No abstract available.
Seoul*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate health management state during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum of immigrant women. METHODS: A descriptive research design was employed. Data were collected from 182 immigrant women who lived in four provinces and D city. Subjects were completed the following questionnaires: demographic, medical service use, pregnancy and childbirth, and health management during the ante-postpartum. RESULTS: The average age of subjects was 28.96 and 83 subjects (45.6%) were coming from Vietnam. 55 Subjects (30.2%) were within the low-income group with less than 4 million won per month. So, 62 subjects were uninsured women because of the expensive costs. Subjects mainly visited a health care center with their husband. On the using a health care center, subjects complained about communication difficulties and transportation problems. 42 Subjects were pregnant but 21.4% of pregnant subjects did not receive antenatal care. Subjects got information about pregnancy and childbirth through their husbands and husband's family. CONCLUSION: Nursing intervention to manage the pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum of immigrant women need to be developed and should include strategies to take care of themselves after delivery and provide knowledge and information about ante-postpartum.
Cultural Diversity ; Delivery of Health Care ; Delivery, Obstetric ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Female ; Humans ; Medically Uninsured ; Parturition ; Postpartum Period ; Pregnancy ; Research Design ; Spouses ; Transportation ; Vietnam

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical value of bicarbonate gap (BG) in acute gastroenteritis by comparison of clinical manifestations and laboratory findings. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 135 patients who had acute gastroenteritis. We classified them into two groups: BG< or =-5 (group A), BG>-5 (group B). We made a comparative study for clinical manifestations, serum electrolyte, albumin, protein, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, anion gap (AG), delta anion gap (deltaAG) and delta bicarbonate (deltaHCO3-) between the two groups. RESULTS: The duration of hospitalization and diarrhea was significantly longer in group A than group B. In laboratory findings, serum sodium, serum total CO2, total protein, AGcorrected and deltaAG were lower in group A than group B. deltaHCO3- and chloride were higher in group A than group B. CONCLUSION: BG may be a sensitive predictor enough to access the severity of acute gastroenteritis.
Acid-Base Equilibrium ; Acidosis ; Blood Urea Nitrogen ; Creatinine ; Diarrhea ; Gastroenteritis ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Sodium

-D- is a very rare haplotype which determines D without C, c, E or e and exalted D activity. The extremely rare homozygote propositi(-D-/-D-) are usually ascertained through their immune antibodies which react with red cells of all common Rh phenotypes. Authors experienced a woman with -D- phenotype for the first time in Korea. She had a history of abortion and intrauterine fetal death. She delivered a baby with severe hemolytic disease of the newborn at the third pregnancy. In spite of intensive medical interventions, the baby died of hydrops fetalis. An immune antibody to high incidence Rh antigen, namely anti-Hro, was demonstrated in the woman's serum. Family study revealed that all of the family had -D- gene complex and one of her sisters also was -D-homozygote. The sister also had anti-Hro in the serum.
Antibodies ; Female ; Fetal Death ; Haplotypes ; Homozygote ; Humans ; Hydrops Fetalis ; Incidence ; Infant, Newborn* ; Korea ; Phenotype* ; Pregnancy ; Siblings

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a rare, but a potentially life threatening condition associated with the use of antipsychotics. The most frequent signs and symptoms of NMS include fever, muscle rigidity, autonomic dysfunction such as tachycardia, tachypnea, and labile blood pressure. Acute complications of NMS include disseminated intravascular coagulation, sepsis, seizure, myocardial infarction, acute renal failure due to rhabdomyolysis and death. We report a rare case of acute renal failure due to rhabdomyolysis associated with neuroleptic malignant syndrome.
Acute Kidney Injury ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Blood Pressure ; Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation ; Fever ; Muscle Rigidity ; Myocardial Infarction ; Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome ; Rhabdomyolysis ; Seizures ; Sepsis ; Tachycardia ; Tachypnea

PURPOSE: To determine the factors that affect glaucomatous change and the clinical course of patients with Posner-Schlossman syndrome. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 52 eyes of 51 patients who had been diagnosed with Posner-Schossman syndrome between January 1995 and June 2003 was performed. We analysed the factors by the age of onset, the duration of disease, the number of attacks, the highest intraocular pressure, the cup/disc ratio of affected eye and unaffected fellow eye during attacks, and visual field change. RESULTS: Twelve (23.1%) of 52 eyes revealed significant glaucomatous change. The number of attacks showed statistically significant difference between the two groups who had developed glaucoma and who had not (P=0.021). But the age of onset, the duration of disease, and the highest intraocular pressure during attack did not show statistically significant difference (P>0.1). CONCLUSIONS: From this study, we observed that the only factor influencing glaucomatous change in patients with Posner-Schlossman syndrome was the number of attacks. So in case of recurrent attacks, close observation and aggressive treatment is mandatory.
Age of Onset ; Glaucoma ; Humans ; Intraocular Pressure ; Retrospective Studies ; Visual Fields

Double primary cancer of the stomach and esophagus has been revealed a very low incidence in the world except Japan and reported only 6 cases in Korea. Furthermore, it is difficult to manage this type of double cancer because esophageal cancer has a biologic tendency to early metastasis. This paper is concerned with a case of double primary cancer, which we have synchroniously confi~rmed esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and gastric adenocarcinoma with gastrofiberscopic biopsy, and then treated them by radical resec tion and systemic chemotherapy.
Adenocarcinoma ; Biopsy ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Drug Therapy* ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Esophagus ; Incidence ; Japan ; Korea ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Stomach Neoplasms

Using data obtained from 1,473 adults aged 18-68 yrs, residing in large cities and by use of a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire, we assessed the relative importance of various foods as indicators of both the amount and the variability of selected nutrient intake to develop a simple food frequency questionnaire. Since Cronbach's alpha value of the questionnaire including 78 food items was 0.76, the reliability of this questionnaire was acceptable. A large fraction of the variability of nutrient intake in this population could be explained by the small number of food items. The estimation of dietary nutrient intake such as total calories or protein content, which are derived from almost all foods, will require more food items with nutrients such as calcium or vitamin A, which are concentrated in a few food items. A dietary history ascertaining the intake of as few as 5-19 food items mighted be all needed in order to determent the association between disease outcome and the intake of a single nutrient. There was certainly a high level of agreement with nutrient intake by the sbujects who were cross-classified by quartiles of nutrient indices based on all the food items(78) and by quartiles of nutrient indices based on food items selected by stepwise multiple regression for selected nutrients. The data provided further evidence that useful information on dietary intake over an extended period can be obtained by a simple and relatively inexpensive food frequency questionnaire.
Adult* ; Calcium ; Humans ; Vitamin A ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of genetic background between MTHFR C677T genotype and infertile females with polycystic ovarian syndrome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We compared 86 infertile females with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) with 100 healthy fertile females with one or more offspring. Pyrosequencing analysis for MTHFR C677T variation was performed on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product of study group. To validate pyrosequencing data of C677T variation for randomly selected 50 samples, we compared the pyrosequencing result with the PCR-RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) result of MTHFR C677T genotype. RESULTS: The prevalence of the C677T mutant homozygous (TT) was significantly lower (p=0.0085) in females with PCOS (8.14%) than in fertile females (21.00%). MTHFR 677 TT genotype had a decreased risk (3.7-fold) of PCOS compared with wild type (MTHFR 677 CC). CONCLUSION: Our data support a role for MTHFR mutant homozygous (677 TT) genotype in reducing risk in Korean infertile females with Polycystic ovarian syndrome.
Female* ; Genotype ; Humans ; Korea* ; Oxidoreductases* ; Polycystic Ovary Syndrome* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence

Human follicular fluid (HFF) includes various biologically active proteins which can affect follicle growth and oocyte fertilization. Thus far, these proteins from mature follicles in human follicular fluid have been poorly characterized. Here, two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE) with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) was used to identify new proteins in HFF. Mature follicular fluids were obtained from five females after oocyte collection during in vitro fertilization (IVF). We directly rehydrated HFF samples, obtained high-resolution 2-DE maps, and processed them for 2-DE and MALDI-MS. One hundred eighty spots were detected and 10 of these spots were identified. By the 2-DE database, six of them had been reported, as proteins already existing in HFF. Hormone sensitive lipase (HSL), Unnamed protein product 1 (UPP1), Unnamed protein product 2 (UPP2), and apolipoprotein A-IV precursor were newly detected. HSL and apolipoprotein A-IV participate in lipid metabolism. UPP1 has a homology with selenocysteine lyase. We found by RT-PCR that these genes are expressed from human primary granulosa cells. The proteins identified here may emerge as potential candidates for specific functions during folliculogenesis, hormone secretion regulation, or oocyte maturation. Further functional analysis of these proteins is necessitated to determine their biological implications.
Adult ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional/*methods ; Female ; Follicular Fluid/*chemistry/metabolism ; Gene Expression ; Granulosa Cells/metabolism ; Humans ; Ovarian Follicle/*chemistry/metabolism ; Proteins/*analysis/genetics ; RNA, Messenger/genetics/metabolism ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization