Questions: What are the possible effects of air pollution on the occurrence of childhood obesity and what are the mechanisms? Finding: Epidemiologic studies suggest that air pollutants might act as obesogens in the pediatric population, and their possible mechanisms include oxidative stress, physical inactivity, and epigenetic modulation. Meaning: This paper reviews updated information on air pollution, one of the modifiable environmental factors in childhood obesity. |
Phytoestrogen is an estrogenic compound that occurs naturally in plants. The most common sources of phytoestrogen are soybean products, which contain high levels of isoflavones. This compound, which has structural similarity with estrogen, can act as an estrogen receptor agonist or antagonist. Animal studies provide evidence of the significant effects of phytoestrogen on sexual development, including altered pubertal timing, impaired... |
Unbalanced diets and decreased physical activity have contributed to increased prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome in adolescents. We have performed a systematic review and data analysis to examine the association between dietary pattern and metabolic syndrome risk factors in adolescents. We searched the PubMed and BioMedLib databases for appropriate articles published during the past 10 years and selected 6 articles.... |
Recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) has been widely used to treat short stature. However, there are some concerns that growth hormone treatment may induce skeletal maturation and early onset of puberty. In this study, we investigated whether rhGH can directly affect the neuronal activities of of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). We performed brain slice gramicidin-perforated current clamp recording to examine the direct... |
Purpose : Vitamin D deficiency rickets is a significant public health problem that results from insufficient exposure to sunlight and inadequate vitamin D supplementation. The purpose of this study is to identify the clinical characteristics of vitamin D deficiency rickets in infants. Methods : Data of 35 infants diagnosed as vitamin D deficiency rickets at Sanggye-Paik Hospital, Seoul, Korea, from March... |
Purpose : Growth-promoting attempts are widespread in Korea, but little is known about their prevalence or associated factors. This study was designed to assess the prevalence of growth-promoting attempts among children visiting a university growth clinic. Methods : A questionnaire-based survey was carried out with 823 children (416 boys, 407 girls) who visited the growth clinic at Paik Hospital. Results... |
Puopose : Exposure to dietary phytoestrogens such as genistein during early childhood is a growing public health concern. We examined the effect of early exposure to genistein on sexual maturation in immature rats. Methods : Weaning (3wk-old) Sprague-Dawley female rats were assigned to three groups (n=6 for each): fed by high dose of genistein (100 mg/kg/d), low dose of genistein... |
Purpose : This study aimed to estimate age- and gender-specific cut points for metabolic syndrome (MS) components, including body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and glucose. Methods : Data from the 1998, 2001, and 2005 Korean NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) were analyzed (n=4164; 2,139 boys and 2,025 girls, aged 10-19 years).... |
The prevalence of obesity in Korean children is estimated to be around 10%, and has increased significantly over the past 20 years. Metabolic syndrome, which includes central obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and hypertension, is a well documented risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, but there is no general consensus concerning its definition for children. In this study, ablut 30-40%... |
Purpose : The purpose of this study is to investigate the material in middle school and high school textbooks covering child care and children's health for medically inaccurate content and to make sure that the correct information is given to students. Methods : We have examined 47 kinds of textbooks on the subjects 'Home economics' and 'Technology and home economics' published... |
The pubertal activation of gonadotrophin releasing hormone(GnRH) requires coordinated changes in excitatory or inhibitory amino acids, growth factors, and a group of transcriptional regulators. The age of onset of puberty is progressing to younger age. Factors affecting early puberty include genetic traits, nutrition(body fat) and exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals. In rapidly progressing central precocious puberty, gonadotrophin releasing hormone(GnRH) agonists(GnRHa)... |
Purpose : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the timing of sexual maturation and secular trends of menarchial age in Korean adolescents. Methods : Nine hundred eighty two school students and 119 university female students were included. Tanner's pubertal assessment method was applied using a self-assessment sheet with pictures for their developmental stages. A medical checkup database... |
Purpose : The reliability of hair mineral analyses regarding nutritional status, environmental exposure or diseases is controversial. The aim of this study was to determine the normal reference range of hair mineral concentration of Korean children. Methods : We examined hair mineral concentrations of 223 children(3-12 yrs old, 110 boys, 113 girls, mean age 8.8?.2 yrs old) living in the... |
New insights in the complex metabolic pathways and its control mechanism for energy homeostasis have refined our understanding of the pathophysiology of obesity. It is now recognized that there are several additional regulatory mechanism such as peripheral signals including leptin, ghrelin, GLP-1 and PYY and cellular signals including uncoupling proteins and β Adrenergic receptors, which contribute to the regulation of... |
Purpose : This study was performed to assess the diagnostic significance of the urine-stick test in detecting Diabetes Mellitus(DM) and to assess the clinical characteristics of adolescent diabetes. Methods : A total of 926,208 middle and high school children participated. The urine-stick test was performed and those who showed glycosuria and, further studies such as evaluations of plasma glucose, triglyceride, cholesterol... |
Purpose : To establish reference ranges for thyroid hormone concentrations in premature infants, we measured T4 and thyroid stimulating hormone(TSH) concentrations and analyzed the relation to gestational age and birth weight. Methods : Serum T4 and TSH concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay for 391 premature infants born in Sanggye Paik Hospital for two years and eight months. Results : Gestational age of... |
Purpose : Leptin is a protein encoded by the ob gene that is expressed in adipocytes. It regulates eating behavior by the action to the satiety centers in the hypothalamus. In ob/ob mouse, adipocytes can not produce leptin because of a mutation in the ob gene which results in obesity. Whereas, leptin concentrations were elevated in obese adults, and leptin... |
Purpose : We investigated the clinical characteristics of IDDM patients, treated with NPH only, and evaluated current problems by measurement of serial blood glucose, insulin, C-peptide for 12 hours after administration of intermediate-acting insulin. Methods : We studied 19 IDDM patients who had been diagnosed and followed up on a regular basis at Severance hospital. They were assigned into 2 groups, one(HbA1c... |
Purpose : In concern of diagnosis and treatment of transient idiopathic hypocalcemia, a major cause of infantile, we studied the onset of age, clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, and duration of treatment and recovery of transient idiopathic hypocalcemia. Methods : The author observed 19 infants with transient idiopathic hypocalcemia who had been admitted to Yonsei university hospital due to convulsion for 4... |
Purpose : Because of weternized life style, environmental air pollution and infection, the incidence of childhood diabetes is increasing daily. This study was attempted to evaluate charateristics of childhood diabetes. Methods : We evaluated 117 patients diagnosed with Diabetes at Yonsei and Ewha University College of medicine from 1985 to 1994. Results : 1) The majority of patients were diagnosed as IDDM(86%).... |
Purpose : Sex hormone binding globulin(SHBG) is produced in liver and binds to testostero-ne and estradiol. Plasma SHBG levels are increased by estrogen and thyrotoxicosis and decreased by testostrone, insulin, growth hormone, prolactin, obesity and noninsulin dependent diabetes mellitus. SHBG levels in patients with NIDDM is known to be higher than normal, but SHBG levels in children with IDDM is controversial.... |
Purpose : The ability to respond to pharmacologial provovation tests may not necessary reflect actuaol secretory patterns of growth hormone. Therefore, the aim of this study in to evaluate the 24-h IC-GH and compare this with their resposnses to standard pharmacological provocation tests for growth hormone comcentrations and to evaluate peak frequency and peak amplitude during 24-h IC-GH in children... |
Purpose : The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical differences by karyotype in Turner Syndrome. Methods : We evaluated 66 patients with Turner syndrome diagnosed at Yonsei University College of medicine from Mar.1985 to Feb.1993. We divided subproups as pure 45,X groups, mosaisism groups and structural aberration groups. Clinical features, serum estrogen, LH, FSH, concentrations, gonadotropin release after GnRH... |
Bodycomposition measurement is useful in the diagnosis of pathoogy, assessment of disease process and response to treatment in many endoclonologic and metabolic diseases. The Techniques used currently are mostly indirect, often expensive, difficult and time-consuming. A new method for estimation of body composition, infrared interactance, is rapid, safe, noninvasive, and may be useful in research ad clinical studies. Body composition was... |
Obesity is associated with an impairment of the hormone secretion elicited by all stimuli known to date, but the basic mechanism of this alteration is unknown, To determine whether obesity is associated with a chronic state of tonic somatostatin, several tests with growth hormone stimuli such as GHRH (1㎍/kg), clonidine (150㎍/m2) and Resular insulin (0.1U/kg, subcutaneously), to obese subjects and... |
Gastric adenocarcinoma in childhood is an extremely rare disease with poor prognosis. We experienced a case in which a 14 year old female patient who was admitted with complaints of abdominal pain, indigestion and obstipation. Her physical examination revealed positive Blumer's rectal shelf, positive ascitic fluid cytology and typical radiologic and endoscopic findings suggesting gartric adenocarcinoma. She showed symptomatic improvement... |
Congenital hypothyroidism is one of the most common endocrine disease in childhood and it causes not only mental retardation but also growth retardation. There were many papers about evaluation of developmental outcome in congenital hypothyroidism, The aim of this study was to evaluate growth outcome in congenital hypothyroidism. We evaluated 65 patients with congenital hypothyroidism diagnosed at yonsei University College... |
Primary hyperparathyroidism is very rare and often fatal disease in childhood. We experienced a case in which a 4 months old male patient complaning of lethargy, hypotonia, respiratory difficulty showed typical laboratory and radiological findings compatible to primary hyperparathyroidism. He was successfully treated with total parathyroidectoimy with partial parathyroid autotrans-plantation. Thus the case of primary hyperparathyroidism in infancy is presented with... |
As the scope for treatment with GH widens, it is of interest to evaluate those criteria that are used conventionally for diagnosis of GH deficiency. 11 patients with hypotha lamic-pituitay lesions and 11 patients with idiopathic GH deficiency underwent retesting GH secretion with insulin or arginine stimulation test. All 11 parients with organic GH deficiency remained GH deficient. Of the 11 retested patients with... |