No abstract available.
Hepatitis B virus* ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn*

Vitamin A and its metabolite, retinoic acid, have been recommended for the treatment of psoriasis, ichthyosis, acne vulgaris and Darier's disease which resulted from abaormal regulatory function of keratinocytes. In recent years retinoic acid analogs (retinoids) have been synthesized and shown to be more potent and less toxic than retinoic acid. Since these drugs are therapeutically effective for skin diseases, only with longterm adminiatration of large doses, their toxicities must be seriously considered. The liver is the main site for both storage and excretion of vitamin A and ita derivatives, which may produce injury to the liver and other organs as a result of excess of lysosomal enzyme control. Fatty vacuoles, infiltration of inflammatory cells, focal necrosis, increase in lysosomal enzymes, distension of the RER, decrease in the ribosomes, swelling of the mitochondria, and proliferation of the SER within the hepatocytes have been observed in livers of vitamin A- as well as retinoic acid-treated rats. Its excess may also cause mucous metaplasia of secretory cells of the pancreas. (countinued...)
Acne Vulgaris ; Amphotericin B* ; Animals ; Darier Disease ; Hepatocytes ; Ichthyosis ; Keratinocytes ; Liver ; Metaplasia ; Mitochondria ; Necrosis ; Pancreas ; Psoriasis ; Rats ; Ribosomes ; Skin Diseases ; Tretinoin ; Vacuoles ; Vitamin A ; Vitamins

In these days, computing environment turns to web environment and a lot of hospitals build information system. A medical services through the web provide patients and doctors with convenience and help experts to communicate with each other. Initially, web provided static text information, but nowadays needs of interactivity between client and server is increasing. In order to diagnose heart diseases, we use 12 channel ECG, stress ECG, holter ECG, etc. These data are a lot of correlation with each other but there are little system managed them with integration. To enhance management efficiency and share medical information, it is necessary to develop integrated ECG management system based the web. In this paper, we use common object request broker architecture(CQRBA) to implement the system. The CORBA is to apply object oriented concept to web. We can implement application easily and reduce costs to maintain and repay because server objects and client objects exist independently. We developed a System to integrate these data using network and to raise management efficiency. we focus on the performance of object web and the implementation of ECG management system based on the web.
Electrocardiography* ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Information Systems

No abstract available.
Electrocardiography, Ambulatory*

BACKGROUND: The effects of intralesional recombinant alpha-2 interferon(IFN) in the treatment of basal cell carcinoma(BCC) and actinic keratosis(AK) would be of value in selected patients. OBJECTIVE: Our purpose is to evaluate the differences of cellular immune reactions between the responded and the unresponded cases treated with IFN. METHODS: We treated five patients with BCC and two patients with AK with the intralesional injection of recombinant alpha-2 IFN. We performed immunohistochemical stainings with paraffin-embedded specimens from the pretreated and posttreated skin lesions. RESULTS: Four patients(three with BCC and one with AK) were healed and three patients showed improvement after treatment. In immunohistochemical stainings, there was an increased number of T cells in the dermal infiltrate of the responded cases but not in the unresponded cases. CONCLUSION: Intralesional IFN may induce T cell-mediated immune response at the site of the tumor by immune modulation.
Actins* ; Carcinoma, Basal Cell* ; Humans ; Injections, Intralesional* ; Interferons* ; Keratosis, Actinic* ; Skin ; T-Lymphocytes

No abstract available.
Cholesteatoma* ; Facial Paralysis*

This study is to develop a system which offers the auto-response and the auto-call about the patient monitoring information of the heart rate, NIBP, SpO2 and overall status from a patient monitor to registered users. After detecting a dial tone by a developed ARS and confirming a registered user, this system offers the information of a required patient by ARS voice. If a user registered to an auto-calling service, this system can offer a patient monitoring information automatically and periodically for a user' s setting to a user' s hand-phone or beeper by the voice or the number. Additionally, when the patient' s emergency situation to happen, this system calls the emergency state to an registered user' s hand-phone or beeper by the voice or the number. All of the information of patient monitoring is managed by the SQL database system for easy to the data extraction and the service of the statistical information effectively.
Emergencies ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Monitoring, Physiologic* ; Voice

OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to assess the potential users' needs for a tele-health surveillance system and to develop a program that reflects the clients' needs. METHODS: A descriptive study was conducted using interviews with a questionnaire during home visitations. Four hundred subjects from residences two affluent areas of Korea were selected by convenience sampling. RESULTS: Through the tele-health surveillance system, they wanted to manage diseases such as heart disease(23.0%), cancers(20.5%) and endocrine diseases(17.5%). The highest score for areas of the tele-health surveillance system was cancer screening. The most highly preferred reporting system was immediate reporting of the screening results by a personal digital assistant with a tailored health management system that reflects their own bio-signals. CONCLUSION: Potential users want to manage their health in disease prevention and health promotion as well as treating diseases. These aspects should be considered in the development and utilization of a tele-health surveillance system.
Computers, Handheld ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Equidae* ; Health Promotion ; Heart ; House Calls ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Needs Assessment ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Telemedicine

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The aim of this study was to evaluate the peritonitis-causing bacteria detected in peritoneal fluid using a blood culture bottle in patients undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). METHODS: One-hundred and eleven dialysates from 43 patients suspected of peritonitis related to CAPD were retrospectively evaluated between May 2000 and February 2008. In all cases, 5 to 10 mL of dialysate was inoculated into a pair of BacT/Alert blood culture bottles, and 50 mL of centrifuged dialysate was simultaneously inoculated into a solid culture media for conventional culture. The results were compared to those of the conventional culture method. Isolated microorganisms were compared between the two methods. RESULTS: The blood culture method was positive in 78.6% (88 / 112) of dialysate specimens and the conventional culture method in 50% (56 / 112, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The blood culture method using the BacT/Alert system is useful for culturing dialysates and improves the positive culture rate in patients with suspected peritonitis compared to the conventional culture method.
Culture Media ; Dialysis Solutions ; Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections/*diagnosis/microbiology ; Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections/*diagnosis/microbiology ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/*therapy ; Microbiological Techniques/*methods ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory/*adverse effects ; Peritonitis/*diagnosis/microbiology ; Sensitivity and Specificity

In several human tumors, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and nuclear factor κB (NFκB) are activated and interact; how these STAT3–NFκB complexes are transported to the nucleus is not fully understood. In this study, we found that Rac1 was activated in starved cancer cells and that activated Rac1 coexisted with STAT3 and NFκB. Rac1 knockdown and overexpression of the dominant-negative mutant Rac1N19 inhibited the degradation of IκBα, an inhibitor of NFκB. MG132, an inhibitor of the ubiquitin proteasome pathway, increased the amount of non-phosphorylated IκBα, but not serine-phosphorylated IκBα, indicating that IκBα degradation by Rac1 in starved cancer cells is independent of IκBα serine phosphorylation by IKK. Rac1 knockdown also inhibited the nuclear translocation of STAT3–NFκB complexes, indicating that this translocation requires activated Rac1. We also demonstrated that the mutant STAT3 Y705F could form complexes with NFκB, and these unphosphorylated STAT3–NFκB complexes translocated into the nucleus and upregulated the activity of NFκB in starved cancer cells, suggesting that phosphorylation of STAT3 is not essential for its translocation. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating the crucial role of Rac1 in the function of STAT3–NFκB complexes in starved cancer cells and implies that targeting Rac1 may have future therapeutic significance in cancer therapy.
Humans ; Phosphorylation ; Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex ; Serine ; STAT3 Transcription Factor ; Ubiquitin