A 26-year-old man with a one-year history of asthma and sinusitis presented with bilateral pleural effusions, patch basilar infiltrates on a chest x-ray and a pericardial effusion on an echocardiogram. The peripheral blood showed marked eosinophilia. An obstructive pattern was also observed during the pulmonary fuction test, which was responsive to bronchodilator inhalation. Nerve conduction studies showed right sural neuropathy. Thoracentesis yielded an acidotic exudative effusion with low glucose, low C3 and eosinophilia. An open lung biopsy revealed an eosinophilic interstitial pneumonitis associated with a necrotizing eosinophilic vasculitis, and granulomatous inflammation foci. In the literature, pleural effusions were reported in 29 percent of Churg-Strauss patients, but the number of effusions was low and their characteristics have not been well described. This report describes the characteristic findings of pleural fluid and its histologic features in a case of classical Churg-Strauss syndrome.
Adult ; Asthma ; Biopsy ; Churg-Strauss Syndrome* ; Eosinophilia ; Eosinophils ; Glucose ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Inhalation ; Lung ; Lung Diseases, Interstitial ; Neural Conduction ; Pericardial Effusion ; Pleural Effusion* ; Sinusitis ; Thorax ; Vasculitis

The purpose of this study was to provide basic data to improve college food service satisfaction with sanitary, environment and service by comparing 2 contract-managed and 2 self-operated college food services in Daejeon and Chungnam area. According to the results, sanitation and environment satisfaction degrees of contract-managed college food services were higher than those of self-operated food services. The satisfaction degrees with service were also higher in contract-managed food services than self-operated food services except the category of quick food delivery. In all categories comprising the food service satisfaction, the satisfaction degrees were lower in female students than in male students. There were more negative self-perceived clinical symptoms in female students than male students. The higher the negative self-perceived clinical symptoms scores were, the lower the satisfaction degrees with food service were, which suggests that the health state of students was one of the factors that influenced college food service satisfaction. There was no difference between contract-managed and self-operated food services in terms of satisfaction with overall food taste and overall satisfaction degree. The average satisfaction degree for the contract-managed food services in terms of price relative to food quality was lower than that for self-operated food services. According to stepwise multiple regression analysis, 'overall food taste', 'price relative to quality', 'kindness of employees', 'coping with proposed opinions' and 'quickness of food delivery' in decreasing order, were the most relatively important attributes for overall satisfaction. There should be further studies on important management factors to improve satisfaction with sanitary, environment and service by self-operated college food service.
Chungcheongnam-do ; Female ; Food Quality ; Food Services* ; Humans ; Male ; Regression Analysis ; Sanitation

College foodservice (FS) demands highly-developed operation technique which can provide adequate nutrients to their students, as well as to guide better eating habits and to meet students' various desires. The purpose of this study was to provide basic data to improve college FS satisfaction with food items by comparing 2 contract-managed and 2 self-operated college FS in Daejeon and Chungnam area. According to the results, 59.1% of students frequently (over 3 times per week) took meals at college cafeteria and the main reason for using college cafeteria was the low-price of meal, although the students' satisfaction degree with price of meal was lower in contract-managed FS than in self-operated FS. There were no differences in the food satisfaction degrees with overall appraisal of food items between 2 operating systems of college FS, but the satisfaction degrees with all food items were high in male as compared with female. The higher the negative self-perceived clinical symptoms scores, the lower the satisfaction with foods, which suggests that the health state of students was one of the factors that influenced college FS satisfaction. According to stepwise multiple regression analysis, 'taste of boiled rice', 'overall appraisal of boiled rice', 'overall appraisal of soup', and 'variety of side dish', in decreasing order, were the most relatively important attributes for overall customer satisfaction with food taste of college FS. Finally, there should be further studies on important management factors to improve college FS satisfaction according to 2 operating systems.
Chungcheongnam-do ; Eating ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Meals*

The purpose of this study was to provide basic data to improve college food service satisfaction with sanitary, environment and service by comparing 2 contract-managed and 2 self-operated college food services in Daejeon and Chungnam area. According to the results, sanitation and environment satisfaction degrees of contract-managed college food services were higher than those of self-operated food services. The satisfaction degrees with service were also higher in contract-managed food services than self-operated food services except the category of quick food delivery. In all categories comprising the food service satisfaction, the satisfaction degrees were lower in female students than in male students. There were more negative self-perceived clinical symptoms in female students than male students. The higher the negative self-perceived clinical symptoms scores were, the lower the satisfaction degrees with food service were, which suggests that the health state of students was one of the factors that influenced college food service satisfaction. There was no difference between contract-managed and self-operated food services in terms of satisfaction with overall food taste and overall satisfaction degree. The average satisfaction degree for the contract-managed food services in terms of price relative to food quality was lower than that for self-operated food services. According to stepwise multiple regression analysis, 'overall food taste', 'price relative to quality', 'kindness of employees', 'coping with proposed opinions' and 'quickness of food delivery' in decreasing order, were the most relatively important attributes for overall satisfaction. There should be further studies on important management factors to improve satisfaction with sanitary, environment and service by self-operated college food service.
Chungcheongnam-do ; Female ; Food Quality ; Food Services* ; Humans ; Male ; Regression Analysis ; Sanitation

College foodservice (FS) demands highly-developed operation technique which can provide adequate nutrients to their students, as well as to guide better eating habits and to meet students' various desires. The purpose of this study was to provide basic data to improve college FS satisfaction with food items by comparing 2 contract-managed and 2 self-operated college FS in Daejeon and Chungnam area. According to the results, 59.1% of students frequently (over 3 times per week) took meals at college cafeteria and the main reason for using college cafeteria was the low-price of meal, although the students' satisfaction degree with price of meal was lower in contract-managed FS than in self-operated FS. There were no differences in the food satisfaction degrees with overall appraisal of food items between 2 operating systems of college FS, but the satisfaction degrees with all food items were high in male as compared with female. The higher the negative self-perceived clinical symptoms scores, the lower the satisfaction with foods, which suggests that the health state of students was one of the factors that influenced college FS satisfaction. According to stepwise multiple regression analysis, 'taste of boiled rice', 'overall appraisal of boiled rice', 'overall appraisal of soup', and 'variety of side dish', in decreasing order, were the most relatively important attributes for overall customer satisfaction with food taste of college FS. Finally, there should be further studies on important management factors to improve college FS satisfaction according to 2 operating systems.
Chungcheongnam-do ; Eating ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Meals*

Cellular oncogenes are expressed as an intrinsic part of the transformed or neoplastic phenotype. More than 60 of the known cellular oncogenes play a specific role in normal cellular development and differentiation. To examine the correlation between ras oncogene expression and the development of cervical cancer, this study investigated the reactivity of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia(CIN) and carcinoma of the uterine cervix by using anti-ras P21 mouse monoclonal antibody. The expression of ras oncogene significantly increased with the grade of malignancy from 11% in severe dysplasia, 30% in carcinoma in situ, 43% in microinvasive carcinoma, to 53% in invasive cancer. The expression of ras oncogene was not correlated with histologic type, tumor size, and nodal status of cervical cancer. It was concluded that expression of ras oncogene is related to early phase of carcinogenesis and tumor invasion of carcinoma of the uterine cervix.
Animals ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma in Situ ; Cervix Uteri* ; Female ; Genes, ras* ; Mice ; Oncogenes ; Phenotype ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

Investigations into the development of new therapeutic agents for lung inflammatory disorders have led to the discovery of plant-based alternatives. The rhizomes of Anemarrhena asphodeloides have a long history of use against lung inflammatory disorders in traditional herbal medicine. However, the therapeutic potential of this plant material in animal models of lung inflammation has yet to be evaluated. In the present study, we prepared the alcoholic extract and derived the saponin-enriched fraction from the rhizomes of A. asphodeloides and isolated timosaponin A-III, a major constituent. Lung inflammation was induced by intranasal administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to mice, representing an animal model of acute lung injury (ALI). The alcoholic extract (50–200 mg/kg) inhibited the development of ALI. Especially, the oral administration of the saponin-enriched fraction (10–50 mg/kg) potently inhibited the lung inflammatory index. It reduced the total number of inflammatory cells in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). Histological changes in alveolar wall thickness and the number of infiltrated cells of the lung tissue also indicated that the saponin-enriched fraction strongly inhibited lung inflammation. Most importantly, the oral administration of timosaponin A-III at 25–50 mg/kg significantly inhibited the inflammatory markers observed in LPS-induced ALI mice. All these findings, for the first time, provide evidence supporting the effectiveness of A. asphodeloides and its major constituent, timosaponin A-III, in alleviating lung inflammation.
Acute Lung Injury ; Administration, Intranasal ; Administration, Oral ; Alcoholics ; Anemarrhena* ; Animals* ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ; Herbal Medicine ; Humans ; Lung* ; Mice ; Models, Animal* ; Plants ; Pneumonia* ; Rhizome*

PURPOSE: We applied Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) in the analysis of data from Kawasaki disease patients with coronary artery aneurysm in an attempt to achieve accurate predictions of outcome for individual patients. METHODS: One hundred and seventy-five patients with Kawasaki disease were recruited. First, data of 75 patients (of which 60 patients had no aneurysm and 15 patients had aneurysm) were trained using the network. The data contained age, sex, white blood cell count, platelet count, CRP, and serum albumin of each individual. Then, data of another 100 patients (of which 83 patients had no aneurysm and 17 patients had aneurysm) were integrated into the previously trained LVQ neural network. After the analysis was completed, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were compared between the LVQ neural network and Harada risk index. RESULTS: Out of 100 patients, it was evaluated that 21 patients had coronary aneurysm and 79 patients did not. Among the 21 patients, 15 patients actually did have the disease, while 77 out of 79 patient actually did not have coronary aneurysm. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 88.2, 92.7, 71.4 and 97.4%, respectively. The values by the conventional Harada scoring were 52.9, 92.7, 60.7 and 91.7%, respectively, and contrasting the values above. CONCLUSOIN: LVQ neural network can classify and predict patients who, in the future, will have coronary artery aneurysm. This method is superior than the conventional methods in predicting aneurysm.
Aneurysm* ; Coronary Aneurysm ; Coronary Vessels ; Humans ; Learning* ; Leukocyte Count ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome* ; Platelet Count ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Serum Albumin

A 49-year-old man with an uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) of 20 / 1000, a best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA) of 20 / 400, keratometric readings of K1 = 59.88 x 82degrees / K2 = 45.88 x 172degrees, and an inferior steepening that was consistent with keratoconus in his left eye was treated with clear-cornea phacoemulsification and an intraocular lens (IOL) implantation after insertion of keraring intrastromal corneal ring segments for severe keratoconus and cataract. An asymmetrical pair of kerarings was implanted with the assistance of a femtosecond laser in September 2008; the one segment was 250 microm and the other was 150 microm and both were placed at 70degrees. Three months after the kerarings were implanted, clear-cornea phacoemulsification and IOL implantation were performed on the left eye. After surgery, both the UCVA and the BSCVA of the left eye improved by eight lines. Postoperative central keratometry showed a decrease of 7.35 diopters in the left eye. Both the postoperative refraction (-0.75 -0.75 x 60degrees) and the keratometric reading (K1 = 50.05 x 93degrees / K2 = 48.83 x 3degrees) remained stable one month following the procedures. Thus, the sequential order of intrastromal corneal rings implantation and cataract surgery can be considered as a treatment option in patients with severe keratoconus and cataract.
Cataract/*complications/diagnosis ; Corneal Stroma/pathology/*surgery ; Corneal Topography ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Keratoconus/complications/diagnosis/*surgery ; Lens Implantation, Intraocular/*methods ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Phacoemulsification/*methods ; Severity of Illness Index

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen healthy volunteers were studied to evaluate the effects of alcohol ingestion on nasal mucosa over time and changes in mucociliary function after alcohol ingestion. Nasal patency was evaluated with acoustic rhinometry, and mucociliary clearance was measured with a saccharine test. RESULTS: The cross-sectional area of the I-notch and the Cnotch did not change after alcohol ingestion. The cross-sectional area of the posterior part of the nasal cavity (CA 6.4) indicated changes more prominently than that of the anterior part (CA 3.3). A significant reduction in total nasal volume was first noted at 1.5 hours after alcohol ingestion and lasted for 1.5 hours. The saccharine transit time did not change significantly. CONCLUSION: There was no acute impairment of mucociliary function at moderate concentrations of alcohol.
Eating ; Healthy Volunteers ; Mucociliary Clearance* ; Nasal Cavity ; Nasal Mucosa ; Rhinometry, Acoustic ; Saccharin