• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.432-435
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• 2005

An 82-year-old female non-smoker with a history of hypertension presented with increasing dyspnea, cough and some purulent sputum without fever. Upon admission, the patient was in a distressed condition. Auscultation revealed diminished breath sounds with no rales over the right lung. An examination of the heart revealed a regular rhythm and a systolic murmur radiating from the apex of the heart. There was no pitting edema in the lower extremities. The blood tests showed mild leukocytosis and an increased C-reactive protein level. The $O_2$ saturation was 98 % whilst breathing room air. The electrocardiogram demonstrated sinus tachycardia. The chest radiograph showed a moderate cardiomegaly, right lobe infiltrates, and blunting of the both costophrenic sulcus suggesting a small pleural effusion. Three days after admission, the symptoms became slightly aggravated despite being treated with empirical antibiotics for presumed community-acquired pneumonia. Transthoracic color Doppler echocardiography indicated an ejection fraction of 48 %, mild left ventricular enlargement, and moderate left atrial enlargement resulting in severe mitral regurgitation. The clinical symptoms and right pulmonary edema resolved quickly with intravenous furosemide treatment.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.515-520
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• 2007

Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is the leading cause of pneumonia in older children and young adults. Normally, it does not progress to a condition requiring hospitalization but improves spontaneously or has a mild clinical course. We report two cases of M. pneumoniae pneumonia with different clinical manifestations from the normal course. The patients were young healthy individuals. The diagnoses were made by serology. However, it could not be determined beforehand that they had M. pneumoniae pneumonia. Based on the empirical treatment strategy of severe community acquired pneumonia, the patients were treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics including cephalosporin, quinolone and macrolide. After administering the antibiotics, they showed a gradually favorable clinical course and recovered without residual complications. A M. pneumoniae infection should be considered as a cause of severe community acquired pneumonia, and empirical treatment targeting this organism might be helpful in treating patients with the severe manifestation.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.600-604
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• 2010

A ten-year-old female mongrel dog was presented to Veterinary Medical Center, Chungbuk National University with the signs of anorexia, weakness, and hemoglobinuria. Patient had been diagnosed as dirofilariasis based on heartworm antigen test and treated with adulticide (melarsomine) at local hospital one day before admission. On laboratory examinations, there were hypochromic and microcytic regenerative anemia, thrombocytopenia, moderate neutrophilia, and increase ALT, AST, and ALP. Radiographic exam showed main pulmonary artery bulging, pulmonary infiltration and hypervascularity, reduced abdominal serosal detail and mild hepatomegaly. Abdominal ultrasonographic exam showed mild peritoneal effusion and large hyperechoic thrombi at trifurcation of the porta hepatica and the splenic vein. In addition, intraluminal low density area and intravascular filling defect were confirmed on contrast enhanced CT scanning at the same anatomic locations. Patient was treated with anticoagulant and thrombolytic therapy. On day 42 after treatment, complete resolution of thrombi was confirmed via ultrasonography and improvement of clinical signs was observed.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.171-176
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• 1993

Background : Mycoplasma pneumonia (M. pneumonia) is a major cause of atypical pneumonia, and its incidence is predominantly at childhood and early adulthood. In contrast, the incidence of adult patients with M. pneumonia has been known to be low. Furthermore the clinical aspects of M. pneumonia are different from those of community acquired pneumonia. Thus, we evaluated the clinical aspects of M. pneumonia in the adult patients. Method : Mycoplasma antibody and cold agglutination tests were performed in patients with clinically suspected pneumonia who had abnormal infiltrations on chest P-A. The 12 patients with pneumonia, who fulfilled entry criteria of more than 1:64 of cold agglutination titer and 1:40 of mycoplasma antibody titer or four-fold increase of mycoplasma antibody titer during one week, were analyzed in terms of clinical aspects. Results : 1) Twelve patients, male 3 and female 9, were included in this study. The peak incidence was teenager. 2) M. pneumonia occured perennially, but predominantly between June to October in eight patients. 3) The main symptoms were fever, coughing, sputum. 4) The main patterns of chest P-A were bronchopneumoina in 8 cases, and involved lesion were nearly both lower lobe. Conclusion : The clinical aspects with Mycoplasma pneumonia in adult patients were different from those of community acquired pneumonia.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.536-541
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• 1992

Bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP) is a type of diffuse interstitial lung disease that primarily affects the small conducting airways and characterized by the presence of granulation tissue plugs within the lumen of small airways often extending into alveolar ducts. It is associated with a number of different causes, including a variety of infections, fume exposures, drugs, collagen diseases and idiopathic. Recently we have experienced one patient with idiopathic BOOP. The patient was a 58 year old man presented with 2 months' history of dry cough and exertional dyspnea. The phyical examination showed inspiratory crackles at both lower lung field. Chest X-ray showed bilateral multiple patchy alveolar density. Pulmonary function studies showed a moderate degree of restrictive lung disease. Open lung biopsy carried out and revealed findings characteristic of BOOP. There was a dramatic response clinically and radiologically to high dose predinisolone therapy. Chest X-ray and pulmonary function test under-taken one year later showed marked improvement. New lesion on chest PA was developed during the period of tapering of prednisolone dose, but it was soon disappeared after increasing of prednisolone dose. One year later, he is well without steroid therapy.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.532-539
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• 2006

Background : The incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis has been reducing, but endobronchial tuberculosis continues to be a signigicant heath problem. We performed prospectively bronchoscopy in patients diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis in order to evaluate the frequency of endobronchial tuberculosis and its related findings. Follow-up bronchoscopy was also performed after treatment to evaluate the incidence of endobronchial complications such as stenosis and remaining lesions. Methods : From January, 1999 to December, 2003, bronchoscopy was performed on patients newly diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. Results : 458 patients were enrolled in this study, out of 699 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis from 1999 to 2003. 234(51%) had endobronchial tuberculosis. The frequency was 40.3% in males and 66.3% in females, The most common symptom was nonspecific cough and sputum, and the main radiologiy finding was patchy infiltration. The most common subtype of endobronchial tuberculosis was the edema-hyperemic form. The right lung was involved more frequently than the left, and the left upper lobe was the most commonly involved site. 58 patients underwent follow-up bronchoscopy and most of been cured without major sequels. However, 8 patients had a stenosis of trachea and main bronchus, and 6 patients had still had endobronchial lesions. Therefore the treatment was prolonged for 3 months. Conclusion : Endobronchial tuberculosis of pulmonary tuberculosis has been remained of high incidence. bronchoscopic and follow-up bronchoscopy examination needs to evaluate the incidence of endobronchial tuberculosis and its related findings and major complication despite of treatment.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.805-812
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• 1998

Background: Among the variety of opportunistic infections, pneumonia comprises the major morbidity in immunocompromised patients. Pneumocystis carnii pneumonia (PCP) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) pneumonia are common infectious illness of immunocompromised hosts. Although there are many reports regarding to the co-infection of PCP and CMV diagnosed by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid examination, the effects of CMV co-infection on the outcome of PCP is still controversial. The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the effects of CMV detected by BAL fluid examination on the clinical course of PCP in the immunocompromised patients other than human immunodeficiency virus infection. Method: Ten patients with PCP were enrolled and retrospective analysis of their medical records were done. HIV infected persons were excluded. The PCP was diagnosed by BAL fluid examination with Calcofluor-White staining. CMV was detected in BAL fluid by Shell-vial culture system. Chest radiographic findings were reviewed. We used Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney U test for statistical analysis of data. Results: The underlying disorders of patients were idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (n=1), renal transplantation (n=4), necrotizing vasculitis (n=l), systemic lupus erythematosus (n=1), brain tumor (n=1), chronic myelogenous leukemia (n=1), unidentified (n=1). There were no difference in clinical course, APACHE III score, arterial blood gas analysis, white blood cell count, lymphocyte count, serum albumin concentration, chest radiographic findings and mortality between patients with PCP alone (n=4) and those with CMV co-infection (n=6). Univariate analysis regarding to the factors that associated with mortality of PCP were revealed that the application of mechanical ventilation (p=0.028), the level of APACHE III score (p=0.018) and serum albumin concentration (p=0.048) were related to the mortality of patients with PCP. Conclusion: The clinical course of PCP patients co-infected by CMV were not different from PCP only patients. Instead, accompanied respiratory failure, high APACHE III score and poor nutritional status were associated with poor outcome of PCP.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.198-206
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• 2000

Background : Pulmonary complications following bonemarrow transplantation (BMT) are common and associated with a high mortality rate. We investigated the yield, safety, and impact of fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) for diagnosis of postBMT pneumoniae. Methods : From May 1997 to April 2000, 56 FOBs were performed in 52 post BMT patients for clinical pneumoniae. BMT patients with respiratory symptoms and/or pulmonary infiltrates had a thoracic HRCT(high resolution computed tomography) and bronchoscopic examination including BAL (bronchoalveolar lavage), TBLB (transbronchial lung biopsy), PSB (protected specimen brush). Results : The characteristics of the subjects were as follows : 37 males, 15 females, mean age of 31.3 years(l7-45), 35 sibling donor allogenic BMTs, 15 nonrelated donor allogenic BMTs, and 2 autologous BMTs. Fiftynine percent of FOBs (33 FOBs, 31 patients) were diagnostic. Isolated pathogens included the following : 12 cytomegalovirus (CMV) (21.4 %), 7 pneumocystis carinii (PC) (12.5 %), 11 CMV with PC (19.6 %), 2 Mycobacaterium tuberculosis (3.6%), and 1 streptococcus (1.8%). Most of the radiographic findings were diffuse interstitial lesions. CMV pneumoniae had mainly diffuse interstitial nodular lesion, and PC pneumoniae had diffuse, interstitial ground glass opacity(GGO). When CMV was accompanied by PC, a combined pattern of nodular and GGO was present. Of the 56 cases (23.2%), 13 died of CMV pneumoniae (n=2), PCP (n=2),mixed infection with CMV and PC (n=3), underlying GVHD (n=1), underlying leukemia progression (n=1), or respiratory failure of unknown origin (n=4). There was no major complication by bronchoscopy. Only 3 cases developed minor bleeding and 1 episode temporary hypoxemia. Conclusion : Based on our findings, CMV and PC are the major causes of postBMT pneumoniae. In addition, BAL can be considered a safe and accurate procedure for the evaluation of pulmonary complications after BMT.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.642-649
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• 1999

Background: It is very important to determine an accurate staging of the non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) for an assessment of operability and it's prognosis. However, it is difficult to evaluate tumor involvement of mediastinal lymph nodes accurately utilizing noninvasive imaging modalities. PET is one of the sensitive and specific imaging modality. Unfortunately PET is limited use because of prohibitive cost involved with it's operation. Recently hybrid SPECT/PET(single photon emission computed tomography/positron emission tomography) camera based PET imaging was introduced with relatively low cost. We evaluated the usefulness of coincidence detection(CoDe) PET in the detection of metastasis to the mediastinal lymph nodes in patients with NSCLC. Methods: Twenty one patients with NSCLC were evaluated by CT or MRI and they were considered operable. CoDe PET was performed in all 21 patients prior to surgery. Tomographic slices of axial, coronal and sagittal planes were visually analysed. At surgery, mediastinal lymph nodes were removed and histological diagnosis was performed. CoDe PET findings were correlated with histological findings. Results: Twenty of 21 primary tumor masses were detected by the CoDe PET. Thirteen of 21 patients was correctly diagnosed mediastinal lymph node metastasis by the CoDe PET. Pathological N0 was 14 cases and the specificity of N0 of CoDe PET was 64.3%. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of N1 node was 83.3%, 73.3%, 55.6%, 91.7%, and 76.2% respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of N2 node was 60.0%, 87.5%, 60.0%,87.5%, and 90.0% respectively. There were 3 false negative cases but the size of the 3 nodes were less than 1cm. The size of true positive nodes were 1.1cm, 1.0cm, 0.5cm respectively. There were 1 false positive among the 12 lymph nodes which were larger than 1cm. False positive cases consisted of 1 tuberculosis case, 1 pneumoconiosis case and 1 anthracosis case. Conclusion: CoDe PET has relatively high negative predictive value in the enlarged lymph node in staging of mediastinal nodes in patients with NSCLC. Therefore CoDe PET is useful in ruling out metastasis of enlarged N3 nodes. However, further study is needed including more number of patients in the future.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.694-699
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• 2010

Background: In addition to clinical and radiographic findings, a histopathologic examination is important in the diagnosis of sarcoidosis. This study evaluated the diagnostic usefulness of a scalene node biopsy in patients with suspected sarcoidosis. Material and Method: We studied 35 patients who underwent scalene node biopsy because of suspicion of sarcoidosis on a chest x-ray and a computerized tomogram between 2001 and 2009, regardless of symptoms. Result We studied 15 men and 20 women whose mean age was $41.51{\pm}11.21$ years (25~64). Three among the 35 were diagnosed with tuberculosis and 27 with sarcoidosis, resulting in a diagnostic yield of 84.4%. The mean lymph node diameter size was 1.3 (${\pm}0.12$) (0.3~3.6 cm) cm. We divided the group of participants according to stage - whether on chest x-ray the lung was affected or not (stage 0, 1 and stage 2, 3). We divided lymph node sizes as well - whether they were larger than 1 cm or smaller than 1 cm. For these subgroups, there were no significant differences in diagnostic yield (p=0.604) (p=0.084). There were no complications or mortality. Conclusion: Scalene node biopsies are simply done under local anesthesia, without major complications. They have a high diagnostic yield regardless of the stages of the disease and lymph node size. We conclude that scalene node biopsy is a good alternative to other biopsy methods in sarcoidosis.