Lipoid pneumonia is chronic, interstitial, proliferative inflammation resulting from aspiration of lipoid material. Mineral oil is a hydrocarbon that physicians often use to treat chronic constipation in children and adults. Mineral oil may not elicit a normal protective cough reflex and may impair mucociliary transport. We experienced a case of exogenous lipoid pneumonia caused by aspiration of mineral oil given as a laxatives confirmed by fiberoptic bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage and bronchial biopsy in a 9-month-old boy with chronic cough and radiologic evidence of parenchymal lung disease.We reported this case with a brief review of related literatures.
Adult ; Biopsy ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage ; Bronchoscopy ; Child ; Constipation ; Cough ; Humans ; Infant ; Inflammation ; Laxatives* ; Lung ; Male ; Mineral Oil ; Mucociliary Clearance ; Pneumonia* ; Reflex

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of tendon reflex test in the diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. METHOD: Patellar tendon reflex (PTR) and achilles tendon reflex (ATR) were recorded in forty six diabetic patients and thirty seven normal adults by delivering tendon taps with an electric reflex hammer. Forty six diabetic patients were divided into two groups based on nerve conduction study and diabetic neuropathy score: group 1 consisted of nineteen patients with peripheral neuropathy, group 2 consisted of twenty seven patients without peripheral neuropathy. Multiple regression equations using latency as a variable dependent on age and height were used and upper crossing of the 3 standard deviation level with regression on height and age was considered abnormal. RESULTS: Mean latencies of PTR and ATR were prolonged in the diabetic patients in comparison with the controls (p<0.01) and were prolonged in group 1 compared to group 2. In group 1, PTR was abnormal in 14 cases (sensitivity: 73.6%, specifity: 88%) and ATR was abnormal in 13 cases (sensitivity: 68.4%, specifity: 85.1%). In group 2, PTR was abnormal in 3 cases and ATR was abnormal in 4 cases. CONCLUSION: Tendon reflex test would be a valuable supplement to conventional nerve conduction studies for detection of diabetic peripheral neuropathy, especially in the proximal segment.
Achilles Tendon ; Adult ; Diabetic Neuropathies ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Neural Conduction ; Patellar Ligament ; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases* ; Reflex ; Reflex, Stretch* ; Tendons*

No abstract available.
Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin*

BACKGROUND: Systemic hypertension produces varying degree of LVH which is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidiity. Previous studies have documented regression of LVH with various antihypertensives including calcium channel blockers, except diuretics and vasodilators. Recently echocadiographic assessment of the change of left ventricular mass(LVM) after antihyertensive therapy have been reported to offer prognostic cardiovascular information. The aim of this echocardiographic study is determining the influence of nicardipine, a calcium channel blocker, on the change of LVM in patients with essential hypertenison. METHODS: Left ventricular mass(LVM) and left ventricular mass index(LVMI) were measured by M-mode echocardiography in 15 patients with essential hypertension. Nicardipine, a calcium channel blocker, was administered for 6 months and two echocardiographies were done before and after administering, respectively. RESULTS: In the 15 patients treated for 6 months, systolic and diastolic pressure remained very significantly decreased compared with pressure before before therapy(135+/-15mmHg vs 168+/-26mmHg, and 86+/-7mmHg vs 105+/-16mmHg, both p<0.01). Concomitantly both LVM and LVMI decreased significantly(209+/-49g vs 235+/-71g, and 116+/-6g/m2 vs 131+/-38g/m2,both p<0.05). And no change was noted in left ventricular cavity size, demonstration that LVM reduction was due to regression of hypertrophy. CONCLUSION: This study showed that nicardipine produced a significant decrease in blood pressure, LVM, and LVMI over the 6 months period. And large and longterm controlled studies are needed for the clarification of the association between nicardipine and regression of LVH in hypertensive patients.
Antihypertensive Agents ; Blood Pressure ; Calcium Channel Blockers ; Calcium Channels ; Diuretics ; Echocardiography ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hypertrophy ; Nicardipine* ; Vasodilator Agents

BACKGROUND: Perfusion scans are accurate predictors of postoperative lung function. There are few previous studies aimed at predicting the postoperative exercise capacity using the perfusion scanning and those that did reported contradictory results. METHOD: We prospectively studied the preoperative spirometric, exercise tests and perfusion scans from in 49 consecutive patients who were admitted to Inha University Hospital with surgically resectable lung cancer from Jan. 1998 to Jun. 1999 29 patients who had any condition affecting the lung function and exercise capacity, or refused a surgical resection or a follow-up study were excluded. Spirometric and exercise tests were performed 6 months after operation in 20 patients. RESULTS: The predicted postoperative FEV1, FVC and TLC correlated well with the following corresponding postoperative values : γs and p value, 0.809 and 0.000 for the FEV1 ; 0.895 and 0.000 for the FVC ; 0.741 and 0.006 for the TLC, respectively. The measured postoperative exercise values were slightly higher than the postoperative exercise values predicted, VO(2max) and Wr(max), were as 112% of VO(2max) predicted and 119% of WR(max) predicted. The change in FEV1, FVC and TLC had a weak correlation with the change in VO(2max) and WR(max). CONCLUSION: The perfusion scan was a useful tool for predicting the postoperative exercise capacity. However, they had a tendency to underestimate the exercise capacity, especially in the patients who had a pneumonectomy. A weak correlation between the change in lung function and exercise capacity was obseved.
Exercise Test ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Perfusion* ; Pneumonectomy ; Prospective Studies

The worm development and egg laying pattern of Echinostoma hortense(Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) were studied in albino rats and the brief clinical course was observed in human volunteers. A total of 21 rats were infected with 20-69 metecercariae each and two humans were with 7 and 27 metacercariae, which were collected from loaches. For recovery of worms, the rats were sacrificed at irregular intervals from the 6th to 150th day after infection and the human volunteers were treated with praziquantel and purged with magnesium salt on the 26-27th day. The stools of the rats and humans were examined for the eggs. The results were as follows: The worm recovery rate from the rats was not affected by the increase of infection time but varied individually; 9.1-50.0% (31.1% in average). From humans, 14.3% and 37.0% (32.4% in average) of challenged were recovered. In the rats, it was revealed that the worms rapidly grew for the first 14 days to become 7.59 mm in average length and 1.17 mm in average width but the growth became much slower thereafer until the 150th day; 7.95 mm in length on the 21th day, 9.04 mm on the 28th day, 10.21 mm on the 49th day and 12.62 mm on the 150th day. During the early stage of infection, the growth of genital organs(male or female) was expressed as sigmoid curves whereas non-genital organs(such as suckers) was simply as straight lines. The prepatent period of this fluke was 10-12 days in the rats and 16-17 days in men. After the start of oviposition, the egg production by the worms remarkably increased, reached maximum on the 32-33th day, followed by decrease thereafter. The maximum value of E.P.G./worm was 390. The major subjective symptoms in human volunteers were abdominal pain and diarrhea during the early stage of infection. The results show that human is as susceptible as the rats to E. hortense infection and the amount of egg production in the rats is greatly affected by the age of worms.
parasitology-helminth-trematoda ; Echinostoma hortense ; rat ; biology ; metacercaria

Vascular disease of the spinal cord occurs less frequently than of the brain, and its incidence is not known. Case reports of spinal cord infarction are uncommon, especially ones with spontaneous causes. We experienced one case with a spontaneous spinal cord infarction in the territory of the Adamkiewicz artery. In this case, the clinical pictures were characterized by sudden onset of paraplegia, bilateral radicular pain, dissociated sensory loss below the level of infarction and sphincter dysfunction. Neuroradiological investigation and CSF analysis ruled out compressive or infectious lesions. Selective spinal angiography revealed an occlusion of the Adamkiewicz artery. The patient had a substantial recovery over a period of weeks with intensive rehabilitation treatments.
Angiography ; Arteries ; Brain ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infarction* ; Paraplegia ; Rehabilitation ; Spinal Cord* ; Vascular Diseases

BACKGROUND: It is recommended that all rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) isolated from patients with mycobacteriosis are subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The current study was aimed to perform susceptibility test on clinical strains of RGM isolated from patients with mycobacteriosis and to determine the clinical significance of the isolates. METHODS: For 17 patients with RGM infection from 2002 to 2006 at Ulsan University Hospital, medical records were reviewed retrospectively and anti-mycobacterial susceptibility test was performed for the clinical isolates by broth microdilution method. RESULTS: Rates of susceptible strains of RGMs against individual drugs were as follows: amikacin 100%, cefoxitin 59%, ciprofloxacin 82%, clarithromycin 71%, doxycycline 18%, imipenem 91% (M. fortuitum), sulfamethoxazole 71%, and tobramycin 100% (M. chelonae). Ten of the 17 nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) patients had been treated with anti-tuberculosis drugs initially. Anti-tuberculosis drugs were continued in 3 patients and changed to other antimicrobial agents effective to NTM in 4 patients, all of whom were cured. Five of 7 NTM patients who had been treated with anti-NTM treatment were cured. All isolates from the patients treated with anti-NTM drugs were susceptible to at least one of the drugs administered. CONCLUSION: Clinical isolates of RGMs showed fully susceptible to amikacin, while highly resistant to doxycycline and variable to other drugs depending on the species.
Amikacin ; Anti-Infective Agents ; Cefoxitin ; Ciprofloxacin ; Clarithromycin ; Doxycycline ; Humans ; Imipenem ; Medical Records ; Mycobacterium fortuitum ; Nontuberculous Mycobacteria ; Retrospective Studies ; Sulfamethoxazole ; Tobramycin ; Ulsan

No abstract available.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones/*therapeutic use ; Azathioprine/*therapeutic use ; Biopsy ; Chronic Disease ; Colonoscopy ; Common Variable Immunodeficiency/complications/diagnosis/*drug therapy ; Diarrhea/diagnosis/*drug therapy/etiology ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins, Intravenous/*therapeutic use ; Prednisone/*therapeutic use ; Treatment Outcome ; Weight Loss/drug effects ; Young Adult

Animal cloning technology with somatic cells provides an alternative tool to conventional methods for producing transgenic animals. Gene targeting in animals is made feasible using somatic cells with homologous recombination procedure that is a major technique in embryonic stem cells for knocking-out genes. Homologous recombination events in somatic cells are relatively inefficient as compared to those in ES cells, suggesting the need for establishment of efficient gene targeting system in somatic cells. To investigate the efficiency of positive and negative selection for gene targeting in pig fetal fibroblast cells, pig alpha-1,3-galactosyl transferase (13-GT) gene was used for gene targeting. The neomycin phosphotransferase (Neo(r)) and herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase (HSV-tk) genes were used as positive and negative selection markers in this experiment. Following transfection with targeting DNA construct, the pig fetal fibroblast cells were selected against resistance of G418 and gancyclovir. In DMEM medium containing 5 to 10% serum, Pig fetal fibroblast cells failed to proliferate during drug selection. Increasing serum concentration to 15% of medium yielded less senescent colonies of pig fetal fibroblast cells following drug selection that allowed enough cell colonies to screen genomic DNA. The frequency of gene targeting in pig fetal fibroblast cells with double drug selection was more than 10-fold efficient compared to that with G418 single selection. Double selection method with Neo' and HSV-tk genes could be useful for gene targeting in somatic cells for production of cloned animals carrying targeted endogenous genes.
Animals ; Fibroblasts ; Galactosyltransferases/*genetics/*metabolism ; *Gene Targeting ; Genetic Vectors/genetics ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Swine/*embryology/genetics