attachment status was related to the degree of the gas absorption when performing B-scan ultrasonography after pars plana vitrectomy and gas tamponade. To evaluate the entire retina, it is useful to perform B-scan ultrasonograhy in the prone, right decubitus and left decubitus positions.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Air ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Injections ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Postoperative Period ; Prospective Studies ; Retina/*ultrasonography ; Retinal Diseases/*surgery/ultrasonography ; Time Factors ; Treatment Outcome ; Vitrectomy/*methods ; Vitreous Body

OBJECTIVE: The goal of the present study was to evaluate demographic and clinical factors that affect the intention to participate in commonly-conducted research in patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: Thirty-four outpatients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were enrolled in this study. They were asked whether they would have any intention to participate in four imaginary studies: a simple questionnaire, a genetic study, a study of complex tasks and a risky study. We analyzed the differences in general psychopathology, insight and demographic characteristics of the participants according to their responses (acceptance or refusal) to the four proposed studies. RESULTS: Younger and better-educated patients tended to decline participation in a risky study. Patients with a longer duration of regular psychiatric follow-ups tended to willingly participate in the simple questionnaire. There were no overall statistical differences in general psychopathology and insight between patients who agreed or declined to participate in studies. CONCLUSION: Age and education level may be factors that influence decisions to participate in schizophrenia studies. Further research is needed to confirm and expand on the current findings.
Demography ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Informed Consent ; Intention ; Outpatients ; Patient Participation ; Pilot Projects ; Psychopathology ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Research Subjects ; Schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is associated with cardiac arrhythmia due to autonomic dysfunction. The aim of this study was to elucidate the effect of OSAS on the QT interval and the efficacy of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment on a prolonged QT interval. METHODS: From March 2007 to January 2008, 13 patients diagnosed as OSAS received CPAP treatment. Ten age- and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled, and nighttime polysomnography was performed. We analyzed the full-night electrocardiogram.which is one of the elements of nighttime polysomnography.in all patients and controls. RESULTS: In the patient group, the QTc interval was 0.380+/-0.45 ms (mean+/-SD) before CPAP treatment and 0.368+/-0.32 ms during CPAP treatment. In the control group, the QTc interval was 0.348+/-0.26 ms. The QTc interval did not differ between OSAS patients and controls (p=0.143), but it did significantly shorten between before and after CPAP treatment (p=0.047). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that CPAP treatment can improve QTc prolongation and thereby prevent future ventricular arrhythmia.
Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Continuous Positive Airway Pressure ; Humans ; Polysomnography ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive

PURPOSE: To analyze the correlation between RNFL thickness changes measured by OCT and hemifield pattern VEP in hemianopic visual field loss. METHODS: Twelve eyes of six patients with hemianopia were studied. Two patients had bitemporal hemianopia caused by chiasmal tumor, one patient had inferior hemianopia caused by traumatic optic neuropathy, and three patients had homonymous hemianopia caused by occipital lobe lesions. The retinal nerve fiber layer thickness around the optic disc was measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and visual pattern evoked potentials were measured using hemifield stimulations. RESULTS: Normal eyes of traumatic optic neuropathy patients were excluded from the analysis. The retinal nerve fiber layer thickness as measured by OCT corresponded to the visual field defect in 9 of 11 eyes (81.8%) and the hemifield pattern VEP response corresponded to visual field defect in 7 of 11 eyes (63.6%). CONCLUSIONS: RNFL thickness measurement by OCT and hemifield PVEP are useful in evaluation of patients with hemianopia. However, they should be performed with caution, and compared with various clinical examinations because of their incomplete correlation with visual field defects.
Evoked Potentials ; Eye ; Hemianopsia ; Humans ; Nerve Fibers ; Occipital Lobe ; Optic Nerve Injuries ; Retinaldehyde ; Tomography, Optical Coherence ; Visual Fields

OBJECTIVES: Schizophrenic patients have been shown to be impaired in both emotional self-awareness and recognition of others' facial emotions. Alexithymia refers to the deficits in emotional self-awareness. The relationship between alexithymia and recognition of others' facial emotions needs to be explored to better understand the characteristics of emotional deficits in schizophrenic patients. METHODS: Thirty control subjects and 31 schizophrenic patients completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20-Korean version (TAS-20K) and facial emotion recognition task. The stimuli in facial emotion recognition task consist of 6 emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and neutral). Recognition accuracy was calculated within each emotion category. Correlations between TAS-20K and recognition accuracy were analyzed. RESULTS: The schizophrenic patients showed higher TAS-20K scores and lower recognition accuracy compared with the control subjects. The schizophrenic patients did not demonstrate any significant correlations between TAS-20K and recognition accuracy, unlike the control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest that, although schizophrenia may impair both emotional self-awareness and recognition of others' facial emotions, the degrees of deficit can be different between emotional self-awareness and recognition of others' facial emotions. This indicates that the emotional deficits in schizophrenia may assume more complex features.
Affective Symptoms ; Anger ; Humans ; Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the nature of emotional responsiveness in normal adults, we exam the emotional responses to emotional pictures in an evaluative space defined by arousal and valence. METHODS: Subjects were instructed to rate the arousal and valence that they experienced from the presentation of one of two sets of 60 emotional pictures. These two picture sets were comprised of 107 pictures: 101 selected from International Affective Pictures System and six pictures from our own collection. According to "evaluative space model", the authors set an evaluative space defined by the arousal scores as independent variable and the valence scores as dependent variable. In this evaluative space, one-hundred-and-seven pairs of coordinates representing respective emotional pictures were plotted. With regression analyses, the steepness of the regression lines on the plots with positive emotional responsiveness (n=51) and those with negative emotional responsiveness (n=56) were compared. RESULTS: In the evaluative space, the regression line of negative emotional responsiveness was significantly different from that of positive responsiveness. The slope of negative responsiviveness was significantly steeper than that of positive responsiveness. At a low arousal level, the absolute valence of a positive stimuli was larger than that of a negative picture. CONCLUSION: This finding indicates that the function of the negative affective responsiveness might be different from that of the positive responsitiveness. IAPS also seems applicable to Korean subjects.
Adult ; Arousal ; Humans

OBJECTIVES: The present study was designed to assess the reliability and validity of Korean version of Family Questionnaire (FQ-K), a brief questionnaire measuring expressed emotion (EE). METHODS: A sample of 84 first-order relatives of schizophrenics completed the FQ-K and the data were analyzed for internal consistency and factor structure. Additionally non-random subset of participants (n=34) refilled FQ-K after two weeks for testretest reliability and naturalistic follow-up data of 36 were obtained for any re-hospitalization events to assess predictive validity. RESULTS: Internal consistency of FQ-K was good (Cronbach's alpha=.819) and principal component factor analysis revealed the two-factor structure (criticism and emotional overinvolvement) identical to previously reported for the FQ. The FQ-K also showed reasonable test-retest reliability and excellent predictive validity was indicated in that outcome of re-hospitalization was superior for low expressed emotion patients at six-month naturalistic follow-up. CONCLUSION: The Korean version of FQ proved to be a reliable and valid instrument measuring expressed emotion in relatives of Korean patients with schizophrenia.
Expressed Emotion* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires* ; Reproducibility of Results* ; Schizophrenia

Tuberculosis generally affects the respiratory tract. In developing nations, the pericardium is the most common location of extrapulmonary tuberculosis; however, tuberculous pericarditis rarely appears as a localized mass or tuberculoma. We present here a case of a 62-year-old woman with pericardial tuberculoma. She had a history of effusive tuberculous pericarditis and drainage. Because she had taken regular medication over a period of six months, the pericardial mass with an adjacent lung nodule newly detected on the chest radiogram was initially suspected of being invasive lung cancer. Prior to pathologic confirmation, precise information from imaging tests, including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography-computed tomography are helpful when making decisions regarding which methods should be used for surgical approach and treatment. Through imaging, our case showed typical features of pericardial tuberculoma and a favorable clinical course after two months with a change in antituberculous therapy.
Developing Countries ; Drainage ; Electrons ; Female ; Humans ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Pericarditis, Tuberculous ; Pericardium ; Respiratory System ; Thorax ; Tuberculoma ; Tuberculosis

OBJECTIVES: The present study was performed to verify the validity and value of 4th revision of Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale (SQLS-R4) as an assessment tool in a Korean-language version (SQLS-R4K). METHODS: The subjects for present study were 174 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia as defined by DSM-IV. The SQLS-R4K was administered together with self-report Korean version of World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief Scale (WHOQOL-BREF) to assess validity. A subset of respondents also completed the SQLS-R4K for a second time to assess test-retest reliability. To evaluate the relationship SQLS-R4K and clinical characteristics, psychotic symptoms and general functioning were evaluated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF) score respectively. RESULTS: All the scales of SQLS-R4K showed good internal consistency reliability. The correlations of items with their scale total revealed that all items were significantly correlated with their own scale score. In test-retest reliability, paired t-tests indicated that responses did not alter significantly between the two assessment. There was moderate correlation between WHOQOL-BREF sub-scores and SQLS-R4K score total. Also relevant correlations between PANSS, current GAF and SQLS-R4K were proved. CONCLUSION: From the results of the testing the reliability and validity of the SQLS-R4K, it is concluded that the SQLS-R4K is a simple and reliable scale for measuring quality of life in schizophrenic patients.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Humans ; Quality of Life* ; Reproducibility of Results ; Schizophrenia* ; Weights and Measures ; World Health Organization

OBJECTIVES: Alcohol withdrawal delirium is a serious clinical condition with high mortality rate if not treated. This study was to examine whether readily available clinical variables can predict the development of alcohol withdrawal delirium. METHODS: The authors performed a retrospective study by reviewing charts of 566 patients who had been admitted for alcohol dependence. The cases were divided into two groups: delirium group (n=40) and control group (n=40). We compared baseline characteristics and serum analysis data at admission between two groups. We used logistic regression to predict risk factors for alcohol withdrawal delirium among potential risk factors. RESULTS: The delirium group had significantly lower hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelet counts, and potassium level than countrol group. Presence of previous withdrawal delirium history, AST, GGTP, and bilirubin level of delirium group were significantly higher than those of control group. Among potential risk factors, past history of withdrawal delirium, decreased hemoglobin, elevated bilirubin level, and number of previous detoxification were predictable factors of the development of alcohol withdrawal delirium by 72.5%. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the infomation obtained at admission can be useful to predict the development of alcohol withdrawal delirium. Also, it makes the individualization of detoxification strategies possible.
Alcohol Withdrawal Delirium* ; Alcoholism ; Bilirubin ; Delirium ; gamma-Glutamyltransferase ; Hematocrit ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Mortality ; Platelet Count ; Potassium ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors