BACKGROUND: This study aimed to enhance understanding of the epidemiologic characteristics of asbestos-related diseases, and to provide information that could inform policy-making aimed at prevention and compensation for occupational asbestos exposure, through analyzing asbestos-related occupational disease claims to Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service from 2011 to 2015. METHODS: We analyzed 113 workers who filed medical care claims or survivor benefits for asbestos exposure and occupational-related disease from 2011 to 2015. Among these claims, we selected approved workers’ compensation claims relating to malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer, and analyzed the general characteristics, exposure characteristics, pathological characteristics, and occupation and industry distribution. RESULTS: Malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer occurred predominantly in males at 89.7 and 94%, respectively. The mean age at the time of diagnosis for malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer was 59.5 and 59.7 years, respectively, while the latency period for malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer was 34.1 and 33.1 years, respectively. The companies involving exposed workers were most commonly situated within the Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam region. Histology results for lung cancer indicated adenocarcinoma as the most common form, accounting for approximately one half of all claims, followed by squamous cell carcinoma, and small cell lung cancer. The most common occupation type was construction in respect of malignant mesothelioma, and shipbuilding in respect of lung cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the long latency period of asbestos and that the peak period of asbestos use in Korea was throughout the mid-1990s, damage due to asbestos-related diseases is expected to show a continued long-term increase. Few studies providing an epidemiologic analysis of asbestos-related diseases are available; therefore, this study may provide baseline data to assist in predicting and preparing for future harm due to asbestos exposure. TRIAL REGISTRATION: DUIH 2018–02–004-001. Registered 28 Februrary 2018.
Adenocarcinoma ; Asbestos ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Compensation and Redress ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Korea ; Latency Period (Psychology) ; Lung Neoplasms ; Male ; Mesothelioma ; Occupational Diseases ; Occupations ; Small Cell Lung Carcinoma ; Survivors ; Workers' Compensation

We present the case of a 45-year-old man with a history of benzene exposure who developed splenic marginal zone lymphoma. For 6 years, he had worked in an enclosed space cleaning instruments with benzene. He was diagnosed with splenic marginal zone lymphoma 19 years after retirement. During his time of working in the laboratory in the 1980s, working environments were not monitored for hazardous materials. We indirectly estimated the cumulative level of past benzene exposure using job-exposure matrices and technical assumptions. Care must be taken in investigating the relevance of occupational benzene exposure in the occurrence of indolent B-cell lymphoma. Because of the long latency period and because occupational measurement data do not exist for the period during the patient's exposure, the epidemiological impact of benzene exposure may be underestimated.
B-Lymphocytes* ; Benzene* ; Hazardous Substances ; Humans ; Latency Period (Psychology) ; Lymphoma* ; Lymphoma, B-Cell ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin ; Middle Aged ; Retirement ; Spleen*

As many people keep small dogs as pets, dog bites are common injuries, accounting for approximately 80%–90% of all animal bite injuries. These injuries usually occur on the upper extremities, most commonly on the fingers. Most of these injuries appear as simple lacerations or abrasions of the skin. Common symptoms include inflammatory reactions of the soft tissue, such as pain, swelling, erythema, and cellulitis. However, the complications of small dog bites may include joint or cartilage injuries, including acute osteomyelitis. Once osteomyelitis develops, it is difficult to diagnose since it has a latency period of approximately 2 weeks. Plain radiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and 3-phase bone scans should be performed when acute osteomyelitis is suspected, and broad-spectrum empiric antibiotic treatment should be administered for approximately 8–12 weeks. We report 3 very rare cases of acute osteomyelitis that occurred after a dog bite injury.
Animals ; Cartilage ; Cellulitis ; Dogs* ; Erythema ; Fingers ; Hand* ; Joints ; Lacerations ; Latency Period (Psychology) ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Osteomyelitis* ; Radiography ; Skin ; Upper Extremity

As many people keep small dogs as pets, dog bites are common injuries, accounting for approximately 80%–90% of all animal bite injuries. These injuries usually occur on the upper extremities, most commonly on the fingers. Most of these injuries appear as simple lacerations or abrasions of the skin. Common symptoms include inflammatory reactions of the soft tissue, such as pain, swelling, erythema, and cellulitis. However, the complications of small dog bites may include joint or cartilage injuries, including acute osteomyelitis. Once osteomyelitis develops, it is difficult to diagnose since it has a latency period of approximately 2 weeks. Plain radiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and 3-phase bone scans should be performed when acute osteomyelitis is suspected, and broad-spectrum empiric antibiotic treatment should be administered for approximately 8–12 weeks. We report 3 very rare cases of acute osteomyelitis that occurred after a dog bite injury.
Animals ; Cartilage ; Cellulitis ; Dogs* ; Erythema ; Fingers ; Hand* ; Joints ; Lacerations ; Latency Period (Psychology) ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Osteomyelitis* ; Radiography ; Skin ; Upper Extremity

BACKGROUND: This retrospective study aimed to characterize and analyze the outcome of therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (t-MNs) in children and adolescents. METHODS: The medical records of 16 patients under 21 years of age at the time of t-MN diagnosis were reviewed. RESULTS: The median patient age was 11.5 years (range, 1.6–20.4 yr). Twelve patients had therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia, 3 patients had myelodysplastic syndrome, and 1 patient had chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. The median latency period was 29 months (range, 11–68 mo). Fourteen patients had cytogenetic aberrations, 8 of whom had an 11q23 abnormality. Of the 13 patients treated with curative intent, 12 patients received myeloid-type induction therapy that led to complete remission (CR) in 8 patients. Nine patients underwent allogeneic transplantation; 4 patients did not undergo transplantation due to chemotherapy-related toxic death (N=3) or parental refusal (N=1). The 5-year overall survival and event-free survival of the 13 patients treated with a curative intent were 46.2% and 30.8%, respectively. For the 9 patients who underwent allogeneic transplantation, the 5-year event-free survival was 66.7%. CONCLUSION: A significant proportion of young patients with t-MNs can experience long-term survival, and allogeneic transplantation plays a key role for attaining cure in these patients.
Adolescent* ; Child* ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Diagnosis ; Disease-Free Survival ; Humans ; Latency Period (Psychology) ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; Leukemia, Myelomonocytic, Chronic ; Medical Records ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes ; Parents ; Retrospective Studies ; Transplantation, Homologous

PURPOSE: Paraffinoma is a granulomatous reaction to paraffin or oily substances. We report delayed diagnosis of paraffinoma that was misdiagnosed as chalazion. CASE SUMMARY: A 49-year-old male presented with masses, swelling, and erythema in the right lower eyelid, masses and swelling in the right upper eyelid, and intermittent conjunctival injection that had appeared 3 months ago. The patient admitted having received paraffin injection to the right lateral canthal area and nasal bridge for cosmetic purposes by non-medical personnel 17 years prior to presentation. The mass showed partial response to intralesional triamcinolone injection but did not respond to systemic steroid. CONCLUSIONS: Paraffinoma can present diagnostic confusion given its protracted latency period and discordance of injection area and mass location. Detailed history taking is required and the possibility of paraffinoma should be considered for mass lesions of the eyelid.
Chalazion* ; Delayed Diagnosis ; Erythema ; Eyelids* ; Humans ; Latency Period (Psychology) ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Paraffin ; Triamcinolone

Malignant mesothelioma is an uncommon but rapidly fatal disease for which the principal aetiological agent is exposure to asbestos. Mesothelioma is of particular significance in Australia where asbestos use was very widespread from the 1950s until the 1980s. Exposure to asbestos includes occupational exposure associated with working with asbestos or in workplaces where asbestos is used and also 'take-home' exposure of family members of asbestos exposed workers. Asbestos exposure may also be non-occupational, occurring as a consequence of using asbestos products in non-occupational contexts and passive exposure is also possible, such as exposure to asbestos products in the built environment or proximity to an environmental source of exposure, for example an asbestos production plant. The extremely long latency period for this disease makes exposure assessment problematic in the context of a mesothelioma registry. OccIDEAS, a recently developed online tool for retrospective exposure assessment, has been adapted for use in the Australian Mesothelioma Registry (AMR) to enable systematic retrospective exposure assessment of consenting cases. Twelve occupational questionnaire modules and one non-occupational module have been developed for the AMR, which form the basis of structured interviews using OccIDEAS, which also stores collected data and provides a framework for generating metrics of exposure.
Asbestos ; Australia ; Carcinogens ; Environmental Exposure ; Humans ; Latency Period (Psychology) ; Mesothelioma ; Occupational Exposure ; Plants ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Retrospective Studies

Drug rash with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) is a life-threatening systemic drug reaction characterized by fever, rash, hematological abnormalities, lymphadenopathy, and multiple internal organ involvement. Unfortunately, a long latency period as well as clinicians' unawareness of the disease entity often results in a delay of prompt diagnosis and treatment in clinical practice. A search of the literature revealed only few reports on DRESS in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases. The pathogenesis of the disease is not clearly understood, although several possible mechanisms, such as drug detoxification, slow acetylation, and reactivation of human herpes viruses, have been proposed in its development. Here, we present a rare case of DRESS associated with viral reactivation and defects in drug metabolism in a 22-year-old man who had been on sulfasalazine for 6 weeks to treat ulcerative colitis.
Acetylation ; Colitis, Ulcerative ; Drug Eruptions ; Eosinophilia ; Exanthema ; Fever ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Latency Period (Psychology) ; Lymphatic Diseases ; Sulfasalazine ; Ulcer ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo observe the effects of comprehensive therapy (CT) with electroacupuncture (EA) in combination with psycho-intervention (PI) on the cognitive function and event-related potentials (ERP), P300 and mismatch negativity (MMN), in patients with internet addiction (IA) for a preliminary exploration of the possible mechanism of the therapy.

METHODSOne hundred and twenty patients with IA were randomly divided into three groups, and a total of 112 subjects reached the final analysis of the trial, the EA group (39 patients), the PI group (36 patients) and the CT group (37 patients). EA was applied at acupoints Baihui (GV20), Sishencong (EX-HN1), Hegu (LI4), Neiguan (PC6), Taichong (LR3) and Sanyinjiao (SP6), once every other day; PI with the cognitionbehavior mode was implemented every 4 days; both EA and PI were used in the CT group. The treatment course for all patients was 40 days. Changes before and after treatment in terms of scoring by the IA self-rating scale, short-term memory capacity, short-term memory span, and the latency and amplitude of P300 and MMN in patients were observed.

RESULTSAfter treatment, in all groups, the IA score was lowered significantly (P <0.05) and scores of short-term memory capacity and short-term memory span increased significantly (P <0.05), while the decreased IA score in the CT group was more significant than that in the other two groups (P <0.05). ERP measurements showed that P300 latency was depressed and its amplitude raised in the EA group; MMN amplitude increased in the CT group (all P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe EA in combination with PI could improve the cognitive function of IA patients, and its mechanism might be related to the speedup of cerebral discrimination on external stimulus and the enhancement of effective resource mobilization during information processing of the brain.

Behavior, Addictive ; physiopathology ; psychology ; therapy ; Cognition ; physiology ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Electroacupuncture ; methods ; Event-Related Potentials, P300 ; physiology ; Female ; Humans ; Internet ; Latency Period (Psychology) ; Male ; Memory, Short-Term ; physiology ; Patient Dropouts ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate how sleep quality affects quality of life in the elderly of rural communities. METHODS: 877 elderly people aged 60 or over living in C towns participated in the study. They responded to the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, EuroQol-5 dimension, Korean version of the short from of Geriatric Depression Scale, Mini-Mental State Examination for Dementia Screening and the presence of urinary incontinence. RESULTS: Most scores of the items of the quality of life index, except self-management, showed significant correlations with the total score of the sleep quality test. Statistically significant differences were found between the positives and the negatives of the sleep quality test in the scores of all the detailed items of the quality of life index. Among the detailed items of quality of sleep, subjective quality of sleep showed the highest correlation. CONCLUSION: The present study found that the subjective indicators such as subjective sleep quality and sleep disturbance affected quality of life in the rural lives of elderly people more than the objective indicators such as sleep durations or sleep latency periods. Based on the results of these studies, we concluded that a methodological approach and a management model to treating insomnia to improve the quality of life of the elderly would need to be developed and applied.
Aged ; Dementia ; Depression ; Humans ; Latency Period (Psychology) ; Mass Screening ; Quality of Life ; Rural Population ; Self Care ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders