• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.8-12
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• 2013

Asthma is associated with increased levels of eosinophils in tissues, body fluids, and bone marrow. Elevated levels of eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN) and eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) have been noted in asthma patients. Higher levels of EDN and ECP are also associated with exacerbated asthmatic conditions. Thus, EDN, along with ECP, may aid the diagnosis and monitoring of asthma. Several groups have suggested that EDN is more useful than ECP in evaluating disease severity. This may partially be because of the recoverability of EDN (not sticky, 100% recovery rate), as ECP is a sticky and more highly charged protein. In terms of clinical utility, EDN level is a more accurate biomarker than ECP when analyzing the underlying pathophysiology of asthma. As a monitoring tool, EDN has shown good results in children with asthma as well as other allergic diseases. In children too young to fully participate in lung function tests, EDN levels may be useful as an alter native measurement of eosinophilic inflammation. EDN can also be used in adult patients and in multiple specimen types (e.g., serum, sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and nasal lavage fluid). These results are repeatable and reproducible. In conclusion, EDN may be a novel biomarker for the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of asthma/allergic disease.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1139-1143
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• 1995

We experienced 29 cases of patients with a chief complaint of hemoptysis who were performed pulmonary resection at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Pusan Medical Center Hospital for 3 years from May 1990 to April 1993. The mean age of hemoptysis patients was 34.7 year old, and hemoptysis was most prevalent in third and fourth decades. The underlying lung diseases of hemoptysis patients were tuberculosis in 12[41.4% , bronchiectasis in 9[31.0% , lung cancer in 4[13.8% , aspergyllosis in 3[10.3% and pneumonia in 1[3.5% . Modes of hemoptysis were blood tinged in 7[24.1% , massive in 22[75.9% . Operation times were elective in 7[24.1% of all blood tinged hemoptysis, delayed in 20[69.0% , emergency in 2[6.9% out of massive hemoptysis. The cases of the definite bleeding focus found by bronchoscopy were 19 cases[65.5% . The operative procedures of hemoptysis were single lobectomy in 14[48.3% , pneumonectomy in 6[20.7% , lobectomy with segmentectomy in 5[17.2% , bilobectomy in 3[10.3% and segmentectomy in 1[3.5% . The postoperative results of hemoptysis were complete recovery in 27[93.0% , rehemoptysis in 1[3.5% which was treated by anti-Tbc medication completely, and hospital death in 1[3.5% which was brain metastasis of lung cancer. It was concluded that definitive diagnosis, preoperative control of hemoptysis and operation were important in the management of hemoptysis patients.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2010

Monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based enzyme immune-slide assay (EISA) was used for the detection of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) virus from field samples collected from a natural outbreak. The clinicopathological study was undertaken to diagnose the case primarily of PPR. Antigen was detected from discharges and faeces of infected goats and swabs of postmortem lesions prepared on glass slide or glass plate using acetone fixation. Nasal discharge collected at the early stage of disease course or lung is an appropriate ante- or postmortem sample for this technique, respectively. Convalescent polyclonal sera collected from recovered animals which were diagnosed as PPR by EISA showed high antibody titer against PPR by C-ELISA, demonstrating the satisfactory specificity of the test. Therefore, EISA is a sensitive and specific assay to confirm PPR infection both in field and laboratory conditions and especially suitable for developing country.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.302-307
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• 2004

Aspergilloma and Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis(ABPA) are different types of the pulmonary aspergillosis spectrum of diseases. ABPA is an inflammatory disease that causes hypersensitivity to Aspergillus spores growing in the bronchi, which is characterized by asthma, recurrent pulmonary infiltrations or mucoid impaction, eosinophilia and central bronchiectasis. Aspergilloma is a simple colonization of fungus within a cavitary lung lesion, but these diseases rarely coexist. A case of ABPA, coexistent with Aspergilloma, was experienced in a 31 year-old female. The diagnosis was confirmed by the immediate cutaneous reactivity to Aspergillus fumigatus, elevated total IgE antibodies, peripheral eosinophilia, bronchiectasis, growth of Aspergillus species in a sputum culture and radiographic infiltration. Treatment, with prednisone and itraconazole, led to improvement of the respiratory symptoms, reduction of the cavitary lesion and in the total serum IgE level.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.73 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 2012

Background: This study attempted to investigate the main causes of hemoptysis, the type of examinations used for diagnosis, the treatment modalities and outcomes. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on the medical records of 221 patients admitted to the Chonnam National University Hospital, between January 2005 and February 2010, with hemoptysis. Results: Bronchiectasis (32.6%), active pulmonary tuberculosis (18.5%), fungus ball (10.8%), and lung cancer (5.9%) accounted for most causes of hemoptysis. Computed tomography scan was the most sensitive diagnostic test when employed alone, with positive yield of 93.2%. There were 161 cases of conservative treatment (72.9%), 42 cases of bronchial artery embolization (BAE) (19.0%), and 18 cases of surgery (8.1%). Regarding the amount of hemoptysis, 70 cases, out of 221 cases, were mild (31.5%), 36 cases moderate (16.2%), and 115 cases massive hemoptysis (52.0%). Most of the patients were treated conservatively, but if there was more bleeding present, BAE or surgery was more commonly performed than the conservative treatment ($p{\leq}0.0001$). In the multivariate model, severe hemoptysis and lung cancer were independently associated with short-term recurrence. BAE was independently associated with long-term recurrence, and lung cancer was associated with in-hospital mortality. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 11.3%. Conclusion: Hemoptysis is a common symptom with a good prognosis in most cases. However, patients exhibiting massive bleeding or those with malignancy had a poorer prognosis. In-hospital mortality was strongly related to the cause, especially in lung cancer.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 2000

Background : The purpose of decortication is to eliminate the infection focus and to improve the decreased lung function due to chronic empyema. However, lung function is not improved in all cases. It would be clinically useful if we could predict prepoperatively whether lung function would improve after decortication. The purpose of this study is to find useful indices for predicting the possible improvement of lung function after decortication. Method : The medical records of 37 tuberculous empyema patients who underwent pleural decortication were analyzed retrospectively from 1990 to 1996. The measurements of preoperative and postoperative foræd vital capacity(FVC) were used for evaluating the effects of decortication. Results : The sex ratio was 29:8 (male to female), and the median age was 34 years. The time interval between the formation of empyema and operation was 1 month to 30 years. Postoperative pulmonary function test was performed 5.4$\pm$2.6 months later. FVC(forced vital capacity) was significantly increased from 2.77$\pm$0.67(L) to 2.95$\pm$0.81(L). Interestingly, postoperative pulmonary function was significantly improved in patients who were less than 40 years old, within 4 months after diagnosis of tuberculous empyema, in the group with FVC of less than 60% of the predicted value and in the absence of calcification. Conclusion : The improvement of lung function after decortication was expected in patients younger than 40 years old, within 4 months after diagnosis of tuberculous empyema, in the group having less than 60% of the predicted FVC, without calcification.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.585-590
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• 2020

Successful early diagnosis of cancer diseases such as lung, prostate, liver and adrenocortical carcinoma is a key step in determining the cost of treatment, survival rate, and cure rate. Most of current cancer diagnosis systems including biopsy, computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET)-CT, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasonography, etc., require expensive and complicated equipment with highly trained human resources. Global medical and scientific communities have thus made numerous efforts on developing effective but rapid disease management system via introducing a wide spectrum of point-of-care medical diagnosis devices. Among them, a lateral flow immunoassay strip technique has gained a great attention due to many advantages such as cost-effectiveness, short inspection time, and user friendly accessibility. In this mini-review, we will highlight recent research trend on the development of colorimetry based LFIA strips for cancer diagnosis and discuss the future research direction and potential applications.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.177-183
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• 2017

Background: To improve postoperative outcomes associated with interstitial pneumonia (IP) in patients with lung cancer, the management of the postoperative acute exacerbation of IP (PAEIP) was investigated. Methods: Patients with primary lung cancer were considered to be at risk for PAEIP (possible PAEIP) based on a preoperative evaluation. The early phase of this study was from January 2001 to December 2008, and the late phase was from January 2009 to December 2014. In the early phase, chest computed tomography (CT) was performed for patients for whom PAEIP was suspected based on their symptoms, whereas in the late phase, chest CT was routinely performed within a few days postoperatively. The numbers of possible PAEIP cases, actual PAEIP cases, and deaths within 90 days due to PAEIP were compared between both phases. Results: In the early and late phases, surgery was performed in 712 and 617 patients, 31 and 72 possible PAEIP cases were observed, nine and 12 actual PAEIP cases occurred, and the mean interval from the detection of PAEIP to starting treatment was $7.3{\pm}2.3$ and $5.0{\pm}1.8$ days, respectively. Five patients died in the early phase, and one patient died in the late phase. Significantly fewer PAEIP-related deaths were observed in the late phase (p<0.05). Conclusion: Identifying patients at risk for PAEIP by routine postoperative CT examinations led to the early diagnosis and treatment of PAEIP, resulting in the reduction of PAEIP-related mortality.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.391-396
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• 2023

Currently, state-of-the-art devices such as SPECT, PET/CT, and PET/MRI are rapidly spreading nationwide, and the penetration rate of nuclear medical devices is also ranked fifth in the world. However, PET/MRI's system is slower and less common because it is more complex than PET/CT. The purpose of this study is to provide optimal information on PET/MRI according to the patient's disease. The subjects obtained information on head and neck cancer, pediatric patients, breast cancer patients, heart disease patients, lung cancer patients, and rectal cancer patients. We tried to accumulate protocols by obtaining a lot of information about each disease. In diagnosing head and neck cancer, it is believed that it is highly likely to be used in evaluating preoperative stage determination, recurrence and remote metastasis after treatment, and unclear primary cervical lymph node metastasis. Diagnosis and continuous follow-up of pediatric patients can increase patient benefits by minimizing radiation exposure. Breast cancer provides a comprehensive evaluation of the clinical need to determine the extent of disease in breast and local lymph nodes and the systematic stages of early diagnosis or recurrence. In diagnosing heart disease patients, MR-based PET motion correction helps to realize the full potential of PET images. For lung cancer patients, the clinical value and usefulness of the resolution and detection ability of integrated PET/MRI for soft tissues such as lung cancer will be sufficient. In diagnosing rectal cancer patients, the detection of missing residual diseases can change the clinical response evaluation for rectal cancer patients treated with TNT, and both the initial stage and treatment response evaluation are possible. Therefore, this literature study provided basic clinical data for PET/MRI tests.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.294-298
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• 2007

Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis is a rare disorder that is characterized by the abundant accumulation of surfactant-derived material within the alveolar spaces and distal bronchioles. Although the findings of homogenous ground-glass opacities overlaid by thickened septa, which form a "crazy paving" pattern on high-resolution computed tomography, can assist in making a diagnosis, a lung biopsy is usually required. This disorder has a variable clinical course, from spontaneous resolution to respiratory failure and death. While a whole lung lavage has been the standard treatment since the early 1960s, GM-CSF therapy has been attempted based on the recently suggested pathogenetic mechanism. We report a case of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis that resolved spontaneously after an open lung biopsy.