Effect of Human Immunoglobulin G in Pneumoconiotic Patients with Pneumonia / 대한산업의학회지

OBJECTIVES: It is well known that pneumoconiotic patients experience impairments of macrophage function, as well as poor penetration of drugs into the fibrotic nodules and the immune system. Resultantly, pneumonia is frequently involved in pneumoconiotic patients and its treatment is not easy. Therefore, we conducted a clinical evaluation of immunoglobulin G which is known to be effective in severe infectious diseases. METHODS: We randomly selected 45 pneumoconiotic patients with pneumonia and classified them into 2 groups. The experimental group (IgG group) was scheduled to receive antibiotics and IgG (5 g I.V./day for 7 days). The control group was treated with antibiotics alone. Sputum gram stain (counts of WBCs and microorganisms), body temperature, arterial oxygen tension, and counts of peripheral venous blood leukocytes and band neutrophils were used as markers to assess the response effect therapy at time periods of 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 days after completion of therapy. We compared the clinical scores between the two groups. RESULTS: The experimental IgG treated group was composed of 27 patients, and the control group comprised 18 patients. There was no statistical differences between two groups in terms of age, pneumoconiotic profusion, impairment degree of pulmonary function, or frequency of pathogen isolation in the sputum before medication. The experimental IgG treated group showed lower clinical scores as compared with the control group (p=0.083). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that IgG infusion with antibiotics will have an effect on pneumonia therapy in pneumoconiosis patients that are under 60 years and exhibit simple pneumoconiosis.

A Case of Prenatally Diagnosed Apert syndrome / 대한산부인과학회잡지

Apert syndrome or acrocephalosyndactyly is a rare developmental deformity with a sporadic or autosomal dominant trait characterized by coronal craniosynostosis, midface hypoplasia, exorbitism, typical symmetrical syndactyly of both hands and feet with varying degrees of mental retardation. It results from a mutation of the fibroblast growth factor receptor type-2 (FGFT2) gene. In the absence of family history, prenatal diagnosis may be difficult based on ultrasonographic findings alone. The original description was presented by Apert in 1906 with nine cases. Since then more than 200 cases have been reported in the world. We report a case of Apert syndrome diagnosed prenatally by ultrasonogram in the third trimester and subsequently was terminated, with a brief review of prenatal sonographic findings in 11cases reported in literature.

Activity of Telomerase in Coal Worker's Autopsied Lung / 대한산업의학회지

OBJECT: We measured the activity of telomerase in coal workers lung tissue and found a significant increase in telomerase activity compared to the control group. Pneumoconiosis has the characteristics of fibroblast proliferation and the accumulation of collagen,thus finally causing the pathologic changes,which lead to the irreversible and progressive fibrosis of the lungs. We hypothesized that this cellular proliferation causing irreversible fibrosis may induce some elongation of the life cycle in the chromosomes and lead to further cellular immortalization. METHOD: 8 postmortem(within 24 hours)pneumo-coniotic cases were examined and their telomerase activity was compared with that of the autopsied lungs of lung cancer patients and of accident victims without any respiratory diseases. Using the extracted ribo-nucleoprotein from pneumoconiotic nodules, telomeric repeat amplification assay (TRAP)was done. RESULT: The pneumoconiotic lungs showed strong telomerase activity, similar to that of the lung cancer patients, while the control group showed no such activity. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, we found that coal dust-induced cellular proliferation affects telomerase-activity clinically.