No abstract available.
Vibration*

BACKGROUND: Onychomycosis is a chronic fungal nail disease that may have a profound effect on quality of life (QOL). OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the QOL in patients with toenail onychomycosis using the onychomycosis quality of life questionnaire (ONYCHO) and to determine the factors influencing the QOL of toenail onychomycosis patients. METHODS: A total of 102 adults (mean age, 59.54 years) with toenail onychomycosis who visited our department between July 2017 and June 2018 completed the ONYCHO, which consists of statements pertaining to social, emotional, and symptom problems. All patients with toenail onychomycosis had been diagnosed by positive direct microscopic examination. RESULTS: Most of the patients demonstrated significantly reduced QOL. The degree of QOL impairment differed between subgroups. Both social (p<0.01) and emotional (p<0.05) impairments were more conspicuous in the female than in the male patients, although there were no differences according to symptoms. Patients with more extent of toenail involvement were more affected by onychomycosis in all three ONYCHO scales (p for trend<0.05). In terms of the type of toenail onychomycosis, the degrees of social (p for trend<0.05), emotional (p for trend<0.05), and symptom (p for trend<0.01) impairment were more prominent in patients with total dystrophic onychomycosis than in those with superficial white onychomycosis and distal and lateral subungual onychomycosis. A tendency toward better QOL in terms of social problems, but not emotional or symptom problems, was associated with a longer duration of the disease (B, 8.95, 95%CI, 0.99–16.91). CONCLUSION: Although toenail onychomycosis is not a life-threatening disease, it has a significantly negative impact on the overall QOL of patients, which should be a focus of concern.
Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Nail Diseases ; Nails ; Onychomycosis ; Quality of Life ; Social Problems ; Weights and Measures

No abstract available.
Glomerulonephritis, Membranous* ; Small Cell Lung Carcinoma*

PURPOSE: To evaluate the prognostic importance of age in patients with Stage IB cervical cancer, we examined the relationship between age and survival in patients. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Retrospective analysis was performed on 107 patients were treated with surgery followed by postoperative radiotherapy or radiation alone between October 1983 and August 1993 and 28 patients with Stage IB cervical cancer treated with surgery alone between January 1989 and August 1993 at Inje University Seoul Paik Hospital. Patients ranged in age from 26 to 74 (median 48) and were followed for a median period of 39 months. Patients were divided into two groups; Group A comprising 32 patients with< or=age 40 and Group B comprising 75 patients with>age 40. Both Group A and Group B patients were comparable with respect to all covariables studied. RESULTS: The overall 5-year survival and the disease free 5-year survival for the 107 patients studied were 85.2% and 82.1% respectively. The overall survival for group A and Group B was 92% and 83%, respectively(p>0.05). The disease free 5-year survival for Group A and Group B was 82.3% and 82.6%, respectively(p>0.05). There was no difference in both local and distant failure in Group A and Group B. CONCLUSION: On the basis of the this analysis it is concluded that age alone is a poor indicator of prognosis and should not be used as an indication for adjuvant treatment.
Humans ; Prognosis ; Radiotherapy ; Retrospective Studies ; Seoul ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

Cadmium, a potent toxic metal, poses a serious environmental threat but the mechanism of its toxicity remains unclear. Also, cadmium is a known immunotoxic agent in animal studies and induces pathophysiological effects by modulating components of immune system. Cytokines are being increasingly recognized as essential mediators of normal and pathologic immune response. Cells of mononuclear phagocytic system are strategically located at portals of entry in humans and therefore may be particularly at risk for cadmium exposure through contaminated air, food, and drinking water. In the present study, we investigated the effect of cadmium cytotoxicity for the monocyte and expression of cytokine gene in the control and cadmium treated human monocytic cell lines using RT-PCR method. The results showed that cadmium inhibited cell proliferation at 0.1mM cadmium treated cells for 24 hours. The TNF-alpha mRNA was expressed in both control and cadmium treated cells but not IL-6 and IL-1 beta The mRNA levels of TNF-alpha were examined during 24 hours culture period, at different time points. The expression of TNF-alpha mRNA increased in both 0.01mM and 0.1mM cadmium treated cells, but did not show dose-response relationship. According to cadmium treated duration, expression of TNF-alpha mRNA was more decreases in 24 hours than 6 hours. The decreased levels of mRNA of TNF-alpha that cadmium suppresses iris production at the transcription level.
Animals ; Cadmium* ; Cell Line* ; Cell Proliferation ; Cytokines ; Drinking Water ; Gene Expression* ; Humans* ; Immune System ; Interleukin-1beta ; Interleukin-6 ; Iris ; Monocytes ; RNA, Messenger ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Thrombopoietin (TPO) is an important cytokine for megakaryocyte maturation and platelet production. Because the main site of its production is liver, the failing liver may have a role in thrombocytopenia in chronic liver disease. The aims of this study were to determine the serum TPO levels in cirrhotic patients with thrombocytopenia and clarify the relation between the serum TPO levels and liver function impairment. METHOD: Cirrhotic paitents with thrombocytopenia (LC, n=57, Child class A/B/C; 20/13/24), chronic hepatitis patients (CH, n=24), oncologic patients with thrombocytopenia induced by chemotherapy (HO, n=7), acute viral hepatitis patients (AVH, n=5) and healthy controls (HC, n=5) were enrolled. Serum TPO was measured by an ELISA method. RESULTS: Although the mean platelets counts of LC (69+/-32, x103/ul: mean+/-SD) were lower than those of HC (229+/-29, x103/ul), serum TPO levels in LC (108+/-63 pg/ml: mean+/-SD) were not significantly different from HC (122+/-24 pg/ml). In HO, serum TPO was significantly higher than LC (623+/-746 vs 108+/-63 pg/ml, p<0.05) inspite of comparable platelets counts. In LC, serum TPO level was not significantly different among Child class groups. It was not correlated with serum ALT, serum albumin levels, prothrombin time, serum bile acid, Child class, Child score and partial thromboplastin time, but weakly correlated with serum total bilirubin (p=0.038, r=0.288) and platelet counts (p=0.041, r=0.287). CONCLUSIONS: Although impaired hepatic production of TPO seems to be the main cause of low serum TPO levels in thrombocytopenic cirrhotic patients, there was no correlation between serum TPO level and the severity of liver dysfunction. The role of other factors such as megakaryocyte mass in bone marrow, portal hypertension and hypersplenism may be necessary to explain the putative mechanism between TPO and platelet numbers in liver cirrhosis with thrombocytopenia.
Bile ; Bilirubin ; Blood Platelets ; Bone Marrow ; Child ; Drug Therapy ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Hepatitis ; Hepatitis, Chronic ; Humans ; Hypersplenism ; Hypertension, Portal ; Liver ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Liver Diseases ; Megakaryocytes ; Partial Thromboplastin Time ; Platelet Count ; Prothrombin Time ; Serum Albumin ; Thrombocytopenia* ; Thrombopoietin*

BACKGROUND: Unexpected antibody screening and identification tests are very important pre-transfusion tests for preventing transfusion reactions. Nowadays, the column agglutination test is widely used in Korea. The results of many studies that used this method showed the decreased frequency of nonsignificant cold antibodies and an increased frequency of warm antibodies when compared with other studies that used the tube test or the microplate test. This study was performed in order to determine the accurate frequency and distribution of unexpected alloantibody by using the column agglutination test. METHODS: We analyzed the results from 32,218 antibody screening tests with using LISS/Coombs cards and ID-DiaCell I and II for the transfusion candidates and patients with hemolytic anemia who were seen at Kyungpook National University Hospital during a recent eight-year period. RESULTS: According to the results of the antibody screening test, 188 samples (0.58%) out of all 32,218 samples, were shown to be positive. Unexpected alloantibodies were detected in 86 patients (0.27%) with using the antibody identification test. The antibodies that were detected most frequently were anti-E (29 samples), followed by anti-D (8 samples), anti-M (8 samples) and anti-c (7 samples). CONCLUSION: The frequency and distribution of unexpected antibodies at our hospital are similar with those obtained in other Korean studies. The detection rates of warm antibodies, including Rh antibodies, were high. The proportion of Rh antibodies in patients with a gestation history was significantly higher than that in the patients without a gestation history. This study shows once again that pregnancy affects the antibodies and this supports the relationship between pregnancy and antibody formation.
Agglutination Tests ; Anemia, Hemolytic ; Antibodies* ; Antibody Formation ; Blood Group Incompatibility ; Gyeongsangbuk-do* ; Humans ; Isoantibodies ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Pregnancy

To investigate the possibility of utilizing of sister chromatid exchange(SCE) analysis in lymphocytes as an indicator which could evaluate the effects of mutagenicity after in vivo exposure to hexavalent chromium, this study was conducted using some of chromium plating workers occupationally exposed to hexavalent chromium, chromium trioxide (CrO3) in Taegu city. The study population was 12 Cr platers with perforation of nasal septum, 12 Cr platers without perforation of nasal septum and 20 controls. The SCE in peripheral blood lymphocytes of the subjects was analyzed and blood chromium concentration was estimated using the atomic absorption spectrophotometer (IL 551) equipped with furnace atomizer (IL 755). The mean SCE frequencies for Cr platers with and without perforation of nasal septum were statistically higher than those for control. The difference in SCE frequencies by age, smoking habits were not statistically significant both in Cr platers and controls. There was no difference in SCE frequencies by career of Cr platers workers. In Cr platers, the correlation between the mean SCE frequencies and chromium concentration in blood was not statistically significant. Using the transformation y=(sum SCE)1/2+(sum SCE+1)1/2, when the data was studied by multiple regression, it appeared that the influence of the occupation was the most important. Age, smoking, occupation and CrB(blood chromium concentration) together explain only 32.3% of interpersonal variation on SCE. The results in this study suggest that a genetic risk due to occupationally exposure to hexavalent chromium is clearly inferable and thus, SCE analysis in human lymphocytes may be used indicator of biological toxic effects of chromium. Further, populatio analysis studies are required before SCE frequency can be used as a mutagenic indicator in human population.
Absorption ; Chromatids ; Chromium* ; Daegu ; Humans ; Lymphocytes* ; Nasal Septum ; Nebulizers and Vaporizers ; Occupations ; Siblings* ; Sister Chromatid Exchange* ; Smoke ; Smoking

Bronchial carcinoid tumor was a low grade malignant and it was regarded as predictable clinical course and good survivality after surgical resection. But despite of its low grade malignant potentiality, bronchial carcinoid tumor was clearly capable of metastasizing and causing death. We present 2 cases of bronchial carcinoid tumors. One of them was typical carcinoid tumor in 44 year-old female and another was atypical carcinoid tumor in 53 year-old male patient. Currative therapeutic procedure was performed by lobectomy and wedge resection.
Carcinoid Tumor* ; Female ; Humans ; Male

Locally advanced cervical carcinoma has shown high rate of local failure and poor survival rate despite the advances in modern radiation therapy techniques. Combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy demonstrated benefit in improving local control and possibly the overall survival. Twelve patients with advanced stages(Figo stage III, IV) or 11b with bulky tumors(>5 cm in diameter) were treated with combination of radiation therapy and concurrent weekly cisplatin between May of 1988 and September of 1991 at Inje University Paik Hospital. Cisplatin was administered in bolus injections of 50mg at weekly intervals during the courses of radiation therapy. Median follow-up period was 34 months with ranges from 3 to 53 months. Eleven patients were evaluable for the estimation of response. Response was noted in all the 11 patients: complete response(CR) in 7(64%), partial response (PR) in 4(36%). Of the 7 patients with CR, all maintained local control, whereas only 1 of 4 with PR showed local control. Six of 7 with CR are alive disease free on the completion of follow-up. Eight of 11 patients (73%) maintained local control in the pelvis. The Median survival for CR patient is 27 months and 9 months for the PR patients. Analysis of survival by stage shows 11 b 4/5, III 2/3 and IV 1/3. Overall survival rate was 61%. Three patients recurred : 1 at local, 1 in distant site and 1 with local and distant site. Toxicity for the combination therapy was not excessive. These results are preliminary, but definitely encouraging in view of markedly improved response rate compared with the results of historical control group.
Cisplatin* ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Pelvis ; Survival Rate ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*