To improve and keep the competitiveness, it is necessary to keep pace with available changes in technology, and it is essential to establish the flexible and accurate information system about the disease. And for the accurate decision-making, target setting and prediction of movement, the estimating of the short- and long-term effects of the strategies of disease related service are required. But the limited informations, including all of knowledge of leprosy, make it difficult to estimate them properly. To achieve the more effective leprosy related service, we have to make the effort to crate the more accurate system. To proffer the idea for the development of information monitoring, we present the reviews of some articles about the information theories that used the leprosy related service.
Information Systems ; Information Theory ; Leprosy*

No abstract available.
Infant, Newborn ; Meconium Aspiration Syndrome* ; Meconium* ; Mortality ; Suction*

Angiomyolipoma is considered by many authors to be a hamartoma, occurring in a sporadic form or in association with tuberous sclerosis. This lesion consists of thick walled blood vessels, smooth muscle, and mature adipose tissue in varying amounts. We have experienced a case of the angiomyolipoma composed of monotypic epithelioid cells. The patient was a 69-year-old female. Clinically, there was no evidence of tuberous sclerosis. Microscopically, the tumor was composed of polygonal cells with abundant eosinophilic granular or clear cytoplasm, pleomorphic nuclei, prominent nucleoli, and multinucleated giant cells. The tumor cells showed positive reaction for HMB45, CD68, smooth muscle actin, and S-100, and negative reaction for epithelial membrane antigen, cytokeratin, vimentin, desmin, CD34, estrogen receptor, and progesterone receptor. Ultrastructual analysis showed the presence of glycogen, mitochondria, and other microorganelles in neoplastic cells. Melanosome or premelanosome was not identified.
Actins ; Adipose Tissue ; Aged ; Angiomyolipoma* ; Blood Vessels ; Cytoplasm ; Desmin ; Eosinophils ; Epithelioid Cells ; Estrogens ; Female ; Giant Cells ; Glycogen ; Hamartoma ; Humans ; Keratins ; Kidney* ; Melanosomes ; Mitochondria ; Mucin-1 ; Muscle, Smooth ; Receptors, Progesterone ; Tuberous Sclerosis ; Vimentin

The limb-body wall malformation complex is a sporadic congenital anomaly characterized by protean manifestations. The diagnosis is based upon the presence of at least two out of craniofacial anomaly, body wall defect, and limb abnormalities. We present a case of limb-body wall malformation complex. This case shows abdominal and pelvic wall defects with eventration of the viscera. It also shows an absence of right kidney, polycystic left kidney, absence of external genitalia and anus, and lower extremity abnormalities. The right lower extremity is absent and the deformed left leg shows malformed foot-like structure attached to the shin in addition to a normally positioned left foot. Our patient is the first case of complete absence of the external genitalia associated with limb-body wall malformation complex in Korean publications and the seventh in English publications.

BACKGROUND: Previous reports have demonstrated a bidirectional relationship between depression and diabetes mellitus (DM), accentuating a need for more intensive depression screening in DM patients. There is a relative paucity of data on the mortality of depressed DM patients in Korea. METHODS: Retrospective data from January 2003 to December 2013 were collected for adult type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients older than 30 years using the National Health Information database maintained by the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS). Demographic characteristics were analyzed with descriptive statistics, and the annual prevalence of depression was estimated. Mortality rates and hazard ratios for each age group (stratified into six age groups) of patients diagnosed with T2DM in 2003 were estimated using a Cox proportional hazard method, with the Kaplan-Meier cumulative survival curve showing the overall survival rates according to the T2DM status until the given year of 2013. RESULTS: The annual prevalence of depression was consistently higher in T2DM group from 2003 to 2013. The mortality hazard ratio was higher in the depressed in all age groups, and the risk was higher in male groups and in younger-aged groups. CONCLUSION: Depression was significantly associated with a high mortality risk in T2DM patients; hence, a more systematic surveillance of T2DM patients to identify risk factors for depression might contribute significantly to reducing mortality risk in this group of patients.
Adult ; Cohort Studies* ; Depression* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2* ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Methods ; Mortality* ; National Health Programs ; Prevalence ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Survival Rate

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Endoscopic variceal ligation (EVL) has been effective modality for esophageal variceal bleeding, but recurrent bleeding occurs 20 to 40% of patients. So there has been an increased interest in the use of vasoactive drugs to lower portal hypertension and help control variceal bleeding before and after endoscopy. We investigated the efficacy of octreotide (OCT) infusion as an adjunct to EVL for preventing early rebleeding from varices. METHODS: From Jan. 1997 to Feb. 1999, fifty four patients with endoscopically documented esophageal variceal bleeding were included. The patients were randomly treated by EVL alone (EVL group, n=30) or EVL plus octreotide (EVL+OCT group, n=24). We evaluated the 5-ay and 6-eek rebleeding rate and 6-eek mortality. RESULTS: Baseline characteristics were similar in two group but hospital stay (p=0.028) and units of transfused blood (p=0.043) were significantly less in EVL+OCT group. There were no significant differences on 5-ay rebleeding rate (EVL group; 7%, EVL+OCT group; 0%) and 6-eek rebleeding rate (EVL group; 20%, EVL+OCT group; 4%). CONCLUSIONS: The combined therapy did not decrease early rebleeding and mortality, but it was superior to EVL alone in hospital course such as requirement of transfusion and duration of hospitalization.
Endoscopy ; Esophageal and Gastric Varices* ; Hemorrhage ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Hypertension, Portal ; Length of Stay ; Ligation* ; Mortality ; Octreotide* ; Varicose Veins

In 2003, we found 6 new cases and 5 relapse cases, diagnosis by the clinical finding, skin smear, skin biopsy, lepromin test, ELISA for PGL-I antibody, and DNA-PCR. The results obtained were summarized as follows: 1. In new cases, the mean age was 62.5, mean BI is 4+,and mean O.D. of PGL-I antibody was 0.678, and numbers of TTC repeat was 12(4 cases), 18(1 case), and 20(1 case), and of GACATC repeats are 4(5 cases, Koreans)and 3(1 case, Filipino). 2. In relapse cases, the mean age was 59.4, mean BI is 4.6+,and mean O.D. of PGL-I antibody was 0.772, and numbers of TTC repeat was 11(4 cases), 15(1 case), and of GACATC repeats are 4(4 case, Koreans)and 3(1 case, Korean).
Biopsy ; Diagnosis ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Lepromin ; Leprosy ; Recurrence ; Skin

A study on the status of Mycobacterium leprae in the skin smear and the anti-PGL-I IgM antibody titers, examined by ELISA using ND-O-BSA against sera, the according to multidrug therapy (MDT) for 504 patients with leprosy including 224 new cases and 280 relapse cases in the institute was carried out and the following results were obtained. And the anti-PGL-I IgM antibody titers were examined by ELISA 752 contacts and 606 normal persons as control group. The results obtained were summerized as follows: 1. In 504 patients with leprosy, the mean bacterial index(BI) before starting MDT was 4.82 and the mean BI at 2, 5 and 10 years after starting MDT were 4.3, 2.8, and 1.5 respectively. So average BI declining rate per year was 1.1 2. In 504 patients with leprosy, the mean absorbance of anti-PGL-1 IgM antibody before starting MDT was 0.79287 and the mean absorbance at 2, 5 and 10 years after starting MDT were 0.58268, 0.38551 and 0.31003 respectively. So average absorbance declining rate per year was 0.48284. Between multibacillary (mean absorbance: 0.85762) and paucibacillary(mean absorbance: 0.35555) leprosy patients, the 3. In 504 patients with leprosy, the mean absorbance of anti-PGL-1 IgM antibody of the each bacterial index(BI)-0, 1+, 2+, 3+, 4+, 5+ and 6+ were 0.35555, 0.620, 0.72169, 0.74537, 0.81038, 0.89762, and 1.09664 respectively. The positive linear correlation between the bacterial index (BI) and anti-PGL-I IgM antibody was confirmed(F ratio: 10.49701, F critical point: 2.1168131 p=0.05, prediction trend line: y=107.42x + 389). 4. The mean absorbance of anti-PGL-1 IgM antibody was 0.79287 in patients with leprosy, 0.06027117 in contacts and 0.05021 in normal control persons. Between contacts and normal controls, the
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin M ; Leprosy* ; Mycobacterium leprae ; Recurrence ; Skin

The autoinfective filariform larva of Strongyloides stercoralis causes hyperinfection in immunosuppressed hosts. Here we report on the case of a male patient who was admitted to the emergency room at Gwangju Veterans Hospital with a complaint of dyspnea, and who was receiving corticosteroid therapy for asthma. Many slender larvae of S. stercoralis with a notched tail were detected in Papanicolaou stained sputum. They measured 269 +/- 21.2 micrometer in length and 11 +/- 0.6 micrometer in width. The esophagus extended nearly half of the body length. The larvae were identified putatively as autoinfective third-stage filariform larvae, and their presence was fatal. The autoinfective filariform larva of S. stercoralis has not been previously reported in Korea.
Aged ; Animals ; Fatal Outcome ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Larva ; Male ; Sputum ; Strongyloides/growth & development/*isolation & purification ; Strongyloidiasis/*etiology ; Superinfection/*parasitology

Advances in prenatal diagnosis have led to the prenatal management of a variety of congenital diseases. Fetal surgery was born of clinical necessity. Observations by pediatric surgeons and neonatologists of neonates that were born with irreversible organ damage led to the conclusion that one possible approach to prevent this alteration of developmental physiology, was fetal surgical intervention. The demonstration in animal models that the correction of an anatomical defect could reverse the associated pathophysiology led to the first systematic application of fetal surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, in the early 1980s . There has been a dramatic improvement in our ability to diagnose, select and safely operate on an expanding number of fetal anomalies. Many fetal interventions remain investigational but for a number of conditions randomized trials have established the role of in utero surgery, making fetal surgery a clinical reality in a number of fetal therapy programs. Although prenatal stem cell and gene therapy await clinical application, they offer tremendous potential for the treatment of many genetic disorders. Here we review the prenatal evaluation, current status and future potential of various prenatal operative approaches, such as open hysterotomy, fetoscopy, and percutaneous, including tissue engineering, and prenatal cellular and genetic therapy.
California ; Fetal Therapies ; Fetoscopy ; Genetic Therapy ; Humans ; Hysterotomy ; Infant, Newborn ; Models, Animal ; Prenatal Diagnosis ; San Francisco ; Stem Cells ; Tissue Engineering