PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of topical pilocarpine on basic tear secretion, using the Schirmer test. METHODS: The Schirmer test was performed in 22 eyes of 11 healthy volunteers before instillation and at 10, 20, and 30 minutes after instillation of 1% pilocarpine and in 22 eyes of 12 healthy volunteers before instillation and at 10, 20, and 30 minutes after instillation of 2% pilocarpine. As for control group, the Schirmer test was performed in 22 eyes of 11 healthy volunteers by the same method except with normal saline. RESULTS: The ratio of tear secretion was calculated by dividing the wet length of a Schirmer strip after instillation by the wet length before instillation for comparative analysis. In the control group, the mean ratio decreased with time to 0.78 at 10 minutes, 0.64 at 20 minutes, and 0.63 at 30 minutes after instillation of normal saline. In the 1% pilocarpine group, the mean ratio decreased with time, but there was no significant difference in comparison to the ratio of the control group. In the 2% pilocarpine group, the ratio increased significantly to 1.28 (p<0.001) at 10 minutes, 1.07 (p=0.002) at 20 minutes, and decreased to 0.63 (p=0.041) at 30 minutes after instillation. CONCLUSIONS: The basic tear secretion did not change significantly after instillation of 1% pilocarpine but increased significantly at 10 minutes after instillation of 2% pilocarpine to the highest level observed, which was followed by a decrease in basic tear secretion.
Healthy Volunteers ; Pilocarpine* ; Tears*

OBJECTIVES: We conducted this study to provide standardized data of the computerized Standard Progressive Matirices(SPM)test in Korean adults. METHODS: The computerized SPM test was administered to 353 healthy volunteers aged 18 years over. We provided the standardized data(percentile and standardized T-scores)for the groups with similar mean and distribution of SPM scores, which was originally divided by age and sex. The validity of the new standardized data was tested by comparing IQs estimated by SPM and K-WAIS. RESULTS: The standardized SPM data were provided for four age groups: 18 to 30 years, 31 to 40 years, 41 to 50 years, 51 years and over. IQ estimated by this standardized data tends to be closer to IQ by K-WAIS than the IQ estimated by foreign normative data. CONCLUSION: The standardized data of the computerized SPM were proven to be a useful and valid tool for measuring IQ briefly, compared with the conventional way of measuring IQ.
Adult* ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans

PURPOSE: To manage a critically ill patient effectively, an emergency physician must make an accurate assessment of the patient's hemodynamic status. Although the hemodynamic status can be accurately measured through the use of a pulmonary artery catheter, this device has significant limitations in the emergency department. Instead, the most commonly used method of measuring cardiac output (CO) in the emergency department is transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). However, TTE has been reported to underestimate the CO. Impedance cardiography (ICG) is an established and accurate technique for noninvasive determination of hemodynamic parameters. Thus, this study aimed to assess the agreement between CO measurements made by using TTE and ICG. METHODS: In 20 healthy volunteers, the hemodynamic parameters (stroke volume and CO) obtained by TTE were compared with the parameters derived from simultaneous measurements by ICG. RESULTS: The mean stroke volumes and COs were 63.9+/-11.6 ml and 4.1+/-0.7 L/min, respectively, by TTE, and 77.2+/-10.2 ml and 5.0+/-0.6 L/min by ICG. The correlation coefficients for stroke volume and CO between TTE and ICG were 0.77 and 0.64. The mean difference in stroke volume between TTE and ICG was -13.3+/-6.4 ml (-19.5+/-10.5 %), and the mean difference in CO was -0.88+/-0.48 L/min (-20.1+/-11.6 %). CONCLUSION: In healthy volunteers, the comparison between TTE and ICG showed a good correlation for stroke volume and CO. However, the mean differences in stroke volume and CO between TTE and ICG were -19.5+/-10.5 % and -20.1+/-11.6 %, respectively.
Cardiac Output* ; Cardiography, Impedance ; Catheters ; Critical Illness ; Echocardiography* ; Emergencies ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Healthy Volunteers ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Male* ; Pulmonary Artery ; Stroke Volume ; Volunteers*

Sole prints were analyzed from one thousand normal volunteers (500 males and 500 females) to establish dermatoglyphics of Korean people, and the following resuIts were obtained: The triradius P was present in 49.1% of the right soles and 40.6% of the lefts, or 44.9% of the entire series. The fibular radiant of triradius P was directed into the fourth interdigital intervals in 54.9% of the soles, and the next common terrninations were in the digital triradius c 15.3%, the third interdigital interval, 12. 5% and distal portion of the fibular border, 9.4%. In right soles the tendeney was for the radiant to extent farther tibialward than in lefts, where the inverse tendency was reflected in sharp rise in the number of endings on the fibular borders and decrease of endings tibialward. The distal radiant of triradius P terminated in the first interdigital interval, 46.5%, the interdigital triradius a, 32. 5%, and the second interdigital interval,. 20.5%, and rarely the distal radiant fused with digital triradius, 0.6% Of the alignments of ridges of the soles, 72.7;. of the soles exhibited transvcrsely coursing ridges in the mid-region, and the remainder were slight fibuloproximal slants,Grade 2) 18.2%, and slight fibulodistal slants (Grade 4) 8, 7%. There was a tendency of right soles to favor the fibulo-proximal slant, and of lefts, the fibulo-distal sIant. In the calcar region 44.1% of the soles presented a slight fibulo-distal slant, and the next cmmon direction was transverse, 37.4% Right soles tended more to the transverse alignment, while lefts displayed a ... (continue)
Dermatoglyphics ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Male

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to analyze the brain volume according to the brain image of healthy adults in the 20s taken with different inversion time (TI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Brain images of healthy adults in the 20 s were acquired using magnetization prepared rapid acquisition gradient echo (MPRAGE) pulse sequence with 1.5 mm thickness of pieces and four inversion times (1100 ms, 1000 ms, 900 ms, 800 ms). The acquired brain images were analyzed to measure the volume of white matter (WM), gray matter (GM), intracranial volume (ICV). The statistical difference according to brain volume and gender was analyzed for each TI. RESULTS: The brain volume calculated using Freesurfer was WM=486.52+/-48.64 cm3 and GM=646.86+/-57.12 cm3 in mean when adjusted by mean ICV=1278.94+/-154.92 cm3. Men's brain volume(WM, GM, ICV) was larger than women's brain volume. In the intrarater reliability test, all of the intraclass correlation coefficients were high (0.992 for WM, 0.988 for GM, and 0.997 for ICV). In the repeated measures analysis of variance, GM and ICV did not show a significant difference at each TI (GM p=0.143, ICV p=0.052), but WM showed a significant (p=0.001). In the linear structure relation analysis, all of the Pearson correlation coefficients were high. CONCLUSION: WM, GM, and ICV indicated high reliability and solid linear structure relations, but WM showed significant differences at each TI. The brain volume of healthy adults in the 20s could be used in comparison with that of patients for reference purposes and to predict the structural change of brain. It would be needed to conduct additional studies to examine the contract, SNR, and lesion detection ability according to variable TI.
Adult ; Brain* ; Healthy Volunteers* ; Humans

For the evaluation of the 51Cr labelled in-vivo crossmatching test as a transfusion safety test, We examined the viability of the thransfused autologous and heterologous 51Cr labelled red cell at 1 hour and 24 hour in 6 normal volunteers and 4 patients whose RBC had been stored in CPDA-1 media from 1 day to 30 day. In both autologous transfusion control group(n=3) and allogeneic transfusion control group(n=3), the in-vivo RBC survival rate were more than 70% at 1 hour and 24 hour compared to that of basal 3 minute result(percent counted as 100%), and the eluted free radioisotope activity was less than 5% compared to that of whole blood. The crossmatch incompatible patient group also satisfied the safe transfusion criteria. The mean labelling efficiency which was tested in three patients was more than 95% and also satisfactory to reliable test. We concluded that in-vivo crossmatching test using 51Cr radioisotope would give us valuable informations about transfusion safety, especially in serologically incompatible patients.
Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Survival Rate

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Many tools are available for the evaluation of facial motion. They run the gamut from the gross scale proposed by House and May, the regional scale preferred by Adour and Yanagihara and the personal computers used by Neely and Isono. However, more objective and accurate tools of evaluation are still in need. With the aim of establishing a simple, objective evaluation method of facial motion, we devised a computerized image-difference analysis system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Facial motions of 14 normal volunteers were analyzed utilizing the computerized image-difference analysis system. Techniques such as image capturing, subtraction and thresholding were used to anlayze resting, smiling and eyeclosing motions of face. RESULTS: The subtracted image of a resting-face from an eye-closing face showed a greater movement in the eye area than in the mouth area. The subtracted image of a resting-face from a smiling face showed a greater movement in the mouth area than in the eye area. But there were no statistical differences between the right and the left side of the face of the same subject(p<0.05). CONCLUSION: It is possible to use the image analysis system to access facial motion of subjects with or without the normal facial motion.
Healthy Volunteers ; Microcomputers ; Mouth ; Smiling

OBJECTIVES: Recently, polymorphisms of several serotonin genes have been suggested to be associated with suicide, but the results are still unclear. We examined whether the T102C polymorphisms of the serotonin 2A receptor gene and the G861C polymorphisms of the serotonin 1B receptor gene were associated with suicidal behavior using drug intoxication. METHODS: The subjects were 52 patients who visited emergency room with suicidal behaviors. Fifty controls were selected from healthy volunteers matched for sex and age to the suicide subjects. The polymorphisms were analyzed with TaqMan(R) assay using primers based on previous studies. RESULTS: The T102C polymorphism of the serotonin 2A receptor gene showed no significant difference between the suicidal attempters and controls in both genotype and allele frequency analyses(p=0.179 and p=0.422, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference between the suicidal attempters and the controls in the G861C polymorphism of the serotonin 1B receptor gene and any significant effect of the genotype distributions or the allele frequencies was not observed(p=0.092 and p=0.987, respectively). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the T102C polymorphism in serotonin 2A receptor gene and the G861C polymorphism in serotonin 1B receptor gene are not related to the susceptibility to suicide attempts using drugs. To clarify the genetic influences of the serotonergic system on suicidal behavior, the polymorphisms of other candidate genes in the serotonergic system should be studied with larger numbers of subjects.
Emergency Service, Hospital ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT1B ; Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A ; Serotonin* ; Suicide

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study are to evaluate normal MR spectroscopy (MRS) data of the cerebellum and pons, and to evaluate intra-unit and inter-unit differences of the results. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nine normal volunteers (mean age 23 years) were studied with two 1.5 Tesla MR units (A and B units). A total of four sessions of MRS study were performed with two sessions in each MR unit in each volunteer. In each session, MRS data were obtained from bilateral cerebellar hemisphere and pons. MRS was performed using spin-echo single voxel technique with repetition time of 2000 ms, echo time of 288ms and 128 averagings. Voxel size was 2x2x1.5 cm in the cerebellum and 1.5x1.5x1.5 cm in the pons. Metabolite ratios of NAA/Cho, NAA/Cr, NAA/(Cho+Cr) and Cr/Cho (both peak heights and the peak areas) were compared among the results of four sessions of MRS for evaluation of intra-unit and inter-unit differences. RESULTS: In the cerebellum, mean ISD values of peak height NAA/Cho, NAA/Cr, NAA/(Cho+Crl) and Cr/Cho ratios obtained in the first session of A unit were 1.08+/-0.16, 1.44+/-.286, 0.61+/-.09 and 0.76+/-,13, respectively. Comparing with the results of the second session, intra-unit differences were 3-7%. In B unit intra-unit differences were 1-9% , except for 22% of Cr/Cho ratio. Inter-unit differences between A and B units were 1-26%. In the pons, mean (SD values of peak height NAA/Cho, NAA/Cr, NAA/(Cho+Crl and Cr/Cho ratios obtained in the first session of A unit were 1.51+/-.35, 3.35+/-.78, 1.02+/-.16 and 0.47+/-,14, respectively. Mean NAA/Cho, NAA/Cr and NAA/(Cho+Cr) ratios of the pons were significantly higher than those of the cerebellum. Intra-unit differences were 2-21% in A unit and 4-l8% in B unit. Inter-unit differences between A and B units were 1-l8%. The mean values obtained by using peak area were generally higher and wider in range than those of peak height in both units. CONCLUSION: Mean NAA/Cho, NAA/Cr and NAA/(Cho+Cr) ratios of the cerebellum were significantly lower than those of the pons. Intra-unit differences of most metabolites ratios were generally not significant, whereas inter-unit differences were greater than intra-unit differences in more metabolite ratios. Therefore, normal MRS data of the cerebellum and the pons should be obtained in every MR unit, before MRS applications in the diseases of the cerebellum and the pons.
Cerebellum* ; Healthy Volunteers ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Pons* ; Spectrum Analysis ; Volunteers

PURPOSE: Intrinsic milieu of seminal plasma is important in maintaining the survival and fertilizing capacity of normal sperm. Nevertheless, there are still debates concerning the addition of seminal plasma during sperm preparation and cryopreservation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of autogenous seminal plasma on the recovery of frozen fertile and infertile human sperm. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Semen from 10 fertile volunteers and 10 infertile patients was used. Sperm pellet from each group was resuspended and cryopreserved with 0.5ml cryoprotectant. Cryoprotectant was added with 100% (group I), 75% (group II), 50% (group III), 25% (group IV) and 0% (group V) seminal plasma according to each group. After 3 days, each vial was thawed and examined about sperm concentration, motility and morphology by CASA and Makler chamber. Sperm vitality was examined by eosin-nigrosin stain. RESULTS: The recovery rates of sperm motility and vitality after thawing in normal volunteers were higher in group I and II than other groups with statistical significance (p<0.05). However there was no difference between groups in sperm concentration and morphology (p>0.05). In the infertile patients all factors had no difference between groups. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that the sperm quality following the addition of autogenous seminal plasma in cryoprotectant was improved in normal fertile men. This results may give a theoretical basis to support the clinical use and application for the seminal plasma to enhance the sperm quailty.
Cryopreservation* ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans* ; Male ; Semen* ; Sperm Motility ; Spermatozoa* ; Volunteers