No abstract available.
Follow-Up Studies* ; Korea* ; Rural Population*

No abstract available.
beta-Thalassemia*

OBJECTIVE: Stenting of symptomatic intracranial stenosis has recently become an alternative treatment modality. However, urgent intracranial stenting in patients with intracranial stenosis following a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or minor stroke is open to dispute. We sought to assess the feasibility, safety, and effectiveness of urgent intracranial stenting for severe stenosis (>70%) in TIA or minor stroke patients. METHODS: Between June 2009 and October 2010, stent-assisted angioplasty by using a balloon-expandable coronary stent for intracranial severe stenosis (>70%) was performed in 7 patients after TIA and 5 patients after minor stroke (14 stenotic lesions). Technical success rates, complications, angiographic findings, and clinical outcomes were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Stenting was successful in all 12 patients. The mean time from symptom onset to stenting was 2.1 days (1-8 days). Post-procedural angiography showed restoration to a normal luminal diameter in all patients. In-stent thrombosis occurred in one patient (n=1, 8.3%), and was lysed with abciximab. No device-related complications, such as perforations or dissections at the target arteries or intracranial hemorrhaging, occurred in any patient. The mortality rate was 0%. No patient had an ischemic event over the mean follow-up period of 12.5 months (range, 7-21 months), and follow-up angiography (n=7) revealed no significant in-stent restenosis (>50%). CONCLUSION: Urgent recanalization with stenting is feasible, safe, and effective in patients with TIA or acute minor stroke with intracranial stenosis of > or =70%.
Angiography ; Angioplasty ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Arteries ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Dissent and Disputes ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin Fab Fragments ; Intracranial Arteriosclerosis ; Ischemic Attack, Transient ; Phenobarbital ; Retrospective Studies ; Stents ; Stroke ; Thrombosis

PURPOSE: An overactive bladder (OAB) affects a person's quality of life. Patients who suffer from OAB run to the toilet frequently to prevent incontinence, and this behavior increases their risk of falling and fear of falling. This study evaluated the influence of OAB on falls and concern about falling in females aged 40 and over living in urban and rural communities. METHODS: We conducted a population-based cohort study using King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ), the Korean version of Falls Efficacy Scale-International (KFES-I) and a questionnaire regarding falls, in females aged 40 and over in Guri city and Yangpyeong county. The data from 514 responders were analyzed. The definition of OAB was 'moderately' or 'a lot' of urgency, or urge incontinence in KHQ. Falls was defined as experience of falls in the last year. High fear of falling was defined as a score of 24 or over in KFES-I. The factors were analyzed by the exact chi-square test and Student's t-test. The multivariate logistic regression model was adopted in order to examine the effects of OAB on falls and concern about falling. RESULTS: Of the 514 responders, 98 fitted the criterion of OAB. Eighty-nine (17.3%) of the responders had experienced falls in the last year: twenty-seven (27.5%) in the group with OAB and 62 (14.9%) in the group without OAB. There was a significant association between falls and OAB (odds ratio [OR], 1.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00 to 3.08; P=0.0485), and between high fear of falling and OAB (OR, 2.72; 95% CI, 1.42 to 5.20; P=0.0024). CONCLUSIONS: Urgency and symptoms of urge incontinence increase the risk of falls in women aged 40 or older in the community. Early diagnosis and proper treatment may prevent falls and improve quality of life in OAB patients.
Accidental Falls ; Aged ; Cohort Studies ; Early Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Quality of Life ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Bladder, Overactive ; Urinary Incontinence ; Urinary Incontinence, Urge

No abstract available.
Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung*

BACKGROUND: Genomic instability has been reported as a novel mechanism of tumorigenesis. Microsatellites are short tandemly repeated nucleotide sequences throughout the human genome. Widespread somatic mutations in these sequences due to the loss or gain of one or more repeated units are termed as microsatellite instabilites (MI). MI have been found to be the result of numerous replication errors due to mutations in mismatched repair genes. Recently, MI have been recognized as the causes of the increased mutation rates of cancer cells. An elevated mutation rate manifested by MI may also affect various genes that are essential for normal cell function and growth, thus contributing to tumor initiation, promotion, and progression. We investigated the frequency of MI in a series of 44 gastric carcinomas in an attempt to clarify the role of these genetic alterations in gastric carcinogenesis and to see whether the cases with MI displayed any clinical significance and morphologic features and/or whether they showed distinctive relations with any clinicopathologic characteristics. METHODS: We analyzed 44 gastric carcinomas and paired samples from non-neoplastic mucosa of Korean patients who had undergone a gastrectomy. The samples were immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at 70oC until use. High molecular weight DNAs were isolated by standard methods only from cases whose were composed of more than 50% tumor cells. Ten loci of microsatellites were used in this study: D3S1766, D3S1339, D3S1029, D9S162, D9S171, INF-a, D11S925, D11S1818, D11S35, and D11S1284. The MI analysis was performed by Polymerace Chein Reaction (PCR) with 33P-labelled primers. PCR products were separated on 6% polyacrylamide gel containing 7M urea, and autoradiographed. H-E stained sections were used to review the pathologic features. The relationships between MI incidence and clinicopathologic findings were statistically tested. RESULT: Analysis of the 44 cases at the 10 loci of microsatellites allowed us to identify 19 instabilities (43%): 15 cases at 1 locus, 2 cases at 2 loci, and 2 cases at multiple loci. The incidence of MI was remarkably increased in cases with poor differentiation and node metastasis (p=0.067 and p=0.007, respectively). Comparing the histologic type (diffuse vs. intestinal type), the diffuse type of carcinoma had a higher incidence; however, there was no statistical significance (55% vs. 33%, p=0.108). There was no significant correlation between MI and other prognostic variables including location, tumor size, and distant metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm that the mutator phenotype plays in a certain role gastric carcinogenesis. The gastric cancers with MI were correlated with the worse prognostic variables of poor differentiation and node metastasis, suggesting that MI appear to be useful as possible indicators of the worst prognosis and represent important genetic alterations associated with tumor progression in gastric carcinogenesis.
Base Sequence ; Carcinogenesis ; DNA ; Gastrectomy ; Genome, Human ; Genomic Instability ; Humans ; Incidence ; Microsatellite Instability* ; Microsatellite Repeats* ; Molecular Weight ; Mucous Membrane ; Mutation Rate ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Nitrogen ; Phenotype ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prognosis ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Urea

It is noteworthy that most unidentified dead are unnatural and violent deaths. The accurate identification of a decedent permits certification of death and notification of next of kin. Only then may they proceed with the probate of wills, apply for disbursement of benefits and insurance, and begin to work through the grieving process. Law enforcement agencies need positive identification to pick up the leads of investigation to develop suspects, establish the corpus delicti of homicide and reconstruct the sequence of events of a crime. Agencies and a variety of consultants are involved in recognizing and developing the unique features of a decedent that lead to identification. Cooperative working relations with newspaper and other media will help in publicizing the need for persons with information to come forward diagrammatically. In this paper, 5 individual identification cases in unexpected or homicidal deaths are described. The comparison between the postmortem and antemortem records show that the victims are correctly identified.
Certification ; Consultants ; Crime ; Homicide ; Humans ; Insurance ; Law Enforcement ; Periodicals

It is noteworthy that most unidentified dead are unnatural and violent deaths. The accurate identification of a decedent permits certification of death and notification of next of kin. Only then may they proceed with the probate of wills, apply for disbursement of benefits and insurance, and begin to work through the grieving process. Law enforcement agencies need positive identification to pick up the leads of investigation to develop suspects, establish the corpus delicti of homicide and reconstruct the sequence of events of a crime. Agencies and a variety of consultants are involved in recognizing and developing the unique features of a decedent that lead to identification. Cooperative working relations with newspaper and other media will help in publicizing the need for persons with information to come forward diagrammatically. In this paper, 5 individual identification cases in unexpected or homicidal deaths are described. The comparison between the postmortem and antemortem records show that the victims are correctly identified.
Certification ; Consultants ; Crime ; Homicide ; Humans ; Insurance ; Law Enforcement ; Periodicals

The aim of this case report is to draw the attention to the occurrence of cystic fibrosis (C.F.) in a Korean infant and thus increase the awareness for the diagnosis. The male infant was presented with a history of recurrent bronchiolitis manifested by severe cough, wheeze and dyspnea from three weeks of age, in whom the diagnosis of C.F. was clinically suspected and was confirmed by demonstration of two elevated sweat chloride levels (97 mEq/L and 99 mEq/L) in the patient. The diagnosis was delayed because the main manifestations of C.F. were the same as the main symptoms of common diseases such as cough, diarrhea and failure to thrive. C.F. is probably underdiagnosed in Korean population both because the diagnosis is not considered since the disease is thought to be uncommon or even not to occur and because diagnostic facilities including the quantitative iontophoresis sweat test are lacking.
Bronchiolitis/diagnosis/*etiology ; Cystic Fibrosis/complications/*diagnosis/ethnology ; Humans ; Infant ; Male

BACKGROUND: Enteropathgenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) commonly causes infantile diarrhea in the developing countries. This study aims to find out the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of EPEC in children with diarrhea in Gwangju city. METHODS: We isolated 35 strains from the stool obtained from diarrheal patients and investigated the presence of various virulence genes, adherence patterns, hemolysis, and antibiotic resistance patterns. RESULTS: All isolates were negative for the EPEC adherence factor (EAF) plasmid, and 14 isolates were bfpA-positive by PCR. The eae, tir, espA, and espB genes were analyzed by multiplex PCR. When the results of the four multiplex PCRs were analysed, we observed that the rate of the presence of eaegamma-tiralpha-espAalpha-espBalpha was highest. The incidence of enteroaggregative E. coli heat-stable enterotoxin (east) was 17.1%. Analysis of Hep-2 cell adherence showed three adherence patterns:the localized adherence pattern, the diffuse adherence pattern, the localized adherence-like pattern. In hemolysin assay, four isolates produced enterohemolysin. The resistance rate of isolates against tetracycline, streptomycin, ampicillin, and rifampin was 56%, 39%, 34%, and 34%, respectively. All isolates were susceptible to ciprofloxacin and colistin. CONCLUSION: In our study, the rate of the presence of eaegamma-tiralpha-espAalpha-espBalpha was the highest. Analysis of Hep-2 cell adherence showed various adherence patterns. Seventy-five percent of isolates were resistant to at least one antibiotic and 28% were resistant to four or more antibiotics.
Ampicillin ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Child* ; Ciprofloxacin ; Colistin ; Developing Countries ; Diarrhea* ; Diarrhea, Infantile ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli* ; Enterotoxins ; Escherichia coli ; Gwangju* ; Hemolysis ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Plasmids ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Rifampin ; Streptomycin ; Tetracycline ; Virulence