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Common CT findings of M massiliense diseases overlap with those of M abscessus disease. However, responses to antibiotic treatment are much different; in M massiliense disease, negative sputum conversion is accomplished in all patients and serial CT scans show improvement in most patients.

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To understand the domestic population structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates in the Republic of Korea, we genotypically analysed 80 isolates obtained from various geographical origins in the country. Of these, 64 (80.0 %) isolates were identified as Beijing family strains. It is particularly interesting that their phylogenetic classification, based on the ancient/ modern separation and the presence/absence of the genomic region RD181, revealed a majority of the ancient (RD181+) subfamily in the population. The 15 loci of variable number of tandem repeat(s) of mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units (15-MIRU-VNTR) were also analysed. Combination with the previous VNTR data reported from surrounding countries revealed that the topology of the minimum spanning tree was linked tightly not to the geographical origins of the patients but to the phylogenetic characteristics of the isolates. These results show that the phylogeographical distribution of the M. tuberculosis Beijing family around far-eastern Asia could be estimated using international accumulation and comparison of VNTR genotyping data. INTRODUCTIONThe Beijing family, a lineage of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is well known for its highly endemic prevalence around East Asian countries and as a causative agent of tuberculosis (TB) (van Soolingen et al., 1995). In the Republic of Korea (South Korea), TB is still a major public health concern, with 34 157 (70.3 per 100 000) registered new TB patients in 2008 and 2376 deaths attributable to TB in 2007 (Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2008). More than 70 % of M. tuberculosis strains isolated from Korean pulmonary TB patients belong to the Beijing family. 'K strain' (Park et al., 2000), one of the Beijing family strains, has been reported as the cause of a severe outbreak of TB in South Korea (Kim et al., 2001). Although their phylogenetic position in the Beijing family lineage has been unclear, Shamputa et al. (2010) reported recently that K strains show genetic diversity by some genotyping methods, even in isolates obtained from a single hospital.The detailed phylogenetic variation of the Beijing family has been unveiled by various genetic markers such as single nucleotide polymorphisms, regions of difference and variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) loci (Filliol et al., 2006;Tsolaki et al., 2005;. A notable characteristic of the lineage is the insertion of IS6110 in a genomic region named NTF (Mokrousov et al., 2005;Plikaytis et al., 1994). This phylogenetic marker can classify the Beijing family into two distinct sublineages: ancient and modern. The modern Beijing sublineage has been more predominant than the ancient sublineage throughout the world, including countries surrounding South Korea (Bifani et al., 2002;Dou et al., 2008; Kremer et al., 2009; Mokrousov et al., 2005Mokrousov et al., , 2006 van Soolingen & Kremer, 2009). However, reported that the ancient Beijing sublineage has been observed to be exceptionally predominant in Japan.Abbreviations: MIRU-VNTR, ...

The usefulness of 3-dimensional (3D)-printed disease models has been recognized in various medical fields. This study aims to introduce a production platform for patient-specific 3D-printed brain tumor model in clinical practice and evaluate its effectiveness. A full-cycle platform was created for the clinical application of a 3D-printed brain tumor model (3D-printed model) production system. Essential elements included automated segmentation software, cloud-based interactive communication tools, customized brain models with exquisite expression of brain anatomy in transparent material, adjunctive devices for surgical simulation, and swift process cycles to meet practical needs. A simulated clinical usefulness validation was conducted in which neurosurgeons assessed the usefulness of the 3D-printed models in 10 cases. We successfully produced clinically applicable patient-specific models within 4 days using the established platform. The simulated clinical usefulness validation results revealed the significant superiority of the 3D-printed models in surgical planning regarding surgical posture (p = 0.0147) and craniotomy design (p = 0.0072) compared to conventional magnetic resonance images. The benefit was more noticeable for neurosurgeons with less experience. We established a 3D-printed brain tumor model production system that is ready to use in daily clinical practice for neurosurgery.

The purpose of this study was to determine the epidemiologic characteristics and survival of patients with primary brain and other central nervous system (CNS) tumors in Korea and to compare our findings with those from the United States. Materials and Methods We collected data on primary brain and CNS tumors diagnosed between 2007 and 2016 from the Korea Central Cancer Registry. The age-standardized incidence rates (ASRs) and 5-year relative survival rates (RSRs) were evaluated. We applied the classification and definitions of the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States to our analysis for direct comparison with United States data. Results A total of 115,050 primary brain and CNS tumors were identified, and the ASR of all tumors was 22.01 per 100,000 individuals, which was lower than the 23.41 in the United States. However, the ASR of malignant tumors was significantly lower herein (4.27) than in the United States (7.08). Meningeal tumors were the most common histologic group among all tumors (ASR, 8.32). The 5-year RSR of all primary brain and other CNS tumors was 86.4%, and that of all malignant tumors was 44.1%, which was higher than the 35.8% observed in the United States. Among malignant tumors, glioblastomas had the lowest 5-year RSR (12.1%). Conclusion In Korea, malignant brain and other CNS tumors have a lower incidence and better survival outcome.

PurposeThis study was performed to analyze the surgical pathology results of the "atypia of undetermined significance" (AUS) category from thyroid fine needle aspiration (FNA) and to describe the characteristics to distinguish a malignant from a benign nodule.MethodsA retrospective analysis was done on 116 patients who underwent thyroid surgery from December 2008 to December 2012, following a diagnosis of AUS from preoperative thyroid FNA. We investigated the age, gender, size and site of the nodules, ultrasonographic criteria, cytological features, the number of atypia results after repeated FNAs, surgical method, and final pathologic results.ResultsSixty-five out of 116 patients underwent total thyroidectomy and the rest had partial thyroidectomy. The final pathologic results were 41 malignancies (35.3%) and 75 benign diseases (64.7%). AUS was divided into group 1: 'cannot rule out malignancy' or group 2: 'cannot rule out follicular neoplasm'. After surgery, group 1 revealed papillary thyroid cancer in most cases and group 2 revealed follicular adenoma in most cases. Age over 40 years, ultrasonographic findings suggestive of malignancy, more than 2 results of atypia from repeated FNAs and nodules less than 2 centimeters were risk factors for malignancy on univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis showed that ultrasonographic findings suggestive of malignancy was a significant risk factor for malignancy.ConclusionFor proper evaluation of the risk for malignancy in thyroid AUS patients, the ultrasonographic criteria should be considered along with other clinicopathological findings such as age, nodule size, number of atypia, cytologic features.

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