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

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

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

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.

We report here several experiences of interphase cytogenetics, using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique, for the detection of chromosome aberrations. FISH, using alpha satellite specific probes of 18, X, Y chromosomes, was done in interphase nuclei from peripheral blood of patients with Edwards' syndrome, Klinefelter's syndrome and Turner's syndrome with healthy male and female controls, respectively. The distributions of fluorescent signals in 100 interphase nuclei were well correlated with metaphase findings. Nowadays FISH plays an increasingly important role in a variety of research areas, including cytogenetics, prenatal diagnosis, tumor biology, gene amplification and gene mapping.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Cell Nucleus/*ultrastructure ; Child ; Chromosome Aberrations/*physiology ; Chromosome Banding ; Female ; Humans ; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence ; Infant, Newborn ; Interphase/*physiology ; Male

A case of papillary eccrine adenoma on the right hand of a 84-year-old woman is reported. The tumor was 1 cm in diameter, occupying the whole thickness of the dermis. Histologically, the tumor was composed of dilated tubules of various sizes with intraluminal papillary projections, and was surrounded by a fibrous stroma. An immunohistochemical study revealed that the proliferating tubules were composed of the outermost layer of alpha-smooth muscle actin-positive and the inner layer of keratin 14-negative cells. This antigen expression pattern was comparable to that of the normal eccrine secretory coil, which indicates that the tumor differentiated toward the secretory coil of an eccrine sweat gland.
Adenoma* ; Aged, 80 and over ; Dermis ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Sweat Glands

Perfluorocarbon liquids have been shown to be a useful intraoperative adjunct in managing complicated retinal detachment. To prove the effectiveness of intraoperative use of perfluorocarbon liquid and the improvement of surgical and functional outcomes, we retrospcetively evaluated the clinical results of the patients[13 eyes]who had retinal detachment complicated with proliferative vitreoretinopathy [over PVR Grade C4, C4 :7 eyes, C5 :6 eyes]. We performed standard 3-port pars plana vitrectomy in all eyes included in this study.Perfluorodecalin[DK-line]was used as a shortterm vitreous substitute intraoperatively and removed before the end of the surgery. The mean follow-up period was 15 months.Anatomical success rate was 86%[6 eyes]in Grade C4, 67%[4 eyes]in Grade C5, Visual acuity was over 5/200 in one eye[8%]and there was improvement in 5 eyes[40%] although it was below 5/200. Consequently, we could easily manage the retinal detachment with PVR with help of intraoperative perfluorocarbon liquid and could improve the postoperative surgical and visual outcomes.
Follow-Up Studies ; Retinal Detachment ; Visual Acuity ; Vitrectomy ; Vitreoretinopathy, Proliferative*

The purpose of the study is to describe the cases with prepapillary or peripapillary vascular malformation who have experienced mild vitreous hemorrhage. Five patients [5 eyes], 1 male and 4 females, were included in the study.The vascular malformation was unilaterally present in all patients.Vitreous hemorrhage occurred from the area of retinal vascular malformation near or on the optic nerve, and cleared without further complications. Fluorescein angiographic feature of each eye was normal. Arteriovenous communication, secondary retinal exudation, or vascular leakage from vascular malformation was not observed. Each patient showed improvement in visual acuity of 2 lines or more. This benign, congenital vascular malformation may be non-progressive and infrequently cause mild vitreous hemorrhage.Therapeutic intervention was not necessary in these cases.
Female ; Fluorescein ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Male ; Optic Nerve ; Retinaldehyde ; Vascular Malformations* ; Visual Acuity ; Vitreous Hemorrhage

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