Swine influenza virus (SIV) or swine-origin influenza virus (S-OIV) is endemic in swine, and classified into influenza A and influenza C but not influenza B. Swine influenza A includes H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2 and H2N3 subtypes. Infection of SIV occurs in only swine and that of S-OIV is rare in human. What human can be infected with S-OIV is called as zoonotic swine flu. Pandemic 2009 swine influenza H1N1 virus (2009 H1N1) was emerged in Mexico, America and Canada and spread worldwide. The triple-reassortant H1N1 resulting from antigenic drift was contained with HA, NA and PB1 of human or swine influenza virus, PB2 and PA polymerase of avian influenza virus, and M, NP and NS of swine influenza virus, The 2009 H1N1 enables to transmit to human and swine. The symptoms and signs in human infected with 2009 H1N1 virus are fever, cough and sore throat, pneumonia as well as diarrhea and vomiting. Co-infection with other viruses and bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae can occur high mortality in high-risk population. 2009 H1N1 virus was easily differentiated from seasonal flu by real time RT-PCR which contributed rapid and confirmed diagnosis. The 2009 H1N1 virus was treated with NA inhibitors such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) but not with adamantanes such as amantadine and rimantadine. Evolution of influenza virus has continued in various hosts. Development of a more effective vaccine against influenza prototypes is needed to protect new influenza infection such as H5 and H7 subtypes to infect to multi-organ and cause high pathogenicity.

It has been well known that organic industrial solvents such as toluene, xylene and styrene are environmental health hazards causing occupational diseases to workers. The detection of biological metabolites of toluene, xylene and styrene in blood, urine, breast milk, saliva, and hair of workers exposed to these organic industrial solvents is a useful tool for assessing the amount of organic industrial solvents. Therefor, the external analytical quality assurance program is extremely important work for increasing reliability of the data analyzed in the special health examination laboratory. We evaluated the results of analysis by Korean analytical quality assurance program from the second half 2007 to the first half 2009. The number of participants for analytical quality assurance program for both mandatory item and one of optional items, hippuric acid and methylhippuric acid were 116-122, 116-122 and 105-115 laboratories, respectively. The proficient rate of the special health examination laboratories analyzed both mandatory item and optional item, hippuric acid and methylhippuric acid were 92-98%, 92-98% and 96-98%, respectively. We can conclude from our data that the analytical quality assurance program is a essential tool for improvement of reliability on the data analyzed in the special health examination laboratories.

The most common sources of biological trace material which are found in crime scene are the human bloodstains. Reliable identification in the forensic casework is important as it provides crucial insights into crime scene reconstruction and can thus contribute towards solving crimes. Blood-stains are routinely tested in forensic practise using various methods including the leucomalachite green (LMG) test, Kastle-Meyer phenolphthalein test, tetramethylbenzidine test, orthotolidine test, or the luminol chemoluminescence test with the latter cleaning attempts. All these presumptive thus indicative but not identifying tests take advantage of the peroxidase-like activity of the heme unit of the hemoglobin molecule in human blood. Therefore, false-positive results can be caused by the presence of strong oxidants, such as chlorine-containing detergents or by true peroxidases (e.g., from plants). In this study, composition for Gum guaiac was evaluated for the forensic identification of bloodstain and compared with the LMG. The sensitivity and specificity of the composition for Gum guaiac were examined more stable in bloodstain. The positive of Composition for Gum guaiac shown even with the 100,000-fold diluted bloodstain, which was no difference in comparison with LMG test. It was shown that composition for Gum guaiac was very stable to resist boiling for 20 minutes and the effect of bacteria did not affect the genetic analysis as well. The above result of the crime scene investigation, composition for Gum guaiac is easily expected to help identifying bloodstain in the evidences.

The author was performed to investigation of current status of prevalence for anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) among the health-checkup adults in Jeonbuk province. A toal of 1,553 (male 1,046, female 507) serum samples were diagnosed by 3rd generation enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for anti-HCV. Total prevalence of anti-HCV was 0.9%, and prevalence of male and female were 0.8% and 1.2%, respectively. The prevalence of female was higher than male. According to ages group, prevalence of anti-HCV was highest in 60 age group, but it was not found in 20 age group. 14 samples with anti-HCV positive were diagnosed by EIA for hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBs Ag), by chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) for serum albumin, alanine transaminase (ALT) and asparagine transaminase (AST). Positive for HBs Ag was not found. The mean of serum albumin levels was 4.5 g/dL, and mean of ALT and AST were 34.3 IU and 31.9 IU, respectively. Through this study, I know that the prevalence of anti-HCV among adults in Jeonbuk, and suggest that the positive of anti-HCV persons who have lower serum albumin, normal to mild elevations in serum enzymes are chronic hepatitis.

The aim of this study was to assess the Clinical Usefulness of Helicobacter pylori Stool Antigen (HpSA) immunochromatographic assay for the diagnosis of H. pylori infection. In this study, we had compared HpSA-immunochromatographic assay with CLO test and UBT test. From a total of 140 patients (M:F=88:52) with upper endoscopy, biopsy specimens were obtained for CLO test. Stool specimens was collected from all patients and tested using a HpSA-immunochromatic assay. H. pylori infection status was defined as infected if the results of both CLO test and UBT test were positive. CLO test and UBT test findings showed that 92 patients were H. pylori positive and 48 patients were H. pylori negative. According to this definition, the sensitivity, specificity, and positive or negative predictive value (PPV, NPV) of HpSA-immunochromatographic assay were 97.8%, 100%, 100%, and 96%, respectively. Cross reactivity test of HpSA-immunochromatographic assay were performed with 10 enteric bacteria strains in fecal habitat, and there were no false positive reaction. We evaluated the usefulness of HpSA assay for eradication therapy with 10 of 92 H. pylori positive patients, positive results of them at pre-eradication therapy were converted to negative at post-eradication. The HpSA-immunochromatographic assay is a highly sensitive and specific non-invasive diagnostic method for detection of H. pylori infection, a useful diagnostic method for H. pylori in post eradication stage.

Ceramide induces cell death in a variety of cell types however, the underlying molecular mechanisms related to renal epithelial cells remain unclear. The present study was undertaken to determine the role of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) in ceramide-induced cell death in renal epithelial cells. An established renal proximal tubular cell line of opossum kidney (OK) cells was used for this research. Ceramide induced apoptotic cell death in these cells. Western blot analysis showed that ceramide induced activation of ERK. The ERK activation and cell death induced by ceramide were prevented by the ERK inhibitor PD98059. Ceramide caused cytochrome C release from mitochondria into the cytosol as well as activation of caspase-3. Both effects were prevented by PD98059. The ceramide-induced cell death was also prevented by a caspase inhibitor. These results suggest that ceramide induces cell death through an ERK-dependent mitochondrial apoptotic pathway in OK cells.

This investigation has been carried out for the purpose of the examination of current Gwangju and Jeonnam clinical pathology students' recognition of their departments and of effective employment guidance. Furthermore, it has examined the students' recognition on two sides; namely, their satisfaction with their own departments and their recognition of the employment of medical technologists. This investigation, with 389 students as its subjects from the clinical pathology departments at 4 universities in the Gwangju-Jeonnam Region, has compared and analyzed the data from the survey with a questionnaire from November 2008 to June 2009 by using the SPSS 12.0 package. Some of the remarkable results from the yielded data are as follows. As for the motivation for their application to the clinical pathology departments, the investigation of the students' satisfaction with their departments has revealed that 47.5% of the subjects indicated recommendation from friends or acquaintances while 22.1% reported that they had been informed of the departments through Internet. 70.4% of the subjects graduated from general high schools, 22.3% from commercial high schools, and 6.2% from technical high schools. Applicants from general high schools tend to decrease in number every year. 28.5% of the students judged professor's capability of lecture as an important part of their acquisition of licenses, and more than 65.6% of the subjects acknowledged the necessity of their self-study at night for the acquisition of license. As for the future prospect of the occupation of clinical technologist, 46.8% of the students replied that it was promising, while 39.1% reported that they had no ideas. From this we can confirm that the students of clinical pathology lacked a viewpoint of occupation and goals for future jobs. The investigation of the students'recognition of the employment of clinical technologists has revealed that 47.8% of them wanted to be employed in the Seoul-Gyeonggi Region due to the properties of their local universities, 29.0% of themlogpecteties of monesly salary to be 1,200,000~1,300,000 won, while 22.4% 1,300,000~1,400,000 won. These fiemres indicated that these students' salary ogpectations were relativplo lower than those from cities ertiprovinces. As for the greatest difficulty after employment, 31.1% of the subjects indicated the confliction among employees from variouatiolleges, 27.3% uncertainty of duties related to es of major, 24.9% bmrdens of self-development.