Typhoid fever is an acute systemic febrile disease caused by Salmonella Typhi, characterized by persistent fever, headache, abdominal pain, diarrhea and rose spots. Salmonella infection can lead to diffuse organ involvement including bone, lung, thyroid, kidney, liver, spleen, heart, intestine and skin. While a variety of complications may be seen in typhoid fever, sensorineural hearing loss or pancreatitis has been rarely observed. Recently, we experienced a case of typhoid fever complicated by sensorineural hearing loss, acute pancreatitis and hepatitis in a 21-year-old female patient, who was improved with ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin administration and supportive care. We report this case with a review of the literature.
Abdominal Pain ; Ceftriaxone ; Ciprofloxacin ; Diarrhea ; Female ; Fever ; Headache ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural* ; Heart ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Intestines ; Kidney ; Liver ; Lung ; Pancreatitis* ; Salmonella Infections ; Salmonella typhi ; Skin ; Spleen ; Thyroid Gland ; Typhoid Fever* ; Young Adult

The majority of ptients with ischemic heart disease such as angina pectoris and myocardial infarction have coronary atherosclerosis as a underlying cause. However, in unusual conditions such as variant angina, aortic valvular heart disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, vasculitis, hypercoagulable states, coronary atherosclerosis is not the cause. Polycythemia vesa is a myeloproliferative disease characterized by infrequent thromboembolic complications such as ischemic heart disease. We report a case of polycythemia vera presenting with angina pectoris without coronary artery stenosis with the review of the literature.
Angina Pectoris* ; Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Stenosis* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Heart Valve Diseases ; Myocardial Infarction ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Polycythemia Vera* ; Polycythemia* ; Vasculitis

Two distinct hantaviruses have been isolated from Apodemus agrarius in 1976 and Rattus norvegicus in 1980 in Korea. Since our serosurveys conducted in 1994, a genetically distinct hantavirus from Apodemus peninsulae has been investigated. To isolate hantavirus from A. peninsulae captured in Korea, the lung homogenate of seropositive A. peninsulae inoculted Vero E6 cells. Viral antigen was detected in a progressively higher percentage of cells with subsequent passage after 80 days postinoculation. The new isolate from seropositive Apodemus peninsulae was designated Suchong virus after Suchong valley located in northeastern region of South Korea. Comparing with hantaan virus 76-118 strain, Suchong virus-1, 2, 3 and 4 showed the similarity of 71.0~91.8% at nucleotide and 90.9~94.8% at amino acid sequences in 231 nucleotides region of M segment, and the similarity of 75.1~81.0% at nucleotide and 97.5~100% at amino acid sequences in 237 nucleotides of S segment.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Animals ; Hantaan virus ; Hantavirus* ; Korea ; Lung ; Murinae* ; Nucleotides ; Population Characteristics* ; Rats

This study investigated the protective effects of diallyl disulfide (DADS) against cyclophosphamide (CP)-induced testicular toxicity in male rats. DADS was gavaged to rats once daily for 3 days at 100 mg/kg/day. One hour after the final DADS treatment, the rats were given a single intraperitoneal dose of 150 mg/kg CP. All rats were killed and necropsied on day 56 after CP treatment. Parameters of testicular toxicity included reproductive organ weight, testicular sperm head count, epididymal sperm motility and morphology, epididymal index, and histopathologic examinations. The CP treatment caused a decrease in body weight, testicular sperm head count, epididymal sperm motility, and epididymal index. The histopathological examination revealed various morphological alterations, characterized by degeneration of spermatogonia/spermatocytes, vacuolization, and decreased number of spermatids/spermatocytes in the testis, and cell debris and mild oligospermia in the ductus epididymis. In contrast, DADS pretreatment effectively attenuated the testicular toxicity caused by CP, including decreased sperm head count, epididymal sperm motility, and epididymal index and increased histopathological alterations in the testis and epididymis. These results indicate that DADS attenuates testicular toxicity induced by CP in rats.
Animals ; Body Weight ; Cyclophosphamide ; Epididymis ; Humans ; Male ; Oligospermia ; Organ Size ; Rats* ; Sperm Head ; Sperm Motility ; Testis

An appendico-sigmoid fistula is a rare entity that has seldom been reported in the literature. In review articles, there are only several reports of appendiceal fistulas, including two into the ileum, two into the ascending colon, two into the sigmoid colon, and one into the Meckel's diverticulum. Presumably, these cases were caused primarily by antecedent appendicitis and diverticulitis. We experienced a case of an appendico-sigmoid fistula due to appendicitis. A 42-year-old man was admitted with complaints of low abdominal pain, distension, and a chilling sense for 1 month. On physical examination, the patient had right low-quadrant abdominal tenderness and rebound tenderness. However, the patient had no fever, and the WBC count was 8,900/mm3. On colonoscopy and barium study, the patient was diagnosed as having an appendico-sigmoid fistula due to appendicitis. An appendectomy and segmental resection of the sigmoid colon was done.
Abdominal Pain ; Adult ; Appendectomy ; Appendicitis* ; Barium ; Colon, Ascending ; Colon, Sigmoid ; Colonoscopy ; Diverticulitis ; Fever ; Fistula* ; Humans ; Ileum ; Meckel Diverticulum ; Physical Examination

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop a simulation module for teaching home health care and evaluate the applicability of the program to nursing students' practical training. METHODS: The simulation module was developed based on the National League for Nursing Jeffries Simulation Theory. The theme of the developed scenario was teaching nasogastric tube feeding to the caregiver of patient with Parkinson disease. Participants were 61 nursing students who had learned tube feeding, and participated in the questionnaire survey after the simulation training. RESULTS: The evaluation of simulation design showed the highest score on feedback/guided reflection, and was highly evaluated in the order of objectives/information, problem solving and fidelity. The educational practice of the simulation was highly evaluated in the order of active learning, high expectation and diversity of learning. The nursing students showed high satisfaction and self-confidence after the simulation education. CONCLUSION: We suggest that the developed simulation module can be applied to practical training for home health care. In the future, the change of self-efficacy, clinical judgment and performance ability of the students after the simulation education should be identified. Also, various simulation modules related to the community health nursing competencies should be continuously developed and verified.
Caregivers ; Community Health Nursing ; Delivery of Health Care ; Education ; Enteral Nutrition* ; Home Health Nursing ; Humans ; Judgment ; Learning ; Nursing* ; Parkinson Disease ; Problem Solving ; Problem-Based Learning ; Simulation Training ; Students, Nursing*

Core needle biopsy is a complementary diagnostic method of fine needle aspiration for patients with thyroid nodules. The Task Force Committee of the Korean Society of Thyroid Radiology has developed recommendations for diagnosis of thyroid nodules and recurrent thyroid cancers using core needle biopsy. These recommendations are based on evidence from the current literature and expert consensus.
Advisory Committees ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Biopsy, Large-Core Needle ; Consensus ; Humans ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroid Nodule

Listeria myelitis is known to be very rare and not reported yet in Korea. A 78-year-old man with diabetes mellitus and hepatocellular carcinoma presented altered mentality, paraparesis, and fever. His spinal cord MRI, cerebrospinal fluid study, and blood culture demonstrated thoracic myelitis caused by Listeria monocytogenes. This case suggests that listeria myelitis should be considered as one of the causes of non-tumorous myelopathy especially in immunocompromised patients.
Aged ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Fever ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Korea ; Listeria ; Listeria monocytogenes ; Myelitis ; Paraparesis ; Spinal Cord ; Spinal Cord Diseases

An aortic aneurysm is described as a permanent localized dilatation of the aorta having a diameter at least 1.5 times that of the expected norrnal diameter of that given aortic segment. Thoracic aortic aneurysms are much less common than are aneurysms of the abdominal aorta. Thoracic aneurysms are classified by the portion of aorta involved, I.e., the ascending, arch, or descending thoracic aorta. We experienced a case of saccular arteriosclerotic aortic aneurysm associated with thrombus in aortic arch in a 78 year-old male who had history of hypertension. He was admitted to Kwangju Veterans Hospital complaining of drowsy mental state and swelling of left foreann. The chest X-ray, chest CT and echocardiogram showed saccular dilatation(maximal diarneter ; 7.67~7.86cm) associated with thrombus in aortic arch. He refused operation because of old age, so he was conservatively rnanaged including propranolol. We report this case of saccular arteriosclerotic aneurysm of aortic arch with a brief review of literature.
Aged ; Aneurysm ; Aorta ; Aorta, Abdominal ; Aorta, Thoracic* ; Aortic Aneurysm* ; Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic ; Dilatation ; Gwangju ; Hospitals, Veterans ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Male ; Propranolol ; Thorax ; Thrombosis* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Cilostazol is a phosphodiesterase inhibitor that has been shown to have similar efficacy in stroke prevention but fewer hemorrhagic events compared with aspirin. We report a case of spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma (SSEH) in a 67-year-old woman who has been treated with cilostazol for cerebral infarction. The patient was presented with sudden neck pain and right hemiparesis. Thirteen days after the onset, she recovered completely. Even cilostazol, which is a relatively safer drug in terms of bleeding risk compared to other antiplatelet agents, may cause SSEH. Therefore, physicians should keep in mind rare, but potentially fatal, bleeding complications such as SSEH when prescribing antiplatelet agents.
Aspirin ; Cerebral Infarction ; Female ; Hematoma, Epidural, Spinal ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Neck Pain ; Paresis ; Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors ; Stroke ; Tetrazoles