A Study of the Molecular Characteristics of the Serologic D-- Blood Type in Korean Blood Donors / 대한수혈학회지

Background@#The Korean Red Cross has conducted serologic tests for C, c, E, e antigens and found 18 D-- donors.In this study, we performed RHCE genotyping to identify the molecular characteristics of the serologic D-- blood type in Korean blood donors. @*Methods@#We performed RHCE-specific PCR-based electrophoresis to check the amplification pattern of each exon.Sanger sequencing was conducted to find the variants in the nucleotide sequence. We determined the RHCE genotype based on the electrophoresis and Sanger sequencing results. @*Results@#Total eight out of 18 D-- donors were participated in this research. In the PCR-based electrophoresis tests, RHCE exons 3, 4, and 6 were not amplified in samples #4, #6, and #8. Also, sample #2 showed an abnormal band pattern of RHCE exon 9. The Sanger sequencing results showed that the nucleotide sequences of the RHCE exons 5, 7, and 8 in samples #4, #6 and #8 corresponded to the nucleotide sequences of RHD exons 5, 7, and 8, respectively, suggesting the possibility of a RHCE-RHD(3-8)-RHCE hybrid allele. The nucleotide sequences of RHCE exons 7 and 8 in sample #2 were the same as the nucleotide sequences of RHD exons 7 and 8, respectively.In samples #1, #3, #5, and #7, no specific variants known to cause D-- phenotype were found. @*Conclusion@#RHCE genes partially replaced by the RHD genes were found in four out of eight participants and three of them were identified as ?RHCE*02N.07, which is known as the RHCE null allele. A further study with complete RHCE sequencing could be helpful for an understanding of the molecular mechanisms of samples in which no significant variants were identified.

Erratum: Author's order correction Comparison of the Effectiveness in the Application of Competitive and Noncompetitive Internal Control for the Laboratory Developed Polymerase Chain Reaction / 대한수혈학회지

Corrections of author names are needed.

Construction and Application of Internal Control for Laboratory-Developed HTLV PCR / 대한수혈학회지

BACKGROUND: For donor samples showing reactive results in a human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) antibody test along with indeterminate results in Western blot assay, HTLV nucleic acid amplification test using laboratory-developed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed. It is necessary to construct an adequate internal control (IC) to evaluate the accuracy of the results since we did not use an IC in the laboratory-developed PCR. METHODS: As a competitive IC, plasmid DNA containing the primer recognition sequence for amplification of the HTLV pX region was constructed. We determined the adequate concentration of the IC, which was added to the samples to evaluate the accuracy of the test results. RESULTS: When the plasmid DNA was added to the HTLV-positive samples, the amplified product of IC (400 bp) was detected with the HTLV gene (230 bp). The adequate concentration of plasmid DNA added as an IC was 1 pg. CONCLUSION: The construction of plasmid DNA as a competitive IC is an efficient method to evaluate accuracy of the test results. However, the production process for the competitive IC must be further developed. Therefore, it is necessary to compare with the performance of a non-competitive IC.

Prevalence and trends of pain associated with chronic diseases and personal out-of-pocket medical expenditures in Korea

BACKGROUND: There have been few studies about pain using a big data. The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of pain, and trends of pain associated with chronic diseases and personal out-of-pocket medical expenditures over time. METHODS: Subjects were 58,151 individuals, using the Korea Health Panel from 2009 to 2013. Chi-square and multinomial logistic regression were conducted to identify the prevalence and odds ratios (ORs) of pain. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to find the trend over these 5 years. RESULTS: Prevalence of mild and severe pain was 28.1% and 1.7% respectively. The ORs of mild and severe pain were 1.6 and 1.4 in females compared with males. From 2009 to 2013, numbers of chronic diseases producing mild pain were 2.1, 2.4, 2.8, 2.9, and 3.1 and those producing severe pain were 3.0, 3.4, 3.9, 4.2, and 4.4, respectively. After applying the average South Korean inflation rate by year over 5 years, the annual, personal out-of-pocket medical expenditures (unit: ￦1,000) for mild pain were 322, 349, 379, 420, and 461, and those for severe pain were 331, 399, 504, 546, and 569, respectively (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The pain prevalence was 29.8%. The numbers of chronic diseases and the personal out-of-pocket medical expenditures revealed increasing trends annually, especially in those with pain. Therefore, to eliminate and alleviate the pain, there needs to be further study for developing a systemic approach.

Estimation of the Outbreaks of Transfusion-Transmissible Emerging Infectious Diseases in Korean Blood Donors by Public Data / 대한수혈학회지

BACKGROUND: Transfusion transmissible emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) is a potential risk to the safety of blood transfusions due to the lack of donor screening assays. To prevent the spread of EIDs through blood transfusions, we attempted to predict the possibility of blood donations from people with EIDs using a public database. METHODS: We used the Disease Web Statistics System of the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Korean Statistical Information Service. We estimated the possibility of blood donations from people with EIDs using the public database combined with the database made available by the Blood Information Management System of the Korean Red Cross. RESULTS: Among the transfusion transmissible EIDs, Babesiosis, Leishmaniasis, West Nile fever, Chikungunya, and Dengue fever were reported in Korea. All of them were cases imported from abroad. Although the number of reported cases of Babesiosis, Leishmaniasis, West Nile fever, and Chikungunya were less than 10 per year until 2016, the reported cases of Dengue fever gradually increased from 2001, and there were 318 cases of Dengue fever in 2016. CONCLUSION: The possibility of blood donation from people with transfusion-transmissible EIDs was low because all reported transfusion-transmissible EIDs in Korea were from foreigners and blood donation from Koreans who returned from abroad was restricted for a period of a month. Nonetheless, preventive strategy for donation from people is necessary given the recent increase in Dengue fever.

The Relationship among Nurses' Perception of Super-leadership, Self-leadership and Organizational Commitment / 간호행정학회지

PURPOSE: This study was designed to assess the level of super-leadership and self-leadership, identify correlations among variables and identify the factors influencing organizational commitment of clinical nurses. METHODS: Participants were 217 nurses working in four hospitals located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one way ANOVA, Scheffé test, Pearson Correlation, and Multiple Regression. RESULTS: The most influential factor for organizational commitment was super-leadership (β=.28, p<.001), followed by education (β=.16, p=.007), the number of unit nurses (β=-.18, p=.003), self-leadership (β=.17, p=.008), and the number of patients being under 10 (β=.12, p=.046). These factors accounted for 23% of the variance in organizational commitment (F=13.46, p<.001). CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest a need for strategies to improve organizational commitment of nurses by enhancing nurse' self-leadership through nursing managers' super-leadership.

Signal Detection and Safety Information Generation of Aripiprazole in Spontaneous Adverse Event Reports Database / 대한정신약물학회지

OBJECTIVE: Korea Institute of Drug Safety and Risk Management works for signal detection and safety information generation by analyzing spontaneous adverse event reports database. As the number of reports and detected signals of aripiprazole by each data mining indices were more than other drugs, aripiprazole was selected as a subject of study. METHODS: 1989-2012 spontaneous reporting database was analyzed and the model drug ingredient was aripiprazole. We estimated proportional reporting ratio, reporting odds ratio, and information component for data mining. Then we assessed the causality through review of local and foreign drug labels and literatures. RESULTS: In reconstructed 1989-2012 spontaneous reporting database, there were 2,062 reports on aripiprazole and 2,565 aripiprazole-adverse events pairs. As a result of data mining analysis and signal prioritization, 78 adverse events were detected, 20 adverse events of them were not included in drug label. After literature review, back pain, epistaxis, xerophthalmia and ejaculation disorder were generated as novel safety information on aripiprazole. CONCLUSION: Those 4 novel safety informations of Aripiprazole, back pain, epistaxis, xerophthalmia and ejaculation disorder had become listed on the local label in April 2013.

Prevalence of Antibiotic Use for Pediatric Acute Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in Korea

This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of antimicrobial prescribing for acute upper respiratory tract infections (URI) among pediatric outpatients and to identify the national patterns of its use from 2009 to 2011 in Korea. Using National Patients Sample database from 2009 to 2011, we estimated the frequency of antibiotics prescribing for URI in pediatric outpatients with diagnoses of acute nasopharyngitis (common cold), acute sinusitis, acute pharyngitis, acute tonsillitis, acute laryngitis/tracheitis, acute obstructive laryngitis/epiglottitis, and acute upper respiratory infections of multiple and unspecified sites. The proportions of each antibiotic class were calculated by year and absolute and relative differences were estimated. Also, we investigated daily amount of prescribed antibiotics per defined population according to the type of medical care institution, physician specialty, and geographic region. The overall antibiotic prescribing proportion was 58.7% and its annual proportion slightly decreased (55.4% in 2011 vs. 60.5% in 2009; adjusted odds ratio, 0.82; 95% confidence interval, 0.82-0.83). Variations by the type of medical care institution were observed. Tertiary hospitals (45.0%) were less likely to prescribe antibiotics than primary care clinics (59.4%), hospitals (59.0%), and general hospitals (61.2%); they showed different tendencies in choosing antibiotics. Variations by physician specialty and region were also observed. Prevalence of antimicrobial prescribing for pediatric URI is still considered higher than that of western countries and varies by the type of medical care institution, physician specialty, and geographic region.

Unusual bilateral vulvar liposarcoma

Liposarcoma of vulva is a rare malignant tumor. Only fifteen cases of vulvar liposarcoma have been reported in English literature. Because of extreme rarity of vulvar liposarcoma, it is initially misdiagnosed as benign tumor such as lipoma. This paper aims to present a unique case of liposarcoma of bilateral vulvae with a review of the literature of previously reported cases.

Cribriform-Morular Variant of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Associated with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis / 대한이비인후과학회지

We report a case of cribriform-morular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma associated with familial adenomatous polyposis. A 21-year-old woman presented with multiple, well-defined, oval shaped thyroid nodules, which showed hypo-echoic and solid mixed with some cystic components by ultrasound, and poorly enhancing and low dense by CT scan. Cytological finding was compatible with papillary carcinoma. Total thyroidectomy was performed and nodules were palated soft. Histologic analysis confirmed the diagnosis of cribriform-morular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Familial adenomatous polyposis, thereafter, was diagnosed by family history and colonoscopy, and preventive colectomy was performed.