Peutz-Jeghers syndrome is an autosomal dominant disease characterized by gastrointestinal ployposis and mucocutaneous melanin pigmentation involving the lip, oral mucosa, digits, palms and soles. The polyps are almost hamartomatous. The relationship of gastrointestinal carcinoma and the Peutz-Jeghers syndrome has been discussed for many years. The question is unsettled whether gastrointestinal carcinoma arise in hamartomatous polyps itself. Recently, there are a few reports that adenomatous and carcinomatous changes were superimposed upon the background of the hamartoma. Occasionally epithelial misplacement of the epithelium is found in the small intestinal polyps. Since the epithelial misplacement may involve submucosa, muscularis propria and serosa, a difficulty of histopathologic differential diagnosis between the epithelial misplacement and invasive adenocarcinoma cause overdiagnosis of cancer in the gastrointestinal polyps of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome. We present a case of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome of 39-year-old woman with multiple gastrointestinal polyps, two of which showed extensive epithelial misplacement even into the pancreas and another one at the colon showed carcinomatous change at the tip portion. Areas of hamartoma, adenoma and in situ carcinoma were noted in this colonic hamartomatous polyp. This case support that adenoma and carcinomatous changes may evolve directly within a hamartomaous polyp itself.
Female ; Humans ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Adenocarcinoma ; Adenoma

No abstract available.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle* ; Breast*

No abstract available.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle* ; Histiocytosis, Langerhans-Cell*

No abstract available.
Blood Platelets* ; Leukocytes* ; Plateletpheresis*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of experiences in home visiting nursing service among the elderly in community provided by nursing students. METHOD: This is a phenomenological study to investigate the experience of community-based patients. Data were collected through in-depth interviews from the 4th of March to the 15th of December 2003. Individual interviews were conducted with 8 patients on subjective experiences. Data were analyzed through Colaizzi's method, in which meaningful statements were extracted. RESULT: Four categories were identified from nine theme clusters. The four categories were 'thankfulness', 'dependence', 'sorrowfulness' and 'the sense of being'. CONCLUSION: These results show the importance of visiting nursing service for the elderly in community.
Aged* ; House Calls* ; Humans ; Life Change Events ; Nursing Services* ; Qualitative Research ; Students, Nursing

Astrovirus is frequently associated with diarrhea in children. It can not be readily isolated by cell culture, and an electronmicroscope is usually used for detection of this agent. Recently in 1995 a combined method of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was designed for easier detection of astrovirus, which is based on the conserved sequence in 3'-end of genomes of the 7 known serotypes of human astrovirus. As of yet there has not been any report of astrovirus data in Korea using the RT-PCR methods. The purpose of this study was to detect astrovirus incidence, severity of symptoms, seasonal variation and coinfection rate with rotavirus in Korean children inpatients with diarrhea. Fecal specimens from 61 young children hospitalized with gasteroenteritis Korea from Jan. 1996 through Mar. 1997. They were examined for astroviurs infection by RT-PCR method. Results are as follows: 1. Astrovirus was detected at 9.8% (6/61) from fecal specimens of children with severe diarrhea by EIA using monoclonal antibody coated plates. 2. Astorvirus was detected at 29.5% (18/61) from fecal specimens of children with severe diarrhea by RT-PCR. 3. The age of the 18 children affected by astrovirus ranged from 2 monthes to 7 years with mean of 3.0 years. 4. Mean hospital stay of the 1S children was 6.1 days. 5. Five (27.8%) astrovirus RT-PCR positive strains were confirmed in November and in December, respectively out of 18 specimens in total. 6. Astrovirus coinfection with rotavirus type G1 was confirmed in 15/16 specimens (93.8%), and with type G2 was in 1/16 specimens (6.3%).
Cell Culture Techniques ; Child* ; Coinfection ; Conserved Sequence ; Diarrhea ; Feces* ; Genome ; Humans ; Incidence ; Inpatients ; Korea ; Length of Stay ; Mamastrovirus ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Reverse Transcription* ; Rotavirus ; Seasons

Human rotavirus has now been established as the leading cause of gastroenteritis in young children worldwide. At least fourteen serotypes of group A rotavirus have been identified on the basis of antibody responses to major neutralizing glycoprotein, VP7 (G type for glycoprotein), present in the outer capsid of the virus. Serotype 1, 2, 3 and 4 are the most highly prevalent in human. In Korea, rotavirus is also the principal cause of severe nonbacterial diarrhea requiring hospitalization in infants and young children, which is commonly detected by EIA method. The epidemiology of rotavirus infection has been monitored by only serologic methods without electropherotyping in Korea. This study shows seasonal and age related variations .of rotavirus infection in Korea according to the genotype using the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Fecal specimens were obtained from 39 children hospitalized with acute watery diarrhea and gastroenteritis in Ewha Womans University MokDong Hospital in Seoul from Jan. to Dec. of 1996. All four (1, 2, 3, 4) major G serotypes were identified by amplification of segment of the gene for VP7 using RT-PCR. Rotavirus Gl 749 bp, G2 653 bp, G3 374 bp and G4 583bp were shown on 2.9 or 3.3% NuSieve agar gel. Results were as follows: 1) Rotavirus was detected at 53.8% (21/39) by EIA and 89.7% (35/39) by RT-PCR. 2) Serotype Gl, G2, G3, G4 when detected by RT-PCR accounted for 80.0% (28/35), 14.3% (5/35), 2.9% (1/35) and 2.9% (1/35), respectively. 3) Thirty five strains of rotavirus were detected at the frequency of 17.1% (6/35) in Oct., 20.0% (7/35) in Nov. and 20.0% (7/35) in Dec. 4) As for the age range, children affected by rotavirus were mostly under 1 years.
Agar ; Antibody Formation ; Capsid ; Child ; Child, Hospitalized* ; Diarrhea* ; Epidemiology ; Female ; Gastroenteritis ; Genotype* ; Glycoproteins ; Hospitalization ; Humans* ; Infant ; Korea ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Reverse Transcription* ; Rotavirus Infections ; Rotavirus* ; Seasons ; Seoul

BACKGROUND: The eosinophil chemotactic and activating effects of eotaxin and the known association of eosinophils with asthma suggest that eotaxin expression is increased during an asthma attack. This study was aimed to determine whether the plasma eotaxin levels are higher in patients during as asthma attack and to correlate the eotaxin levels with the disease activity, severity and response to therapy. METHOD: A case-control study of the plasma eotaxin levels was performed in 100 patients with exacerbated asthma and 48 age-and sex-matched subjects with stable asthma. RESULTS: The plasma eotaxin levels were significantly higher in the 100 patients with exacerbated asthma (233±175 pg/ml) than in the 48 subjects with stable asthma(169±74 pg/ml). A tread toward higher eotaxin levels was observed in asthmatic subjects who were taking oral steroids (332±225 pg/ml) than in those who were not (214±159 pg/ml) and higher levels were found in those admitted to the hospital (275±212 pg/ml) than in those discharged after receiving only emergency treatment (190±115 pg/ml). The eotaxin levels inversely correlated with the FEV1 (r=-0.25, p<0.01). The eotaxin levels were higher in moderate persistent (323±256 pg/ml) and severe persistent asthmatics (276±170 pg/ml) than in mild intermittent asthmatics (160±60 pg/ml). CONCLUSION: Eotaxin expression is directly associated with asthma exacerbation, impaired pulmonary function and the disease severity.
Asthma* ; Case-Control Studies ; Emergency Treatment ; Eosinophils ; Humans ; Plasma* ; Steroids

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyse the level of sexual function among breast cancer survivors as compared with that among healthy women. METHOD: A total of 208 women participated in this study: 103 breast cancer survivors attending self-help group and 105 community-residing healthy women in G city. A self-reported questionnaire with the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) was used to obtain data. Data were analyzed using the SPSS Win 14.0 K+ for descriptive statistics, t-test, and two-way ANOVA. RESULTS: The sexual function score of breast cancer survivors was significantly lower than that of healthy women, respectively 14.9+/-9.9 and 20.6+/-11.1 (p<0.001). The sexual function of recurrent breast cancer survivors was significantly lower than that of women without recurrence. However, there were no significant differences in the sexual function score according to the cancer stage, period since diagnosis, and types of cancer treatment modality. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate the importance of sex-related counseling and educational programs to improve the quality of life of breast cancer survivors.
Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Counseling ; Female ; Humans ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Recurrence ; Self-Help Groups ; Survivors

Eosinophilic gastroenteritis(EG) is a rare disease characterised histologically by eosinophilic infiltration of the gut wall. The clinical features depend on which layer and location are involved. Patients may be divided into three clinical groups as predominantly mucosal, muscle layer, or subserosal disease based on the histological site of eosinophilic infiltration of the bowel wall, although there is lften considerable overlap. EG with predominant mucosal disease produce symptoms of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, possibly with a history of allergy and it may have either a evidence of malabsorption, protein losing enteropathy, iron deficiency anemia. Patients with predominant muscle involvement often causes obstruction of pylorus or small bowel. Subserosal involvement which is rare manifests as eosinophilic ascites and occasinonally eosinophilic peritonitis. We experienced a case of eosinophilic gastroenteritis in a 3 year old boy who presented as iron deficiency anemia and intermittent abdominal pain. Gastrofiberscopy revealed erosive gastritis and duodenal ulcer. We could confirm the diagnosis of EG by endoscopic biopsy and have followed up the patient for 5 years. We report this case with brief review of the literature.
Abdominal Pain ; Anemia, Iron-Deficiency ; Ascites ; Biopsy ; Child, Preschool ; Diagnosis ; Duodenal Ulcer ; Eosinophils* ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Gastritis ; Gastroenteritis* ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Male ; Nausea ; Peritonitis ; Protein-Losing Enteropathies ; Pylorus ; Rare Diseases ; Vomiting