Characterization of the Body Constituent Patterns for Symptomatic Acute Cerebral Infarction Using qi-ketsu-sui Score / 日本東洋医学雑誌

We evaluated body constituent patterns of 130 consecutive patients with symptomatic acute cerebral infarction. They comprise lacunar infarction (n = 47), atherothrombotic infarction (n = 70), cardiogenic embolism (n = 11), and other type of infarction (n = 2). We compared body constituent patterns between them and 93 consecutive patients with other neurological diseases of the same age. We used qi-ketsu-sui scores to evaluate body constituent patterns in all cases. Qi-ketsu-sui scores measure six factors : qi deficiency (kikyo), qi stagnation (kiutsu), qi counterflow (kigyaku), blood deficiency (kekkyo), blood stasis (oketsu), and fluid retention (suitai). As a result of multivariate model analysis, symptomatic acute cerebral infarction had the largest weight of blood stasis and an adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) was 4.6 (2.45-8.91). Even when gender as a confounding factor was adjusted by stratified analysis, adjusted odds ratios of blood stasis (95% confidence interval) were 7.46 (3.02-20.25) for males and 2.63 (1.02-7.11) for females, and those were maximum. The point (median, interquartile range) of blood stasis was more severe in acute cerebral infarction (24 points, 18-33 points) than other neurological diseases (16 points, 9-23 points). We examined relationships between body constituent patterns and clinical disease type, severity at hospitalization, and sex in patients with symptomatic acute cerebral infarction. Ratio of blood stasis was the largest in any clinical disease type, severity and sex. Blood stasis seemed to be the most important factor in symptomatic acute cerebral infarction.

Hyperhomocysteinemia as a Risk Factor for Cerebral Infarction / 대한진단검사의학회지

BACKGROUND: Homocysteine (Hcy) is known to increase the risk of cerebrovascular disease. I investigated this association in cerebral infarction (CI) and established reference intervals for serum total Hcy concentrations among individuals aged 40 or over in Korea. METHODS: I measured Hcy concentrations in the sera from 93 healthy controls (male 74, female 19) and 742 patients with CI (male 616, female 126) by a fluorescent polarization immuno assay technique using Axsym system (Abbott Laboratories, IL, USA). RESULTS: In CI group, the following parameters were significantly higher (P or =60 years), hypertension, DM, hyperhomocysteinemia, high creatinine, and in the highest Hcy quartile (> or =15.1 micromol/L) compared to the lowest Hcy quartile (<9.6 micromol/L) with the crude odds ratios of 2.1, 4.3, 10.5, 7.4, 3.0, and 6.6, respectively; in multivariate analysis, the risk of CI was independently associated with hypertension, DM, hyperhomocysteinemia and adjusted odds ratios were 3.6, 5.3, and 7.1, respectively. In CI group, Hcy exhibits negative correlations (P<0.001) with folate (r=-0.356) and vitamin B12 (r=-0.256). CONCLUSIONS: Hyperhomocysteinemia may represent an independent risk factor for cerebrovascular disease.

Past antihypertensive drugs, obesity, daily light working load and risk of hypertension: An Indonesian 2001 rural study.

This study aims to identify some risk factors related to hypeertension in rural areas. The data for this study is a part af the result of the field study done by the second year medical students of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, on June 27h , 2001, at Cijeruk subdistrict in Bogor regency. The subjects were seleccted randomly using neighborhood cluster which was diffirent from the previous study in 2000. Interviews and blood pressure were taken at the houses of the subjects from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. The results of this study showed that people aged 40 years or over had an increase risk to suffer hypertension compared to the 18-39 year old group, and the risk was most prominent among the 55-59 year group [adjusted odds ratio (OR)= 17.7; 95% confidence intervals (CI)=6.26-59.2). Compared to the subjects with normal body posture,those who were obese had more than two-fold increase in the risk to be hypertensive (adjusted OR= 0.87; 95% CI= 0.87-4.17; P= 0.109). In addition, those who discontinued antihypertensive drugs had almost 14-fold increase in the risk to be hypertensive relative to subjects who never take antihypertensive drugs (adjusted OR= 14.16; 95% CI= 7.14- 28.05). In general, the results of this study is similar with our last year study which used different subjects. This study concluded that special attention should be taken to the elderly aged 40 years and over, to some one who discontinued antihypertensive drugs; andwhom had light daily working load to prevent hypertension.

Age, body posture, daity working load, past antihypertensive drugs and risk of hypertension: A rural Indonesian study.

Indonesia has about 210 million inhabitans and most of them live in rural areas, therefore in rural community it is estimated that a big number of hypertensive people can be found. However, few rural community-based studies have been conducted to identify hypertensive risk factors. This study aims to identfy some risk factors related to hypertension in rural areas. The data for this study came from the result of the field study done by the second year medical students of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Jakarta. The study was conducted on July 12, 2000 at 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM in a rural area, the Cijeruk subdistrict in Bogor regency. The subjects were selected randomly using neighborhood cluster. Interviews and blood pressure were taken at the houses of the subjects. The results of this study showed that people aged 40 years or over had an increase risk to suffer hypertension compared to the 17-39 year old group, and the risk was most prominent among the 55-59 year group (adjusted odds ratio = 21.62; 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 4.10-113.97). Compared to the subjects with normal body posture, those who were obese had more than 6.3-folds increase in the risk to be hypertensive (adjusted OR = 6.33: 95% CI = 2.62-15.29). In addition, those who discontinued antihypertensive drugs had almost 12-fold increase in the risk to be hypertensive relative to subjects who never take antihypertensive drugs (adjusted OR = 11.92; 95% CI = 4.61 -30.80). This study concluded that special attention should be taken to the elderly aged 40 years and over, to some one who discontinued antihypertensive drugs, and whom had light daily working load to prevent hypertension.

The Dose-response Relationship between Amount of Cigarette Smoking and Blood Lipids and Sugar / 한국역학회지

PURPOSE: To explore the dose-response relationship between amount of cigarette smoking and blood lipids and sugar METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we gathered the smoking history by self-administered questionnaire between 1994 and 1998 among 2888 men who visited the Health Promotion Center at St. Mary's Hospital, Seoul. RESULTS: Adjusted for age, body mass index, the odds ratio of hypercholesterolemia (> or =240 mg/dl) were 2.06 (95% Confident Interval, 1.44-2.94), 2.03(95% CI 1.31-3.11), higher LDL-cholesterol(> or =160 mg/dl) were 2.06(95% CI 1.43-2.98), 2.25(95% CI 1.45-3.45) among group of men who smoked 21-30, over 30 cigarettes per day respectively compared with nonsmokers group. And adjusted for age, body mass index, the odds ratio of lower HDL-cholesterol( or =200 mg/dl) were 1.93(95% CI 1.47-2.55), 2.57(95% CI 1.82-3.62), 2.80(95% CI 1.86-4.21) among group of men who smoked 11-20, 21-30, over 30 cigarettes per day respectively compared with nonsmokers group. The adjusted odds ratio of diabetes(FBS> or =126 mg/dl) was 1.86(95% CI 1.10-3.06) only among who smoked more than 30 cigarettes compared with nonsmokers. CONCLUSION: This study showed that there were dose-response relationships betwen amount of cigarette smoking and total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglyceride and sugar. It suggested that health promotion program including quitting and decrease of cigarette smoking would be necessary to prevent cardiovascular disease in Korean men.