Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to K K Lam.
A survey of three indices of ventilatory capacity, forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), was undertaken on 3490 Chinese inhabitants of Hong Kong. Nomograms have been constructed for the prediction of these three indices for subjects between the ages of 5 and 75 years.
A survey of three indices of ventilatory capacity (forced expiratory volume in one second, FEV1; forced vital capacity, FVC; and peak expiratory flow rate, PEFR) was carried out on 3490 Chinese inhabitants of Hong Kong aged between 5 and 97 years. The results are compared with those of previous surveys of ventilatory capacity in a variety of ethnic groups. Our results confirm previous findings that the indices FEV1 and FVC are proportional to the square of the height of the subject, but we have found that PEFR is proportional to height itself. Using the indices FEV1/height2, and PEFR/height we have derived regression equations which may be used to predict normal values of the ventilatory indices for both adults and children. An interesting observation in this cross-sectional survey was that although all ventilatory indices were adversely affected by smoking, the rates of decline of these indices with age were not accelerated in smokers compared with non-smokers, in contrast to the findings of previous surveys on European populations.
Eosinophilia is not an uncommon finding in chronic dialysis patients. It is usually benign in nature although definite pathogenesis is unknown. We have encountered a young uremic Chinese adult who developed Kimura's disease after being on maintenance hemodialysis for about 3 years. Asymptomatic eosinophilia had been noted for 1 year and 8 months prior to the development of progressively enlarged neck masses, which leads to the diagnosis of Kimura's disease. In contrast to most cases, eosinophilia was first noticed before the neck masses appeared. There is often a close correlation between Kimura's disease and glomerular disease, where renal involvement is considered as a systemic manifestation. However, we do not have strong evidence to support this relationship between terminal renal failure and Kimura's disease in this patient. To our knowledge, our patient is the first reported case of Kimura's disease occurring in chronic hemodialysis patients. Eosinophilia persisted for nearly 2 years before the neck mass developed and recurred after the excision. Besides, our patient also demonstrated a chronic and recurrent course typical of Kimura's disease.