• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.685-696
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• 1999

Background : Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a diffuse inflammatory and fibrosing process that occurs within the interstitium and alveolus of the lung with invariably poor prognosis. The major problem in management of IPF results from the variable rate of disease progression and the difficulties in predicting the response to therapy. The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the short-term efficacy of steroid and immunosuppressive therapy for IPF and to identify the pre-treatment determinants of favorable response. Method : Twenty patients of IPF were included. Diagnosis of IPF was proven by thoracoscopic lung biopsy and they were presumed to have active progressive disease. The baseline evaluation in these patients included clinical history, pulmonary function test, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), and chest high resolution computed tomography (HRCT). Fourteen patients received oral prednisolone treatment with initial dose of 1mg/kg/day for 8 to 12 weeks and then tapering to low-dose prednisolone (0.25mg/kg/day). Six patients who previously had experienced significant side effects to steroid received 2mg/kg/day of oral cyclophosphamide with or without low-dose prednisolone. Follow-up evaluation was performed after 6 months of therapy. If patients met more than one of followings, they were considered to be responders : (1) improvement of more than one grade in dyspnea index, (2) improvement in FVC or TLC more than 10% or improvement in DLco more than 20% (3) decreased extent of disease in chest HRCT findings. Result : One patient died of extrapulmonary cause after 3 month of therapy, and another patient gave up any further medical therapy due to side effect of steroid. Eventually medical records of 18 patients were analyzed. Nine of 18 patients were classified into responders and the other nine patients into nonresponders. The histopathologic diagnosis of the responders were all nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) and that of nonresponders were all usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) (p<0.001). The other significant differences between the two groups were female predominance (p<0.01), smoking history (p<0.001), severe grade of dyspnea (p<0.05), lymphocytosis in BAL fluid ($23.8{\pm}16.3%$ vs $7.8{\pm}3.6%$, p<0.05), and less honeycombing in chest HRCT findings (0% vs $9.2{\pm}2.3%$, p<0.001). Conclusion : Our results suggest that patients with histopathologic diagnosis of NSIP or lymphocytosis in BAL fluid are more likely to respond to steroid or immunosuppressive therapy. Clinical results in large numbers of IPF patients will be required to identify the independent variables.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.1199-1213
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• 1998

Background : The number of immunocompromised hosts has been increasing steadily and a new pulmonary infiltrate in these patients is a potentially lethal condition which needs rapid diagnosis and treatment. In this study we sought to examine the clinical manifestations, radiologic findings, and therapeutic outcomes of pulmonary mycoses presenting as a new pulmonary infiltrate in immunocompromised hosts. Method : All cases presenting as a new pulmonary infiltrate in immunocompromised hosts and confirmed to be pulmonary mycoses by pathologic examination or by positive culture from a sterile site between October of 1996 and April of 1998 were included in the study and their chart and radiologic findings were retrospectively reviewed. Results : In all, 14 cases of pulmonary mycoses from 13 patients(male : female ratio = 8 : 5, median age 47 yr) were found. Twelve cases were diagnosed as aspergillosis while two were diagnosed as mucormycosis. Major risk factors for fungal infections were chemotherapy for hematologic malignancy(10 cases) and organ transplant recipients(4 cases). Three cases were receiving empirical amphotericin B at the time of appearance of new lung infiltrates. Cases in the hematologic malignancy group had more prominent symptoms : fever(9/10), cough(6/10), sputum(5/10), dyspnea(4/10), chest pain(5/10). Patients in the organ transplant group had minimal symptoms(p<0.05). On simple chest films, all of the cases presented as single or multiple nodules(6/14) or consolidations(8/14). High resolution computed tomograph showed peri-lesional ground glass opacities(14/14), pleural effusions(5/14), and cavitary changes(7/14). Definitive diagnostic methods were as follows : 10 cases underwent minithoracotomy, 2 underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, 1 underwent percutaneous needle aspiration and 1 case was diagnosed by culture of abscess fluid. All cases received treatment with amphotericin B with 1 case each being treated with liposomal amphotericin B and itraconazole due to renal toxicity. Lung lesion improved in 12 of 14 patient but 4 patients died before completing therapy. Conclusion : When a new lung infiltrate develops presenting either as a nodule or consolidation in a neutropenic patient with hematologic malignancy or in a transplant recipient, you should always consider pulmonary mycoses as one of the differential diagnosis. By performing aggressive work up and early treatment, we may improve prognosis of these patients.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.141-156
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• 1990

The experiments were conducted to investigate the possibility of improving the effectiveness of the existing method to estimate the edible meat weight in the live broiler chicken. A total of 360 birds, five male and female chicks from each line were sacrificed at Trial 1 (body weight 900-1, 000g), Trial 2 (body weight 1.200-1, 400g), Trial 3(body weight 1, 600-1, 700), and Trial 4(body weight 2, 000g) in order to measure the body weight, edible meat weight of breast, thigh and drumsticks, and various components of body weight. Each line was reared at the Poultry Breeding Farm, Seoul National University from the second of july, 1987 to the thirteenth of September, 1987. The results obtained from this study were summarized as follows ： 1. The average body weights of each line( H. T, M, A) were $2150.5\pm$34.9, $2133.0\pm$26.2, $1960.0\pm$23.1, and $2319.3\pm$27.9, respectively. at 7 weeks of age. The feed to body weight eain ratio for each line chicks was 2.55, 2.13, 2.08, and 2.03, respectively, for 0 to 7 weeks of age. The viability of each line was 99.7. 99.7, 100.0, and 100.0%, respectively, for 0 to 7 weeks of age.01 was noticed that A Line chicks grow significantly heavier than did T, H, M line chic ks from 0 to 7 weeks of age. The regression coefficients of growth curves from each line chicks were bA＝1.015, bH＝0.265, bM＝0.950 and bT＝0.242, respectively. 2. Among the body weight components, the feather. abdominal fat, breast, and thigh and drumsticks increased in their weight percentage as the birds grew older, while neck. head, giblets and inedible viscera decreased. No difference wat apparent in shank, wings and hack. 3. The weight percentages of breast in edible part for each line thicks were 19.2, 19.0, 19.9 and 19.0% at Trial 4, respectively. The weight percentages of thigh and drumsticks in edible part for each line chicks were 23.1, 23.3, 22.8, and 23.0% at Trial 4. respective1y. 4. The values for the percentage meat yield from breast were 77.2. 78.9 73.5 and 74.8% at Trial 4 in H, T, M and A Line chicks. respectively. For thigh and drumstick, the values of 80.3, 78.4. 79.7 and 80.2% were obtained. These data indicate that the percentage meat yield increase as the birds grow older. 5. The correlation coefficients between body weight and blood. head, shanks. breast. thigh-drumstick were high. The degree if correlation between abdominal fat(%) and percentage of edible meat were extremely low at all times, but those between abdominal fat (%) and inedible viscera were significantly high.