• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.67 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2009

Lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia (LIP) is a rare disorder characterized by a diffuse infiltration of the alveolar space, interstitium by lymphocytes, plasma cells, and reticuloendothelial cells. Although its etiology is unknown, LIP has been associated with autoimmune disorders and with viral infections. Because it's clinical and radiographic features are nonspecific, a confirmatory diagnosis is performed by open lung biopsy. A 59-year-old female presented dry cough, which had been present for 1 month. On initial findings of multifocal consolidation at the right middle lobe on both lower lobes in chest radiography, the first diagnosis of cryptogenic organizing pneumonia was suggested. On open lung biopsy, LIP was diagnosed. The patient had no autoimmune disease, viral infection or monoclonal gammopathy. After 3 months of corticosteroid treatment, the patient experienced improved symptoms, reduced abnormalities on chest radiography, and improved pulmonary function testing.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.79 no.3
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• pp.188-192
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• 2016

Antisynthetase syndrome has been recognized as an important cause of autoimmune inflammatory myopathy in a subset of patients with polymyositis and dermatomyositis. It is associated with serum antibody to aminoacyl-transfer RNA synthetases and is characterized by a constellation of manifestations, including fever, myositis, interstitial lung disease, mechanic's hand-like cutaneous involvement, Raynaud phenomenon, and polyarthritis. Lung disease is the presenting feature in 50% of the cases. We report a case of a 60-year-old female with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which later proved to be an unexpected and initial manifestation of anti-Jo-1 antibody-positive antisynthetase syndrome. The present case showed resolution of ARDS after treatment with high-dose corticosteroids. Given that steroids are not greatly beneficial in the treatment of ARDS, it is likely that the improvement of the respiratory symptoms in this patient also resulted from the prompt suppression of the inflammatory systemic response by corticosteroids.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.69 no.3
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• pp.212-216
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• 2010

Nodular lymphoid hyperplasia is a very rare benign disease and usually shows consolidation on chest X-ray with symptoms of pneumonia due to the proliferation of lymphoid cells in the lung parenchyma. It is common for patients to be diagnosed with pneumonia and treated with antibiotics, but patients often enter a cycle of repeated improvement, followed by aggravation of symptoms. At this point, surgical diagnostic tools are considered in order to differentiate between malignant disease and interstitial lung disease. Here, we report 2 cases of patients with nodular lymphoid hyperplasia and review the associated references.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.298-304
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• 2008

Current digital radiographic systems are rapidly growing in clinical applications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of computed radiography (CR) and digital radiography (DR) at different tube voltages in the detection of simulated chest lesions. Patterns of simulated interstitial lung disease, incipient infiltration, and nodules were superimposed over an anthropomorphic chest phantom. A simulated chest phantom radiograph was obtained with CR and DR at different tube voltages (70 kV, 90 kV, and 120 kV). A total of 18,000 observations were analyzed using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The detection of all lesions showed higher $A_z$ values at 70 kV than 120 kV with CR. For the DR, mean $A_z$ values at 70 kV were higher than other tube voltages not all lesions but for micro-nodule interstitial lung disease, linear interstitial lung disease, and incipient infiltration. Based on these results, a clinical study should be performed to judge the use of suitable tube voltage according to the type of detector system and lesions.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.597-603
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• 1994

Background: Because of the power of HRCT to detect the minute changes in lung parenchyme and the advantage of noninvasiveness, it may be the ideal method of follow-up evaluation of the patients with diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis. So the aim of the study is to find out whether the change of HRCT during the course of the disease can represent the change in symptom and pulmonary function test. Method: Thirteen patients with diagnosis of diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis who had more than two times of HRCT during the course of disease were studied. The extent of the disease in HRCT was measured at three levels using image analyzer. The ralationship between the percent change in the disease extent in HRCT, symptom score, and pulmonary function tests were analysed. Results: The change of disease extent in HRCT has good correlation with the change in dyspnea and diffusion capacity(r=0.716, p=0.0012). But there was no correlation between the change of HRCT and FVC or TLC. Also significant inverse correlation was noted between the change in dyspnea and diffusion capacity(r=-0.707, p=0.0047). Conclusion: These data suggest that HRCT may be a good method of follow-up in diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.773-776
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• 2000

Accidental or suicidal fatalities of paraquat(Gramoxon) poisong are occasionally seen in the emergency room or intensive care unit in this country. In most cases, respiratory symptoms and eventual death by respiratory distress occur within several days. The most striking pathologic change is fibrosis of the lung due to widespread proliferation of fibroblastic cell. We experience a 21-year-old woman with huge bulla on left lung and diffuse fibrosis in other site, who ingested paraquat 10 months ago. After thoracoscopic removal of bulla, the patient survive without progression of pulmonary complication till now.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.1101-1108
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• 2023

We report the case of a lung transplantation patient whose cough and dyspnea symptoms improved after receiving complex Korean medicine treatment. Lung transplantation provides a solution to many end-stage patients with lung disease who are refractory to conventional treatment, but the five-year survival rate of lung transplantation remains around 50%, and even surviving patients suffer from side effects, including infection, respiratory difficulty, and gastrointestinal problems. A 66-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis-interstitial lung disease was advised to undergo lung transplantation surgery when she suffered from dyspnea and failing respiratory symptoms after being diagnosed with COVID-19 and contracting pneumonia. Approximately five months after receiving a bilateral lung transplantation operation, she experienced acute pulmonary thromboembolism, and even after receiving anticoagulation therapy, she still struggled with cough and respiratory difficulty. After she received complex Korean medicine treatments, including herbal medicine, cupping therapy, and electrical moxibustion, we observed a decrease in inflammation, alleviation of symptoms such as cough and dyspnea, and improvement of pulmonary function and exercise capacity.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.5-19
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• 1998

Introduction: Direct histologic and bacteriologic examination of a representative specimen of lung tissue is the only certain method of providing an accurate diagnosis in various pulmonary diseases including diffuse pulmonary diseases. The purpose of national survey was to define the indication, incidence, effectiveness, safety and complication of open and thoracoscopic lung biopsy in korea. Methods: A multicenter registry of 37 university or general hospitals equipped more than 400 patient's bed were retrospectively collected and analyzed for 3 years from the January 1994 to December 1996 using the same registry protocol. Results: 1) There were 511 cases from the 37 hospitals during 3 years. The mean age was 50.2 years(${\pm}15.1$ years) and men was more prevalent than women(54.9% vs 45.9%). 2) The open lung biopsy was performed in 313 cases(62%) and thoracoscopic lung biopsy was performed in 192 cases(38%). The incidence of lung biopsy was more higher in diffuse lung disease(305 cases, 59.7%) than in localized lung disease(206 cases, 40.3%) 3) The duration after abnormalities was found in chest X-ray until lung biopsy was 82.4 days(open lung biopsy: 72.8 days, thoracoscopic lung biopsy: 99.4 days). The bronchoscopy was performed in 272 cases(53.2%), bronchoalveolar lavage was performed in 123 cases(24.1%) and percutaneous lung biopsy was performed in 72 cases(14.1%) before open or thoracoscopic lung biopsy. 4) There were 230 cases(45.0%) of interstitial lung disease, 133 cases(26.0%) of thoracic malignancies, 118 cases(23.1%) of infectious lung disease including tuberculosis and 30 cases (5.9 %) of other lung diseases including congenital anomalies. No significant differences were noted in diagnostic rate and disease characteristics between open lung biopsy and thoracoscopic lung biopsy. 5) The final diagnosis through an open or thoracoscopic lung biopsy was as same as the presumptive diagnosis before the biopsy in 302 cases(59.2%). The identical diagnostic rate was 66.5% in interstitial lung diseases, 58.7% in thoracic malignancies, 32.7% in lung infections, 55.1 % in pulmonary tuberculosis, 62.5% in other lung diseases including congenital anomalies. 6) One days after lung biopsy, $PaCO_2$ was increased from the prebiopsy level of $38.9{\pm}5.8mmHg$ to the $40.2{\pm}7.1mmHg$(P<0.05) and $PaO_2/FiO_2$ was decreased from the prebiopsy level of $380.3{\pm}109.3mmHg$ to the $339.2{\pm}138.2mmHg$(P=0.01). 7) There was a 10.1 % of complication after lung biopsy. The complication rate in open lung biopsy was much higher than in thoracoscopic lung biopsy(12.4% vs 5.8%, P<0.05). The incidence of complication was pneumothorax(23 cases, 4.6%), hemothorax(7 cases, 1.4%), death(6 cases, 1.2%) and others(15 cases, 2.9%). 8) The 5 cases of death due to lung biopsy were associated with open lung biopsy and one fatal case did not describe the method of lung biopsy. The underlying disease was 3 cases of thoracic malignancies(2 cases of bronchoalveolar cell cancer and one malignant mesothelioma), 2 cases of metastatic lung cancer, and one interstitial lung disease. The duration between open lung biopsy and death was $15.5{\pm}9.9$ days. 9) Despite the lung biopsy, 19 cases (3.7%) could not diagnosed. These findings were caused by biopsy was taken other than target lesion(5 cases), too small size to interpretate(3 cases), pathologic inability(11 cases). 10) The contribution of open or thoracoscopic lung biopsy to the final diagnosis was defininitely helpful(334 cases, 66.5%), moderately helpful(140 cases, 27.9%), not helpful or impossible to judge(28 cases, 5.6%). Overall, open or thoracoscopic lung biopsy were helpful to diagnose the lung lesion in 94.4 % of total cases. Conclusions: The open or thoracoscopic lung biopsy were relatively safe and reliable diagnostic method of lung lesion which could not diagnosed by other diagnostic approaches such as bronchoscopy. We recommend the thoracoscopic lung biopsy when the patients were in critical condition because the thoracoscopic biopsy was more safe and have equal diagnostic results compared with the open lung biopsy.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.357-366
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• 1993

Background: Lung clearance of inhaled $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA reflects alveolar epithelial permeability and it had been reported as more sensitive than conventional pulmonary function tests in detecting lung epithelial damage. However, measuring lung clearance of inhaled $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA by gamma camera may not always reflect alveolar epithelial permeability exactly because it is influenced by mucociliary clearance depending on the site of particle deposition. Moreover, this method takes much time and patient's effort because he has to sit or lie still in front of the camera for a prolonged period. Most of the absorbed DTPA is excreted in urine within 24 hours and the amount of excreted DTPA in urine during the first few hours after inhalation is influenced by absorption rate which is correlated with the alveolar-epithelial permeability suggesting that the urinary excretion, especially in first few hours, may be an alternate index for lung clearance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of ratio of excreted $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA in 2 hour and 24 hour urine as an index of alveolar-epithelial damage. Methods: Pulmonary function tests including diffusing capacity and lung clearance of $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA measured by gama camera ($T_{1/2}$) and 2hr/24hr urine excretion ratio (Ratio) of inhaled $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA in 8 normal subjects and 14 patients with diffuse interstitial lung disease were compared. Results: 1) In the normal control, there was significant negative correlation between the $T_{1/2}$ and the Ratio (r=-0.77, p<0.05). In patients with diffuse interstitial lung disease, there also was significant negative correlation between $T_{1/2}$ and Ratio(r=-0.63, p<0.05). 2) In diffuse interstitial lung disease patients, the $T_{1/2}$ was $38.65{\pm}11.63$ min which was significantly lower than that of normal control, $55.53{\pm}11.15$ min and the Ratio was $52.15{\pm}10.07%$ also signifantly higher than that of the normal control, $40.43{\pm}5.53%$ (p<0.05). 3) There was no significant correlations between $T_{1/2}$ or Ratio and diffusing capactiy of lung in both patients and controls (p>0.05). Conclusion: These results suggests that 2hr/24hr urine excretion ratio of inhaled $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA is a useful simple bedside test in assessing alveolar epithelial permeability and that it may be used as an additive follow-up test in patients with diffuse interstitial lung disease complementing conventional pulmonary function tests.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.39 no.11 s.268
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• pp.844-849
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• 2006

Background: The diffuse infiltrative lung disease requires surgical lung biopsy for its final diagnosis. We evaluated the effect of surgical lung biopsy for final diagnosis of duffuse interstitial lung disease and compared video assisted thoracoscopic lung biopsy(TLB) with open lung biopsy(OLB). Material and Method: We evaluated the patients who underwent surgical lung biopsy from March 2000 from December 2005, retrospectively, We divide to two groups(OLB and TLB group) and compared them. Result: There were 36 patients and cough was the most common pre- operative symptom. Surgery time, anesthetic time, hospital stay, duration of chest tube indwelling, specimen volume and the rate of post-operative complication were not significantly different between two groups. Histologic diagnosis was confirmed in all cases. There was one post-operative death who had suffered from respiratory failure since pre-operative period. Conclusion: Surgical lung biopsy is effective method in final diagnosis for diffuse infiltrative lung disease. Video assisted thoracoscopic lung biopsy is lesser invasive method than open lung biopsy and provide similar results, so it is basic diagnostic method of surgical lung biopsy.