• Childhood Kidney Diseases
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.203-211
• /
• 2007

Purpose : We attempted to compare the independent factors such as age, sex, C-reactive protein(CRP), and white blood cell count(WBC) in children with radiologic studies and assess the necessity of performing voiding cystourethrography(VCUG). Method : 98 children who have been diagnosed their first time febrile urinary tract infection from Janurary 2002 to Januray 2005 were enrolled. In all patient, the duration of fever which occurred before and after treatment was recorded, and CRP, WBC, $^{99m}Tc$-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid($^{99m}Tc$-DMSA) renal scans, renal ultrasound and VCUG were analyzed. Results : Of the 98 children diagnosed with urinary tract infection(UTI), 52 were male and 46 were female. 18 had abnormalities in VCUG, 17 had abnormalities in kidney ultrasound, and 20 had partial defects or diffuse uptake decrease in $^{99m}Tc$-DMSA renal scans. There were no significant relationship between incidence of radiologic abnormalities and age. The risk of renal scar was significantly higher in children who had a longer febrile period before treatment than in those with shorter period. Both CRP and WBC were significantly elevated in children with the radiological abnormalities. A positive of $^{99m}Tc$-DMSA renal scans and renal ultrasound were highly associated with vesicoureteral reflux(VUR). Conclusion : If there are abnormalities in the kidney ultrasound and $^{99m}Tc$-DMSA renal scan of a child with initial UTI, a VCUG is recommended. Even in cases without abnormal findings in $^{99m}Tc$-DMSA renal scan and renal ultrasound, clinical data such as CRP and WBC should be assessed, and VCUG should be Performed for the undetected VUR.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.70-74
• /
• 2011

Purpose: In the Nuclear Medicine department of Asan Medical Center, radioactive waste has been disposed of by using several disposal boxes designed for nuclear waste. However, some quantity of radioactivity has been detected occasionally due to some radiologists' carelessness not only from radioactive waste, but also from medical waste such as uncontrolled radioactive waste related to patients, poly gloves or saline solution bottles from radiopharmaceuticals laboratory. Thus, this study is going to suggest a solution to maintain the medical wastes made from controlled areas that can be below maximum permissible surface dose limits by finding the cause of radioactive contamination. Materials and methods: This study was taken place in 17 different places-2 medical wastebaskets in the waiting room, 2 medical wastebaskets in the PET room, 5 medical wastebaskets in the in vitro laboratory and 6 medical wastebaskets in the radiopharmaceuticals laboratory of the East building, 2 medical wastebaskets in the waiting room of the New building of Nuclear Medicine Department in Asan Medical Center from April to August 2010. Mean radioactivity and its standard deviation of each place have been found by measuring surface contamination of medical wastebaskets and backgrounds twice a week, totaling 30 times. An independent t-test of SPSS (Ver. 12.0) statistic program has been used for statistical analysis. Swabs, saline solution bottles and poly gloves collected from each place also measured 30 times, respectively. Results: This study analyzed medical waste and the backgrounds of each place by using survey meter detectors that significant differences of five places did not exist, but existed statistically in twelve places (p<0.05). Also, swabs, saline solution bottles and poly gloves collected from each radioactive waste partly exceed the legal dose limit as a result of measuring by a gamma counter. Conclusion: Backgrounds and the surface doses of radioactive disposal box in all 17 places measured by the survey meter did not exceed the legal dose limit; however, it obviously showed that there were prominent differences in 12 places. Assuming that the cause of the differences was swabs, saline solution bottles and gloves, we examined them by gamma counter, and the results showed remarkably high doses of radioactivity. Consequently, swabs and poly gloves which are normally disposed in the general medical waste box should be disposed in the radioactive waste box furnished by radiopharmaceuticals laboratory. Also, saline solution discharged from radioactive pharmaceutical places is considered as radioactive liquid waste so that it should be disposed of by the septic tank specifically designed for radioactive liquid.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.372-379
• /
• 2007

A high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization (HPLC-ESI) tandem MS was developed for the rapid and simultaneous determination of forbidden medicines in dietary supplements. Thirteen medicinal components such as PDE-5 inhibitors and their analogues, and the newly identified dimethylsildenafil and xanthoanthrafil, were included in this study. After tentative standardization of molecular ions in both polarities using thirteen references on the mass spectrometer, with ESI-continuous infusion via the syringe pump method, the relative intensity of the ions present in the resulting spectra was quantitatively compared. From the results, the ion mode was selected depending on each reference's characteristics. A HPLC method coupled with the ESI mode was developed considering the matrix effect and interference depending on the type of sample. The validation test of the developed method was followed by carrying out precision, accuracy, recovery, sensitivity and linearity, etc. The method showed sufficiently high sensitivity, reproducibility, and specificity, and produced 4 times faster results when compared with the existing HPLC/UV method for the determination of forbidden compounds in dietary supplements.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.481-487
• /
• 2010

The nutritional components, antioxidant, and neuroprotective effects of water and a 50% methanol extract from litchi fruit pericarp were investigated. The most abundant mineral, amino acid, and fatty acid were K, proline, and palmitic acid, respectively. In addition, the total water phenolics and 50% methanol extracts were 8.02 and 12.28 mg/g, respectively. The DPPH, ABTS radical scavenging activities and ferric reducing antioxidant power of the water and 50% methanol extracts showed dose-dependent antioxidant activity. In a cell viability assay using MTT, almost all extracts showed a protective effect against $H_2O_2$-induced neurotoxicity, and lactate dehydrogenase leakage was also inhibited by the pericarp extracts. In particular, the 50% methanol extract showed a higher cell membrane protective effect than the water extract at the highest concentration. Consequently, these data suggest that litchi fruit pericarp can be utilized as an effective and safe functional food substances for natural antioxidants and may reduce the risk of neurodegenerative disorders.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.494-501
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine the presence of Bacillus cereus, aerobic bacteria and coliforms in the raw material of infant formulas and investigate the manufacturing process in terms of microbial safety. Among ten kinds of raw infant formula material samples (n=20), Bacillus cereus appeared in two (n=4). Aerobic bacteria were not detected in raw infant formula material or maximum 4.15 log CFU/g. Eleven species of aerobic bacteria were isolated and 76% of them were Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Rhizobium radiobactor, or Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. A Pearson's correlation analysis revealed that the most influential factors for detecting Bacillus cereus were aerobic bacteria and coliforms. In other words, when the measured values of aerobic bacteria and coliforms were higher, the possibility that Bacillus cereus would appear increased. In a regression model to predict Bacillus cereus, the rate of appearance was correlated with aerobic bacteria and coliforms, and its contribution rate for effectiveness was 86%. Improving microbial quality control by pasteurization, spray dry, popping and extrusion resulted in a decrease in the numbers of Bacillus cereus, aerobic bacteria and coliforms in the raw materials. The results suggest that a hazard analysis and critical control point system might be effective for reducing microbiological contamination.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.17 no.4 s.84
• /
• pp.462-469
• /
• 2007

In this study, we isolated, characterized, and compared the vasa homologous genes of diploid and triploid Paragonimus westermani and localized VASA homologous proteins in both lung fluke types. Open reading frames of Pw-vasa-2n and Pw-vasa-3n were of 1812 bp, and encoded deduced proteins of 622 amino acids with calculated molecular weights of 69.0 kDa and 68.9 kDa and pI's of 9.11 and 9.03, respectively. A comparison of these two VASA deduced protein sequences showed that only 6 of the 622 amino acids differed. The deduced sequences of Pw-VASA-2n and Pw-VASA-3n contained eight consensus sequences characteristic of the DEAD-box protein family and their N-terminal regions contained four arginine-glycine-glycine (RGG) motifs. These two lung fluke VASA-like proteins were more similar to those of other VASA proteins than to those of other DEAD-family proteins isolated from several organisms (planarian, zebra fish, mouse, and human). vasa homologous gene transcription and VASA protein expressions in triploid type lung flukes was slightly stronger than in the diploid type. Immunostaining showed that testes and a portion of the ovaries of both diploid and triploid lung flukes reacted strongly to anti-Pw-VASA antibody.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.33 no.2 s.90
• /
• pp.109-118
• /
• 2000

The dynamics of inorganic nutrients and phytoplankton population were examined at eight stations of Shihwa Reservoir, which situated near the cities newly constructed and the industrial complex of West-sea in Korea, from January to December 1999. Among environmental factors, average concentration of $NH_4$, SRP and SRSi were $522.7\;{\mu}g\;N/l$, $9.8\;{\mu}g\;N/l$ and $0.26\;{\mu}g\;Si/l$, respectively. Water quality was extremely deteriorated by a great amount of pollutants load into inner reservoir after the event of rainfall. Nutrients concentration was suddenly decreased toward the lower part. While $NO_3$ concentration did not much varied among stations, but it was relatively high in winter season. Chlorophyll-a concentration was high at the upper part of the reservoir, with average of $37.2\;{\mu}/l$, and closely related to the fluctuation of $NH_4$, SRP and SRSi concentrations. The phytoplankton development in the water column was dominated by diatom (autumn), prasinoid (winter) and dinoflagellate (summer). Dominant phytoplankton were composed to Skeletonema costatum of diatom, Prorocentrum minimum of dinoflagellate, Chroomonas spp. of cryptomonad, Eutreptiella gymnastica of euglenoid and Pyramimonas spp. of prasinoid. The large bloom of phytoplankton at the upper zone of the Shihwa Reservoir after inflow of a seawater were consistently observed. In consequence, water quality management of the inlet stream was assessed to be very important and urgent.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.151-161
• /
• 1986

In order to develop sensitive and sepcific assay methods for E. coli heat labile enterotoxin(LT) hybridoma cell lines secreting LT specific monoclonal antibody were obtained. LT was purified from cell lysate of E. coli O15H11. The steps included disruption of bacteria by French pressure, DEAE Sephacel ion exchange chromatography, Sephadex G200 gel filtration, and second DEAE Sephacel ion exchange chromatography, successively. Spleen cells from Balb/c mice immunized with the purified LT and $HGPRT^{(-)}$ plasmacytomas, $P3{\times}63Ag8.V653$ were mixed and fused by 50% (w/v) PEG. Hybrid cells were grown in 308 wells out of 360 wells, and 13 wells out of them secreted antibodies reacting to LT. Among these hybridoma cell 1G8-1D1 cell line was selected since it had produced high-titered monoclonal antibody continuously. By using culture supernatant and ascites from 1G8-1D1 cells the monoclonal antibody was characterized, and an assay system for detecting enterotoxigenic E. coli was established by double sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The following results were obtained. 1. Antibody titers of culture supernatant and ascites from 1G8-1D1 hybridoma cells were 512, and 102, 400, respectively by GM1-ELISA and its immunoglobulin class was IgM. 2. The maximum absorption ratio of 1G8-1D1 cell culture supernatant to LT was 90% at $300\;{\mu}g/ml$ of LT concentration. LT concentration shown at 50% absorption ratio was $103.45{\mu}g$ and the absorption ratio was decreased with tile reduction of LT concentration. This result suggests that monoclonal antibody from 1G8-1D1 hybridoma cell bound with LT specifically. 3. The reactivities of 1G8-1D1 cell culture supernatant to LT and V. cholerae enterotoxin(CT) were 0.886 and 0.142(O.D. at 492nm) measured by the GM1-ELISA, indicating 1G8-1D1 monoclonal antibody reacted specifically with LT but not with CT. 4. The addition of 0.1ml of ascites to 0.6mg and 0.12mg of LT decreased the vascular permeability factor to 41% and 44% respectively, but it did not completely neutralize LT. 5. By double sandwich ELISA using monoclonal antibody, as little as 75ng of the purified LT per ml could be detected. 6. The results by assay of detecting LT in culture supernatants of 14 wild strains E. coli isolated from diarrhea patients by the double sandwich ELISA were almost the same level as those by reverse passive latex agglutination.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.82-90
• /
• 2018

Purpose: Survival after liver transplantation (LT) has improved over the years, but infection is still a major complication. We aimed to identify the characteristics of bacterial infections in pediatric LT recipients. Methods: This study is a retrospective review of 189 consecutive children undergoing LT between 2000 and 2015 at a single center. In this study, the incidence of infection was determined for the following periods: within 1 month, between 1-5 months, and between 6-12 months. Patients who underwent liver transplants more than once or multiple organ transplants were excluded. Results: All patients had received postoperative antibiotic for 3 days. Only the maintenance immunosuppression with oral tacrolimus and steroids were performed. As a result, 132 bacterial infections developed in 87 (46.0%) patients (0.70 events per person-year). Bacterial infections occurred most frequently within the first month (n=84, 63.6%) after LT. In the pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus (15.2%), Enterococcus species (15.2%), and Klebsiella species (13.6%) were most common. Regarding the organ infected, bloodstream was most common (n=39, 29.5%), followed by peritoneum (n=28, 21.2%), urinary tract (n=25, 18.9%), and lungs (n=20, 15.2%). We changed prophylactic antibiotics from ampicillin-sulbactam to piperacillin-tazobactam at 2011, October, there were no significant effects in the prevalence of antibiotics resistant bacterial infections. The 1-year mortality was 9.0% (n=17), in which 41.2% (n=7) was attributable to bacterial infection; septicemia (n=4), pneumonia (n=2), and peritonitis (n=1). Conclusions: The incidence and type of bacterial infectious complications after LT in pediatric patients were similar to those of previous studies. Bacterial complications affecting mortality occur within 6 months after transplantation, so proper prophylaxis and treatment in this period may improve the prognosis of LT.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.229-233
• /
• 2003

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of different BW control methods during rearing on laying performance of broiler breeder pullets. D-old 540 female breeder chicks (Arbor Acres) were assigned to three treatments consisted of standard BW (Control), 110% of standard BW at 12 wk of age (T1), and 90% of standard BW at 12 wk of age (T2), with three replicates of 60 birds per replicate (pen) for each treatment. At 20 wk of age, all birds from three treatments reached the BW reqired in the Arbor Acres Manual. There were no significant differences in egg production, egg weight and viability during laying period(p>0.05). However, total egg production rates were improved in T2 and T3. Average egg weight was the highest in T1 among all treatments. Fertility and hatchability were similar among treatments, but T2 tended to be higher than other treatments at 37 and 53 wk of age. No significant difference was found in hatchability among three treatments. The number of hatching egg of T2 reached 168 per year, showing higher number of eggs than did the other treatments. The number of hatched chicks in T2 was 131, which was also higher than the other treatments, but the difference was not significant. It appears that the laying performance of broiler breeder hens could be improved when their BW at 12 wk of age are kept at 90% of standard BW, and reach the standard BW at 20 week of age.