Utility of Abdominal Computerized Tomography in Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis / 소아과

PURPOSE: To evaluate the accuracy of ultrasonography(USG) and abdominal computerized tomography(CT) and the possibility of reducing unnecessary appendectomy rate with improvement of diagnostic accuracy using optional CT with USG. METHODS: From January 1999 to May 2003, 496 patients younger than 14 years received surgical intervention with preoperative impression of acute appendicitis. They were devided into three groups no preoperative imaging study; preoperative abdominal USG only; and USG with optional abdominal CT. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy were calculated in each group, and percentage of unnecessary appendectomy was also obtained. RESULTS: Sensitivity and unnecessary appendectomy rate of group was 78.4% and 21% respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and unnecessary appendectomy rates of group were 96.5%, 42.8%, 85.4%, 78% and 12.2%. Sensitivity and positive predictive value of group was 100% and 98%, and no unnecessary appendectomy was performed in this group. CONCLUSION: With consideration of radiation exposure, cost, and in-hospital delay time, using optional CT with USG under optimal indication can decrease the frequency of complications and unnecessary appendectomy rates.

Knowledges and Attitudes of College Student to Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome / 한국역학회지

OBJECTIVES: Though AIDS is one of the most serious and world-wide health problem, there have been developed no effective control measure but individually oriented prevention. This study was performed to help preparing the efficient control program for college student who are sexually active, considered as a risk group for HIV infection. METHODS: Subjects were 852 college students of one university in Gyungsangnam-do. From September to October 2001, questionnaire survey on the students' knowledge and attitude, and status of health education about AIDS (HEAIDS) was done. Collected data was analyzed using SAS (ver 6.21) program. RESULTS: The subjects were freshman (52.1%) and enrollment (47.9%), with department of medicine (19.1%), nursing (25.8%), health administration (9.1%), business (11.4%), chemical (16.2%), food (8.8%), gymnastics (9.5%). Though about 90% of them agreed with the necessity of HEAIDS, half of them (54.7%) had no experience of HEAIDS and most (88.1%) of them considered it had been insufficient. The informations about AIDS was acquired mainly from TV newspaper (73.0%), but partly from specified health education (16.1%). They have no experience of unsafe sexual contact (96.1%), however, they considered that they can have accidental sexual contact (22.7%) in the future. Response for intention to use of preventative condom use was certainly (66.7%) and questionable (33.3%). About the knowledges on HIV infection and transmission, most of them knew relatively well about no curative medicine (94.8%), infected by sexual contact (85.7%), common use of needle (96.4%), transfusion (95.2%), transplantation (89.8%), longitudinal infection (88.7%). However, the correct answer rate was relatively low in clinical spectrum; can maintain normal life with medical care (31.0%), and some transmission route; kiss (46.9%), cough sneezing (45.8%), common use of bowl towl (49.1%) and bath (43.4%), insect like mosquitos (49.1%), razor (35.4%). The mean level of the knowledges on HIV infection and transmission was 67.5 and 71.6 out of a possible 100, respectively. The knowledge level (p=0.003) and certainty to use of preventable condom use (p=0.001) was higher in HEAIDS experienced group. Experiences to HEAIDS was more in enrollment (50.5%) than freshman (40.5%) (p=0.004), medicine (51.4%) than health (32.1%) and general (41.9%) by department group (p=0.001). With regard to the attitudes on HIV infection, they didn't agreed with 'had intention to check themselves for HIV infection (94.2%)', 'case or suspected case can attend to same school with my children (71.8%)', 'had intention to join in clinical trial of new regimen for AIDS (74.4%)'. CONCLUSIONS: This result showed that present status of HEAIDS for college students is still insufficient. Because the knowledges and attitudes about AIDS are influenced by HEAIDS, professional and efficient education program would be emphasized on the practical level for health protection, eg, preventative condom use. This study has also another meanings to reveal the positive effect and to recall the motive for individual-based prevention

The Relationship between Nasalance Score and Benign Vocal Fold Lesions / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Voice therapy using nasal stimulus sounds seems to facilitate a more easily produced, often better-sounding voice in benign vocal fold lesions. This study was designed (1) to determine whether nasalance score was different in patients with or without vocal fold masses, (2) to test if nasalance score was different from each disease group, and (3) to determine the difference between the normal and the disease group according to the reading materials. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: One hundred and sixty-eight subjects were evaluated. Each subject received a complete otolaryngological evaluation including physical examination, videostrobolaryngoscopy, objective voice measures, and evaluation by a speech-language pathologist. The control group consisted of 48 subjects with no nasal and vocal fold pathology. Subjects were evaluated on a nasometric assessment with three passages of oral-nasal sound. RESULTS: All disease groups demonstrated lower nasalance scores than the control group. CONCLUSION: There are significant differences in the nasalance scores between each disease group and the control group. Differences were also found according to the reading materials.

cDNA Cloning and Expression of Angiostatin, an Angiogenesis Inhibitor , from Human Liver Tissue mRNA / 대한암학회지

PURPOSE: Angiostatin, a 38 kDa internal fragment of plasminogen, is a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis. It blocks neovascularization and growth of primary and metastatic tumors in mice. To produce recombinant angiostatin protem comprising kringle 1-4 of plasminogen, we cloned the angiostatin cDNA from human liver tissue mRNA and expressed it in E. coli. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We cloned angiostatin cDNA from human liver tissue mRNA using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. Cloned cDNA was ligated to pET22b (+) expression vector, transformed into E. coli stram BL21 (DE3) and expressed by IPTG induction. Recombinant human angiostatin protein was purified from the inclusion bodies of lysated bacterial pellet with 8 M urea solubilization, refolding, single step Lysine-Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography and 0.2 M E-aminocarproic acid elution. The anti-angiogenic activity of purified recombinant angiostatin was assayed with endothelial cell proliferation assay and chorioallantoic membrane assay (CAM). RESULTS: The identification of cloned angiostatin cDNA was confirmed by Southern hybridization and Pst I restriction enzyme digestion pattern. Angiostatin cDNA was expressed in E. coli, refolded in vitro and purified by Lysine Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography. The molecular weight of purified recombinant angiostatin was about 55 kDa on the SDS-PAGE. It inhibited the proliferation of bovine capillary endothelial (BCE) cells in vitro with a half-maximal inhibition concentration (ED50) of approximately 500 ng/mL. It also suppressed neovasculrization on the CAM assay. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrated that recombinant human angiostatin has similar function and biological activity compared with human angiostatin which is purified from porcine elastase digested human plasminogen fragment.

A CLINICOSTATISTICAL STUDY ON MANDIBULAR FRACTURE

A Case of Congenital Lumbosacral Dermal Sinus Associated with Recurrent Meningitis(Case Report)

Recurrent episode of meningitis in infants and children frequently constitute a frustrating and distressing, both in determination of course and treatment. The authors are reporting a infected case of congenital dermal sinus with dermoid cyst in the subarachnoid space of cauda equina and conus medullaris which was cured after complete removal of cyst and sinus tract.