• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.87 no.4
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• pp.514-523
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• 2024

Background: The government of Korea implemented a strategy of prevention and early diagnosis in high-risk groups to reduce the tuberculosis (TB) burden. This study aims to investigate the TB epidemiology and gap in understanding of TB prevalence among homeless individuals by analyzing active TB chest X-ray (CXR) screening results in Korea. Methods: The Korean National Tuberculosis Association conducted active TB screening with CXR for homeless groups from January 1 to December 31, 2021. Sputum acid-fast bacilli smear and culture were performed for the subjects suggestive of TB on CXR. We performed a cross-sectional analysis of the data in comparison with the national health screening results from the general population. Results: Among 17,713 homeless persons, 40 (0.23%), 3,077 (17.37%), and 79 (0.45%) were categorized as suggested TB, inactive TB, and observation required, respectively. Prevalence of suggested TB in the homeless was significantly higher (3-5 fold) than in the national general health screening based on age category (p<0.005). Twenty-nine cases were confirmed as TB, yielding a prevalence of 164 cases per 100,000 individuals; 19 of these 29 cases showed inactive TB on CXR. Body mass index (p=0.0478) and CXR result (p<0.001) significantly correlated with confirmed TB based on multivariable analysis. Conclusion: Nutrition status and CXR results, especially that of inactive TB, should be considered in active TB screening of the homeless population, where TB prevalence is higher than the general population.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.579-589
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• 2002

Since the inception of the National Tuberculosis Control Program in 1962, the incidence of tuberculosis and its associated mortality has declined dramatically due to effective anti-tuberculosis drugs and a systematic control program. The prevalence of radiographically active tuberculosis has fallen from 5.1% in 1965 to 1.0% in 1995. However, tuberculosis is still a major problem, as the mortality rate is still higher compared to other developed countries. Furthermore, tuberculosis is currently re-emerging in HIV/AIDS epidemic countries. In order to lower the tuberculosis death rate to the levels of developed countries, the tuberculosis control efforts in private healthcare institutions and the national tuberculosis control program in the public sector, need to work together more effectively and efficiently. In this paper, the quthor reviewed the current situation regarding tuberculosis management in private healthcare institutions of Korea based on the literature and the National Health Insurance Claim data, and the future tasks of tuberculosis management are suggested.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.47-62
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• 2022

Objectives : To analyze and understand the clear meaning of Nochae(勞瘵), which is used in the same meaning as tuberculosis in Korean medicine. Methods : Nochae was mainly investigated using the Korean medicine classic DB(https://mediclassics.kr). Records that clearly revealed the visual observation of Nochaechung(勞瘵蟲), the cause of Nochae, and those that do not were arranged in chronological order. It was also analyzed what modern diseases are similar to Nochae. Results : Records that Nochaechung can be observed visually through feces or vomiting suggested the possibility of ascariasis. Nochaechung, which has a shape similar to silkworms and causes symptoms such as coughing and hemoptysis similar to those of tuberculosis while parasitic on human, suggested the possibility of paragonimus westermani. Based on the record that it showed symptoms of coughing and hemoptysis along with chills, fever, and weight loss, Nochae might have been a disease such as pneumonia and lung cancer as well as tuberculosis. Records of women's bloating, weight loss, anorexia, and jaundice suggested that Nochae might have been a liver cirrhosis. Conclusions : Records that clearly reveal the visual observations of Nochaechung, suggested that Nochae was a parasitic disease such as ascariasis or paragonimiasis. Records that visual observation of Nochaechung was not clearly revealed, suggested that Nochae might have been diseases such as pneumonia, lung cancer, and liver cirrhosis in addition to tuberculosis.

• Advances in pediatric surgery
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.200-203
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• 1995

Splenic tuberculosis is an uncommonly considered diagnosis in clinical practice. This is a case report of splenic tuberculosis in a 13-year-old boy who was seronegative to HIV. He was just well until 7 days prior to this admission when he started to feel epigastric and left subchondral pain. Chest X-ray was not pathological. Abdominal ultrasonography showed slight splenomegaly with multiple hypoechoic nodules and abdominal CT disclosed multiple irregular hypodense lesions in the spleen. Radiological interpretation suggested the possibility of lymphoma or metastatic malignancy. Splenectomy was done and the histopathological findings showed extensive chronic granulomatous inflammation compatible with tuberculosis. Splenic tuberculosis must be included in the differential diagnosis of hypoechoic and hypodense lesions by means of sonography and computed tomography, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.126-133
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• 2007

Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic or acute infectious disease which damages more people than any other infectious diseases according to WHO estimates. In this paper, a new automatic detection system of tuberculosis bacilli by using their color information is proposed. Through the deep investigation of color and intensity compositions of tuberculosis images, new pre-processing and segmentation algorithms are suggested. Specific features of bacilli are extracted from the processed images and number counting is done by using domain-specific knowledge rules.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.62-72
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• 1992

Background: T-cell mediated cellular immunity has been suggested as an important mechanism in mycobacterial infection and imbalance between helper/inducer and suppressor/cytotoxic T-cell has been suggested as an important immunological abnormality in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis in human. Method: To determine whether there is any difference in T-cell mediated immunity in the pathogenesis of pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis, total numbers of WBC&lymphocytes were counted and helper/inducer and suppressor/cytotoxic cells were calculated by flow cytometry. Blastogenesis after stimulation with Concanavalin-A, Phytohemagglutinin and PPD were measured by $^3H$-thymidine uptake. PPD skin test was performed as an in vivo test. Results: 1)There was no significant difference in the size of PPD skin test between pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis groups. 2)Number of total lymphocytes significantly decreased in tuberculosis patients compared with healthy control group. But there was no significant difference between pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis groups. 3) Number of HLA-DR and Interleukin-2 receptor (+) cells were significantly increased in tuberculosis patients. But there was no significant difference between pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis groups. 4) There was no significant difference in the numbers of WBC, $T_3$, $T_4$ and $T_8$ lymphocytes and $T_4/T_8$ ratio between tuberculosis patients and healthy controls. 5) There was no significant difference in the blastogenesis after stimulation with specific and non-specific blastogens between tuberculosis patients and healthy controls. 6) The percentage and absolute number of $T_4$ lymphocyte were significantly correlated with the size of PPD skin test. (r=0.689 and 0.598). Conclusion: From these results, it is concluded that there was no difference in T-cell mediated immunity between pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis group. But, because it is suspected that there might be some difference in the role of T-cell mediated immunity in the pathogenesis of pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis or even among the extrapulmonary tuberculosis patients, further studies would be required.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.497-509
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• 2006

Until recently, the tuberculin skin test (TST) has been the only tool available for diagnosing a latent TB infection. However, the development of new diagnostic tools, using the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)-specific early secreted antigenic target 6 (ESAT-6) and culture filtrate protein 10 (CFP-10) antigens, should improve the control of tuberculosis (TB) by allowing a more accurate identification of a latent TB infection (LTBI). Antigen-specific interferon-gamma ($IFN-{\gamma}$) assays have greater specificity in BCG-vaccinated individuals, and as less biased by nontuberculous mycobacterial infections. Many comparative studies have suggested that those assays have a higher specificity than the TST, and the sensitivity of these assays are expected to remarkably improved if more MTB-specific antigens can become available. Nevertheless, the major obstacle to the widespread use of these tests is the limited financial resources. Similar to other diagnostic tests, the predictive value of $IFN-{\gamma}$ assays depends on the prevalence of a MTB infection in the population being tested. Therefore, prospective studies will be meeded to establish the applicability of these new assays at multiple geographic locations among patients of different ethnicities, and to determine if the $IFN-{\gamma}$ responses can indicate those with a high risk of progressing to active TB.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.42-46
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• 2020

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major health problem worldwide. TB depends not only on the characteristics of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) but also on the genetic susceptibility of infected patients. Recent studies have suggested that FOXO3 play an important role in the human immune associated disorder, such as TB. It was previously reported that FOXO3 genetic variants associated with a risk of TB in Chinese population. In this study, we confirm whether the genetic polymorphism of the FOXO3 gene, which was previously in Chinese, is reproduced in Korean population. Of the 154 SNPs were extracted from the FOXO3 gene, reproducibility analysis of the four SNPs performed in the previous study showed that there was a statistically significant correlation in the three SNPs (rs4946935, rs1536057, rs3800228). This study suggests that polymorphism of the FOXO3 gene in Koreans may affect the onset of tuberculosis and could be used to treat and prevent tuberculosis.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 2017

Tuberculosis (TB), mainly disseminated by infection of the respiratory tract, remains an unsolved community health problem by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). However, because of the different susceptibility to MTB, people infected with MTB do not all develop TB. These differences of disease arise from individual genetic susceptibility as well as the property of the microorganisms itself. CD226, one of the genetic factors that influences TB, interact with its ligand PVR and ITGB2. It is induced various cellular responses that contribute multiple innate and adaptive responses. In a previous study, CD226 enhanced immune efficacy induced by Ag85A DNA vaccination that is secreted protein by MTB. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between six genetic polymorphisms of CD226 gene and TB status with Korean population. Our results show that two SNPs of CD226 were identified to associate with tuberculosis. The highest significant SNP was rs17081766 (OR=0.70, CI: 0.54~0.90, $P=5.4{\times}10^{-3}$). According to this study, polymorphisms of CD226 gene affect the outbreak of TB in MTB-infected patients. It is suggested that polymorphism of other genes also associated with immune responses results in susceptibility to TB. The results from this study suggest that not only the characteristics of the microorganism itself but also the genetic background of the individual may affect progression of TB in MTB-infected patients.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1549-1558
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• 2017

Despite significant efforts to improve the treatment of tuberculosis (TB), it remains a prevalent infectious disease worldwide owing to the limitations of current TB therapeutic regimens. Recent work on novel TB treatment strategies has suggested that directly targeting host factors may be beneficial for TB treatment. Such strategies, termed host-directed therapeutics (HDTs), focus on host-pathogen interactions. HDTs may be more effective than the currently approved TB drugs, which are limited by the long durations of treatment needed and the emergence of drug-resistant strains. Targets of HDTs include host factors such as cytokines, immune checkpoints, immune cell functions, and essential enzyme activities. This review article discusses examples of potentially promising HDTs and introduces novel approaches for their development.