Journal of Korean medical science
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Oct 2013
Case ReportsCase report of occupational asthma induced by polyvinyl chloride and nickel.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a widely used chemical for production of plastics. However occupational asthma (OA) caused by PVC has been reported only rarely. We report a 34-yr-old male wallpaper factory worker with OA due to PVC and nickel (Ni) whose job was mixing PVC with plasticizers. ⋯ Moreover, the fractional concentration of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) was increased after challenge with PVC. To our knowledge, this is the first case of OA in Korea induced by exposure to both PVC and Ni. We suggest that eosinophilic inflammation may be involved in the pathogenesis of PVC-induced OA and that FeNO monitoring can be used for its diagnosis.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Oct 2013
Improvement of dementia screening accuracy of mini-mental state examination by education-adjustment and supplementation of frontal assessment battery performance.
This study aimed to investigate whether the demographic variable-adjustment and supplementation of Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) score can improve the screening ability of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) for dementia and its subtypes. Five hundred forty-one non-demented comparison (NC) and 474 dementia (320 Alzheimer's disease [AD]; 139 non-Alzheimer's disease dementia [NAD]; and 15 mixed AD-NAD dementia) individuals living in the community were included. Education-adjusted MMSE (MMSE-edu) score showed significantly better screening accuracy for overall dementia, AD, and NAD than MMSE raw score. ⋯ Additional supplementation of FAB to MMSE-edu further increased the ability for overall dementia or NAD screening, but not for AD screening. Further education adjustment of MMSE-FAB also improved its ability for overall dementia, AD, and NAD screening. These results strongly support the usefulness of education-adjustment and supplementation of frontal function assessment to improve screening performance of MMSE for dementia and its subtypes, NAD in particular.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Oct 2013
Patients with persistent new-onset diabetes after transplantation have greater weight gain after kidney transplantation.
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the difference in BMI pattern between patients with persistent new-onset diabetes after transplantation (P-NODAT) and without new-onset diabetes after transplantation (N-NODAT) in a retrospective matched case-control (1:3) analysis. Thirty-six patients who developed P-NODAT were identified among 186 adult renal transplant recipients with no evidence of pretransplant diabetes mellitus who underwent kidney transplantation from September 1997 to March 2008 and were treated with a triple regimen including tacrolimus. The controls were selected to match the patients for pretransplant BMI, age at transplantation (± 5 yr), and date of transplantation (± 12 months). ⋯ The mixed-model analysis showed that patients with P-NODAT exhibited a faster increase in BMI. P-NODAT is associated with posttransplant weight gain. The risk of P-NODAT should be considered in patients with rapid weight gain after transplantation.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Oct 2013
Case ReportsGenetic and clinical characteristics of korean patients with isolated hypoparathyroidism: from the Korean hypopara registry study.
Isolated hypoparathyroidism (IH) shows heterogeneous phenotypes and can be caused by defects in a variety of genes. The goal of our study was to determine the clinical features and to analyze gene mutations in a large cohort of Korean patients with sporadic or familial IH. We recruited 23 patients. ⋯ Besides, heterozygous gain-of-function mutations in the CASR gene were found in other subjects; D410E and P221L. We also found one single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the prepro-PTH gene, five SNPs in the CASR gene, and four SNPs in the GCMB gene. The current study represents a variety of biochemical phenotypes in IH patients with the molecular genetic diagnosis of IH.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Oct 2013
Tooth loss may predict poor cognitive function in community-dwelling adults without dementia or stroke: the PRESENT project.
Periodontal disease is a potential predictor of stroke and cognitive impairment. However, this association is unclear in adults aged 50 yr and above without a history of stroke or dementia. We evaluated the association between the number of teeth lost, indicating periodontal disease, and cognitive impairment in community-dwelling adults without any history of dementia or stroke. ⋯ In the unadjusted analysis, odds ratios (OR) of cognitive impairment based on MMSE score were 2.46 (95% CI, 1.38-4.39) and 2.7 (95% CI, 1.57-4.64) for subjects who had lost 6-10 teeth and those who had lost more than 10 teeth, respectively, when compared with subjects who had lost 0-5 teeth. After adjusting for age, education level, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and smoking, the relationship remained significant (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.08-3.69, P=0.027 for those with 6-10 teeth lost; OR, 2.26; 95% CI, 1.27-4.02, P=0.006 for those with more than 10 teeth lost). The number of teeth lost is correlated with cognitive impairment among community-dwelling adults aged 50 and above without any medical history of stroke or dementia.