Association of coronary artery calcification and serum gamma-glutamyl transferase in Korean

a b s t r a c t Background and objective: Elevated serum gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) has been known to be associated with the cardiovascular disease. However, there is a lack of researches on direct examination of relevance between serum GGT and coronary artery calcification (CAC). Accordingly, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between serum GGT levels and the prevalence of CAC in Korean. Methods: The study population consisted of 14,439 male and female adults without coronary artery disease, who were conducted health examination from January 2010 to December 2010. The prevalence of CAC in relation to the quartile groups of serum GGT levels and odds ratio and 95% CI of CAC were analyzed using multiple logistic regression model. Results: The prevalence of CAC increased with increasing GGT quartile (4.6%, 8.7%, 11.8% and 14.7% in the lowest, second, third, highest GGT quartiles, respectively; p < 0.001). In the logistic regression analysis adjusted for multiple variables, odds ratio (95% CI) for the prevalence of CAC comparing the 1st GGT quartile to the 4th quartile were 2.43 (1.94e3.05) for all subjects, 1.49 (1.21e1.85) for men and 1.33 (0.62e2.87) for women. Conclusion: Elevated serum GGT levels were independently associated with the prevalence of CAC. Physicians and health care providers should be observant regarding future development of coronary artery disease among people with increasing concentration of serum GGT

Systemic chemotherapy for treatment of advanced small bowel adenocarcinoma with prognostic factor analysis: retrospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We sought to evaluate prognostic factors affecting overall survival (OS), and to investigate the role of palliative chemotherapy using propensity score-based weighting, in patients with advanced small bowel adenocarcinoma (SBA).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data from a total of 91 patients diagnosed with advanced SBA at the Asan Medical Center between January 1989 and December 2009 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were split into two groups, those who did and did not receive palliative chemotherapy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall, 81 patients (89.0%) died, at a median survival time of 6.6 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.5 - 7.5 months). The 40 patients receiving chemotherapy showed overall response and disease control rates of 11.1% and 37.0%, respectively, with OS and progression-free survival (PFS) of 11.8 months (95% CI, 4.6 - 19.0 months) and 5.7 months (95% CI, 3.5 - 8.0 months), respectively. The 41 patients who did not receive chemotherapy had an OS of 4.1 months (95% CI, 3.1 - 5.1 months) and a PFS of 1.3 months (95% CI, 0.8 - 1.7 months). Multivariate analysis showed that lack of tumor resection, non-prescription of chemotherapy, liver metastasis, and intra-abdominal lymph node metastasis, were all independently associated with poor survival outcomes. After inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) adjustment, the group that did not receive chemotherapy was at a significantly higher risk of mortality (HR 3.44, 95% CI 2.03 - 5.83, p < 0.001) than were patients receiving chemotherapy.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Palliative chemotherapy may improve survival outcomes in patients with advanced SBA.</p

Assessment of Tissue Viability Using Diffusion- and Perfusion-Weighted MRI in Hyperacute Stroke

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the diffusion and perfusion parameters in hyperacute infarction, and we wanted to determine the viability threshold for the ischemic penumbra using diffusion- and perfusion-weighted imaging (DWI and PWI, respectively). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Both DWI and PWI were performed within six hours from the onset of symptoms for 12 patients who had suffered from acute stroke. Three regions of interest (ROIs) were identified: ROI 1 was the initial lesion on DWI; ROI 2 was the DWI/PWI mismatch area (the penumbra) that progressed onward to the infarct; and ROI 3 was the mismatch area that recovered to normal on the follow-up scans. The ratios of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), the relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV), and the time to peak (TTP) were calculated as the lesions' ROIs divided by the contralateral mirror ROIs, and these values were then correlated with each other. The viability threshold was determined by using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: For all three ROIs, the ADC ratios had significant linear correlation with the TTP ratios (p < 0.001), but not with the rCBV ratios (p = 0.280). There was no significant difference for the ADC and rCBV ratios within the ROIs. The mean TTP ratio/TTP delay between the penumbras' two ROIs showed a significant statistical difference (p < 0.001). The cutoff value between ROI 2 and ROI 3, as the viability threshold, was a TTP ratio of 1.29 (with a sensitivity and specificity of 86% and 73%, respectively) and a TTP delay of 7.8 sec (with a sensitivity and specificity of 84% and 72%, respectively). CONCLUSION: Determining the viability thresholds for the TTP ratio/delay on the PWI may be helpful for selecting those patients who would benefit from the various therapeutic interventions that can be used during the acute phase of ischemic stroke

Apolipoprotein B is Highly Associated with the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease as Estimated by the Framingham Risk Score in Healthy Korean Men

The aim of this study was to examine the association between serum apolipoprotein B (apoB) and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) using Framingham risk score (FRS) in healthy Korean men. A total of 13,523 men without medication history of diabetes and hypertension were enrolled in this study. The FRS is based on six coronary risk factors. FRS ≥ 10% was defined as more-than-a-moderate risk group and FRS ≥ 20% as high risk group, respectively. The logistic regression analyses were conducted. When quartile 1 (Q1) set as a reference, in unadjusted analyses, the Q2, Q3, Q4 of apoB level had increased odds ratio (OR) for the risk of CHD in both more-than-a-moderate risk and high risk group, respectively. After adjusting for confounding variables, multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analyses showed a strong relationship between the quartiles of apoB level and more-than-a-moderate risk and high risk group, respectively. These associations were attenuated, but still remained statistically significant. ApoB is found to be independently related to the risk of CHD using FRS in healthy Korean men, and the link between apoB and the risk of CHD is dose-depedent

Development of Torque Sensor with High Sensitivity for Joint of Robot Manipulator Using 4-Bar Linkage Shape

The torque sensor is used to measure the joint torque of a robot manipulator. Previous research showed that the sensitivity and the stiffness of torque sensors have trade-off characteristics. Stiffness has to be sacrificed to increase the sensitivity of the sensor. In this research, a new torque sensor with high sensitivity (TSHS) is proposed in order to resolve this problem. The key idea of the TSHS comes from its 4-bar linkage shape in which the angular displacement of a short link is larger than that of a long link. The sensitivity of the torque sensor with a 4-bar link shape is improved without decreasing stiffness. Optimization techniques are applied to maximize the sensitivity of the sensor. An actual TSHS is constructed to verify the validity of the proposed mechanism. Experimental results show that the sensitivity of TSHS can be increased 3.5 times without sacrificing stiffness