• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.178-190
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• 2003

Background : The committee of tuberculosis(TB) survey planning for the year 2000 decided to construct the Korean Tuberculosis Surveillance System (KTBS), based on a doctor's routine reporting method. The successful keys of the KTBS rely on the precision of the recorded TB notification forms. The purpose of this study was to determine that the accuracy of the TB notification form written at a private general hospital given to the corresponding health center and to improve the comprehensiveness of these reporting systems. Materials and Methods : 291 adult TB patients who had been diagnosed from August 2000 to January 2001, were enrolled in this study. The lists of TB notification forms were compared with the medical records and the various laboratory results; case characteristics, history of previous treatment, examinations for diagnosis, site of the TB by the international classification of the disease, and treatment. Results : In the list of examinations for a diagnosis in 222 pulmonary TB patients, the concordance rate of the 'sputum smear exam' was 76% but that of the 'sputum culture exam' was only 23%. Among the 198 cases of the sputum culture exam labeled 'not examined', 43(21.7%) cases proved to be true 'not examined', 70 cases(35.4%) were proven to be 'culture positive', and 85(43.0%) cases were proven to be 'culture negative'. In the list of examinations for a diagnosis in 69 extrapulmonary TB patients, the concordance rate of the 'smear exam other than sputum' was 54%. In the list of treatments, the overall concordance rate of the 'type of registration' in the TB notification form was 85%. Among the 246 'new' cases on the TB notification form, 217(88%) cases were true 'new' cases and 13 were proven to be 'relapse', 2 were proven to be 'treatment after failure', one was proven to be 'treatment after default', 12 were proven to be 'transferred-in' and one was proven to be 'chronic'. Among the 204 HREZ prescribed regimen, 172(84.3%) patients were taking the HREZ regimen, and the others were prescribed other drug regimens. Conclusion : Correct recording of the TB notification form at the private sectors is necessary for supporting the effective TB surveillance system in Korea.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.179-185
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• 2005

Background : To evaluate the clinical efficacy of pulmonary resection combined with first-line antituberculous drug therapy in patients with well-localized, cavities-containing pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Method : From February 1998, seventeen patients with well-localized, cavities-containing pulmonary MDR-TB were enrolled and followed prospectively up to December 2004. After radical pulmonary resection, the patients were treated with antituberculous drugs comprising of isoniazid (H), rifampin (R), pyrazinamide (Z), ethambutol (E), and streptomycin (S) (3HERZS/3HERS/6HER). Results : All recovered isolates of M. tuberculosis were resistant to both isoniazid and rifampin, and to a mean of 4.8 antituberculous drugs (range, 2 to 7 drugs). Surgical procedures included lobectomy (13 patients), lobectomy plus segmentectomy (3 patients), and pneumonectomy (1 patient). The median time for postoperative sputum smear and culture conversion was 2 days (range, 1 to 23 days). Fifteen (94%) patients had durable cures (mean follow-up period, 39.0 months). One patient failed to convert her sputum and was successfully switched to second-line therapy; one patient developed active disease again almost 7 years later, likely due to re-infection with a new M. tuberculosis strain. Conclusion : Radical resection combined with administration of first-line antituberculous agents was effective in patients with well-localized, cavities-containing pulmonary MDR-TB.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.287-293
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• 1999

Background: Medical treatment of multiple drug resistant(MDR) pulmonary tuberculosis has been quite unsuccessful. We analyzed our experience to identify the benefits and complications of the pulmonary resection in MDR pulmonary tuberculosis. Material and Method: A retrospective review was performed in 27 patients who unerwent pulmonary resection for MDR pulmonary tuberculosis between January 1994 and March 1998. Mean age was 40 years and the average history of diagnosis prior to surgery was 3.1 years. All had resistance to an average of 4.4 drugs, and received second line drugs selected according to the drug sensitivity test. Most patients (93%) had cavitary lesions as the main focus. Bilateral lesions were identified in 19 patients (70%), however, the main focus was recognized in one side of the lung. Eleven patients (41%) were converted to negative sputum smear and/or culture before surgery. Result: Pneumonectomy was performed in 9 patients, lobectomy in 16 and segmentectomy in 2. There was no operative mortality. Morbidity had occurred in 7 patients (26%), prolonged air leak in 3 patients, reoperation due to bleeding in 2, bronchopleural fistula in 1, and reversible neurologic defect in 1. Median follow up period was 15 months (3-45 months). Sputum negative conversion was initially achieved in 22 patients (82%), and with continuous postopertive chemotherapy negative conversion was achieved in other 4 patients (14%). Only one pneumonectized patient (4%) failed due to considerable contralateral cavity. Conclusion: For patients with localized MDR pulmonary tuberculosis and with adequate pulmonary reserve function, surgical pulmonary resection combined with appropriate pre and postoperative anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy can achieve high success rate with acceptable morbidity.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 1999

Backround : Pneumoconiosis is the parenchymal lung disease that results from the inhalation and deposition of dust, usually mineral dust of occupational or environmental origin. Most of the pneumoconiosis can be categorized to coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) in Korea. No effective treatement is currently available, and the therapy for symptomatic CWP is limited to treatment of complication. Therefore authors analyzed and reviewed clinical features and radiological findings of 95 patients with pneumoconiosis for assessing the prognostic factors in disease progression. Method: We reviewed medical records of 95 cases with pneumoconiosis including history, chest X-ray, pulmonary function test, electrocardiography, AFB stain and culture of sputum, and routine blood examination between June 1995 and June 1997 in Seonam University Namkwang Hospital. Results: All of cases are male(mean age, 57.4 years), 91 cases out of them are miners. The mean duration of exposure to dust is 18.8 years. Major clinical symptoms are dyspnea (100%), sputum (71.6%), chest pain (55.8%), cough (23.2%), and hemoptysis (6.3%). 82 % of cases are over Morgan-Seaton Grade 2 in the degree of dyspnea. Small opacity on chest x-ray is 82.1 % and large opacity is 17.9%. Small opacity has tit type (37.2%), q/q type (25.6%) and r/r type (11.5%). B type is 42.2% in large opacity. For the pulmonary function test, restrictive type is 40.3%, mixed type 19.5% and obstructive type 8.3%. The more increasing chest Xray density, the more decreasing $FEV_1$ (p<0.01). 38% of patients show tuberculosis in chest X-ray, 15.8% positive smear of acid fast bacilli in sputum. The prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis is high in patients with poor clinical condition. The cases with the active pulmonary tuberculosis have severe dyspnea. Expired cases show 100% and 75% of positive pulmonary tuberculosis in chest X-ray and sputum examination, respectively. 75% of expired cases show the chronic cor pulmonale, who died of acute respiratory failure. Conclusion: These findings indicate that tuberculoois infection has a decisive influence on the progress and prognoois of pneumoconioois.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.1154-1166
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• 1998

Background : In the management of patients whose primary chemotherapy has failed, careful assessment is essential. It is important to find out as accurate a chemotherapy history as possible. Preferably it should contain the drugs which has never used before. The purpose of present study is establishment of retreatment regimen for pulmonary tuberculosis. The present report concerns the results of retreatment of pulmonary tuberculosis patients treated at National Masan Tuberculosis Hospital. Methods : Retrospective cohort study was made of 104 drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis patients who were treated by five regimens between Jan. 1994 and Nov. 1996. All the patients taken medicine for second anti-tuberculosis regimens for the first time. We separated the patients by three groups(Group I ; OFX+PTA+CS+PAS+Aminoglycoside, Group II : PZA+PTA+CS+PAS+Aminoglycoside, Group III : PZA+OFX+PTA+PAS+Aminoglycoside). Results : The age distribution was most frequent in fourth decade(36patients, 34.6%) and the mean age was 42.6 year. The sex distribution was more frequent in the males(81 patients, 85.7%). There was 31 patients(29.8%) with combined diseaes, 18 patients with complication and 24 patients(27.9%) with family history. Primary chemotherapy regimens were HERZ(S or K) in 48 patients (46.2%), HER(S or K) in 41 patients(39.4%) and others in 15 patients(14.4%). Result of drug sensitivity test showed that the resistance to INH and RFP is in 68 patients(65.4%), RFP is 12 patients(11.5%), INH is in 3 patients(2.9%) and all sensitive to INH and RFP is 3 patients(2.9%). The clinical symptoms on admission were coughing(89.4%), sputum(69.2%), dyspnea on exertion(37.5%), weight loss(33.7%) blood tinged sputum(15.4%) and others. The extent of disease on the radiograph was far-advanced in 73 patients(70.2%), moderate in 28 patients(26.9%) and minimal in 3 patients(2.9%). The side effects for drugs were gastrointestinal troubles in 31 patients(29.8%), arthralgia in 22 patients(21.2%), skin rash in 12 patients(11.5%) and others. The negative conversion rate on sputum AFB smear was 85.6%(87.5% in Group I, 80.0% in Group II and 90.5% in Group III). The average negative conversion time on sputum was 4 month(4.0 month in Group I, 4.6 month in Group II and 3.0 month in Group III). Conclusion : In the retreatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, ofloxacin is useful drug for the patients who are not available to use PZA and combination of PZA and OFX can be use effectively substituting for CS.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.167-171
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• 1992

Background:In the management of patients whose primary chemotherapy has failed, very careful assessment is essential. It is important to find out as accurate a chemotherapy history as possible. Preferably it should contain the drugs which has never used before. The present report concerns the results of retreatment of pulmonary tuberculosis patients treated at National Kongju Tuberculosis Hospital. Method: A retrospective study was made through the regular follow-up of 112 smear positive cases, who were treated by four-drug regimen between July 1985 and June 1990. Four drugs were, namely prothionamide, cycloserine, para-aminosalicylic acid, and streptomycin (kanamycin or tuber-actinomycin). The duration of follow-up was over one year. Results: 1) Out of 112 cases with positive sputum AFB smear, 72 (64%) achieved the negative conversion. 2) Among the 72 patients, 85% achieved negative conversion within 3 months after treatment. 3) When the duration of patient's illness was less than 2 years, 2 to 4 years and more than 5 years, the favourable response to retreatment was 86%, 62% and 54%, respectively. 4) When the number of sensitive drugs was 4,3,2 and 1, the favourable response rate was 74%, 68%, 39% and 0%, respectively. Conclusion: The shorter the duration of patient's illness was, the larger the number of sensitive drugs was. And the larger the number of sensitive drugs was, the better the result of treatment was. Thus it is very crucial to successfully treat newly discovered patients with adequate regimens and proper case-holding.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.563-576
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• 1997

This study was carried out to identify basic data for more efficient operation of comprehensive health check-up centers in the national health care system. The researcher reviewed and analyzed the main symptoms of the subjects according to sex, age, occupation and positive rate in the screening tests of a comprehensive health check-up, performed at one comprehensive health check-up center in located in a hospital. The subjects were 512 persons who had a check-up at the comprehensive health check-up, center in K university hospital in Seoul from October 2, 1996 to March 30, 1997. A questionaire developed by the researcher to obtain subject's general characteristics, main symptoms, medical examination, diagnosed disease was used as the tool for the study. The researcher analyzed the data with SPSS PC/sup +/ program. : the distribution of the subject's general characteristics and main symptoms was described with percentages and the difference between main symptoms and screening tests analyzed with X²-test, t-test, ANOVA. The result of this study are as follows : 1. For the distribution of diagnosis in males. liver disease was most frequent and hypertension was second : in females, hypertention and liver disease were not common in that order. 2. The most common complaints were indigestion in the digestive system, sputum in the respiratory system, irregular heart beat in the cardiovascular system, frequent urine in the urinary system vertigo in the hematologic system. 3. The main symptoms according to sex were for females, a statistically siguificant higher rate of complaints in the digestive system, cardiovascular system, urinary system, hematologic system, musculoskeletal, mental & nervous system as compared to males. 4. The main symptoms according to age were that in the the second decade there wara higher rate of complaints in the digestive system, and cardiovascular system than in the older age groups : and in the fifth decade more in the musculoskeletal system. 5. The main symptoms according to occupation were that formers and fishers had a higher rate of complaints in the mental and nervous system as compared to other occupation groups : and office workers, in gynecology. 6. The main symptoms according to diagnosis, were symptoms of the digestive system, frequent in liver disease : symptoms of the cardiovascular system in allergic disease. 7. The screening tests which showed the highest rates were UGI /FGS, PFT : In males a higher rate of abnormality was seen in abdominal ultrasono- graphy and in, females, in mammography. 8. In screening tests according to sex, males showed a higher positive rate for chest X-rays, and LFT, and females, in mammography, pap smear, CBC. 9. In screening tests according to age, higher positive rates of obesity, high blood pressure, chest X-ray, mammography, pap smear, FBS, CBC, urine test were seen in the fifth decade : PFT and abdominal ultrasonography in the third decade. The subjects who wanted comprehensive health check-up were not asymptomatic but had an illness with several symptoms. It is found that the most frequent diagnosed diseases were hypertention and liver disease. So proper observations must be done for them. Comprehensive health check-ups should be changed to a comprehensive examination including treatment beyond examination for those subjects with positive results.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.154-164
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• 2003

Background : Until the early 1990's in Korea, treatment outcomes of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in the private sector were reported to be inferior to those of the public health center under the National Tuberculosis Programme. The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical characteristics and the treatment efficacy of the patients with pulmonary tuberculosis recently diagnosed at a private general hospital. Materials and Methods : The study included all pulmonary tuberculosis patients diagnosed at Samsung Medical Center and notified to the public health center from August 2000 to January 2001. Results : Of the 232 patients included in the study during a 6-month period, 188 were (81.0%) initial treatment cases and 44 (19.0%) were re-treatment cases. Eighty-three (35.8%) patients had smear-positive sputa, and 27 (11.6%) had smear-negative, culture-positive sputa. Initial sputum examinations were not performed in 47 (20.3%) patients. A six-month, short-course treatment using isoniazid, rifampin, ethambutol and pyrazinamide was prescribed for 31.4% of the patients under the initial treatment. The success rate (cured plus treatment completed) of the initial treatment for the smear-positive patients was 69.1%. Eleven (13.3%) of the 83 patients with smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis discontinued their treatment without notice. Conclusions : To improve the treatment efficacy and decrease the default rates of the patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in the private sector, further efforts are required in line with the Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Treatment Guidelines and in the implementation of an appropriate model of public-private mix for tuberculosis control in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.3-8
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• 1995

Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis is one of common cause of neck mass in young adult in Korea. Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis known as scrofula was being treated by the 'Royal Touch' in the 5th century and by surgery in the 17th century, yet the principle of the treatment is still controversal. We report the clinical evaluation and therapeutic result about 121 tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis. The result were as follows: 1) The annual incidence(1985-1994) was 30.5 % (37 cases: 1985-1986), 17.7 % (21 cases: 1990-1992). 19.8%(24 cases: 1994). 2) The age of highest incidence was 20-29 year old age group in 41.3% (50 cases) and female predominated over male by 1.8 : 1. 3) The duration of disease was less than 6 months, in 85.9% (104 cases). 4) The most commonly involved LN group was superficial cervical group in 69.4% (84 cases), and difference between Rt & Lt, was not significant. 5) The most common symptom and local finding(P/E) were, painless swelling of LN in 74.3 % (90 cases) and single mass in 59.5 % (72 cases). 6) In seasonal variation, 85.9% (104 cases) was spring and summer. 7) Procedures except biopsy for evaluation were chest PA, AFB smear & culture(sputum), Mantoux test, USG, CT and, Associated extracervical tuberculous lesions were lung, axilla, breast. 8) In operation method (involving biopsy), Excision was 68.5 % (83 cases), neck dissection was 6.6% (8 cases). 9) The Modality, Duration and side effect of antituberculous medication: INH-Rifampin­Ethambutol was 66.1 % (88 cases), duration was 1 year in 84.3% (102 cases), side effects were severe GI trouble (24.8%), liver function damage (3.3%). 10) 3 cases recurred on the same site after 2 yrs(2 cases) and 4 months(1 case) and its treatment was curretage or I & D, with antituberculous medication.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.356-363
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• 2004

Background : The nationwide tuberculosis registry system in Korea has been operated with the dual reporting system - public health center (PHC) and private medical services (PMS) - since 2000. While three-fifths of the registered cases in 2002 was reported by PMS, it was reported that the success rate of patients at PMS was lower than that at PHC. To identify the problems of the patients' management at the PMS as well as the PHC in a community is the aim of this paper. Methods : The subject was selected from the registered cases of the pulmonary tuberculosis in Jejudo, 2002. The needed items for this study were gathered by the reviewing the medical charts directly. Results : Of the 262 patients included in the subject, 92 cases (35%) were treated initially at PMS. The sputum smear as an essentially diagnostic test was carried out with 69.2% at private clinics compared with 98.2% at PHC. The success rate of the treatment at PMS was 59.8% so that it had a statistically significant difference from that at PHC (80.0%; p<0.01). Conclusion : These results showed that there were several problems in diagnosis and treatment for the patient of pulmonary tuberculosis at PMS. To improve the success rate of the treatment at PMS, the nationwide clinical guideline for control of pulmonary tuberculosis should be systematically disseminated and strongly recommended at PMS by the government.