OBJECTIVE: The study was designed to ascertain a proper method of early diagnosis and treatment of ectopic pregnancy by analyzing its clinical and epidemiological characteristics. METHODS: The medical records of patients who were diagnosed to ectopic pregnancy at Hallym medical center during the period from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2007 have been reviewed. RESULTS: The incidence of ectopic pregnancy was 7.3% (1,067) out of 14,519 deliveries. The most frequent age group was 26~30 (29.5%). Risk factors they had were previous histories of abdominal or pelvic surgery (37.0%), artificial abortion (30.8%), pelvic inflammatory disease (12%), and tubal sterilization (9.6%). Most frequent clinical symptoms were amenorrhea (88.7%), lower abdominal pain (81.2%), and vaginal spotting (60.0%). Percentage of patients with hemoglobin level over 10.0 gm/dL was 79% and below 8.0 gm/dL 3.9%. The clinical symptoms of ectopic pregnancy most commonly occurred after 6~8 weeks from last menstrual period (47%). Ectopic gestation was implanted on the fallopian tube in 89%, cornus in 7.2%, ovary in 1.1% and the cervix in 2.7%. Laparosopic surgeries were performed in 755 cases (71.6%) and laparotomies in 273 cases (25.9%) and dilatation and curettages in 26 cases (2.5%). Salpingectomy was performed most frequently (82.4%). Methotrexate (MTX) treatment was successful in 13 cases (1.21%). CONCLUSION: The early diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy is most useful when serum beta-hCG and vaginal sonography are used together. Laparoscopy would be a preferred method because of its short hospitalization period and low complication rate compared with laparotomy in ectopic pregnancy treatment.
Abdominal Pain ; Amenorrhea ; Cervix Uteri ; Cornus ; Curettage ; Dilatation ; Early Diagnosis ; Fallopian Tubes ; Female ; Hemoglobins ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Incidence ; Laparoscopy ; Laparotomy ; Medical Records ; Methotrexate ; Metrorrhagia ; Ovary ; Pelvic Inflammatory Disease ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Ectopic ; Risk Factors ; Salpingectomy ; Sterilization, Tubal

Recent amendments to regulatory frameworks have placed a greater emphasis on the utilization of in vitro testing platforms for preclinical drug evaluations and toxicity assessments. This requires advanced tissue models capable of accurately replicating liver functions for drug efficacy and toxicity predictions. Liver organoids, derived from human cell sources, offer promise as a reliable platform for drug evaluation. However, there is a lack of standardized quality evaluation methods, which hinders their regulatory acceptance. This paper proposes comprehensive quality standards tailored for liver organoids, addressing cell source validation, organoid generation, and functional assessment. These guidelines aim to enhance reproducibility and accuracy in toxicity testing, thereby accelerating the adoption of organoids as a reliable alternative or complementary tool to animal testing in drug development. The quality standards include criteria for size, cellular composition, gene expression, and functional assays, thus ensuring a robust hepatotoxicity testing platform.