A 18-month-old girl was seen because of an yellowish brown papular eruptions on the face, earlobes and neck of one year duration. A skin biopsy specimen revealed circumscribed cellular infiltrates composed of predorninantly pleornorphic histiocytes. Electron microscopy of biopsy material disclosed numerous worm like particles and coated vescles in limited area of the cell cytoplasm, consistent with the findinga described in benign cephalic histiocytosis. After six months of her first visit, the individual papules became flattened.
Biopsy ; Coated Vesicles ; Cytoplasm ; Female ; Histiocytes ; Histiocytosis* ; Humans ; Infant ; Microscopy, Electron ; Neck ; Skin

Organ shortage is a serious problem in the field of solid organ transplantation. Increasing number of death on the waiting list, transplant tourism, black market for organ selling are all caused by organ shortage and these eventually causing poor quality of life for patient and family, and may give rise to a serious confusion in domestic transplant system. Since the KONOS launched in the year 2000, some portion of the illegal side of organ supply were corrected but the number of organ donor was hardly to increase. In order to search any solution for this problem, organ allocation study group under the Korean society for organ transplantation was actively worked from August 2008 through February 2009, and got some solution. Among them, amendment of the transplantation law including brain death committee, reporting system of suspected brain dead patients, and set up an independent organ procurement organization system for an effective organ procurement. Organ donation and increasing the number of donor is not a task only for transplant society, but is closely related with quality of life for peoples. This also can change the execution of budget of national medical health insurance. To give a correct understanding about this and activate the nationwide organ donation, the transplant society should have a key role with various medical and nursing society, hospital association, government, national assembly and every voluntary groups.
Brain Death ; Budgets ; Humans ; Insurance, Health ; Jurisprudence ; Organ Transplantation ; Quality of Life ; Societies, Nursing ; Tissue and Organ Procurement ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants ; Waiting Lists

Behcet's syndrome is being detected increasingly in Korea. To collect and document information concern- ing the clinical picture as it is records of patients seen in our clinic in the period between November 1983 and March 1986 were used as source material. In summary, it was found that (1) the total number of patients who had two majors symptoms at least were 410, including 170 men and 240 women; (2) Patients in their thirties were the most common, the mean age being 34.6 years; (3) according to Lehner's classification, the order of frequency of the different types was mucocutaneous (52%), ocular (33), arthritic (14%) and neurologic (1%) and according to Shimizu's classification, it was incomplete (39%), suspected (37%), and complete (24%); (4) oral ulcers, which had observed in 407 patients were the most frequent major symptom, followed by genital ulcers in 338 patients.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Behcet Syndrome/classification/diagnosis/*epidemiology ; Child ; Epidemiologic Methods ; Female ; Human ; Korea ; Male ; Middle Age ; Seasons ; Sex Factors

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common fatal malignancies worldwide, especially in Korea. The recent advances in diagnostic techniques, such as serum tumor marker assay, ultrasonography, computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and angiography, allow us to detect HCC at early stage. Even though, it remains difficult to distinguish malignant nodules from benign space-ccupying lesions of liver. Distinction of HCC from benign entities such as liver abscess is important because failure of prompt diagnosis could result in a missed opportunity for curative treatment. The differential diagnosis of HCC and liver abscess, especially HCC presenting as abscess, is sometimes very difficult. We report a case of HCC with liver abscess caused by secondary infection of CBD stone and cholangitis, that mimicked the dynamic CT findings of liver abscess, in an elderly patient with chronic hepatitis C virus infection.
Abscess ; Aged ; Angiography ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Cholangitis* ; Coinfection ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Hepatitis C, Chronic ; Humans ; Korea ; Liver Abscess* ; Liver* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Ultrasonography

BACKGROUND: Tranilast is an anti-allergic drug that suppresses the release of cytokines. An antioxidant, probucol, prevents endothelial dysfunction and oxidation of low density lipoprotein and also inhibits the secretion of interleukin-1 by macrophages. In several studies, both the tranilast and probucol with multivitamins have been shown to decrease the frequency of angiographic restenosis after PCI. METHODS: We analyzed clinical events and restenosis at 6 months following percutaneous coronary angioplasty in 93 patients with 113 coronary arterial lesions after coronary stenting at Soonchunhyang University Hospital between Jan 2001 and Apr 2003. The patients were assigned to following three groups: 39 patients who didn't receive tranilast and antioxidants (control group, M 29, F 10, 61 +/- 10 years) ; 25 patients who received probucol (500 mg), vitamin C (1,000 mg), vitamin E (400 mg) (antioxidant group, M 19, F 6, 62 +/- 10 years) ; 29 patients who received tranilast (400 mg) (Tranilast group, M 18, F 11, 59 +/- 9 years). RESULTS: The restenosis per lesion between three groups was not different significantly (control group, 32.7%; antioxidant group, 26.7%; Tranilast group, 20.6%). At follow-up, minimal luminal diameter (MLD) was not different significantly between three groups (control group, 1.8 +/- 1.07 mm; antioxidant group, 2.1 +/- 1.18 mm; Tranilast group, 2.1 +/- 0.94 mm). Target lesion revascularization was lower in Tranilast group (3.4%) as compared with control group (25.6%) and antioxidant group (16%, p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Neither probucol combined with vitamin C and E nor tranilast did not improve significantly the angiographic restenosis rate. But tranilast had reduced the target lesion revascularization rate as compared with control group and antioxidant group.
Angioplasty ; Antioxidants ; Ascorbic Acid ; Cytokines ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Interleukin-1 ; Lipoproteins ; Macrophages ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention* ; Phenobarbital ; Probucol* ; Stents ; Vitamin E ; Vitamins

Cadmium(Cd) is an ubiquitous, toxic and non-essential metal which is controversial about the association with a cardiovascular disease. In this study, we investigated the reference level of Cd in myocardium in Korean general population. The level of Cd and zinc(Zn) concentration in myocardium of 252 cases of "sudden and unexpected death" autopsies(male 172, female 60) aged 0 to 87 years was analyzed. The concentration of Cd and Zn was determined with atomic absorption spectrophotometer(Perkin-Elmer Model 5100) by flameless and flame method, respectively. The content of Cd and Zn in myocardium showed the log-normal distribution rather than normal distribution. Geometric mean concentration of Cd was 0.19 microgram/g wet weight in myocardium. The level of Cd in myocardium was not significantly different between male(0. 18 microgram/g wet weight) and female(0.22 microgram/g wet weight). Geometric mean concentration of Zn in myocardium was 25.25 microgram/g wet weight. The level of Zn between male(25.13 microgram/g wet weight) and female(25.57 microgram/g wet weight) was not different. The deposit of Cd in myocardium was age-dependent of biphasic pattern, but the Zn level by age was not significantly different. The level of Cd in myocardium was increased to the fifties of age, thereafter a leveling-off was shown. The regression model of Cd deposit in myocardium by age was predicted as the following equation Log Heart-Cd = -1.2726 + 0.0234 Age - 0.0002 Age2. The maximum Cd deposit in myocardium was estimated to be 0.26 microgram/g wet weight at the age of 58.5 in Korean general population. In addition, the total Cd burden in heart by age was predicted as a following equation Total Cd burden in Heart = -10.165 + 2.891 Age - 0.0258 Age2. The maximum heart burden of Cd was estimated to be 70.7 microgram at age of 55.4. The positive correlation between Cd and Zn was observed in myocardium. The linear regression equation was Log Heart-Zn = 1.4195 +/- 0.0262- Log Heart-Cd.
Absorption ; Cadmium* ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Female ; Heart ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Myocardium* ; Reference Values* ; Zinc

PURPOSE: Pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis is routinely recommended for Western cancer patients undergoing major surgery for prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE). However, it is uncertainwhetherroutine administration of pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis is necessary in all Asian surgical cancer patients. This prospective study was conducted to examine the incidence of and risk factors for postoperative VTE in Korean colorectal cancer (CRC) patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study comprised two cohorts, and none of patients received perioperative pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis. In cohort A (n=400), patients were routinely screened for VTE using lower-extremity Doppler ultrasonography (DUS) on postoperative days 5-14. In cohort B (n=148), routine DUS was not performed, and imaging was only performed when there were symptoms or signs that were suspicious for VTE. The primary endpoint was the VTE incidence at 4 weeks postoperatively in cohort A. RESULTS: The postoperative incidence of VTE was 3.0% (n=12) in cohort A. Among the 12 patients, eight had distal calf vein thromboses and one had symptomatic thrombosis. Age ≥ 70 years (odds ratio [OR], 5.61), ≥ 2 comorbidities (OR, 13.42), and white blood cell counts of > 10,000/μL (OR, 17.43) were independent risk factors for postoperative VTE (p < 0.05). In cohort B, there was one case of VTE (0.7%). CONCLUSION: The postoperative incidence of VTE, which included asymptomatic cases, was 3.0% in Korean CRC patients who did not receive pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis. Perioperative pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis should be administered to Asian CRC patients on a risk-stratified basis.
Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Cohort Studies ; Colorectal Neoplasms* ; Colorectal Surgery ; Comorbidity ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Leukocyte Count ; Prospective Studies* ; Risk Factors ; Thrombosis ; Ultrasonography, Doppler ; Veins ; Venous Thromboembolism*