OBJECTIVE: The objective of this survey is to introduce the recent adolescent sexuality, such as the level of sexual knowledge of adolescent, their actual state for the attitudes and behaviors toward sex, and in Korea in comparison with the past and to seek the answers to the improvement of the teproductive health statos of the adolescents. METHOD: The total number of 11,433 girls was drawn fiom middle and high schools girls in Seoul, Pusan, Incheon, Kwangju, Taegu, Taejeon and Ansan. Among them, the number of 82 girls was drawn fiom factory workers in Ansan. For the data collection, the survey was conducted during the period fiom Feb 15, 1994 to May 23, 1995 by using prepared questionaire. RESULT: Of those who respond to this study, 37.6% had sexual problems, which was that of acquaintance of the opposite sex(44.7%), menstruation(33.1%), and sexual maturity(13.1%). Among them, only 5.5% had a feeling of satisfaction about sex education. In regard to the attitude toward the friendly relationsbip with the oppasite sex, the approval rate respondents was 80.4%. Many respondents felt chastity and a virtue, but only 60.1% answered that pemarital chastity should be kept. For the each age group, age at sexual intercourse is revealed that among the respondents about 31.5% are experienced sexual intercourse for under 14 yearss old group, 25.3% for 15 years old, 26.3% for 16 years old, 12.6% for 17 years old, 3.3% for 18 years old, 1.0% for 19 years old. The major information source of knowledge source was school(38.4%), mass-media such as TV/radio(22.6%), book and magazine(19.9%), friends(16.2%), and parents (1.5%). CONCLUSION: In order to cope with the problems of adolescent sexuality, a drastic and strong policy measures should be taken by the government. At the same time, the public should be aware of the urgency of adolescent sexual problems. The most effective countermeasures appear to be education. Sexual education is necessary for the youth that they should bave an adequate sexual knowledge, attitudes and behaviors in their adolescent period.
Adolescent* ; Busan ; Coitus ; Daegu ; Daejeon ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Education ; Female ; Gwangju ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Incheon ; Korea ; Parents ; Seoul ; Sex Education ; Sexuality* ; Virtues ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the silicone ring pessary in the management of pelvic organ prolapse. METHODS: This study was evaluated for the clinical analysis of 58 pelvic organ prolapse patients who visited our hospital and weared silicone ring pessary from January 1997, to December 1998. RESULTS: Among 58 patients, failure rate was 13.7%(8/58) and complication rate was 50%(29/58). Main causes of failure were vaginal ulcer(4 cases) and recurrent falling out of pessary(3 cases). Most common problems were recurrent falling out of pessary(10 cases) and vaginal erosion with or without ulcer(9 cases), vaginitis(6 cases). There was no significant difference of failure rates and complication rates between hysterectomized patients and the non-hysterectomized patients. CONCLUSION: In management of pelvic organ prolapse which unsuitable for operation, pessary is noninvasive, simple and effective alternative method.
Humans ; Pelvic Organ Prolapse* ; Pessaries* ; Silicones*

Carcinoma of the uterine cervix is the most common malignant tumor in Korean women. It is well known that carcinogenesis is a multi-step event involoving the inactivation of tumor supressor genes, such as p53 gene and RB gene. The inactivation of the normal functions of the tumor-suppressor proteins pRB and p53 are important steps in human cervical carcinogenesis, either by mutation or from complex formation with the HPV E6 and E7 oncoproteins. The pRB protein regulates early cell cyle progression by controlling transit through the G1 phase of the cell cyle. The p53 tumor suppressor gene product also plays a role in cell cycle control by the transcriptional regulation of cyclin-CDK inhibitor. Cervical carcinoma is an excellent model for studying the stepwise progression of cell transformation because this is reflected morphologically by the increasing dysplasia of the squamous cells before it becomes and invasive squamous cell carcinoma. The aim of this study was to examine the expression of pRB and compared that with overexpression of p53 in a series of cervical lesions including normal tissuess, dysplasias, carcinoma in situ and carcinomas by immunohistochemical staining with monoclonal antibody to elucidate the role of these tumor suppressor genes. The result were as follows: 1. In normal cervical mucosa and CIN I , a few positively stained cells for pRB were seen in basal and parabasal layer. 2. An abnormality of pRB, loss of expression was seen in 23.8% of CIN III and in 10.8% of invasive carcinoma. 3. Overexpression of p53 was demonstrated in 14.3% of CIN III and in 59.5% of invasive carcinoma. 4. The immunoreactivity of p53 was significantly increased (p<0.05) in stage II, III than stage I , whereas downregulation of pRB and tumor stage was not correlated. 5. The immunoreactivity of p53 was significantly increased (p<0.05) in squamous cell carcinoma than in adenocarcinoma, adenosquamous carcinoma and CIN III. These result suggest that an alteration of pRB is more frequently implicated in CIN III than invasive carcinoma, whereas overexpression of p53 may be involevd in late progression of uterine cervical carcinoma.
Adenocarcinoma ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma in Situ ; Carcinoma, Adenosquamous ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints ; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia* ; Cervix Uteri ; Down-Regulation ; Female ; G1 Phase ; Genes, p53 ; Genes, Retinoblastoma ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Humans ; Mucous Membrane ; Oncogene Proteins ; Retinoblastoma Protein*

Paroxymal nocturnal hemoglobinuria is a kind of intravascular hemolytic anemia due to acquired corpscular defects, and is not rare in this country. The corpscular defect is originated from hematopoietic stem cells, and white blood cells and platelets are also involved. Consequently, the major complications which might affect mortality and morbidity include thrombotic phenomena, especially hepatic and cerebral venous thrombosis. This is a case report of cerebral venous thrombosis with hemiparesis, seizure and change of consciousness in paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria accompanied by intravascular hemolysis. The diagnosis is confirmed by CT brain scan and cerebral angiography and the patient is effectively treated with antiplatelets, anticonvulsants and steroids.
Anemia, Hemolytic ; Anticonvulsants ; Brain ; Cerebral Angiography ; Consciousness ; Diagnosis ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Hemoglobinuria ; Hemoglobinuria, Paroxysmal* ; Hemolysis ; Humans ; Leukocytes ; Mortality ; Paresis ; Seizures ; Steroids ; Venous Thrombosis*

No abstract available.
Observer Variation*

BACKGROUND: Korean Instrumental Activities of Daily Living(K-IADL) scale was developed to measure the elderly function. The aim of the present study was to establish the validity and reliability of K-IADL scale. METHODS: Clinical validity and convergent validity was tested. Reliability was tested by internal consistency(Cronbach`s alpha), two weeks test-retest method, and interrator correlation. RESULTS: Cronbach`s alpha was 0.938. 2 weeks test-retest correlations in all 10 items were higher than 0.674. Interrator agreements were high in all 10 items(H=0.808~0.947). Normal control group had lower scores than patients group in all 10 items(p=0.000). Correlation coefficient between K-IADL score and brain-disability grade was between -0.336(laundry) and -0.663(using transportation)(p=0.000). CONCLUSIONS: Korean Instrumental Activities of Daily Living(K-IADL) scale is a valid and reliable instrument. In the future, the studies showing an association between K-IADL and mortality, prognosis are needed.
Aged ; Humans ; Mortality ; Prognosis ; Reproducibility of Results*

Thymectomy is considered as one of the important therapy for patients with myasthenia gravis(MG) for reducing the symptoms and hasting the time of remission. However, the efficacy of thymectomy in previous studies were not in concordant with each others. This study was designed to assess the effects of thymectomy in 84 MG patients. The patients were divided into two groups according to their medications before thymectomy : the patients who had been treated with anticholinesterase(ACE group) and the others who had been treated with both anticholinesterase and steroid(steroid group). The outcomes of thymectomy were divided into two group : ""success"" and ""failure"". The ""success"" outcomes included the patients with remission or improvements and the ""failure"" outcomes included the patients with improvement by immunosuppressive agents, unimprovement, and death. To find factors which might influence on the prognosis after thymectomy, the following variables were considered for statistics; The onset age of MG, gender, myasthenic crisis before operation, the clinical symptoms at the time of operation, and the pathologic findings of thymus. The results were as follows. Sixty-six patients were included in ACE group and 18 in steroid group. The success were occurred in 37 patients among ACE group(56%) and in 8 patients among steroid group(44.4%). In ACE group, the success more frequently occurred in the patients with thymic follicular hyperplasia(79.3%) than in those with thymoma(36%), and normal or atrophic thymus(41.7%). The Patients who had mild clinical symptoms at the operation also showed higher success rate. However, gender, the age of onset, and the presence of myasthenic cirsis before the operation did not influences on the results of the operation. In steroid group, the success rate was higher in the patients with shorter duration of steroid treatment before thymectomy(< 6 month) and follicular hyperplasia. In addition, the immunosuppressive treatments also gave symptomatic improvements in most patients with failure outcomes after thymectomy. In conclusion, thymectomy demonstrated beneficial effects in about half of MG patients. Follicular hyperplasia and mild symptoms at the operation were considered to be factors for predicting better results after thymectomy. Our findings also suggest that the longstanding steroid treatment before thymectomy may negatively affect on the successful thymectomy, especially on remission.
Age of Onset ; Humans ; Hyperplasia ; Immunosuppressive Agents ; Myasthenia Gravis* ; Prognosis ; Thymectomy* ; Thymus Gland

No abstract available.

The purpose of this study was to examine the designs of the menu books as an important tool of marketing and then present its improvement strategies. For this, the investigator comparatively examined the current status of menu book designs of the restaurants in Incheon area with 295 managers and then analyzed menu book designs by its designers. Menu book designers were printing houses (42.0%), specialized business (31.9%) and managers/employees (26.1%). 51.5% of menu books were impossible to substitute partially. Even there were seasonal menus or event menus, 27.5% of them were impossible to replace menu books partially; therefore, it was impossible to take a prompt action for seasonal or event menus. The easiness of understanding the terminology in menu books was average 2.74 +/- 0.45(3-point scale). The harmony of menu book design with restaurants was average 2.46 +/- 0.51 (3-point scale). Comparing to the menu books designed in specialized business, the menu books designed in printing houses or by managers/employees were uniform in type sizes (p < 0.001), had no menu photos (p < 0.001) and explanations (p < 0.001), and did not classify menus by groups (p < 0.001) in general. In addition, profit-making menus were not properly emphasized (p < 0.001), thus making the design of menu books a little improper. Therefore, it is necessary to educate managers in the restaurants to understand the importance of menu books and thus improve it. In addition, by maintaining close communication with designers of menu books, managers in the restaurants must ensure for their menu books to be designed appropriately, thus making their menu books play the role of an important marketing tool.
Commerce ; Dietary Sucrose ; Humans ; Marketing ; Research Personnel ; Restaurants ; Seasons

Repetitive nerve stimulation (RNS) test was systematically performed in proximal and distal muscles of 142 cases with myasthenia gravis (MG) and 45 norrnal controls and then analyzed qualitatively. Diagnostic sensitivity was 75% based on abnorrnal decremental response in at least one muscle. The sensitivity increased from 56% in ocular MG to 96% in type Iib MG according to severity of disease. Higher diagnostic yield was noted in the orbiculans oculi in ocular MG and in the trapezius in gereralized MG. RNS test on proximal muscle showed a higher positive rate than that on distal muscles. When distal muscle testing was negative, there was an additional increase of 24% in proximal muscle testing. The posttetanic exhaustion (PTE) enhanced diagnostic sensitivitY as much as 8% in generalized MG. The posttetanic facilitation(PTF) and PTE were observed in 50% and 38% of generalized MG and were most prominent in MG with moderate severity. Five patterns on RNS findings were classified according to test paramcters. The most common response was the pattern which showed normal arnplitude of compound muscle action potential, decremental response at low rate stimulation, and PTF without PTE.
Action Potentials ; Muscles ; Myasthenia Gravis* ; Superficial Back Muscles