Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is frequently associated with various extra-joint complications. Although rare, thromboembolic complications are associated with high morbidity and mortality. We experienced a very rare case of nonbacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) and subsequent embolic stroke in a patient with RA. A 72-year-old male with a 15-year history of RA suddenly developed neurologic symptoms of vomiting and dizziness. Brain magnetic resonance imaging revealed recently developed multiple cerebellar and cerebral lacunar infarctions. Echocardiography showed a pulsating mitral valve vegetation involving the posterior cusp of the mitral valve leaflet, which was confirmed as NBTE. Immediate anti-coagulation therapy was started. The NBTE lesion disappeared in follow-up echocardiography after 4 weeks of anti-coagulation treatment.
Aged ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid* ; Brain ; Dizziness ; Echocardiography ; Endocarditis ; Endocarditis, Non-Infective* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Mitral Valve ; Mortality ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Stroke ; Stroke, Lacunar ; Vomiting

Traumatic optic neuropathy is a complication resulting from facial trauma, with an incidence of 2% to 5%. The most widely accepted treatments include observation, high dose steroid, surgical decompression and combination therapy of steroid and surgical treatment. However, there has been no established mode of treatment and there are still debates about what the best treatment should be for the patients with optic canal fracture. We experienced two cases of traumatic optic neuropathies due to intracanalicular fracture of the optic canal after trauma. Surgical decompression was performed using an endoscope int-ranasally one day after injury as required for minimal invasive surgery. We report the results and progression of these two cases.
Decompression ; Decompression, Surgical ; Endoscopes ; Humans ; Incidence ; Optic Nerve ; Optic Nerve Injuries

Enophthalmos means displacement of the globe into the bony orbit backward, and usually downward. In post-traumatic enophthalmos, the mechanisms that determine the globe position can be the enlargement of the orbital cavity, the herniation of orbital fat into the maxillary sinus, fat atrophy, loss of ligament support, and scar contracture. It can be reconstructed through several approaches such as transconjunctival, canthotomy, lower eye lid, coronal approach, and by using bone, cartilage, and alloplastic materials. The authors report a case of postoperative enophthalmos reconstructed through subciliary and transnasal endoscopic approaches using porous polyethylene with embedded titanium.
Atrophy ; Cartilage ; Cicatrix ; Contracture ; Displacement (Psychology) ; Endoscopes ; Enophthalmos ; Eye ; Humans ; Ligaments ; Maxillary Sinus ; Orbit ; Polyethylene ; Polyethylenes ; Titanium

The increasing number of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Korea has prompted interest in using the national surveillance system as a database for studying their health. To investigate the relationships between socio-demographic and epidemiological characteristics and mortality rates, a nationwide retrospective cohort was formed by integrating surveillance data with the Cause of Death Statistics from Statistics Korea. This integration included incidence reports, epidemiological investigations, and death reports from the surveillance data, enriched with detailed mortality information from the Cause of Death data. The cohort comprised 17,199 adult Korean individuals diagnosed with HIV infection from 1985 to 2020. By the end of 2020, 2,721 of these individuals were confirmed deceased. The sex ratio of the study participants was 14.3:1.0 (male to female), with 78.2% being under 50 years old at the time of diagnosis. Sexual contact was identified as the primary transmission route, accounting for 75.7% of cases. HIV disease emerged as the predominant cause of death, representing two-thirds (1,817 of 2,721) of the fatalities, followed by injuries and trauma, malignancies, and cardiovascular diseases. Recommendations for further cohort studies may be submitted to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

The increasing number of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Korea has prompted interest in using the national surveillance system as a database for studying their health. To investigate the relationships between socio-demographic and epidemiological characteristics and mortality rates, a nationwide retrospective cohort was formed by integrating surveillance data with the Cause of Death Statistics from Statistics Korea. This integration included incidence reports, epidemiological investigations, and death reports from the surveillance data, enriched with detailed mortality information from the Cause of Death data. The cohort comprised 17,199 adult Korean individuals diagnosed with HIV infection from 1985 to 2020. By the end of 2020, 2,721 of these individuals were confirmed deceased. The sex ratio of the study participants was 14.3:1.0 (male to female), with 78.2% being under 50 years old at the time of diagnosis. Sexual contact was identified as the primary transmission route, accounting for 75.7% of cases. HIV disease emerged as the predominant cause of death, representing two-thirds (1,817 of 2,721) of the fatalities, followed by injuries and trauma, malignancies, and cardiovascular diseases. Recommendations for further cohort studies may be submitted to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

The increasing number of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Korea has prompted interest in using the national surveillance system as a database for studying their health. To investigate the relationships between socio-demographic and epidemiological characteristics and mortality rates, a nationwide retrospective cohort was formed by integrating surveillance data with the Cause of Death Statistics from Statistics Korea. This integration included incidence reports, epidemiological investigations, and death reports from the surveillance data, enriched with detailed mortality information from the Cause of Death data. The cohort comprised 17,199 adult Korean individuals diagnosed with HIV infection from 1985 to 2020. By the end of 2020, 2,721 of these individuals were confirmed deceased. The sex ratio of the study participants was 14.3:1.0 (male to female), with 78.2% being under 50 years old at the time of diagnosis. Sexual contact was identified as the primary transmission route, accounting for 75.7% of cases. HIV disease emerged as the predominant cause of death, representing two-thirds (1,817 of 2,721) of the fatalities, followed by injuries and trauma, malignancies, and cardiovascular diseases. Recommendations for further cohort studies may be submitted to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

The increasing number of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Korea has prompted interest in using the national surveillance system as a database for studying their health. To investigate the relationships between socio-demographic and epidemiological characteristics and mortality rates, a nationwide retrospective cohort was formed by integrating surveillance data with the Cause of Death Statistics from Statistics Korea. This integration included incidence reports, epidemiological investigations, and death reports from the surveillance data, enriched with detailed mortality information from the Cause of Death data. The cohort comprised 17,199 adult Korean individuals diagnosed with HIV infection from 1985 to 2020. By the end of 2020, 2,721 of these individuals were confirmed deceased. The sex ratio of the study participants was 14.3:1.0 (male to female), with 78.2% being under 50 years old at the time of diagnosis. Sexual contact was identified as the primary transmission route, accounting for 75.7% of cases. HIV disease emerged as the predominant cause of death, representing two-thirds (1,817 of 2,721) of the fatalities, followed by injuries and trauma, malignancies, and cardiovascular diseases. Recommendations for further cohort studies may be submitted to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

Combination treatment of antiplatelet drugs containing aspirin and clopidogrel reduces systemic ischemic events after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in high risk patients. However, this combination treatment of antiplatelet drugs is associated with increased risk of nonfatal and fatal bleeding. Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage after PCI is a rare complication that has been mostly reported in association with glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors. We report the case of a 62-year-old man who presented with ST elevation myocardial infarction and suffered a diffuse alveolar hemorrhage after clopidogrel use following primary PCI.
Aspirin ; Glycoproteins ; Hemoptysis ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Myocardial Infarction ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention ; Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors ; Ticlopidine

Objectives: Public health workers have been at the forefront of treating patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and managing the pandemic. The redeployment of this workforce has limited or interrupted other public health services, including testing for humanimmunodeficiency virus (HIV). This study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on HIVtesting and diagnosis in the Republic of Korea from 2016 to 2021, comparing data before and after the onset of COVID-19. Methods: Annual HIV testing data were collected from each institution through direct communication or from open-source databases. The annual number of new HIV cases was obtained from the official report of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Data on healthcare visits for HIV diagnosis or treatment were extracted from the open-source database of the National Insurance Health Service of Korea. Interrupted time series regression was conducted, stratified by institution type. Results: In 2020, HIV tests, diagnoses, and visits decreased. Notably, public health centers experienced a substantial reduction in 2020−2021 compared to previous years. The annual percentage change in HIV tests was −53.0%, while for HIV diagnoses, it was −31.6%. The decrease in visits for HIV was also most pronounced for public facilities: −33.3% in 2020 and −45.6% in 2021 relative to 2019. Conclusion The numbers of tests, diagnoses, and healthcare visits for HIV at public healthcenters in the Republic of Korea substantially decreased in 2020 and 2021. The impacts of thesechanges on the early diagnosis and treatment of HIV necessitate further monitoring.

Duodenal loop obstruction is an unusual cause of acute pancreatitis. Increased intraluminal pressure hinders pancreatic flow, causing dilatation of the pancreatic duct and inducing acute pancreatitis. We experienced three cases of acute pancreatitis that resulted from duodenal loop obstruction after (1) an esophagectomy with gastric pull-up procedure for esophageal cancer, (2) a gastrectomy with Billroth I reconstruction for gastric cancer, and (3) a gastrojejunostomy for abdominal trauma. An abdominal CT scan revealed a distended duodenal loop, dilated pancreatic duct, and inflamed pancreas with fluid collection. Acute pancreatitis with duodenal loop obstruction was diagnosed by abdominal pain, elevated serum amylase/lipase, and abdominal CT findings. Immediate decompression with a nasogastric tube was performed, and all patients showed improvement within one week after admission. Each patient was followed up for more than two years without recurrence. Our findings suggest the usefulness of nasogastric tube decompression as the first line of treatment for acute pancreatitis related to duodenal loop obstruction.
Abdominal Pain ; Decompression ; Dilatation ; Duodenal Obstruction ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Esophagectomy ; Gastrectomy ; Gastric Bypass ; Gastroenterostomy ; Humans ; Pancreas ; Pancreatic Ducts ; Pancreatitis* ; Recurrence ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed