COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring in the Republic of Korea: February 26, 2021 to April 30, 2021

Objectives@#On February 26, 2021, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination was started for high-priority groups based on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with 2 available COVID-19 vaccines (AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech) in Korea. This report provides a summary of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination as of April 30, 2021. @*Methods@#Adverse events following immunization are notifiable by medical doctors to the Korea Immunization Management System (KIMS) under the national surveillance system. We analyzed all adverse events reports following COVID-19 vaccination to the KIMS from February 26 to April 30, 2021. @*Results@#In total, 16,196 adverse events following 3,586,814 administered doses of COVID-19 vaccines were reported in approximately 2 months (February 26 to April 30, 2021). Of these, 15,658 (96.7%) were non-serious adverse events, and 538 (3.3%) were serious adverse events, including 73 (0.5%) deaths. The majority of adverse events (n=13,063, 80.7%) were observed in women, and the most frequently reported adverse events were myalgia (52.2%), fever (44.9%), and headache (34.9%). Of the 73 deaths following the COVID-19 vaccination, none were related to the vaccines. @*Conclusion@#By April 30, 3.6 million doses of the COVID 19 vaccine had been given in Korea, and the overwhelming majority of reports were for non-serious events. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency continues to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccination.

COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring in the Republic of Korea: February 26, 2021 to April 30, 2021

Objectives@#On February 26, 2021, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination was started for high-priority groups based on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with 2 available COVID-19 vaccines (AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech) in Korea. This report provides a summary of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination as of April 30, 2021. @*Methods@#Adverse events following immunization are notifiable by medical doctors to the Korea Immunization Management System (KIMS) under the national surveillance system. We analyzed all adverse events reports following COVID-19 vaccination to the KIMS from February 26 to April 30, 2021. @*Results@#In total, 16,196 adverse events following 3,586,814 administered doses of COVID-19 vaccines were reported in approximately 2 months (February 26 to April 30, 2021). Of these, 15,658 (96.7%) were non-serious adverse events, and 538 (3.3%) were serious adverse events, including 73 (0.5%) deaths. The majority of adverse events (n=13,063, 80.7%) were observed in women, and the most frequently reported adverse events were myalgia (52.2%), fever (44.9%), and headache (34.9%). Of the 73 deaths following the COVID-19 vaccination, none were related to the vaccines. @*Conclusion@#By April 30, 3.6 million doses of the COVID 19 vaccine had been given in Korea, and the overwhelming majority of reports were for non-serious events. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency continues to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccination.

Comparison of Nutrient Intakes between Disabled Children(Mental Retardation, Autism and Cerebral Palsy) and Non-disabled Children: Comparison According to the Types of Handicap / 대한지역사회영양학회지

Purpose of this study was to compare nutrient intakes of disabled children and non-disabled children. Subjects consisted of 86 disabled children from a special education school and 127 non-disabled children from an elementary school in Seoul. Nutrient intakes were assessed by modified 24-hr recall method, with the help of children's parents and teachers. Almost all nutrient intakes (energy, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamin B1 and niacin) of children with cerebral palsy were significantly lower than those of other groups. But nutrient intakes per body weight of children with cerebral palsy were not significantly different with those of other groups. There was no significant difference between disabled and non-disabled children in almost % RDA (rate of actual intake to RDA) except of energy %RDA in children with cerebral palsy. NARs (nutrient adequacy ratio) for energy and vitamin B1 of children with cerebral palsy were significantly lower than those of children with autism and mental retardation, and non-disabled children. The proportions of energy, carbohydrate and protein intakes from lunch were significantly higher than those from breakfast and dinner in children with mental retardation and autism. The nutrient intakes of disabled children were different between other groups according to the type of handicap. For example, children with cerebral palsy had the risk of undernutrition. On the other hand, autistic children had the tendency of overnutrition. These results suggest that nutrition educational programs and educational materials for disabled children, their teachers and their parents should be developed considering the type of handicap.

A Comparison of the Eating Habits and Eating Behaviors of Disabled and Non-disabled Children / 대한지역사회영양학회지

This study was conducted to compare the eating habits of disabled and non-disabled children in Seoul and Gangneung, Korea. Questionnaires about eating habits were answered by the children's parents and their teachers. The subjects of this study consisted of 146 disabled children (108 boys and 38 girls) from two special education schools and 241 nondisabled children (control group, 120 boys and 121 girls) from two elementary schools in Seoul and Gangneung, respectively. The percentage of the children who required more than 30 minutes to eat was 11.3% in the disabled group and 2.5% in the non-disabled group. In the disabled group, 44.0% ate excessive amounts of food or could not control their intake. The percentage of the children whose frequency of eating breakfast was less than 1 to 2 times per week was 21.0% in the disabled group and 9.7% in the non-disabled group. Also, 7.6% of the disabled group and 13.9% of the nondisabled group had snacks more than three times per day. The percentage of children who were able to eat by themselves was lower in the disabled group (47.9%) than in the non-disabled group (87.8%). Of the remainder of the disabled group, 28.6% spilled food, and 14.3% needed the aid of others when picking up side dishes. The percentage of parents who worried about their children's eating an unbalanced diet was 48.5% in the disabled group and 41.8% in the non-disabled group. In addition, there were problems with eating behaviors in 22.7% in the disabled group ; and with under-eating (15.9%) and with excessive intake of instant foods (16.8%) in the non-disabled group. These results suggest that the eating habits and eating behaviors of disabled children are different from those of non-disabled children. Thus, nutritional educational programs and educational materials for disabled children and their parents should be developed.

Clinical Usefulness of the Hematopoietic Progenitor Cell Counts in Predicting the Optimal Timing of Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Harvest

Although enumeration of CD34+ cells in the peripheral blood (PB) on the day of apheresis predicts the quantity of those cells collected, the flow cytometric techniques used are complex and expensive, and several hours are required to obtain the result in the clinical practice setting. The Sysmex SE-9000 automated haematology analyzer provides an estimate of immature cells, called hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC). The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of HPC in predicting the optimal timing of peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC) harvest. Studies were performed on 628 aphereses from 160 patients with hematologic or solid malignancies. Spearman's rank statistics was used to assess correlation between HPC, WBC, mononuclear cells (MNC), and CD34+ cells. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn for cutoff value of HPC, and predictive values of the chosen cutoff value of HPC for different target CD34+ cell collections were calculated. The PB HPC had a stronger correlation (rho=0.592, por=1 x10(6)/kg with sensitivity of 75%. Positive and negative predictive values of HPC >or=50x10(6)/L for CD34+ cells >or=1x10(6)/kg were 59.7% and 81.1%, respectively. In the clinical practice setting, applying variable cutoff values of HPC would be a useful tool to predict the optimal timing of PBPC collection.

The Expression Patterns of CD44 and CD45RB on Peripheral Blood T Lymphocytes in the Rejection of Allogeneic Skin Transplantation in Mice / 대한이식학회지

PURPOSE: Until now, the rejection was diagnosed through a biopsy, but this method of diagnosis reflected the advanced tissue damage of the transplanted organ and contained the innate problem of being invasive. Activation of T lymphocytes, which occurs before the overt tissue damage has a pivotal role in rejection. In relation, our research attempted to evaluate the viability of analyzing the surface antigens of the peripheral blood activated T lymphocytes in mice after skin transplantation as a noninvasive and early diagnostic tool for diagnosis of rejection. METHODS: After the mouse's skin was transplanted, the expression patterns of activated T lymphocyte markers, CD44 and CD45RB were analyzed along with T lymphocyte markers, CD3, CD4, and CD8 using flow cytometry. The skins from the tails of allogeneic Balb/c (H2(d)) mice and syngeneic C57BL/6J mice were transplanted to C57BL/6J (H2(b)) mice as test and control groups, respectively. Peripheral blood, which was sampled from the tail every other day from day 3 to day 15 was stained with anti-CD44 (or CD45RB), anti-CD4 (or CD8) and anti-CD3 monoclonal antibodies simultaneously, and analyzed by 3-color FACS. Repeated ANOVA test and Mann-Whitey test were used to analyze the differences between the expression patterns of peripheral blood T lymphocyte surface antigen in the control and test groups (SPSS 8.0). RESULTS: Rejection occurred only in the test group from day 8 to day 13 (median: day 10). Although the proportions of CD3(+)lymphocytes (CD3(+)%), CD4(+)lymphocytes (CD4(+) %), and CD8 lymphocytes (CD8(+)%) showed no difference between the control and test groups, the total number of peripheral blood lymphocytes and the number of CD3(+)lymphocytes (CD3(+)) and CD8(+)lymphocytes (CD8(+)) decreased more sharply in the control group after day 7. The proportion and the number of CD44 CD3(+)lymphocytes, CD44 CD4(+)lymphocytes, and CD44(+) CD4(+) CD3(+)lymphocytes began to increase after day 7, to peak on day 11, and then to decrease, showing a significant difference from those of the control group. The proportion and number of CD44(+) CD3(+)lymphocytes, in particular, showed the most significant difference among these significant markers. The proportion and number of CD44(+) CD8(+) lymphocytes and CD44(+) CD8(+) CD3(+)lymphocytes showed similar trends to those of CD44(+) CD3(+) or CD44(+) CD4(+), but the differences between the subset proportions in control and test groups were statistically insignificant. No significant difference was observed in any subsets of the CD45RB antigen. CONCLUSION: CD44(+)CD3(+) lymphocytes representing activated T lymphocytes increased significantly compared to the control group during the rejection period of skin transplantation. The analysis of the expression patterns of surface antigen CD44 on peripheral blood T lymphocytes using flow cytometry is sensitive, safe, easily repeatable, and controllable, and, therefore, can be considered a promising tool for the diagnosis of rejection. However, the clear change in CD44 occurred between day 9 and day 13, when rejection was observed grossly. Therefore, it is regarded more useful as a screening test or follow-up indicator rather than as an early diagnostic tool.

A Case of Hypertension Secondary to Paraganglioma of the Posterior Mediastinum

Functional paraganglioma of the mediastinum is an uncommon tumor of the paraganglion system that causes symptoms and signs of episodic catecholamine release. It has not been reported in Korea. We experienced a case of a 17 years old man with a history of diaphoresis and paroxysmal hypertension refractory to therapy since 14 years old. Urinary execretion of catecholamine and its metabolites were elevated. Computed tomography(CT) scan revealed high density mass located on the posterior mediastinum in the area of the right fifth intercostal space. At thoracotomy, a 3X3X4cm sized lesion was resected and confirmed as a paraganglioma.

CT and ERCP Findings of Chronic Focal Pancreatitis

PURPOSE: To evaluate the major radiologic features of chronic focal pancreatitis in various imaging studies, with special emphasis on CT and ERCP findings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 1991 to 1995, twelve patients were pathologically proved to be suffering from focal chronic pancreatitis after pancreatico-duodenectomy ; for retrospective evaluation, imaging studies were available for eight(seven men, one woman ; mean age 58.9+/-6.6, range 47 to 67). Clinical, surgical, and radiological findings, including CT(n=8), ultrasound(n=7), ERCP(n=8) andUGI(n=3) were analysed. RESULTS: Seven male patients had suffered from chronic alcoholism for between 20 and 50years. Serum bilirubin levels were normal in eight patients and alkaline phosphatase levels were normal in seven patients. Serum CA 19-9 levels were normal in all five patients who had undergone preoperative evaluation. Seven patients(87.5%) showed focal enlargement without definable margin on CT, and five of the six lesions detectable on ultrasound(83.3%) were ill defined hypoechoic nodules. Dilated side branches within lesions were seen in five ofeight patients(83.3%) on CT and ERCP. Double duct signs were observed in siven(87.5%) patients, and dilated intrahepatic ducts in six(75%), with diameters ranging from 5 to 8mm(average : 5.42+/-1.96mm). The average ratio ofpancreatic duct caliber to gland width was 0.33+/-0.19. None of the patients had calcification within the lesionand one case showed intraductal calcification. None showed perivascular fat obliteration around the superiormesenteric artery or celiac axis. The average biductal distance between abnormal common bile duct and theimmediately adjacent pancreatic duct was 4.0+/-1.15mm. One of three cases who under went a UGI examination showed severe luminal narrowing and mucosal thickening in the second portion of the duodenum, another showed double contour, and the other merely showed widening of the C-loop of the duodenum. CONCLUSION: Chronic focalpancreatitis mostly demonstrated ill defined focal enlargement and double ductal dilatation. Dilated side brancheswithin the lesion, no vascular encasement, a mild degree of intrahepatic ductal dilatation, a ratio of pancreatic duct to parenchymal width of less than 0.5, and clinical findings including chronic alcoholism and normal CA 19-9serum level may be reliable indicators for differentiating chronic focal pancreatitis from pancreatic cancer.