Health behaviors, periodontal conditions, and periodontal pathogens in spontaneous preterm birth: A case-control study in Korea

Background: This study aims to determine whether periodontal conditions or dental health behaviors are risk factors for preterm birth (PTB), and whether periodontal pathogens are risk indicators for PTB among Korean mothers. Methods: This study was designed as a hospital-based case-control study. Examiner masking was ensured for the validity of the examinations. The mothers included those who gave birth between November 2007 and July 2009 at the obstetrics clinic of a general hospital in Seoul, Korea. Information on demographic and health conditions, periodontal conditions, and microbacterial data was collected. Results: A total of 172 women met the inclusion criteria, 59 mothers who delivered a preterm neonate were assigned to the case group while the other 113 were assigned to the control group. There were no significant differencesin demographic information, oral health conditions, and obstetric characteristics. Among health-related behaviors, only scaling within 12 months before pregnancy showed a significant difference (P = 0.031). Even in the adjusted logistic model, only the difference in the experience of scaling before pregnancy was significant between the PTB cases and the controls (P = 0.039). Periodontal disease did not exhibit a significant relationship with PTB even after adjustment for potential confounding factors. Among the microbacterial factors, only Porphyromonas gingivalis showed a slight difference (P = 0.060). Conclusion: There was a significant difference inscaling experience within 12 months before pregnancy and P. gingivalis showed a marginal difference between the PTB and the control groups but clinical periodontal conditions showed no association with PTB.This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD, Basic Research Promotion Fund, Seoul, Korea; E00230)

Smaller pineal gland is associated with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder in Alzheimers disease

Background To investigate the association between pineal gland volume and symptoms of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) in Alzheimers disease (AD) patients without any feature of dementia with Lewy bodies. Methods We enrolled 296 community-dwelling probable AD patients who did not meet the diagnostic criteria for possible or probable dementia with Lewy bodies. Among them, 93 were amyloid beta (Aβ) positive on 18F-florbetaben amyloid brain positron emission tomography. We measured RBD symptoms using the REM Sleep Behavior Disorder Screening Questionnaire (RBDSQ) and defined probable RBD (pRBD) as the RBDSQ of 5 or higher. We manually segmented pineal gland on 3T structural T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging. Results The participants with pRBD had smaller pineal parenchyma volume (VPP) than those without pRBD (p <  0.001). The smaller the VPP, the more severe the RBD symptoms (p <  0.001). VPP was inversely associated with risk of prevalent pRBD (odds ratio = 0.909, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.878–0.942, p <  0.001). Area under the receiver operator characteristic curve for pRBD of VPP was 0.80 (95% CI = 0.750–0.844, p <  0.0001). These results were not changed when we analyzed the 93 participants with Aβ-positive AD separately. Conclusions In AD patients, reduced pineal gland volume may be associated with RBD.This study was supported by the grants from the Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant no.HI09C1379 [A092077]) and the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Promotion (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (2018-2-00861, Intelligent SW Technology Development for Medical Data Analysis)

Poor Outcomes for IgD Multiple Myeloma Patients Following High-Dose Melphalan and Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation: A Single Center Experience

Immunoglobulin (Ig) D multiple myeloma (MM) accounts for 2% of all MM cases and has been reported to be associated with poor prognosis compared with other MM subtypes. The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of high-dose melphalan treatment and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) on the survival of patients with IgD MM and patients with other MM subtypes. Between November 1998 and January 2005, a total of 77 patients with MM who underwent ASCT at the Asan Medical Center were enrolled in this study. High-dose melphalan (total 200 mg/m2) was used as high-dose chemotherapy. The study population was divided into two groups based on MM subtype: those with IgD MM; and those with other MM subtypes. A total of 8 patients with IgD MM were identified, accounting for about 10% of the study population. Thirty-six patients (47%) had IgG MM, 17 patients (22%) had IgA MM, and 16 patients (20%) had free light-chain MM. The two groups were similar in baseline characteristics. The median follow-up was 17 months and the median overall survival (OS) was 39 months. In the IgD MM group, median event-free survival (EFS) and OS were 6.9 and 12 months, respectively. In the patients with other MM subtypes, median EFS and OS were 11.5 and 55.5 months (p=0.01, p<0.01), respectively. Multivariate analysis of all patients identified IgD subtype (p=0.002) and Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) stage 2 or greater at the time of ASCT (p=0.01) as adverse prognostic factors for survival. In this small study at a single center in Korea, patients with IgD MM had poorer outcomes after ASCT than did patients with other MM subtypes

Original Article

99 cases were operated while we could not use antibiotics. The author traced X-ray photos on paper and measured areas of the peeled cavities with a planimeter. Results were as follows. 1) 66 cases had increasing stage and the rates were more than 30 %. 2) Cases with good developments showed larger original areas (50〜100cm^2) and smaller increasing rates (less than 30 %). 3) Also their X-ray photos showed coinciding or almost coinciding lines of the apices of lungs and the bases of cavities, but we had to take precautions against suppuration when they showed a horizontal line several days after operation. 4) Most of too high degree of adhesion or thickning of pleura did not show good results. When we found a cord which we must manage with some procedures by pneumolysis we must attend to suppuration too. 5)We ought to resect 4th or 5th rib more than 20 cm and 5th or 4th several cm supplementary. 6) As a method of constriction we commend the INVAGI.NATION method. 7) The author noticed in a considerable number of cases that the areas of cavities increased again after they kept long balanced stages

Atherosclerosis V, Proceeding of the Fifth International Symposium, A.M. Gotto, L.C. Smith, B. Allen, Spring Verlag, 1979(BOOK REVIEW)

Antiviral effect of micafungin on three strains of human rhinoviruses. H1HeLa cells were infected with human rhinovirus type 14 (A), 21 (B), or 71 (C) (100 CCID50) and immediately treated with indicated concentrations of micafungin. Three days after compound treatment antiviral activity was determined by the reduction of cytopathic effect using MTT assay. Cell viability of DMSO-treated cells was set to 0 % and that of uninfected cells was set to 100 %. (TIF 100 kb

A retrospective analysis of second-line chemotherapy in patients with advanced gastric cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Because treatment of advanced gastric cancer (AGC) patients after failure with first-line chemotherapy remains controversial, we performed this retrospective analysis based on the data obtained from 1455 patients registered in a first-line treatment cohort with respect to receiving or not receiving subsequent chemotherapy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The decision for administering second-line chemotherapy was, in most cases, at the discretion of the physician. Seven-hundred twenty-five (50%) received second-line chemotherapy after first-line failure. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed on the recognized baseline parameters for survival.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At the time of initiating second-line chemotherapy, the patients' median age was 56 years (range, 22 to 86) and 139 (19%) had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 2 or more. Seven (1%) complete and 108 (15%) partial responses to second-line chemotherapy were observed for an overall response rate of 16% (95% confidence interval [CI], 13 to 19%). The median progression-free and overall survivals, calculated from the start of second-line chemotherapy, were 2.9 months (95% CI, 2.6 to 3.3) and 6.7 months (95% CI, 5.8 to 7.5), respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that low baseline hemoglobin level (hazard ratio [HR], 0.74; 95% CI 0.61–0.90) and a poor performance status (HR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.52–0.83) were independent negative prognostic factors for overall survival.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Performance status, along with baseline hemoglobin level, could be used to identify the subgroup of patients most likely to benefit from second-line chemotherapy for AGC.</p

Molecular diagnosis of hereditary spherocytosis by multi-gene target sequencing in Korea: matching with osmotic fragility test and presence of spherocyte

Background Current diagnostic tests for hereditary spherocytosis (HS) focus on the detection of hemolysis or indirectly assessing defects of membrane protein, whereas direct methods to detect protein defects are complicated and difficult to implement. In the present study, we investigated the patterns of genetic variation associated with HS among patients clinically diagnosed with HS. Methods Multi-gene targeted sequencing of 43 genes (17 RBC membrane protein-encoding genes, 20 RBC enzyme-encoding genes, and six additional genes for the differential diagnosis) was performed using the Illumina HiSeq platform. Results Among 59 patients with HS, 50 (84.7%) had one or more significant variants in a RBC membrane protein-encoding genes. A total of 54 significant variants including 46 novel mutations were detected in six RBC membrane protein-encoding genes, with the highest number of variants found in SPTB (n = 28), and followed by ANK1 (n = 19), SLC4A1 (n = 3), SPTA1 (n = 2), EPB41 (n = 1), and EPB42 (n = 1). Concurrent mutations of genes encoding RBC enzymes (ALDOB, GAPDH, and GSR) were detected in three patients. UGT1A1 mutations were present in 24 patients (40.7%). Positive rate of osmotic fragility test was 86.8% among patients harboring HS-related gene mutations. Conclusions This constitutes the first large-scaled genetic study of Korean patients with HS. We demonstrated that multi-gene target sequencing is sensitive and feasible that can be used as a powerful tool for diagnosing HS. Considering the discrepancies of clinical and molecular diagnoses of HS, our findings suggest that molecular genetic analysis is required for accurate diagnosis of HS.Support was provided by: the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government(MSIT) (NRF-2017R1A2A1A17069780) http://www.nrf.re.kr/

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase&nbsp;1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation&nbsp;disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age&nbsp; 6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score&nbsp; 652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc&nbsp;= 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N&nbsp;= 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in&nbsp;Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in&nbsp;Asia&nbsp;and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701