Injuries and pains of musculoskeletal joint in human body is common onset in industrialized world. However, muscle fatigue plays a very significant role in contributing causes of many pains associated with musculoskeletal joints. Based on this hypothesis, degree of muscle fatigue was investigated using electromyography measurement technique during isometric and concentric/eccentric muscle contractions. Different response of the muscle fatigue between two different muscle contractions (isometric and concentric/eccentric contractions) was examined by comparison of parameters which were median frequency, median power and RMS value. Healthy 16 young persons without previous musculoskeletal diesease history were tested with Noraxon Myosystem 2000 EMG measurement system. In this study, two different exercises were performed. First exercise was concentric/eccentric exercise. Second exercise was isometric muscle contraction. In the case of the isometric exercise, median frequency was decreased, but median power and RMS were increased. However, during the concentric/eccentric exercse, median frequency was increased, but median power and RMS were decreased. Both of those revealed that the pattern of the median frequency was W type, but median power and RMS were M type as time passed. In this study, the patterns of the muscle fatigue during concentric/eccentric exercise as well as isometric exercise were identified. It will be helpful to prevent musculoskeletal injury from over-working andexercising.
Electromyography* ; Exercise ; Human Body ; Humans ; Joints ; Muscle Contraction ; Muscle Fatigue*

OBJECTIVES: Considerable variations in the contents of clinical practice are the natural consequences of the fact that so many factors can have influences on each clinical decision making processes in the psychiatric treatment, let alone the pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia. To attain the goal of rational treatment, it is needed to examine the actual contents of clinical practices and the degree of variations among diverse hospitals. In addition, it is also needed to look into the unique situations in which each hospital is situated. For this purpose, this study tried to investigate the degree of variations in several aspects of the treatment of schizophrenia with atypical antipsychotics currently practiced in Korea. METHODS: This study is based on the data from RODOS (Risperidone Olanzapine Drug Outcome Study) in Korea. This study had been designed as a multi-center naturalistic study, therefore, had many advantages for the survey study of actual clinical practices. The subjects of the study were the in-patients who had been given risperidone or olanzapine for the control of their psychotic symptoms. Clinical data had been gathered by retrospective chart review. The degree and the characteristics of the variations were examined by comparing the patient-characteristic variables and the treatment-related variables among each hospital. RESULTS: The differences in the baseline characteristics of the patients including the duration of illness and the past history of psychiatric treatment were substantial among each hospital, and these differences seemed to explain a great portion of the variations in the contents of treatment. The variations in the dosage of risperidone and olanzapine were not conspicuous among each hospital. However, the variations in other treatment-related variables, including duration of admission, proportion of combined therapy with other antipsychotics, usage of anticholinergics, detection rate of extrapyramidal symptoms, remained statistically significant after adjusting the baseline patient characteristics as covariates. Although no significant correlation among each variable was found, a couple of unique practice patterns common to several hospitals could be observed. CONCLUSIONS: Considerable variations in the diverse treatment-related variables were observed in the treatment of schizophrenic patients with risperidone and olanzapine. It seemed that the major portion of these variations could be explained by the characteristic of patient group. However, the possibility remained that the other factors including the socio-cultural environment of the community and the disposition of the clinician themselves were still the major contributing factors to these variations. It is expected that the future clinical practice surveys like this study can help the clinicians to reevaluate their current practices, and can help to accumulate the basic data needed to establish the more rational and customized treatment practices.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Cholinergic Antagonists ; Decision Making ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Korea ; Linear Energy Transfer ; Retrospective Studies ; Risperidone* ; Schizophrenia

No abstract available.
Ascites* ; Pancreatitis, Chronic* ; Pleural Effusion*

No abstract available.
Autopsy* ; Cardiomyopathies* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn*

OBJECTIVES: Auditory verbal hallucination (AVH) is knoun for its high prevalence and difficulty in evaluation. Authors hypothesized that it may be possible to find useful dimensions of AVH that reflect the clinical status of schizophrenic patients by assessing the multi-dimensional changes and linguistic forms' of AVH during antipsychotic treatment. METHODS: 33 schizophrenic patients with AVH were selected and periodically assessed with the 11 items of hallucinations subscale of 'The Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS)'. In addition, to assess the linguistic forms observed in the AVH, the evaluations of sentence structure of AVH reported by the patients were conducted. RESULTS: PSYRATS showed the multidimensionality inherent in AVH. The changes in the quantitative dimensions did not correlate well with patients' subjective distress. However, qualitative changes in the cognitive and emotional dimensions showed more favorable correlation with clinical course of the patient. The sentence structures of AVH showed tendency to change from "sentence" to "non-sentence" type with overall improvement during treatment. CONCLUSION: Multi-dimensional approach to AVH can give us more information about the changing patterns of multi-faceted structure of AVH and clinical status of patients than one-dimensional or categorical approach.
Hallucinations* ; Humans ; Linguistics ; Prevalence ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVES: Auditory verbal hallucination (AVH) is knoun for its high prevalence and difficulty in evaluation. Authors hypothesized that it may be possible to find useful dimensions of AVH that reflect the clinical status of schizophrenic patients by assessing the multi-dimensional changes and linguistic forms' of AVH during antipsychotic treatment. METHODS: 33 schizophrenic patients with AVH were selected and periodically assessed with the 11 items of hallucinations subscale of 'The Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS)'. In addition, to assess the linguistic forms observed in the AVH, the evaluations of sentence structure of AVH reported by the patients were conducted. RESULTS: PSYRATS showed the multidimensionality inherent in AVH. The changes in the quantitative dimensions did not correlate well with patients' subjective distress. However, qualitative changes in the cognitive and emotional dimensions showed more favorable correlation with clinical course of the patient. The sentence structures of AVH showed tendency to change from "sentence" to "non-sentence" type with overall improvement during treatment. CONCLUSION: Multi-dimensional approach to AVH can give us more information about the changing patterns of multi-faceted structure of AVH and clinical status of patients than one-dimensional or categorical approach.
Hallucinations* ; Humans ; Linguistics ; Prevalence ; Weights and Measures

No abstract available.
Angiofibroma* ; Carbon Dioxide* ; Carbon* ; Lasers, Gas* ; Sirolimus* ; Tuberous Sclerosis*

No abstract available.
Stevens-Johnson Syndrome*

BACKGROUND: It is now thought that the earliest manifestation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is alveolitis, that is, an accumulation of inflammatory and immune effector cells within alveolar walls and spaces. Inflammatory cells including alveolar macrophages and resident normal pulmonary tissue cells participate through the release of many variable mediators such as inflammatory growth factors and cytokines, which contribute to tissue damage and finally cause chronic pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis. This study was performed to investigate the source and distribution pattern of transforming growth factor-beta1(TGF-beta1), platelet derived growth factor(PDGF), basic fibroblast growth factor(bFGF), interleukin 1(IL-1), interleukin 6(IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF-alpha) and the role of these mediators on bleomycin(BLM)-induced pulmonary injury and fibrosis in rats. METHOD: Wistar rats were divided into three groups(control group, BML treated group, BML and vitamine E treated group). Animals were sacrifices periodically at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 14, 21, 28 days after saline or BLM administration. The effects were compared to the results of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid analysis, light microscopic findings, immunohistochemical stains for six defferent mediators(TGF-beta1, PDGF, bFGF, IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-alpha) and mRNA in situ hybridization for TGF-beta1. RESULTS: IL-1 and IL-6 are maximally expressed at postbleomycin 1~7th day which are mainly produced by neutrophils and bronchiolar epithelium. It is thought that they induce recruitment of inflammatory cells at the injury site. The expression of IL-1 and IL-6 at the bronchiolar epithelium within 7th day is an indirect evidence of contribution of bronchiolar epithelial cells to promote and maintain the inflammatory and immune responses adjacent to the airways. TNF-alpha is mainly produced by neutrophils and bronchiolar epithelial cells during 1~5th day, alveolar macrophages during 7~28th day. At the earlier period, TNF-alpha causes recruitment of inflammatory cells at the injury site and later stimulates pulmonary fibrosis. The main secreting cells of TGF-beta1 are alveolar macrophages and bronchiolar epithelium and the target is pulmonary fibroblasts and extracellular matrix. TGF-beta1 and PDGF stimulate proliferation of pulmonary fibroblasts and TGF-beta1 and bFGF incite the fibroblasts to produce extracellular matrix. The vitamine E and BLM treated group shows few positive cells(p<0.05). CONCLUSION: After endothelial and epithelial injury, the neutrophils and bronchiolar epithelium secrete IL-1, IL-6, TNF-alpha which induce infiltration of many neutrophils. It is thought that variable enzymes and O2 radicals released by these neutrophils cause destruction of normal lung architecture and progression of pulmonary fibrosis. At the 7~28th day, TGF-beta1, PDGF, bFGF, TNF-alpha secreted by alveolar macrophages sting pulmonary fibroblasts into proliferating with increased production of extracellular matrix and finally, they make progression of pulmonary fibrosis. TNF-alpha compares quite important with TGF-beta1 to cause pulmonary fibrosis. Vitamine E seems to decrease the extent of BLM induced pulmonary fibrosis.
Animals ; Bites and Stings ; Bleomycin* ; Blood Platelets ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ; Coloring Agents ; Cytokines* ; Epithelial Cells ; Epithelium ; Extracellular Matrix ; Fibroblasts ; Fibrosis ; Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis ; In Situ Hybridization ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins* ; Interleukin-1 ; Interleukin-6 ; Interleukins ; Lung ; Lung Injury ; Macrophages, Alveolar ; Necrosis ; Neutrophils ; Pneumonia ; Pulmonary Fibrosis* ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; RNA, Messenger ; Transforming Growth Factor beta ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; Vitamins

Neurilemmoma is rare benign tumor originating from the Schwann cell of the nerve sheath. Intrabronchial neurilemmoma are extremely rare and only few cases have been reported previously in Korea. Neurilemmoma at all ages but are most common in persons between the ages of 20 and 50 years. It affects the head, neck, flexor regions of the extremities. Neurilemmoma was confirmed histologically because of the presence of Verocay bodies, Antoni A or B tissue pattern and of S-100 protein. We report two cases of intrabronchial neurilemmoma with chronic coughing and nonspecific radiologic findings.
Cough ; Extremities ; Head ; Humans ; Korea ; Neck ; Neurilemmoma* ; S100 Proteins