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Biomedical subjects

K Y Kim

Publications and source records attributed to K Y Kim.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

Diagnosis and treatment of depression in the elderly.

Depression and suicide are significant problems in the elderly, both in terms of their severity and their prevalence. It is particularly difficult to distinguish depression from early dementia, since elderly depressed patients often deny mood disorder and focus on their memory problems. This differential diagnostic dilemma is further complicated by the fact that 20 percent of Alzheimer-type dementia patients have moderate to severe depression. An even higher prevalence of depression can be seen in elderly patients with stroke or Parkinson's disease. Most all of the depressive disorders of the elderly are amenable to one form or combination of therapies: pharmacologic, electro-convulsive, or psychotherapy. Tricyclic antidepressants are often associated with adverse drug reactions in the elderly, so alternatives such as MAO inhibitors, alprazolam, bupropion and psychostimulants are currently being explored in this patient population.

Aged↗

Comprehensive clinical and statistical analysis of hemophilia in Korea.

A Total of 498 cases of hemophilia which were reported by sixteen medical centers in Korea were reviewed and analyzed. Hemophilia A comprised 425 cases (85.3%) and the remaining 73 cases (14.7%) were hemophilia B. One case was female and all other cases were male. There were known hemophilia patients in the family in 43.0% of cases and the involved members were brothers, maternal cousins, maternal uncles, and maternal grandfathers in descending order of frequency. The major symptoms of the patients were hemorrhagic, such as easy bruising and hemarthrosis followed by prolonged bleeding after trauma and soft tissue hematoma. The incidence of hemarthrosis increased significantly with age. The pediatric age group below the age of 15 consisted of 67.1% of the cases. According to the age at diagnosis, half (54.2%) of the severe cases were diagnosed before the age of 1 year. APTT was prolonged over 40 seconds in all cases and 291 cases showed severe prolongation over 80 seconds. Of 498 cases 273 cases (54.8%) belonged to the severe form (factor VII or IX level, less then 1%), whereas 182 cases (36.5%) and 43 cases (8.7%) belonged to the moderate (factor VIII or IX, 2-5%) and mild form (factor VIII or IX, 6-25%), respectively, Chronic arthropathy was present in 236 cases (49.6%), and the incidence increased significantly with age. The management of chronic arthropathy most commonly employed was rehabilitation in 25.4% of cases, but in 50.8% no management was given at all. The involved joints in descending order of frequency were knees, elbows and ankles. The complications were intracranial hemorrhage, Gl bleeding and nerve palsy in 48, 24, and 13 cases, respectively.

Adolescent↗

Serum aminoterminal type III procollagen peptide. Relation to biosynthesis of collagen type III in experimentally induced granulation tissue in rats.

Serum aminoterminal type III procollagen peptide was measured in rats during the development of granulation tissue induced by subcutaneous implantation of viscose cellulose sponges. Active collagen type III synthesis in granulation tissue during the first three weeks was accompanied by an increase in serum propeptide level. A positive correlation was observed between the increase in serum propeptide level on the one hand and the increase in granulation tissue collagen type III content and the in vitro formation of tissue 3H-hydroxyproline on the other hand. In some animals the serum propeptide level remained low, despite biochemical signs of collagen synthesis, indicating variations in the release into serum and/or the metabolism of circulating propeptide. The increase in propeptide antigen concentration was mainly due to an elevated content of material with molecular weight equal to or twice that of the propeptide. A minor fraction of the propeptide remained attached to the interstitial collagen fibres in the granulation tissue. The correlation between the serum propeptide level and the biosynthesis of collagen at the site of the focal fibroproliferative process suggests that the serum propeptide level may be a valuable indicator of fibrogenesis and thereby of disease activity in fibrotic conditions.

Animals↗

Effects of Panax ginseng extract on the benzo(a)pyrene metabolizing enzyme system.

Ethanol extract of Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer, which has been used for centuries as a tonic in Asian countries, exhibited a selective induction of epoxide hydratase and cytosolic glutathione transferase activity without the concurrent induction of aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase activity. Thus, Panax ginseng appears to have the potential to alter the metabolic patterns of benzo(a)pyrene and its reactive metabolites.

Animals↗

Serum concentration of the aminoterminal procollagen type III peptide in the rat reflects early formation of connective tissue in experimental liver cirrhosis.

A specific and sensitive radioimmunoassay for the rat aminoterminal procollagen type III peptide (PIIIP) was developed which allowed easy and sequential measurement of this peptide in the serum of individual animals. PIIIP in sera of 1-week-old rats was high (60 +/- 15.4 ng, 1 SD) falling to 15.7 +/- 4.3 ng/ml (1 SD) at 7 weeks and 6.7 +/- 2.6 ng/ml (1 SD) at 12 weeks of age. Adult animals (above 6 months of age) showed serum PIIIP levels in the narrow range of 2.5 +/- 2.33 ng/ml (2.5 SD). CCl4-induced liver damage in adult rats produced an elevated serum PIIIP (median 9.1; range 2.6-45.2 ng/ml) already after 2 weeks, rising to a mean of 33.8 ng/ml (range 22.0-47 ng/ml) after 6 weeks of continued CCl4-intoxication. In the same animals at 6 weeks, hepatic hydroxyproline was almost 5 times higher in the CCl4-group (mean 493.2; range 343.1-582.3 micrograms/100 mg dry weight) when compared with controls (109 +/- 14 micrograms/100 mg dry weight, 1 SD). These results are in complete analogy to those reported for PIIIP in sera of growing children, healthy human adults and patients with fibrogenic liver disease. Elevated serum PIIIP in rats with experimental liver fibrosis predicts the deposition of excess hepatic collagen. This novel serum test allows, for the first time, to assess altered PIIIP metabolism and hepatic fibrogenesis in individual animals as early as 2 weeks after the start of the experiment. It also reflects growth-related changes of type III collagen metabolism.

Animals↗

Therapy of severe aplastic anemia with anti-human thymocyte globulin (ATGAM) with and without HLA-haploidentical bone-marrow infusion.

Six patients with severe aplastic anemia treated with horse anti-human thymocyte globulin (ATG) and androgen. Four of these patients were only given ATG (ATGAMR), 16 mg/Kg/dose x 10 doses. The remaining two cases received an infusion of maternal HLA-haploidentical marrow cells following ATG therapy. One patient had a complete response, three had a partial response, one showed minimal improvement and two were non-responders. The two patients who received the additional haploidentical marrow cells showed a hematologic recovery sooner than the ATG alone cases. The toxicity of the ATG therapy was tolerable. Long term follow up of there patients and further studies of this treatment in aplastic anemia with pediatric age group are under way.

Anemia, Aplastic↗

Gianotti-Crosti syndrome associated with hepatitis B surface antigen (subtype adr).

The Gianotti-Crosti syndrome, papular acrodermatitis of childhood (PAC), is an infrequently recognized disorder with distinctive characteristics. At present hepatitis B virus is thought to be an etiologic agent. The disease is very rare in Korea, in spite of the high frequency of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in the general population. It is known that subtype ayw of the HBsAg may influence the pathogenesis of PAC, but subtype analysis of HBsAg in these patients disclosed adr. Therefore, our studies reconfirmed that PAC may in addition be associated with subtype adr of HBsAg. We believe that the lower incidence of PAC in Korea as compared with the high incidence of PAC in other parts of the world, such as in the Mediterranean area, may be due to the fact that a higher predisposition to PAC is conferred by subtype ayw of HBsAg.

Acrodermatitis↗