PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess Korean Americans' (KAs) health and cultural beliefs about colorectal cancer (CRC) and their CRC screening utilization in order to understand how health and cultural beliefs play a role in CRC screening utilization and why KAs have a low rate of CRC screening. METHODS: Face-to-face, individual interviews with 26 Korean immigrants aged 50 and older were conducted in Korean. A semi-structured interview guide with open-ended questions was used to explore participants' health and cultural beliefs about CRC and CRC screening. Recorded audio interviews were transcribed verbatim in Korean and coded using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The themes that emerged from analyzing the individual interview data were: (a) valuing their families before themselves; (b) seeing a doctor only if they have symptoms; (c) believing that they would not get CRC; (d) balancing the will to stay healthy and fatalism; and (e) refusing health information. CONCLUSION: Results show the critical need for in-depth understanding of unique health and cultural beliefs about CRC screening in KAs. These beliefs could be useful for future intervention strategies to change health and cultural beliefs in order to increase CRC screening participation in KAs.
Aged ; Asian Americans ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Humans ; Mass Screening

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to report the instrument modification and validation processes to make existing health belief model scales culturally appropriate for Korean Americans (KAs) regarding colorectal cancer (CRC) screening utilization. METHODS: Instrument translation, individual interviews using cognitive interviewing, and expert reviews were conducted during the instrument modification phase, and a pilot test and a cross-sectional survey were conducted during the instrument validation phase. Data analyses of the cross-sectional survey included internal consistency and construct validity using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS: The main issues identified during the instrument modification phase were (a) cultural and linguistic translation issues and (b) newly developed items reflecting Korean cultural barriers. Cross-sectional survey analyses during the instrument validation phase revealed that all scales demonstrate good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha=.72~.88). Exploratory factor analysis showed that susceptibility and severity loaded on the same factor, which may indicate a threat variable. Items with low factor loadings in the confirmatory factor analysis may relate to (a) lack of knowledge about fecal occult blood testing and (b) multiple dimensions of the subscales. CONCLUSION: Methodological, sequential processes of instrument modification and validation, including translation, individual interviews, expert reviews, pilot testing and a cross-sectional survey, were provided in this study. The findings indicate that existing instruments need to be examined for CRC screening research involving KAs.
Aged ; Asian Americans/*psychology ; Colorectal Neoplasms/*pathology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Middle Aged ; Occult Blood ; Pilot Projects ; Republic of Korea ; Self Efficacy ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: Autografts with peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCT) have become an accepted alternative to bone marrow transplantation for restoring hematopoiesis after marrow ablative therapy. METHODS: Questionnaires are given to all the transplantation centers in Korea. Eleven centers reported 63 cases and retrospective analysis of these cases were done. RESULTS: Sixty-three children with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) underwent PBSCT following cytoreductive chemotherapy at 11 transplant centers of the Korean Society of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology from January, 1996 through June, 2000. The patients consisted of 40 males and 23 females with a median age at PBSCT of 10 year (range 1~16). Peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) were collected by a median of 5 apheresis per patient. Various kinds of multi-drug therapy as cytoreductive regimen were used, and the 'BCVAC' regimen consisting of BCNU, cyclophosphamide, VP-16 and cytarabine was used in 35 patients. The median number of infused mononuclear cell (MNC) and CD34 cells was 8.14 (0.3~26.6) 108/kg and 4.90 (0.12~46.9) 106/kg, respectively. Hematological recovery was evaluated in all patients. The median number of days required to achieve an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) of > 500/mm3, > 1,000/mm3 and platelet count of > 50 103/mm3 was 12 (8~48), 12 (9~84) and 35 (10~370), respectively. Sixteen patients relapsed 1 month to 18 months (median 2 months) after PBSCT, 1 patient progressed to secondary MDS 15 months after PBSCT and 1 patient died at d+39 due to CMV infection. So currently 45 patients are surviving disease free at 2 to 50 months (median 23 months). CONCLUSION: Even though the follow-up period was short and the number of patient was small the autologous PBSCT might be an alternative therapy in childhood AML.
Autografts ; Blood Component Removal ; Bone Marrow ; Bone Marrow Transplantation ; Carmustine ; Child ; Cyclophosphamide ; Cytarabine ; Drug Therapy ; Etoposide ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hematopoiesis ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells* ; Humans ; Korea* ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute* ; Male ; Neutrophils ; Platelet Count ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Retrospective Studies ; Stem Cells

Congenital Ectodermal dysplasia is known to be rare, recently we experienced one case of congenital ectodermal dysplasia of hydrotic tipe in newborn infant due to autosomal dominance. Review of Literatvre was done briefly.
Ectoderm* ; Ectodermal Dysplasia* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn

Families of children with cancer face many illness-related demands. The perceived social support is a critical resource for the family adaptation process. And the patterns of family adaptation to childhood cancer varies as characteristics of disease, which is prognosis, the influence of cognition function, and treatment process. The conceptual definition of social support is not unidimensional. However, most studies focus on general aspect of mediating effects on adaptation. Diverse dimensions of perceived social support should be considered in its effectiveness for intervention. Therefore, this study was undertaken to determine whether family's perceived social support influences the family adaptation of family with pediatric cancer and what dimension influences mostly in family adaptation as the characteristics of disease in the family of children with cancer. The subject was consisted of 102 families with pediatric cancer who had been diagnosed as leukemia or brain tumor last 2 years. Those families had participated in the education program or meetings for family who have with pediatric cancer children. The measurement for this study were Personal Resource Questionnaire (PRQ) Part- ll developed by Brandt and Weinert to measure parents' perceived social support, and the McCubbin's Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP) to measure family coping. The results of this study can be summarized as follows; Regression analysis showed that perceived social support has effect on family adaptation with beta=.43, p < .01. In the group of family of child with leukemia, social support as general has effect on adaptation (beta=.40, p < .01) and specially, social support perceived as intimacy was strongly effect on family adaptation. And In the group of brain tumor, Social support has effect on adaptation(beta=.46, p < .01) and among the social support domains, the self esteem dimension was most predictable to family adaptation. In conclusion, the perceived social support is a predictor on family adaptation and useful vehicle to help family who has child with pediatric cancer. An important clinical implication is that specified support program for intervention may be useful and critical for the family who has diverse pediatric conditions of childhood cancer. Further studies should stress the effects of family support for clinical intervention and is needed with diverse stage of development and pediatric conditions.
Brain Neoplasms ; Child* ; Cognition ; Education ; Humans ; Leukemia ; Negotiating ; Parents ; Prognosis ; Self Concept ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: To analyze incidence, indications, risk factors, complications, and neonatal outcomes of emergency postpartum hysterectomies performed at EulJi University Medical Center. METHODS: A retrospective study of all cases of postpartum hysterectomies between May. 1996 and Dec. 2000. was carried out. RESULTS: 37 cases of postpartum hysterectomies during this period were performed, for overall incidnce of 2.3 per 1000 deliveries. Incidence after vaginal delivery and cesarean section was 0.03% and 0.52% respectively. The rate of postpartum hysterectomy increased with increasing age and parity. The main indications were placental disorders(54.1%) including placenta previa and adherent placenta, uterine atony(37.8%), uterine myoma(5.4%) and uterine rupture(2.7%) in order. The relative risk of postpartum hysterectomy according to the risk factors was 97.6(95% confidence interval 52.17-184.06) for placental disorders, 16.3(95% confidence interval 4.94-52.31) for cesarean section and 2.4(95% confidence interval 1.21-4.76) for previous cesarean section. The mean amount of transfuion was 17.1 pints. Although no maternal mortality had occurred, 16 patients(43.2%) had complica-ions including respiratory complication(13.5%), hemorrhagic complication(10.8%), infection(8.1%) and urologic injury(8.1%). Regarding fetal outcome, 2 of 38 infants(1 case, twin) were stillborn (5.3%) and 10 infants(26.3%) were suffered from various illness including prematurity, sepsis, meningitis, and brain hemorrhage. CONCLUSION: The data identifies placental disorders are the leading cause of postpartum hysterectomy. Although postpartum hysterectomy is a necessary life-saving operation, maternal morbidity remained high.
Academic Medical Centers ; Cesarean Section ; Emergencies* ; Female ; Hysterectomy* ; Incidence ; Intracranial Hemorrhages ; Maternal Mortality ; Meningitis ; Parity ; Placenta ; Placenta Previa ; Postpartum Period* ; Pregnancy ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Sepsis

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the Korean translation of Gambling Symptom Rating Scale (KG-SAS). METHODS: Using self-report sampling, we eventually included 231 subjects and analysed 70 subjects. These subjects were tested for KG-SAS and the Korean version of Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). RESULTS: In the reliability test, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was .913 which provided the evidence for the internal consistency. Content validity was assessed with factor analysis and two factors were extracted. Compared with the original scale, both scales embody the same theoretical conceptualization. To assess the validity of the KG-SAS, correlation coefficient was calculated between the KG-SAS and the Korean version of BIS. We got the result that there was a correlation between the KG-SAS and the Korean version of BIS (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study support that the KG-SAS is a reliable and valid scale for evaluating pathological gambling symptom assessment. Based on the results, this study suggests that KG-SAS would be a promising measurement to treat and study pathological gambling.
Gambling* ; Reproducibility of Results* ; Symptom Assessment* ; Weights and Measures

To evaluate the factors that determine the transmission level of vivax malaria using vectorial capacity, entomological surveys were conducted from June to August, 2000. From 6 nights of human-bait collection in Paju, the human biting rate (ma) was counted as 87.5 bites/man/night. The parity of Anopheles sinensis from human baiting collections fluctuated from 41% to 71% (average 48.8%) of which the rate gradually increased as time passed on: 35.2% in Jun.; 55.0% in July; 66.2% in Aug. From this proportion of parous, we could estimate the probability of daily survival rate of An. sinensis to be 0.79 assumed with 3 days gonotrophic cycle and the expectancy of infective life through 11 days could be defined as 0.073. Blood meal analysis was performed using ELISA to determine the blood meal source. Only 0.8% of blood meals were from human hosts. We could conclude that An. sinensis is highly zoophilic (cow 61.8%). Malaria is highly unstable (stability index < 0.5) in this area. From these data, vectorial capacity (VC) was determined to be 0.081. In spite of a high human biting rate (ma), malaria transmission potential is very low due to a low human blood index. Therefore, we could conclude that malaria transmission by An. sinensis is resulted by high population density, not by high transmission potential. For this reason, we need more effort to decrease vector population and vector-human contact to eradicate malaria in Korea.
Animals ; Anopheles/*parasitology ; Human ; Insect Vectors ; Korea ; Malaria, Vivax/parasitology/*transmission ; Parity ; Plasmodium vivax/*pathogenicity/physiology ; Population Density

This experiment was performed to evaluate the morphological responses of 5-fluorouracil or mitomycin C on the spleen of the mice. 5-fluorouracil (60 mg/kg) or mitomycin C (400 microgram/kg) were injected subcutaneously every other day, and the animals were sacrificed at 1 week and 2 weeks following the first injection. Pieces of the tissue were taken from the spleen, fixed in 10% neutral formalin for light microscopy. The paraffin sections stained with hematoxylin-eosin, Masson-trichrome, Bielschowsky's silver impregnation or aldehydefuchsin. For electron microscopy, the tissues were prefixed with 2.5% glutaraldehyde-1.5% paraformaldehyde followed by post-fixed with 1% osmium tetroxide. The ultrathin sections stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate. The observed results were as follows: 1. On histological study, in the mitomycin C treated group, macrophages which contain pyknotic nuclei were observed more frequently than in those of 5-fluorouracil treated group. 2. In the 5-fluorouracil treated group, positive reactions to Masson-trichrome and Bielschowsky's silver impregnation were observed in the splenic capsule and traculae at the 1 week, and weak postive stains were observed at the 2 weeks. 3. In the mitomycin C and the 5-fluorouracil group, positive staining reaction to aldehyde-fuchsin were observed in splenic capsule, trabeculae and around artery at the 1 week and 2 weeks. 4. On the ultrastructural study, distended cisternae of granular endoplasmic reticula were observed frequently at 1 week. 5. In the mitomycin C treated group, myelin figures in the lymphocytes and reticular cells were observed more frequently than in those of 5-fluorouracil treated group. From the above results, it was concluded that lymphocytes and reticular cells of the spleen were slightly damaged by 5-fluorouracil or mitomycin C, and mitomycin C seems more harmful on the spleen than 5-fluorouracil does.
Animals ; Arteries ; Citric Acid ; Coloring Agents ; Fluorouracil* ; Formaldehyde ; Lymphocytes ; Macrophages ; Mice ; Microscopy ; Microscopy, Electron ; Mitomycin* ; Myelin Sheath ; Osmium Tetroxide ; Paraffin ; Silver ; Spleen*

In this experiment, side effects of three anticancer drugs (5-fluorouracil, mitomycin C and AG60) on the structure of spleen were histologically studied. Each of ICR mice was inoculated with 1X10(7) Ehrlich carcinoma cells subcutaneously in the inguinal area. From next day, 0.2 ml of saline solution, 5-fluorouracil (30 mg/kg), mitomycin C (400 micorgram/kg), 5 mg/kg of AG60, or 30 mg/kg of AG60 (acriflavine (1) : guanosine (1) composition, Taerim Pharm. Co., Seoul, Korea) were injected subcutaneously every other day. The day following the 7th injection of anticancer drugs, each mouse was injected with a single dose of 0.7 microCi/gm of methyl-(3)H-thymidine (25 Ci/mmol, Amersham Lab., England) through tail vein. Seventy minutes after the thymidine injection, animals were sacrificed, and splenic tissues were collected and fixed in 10% neutral formalin. Tissue blocks were washed, dehydrated, embedded and cut into 6 micrometer-thick sections. Deparaffinized sections were coated with autoradiographic emulsion EM-1 (Amersham Lab., England) in the dark room and dried, and were kept in a light-tight box. The sections were exposured for 5 weeks in the dark room, and were deveoped in D-19 developer. The number of the labeled cells in the areas of the white pulp, the red pulp and the marginal zone (mean number of labeled cells per 0.21 mm2) were observed and calculated. The results were as follow: 1. On histological study, in the spleen of mitomycin C treated group, vacuoles containing pyknotic nuclei were observed more frequently than in those of 5-fluorouracil treated group. Whereas in the AG60 treated group, morphological changes of the spleen were not observed. 2. On autoradiographic study, most of the labeled cells were located near the marginal zone of the spleen. 3. On autoradiographic study, number of the labeled cells of normal control, experimental control, 5-fluorouracil-treated, mitomycin C-treated, AG60 (5 mg/kg)-, and AG60 (30 mg/kg)-treated groups were 214.0+/-56.87, 235.7+/-59.69, 331.0+/-67.20, 137.0+/-33.48, 124.6+/-34.28, and 64.9+/-16.26, respectively. 4. In the mitomycin C treated group and AG60 (5 mg/kg or 30 mg/kg) treated group, labeled cells containing a few silver grains of (3)H-thymidine were observed more frequently than in those of the normal and experimental control groups. But in the 5-fluorouracil treated group, number of the heavy labeled cells were observed more frequently than in those of the normal and experimental control groups. From the above results, DNA synthesis, in the cells of the marginal zone were more active than in the cells of the white pulp or the red pulp. And mitomycin C and AG60 may suppress the DNA synthesis of the splenic tissues. Especially, AG60 does not results any histological defect on the splenic tissues. These result suggest that AG60 is expected as one of most effective anticancer drugs.
Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents* ; Edible Grain ; DNA ; Fluorouracil ; Formaldehyde ; Guanosine ; Mice* ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Mitomycin ; Seoul ; Silver ; Sodium Chloride ; Spleen* ; Thymidine ; Vacuoles ; Veins