BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The incidence of inflammatory heart diseases is not yet as high as those of other cardiovascular diseases; however, inflammatory heart diseases do have relatively high mortality rate. Therefore, update information on the economic burden of inflammatory heart diseases are necessary in order to appropriate policy making on these diseases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study used a number of resources to obtain data, national health insurance statistics, the Korean Health Panel, and the causes of death report by the Korean National Statistical Office. The total costs of inflammatory heart diseases were estimated as the sum of direct medical care costs, direct non-medical care and indirect costs. RESULTS: The total direct cost of inflammatory heart disease was higher in Korean men than that of Korean women and cost due to inpatient was higher than that of outpatients cost. The costs to cover premature death were highest among all of the components used to determine the total costs for inflammatory heart disease, representing 66.3% of these costs in Korea. CONCLUSION: Inflammatory heart disease has a relatively high mortality rate, and the costs that are associated with premature deaths consume the greatest proportion of the costs associated with this disease. In spite of some limitations of study, this could be a reliable evidence of economic burden of inflammatory heart disease.
Cause of Death ; Cost of Illness ; Endocarditis ; Female ; Health Care Costs ; Heart ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Incidence ; Inflammation ; Inpatients ; Korea ; Male ; Mortality, Premature ; National Health Programs ; Outpatients ; Policy Making

Becker’s nevus (BN) is a benign hamartoma that may present as a distressing cosmetic problem. The treatment of BN poses a significant challenge as current therapeutic modalities are suboptimal and have an increased risk of adverse effects, such as scarring and dyspigmentation. We present the use of non-ablative fractional laser therapy combined with Q-switched Nd:YAG laser as a possible therapeutic option for BN treatment and review relevant literature to discuss its efficacy and limitations.

Background: The Baumann skin type (BST) classification provides a new approach for clinical care of dermatologic patients. Objective: To investigate the correlation of skin types with genetic factors and environmental factors that have an important influence on Korean skin by comparing and analyzing the correlation between phenotype and genotype. Methods: From July to October 2016, 774 adults who visited the one online shopping mall were subjected to skin BST questionnaire and gene single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) tests. Oral epithelial cells of the subjects were collected using a Genoplan DNA analysis kit, and 14 genes were analyzed by a genetic analysis agency (Genoplan Inc., Fukuoka, Japan). Results: The most abundant skin type was OSNT (oily, sensitive, non-pigmented, tight) observed in 205 participants (26.5%). Of the filaggrin (FLG) SNPs, 143 participants (18.5%) had the GG (good) SNP; 391 (50.5%), GA (normal) SNP; and 240 (31.0%), AA (poor) SNP. Among those whose FLG SNP was GG (good), 121 (84.6%) were sensitive and 22 (15.4%) were resistant. Of those whose filaggrin (FLG) SNP was GA (normal), 337 (86.2%) were sensitive and 54 (13.8%) were resistant. Of those whose FLG SNP was AA (poor), 213 (88.8%) were sensitive and 27 (11.3%) were resistant. There was also a statistically significant difference in the fruit-vegetable consumption and use of a sunbathing bed between sensitive and resistant type in the groups that classified the FLG SNP as GA. Conclusion This is the first study to investigate the association of BST with genetic factors and environmental factors.

PURPOSE: Reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy syndrome(RPLS) is a complex condition affecting gray/white matter of parieto-occipital lobes from multiple and different etiologies. This study was aimed to analyze clinical characteristics of this condition in Korean children. METHODS: A total of 36 patients from tertiary care medical centers were involved in the study. They were diagnosed as RPLS mainly by clinical and radiological manifestations. Their medical records and radiological features of brain MRI were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Thirty six patients were involved in the study(21 males and 15 females, mean age: 9.8+/-4.1 years of age). Main underlying causes included drug induced(47%), renal diseases(28%), neurogenic tumors(8%) and so on. Initial manifestations were seizures, headache, visual disturbance, mental change, and nausea/vomiting. 13 patients(36%) had two or more symptoms. The brain MRI showed typical pattern of fairly symmetric, high T2 signal intensity in both parieto-occipital regions in 23 patients(64%) and various, atypical pattern in 13 patients(36%). 26 patients had the lesions affecting predominantly white matter, but 10 patients had the lesions affecting predominantly gray matter. 34 patients(94 %) had bilateral lesions, but 2 patients(6%) had unilateral lesion. This complex syndrome was associated with acute rise of blood pressure from a variety of conditions. A patient ended up a visual deficit despite the good prognosis. CONCLUSION: RPLS in Korean children seems to be complex, but a better understanding of this complex syndrome will lead to better clinical outcome by avoiding unnecessary investigations and appropriate management.
Blood Pressure ; Brain ; Child ; Female ; Headache ; Humans ; Leukoencephalopathies ; Male ; Medical Records ; Posterior Leukoencephalopathy Syndrome ; Retrospective Studies ; Seizures ; Tertiary Healthcare

Partial unilateral lentiginosis (PUL) is an unusual pigmentary disorder that's characterized by multiple lentigines in a unilateral distribution. The lesions often have a segmental pattern with a sharp demarcation at the midline. This is sometimes combined with other disorders such as neurofibromatosis or cafe-au-lait macules (CALMs). The presence of multiple CALMs in the same distribution as the lentigines on a PUL patient makes it difficult to differentiate PUL from segmental neurofibromatosis. We present here a 25-year-old woman with an unusual combination of several caf?-au-lait macules and scattered numerous lentigines involving the left side of the abdomen, flank and back.
Abdomen ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Lentigo ; Neurofibromatoses

PURPOSE: Neonatal strokes are common and may be associated with various complications. However, few studies have been conducted on the clinical spectrum in Korea. This study aimed at investigating the clinical presentation and neurological outcome of neonatal strokes. METHODS: Twenty-seven neonates with neonatal stroke were enrolled in the neonatal intensive care unit at Kyungpook National University Hospital from January 2000 to December 2009. Their medical records and neuroradiological findings were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 4+/-5.6 days. Sixteen patients were full term, nine were prematurite and six had low birth weights. The onset of symptoms was mostly within first week (85.2%) of life, especially in the first day of life (51.9%). The most common symptom was seizure (40.7%), which were focal clonic (38.5%) or multifocal clonic (38.5%). Nine patients showed abnormal EEG findings. Thirteen patients had subdural hemorrhage, seven showed intraventricular hemorrhage, and three revealed cerebral infarction. Among 12 patients who followed-up for one year, four had mild neurologic dysfunction and two had severe impairment. CONCLUSION: We found that the onset of symptom in neonatal strokes was mostly within the first day of life, and the most common symptom was focal seizure. We, therefore recommend that neuroimaging be done when newborns have seizures within their first week of life. However, further studies are needed to elucidate this further.
Cerebral Infarction ; Electroencephalography ; Hematoma, Subdural ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Infant, Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Infarction ; Intensive Care, Neonatal ; Korea ; Medical Records ; Neuroimaging ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Retrospective Studies ; Seizures ; Stroke

The skin lesion of herpes zoster is classically limited to single dermatomal area, and most cases of multidermatomal herpes zoster have contiguous skin lesions. Noncontigous multidermatomal herpes zoster is very rare in both immunocompetent and immunocompromised persons. The phenomenon of zoster occurring in two noncontiguous dermatomes has been referred to as zoster duplex unilateralis or bilateralis. We report a case of herpes zoster multiplex in five disparate dermatomes in a 71-year-old woman with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Aged ; Female ; Herpes Zoster ; Humans ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin ; Skin

BACKGROUND: Descriptive diagnosis reports have been causing some problems in communication. Our institution decided to use the category diagnosis system since June, 2008. So we evaluated the effectiveness of this change. METHODS: The category system is composed of unsatisfactory, suboptimal for diagnosis but suggestive of, most probably benign, indeterminate, suspicious for malignancy and malignancy. We evaluated 1,525 cases from June, 2008 to September, 2009. We analyzed 159 cases of the indeterminate category. RESULTS: Among the 159 cases, 21 were re-aspirated and 63 underwent an operation. The diagnoses of the re-aspirated cases were 2 positive for malignancy, 5 indeterminate, 13 most probably benign, and 1 unsatisfactory. The surgical diagnoses were 39 malignancies, 2 follicular adenomas and 1 Hurthle cell adenoma, and 21 benign lesions. Re-aspiration for the indeterminate cases could help decide whether the lesions need to be operated or not at above 70%. The indeterminate category could predict the surgical diagnosis of the thyroid nodule with statistical significance when the subcategories were indicated (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The category diagnosis is replacing the descriptive diagnosis for the thyroid fine needle aspiration. The indeterminate category is useful and effective for making the decision to operate and especially when the indeterminate subcategories are used.
Adenoma ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroid Nodule

OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of epilepsy and to estimate the cost of epilepsy in Korea, 2010. METHODS: This study used a prevalence based approach to calculate the cost of epilepsy. Claims data from the Korean national health insurance and data from the Korea health panel, the Korea National Statistical Office's records of causes of death, and labor statistics were used to estimate the cost of epilepsy. Patients were defined as those who were hospitalized or visited an outpatient clinic during 2010 with a diagnosis of epilepsy (International Classification of Diseases 10th revision codes G40-G41). Total costs of epilepsy included direct medical costs, direct non-medical cost and indirect costs. RESULTS: The annual prevalence of treated epilepsy was 228 per 100 000 population, and higher in men. The age-specific prevalence was highest for teenagers. The total economic burden of epilepsy was 536 billion Korean won (KW). Indirect cost (304 billion KW) was 1.3 times greater than direct cost (232 billion KW). By gender, the male (347 billion KW) were more burdened than the female (189 billion KW). The estimated cost in young age younger than 20 years old was 24.5% of the total burden of epilepsy. CONCLUSIONS: A significant portion of the economic burden of epilepsy is borne by people in young age. To reduce the economic burden of epilepsy, effective prevention and treatment strategies are needed.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; *Cost of Illness ; Epilepsy/*economics/epidemiology ; Female ; Health Care Costs/*statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Middle Aged ; National Health Programs/economics ; Prevalence ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Young Adult

Hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia are rare clinical manifestations of acute glomerulonephritis. Initially, in all such cases, a diagnosis of hemolytic uremic syndrome, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, systemic lupus erythematosus, and amyloidosis should be ruled out. The presence of hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia is rare, but possible, in a case of acute poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis, and may result in delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis. Correct and timely diagnosis would ensure adequate treatment in such patients. We report of a 22-month-old boy with acute glomerulonephritis coexistent with hemolytic anemia and idiopathic thrombocytopenia.
Amyloidosis ; Anemia, Hemolytic* ; Delayed Diagnosis ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic Errors ; Glomerulonephritis* ; Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome ; Humans ; Infant* ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic ; Male ; Purpura, Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic ; Thrombocytopenia*