We report a 72-year-old female patient with spontaneous rupture of the left external iliac vein. She visited our hospital for abdominal and back pain. She had the abnormal finding of hemoperitoneum. We performed an emergency operation with diagnosis of left ovarian cyst rupture though she suffered from spontaneous rupture of the left external iliac vein. This case provides insight to the experience of spontaneous rupture of the left external iliac vein.
Aged ; Back Pain ; Emergencies ; Female ; Hemoperitoneum ; Humans ; Iliac Vein ; Ovarian Cysts ; Rupture ; Rupture, Spontaneous

Paradoxical response refers to the enlargement of old lesions or unexpected appearance of new lesions after initial improvement following treatment with antitubercular agents. Various types of paradoxical responses have been reported in the world, but they are rarely reported in Korean children. We report the case of a 17-year-old boy who was diagnosed with tuberculous pleurisy and was treated appropriately. Although the tuberculous pleurisy initially responded to medication with resolution of the pleural fluid, a new pulmonary lesion subsequently developed 3 weeks after the initiation of treatment that eventually cleared with continuation of the original drug regimen.
Adolescent ; Antitubercular Agents ; Child ; Humans ; Tuberculosis, Pleural

Rhabdomyolysis is a common clinical and laboratory syndrome resulting from reversible skeletal muscle injury, with release of muscle cell contents into the plasma. Cardioversion, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation may produce rhabdomyolysis and myoglobinuria. We report a 5-year-old boy surviving after cardiopulmonary resuscitation and repeated 5 times of cardioversion. He showed elevated serum BUN and creatinine levels, requiring hemodialysis treatment. We had tried 5 times of intermittent hemodialysis, but oliguria was continued and there was no change of serum BUN and creatinine. His urine output was less than 100 cc per day and he showed severe edema and weight gain of 7 kg, and so we started the continuous renal replacement therapy (Prismaflex(R), gambro). After 12 days of continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF), his urine output recovered and his BUN, creatinine, liver enzyme, creatine kinase, and lactate dehydrogenase levels returned to normal. During the treatment of CVVHDF, he had shown persistent hypercalcemia, and so we changed dialysate and replacement solution from hemosol B0 to calcium free solution. The hypercalcemia was controlled successfully using this calcium free pharmacy-made bicarbonate solution.
Calcium ; Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ; Creatine Kinase ; Creatinine ; Edema ; Electric Countershock ; Hemodiafiltration ; Humans ; Hypercalcemia ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase ; Liver ; Muscle Cells ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Myoglobinuria ; Oliguria ; Plasma ; Preschool Child ; Renal Dialysis ; Renal Replacement Therapy ; Rhabdomyolysis ; Weight Gain

Ovarian primary malignant melanoma is very uncommon with only 44 reported cases in the literature. A 71-year-old woman with an ovarian mass and multiple nodules in the liver presented to our hospital. She was treated with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and malignant melanoma was found in the mature cystic teratoma of the ovary. Malignant melanoma cells were also found in the ascitic fluid. She died 5 months later. Here we report a very uncommon case of malignant melanoma arising in an ovarian mature cystic teratoma with a review of the literature.
Aged ; Ascitic Fluid ; Female ; Humans ; Liver ; Melanoma ; Ovary ; Teratoma

Segniliparus species is a novel genus that is reported to be the new emerging respiratory pathogens. Here, we report a very rare case of S. rugosus pulmonary infection in an immunocompetent patient with non-cystic fibrosis. The organism was identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The patient was successfully treated with antibiotics.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Fibrosis* ; Genes, rRNA ; Humans ; Nontuberculous Mycobacteria ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; Sequence Analysis, RNA

BACKGROUND: Measurement of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) in a follow-up examination for a chronic airway disease is useful because it has the advantages of being a simple measurement and can be repeated during examination. The aim of this study was to examine the annual decrease of PEFR in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and to confirm the factors which influence this decrease. METHODS: From May, 2003 to September, 2010, the annual decrease of PEFR was obtained from asthma and COPD patients attending an outpatient pulmonary clinic. PEFR was measured using a Mini-Wright peak flow meter (Clement Clarke International Ltd. UK), and we conducted an analysis of factors that influence the change of PEFR and its average values. RESULTS: The results showed an annual decrease of 1.70+/-12.86 L/min the asthmatic patients and an annual decrease of 10.3+/-7.32 L/min in the COPD patients. Age and FEV1 were the predictive factors influencing change in asthma, and FEV1 and smoking were the predictive factors influencing change in COPD. CONCLUSION: We confirmed the annual decreasing PEFR in patients with chronic airway disease and identified factors that work in conjunction with FEV1 to influence the change.
Asthma ; Follow-Up Studies ; Forced Expiratory Volume ; Humans ; Outpatients ; Peak Expiratory Flow Rate ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; Smoke ; Smoking

BACKGROUND: The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II model has been widely used in Korea. However, there have been few studies on the APACHE IV model in Korean intensive care units (ICUs). The aim of this study was to compare the ability of APACHE IV and APACHE II in predicting hospital mortality, and to investigate the ability of APACHE IV as a critical care triage criterion. METHODS: The study was designed as a prospective cohort study. Measurements of discrimination and calibration were performed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test respectively. We also calculated the standardized mortality ratio (SMR). RESULTS: The APACHE IV score, the Charlson Comorbidity index (CCI) score, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and unplanned ICU admissions were independently associated with hospital mortality. The calibration, discrimination, and SMR of APACHE IV were good (H = 7.67, P = 0.465; C = 3.42, P = 0.905; AUROC = 0.759; SMR = 1.00). However, the explanatory power of an APACHE IV score >93 alone on hospital mortality was low at 44.1%. The explanatory power was increased to 53.8% when the hospital mortality was predicted using a model that considers APACHE IV >93 scores, medical admission, and risk factors for CCI >3 coincidentally. However, the discriminative ability of the prediction model was unsatisfactory (C index <0.70). CONCLUSIONS: The APACHE IV presented good discrimination, calibration, and SMR for hospital mortality.
APACHE* ; Calibration ; Cohort Studies ; Comorbidity ; Critical Care ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Hospital Mortality ; Intensive Care Units ; Korea ; Mortality* ; Prospective Studies ; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult ; Risk Factors ; ROC Curve ; Tertiary Care Centers* ; Triage

Bronchopulmonary sequestration (BPS) is a rare congenital malformation of the lower respiratory tract. Most intralobar BPSs are provided with an arterial blood via the thoracic or abdominal aorta but such a supply is rarely found in patients older than 50 years. We report a case of an intralobar BPS with a dual arterial supply from the celiac artery and thoracic aorta in a 50-year-old man presenting with a respiratory tract infection and haemoptysis. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of a BPS supplied by the celiac artery and thoracic aorta in a 50-year-old man.
Aorta, Abdominal ; Aorta, Thoracic ; Bronchopulmonary Sequestration ; Celiac Artery ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Respiratory System ; Respiratory Tract Infections

BACKGROUND: There are a plethora of literatures showing that high-intensity intensive care unit (ICU) physician staffing is associated with reduced ICU mortality. However, it is not widely used in ICUs because of limited budgets and resources. We created a critical care team (CCT) to improve outcomes in an open general ICU and evaluated its effectiveness based on patients' outcomes. METHODS: We conducted this prospective, observational study in an open, general ICU setting, during a period ranging from March of 2009 to February of 2010. The CCT consisted of five teaching staffs. It provided rapid medical services within three hours after calls or consultation. RESULTS: We analyzed the data of 830 patients (157 patients of the CCT group and 673 patients of the non-CCT one). Patients of the CCT group presented more serious conditions than those of the non-CCT group (acute physiologic and chronic health evaluation II [APACHE II] 20.2 vs. 15.8, p<0.001; sequential organ failure assessment [SOFA] 5.5 vs. 4.6, p=0.003). The CCT group also had significantly more patients on mechanical ventilation than those in the non-CCT group (45.9% vs. 23.9%, p<0.001). Success rate of weaning was significantly higher in the CCT group than that of the non-CCT group (61.1% vs. 44.7%, p=0.021). On a multivariate logistic regression analysis, the increased ICU mortality was associated with the older age, non-CCT, higher APACHE II score, higher SOFA score and mechanical ventilation (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Although the CCT did not provide full-time services in an open general ICU setting, it might be associated with a reduced ICU mortality. This is particularly the case with patients on mechanical ventilation.
APACHE ; Budgets ; Critical Care ; Humans ; Critical Care ; Intensive Care Units ; Logistic Models ; Prospective Studies ; Respiration, Artificial ; Weaning

Pleural effusion is a rare complication in non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection. We report a case of Mycobacterium intracellulare pleuritis with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in a 69-year-old man presenting with dyspnea. Pleural effusion revealed lymphocyte dominant exudate. M. intracellulare was identified using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method and liquid cultures of pleural effusion and pleural biopsy. After combination therapy for M. intracellulare pulmonary disease, the patient was clinically well at a 1-month follow-up.
Biopsy ; Dyspnea ; Exudates and Transudates ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis ; Lung Diseases ; Lymphocytes ; Mycobacterium ; Mycobacterium avium Complex ; Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous ; Pleural Effusion ; Pleurisy