Influenza-associated encephalopathy is typically associated with a sudden onset of high fever, severe convulsions, rapidly progressive coma and death within 2 or 3 days. It has been actively researched in Japan as it caused a tremendous increase in the number of deaths from 1997 to 2002. But there has been reported only one case in Korea, who was diagnosed on the basis of serologic testing by hemagglutinin inhibition. We report here a 14-month-old boy who was taken supportive care and a 3-year-old girl who was taken amantadine and methyprednisolone pulse therapy. Both of them were admitted under the diagnosis of influenza-associated encephalopathy on the basis of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction of nasopharyngeal fluid and cerebrospinal fluidm, brain magnetic resonance imagings. The first case was confirmed by the identification of influenza A/H3N2 in the cerebrospinal fluid culture by RT-PCR for the first time in Korea.
Amantadine ; Brain ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Child, Preschool ; Coma ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Fever ; Hemagglutinins ; Humans ; Infant ; Influenza, Human ; Japan ; Korea ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Seizures ; Serologic Tests

BACKGROUND: Thymic carcinoma is a rare malignant disease with sparse data for treatment and prognosis. We intended to investigate the prognostic factors of thymic carcinoma. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Data of 42 patients, who were diagnosed and treated for thymic carcinoma from January of 1986 to August of 2003 were reviewed retrospectively. Influences of characteristics of patients, Masaoka stage, histologic grade, completeness of resection and adjuvant treatment on survival were evaluated. RESULT: There were 30 male and 12 female patients and their mean age was 52.0+/-15.7 years old. There were 28 patients with low-grade histology and 13 patients with high- grade histology. Clinical stage according to Masaoka stage were I in 2, II in 2, III in 15 (35.7%), IVa in 10 (23.8%), and IVb in 13 (31%) patients. Surgical resection was done in 22 patients. Complete resection was possible in 13 patients and incomplete resection was done in 9 patients. Among 20 patients without resection, 8 patients received chemotherapy, 7 patients received radiotherapy and 5 patients received combined therapy. Median survival time was 31.7+/-6.1 months and 5 year survival rate was 28.6%. High grade histology (hazard ratio=3.009, 95% confidence interval=1.178~7.685, p=0.021) and incompleteness of resection (hazard ratio=3.605, 95% confidence interval=1.154~11.580, p=0.023) were the prognostic factors of thymic carcinoma. CONCLUSION: In thymic carcinoma, low grade histology is a good prognostic factor and complete resection can prolong the survival of patients.
Drug Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Prognosis ; Radiotherapy ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Thymoma* ; Thymus Neoplasms

BACKGROUND: Complete surgical resection is the most effective treatment for pT1/2N1 non-small cell lung cancer, however 5 year survival rate of these patients is about 40% and the major cause of death is recurrent disease. We intended to clarify the risk factors of recurrence in completely resected pT1/2N1 non-small cell lung cancer. MATERIAL NAD METHOD: From Jan. 1990 to Jul. 2003, total of 117 patients were operated for pT1/2N1 non-small cell lung cancer. The risk of recurrence according to patients characteristics, histopathologic findings, type of resection, pattern of lymph node metastasis, postoperative adjuvant treatment were evaluated retrospectively. RESULT: Mean age of patients was 59.3 years. There were 14 patients with T1N1 and 103 patients with T2N1 disease. Median follow-up time was 27.5 months and overall 5 year survival rate was 41.3%. 5 year freedom-from recurrence rate was 54.1%. Recurrence was observed in 44 (37.6%) patients and distant recurrence developed in 40 patients. 5 year survival rate of patients with recurence was 3.3%, which was significantly lower than patients without recurrence (61.3%, p=0.000). In multi-variate analysis of risk factors for freedom-from recurrence rate, multi-station N1 (hazard ratio=1.997, p=0.047) was a poor prognostic factor. CONCLUSION: Multi-station N1 is the risk factor for recurrence in completely resected pT1/2N1 non-small cell lung cancer.
Risk Factors ; Lung Neoplasms

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have suggested that UFT may be an effective adjuvant therapy for completely resected IB (pT2N0) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We designed this study to clarify the feasibility of performing adjuvant chemotherapy with UFT for completely resected IB non-small cell lung cancer. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We randomly assigned patients suffering with completely resected IB non-small cell lung cancer to receive either UFT 3g for 2 year or they received no treatment. All patients had to be followed until death or the cut-off date (December 31 2006). RESULT: From June 2002 through December 2004, 64 patients were enrolled. Thirty five patients were assigned to receive UFT(the UFT group) and 29 patients were assigned to observation (the control group). A follow-up survey on the 3 year survival rate was successfully completed for all the patients. The median follow-up time for all the patients was 32.8 months. In the UFT group, the median time of administration was 98 weeks (range: 2~129 weeks). The rate of compliance was 88.2% at 6 months, 87.5% at 12 months, 80.6% at 18 month and 66.7% at 24 months. Seven recurrences (24.1%) occurred in the control group and six (17.1%) occurred in the UFT group (p=0.489). The three-year disease free survival rate was 71.3% for the control group and 82.0% for the UFT group (p=0.331). On the subgroup analysis, the three-year disease free survival rate for the patients with adenocacinoma was 45.0% for the control group and 75.2% for the UFT group (p=0.121). The three-year disease free survival rate for the patients with non-adenocarcinoma was 88.1% for the control group and 88.9% for the UFT group (p=0.964). CONCLUSION: Postoperative oral administration of UFT was well-tolerated. Adjuvant chemotherapy with UFT for completely resected pT2N0 adenocarcinoma of the lung could be expected to improve the disease free survival, but this failed to achieve statistical significance. A prospective randomized study for a large number of patients will be necessary.
Adenocarcinoma ; Administration, Oral* ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Compliance ; Disease-Free Survival ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Recurrence ; Survival Rate

BACKGROUND: The Committee of the Korean Diabetes Association on the Epidemiology of Diabetes Mellitus performed a nationwide survey about the current status of glycemic control and diabetic complications in 2006. METHODS: The current study included 5,652 diabetic patients recruited from the rosters of endocrinology clinics of 13 tertiary hospitals in Korea. Age, gender, height, weight, waist circumference and blood pressure were investigated by standard method. Fasting and postprandial 2 hour glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), lipid profiles, fasting insulin and c-peptide levels were measured. Microvascular (microalbuminuria, retinopathy and neuropathy) and macrovascular (coronary artery disease [CAD], cerebrovascular disease [CVD] and peripheral artery disease [PAD]) complications were reviewed in their medical records. RESULTS: Mean age of total subjects was 58.7 (+/- 11.6) years and duration of diabetes was 8.8 (0~50) years. Mean fasting and postprandial 2 hour glucose levels were 145.9 +/- 55.0 and 208.0 +/- 84.4 mg/dL, respectively. Their mean HbA1c was 7.9 +/- 1.9%: the percentage of patients within target goal of glycemic control (< 7% of HbA1c) was 36.7%. In this study, 30.3%, 38.3% and 44.6% of patients was found to have microalbuminuria, retinopathy and nephropathy, respectively. Prevalence of CAD, CVD and PAD was 8.7%, 6.7% and 3.0%, respectively. Diabetic complications were closely related with age, duration of diabetes and glycemic control, and this relationship was stronger in microvascular complications than macrovascular ones. CONCLUSION: Only about one third of patients with diabetes was found to reach target glycemic control in tertiary hospitals of Korea. More tight control is needed to reduce deleterious complications of diabetes in Korea.
Arteries ; Blood Pressure ; C-Peptide ; Diabetes Complications ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Endocrinology ; Fasting ; Glucose ; Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated ; Humans ; Insulin ; Korea ; Medical Records ; Peripheral Arterial Disease ; Prevalence ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Waist Circumference

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Korean type 2 diabetic patients. METHODS: A total of 4,240 diabetic patients (male 2,033, female 2,207; mean age 58.7 +/- 11.3 years; DM duration 8.9 +/- 7.6 years) were selected from the data of endocrine clinics of 13 university hospitals in 2006. Metabolic syndrome was defined using the criteria of the American Heart Association/National Heart Lung and Blood Institute and the criteria of waist circumference from the Korean Society for the Study of Obesity. RESULTS: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 77.9% (76.7% of males, 78.9% of females). The average number of the components of metabolic syndrome was 2.4 +/- 1.1. Abdominal obesity was seen in 56.8% of the patients, hypertriglyceridemia in 42.0%, low HDL cholesterol in 65.1%, and high blood pressure in 74.9%. Abdominal obesity and high blood pressure were much more prevalent among females than males, and low HDL cholesterol was much more prevalent among males than females. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was not different according to the duration of diabetes. Metabolic syndrome was strongly related with obesity (odds ratio, 6.3) and increased age (odds ratio in the over 70 group, 3.4). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 77.9% in Korean type 2 diabetic patients. Its prevalence was greater in obese patients and in those over 40 years of age.
Cholesterol, HDL ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Female ; Heart ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hypertriglyceridemia ; Lung ; Male ; Obesity ; Obesity, Abdominal ; Prevalence ; Waist Circumference

Background: To investigate the efficacy and safety of moderate-intensity rosuvastatin/ezetimibe combination compared to highintensity rosuvastatin in high atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: This study was a randomized, multicenter, open, parallel phase 4 study, and enrolled T2DM subjects with an estimated 10-year ASCVD risk ≥7.5%. The primary endpoint was the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) change rate after 24-week rosuvastatin 10 mg/ezetimibe 10 mg treatment was non-inferior to that of rosuvastatin 20 mg. The achievement proportion of 10-year ASCVD risk <7.5% or comprehensive lipid target (LDL-C <70 mg/dL, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol <100 mg/dL, and apolipoprotein B <80 mg/dL) without discontinuation, and several metabolic parameters were explored as secondary endpoints. Results: A hundred and six participants were assigned to each group. Both groups showed significant reduction in % change of LDL-C from baseline at week 24 (–63.90±6.89 vs. –55.44±6.85, combination vs. monotherapy, p=0.0378; respectively), but the combination treatment was superior to high-intensity monotherapy in LDL-C change (%) from baseline (least square [LS] mean difference, –8.47; 95% confidence interval, –16.44 to –0.49; p=0.0378). The combination treatment showed a higher proportion of achieved comprehensive lipid targets rather than monotherapy (85.36% vs. 62.22% in monotherapy, p=0.015). The ezetimibe combination significantly improved homeostasis model assessment of β-cell function even without A1c changes (LS mean difference, 17.13; p=0.0185). Conclusion In high ASCVD risk patients with T2DM, the combination of moderate-intensity rosuvastatin and ezetimibe was not only non-inferior but also superior to improving dyslipidemia with additional benefits compared to high-intensity rosuvastatin monotherapy.