Intramural implantation is among the rarest forms of ectopic pregnancy.Since the first description by Perli, 21 cases were reported in worldwide literatures.The pathologic criteria required for intramural pregnancy is that the product of conception is completely surrounded by uterine musculature and is separated from the uterine cavity and the fallopian tube or round ligament.The previous history of uterine injury or adenomyosis is known as possible etiology of intramural implantation. Because the early diagnosis is very difficult, most cases is found after onset of complication such as a uterine rupture or hemoperitoneum. We have recently experienced a case of intramural pregnancy diagnosed and treated by laparoscopy in a 9 weeks gestation nulliparous woman without previous history of uterine injury or disease, and report with a brief review of literatures.
Adenomyosis ; Early Diagnosis ; Fallopian Tubes ; Female ; Fertilization ; Hemoperitoneum ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Ectopic ; Uterine Rupture ; Round Ligaments

Though the incidence of paragonimiasis has been remarkably decreased since 1970, it is still not a rare disease in Korea. Major problems in the diagnosis of pulmonary paragonimiasis on chest radiography are its differentiation from pulmonary tuberculosis and lung cancer. Chest radiographic findings have been described in detail, but little have been reported on CT findings. We reviewed CT findings of 10 patients with pulmonary paragonimiasis. The characteristic CT findings were similar to those on chest radiography, such as air-space consolidation (70%), nodular mass (50%), pleural effusion (40%), cystic lesion (30%), small low density within the mass (30%), linear density (20%), pneumothorax(20%), and burrow track (20%). CT depicted the cystic lesions and the burrow tracks more clearly and showed the small worm-retaining cysts within the mass that were not detectable on chest radiography. In conclusion, all of these CT findings are useful in the diagnosis of pulmonary paragonimiasis especially when differentiation from tuberculosis or lung canceris difficult on chest radiography.
Diagnosis ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Paragonimiasis* ; Pleural Effusion ; Radiography ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Rare Diseases ; Thorax ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

PURPOSE: In the present study, the surgical outcome and postoperative exodrift pattern between bilateral lateral rectus recession (BLR) and unilateral lateral rectus recession (ULR) in intermittent exotropia of 20 prism diopters (PDs) were compared. METHODS: In this retrospective study, 5.0 mm BLR or 8.5 mm ULR was performed on 82 patients for the treatment of intermittent exotropia of 20 PDs with a follow-up period of 2 years. The main outcome measures were postoperative 1-week, 1-month, 6-month, 1-year and 2-year exodeviation angles with their patterns and success rates. A surgical success was considered an alignment within 10 PDs and sensory success was defined at 100 seconds of arc. RESULTS: The mean deviation angles at postoperative 1 week were 4.7 ± 5.1 PD esodeviation in the BLR group (44 patients) and 1.2 ± 4.2 PD esodeviation in the ULR group (38 patients). The BLR group was significantly more overcorrected than the ULR group (p = 0.001), but postoperative exodrift occurred in the BLR group at 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years. In the ULR group, the postoperative exodrift occurred at 1 week, 1 month, and 6 months which was followed by stabilized alignment. Surgical success rate at the postoperative 2-year follow-up was 75.0% in the BLR group and 81.6% in ULR group (p = 0.717). CONCLUSIONS: ULR showed less overcorrection and early exodrift up to only 6 months, resulting in stabilization of the alignment afterwards; surgical success rate at the final 2-year follow-up was similar to BLR.
Esotropia ; Exotropia* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Retrospective Studies

Background: Various methods are used for the diagnosis of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). We systematically analyzed and investigated the performance of current laboratory diagnostic methods for CDI. Methods: We performed systematic review and meta-analysis of studies in PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and KoreaMed. The following methods were evaluated: glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) enzyme immunoassays (GDH EIAs), toxin A and B detection by enzyme immunoassays (toxin AB EIAs), and nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) for C. difficile toxin genes. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of each method were calculated. Results: Based on 39 studies, the pooled sensitivities/specificities were 92.7%/94.6%, 57.9%/97.0%, and 90.0%/95.8% for GDH EIAs, toxin AB EIAs, and NAATs, respectively, compared with those of toxigenic culture. The pooled sensitivities of automated EIAs were significantly higher than those of non-automated EIAs for both GDH and toxins A and B.The pooled sensitivity of Xpert C. difficile was significantly higher than those of other NAATs. PPVs increased as CDI prevalence increased, and NPVs were excellent when CDI prevalence was low; at CDI prevalence of 5%, PPV = 37%–65% and NPV = 97%–100%;at CDI prevalence of 50%, PPV = 92%–97% and NPV = 65%–98%. Conclusions Toxin AB EIAs still show unsatisfactory sensitivity, whereas GDH EIAs and NAATs show relatively high sensitivity. However, toxin AB EIAs are the most specific tests. This study may provide useful information for CDI diagnosis.

No abstract available.
Cerebral Angiography ; Headache ; Humans ; Migraine Disorders ; Vasoconstriction

In May 2015, we conducted a voluntary online survey on laboratory diagnostic assays for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) across clinical microbiology laboratories in Korea. Responses were obtained from 66 laboratories, including 61 hospitals and five commercial laboratories. Among them, nine laboratories reported having not conducted CDI assays. The toxin AB enzyme immunoassay (toxin AB EIA), nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), and C. difficile culture, alone or in combination with other assays, were used in 51 (89.5%), 37 (64.9%), and 37 (64.9%) of the remaining 57 laboratories, respectively, and 23 (40.4%) of the laboratories performed all three assays. Only one laboratory used the glutamate dehydrogenase assay. Nine laboratories used the toxin AB EIA as a stand-alone assay. The median (range) of examined specimens in one month for the toxin AB EIA, NAAT, and C. difficile culture was 160 (50–2,060), 70 (7–720), and 130 (9–750), respectively. These findings serve as valuable basic data regarding the current status of laboratory diagnosis of CDI in Korea, offering guidance for improved implementation.
Clinical Laboratory Techniques ; Clostridium difficile ; Clostridium ; Glutamate Dehydrogenase ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Korea ; Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques

BACKGROUND: Among the multitude of tests developed for the diagnosis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, the enzyme immunoassay and the chemiluminescence immunoassays (CLIA) are the most commonly used. The OraQuick HCV Rapid Antibody Test is also popular because it can detect HCV antibodies from blood or saliva within 20 minutes. In this study, we compared the performances of the OraQuick HCV Rapid Antibody Test and CLIA in the diagnosis of HCV infection. METHODS: We tested 150 serum samples from Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital for HCV between November 2012 and January 2013 using CLIA (ADVIA Centaur) as well as the OraQuick test. The data from both tests were compared to the results of HCV real-time PCR (COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HCV test kit). RESULTS: In the PCR analysis, 59 of the 150 samples (39.3%) tested positive and 91 (60.7%) tested negative for HCV RNA. All these samples also tested positive when screened by CLIA. However, only 57 of 59 samples tested positive with the OraQuick test. Among the 91 samples found to be HCV-negative in the PCR analysis, 50 tested negative in both CLIA and the OraQuick tests. However, a discrepancy was noted among the remaining 41 samples that tested HCV-negative in the PCR analysis; 21 of these samples tested positive in both CLIA and the OraQuick tests, but the remaining 20 tested positive only in CLIA. CONCLUSIONS: Although the OraQuick test showed a marginally lower sensitivity for HCV detection than CLIA, we conclude that it is still beneficial because it is rapid and can be performed using blood and saliva samples. Our findings suggest that the OraQuick test could be an important diagnostic tool for screening HCV infection.
Diagnosis ; Hepacivirus* ; Hepatitis C Antibodies ; Hepatitis C* ; Hepatitis* ; Immunoassay ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Luminescence ; Mass Screening* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA ; Saliva ; Seoul

PURPOSE: Rotavirus is the main cause of infantile diarrheal disease worldwide, especially in patients 3-24 months of age. Infants younger than 3 months of age are relatively protected by transplacental antibody. So the purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical features and severity of neonatal rotaviral gastroenteritis less than 1 month of age. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was established of 62 neonates less than 1 month of age and with a diagnosis of rotaviral gastroenteritis who had been admitted to Pochon CHA University between June 2002 through July 2004. The rotavirus was examined by stool latex agglutination. RESULTS: During 2 years, the total number of admitted patients for rotaviral gastroenteritis was 688 and among these, less than 1 month of age accounted for 9% (62). The occurrence was generally even distribution from January to July (7.14+/-1.0) but since then decreased (2.4+/-1.8). The most common chief complaint was mild fever (46%) when admitted which subsided within 1 hospital day in most patients. 4 patients had seizure and cyanosis with no typical symptoms of rotaviral gastroenteritis. During admission, all the patients had diarrhea. 17% of the patients had leukocytosis and positive C-reactive protein. In one patient, stool occult blood test was positive but there was no necrotizing gastroenteritis evidence. The mean period of hospital day was 5.8+/-2.5 and breast-milk feeding was 62.9%. CONCLUSION: Neonatal rotaviral gastroenteritis is not a rare disease. Most patients have fever and diarrhea and improve through conservative therapy but a few patients may have severe complications so we must be more cautious about the hygiene for prevention.
Agglutination ; C-Reactive Protein ; Cyanosis ; Diagnosis ; Diarrhea ; Fever ; Gastroenteritis* ; Humans ; Hygiene ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn* ; Latex ; Leukocytosis ; Occult Blood ; Rare Diseases ; Retrospective Studies ; Rotavirus ; Seizures

This study was aimed to investigate the possible correlations between International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), volume of total and transition zone of prostate, and serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) level in 42 patients diagnosed and treated as benign prostatic hyperplasia. We got IPSS by interview and calculated the volume of the total and the transition zone (TZ vol) of prostate by transrectal ultrasonography. The size of the total prostate was 37.35+/-12.9 cc (mean+/-standard deviation) and that of the transition zone was 17.72 +/- 10.04 cc. Transition zone index(transition zone volume/total prostate volume, TZ index) was calculated and its value was 0.45 +/- 0.14. Symptom score was not correlated with total prostate volume, TZ volume or 72 index (r=0.27, p>0.05; r=0.23, p>0.05; r=0.16, p>0.05, respectively). Either it did not show correlation with serum PSA level (r=0.16, p>0.05). However, there were statistically significant correlations among serum PSA, total volume, TZ volume, TZ index (r=0.66, p<0.05; r=0.64, p<0.05; r=0.47, p<0.05). From these results, it is difficult to find significant correlations between symptom severity easured by IPSS and several clinical indices such as total prostate volume, transitional volume, TZ index or serum PSA level. Prospective study including developing a more objective symptom scoring system is needed to get a more useful clinical index reflecting the symptom severity of the BPH patients as well as clinical status of them.
Humans ; Prostate* ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; Prostatic Hyperplasia* ; Ultrasonography*

BACKGROUND: Recent advances in laboratory information systems have largely been focused on automation. However, the phlebotomy services have not been completely automated. To address this issue, we introduced an automated reception and turnaround time (TAT) management system, for the first time in Korea, whereby the patient's information is transmitted directly to the actual phlebotomy site and the TAT for each phlebotomy step can be monitored at a glance. METHODS: The GNT5 system (Energium Co., Ltd., Korea) was installed in June 2013. The automated reception and TAT management system has been in operation since February 2014. Integration of the automated reception machine with the GNT5 allowed for direct transmission of laboratory order information to the GNT5 without involving any manual reception step. We used the mean TAT from reception to actual phlebotomy as the parameter for evaluating the efficiency of our system. RESULTS: Mean TAT decreased from 5:45 min to 2:42 min after operationalization of the system. The mean number of patients in queue decreased from 2.9 to 1.0. Further, the number of cases taking more than five minutes from reception to phlebotomy, defined as the defect rate, decreased from 20.1% to 9.7%. CONCLUSIONS: The use of automated reception and TAT management system was associated with a decrease of overall TAT and an improved workflow at the phlebotomy room.
Automation, Laboratory ; Efficiency, Organizational/*standards ; Phlebotomy/*statistics & numerical data ; Republic of Korea ; Time Factors ; Workflow