Recently the adenomaatous polyposis coli(APC) gene, a tumor suppressor gene, was identified and the cDNA was cloned from chromosome 5q21. Allelic deletion or point mutation of tumor suppressor genes(TSGs) has been considered as an important mechanism in development of human tumor. Point mutations affecting APC gene are seen in the hereditary syndrome, adenomatous polyposis and spordic colon cancer. However, the mutation of APC gene and other TSGs have not been described in gastric cancer. In order to identify the mutation of exon 11 of APC gene for gastric cancer, we amplified DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded tissues by polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and digested the PCR products with restriction enzyme Rsa I. We examined the DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded 44 gastric cancer tissues with lymph nodes. Eighteen(41%) among 44 were informative for the study exon 11 of the APC gene, and we found loss of heterozygosity(LOH) for APC in 6/18(33.3%). These data suggest that the point mutation or the base change of APC gene commonly occurs in gastric cancer. We conclude that the mutation of APC gene is strongly connected with development of human gastric cancer.
Humans ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Stomach Neoplasms

No abstract available.
Occupational Health*

In order to develop the computerized information system of occupational health management at worksite, we surveyed actual states of computer use at worksites. We used a self-administrative questionnaire to the members of Korean Association of Occupational Health Nursing(KAOHN) from July 4 to August 21 in 1997. Among the members of KAOHN, 147 members answered. The worksites where they, were employed were very diverse in aspect of jobs, locations, and size. Occupational health computerized system was used at 30(20.4%) worksites among 147 respondents. When they first introduced the computerized system the most difficult problem was the lack of support of manager. The programs that they have used mainly consist of drug management, health examination management, disease management, but the program of worksite environment management have been rarely used. Most users felt that the computerized system was effective, but there were problems in connection within programs. Many worksites have plans to take or expand the computerized information system within several years. It is necessary to develop the effective and integrated occupational health computerized system.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Disease Management ; Information Systems* ; Occupational Health* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Workplace*

OBJECTIVE: A novel inhibitor of apoptosis, survivin, seems to be involved in critical steps of cancer onset and progression, and associated with unfavorable clinical outcome. We investigated the expression of survivin in patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasm and uterine cervical cancer to determine whether survivin indicates the poor prognosis or not. METHODS: The study included 14 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade III, 53 cases of invasive uterine cervical squamous cell carcinoma. Immunohistochemical stain and western blot was performed with antihuman survivin antibody. RESULTS: Survivin was highly expressed in CIN III and cervical cancer group than normal control group (p<0.05). Significant survivin expression was noted in cancer patients with lesion size >or=4 cm, lymphovascular invasion, elevated SCC Ag. level, and nonresponse to initial therapy. As the clinical stage goes up, survivin expression had a tendency to increase but there was no statistical significance (p=0.081). No association was noted between survivin expression and survival rate (p=0.1011). CONCLUSION: This results suggest that survivin expression may provide prognostic information and could represent a possible new marker of prognosis in uterine cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients.
Apoptosis ; Blotting, Western ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia ; Humans ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

The purposes of this study are to investigate the effect of the cold air application in the skin and intraarticular temperature changes and to observe the rebound temperature changes after cooling. We recorded the changes of the skin surface and intraarticular temperatures of knees during and after the cold air application. The intraarticular temperature was measured by a temperature probe inserted into the knee joint cavity and the skin temperature by the infrared system. Eighteen healthy subjects were examined. The knee was cooled by a 5-minutes application of CRAis (Kyung-won Century, Korea) machine and the intraarticular and skin temperatures of knees were measured at every 0.5-minute during and after the cold therpy, then at every minute for 5 minutes, and every 5-minute for the next 110 minutes. We also evaluated the variables that might affect the skin and intraarticular temperature changes. Results showed that the mean skin temperature dropped from 31.8oC to 10.5oC immediately after the cold air application for 5-minutes. The mean intraarticular temperature dropped from 33.9oC to 30.0oC after the cold air application for 5-minutes. Two hours after the initiation of treatment with cold air, the mean intraarticular temperatures did not recover to the baseline values(p<0.01). No significant correlations were found between the body mass index with the intraarticular and surface temperatures of knees. A highly significant correlation was noted between the baseline skin surface and intraarticular temperatures(p<0.01). In conclusion, the reduction of the joint temperature by the cold air application using CRAis machine can be a useful treatment method for the synovitis of knees.
Body Mass Index ; Cryotherapy ; Joints ; Knee Joint ; Knee* ; Skin Temperature* ; Skin* ; Synovitis

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The Seoul Metabolic Syndrome Management (SMESY) program is a 1-yr lifestyle modification program targeting metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Seoul residents. This study investigated the associations between adherence to dietary guidelines and MetS among the SMESY program participants. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Data of 54,385 participants aged 20–64 yrs who completed the SMESY program in 2015, had information on adherence to dietary guidelines, and were not medicated for diabetes, hypertension, or dyslipidemia were analyzed. Participants underwent MetS screening and completed a lifestyle questionnaire including adherence to 10 dietary guidelines before and after participation. Participants were classified according to the number of MetS risk factors at baseline (MetS group, ≥ 3; risk group, 1–2; healthy group, none). Adherence to dietary guidelines was determined from the number of “yes” responses regarding the fulfillment of each guideline on ≥ 5 days/week. Multiple logistic regression was used to evaluate associations between newly diagnosed MetS and changes in adherence to dietary guidelines. RESULTS: In the MetS group, MetS prevalence decreased after the SMESY program (men, −41.9%p; women, −48.7%p), and all risk factors were significantly improved (P < 0.0001). All groups exhibited improved adherence to all dietary guidelines after participation (P < 0.0001). In the MetS group with positively changed adherence scores, the MetS prevalence decreased by −44.1%p for men and −49.5%p for women, whereas the prevalence in those with negative changes decreased by −38.1%p for men and −48.6%p for women. In the risk group, those with positively changed adherence scores had significantly decreased odds ratios (ORs) for newly diagnosed MetS compared with those with negative changes (OR, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61–0.80 for men; OR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.79–0.99 for women). CONCLUSIONS The SMESY program may effectively reduce the risk of MetS among adults with risk factors by improving adherence to dietary guidelines.

Recently the changes in medical informatics enabled us to use medical information whenever we want and wherever we are. However, there are few information supporting systems on the web in occupational health field. So we have tried to make an occupational health information system (OHIS) based on the Internet and to provide occupational information to occupational health personnel. There were two steps for developing OHIS. First, we analyzed user's needs and existing information systems and then developed contents of our OHIS. Second, we constructed web server under the environment of Windows user, using operating system of windows NT 4.0 and web browsers of Netscape Navigator. Many users in worksites wanted information through the Internet. The contents of OHS which they wanted were information related to health education of workers, health counselling, news, and so on. The contents of OHIS which we forwarded were occupational health service, information about organization of occupational health, book references and journals, link-sites related to occupational health. In the future, this Interned-based OHIS will be an useful site offering a lot of information to occupational health personnel.
Health Education ; Health Information Systems* ; Information Systems ; Internet* ; Medical Informatics ; Occupational Health ; Occupational Health Services ; Occupations* ; Web Browser ; Workplace

OBJECTIVE: Survivin is a novel inhibitor of apoptosis. Suppression of apoptosis is important for carcinogenesis and tumor growth. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether survivin is expressed in the tissues of normal uterine cervix, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade III (CIN III) and squamous cell carsinoma of the uterine cervix, as a first step for evaluation of the clinical significance of survivin in uterine cervical cancer. METHODS: We investigated the expression of survivin in the tissues of 11 cases of normal uterine cervix and 14 cases of CIN III and 20 cases of uterine cervical cancer, using Immunohistochemistry at department of obstetrics and gynecology of Ajou university hospital from Jan. 2000 to Jan. 2001 and then compared with the results of three groups. RESULTS: The expression of survivin is increased significantly in cases of CIN III and uterine cervical cancer compared with controls. (p<0.05, One way ANOVA test) CONCLUSION: This study shows survivin could play an important role in the carcinogenesis mechanism of uterine cervix. And further study will be followed to evaluate the clinical relationship of survivin in uterine cervical cancer and whether to act a prognostic factor or not.
Apoptosis ; Carcinogenesis ; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia ; Cervix Uteri ; Female ; Gynecology ; Immunohistochemistry ; Obstetrics ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

Health Risk Appraisal(HRA) is usually defined as a process by which we expect of individual's chances of death or acquiring specific diseases within a defined period of time. The concept of worksite as an area of health maintenance and promotion is newly developing. Our movement for health promotion of employees has been increasingly known in the worksite. The aim of this study is to develop health risk appraisal tools about health promotion at the worksite for employees. We performed this study by two steps: one step was to develop a HRA questionnaire of worksites in Korea, another was to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire. For developing HRA questionnaire, we reviewed scientific examples at first, and then weighted the score by delphi. To evaluate the reliability of developed questionnaire, we carried out survey by test-retest method. A total of 131 employees completed HRA questionnaire on two times. The results are as follows. The total score of health risk in unhealthy workers was higher than that of healthy workers. The range of test-retest reliability of responses to the questionnaire was 0.57-0.94. Therefore it seems that this questionnaire was very suitable to assess the health behavior of workers. In conclusion, the developed HRA questionnaire can be used as a tool for evaluating health behavior and for providing health counseling materials.
Counseling ; Health Behavior ; Health Promotion ; Health Status Indicators* ; Korea ; Questionnaires ; Workplace*

In order to evaluate the status of health information management for occupational health care center, we surveyed the computerized health information system using questionnaires form July 15 to August 31 in 1997. Among the 105 centers, 53 centers answered. The results were as follows; 1. Twenty nine centers(54.7%) had computerized information system. Most of them have operated this system for 5 years ago, and the users were administrators, doctors, nurses, and hygienists. The most of twenty nine centers which had introduced the health information system developed the software programs by themselves(41.4%) or with computer companies(58.6%). The main reasons that the centers introduced the computerized health information system were to do financial work and manage the occupational data; including medical examination, environmental evaluation, and other statistics. The problems in operation of computerized information system were low capacity level of memory, non-transferability to other programs and high cost. They demanded the more advanced level of functional diversity, continuity, and accuracy in data management. 2. Sixty nine percent of the centers which had the computerized health information system and forty six percent of the centers which had not it had plans to extend or introduce the system. They presumed that they would spend the 10-50 million Won to do that. 3. Necessary were the advanced computer program which included the comprehensive occupational health service, transferability to other programs, linkage with other occupational health care centers, worksites and government information system.
Administrative Personnel ; Health Information Management ; Health Information Systems* ; Humans ; Information Systems ; Memory ; Occupational Health Services ; Occupational Health* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Workplace