Performance of the BD MAX MDR-TB assay in a clinical setting and its impact on the clinical course of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis: a retrospective before-after study.

BACKGROUND: Missing isoniazid (INH) resistance during tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis can worsen the outcomes of INH-resistant TB. The BD MAX MDR-TB assay (BD MAX) facilitates the rapid detection of TB and INH and rifampin (RIF) resistance; however, data related to its performance in clinical setting remain limited. Moreover, its effect on treatment outcomes has not yet been studied. METHODS: We compared the performance of BD MAX for the detection of INH/RIF resistances to that of the line probe assay (LPA) in patients with pulmonary TB (PTB), using the results of a phenotypic drug sensitivity test as a reference standard. The treatment outcomes of patients who used BD MAX were compared with those of patients who did not. RESULTS: Of the 83 patients included in the study, the BD MAX was used for an initial PTB diagnosis in 39 patients. The sensitivity of BD MAX for detecting PTB was 79.5%. The sensitivity and specificity of BD MAX for INH resistance were both 100%, whereas these were 50.0% and 95.8%, respectively, for RIF resistance. The sensitivity and specificity of BD MAX were comparable to those of LPA. The BD MAX group had a shorter time interval from specimen request to the initiation of anti-TB drugs (2.0 days vs. 5.5 days, p=0.001). CONCLUSION: BD MAX showed comparable performance to conventional tests for detecting PTB and INH/RIF resistances. The implementation of BD MAX as a diagnostic tool for PTB resulted in a shorter turnaround time for the initiation of PTB treatment.

Impact of staffing model conversion from a mandatory critical care consultation model to a closed unit model in the medical intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND: The intensive care unit (ICU) staffing model affects clinical outcomes of critically ill patients. However, the benefits of a closed unit model have not been extensively compared to those of a mandatory critical care consultation model. METHODS: This retrospective before-after study included patients admitted to the medical ICU. Anthropometric data, admission reason, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group grade, survival status, length of stay (LOS) in the ICU, duration of mechanical ventilator care, and occurrence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) were recorded. The staffing model of the medical ICU was changed from a mandatory critical care consultation model to a closed unit model in September 2017, and indices before and after the conversion were compared. RESULTS: A total of 1,526 patients were included in the analysis. The mean age was 64.5 years, and 954 (62.5%) patients were men. The mean LOS in the ICU among survivors was shorter in the closed unit model than in the mandatory critical care consultation model by multiple regression analysis (5.5 vs. 6.7 days; p = 0.005). Central venous catheter insertion (38.5% vs. 51.9%; p < 0.001) and VAP (3.5% vs. 8.6%; p < 0.001) were less frequent in the closed unit model group than in the mandatory critical care consultation model group. After adjusting for confounders, the closed unit model group had decreased ICU mortality (adjusted odds ratio 0.65; p < 0.001) and shortened LOS in the ICU compared to the mandatory critical care consultation model group. CONCLUSION: The closed unit model was superior to the mandatory critical care consultation model in terms of ICU mortality and LOS among ICU survivors.

All-cause mortality of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a nationwide population-based cohort study in Korea.

Most epidemiologic studies of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) have been conducted in North America and Europe. Moreover, there are limited data concerning the cause of death and cause-specific mortality rate of IPF patients in population-based studies. We analyzed information from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database from 2006 to 2016. Patients with a diagnosis code of IPF were extracted from the database and we included those who satisfied the narrow definition of IPF diagnosis. Age- and sex-matched controls were randomly selected at a case-to-control rate of 1:3. We included 42,777 patients newly diagnosed with IPF during the study period. Their mean age was 64.6 years, and 65.4% were male. The age-standardized mortality rates were 85.66 (95% confidence interval [CI] 84.45-86.89) per 1000 person-years. The survival rates of IPF patients 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 years after IPF diagnosis were 84.5%, 77.4%, 71.9%, 62.9%, and 48.4%, respectively. The standardized mortality ratio of IPF patients compared to that of the normal population was 4.66. The leading cause of death in IPF patients was respiratory causes, followed by cancer. Patients with IPF in Korea showed significantly higher mortality compared to the general population.

Protective Effectiveness of Inactivated Hantavirus Vaccine Against Hemorrhagic Fever With Renal Syndrome.

As there is no effective treatment against hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), the development of effective vaccine is important. An inactivated hantavirus vaccine (IHV) has been used in Korea, but there has been controversy regarding its effectiveness. We conducted a case-control study to evaluate the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of IHV against HFRS in the Korean military. Unadjusted and adjusted VEs of IHV were 59.1% and 58.9%, respectively. VE was higher in divisions with high incidence of HFRS (unadjusted VE, 71.4%; adjusted VE, 78.7%). Our study demonstrated the moderate effectiveness of IHV in high-risk populations residing in endemic area.

Predictive factors suggesting an underestimation of gastric lesions initially diagnosed as adenomas by forceps biopsy.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The endoscopic forceps biopsy of gastric lesion may provide inadequate specimens for a correct diagnosis of the entire lesion. Therefore, a histologic discrepancy may exist between specimens obtained by forceps biopsy and by endoscopic resection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the endoscopic characteristics of an underestimation in gastric carcinomas initially diagnosed as adenomas by forceps biopsy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 431 lesions diagnosed as gastric adenomas by forceps biopsy and resected by endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) between January 2008 and December 2011. The endoscopic findings were reviewed for location, size, gross appearance, ulceration, and surface color. We compared these variables between the adenoma group and the carcinoma group, as defined by the post-resection pathological findings. RESULTS: The mean patient age was 65.63±9.30 years in the adenoma group and 64.75±10.30 years in the carcinoma group. The mean size of the lesion was 21.04±8.65 mm in the adenoma group and 22.06±7.46 mm in the carcinoma group. In the multivariate analysis, high-grade dysplasia from endoscopic forceps biopsy and red discoloration were significant variables associated with carcinoma in post-resection histology. CONCLUSION: Gastric adenomatous lesions with endoscopic characteristics of surface redness and high-grade dysplasia on forceps biopsy should be resected completely by ESD because of the high possibility of an underestimation after ESD.

Surgical resection of nodular ground-glass opacities without percutaneous needle aspiration or biopsy.

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous needle aspiration or biopsy (PCNA or PCNB) is an established diagnostic technique that has a high diagnostic yield. However, its role in the diagnosis of nodular ground-glass opacities (nGGOs) is controversial, and the necessity of preoperative histologic confirmation by PCNA or PCNB in nGGOs has not been well addressed. METHODS: We here evaluated the rates of malignancy and surgery-related complications, and the cost benefits of resecting nGGOs without prior tissue diagnosis when those nGGOs were highly suspected for malignancy based on their size, radiologic characteristics, and clinical courses. Patients who underwent surgical resection of nGGOs without preoperative tissue diagnosis from January 2009 to October 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Among 356 nGGOs of 324 patients, 330 (92.7%) nGGOs were resected without prior histologic confirmation. The rate of malignancy was 95.2% (314/330). In the multivariate analysis, larger size was found to be an independent predictor of malignancy (odds ratio, 1.086; 95% confidence interval, 1.001-1.178, p =0.047). A total of 324 (98.2%) nGGOs were resected by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), and the rate of surgery-related complications was 6.7% (22/330). All 16 nGGOs diagnosed as benign nodules were resected by VATS, and only one patient experienced postoperative complications (prolonged air leak). Direct surgical resection without tissue diagnosis significantly reduced the total costs, hospital stay, and waiting time to surgery. CONCLUSIONS: With careful selection of nGGOs that are highly suspicious for malignancy, surgical resection of nGGOs without tissue diagnosis is recommended as it reduces costs and hospital stay.

Epidermal growth factor receptor mutations and anaplastic lymphoma kinase rearrangements in lung cancer with nodular ground-glass opacity.

BACKGROUND: Nodular ground-glass opacities (nGGO) are a specific type of lung adenocarcinoma. ALK rearrangements and driver mutations such as EGFR and K-ras are frequently found in all types of lung adenocarcinoma. EGFR mutations play a role in the early carcinogenesis of nGGOs, but the role of ALK rearrangement remains unknown. METHODS: We studied 217 nGGOs resected from 215 lung cancer patients. Pathology, tumor size, tumor disappearance rate, and the EGFR and ALK markers were analyzed. RESULTS: All but one of the resected nGGOs were adenocarcinomas. ALK rearrangements and EGFR mutations were found in 6 (2.8%) and 119 (54.8%) cases. The frequency of ALK rearrangement in nGGO was significantly lower than previously reported in adenocarcinoma. Advanced disease stage (p = 0.018) and larger tumor size (p = 0.037) were more frequent in the ALK rearrangement-positive group than in ALK rearrangement-negative patients. nGGOs with ALK rearrangements were associated with significantly higher pathologic stage and larger maximal and solid diameter in comparison to EGFR-mutated lesions. CONCLUSION: ALK rearrangement is rare in lung cancer with nGGOs, but is associated with advanced stage and larger tumor size, suggesting its association with aggressive progression of lung adenocarcinoma. ALK rearrangement may not be important in early pathogenesis of nGGO.

Clinicopathological characteristics of synchronous and metachronous gastric neoplasms after endoscopic submucosal dissection.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has become accepted as a minimally invasive treatment for gastric neoplasms. However, the development of synchronous or metachronous gastric lesions after endoscopic resection has become a major problem. We investigated the characteristics of multiple gastric neoplasms in patients with early gastric cancer (EGC) or gastric adenoma after ESD. METHODS: In total, 512 patients with EGC or gastric adenoma who had undergone ESD between January 2008 and December 2011 participated in this study. The incidence of and factors associated with synchronous and metachronous gastric tumors were investigated in this retrospective study. RESULTS: In total, 66 patients (12.9%) had synchronous lesions, and 13 patients (2.5%) had metachronous lesions. Older (> 65 years) subjects had an increased risk of multiple gastric neoplasms (p = 0.012). About two-thirds of the multiple lesions were similar in macroscopic and histological type to the primary lesions. The median interval from the initial lesions to the diagnosis of metachronous lesions was 31 months. The annual incidence rate of metachronous lesions was approximately 3%. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend careful follow-up in patients of advanced age (> 65 years) after initial ESD because multiple lesions could be detected in the remnant stomach. Annual surveillance might aid in the detection of metachronous lesions. Large-scale, multicenter, and longer prospective studies of appropriate surveillance programs are needed.

Recurrent very late stent thrombosis in a systemic lupus erythematous patient.

Coronary artery disease is the most important cause of mortality in patients with systemic lupus erythematous (SLE). After stenting for coronary artery disease in SLE patients similar to non-SLE patients, the risk of stent thrombosis is always present. Although there are reports of stent thrombosis in SLE patients, very late recurrent stent thrombosis is rare. We experienced a case of very late recurrent stent thrombosis (4 times) in a patient with SLE.