The present study was undertaken to investigate the infection status of Cryptosporidium parvum in the villagers and the reservoir hosts in several rural areas in Korea. A total 5, 262 fecal samples were collected from the inhabitants residing at Gangwon-do, Chungcheongbuk-do, Jeollanam-do, and Gyeongsangnam-do between the dates of September, 2001 to June, 2002. In addition, 1, 453 fecal samples were collected from livestock reared in Gokseong-gun, Jeollanam-do and Chungju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do. All the fecal smears were prepared by formalin-ether sedimentation, and examined by light microscopy after modified acid-fast staining. The overall positive rate of human cryptosporidiosis was 3.3%. Gokseong-gun, Jeollanam-do showed a 8.2% positive rate and appeared as the highest endemic area among the surveyed areas. Haman-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do showed a 0.4% positive rate and was the lowest endemic area. The positive rate of livestock infection in Gokseong-gun, Jeollanam-do was 94%, which was more than ten times higher than that of Chungju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do (9.3%). From these results, it was revealed that cryptosporidiosis was an endemic disease in some rural areas of Korea, and the livestock could be an important source of human infection.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Distribution ; Aged ; Animals ; Animals, Domestic/*parasitology ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases/*epidemiology/parasitology ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cryptosporidiosis/*epidemiology/parasitology/veterinary ; Cryptosporidium parvum/*isolation & purification ; Feces/parasitology ; Female ; Human ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea/epidemiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Parasite Egg Count ; Prevalence ; *Rural Population ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Swine ; Swine Diseases/*epidemiology/parasitology

PURPOSE: To evaluate the prognosis of patients with paraquat poisoning by measuring the extent of lunginvolvement, as seen on HRCT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-one patients with paraquat poisoning were treatedaccording to our hospital's routine protocol and underwent HRCT scanning 1-21(mean 7-8) days later. In 31, theresults were abnormal, and these were retrospectively analysed. Differences in the extent of lung involvement,patient age, ingested amount of paraquat, and blood WBC count were compared between the group of survivors andthose who had died. RESULTS: Among the 31 patients with abnormal HRCT findings, 11 died and 20 patients survived.The extent of lung involvement among the group of survivors was 14.8+/-14.8%; among the deceased group, it was72.3+/-16.3%. The age of the survivors was 37.5+/-13.5(11-67) years, while that of the deceased was25+/-8.9(16-41)years. Those who died showed a significantly higher extent of lung involvement than the survivors,and were younger (p<0.05). There was, however, no significant difference in blood WBC count and ingested amount ofparaquat between the two groups (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: In paraquat poisoning, the extent of lung involvement onHRCT, is useful for prediction of the prognosis and severity of poisoning.
Humans ; Lung* ; Paraquat* ; Poisoning* ; Prognosis* ; Retrospective Studies ; Survivors

BACKGROUND: The contraction of smooth muscle depends on an increase in the concentration of intracellular calcium ion and the source of this increase to various stimuli is different according to organs or species. Nevertheless, there have been only a few studies on human stomach smooth muscle. This study was designed to identify the source of the calcium utilized in the muscle contraction induced by carbachol, which is an important factor among various stimuli. METHODS: After the administration of carbachol with various conditions in cultured human stomach smooth muscle cells, fura-2-acetoxymethyl ester was used to measure the increase in the intracellular calcium concentration. RESULTS: (1) The carbachol-induced increase in the intracellular calcium concentration was not attenuated after removal of extracellular calcium. (2) Carbachol induced a small increase in the intracellular calcium concentration even after the depletion of intracellular calcium store. (3) Repeated histamine administration blocked the carbachol-induced increase in the intracellular calcium concentration in calcium-free extracellular solution. CONCLUSION: The main source of calcium utilized in human stomach smooth muscle contraction by carbachol is intracellular calcium store, particularly inositol triphosphate(IP3)-sensitive calcium stores. However, extracellular calcium also contributes to the carbachol-induced increase in the intracellular calcium concentration.
Calcium* ; Carbachol* ; Histamine ; Humans* ; Inositol ; Muscle Contraction ; Muscle, Smooth* ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle* ; Stomach

To survey the prevalence of Sarcocystis infections, 210 heart samples were collected from Korean native cattle (Bos taurus coreanae) at an abattoir in Daejeon Metropolitan City, Republic of Korea. Sarcocysts were detected form 31 specimens (14.8%) and identified as Sarcocystis cruzi via transmission electron microscopy. The wall of S. cruzi has flattened protrusions that did not contain fibrils or microfilaments. The protrusions arose irregularly from the base, contained a fine granular substance, lacked internal microfilaments, and measured approximately 0.21–1.25 μm in length and 0.05–0.07 μm in width. Sequence analysis revealed 99.5% homology to S. cruzi. This is the first report on the prevalence of S. cruzi in native cattle from the Republic of Korea.
Abattoirs ; Actin Cytoskeleton ; Animals ; Cattle ; Heart ; Korea ; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission ; Prevalence ; Republic of Korea ; Sarcocystis ; Sequence Analysis

BACKGROUND: Current dilemma working with surgically-induced OA (osteoarthritis) model include inconsistent pathological state due to various influence from surrounding tissues. On the contrary, biochemical induction of OA using collagenase II has several advantageous points in a sense that it does not involve surgery to induce model and the extent of induced cartilage degeneration is almost uniform. However, concerns still exists because biochemical OA model induce abrupt destruction of cartilage tissues through enzymatic digestion in a short period of time, and this might accompany systemic inflammatory response, which is rather a trait of RA (rheumatoid arthritis) than being a trait of OA. METHODS: To clear the concern about the systemic inflammatory response that might be caused by abrupt destruction of cartilage tissue, OA was induced to only one leg of an animal and the other leg was examined to confirm the presence of systemic degenerative effect. RESULTS: Although the cartilage tissues were rapidly degenerated during short period of time upon biochemical induction of OA, they did not accompanied with RA-like process based on the histology data showing degeneration of articular cartilage occurred only in the collagenase-injected knee joint. Scoring evaluation data indicated that the cartilage tissues in non-induced joint remained intact. Neutrophil count transiently increase between day 8 and day 16, and there were no significant change in other complete blood count profile showing a characteristics of OA disease. CONCLUSION: These study shows that biochemically induced cartilage degeneration truly represented uniform and reliable OA state.
Animals* ; Blood Cell Count ; Cartilage ; Cartilage, Articular ; Clothing ; Collagenases* ; Digestion ; Inflammation ; Joints ; Knee Joint ; Leg ; Models, Animal* ; Neutrophils ; Osteoarthritis* ; Regeneration