The incidence of vector-borne diseases has increased with climate change and developments of transportation. Malaria was eliminated in the early 1980s in Korea, but one domestic case was reported in 1993. The number of patients increased to 4,142 in 2002, and less than 700 cases of malaria are reported annually nowadays. Additionally, approximately 70 to 80 imported malaria cases were reported annually, and most of them are Plasmodium falciparum infections from Africa. Annually, 20 to 40 cases of Japanese encephalitis are reported, and the incidence is high in individuals between the ages of 40 and 59. Moreover, 313 cases of dengue fever were imported in 2016, and most of them were from Southeast Asia. In 2016, 11,000 cases of scrub typhus were reported, and most of the patients were older than 50. The number of reported cases of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome has been increasing since 2013, mostly in patients older than 60. It is important to avoid vectors for the prevention, and for the doctors to diagnose the apatients as soon as possible.
Africa ; Asia, Southeastern ; Climate Change ; Dengue ; Encephalitis, Japanese ; Fever ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Malaria ; Plasmodium falciparum ; Scrub Typhus ; Thrombocytopenia ; Transportation

PURPOSE: Dopamine plays a critical role in promoting sexual drive and penile erection through dopamine receptors. This study was performed to investigate whether the cavernousal nerve controls the expression of peripheral dopamine D1 receptors in rat penile tissues after cavernousal nerve injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male rats (n=20) were divided into two groups: a control group consisting of sham-operated rats (n=10) and an experimental group consisting of rats that underwent incision of the bilateral cavernous nerve (n=10). Three months later, the intracavernous pressure response was monitored using an intracavernous papaverine injection of 300 microgram. The expression of dopamine D1 receptor mRNA were studied using an RT-PCR method, and dopamine D1 receptor protein expression by Western blot analysis and immuno-histochemical staining in each group. The expressed band density of the RT-PCR and Western blot were measured by a densitometer. RESULTS: Erectile functions, as studied by intracavernosal papaverine injection at three months, were similar in both groups. The dopamine D1 receptor mRNA and protein expressions were significantly lower in the neurotomy group. The immuno-histochemical staining also showed a reduction in the dopamine D1 receptor expression in the neurotomy group compared with the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that dopamine D1 receptors in penile tissues were down-regulated following cavernousal nerve injury. These findings suggest that cavernousal nerve injury affects directly the reduction of dopamine D1 receptor expression, and that the action of dopamine on the cavernousal dopamine receptor will be affected in cavernousal nerve injured rats.
Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Dopamine* ; Down-Regulation* ; Humans ; Male ; Papaverine ; Penile Erection ; Penis ; Rats* ; Receptors, Dopamine ; Receptors, Dopamine D1* ; RNA, Messenger ; Wounds and Injuries

PURPOSE: To analyze clinical, radiological and pathological features as well as clinical outcome after surgical treatment of patients with secondary chondrosarcoma arising from osteochondroma(tosis). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed clinical records, radiographs, pathologic slides of 14 patients. Nine patients were male and five were female. The mean age was 34 years. The mean follow-up period was 54 months. RESULTS: All patients had a history of previous mass since childhood or puberty. Preexisted osteochondroma was single in 3 patients and multiple in 10. Remaining 1 patient had multiple osteochondromatosis with enchondromatosis. MRI clearly provided thickness of cartilage cap, which was over 2 cm except in 2 cases. Chondrosarcoma was grade 1 in all except 1 case, which was grade 2. Wide excision was performed in 10 patients, marginal excision in 3 and amputation in 1. Twelve patients were doing very well without evidence of disease. Among 3 patients with marginal excision, 1 patient had local recurrence and 1 patient died of disease. CONCLUSION: Comprehensive understanding of clinical, radiological and pathological features of secondary chondrosarcoma is warranted for accurate diagnosis. The best result can be expected with early recognition of malignant change of osteohcondroma(tosis) and wide excision.
Amputation ; Cartilage ; Chondrosarcoma ; Enchondromatosis ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Osteochondroma ; Osteochondromatosis ; Puberty ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVE: Although several prior works showed the white matter (WM) integrity changes in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer's disease, it is still unclear the diagnostic accuracy of the WM integrity measurements using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in discriminating aMCI from normal controls. The aim of this study is to explore diagnostic validity of whole brain automated probabilistic tractography in discriminating aMCI from normal controls. METHODS: One hundred-two subjects (50 aMCI and 52 normal controls) were included and underwent DTI scans. Whole brain WM tracts were reconstructed with automated probabilistic tractography. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) values of the memory related WM tracts were measured and compared between the aMCI and the normal control groups. In addition, the diagnostic validities of these WM tracts were evaluated. RESULTS: Decreased FA and increased MD values of memory related WM tracts were observed in the aMCI group compared with the control group. Among FA and MD value of each tract, the FA value of left cingulum angular bundle showed the highest area under the curve (AUC) of 0.85 with a sensitivity of 88.2%, a specificity of 76.9% in differentiating MCI patients from control subjects. Furthermore, the combination FA values of WM integrity measures of memory related WM tracts showed AUC value of 0.98, a sensitivity of 96%, a specificity of 94.2%. CONCLUSION: Our results with good diagnostic validity of WM integrity measurements suggest DTI might be promising neuroimaging tool for early detection of aMCI and AD patients.
Alzheimer Disease ; Anisotropy ; Area Under Curve ; Brain ; Diffusion Tensor Imaging ; Humans ; Memory ; Mild Cognitive Impairment* ; Neuroimaging ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; White Matter

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in Korea. Its average growth rate has been 3.7% annually from 1999 to 2013. The 5-year relative survival rate is 75.6%. The number of CRC survivors is expected to increase steadily because of its high incidence and survival rate. Because CRC survivors are at risk for recurrence, metachronous cancer, and other cancers, they should be checked regularly. Recommended surveillance includes history-taking and physical examination, colonoscopy, carcinoembryonic antigen testing, and computed tomography. Routine complete blood counts, liver function test, and positron emission tomography are not recommended. CRC survival, which is associated with Lynch syndrome and familial adenomatous polyposis, is also related to a higher risk of other cancers such as gastrointestinal and gynecologic cancers. Additional surveillance should be taken. CRC survivors could complain of general health problems such as cancer-related fatigue and psychosocial/cognitive dysfunction, in addition to treatment-related problems including bowel/urologic/sexual dysfunction, peripheral neuropathy, and ostomy care. They are also at greater risk of cardiovascular diseases. The primary care physician should counsel CRC survivors about their health problems and make an effort to address these concerns. Primary care physicians should try to communicate with CRC survivors and all specialists for clinical follow-up care.
Adenomatous Polyposis Coli ; Blood Cell Count ; Carcinoembryonic Antigen ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Colonoscopy ; Colorectal Neoplasms* ; Colorectal Neoplasms, Hereditary Nonpolyposis ; Fatigue ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea* ; Liver Function Tests ; Ostomy ; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases ; Physical Examination ; Physicians, Primary Care ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; Recurrence ; Specialization ; Survival Rate ; Survivors*

The MBT-2 mice bladder cancer tissues and the human bladder cancer tissues were implanted on the chorioallantoic membrance(CAM) of the immune deficient fertilized chicken eggs and the histopathologic changes of the CAM and gross morphologic changes of the implanted cancer tissues on CAM ere studied. The chemosensitivity tests using chicken CAM were performed for the 4 human bladder cancer tissues to mitomycin C, thiotepa and adriamycin. With this study, the following results were obtained: 1. The observation of the blood vessel on the chorioallantoic membrane was possible from the post-incubation 6th day group, but for the implantation of the cancer tissues, the blood vessels from the post-incubation 8th day group was appropriate. 2. The budding oif the host capillary vessel to the implanted cancer tissue were observed from the post-implantation second day. 3. The size of the post-implantation 7th day cancer tissues were varied from 2.3 to 9.2 folds to the size of the implantation day. 4. The total failure rate in experiment within post-operative 3rd day were 71.3 percent and the total failure rates in group who had the damage on the chorioallantoic membrance during operation was 82.5 percent. The failure rate of the experiment was declined acutely after post-operative 4th day. 5. The salvage of the eggs could be maintained until post-operative 7th day in 28.1 percent among chemosensitivity test group. 6. The 4 bladder cencer tissues which had the chemosensitivity test showed 1.6 to 7.1 fold growth to the inital implanted size and this meant resistance to the test drugs and these results were corresponded with clinical course.
Animals ; Blood Vessels ; Capillaries ; Chickens* ; Chorioallantoic Membrane* ; Doxorubicin ; Eggs* ; Humans* ; Mice* ; Mitomycin ; Ovum* ; Thiotepa ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* ; Urinary Bladder*

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to test the validity of the Korean version of Mood Disorder Questionnaire (K-MDQ), a screening instrument for bipolar disorder. METHODS: A total of 238 subjects (126 DSM-IV bipolar outpatients and 112 controls without psychiatric history) completed the K-MDQ. RESULTS: The Cronbach's alpha, used to measure the internal consistency of the scale, was high (0.88). Principal component analysis with varimax rotation revealed three factors, which explained 59.5% of the variance. Individual item correlations with the total score were all statistically significant (p<0.001). The mean total score of the K-MDQ was 8.48 in bipolar disorder and 4.51 in non-clinical participants. A total K-MDQ score of 7 or more excluding further two questions was chosen as the optimal cutoff, as it provided good sensitivity (0.75) and specificity (0.69). CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed adequate validity of the K-MDQ, suggesting that this instrument is useful for screening of bipolar disorder.
Bipolar Disorder ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Mood Disorders* ; Outpatients ; Principal Component Analysis ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Sensitivity and Specificity

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to test the validity of the Korean version of Mood Disorder Questionnaire (K-MDQ), a screening instrument for bipolar disorder. METHODS: A total of 238 subjects (126 DSM-IV bipolar outpatients and 112 controls without psychiatric history) completed the K-MDQ. RESULTS: The Cronbach's alpha, used to measure the internal consistency of the scale, was high (0.88). Principal component analysis with varimax rotation revealed three factors, which explained 59.5% of the variance. Individual item correlations with the total score were all statistically significant (p<0.001). The mean total score of the K-MDQ was 8.48 in bipolar disorder and 4.51 in non-clinical participants. A total K-MDQ score of 7 or more excluding further two questions was chosen as the optimal cutoff, as it provided good sensitivity (0.75) and specificity (0.69). CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed adequate validity of the K-MDQ, suggesting that this instrument is useful for screening of bipolar disorder.
Bipolar Disorder ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Mood Disorders* ; Outpatients ; Principal Component Analysis ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Objective: In this study we investigated whether current mood states of patients with bipolar disorder have an influence on the screening accuracy of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ). Methods: A total of 452 patients with mood disorder (including 192 with major depressive disorder and 260 with bipolar disorder completed the Korean version of the MDQ. Patients with bipolar disorder were subdivided into three groups (bipolar depressed only, bipolar euthymic only, bipolar manic/hypomanic only) according to current mood states. The screening accuracy of the MDQ including sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were evaluated according to current mood states. Results: The optimal cutoff of MDQ was 5 in this study sample. Sensitivity and specificity were not significantly different according to current mood states. Significant differences in AUCs of four independent ROC curves were not found (ROC 1st curve included all bipolar patients; ROC 2nd curve included only bipolar depressed patients; ROC 3rd curve included only bipolar manic/hypomanic patients; ROC 4th curve included only bipolar euthymic patients). Conclusion The study results showed that current mood states (either euthymic state, depressed or manic/hypomanic) did not significantly influence the screening accuracy of the MDQ suggesting that the MDQ could be a useful screening instrument for detecting bipolar disorder in clinical practice regardless of the current mood symptoms of subjects.

OBJECTIVE: Although the association between low vitamin D levels and depressive symptoms has been widely reported, studies investigating the relationship between hypovitaminosis D and depressive symptomatology are scarce. METHODS: We retrospectively studied the relationship between vitamin D status and depressive symptoms in 196 patients hospitalized for a major depressive episode. RESULTS: The baseline 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale total and depression factor (item 1, 2, 3, 7) scores were significantly higher in the vitamin-D-insufficiency/deficiency group than in the vitamin-D-sufficiency group. CONCLUSION: It is important to consider measuring the vitamin D levels of patients with severe and core depressive symptoms and providing vitamin D supplementation when necessary.
Anhedonia ; Depression ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Retrospective Studies ; Vitamin D ; Vitamins