BACKGROUND/AIMS: Gastric carcinoma is the most common malignant neoplasm in Korea and is known to be associated with intestinal metaplasia (IM) of gastric epithelium, of which type III IM is suggested to play a special role in the carcinogenesis. This study is to evaluate the subtypes of IM and to measure each subtype in chronic gastritis. Methods: From October 1997 to September 1999, 321 patients with endoscopic chronic gastritis were evaluated the grade of chronic gastritis and IM by histologic and histochemical stain. RESULTS: Chronic inflammation and IM were remarkably severe in men and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) positivity was 69.4% in men and 65.2% in women. The frequency of IM was 50.1%, of which 65.4% was in men and 34.6% in women. The frequency of IM subtypes was 43.2%, 11.7% and 45.1% for type I, II and III respectively. Sixty percent of IM was noted in more than 50 years of age and ninety percent in more than 40 years of age. The frequency of type III IM was 61.6% in men and 38.4% in women. Sixty one percent of type III IM was noted in more than 50 years of age and ninety percent in more than 40 years of age. Interestingly, fifty three percent of type III IM was noted in men more than 40 years of age. The prevalence of H. pylori infection in type III IM was similar to in type I and II. The glandular atrophy in type III IM was remarkably severe than that in type I and II. Conclusions: The results of this study show that the proportion of type III IM in chronic gastiritis is remarkably high in Korean and age and sex distribution is similar to that of gastric carcinoma.
Atrophy ; Carcinogenesis ; Epithelium ; Female ; Gastritis* ; Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Korea ; Male ; Metaplasia* ; Prevalence ; Sex Distribution

BACKGROUND: Treatment of toenail onychomycosis requires long term oral medication of antifungal agent. So many factors such as preferred treatment option can affect the compliance and cure rate. OBJECTIVES: The objective of the present study was to identify most preferred treatment options for toenail onychomycosis patients. METHODS: This study was undertaken on 190 patients treated toenail onychomycosis, who visited Hanyang University Guri hospital, Konkuk University hospital and Asan Medical center during the period between March 2008 to April 2008. RESULTS: 1. Mean age of patients was 53.5+/-15.5 years old, 108 patients (56.8%) were female and 82 patients (43.2%) were male. 2. Mean duration of disease was 7 years 11 months (7.9+/-8.8 years). 3. The motives of treatment for toenail onychomycosis were 'ugly appearance' (39.8%) and 'pruritus' (33.9%). 4. Seventy six percent of patients had history of treatment for toenail onychomycosis. Most of them (43%) visited dermatologist's office and 14% of them used folk remedy. 5. Continuous therapy was the most common method (47%) in previous treatment. And it was the most common treatment option irrespective of age, disease duration and gender. 6. The most preferred treatment option was also continuous therapy (57%). And 69% of patients who received continuous therapy preferred it, but it was only 48% in pulse therapy group and 38% in weekly pulse therapy group. 7. Sixty six percent of the toenail onychomycosis patients had associated disease. CONCLUSIONS: Continuous therapy was the most convenient method for toenail onychomycosis patients who visited general hospital.
Compliance ; Female ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Nails ; Onychomycosis

BACKGROUND: Biochemical markers can provide objective evidence of heavy alcohol drinking. In this study, we investigated the diagnostic usefulness of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), a relatively new marker of alcohol consumption. METHODS: We consecutively enrolled 81 participants aged between 28 and 69 years, consisting of 44 alcohol-dependent patients and 37 age-matched controls. Relative values (%) of CDT were determined in their sera with turbidimetric immunoassay (Bio-Rad %CDT assay, Axis-Shield ASA, Oslo, Norway), and were compared with two conventional markers of alcohol consumption, gammaglutamyl transferase (GGT) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV). RESULTS: The distribution patterns of %CDT among alcohol-dependent patients and controls were significantly different from each other (P=0.0000). Of the 44 alcohol-dependent patients, positive results of %CDT (> or =2.6%), GGT (>50 IU/L), and MCV (>98 fL) were observed in 43 (97.7%), 35 (79.5%), and 24 (54.5%) patients, respectively. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (95% confidence interval) for %CDT, GGT, and MCV were 0.995 (0.946-1.000), 0.894 (0.805-0.951), and 0.768 (0.661-0.855), respectively. Discrimination between alcohol-dependent patients and controls, as measured by the areas under the ROC curves, was significantly better for %CDT than for GGT and MCV (P=0.000 and P=0.006, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: CDT seems to be the most reliable of the three markers tested for chronic alcohol consumption, and it may provide a useful information to for the objective detection of alcohol-dependent patients.
Alcohol Drinking ; Alcoholism* ; Biomarkers ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Erythrocyte Indices ; gamma-Glutamyltransferase ; Humans ; Immunoassay ; ROC Curve ; Transferases ; Transferrin*

No abstract available.
Alleles*

Breast cancer is the second most frequent malignancy in Korean women, with a continuously increasing incidence. The Korean Breast Cancer Society has constructed a nationwide breast cancer database through an online registration program. The aim of the present study was to report the fundamental facts on Korean breast cancer in 2011, and to analyze the changing patterns in clinical characteristics and breast cancer management in Korea over the last 10 years. Data on newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, including the total number of cases, age, stage, and type of surgery, for the year 2011 were collected from 84 hospitals and clinics nationwide using a questionnaire survey. Additional data relating to the changing patterns of breast cancer in Korea were collected from the online breast cancer registry database and analyzed. According to nationwide survey data, a total of 16,967 patients were newly diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011. The crude incidence of female breast cancer, including invasive cancer and in situ cancer, was 67 cases per 100,000 women. Analysis of the survey and registry data gave equivalent results in terms of age distribution, stage, and type of surgery. The median age at diagnosis was 50 years, and the proportion of postmenopausal women (51.3%) was higher than that of premenopausal women (48.7%) with breast cancer. The incidence of stage 0 and stage I breast cancer increased continuously over the last 10 years (56.3% in 2011), and breast conserving surgery (65.7%) was performed more frequently than total mastectomy (33.8%). The total number of breast reconstruction surgeries increased approximately 8-fold. We conclude that the clinical characteristics of breast cancer have changed over the past 10 years in Korea, and surgical management has changed accordingly. Analysis of nationwide registry data will contribute to a better understanding of the characteristics of breast cancer in Korea.
Age Distribution ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Mammaplasty ; Mastectomy, Segmental ; Mastectomy, Simple ; Online Systems ; Registries ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The Korean Breast Cancer Society has constructed a nationwide breast cancer database through utilization of an online registration program. We have reported the basic facts about breast cancer in Korea in 2012, and analyzed the changing patterns in the clinical characteristics and management of breast cancer in Korea over the last 10 years. Data on patients newly diagnosed with breast cancer were collected for the year 2012 from 97 hospitals and clinics nationwide using a questionnaire survey, and from the online registry database. A total of 17,792 patients were newly diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. The crude incidence rate of female breast cancer, including invasive cancer and in situ cancer, was 70.7 cases per 100,000 women. The median age at diagnosis was 51 years, and the proportion of postmenopausal women was higher than that of premenopausal women among those diagnosed with breast cancer. The proportion of cases of early breast cancer increased continuously, and breast-conserving surgery was performed in more cases than total mastectomy in that same year. The total number of breast reconstruction surgeries increased approximately 3-fold over last 10 years. The 5-year overall survival rate for all stages of breast cancer patients was extremely high. The clinical characteristics of breast cancer have changed in ways that resulted in high overall survival over the past 10 years in Korea, and the surgical management of the disease has changed accordingly. Analysis of nationwide registry data will contribute to a better understanding of the characteristics of breast cancer in Korea.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Mammaplasty ; Mastectomy, Segmental ; Mastectomy, Simple ; Online Systems ; Registries ; Survival Rate ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and clinical significance of abnormal values of cardiac markers, high sensitivity CRP (hsCRP) and homocysteine occurring in hemodialysis patients without clinical evidence of acute coronary ischemia. METHODS: We determined the concentrations of cardiac troponin T (cTnT), troponin I (cTnI), creatine kinase MB (CK-MB), myoglobin, hsCRP, homocysteine and other biochemical parameters 35 patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) and 22 healthy controls. All CRF patients were followed in for 3 years. RESULTS: All of the measured parameters except cholesterol were significantly elevated in the patients, comparing with controls (P<0.01). The numbers with elevated values above cutoff levels in CK-MB, cTnT, cTnI and hsCRP did not show any significant differences between the two groups (P>0.05). A good association was present between cTnT and CK-MB, cTnT and myoglobin, myoglobin and creatinine, and BUN and creatinine. Inquiries about underlying diseases of CRF revealed that diabetes mellitus group showed significantly higher cTnT values than in hypertension group or inflammation group. cTnT was elevated above cutoff value in about 17% of patients, while cTnI was in none of them. During one-year follow-up period, 6 patients (18.2%) died and 3 of them had initially elevated cTnT values. Four patients had cardiac events, but none of them had any increase in the values of the cardiac markers. The patients with increased cTnT values above cutoff value (> or =0.1 ng/ mL) showed a significantly higher mortality rate than the patients with cTnT values below the cutoff value in 3-year follow-up (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Mildly elevated cardiac markers, hsCRP and homocysteine are common in CRF patients undergoing hemodialysis. It is recommended that cTnI values be used for diagnosis of ischemic heart disease in CRF patients. The three-year follow-up outcome suggests that cTnT is a potential prognostic marker of mortality in CRF patients.
Cholesterol ; Creatine Kinase ; Creatinine ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Homocysteine ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Inflammation ; Ischemia ; Kidney Failure, Chronic* ; Mortality ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Myoglobin ; Prevalence ; Renal Dialysis* ; Troponin I ; Troponin T*

A liposarcoma is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in adults with an incidence of about 20% of all soft tissue sarcomas. Although incidence differs from a region of origination, a case arisen from mesentery has rarely been reported. We experienced a case of liposarcoma arising from the mesentery of a 51-year-old male patient. He was treated by wide excision. Histologically, the tumor was composed of a mixed well-differentiated liposarcoma with myxoid and spindle cell type.
Diagnosis, Differential ; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18/diagnostic use ; Humans ; Liposarcoma/*diagnosis/pathology/surgery ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Mesentery/*pathology ; Middle Aged ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

The Korean Breast Cancer Society (KBCS) has reported a nationwide breast cancer data since 1996. We present a comprehensive report on the facts and trends of breast cancer in Korea in 2013. Data on the newly diagnosed patients in the year 2013 were collected from 99 hospitals by using nationwide questionnaire survey. Clinical characteristics such as stage of cancer, histologic types, biological markers, and surgical management were obtained from the online registry database. A total of 19,316 patients were newly diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013. The crude incidence rate of female breast cancer including carcinoma in situ was 76.2 cases per 100,000 women. The median age at diagnosis was 50 years, and the proportions of postmenopausal women with breast cancer accounted for more than half of total patients. The proportion of early breast cancer increased consistently, and the pathologic features have changed accordingly. Breast-conserving surgery was performed in more cases than total mastectomy in the year. The total number of breast reconstruction surgeries markedly increased approaching 3-fold in last 11 years. According to annual percentile change of invasive cancer incidence, the incidence increased rapidly until 2010. And thereafter the increase of it became steadier. For ductal carcinoma in situ, the incidence consistently increased during the same period without any joinpoint. Analysis of nationwide registry data will contribute to defining of the trends and characteristics of breast cancer in Korea.
Biomarkers ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Carcinoma in Situ ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Mammaplasty ; Mastectomy, Segmental ; Mastectomy, Simple ; Online Systems ; Registries

BACKGROUND: Since the genes encoding glycosyltransferases synthesizing ABO antigens were cloned and sequenced in 1990, genetic polymorphisms and phenotype-genotype correlations have been reported by several investigators, but the genetic basis remains unclear for many subgroups. The Ael phenotype is one of the important A subgroups having very weak A antigen, and recent studies suggested that different alleles can result in this phenotype. METHODS: Three unrelated Ael subgroup samples from Korean blood donors were studied. Exons 6 and 7 of the ABO gene, 91% of the catalytic active part of the glycosyltransferase, were amplified and subjected to direct sequencing. RESULTS: Only C467T substitution in comparison with the consensus sequence of A gene was found in one Ael sample, but this mutation pattern was very commonly observed in normal A1 phenotype of Orientals. The other two samples had T646A (Phe216Ile) and G681A (silent) substitutions beside C467T substitution, reported first from a Japanese Ael individual. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that molecular genetic heterogeneity within the Ael subgroup was also seen.
ABO Blood-Group System* ; Alleles ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Blood Donors ; Clone Cells ; Consensus Sequence ; Exons ; Genes, vif ; Glycosyltransferases ; Humans ; Molecular Biology ; Phenotype* ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Population Characteristics ; Research Personnel