Cohort study for the effect of chronic noise exposure on blood pressure among male workers in Busan, Korea.

Objective: It has not yet been established whether exposure to chronic noise induces an increase in blood pressure or an increase in the development of hypertension. Therefore, a cohort study was performed to identify the effects of chronic noise exposure on blood pressure.

Methods: Five hundred thirty male workers at a metal manufacturing factory in Busan, Korea, were enrolled in the study.

High pallidal T1 signal is rarely observed in obstructive jaundice, but is frequently observed in liver cirrhosis.

Although high signal intensities in the globus pallidus are frequently observed in T1-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRI) of patients with liver cirrhosis, it is unclear whether these increases are due to portal-systemic shunt or obstruction of biliary excretion. We therefore studied pallidal signals in 18 cancer patients with bile duct obstruction and marked jaundice (>10 mg/dl). Patients who had fever, leukocytosis or liver cirrhosis were excluded to ensure that jaundice was due to bile duct obstruction.