BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to prove that human infection of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis might be occurred by drinking of mountain spring water contaminated with wild mice excreta through epidemiological tool. METHOD: Y. pseudotuberculosis strains which were isolated from patient stools, mountain spring water and mice excreta were analysed by serotyping of O antigen and plasmid DNA profile (Restriction Endonuclease Analysis of Plasmic DNA analysis REAP) assay Also reservoir rate of Y. pseudotuberculosis was calculated from wild mice which were captured throughout Korean mountains. RESULTS: Reservoir rate of Y. pseudotuberculosis from wild mice in Korea was 0.85% and was not higher than that in other country. The analysis of 66 strains of Y. pseudotuberculosis showed that 36 strains of serotype 15, REAP B type, 24 strains of serotype 4b, REAP D type, and 1 strain of serotype 4b, REAP new unclassifiable type, but 5 strains didn't have plasmic (serotype 15:3, 11 :2) .Especially same 4b, D type of Y. pseudotuberculosis was isolated from patient stools, mountain spring water and wild mouse (Apodemus agrarius) excretion and this fact was considered that Y. pseudotuberculosis strains from 3 groups were closely correlated epidemiologically. Also serotype 15, REAP B strains were isolated from patient stools and mountain spring water, but were not isolated from wild mice yet and 15, B type was isolated from Korea only and considered as native Korean strain which had not isolated in other countries yet. CONCLUSIONS: Human Y. pseudotuberculosis infection in Korea was occurred by drinking of contaminated mountain spring water and A. agrarius was one of main reservoir which contaminates mountain spring waters in Korea, Also above antigenic distribution of Y. pseudotuberculosis would be useful for development of ELISA kit of Korean type.
Animals ; DNA ; Drinking ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Korea ; Mice ; O Antigens ; Plasmids ; Serotyping ; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis* ; Yersinia*

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the performance of Modular Analytics (Roche Diagnostics, Basel, Switzerland) which is combined with automated chemiluminescent immunoassay analyzer and automated chemical analyzer

in order to assess its utility for the improvement of efficiency of routine immuno-chemistry workstation. METHODS: Within- and between-day precision, linearity, and recovery rates were evaluated for 21 items (T3, T4, TSH, E2, LH, Testosterone, FSH, prolactin, AFP, CEA, CA125, CA19-9, total PSA, CRP, ASO, RF, Ig G, Ig M, Ig A, C3C, and C4). Commercialized controls(Roche Diagnostics, Basel, Switzerland) and patient sera for test specimens were used. Centaur(Bayer Diagnostic Division, New York, USA) and LX 2200(Eiken Chemical Co., Tokyo, Japan) were used as the control analyzers to evaluate the correlation. RESULTS: Within-day Coefficients of variation(CVs) was below 5% for all the analytes and between-day CVs was below 5.0% except ASO(8.01%). The linearity was excellent(r2>0.999; slope, 0.98-1.02; p<0.001). Recovery rates for all analytes were in the range of 95% to 103%. The correlation coefficients between modular and Centaur was exceeded 0.971, and between modular

and LX2200 exceeded 0.910, except RF(r=0.834). (P<0.05) CONCLUSION: The recently developed Modular Analytics proved to be highly precise and linear for quantitative analysis of hormones, tumor markers, and serum proteins in routine immuno-chemistry workstation. Correlations with Centaur and LX 2200 were thought to be good.
Blood Proteins ; Humans ; Immunoassay ; Prolactin ; Testosterone ; Biomarkers, Tumor

No abstract available.
Base Sequence* ; Bone Marrow Transplantation* ; Bone Marrow* ; Chimerism* ; DNA* ; Genome, Human* ; Graft vs Host Disease* ; Humans ; Humans* ; Leukemia* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Recurrence* ; Tandem Repeat Sequences* ; Transplants*

BACKGROUND: Diagnostic rate of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infection by stool culture is low and slide agglutination (SA) method in serum has diagnostic problem due to high false positive rate and cross reaction with other febrile diseases. Therefore we tried to develop first stage whole cell Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test against Y. pseudotuberculosis antigen using Korean strains of Y. pseudotuberculosis. METHODS: Korean strains of Y. pseudotuberculosis (serotype:4b and 15) were cultured and cell wall was destroyed by sonifier and used as antigen. Microplate wells were coated with antigen and sera of three group (patient group, control group and adult group) were added and incubated at 37degreesC. Peroxidase conjugated rabbit antihuman IgG and goat antihuman IgM were added and substrate (3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine) adding was followed. Optical density was measured by spectrophotometer at 450 nm. RESULTS: Patient group (n=22) who has more than 1:80 titer in SA method showed 27.3% positivity in IgG antibody and 63.6% positivity in IgM antibody in noncompetitive sandwich method of ELISA test. Adult group (n=50) showed 26.0% positivity in IgG antibody. Positivity rate of antibody in ELISA test was not correlated with agglutination titer in SA method but both antibodies were positive in 3 cases which have agglutination titer above 1:1280. CONCLUSIONS: Whole cell ELISA test was tried by Y. pseudotuberculosis antigens using serotypes which were isolated in Korea. Positivity rate of both IgG and IgM antibodies by ELISA test was not correlated with agglutination titer of SA method.
Adult ; Agglutination ; Antibodies ; Cell Wall ; Control Groups ; Cross Reactions ; Diagnosis* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay* ; Goats ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulin M ; Korea ; Peroxidase ; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis* ; Yersinia*

BACKGROUND: Neutrophil hypersegmentation (NH) in peripheral blood is known to be usually associated with deficiency of vitamin B12 or folate. Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is another suggested cause of NH based on a limited number of studies, but the mechanism is uncertain. There was no such study in Korea. METHODS: The study groups were 41 patients with IDA (four males, 37 females ; mean age, 43.63+/-15.71) and 39 hematologically normal patients (five males, 34 females ; mean age, 46.64+/-19.12). We counted the number of nuclear lobes for 100 neutrophils on Wright-stained peripheral blood smear. Two lobes were regarded as separate only if there was a clear filament or the isthmus between them contained no nuclear material. The neutrophils with uncertainty in nuclear lobe count were classified as 'folded'. RESULTS: NH was observed in 14.6% (6/41) of patients with IDA and 7.6% (3/39) of normal controls. Mean neutrophil lobe counts were 2.48+/-0.28 and 2.43+/-0.27, respectively. There was no statistical significance in these differences. CONCLUSION: We could not find significant relation between NH and IDA in Korean, which is different from studies performed in other countries. This result may suggest the possibility of racial differences in the mechanism connecting IDA and NH, if there is any.
Anemia, Iron-Deficiency* ; Female ; Folic Acid ; Humans ; Iron* ; Korea ; Male ; Neutrophils* ; Uncertainty ; Vitamin B 12

BACKGROUND: Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is recognized throughout the world as a cause of water-or food born infections in human and animals. Although many attempts have been made to define optimal conditions for the isolation of the organism from water, their isolation yields remain low; therefore, we tried to find an effective method for the recovery of Y. pseudotuberculosis from water. METHODS: Water samples were deliberately contaminated with Y. pseudotuberculosis at various levels and then processed by the following three isolation METHODS: centrifugation, direct filtration, and intracellular culture. For the centrifugation method, the water samples were centrifuged at 5000 rpm for 1 hr and the final precipitates were inoculated in cefsulodin-irgasan-novobiocin(CIN) media. For the filtration method, the water samples were filtered by negative pressure and the filter papers were put directly on CIN media. For the intracellular culture method, the organisms were extracted from the HeLa cells that had been infected with Y. pseudotuberculosis and inoculated on CIN media. We also examined the efficacy of the filtration method after cold enrichment with a mixture of Y. pseudotuberculosis, Escherichia coli, and Citrobacter freundii. RESULTS: With the concentration of 3x10(2)/100 mL, Y. pseudotuberculosis was isolated only by the filtration method; however, none of the culture methods were good enough to recover the organism from the water sample when the concentration was 3x10/100 mL. With cold enrichment, however, the recovery was much more efficient; the organism grew after direct inoculation or after filter inoculation when the starting concentrations were 3x10(2)/100 mL or 3x10/100 mL, respectively. CONCLUSION: A combined use of direct filtration and filter inoculation after cold enrichment is the most effective method to yield Y. pseudotuberculosis isolation. The introduction of effective methods for the isolation of Y. pseudotuberculosis from untreated drinking water would increase the awareness by the public of the health hazard of spring water.
Animals ; Centrifugation ; Citrobacter freundii ; Drinking Water ; Escherichia coli ; Filtration ; HeLa Cells ; Humans ; Water* ; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis* ; Yersinia*

BACKGROUND: In order to investigate transmission route of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infection in Korea, we tried epidemiological study among human strains, mountain spring water strain and wild mouse strain which were isolated in north eastern area of Seoul on spring in 1996. METHODS: Plasmid profile (Restriction Endonuclease Analysis of Virulence Plasmid DNA analysis: REAP) assay in addition to serotyping were performed among human strains, mountain spring water strain and wild mouse strains. RESULTS: All isolates were the same O serotype of 4b and the same REAP pattern of type D. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that wild mice (especially Apodemus agrarius) were one of main reservoir of Y. pseudotuberculosis in Korea and their fecal material might contaminate mountain spring water. Most of human infections of Y. pseudotuberculosis were originated from drinking of contaminated mountain spring waters in Korea.
Animals ; DNA* ; Drinking ; Epidemiologic Studies* ; Epidemiology ; Humans ; Korea ; Mice ; Murinae ; Plasmids* ; Seoul ; Serotyping ; Virulence ; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis* ; Yersinia*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Dogs ; Mandible

Malaria is known to have been eradicated for a few decades through the persistent efforts of the national health program in South Korea. However, malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax has started to reappear incidiously among military personnel near to the De-militarized Zone since 1993. From that time on the number of malarial cases have increased abruptly year by year. However, congenital malaria in a neonate is extreamly rare in Korea. We experienced one case of malaria in a neonate who was born from a mother affected by malaria. This neonate was born at 33(+3) weeks of gestational age. Here we present this case with a brief review of the literature.
Gestational Age ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea ; Malaria* ; Military Personnel ; Mothers ; National Health Programs ; Plasmodium vivax

BACKGROUND: Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, a member of genus Enterobactericeae, is a main etiologic organism of diarrhea in childhood. Because a mouse and a unchlorinated spring water are main reservoirs of Y. pseudotuberculosis, the strains from a contaminated spring water and mouse could be involved in human epidemic. The purpose of this study was to investigate a clonality between the strains from patients and those from an unchlorinated spring water and a mouse by restriction enzyme analysis of plasmid DNA and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). METHOD: We isolated 15 Y. pseudotuberculosis strains including 8 isolates from patients (S1-S8), 6 isolates from mountain water (W1-W6), 1 isolate from a mouse (M1) in northeast area of Seoul. Plasmid and chromosomal DNA of all strains were analyzed by REAP with Bam H1 restriction and by PFGE with Xba I restriction , respectively. RESULTS: Restriction enzyme analysis of plasmid DNA was classified into type B and type D. All 7 strains of serotype 15 were classified as type B and 8 strains of serotype 4b were classified as type D. PFGE were classified into 6 different types. Among them, strains of PFGE type I, II, III, IV belong to Y. pseudotuberculosis serotype 15 and Y. pseudotuberculosis 4b strains were classified into PFGE type V, VI. S1 and W1 were classified into PFGE type I . S8, W6 and M1 were classfied into PFGE type VI. CONCLUSIONS: PFGE revealed clonality among strains from patients, a water and a mouse. PFGE was more discriminative than REAP to characterize the Y. pseudotuberculosis outbreaks in Korea.
Animals ; Diarrhea ; Disease Outbreaks ; DNA* ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field ; Humans ; Korea* ; Mice ; Plasmids* ; Restriction Mapping* ; Seoul ; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis* ; Yersinia*