Hantavirus is a genus of the Bunyaviridae family consisting following serotype groups: Hantaan, Seoul, Puumala, Prospect Hill, Thailand, Belgrade, Thotta palayam, Sin Hombre. Most of Hantavirus group have been associated with many clinically similar disease known collectively as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). Hantaan virus is the prototype of the genus hantavirus, originally isolated from Apodemus agrarius. Bat was found as a natural host for Hantaan virus in Lee's lab for the first time. Then, Hantaan-like virus was isolated Hantaan-like virus from bat. To identify hantaviruses that are present in Korea among bats, bats were collected from Jeong-Sun, Won-Joo, Chung-Ju and Hwa-Cheon area, RNA was isolated from lung and serum. RT-PCR was performed with a universal primer from M segment. Nested RT-PCR was carried out to differentiate Hantaan, Seoul and Puumala virus using serotype specific primers. As we expected, Hantaan viruses were detected in bats and Seoul virus was not detected. Interestingly, Puumala viruses were also detected in bats from won-Ju, but not in other areas. Puumala virus is originally isolated from Clethrinomys glareolus, and cause light HFRS. Recently, Paradoxomis webbiana, a wild bird turn out to be a reservoir for Puumala virus in Korea. These data indicate that bat is a new natural reservoir of Puumala virus.
Animals ; Birds ; Bunyaviridae ; Chiroptera* ; Chungcheongbuk-do ; Gangwon-do ; Hantaan virus* ; Hantavirus ; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome ; Humans ; Korea* ; Lung ; Murinae ; Puumala virus ; RNA ; Seoul ; Seoul virus ; Thailand

Hantavirus is a genus of the Bunyaviridae family causing two serious diseases, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). Puumala virus is a member of hantavirus originally found in Europe, and its natural reservoir is Clethrionomys glareolus. It is also associated with the hurnan disease nephropathia epidemica, a milder form of HFRS. To identify the hantaviruses in bats, bats were collected from Jeong-Sun, Won-Joo, Chung-Ju and Hwa-Cheon area in Korea, and nested RT-PCR was performed with serotype specific primer from M segment. Interestingly, Puumala virus was detected in bats (Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum) only from Won-Joo. The 327 bp nested RT-PCR product, was sequenced. The sequence database search indicates that the sequence is homologous to the published sequence of Puumala viruses. The sequence similarities were ranged from 71% to 97%. The highest sequence similarity was 97% with Puumala virus Vranicam strain, and the lowest was 71% with Puumala virus K27 isolate. Puumala virus Vranicam strain was isolated from a bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Puumala virus K27 was isolated from human in Russia. This analysis confirms that bats (Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum) in Korea are natural reservoir of Puumala virus.
Arvicolinae ; Base Sequence ; Bunyaviridae ; Chiroptera* ; Chungcheongbuk-do ; Europe ; Hantavirus ; Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome ; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome ; Humans ; Korea* ; Puumala virus* ; Russia ; Sequence Analysis*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Phonation* ; Spinal Cord*

No abstract available.
Nose*

We experienced a case of cutis laxa in a 17-year-old man. The skin showed diminished elasticity with loose folds, wrinkling, and sagging on the abdomen, lower back, and both inner thighs. There was no history of any inflammatory skit diseases prior to the appearance of the wrinkling. Family history revealed to be negative for the skin diseases showing wrinkling and laxity. The biopsy specimen from the skin of the abdomen showed shortened, fragmented elastic fibers in the dermis. The serum copper level was normal(92 ug/dl).
Abdomen ; Adolescent ; Biopsy ; Copper ; Cutis Laxa* ; Dermis ; Elastic Tissue ; Elasticity ; Humans ; Skin ; Skin Diseases ; Thigh

No abstract available.
Capsid Proteins* ; Capsid* ; Genome*

Acquired tufted angioma is a benign, slowly progressive angioma with a typical histological pattern that was first described by Wilson-Jones in 1976. We report a case of acquired tufted angioma in a 19 year old female who had erythematous papules and plaques on the right thigh. Histopathological findings showed multiple capillary lobules in a cannonball arrangement scattered throughout dermis, which was diagnostic of acquired tufted angioma.
Capillaries ; Dermis ; Female ; Hemangioma* ; Humans ; Thigh ; Young Adult

To study the relation between ectoparasite, Rickettsia and hantaan virus in bats, four order of Athropoda were collected from Rhinolophus ferrumequinum captured in Cheju and Eptesicus serotinus captured in Chungnamin from July 1989 to March 1998. Also antibody of Rickettsia and hantaan virus were detected by immunofluoroscent antibody technique and RT-PCR. The results are as follows. 1. Five species of Acarina were identified from E. serotinus: Leptotrobidium subakamushi of Trombiculidae, Macronyssus coreanus, Steatonyssuss spinosuss and Steatonychus superans of Macronyssidae, Argas vespertilionis of Metastigmata. 2. Ischnopsyllus needhami of Siphonaptera and Cimex of Hemiptera were identified from E. serotinus. 3. Cyteribia uenoi and Brachytarsina kanoi of Diptera were identified from R. ferrumequinum. 4. The positive rate of rickettsial antibodies in E. serotinus were 17.58%, 15.15%, 22.22%, 52.73% against R. tsutsugamushi, R. typhi, R. sibirica and R. thai tick typhus, respectively. The high positive rate of antibody related to the high content of Arthropoda. 5. The Positive rate of hantaan virus IFA antibodies were 3.4% (27 of 802) and hanntan virus infection rate 36.7% (22 of 60) by RT-PCR in bats. According these result, we showed that certain species of Athropoda isolated play a role as vector of Rickettsia in E. serotinus. Also bats play a role as a reservoir of hantaan virus in nature.
Antibodies ; Argas ; Arthropods ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Bedbugs ; Chiroptera* ; Diptera ; Hantaan virus* ; Hemiptera ; Humans ; Jeju-do ; Rickettsia* ; Siphonaptera ; Ticks ; Trombiculidae ; Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to study the possible differences in clinical and polysomnographic findings, depending on the presence or absence of subjective complaints of abnormal sleep behavior, in patients with RWA on polysomnography. METHOD: We reviewed patient records and polysomnographic data of patients referred to the Sleep Laboratory at Seoul National University Hospital from June 1996 through October 2002. We defined the manifest RBD group (n=32) as patients having both complaints of abnormal sleep behavior and RWA on polysomnography. The latent RBD group (n=20) consisted of patients who exhibited RWA on polysomnography but did not complain of abnormal sleep behavior. The clinical characteristics and polysomnographic findings between the two groups were compared and analyzed. RESULTS: Fifty-two subjects had RWA, as detected by polysomnography (42 males and 10 females, mean age of 55.1+/-19.1 years). Subjects in the manifest RBD group were significantly older than those in the latent RBD group (61.59+/-13.5 vs. 44.70+/-2.76 years, independent t-test, p<0.01). More subjects in the manifest RBD group exhibited abnormal REM behavior on polysomnography than did subjects in the latent RBD group (81.3 vs. 50.0%, Fisher's exact test, p<0.05). No significant differences between the groups were found in the prevalence of brain disorders and primary sleep disorders, gender proportion, and sleep architecture. CONCLUSION: No difference in sleep architecture was found between the manifest and the latent RBD groups. Only age and the presence of abnormal sleep behavior on polysomnography differentiated the two groups. We suggest that RWA on polysomnography without complaints of abnormal sleep behavior may be early manifestation of manifest RBD. Attention to RWA on polysomnography is necessary to help prevent full-blown RBD from developing.
Brain Diseases ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mental Disorders* ; Polysomnography ; Prevalence ; REM Sleep Behavior Disorder ; Seoul ; Sleep Wake Disorders ; Sleep, REM*

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence rate of OSA in subjects whose main sleep complaint is insomnia and to find differential factors of OSA in these insomniac subjects. METHOD: We reviewed the medical records and polysomnographic findings of patients referred to the Sleep Laboratory at Seoul National University Hospital from January 1996 to December 2002. Four-hundred and seventy subjects complained of insomnia as their main sleep problem (235 males and 235 females, mean age 53.6+/-12.4 years). First, we investigated the prevalence rate of OSA in these insomniac patients. Second, we compared the clinical and demographic characteristics of the OSA-associated group with those of the non-associated group. Third, we examined whether the degree or presence of differential factors within the OSA group correlate with severity of OSA, as determined by the respiratory disturbance index (RDI). RESULTS: Among 470 insomniac subjects, 125 subjects (26.6%) were diagnosed as OSA by nocturnal polysomnography. OSA-associated subjects were significantly older (58.4+/-12.3 years vs. 51.8+/-11.2 years, p<0.01), and had significantly higher body mass index (BMI) (23.4+/-3.3 kg/m2 vs. 22.5+/-3.1 kg/m2, p=0.44) than non-associated subjects. The OSA-associated group had more subjects with male gender (64.0 % vs. 44.9 %, p<0.01), hypertension (20.0 % vs. 9.3 %, p<0.01) or snoring (96.0 % vs. 63.5 %, p<0.01). Within the OSA-associated group, age had a significant positive correlation with RDI (p=0.01). CONCLUSION: We found that a considerable portion of patients complaining of insomnia as their main sleep problem were diagnosed as OSA. Snoring, old age, male gender, obesity, and comorbid hypertension were found to be differential factors of OSA in insomniac patients. We suggest that diagnostic efforts including nocturnal polysomnography are needed for insomniac patients with any of the above risk factors of OSA.
Body Mass Index ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Male ; Medical Records ; Obesity ; Polysomnography ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Seoul ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive* ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders* ; Snoring