There have been a few reports of occupational asthma caused by Tetranychus urticae in fruit farmers or greenhouse workers. We report a case of bronchial asthma induced by Tetranychus urticae from a pear orchard in Cheonan city. An 18-year-old female student living around a pear orchard suffered from intermittent cough, rhinorrhea, and dyspnea for the 3 years. Her PC20 -methacholine was 0.15mg/ml, and skin prick test done with 55 inhalant allergens showed negative responses except Tetranychus urticae extract which was prepared with highly parasitized pear leaves. Bronchial provocation test with Tetranychus urticae extract showed a dual asthmatic response. These findings indicate that Tetranychus urticae, which include parasites in fruit trees, herba,ceous plants, and greenhouse cultures, can cause IgE-mediated bronchoconstriction in Korea.
Adolescent ; Allergens ; Asthma* ; Asthma, Occupational ; Bronchial Provocation Tests ; Bronchoconstriction ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Cough ; Dyspnea ; Female ; Fruit ; Humans ; Korea ; Parasites ; Pyrus* ; Skin ; Trees

Heat contact urticaria is very rare and it is characterized by the development of wheal limited to the areas of heat contact. We report a case of heat contact urticaria in a 65-year-old women. The wheal was induced by hot bathing, washing in hot water or leaning on hot radiators. Symptoms started within 5 minutes of exposure and lasted 30 to 60 minutes. She had no systemic symptoms. The clinical diagnosis of localized heat urticaria was confirmed by experimental induction of localized wheals. Our investigation showed that the threshold temperature needed for induction of the heat urticaria was 39 degrees C. We tried to investigate the plasma levels of prostaglandin D2 and blood histamine before and after heat challenge. The patient showed marked improvement after a combination treatment of desensitizing by repeated exposure to heat and indomethacine.
Aged ; Case Report ; Female ; Heat/*adverse effects ; Human ; Prostaglandin D2/blood ; Urticaria/*etiology/therapy

Allergic angitis and granulomatosis is a kind of rare systemic vasculitis, with various manifestations of disease of lung, heart, skin, musculoskeletal system, nervous system and hepatobiliary tract. There was no report of a case with manifestation of pleuritis and pericarditis, while several cases had been reported in Korea. So we here report a case of allergic angitis and granulomatosis with manifestations of pleuritis and pericarditis. The case also showed clinical manifestations of hypereosinophilia, asthma, rhinitis, pulmonary infilterates with eosinophilia and nephritis. Open lung biopsy showed arteritis with heavy infilteration of activated eosinophil in lung, pleura and pericardium. The involvement of heart might cause critical complication leading death. The patients who are supposed as allergic angitis and granulomatosis should be examined for the involvement of heart.
Arteritis ; Asthma ; Biopsy ; Eosinophilia ; Eosinophils ; Heart ; Humans ; Korea ; Lung ; Musculoskeletal System ; Nephritis ; Nervous System ; Pericarditis* ; Pericardium ; Pleura ; Pleurisy* ; Rhinitis ; Skin ; Systemic Vasculitis

PURPOSE: Kawasaki disease is an acute febrile vasculitis that may cause coronary artery dilatation after the acute phase. We assessed the risk factors of coronary artery dilatation in patients diagnosed with Kawasaki disease. METHODS: From January 1995 through April 2003, a total of 362 patients with Kawasaki disease were enrolled. After dividing these patients into two groups by presence of coronary artery dilatation, we analyzed and compared the early symptoms and laboratory findings. RESULTS: A total of 362 patients were divided into two groups: Group 1 consisted of 65 patients(18.0%) with coronary artery dilatation, while Group 2 consisted of 297 patients(82.0%) with normal coronary arteries. Group 1 exhibited longer duration of fever during the early symptoms and showed elevated levels of CRP and cardiac Troponin-I(cTnI). WBC count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelet count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, hepatic enzymes, serum albumin, CK-MB, total eosinophil count, age and sex were not significantly different between the two groups. CONCLUSION: As the severity of early inflammatory reaction increased, the risk of coronary artery dilatation increased accordingly. Therefore it is essential to establish a treatment to reduce the early inflammatory reaction in order to decrease coronary artery complications.
Blood Sedimentation ; Coronary Vessels ; Dilatation ; Eosinophils ; Fever ; Hematocrit ; Humans ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome* ; Platelet Count ; Risk Factors* ; Serum Albumin ; Vasculitis

OBJECTIVES: As of November 2011, the Korean government recalled and banned humidifier disinfectants (HDs) from the market, because four case-control studies and one retrospective epidemiological study proved the association between HDs and lung injury of unknown cause. The report reviewed the causal role of HDs in lung injury based on scientific evidences. METHODS: A careful examination on the association between the HDs and lung injury was based on the criteria of causality inference by Hill and the US Surgeon General Expert Committee. RESULTS: We found that all the evidences on the causality fulfilled the criteria (strength of association, consistency, specificity, temporality, biologic gradient, plausibility, coherence, experiment, analogy, consideration of alternative explanations, and cessation of exposure), which proved the unknown cause lung injury reported in 2011 was caused by the HDs. In particular, there was no single reported case of lung injury since the ban in selling HDs in November 2011 as well as before the HDs were sold in markets. CONCLUSIONS: Although only a few epidemiological studies in Korea have evaluated the association between lung injury and the use of HDs, those studies contributed to proving the strong association between the use of the HDs and lung injury, based on scientific evidence.
Case-Control Studies ; Disinfectants* ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Evaluation Studies as Topic* ; Humidifiers* ; Korea ; Lung Injury* ; Lung* ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity

OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to investigate the relationship between community residents’ infection sensitivity and their levels of preventive behaviors during the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in Korea. METHODS: Seven thousands two hundreds eighty one participants from nine areas in Gyeonggi-do including Pyeongtaek, the origin of the outbreak in 2015 agreed to participate in the survey and the data from 6,739 participants were included in the final analysis. The data on the perceived infection sensitivity were subjected to cluster analysis. The levels of stress, reliability/practice of preventive behaviors, hand washing practice and policy credibility during the outbreak period were analyzed for each cluster. RESULTS: Cluster analysis of infection sensitivity due to the MERS outbreak resulted in classification of participants into four groups: the non-sensitive group (14.5%), social concern group (17.4%), neutral group (29.1%), and overall sensitive group (39.0%). A logistic regression analysis found that the overall sensitive group with high sensitivity had higher stress levels (17.80; 95% confidence interval [CI], 13.77 to 23.00), higher reliability on preventive behaviors (5.81; 95% CI, 4.84 to 6.98), higher practice of preventive behaviors (4.53; 95% CI, 3.83 to 5.37) and higher practice of hand washing (2.71; 95% CI, 2.13 to 3.43) during the outbreak period, compared to the non-sensitive group. CONCLUSIONS: Infection sensitivity of community residents during the MERS outbreak correlated with gender, age, occupation, and health behaviors. When there is an outbreak in the community, there is need to maintain a certain level of sensitivity while reducing excessive stress, as well as promote the practice of preventive behaviors among local residents. In particular, target groups need to be notified and policies need to be established with a consideration of the socio-demographic characteristics of the community.
Classification ; Cluster Analysis ; Coronavirus Infections* ; Gyeonggi-do ; Hand Disinfection ; Health Behavior ; Korea* ; Logistic Models ; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus ; Middle East* ; Occupations ; Risk Reduction Behavior

Adult ; Air Pressure ; Humans ; Nasal Cavity ; Velopharyngeal Insufficiency

PURPOSE: This study was designed to provide the basic data for the development of the management program for overactive bladder by ascertaining its prevalence among Korean women aged over 30 years, and the factors related to its occurrence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was performed by using self-questionnaires through the community-based cross sectional study from May to July, 2000. The subjects consisted of 2869 women, aged over 30 up to 89 years, among those who understood and responded to the questionnaires, and was residing in Seoul, Kyongki Kangwon, Chungchong, YongNam, HoNam, Cheju proinces. They also did not have known neurological problem and diabetes mellitus. The data were analyzed by Student t-test, chi2-test, and multiple logistic regression with using SAS program. RESULTS: The results were as follows ; 1. They all experienced at least one of frequency, urgency, nocturia, urge incontinence for the past one year and 52.3% of the subjects had experienced symptom at least once in 5 voidings. The highest prevalence of overactive bladder was 86.2% in the category for 70 to 89 years, 74.3% for the sixties, 45.3% for the forties, 42.5% for the thirties. In the symptoms of 1499 women among subject, 19.4% of them had nocturia, 18.2% frequency, 10.5% urgency, 9.6% urge incontinence, 9.5% frequency and urgency, 5.9% frequency and nocturia. 2. The age(OR = 1.041, 95% Cl = 1.027, 1.055) and the menopause(OR = 0.696, 95% Cl = 0.527, 0.919) were related to overactive bladder occurrence. CONCLUSIONS: The above findings indicated that about the half of the women aged over 30 years had symptoms for overactive bladder, and the prevalence was higher in old women and the women with menopause. So, the prevention and management programs for overactive bladder are required to be developed, and the primary screening programs based on community shall be developed.
Diabetes Mellitus ; Female ; Gangwon-do ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Jeju-do ; Logistic Models ; Mass Screening ; Menopause ; Nocturia ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seoul ; Urinary Bladder, Overactive* ; Urinary Incontinence, Urge

No abstract available.
Disasters*

No abstract available.
Airports* ; Disasters*