This retrospective descriptive study was conducted to survey the use of alternative therapy by chronicly ill patients. The subject of this study were 205 chronicly ill patients at Pusan National University Hospital. The data for this study were patient record. The data were gathered from August, 1 to September, 30 1998 and analyzed through SPSSWIN program for frequency, percentile and x2-test. The important results of this study are as followings. Of population-sociological characteristics on studied objects, sexual distribution showed a similar percentage male 47.8% and the female 52.2%. Age distribution showed that the 60-69 year old group made up 31.5%, and was the highest. Of religion Buddism was the most frequest. The diagnosis distribution showed cancer at 28.8% and coronary artery disease at 16.1%. According to the results of the study, 51.2% of subjects had used alternative therapy. The most common type of alternative therapy was dietary and nutritional therapy, 40.2%, the place of use, home, 44.0%, duration, less than 3 months, 51.5%. The most common motive was a recommendation by friends or family. The degree of satisfaction after the use of alternative therapy was high for 21.0%, and slight for 53.3%. The reaction after the use of alternative therapy was increasing power for patients with coronary artery disease and cancer, sugar control for those with DM, and pain control for those with chronic arthrits. The study showed that for chronicle ill patients, age, religion, diagnosis name have an important effect on the use of alternative therapy. In conclusion, chronicly ill patients showed high -use of alternative therapy but they did not used alternative therapy as a healing method. Therefore we must provide an education program nurses and physicians. And we must provide more information or healing method's and support chronicly ill patients.
Age Distribution ; Busan ; Chronic Disease ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Diagnosis ; Education ; Female ; Friends ; Humans ; Male ; Retrospective Studies

No abstract available.
Diagnosis* ; Exanthema* ; Lymphadenitis* ; Scrub Typhus*

BACKGROUND: Atopic dermatitis is a condition which often begins in early infancy as an erythematous, intensely pruritic, maculopapular eruption. The role of anxiety and depression in the course of atopic dermatitis in children has long been considered an important factor. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the depression and anxiety state of patients with childhood atopic dermatitis. The age of all studied individuals ranged from 8 to 15 years. METHODS: Psychological data were obtained by administration of the Kovacs' Children's Depression Inventory and the Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children. RESULTS: Patients with atopic dermatitis were characterized by a high degree of state anxiety compared with the control group. However, there were no significant differences in trait anxiety and depression between the atopic patient group and the control group. With regards to disease activity, state & trait anxiety were higher in the severs group as compared with the mild group. The degrees of anxiety and depression analyzed by recent onset, remote onset and sex did not show any significant differences. CONCLUSION: We think that patients with childhood atopic dermatitis are highly anxious, which suggest that psychological intervention may be helpful.
Anxiety* ; Child ; Depression* ; Dermatitis, Atopic* ; Humans

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Diagnostic or thepapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is the mainstream for the pancreaticobiliary disease. However, the ERCP related complications are serious and sometimes fatal to the patients. We have reviewed our experiences of the operative management for the ERCP injury. METHODS: Medical records of 13 patients who underwent laparotomic surgical intervention for various ERCP injuries from March 1996 to August 2002 at Department of Surgery, the Catholic University of Korea were reviewed. RESULTS: The age range of the patients was from 28 to 85 years. There were 5 females and 8 males. 6 patients showed the duodenal perforations and 4 patients suffered from bleedings around the ampulla of Vater. One of the 4 bleeding patients had huge expanding submucosal hematomas throughout the entire duodenum. We found massive retroperitoneal extraluminal air density in one patient but we could not find any leakage of the contrast media during the upper gastrointestinal series, however, this patient complained aggravated peritoneal irritation sign, so we explored the abdomen. Most of the patients had free abdominal or retroperitoneal air shadows (n=7) on plain chest or abdominal X-ray. We diagnosed the uncontrolled bleeding from the sphincterotomy site using the gastroduodenal fiberscopes in 3 patients. On the computed tomogaphic images, one patient showed a huge duodenal hematoma, another one had a retroperitoneal fluid collection and another one revealed a retroperitoneal air shadow. One patient showed aggravated pancreatitis on the serial CT scan and finally the patient developed a hemorrhagic necrotizing pancreatitis, then we explored the abdomen and tried peripancreatic drainage but we lost the patient in 19 postoperative day due to sepsis. The other 12 patients survived by the various surgical procedures. For the 6 patients, we performed duodenotomic sphincteroplasty, tube duodenostomy and biliary drainage with T-tube. One patient survived with Whipple's procedure, one patient improved by the pyloric exclusion and one patient cured with the duodenal diverticulization. Other procedures were primary repair of the duodenum, transduodenal sphincteroplasty and just cholecystectomy and T-tube choledochostomy. CONCLUSION: There was tendency to uneventful improvement of patients by the early detection and urgent laparotomic surgical intervention of the ERCP complication.
Abdomen ; Ampulla of Vater ; Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde* ; Cholecystectomy ; Choledochostomy ; Contrast Media ; Drainage ; Duodenostomy ; Duodenum ; Female ; Hematoma ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Medical Records ; Pancreatitis ; Sepsis ; Sphincterotomy, Transhepatic ; Thorax ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The mechanism of the noise damage to the cochlea is not fully understood in spite of many studies. The morphological changes in a noise stimulated model show various features relating to the duration of the exposure and sound intensity. Until now there had been a lot of the morphological studies on noise induced hearing loss models, but only a few reports of single blast injury of more than 150 dB. MATERIALS AND METHOD: We observed with a transmission electron microscope by using the microslicing technique for minimizing the tissue injury and successful hair cell counting in resin embedded cochlea of the guinea pig, stimulated by a 178 dB single blast wave. RESULTS: The area of hair cell damage in L.M. showed stereocilia bending at 24 hours, proliferation of Hensen's body, subsurface cistern in outer hair cell and mitochondria proliferation in inner hair cell within 2wks. The area of no hair cell damage in L.M. showed minimal changes in E.M., as well. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the 178 dB single blast wave injury may not cause severe distortion of the organ of Corti in the guinea pig and thus the compensation process can be advanced gradually.
Animals ; Blast Injuries ; Cell Count ; Cochlea* ; Compensation and Redress ; Guinea Pigs* ; Guinea* ; Hair ; Hearing Loss ; Microscopy, Electron ; Mitochondria ; Noise ; Organ of Corti ; Stereocilia

PURPOSE: Eosinophilic inflammation is a key component of severe asthma (SA). However, there has been no reliable serum biomarker for the eosinophilic inflammation of SA. We hypothesized that serum eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN) could predict the eosinophilic inflammation of SA in adult asthmatics. METHODS: Severe asthmatics (n = 235), nonsevere asthmatics (n = 898), and healthy controls (n = 125) were enrolled from Ajou University Hospital, South Korea. The serum levels of EDN and periostin were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and compared between severe and nonsevere asthmatics. Their associations with total eosinophil count (TEC) and clinical parameters were evaluated; clinical validation of the K-EDN kit for the measurement of serum EDN was evaluated. RESULTS: Severe asthmatics were older and had longer disease duration with significantly lower levels of forced expiratory volume in 1 second and methacholine PC20 than nonsevere asthmatics. Significant differences were found in TEC or sputum eosinophil count (%) between the groups. The serum levels of EDN and periostin were significantly higher in severe asthmatics than in nonsevere asthmatics and in healthy controls (all P < 0.05). Although significant correlations were found between serum EDN levels measured by the 2 kits (ρ = 0.545, P < 0.0001), higher correlation coefficients between serum EDN levels measured by the K-EDN kit and TEC were higher (ρ = 0.358, P < 0.0001) than those between serum EDN levels measured by the MBL kit and TEC (ρ = 0.319, P < 0.0001) or serum periostin level (ρ = 0.222, P < 0.0001). Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that serum EDN levels measured by the K-EDN kit predicted the phenotype of SA (P = 0.003), while 2 other biomarkers did not. CONCLUSIONS: The serum EDN level may be a useful biomarker for assessing asthma severity in adult asthmatics.
Adult ; Asthma ; Biomarkers ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Eosinophil-Derived Neurotoxin ; Eosinophils ; Forced Expiratory Volume ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Korea ; Methacholine Chloride ; Phenotype ; Sputum

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cartilage offers the advantage of higher mechanical stability compared with membranous transplants but it may alter the acoustic transfer characteristics, which could depend on its thickness. So, author attempted to design the thin sliced cartilage island for grafting material by tragal cartilage. The purpose of this study is to understand the usefulness of the thin sliced cartilage technique by comparing with conventional temporalis fascia technique with the method of tympanometry. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: From March 2002 to August 2005, 101 cases of tympanoplasty type I using the thin sliced cartilage island technique and 50 cases of tympanoplasty type I using the temporalis fascia performed by one surgeon had been followed up for 6 months and reviewed. Static compliance, tympanometric width and tympanometric pattern were followed up after 6 month. RESULTS: The static compliance in the thin sliced cartilage island technique group was 72% and temporalis fascia group was 66% at normal compliance (0.2-1.6 ml). The tympanometric width in the thin sliced cartilage island technique group was 59% and temporalis fascia group was 54% at normal tympanometric width (60-150 mmH2O). The tympanometric pattern in the thin sliced cartilage island technique group was 67% and temporalis fascia group was 62% at normal tympanometric pattern (A type). CONCLUSION: There is no significant statistical difference between the thin sliced cartilage island and temporalis fascia observed in the impedence audiometry. The thin sliced cartilage island technique is suggested to be good for tympanoplasty.
Acoustic Impedance Tests ; Acoustics ; Audiometry ; Cartilage* ; Compliance ; Ear, Middle* ; Fascia ; Mechanics* ; Transplants ; Tympanoplasty*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Histones, a set of highly cationic proteins essentially involved in the binding and packing of DNA in the cell nucleus chromatin, have five subclasses (H1, H2a, H2b, H3, H4) in mammalian animals. These components play the most important role in producing autoantibody in SLE and etc. Some studies proposed that there were a relationship between the activity of the disease and the titer of these autoantibody. Recently, histones were revealed to be involved in the immune deposit on GBM in MRL/lpr mice, and cause immune-mediated glomerulonephritis in normal animals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined IgG deposition on the basement membrane of strial capillaries and recorded the endocochlear potential from the basal turn by an electrode inserted though the round window in guinea pigs which was injected by histone(H2a) and anti-histone antisera. RESULTS: IgG depositions were seen on the basement membrane of stria capillaries. IgG was also found to be accumulated on the extravascular side of the basement membrane. However, C3 was almost never observed in the stria vascularis of histone and the anti-histone antisera injected group. In these animals, intracellular edema was evident in the stria vascularis especially at the second and more apical turns but no inflammatory cell infiltration was present. The signifcant decrease in EP was observed just after the injection of anti-histone antisera in the animals receiving an intra-arterial injection of histones. CONCLUSION: This study indicated that cationic antigen could be trapped on the negatively charged basement membrane of strial capillaries, leading to the in situ immune complex formation, and eventually causing immune-mediated hearing loss.
Animals ; Antigen-Antibody Complex ; Basement Membrane ; Capillaries ; Cell Nucleus ; Chromatin ; DNA ; Ear, Inner* ; Edema ; Electrodes ; Glomerulonephritis ; Guinea Pigs ; Hearing Loss ; Histones* ; Immune Sera ; Immunoglobulin G ; Injections, Intra-Arterial ; Mice ; Plants* ; Stria Vascularis

Endometriosis is a benign disease, characterized by the presence of endometrial glands and stroma in ectopic localization. This disease is common in women of reproductive age, accounting for approximately 10- 15%. But, endometriosis of the pancreas is an extremely rare condition. To our knowledge, only three cases of cystic endometriosis of the pancreas have been reported all over the world and have never been reported in Korea. The authors have experienced one case of endometrial cyst of the pancreas and report our case with a brief review of literature.
Endometriosis ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Pancreas*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Spectral gradient acoustic reflectometry (SGAR) determines the probability of middle ear fluid by measuring the response of the tympanic membrane to a sound. To assess the sensitivity and specificity of SGAR for the diagnosis of otitis media with effusion (OME) in the Korean population, we compared accurate diagnostic rates of OME obtained from SGAR and tympanometry. Pneumatic otoscope was used for diagnostic standard of OME. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: SGAR and tympanometry were performed on 488 ears from May 27th, 2008 to July 30th, 2008. Exclusion criteria were the presence of tympanic membrane perforation, and/or pressure equalization tubes, noncompliance, otorrhea, external auditory canal stenosis and signs of acute inflammation such as fever or otalgia. In all cases, pneumatic otoscopic examination was conducted and diagnostic accurate rates of OME were calculated in SGAR and tympanogram. RESULTS: Using spectral gradients of 3 or higher as breakpoints for indicating OME, in the case of pediatrics under 2 years old, with the sensitivity of 58.3%, specificity of 94.7%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 77.8% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 87.8%. In the case of the pediatrics between 2 and 12 years old, it showed the sensitivity of 67.2%, specificity of 90.3%, PPV of 74.5% and NPV of 86.8%. In the case of the pediatrics over 12 years old, they showed sensitivity of 87.3%, specificity of 88.8%, PPV of 67.6% and NPV of 96.3%. CONCLUSION: SGAR has the higher tendency of specificity and NPV, and will be a useful screeningtest with good portability and economical efficiency.
Acoustic Impedance Tests ; Acoustics ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Ear ; Ear Canal ; Ear, Middle ; Earache ; Fever ; Inflammation ; Otitis Media with Effusion ; Otoscopes ; Pediatrics ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tympanic Membrane ; Tympanic Membrane Perforation