No abstract available.
Appendicitis* ; Child* ; Humans

BACKGROUND: Photodynamic therapy is a treatment modality which involves the sequential administration of a photosensitizer and light. Topical photodynamic therapy is being increasingly used for superficial non-melanoma skin cancers and their precursors. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and side effects of treating actinic keratosis with photodynamic therapy using a light-emitting diode device and 20% 5-aminolevulinic acid. METHODS: Photodynamic therapy, with a 630+/-50nm light-emitting diode device and 5-aminolevulinic acid, was used to treat 12 lesions of actinic keratosis on 8 patients. The light intensity used was 50mW/cm2 , and the light dose was 100-120J/cm2 . Four weeks after 1 or 2 treatment sessions, the outcome was evaluated by histopathological findings. RESULTS: Complete clearance was achieved in 8 of 12 lesions after a single treatment, and in 3 of 12 lesions after 2 treatment sessions. Only 1 case showed partial response after 2 treatment sessions. Only 2 patients suffered from a stinging sensation when exposed to the light therapy. CONCLUSION: Topical photodynamic therapy using a light-emitting diode is safe and effective in the treatment of actinic keratosis.
Actins* ; Bites and Stings ; Humans ; Keratosis, Actinic* ; Photochemotherapy* ; Phototherapy ; Sensation ; Skin Neoplasms

BACKGROUND: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been reported to be useful in treating nonmelanoma skin cancers and a variety of benign skin conditions including warts. However, only one case of condyloma acuminata treated with PDT has been reported in Korea. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the complete response rate and side effect of PDT, using light emitting diode (LED) device and 20% 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) to treat recalcitrant verruca. METHODS: We treated 8 cases of recalcitrant verruca (3 cases of verruca vulgaris, 3 cases of verruca plana, 2 cases of condyloma acuminata) with PDT, using ALA and a 630+/-50nm LED device. The light intensity was 30-50mW/cm2 and the light dose was 50-120J/cm2. RESULTS: After treatment, two cases of verruca plana showed complete response, and one case of verruca plana, two cases of verruca vulgaris, and two cases of condyloma acuminata showed partial response. However, one case of verruca vulgaris showed no response. There was only burning sensation and/or wheals during treatments. CONCLUSION: Topical PDT may be an alternative therapy in the treatment of verruca, especially of verruca plana.
Burns ; Korea ; Photochemotherapy* ; Sensation ; Skin ; Skin Neoplasms ; Warts*

In the treatment of aortoiliac disease, two methods could be considered. One is percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, and the other is bypass graft. However sometimes two methods could be combined in high risk patients with a lengthy unilateral occlusion of one iliac artery and less extensive obstruction of the contralateral one, since higher risk aortofemoral bypass surgery may be obviated by femoro-femoral bypass graft after percutaneous treatment of the less diseased iliac artery. We report two cases of arortoiliac disease treated with Strecker stent followed by femoro-femoral bypass graft.
Angioplasty ; Humans ; Iliac Artery ; Stents* ; Transplants*

In the treatment of aortoiliac disease, two methods could be considered. One is percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, and the other is bypass graft. However sometimes two methods could be combined in high risk patients with a lengthy unilateral occlusion of one iliac artery and less extensive obstruction of the contralateral one, since higher risk aortofemoral bypass surgery may be obviated by femoro-femoral bypass graft after percutaneous treatment of the less diseased iliac artery. We report two cases of arortoiliac disease treated with Strecker stent followed by femoro-femoral bypass graft.
Angioplasty ; Humans ; Iliac Artery ; Stents* ; Transplants*

OBJECTIVES: The cold provocation test for diagnosing the vascular component in hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is likely to be accepted as an objective test, and a few studies have been performed. However, controversy has continued regarding the diagnostic performance of this method. Although objective methods such as plethysmography and laser doppler flowmetry have been studied, they have not received as much attention as other diagnostic methods. Therefore, our study aim was to spread the awareness of HAVS by reporting the results of the cold provocation test in a hand-transmitted vibration exposure group. METHODS: The study subjects were 549 workers who had been exposed to hand-transmitted vibrations and reported symptoms in their hands. While the subject immersed both their hands in 10degrees C water for 10 minutes, the skin temperature of 10 fingers was recorded from pre-immersion time to 20 minute postimmersion including 10 minutes immersion time. The recovery rates were calculated from the recorded skin temperatures. The 'decreased recovery rate' criteria were less than 30% at 5 minutes post-immersion and 60% at 10 minute post-immersion. RESULTS: Of the subjects, 69.1% and 30.9% had more severe symptoms in the right and left hands, respectively. The mean finger skin temperature of the right hand after cold-water immersion for 10 minutes was approximately 10degrees C, which increased gradually with time, but they did not reach the baseline temperature at 20 minutes post-immersion. The deviations of the skin temperature in the subjects were higher in the recovery phase than in the baseline and cold immersion phase. The 3rd finger of both hands showed the lowest 5-minute recovery rate among the fingers examined, and the left 4th finger and right 3rd finger showed the lowest 10-minute recovery rate. Of the subjects, 37.6% and 10.4% of subjects showed a lower recovery rate at 5 and 10 minutes in at least one finger, respectively, while 10.2% showed a lower recovery rate at both 5 and 10 minutes simultaneously in at least one finger. CONCLUSIONS: The larger deviations in the recovery phase than in the other phases indicated that interindividual differences are more prominent in the recovery phase. There might be no benefit in observing the finger skin temperature for an additional 10 minutes after 10 minutes post-immersion. Overall, approximately 10% of the subjects in the HAVS risk group had HAVS.
Cold Temperature ; Fingers ; Hand ; Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome ; Immersion ; Laser-Doppler Flowmetry ; Plethysmography ; Skin Temperature ; Vibration ; Water

Acute pancreatitis may complicate viral hepatitis B, as well as the other causes of viral hepatitis. There have been reports of acute pancreatitis complicating acute exacerbations of chronic hepatitis B virus infection, most of which were related to immunosuppressive treatment or organ transplantation. However, acute pancreatitis complicating spontaneous acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis B virus infection is rare. We report a case of acute pancreatitis that developed while a spontaneous acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis B virus infection was underway in a healthy carrier.
Hepatitis ; Hepatitis B ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; Hepatitis, Chronic ; Organ Transplantation ; Pancreatitis ; Transplants ; Viruses

OBJECTIVES: Workers from a factory was selected to compare 8 standard threshold shift criteria with the Korean diagnostic criteria of noise-induced hearing loss for this cohort study. METHODS: From 1990 to 1999, 491 workers at a manufacturing company with complete record of the hearing test covering the range of 0.5~6 kHz for 10 consecutive years were finally selected. Eight standard threshold shift criteria (15 dB once, NIOSH (1972), 10 dB average 3~4 kHz, OSHA STS, AAOHNS, 15 dB twice, 15 dB 1~4 kHz, OSHA STS twice) along with the Korean standard for diagnosing the noise-induced hearing loss (the average hearing threshold at 0.5, 1 and 2 kHz) were compared to calculate the degree of the threshold shift and the minimum time required to detect the change. RESULTS: Those workers showing at least one positive shift in the 'once'criteria of NIOSH (1972) were 92.5%; the 'average'criteria of 10 dB average 3~4 kHz were 35.8%; 'twice'criteria of 15 dB twice were 44.4%. The duration from the baseline to the year showing the first positive shift was from 3.2 +/- 3.1 years (NIOSH, 1972) to 6.0 +/- 2.1 years (OSHA STS twice). The percentage of true positive shift ranging from 20.4% (AAO-HNS) to 69.8% (NIOSH, 1972). There were 10 (2%) which met the Korean diagnostic criteria of noise-induced hearing loss. CONCLUSIONS: Currently the concept of hearing threshold shift in diagnosing the hearing loss was adopted in Korea thus in this study we determined the validity and the effect of the various hearing threshold shift criteria and showed that NIOSH (1972) criteria was the best of all. In the future, hearing data from various manufacturing workers should be compared to thoroughly evaluate the threshold shift criteria and to establish adequate standard for Korean workers.
Cohort Studies ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced ; Hearing Tests ; Hearing* ; Korea ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (U.S.) ; United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is commonly diagnosed using the semi-quantitative grading and staging system proposed by Brunt et al. in 1999. The Pathology Committee of the NASH established the nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD) activity score (NAS) in 2005. The aim of this study was to elucidate the validity and reliability of the NAS in Korean NAFLD patients. METHODS: Fifty-six patients on whom sonography-guided liver biopsy for well-defined NAFLD was performed between 1999 and 2007 were identified retrospectively. Two pathologists evaluated each biopsy sample. NAFLD was evaluated using both the grading system developed by Brunt et al. and the NAS. Each pathologist was blinded to the patients' clinical data and scored independently. We evaluated the body mass index (BMI), liver enzymes, lipid profile, peripheral insulin resistance, leptin, insulin/c-peptide ratio, ferritin, and fasting blood glucose. RESULTS: The patients were aged 32.1+/-12.5 years (mean+/-SD) and comprised 44 males (78.6%). Patients with different grades at the two grading systems had mild steatosis or ballooning changes with fibrosis, and 36.6% of them were borderline cases (NAS of 3 or 4). The interobserver agreement on diagnostic category was 0.748 (P<0.001) for the NAS (using weighted kappa statistics). Elevated fasting glucose, ALT, and triglyceride were associated with the NAS. CONCLUSIONS: The simple and reproducible NAS was found to be a useful pathologic grading system in Korean NAFLD patients. However, the proportion of borderline cases based on the NAS was high. The "wait and see" strategy is necessary for evaluating the long-term prognosis.
Adult ; Alanine Transaminase/blood ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Blood Glucose/analysis ; Fatty Liver/*pathology/ultrasonography ; Female ; Ferritins/blood ; Fibrosis ; Humans ; Insulin Resistance ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Reproducibility of Results ; Republic of Korea ; Retrospective Studies ; *Severity of Illness Index ; Triglycerides/blood ; Validation Studies as Topic