The authors experienced a case of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis. A 58-year-old woman presented with 6 months duration of cough sputum and multiple patch mottled densities in both lung fields. Major histologic finding was filling of the alveoli by Periodic-Acid-Schiff-positive proteinaceous material with maintenance of normal alveolar architecture. Osseous metaplasia was seen in the alveolar space, focally. Ultrastructural study revealed numerous lamellar bodies in alveolar spaces. The immunohistochemical study using antibody to surfactant apoprotein revealed positive reaction in proteinaceous material.
Female ; Humans

To develop a survival prediction model and to use it as a therapeutic guideline a series of 66 cases with ganglio-thalamic hemorrhage accompanying intraventricular hemorrhage were analyzed retrospectively. They were classified into the benign and fatal groups according to their final outcomes. Fourteen indices obtained from the initial CT scans were final outcomes. Fourteen indices obtained from the initial CT scans were subjected to multivariate discriminant analysis. The resultant discriminant function(Z) included the amount of hematoma in the parenchyme(AH), bicaudate cerebroventricular index(BCCI) maximum fourth ventricular width(FVW), and third cerebroventricular ratio(TCR) in an order of decreasing discriminating power and was as follows: Z = -3.2639 + 0.3508 X 10(-1) X AH + 6.8816 X BCCI + 0.1139 X FVW-5.7794 X TCR. This function predicted survivability with accuracy of 84.9% when it was applied to the original subjects. The conclusion is that AH, BCCI, FVW, and TCR are the potent predictors of the survival of patients with ganglio-thalamic hemorrhage accompanying intraventricular hemorrhage.
Hematoma ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed*

A retrospective study was performed to provide the clinical and radiological grounds for decision-making as to whether the next cerebral angiography is to be followed when no aneurysm is revealed on the first procedure in patients with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage. Thc clinical courses of 22 patients who showed no aneurysm on their first angiogram(unproven group) were compared with those of 19 patients of the similar clinical status whose aneurgsm(s) was/were proven but not operated(non-operated group). The results were: 1)The incidences of vasospasm, hydrocephalus, electrolyte disturbances, infections, and gastrointestinal bleeding were similar between the groups; 2)Rebleeding was Iess frequent in thc unproven group(p<.05); 3) Neurological outcomes were also significantly beffer in the unproven group(p<.018; 4) The distributions of blood clots in the subarachnoid space were less predictive of aneurysmal site in the unproven group. Considering thc better prognosis and the nonspecific CT findings of the unproven group, our results suggest that when no aneurysm is demonstrated on the first angiogram, the repeated angiography may not be necessary.
Aneurysm* ; Angiography ; Cerebral Angiography ; Dronabinol ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Incidence ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage ; Subarachnoid Space

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to compare the hemodynamic changes in response to direct laryngoscopy of the McCoy blade and the Macintosh blade. METHODS: Sixty patients scheduled for elective gynecologic surgery were randomly allocated into two groups. The induction of anesthesia was done with thiopental sodium 5 mg/kg, fentanyl 2 mcg/kg, vecuronium 0.1 mg/kg. When the train of four arrived came at 0/4, the vocal cords were visualized with either the McCoy or the Macintosh laryngoscope blade for 10 seconds. Heart rate and blood pressure were recorded at 1 minute intervals for 5 minutes. RESULTS: Laryngoscopy caused significant increases in arterial blood pressure in both groups, while it had no effect on heart rate in either group. There were no significant differences in blood pressure and heart rate responses to laryngoscopy in the blades. CONCLUSIONS: The McCoy and the Macintosh blade show similar changes in heart rate and blood pressure after laryngoscopy.
Anesthesia ; Arterial Pressure ; Blood Pressure ; Female ; Fentanyl ; Gynecologic Surgical Procedures ; Heart Rate ; Hemodynamics* ; Humans ; Laryngoscopes* ; Laryngoscopy ; Thiopental ; Vecuronium Bromide ; Vocal Cords

PURPOSE: The clinical significance of preoperative serum levels of CEA and CA19-9, levels of CEA and CA19-9 in peritoneal washing fluid and free cancer cells in peritoneal washing fluid in gastric cancer patients were evaluated in this study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Serum and peritoneal levels of CEA and CA19-9 and peritoneal washing cytology in 115 patients with gastric cancer were analyzed with respect to the prognostic factors using univariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Positive rate of serum CEA and CA19-9 was 16.5%, 13.0%. And that of peritoneal washing CEA, CA19-9 and cytology was 15.7%, 7.8% and 9.6%. A univariate analysis showed that tumor markets in serum and peritoneal washing fluid and peritoneal washing cytology had significant correlations with the progression of the tumors, and patients with positive serum or peritoneal tumor markers had poorer survival after operation than did the patients with negative tumor markers. But in a multivariate analysis showed that only peritoneal CA19-9 was an independent risk factor. And combination of these five markers provided rnore predictable prognostic informations in a multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Combination of serum or peritoneal levels of CEA, CA19-9 and washing cytology appeared to be a useful marker for managing gastric cancer patients.
Humans ; Multivariate Analysis ; Risk Factors ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Biomarkers, Tumor

To present MR imaging findings of intracranial lesions in systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE), a retrospective study was performed on MR images of 33 SLE patients with neurologic symptoms and signs. MR imaging was performed on either a 0.5T (21 patients) or 2.0T unit (12 patients), using T1-weighted, proton-density-weighted, and T2-weighted spin echo sequences in all patients. In seven patients, post-contrast T1-weighted images were also obtained after administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine. The main MR findings consisted of focal lesions suggesting ischemia/infarct (15 patients), diffuse brain atrophy (8), and findings associated with infection (4). The MR findings were normal in 11 patients(33%). The focal lesions suggesting ischemia/infarcts presumably secondary to vasculitis were distributed in the cortex or subcortical white matter (7 patients), deep periventricular white matter (3), or in both areas(5). Most of the focal lesions were multiple and small in size. The findings associated with infection were variable and included communicating hydrocephalus, meningeal enhancement, granuloma, etc. MR findings of SLE were non-specific and therefore clinical correlation is needed when evalating SLE in MR.
Atrophy ; Brain* ; Gadolinium DTPA ; Granuloma ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Retrospective Studies ; Vasculitis ; White Matter

This study, based on current home nursing services, aims at promoting measures for establishing a community-based home nursing system derived from the pilot home nursing demonstration project conducted by the Seoul Nurses Association. The study was based on an analysis of home nursing records from march 1993 to December 1999. The following is a summary analysis, based on individual characteristics of the patients, the organization, which recommended the service for their patients and personnel services. 1. The service has been used by many elderly people 60years of age or older(66.4%). and married people(60.9%). The average number of visits by service personnel for patients of city government was 23.5. This is 2.5 times as many visits by general patients. General patients(20.2%) had only one visit from service personnel, while 65.5% of patients of city government had 10 or more visits. Particularly, for government recommended patients, 72.7% of the patients were recommended by nurses, while only 21.9% where referred to the services by doctors. The main focus of a home nursing service was to maintain present health status (53.4%), and hospice(11.6%). Also to increase hospital-based home nursing services focused on recovery(55.9%) and maintain present health conditions (19.0%). 2. For general patients, 42.0% of patients were suffering from problems related to CVA, 11.3% from high blood pressure, and for patients referred from city, 21.2% from skeletal muscular disease. Results of home nursing services 29.4% of patients were able to recover or maintain their health status, but 48.9% of the patients died. Another main point of community-based home nursing services is medication(6.7%), other basic nursing services(6.1%), special treatment, instructions on how to use medical devices(5.9%), change of physical posture(4.6%), and training on changing physical positions(4.7%). As mentioned above there were some differences between the characteristics of patients who used the pilot home nursing service conducted by the Seoul Nurses Association and those hospital-based service users. The results are believed to be useful to support a community-based home nursing service model. Particularly, patients under medical supervision and patients recommended by government-run health clinics show a higher frequency and longer use of home nursing services compared to general patients or hospital-based home nursing service users. According to the study, nurses accounted for a large number of recommendations for home nursing services. Many patients with CVA, high blood pressure, skeletal muscular disease and bedsores used community-based home nursing services, while others used the service for minor treatments or maintaining their current health status. Based on the study, the researchers make several suggestions to establish a community- based home nursing service system. First, different ways of setting up a community-based home nursing system have to be mapped out based on the evaluation of the pilot home nursing service conducted by the Seoul Nurses Association. Secondly, a new, community-based, home health care nursing service model, and reimbursement payment system have to be developed. This is based on the outcome of the analysis, and implemented policy. Accordingly, efforts are needed to develop a community- based home nursing system with an intermediary role to promote the visiting nursing services of government-run health centers.
Aged ; Home Health Nursing* ; Home Nursing ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Local Government ; Muscular Diseases ; Nursing ; Nursing Services ; Organization and Administration ; Pressure Ulcer ; Seoul*

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of dementia is estimated to be as high as 5 10% over 65 years of age in Korea. It is important to evaluate of dementia for the elderly, because of the chronicity and progressiveness of the disease. However, cognitive impairment often goes unrecognized by physician because the many previous tools to evaluate cognitive function in the clinical setting are complex, time consuming and sometimes questionable correlation with real world functioning. The purpose of this study is to assess the usefulness of The Time and Change test as screening test for dementia ,on the basis of the correlation between this measure(T&C) and MMSE K. METHODS: The subject for this study consisted of 64 elderly who visited to the outpatient department of family medicine of the Ehwa Mok dong hospital or Elderly Welfare Center in Seoul. They received the T&C test and MMSE K examination. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and Pearson' Correlation coefficient were calculated using standard formulas. RESULTS: The T&C had a sensitivity of 50%, a specificity of 88 %, a positive predictive value of 69%, a negative predictive value of 77 %, respectably. when timed cutpoints were added, The T&C test had a sensitivity of 95%, specificity of 83 %, a positive predictive value of 75%, a negative predictive value of 97 %. respectibaly. CONCLUSION: The Time and Change(T&C) tests can be an effective, simple and performance based tool to recognize dementia. Further validation with a representative elderly sample is needed to establish screening value in primary care or community populations.
Aged* ; Dementia ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening* ; Outpatients ; Prevalence ; Primary Health Care ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Seoul

Abdominal pregnancies are rare forms of ectopic pregnancies. Although the pelviccavity is the preferential site, a small fraction of abdominal pregnancies has been found inthe upper abdominal cavity, e.g., the omentum, the spleen, the liver etc. In this manuscript,we first report a Korean case of hepatic pregnancy which was highly suggested by operativefindings. A 24-year-old woman underwent laparotomy under the impression ofhemoperitoneum and ectopic pregnancy. An 1 x 1x 0.5cm sized mass was removed from thesurface of the right lobe of the liver. Microscopically, the chorionic villi were demonstrated.The patient had a successful recovery.
Abdominal Cavity ; Chorionic Villi ; Female ; Humans ; Laparotomy ; Liver* ; Omentum ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Abdominal* ; Pregnancy, Ectopic ; Spleen ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND: Aspirin/NSAIDs can release cysteinyl-leukotriene (cys-LTs) into airways and precipitate asthmatic symptoms in aspirin - induced asthma(AIA). It has been reported that there is profound overexpression of LTC4 synthase in their bronchial mucosa, compared to aspirin-tolerant asthma. Objective : We observed whether genetic polymorphism of LTC4 synthase may be predisposed to LTC4 synthase overexpression in AIA. Subject and METHOD: Forty - four AIA patients having positive responses on lysin aspirin bron choprovocation tests and 47 non - aspirin induced asthma ( non - AIA ) patients having negative challenges and 32 healthy controls were enrolled. The genotypes of the promoter LTC4 synthase gene ( A,C transversion ) were determined by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism ( RFLP ) method. RESULTS: LTC4 synthase promoter polymorphism ( A444C btransversion) was not significantly different between non - AIA and AIA patients (p>0.05). Conclusion These findings suggest that genetic polymorphism of LTC4 synthase promoter may not be predisposed to LTC, synthase overexpression in AIA.
Aspirin* ; Asthma* ; Asthma, Aspirin-Induced ; Genotype ; Humans ; Leukotriene C4* ; Mucous Membrane ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length