Maligant melanomas of the oral or nasal cavity, and the vulvovaginal area are relatively common among the melanomas of non-ocular mucosa. But, primary malignant melanoma arising in the mucosa of the palatine tonsil is rare. We present a case of primary malignant melanoma arising in the mucosa of the palatine tonsil. A 36-year-old male was admitted for evaluation of a recurrent sore throat. Tonsillectomy was performed on the basis of clinical suspicion of chronic tonsillitis. Grossly, the left tonsil was focally dark. Microscopically, the tonsillar mucosa was diffusely infiltrated with tumor cells. Tumor cells revealed numerous melanin pigments. Intraepithelial nests of tumor cells were noted, but pagetoid spread of tumor cells was not found. Tumor cells were positive for S-100 protein and HMB45 stain. There was no evidence of melanoma in the skin or eye.
Male ; Humans

OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to determine the smoking status and its associated factors in military life among young Korean men to provide date for smoking prevention in military areas as a part of the health promotion program for soldiers. METHODS: 1,033 infantrymen serving in 17 military units, which are located in suburbs of K city, were enrolled in this study. A questionnaire on the soldiers smoking status and other various characteristics was obtained from October 2nd to 12th, 2000. Logistic regression analysis was performed on the various variables in order to determine the factors related to smoking. RESULTS: 1) 830(80.3%) out of 1033 subjects had smoked cigarettes and 759 persons(73.4%) were regular smokers. 2) Among the 734 soldiers who started smoking before their military service, 714 soldiers(97.2%) continued to smoke after, while 45 soldiers(15.0%) among the 299 non-smokers started smoking after joining the army. 3) Through the logistic regression analysis, the education level, specialty in the army, smoking amongst the friends they met before military service, smoking amongst soldiers in the army, dating girl friends, drinking, satisfaction with their army lives and the presence of convenient smoking places at the barracks were significant factors related to the prevalence of smoking in soldiers. CONCLUSION: the factors related with incidence of smoking in the army are the complicated interactions among the individuals personal background, general charcterisitcs of the solider and the special environment in the barracks. Therefore, to improve national soldiers' health, an active non-smoking campaign and education should be pushed to discourage smoking in the barracks.
Drinking ; Education ; Female ; Friends ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Incidence ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Military Personnel* ; Prevalence ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Tobacco Products

PURPOSE: This study was to verify the effects of spiritual care module education programs by applying it to nurses. METHOD: The study employed a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design in a quasi-experimental basis. Subjects were 93 nurses (46 in an experimental group and 47 in a control group) with more than two years clinic experience, attending a bachelor program of K University, in I city, Korea. The program consists of courses with 2.5 hours per week for seven weeks. RESULT: Scores of spiritual needs and spiritual nursing competence increased significantly in the experimental group. The score of spirituality and spiritual well-being also increased in the experimental group, but not significantly. CONCLUSION: The spiritual care module education program was considered to be an effective nursing intervention education course. Nurses educated with this program seemed to perform better nursing interventions for subjects facing difficulties or confusion by helping them restore and cope with those problems by themselves. Therefore, it is recommended that spiritual care module education should be settled as a regular course of nursing college with consideration to the corrections and supplements mentioned in this study.
Education* ; Korea ; Mental Competency ; Nursing ; Spirituality

No abstract available.
Ulcer*

BACKGROUND: Tumor recurrence is the most common cause of treatment failure, even after complete resection of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, we investigated the prognosis of patients with early recurrence in order to identify independent risk factors related to early recurrence. METHODS: Between February 1995 and December 2012, 242 patients who underwent surgical resection for stage I NSCLC at Dong-A University Hospital were reviewed. The factors predicting overall survival (OS) and early recurrence were investigated. We also investigated the relationship between the patterns and period of recurrence and clinicopathological factors. RESULTS: For patients with stage IA and IB NSCLC, the 5-year OS rate was 75.7% and 57.3% (p=0.006), respectively. A multivariate Cox proportional hazards model demonstrated that gender (p=0.004), comorbidity number (p=0.038), resection type (p=0.002), and tumor size (p=0.022) were the statistically significant predictors of OS. Moreover, the multivariate analysis revealed that smoking history (p=0.023) and histologic grade (p=0.012) were the independent predictors of early recurrence. Additionally, only histologic grade (poor differentiation) was found to be significantly associated with a higher frequency of distant metastasis; there was no relationship between the patterns and period of recurrence and clinicopathological factors. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated that smoking history and histologic grade were independent prognostic factors for early recurrence within two years in patients with early-stage NSCLC. Patients with these predictive factors may be good candidates for adjuvant therapy.
Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Comorbidity ; Humans ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Prognosis* ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Recurrence* ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Treatment Failure

The vagina is an infrequent site of primary sarcomas, which are less than 2% of all malignant vaginal neoplasm. The most common malignant mesenchymal tumor of the vagina is rhabdomyosarcoma, but leiomyosarcoma is rare type tumor of the vagina. Microscopically, spinle cells with pleomorphic nuclei and mitotic figures were frequently noted, but cross-striations were not found in the tissue. Alpha-smooth muscle actin and desmin were positive, but sarcomeric actin was negative in the tumor cells. The authors report a case of primary leiomyosarcoma of the vagina with brief literature review.
Actins ; Desmin ; Leiomyosarcoma* ; Rhabdomyosarcoma ; Sarcoma ; Vagina* ; Vaginal Neoplasms

Purpose: To report a case of multiple retinal capillary hemangioma associated with neurofibromatosis type 1 and resulting neovascularglaucoma.Case summary: A 13-year-old boy was admitted with complaint of visual disturbance and dull pain in his left eye which had beguntwo weeks prior. Lisch nodules were observed in his left iris and corneal opacity with neovascularization of the iris and anglewere detected in the same eye. Multiple retinal capillary hemangiomas with increased tortuosity and congestion of feeding retinalvessels were observed on the upper equator of the left retina; in addition, vitreous hemorrhage was observed. There were noother abnormalities except iris mammillations in the right eye. Numerous café au lait macules were observed on the patient’s entirebody. He also exhibited axillary freckling. On brain magnetic resonance imaging, T2-weighted signal intensity was increasedin the basal ganglia, left thalamus, and cerebellar white matter; however, no vessel abnormalities were observed on magneticresonance angiography. High intraocular pressure (IOP) persisted despite the use of IOP lowering agents and IOP was normalizedafter trabeculectomy with mitomycin C administration. Conclusions This case shows that multiple retinal capillary hemangiomas can be accompanied by neurofibromatosis type 1,which may result in neovascular glaucoma.

BACKGROUND: The prolongation of prothrombin time (PT)/activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) in vitro occurs from various causes and lupus anticoagulant (LA) is one of them. This study was performed to investigate the association between prolonged PT/aPTT and LA in children.METHODS: This study included 66 subjects, who showed prolonged PT/aPTT on routine examination and screening test prior to an invasive procedure. LA was investigated in subjects with only PT prolongation, only aPTT prolongation, and PT/aPTT prolongation. The aPTT prolongation subjects were subdivided into more prolonged (≥60 sec) and less prolonged (39.6≤aPTT<60 sec). In addition, the sensitivity and specificity of LA in PT or aPTT prolongation was evaluated by ROC (receiver operating characteristics) curve.RESULTS: The frequency of LA positivity was 60.6% in PT or aPTT prolongation subjects. The frequency and titer of LA were higher in the order of prolonged PT group, prolonged aPTT group, and prolonged PT/aPTT (P<0.01). The frequency and titer of LA were higher in more prolonged aPTT group than less prolonged group (P<0.01). The accuracy of sensitivity and specificity of LA in cases with PT prolongation was low (area under the ROC curve was 0.68), however, was high (0.89) in cases with aPTT prolongation. The sensitivity and specificity of LA in predicting aPTT prolongation time of more than 42.9 sec were 0.83 and 1.00, respectively.CONCLUSION: PT was less affected than aPTT by LA and aPTT prolongation could more accurately predict LA existence. A large portion of PT or aPTT prolongation found in children without obvious past or family history of bleeding, especially accompanying infectious disease, might be associated with LA.
Child ; Communicable Diseases ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Lupus Coagulation Inhibitor ; Mass Screening ; Partial Thromboplastin Time ; Prothrombin Time ; Prothrombin ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity

For the evaluation of the left ventricular diastolic function in mild to moderate hypertensive patients without left ventricular hypertrophy, 15 hypertensive patients (group A) and 15 normotensive subjects (group B) were examined by 2-D guided M-mode echocardiography. Various systolic and diastolic indices were derived from computer-assissted analysis of differential curves of left ventricular dimension and posterior wall thickness. The systolic and diastolic function indices of each of the two groups were compared. The results were as follows : 1) There were no significant differences in ejection fraction, left ventricular peak ejection rate and posterior wall thickening rate between two groups. 2) There were no significant differences in % ventricular A wave, left ventricular peak filling rate and posterior wall peak relaxation rate between two groups. 3) One third filling rate was 2.07+/-0.41 EDD/sec in group A and which was significantly lower than 3.29+/-0.88 EDD/sec of group B. Above result suggests that computer-assisted analysis of differential curves of left ventricular dimension and posterior wall thickness could be helpful in the early detection of diastolic dysfunction, and that left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in its early filling period may develop in the mild to moderate hypertensive patients even before left ventricular hypertrophy develops.
Echocardiography ; Humans ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular* ; Relaxation

Myocardial bridge is not a rare congenital malformation of the coronary artery which takes an intramural course. Most of the lesions are found in proximal half of the left anterior descending coronary artery, but one which occurs in the left circumflex artery is extremely rare. During systole, the intramural coronary artery is compressed by contraction of over bridging ventricular muscle, therefore blood flow distal to the lesion in impaired and angina pectoris or acute myocardial infarction may occur. We experienced a 54-year-old man who complained of severe precordial pain during exercise and at rest for several months, and was diagnosed as myocardial bridging in the left circumflex coronary artery by coronary arteriography. Thus we report this case with literature review.
Angina Pectoris ; Angiography ; Arteries ; Coronary Vessels* ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Myocardial Bridging ; Myocardial Infarction ; Systole