Differential patterns of noun-verb naming and the verb argument complexity in persons with aphasia and normal elderly adults

The purpose of the study was to investigate 1) whether persons with aphasia (PWA) showed differential patterns between noun and verb naming tasks compared to normal elderly individuals (NEI) and 2) whether the two groups showed differential effects of verb argument complexity on a Korean-verb naming task. Results revealed that PWA showed differentially greater difficulties in verbs than nouns compared to NEI. PWA presented worse performance on unaccusative and 3-place verbs than unergative verbs. However, these patterns were not observed in NEA. Dissociated patterns of verb argument complexity were discussed with respect to Korean-specific verb argument structures

Perioperative considerations for acute appendicitis in patients with COVID-19 infection: two case reports

We report considerations related with surgery through 2 cases of acute apendicitis with COVID-19 infection. In November and December 2020, two patients infected with COVID-19 developed acute apendicitis and underwent emergency surgery. In case 1, an 84-year-old woman was asymptomatic and diagnosed with acute apendicitis on the 20th day of infection. She was discharged after surgery without complication. In contrast, case 2 was a 69-year-old male patient with pneumonia treated with antibiotics, steroids and remdesivir. After surgery, he was hospitalized for a long duration due to persistent pneumonia and wound complications. We should perform appendectomy in well-established negative pressure operating rooms, personal protective equipment, and protocols. Since the physical examination and blood tests were limited, image examination like computed tomography scan should be considered if acute apendicitis is suspected. If the patient has pneumonia before surgery, it can get worse after surgery, and complications such as wound infections can occur

Reduced lung function is independently associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes in Korean men

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Reduced lung function is associated with incident insulin resistance and diabetes. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between lung function and incident type 2 diabetes in Korean men.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study included 9,220 men (mean age: 41.4 years) without type 2 diabetes at baseline who were followed for five years. Subjects were divided into four groups according to baseline forced vital capacity (FVC) (% predicted) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV₁) (% predicted) quartiles. The incidence of type 2 diabetes at follow-up was compared according to FVC and FEV₁ quartiles.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall incidence of type 2 diabetes was 2.2%. Reduced lung function was significantly associated with the incidence of type 2 diabetes after adjusting for age, BMI, education, smoking, exercise, alcohol, and HOMA-IR. Both FVC and FEV₁ were negatively associated with type 2 diabetes (<it>P</it> < 0.05). In non-obese subjects with BMI < 25, the lowest quartile of FVC and FEV₁ had a significantly higher odds ratio for type 2 diabetes compared with the highest quartile after adjusting for age and BMI (2.15 [95% CI 1.02-4.57] and 2.19 [95% CI 1.09-4.42]).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Reduced lung function is independently associated with the incidence of type 2 diabetes in Korean men.</p

Acute and Subchronic Toxicological Evaluation of the Herbal Product HAD-B1 in Rats

This study evaluates acute and subchronic toxicity of a Korean herbal formula HAD-B1 in rat to investigate whether HAD-B1 has potential toxicity to humans. First, the study to assess the acute oral toxicity at dose levels of 0, 500, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg body weight (BW) was performed in male and female SD rats (Crl: CD, specific pathogen-free) (n = 5/group). Based on the result of the acute oral study, 4 weeks’ dose range finding study and 13 weeks’ subchronic study were performed (dose range finding study, DRF; n = 5/group) and 13 weeks (subchronic study; n = 10/group) in male and female SD rats. The control group was administered with distilled water (DW). Clinical signs, body weight, food consumption, ophthalmic examination, urinalysis, hematological/biochemical parameters, gross finding at necropsy, and histopathological examination were investigated and recorded. In the oral acute toxicity study of SD rats, no clinical signs, mortality, body weight changes, and gross findings were observed. Also, there were no treatment-related changes in the 4-week DRF study. Based on these results, a 13-week repeated-dose toxicity study (subchronic) in SD rats was performed. HAD-B1 showed temporal hypersalivation in clinical signs and an increased tendency in body weight at 2000 mg/kg BW. However, there were no treatment-related changes in mortality, food consumption, ophthalmology, urinalysis, hematology, biochemistry, gross finding at necropsy, organ weights, and histopathology in either sex of any group. Based on this toxicological evaluation of HAD-B1, we concluded that no target organ was determined, and the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) of HAD-B1 was determined to be > 2000 mg/kg B W. Therefore, we decided that consuming HAD-B1 is relatively nontoxic

Sonographic findings of malignant appendix tumors in seven cases

We report the sonographic features of confirmed malignant appendiceal tumors in seven cases. The histologic diagnoses of these tumors were mucinous cystadenocarcinoma (n = 2), colonic type adenocarcinoma (n = 4), and signet-ring cell carcinoma (n = 1). The 2 mucinous cystadenocarcinomas showed mucocele type, which had markedly enlarged inner luminal diameters (mean, 23 mm; range, 15–31 mm) and thick, irregular walls (mean wall thickness, 5.5 mm; range, 5–6 mm). In contrast, the 5 nonmucinous carcinomas (4 adenocarcinomas and 1 signet-ring cell carcinoma) showed nonmucocele type, which had relatively small inner luminal diameters (mean ± standard deviation [SD], 6.6 ± 4.5 mm; range, 2–15 mm) and prominent wall thickening (mean wall thickness ± SD, 6.2 ± 2.3 mm; range, 3–10 mm). Of the 5 nonmucinous tumors, only one had a discernible mass, three had thick irregular walls, two had loss of the wall layer pattern, and four had submucosal hypoechogenicity. Regardless of the histologic type, five of the seven malignant appendiceal tumors showed a severe periappendiceal fat infiltration or periappendiceal abscess, suggestive of perforation.Although the sonographic findings of the malignant appendiceal tumors were nonspecific, some of the sonographic features seen in these seven cases may help radiologists consider the possibility of underlying malignant appendiceal tumors

Validation of the oncologic effect of hepatic resection for T2 gallbladder cancer: a retrospective study

Abstract Background While extended cholecystectomy is recommended for T2 gallbladder cancer (GBC), the role of hepatic resection for T2 GBC is unclear. This study aimed to identify the necessity of hepatic resection in patients with T2 GBC. Methods Data of 81 patients with histopathologically proven T2 GBC who underwent surgical resection between January 1999 and December 2017 were enrolled from a retrospective database. Of these, 36 patients had peritoneal-side (T2a) tumors and 45 had hepatic-side (T2b) tumors. To identify the optimal surgical management method, T2 GBC patients were classified into the hepatic resection group (n = 44, T2a/T2b = 20/24) and non-hepatic resection group (n = 37, T2a/T2b = 16/21). The recurrence pattern and role of hepatic resection for T2 GBC were then investigated. Results Mean age of the patients was 69 (range 36–88) years, and the male-to-female ratio was 42:39 (male, 51.9%; female, 48.1%). Hepatic-side GBC had a higher rate of recurrence than peritoneal-side GBC (44.4% vs. 8.3%, p = 0.006). The most common type of recurrence in T2a GBC was para-aortic lymph node recurrence (n = 2, 5.6%); the most common types of recurrence in T2b GBC were para-aortic lymph node recurrence (n = 7, 15.6%) and intrahepatic metastasis (n = 6, 13.3%). Hepatic-side GBC patients had worse survival outcomes than peritoneal-side GBC patients (76.0% vs. 96.6%, p = 0.041). Hepatic resection had no significant treatment effect in T2 GBC patients (p = 0.272). Multivariate analysis showed that lymph node metastasis was the only significant prognostic factor (p = 0.002). Conclusions Hepatic resection is not essential for curative treatment in T2 GBC, and more systemic treatments are needed for GBC patients, particularly for those with T2b GBC