Male genital tract inflammatory conditions may be associated with unexplained infertility. The presence of cytokine such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) was reported in the semen of infertile men. However, the effect of these cytokines on human sperm function is still unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the in-vitro effects of TNF-alpha on human sperm motility with computer assisted sperm analysis. Washed sperm from 16 normal men were incubated without and with TNF-alpha(0.1, 10, 1000 ng/ml). The changes of parameters of sperm motility were recorded at different time intervals (0, 5, 24 hour). There was no significant change of parameters of sperm motility in the incubation with TNF-alpha. It is suggested that TNF-alpha alone does not interfere with the sperm motility and more studies are needed.
Cytokines ; Humans ; Infertility ; Male ; Semen ; Sperm Motility* ; Spermatozoa* ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*

No abstract available.
Mediastinoscopy*

No abstract available.
Adult ; Humans ; Still's Disease, Adult-Onset

PURPOSE: Chronic prostatitis is a common diagnosis, and the morbidity of this disease results from a constellation of genitourinary symptoms. We surveyed a population of 19 year old Korean men using National I nstitutes of Health Chronic Protatitis symptom Index, evaluated symptomatology associated with chronic prostatitis and gathered epidemiologic data about this disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: During May 2000, a total of 4339 male residents in the area of Chung-nam including Taejeon city visited the Military Manpower Administered questionnaire. and the impact of symptoms on quality of life. the results were analyzed statistically by PC-SPSS version 7.5. RESULTS: There were statistically significant correlations among every item and domain, respectively by Pearson's correlation analysis (p=0.00). Pain domain significantly contributed to predicting quality of life domain and explained 42% of the variance on quality of life domain (r=0.65,p=0.00). The change in the amount of explained variance was significant when entering urinary symptoms domain (r(2)change=0.19,p=0.00). Overall pain and urinary symptoms domain predicted 61% of the variance in quality of life domain (r=0.78,p=0.00). If a score of 6 in quality of life domain was determined to the cut-off score of the chronic prostatitis, the prevalence of the chronic prostatitis was 3.8%. CONCLUSIONS: the National Institutes of Health chronic prostatitis and pain and urinary symptoms significantly contribute towards explaining variances in quality of life. although there data show much less common prevalence than most nonpopulation studies suggest, we suggest that chronic prostatitis is a common disease in Korean men if one consider that our data were surveyed in only 19 year old men.
Daejeon* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Male ; Military Personnel ; National Institutes of Health (U.S.) ; Prevalence ; Prostatitis* ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Young Adult

A 45 year old man with a history of syncopal attacks of 3 days' duration showed complete heart block with occasional retrograde P waves following QRS complexes in the electrocardiogram. The site of A-V block seemed to be below A-V node judging from the QRS complexes when occasional capture occured. This may be a case of complete heart block progressing from right bundle branch block plus left posterior hemiblock. There was a rapid improvement of conduction with sublingual isoproterenol in a few days, EKG's showing normal A-V conduction and QRS complexes on discharge. The mechanism of the retrograde conduction in the presence of complete heart block is discussed with a review of literature.
Atrioventricular Node ; Bundle-Branch Block ; Electrocardiography ; Heart Block* ; Heart* ; Humans ; Isoproterenol ; Middle Aged

No abstract available.
Semen*

No abstract available.
Endometriosis* ; Female ; Nafarelin*

Pregnancy-induced hypertension(PIH) is one of the major causes of maternal, fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. Although many causes are encountered, etiology of PIH is still unknown. A molecular variant of angiotensinogen, M235T, reported to be linked with essential hypertension and PIH. This study was to evaluate the molecular variation of angiotensinogen in Korean pregnancy-induced hypertension. Our results did not provide any definite relation with the molecular variant of angiotensinase, M235T, and Korean PIH.
Angiotensinogen* ; Female ; Hypertension ; Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced* ; Mortality ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Pregnancy

Cheilitis granulomatosa is one of the rare dermatoses which is characterized by a sudden onset and a progressive course termination in chronic enlargement of the lips Usually, enlargement of lip is the only symtom without ulceration, fissurign or scaling. It may be considered a part of the Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome and the etiology is still unknown. A 35 year old female with the clinlcal symptoms of cheilitis granulomatosa is presented; the diagnosis was confirmed by histopathologic study.
Adult ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Lip ; Melkersson-Rosenthal Syndrome ; Skin Diseases ; Ulcer

Twenty four hyperlipidemic patients, consist of 13 males and 11 females, were administration a new hypolipidemic agents, Pantethine, and blood lipid level were checked sereally for 16 weeks. The following results are obtained. 1. The serum high density lipoprotein-cholesterol are markedly increased by 11.8%. 2. The serum cholesterol level are reduced mildly by 4.8% & it seems to be insignificant. 3. The serum triglyceride level are moderately reduced by 10.7%. 4. In 11 female patients, pantethine are more than effect on male patients. 5. Pantethine has been well tolerated in most patients. With a consideration of remakable safety, it is promising that pantethine are effective in reducing cholesterol, Triglyceride and increasing high density lipoprotein-cholesterol level.
Cholesterol ; Female ; Humans ; Hypolipidemic Agents ; Male ; Triglycerides