No abstract available.
Endometriosis* ; Female ; Humans ; Hydronephrosis* ; Ureter* ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

PURPOSE: To compare the changes in activities of daily living (ADLs) in older adults with stroke in different modalities of long term care (LTC) services, which include home care and institutional care. METHODS: This is a comparative study using secondary data from the Korean national LTC insurance. Home care (HC) services users (n=3,494) and institutional care (IC) users (n=1,428) were extracted and compared in terms of ADLs and changes in ADLs to investigate the effects of HC and IC services in LTC. RESULTS: All of the ADLs and LTC services benefit levels for 2 years had improved in both HC and IC services. The ADLs of older adults with stroke who received HC improved, while those who received IC experienced deterioration. The LTC services benefit levels of the HC and IC groups were significantly different after 2 years. CONCLUSION: The study has found that HC services may lead ADLs better for older adults with stroke. We recommend LTC policy makers to further develop HC and IC service programs to deliver quality LTC services.
Activities of Daily Living* ; Administrative Personnel ; Adult* ; Home Care Services* ; Humans ; Insurance ; Long-Term Care ; Stroke*

It is well documented that cardiac myxomas are associated with immunologic features that can simulate systemic autoimmune diseases. Recently, it was reported that cardiac myxomas produce IL-6 constitutively, which could partly explain the immunologic features observed in these patients. However, only a few investigators have studied cytokines in regards to symptoms they may cause in patients with cardiac myxoma. Also there is very little information in the literature on the immunohistochmical localization of IL-6. We performed immunobistochemical stains for IL-4, TNF, and IL-6 on paraffm embbeded tissue of cardiac myxoma tissue. A bioassay of IL-6 activity in patient's serum and in cultured cells from fresh myxoma tissue was performed to ascertain the role of these cytokines in myxomas. In this study, we demonstrated inununohistochemically that there was a local overproduction of IL-4, TNF, and IL-6 in cytoplasm of the tumor cells in about half cases. Bioassays of the serum and cultured tumor cells revealed elevated IL-6 activities. Also these findings correlate to production of patient's constitutional symptoms with statistical significance (P<0.05). In conclusion, these results are of considerable importance in understanding the role of IL-4, TNF, and IL-6 in cardiac myxoma patient with constitutional symptoms, and have an impact on strategies for diagnosis and therapy of cardiac myxoma.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the needs, uses and evaluation of Internet health information among students in a provincial university. METHODS: Nine hundred and sixty one student from seven different classes of S University located in Chungnam province participated in this study from 2nd to 9th May, 2005. A self-reported questionnaire was used to collect data. Collected data were analyzed on SPSS 11.0. RESULTS: 58.2% of them have needed some health information before and 84.6% of them needed the health information offered by a University. 67.2% of them use the Internet more than any other resource to acquire Health Information. 90.9% of them used a search engines to get health information on the Internet. 57.6% of them have searched for Internet health information to get information about specific disease or medical problem. The most frequently searched topics were LASIK(laser in-situ Keratomileusis), diabetes, and contraception. 39.6% of them evaluated the Internet health information was reliable and 55.8% of them satisfied with the Internet health information. CONCLUSION: Universities and their in-campus health centers are needed to offer the trustworthy Internet health informtaion on their official homepages so that the student can refer to the reliable and qualified Internet health information.
Chungcheongnam-do ; Community Health Centers ; Consumer Health Information ; Contraception ; Humans ; Internet* ; Search Engine ; Student Health Services

Behcets syndrome is a multisystem disorder presenting with recurrent oral and genital ulcers as well as uveitis, Gastrointestinal involvement associated with ileal ulcer is rare, but its outcome may by fatal. We have recently experienced a 43-year-old man who had Behcets syndrome with ileal ulcer penetrated to 3rd portion of the duodenum. He had been updergone right hemicolectomy and ileocolostomy for ileal inflammation of unknown etiology 20 years ago. Thereafter he had had relapsing oral and genital ulcers, and abdominal pain intermittently. From 15 days ago before visiting our hospital, he had severe abdominal pain and dark blood-colored stool. The colonofiberscopic finding revealed a large, deep penetrating ulcer and multiple shallow ulcers on the ileum. Deal segmental resection, gastro-jejunostomy and jejunal patch at 3rd portion of the duodenum were performed with marked improvement.
Abdominal Pain ; Adult ; Behcet Syndrome ; Duodenum* ; Humans ; Ileum ; Inflammation ; Ulcer* ; Uveitis

No abstract available.
Blood Transfusion* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature*

A case of Carney complex in a Korean patient is presented. The patient had the characteristics of Carney complex including skin lesions, positive family history, and multiple myxomas including a superficial angiomyxoma in the perianal area. An extensive genetic analysis revealed a novel mutation in the protein kinase A type I-a regulatory subunit (PRKAR1A) gene, but not in the phosphodiesterase type 11A (PDE11A) gene. This is the first case wherein extensive genetic studies were performed in a patient with Carney complex in Korea.
Carney Complex ; Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinases ; Humans ; Korea ; Myxoma ; Skin

No abstract available.
Antibodies, Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic ; Fever* ; Ulcer ; Wegener Granulomatosis

Locked-in Syndrome is a severe pontine stroke causing quadriplegia, lower cranial nerve paralysis, and mutism with preservation of only vertical gaze and upper eyelid movement in a conscious patient. We present a case of a Locked-in Syndrome patient who received communication training with augmentative and alternative communication equipment by using eye blinks. After 3 weeks of training, the patient was able to make an attempt to interact with other people, and associate a new word by Korean alphabet selection. Augmentative and alternative communication equipment which uses eye blinks might be considered to be beneficial in improving the communication skills of locked-in syndrome patients.
Communication Aids for Disabled ; Cranial Nerves ; Eye ; Eyelids ; Humans ; Mutism ; Paralysis ; Quadriplegia ; Stroke

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to evaluate whether the differences of PG concentration in follicular and peritoneal fluid during preovulatory phase exist between the women with and without endometriosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twenty-three patients with endometriosis, 8 were stage I-II and 15 were stage III-IV, and another 23 patients without endometriosis were undergone laparotomy during late follicular phase. Peritoneal fluid from 46 patients and follicular fluid from 42 patients were obtained, and these samples were analyzed double times for PGF2alpha, PGE2 and estradiol. RESULTS: The mean level of PGF2alphain the peritoneal fluid was significantly higher in the group with endometriosis than in the control(P=0.0293), especially more significant in stage I-II endometriosis. Although there was no significant difference of PGF2alphaconcentration in the follicular fluid between the groups, the stage III-IV endometriosis group showed slightly higher PGF2alphalevel than both the stage I-II group and the control(P=0.0604). And also, there was significant positive correlation with the level of PGF2alphaand estradiol in the follicular fluid only in the endometriosis group(r=0.4988, P=0.0154), not in the control. However, there was no difference in the level of PGE2 and estradiol in the peritoneal or follicular fluid between the groups. CONCLUSION: Some alterations of PGF2alphalevel exist in the women with endometriosis. These are significantly higher PGF2alphalevel in peritoneal fluid with mild endometriosis and slightly higher PGF2alphalevels in follicular fluid with extensive endometriosis during preovulatory phase, which suggest that PGF2alphamay play some roles in subfertility associated with endometriosis.
Ascitic Fluid* ; Dinoprost* ; Dinoprostone ; Endometriosis* ; Estradiol ; Female ; Follicular Fluid ; Follicular Phase* ; Humans ; Infertility ; Laparotomy