BACKGROUND: One quarter to one third of patients with NSCLC present with primary tumors that although confined to the thorax are too extensive for surgical resection. Until resently standard treatment for these patients had been thoracic radiation, which produces tumor regression in most patients but few cures and dismal 5-year survival rate. The fact that death for most patients with stage III tumors is caused by distant metastases has promped a reevaluation of combined modality treatment approaches that include systemic chemotherapy. Therefore, we report the results observed in a study to evaluate the effect of multimodality treatment in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer from 1/91 to 8/93 in CNUH. METHOD: We grouped the patients according to the treatment modalities and evaluated response rate, median survival and the effect of prognostic variables. Among 67 patients evaluated, twenty seven patients classified with group A, received cisplatin and etoposide containing combination chemotherapy alone, eighteen patients, classified with group B, received chemotherapy and radiotherapy, fifteen patients, group C, received neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy and surgery with/without radiation therapy, seven patients, group D, received only supportive care. RESULT: The major response rate for group A and B was 37% and 61% respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in response rate between A and B groups(p=0.97). The analysis of prognostic factors showed that differences of age, sex, pathology, blood type, smoking year, stage and ECOG performance did not related to improvement in survival. Median survival time was 8.6 months for group A, 13.4 months for group B, 19.2 months for group C, and 5.4 months for group D, respectively and there was statistically significant difference(p=0.003), suggesting that multimodality therapy was associated with signigicant improvement in survival. Subset survival analysis showed a significant therapeutic effect for earlier stage and good performance state(p=0.007, 0.009, respectively). A possible survival advantages were observed for major response groups. CONCLUSION: It was suggested that multimodality therapy for the management of patients who had stage III disease, has yielded good median survival and long survival for seleted patients. But, it is necessory to validate above result with further investigation in large scale and in prospective randomized trials.
Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Cisplatin ; Drug Therapy ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Etoposide ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pathology ; Prospective Studies ; Radiotherapy ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Survival Rate ; Thorax

Cytomegalovirus(CMV) commonly infects immunocompromised patient, including those with malignant disease, immunosuppression (particularly that induced by steroid therapy), organ transplantation AIDS. Involvement of the gastrointestinal tract is often associated with disseminated infection. Enteric involvement is expressed by inflammation, hemorhage, and ulceration. CMV is postulated to cause submucosal capillary and arteriolor vasculitis that can result in ischemic injury. CMV induced gastritic and colonic ulcers have not previously been reported in Korea. We report a patient of malignancy who had gastric and colonic ulcers assoicated with CMV infection whieh showed chracteristic histological finding of CMV infection in biopsed specimen.
Capillaries ; Colon ; Gastrointestinal Diseases* ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Immunosuppression ; Inflammation ; Korea ; Organ Transplantation ; Transplants ; Ulcer ; Vasculitis

Thunderclap headache refers to a sudden and severe headache that comes unexpectedly, reminding one of a clap of thunder. The initial description of this type of headache was in association with an unruptured intracranial aneurysm. It is known to be a presenting feature of subarachnoid hemorrhage, unruptured intracranial aneurysm, cerebral venous thrombosis, cervical artery dissection, spontaneous intracranial hypotension, pituitary apoplexy, retroclival hematoma, and hypertensive reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy. A formula for diagnostic assessment of thunderclap headache, such as brain computed tomographic scan and spinal tap, should be established. We experienced a case of cerebral infarction presented with thunderclap headache, diagnosed using diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging. We suggest that, even when these patients have shown non-specific findings on neurological examination, brain computed tomography, and cerebrospinal fluid analysis, diffusion MRI should be considered for differential diagnosis of thunderclap headache in emergency medical services.
Arteries ; Brain ; Cerebral Infarction ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Diffusion ; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Emergency Medical Services ; Headache ; Headache Disorders, Primary ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery ; Intracranial Aneurysm ; Intracranial Hypotension ; Leukoencephalopathies ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neurologic Examination ; Pituitary Apoplexy ; Spinal Puncture ; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage ; Venous Thrombosis

The present study was undertaken to evaluate in vitro activities of following drugs against adult worms of Clororchis sinensis: i.e., stibnal, chloroquine diphosphate, Hetol (1,4-bis-trichloromethylbenzol), dehydroemetine 'Roche' (Ro 1-9334), niridazole (Ambilhar), bisbendazole, gentian violet, dithiazanine iodide, hexachlorophene, bithionol, niclofolan (Bilevon, Bayer 9015) and praziquantel (Embay 8440, Biltricide). After isolation from bile ducts of experimentally infected rabbits (3 months infection), the parasites were rinsed in sterilized Tyrode's solution and incubated for 24 hours at 37 C in TC 199 medium with Earle's balanced salt solution containing 0, 0.01, 0.1, 1.0, 10 and 100 microgram/ml concentrations of each above drugs. The activities of each concentrations with each drugs were evaluated by the motility of the worms in culture tubes observing at 15, 30, 60 minutes and 2, 4, 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours by stereomicroscope. In the results, no effect was found at the adult worms of C. sinensis in all concentrations with stibnal, chloroquine diphosphate, Hetol, dehydroemetine, niridazole and bisbendazole. However, moderate activities were observed in the concentrations of 1.0 and 0.1 microgram/ml of gentian violet, dithiazanine iodide, hexachlorophene and bithionol. The highest activities were observed in all concentrations of niclofolan and praziquantel.
parasitology-helminth-trematoda ; Clonorchis sinensis ; chemotherapy ; in vitro ; stibnal ; chloroquine diphosphate ; Hetol(1,4-bis-trichloromethylbenzol) ; dehydroemetine ; 'Roche'(Ro 1-9334) ; niridazole(Ambilhar) ; bisbendazole ; gentian violet ; dithiazanine iodide ; hexachlorophene ; bithionol ; niclofolan ; praziquantel

No abstract available.
Female ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Ectopic*

Biliary-enteric fistula is a rare disease, and the common causes of biliary-enteric fistula are gallstone, peptic ulcer, malignancy and trauma. It is known that the most common type of biliary-enteric fistula is the cholecysto-duodenal fistula, yet the combination of choledocho-duodeno-colonic fistula is a rare finding. A 78-year-old woman was admitted because she had suffered with right upper quadrant pain, a febrile sense and chills for 2 days. We confirmed the choledocho-duodeno-colonic fistula by performing gastroduodenoscopy, abdominal CT and an upper GI series. So, we report here on an usual case of choledocho-duodeno-colonic fistula, along with a review of the relevant literatures.
Aged ; Biliary Fistula ; Chills ; Female ; Fistula* ; Gallstones ; Humans ; Peptic Ulcer ; Rare Diseases ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

This report discusses a pregnancy case following a series of two consecutive magnetic resonance imaging-guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) procedures for the treatment of two different myomas in an individual patient. Both procedures were completed without adverse events, and the patient conceived naturally four months after treatment. At 39 weeks, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, via a vaginal delivery. There were no complications in the pregnancy or during labor.
Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Interventional/*methods ; Myoma/*surgery ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Outcome ; Surgery, Computer-Assisted/*methods ; Uterine Neoplasms/*surgery

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to solve the problems due to overcrowding of emergency medical centers (EMC) and to help EMCs to improve their financial status. Korean government has implemented a new emergency fee schedule into National Health Insurance (NHI). This policy is aimed at reducing non-emergent visits to EMCs. METHOD: This study was conducted to analyze the impact of the new policy by using a before-after comparison of the patterns of patients' visit to an EMC, Asan Medical Center (AMC). Data electronically recorded at the EMC of AMC were reviewed retrospectively. RESULT: The new emergency fee schedule reduced the rate of increase of non-emergent visit to EMC. CONCLUSION: However, this policy could not succeed in limiting total number of EMC visits. It means that this pricing policy made a partial success in solving the problem of overcrowding of EMCs.
Chungcheongnam-do ; Crowding ; Emergencies* ; Fee Schedules* ; Fees and Charges* ; Humans ; Korea ; National Health Programs ; Retrospective Studies

PURPOSE: To solve the problems of overcrowding in the emergency department (ED), the Korean government adopted the new emergency fee schedule into National Health Institute (NHI) as of April 2000. The purpose of this system was to determine non-emergent patients from visiting the ED. However, there have been no studies regarding the decision criteria for what constitute an 'emergency'. For that reason, we compared the concordance between the criteria used at the Asan Medical Center since 1998 to designate an emergency with those used by the government to improve the system. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study by collecting the data from 107,097 patients who visited Asan Medical Center from January 1st, 2001, to December 21st, 2002. The criteria on emergency in NHI consist of 36 items, while the criteria at Asan Medical Center are decided by emergency physician and nurse when the patient arrived at the ED. Based on laboratory and radiologic data, a secondary decision is made when the patient is moved from triage to the adult resuscitation room or transferred to an other medical center or discharged. RESULTS: The number of patients who were classified as emergent by both criteria was 22,452 (21%), the number of patients who were classified as non-emergent by both criteria was 39,657 (37%), and the number of patients who were classified in the same way by both criteria was 62,109 (58%). The number of patients for whom the two sets of criteria gave different classification was 44,988 (42%). The Kappa value was 0.138 (p < 0.005). CONCILUSION: There was high discordance between the criteria used by Asan Medical Center and NHI. Further studies and improvements are required.
Adult ; Chungcheongnam-do* ; Classification ; Emergencies ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Fee Schedules ; Fees and Charges ; Humans ; National Health Programs* ; Resuscitation ; Retrospective Studies ; Triage

OBJECTIVE: Diverse glomerular disorders leadsing to progressive glomerulosclerosis share the common features of increased mRNA expression for extra- cellular matrix protein and growth factors. The precise role of angiotensin II in contributing to these disturbances is currently unknown. ACE inhibitors have been proved to be beneficial in protecting against glomerular injury in animal models and many of human glomerular diseases. Type IV collagen is a main component of extracellular matrix in the mesangium : its increased accumulation is a common pathologic finding in the glomerulosclerosis. There are some evidences that the beneficial effect of ACE inhibitor does not solely depend on the hemodynamic effect, but may be mediated by other effect. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of high glucose, angiotensin II and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor on the expression of PC alpha1(lV) in mesansial cells(MCs). METHODS: Human mesangial cells were cultured with standard method. To investigate the effect of each drug and high glucose condition, MCs were cultured in the normal-glucose medium(100mg/dl) and high-glucose medium(450mg/dl), respectively. An- giotensin II and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor(captopril) were added to culture medium at final concentration of 10 M which is the physiologic dose in vivo. MCs were cultured in each condition for 3days, when the maximal effect of high glucose on MCs, and harvested for mesurement of the expression of PC alpha1(IV) mRNA. To quantitate the PC alpha(1V) mRNA levels in each condition, semiquantitatine RT-PCR was done with co-amplification of house keeping gene. RESULTS: PCa1(IV) mRNA expression was significantly increased in high-glucose medium(30mM) compared to normal-glucose medium(5.5mM)(2.28+/-0.34 vs 0.96+/-0.08, p<0.05). Administration of angiotensin ll(10(-6)M) in culture media induced a further increment in the PC a >(IV) mRNA expression to 4.64+/-0.28(p<0.05). Angiotensin II in the normal-glucose medium increased the PC alpha1(lV) mHNA expression as 2.69+/-0.23 control(p<0.05). Addition of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor(Capopril, 10(-6)M) in high- glucose culture medium significantly suppressed the PC alpha1(IV) mRNA expression as 0.690.11(p<0.05). CONCLUSION: High glucose concentration in culture medium significantly increases the mRNA expression of procollagen alphal(IV) than normal glucose concentration. Angiotensin II increases the collagen mRNA expression directly and this effect was significantly prevented by ACE inhibitor. This result suggests that hyperglycemia in diabetic millieu can directly increase collagen production, and ACE inhibitor may inhibit progressive glomerulosclerosis by decreasing collagen production as well as reducing intraglomerular pressure.
Angiotensin II ; Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors ; Angiotensins* ; Collagen ; Collagen Type IV ; Culture Media ; Extracellular Matrix ; Glucose* ; Hemodynamics ; Humans* ; Hyperglycemia ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Mesangial Cells* ; Models, Animal ; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A ; Procollagen ; RNA, Messenger*