No abstract available.
Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt

Small cell carcinoma of the cervix has been traditionally considered a rare subtype ofsquamous cell carcinoma characterized by a highly malignant behavior. However, it has becomeobvious that the majority of small cell carcinomas of the cervix expresses neuroendocrine,not squamous, differentiation. One case of intermediate cell neuroendocrine carinoma andthree cases of small cell undifferentiated carcinoma were reported. Patients ranged in age from37 to 50 (median, 44years) and presental as stages Ib(two patients), IIa(one patient), andIIb(one patient). One cases of intermediate cell neuroendocrine carinoma was combined with-endocervical adenocarcinoma and one case of small cell undifferentiated carcinoma was combinedwith adenocarcinoma in situ. All 4 tumors expressed one or more epithelial markers andneuroendocrine markers. Electron microscopically, neuroendocrine granules were observed inall 4 cases but large amount in intermediate cell neuroendocrine carinoma. A variety of treatmentregimens was employed. One patient with intermediate cell neuroendocrine carinoma isalive now for 60 months after starting of treatment. But two of three patients with small cellundifferentiated carcinoma died of disease (34, 45 months) and one of them is alive now for20 months. One patient had spinal metastasis and paraplegia which were treated twice withsurgery and irradiation on tumor bed and the other patient was comatose with multiple livermetastasis. Small cell undifferentiated carcinoma of the cervix was more aggressive thanintermediate cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix. We can differentiate small cellundifferentiated carcinoma of the cervix from intermediate cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of thecervix, pathologically, ultrastructurally and immunocytochemically.
Adenocarcinoma ; Carcinoma ; Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine ; Carcinoma, Small Cell* ; Cervix Uteri* ; Coma ; Female ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paraplegia

Photodynamic therapy is a promising modality for the palliation of advanced upper gastrointestinal cancer and for the eradication of early neoplastic and pre-neoplastic lesions. It is based on the combination of a photosensitizer that is selectively localized in the target tissue and illumination of the lesion with visible light, resulting in photodamage and subsequent cell death. For early esophageal cancer, esophagectomy has been a standard modality of curative intent. However, accumulated data supports the possibility of PDT replacing surgery as a curative modality. We experienced a case of early esophageal cancer that recurred after esophagectomy. The patient was successfully treated with photodynamic therapy using porfimer sodium as a photosensitizer.
Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal ; Esophageal Neoplasms/*drug therapy/pathology/surgery ; *Esophagectomy ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Photochemotherapy ; Photosensitizing Agents/administration & dosage/*therapeutic use

PURPOSE: This study was conducted in order to describe how intern physicians in the emergency department (ED) spent their time, and the frequency of tasks performed by them. METHODS: This was an observational, time-motion study for 15 intern physicians in 15 emergency centers. Observers in each hospital shadowed interns for a 60-minute period, two times, both day and night shift. They recorded time spent on various activities, type and number of activities. The proportion of activity that can be replaced by other staff members was calculated. RESULTS: Average number of duty hours of interns was 80.9 hours (63~87.8) per week. A total of 662 activities were observed during 30 hours. Interns' activities were classified as direct patient care 28.2%, personal time 24.2%, documentation 17.0%, procedures 16.7%, communication 8.1%, transportation 2.6%, indirect patient care 2.0%, learning activity 0.8%, and administrative work 0.4%. The proportion of procedural task showed negative correlation with the number of emergency medical technicians (r=-0.710, p=0.003). The proportion of activity that can be replaced by staff members other than doctors was 24.3% (0~47%) of time, except personal or learning activity. CONCLUSION: Results of this study showed that only 24.3% of interns' activity in the emergency department could be replaced by staff members other than doctors. Because the proportion of activities that could be replaced was variable among hospitals, each hospital should perform task analysis of interns' activity in order to forecast alternative manpower.
Cross-Sectional Studies* ; Emergencies ; Emergency Medical Technicians ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Learning ; Patient Care ; Time and Motion Studies ; Transportation

OBJECTIVES: The escalating burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a critical public health issue worldwide. CVD, especially acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stroke, is the leading contributor to morbidity and mortality in Korea. We aimed to develop algorithms for identifying AMI and stroke events from the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) database and validate these algorithms through medical record review. METHODS: We first established a concept and definition of “hospitalization episode,” taking into account the unique features of health claims-based NHIS database. We then developed first and recurrent event identification algorithms, separately for AMI and stroke, to determine whether each hospitalization episode represents a true incident case of AMI or stroke. Finally, we assessed our algorithms’ accuracy by calculating their positive predictive values (PPVs) based on medical records of algorithm- identified events. RESULTS: We developed identification algorithms for both AMI and stroke. To validate them, we conducted retrospective review of medical records for 3,140 algorithm-identified events (1,399 AMI and 1,741 stroke events) across 24 hospitals throughout Korea. The overall PPVs for the first and recurrent AMI events were around 92% and 78%, respectively, while those for the first and recurrent stroke events were around 88% and 81%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS We successfully developed algorithms for identifying AMI and stroke events. The algorithms demonstrated high accuracy, with PPVs of approximately 90% for first events and 80% for recurrent events. These findings indicate that our algorithms hold promise as an instrumental tool for the consistent and reliable production of national CVD statistics in Korea.