BACKGROUND: The peak flowmeter is very useful in monitoring of out-patients as well as those in emergency departments because of its convenience and simplicity with low cost. There have been many studies aimed at determining the accuracy and reproducibility of the peak flow meter in normal population. However, there is a paucity of reports regarding its accuracy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) or asthma. The accuracy of the peak expiratory flow(PEF) measured with a mini-Wright peak flowmeter was assessed by a comparison with the results of a mass flow sensor. METHODS: The PEF measurements were performed in 108 patients aged 19-82 years presenting with either a chronic obstructive lung disease or asthma before and after inhaling salbutamol. The PEF measurements from the mini-Wright flowmeter were compared with those obtained by the calibrated mass flow sensor. RESULTS: The average of the readings taken by the mini-Wright meter were 37-39 l/min higher than those taken by the mass flow sensor. The average percentage error of the mini-Wright meter were higher, ranging less than 300 l/min. The mean of the differences between the values obtained using both instruments (the bias)±limits of agreement(±2 SD) were 37.1±90 l/min for the PEF(p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The mini-Wright peak flowmeter overestimated the flows in patients with COPD or asthma. It was also found that the accuracy of the mini-Wright peak flowmeter decreased in its mid to low range. The limits of agreement are wide and the difference between the two instruments is signigicant. Therefore, the measurements made between the two types of machines in patients with asthma or COPD cannot be used in terchangeably.
Albuterol ; Asthma* ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Flowmeters* ; Humans ; Inhalation ; Outpatients ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive* ; Reading

Congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation of the lung is a rare form of congenital cystic disease of the lung and associated with developmental arrest of bronchioles in embryonic life. We report 3 cases of congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation which are classified as type I, II and III according to the morphological classification by Stocker et al. The first case was a 6-year-old female with a mass in the lower lobe of the right lung. The mass was composed of several cysts which were filled with inflammatory exudate and lined by ciliated pseudostratified columnar epithelium (type I + II). The second case was a 4-year-old female with a mass in the middle lobe of the right lung. It was composed of numerous small cysts which were uniform sized and contained inflammatory exudate. These were lined by ciliated columnar and pseudostratified columnar epithelium (type II). The third case was a stillborn female at 27 weeks of gestation. There was generalized edema and severe ascites. The left lower lobe consisted of an ill-defined solid area and small cysts. The solid lesion was composed of bronchiole-sized cysts lined by non-ciliated cuboidal epithelium (type II + III).
Female ; Humans ; Cysts

Pathological laughing and crying(PLC) is a condition that is characterized by episodic, brief, contextually inappropriate, uncontrollable outbursts of laughing and/or crying. It can be observed in patients with various neurological disorders. PLC often causes distress in interpersonal functioning and activities for patients and their families. PLC can be recognized easily with proper understanding of the condition and its nature. Also it generally shows good response to various pharmacological treatments. This review aims to encourage the diagnosis and treatment of PLC by providing definition and clinical presentation of PLC, analysis of its pathophysiology and various current treatment options.
Crying* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Nervous System Diseases

No abstract available.
Heart Diseases* ; Heart*

BLAST, a basic bioinformatics tool for searching local sequence similarity, has been one of the most widely used bioinformatics programs since its introduction in 1990. Users generally use the web-based NCBI-BLAST program for BLAST analysis. However, users with large sequence data are often faced with a problem of upload size limitation while using the web-based BLAST program. This proves inconvenient as scientists often want to run BLAST on their own data, such as transcriptome or whole genome sequences. To overcome this issue, we developed NBLAST, a graphical user interface-based BLAST program that employs a two-way system, allowing the use of input sequences either as “query” or “target” in the BLAST analysis. NBLAST is also equipped with a dot plot viewer, thus allowing researchers to create custom database for BLAST and run a dot plot similarity analysis within a single program. It is available to access to the NBLAST with http:/bitglobal.comblast.

The case reported here, concerns a spontaneous low-flow fistula between the carotid arterial network and the cavernous sinus, with ophthalmological symptoms such as conjunctival congestion and diplopia in a 41-year-old woman. The patient has suffered from diabetes without trauma history. Patient's ocular symptoms and signs were only present in the left eye with best-corrected visual acuity 0.04 at the time of presentation. Other ophthalmic findings were exophthalmos, elevated intraocular pressure, and visual field defects. Enlarged extraocular muscles and proptosis were found on orbital computed tomography leading to the misdiagnosis of orbial pseudotumor or thyroid rbitopathy. Carotid angiography showed dural carotid-cavernous sinus fistula, which involved left-side internal and external carotid arterial network and right-side internal carotid arterial network. Orbital color Doppler imaging showed a flow reversal with a systolic component in the enlarged superior ophthalmic vein. We were able to diagnose dural carotid-cavernous sinus fistula. Dural carotid-cavernous sinus fistula was closed successfully by embolization via the vein without omplication. The visual acuity, proptosis, and dilated and tortuous vessels of the conjunctiva improved.
Adult ; Angiography ; Carotid-Cavernous Sinus Fistula ; Cavernous Sinus ; Conjunctiva ; Diagnostic Errors ; Diplopia ; Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) ; Exophthalmos ; Female ; Fistula* ; Humans ; Intraocular Pressure ; Muscles ; Orbit ; Thyroid Gland ; Veins ; Visual Acuity ; Visual Fields

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is an idiosyncratic, life-threatening complication of treatment with antipsychotic drugs, and this is characterized by fever, severe muscle rigidity and changes of the autonomic nervous system and mental status changes. We present the case of a 19-year-old woman with neuroleptic malignant syndrome that was complicated with acute renal failure secondary to quetiapine overdose. Emergency physicians should keep in mind the possibility of NMS when evaluating patients who present with fever.
Acute Kidney Injury ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Autonomic Nervous System ; Dibenzothiazepines ; Emergencies ; Female ; Fever ; Humans ; Muscle Rigidity ; Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome ; Renal Insufficiency ; Young Adult ; Quetiapine Fumarate

PURPOSE: To evaluate tlne significance of vaginal air seen on CT scan in preoperative staging of uterine cervical carcinoma. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A comparison was made between CT findings of vaginal air and true vaginal involvement status in 85 patients with uterine cervical carcinoma. CT findings were analyzed in terms of the presence or absence of vaginal air, number of CT slices in which vaginal air was seen, shape of vaginal air, and relation of vaginal airto cervical mass. RESULTS: Vaginal air was present in 35 patients and was absent in 50. Although the mere presence of vaginal air or multiplicity of CT slices showing vaginal air did not signify the presence of vaginal involvement, vaginal air with irregular margin or vaginal air adjacent to uterine cervical mass was suggestive of vaginal involvement. CONCELUSION: These observation of vaginal air in interpreting CT may be helpful in the preoperative staging of uterine cervical carcinoma.
Humans ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Vagina*

Supernunmerary nipple is a developmental anomaly occuring alon, the course of the embryological milk lines. This entity has receieved little attention in the dermatologic literature and has been confused with a pigmented nevus in some cases. We have experienced two ease of the more unusual form of supern umerary nipple. According to the Kajavas classification, our caes are classified as polithelia pilosa and complete breast with nipple.
Breast ; Classification ; Milk ; Nevus, Pigmented ; Nipples*

Plexiform neurofibroma is considered a pathognomic of Von Recklinghousen's disease, which involves the deep and large nerve trunk. These are large irregular nerve fascicles which result from an increase in endoneural matrix within individual nerve facicles, without an increased number of nerve fibers. We experenced a case of Von Recklinghausen's disease in a 24 year-old male who had variable cutaneous skeletal, and CNS lesions. He presented multiple neurofibromas, cafe-au-lait spots, and axillary freckles as common cutaneous lesions of NF-I and giant pigmentation, sacral hypertrichosis, and plexiform neurofibroma as unusual cutaneous lesions. Also he had a scoliosis, bowing deformity of the humerous and wedging deformity of the body of the 5th cervical spine as a skeletal manifestation and cortical calcification in the occipital area as a CNS manifestation.
Cafe-au-Lait Spots ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Humans ; Hypertrichosis ; Male ; Melanosis ; Nerve Fibers ; Neurofibroma, Plexiform* ; Neurofibromatoses ; Neurofibromatosis 1 ; Pigmentation* ; Scoliosis ; Spine ; Young Adult