Preliminary Report of Validity for the Infant Comprehensive Evaluation for Neurodevelopmental Delay, a Newly Developed Inventory for Children Aged 12 to 71 Months

Objectives@#Early detection of developmental issues in infants and necessary intervention are important. To identify the comorbid conditions, a comprehensive evaluation is required. The study’s objectives were to 1) generate scale items by identifying and eliciting concepts relevant to young children (12–71 months) with developmental delays, 2) develop a comprehensive screening tool for developmental delay and comorbid conditions, and 3) assess the tool’s validity and cut-off. @*Methods@#Multidisciplinary experts devised the “Infant Comprehensive Evaluation for Neurodevelopmental Delay (ICEND),” an assessment method that comes in two versions depending on the age of the child: 12–36 months and 37–71 months, through monthly seminars and focused group interviews. The ICEND is composed of three parts: risk factors, resilience factors, and clinical scales. In parts 1 and 2, there were 41 caretakers responded to the questionnaires. Part 3 involved clinicians evaluating ten subscales using 98 and 114 questionnaires for younger and older versions, respectively. The Child Behavior Checklist, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment, and Korean Developmental Screening Test for Infants and Children were employed to analyze concurrent validity with the ICEND. The analyses were performed on both typical and high-risk infants to identify concurrent validity, reliability, and cut-off scores. @*Results@#A total of 296 people participated in the study, with 57 of them being high-risk (19.2%). The Cronbach’s alpha was positive (0.533–0.928). In the majority of domains, the ICEND demonstrated a fair discriminatory ability, with a sensitivity of 0.5–0.7 and specificity 0.7–0.9. @*Conclusion@#The ICEND is reliable and valid, indicating its potential as an auxiliary tool for assessing neurodevelopmental delay and comorbid conditions in children aged 12–36 months and 37–71 months.

Validity and Reliability of the Behavior Development Screening for Toddlers-Questionnaire/Parents(BeDevel-Q/P): A Korean Autism Screening Instrument for Infants aged 24–35 Months

Objective@#This study tested the validity and reliability of the Behavior Development Screening for Toddlers-Questionnaire-Parents (BeDevel-Q/P), a new autism spectrum disorder (ASD) screening instrument being developed in South Korea. The parents of 24–35-month-old infants were recruited to complete the questionnaire. @*Methods@#The participants were 791 infants aged 24–35 months. There were 623 typically developing infants, 88 infants with ASD, and 80 developmentally delayed infants. For test-retest, the participants were surveyed every 1–4 weeks. Participants were recruited nationwide. Subjects’ parents completed the BeDevel-Q/P and concurrent validity questionnaires. The data were used for statistical analysis. @*Results@#A total of 24 items consisting of 16 items from factor 1 (F1), 6 items from factor 2 (F2), and 2 items from factor 3 (F3), were selected for the final BeDevel-Q/P items. @*Conclusion@#The factors of the screening instrument developed in this study were analyzed, and three factors were extracted, confirming the theoretical foundation of the BeDevel-Q for the parents of 24–35-month-old infants.

The Laboratory Diagnosis of Melioidosis in a Korean Patient

Burkholderia pseudomallei is a gram-negative opportunistic intracellular pathogen that causes an acute and fatal septicemic melioidosis in humans. The organism is mainly found in Southeastern Asia and Northern Australia. Recently, we encountered a case of melioidosis in a Korean patient and performed the laboratory diagnosis of melioidosis. As a result, a gram negative bacterium was isolated from a melioidosis patient, and it was identified as B. pseudomallei on DNA sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA with 99.9% homology and biochemical examination of VITEK gram-negative identification card. Also, DNA from cultured bacteria was tested in multiplex PCR, a 245 bp fragment amplified from the metalloprotease gene and a fragment of variable size ranging from 400~700 bp resulting from amplification of the 10 bp repetitive element for B. pseudomallei were confirmed after electrophoresis. The bacterium was sensitive to ceftazidime, imipenem and meropenem but resistant to ticarcillin. So far, there are no domestic cases of melioidosis in Korea, however, due to the increase in international travelers, the incidence of melioidosis is likely to increase. We report a recent case of melioidosis in a Korean patient.

Ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) is not useful for detecting myocardial ischemia during symptom-limited exercise stress tests

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We examined the ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) level during exercise in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: Forty patients with a history of chest pain underwent both symptom-limited treadmill exercise stress testing and coronary angiography within one week. During the treadmill tests, blood samples were obtained at baseline and 5 min after exercise to measure the serum IMA level. RESULTS: Of the 40 patients, fourteen (35%, CAD group) had significant coronary artery stenosis, while the other 26 (65%, non-CAD group) did not. The baseline and post-exercise IMA levels in the two groups did not differ significantly (105.2+/-7.2 vs. 107.7+/-6.7 U/mL at baseline and 93.1+/-10.1 vs. 94.8+/-5.7 U/mL at post-exercise in the CAD and non-CAD groups, p=0.29 and 0.57, respectively). The changes in IMA after exercise did not differ either (-10.4+/-7.5 vs. -14.0+/-7.6 U/mL in the CAD and non-CAD groups, respectively, p=0.10). Similarly, the change in IMA between the exercise ECG test positive (TMT positive, n=9) and negative (TMT negative, n=20) groups did not differ (-14.63+/-5.19, vs -8.50+/-9.01 U/mL, p=0.15, in the TMT positive and negative groups, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that IMA has limitation in detecting myocardial ischemia during symptom-limited exercise stress tests.

A Case of Impetigo Herpetiformis in Pregnancy / 대한주산의학회잡지

Ovarian tumor in pregnancy is not rare and benign cystic teratoma is most common ovarian tumor in pregnancy. Most ovarian tumor in pregnancy is found at first and second trimester but sometimes found at third trimester and it is difficult to make a decision for management. Moreover physician should consider fetal age and mother's condition, and weigh outcome of operation for complicated ovarian tumor in pregnancy. Torsion of ovarian tumor is not an uncommon complication during first trimester of pregnancy and puerperium but rare occurs during the third trimester of pregnancy. We have experienced a case of torsion of benign cystic teratoma of ovary which occurred at 37 weeks gestation in a 25 year-old woman. So we report this case with a brief review of literature.

A Case of Leiomyomatosis peritonealis disseminata / 대한부인종양콜포스코피학회잡지

Leiomyomatosis peritonealis disseminata is a rare non-neoplastic proliferation of histologically benign smooth muscle that occurs in the alxlominal cavity of during the reproductive years of life, often giving rise to false choical imprwsion of d.isseminated carcinomatosis grossly, In 1952 Wilson & Peale described a condition which they called "multiple peritoneal leiomyomas". Taubert et al(1965) clearly delinated the features of the lesion and named it leiomyomatosis peritonealis disseminata(LPD). We report a case of leiomyomatosis peritonealis disseminata with a brief review of literatures.