No abstract available.
Hepatitis C* ; Interferons* ; Polymyositis*

Relapsing polychondritis is a rare disease which often presents itself firstly in the ear, nose and throat (ENT) department. Characteristic features include auricular chondritis, arthritis, nasal chondritis, ocular inflammation, respiratory tract involvement and audiovestibular damage. The mainstay of treatment has been corticosteroid but other agents have been used either alone or in conjunction with it. These other agents include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, dapsone and colchicine which are helpful for mild disease and cyclophosphamide, azathioprine, cyclosporin. Authors have recently experienced a case of relapsing polychondritis in a 32 year old man who had suddenly experienced loss of hearing in his left ear with vertigo. The patient showed no significant improvement with the treatment using steroid and immunosuppressive agents, but showed significant hearing improvement when he was aggressively treated with plasmapheresis. We report this case with a review of the literature.
Adult ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal ; Arthritis ; Azathioprine ; Colchicine ; Cyclophosphamide ; Cyclosporine ; Dapsone ; Ear ; Ear, Inner* ; Hearing ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents ; Inflammation ; Nose ; Pharynx ; Plasmapheresis ; Polychondritis, Relapsing* ; Rare Diseases ; Respiratory System ; Vertigo

Pure word deafness is characterized by an impairment of auditory comprehension and repetition of speech while a preservation of reading, writing, spontaneous speech and ability to comprehend non-verbal sounds. It is caused by trauma, infection, tumor or infarction in the temporal lobe of brain. In most cases, the lesions are bilateral, in the middle third of superior temporal gyri, but in a few cases unilateral lesions of dominant temporal lobe are localized. We experienced a case of 45 year-old right handed woman with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who presented pure word deafness after left temporal lobe infarction including primary auditory center. Her auditory comprehension was impaired, while reading and visual comprehension were normal. Audiometric tests and auditory evoked potentials disclosed no hearing defect. Brain MRI showed a left temporal lobe infarction without abnormal vascular finding in MRA. She was diagnosed as pure word deafness due to SLE vasculitis and managed with high dose steroid and cyclophosphamide therapies.
Brain ; Cerebral Infarction ; Comprehension ; Cyclophosphamide ; Deafness* ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory ; Female ; Hand ; Hearing ; Humans ; Infarction ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Temporal Lobe ; Vasculitis ; Writing

Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) has been used to detect deleted regions of a specific chromosome in cancer cells. LOH on chromosome 16q has been reported to occur frequently in progressed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Liver tissues from 37 Korean HCC patients were analyzed for LOH by using 25 polymorphic microsatellite markers distributed along 16q. Out of the 37 HCC patients studied, 21 patients (56.8%) showed LOH in various regions of 16q with at least one polymorphic marker. Puring the analysis of these 21 LOH cases, 6 patients showed interstitial LOHs in which the boundary of the LOH region was defined. With two rounds of LOH analysis, five commonly occurring interstitial LOH regions were identified; 16q21-22.1, 16q22.2 - 22.3, 16q22.3, 16q23.2 and 16q23.3 - 24.1. Among the five LOH regions the 16q23.3 - 24.1 region has been reported to be related with chromosome instability. A complete physical map, which covers the 3.2 Mb region of 16q23.3 - 24.1 (D16S402 and D16S486), was constructed to identify novel candidate tumor suppressor genes. We provide the minimally tiling path map consisting of 28 BAC clones. There was one gap between NT_10422.11 and NT_019609.9 of the human genome sequence contig (NCBI sequence build 33, April 29, 2003). This gap can be filled by sequencing the R-1425M20 clone which bridges these sequence contigs.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Chromosomal Instability ; Clone Cells ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Genome, Human ; Humans ; Liver ; Loss of Heterozygosity ; Microsatellite Repeats

PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes of a community-based palliative care project conducted in Busan city, Korea, from 2013 to 2015. METHODS: We selected four outcome indices based on the project's outcomes derived from a logic model and used a longitudinal and cross-sectional comparative design approach depending on the outcome index. RESULTS: The utilization rate of palliative care increased from 9.2% in 2012 to 41.9% in 2015. Regarding symptom changes in 65 patients receiving palliative care at 3 and 6 months (mean age = 72 years, standard deviation = 9.64, 55.4% women), pain, anxiety, and depression had improved. Quality of life was higher among palliative care patients compared with patients who did not receive palliative care (t = 2.09, p = .039). Regarding recognition of palliative care, civil servants at public health centers who participated in the pilot project (2013–2014) scored higher than those at public health centers who began participation in 2015 (t = 2.67, p = .008). CONCLUSION: This is the first study in Korea that systematically evaluated community-based palliative care. The Busan Community-based Palliative Care Project improved the quality of life of palliative care patients by providing services at an appropriate level and by raising the recognition of palliative care in the community. To increase the utilization ratio of palliative care and the quality of service, strategies should be developed to supplement medical support systems.
Anxiety ; Busan* ; Depression ; Humans ; Korea* ; Logic ; Palliative Care* ; Pilot Projects ; Public Health ; Quality of Life

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study were to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of canalith repositioning maneuver (CRP) according to accompanying mastoid percussion and to investigate the prognostic factors that may affect successful repositioning maneuver and the recurrence of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. MATERIALS AND METHOD: A total of 70 patients with canalith type BPPV visiting the dizziness clinic of Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital were included in this study. Variables identified for statistical analysis were patient's age, sex, maneuver method, number of involved canal, number of CRP and dizziness handicap inventory. RESULT: Overall success rate of CRP was 90%. The mean number of maneuver was 1.6 and the recurrence rate was 25.7% during the follow up period. Success rate of CRP (94.9%) was higher than maneuver without mastoid percussion (83.9%) though it was not statistically significant. Successful CRP group showed the significant less number of maneuvers at initial treatment session and less number of involved canal than failed CRP group at the time of one week-follow up visit. Patients with recurrence of BPPV had the more number of CRP during the period of previous BPPV. CONCLUSION: Therapeutic efficacy of CRP with mastoid percussion was higher than CRP without mastoid percussion though it was not statistically significant. Suggesting prognostic factors for effective CRP and recurrence were number of CRP and number of involved canal.
Dizziness ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Mastoid ; Percussion ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Vertigo*

Gemella morbillorum, an anaerobic-to-aerotolerant Gram-positive coccus, is a normal flora of the oral cavity, respiratory tract, urogenital organ and gastrointestinal tract, and infections caused by this organism are unusual. It has been associated mainly with endocarditis and bacteremia, and rarely with arthritis, spondylodiscitis, meningitis, brain abscess and septic shock. Liver abscess caused by G. morbillorum is very rare, and only a few cases were reported. We experienced a case of liver abscess by G. morbillorum in a 56-year-old woman presented with fever. We report this case with a review of literatures.
Female ; Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections/*diagnosis ; Humans ; Liver Abscess/diagnosis/*microbiology ; Middle Aged ; *Staphylococcaceae ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Human Q fever, a zoonosis caused by Coxiella burnetii, presents with diverse clinical manifestations ranging from mild self-limited febrile illnesses to life-threatening complications such as endocarditis or vascular infection. Although acute Q fever is a benign illness with a low mortality rate, a large-scale outbreak of Q fever in the Netherlands led to concerns about the possibility of blood transfusion-related transmission or obstetric complications in pregnant women. Furthermore, a small minority (< 5%) of patients with asymptomatic or symptomatic infection progress to chronic Q fever. Chronic Q fever is fatal in 5–50% of patients if left untreated. In South Korea, Q fever in humans was designated as a notifiable infectious disease in 2006, and the number of Q fever cases has increased sharply since 2015. Nonetheless, it is still considered a neglected and under-recognized infectious disease. In this review, recent trends of human and animal Q fever in South Korea, and public health concerns regarding Q fever outbreaks are reviewed, and we consider how a One Health approach could be applied as a preventive measure to prepare for zoonotic Q fever outbreaks.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of our new video-assisted asthma education program on patients' knowledge regarding asthma and asthma control. METHODS: Adult asthmatics who were diagnosed by primary care physicians and followed for at least 1 year were educated via smart devices and pamphlets. The education sessions were carried out three times at 2-week intervals. Each education period lasted at most 5 minutes. The effectiveness was then evaluated using questionnaires and an asthma control test (ACT). RESULTS: The study enrolled 144 patients (mean age, 56.7±16.7 years). Half of the patients had not been taught how to use their inhalers. After participating in the education program, the participants' understanding of asthma improved significantly across all six items of a questionnaire assessing their general knowledge of asthma. The proportion of patients who made errors while manipulating their inhalers was reduced to less than 10%. The ACT score increased from 16.6±4.6 to 20.0±3.9 (p<0.001). The number of asthmatics whose ACT score was at least 20 increased from 45 (33.3%) to 93 (65.3%) (p<0.001). The magnitude of improvement in the ACT score did not differ between patients who received an education session at least three times within 1 year and those who had not. The majority of patients agreed to the need for an education program (95.8%) and showed a willingness to pay an additional cost for the education (81.9%). CONCLUSION: This study indicated that our newly developed education program would become an effective component of asthma management in primary care clinics.
Adult ; Asthma* ; Education* ; Humans ; Nebulizers and Vaporizers ; Pamphlets ; Physicians, Primary Care ; Primary Health Care*

In this article, on page 230, Fig. 2A needs to be corrected.