• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.723-728
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• 1999

Pulmonary embolism from metallic mercury is rare. It may occur after a deliberate intravenous injection of mercury as a suicide gesture, in the presence of drug abuse or severe psychiatric disturbance, with the hope of increasing athletic and sexual performance, and accidentally during right heart catheterization while sampling blood with mercury containing syringes. We have experienced the first case of pulmonary embolism associated with intravenous mercury injection in Korea. The blood mercury level remain elevated within the toxic range to date. This may be due to the continued absorption of embolized mercury. Multifocal areas of patchy perfusion defects are in both upper lung fields on perfusion scan of lung. Few of the abnormalities of respiratory or renal function reported previously were demonstrated. We report the case of a young male patient presenting with a clinical picture of pulmonary embolism, in whom widespread deposit of metallic mercury were demonstrated throughout both lungs and elsewhere in the body.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.66 no.6
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• pp.463-466
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• 2009

Streptococcus constellatus (S. constellatus) is a commensal microorganism belonging to the "Streptococcus milleri" group, but may cause infections in different locations in immunocompromised patients. The infection of S. constellatus has high mortality and morbidity due to its tendency to cause abscesses in infected patients, which require immediate surgical drainage for effective treatment. We report on a 72-year-old woman with end stage renal disease, who suffered from dyspnea and general weakness that had developed over 7 days. Chest CT showed loculated pleural effusion. S. constellatus was cultured from exudative pleural effusions and confirmed by an analysis of 16S rRNA sequence. The patient was treated with drainage of pleural effusion and piperacillin/tazobactam for 5 weeks.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.74 no.4
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• pp.169-176
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• 2013

Background: Although the lung is a common site of metastasis, endobronchial metastases (EBM) from extrathoracic malignancies are rare. Previous studies were retrospective reviews of the cases from each single institute, and the last one was performed between 1992 and 2002. We evaluated the characteristics of patients with EBM who had been diagnosed in recent 10 years in our hospital. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 1,275 patients who had undergone diagnostic bronchoscopic procedures between 2001 and 2011. An EBM was defined as bronchoscopically notable lesion, which was histopathologically identical to the primary tumor. Results: A total of 18 cases of EBM were identified. The mean age was 53 years, and 12 cases of the 18 patients were female. The most common primary malignancies were colorectal cancer and breast cancer (4 cases each), followed by cervix cancer (3 cases) and renal cell carcinoma (2 cases). Cough was the most common symptom. The most common radiologic finding was atelectasis, which was identified in 27.7% of the cases. The median interval from the diagnosis of primary malignancy to the diagnosis of EBM was 14 months (range, 0-112 months). The median survival time from the diagnosis of EBM was 10 months (range, 1-39 months). Conclusion: EBM from extrathoracic malignancies were rare. Colorectal cancer and breast cancer were common as primary malignancies. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy should be performed in all patients, who are suspected of having EBM. If atypical clinical and pathological features are present, appropriate diagnostic studies should be undertaken.

• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.469-478
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• 2006

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A, a major regulator for angiogenesis, binds and activates two tyrosine kinase receptors, VEGFR1 (Flt-1) and VEGFR2 (KDR/Flk-1). These receptors regulate physiological as well as pathological angiogenesis. VEGFR2 has strong tyrosine kinase activity, and transduces the major signals for angiogenesis. However, unlike other representative tyrosine kinase receptors which use the Ras pathway, VEGFR2 mostly uses the Phospholipase-$C{\gamma}$-Protein kinase-C pathway to activate MAP-kinase and DNA synthesis. VEGFR2 is a direct signal transducer for pathological angiogenesis including cancer and diabetic retinopathy, thus, VEGFR2 itself and the signaling appear to be critical targets for the suppression of these diseases. VEGFR1 plays dual role, a negative role in angiogenesis in the embryo most likely by trapping VEGF-A, and a positive role in adulthood in a tyrosine kinase-dependent manner. VEGFR1 is expressed not only in endothelial cells but also in macrophage-lineage cells, and promotes tumor growth, metastasis, and inflammation. Furthermore, a soluble form of VEGFR1 was found to be present at abnormally high levels in the serum of preeclampsia patients, and induces proteinurea and renal dysfunction. Therefore, VEGFR1 is also an important target in the treatment of human diseases. Recently, the VEGFR2-specific ligand VEGF-E (Orf-VEGF) was extensively characterized. Interestingly, the activation of VEGFR2 via VEGF-E in vivo results in a strong angiogenic response in mice with minor side effects such as inflammation compared with VEGF-A, suggesting VEGF-E to be a novel material for pro-angiogenic therapy.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.277-282
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• 2012

This study was conducted to evaluate whether plasma homocysteine levels were related to obesity or its contributing factors (e.g., lipids, insulin, glucose, glucagon, and fructosamine) in dogs without systemic diseases such as diabetes or renal failure. For achieving our study goal, 100 client-owned dogs without systemic diseases were enrolled in this study. Fasting glucose concentration; lipid profile (i.e., total triglycerides [TG], total cholesterol [TC], highdensity lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C], and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C]); and fructosamine, insulin, and glucagon levels were determined. The dogs were subdivided by the body condition score (BCS). The median levels of homocysteine were considerably higher in obese dogs than in lean and normal dogs. Interestingly, not only was homocysteine positively associated with the level of HDL-C, but also found to have a significant positive association with TG, TC, plasma glucagon levels, and fructosamine. In contrast, LDL-C, fasting glucose and insulin did not show any association with homocysteine. The findings presented, suggest that elevated levels of homocysteine may play a biological role in obesity in dogs.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.36-41
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• 1994

Angiosarcoma is a very rare malignant tumor of endothelial cell origin. We experienced a case of angiosarcoma presented with massive pleural effusion, which was considered as a metastasis from right kidney. A 44-year-old male patient was admitted due to dyspnea for one month. He had a history of transient hematuria 3 months before admission, which disappeared spontaneously. Chest roentgenography showed total haziness in left hemithorax with multiple nodular shadows in right lung. Abdominal ultrasonogram showed a single heterogeneous hyperechoic mass, measuring about $7.3{\times}7.1{\times}6.5cm$ in size in the upper and mid-pole of the right kidney, involving renal sinus. Computed tomography of the chest revealed highly enhanced multiple pulmonary and subpleural nodules with loculated pleurisy. In bronchoscopic finding, a fungating, hypervascular tumor mass was noticed at the orifice of anterior basal segment of left lower lung after removal of tenaceous mucus. Pleural and bronchoscopic biopsies showed findings of angiosarcoma confirmed by immunochemical stains with factor VIII related antigen(+), laminin(+) and vimentin(+), and by characteristic electronmicroscopic findings. Massive pleural effusion was controlled with several times of pleurodesis in both pleural spaces.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.162-166
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• 2006

The lung is the most common site for the metastasis of extrapulmonary malignant tumors. However, endobronchial metastases (EBM) from extrapulmonary malignant tumors are rare. The most common extrathoracic malignancies associated with EBM are the breast, renal and colorectal carcinomas. Lung metastasis from prostate cancer is often encountered but EBM is rare. We report a 74-year old man with endobronchial metastases from prostatic carcinoma presented with cough. The diagnosis of prostatic cancer and the endobronchial metastasis were confirmed by immunohistological staining with the prostate specific antigen. Hormonal therapy (lutenizing hormone releasing hormone agonist) was applied to this patient.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.63 no.8
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• pp.329-334
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• 2020

Background: Birth asphyxia is a leading cause of neonatal mortality. Ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) levels may have a predictive role in the identification and prevention of hypoxic disorders, as they increase in cases of ischemia of the liver, heart, brain, bowel, and kidney. Purpose: This study aimed to assess the value of IMA levels as a diagnostic marker for neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Methods: Sixty newborns who fulfilled 3 or more of the clinical and biochemical criteria and developed HIE as defined by Levene staging were included in our study as the asphyxia group. Neonates with congenital malformation, systemic infection, intrauterine growth retardation, low-birth weight, cardiac or hemolytic disease, family history of neurological diseases, congenital or perinatal infections, preeclampsia, diabetes, and renal diseases were excluded from the study. Sixty healthy neonates matched for gestational age and with no maternal history of illness, established respiration at birth, and an Apgar score ≥7 at 1 and 5 minutes were included as the control group. IMA was determined by double-antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of a cord blood sample collected within 30 minutes after birth. Results: Cord blood IMA levels were higher in asphyxiated newborns than in controls (250.83±36.07 pmol/mL vs. 120.24±38.9 pmol/mL). Comparison of IMA levels by HIE stage revealed a highly significant difference among them (207.3±26.65, 259.28±11.68, 294.99±4.41 pmol/mL for mild, moderate, and severe, respectively). At a cutoff of 197.6 pmol/mL, the sensitivity was 84.5%, specificity was 86%, positive predictive value was 82.8%, negative predictive value was 88.3%, and area under the curve was 0.963 (P<0.001). Conclusion: IMA levels can be a reliable marker for the early diagnosis of neonatal HIE and can be a predictor of injury severity.

• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.201-209
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• 1999

Results of the studies on the morphologic and molecular biologic characteristics of Hantaan virus (HTNV), one of the etiologic agents of Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), revealed that HTNV was a member of Family Bunyaviridae and its RNA divided into three segments. And the nucleotide sequences of these segments also were known and the differences in nucleotide sequences of HTNV from other members of genus Hantavirus were clearly evaluated. But the morphorgenesis, pathogenesis of HFRS and the replication time had not been clearly determined. In this study, to estimate the replication time of HTNV in Vero E-6 cells, Vero cells were infected with HTNV 76/118 strain, and cells were harvested from two hours post-infection up to 24 hours at two hours-intervals. Harvested cells were treated with ordinary techniques for electron microscopy and immune-electron microscopy. And then thin sections were observed under transmission electron microscope. HTNV particles were not found in the cytoplasm and in the extracellular space between $2{\sim}8$ hours after inoculation of virus, but virus particles were observed in extracellular space near the cell membrane of Vero-E6 cells 10 hours after infection. In immune electron microscopy, mature HTNV particles in extracellular spaces and immature virus labelled with gold particles in the cytoplasm of Vero E-6 cell 10 hours after infection of HTNV could be seen. This results suggest that the replication time of HTNV might be about 10 hours.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.218-222
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• 2010

Nephrotic syndrome is a clinical syndrome characterized by heavy proteinuria, hypoalbuminemia, edema and hyperlipidemia. Causes of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome include minimal change nephrotic syndrome (MCNS), focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and mesangial proliferation. Other causes of nephrotic syndrome are rare genetic disorders and secondary diseases associated with drugs, infections, or neoplasia. Since February 2009, a swine-origin H1N1 influenza virus (S-OIV) from Mexico has been spread among humans in unexpected rapidity. S-OIV is markedly different from seasonal influenza, in that many of those affected are previously healthy young people. While pulmonary complications of S-OIV infection have been frequently documented, renal complications have not been as widely recognized. We report a case of 4 year-old boy who had developed nephrotic syndrome after S-OIV infection with good response after steroid treatment.