BACKGROUND: Recently we have demonstrated that urinary cotinine test by an enzyme immunoassay is valid to discriminate smoking status among adults. This study was conducted for the same purpose among Korean high school students. METHODS: Questionnaire on smoking and urinary cotinine tests were performed for 1, 267 high school students. Cotinine concentrations in urine were measured by Cotinine Enzyme Immunoassay (Diag-nostic Reagents Inc., CA, USA) on 502X Multiple Chemistry Unit (A&T Co., Tokyo, Japan). RESULTS: The questionnaire was responded by 1, 227 of the 1, 267 students (96.8%); 6 male (0.8%) and 34 female students (5.9%) did not respond. Among the responders, 13.4% (92/685) of male students and 3.0% (16/542) of female students answered as smokers. By using 6 ng/mL as a cutoff, the sensitivity and specificity of the urinary cotinine test were 79.6% (86/108) and 91.4% (1023/1119), respectively. According to the results of urinary cotinine, 96 additional students were presumed as smokers. Of 85 abstainers and 40 non-responders, 41 (32.8%) tested positive for urinary cotinine. CONCLUSIONS: Unlike in a previous study with adults, the urinary cotinine test is shown not to be able to replace the self-reported questionnaire due to the lack of sensitivity for young adolescents. But the urinary continine test is valid to discriminate smokers among purported nonsmokers, espe-cially among non-responders and those who claimed abstinence.
Adolescent* ; Adult ; Chemistry ; Cotinine* ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Indicators and Reagents ; Male ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Surveys and Questionnaires

A 29-year-old woman with mild back pain when coughing and suprapubic discomfort after voiding was admitted to Pusan National University Hospital. Two weeks earlier, she had undergone a hysterectomy and right-sided ureteroneocystostomy for uterine atony and right ureteral injury with bladder rupture. Computed tomography showed that a ureteral J stent extended from the right ovarian vein to the right cardiac chamber. The stent was retrieved via both femoral veins with a snare loop and pigtail catheter. Computed tomography showed that the urinary and vascular tracts were normal 5 months after the procedure.
Adult ; Back Pain ; Busan ; Catheters ; Cough ; Female ; Femoral Vein ; Foreign-Body Migration ; Heart ; Humans ; Hysterectomy ; Rupture ; SNARE Proteins ; Stents* ; Ureter* ; Urinary Bladder ; Uterine Inertia ; Veins

PURPOSE: The aim of study was to evaluate the usefulness of serum HER2 as a therapeutic response indicator in patients with HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The levels of serum HER2 and CA15.3 were assayed in 148 serial serum samples from 50 HER2 positive MBC patients at both the baseline and follow-ups. The changes in the levels of serum HER2 and CA15.3 in relation to the tumor responses to the various chemotherapy regimens were monitored. RESULTS: The levels of serum HER2 and CA15.3 were elevated in 82% and 62% of tissue HER2 positive patients, respectively, prior to therapies, with the changes in both tumor markers showing statistical significance in relation to the tumor responses (p<0.01) in patients with elevated baseline serum markers. CONCLUSION: The level of serum HER2 could be a valuable response indicator, not only for trastuzumab containing therapy, but also for other common MBC chemotherapeutic agents. Also, as it is more frequently elevated, the serum level of HER2 may also be a more useful tumor marker than CA15.3 in HER2 positive MBC.
Biomarkers ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Biomarkers, Tumor ; Trastuzumab

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of mirodenafil in middle-aged male patients with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighty-eight males with CP/CPPS were randomized to receive either levofloxacin (500 mg/d) (group L, 40 patients) or levofloxacin (500 mg/d) and mirodenafil (50 mg/d) (group ML, 48 patients) for six weeks. The International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI), and erectile function (EF) domain scores of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) questionnaire were used to grade symptoms at baseline and 6 weeks after treatment. RESULTS: The mean change in total IPSS from baseline was higher in group ML than that in group L (group L, -1.1 vs. group ML, -4.3; p<0.05). Significant improvements were also seen in the IPSS voiding subscore (group L, -0.7 vs. group ML, -3.0; p<0.05). Changes observed in the NIH-CPSI of group ML at six weeks were greater than those at baseline (group L, -3.2 vs. group ML, -7.2; p<0.05). Significant improvements were seen in the NIH-CPSI voiding (group L, -0.5 vs. group ML, -1.7; p<0.05) and quality of life domains (group L, -1.0 vs. group ML, -1.8; p<0.05). Group ML showed a significantly greater increase in the IIEF-EF score than did group ML (group L, +0.2 vs. group ML, +7.8; p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Mirodenafil (50 mg once daily) was well tolerated and resulted in significant symptomatic improvement in middle-aged males with CP/CPPS.
Erectile Dysfunction ; Humans ; Levofloxacin ; Male ; National Institutes of Health (U.S.) ; Pelvic Pain* ; Phosphodiesterase 5 Inhibitors ; Prostate ; Prostatitis ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Treatment Outcome

BACKGROUND: The automation system for blood typing and antibody screening has been developed and is now used widely. In this study, we evaluated the economic effectiveness between automation system QWALYS-3 (DIAGAST, Loos Cedex, France) and manual testing. METHODS: Clinical samples from March 2012 were used for comparison of the costs and TAT for ABO-RhD blood typing and antibody screening. The costs included those of materials (reagents and consumables), labor, and equipment depreciation. TAT was analyzed for either blood typing only for one, 16, and 32 samples or blood typing and antibody screening for the same number of samples. RESULTS: The blood typing TAT for one, 16, and 32 samples was 4.5, 35.1, and 70.1 minutes by manual and 24.0, 36.0, and 38.1 minutes by automated system. Both blood typing and antibody screening TAT for one, 16, and 32 samples was 27.5, 75.0, and 129.9 minutes by manual and 45.0, 52.0, and 54.0 minutes by automation. CONCLUSION: The blood automation system reduced TAT only for the batch test, therefore, when using the automation system, blood bank test size and emergency situation should be considered.
Automation* ; Blood Banks* ; Blood Grouping and Crossmatching* ; Depreciation ; Emergencies ; Mass Screening*

OBJECTIVE: A Comparison of QTc prolongation for various antipsychotics and an analysis of QTc prolongation for the various types of serotonin transporter polymorphism were performed. METHOD: EKG was checked, followed by QTc measurement as Bazett's correction, and the serotonin transporter polymorphism was examined in 110 chronic schizophrenia patients were performed EKG before 24 weeks ago. We defiened QTc prolongation as over 450ms. The risk factor of sudden cardiac death were defiend as QTc prolongation and or 60ms in delta value. RESULT: The prevalence of QTc prolongation in this study was 7.3%, and the prevalence of over 60ms was 4.5%. Patients who had the risk factors were 10(9.1%). 6/52 who prescribed atypical antipsychotics and 2/58 who prescribed haloperidol showed QTc prolongation. The prevalence who had the risk factor of sudden cardiac death were 16% in atypical antipsychotics group, 3.4% in haloperidol group. QTc prolongation were observed more frequently in l/l type than s/s type. l allele frequency were 50% in QTc prolongated group, 19% in not prolongated group. l allele had an association with QTc prolongation(p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of QTc prolongatin was frequent in chronic schizophrenia patients who were prescribed atypical antipsychotics. It has strong association with l allele of 5-HTTLPR.
Alleles ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Electrocardiography ; Gene Frequency ; Haloperidol ; Humans ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Schizophrenia ; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the outcome of gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS) and/or whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) for the treatment of small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) metastasis to the brain. METHODS: From 2000 to 2010, 50 patients underwent GKRS for metastatic brain lesions originating from SCLC. Among these patients, 11 received prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) before the development of metastatic lesions (PCI group), and GKRS was performed as an initial treatment for newly diagnosed lesions in 12 patients who had not received PCI (primary GKRS group). In addition, GKRS was performed as a salvage treatment for progressive lesions after WBRT in 27 patients (salvage GKRS group). The medical records and imaging data of all patients were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: The overall survival of the 50 patients was 20.8 months (range 1-53) after the diagnosis of primary tumor and 12.0 months (range 1-47) after the development of cerebral metastasis. Median survival after GKRS was 4.8 months (range 1-15) in the PCI group, 4.6 months (range 0-18) in the primary GKRS group, and 7.6 months (range 0-33) in the salvage GKRS group. Further treatment for progressive lesions after GKRS was necessary in 15 patients, after a mean interval of 3.8 months. Causes of death were systemic organ failure in 15 patients, deterioration of neurological state in 13 patients, and unknown or combined causes in 16 patients. The local control rate of the lesions treated with GKRS was 76.4% (decreased in 13 patients and stable in 16 patients at the final imaging follow-up (mean 5.60 months). CONCLUSION: GKRS is an effective local treatment for brain metastasis from SCLC both as an initial treatment for newly diagnosed lesions after PCI and as a salvage treatment for recurrent or progressive lesions. However, the survival benefit is not significant because most patients die of systemic multi-organ failure with a short life expectancy.
Brain ; Cause of Death ; Cranial Irradiation ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Life Expectancy ; Medical Records ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Radiosurgery ; Retrospective Studies ; Small Cell Lung Carcinoma

Purpose: Hypofractionated radiotherapy (HypoRT) has recently been implemented in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) receiving concurrent temozolomide. Lymphopenia during treatment (LDT) is considered an important prognostic factor of clinical outcomes for GBM. We aimed to investigate the outcomes of HypoRT. Materials and Methods: Among 223 patients with GBM, 145 and 78 were treated with conventionally fractionated RT (ConvRT, 60 Gy in 30 fractions) and HypoRT (58.5 Gy in 25 fractions), respectively. To balance characteristics between the two groups, propensity score matching (PSM) was performed. Results: Patients in the HypoRT group were older and had smaller tumors than those in the ConvRT group (p<0.05). Furthermore, dose distributions to the brain were significantly lower in HypoRT than in ConvRT (p<0.001). Changes in absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC) during treatment were significantly lower after HypoRT than after ConvRT (p=0.018). With a median follow-up of 16.9 months, HypoRT showed comparable progression-free survival (9.9 months vs. 10.5 months) and overall survival (27.2 months vs. 26.6 months) to ConvRT (all p>0.05). Multivariable analysis before PSM revealed that ≥grade 2 LDT at 6 months was associated with inferior outcomes. Subsequent analysis demonstrated that HypoRT significantly reduced the rate of ≥grade 2 LDT at 6 months post-RT before and after PSM. Conclusion HypoRT with 58.5 Gy in 25 fractions could provide comparable oncologic outcomes and significantly reduce the ALC changes. In addition, HypoRT decreased the LDT. Further investigation should be warranted to suggest the significance of reduced LDT through HypoRT affecting survival outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Performing antibody screening and identification tests before blood transfusion are important since unexpected red cell antibodies can cause acute or delayed hemolytic transfusion reactions. We investigated the frequency and distribution of unexpected red cell antibodies that were detected in cancer patients at National Cancer Center (NCC) and we compared our results with the previously published data. METHODS: From January 2001 to June 2009, 56,660 sera of the cases from NCC were screened and 197 sera were identified with using the Ortho BioVue System (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Raritan, USA) and the conventional tube method. In case of the presence of autoantibody, the ZZAP method was performed to distinguish alloantibody from autoantibody. RESULTS: 759 cases (1.34%) showed positive results out of all 56,660 cases that underwent unexpected antibodies screening. Among them, unexpected antibodies were identified in 197 cases. The most frequently detected antibody was anti-Le(a) in 62 cases (31.47%), followed by anti-E in 32 cases (16.24%) and anti-Le(b) in 18 cases (9.14%). Unidentified antibodies were detected in 43 cases (21.83%). In the cases with a previous history of transfusion at the NCC and the screening results were altered from negative to positive, anti-E was the most frequently detected antibody (8/30 cases, 26.67%), and this included the mixed antibodies. CONCLUSION: Compared with the previous reports, this study showed that the frequency and distribution of the unexpected red cell antibodies of cancer patients were not different from those of general patients. Moreover, there was no apparent difference of frequency of the unexpected red cell antibodies among the diagnosed cancers. Our research may provide data for the frequency and characteristics of red cell antibodies because we targeted only cancer patients.
Antibodies ; Blood Group Incompatibility ; Blood Transfusion ; Humans ; Mass Screening

BACKGROUND: Introduction of automation instruments for the blood bank is essential in order to reduce inspection error and minimize workload. We compared the results of ABO-RhD blood type and antibody screening tests using the manual method and those using the automation instruments AutoVue Innova (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Raritan, NJ, USA) and QWALYS-3 (DIAGAST, Loos Cedex, France). METHODS: ABO-RhD blood type tests using the slide method, the tube method, and the instruments were performed with 200 selected samples. Antibody screening tests using the Ortho BioVue system (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Raritan, NJ, USA), which is used in our laboratory, and the two instruments were performed with 188 specimens and 12 antibody positive samples that were kept in the laboratory. We evaluated the concordance rate of the results, applying CLSI guideline EP12-A2. RESULTS: The concordance rate of ABO-RhD blood type results between the manual methods and the two instruments was 100%. On antibody screening tests, a concordance rate of 100% was observed between the manual method and AutoVue Innova, which uses the gel card manufactured by the company making the gel card used for the manual method. However, using QWALYS-3 in performance of antibody screening tests, the concordance rate was 97.5%, because of discordance in five specimens. CONCLUSION: The concordance rate of ABO-RhD blood type by use of two automation instruments was 100%, however, that of the antibody screening test was 97.5%. Thus, there was a difference in positive rate on the antibody screening test, depending on the instrument. Therefore, introduction of an instrument, considering the pros and cons for each instrument, is necessary. In addition, further discussion of standardized guidelines for quality control is needed.
Automation ; Blood Banks ; Cephalosporins ; Mass Screening ; Quality Control