ABSTRACT
Background/Aims@#Standard triple therapy (STT; proton pump inhibitor [PPI]+clarithromycin+amoxicillin) used for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication has shown low treatment success rates in recent years, which is most likely attributable to increased clarithromycin resistance. In this study, we compared treatment success rates of tailored therapy (TT) using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and empirical STT. @*Methods@#This retrospective study included 650 patients with H. pylori infection, who visited Eunpyeong St. Mary’s Hospital in Korea; 343 patients received TT based on RT-PCR assays, and 307 patients received STT. Eradication success was defined as a negative 13C-urea breath test result 4~8 weeks after treatment completion. Patients who failed first-line therapy and those with clarithromycin resistance received bismuth-containing quadruple therapy (BQT; PPI+bismuth+metronidazole+tetracycline). @*Results@#Intention-to-treat analysis showed that H. pylori eradication rates were higher in patients who received RT-PCR–based TT than in those who were treated using empirical STT (80.5% [190/236] vs. 70.4% [216/307], P=0.069). Per-protocol (PP) analysis showed similar results (84.4% [190/225] vs. 74.7% [216/289], P=0.007). PP analysis showed that 7-day TT treatment was associated with a higher eradication rate than that observed with 10- to 14-day STT (85.2% [178/209] vs. 73.8% [59/80], P=0.029). The clarithromycin resistance rate was 27.9% (87/312). The eradication success rate was 89.2% (74/83) in patients with clarithromycin resistance, who received BQT as first-line therapy. @*Conclusions@#The treatment success rate was higher in patients who received 7-day RT-PCR–based TT than in those who were administered 10- to 14-day empirical treatment.
ABSTRACT
Purpose@#This study is an integrated literature review to analyze health problems and social determinants of multicultural adolescents in South Korea. @*Methods@#An integrative review was conducted according to Whittemore & Knafl’s guideline. An electronic search that included publications from 2018 to 2020 in the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, RISS, and KISS databases was conducted. Of a total of 67 records that were identified, 13 finally met full inclusion criteria. Text network analysis was also conducted to identify keywords network trends using NetMiner program. @*Results@#The health problems of multicultural adolescents were classified into mental health (depression, anxiety, suicide and acculturative stress) and health risk behaviors (smoking, risky drinking, smartphone dependence and sexual behavior). As social determinants affecting the health of multicultural adolescents, the biological factors such as gender, age, and visible minority, and the psychological factors such as acculturative stress, self-esteem, family support, and ego-resiliency were identified. The sociocultural factors were identified as family economic status, residential area, parental education level, and parents' country of birth. As a result of text network analysis, a total of 41 words were identified. @*Conclusion@#Based on these results, mental health and health risk behaviors should be considered as interventions for health promotion of multicultural adolescents. Our findings suggest that further research should be conducted to broaden the scope of health determinants to account for the effects of the physical environment and health care system.
ABSTRACT
Computed tomography (CT) exams were conducted to determine the distribution of abdominal fat identified based on the CT number measured in Hounsfield Units (HU) and to measure the volume of the abdominal visceral and subcutaneous fat in minipigs. The relationship between the CT-based fat volumes of several vertebral levels and the entire abdomen and anthropometric data including the sagittal abdominal diameter and waist circumference were evaluated. Moreover, the total fat volumes at the T11, T13, L3, and L5 levels were compared with the total fat volume of the entire abdomen to define the landmark of abdominal fat distribution. Using a single-detector CT, six 6-month-old male minipigs were scanned under general anesthesia. Three radiologists then assessed the HU value of visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat by drawing the region of interest manually at the T11, T13, L1, L3, and L5 levels. The CT number and abdominal fat determined in this way by the three radiologists was found to be correlated (intra-class coefficient = 0.9). The overall HU ranges for the visceral and subcutaneous fat depots were -147.47 to -83.46 and -131.62 to -90.97, respectively. The total fat volume of the entire abdomen was highly correlated with the volume of abdominal fat at the T13 level (r = 0.97, p < 0.0001). These findings demonstrate that the volume of abdominal adipose tissue measured at the T13 level using CT is a strong and reliable predictor of total abdominal adipose volume.