Soo-Jong Hong, Kang-Mo Ahn, Soo-Young Lee, Kyu-Earn Kim
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(4):343-350. Published online April 15, 2008
Asthma and allergic diseases are one of the most common disorders in children. Due to its increased prevalence, as well as the increased morbidity and mortality from these diseases, asthma and allergic diseases have come to be recognized as a major worldwide public health issue. In addition, socioeconomic burden of asthma and allergic diseases has increased in Korea also.
The...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(4):339-342. Published online April 15, 2008
The Korean Health Insurance (KHI) has been introduced since 1977 and it took only 12 years that KHI had accomplished the total coverage of Korean population. The remarkable success of KHI can be compared with other OECD countries which had taken some 30 years to over 100 years to establish the total coverage of the population. Life expectancy at birth...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(3):243-247. Published online March 15, 2008
Neonatal intensive care in Korea has improved remarkably since the 1990s, but there is still a shortage of facilities and equipment in NICUs. Only 71.1% of the beds needed for neonatal intensive care are available. Mechanical ventilators are not appropriately distributed to the NICUs that are equipped to handle neonatal intensive care. The number of doctors is far too small,...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(3):237-242. Published online March 15, 2008
To investigate the trends in the survival rate (SR) for very low birth weight infants (VLBW) and extremely low birth weight infants (ELBWI) in Korea, a total of 43 articles pertaining to SR were analyzed, covering the years from 1967 to 2007. The changes in SR were compared using 5 year periods. The SR for VLBWI has increased remarkably, from...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(3):233-236. Published online March 15, 2008
In recent years, Korea has experienced a steadily declining birth rate, which is a serious social problem in the country. Although living conditions have improved, the birth rates for low birth weight infants and preterm babies has increased because more and more women choose to give birth later in life and the social environment has changed. The rise in low...
Baik-Lin Eun, Seong Woo Kim, Young Key Kim, Jung Wook Kim, Jin Soo Moon, Su Kyung Park, In Kyung Sung, Son Moon Shin, Sun Mi Yoo, So Hee Eun, Hea Kyoung Lee, Hyun Taek Lim, Hee Jung Chung
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(3):225-232. Published online March 15, 2008
The mission of National Health Screening Program for Infant and Children is to promote and improve the health, education, and well-being of infants, children, families, and communities. Although the term 'diagnosis' usually relates to pathology, a similar diagnostic approach applies to the child seen primarily for health supervision. In the case of health, diagnosis determines the selection of appropriate health...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(2):129-133. Published online February 15, 2008
Dental caries is the first disease to cause the pathological extraction of teeth in children. The complete prevention of dental caries is not achieved by toothbrushing alone. The use of fluoride and pit and fissure sealant is regarded as key tools to prevent dental caries. Fluoride-containing tablets or multi-vitamins and community water fluoridation can be used as systemic application techniques....
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(2):122-128. Published online February 15, 2008
Roughly one third of medical problems in children are related to the musculoskeletal system. Most of these problems are common and can be precisely diagnosed. For these problems, nonoperative treatment or reassurance can be given by the pediatrician. Occasionally, a problem needs surgical treatment, but a precise diagnosis must be made. There is little agreement about what types of orthopedic...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(2):116-121. Published online February 15, 2008
Unintentional injuries are the most important cause of morbidity and mortality in the pediatric population, and the home is the most common site of injury for children in Korea. The most common cause of injury was slip down. Fall down and burn were frequent in infant/toddlers group, automobile and bicycle accident more frequent in preschool children. Findings from the survey...
Chong Guk Lee, Jin Soo Moon, Joong-Myung Choi, Chung Mo Nam, Soon Young Lee, Kyungwon Oh, Young Taek Kim
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(1):33-41. Published online January 15, 2008
Purpose : It is now understood that blood pressure (BP) measurement in the routine pediatric examination is very important because of the relevance of childhood BP to pediatric health care and the development of adult essential hypertension. There hasn't been a reference table of BP for Korean children and adolescents up to now. This study was to make normative BP...
Soon Young Lee, Youn Nam Kim, Yeon Ji Kang, Myoung-Jin Jang, Jinheum Kim, Jin Soo Moon, Chong Guk Lee, Kyungwon Oh, Young Taek Kim, Chung Mo Nam
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(1):26-32. Published online January 15, 2008
Purpose : This study was to provide the methods of developing the growth charts and the blood pressure nomogram among Korean children and adolescents.
Methods : The growth charts were developed based on the data from the national growth surveys for children and adolescents in 1998 and 2005. The percentile charts were developed through two stages. At the first stage, the...
Jin Soo Moon, Soon Young Lee, Chung Mo Nam, Joong-Myung Choi, Bong-Keun Choe, Jeong-Wan Seo, Kyungwon Oh, Myoung-Jin Jang, Seung-Sik Hwang, Myung Hwan Yoo, Young Taek Kim, Chong Guk Lee
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2008;51(1):1-25. Published online January 15, 2008
Purpose : Since 1967, The Korean Pediatric Society and Korean Government have developed Korean Growth Standards every 10 years. Last version was published in 1998. During past 40 years, Korean Growth Standards were mainly descriptive charts without any systematic nor statistical standardization. With the global epidemic of obesity, many authorities such as World Health Organization (WHO) and United States' Centers...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(12):1180-1187. Published online December 15, 2007
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an episodic, multi-system, autoimmune disease characterized by widespread inflammation of blood vessels and connective tissues and by the presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANAs), especially antibodies to native (double-stranded) DNA (dsDNA). Its clinical manifestations are extremely variable, and its natural history is unpredictable. Untreated, SLE is often progressive and has a significant fatality rate. The most...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(12):1173-1179. Published online December 15, 2007
The diagnosis of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is based on patient's age at disease onset, symptom duration, gender, and clinical manifestations. JRA is of unknown origin, begins under the age of 16, and persists for a minimum of 6 weeks. JRA is categorized into three principal types, systemic, oligoarticular and polyarticular. Infection, other connective tissue diseases, malignancy, trauma, and immunodeficiency...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(12):1165-1172. Published online December 15, 2007
Self/non-self discrimination and unresponsiveness to self is the fundamental properties of the immune system. Self-tolerance is a state in which the individual is incapable of developing an immune response to an individual's own antigens and it underlies the ability to remain tolerant of individual's own tissue components. Several mechanisms have been postulated to explain the tolerant state. They can be...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(11):1055-1060. Published online November 15, 2007
Right-sided heart failure is a major problem among patients with congenital heart diseases, due to the prevalence of congenital heart defects and the association of pulmonary hypertension. More attention is focused on the structure of the right heart particularly in association with congenital heart defects and chronic lung disease. The right ventricle (RV) may support the pulmonary circulation, and sometimes...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(11):1049-1054. Published online November 15, 2007
Myocarditis represent an important condition encountered by general pediatricians & general practitioners. Its presentation is varied, and therefore a high index of suspicion must be maintained when the possibility of myocarditis is raised. A progression from viral myocarditis to dilated cardiomyopathy has long been hypothesized. Treatment is initially aimed at achieving hemodynamic stability and is largely supportive. There is currently...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(11):1041-1048. Published online November 15, 2007
Not a few patients in children and adolescents are suffering from right ventricular (RV) dysfunction resulting from various conditions such as chronic lung disease, left ventricular dysfunction, pulmonary hypertension, or congenital heart defect. The RV is different from the left ventricle in terms of ventricular morphology, myocardial contractile pattern and special vulnerability to the pressure overload. Right ventricular failure (RVF)...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(10):948-953. Published online October 15, 2007
Acute renal failure is the generic term for an abrupt and sustained decrease in renal function resulting in retention of nitrogenous and non nitrogenous waste product. This may results in life threatening consequences including volume overload, hyperkalemia, and metabolic acidosis. Acute renal failure is both common and carries high mortality rate, but as it is often preventable, identification of patients...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(10):938-947. Published online October 15, 2007
Many dialysis modalities such as peritoneal dialysis (PD), hemodialysis (HD) and continuous hemofiltration or hemodialysis (CRRT) are available for the management of pediatric patients with acute renal failure (ARF). PD is a relatively simple, inexpensive modality and can be used in hemodynamically unstable patients. But, it may not be the optimal therapy for patients with severe volume overload or life...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(10):931-937. Published online October 15, 2007
The hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is a rare disease of microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, low platelet count and renal impairment. HUS usually occurs in young children after hemorrhagic colitis by shigatoxin-producing enterohemorrhagic E. coli (D+HUS). HUS is the most common cause of acute renal failure in infants and young children, and is a substantial cause of acute mortality and morbidity; however,...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(9):841-847. Published online September 15, 2007
Acute liver failure (ALF) is a very rare but devastating illness in children. Specific treatment to recovery is often not available, and the underlying cause of the liver failure is often unknown and diverse especially in children. Liver transplantation has increased the chance of survival; however it needs an optimal timing to reach the best result which is not familiar...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(9):835-840. Published online September 15, 2007
Any infant noted to be jaundiced at 2 weeks of age should be evaluated for cholestasis with measurement of total and direct serum bilirubin. With the insight into the clinical phenotype and the genotypephenotype correlations, it is now possible to evaluate more precisely the neonate who presents with conjugated hyperbilirubinemia. Testing should be performed for the specific treatable causes of...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(9):823-834. Published online September 15, 2007
Interferon (IFN) alpha has been the first line therapy of chronic hepatitis B in children, but HBeAg seroconversion occurred in 26% of treated children compared to 11% of controls in multinational randomized controlled study. Recently, lamivudine was shown to be a potent inhibitor of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) reproduction both in HBeAg positive and in HBeAg negative (the pre-core mutant...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(8):726-731. Published online August 15, 2007
This review describes the wide spectrum of paroxysmal events during sleep in infancy and childhood. The differential diagnosis between sleep-related non-epileptic paroxysmal events and epileptic seizures is difficult in special occasions. The nocturnal frontal lobe seizure and of the more common non- epileptic paroxysmal events during sleep are described. The main differentiating features characterizing parasomnias are: onset in early...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(8):718-725. Published online August 15, 2007
Sleep disorders are very common among pediatric patients. Its prevalence is between 10% and 45% in preschool- and school-aged children. However parents commonly do not concern about their children's sleeping habits and for many pediatricians, there is not part of the routine office visit about a childs sleep. Sleep disorders were classified by International Classification of Sleep Disorder (ICSD) as...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(8):711-717. Published online August 15, 2007
Sleep is a vital, highly organized process regulated by complex systems of neuronal networks and neurotransmitters. Normal sleep comprises non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM periods that alternate through the night. Sleep usually begins in NREM and progresses through deeper NREM stages (2, 3, and 4 stages), but newborns enter REM sleep (active sleep) first before NREM (quiet sleep). A...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(7):613-621. Published online July 15, 2007
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has expanded and evolved substantially in the last decades to treat various malignant and nonmalignant diseases. However, the conditioning regimen can lead to transplantation related death by major organ dysfunction, severe infection and bleeding. In the allogeneic setting, graft versus host disease may also develop, making post-transplant management complex. To overcome these problems, new stem...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(7):606-612. Published online July 15, 2007
Since the introduction of chemotherapy for the treatment of childhood leukemia more than 50 years ago, the results of childhood cancer have improved dramatically. The 5-year survival rate of disease, many of which were uniformly fatal in the prechemotherapy era, reached to more than 75%. This remarkable improvement in survival is a direct result of the incorporation of chemotherapeutics into...
Clin Exp Pediatr. 2007;50(7):601-605. Published online July 15, 2007
The cure rate of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children dramatically improved over past 5 decades from zero to about 80%. The main cause of improvement is owing to the development of chemotherapy by multicenter clinical trial of large study groups with the understanding of leukemia biology. Recently, pediatric ALL protocols were applied to the treatment of adolescent and even...
