PURPOSE: Abdominal actinomycosis is a rare chronic suppurative infectious disease, caused by a gram-positive bands Actinomyces israelii organism. The pathogens produces a characteristic granulomatous inflammatory fibrosis and mass lesion. Actinomycosis is usually divided into three clinical types; cervicofascial, thoracic and abdominopelvic. This study was designed to investigate the clinical or radiologic variability and the meanings of the diagnostic differentiality of abdominopelvic actinomycosis when patients present with an unusual abdominal mass or abscess. METHODS: The medical records of 19 patients treated at the Departments of Surgery and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dong-A University Hospital were reviewed. The clinical characteristics, diagnostic evaluation and surgical treatment results were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Of the 19 patients, 7 cases involved the colon and 11 the uterus and ovary with one case also involving the retroperoneum and ureter. Most cases (84.2%) had predisposing factors of disease progression, including intrauterine device (IUD), abortion, previous surgery, appendicitis and diverticulitis. The common presentations of the patients were abdominal pain (57.8%) and a palpable mass (15.7%). Preoperatively, no case was diagnosed as actinomycosis, but misconceived as a pelvic abscess, ovarian or colon cancers, a mesenteric origin mass, a lymphoma, periappendiceal abscess, acute appendicitis, uterine myoma, dysfunctional uterine bleeding or endometriosis. Explorations were performed in all patients. Eighteen cases were cured following surgery with subsequent antibiotics. However, one case recurred due to incompletion of antibiotics following surgical drainage. CONCLUSION: Abdominopelvic actinomycosis should be included as a differential diagnosis when an unusual abdominal mass presents on abdominal CT or ultrasound. Appropriate antibiotics, as well as surgery, are important in the treatment of abdominopelvic actinomycosis.
Abdominal Pain ; Abortion, Induced ; Abscess ; Actinomyces ; Actinomycosis* ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Appendicitis ; Causality ; Colon ; Colonic Neoplasms ; Communicable Diseases ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Disease Progression ; Diverticulitis ; Drainage ; Endometriosis ; Female ; Fibrosis ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Intrauterine Devices ; Leiomyoma ; Lymphoma ; Medical Records ; Metrorrhagia ; Obstetrics ; Ovary ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Ultrasonography ; Ureter ; Uterus

In order to investigate symptoms prevalence related to visual display terminal (VDT) syndrome, and to evaluate the variables affecting the development of the VDT syndrome, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 119 (92 men and 27 women) VDT operators who had been engaged in one plant design company in Seoul. The results were as follows : The average age of questionnaire respondents was 30. The average years of service were 4.3 years, and the working hours per day with VDT for half of them were more than 4 hours with the average being about 4.7 hours. The majority of subjects (71 persons) were working at computer aided design (CAD) or computer programming tasks. Subjective symptoms of VDT syndrome were divided into 4 groups with musculoskeletal, eye, skin, and industrial fatigue according to their major affected organ. 4 high incidence of complaints of eye discomfort was observed. In the 3 subgroups of industrial fatigue symptom, the highest average group score was accounted for by 'dullness and sleepiness', followed by 'difficulty in concentration', 'bodily projection of fatigue' in the order of sequence, suggesting the heavier mental stress of VDT work rather than physical burden. Relationship among these 4 groups of symptoms showed statistically significant correlations one another. This result suggests that VDT syndrome is a multi-organ disease composed of these 4 symptom groups which were commonly caused by the use of VDT. Multiple regression analysis were used to examine the relationship between risk factors and these symptom groups of VDT syndrome. As the result of analysis, the most important risk factor for VDT syndrome was the average daily VDT working hours. The longer was VDT working hours, the higher was symptom prevalence of VDT syndrome. In addition, daily total working hours including VDT working hours and shift of work also affected the health of VDT users. In order to protect workers from VDT syndrome, it is urgently required to implement standard management recommendations including restriction of VDT working hours and allowance of more sufficient resting time for VDT workers.
Computer-Aided Design ; Data Collection ; Fatigue ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Plants ; Prevalence ; Questionnaires ; Risk Factors ; Seoul ; Skin

The aim of the study was to investigate pig reference families, generated from Korean native pigs (KNP) that were crossed with Yorkshire (YS) breeds, which were used to evaluate genetic markers to select breeding animals with superior pork quality. A set of five candidate genes (PRKAG3, MC4R, CAST, ESR, and PRLR) was analyzed for association with pork quality traits. PRKAG3 (I199V) SNP genotypes were significantly associated with muscle moisture, protein, and fat contents. The MC4R D298N polymorphism was significantly associated with meat tenderness and color traits. The CAST polymorphism was significantly associated with muscle moisture and crude protein traits. These three genes have been associated with pork quality traits in other pig populations, and some of our results are consistent with earlier studies. In addition, two reproductive candidate genes (ESR and PRLR) did not have significant associations. These results suggest that further study is warranted to investigate and develop more DNA markers associated with pork quality in our KNP-crossed pig families.
Animals ; Breeding ; DNA ; Genetic Markers ; Genotype ; Humans ; Meat ; Muscles ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Swine

PURPOSE: In this study, we aimed to measure the effects of emergency department (ED) expansion at a tertiary hospital on overall ED length of stay (LOS). METHODS: This study was a before and after study using data from a tertiary medical center in Seoul, a large metropolis. We used electronic medical records and administrative databases obtained from the ED. The control period (before expansion) was defined as from January 1 to April 31, 2016. The study period (after expansion) was defined as from May 1 to August 31, 2016. The number of ED beds increased from 42 to 74 after the expansion. After adjusting individual characteristics and institutional characteristics, multivariate regression analysis was carried out to evaluate the effects of expansion on overall ED LOS. RESULTS: A total of 45,632 patients visited the emergency medical center: 20,592 patients before and 25,040 after the expansion. Although the absolute number of patients increased, the portion of medical patients, portion of non-referral patients, and ambulatory patients decreased during the study period (all p<0.001). Average visit number increased from 170.2 (standard deviation [SD], 27.3) to 203.6 (SD, 21.3) (p<0.001). The overall ED LOS increased from 332.2 (SD, 473.4) to 391.0 minutes (SD, 649.5). After adjusting for potential confounders, we found that ED expansion was associated with an increase in ED LOS by 75.8 minutes (95% confidence interval, 63.5 to 88.2). CONCLUSION: We found that the ED expansion was associated with a significant increase in ED LOS.
Crowding ; Electronic Health Records ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Medicine ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Hospital Administration ; Humans ; Length of Stay* ; Overall ; Seoul ; Tertiary Care Centers*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Glottic incompetence resulting from the unilateral vocal cord paralysis can be improved by medialization of the paralyzed vocal cord. Recently, it has been thought that the autologous fat could be used as a good material for augmenting paralytic vocal cord. There were reports about long-term follow-up results concerning voluminous, histological and acoustic changes after autologous fat injection. Authors observed periodically the morphological and acoustic changes of autologous fat deposits which were injected into iatrogenically paralyzed vocal cord. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eight mongrel dogs were injected with autologous fat into the iatrogenically paralyzed vocal cords, and were sacrificed at 1, 3, 6 months after the fat injection and observed histological and acoustic changes. RESULTS: The bulk of the fat graft lasted at least 3 months in this experiment. There were minimal evidence of inflammatoy changes, foreign body reaction and improvement of voice quality was noted in spectrography. CONCLUSION: The autologous fat injection appears to be a relatively safe and effective method for medializing the paralyzed vocal cord.
Acoustics* ; Animals ; Dogs ; Follow-Up Studies ; Foreign-Body Reaction ; Transplants ; Vocal Cord Paralysis* ; Vocal Cords ; Voice Quality

Apicoectomy ; Busan ; Classification ; Dentigerous Cyst ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Jaw ; Male ; Methods ; Observational Study ; Odontogenic Cysts ; Prevalence ; Radicular Cyst ; Retrospective Studies ; Surgery, Oral ; Tooth

Mitochondrial myopathies are diseases caused by defects in metabolic pathway of mitochondria. Mitochondrial myopathy is known as one of the causes of recurrent myoglobinuria, while clinically, rarely causes acute renal failure requiring medical treatments. We report a case of rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure associated with mitochondrial myopathy. A 58-year-old male was presented with dyspnea and hypotensive shock. The patient had a history of recurrent dark colored urine and cramping leg pain after prolonged fasting. Laboratory findings showed hyperkalemia, azotemia, metabolic acidosis, and elevated AST, ALT, and creatinine kinase. He had no history of trauma or medication. Muscle biopsy showed "ragged red fibers" in modified Gomori staining. On electron microscope, increased number of mitochondria and abnormal mitochondria were seen. He received hemodialysis and his renal function recovered after 1 month.
Acidosis ; Acute Kidney Injury* ; Azotemia ; Biopsy ; Creatinine ; Dyspnea ; Fasting ; Humans ; Hyperkalemia ; Leg ; Male ; Metabolic Networks and Pathways ; Middle Aged ; Mitochondria ; Mitochondrial Myopathies* ; Muscle Cramp ; Myoglobinuria ; Phosphotransferases ; Renal Dialysis ; Rhabdomyolysis* ; Shock

The intensive chemotherapy for acute leukemia is often associated with profound, protracted neutropenia and increases the risk of serious infections. In general, the duration of neutropenic period correlates with the increased risk of fungal infection and multiple hepatosplenic microabscesses following neutropenic periods has been one of the major problems in patients with acute leukemia, often attributed to fungal infections such as hepatosplenic candidiasis or disseminated candidiasis. But recently we experienced two cases of hepatosplenic tuberculosis in patients with acute leukemia during or after chemotherapy following prolonged neutropenia. Tuberculosis should be considered as one of causes of hepatosplenic abscesses during prolonged neutropenia, especially in countries, where the disease is endemic.
Abscess ; Candidiasis* ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Leukemia* ; Liver ; Neutropenia ; Spleen ; Tuberculosis*

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is defined as the occurrence of spontaneous wheals, angioedema, or both for >6 weeks in the absence of specific causes. It is a common condition associated with substantial disease burden both for affected individuals and societies in many countries, including Korea. CSU frequently persists for several years and requires high-intensity treatment; therefore, patients experience deteriorations in quality of life and medication-associated complications. During the last decade, there have been major advances in the pharmacological treatment of CSU and there is an outstanding need for evidence-based guidelines that reflect clinical practice in Korea. The guidelines reported here represent a joint initiative of the Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology and the Korean Dermatological Association, and aim to provide evidence-based guidance for the management of CSU in Korean adults and children. In Part 1, disease definition, guideline scope and development methodology as well as evidence-based recommendations on the use of antihistamines and corticosteroids are summarized.

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is defined as the occurrence of spontaneous wheals, angioedema, or both for >6 weeks in the absence of specific causes. It is a common condition associated with substantial disease burden both for affected individuals and societies in many countries, including Korea. CSU frequently persists for several years and requires high-intensity treatment; therefore, patients experience deteriorations in quality of life and medication-associated complications. During the last decade, there have been major advances in the pharmacological treatment of CSU and there is an outstanding need for evidence-based guidelines that reflect clinical practice in Korea. The guidelines reported here represent a joint initiative of the Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology and the Korean Dermatological Association, and aim to provide evidence-based guidance for the management of CSU in Korean adults and children. In Part 1, disease definition, guideline scope and development methodology as well as evidence-based recommendations on the use of antihistamines and corticosteroids are summarized.