Spatial analysis of PM10 and cardiovascular mortality in the Seoul metropolitan area

OBJECTIVES: Numerous studies have revealed the adverse health effects of acute and chronic exposure to particulate matter less than 10 mum in aerodynamic diameter (PM10). The aim of the present study was to examine the spatial distribution of PM10 concentrations and cardiovascular mortality and to investigate the spatial correlation between PM10 and cardiovascular mortality using spatial scan statistic (SaTScan) and a regression model. METHODS: From 2008 to 2010, the spatial distribution of PM10 in the Seoul metropolitan area was examined via kriging. In addition, a group of cardiovascular mortality cases was analyzed using SaTScan-based cluster exploration. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) was applied to investigate the correlation between PM10 concentrations and cardiovascular mortality. RESULTS: An examination of the regional distribution of the cardiovascular mortality was higher in provincial districts (gu) belonging to Incheon and the northern part of Gyeonggido than in other regions. In a comparison of PM10 concentrations and mortality cluster (MC) regions, all those belonging to MC 1 and MC 2 were found to belong to particulate matter (PM) 1 and PM 2 with high concentrations of air pollutants. In addition, the GWR showed that PM10 has a statistically significant relation to cardiovascular mortality. CONCLUSIONS: To investigate the relation between air pollution and health impact, spatial analyses can be utilized based on kriging, cluster exploration, and GWR for a more systematic and quantitative analysis. It has been proven that cardiovascular mortality is spatially related to the concentration of PM10.

Ventricular tachycardia-like electrocardiographic artifact on total thyroidectomy / 대한마취과학회지

No abstract available.

A suspicious case of malignant hyperthermia during general anesthesia with desflurane: A case report

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is an inherited disorder of skeletal muscle manifested as a life threatening hypermetabolic crisis in susceptible individuals following exposure to commonly used inhaled anesthetics and depolarizing muscle relaxants. We experienced a suspicious case of MH in 34-year-old male during transfemoral cerebral angiography embolization under general anesthesia with desflurane. The episode emerged 15 minutes after induction of general anesthesia using propofol, rocuronium, remifentanil, desflurane. Desflurane is a recently developed inhaled anesthetics and there has been no case report of MH related with it in Korea. When we suspected episode, vigorous treatment was carried out, symptoms were resolved without dantrolene administration.

A Case of Collagen Graft for Patulous Eustachian Tube / 대한이비인후과학회지

The patulous eustachian tube is not a common otorhinolaryngological disease, for which a standard therapy is not established yet. It is considered benign, but symptoms affecting the patient should not be overlooked or ignored. Using an acellular dermal graft (Collagen), we gained positive results in treating a patient, and thus report this case with a review of the literature.

Relationship between Occupational Electromagnetic Field Exposure and Leukemia: A Meta-Analysis / 예방의학회지

OBJECTIVES: This study uses meta-analysis methodology to examine the statistical consistency and importance of random variation among results of epidemiologic studies of occupational electromagnetic field exposure and leukemia. METHODS: Studies for this meta-analysis were identified from previous reviews and by asking researcher active in this field for recommendations. Overall, 27 studies of occupational electromagnetic field exposures and leukemia were reviewed. A variety of meta-analysis statistical methods have been used to assess combined effects, to identify heterogeneity, and to provide a single summary risk estimate based on a set of simiar epidemiologic studies. In this study, classification of exposure metircs on occupational epidemiologic studies are reported for (1) job classification (20 individual studies); (2) leukemia subtypes (13 individual studies); and (3) country (27 individual studies). RESULTS: Results of this study, an inverse-variance weighted pooling of all the data leads to a small but significant elevation in risk of 11% (OR=1.11, 95% CI : 1.06~1.16) among 27 occupational epidemiologic studies. Publication bias was assessed by the 'fail-safe n' that may be not influence for all combined results exception a few categories, ie, "power station operators" and "electric utility workers" by job classification on occupational study. And all combined odds ratio results were similar for fixed-effects models and random-effects models, with slightly higher risk estimates for the random-effects model in situations where there was significant heterogeneity, ie, Q-statistic significant (p<.05). CONCLUSIONS: We found a small elevation in risk of leukemia, but the ubiquitous nature of exposure to electromagnetic fields from workplace makes even a weak association a public health issue of substantial power to influence the present overall conclusion about relationship between electromagnetic fields exposure and leukemia.