• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1308-1317
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• 1997

Background : Pulmonary aspergillomas usually arise from colonization and proliferation of Aspergillus in preexisting cavitary lung disease of any cause. About 15% of patients with tuberculous pulmonary cavities were found to have aspergilloma. We analyzed the clinical features and course of 91 patients with pulmonary aspergilloma. Method : During the ten-year period from June 1986 to May 1996, 91 patients whose condition was diagnosed as pulmonary aspergilloma at 4 university hospitals in Taegu city were reviewed. All patients fulfilled one of the following criteria : 1) histologic evidence of aspergilloma within abnormal air space in tissue sections, or 2) a positive Aspergillus serum precipitin test with the radiologic finding of a fungus ball. The histological diagno-sis was established in 81 patients(89.0%) and clinical diagnosis in 10 patients(11.0%). Results : 1) The age range was 22 to 65 years, with an average of 45 years. A male and female ratio was 1.7 : 1 (57 men and 34 women). 2) Hemoptysis was far the most frequent symptom(89%), followed by cough, dyspnea, weakness, weight loss, fever, chest pain. 3) In all but 14 cases(15.4%) there had been associated conditions. Pulmonary tuberculosis was far the most frequent underlying condition found(74.7%), followed by bronchiectasis (6.6%), cavitary neoplasm(2.2%), pulmonary sequestration(1.1%). 4) The involved area was usually in the upper lobes; the right upper lobe was involved in 39(42.9%), the left upper lobe in 31(34.1%), the left lower lobe in 13(14.3%), the right lower lobe in 7(7.7%), and the right middle lobe in 1(1.1%). 5) On standard chest roent geno gram the classic "bell-like" image of a fungus ball was found in 62.6% of the subjects. On CT scan, 88.1% of the subjects in which they were done. 6) The surgical therapy was undertaken in 76 patients, and medical therapy in 15 patients, including 4 patients with intracavitary instillation of amphotericin B. 7) The surgical modality was lobectomy in 55 patients(72.4%), segmentectomy in 16 patients(21.1%), pneumonectomy in 4 patients(5.3%), wedge resection in 1 patient(1.3%). The mortality rate was 3.9% (3 patients) ; 2 patients died of sepsis and 1 died of hemoptysis. The postoperative complications were encountered in 6 patients (7.9%), including each one patient with respiratory failure, bleeding, bronchopleural fistula, empyema, and vocal cord paralysis. 8) In the follow-up cases, each 2 patients of 71 patients with surgical treatment and 10 patients with medical treatment had recurrent hemoptysis. Conclusion : During follow-up of the chronic pulmonary disease with abnormal air space, if the standard chest roentgenograms are insufficient to detect a fungus ball, computed tomographic scan and serum precipitin test are likely to aid the diagnosis of patients with suspected pulmonary aspergilloma. A reasonable recommendation for management of a patient with aspergilloma would be to reserve surgical resection for those patients who have had severe, recurrent hemoptysis. And a well controlled cooperative study to the medical treatment such as intracavitary antifungal therapy is further needed.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.900-912
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• 1995

Background: Although graded exercise stress tests are widely used for the evaluation of cardiorespiratory performance, normal standards on respiratory gas exchange and ventilatory functions at maximal exercise in Koreans have not been well established. The purpose of this study is to provide reference values on these by sex and age, along with derivation of some of their prediction equations. Method: Symptom-limited maximal exercise test was carried out by Bruce protocol in 1,000 healthy adults consisting of 603 males and 397 females, aged 20~66 years. Among them VC, $FEV_1$ and MVV were also determined in 885 cases. All the subjects were members of a health center, excluding athletes. During the exercise, subjects were allowed to hold on to front hand rail of the treadmill for safety purpose. Results: The $VO_2\;max/m^2$, $VCO_2\;max/m^2$ and $V_E\;max/m^2$ were greater in males than in females and decreased with age. The RR max in men and women was similar but decreased slightly with age. The $V_T$ max was markedly greater in men but showed no significant changes with age in either gender. The mean of $V_T$ max/VC, $V_E$ max/MVV and BR revealed that there were considerable ventilatory reserves at maximal exercise even in older females. The regression equations of the cardinal parameters obtained using exercise time(ET, min), age(A, yr), height(Ht, cm), weight(W, kg), sex(S, 0=male; 1=female), VC(L), $FEV_1$(L) and $V_E$ max(L) as variables are as follows: $VO_2\;max/m^2$(L/min)=1.449+0.073 ET-0.007A+0.010W-0.006Ht-0.209S, $VCO_2\;max/m^2$(L/min)=1.672+0.063ET-0.008A+0.010W-0.005Ht-0.319S, VE max/$m^2$(L/min)=58.161+1.503ET-0.315A-9.871S or VE max/$m^2$(L/min)=47.873+6.548 $FEV_1$-5.715 S, and VT max(L)=1.497+0.223VC-0.493S. Conclusion: Respiratory gas exchange and ventilatory variables at maximal exercise were studied in 1,000 non-athletes by Bruce protocol. During exercise, the subjects were allowed to hold on to hand rail of the treadmill for safety purpose. We feel that our results would provide ideal target values for patients and healthy individuals to be achieved, since our study subjects were members of a health center whose physical fitness levels were presumably higher than ordinary population.