No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans

No abstract available.
Low Back Pain*

A wide range of cognitive impairments and depression can be observed in most patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). But the underlying mechanism of these changes has not to be clarified yet. This study evaluated whether the frontal lobe dysfunctions contribute to the cognitive deficits in PD by comparison with age and education-matched controls. The neuropsychological tests known to be sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction were performed to 38 patients with PD and matched 24 controls. These were composed of 'Category Fluency Test (CFT)' including objects, animals, & nations and 'Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)'. General cognition and depression were measured 'Korean Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE)' and 'Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)' respectively. We examined the degree of motor disabilities in PD using the Hoehn-Yahr Stage. Patients with PD were assessed before noon and during the ""On"" time of levodopa to reduce the diurnal variation of mood and drug effects. Although PD patients, compared with controls, showed decreased ability in attention & calculation, memory, and visuo-spatial construction, the most prominent deficit was frontal lobe dysfunction evaluated with WCST and CFTs. Cognitive impairments in PD did not attribute to the discrepancy of education level or associated depression. So we suggest that the frontal lobe dysfunction may play an important role for cognitive impairments in PD.
Animals ; Cognition ; Depression ; Education ; Frontal Lobe* ; Humans ; Levodopa ; Memory ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Parkinson Disease*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although pain resulting from thalamic stroke was described by D jerine & Roussy in 1906, its pathomechanism & anatomical substrate have not been defined yet. Several clinical & experimental studies suggest that laterality of lesion for generation of central pain is as important as location of lesion. We performed this study to evaluate clinical features of thalamic pain syndrome, including incidence, onset interval from stroke, nature, distribution, accompaniments, and to assess the relationships between laterality & location of lesion and occurrence of pain. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records and brain imaging of all patients with thalamic stroke from 1990 to 1997. Patients with thalamic pain syndrome due to a single well-demarcated thalamic stroke were included, and excluded tumoral, non-vascular etilogy, and patients with sensory deficit without pain and excluded patients who had multiple cerebral lesions even they have thalamic pain syndrome. RESULTS: One-hundred one cases were selected under the inclusion criteria, and twenty-four patients(24%) with thalamic pain syndrome were identified from 101 thalamic stroke. Pain onset within the first week poststroke was 17(71%). The patients with allodynia were 8(33%), increased by movement, stress, and thermal contact. The painful area distributed mainly limbs(50%), especially arm(35%), face plus hemibody(34%), and hemibody below face(8%). Thalamic pain syndrome accompanied with the pain and temperature loss was 17(71%). Thirteen patients had a right-sided lesion, 11 left-sided lesion. The lesion causing thalamic pain syndrome mainly located in the posterolateral areas(75%). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the thalamic pain syndrome resulting from mainly posterolateral thalamic lesion cause the spontaneous pain on the contralateral body, especially upper extrimity, and accompanied with pain & tempterature loss. The laterality of lesion is not represent for generation of thalamic pain syndrome. Key word : thalamic stroke, central pain.
Humans ; Hyperalgesia ; Incidence ; Medical Records ; Neuroimaging ; Stroke*

BACKGROUND: Various molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA hybridization have been introduced to diagnose the hepatitis B more accurately. Recently, Hybrid Capture Assay (HCA) was developed, which uses the signal amplification solution hybridization capture assay with chemiluminescent detector. So we evaluated the sensitivity and clinical utility of the HCA and PCRs for the detection of hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV DNA) and compared these results with serologic markers. METHODS: We analysed the 50 samples from the hepatitis B patients using enzyme immunoassay, HCA and nested PCRs with two different primer sets. The primers of PCR I and PCR II were targeted to pol and core region respectively. RESULTS: In 18 cases, HBV DNA were detected by HCA in which the positive rates by PCR I and PCR II were 55.6%, and 88.9%, respectively. And in 32 cases in which HBV DNA by HCA was negative, the positive rates by PCR I and PCR II were 6.2% and 31.3%, respectively. In 44 cases which were positive for HBsAg, the positive rates for HBV DNA were 38.6% by HCA, 27.3% by PCR I, and 56.8% by PCR II. In cases positive for HBeAg, the positive rates were 93.3% by HCA, 60.0% by PCR I and 80.0% by PCR II. In cases positive for anti-HBe and negative for HBeAg, the positive rates were 10.3% by HCA, 10.3% by PCR I, and 44.8% by PCR II. CONCLUSIONS: Both HCA and PCR compensated each other yet as to the accurate investigation of the viral replication in patients with hepatitis B and the sensitivity was better in HBV PCR with primers to core region than to pol region.
DNA ; Hepatitis B e Antigens ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis B virus* ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Polymerase Chain Reaction*

BACKGROUND: The potential adverse effects of ketamine in neurosurgical anesthesia have been well established. However, the effects of ketamine on intracranial pressure (ICP) and hemodynamics during general anesthesia remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of ketamine on hemodynamics and ICP in anesthetized, ventilated rabbits. METHODS: Thirty rabbits were divided into three groups: Group 1 (n=10) received 1 ml/kg normal saline iv; Group 2 (n=10) received 0.5 mg/kg ketamine iv; Group 3 (n=10) received 1.0 mg/kg ketamine iv. After induction with thiopental, anesthesia was maintained with isoflurane and nitrous oxide in oxygen. During controlled ventilation, ICP, mean arterial pressure (MAP), cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) and heart rate (HR) were measured. The ICP was measured using Ladd ICP monitoring system. All variables were evaluated at baseline and for 30 min following ketamine. RESULTS: In group 1, ICP, MAP, CPP and HR were unchanged over the course of the study. In group 2, ICP, MAP and CPP were unchanged. HR increased at 1, 3 and 5 min (p<0.01), 10 and 20 min (p<0.05) after injection. In group 3, ICP, MAP and CPP increased at 1 and 3 min (p<0.01) after injection. HR increased at 1, 3 and 10 min (p<0.01), 5 min (p<0.05) after injection. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that 0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg of ketamine don't significantly affect the hemodynamics and ICP in anesthetized, mechanically ventilated rabbits.
Anesthesia* ; Anesthesia, General ; Arterial Pressure ; Heart Rate ; Hemodynamics* ; Intracranial Pressure* ; Isoflurane ; Ketamine* ; Nitrous Oxide ; Oxygen ; Perfusion ; Rabbits* ; Thiopental ; Ventilation

Hamartoma of the breast is a rare benign lesion presenting as palpable mass. They are, however, sometimes misdiagnosed by pathologist due to their resemblance to other benign or physiologic conditions of the breast. We report two cases of hamartomas of the breast. The clinical diagnosis was fibroadenoma in both cases. One patient was a 49-year-old woman presented with palpable mass for the duration of 5 months. Mammography showed a well demarcated round mass with homogeneous density which is slightly greater than the surrounding glandular tissue. Grossly it was a 3.5 3.0 2.0 cm sized round firm mass covered by thin fibrous tissue. Microscopically it was a well defined mass composed of variable amount of breast lobules, dilated ducts and adipose tissue surrounded by dense hyalinized connective tissue. The adipose tissue accounted for 30% of the entire lesion. Cellular atypism was not found. The other patient was a 18-year-old woman presented with palpable mass of the duration of 3 years, which was increased in size recently. Mammography demonstratesd a well delimited lobulated mass with lucent halo. Ultrasonography showed a well encapsulated low echoic mass admixed with high echoic areas. Grossly, it was a 4.0 4.0 2.0 cm sized well demarcated oval-shaped firm mass with translucent thin fibrous capsule.. Microscopic findings were similar to the former. The amount of adipose tissue was 20%.
Adipose Tissue ; Adolescent ; Breast* ; Connective Tissue ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Fibroadenoma ; Hamartoma* ; Humans ; Hyalin ; Mammography ; Middle Aged ; Ultrasonography

In order to maintain a uniformity and consistency in terminology for constructing and searching a literature database, controlled vocabularies should be used as key words in the journal. While most of medical academic societies have recommended MeSH be used as key words, only 23 societies published terminology or index books. We reviewed 172 journals of JKOSMI published during the period from 1995 to 2000, using MeSH brower. Only 11.72% of key words were completely consistent with MeSH terminolgy and 25.56% were partially consistent. Purposes of this study are to examine a current status of using MeSH in the Journal of Korean Society of Medical Informatics(JKOSMI) and to develop a Korean terminology book on medical informatics.
Classification ; Medical Informatics* ; Vocabulary, Controlled

This study was conducted as a part of project developing the standards of the national board test for dietitian's licences. The purpose of this study was to define the job specification for dietitian's job description based on the knowledge, skill, attitude and related to the curriculum. The study team established the research team which composed of 11 person(7 professor in the university and 4 dietitians in hospitals, schools and private firms). The job description composed of 17 duties, 99 tasks and 576 task elements. For each element, the job specifications are written, which composed of introduction, process, required equipments, and required ability. Required ability included knowledge, skill and attitudes. The relations of the knowledge, skill and attitudes with the possible curriculum currently operated in the college or university were analyzed, also. Job specifications for 576 task elements are analyzed and framed.
Curriculum ; Humans ; Job Description* ; Nutritionists

This study was conducted a part of the project developing the standards of national board test for the dietitian's licence. The purpose of this study was to verify the dietitian's job description. To do this the survey was carried out for the frequency, criticality and difficulty of each job description with 4 point scales. The subjects was 521 dietitians, who have been working over 3 years at their position. The results are following ; 1. The each duty, task and task elements are verified with survey results. 2. Duties with high frequency and criticality were menu management, purchasing, storage and stock management, operational management for cooking, system management for distribution and sanitation management. 3. Duties with middle frequency and high criticality were managing equipment and facility, food service management, human resources management and self-development. 4. Duties with low frequency and high criticality were nutritional assessment for life cycles, nutrition therapy, nutrition education and disease management. 5. For difficulty, food service area show lower than of nutrition service area.
Cooking ; Disease Management ; Education ; Food Services ; Humans ; Job Description* ; Life Cycle Stages ; Nutrition Assessment ; Nutrition Therapy ; Nutritionists ; Sanitation ; Weights and Measures