This is a case report of intestinal eosinophilic granuloma caused by Ascaris ova and worm which is supposed to be rare in Korea. Case: A 23 year old healthy female reached Pusan Sanitation Hospital with complaints of high fever and abdominal pain on December 3 in 1966. Examination: Her temperature was 99.6 F. Pulse 80. Abdominal palpation showed muscle rigidity and tenderness. On the right side of the abdomen diagnosis due to ruptured appendix was made, and a laparotomy was performed the same day. Operation: Intestinal perforation by a Ascaris worm in the caecum about 7 cm from the ileo-caecal junction was also found. The worm was liquefied already. The intestine was edematous . Numerous rice sized nodules were seen on the intestine. The omentum was markdly inflammed and was adhered with a fist size mass. The mass and appendix were also resected in order to do a histological study. Pathology: Two kinds of tissues were examined : one a mesenteric mass, the other lymph node. Microscopically, it showed intensive and entirely necrotic tissue in which numerous parasitic ova were surrounded by granulomatous inflammatory cells with eosinophiles . The parasitic ova were degenerative and partialy necrotic although they had three layers of egg shell which are identified with Ascaris ova.
parasitology-helminth-nematoda ; Ascaris lumbricoides ; egg granuloma-case report ; eosinophile

No abstract available.
Humans ; Incidence* ; Infant, Low Birth Weight* ; Infant, Newborn ; Mortality* ; Statistics as Topic*

No abstract available.

Osteochondroma is the most common of the benign bone tumors. They are probably developmental malformations rather than true neoplasms. But rarely they develope in a joint, especially in the ankle joint. We reported a case of intraarticular osteochondromatosis of ankle joint.
Ankle Joint ; Ankle ; Joints ; Osteochondroma ; Osteochondromatosis

Familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (FHL) is a rare disease characterized by fever, hepatosplenomegaly, cytopenia and non-malignant lymphohistiocytic infiltration with hemophagocytosis in reticulendothelial organs. We experienced three cases of FHL in identical male twins and their younger brother who presented with fever and severe hepatosplenomegaly. Cytopenia, elevated serum transaminase and low serum albumin levels, hypertriglyceridemia were common laboratory findings of them. One of them showed markedly decreased phytohemagglutinin induced lymphocyte proliferation and reversed CD4/CD8 ratio (0.52) in flowcytometric lymphocyte subset analysis. Aspirate of bone marrow revealed typical features consistent with FHL in two of them. In spite of recent therapeutic approaches, none of them survived.
Bone Marrow ; Fever ; Humans ; Hypertriglyceridemia ; Lymphocyte Subsets ; Lymphocytes ; Lymphohistiocytosis, Hemophagocytic* ; Male ; Rare Diseases ; Serum Albumin ; Siblings

BACKGROUND: Up to the present, there has been little study on chronic fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome, and there is equally sparse relevant statistical data For this reason, we attempted to investigate the present status of fatigue, particularly its incidence and actual conditions. METHODS: The study subjects were 12,152 outpatients who visited family practice in hospitals all over Korea between July 24 and September 21, 1997. They were given a questionnaire which included questions reflecting the (U.S.) Center for Disease Control criteria defining chronic fatigue syndrome. RESULTS: Among the subjects, 861 people complained of fatigue in their response to the questionnaire and they became the focus of the study. Of this fatigue group, 426 people(49.4%) had rnanifested fatigue for more than 6 manths, and the male/female ratio was 54%/46%, respectively. People who re ported that fatigue impaired their ability to function on a daily basis made up 35.8% of the fatigue group and the percentage of people who had considered visiting a clinic duen to fatigue wasa unexpectedly high 52.8%. The reported causes of fatigue, in decreasing order, were. social interactio(mals 68.5%/ femals 45.1%); sleep disturbance(mals 26.8%/ femals 21.8%); and physical maladies(mals 24.2%/femals 26.5%). There were significant gender differences in social interaction relating to domestic problems(mals 4.7%/femals 16.7%) and emotional problems(mals 12.2%/femals 21.4%). Among 33 chronic fatigue syndrome patients who indicated what they thought were the causes of their problems, 68.8% reported physical maladies, 65.6% social life, 31.3% emotional problems, 21.9% sleep disturbance, and 21.9 % domestic problems. The associated symptoms of fatigue reported in both males and females, in decreasing order, included: myalgia, headache and neurologic symptoms. The prevalence of chronic fatigue was 0.27%. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that 7.1% of family practice outpatients complained of fatigue and that their daily activities or occupational life were disturbed as a result. This group demanstrates is serious need for medical assistance. Therefore, doctors should have more interest in fatigue, particularly in chronic fatigue syndrome, so as to provide real and versatile care.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Family Practice ; Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic ; Fatigue* ; Female ; Headache ; Humans ; Incidence ; Interpersonal Relations ; Korea ; Male ; Medical Assistance ; Myalgia ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Outpatients* ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVES: Anticardiolipin antibody (ACA) and lupus anticoagulant (LA) are acquired antiphospholipid antibodies (APAs), which are regarded as important risk factors far vascular thrombosis and recurrent fetal loss. Although the clinical relevance of APAs in dialysis patients is uncertain, recent studies have suggested that APAs are involved in bioincompatibility and thrombogenic complications in hemadialysis (HD) patients. METHOD: We performed a cross sectional study of ACA and LA in 50 stable HD patients and their 68 vascular accesses (52 native arteriovenous fistulae and 16 synthetic arterovenous grafts), with the analysis of factors associated with the presence of APAs and the retrospective evaluation of vascular access occlusion (VAO). LA was assessed by platelet neutralization method whereas IgG-ACA was measured by a solid phase ELISA. Values higher than 23GPLU/ml (IgG phospholipid units) were considered to be positive for IgG-ACA and positive values for LA was more than 8 seconds in prolongation of the clotting time with human platelet lysate. Vascular access survival was assessed by Kaplan- Meier method, RESULTS: The mean age of the subject (M:F 21:29) was 46 years and the mean duration of hemodialysis was 49 months. The frequency of VAO in entire subjects was 0.45+/-0.98 episodes/patient year. The median value of IgG-ACA was 16.0 GPLU/ml with a distribution from 2.7 to 46.1GPLU/ ml. The median titer of I.A was 4.5 (3.1-45.6) seconds. Fourteen patients (28%) were found to have at least one episode of VAO. In spite of comparable clinical and biochemical data according to the presence of VAO, the titers of IgG-ACA (13.6+/-7.7 vs, 20.3+/-8.7GPLIJ/ml, P<0.05) and LA (4.5+/-2.9 vs. 11.7 +/-12.6sec, P<0.05) were significantly higher in VAO group. Six out of 50 patients(12%) had an increased titer of IgG-ACA and LA was found in 11 patients(22%). No patients were positive for ACA and LA simultaneously. There was no significant difference in sex, etiology of ESRD, diabetic status, the dosage of heparin during HD or the amount of erythropoietin administered according to the presence of APAs. We could not find any significant correlation between the titer of APAs and age, duration of dialysis, blood pressure, platelet count and biochemical parameters. In the patients with positive ACA, the frequency of VAO was 1.05+/-0.12 episodes/patient year, which was significantly higher than patients without ACA (0.33+/-0.17 episodes/ patient year, P<0.05). In the patients with the presence of LA(1.06+/-0.43 vs. 0.12+/-0.06 episodes/ patients year, P<0.01). The median vascular access survival time in IgG-ACA positive patients (32.7 months) was significantly decreased compared to 66.8 months in IgG-ACA negative group. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the presence of APAs (ACA and/or LA) affects the event-free vascular access survival in HD patients. Therefore the evaluation of APAs status have to be included in the diagnostic strategies for the patients with recurrent VAO. Further studies are necessary to explore the pharmacologic intervention method to decrease APAs and prevent VAO in HD patients.
Antibodies, Anticardiolipin* ; Antibodies, Antiphospholipid ; Arteriovenous Fistula ; Blood Platelets ; Blood Pressure ; Dialysis ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Erythropoietin ; Heparin ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Lupus Coagulation Inhibitor* ; Platelet Count ; Renal Dialysis* ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Thrombosis

No abstract available.
Humans*

No abstract available.
Pregnancy*

The longevity of the peritoneum has been an object of interests and speculation since the inception of CAPD. Peritoneal mesothelial cells(MC) are the most important intraperitoneal cell quantitatively and have the capability to secret different types of substances including lubricant and various cytokines. It may therefore be essential to have information on the MC mass during peritoneal dialysis. However, there were no specific tools to evaluate the exact status of peritoneal membrane. CA125 is a 22kDa glycoprotein which is a clinically useful tumor marker of non-mucinous epithelial ovarian carcinoma. Recently, other cells including pleural and peritoneal MC have been proved to express CA125. This study was undertaken to determine whether CA125 can be used as a bulk marker of MC mass in clinically stable 23 CAPD patients. We also analyzed whether the observed intraperitoneal production of CA125 can be attributed to MC using the cultured human peritoneal MC from omentum. The CA125 production by MC in vitro was estimated with cultured MC of various number(10,000-5,000,000/well) for different period of time. The median concentration of CA125 was significantly higher in 24-hour spent dialysate than in serum(5.5 vs. 17.3U/ml, P<0.05). There was signifcant negative correlation between the dialysate CA125 level and the incidence of peritonitis. In-vitro experiment using cultured MC cell showed an exponential increase of CA125 level during confluence(6th day of culture), and persistently increased till 15 days of culture, reaching a plateau. A linear relation between the number of MC and the amount of CA125 in supernatant was also observed. In conclusion, CA125 is locally produced in the peritoneal cavity and can be an useful marker of MC mass in stable CAPD patients. Since the clinical significance of the inverse correlation between the CA125 level and peritonitis incidence is uncertain(low CA125 as a second result of repeated peritonitis or the importance of MC mass to regulate the antibacterial defense mechanism?), a prospective follow-up study is necessary to confirm the relation between dialysate CA125 and the incidence of peritonitis.
Cytokines ; Glycoproteins ; Humans ; Incidence ; Longevity ; Membranes ; Omentum ; Peritoneal Cavity ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory* ; Peritoneum ; Peritonitis