Wound Healing Effects of Rose Placenta in a Mouse Model of Full-Thickness Wounds

BACKGROUND: Rosa damascena, a type of herb, has been used for wound healing in Eastern folk medicine. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of rose placenta from R. damascena in a full-thickness wound model in mice. METHODS: Sixty six-week-old C57BL/6N mice were used. Full-thickness wounds were made with an 8-mm diameter punch. Two wounds were made on each side of the back, and wounds were assigned randomly to the control and experimental groups. Rose placenta (250 microg) was injected in the experimental group, and normal saline was injected in the control group. Wound sizes were measured with digital photography, and specimens were harvested. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to assess the expression of epidermal growth factor (EGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), and CD31. Vessel density was measured. Quantitative analysis using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for EGF was performed. All evaluations were performed on postoperative days 0, 2, 4, 7, and 10. Statistical analyses were performed using the paired t-test. RESULTS: On days 4, 7, and 10, the wounds treated with rose placenta were significantly smaller. On day 2, VEGF and EGF expression increased in the experimental group. On days 7 and 10, TGF-beta1 expression decreased in the experimental group. On day 10, vessel density increased in the experimental group. The increase in EGF on day 2 was confirmed with ELISA. CONCLUSIONS: Rose placenta was found to be associated with improved wound healing in a mouse full-thickness wound model via increased EGF release. Rose placenta may potentially be a novel drug candidate for enhancing wound healing.

The Educational Effect of Pre-medical Curriculum for a Service Learning Program

BACKGROUND: A curriculum in medical school should help doctors achieve professional attitude, ethics and values by socialization process. However, existing knowledge-based curriculum has lots of shortcomings to reach these ideal goals. This study was operated to investigate the effect of a 'service-learning program' for premedical students in medical college of Korea University. METHODS: The survey was conducted from July 3 2006 to 5 at Chungbuk Eumsung Kkottongnae. A total of 99 students completed surveys; before and after the intervention. The questionnaire was consisting of necessity and goal of the program and it also include assessment of students' attitude and contents of the program. Each item was assessed by using 5-Likert scale. For comparing the items, we practiced paired t-test. RESULTS: 97 (response rate 97.9%) students completed survey. 53 students (54.6%) agreed 'the program is really needed.' About the questions: 'self-development from program', 'the program will be helpful for medical activity in the future.' students gave positive answers. The participants' attitude, interest was significantly increased. Also 'the motivation', 'appropriation of the program and time allocation', 'general satisfaction' were all increased. CONCLUSION: 54.6% of participants thought a service-learning program was necessary for a medical curriculum and this program would be helpful to get self-development and professionalism. Active attending for a service-learning program increased interest and motivation. It will be needed further study about the long-term effect of a service-learning program.

Readability of Patient Information on Hypertension in Korea

BACKGINFORMAROUND: Patient education is an important component of family practice. Pamphlets and the websites have been one of the most common resources for patient education. Patient information has been assessed using criteria with marks allocated for its content, design, readability. Up to present there have been studies on content, design but not readability. The WHO identifies readability as an essential tool for people to increase control over their health. Therefore, patient information should be assessed readability. The objective of our study was to assess patient information leaflets and the websites on hypertension to determine the readability of information currently available to patients. METHODS: Ten leaflets were reviewed, five form the internet and five from other sources. A total of ten subjects were assessed for readability using 'grading system of vocabulary' presented by the Academy of Korea Education in 2002. RESULTS: In five leaflets, about 41.3% vocabularies were comprised of 1st and 2nd grade. The portion of vocabularies in higher grade than 4th was 35%. In the five websites, 41.3% vocabularies in 1st and 2nd grade were used. The mean reading level (calculated with weight) was 2.057 for the five leaflets and 2.050 for the five websites. These results indicated that the leaflets were easier to read than websites. But, both of them were not comprehensible to the majority of patients. CONCLUSION: All 10 patient information materials for hypertension were at higher readability level than high school level. As recommended levels of readability were lower than 2nd grade, educational materials need to be modified to meet the information needs for the people with low reading skills.

Readability of Patient Information on Hypertension in Korea

BACKGINFORMAROUND: Patient education is an important component of family practice. Pamphlets and the websites have been one of the most common resources for patient education. Patient information has been assessed using criteria with marks allocated for its content, design, readability. Up to present there have been studies on content, design but not readability. The WHO identifies readability as an essential tool for people to increase control over their health. Therefore, patient information should be assessed readability. The objective of our study was to assess patient information leaflets and the websites on hypertension to determine the readability of information currently available to patients. METHODS: Ten leaflets were reviewed, five form the internet and five from other sources. A total of ten subjects were assessed for readability using 'grading system of vocabulary' presented by the Academy of Korea Education in 2002. RESULTS: In five leaflets, about 41.3% vocabularies were comprised of 1st and 2nd grade. The portion of vocabularies in higher grade than 4th was 35%. In the five websites, 41.3% vocabularies in 1st and 2nd grade were used. The mean reading level (calculated with weight) was 2.057 for the five leaflets and 2.050 for the five websites. These results indicated that the leaflets were easier to read than websites. But, both of them were not comprehensible to the majority of patients. CONCLUSION: All 10 patient information materials for hypertension were at higher readability level than high school level. As recommended levels of readability were lower than 2nd grade, educational materials need to be modified to meet the information needs for the people with low reading skills.

The Efficacy of Lamellar Body Counts for Prediction of Perinatal Outcome / 대한산부인과학회잡지

OBJECTIVE: This study is aimed to evaluate whether lamellar body count (LBC) in amniotic fluid could be used as a predictor of neonatal morbidity as well as respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and to determine the value of lamellar body count that maximizes sensitivity and specificity. METHODS: We conducted a prospective clinical outcome study. Amniotic fluid was obtained from 39 pregnant women at various gestational ages (29 to 36 weeks) from March 1, 2002 to February 28, 2003. They delivered within 72 hours of amniocentesis, excluding 6 cases of contaminated amniotic fluid. A LBC was performed on each specimen. The frequencies of RDS, minor and major morbidity of newborn in different LBC cutoff value were analyzed. Statistic analysis was done by Chi-square test. RESULTS: LBCs increased with gestation (r=0.533, p<0.05). The LBC cutoff value that best agreed with RDS (sensitivity 36.4%, specificity 93.8%), minor morbidity (sensitivity 100.0%, specificity 50.0%) and major morbidity (sensitivity 45.5%, specificity 81.3%) was 30,000/ l. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that LBC might be useful as a predictor of neonatal morbidity as well as respiratory distress syndrome.

Clinical Analysis of Ovarian Pregnancy / 대한산부인과학회잡지

OBJECTIVE: The frequency of ectopic pregnancy has been recently increased by various causes. Especially in ovarian pregnancy, definitive preoperative diagnostic criteria have not been established. This study is aimed to focus on helpful clinical characterstics which can later on serve as diagnostic key points in case of suspicious ovarian pregnancy. METHODS: The study included 23 patients pathologically diagnosed with ovarian pregnancy from January 1991 to December 2002 in Kangnam St. Mary Hospital. We analyzed the age at diagnosis, pregnancy and delivery history, presence of underlying disease, clinical symptoms, therapeutic methods, human chorionic gonadotropin level, and sonographic findings for these patients. RESULTS: The average age at diagnosis was 31.6 year and 39.1% of the patients were older than the age of 35. More than half of the patients had the history of multiple pregnancy (52.2%). The common clinical symptoms were lower abdominal pain (95.6%) and vaginal bleeding (21.8%). Ipsilateral ovarian wedge resection was performed at the most frequent rate (78.3%) and ipsilateral adnexectomy was done at second most frequent rate (21.7%). HCG level was measured on 19 cases showing various individual difference. Most common sonographic findings included the fluid stasis surrounding the ovarian pregnancy lesions and ipsilateral ovary enlargement (91.3%). CONCLUSION: This study showed that ovarian pregnancy should be suspected in young woman. Of the age between 25 and 30 years, with symptom of lower abdominal pain, nulliparity, havior history of pelvic adhesion, pelvic inflammation, and showing sonographic findings of fluid collection around ovary or enlarged ovary.