PURPOSE: This study was carried out to investigate the sources of infection and modes of transmission of an 107 (54males, 53 females) confirmed shigellosis in Gyeongju from Sept. 24 to Oct. 24, 1998. METHODS: We reviewed hospital records of all confirmed shigellosis. Thirty-two strains of Shigella sonnei isolated were analyzed in order to trace the source of infections by plasmid profile, antimicrobial drug resistance pattern, biotyping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). RESULTS: The first source of infection was estimated to be contaminated underground water and simple piped water caused by leakage from the cess pool. Antimicrobial drug resistance pattern showed that all strains were multi-resistant. All isolates had the same XbaI and SfiI PFGE patterns, indicating the epidemiological relationship of the outbreaks strains in this area. The major characteristics of diarrhea were watery (84.2%) in nature. The clinical symptoms among the diarrheal cases included abdominal pain (86.1%), fever (83.2%), headache (78.2%), chill (45.5%) and tenesmus (41.6%). Six cases were asymptomatic. From initial manifestation to admission were 6.2+/-1.6 (median 6) days, so it could be transmitted to others in this infective period. Duration of admission were 5.5 +/-2.4 (median 6) days. We can find familial mean secondary attack rate were 38.5%. CONCLUSION: It's transmission to other areas were certified by contaminated water and contact with shigellosis, and unknown cases were estimated to be transmitted by contacts with inapparent infection. By plasmid profile and PFGE, the epidemiological relationship of the outbreaks strains in this area seemed to be the same micro-organisms.
Abdominal Pain ; Diarrhea ; Disease Outbreaks ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Dysentery, Bacillary* ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field ; Fever ; Groundwater ; Gyeongsangbuk-do* ; Headache ; Hospital Records ; Korea* ; Plasmids ; Shigella ; Shigella sonnei

ONJECTIVE: This study was carried out to investigate the epidemiologic characteristics and magnitudes of scrub typhus (tsutsugamushi disease) in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea. METHODS: Resources of data collected were epidemiologic surveillance report to public health centers on each disease occurrence. The authors reviewed 344 epidemiologic surveillance reports for cases of scrub typhus developed in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea from Jan 1, 1999 to Dec 31, 2001. RESULTS: The scrub typhus cases were 376 during three year period, and the incidence was significantly higher in the county area than in the city area. Incidence of scrub typhus was increasing each year. In 344 epidemiologic surveillance reports, the job of the cases was farmer (67.2%), housewife (4.7%), clerk (3.5%). Two hundred ninety eight cases (86.6%) have experienced outdoor activities before development of the scrub typhus. The outdoor places of exposure were dry field (64.8%), rice field (51.7%), hill (12.8), and grass field (9.7%). The symptoms reported were fever (93.3%), headache (83.7%), chill (69.5%), and rash (54.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Incidence of scrub typhus was increasing in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea, this phenomenon may be related to change of climate, the reporting rate of disease and outing activities. Good surveillance and adequate analysis of epidemiologic data is a essential for the prevention of the disease. With this result, high risk population was identified and effective intervention should be done to prevent the disease.
Climate ; Epidemiological Monitoring ; Epidemiology ; Exanthema ; Fever ; Gyeongsangbuk-do* ; Headache ; Incidence ; Korea ; Poaceae ; Public Health ; Scrub Typhus* ; Trombiculidae

PURPOSE: The cause of aseptic meningitis remains mostly unknown because viral culture and identification is difficult. Thus, we report a study on 123 children with aseptic meningitis in Gyeongju in 2002 to identify the causing virus and the relationship with the clinical manifestation. METHODS: We prospectively investigated the patients, admitted to Dongguk University Hospital, into two groups between April and October 2002. Group 1 included 123 patients diagnosed as aseptic meningitis. Group 2, the adimssion control, included 120 patients, who suffered from none-enteroviral diseases. Specimens of CSF and stool were collected to perform reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR), and enteroviral culuture was done in RT-PCR positive patients as well. RESULTS: The male to female sex ratio was 2.2:1 and the mean age was 6.2+/-3.7 years. The clinical manifestations were fever, headache and vomiting. The RT-PCR for enterovirus, performed in 58 cases of CSF in group 1, showed 5.2% positive results and negative result in viral culture. The RT-PCR for enterovirus used in stool specimens showed 89.3% and 41.1% of positive results in group 1 and group 2, respectively. Viral culture of stool specimens showed five cases of echovirus 13 and four cases of echovirus 6 in group 1, whereas three cases of echovirus 6 and one case of coxsackie B4 were detected in group 2. CONCLUSION: The etiologic viruses of the aseptic meningitis outbreak in Gyeongju in 2002 is presumed to be echovirus 13 and echovirus 6. Since echovirus 13 firstly appeared with various age distributions, the outbreak may have emerged due to a lack of acquisition of immunity to this virus.
Age Distribution ; Child ; Echovirus 6, Human ; Enterovirus ; Enterovirus B, Human ; Female ; Fever ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Headache ; Humans ; Male ; Meningitis, Aseptic* ; Prospective Studies ; Reverse Transcription ; Sex Ratio ; Vomiting

BACKGROUND: It is very important to determine an accurate staging of the non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) for an assessment of operability and it's prognosis. However, it is difficult to evaluate tumor involvement of mediastinal lymph nodes accurately utilizing noninvasive imaging modalities. PET is one of the sensitive and specific imaging modality. Unfortunately PET is limited use because of prohibitive cost involved with it's operation. Recently hybrid SPECT/PET (single photon emission computed tomography/positron emission tomography) camera based PET imaging was introduced with relatively low cost. We evaluated the usefulness of coincidence detection (CoDe) PET in the detection of metastasis to the mediastinal lymph nodes in patients with NSCLC. METHODS: Twenty one patients with NSCLC were evaluated by CT or MRI and they were considered operable. CoDe PET was performed in all 21 patients prior to surgery. Tomographic slices of axial, coronal and sagittal planes were visually analysed. At surgery, mediastinal lymph nodes were removed and histological diagnosis was performed. CoDe PET findings were correlated with histological findings. RESULTS: Twenty of 21 primary tumor masses were detected by the CoDe PET. Thirteen of 21 patients was correctly diagnosed mediastinal lymph node metastasis by the CoDe PET. Pathological NO was 14 cases and the specificity of NO of CoDe PET was 64.3%. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of N1 node was 83.3%, 73.3%, 55.6%, 91.7%, and 76.2% respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of N2 node was 60.0%, 87.5%, 60.0%, 87.5%, and 90.0% respectively. There were 3 false negative cases but the size of the 3 nodes were less than 1cm. The size of true positive nodes were 1.1cm, 1.0cm, 0.5cm respectively. There were 1 false positive among the 12 lymph nodes which were larger than 1cm. False positive cases consisted of 1 tuberculosis case, 1 pneumoconiosis case and 1 anthracosis case. CONCLUSION: CoDe PET has relatively high negative predictive value in the enlarged lymph node in staging of mediastinal nodes in patients with NSCLC. Therefore CoDe PET is useful in ruling out metastasis of enlarged N3 nodes. However, further study is needed including more number of patients in the future.
Anthracosis ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Diagnosis ; Electrons* ; Humans ; Lung ; Lymph Nodes ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pneumoconiosis ; Positron-Emission Tomography* ; Prognosis ; Tuberculosis

BACKGROUND: Phospholipase C(PLC) plays a central role in cellular signal transduction and is important in cellular growth, differentiation and transformation. There are currently ten known mammalian isozymes of PLC reported to this date. Hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate(PIP2) by PLC produces two important second messengers, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate(IP3) and diacylglycerol. PLC-gamma1, previously, was known to be activated mainly through growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase. Other mechanisms of activating PLC-gamma1 have been reported such as activation through tau protein in the presence of arachidonic acid in bovine brain and activation by IP3, phosphatidic acid, etc. Very recently, another PLC-gamma1 activator protein such as tau has been found in bovine lung tissue, which now is considered to be AHNAK protein. But there has been no report concerning AHNAK and its associated disease to this date. In this study, we examined the expression of the PLC-gamma1 activator, AHNAK, in lung cancer specimens and their paired normal. METHODS: From surgically resected human lung cancer tissues taken from twenty-eight patients and their paired normal counterparts, we evaluated expression level of AHNAK protein using immunoblot analysis of total tissue extract. Immunohistochemical stain was performed with primary antibody against AHNAK protein. RESULTS: Twenty-two among twenty-eight lung cancer tissues showed over expression of AHNAK protein(eight of fourteen squamous cell lung cancers, all of fourteen adenocarcinomal). the resulting bands were multiple ranging from 70 to 200 kDa in molecular weight and each band was indistinct and formed a smear, reflecting mobility shift mainly due to proteolysis during extraction process. On immunohistochemistry, lung cancer tissues showed a very heavy, dense staining with anti-AHNAK protein antibody as compared to the surrounding normal lung tissue, coresponding well with the results of the western blot. CONCLUSION: The overexpression of PLC-gamma1 activator protein, AHNAK in lung cancer may provide evidence that the AHNAK protein and PLC-gamma1 act in concerted manner in carcinogenesis.
Arachidonic Acid ; Blotting, Western ; Brain ; Carcinogenesis ; Humans* ; Hydrolysis ; Immunohistochemistry ; Inositol ; Isoenzymes ; Lung Neoplasms* ; Lung* ; Molecular Weight ; Phosphatidic Acids ; Phosphatidylinositols ; Phospholipases* ; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases ; Proteolysis ; Second Messenger Systems ; Signal Transduction ; tau Proteins

BACKGROUND: High-dose chemotherapy is increasingly employed in many refractory malignant diseases. This therapy has been reported to increase response rate and survival benefits but it is also associated with higher treatment-related morbidity and mortality. We evaluated clinical characteristics and course of the pulmonary toxicity following high-dose chemotherapy with peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. METHODS: Ninety-seven patients who had received high-dose chemotherapy with peripheral blood stem cell transplantation were evaluated. Five patients who developed lung lesions which were not related to infection nor primary malignant disease underwent transbronchial lung biopsy. The patients' clinical characteristics, treatments, and prognosis were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS: Five patients(5.1%) developed idiopathic pneumonia syndrome. The high dose chemotherapy regimens employed were cyclophosphamide, BCNU, and cisplatin in 3 cases, one case of BCNU, etoposide, Ara-C, cyclophosphamide combination, and a regimen consisting of BCNU, etoposide, Ara-C, and melphalan. The total dose of BCNU used was 300-400 mg/m2 and that of cyclophosphsmide was 6,000 mg/m2. All of 5 patients received radiation therapy before this treatment. After an average duration of 14 weeks (4-26 weeks) of high-dose chemotherapy, patients developed cough, dyspnea and fever. The chest X-rays showed bilateral diffuse infiltration in 3 cases and the focal infiltration in the other 2 cases. All the patients received corticosteroid therapy as a treatment for the lung lesions. Two of them progressed to acute respiratory distress syndrome and died. Three patients recovered without residual lung lesion but one of them died of dilated cardiomyopathy. CONCLUSION: High-dose chemotherapy with peripheral blood stem cell transplantation especially which containing BCNU regimen may develop idiopathic pneumonia syndrome related to pulmonary toxicity and corticosteroid therapy may be beneficial in some cases.
Biopsy ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ; Carmustine ; Cisplatin ; Cough ; Cyclophosphamide ; Cytarabine ; Drug Therapy* ; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions ; Dyspnea ; Etoposide ; Fever ; Humans ; Lung ; Melphalan ; Mortality ; Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Pneumonia ; Prognosis ; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult ; Retrospective Studies ; Thorax

This study was conducted to evaluate the modes of transmission of aseptic meningitis (AM) and hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) using a case-control and a case-crossover design. We recruited 205 childhood AM and 116 HFMD cases and 170 non-enteroviral disease controls from three general hospitals in Gyeongju, Pohang, and Seoul between May and August in both 2002 and 2003. For the case-crossover design, we established the hazard and non-hazard periods as week one and week four before admission, respectively. In the case-control design, drinking water that had not been boiled, not using a water purifier, changes in water quality, and contact with AM patients were significantly associated with the risk of AM (odds ratio [OR]=2.8, 2.9, 4.6, and 10.9, respectively), while drinking water that had not been boiled, having a non-water closet toilet, changes in water quality, and contact with HFMD patients were associated with risk of HFMD (OR=3.3, 2.8, 6.9, and 5.0, respectively). In the case-crossover design, many life-style variables such as contact with AM or HFMD patients, visiting a hospital, changes in water quality, presence of a skin wound, eating out, and going shopping were significantly associated with the risk of AM (OR=18.0, 7.0, 8.0, 2.2, 22.3, and 3.0, respectively) and HFMD (OR=9.0, 37.0, 11.0, 12.0, 37.0, and 5.0, respectively). Our findings suggest that person-to-person contact and contaminated water could be the principal modes of transmission of AM and HFMD.
Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Comorbidity ; Disease Outbreaks/*statistics & numerical data ; Enterovirus Infections/*epidemiology/*transmission ; Female ; Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease/*epidemiology/*transmission ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Meningitis, Aseptic/*epidemiology ; Risk Assessment ; Risk Factors ; *Seasons