OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the standards of handicapped driver's ability test in Korea and available driving aids in cervical cord injured persons. METHOD: Forty-two cervical cord injured persons (C5~C8) were evaluated with BTE (Baltimore Therapeutic Equipment) work simulator. The isotonic turning torque was measured during clockwise and counter-clockwise turning. And isometric turning torque was measured at 12 directions. RESULTS: By the isotonic measurement, the turning torque increased in the lower level of injury. In the C6 tetraplegics, the counter-clockwise turning torque was significantly higher than clockwise. Among 25 persons with C5 or C6 tetraplegia, only 2 with C6 tetraplegia could operate the power steering with the lowest wheel turning torque (3.0 Nm). Only three persons (1 person with C7 tetraplegia, 2 persons with C8 tetraplegia) could pass the handicapped driver's ability test of Korea (9.4 Nm). By the isometric measurement, turning torque was lowest at left upper quadrant (10 to 12 o'clock direction) in clockwise rotation. CONCLUSION: Among the 42 cervical cord injured persons, only 3 persons with C7 and C8 tetraplegia could pass the handicapped driver's ability test of Korea. And among 25 C5 and C6 tetraplegia, only 2 persons with C6 tetraplegia could operate the power steering. It seems to be essential to modify the standards of handicapped drivers ability test and to evolve the driving aids for the C5 and C6 tetraplegics in Korea.
Disabled Persons ; Humans ; Korea ; Quadriplegia ; Torque*

Hughes-Stovin Syndrome is an exceedingly rare combination of distal pulmonary arterial aneurysm and deep vein thrombosis, mostly found in young patients. There are striking similarities between the vascular manifestation of Behcet's disease and Hughes-Stovin Syndrome. It has been suggested that they may have a similar pathogenesis. Most patients died of massive hemoptysis due to rupture of aneurysm. Recently we have experienced the first case of Hughes-Stovin Syndrome in Korea. A 37 year old male patient was admitted because of recurrent hemoptysis and intermittent fever. He had a history of recurrent aphthous ulcers and erythema nodosum-like skin rash, But no other findings of Behcet's disease was found. Angiography showed multiple pulmonary arterial aneurysm and deep vein thrombosis in Right lower extremity. Histologic examination of specimens of open lung biopsy revealed leukocyto- clastic angiitis. Pulmonary arterial aneurysms were successfully treated by coil embolization and he is in good condition with corticosteroid and cyclophosphamide therapy.
Aneurysm ; Angiography ; Biopsy ; Cyclophosphamide ; Embolization, Therapeutic ; Erythema ; Exanthema ; Fever ; Hemoptysis ; Humans ; Korea ; Lower Extremity ; Lung ; Male ; Rupture ; Stomatitis, Aphthous ; Strikes, Employee ; Vasculitis ; Venous Thrombosis

PURPOSE: Adverse reactions to mosquito bites have been recognized for some time, and these usually consist of large swellings, generalized urticaria, angioedema, and less frequently asthma. There have been some efforts to define immunologic characteristics of mosquito allergens throughout the world. But, in Korea, the immunologic analysis of mosquito allergen have not been made. METHODS: Extracts of locally distributed female mosquito Culex pipiens, were prepared from their heads and thoraxes. By sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, proteins of two extracts were isolated. Then their proein bands were transferred to nitrocellulose membrane. Immunoblotting was performed with sera of allergic patients to mosquito bites, then completed by antibodies to human IgE. RESULTS: Immunoblotting showed IgE binding proteins weighing 70 kD, 60 kD, 34 kD in Culex pipiens. CONCLUSION: We found that mosquito antigens induced IgE response, and it suggested that species-specific antigens exist. Further investigation using salivary gland extracts from Culex genus are needed in identifying specific allergens.
Allergens* ; Angioedema ; Antibodies ; Asthma ; Collodion ; Culex* ; Culicidae* ; Electrophoresis ; Female ; Galectin 3 ; Head ; Humans ; Immunoblotting ; Immunoglobulin E ; Korea ; Membranes ; Salivary Glands ; Sodium ; Thorax ; Urticaria

Animal models, particularly pigs, have come to play an important role in translational biomedical research. There have been many pig models with genetically modifications via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). However, because most transgenic pigs have been produced by random integration to date, the necessity for more exact gene-mutated models using recombinase based conditional gene expression like mice has been raised. Currently, advanced genome-editing technologies enable us to generate specific gene-deleted and -inserted pig models. In the future, the development of pig models with gene editing technologies could be a valuable resource for biomedical research.
Animals ; Gene Expression ; Gene Transfer Techniques* ; Mice ; Models, Animal ; Recombinases ; Swine

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to determine the normal values of spectral and chaotic indexes and to assess the maturational process of autonomic and chaotic control of fetal heart rate according to gestational age. METHODS: Three hundred and thirty-seven mothers with normal singleton pregnancies, who were 23 weeks or more in gestational age, was randomly chosen. For more than 40 minutes fetal heart rates and fetal movements were recorded and were downloaded to a computer. From each heart rate data, we extracted 25 minutes (3,000 points) worth of time series of dimension were calculated and then 2 weeks' average were compared to find the maturational change of them. RESULTS: LF power and LF/HF ratio which are indexes of cardiac sympathetic tone increased significantly (P=0.0001) with gestational age from 23 to 38 weeks. The HF power did not show significant developmental change. Correlation dimension, an index of chaotic control, tended to decrease with the gestational age (P=0.0001). It was 4.07 +/- 0.13 before 24 weeks and, after it reached the peak of 4.15 +/- 0.14 at 31-32 weeks, it gradually decrease to a slight but significant lower value of 3.67 +/- 0.08 at 41-42 weeks. CONCLUSION: Magnitude of cardiac sympathetic modulation increases until 37-38 weeks. On the average, fetal heart rate is regulated at least by four independent variables throughout the gestation and after 23 weeks of gestation. Complexity of heart rate control system peaks at 31-32 weeks then slightly decreases until term gestation, probably to synchronize the heart rate to other physiologic functions.
Female ; Fetal Movement ; Fetus* ; Gestational Age ; Heart Rate* ; Heart Rate, Fetal ; Heart* ; Humans ; Mothers ; Pregnancy ; Reference Values

Female sexual dysfunction is now of great concern and have a relatively high prevalence. It is related with psychosocial disorder, organic disease and iatrogenic cause. But until recently, basic science and clinical study on it is limited and medical therapy stays in early experimental steps except conventional hormone replacement therapy. Hormonal based female sexual dysfunction can be caused by dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, surgical or medical castration, menopause and premature ovarian failure. We report two cases of female sexual dysfunction derived from hormonal deficiency. One case is about premature menopause induced and the other is about rare form of adult onset idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.
Adult ; Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Castration ; Estrogens* ; Female* ; Hormone Replacement Therapy ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Menopause ; Menopause, Premature ; Prevalence ; Primary Ovarian Insufficiency ; Testosterone*

Blood pressures and heart rates were recorded with Twin-Viso (Sanborn, USA) for comparative estimations of cardiovascular responses by injection of intravenous anesthetic agents-2.5% solution of Pentothal Sodium (Abbott Laboratory, USA) and Thiotal (Samsung Pharmaceutical Co., ROK) mongrel dogs. Dogs were evaluated the hepatic function by biochemical studies of blood such as total protein, albumin, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, thymol turbidity test, alkaline phosphatase, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT) and serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGOT). Liver biopsies were performed in dogs for identifications of hepatic darnages by injection of the above barbiturates, The following results were observed: 1) It was observed the remarkable negative inotropic effect in myocardium of the mongrel dogs intravenously injected with 20 mg/kg of the above barbiturates for three minutes (Table 7, Fig. 8) 2) It was noted slight negative inotropic effect in mongrel dogs intravenously injected with 10 mg/ kg of the above barbiturates for thirty seconds (Table 8, Fig. 8). 3) It was more shorter recovery time from negative inotropic effects in mongrel dogs injected with Thiotal than in the dogs injected with Pentothal Sodium. 4) It was noted no significant changes in pathological studies of Hematoxylin-Eosin stained liver specimen and liver function studies of the blood by biochemical analysis in mongrel dogs intravenously injected everyday with 10 mg/kg of the above barbiturates. 5) It was noted slight changes in mongrel dogs injected with 20 mg/kg of the above barbiturates on TTT, Alkaline Phosphatase, SGOT and SGPT as biochemical analysis in comparing with controI values. These values, however, were not concided with the pathological findings of HematoxyIin-Eosin stained liver biopsy specimen. The facts explain to be inquired into further investigations in the pathological and biochemical aspect.
Alanine Transaminase ; Alkaline Phosphatase ; Animals ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; Barbiturates ; Bilirubin ; Biopsy ; Dogs ; Heart Rate ; Liver ; Myocardium ; Sodium ; Thiopental* ; Thymol

BACKGROUND: Differentiated thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy. Despite advances in the treatment of thyroid cancer, disease recurrence and metastasis may occur in as many as 20% of patients, and so continues to pose major problems in its clinical management. Serum thyroglobulin (Tg) measurements, by immunoassay, are used to detect residual or recurrent thyroid cancer following thyroid ablation. However, the usefulness of immunoassay is limited by both the requirement for thyroid hormone withdrawal, to attain optimal test sensitivity, and interference by the antithyroglobulin antibody (Anti-Tg Ab). Recent studies have reported the clinical usefulness of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) detection of Tg mRNA in the peripheral blood of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinomas. We performed this study to evaluate the usefulness RT-PCR of Tg mRNA in peripheral blood of patients with thyroid carcinoma following a total thyroidectomy and radioiodine ablation therapy. METHODS: Forty cases that underwent a total thyroidectomy and radioiodine ablation therapy were included in this study. Of the 40 patients, 35 were papillary carcinomas and 5 were follicular carcinomas. Ten normal control subjects were also studied. Tg mRNA was extracted. Then RT-PCR, and nested RT-PCR, were run with specific Tg primers. Concurrently, DNA sequencing of the isolates was carried out to prove the isolates were identical to the nucleotide sequence of the Tg. RESULTS: The Tg was detected in 4 of 19 patients, with either a residual thyroid bed, or metastasis, on a 131I whole body scan and in 1 of 21 patients with a negative radioiodine scan. Surprisingly, the Tg mRNA was detected in all the patients and normal controls. CONCLUSION: From our results we can not recommend Tg mRNA, detected by RT-PCR in peripheral blood, as a tumor marker superior to that of the Tg serum level. We consider an intensive re-evaluation of the method is required before considering its clinical applications.
Base Sequence ; Carcinoma, Papillary ; Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Immunoassay ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Recurrence ; RNA* ; RNA, Messenger ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Thyroglobulin* ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms* ; Thyroidectomy ; Whole Body Imaging

PURPOSE: Rice is the main cereal produced and consumed in large quantities in Asian countries including Korea. Several reports have suggested a role of IgE-mediated hypersensitivity in asthma and eczema associated with ingestion or inhalation of rice. In Japan, hypoallergenic rices are used as substitutes for rice in some atopic patients. We performed this study to identify major the allergens of rice and the different allergenicity in cooked rice and hypoallergenic rices. METHODS: We made crude extracts from rice of various origins: polished rice, cooked rice, hypoallergenic rice from Japan and GMO rice, and performed SDS-PAGE. Based on uni, CAP test and skin prick tests we got pooled sera, then IgE immunoblots were undertaken. We performed ELISA inhibition to rule out nonspecific binding. RESULTS: There was no difference of protein distribution between the origins of the various rices, and their "polishment". After cooking, it was difficult to see any protein distribution of rice. With the results of IgE immunoblots it was impossible to differentiate between wild and hypoallergenic rices by IgE binding itself. Even in hypoallergenic rice, there was still a binding of IgE with remaining allergen. CONCLUSION: Boiling degenerates almost all protein in rice IgE binding activities remain in hypoallergenic rice produced in Japan was no difference between wild and GMO rice in SDS-PAGE and IgE immunoblot using sensitized pooled sera. Further studies with more sensitive sera are necessary for the identification of major allergens and the development of hypoallergenic rice.
Allergens ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Asthma ; Edible Grain ; Complex Mixtures ; Cooking ; Eating ; Eczema ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity, Immediate ; Immunoglobulin E ; Inhalation ; Japan ; Korea ; Organisms, Genetically Modified ; Skin

The idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) comprises a heterogeneous group of disorders with unknown pathogenesis characterized by persistent peripheral blood and bone marrow eosinophilia. And the eosinophil infiltrates of multiple organs in HES lead to severe organ dysfunction. The disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a rare complication of HES. We have experienced a case of HES complicated with DIC and pulmonary thromboembolism. After intravenous injection of methylprednisone, blood eosinophil count was normalized but DIC was persisted. With cortico steroid and cyclosporine therapy, the disease activity was favorably remitted.
Bone Marrow ; Cyclosporine ; Dacarbazine ; Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation* ; Eosinophilia ; Eosinophils ; Hypereosinophilic Syndrome* ; Injections, Intravenous ; Pulmonary Embolism* ; Thromboembolism