• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제82권3호
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• pp.194-200
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• 2019

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major infectious disease in South Korea causing substantial disease burden, particularly in the elderly. This study aimed to identify the case detection rate of mobile TB screening for the elderly conducted in the Jeollanam-do region and to analyze risk factors of active TB. Methods: We screened the elderly population (${\geq}65$ years old) in Jeollanam-do from August to December 2017. Chest radiography was performed for all participants. Participants with TB presumptive signs were asked to submit sputum specimen(s). Sputum smear, culture, and polymerase chain reaction analyses were performed. Cascade analysis, chi-squared tests, and Fisher exact tests were used to evaluate screening performance. Results: In total, 12,402 participants were screened, and 211 (1.7%) were suspected to have active TB; 181 of the suspected patients (85.8%) underwent sputum smear test, and 16 (8.8%) patients were confirmed to have TB. The TB prevalence among the elderly was bacteriologically confirmed to be 129 per 100,000 individuals, which was similar to national TB notification data for the same age groups. The proportion of active TB cases increased with age, and differed based on sex and past TB history. However, TB-related symptoms, comorbidity status, and TB screening history within 12 months were not predictive of active TB. Conclusion: This study identified that the prevalence rate was similar to national TB notification data from the same age groups. Periodic, community-based, systematic TB screening among the elderly population is recommended.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제82권4호
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• pp.298-305
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• 2019

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) causes substantial health burden to the Korean military. This study aims to assess the impact of infectious TB cases on close and casual contacts in the Korean Army settings based on contact investigation data. Methods: Six Army units with infectious TB cases from September 2012 to May 2013 were enrolled in the study. We analyzed the clinical data from close and casual contacts screened using the tuberculin skin test (TST) and QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube to identify latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) cases. For the control group, 286 military conscripts with no reported TB exposure were tested by TST only. Results: Of the 667 contacts of index cases, LTBI cases identified were as follows: 21.8% of close contacts of smearpositive cases (71/326), 8.5% of casual contacts of smear-positive cases (26/305), and 2.8% of close contacts of smearnegative cases (1/36). In the control group, 16.8% showed positivity in TST. In a multivariate analysis, having stayed in the same room or next room with TB patients was identified as a risk factor of LTBI. Conclusion: Using the data from TB contact investigations in the Korean Army units, we found an overall LTBI rate of 14.7% among the contacts screened. This study demonstrates that contacts living in the same building, especially the same room or next room, with TB patients are at a high risk of acquiring LTBI, serving as additional evidence for defining close and casual contacts of a TB patient with regard to Army barrack settings.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• 제29권3호
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• pp.161-165
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• 2022

We report a case of successful treatment of congenital syphilis in an extremely preterm baby. A 1,395 g female infant was born by emergency Caesarean section due to preterm labor and breech presentation at gestational age at 29 weeks and 3 days with an Apgar score of 2 and 4 at 1 minute and 5 minutes, respectively. The mother of the newborn, an illegal immigrant who did not receive any antenatal care, was diagnosed as active syphilis infection by reactive rapid plasma regain (RPR) (titer 1:128) just before the delivery. Upon birth, the newborn presented with various clinical manifestations, including severe respiratory distress syndrome, persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, desquamation and scaling of the whole body, and osteolytic changes of long bone ends. Results of laboratory tests showed signs of early congenital syphilis, including positive syphilis reagin test (12.7 R.U.), reactive with RPR titer of 1:64, and positive for immunoglobulin (Ig) M and IgG fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption test. However, after completion of penicillin G treatment for two weeks, laboratory results dramatically improved, showing a negative syphilis reagin test (0.5 R.U.) and non-reactive in RPR. In conclusion, the incidence of congenital syphilis is prone to be resurgent in South Korea, neonatologists should be fully aware of the clinical features of congenital syphilis because early diagnosis and prompt treatment are essential in order to reduce the social and economic burden due to congenital syphilis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제86권3호
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• pp.226-233
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• 2023

Background: Inactive or old, healed tuberculosis (TB) on chest radiograph (CR) is often found in high TB incidence countries, and to avoid unnecessary evaluation and medication, differentiation from active TB is important. This study develops a deep learning (DL) model to estimate activity in a single chest radiographic analysis. Methods: A total of 3,824 active TB CRs from 511 individuals and 2,277 inactive TB CRs from 558 individuals were retrospectively collected. A pretrained convolutional neural network was fine-tuned to classify active and inactive TB. The model was pretrained with 8,964 pneumonia and 8,525 normal cases from the National Institute of Health (NIH) dataset. During the pretraining phase, the DL model learns the following tasks: pneumonia vs. normal, pneumonia vs. active TB, and active TB vs. normal. The performance of the DL model was validated using three external datasets. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance to determine active TB by DL model and radiologists. Sensitivities and specificities for determining active TB were evaluated for both the DL model and radiologists. Results: The performance of the DL model showed area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.980 in internal validation, and 0.815 and 0.887 in external validation. The AUC values for the DL model, thoracic radiologist, and general radiologist, evaluated using one of the external validation datasets, were 0.815, 0.871, and 0.811, respectively. Conclusion: This DL-based algorithm showed potential as an effective diagnostic tool to identify TB activity, and could be useful for the follow-up of patients with inactive TB in high TB burden countries.

• 대한임상검사과학회지
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• 제55권4호
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• pp.276-283
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• 2023

산업안전보건연구원에서는 현재 2005년 미국흉부학회(American Thoracic Society, ATS)와 유럽호흡기학회(European Respiratory Society, ERS)의 폐활량검사 표준화가이드를 준용하여 근로자건강진단 폐활량검사를 평가하고 있으며, 2019년 ATS/ERS가이드의 적용을 검토하고 있다. 새로운 평가기준에 따른 결과를 현재 결과와 비교해보고 우리나라 근로자건강진단에 적용하는 것이 적절한지 확인하기 위해 특수건강진단기관으로부터 수집한 325건의 폐활량검사 결과를 검토하였다. 외삽용적, 보정오차, FIVC 등의 평가기준을 더 엄격하게 적용하였음에도 검사의 신뢰성 점수가 상승한 기관이 더 많았다. 주요원인은 FEV1, FVC의 적합성과 재현성을 분리하여 판단함과 동시에 점수를 ATS 등급에 따라 차별 부여하므로 감점 폭이 감소했기 때문으로 파악된다. 새로운 기준을 적용하면 현재 부적합하다고 판단하는 자료의 활용이 가능하므로 검사자와 판정의사의 결과선별과 해석에 대한 이해도를 높인다면 검사자와 수검자 모두가 검사에 대한 부담감을 줄이면서 신뢰성 있는 결과를 얻을 수 있을 것으로 기대한다.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.75-82
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• 2007

목 적 : hMPV는 paramyxovirus에 속하는 RNA 바이러스로 2001년 van den Hoogen 등에 의해 처음으로 보고되었으며 늦은 겨울이나 이른 봄에 영아와 노인에서 호흡기 감염을 일으키는 바이러스로 알려져 있으나 아직 우리나라에서의 보고는 많지 않다. 최근 호흡기 증상을 보이는 환아들에서 hMPV를 확인한 바 있어 이에 보고하는 바이다. 방 법 : 2004년 10월부터 2005년 5월까지 을지병원, 서울의료원, 보라매병원 소아과에 호흡기 증상을 주소로 방문한 443명의 비인두 흡인물에서 hMPV RT-PCR을 시행하였고, 양성인 15명의 임상 양상과 검사 소견을 의무기록을 통해 후향적으로 조사하였다. 결 과 : 443명 중 15명에서 hMPV PCR 양성을 보여 양성율은 3.4%이었다. 남아가 7명, 여아가 8명이었고 연령은 1개월에서 62개월(정중값 31.5개월)이었다. 이중 24개월 미만의 환아가 53.3%(8/15)이었다. 진단명은 폐렴 9명, 모세기관지염 3명, 상기도염 2명, 후두염 1명이었다. 그 중 1명에서 천식이 있었고 나머지 환아에서는 기왕력이 없었다. 임상 증상으로는 기침이 15명(100%)으로 가장 많았고 그 외 열감 12명(80%), 콧물 10명(67%), 구토 4명(27%), 호흡 곤란 4명(27%), 설사 3명(20%), 발진 1명(7%)이 있었다. 신체 검진 상 인두 발적이 가장 흔하게 보이는 소견이었으며 나음 6례, 흉부 함몰 4례, 빈호흡 2례, 천명 2례, 천음 1례가 관찰되었다. 말초 혈액 검사만으로 hMPV 감염을 시사하는 특징적인 소견은 없었다. 15명 중 2명에서 아데노바이러스와 중복감염이 있었다. 평균 발열 기간은 $4.9{\pm}2.8$일이었으며 입원 치료를 하였던 13명의 평균 재원 기간은 $5.6{\pm}0.9$일이었고 모두 대증적 치료 후 합병증 없이 증상 호전을 보여 퇴원하였다. 결 론 : hMPV는 상기도 및 하기도 호흡기 감염의 중요 원인 바이러스 중 하나로 생각되며 우리나라에서의 임상적, 역학적 특징을 규명하기 위해서는 향후 더 많은 환자를 대상으로 한 연구가 필요할 것으로 사료된다.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.265-269
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• 2020

Korea has failed to respond to the Middle East respiratory syndrome of 2015 and the early phase of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) of 2020. This is due to the structural problems of the Ministry of Health and Welfare that has been more increased manpower and budgets of the welfare part relative to those of the health part, and the ministers were appointed welfare experts, not health experts. In 21 (56.8%) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, the Ministry of Health operates independently, and these countries have been relatively well coping with COVID-19. The importance of the Korean health sector is increasing even further. Korea faces on the emerging infectious diseases, chronic infectious diseases such as tuberculosis that has been being a huge burden, and rapidly increasing non-communicable diseases, suicide and mental disorders, and some diseases due to fine dust and climate change. In addition, the rapid advancement of the aging society, the entry of an era of ultra-low fertility and low-economic growth, and the unification of the Korean peninsula are calling for a health policy reform. Therefore, the Ministry of Health should be established and systematically responsible for health policy, disease policy, medical policy, and medical security policy. Ministry of Health will be the control tower for K-Disease Control, K-Bio, and K-Health.

• 셀메드
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.6.1-6.6
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• 2024

The prevalence of respiratory diseases is increasing due to social and environmental factors such as increased environmental pollution and air pollution, and among them, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in particular has a high mortality and morbidity rate worldwide. As a result, medical expenses are rapidly increasing, creating a social and economic burden. In response to this, there is a need to discuss ways to reduce the risk from diseases and manage them appropriately, and the most basic starting point in this process is how these chronic lung disease patients are treated in actual clinical settings and how to improve the quality of treatment. There is a need to look into whether there are effective drugs. Western treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is basically a disease in which the airway narrows, so bronchodilators are used to widen the bronchi, and corticosteroids and antibiotics are mainly used to relieve the inflammatory response in the lungs. However, since the mainly used Western medicine does not serve as a fundamental therapeutic drug and contains many side effects, there is a need for drugs that improve the quality of life of patients and are more effective in managing symptoms as symptomatic prescriptions. Therefore, Western and Oriental medicine treatments are needed. The purpose is to suggest better treatments through comparative analysis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제72권2호
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• pp.163-168
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• 2012

Background: Cigarette smoke induced release of iron could alter iron metabolism in the lungs of chronic smokers and contribute to the increase in the total oxidative burden on the lungs of smokers. In previous studies, ferritin levels of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in smokers were elevated. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between serum ferritin concentration, smoking and lung function in Korean people. Methods: This study was based on the data acquired in the second year (2008) of the Forth National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that was conducted from 2007 to 2009. The analysis included 2,244 subjects who were older than 20 years and had complete data from both lung function test and serum ferritin concentration. Among participants, 1,076 were male and 1,168 were female. Results: Mean serum ferritin concentrations in males were $120.3{\pm}80.1{\mu}g/L$ and $47.9{\pm}39.8{\mu}g/L$ in females. There were no differences in serum ferritin concentrations between non-smokers and smokers after adjusting for age, body mass index, and amounts of alcohol. Serum ferritin concentrations were associated with smoking amounts by simple linear regression but not associated with smoking amounts after adjustment with age, body mass index, and amounts of alcohol in both males and females. Lung function was not associated with serum ferritin concentrations. Conclusion: Our data suggested that serum ferritin concentrations are not related with smoking and lung function.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제83권1호
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• pp.31-41
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• 2020

Background: Chronic cough is defined as a cough lasting more than 8 weeks and socio-economic burden of chronic cough is enormous. The characteristics of chronic cough in Korea are not well understood. The Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases (KATRD) published guidelines on cough management in 2014. The current study evaluated the clinical characteristics of chronic cough in Korea and the efficacy of the KATRD guidelines. Methods: This was a multi-center, retrospective observational study conducted in Korea. The participants were over 18 years of age. They had coughs lasting more than 8 weeks. Subjects with current pulmonary diseases, smokers, exsmokers with more than 10 pack-years or who quit within the past 1 year, pregnant women, and users of cough-inducing medications were excluded. Evaluation and management of cough followed the KATRD cough-management guidelines. Results: Participants with chronic cough in Korea showed age in the late forties and cough duration of more than 1 year. Upper airway cough syndrome was the most common cause of cough, followed by cough-variant asthma (CVA). Gastro-esophageal reflux diseases and eosinophilic bronchitis were less frequently observed. Following the KATRD cough-management guidelines, 91.2% of the subjects improved after 4 weeks of treatment. Responders were younger, had a longer duration of cough, and an initial impression of CVA. In univariate and multivariate analyses, an initial impression of CVA was the only factor related to better treatment response. Conclusion: The causes of chronic cough in Korea differed from those reported in other countries. The current Korean guidelines proved efficient for treating Korean patients with chronic cough.