No abstract available.
Blood Donors* ; Hepacivirus* ; Hepatitis C* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Incheon* ; Prevalence*

In a 49-year-old man admitted due to dyspnea, epistaxis and loss of consciousness, disseminated intravascular coagulation with petechiae and ecchymosis was presented. Bacteria within monocytes and neutrophils were observed in the peripheral blood smear of this patient, and, also, prominent toxic changes, such as marked granulation, vacuolation, and Dohle bodies, were noted in leukocytes. These bacteria could be confirmed by Gram stain of peripheral blood smear and blood cultures as Klebsiella pneumoniae, at 48 hours after bacteremia was diagnosed by the blood films. We believe that this report is the first case of bacteremia diagnosed by a Wright's stained peripheral blood smear in Korea. Despite intensive treatment with respiratory support, associated with broad spectrum antibiotherapy, he died on the second day of the admission and before getting the result of blood cultures. Therefore, direct examination of peripheral blood smears could be a valuable tool for the early diagnosis and management of high-level bacteremia.
Bacteremia* ; Bacteria ; Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation ; Dyspnea ; Early Diagnosis ; Ecchymosis ; Epistaxis ; Humans ; Klebsiella pneumoniae ; Korea ; Leukocytes ; Middle Aged ; Monocytes ; Neutrophils ; Purpura ; Unconsciousness

BACKGROUND: It is recommended that ABO, Rh typing and unexpected antibody screening should be tested during pregnancy in order to prevent hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN). However, it is unclear that a routine prenatal antibody screening test predicts the occurrence of HDN. We performed a retrospective study to determine the frequency of unexpected antibody during pregnancy, antibody specificity, and the usefulness of prenatal antibody screening as a predictor of HDN. METHODS: All 6,293 prenatal antibody screening were tested at Eulji hospital from April 1997 to December 2002. The results of antibody screening and identification test were reviewed in laboratory sheet. The past transfusion and pregnant history and postnatal HDN evidence were reviewed in pregnant women with positive antibody screening. A commercial two cell panel, Selectogen I, II, and panel cell (Ortho Diagnostic Systems Inc., Raritan, USA) were used with tube method until March 1999. In April 1999, reagent cells were changed to a gel agglutination test with ID-Diacell I, II and ID-Dia Panel of DiaMed-ID Micro Typing System (DiaMed AG, Cressier, Switzerland). RESULTS: Positive results of antibody screening test were found in 52 cases (0.83%, 52/6,293). Only 28 cases of them were tested antibody identification. Antibody specificity was identified at 22 cases and 17 (77.3%, 17/22) women had unexpected antibodies which are not associated with HDN. They were 11 with anti-Lea , 3 with anti-Leb, and 3 with anti-P1. The others were 3 cases of anti-E, 1 of anti-M, and 1 of anti-S. However, no one had evidence of HDN. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that routine prenatal antibody screening may not be necessary for all pregnant women except Rh (D) negative women or those who have a history of HDN.
Agglutination Tests ; Antibodies ; Antibody Specificity ; Female ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Mass Screening* ; Pregnancy ; Pregnant Women ; Retrospective Studies

BACKGROUND: We evaluated newly introduced VARIANTTM II(Bio-Rad Laboratories, CA, USA) hemoglobin(Hb) A1c autoanalyzer, including bar code reading, cap-piercing system and automatic hemolyzing. It utilizes ion-exchange high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) method. METHODS: Linearity, precision, comparison with Hi-AUTOA1cTM HA-8121(Kyoto Daiichi, Kagaku Co. Ltd, Kyoto, Japan) and analysis time were evaluated. The reference range was determined by VARIANTTM II from 120 healthy subjects. RESULTS: Linearity through the range from 5.8% to 14.7% was good(r2=0.9909). The within-run coefficients of variation(CVs) for groups of low, middle and high level were 3.07%, 1.96% and 2.14% and between-day CVs for each group were 2.35%, 3.09% and 2.10%, respectively. Correlation equation between VARIANTTM II and Hi-AUTOA1cTM HA-8121 was VARIANTTM II = 1.0886(Hi-AUTOA1cTM HA-8121) + 0.4760% Hb A1c(r=0.9906). Two instruments were also compared by Altman and Bland's method and mean bias was 1.20. Analysis time of VARIANTTM II was 15.6 tests per hour compared with 14.8 tests of Hi-AUTOA1cTM HA-8121. The reference range in this study was 2.8-5.9% Hb A1c. CONCLUSIONS: VARIANTTM II showed the acceptable performance and advantage of calibration, and it was suitable for routine use in the clinical laboratory.
Automatic Data Processing ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Calibration ; Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated ; Reference Values

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the performance and analysis time of HLC-723 G7 (Tosoh corp. Tokyo, Japan) hemoglobin (Hb) A1c autoanalyzer. It utilizes cation exchange high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method and has a reduced analysis time compared with that of an earlier model HLC-723GHb V A1c 2.2(TM) (HLC-723GHb V, Tosoh corp. Tokyo, Japan). METHODS: We evaluated linearity, precision and comparison with HLC-723GHb V following NCCLS guidelines and counted the number of tests per hour to estimate analysis time. RESULTS: Linearity through the range from 5.8% to 13.9% was good (r2=0.9930, relative nonlinearity <2.5%). The within-run coefficients of variation (CVs) for groups of low, middle, and high level were 1.09%, 0.76%, and 0.68% and total CVs for each group were 1.60%, 0.91%, and 1.00%, respectively. Correlation equation between HLC-723 G7 and HLC-723GHb V was HLC-723 G7=1.0308 (HLC-723GHb V)-0.2896 %Hb A1c (r=0.9992, P<0.0001). Analysis time of HLC-723 G7 was 1.2 minutes per test compared with 2.1 minutes of HLC-723GHb V. CONCLUSIONS: HLC-723 G7 showed the acceptable performance and shortening analysis time therefore, it was suitable for reducing turn around time of Hb A1c assay.
Chromatography, Liquid ; Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated

BACKGROUND: Sinusitis is a common and frequently recurrent illness in children. Respiratory allergy has been recognized as a major factor that predisposes children to recurrent and chronic sinusitis. Another important causative factors of recurrent sinusitis in children is immunodeficiency diseases. Among them, humoral immunodeficient disease especially is associated with recurrent sinusitis. Most common immune defect in recurrent sinusitis is immunoglobulin deficiency. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to obtain a quantitative data of serum immunoglobulins in children with recurrent sinusitis, to investigate a relationship between recurrent sinusitis and immunoglobulin deficiency. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 30 childrens were selected who had been diagnosed as recurrent sinusitis at Nowon Eulji hospital in 1996. The serum immunoglobulins were evaluated by Latex agglutination immunoassay and ELISA. RESULTS: The serum IgG was within normal limits and IgA deficiency appeared in 1 patient but serum IgM appeared higher than normal value over 3 years patients. The serum IgG subclass deficiency appeared in 3 patients for IgG(1), 7 patients for IgG(2), 14 patients for IgG(3), 10 patients for IgG(4). The combined serum IgG subclass deficiency appeared in 4 patients for IgG(2) and IgG(3), 1 patient for IgG(2) and IgG(4), 4 patient for IgG(3) and IgG(4), 1 patient for IgG(1) and IgG(2) and IgG(3). CONCLUSION: Immunoglobulin deficiency is approved to be closely associated with recurrent sinusitis in children.
Agglutination ; Child* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; IgA Deficiency ; Immunoassay ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulin M ; Immunoglobulins* ; Latex ; Reference Values ; Sinusitis*

BACKGROUND: An exact ABO blood group is essential for prevention of transfusion accident and safe transfusion therapy. It is known that one of causes of ABO discrepancies is ABO subgroup caused by genetic polymorphism. Therefore, we analyzed ABO genotype of ABO discrepancies in blood donors and studied the distribution and cause of ABO discrepancies. METHODS: This study examined 118 samples showing ABO discrepancies of ABO blood typing between May 2003 and Dec 2003. ABO genotyping using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism(PCR-RFLP) method was performed on 118 samples. Restriction enzymes including BssH II, Kpn I and Alu I were used for PCR-RFLP. RESULTS: The genotypes of 118 cases were composed of 43 cases of A/B, 12 cases of A/O, 10 cases of B/O, 1 case of B/B, 37 cases of cis-AB/O, 4 cases of cis-AB/A, 11 cases of cis-AB/B. The genotype of cis-AB/O showed 32 cases with phenotype A2 B3 , 2 cases with phenotype A2 B, 2 cases with phenotype A1 B3 , 1 case with phenotype Ael B. The genotype of cis-AB/B showed 11 cases with phenotype A2 B, and cis-AB/A showed 2 cases with phenotype A2 B3 , 1 case with phenotype A1 Bx and 1 case with phenotype A1 Bel. CONCLUSION: These data demonstrated that the most frequent genotype of ABO discrepancies in our study is cis-AB. The most predominent phenotype of cis-AB/O is A2 B3 . ABO genotyping is useful in resolving ABO discrepancies, and determination of ABO subgroups.
Blood Donors* ; Blood Grouping and Crossmatching ; Genotype ; Humans ; Phenotype ; Polymorphism, Genetic

OBJECTIVES: There have been many studies on the relationship between diabetes mellitus and presbycusis. Microangiopathy and neuropathy that's caused by chronic hyperglycemia may lead to damage to the inner ear. Several clinical studies on humans and animal studies have been performed to investigate the association between diabetes and hearing loss, however, this relationship is still a matter of debate. We investigated the association of diabetes and sensorineural hearing loss in an animal model of type-2 diabetes and obesity (the ob/ob mouse [OM]). METHODS: The auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds were obtained in the OM and the wild type mice (C57BL/6J mice) up to 25 weeks after birth. After the animals were sacrificed, their cochleae were retrieved and then subjected to histopathologic observations. RESULTS: The OM exhibited significantly elevated ABR thresholds at 21 weeks of age, yet the C57BL/6J mice exhibited no significant change until 25 weeks of age. On the histological findings, outer hair cell degeneration and loss of spiral ganglion cells were observed in the middle and basal turns of the OM. On the contrary, no degenerative change was observed until 25 weeks of age in the C57BL/6J mice. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that chronic hyperglycemia and obesity may lead to early sensorineural hearing loss.
Animals ; Cochlea ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Ear, Inner ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem ; Hair ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Humans ; Hyperglycemia ; Mice ; Mice, Obese ; Models, Animal ; Obesity ; Parturition ; Presbycusis ; Spiral Ganglion

Authors found a case of anti-Wr(a) with anti-E antibody in 67 years old female patient. Anti-Wr(a) in Korea was reported for the first time in 2005. Anti-Wr(a) has been associated with hemolytic transfusion reaction (HTR) and hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN). It is necessary to study the incidence of Wr(a) antigen and anti-Wr(a) in Korea.
Aged ; Blood Group Incompatibility ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea

No abstract available.
Thrombocytopenia, Neonatal Alloimmune*