Neuronal Intranuclear Inclusion Disease with Abnormal Peripheral Nerve Conduction

A 70-year-old female presented with progressive gait disturbance. Neurologic examination revealed sensory impairment, hyporeflexia, and sensory ataxia. Nerve conduction study demonstrated mildly decreased velocity in motor nerves. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed high signal intensities in the corticomedullary junction on diffusion weighted imaging. Neurocognitive function test implied mild cognitive impairment. Based on eosinophilic intranuclear inclusions in pathology, neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease was confirmed. Neuronal intranuclear inclusion needs to be considered when abnormal nerve conduction studies are consistent with abnormal brain imaging findings.

Clinical Significance of Residual Nonrectal Inflammation in Ulcerative Colitis Patients in Clinical Remission

Background/Aims@#The treatment goal of ulcerative colitis (UC) has been changed to achieve endoscopic remission (ER). However, there is insufficient clinical evidence to determine whether a step-up treatment should be performed to achieve ER in clinical remission (CR) without ER, and there are inadequate data on the need to consider the distribution and severity of residual inflammation. This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of the distribution and severity of residual inflammation in UC patients in CR. @*Methods@#A total of 131 UC patients in CR who underwent endoscopic evaluation for more than three times between January 2000 and December 2018 were reviewed. The patients were allocated by the endoscopic healing state and the distribution of inflammation to ER (n=31, 23.7%), residual nonrectal inflammation with patchy distribution (NRI) (n=17, 13.0%) or residual rectal involvement with continuous or patchy distribution (RI) (n=83, 63.3%) groups. We reviewed clinical characteristics, endoscopic findings, and factors associated with poor outcome-free survival (PFS). @*Results@#In UC patients in CR, PFS was significantly higher in the ER and NRI groups than in the RI group (p=0.003). Patients in the ER and NRI groups had similar PFS (p=0.647). Cox proportional hazard model showed only RI (hazard ratio, 5.76; p=0.027) was associated with a higher risk of poor outcome. @*Conclusions@#We suggest that escalation of treatment modalities may be selectively performed in consideration of the residual mucosal inflammation pattern, even if ER has not been achieved, in UC patients with CR.

Gambling Disorder Symptoms, Suicidal Ideation, and Suicide Attempts

Objective@#Gambling disorder (GD) patients have a higher suicide risk compared to the general population. The present study investigates the suicide-related risk factors of GD patients by analyzing GD diagnosis-related symptoms and suicide-related behaviors of subjects. @*Methods@#This study investigated which symptoms among GD diagnosis criteria are related to suicide risk in 142 patients diagnosed with GD. To analyze the relationship between GD symptoms and suicidal ideation and suicide attempt, the odds ratio (OR) was determined through multivariate logistic regression. @*Results@#The number of symptoms was significantly higher in the subjects who had suicidal ideation group and attempt group. In the cases of past suicide attempts, responses to withdrawal and escape questions were significantly higher; in the cases of ongoing suicidal ideation, responses to negative consequences and bailout questions were significantly higher. When depression was corrected, the ‘bailout’ item was, indicating that ‘bailout’ increased suicidal ideation (OR=4.937, 95% CI=1.009–24.164). In the suicide attempt group, ‘relieve’ item may increase suicide attempt (OR=6.978, 95% CI=1.300–35.562). @*Conclusion@#Past suicide attempts in GD patients correlated with withdrawal symptoms, and financial problem correlated with suicidal ideation. This suggests that evaluating suicide risk is important when evaluating GD patients, and evaluation of financial problems is important for GD patients with suicide risks.

Clinical Significance of Residual Nonrectal Inflammation in Ulcerative Colitis Patients in Clinical Remission

Background/Aims@#The treatment goal of ulcerative colitis (UC) has been changed to achieve endoscopic remission (ER). However, there is insufficient clinical evidence to determine whether a step-up treatment should be performed to achieve ER in clinical remission (CR) without ER, and there are inadequate data on the need to consider the distribution and severity of residual inflammation. This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of the distribution and severity of residual inflammation in UC patients in CR. @*Methods@#A total of 131 UC patients in CR who underwent endoscopic evaluation for more than three times between January 2000 and December 2018 were reviewed. The patients were allocated by the endoscopic healing state and the distribution of inflammation to ER (n=31, 23.7%), residual nonrectal inflammation with patchy distribution (NRI) (n=17, 13.0%) or residual rectal involvement with continuous or patchy distribution (RI) (n=83, 63.3%) groups. We reviewed clinical characteristics, endoscopic findings, and factors associated with poor outcome-free survival (PFS). @*Results@#In UC patients in CR, PFS was significantly higher in the ER and NRI groups than in the RI group (p=0.003). Patients in the ER and NRI groups had similar PFS (p=0.647). Cox proportional hazard model showed only RI (hazard ratio, 5.76; p=0.027) was associated with a higher risk of poor outcome. @*Conclusions@#We suggest that escalation of treatment modalities may be selectively performed in consideration of the residual mucosal inflammation pattern, even if ER has not been achieved, in UC patients with CR.

Association between Subjective Body Image and Suicide Ideation: Based on 14th Korean Youth Health Behavior Survey / 보건행정학회지

Background@#This study aimed to demonstrate the importance to recognize subjective body image on their mental health on adolescents. @*Methods@#We used the chi-square test and the multiple logistic regression model to analyze the data of the “Korean Youth Health Behavior Survey in 2018” (n=42,259) conducted by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. @*Results@#As a result of the analysis, suicide ideation increased when the subject body image is thin and fat. Especially, the suicide ideation who recognized the subjective body image as thin is higher (odds ratio [OR], 1.666; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.050– 1.295), and who recognized the subjective body image as fat is higher (OR, 1.134; 95% CI, 1.032–1.245) than the group who recognized the subjective body image as normal. @*Conclusion@#When preparing a health policy on adolescent suicide issues, we need to consider the association between subjective body image and suicide ideation.

Suggestions for establishing a sustainable risk communication platform for carcinogenic factors / 한국역학회지

No abstract available.

Functional Electrical Stimulation to Ankle Dorsiflexor and Plantarflexor Using Single Foot Switch in Patients With Hemiplegia From Hemorrhagic Stroke

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of functional electrical stimulation (FES) to ankle dorsiflexor (DF) and ankle plantarflexor (PF) on kinematic and kinetic parameters of hemiplegic gait. METHODS: Fourteen post-stroke hemiplegic patients were considered in this study. Electrical stimulation was delivered to ankle DF during the swing phase and ankle PF during the stance phase via single foot switch. Kinematic and kinetic data were collected using a computerized motion analysis system with force plate. Data of no stimulation (NS), DF stimulation only (DS), DF and PF stimulation (DPS) group were compared among each other. RESULTS: Peak ankle dorsiflexion angle during swing phase is significantly greater in DS group (-1.55degrees+/-9.10degrees) and DPS group (-2.23degrees+/-9.64degrees), compared with NS group (-6.71degrees+/-11.73degrees) (p<0.05), although there was no statistically significant difference between DS and DPS groups. Ankle plantarflexion angle at toe-off did not show significant differences among NS, DS, and DPS groups. Peak knee flexion in DPS group (34.12degrees+/-13.77degrees) during swing phase was significantly greater than that of NS group (30.78degrees+/-13.64degrees), or DS group (32.83degrees+/-13.07degrees) (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: In addition to the usual FES application stimulating ankle DF during the swing phase, stimulation of ankle PF during stance phase can help to increase peak knee flexion during the swing phase. This study shows the advantages of stimulating the ankle DF and PF using single foot switch for post-stroke gait.

Twelve-Month Follow-up Results of Photoselective Vaporization of the Prostate With a 980-nm Diode Laser for Treatment of Benign Hyperplasia

PURPOSE: This study was conducted with the use of 12 months of follow-up data to evaluate the efficacy of photoselective vaporization of the prostate (PVP) with the 980-nm diode laser for the treatment of symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The clinical data of 84 men with symptomatic BPH who underwent PVP with the 980-nm K2 diode laser between March 2010 and October 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. Postoperative parameters, including International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), quality of life (QoL) score, maximum urinary flow rate (Qmax), and postvoid residual volume (PVR), were assessed and compared with preoperative baseline values. RESULTS: Mean patient age was 72.4+/-6.5 years, and mean preoperative prostate volume was 47.2+/-16.3 g. Mean operative time was 23.3+/-19.1 minutes, and total amount of energy was 128+/-85 kJ. Mean catheterization time was 23.7+/-5.9 hours. At 1 month, significant improvements were noted in IPSS (11.5+/-6.8), QoL score (2.2+/-1.3), Qmax (12.9+/-6.5 mL/s), and PVR (41.2+/-31.3 mL). Three months after surgery, all postoperative follow-up parameters showed significant improvements, and the 6- and 12-month data showed sustained improvement of postoperative follow-up parameters. Bladder neck strictures were observed in 10.7% of the patients and urge incontinence in 16.6%. CONCLUSIONS: PVP using a K2 diode laser is an effective procedure for the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms secondary to BPH. PVP leads to an immediate and sustained improvement of subjective and objective voiding parameters. Surgeons should be vigilant for postoperative bladder neck stricture and urge incontinence.

Recognizing Temporal Information in Korean Clinical Narratives through Text Normalization / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVES: Acquiring temporal information is important because knowledge in clinical narratives is time-sensitive. In this paper, we describe an approach that can be used to extract the temporal information found in Korean clinical narrative texts. METHODS: We developed a two-stage system, which employs an exhaustive text analysis phase and a temporal expression recognition phase. Since our target document may include tokens that are made up of both Korean and English text joined together, the minimal semantic units are analyzed and then separated from the concatenated phrases and linguistic derivations within a token using a corpus-based approach to decompose complex tokens. A finite state machine is then used on the minimal semantic units in order to find phrases that possess time-related information. RESULTS: In the experiment, the temporal expressions within Korean clinical narratives were extracted using our system. The system performance was evaluated through the use of 100 discharge summaries from Seoul National University Hospital containing a total of 805 temporal expressions. Our system scored a phrase-level precision and recall of 0.895 and 0.919, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Finding information in Korean clinical narrative is challenging task, since the text is written in both Korean and English and frequently omits syntactic elements and word spacing, which makes it extremely noisy. This study presents an effective method that can be used to aquire the temporal information found in Korean clinical documents.

Postpartum Transmission as a Major Route of Mother-to-Child Helicobacter felis Infection / 한국실험동물학회지

In this study we investigated maternal Helicobacter felis (H. felis) infection status to determine the potential of maternal transmission. Pregnant Beagle dogs were infected experimentally with H. felis. Following the experimental design, the stools of the mother and litters were isolated and assessed for transmission of H. felis at parturition day, 1-week old age and 6-week old age respectively. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to examine the presence of transmitted H. felis. All litters showed no transmission of H. felis at parturition day. However, they revealed 14.3% and 100% at 1-week old age and 6-week old age respectively by PCR. These results suggested that vertical infection during prenatal period or delivery procedure is unlikely as a route of mother-to-child H. felis infection. It might be acquired H. felis through breast-feeding, contaminating saliva and fecal-oral during co-habitat.

Postpartum Transmission as a Major Route of Mother-to-Child Helicobacter felis Infection / 한국실험동물학회지

In this study we investigated maternal Helicobacter felis (H. felis) infection status to determine the potential of maternal transmission. Pregnant Beagle dogs were infected experimentally with H. felis. Following the experimental design, the stools of the mother and litters were isolated and assessed for transmission of H. felis at parturition day, 1-week old age and 6-week old age respectively. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to examine the presence of transmitted H. felis. All litters showed no transmission of H. felis at parturition day. However, they revealed 14.3% and 100% at 1-week old age and 6-week old age respectively by PCR. These results suggested that vertical infection during prenatal period or delivery procedure is unlikely as a route of mother-to-child H. felis infection. It might be acquired H. felis through breast-feeding, contaminating saliva and fecal-oral during co-habitat.

Genetic Analysis of TGFA, MTHFR, and IFR6 in Korean Patients Affected by Nonsyndromic Cleft Lip with or without Cleft Palate (CL/P)

Nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P) is a common craniofacial birth defect that is the result of a mixture of genetic and environmental factors. While studies have identified a number of different candidate genes and loci for the etiology of CL/P, the results have not been consistent among different ethnic groups. To study the genetic association of the candidate genes in Korean patients affected by CL/P, we genotyped 97 nonsyndromic CL/P patients and 100 control individuals using single nucleotide polymorphic markers at the MTHFR, TGFA, and IRF6 genes. We report that the T3827C marker at TGFA showed significant association with nonsyndromic CL/P, but all the other markers tested were not significantly associated with nonsyndromic CL/P in Korean patients.

Studies on the Development of Viral Detection Markers for the Quality Control of Blood

According to the serological screening methods of antigen-antibody reaction such as ELISA, it has been known that the complete detection of viral infections of HBV, HCV, and HIV-1 viruses in the blood and blood related-products is not much reliable. Therefore, nucleic acid amplification testing methods (NAT) adopted to detect the small quantitative viral nucleic acids could support the basis of using and supplying the blood and its related products safely. This research work is basically designed to describe the simultaneous blood screening system by multiplex or duplex tests for detection of HBV, HCV, and HIV-1 viruses in the blood at one time with low price and labor. It is aimed at easy detection by using the conventional agarose gel electrophoresis. Thus, we tried to detect and identify the viral components in the blood sample according to their different size of PCR products. We decided a set of consensus sequences to recognize each viral DNA fragments after running the multiplex PCR in one tube. This was done by nested RT-PCR using two different RNA viral genomic templates followed by multiplex PCR with addition of viral DNA and their primers after purifying the viral genomic nucleic acids. Those specific primers could be used without any interference to amplify each viral genome in the blood samples. The sensitivities with different viral loads were evaluated on the agarose gel electrophoresis. Three different viral agents in the blood samples could be tested by this multiplex (RT)-PCR with three different primers.