No abstract

These findings suggest the importance of maintaining an adequate level of serum uric acids from the early life. Appropriate monitoring and intervention of uric acid levels in a high-risk group can reduce the risk of a future increased BP.

In this paper, we describe 72-year-old female patient without evidence of malignant disease presented with significantly elevated serum carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 levels by respiratory infections. She was diagnosed with respiratory infections due to Mycobacterium avium complex and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The serum CA 19-9 levels remarkably increased (1,453-5,300 U/mL; reference range, <37 U/mL) by respiratory infection and abruptly decreased (357-534 U/mL) whenever infection was controlled by specific treatments. This case suggests that serum CA 19-9 levels may be used as a diagnostic marker to indicate new or resistant infections to previous antibiotics in chronic lung diseases without significant changes in chest X-ray findings.

Spontaneous regression of malignant tumors is rare especially of lung tumor and biological mechanism of such remission has not been addressed. We report the case of a 79-year-old Korean patient with non-small cell lung cancer, squamous cell cancer with a right hilar tumor and multiple lymph nodes, lung to lung metastasis that spontaneously regressed without any therapies. He has sustained partial remission state for one year and eight months after the first histological diagnosis.

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea with an increase in severity and frequency in the recent times. CDI can be refractory and relapses, especially in the elderly or patients with significant comorbidities. Conventional treatments with antibiotics often fail to cure the infection. Even when successfully treated, recurrent infection is common. Some studies have reported that fecal transplantation may be effective and safe for the treatment of recurrent and intractable CDI. We present two CDI cases (one recurrent and one refractory) which were treated successfully by fecal transplantation using enema.