Herpes Simplex Encephalitis Showing Prominent Spatial Disorientation with Visual Hallucination

A 58-year-old woman was admitted to hospital due to memory impairment and visuospatial dysfunction. Brain MRI revealed high signal lesions on both the temporal and inferior frontal lobes. She was diagnosed as having herpes simplex encephalitis based on her clinical and laboratory findings. Twelve months later she still presented with spatial disorientation, although her amnesia was improved. Neuropsychological testing revealed multiple cognitive impairments, and especially visuospatial dysfunction. This patient represents a case of herpes simplex encephalitis associated with spatial disorientation even when the amnesia had disappeared.

Changes on Cognitive Function after Carotid Artery Stenting in Patients with Severe Carotid Artery Stenosis: A Prospective, 3 Months Follow-up Study

BACKGROUND: Carotid artery stenting (CAS) is emerging as an alternative to carotid endarterectomy for the treatment of carotid stenosis. The effects of CAS on cognitive function have not been fully addressed. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of carotid stenting on cognitive function from baseline to 3 months in patients with severe carotid artery stenosis through the use of a detailed neuropsychological test. METHODS: We recruited 28 patients with carotid artery stenosis (> or =70%) at baseline on a consecutive basis between February, 2009 and December, 2010. Twenty-two patients out of 28 cases, who had undergone CAS and follow-up neuropsychological evaluation after 3 months, were included in our analysis. Main cognitive outcome measures were the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery-Dementia version (SNSB-D), which containing detailed cognitive tasks. We evaluated the baseline clinical characteristics and changes of cognitive outcome measures using SNSB-D in our cases from baseline to 3 months follow-up period, respectively. RESULTS: After a 3 month follow-up period, patients that underwent CAS showed significant improvement in cognitive function in total SNSB-D score compared to the baseline state of 18.1 points at 3 months (p<0.05). The other cognitive outcome measures showed significant improvements (p<0.05) in the task of confrontational naming, visual memory, and the scale of clinical dementia rating sum of box. CONCLUSION: We found that there might be a positive effect of carotid artery stenting on cognitive function from baseline to 3 months in patients with severe carotid artery stenosis.

Development of Micro/Nano Devices for Cancer Diagnosis / 대한소화기학회지

In order to rapidly detect and analyze the presence of a target ligand of interests in environmental or industrial fluids as well as biological samples, numerous test systems have been designed and developed, which have been based on the combination of a test reagent and absorbing paper or membrane. The main limitations of these conventional devices are the difficulty of quantitative or semi-quantitative detection and poor detection limit (around nanogram/ml range detection capability). In this paper, new approaches and research trends which use nano/MEMS (micro electro mechanical systems) technology is introduced, which has a concept of fast, precise, and massive diagnosis and analysis of target molecules using very small amount of samples.

Development of a Child Problem-Behavior Screening Test / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: Purpose of this study was to develop a test screening children's emotional and behavioral problem. METHODS: Child Problem-Behavior Screening Test (CPST) is a brief behavioral screening questionnaire that can be completed by parents or teachers. The 2nd to 4th graders (N=970) of the two elementary schools in Seoul, Korea, participated in the study. Parents and teachers completed a CPST and parents completed Child Behavior Checklist-Korean version (K-CBCL). The Reliability and validity of the CPST was evaluated by comparing with K-CBCL and by performing the factor analysis, t-test and correlation analysis. RESULTS: Internal Consistency of CPST was relatively good (Cronbach's alpha; Parent=.846, Teacher=.834). The result of factor analysis shows that the CPST has a four-factor structure, representing 'externalizing problem', 'internalizing problem', 'physical health problem' and 'cognitive problem'. In the parent's and teacher's CPST, total variance of the four factor was 37.8% and 43.8%, respectively. There were significant correlations among subscales of parent's CPST and K-CBCL. CPST effectively distinguished children with psychiatric problems from children without psychiatric problems. CONCLUSION: The results support that the test developed in this study is efficient to identify the children's emotional and behavioral problmes. This study also proves the usefulness of the CPST as a promising screening test of child problem behavior for large epidemiological study. In the future, a study to standardize this test is necessary, and from this, the cut-off score and norms should be developed.

Child Abuse and Neglect / 신경정신의학

Child abuse and neglect are also becoming a serious threat to the health of children in Korea. Most of abused or neglected children are suffered from some mental problems. Psychiatrists are a important position to evaluate and/or treat the emotional or behavioral problems resulting from child abuse or neglect. It is crucial that psychiatrists define their role and develop the appropriate clinical skills to manage child abuse or neglect effectively. This article reviews the clinically relevant literature on the child abuse and neglect including the strategic agenda of the Korean Medical Association for promoting of optimal child health and development comprehensively.