OBJECTIVES: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) not only causes respiratory disturbances during sleep but also decreases the quality of nocturnal sleep through sleep fragmentation and sleep structure change. We aimed at comparing the changes in sleep fragmentation and structure between baseline (diagnostic) nocturnal polysomnography (NPSG) and nCPAP (nasal continuous positive airway pressure) titration trial. METHODS: One hundred and three patients with a baseline night of respiratory disturbance index (RDI) of 5 or greater and reduced RDI score during nCPAP titration night were retrospectively selected for the study. Sleep fragementation and sleep structure between baseline NPSG and the NPSG during nCPAP titration were compared. Sleep fragmentation index (SFI) was defined as the total number of awakenings and shifts to stage 1 sleep divided by the total sleep time in hour. SFI and other polysomnographic parameters were statistically compared between the two nights. RESULTS: SFI during baseline NPSG and nCPAP titration nights were 29.0+/-13.8 and 15.2+/-8.8, respectively, indicating a significant SFI decrease during nCPAP titration (t=9.7, p<0.01). SFI showed significant negative correlations with sleep efficiency (r=-0.60, p<0.01) and total sleep time (r=-0.45, p<0.01) and a positive correlation with RDI (r=0.28, p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Use of nCPAP, even during the titration, significantly decreases sleep fragmentation and improves sleep structure in OSAS patients. We suggest that SFI may be utilized as a measure of assessing OSAS severity and nCPAP efficacy.
Humans ; Polysomnography ; Retrospective Studies ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive ; Sleep Deprivation

Sleep-related behaviors observed in parasomnias can result in serious injuries of patients and/or spouses. Parasomnia is defined as undesirable physical or behavioral phenomenon occurring during sleep. If these disorders are accurately diagnosed, effective treatments are available. Often, these disorders can be even cured. Environmental management for patient and/or spouse safety and good sleep hygiene are the most recommended for individuals behaving abnormally during sleep. The aim of this article is to review the clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of several sleep-related behavior disorders.
Diagnosis ; Humans ; Hygiene ; Mental Disorders ; Parasomnias ; Spouses

The reciprocal interaction between sleep and pain has been reported by numerous studies. Patients with acute or chronic pain often complain of difficulty falling asleep, frequent awakenings, shorter sleep duration, unrefreshing sleep, and poor sleep quality in general. According to the majority of the experimental human studies, sleep deprivation may produce hyperalgesic changes. The selective disruption of slow wave sleep has shown this effect more consistently, while results after selective REM sleep deprivation remain unclear. Patients with chronic pain have a marked alteration of sleep structure and continuity, such as frequent sleep-stage shifts, increased nocturnal awakenings, decreased slow wave sleep (SWS), decreased rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and alpha-delta sleep. Many analgesic medications can alter sleep architecture in a manner similar to the effects of acute and chronic pain, suppressing SWS and REM sleep.
Chronic Pain ; Humans ; Sleep Deprivation ; Sleep, REM

INTRODUCTION: Although it is well known that medical students are not getting an adequate amount of sleep, there have been only few studies on the sleep patterns of medical students in Korea. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the life style and sleep patterns of Korean medical students and the impact they have on the students' academic performance. METHODS: A questionnaire package was administered to the 3rd year medical students at the Seoul National University to examine their sleep patterns on weekdays and weekends. It consisted of questions asking about their lifestyles as well as Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and GPA (Grade Point Average) that are considered relevant to their sleep patterns. A total of 110 students (85 males and 25 females, mean age 24.4+/-20.6) responded to the survey and the result was analyzed using the independent t-test, the chi-square test, the paired t-test, Pearson's rank correlation and ANOVA. P-values of less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant in all analyses. RESULTS: The weekend bedtime was significantly delayed (01:24 on weekday; 03:12 on weekend; t=-5.23, p<0.01), the weekend rise time was delayed (07:36 on weekday; 10:30 on weekend; t=-24.48, p<0.01) and the total sleep time was increased on weekends (5:57 on weekday; 8:17 on weekend; t=15.94, p<0.01). They wished to sleep for 7 hours 6 minutes which was different from their actual weekday total sleep time (t=-11.41, p<0.01). The poor sleeper group had lower GPAs than the good sleeper group (t=2.05, p<0.05). The GPA of medical students were negatively correlated with age (r=-0.23, p<0.05), daily amount of smoking (r=-0.78, p<0.01), total amount of smoking (r=-0.75, p<0.01), weekday sleep latency (r=-0.23, p<0.05), weekend sleep latency (r=-0.23, p<0.05) and PSQI score (r=-0.30, p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Medical students were experiencing a lack of sleep during weekdays as they have a later bedtime and earlier rise time, and consequently had more hours of sleep on weekends. Overall, the responded students were experiencing poor sleep quality, and the GPAs of the poor sleeper group were lower than those of the good sleeper group.
Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Life Style ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Students, Medical

Adenotonsillar hypertrophy is the leading cause of childhood obstructive sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in child-hood, however, can occur from various causes such as obesity or craniofacial abnormalities. Childhood obstructive sleep apnea syndrome can be accompanied by enuresis, parasomnias and behavior problems. For patients with the symptoms of snoring and apnea, obstructive sleep apnea should be suspected and diagnosed properly. In addition, the evaluation of complications and proper treatment are indispensable. When the cause of childhood obstructive sleep apnea is adenotonsillar hypertrophy, symptoms can be improved by surgical methods. If the cause is other than adenotonsillar hypertrophy, such as obesity, it should be treated with other therapeutic modalities, like nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP), weight reduction and modification of life style. This paper reports a case of nCPAP used to manage severe sleep apnea when it was not resolved after adenoidectomy and tonsillectomy. Differential diagnosis of narcolepsy in a case with excessive daytime sleepiness and reflections on accompanying enuresis and parasomnia were also described.
Adenoidectomy ; Apnea ; Child ; Continuous Positive Airway Pressure ; Craniofacial Abnormalities ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Enuresis ; Humans ; Hypertrophy ; Life Style ; Narcolepsy ; Obesity ; Parasomnias ; Sleep Apnea Syndromes ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive* ; Snoring ; Tonsillectomy ; Weight Loss

The technique of the arthroscopic total meniscectomy of discoid meniscus is very difficult. Ikeuchi(1982) reported a technique of arthroscopic total meniscectomy of the lateral discoid meniscus by removal of 2/3 of the anterior part of the meniscus first and then by morselization. The purpose of this paper is to report a technique of arthroscopic total meniscectomy of the lateral discoid meniscus as a whole. During the period from October 1982 to October 1984, we had 12 experiences of arthroscopic total meniscectomy of the discoid meniscus and found good results, that is, little postoperative pain, short period of hospitalization and early restoration of joint motion without physical therapy. Complications are 3 cases of symptomless slight lateral instability and 4 cases of hemarthrosis.
Arthroscopy ; Hemarthrosis ; Hospitalization ; Joints ; Knee ; Pain, Postoperative

No abstract available.
Echocardiography* ; Heart Ventricles* ; Tendons*

Met protein is a transmembrane 190 kD heterodimer with tyrosine kinase activity, encoded by c-Met oncogene. It serves as a high affinity receptor for hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/scatter factor (SF), a cytokine which stimulates cell proliferation, motility, and invasion. In this study, we immunohistochemically evaluated the expression of Met/hepatocyte growth factor receptor in colorectal cancers. Met protein was expressed in 31 of 72 patients (43.1%). The staining pattern was cytoplasmic in nature, present throughout the tumor, and showed variable intensity from case to case. The relationship between the expression rate and intensity, and age and sex of patients, tumor size (p=0.645), tumor site (p=0.902) and tumor differentiation (p=0.844) was not statistically significant. The expression rate and intensity were significantly correlated with lymphovascular invasion (p=0.001), lymph node metastasis (p=0.010), depth of invasion (0.019), and stage (p=0.023). Cytoplasmic accumulation of Met protein was not associated with enhanced PCNA index of tumor cells (p=0.052). These results suggest that Met protein may play an important role in the invasion and metastasis of colorectal cancer cells.
Cell Proliferation ; Colorectal Neoplasms* ; Cytoplasm ; Hepatocyte Growth Factor ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Oncogenes ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen ; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases

The author reviewed eighteen congenitally dislocated hips in Kyung Hee University Hospital during the three and a half year period (rom September, 1973 to March, 1977. The following observations were made. 1. The average age of the patients at the first visit was 17.9 months. 2. All 16 patients were female. 3. There were 2 bilateral dislocations and 14 unilateral dislocations. 4. Left side was dislocated in 12 hips snd right side in 6 hips. 5. Limping was the chief complaint in 12(75%) of the patients. 6. Arthrogram gave valuable information as to make correct diagnosis and treatment. 7. Twelve hips were successfully treated by closed methods and 6 hips required operative treatment. 8. Following reduction, cast immobilization was continued for an average of 5 months in the conservative series. 9. In the conservative series, the acetabular index decreased from 33.4 degree before treatment to 28.1 degree immediately after removal of cast. 10. The results were good or excellent in all except for 2 cases of avascular necrosis and 1 case of redislocation.
Acetabulum ; Diagnosis ; Dislocations ; Female ; Hip ; Humans ; Immobilization ; Necrosis

BACKGROUND: Increased levels of systemic markers of inflammation have been reported in patients with impaired lung function with obstructive and restrictive lung diseases. We hypothesized that forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)) within the normal range is inversely associated with high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), as a marker of chronic inflammation in healthy Korean adult men. METHODS: We analyzed the association of hs-CRP with pulmonary function test including FEV(1), components of metabolic syndrome among male participants (n=3,736), more than 20 years old who had visited a health promotion center at a university hospital between January and December, 2006. RESULTS: In this cross-sectional study, there was an inverse association between hs-CRP levels and quartiles of FEV(1) (P for trend<0.0001) after adjusting for age, smoking status, waist circumference, glucose, triglyceride, and HDL-cholesterol. A similar association was present in non-smoking subjects, but there was no significant trend (P for trend=0.115) whereas it was significant in smoking subjects (P for trend<0.0001), and in ex-smoking subjects (P for trend=0.006). The odds ratios of having elevated hs-CRP (>2.2 mg/L) across FEV(1) quartiles, with the lowest quartile (Q1) as the reference group was 1.01 (0.75~1.35) in Q2, 1.24 (0.93~1.65) in Q3, 1.52 (1.15~2.01) in Q4 after adjusting for the confounding variables. CONCLUSION: The decline of FEV(1) within the normal range was inversely associated with low grade inflammation as measured by hs-CRP. This result showed that systemic inflammation may be linked to early impaired pulmonary function in healthy adult men.
Adult* ; C-Reactive Protein* ; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology) ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Forced Expiratory Volume ; Glucose ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Lung Diseases ; Lung* ; Male ; Odds Ratio ; Reference Values ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Triglycerides ; Waist Circumference ; Young Adult