• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.623-629
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• 2006

Purpose : The mortality rate of neonatal sepsis has been decreased, however, the incidence has not significantly decreased because of increased invasive procedures. This study was designed to make guidelines for choosing antibiotics by analyzing the causative microorganisms and their antibiotics sensitivity test according to the onset of neonatal sepsis. Methods : One hundred seven cases of culture proven sepsis in 89 patients admitted to the NICU of Chonnam University Hospital from Jan. 2000 to Dec. 2004, were enrolled. By reviewing the medical records, clinical data, laboratory findings, causative organisms and their antibiotics sensitivity, and mortality were analyzed. Results : The incidence of neonatal sepsis was 1.7 percent and more prevalent in premature and low birth weight infants. 85.4 percent of neonatal sepsis was late onset. Almost all microorganisms(92.9 percent) were gram-positive in early onset, however, two thirds were gram-positive and one third were gram-negative and Candida in late onset. Gram-negative organisms and Candida were more prevalent in patients who had central line. Gram-positive organisms were sensitive to vancomycin, teicoplanin, and gram-negative were sensitive to imipenem, and cefotaxime. Conclusion : Neonatal sepsis was more prevalent in premature and low birth weight infants. More than 90 percent were gram-positive in early onset, however, one third was gram-negative and Candida in late onset. The first choice of antibiotics were a combination of third generation cephalosporin and clindamycin in early onset, and third generation cephalosporin and glycopeptide in late onset. If there is no response to antibiotics treatment, the use of antifungal agents should be considered.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.91-101
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate laryngeal characteristics in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A total of 50 children participated, including eight children aged 2 to 4 years old diagnosed with ASD and 42 normal controls at the same age. All children recorded X-ray images of the midsagittal plane of the cervical spine and larynx, and compared the laryngeal positions of ASD and control. In addition, samples of children with vowel prolongation were collected and analyzed for acoustic parameters. X-rays showed that the height of the hyoid bone in the normal group was the lowest at 3 years of age, and ascended at 4 years of age. Nevertheless, the distance from the external acoustic meatus to the hyoid bone was longest at age 4. 4-year-olds with explosive language development showed laryngeal height elevation and anteriorization. In contrast, the hyoid height of the ASD group of all ages was lower than that of the control group, and there was no difference in the hyoid position between the ages. As a result of acoustic evaluation, PFR, vFo, and vAm were significantly higher ASD than control. Low laryngeal height of ASD children may be associated with delayed language development. PFR, vFo, and vAm seem to be voice markers showing the difference between normal and ASD children.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.91-96
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• 2015

Purpose: The study aimed to determine data collected during tuberculosis (TB) contact investigations and to evaluate the outcomes of these investigations. Methods: We reviewed medical records for child contacts of patients with culture-positive pulmonary TB aged 19 years or older between August 2012 and July 2014. Results: A total of 116 child contacts were identified for 79 patients with culture-positive pulmonary TB. Of 116 contacts identified, 22% were incompletely screened. Of 90 contacts who completed screening, 42% had negative tuberculin skin test (TST) results, 58% had positive results, and 1% had active pulmonary TB at the time of investigation. Of 50 contacts with TB patients with a negative smear, 50% had positive TST results. Age ${\geq}5$ years (OR 8.3; 95% CI 2.3-30) and male gender (OR 3.9; 95% CI 1.5-9.9) were significantly associated with being incompletely screened. Conclusions: Improvement is needed in the process of contact investigations to ensure that contacts of patients with active pulmonary TB are identified and appropriately screened.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.408-413
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• 2010

Purpose : We aimed to prove the relative limitation of $^{99m}Tc-DMSA$ scintigraphy (DMSA) compared to computed tomography (CT) in diagnosing acute pyelonephritis (APN) in children. Methods : Since September 2006, after a 64-channel CT was imported, 10 DMSA false-negative patients have been identified: these patients underwent a CT scan for acute abdomen or acute febrile symptoms and were diagnosed as having APN; however, their DMSA scans were clear. We focused on these 10 DMSA false-negative patients and analyzed their clinical findings and CT results. We used Philips Brilliance Power 64-channel CT scanner for the CT scan and Siemens Orbitor Nuclear Camera 60 Hz for the DMSA scan. Results : The 10 DMSA false-negative patients were mostly males (80%) and infants (80%). They had fever for a mean of 1.1-day duration before admission and showed increase in acute reactants: leukocyte, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and C-reactive protein. The CT findings of renal lesions were focal in 6 (60%) cases and diffuse in 4 (40%) cases, and most of the lesions were unilateral in 80% of patients. CT proved that 22 renal lesions were neglected by DMSA. Differential renal function test by DMSA was also of no use in the evaluation of renal lesions. Conclusion : In this study, DMSA scan showed limitation in finding renal cortical lesions of CT-proven APN patients. DMSA false-negative results seem to occur at early-phase disease of infantile age, but more prospective studies are needed to determine the reasons and their prevalence.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.219-223
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• 2015

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) causes paratuberculosis or Johne's disease, an intestinal granulomatous infection in domestic and wild animals. The study aimed to develop and evaluate a panel of multiplex quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (mqPCR) assay for simultaneous detection of three MAP-specific genes (IS900, F57 and ISMAP02 genes). The analytic sensitivity (i.e., limit of detection, expressed as cells per 1 ml) was 150 for IS900, 1500 for F57, and 50 for ISMAP02. The specificity of the method was determined by testing 152 bovine fecal samples. Based on the test, it showed that the assay simultaneously detected the target genes in short period of time and at lower cost compared to laboratory routine tests. The test agreement between the assay and routine test was 94%. The discrepancy in the results was due to samples that were tested positive by the panel but negative by the routine tests, suggesting that the assay has higher sensitivity than the routine tests. In conclusion, the mqPCR assay could be a rapid and accurate testing tool for investigating paratuberculosis or Johne's disease cases in domestic and wild animals.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.417-422
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• 2007

Background: It is not known with certainty whether patients with persistently positive sputum smear results who have also had negative sputum culture results require prolongation of treatment for tuberculosis in order to avoid an increased risk of eventual relapse. The purpose of the present study was to retrospectively describe the treatment characteristics and evaluate the appropriate duration of treatment in these patients. Methods: Sixty of 69 patients with sputum smear positive and culture negative tests at 5 months after first line anti-tuberculous chemotherapy from 2002 to 2003 were retrospectively analyzed. Exclusion criteria included incomplete treatment or resistance to rifampicin or two additional antibiotics, as determined by a drug susceptibility test (DST). Results: Smear conversion of the study subjects was observed after $8.3{\pm}2.3$ months treatment, and the patients were culture negative after $2.0{\pm}0.8$ months. The relapse rates of the study subjects were 3.8, 10.0, and 25.8% after 1, 2, and 5 years of anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy, respectively. The relapse rates were not significantly affected by a series of risk factors such as age, sex, presence of diabetes, a sputum culture examination after 2 months treatment, previous treatment history, chest radiograph, and duration of the treatment (P>0.05). Conclusion: Regimen change is not required for patients with persistent smear positive but culture negative tests in the fifth month for first line antituberculous treatment. However, a further study will be needed to clarify the high relapse rate in this specific group of patients.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.133-138
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• 2009

Purpose: This study was designed to investigate the changes of vision and ocular functions induced by increase of blood alcohol level. Methods: Blood alcohol level, vision, refractive errors, near point convergence, heterophoria, and relative convergence were measured at 1 h, 4 h, and 24 h after acute alcohol ingestion of 0.7 g per kg body weight. Results: At 1 h after alcohol ingestion, myopization and ocular functions which measured near point convergence, positive and negative convergences, and degree of heterophoria remarkedly worked a changes accompanied with the maximum value of blood alcohol level. But at 24 h after that, all of ocular functions were recovered to degree of 90~99% compared with non-alcoholic normal conditions. Conclusions: As the increase of blood alcohol level is able to induce the significant changes of visual acuity and ocular functions, opticians have to understand thoroughly the patient's conditions by alcohol ingestion before refractive test and ocular examinations.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.379-384
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• 2008

Background: Sputum decontamination with NALC-NaOH (N-acetyl-L-cysteine-sodium hydroxide) is known to better detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) by culture than that with using NaOH, which is widely used in Korean hospitals. In this report, sputum samples collected from pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients were treated with either NaOH or NALC-NaOH, and we compared the results of smear and culture positivity to determine whether the NALC-NaOH treatment method improves culture positivity in the sputum samples, and especially for those sputum samples that are smear negative and scanty. Methods: For each decontamination method, 436 sputum samples from pulmonary TB patients in the National Masan Tuberculosis Hospital were collected for this study. Sputum from a patient was collected two times for the first and second day of sampling time, and these samples were employed for the decontamination process by performing the 4% NaOH and NALC-2% NaOH treatment methods, respectively, for detecting M. tb by an AFB (Acid Fast Bacilli) smear and also by culture in solid Ogawa medium. Results: The NaOH and NALC-NaOH treatment methods did not significantly affect the AFB smear positivity of the sputum samples (33.0% vs 39.0%, respectively, p=0.078). However, the culture positive percents of M. tb in the Ogawa medium treated with NALC-NaOH and NaOH were 39.7% and 28.0%, respectively, which was a significantly different (p=0.0003). This difference in culture was more prominent in the sputum samples that were smear negative (the positive percents with NALC-NaOH and NaOH were 15.8% and 7.2%, respectively, p=0.0017) and scanty (NALC-NaOH and NaOH were 60.8% and 42.9%, respectively, p=0.036), but not for a smear that was 1+ or higher (p>0.05). Conclusion: NALC-NaOH treatment is better than NaOH treatment for the detection of M. tb by culture, but not by smear, and especially when the AFB smear is negative and scanty.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2014

Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is a retrovirus that represents one of the most common and important infectious diseases of cats worldwide and it is responsible for more deaths among cats than any other infectious diseases. Prevalence data are necessary to define prophylactic, management and therapeutic measures for stray, feral and owned cats which are lacking in Bangladesh. The study was carried out to determine the prevalence of FeLV infection in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh using RapiGEN$^{(R)}$ FeLV Ag Test Kit (RapiGEN$^{(R)}$ Inc., Republic of Korea), a rapid one-step immunochromatographic assay. Blood samples from total 130 cats (23 owned cats and 107 unowned cats) were collected and tested following the manufacturer's instruction. An overall prevalence of FeLV infection was 1.54% (2/130). Prevalence was found 1.79% (2/112) on Day 0-up to one year aged cats (young) but no positive case was found in above 1 year (Adult) aged group. In male and female cats, the prevalence was 1.72% (1/58) and 1.39% (1/72), respectively. In un-owned cats the prevalence was 1.87%. Positive cases to FeLV were found only in clinically sick cats. No significant relationship was found according to age, sex, ownership status and health status. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of the prevalence of FeLV infection in Bangladesh using RapiGEN$^{(R)}$ FeLV test kits which is very much effective because it is easy to apply, less expensive and quick screening of such type of infection.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.806-814
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• 1997

The incidence, type and distribution of polyneuropathy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were assessed and also analyzed the causative factors. Forty-four patients, mean age 66.1 years (42 male, 2 female), have been investigated with arterial gas analysis, pulmonary function test, clinical and electrodiagnostic studies. None of them had conditions known to affect the peripheral nervous system such as metabolic disorders or drugs. In a selected group of 44 patients, electrophysiological findings of polyneuropathy were found in 22 patients(50%), clinical polyneuropathy were diagnosed in 13 patients(9 patients were diagnosed by electrophysiological studies, 4 patients were normal by electrophysiological studies). These findings indicate that subclinical polyneuropathy(13 patients, 30%) more commonly occurs than clinical polyneuropathy(9 patients, 20%) in associated with COPD. In the patients with polyneuropathy, the lesions were predominant axonal degeneration, the changes were more involved in leg than arm, more frequently affected sensory fibers. We could not find etiologic factor to cause polyneuropathy in COPD patients.