OBJECTIVES: This paper presents the information on the incidence of cancer from the population-based cancer resistry in Kangwha County. Material and METHODS: This investigation is based on Kangwha cancer registry. The data included cases of cancer diagnosed from 1986 through 1992. The diagnosis of cancer was confirmed by a team of physicians and nurses with the medical records kept in the clinics and hospitals based on the diagnostic criteria recommended by WHO. Home visitings were also made to cancer patients confirmed in every 6 months for the follow up and for the collection of relevant information directly from the patients. RESULTS: A total of 992 cancer cases were registered during 1986 - 1992. The age-adjusted cancer incidence rate of all site is 201.7 in men and 110.7 in women. The most common cancer is the stomach cancer in both sexes. The age-adjusted incidence rate of the stomach cancer is 65.9 in men and 25.0 in women per 100,000 population. The lung cancer(33.8) and liver cancer(27.7) are next common cancers in men. The cervical cancer(21.8) and lung cancer(8.4) are next in women. CONCLUSION: The most common cancer is the stomach cancer in both sexes. The annual age-adjusted incidence rate of the stomach cancer is 65.9 in men and 25.0 in women per 100,000 population.
Diagnosis ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; House Calls ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Liver ; Lung ; Male ; Medical Records ; Stomach Neoplasms

Creatinine ; Humans ; Male ; Meals ; Methods ; Nitrogen ; Osmolar Concentration ; Potassium ; Sodium ; Sodium, Dietary ; Specific Gravity ; Urea ; Urine Specimen Collection

Pseudo-Meigs syndrome is accompanied with pleural effusion, ascites and a benign or malignant tumor of ovary, tubes, uterus, round ligament or colon. We reported a case of hypoxia in an ovarian cancer patient with moderate ascites after head-down tilt position for central venous catheterization under general anesthesia. Massive pleural effusion was detected on portable chest X-ray, which was not observed in a preoperative radiologic test. The patient had no respiratory symptoms and breath sound was normal in both lungs prior to surgery. The pleural effusion was resolved by a chest tube insertion.
Anesthesia, General ; Anoxia ; Ascites* ; Catheterization, Central Venous ; Central Venous Catheters ; Chest Tubes ; Colon ; Female ; Head-Down Tilt* ; Humans ; Lung ; Ovarian Neoplasms* ; Ovary ; Pleural Effusion* ; Round Ligament of Uterus ; Thorax ; Uterus

BACKGROUND: The usages for the i-STAT point-of-care testing (POCT) analyzer are increasing in emergency departments, intensive care units and dialysis units. We evaluated the performance of the i-STAT as a POCT analyzer. METHODS: We evaluated the analytical performance of the i-STAT through the measurement of sodi-um (Na), potassium (K), hematocrit, ionized calcium (iCa), PO 2 , PCO 2 and pH. We used two disposable cartridges including EG6+ cartridge for Na, K, hematocrit, PO 2 , PCO 2 and pH and EG7+ for iCa. RESULTS: The i-STAT revealed good linearity in Na and K except in hematocrit (r2 =0.9973, 0.9988 and 0.9179, respectively). In the precision study, the within-run and total-run coefficients of variation (CV, %) were within 10%. A high correlation was found between the i-STAT POCT analyzer and the analyzers in the central laboratory except sodium. In the study of the operator's effect, the intrapersonal CV and interpersonal CV were within 10% except in the PO 2 analysis. CONCLUSIONS: With its rapid turnaround time, small sample requirement, ease of operation, the i-STAT seems appropriate for clinical use in the management of patients in the emergency department, intensive care units and dialysis units where immediate access to clinically relevant laboratory testing is required.
Calcium ; Dialysis ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Hematocrit ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Intensive Care Units ; Potassium ; Sodium

OBJECTIVES: Most descriptive studies of cancer have focused either on cancer incidence or mortality. Cancer prevalence has rarely been estimated. Cancer prevalence data can be used as a measure of the economic and social burden of cancer and are also useful for health care planning. This study attempts to estimate cancer prevalence in Kangwha county. METHODS: This investigation is based on data of Kangwha cancer registry. The data include all cases of cancer diagnosed from 1983 through 1992. We define "prevalent cases" as cancer patients who is alive as of January 1, 1993. For each five-year age group, the number of "known prevalent cases" is added to the number of "estimated prevalent cases". Prevalence is calculated by dividing these sums by the populations of Kangwha County on December 31, 1992(derived from Kangwha Statistics Annual). RESULTS: Crude prevalence of cancer among males and females are 536.7 and 601.1 per 100,000 respectively. Gastric cancer is the most common malignant neoplasm(213.2 per 100,000, crude prevalence) among males. It is followed by lung cancer(45.1 per 100,000), liver cancer(32.8 per 100,000), rectal cancer(25.4 per 100,000) and colon cancer(25.4 per 100,000). Cervical cancer is the most common cancer(201.9 per 100,000, crude prevalence) and is followed by gastric cancer(91.5 per 100,000), thyroid cancer(64.8 per 100,000), breast cancer(57.2 per 100,000) and rectal cancer(32.7 per 100,000) among females. CONCLUSIONS: We tried to estimate cancer prevalence based on the Kangwha cancer registry for the first time in Korea. The estimation of cancer prevalence based on a population-based cancer registry will be more correct and useful as the data accumulate. We will make another estimation in the near future.
Breast ; Colon ; Delivery of Health Care ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Liver ; Lung ; Male ; Mortality ; Prevalence* ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Thyroid Gland ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

BACKGROUND/AIMS: A number of studies have reported wide variability in the colonoscope insertion time among patients who had prior abdominal surgery. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of abdominal surgery on colonoscope insertion time. METHODS: The subjects were 192 patients with prior abdominal surgery, among 3,600 patients who underwent a colonoscopy at Samsung Changwon Hospital from May 2008 to May 2010. We collected the following data: insertion time, age, gender, height, weight, BMI, waist circumference, method of abdominal surgery, and the degree of bowel cleanliness. Previous abdominal operations were divided into colectomy, non-colectomy abdominal surgery, pelvic surgery, and laparoscopic surgery groups. RESULTS: The average colonoscope insertion time in patients with prior abdominal surgery (7.73+/-5.95 min) was longer than that of the non-surgery group (6.4+/-3.88 min). Patients in the colectomy groups were older and had a shorter insertion time (5.11+/-3.32 min) than patients in the other groups. CONCLUSIONS: Insertion of a colonoscope in patients with previous abdominal surgery was more difficult than that in the control group, except the colectomy group.
Colectomy ; Colonoscopes ; Colonoscopy ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Waist Circumference

Cowden's disease, a rare autosomal dominant disorder characterized by benign hamartomatous overgrowth of various tissues, increases the risk of cancer of the thyroid, breast, endometrium, prostate, and possibly other organs. Generally, germline mutations in the coding sequence for PTEN are found in 80% of patients with Cowden's disease. Here we report a rare case of incidentally discovered gastric polyposis during esophagogastroscopy for medical screening in a patient with a history of surgery for breast and thyroid cancer. Identifyng the mutation in the PTEN gene to a diagnosis of Cowden's disease.
Breast ; Clinical Coding ; Endometrium ; Endoscopy ; Female ; Germ-Line Mutation ; Hamartoma Syndrome, Multiple ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Prostate ; Thyroid Neoplasms

BACKGROUND: i-STAT (i-STAT Corporation, Princeton NJ, USA), a hand-held point-of-care testing (POCT) analyzer with rapidity and minimal sample requirement, has the potential to bring about a significant impact on the management of neonates. However, there should be an overall deliberation of the routine use of i-STAT in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) as to whether it is technically reliable and cost-effective. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical aspects of the implementation of i-STAT in the NICU. METHODS: We surveyed physicians and nurses to measure the present status of POCT. We ana-lyzed 84 tests performed in the central laboratory, 88 tests by blood gas analyzer in NICU, and 95 tests by i-STAT for NICU patients. We investigated the indications, turnaround time (TAT), cycle time, and impact on patient care in each case during both pre- and post-i-STAT periods. Costs and user acceptability were also examined. RESULTS: Survey responders wanted rapid results but did not accept the responsibility for the quality of POCT. Turnaround time of i-STAT was shorter than that of the central laboratory, but did not make an impact on cycle time. The cost of i-STAT is 2.2 times higher than central laboratory cost, but the users were satisfied with i-STAT mainly because of its small sample volume and speed. Central laboratory testing volume decreased by 14.3% after the introduction of i-STAT. CONCLUSIONS: i-STAT may be acceptable in the NICU setting. However, the behavioral patterns of physicians need to be changed and a selective use of i-STAT is warranted to maximize its cost-effectiveness. Future studies on the clinical outcome are required to substantiate the potential role of i-STAT.
Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care, Neonatal* ; Patient Care

We report a case of a female karyotype that was normal except for double minutes (dmin) in acute myeloid leukemia. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization, the amplification of C-MYC was detected in both interphase and metaphase cells. The patient of the present case had received only limited therapy with cytosine arabinoside, but lived for more than one year. It supports the recent notion that dmin may not necessarily be associated with a poor outcome.
Cytarabine ; Female ; Fluorescence ; Humans ; In Situ Hybridization ; Interphase ; Karyotype* ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute* ; Metaphase ; Oncogenes*

Background: Mass spectrometry methods exhibit higher accuracy and lower variability than immunoassays at low testosterone concentrations. We developed and validated an ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) assay for quantifying serum total testosterone. Methods: We used an ExionLC UPLC (Sciex, Framingham, MA, USA) system and a Sciex Triple Quad 6500+ (Sciex) MS/MS system in electrospray ionization and positive ion modes with multiple reaction monitoring transitions to evaluate precision, accuracy, linearity, lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ), carryover, ion suppression, stability, and reference intervals. For method comparison, we measured serum testosterone concentrations using this method in 40 subjects whose testosterone concentrations ranged from 0.14 to 55.48 nmol/L as determined using the Architect i2000 immunoassay (Abbott Diagnostics, Abbott Park, IL, USA) and in an additional 160 sera with testosterone concentrations <1.67 nmol/L. Results: The intra- and inter-run precision CVs were <2.81%, and the accuracy bias values were <3.85%, which were all acceptable. The verified linear interval was 0.03–180.84 nmol/L; the LLOQ was 0.03 nmol/L. No significant carryover and ion suppression were observed. The testosterone in serum was stable at 4°C, at –20°C, and after three freeze-thaw cycles. The reference intervals were successfully verified. The correlation was good at testosterone concentrations of 0.14–55.48 nmol/L; however, the Architect assay showed positive percent bias at concentrations <1.67 nmol/L. Conclusions The UPLC-MS/MS assay shows acceptable performance, with a lower LLOQ than the immunoassay. This method will enable the quantitation of low testosterone concentrations.