BACKGROUND: This study aimed to compare the indicators (the rates of diagnosis, need for treatment, treatment initiation, and treatment completion) of management of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in contacts and to identify the impact of active tuberculosis (TB) index case characteristics on the exposed population in congregated settings, such as schools, workplaces, and medical institutes. METHODS: The data of 8,648 clusters in the TB epidemiological investigation database between 2013 and 2016 were extracted and analyzed to evaluate the indicators and perform multilevel logistic regression (MLR) analyses to identify the factors affecting each indicator. RESULTS: The rates of total LTBI diagnosis, need for treatment, treatment initiation, and treatment completion were 15.2%, 10.2%, 69.4%, and 76.6%, respectively. After adjusting for other factors on MLR, the probability of diagnosis and need for treatment of latent TB in contacts was higher in most types of facilities than in schools. Conversely, treatment completion rates in these facilities were lower. Notably, the correctional institutions showed the highest odds ratio (OR) relative to school for LTBI diagnosis (OR, 6.37) and need for treatment (OR, 4.49) and the lowest OR for treatment completion (OR, 0.10). CONCLUSION: This study provided evidence for the implementation of latent TB control policies in congregated settings.
Academies and Institutes ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Korea ; Latent Tuberculosis ; Logistic Models ; Odds Ratio ; Tuberculosis

Purpose: This study examined general characteristics, health status, accessibility to medical services, health-related quality of life, dietary behavior, and energy and nutrient intakes of the elderly at different levels of food security utilizing data from the 7th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016–2018). Methods: The elderly subjects (1,721 males and 2,271 females) were divided into 3 groups (secure, mildly insecure, moderately/severely insecure) according to their food security levels. Health and nutrient status was determined using energy intake, nutrient density, the prevalence of insufficient nutrient intake, dietary behavior, and health status. Results: The elderly with food insecurities had a lower self-evaluated health status and a higher prevalence of physician-diagnosed chronic diseases such as arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis for males, and hypertension, stroke, arthritis, and osteoarthritis for females. The associated financial burden was the major reason for not accessing medical services in the food insecure group. Furthermore, the food insecure group had a higher risk of impaired health-related quality of life compared to the secure group. The proportion of subjects with an energy intake below the estimated energy requirement was higher in the food insecure group and a significantly higher prevalence of insufficient intake was observed for all the nutrients (proteins, vitamin A, vitamin B 1 , vitamin B 2 , niacin, vitamin C, calcium, and iron) assessed in this study compared to the food secure group. Conclusion This study suggests that food insecurity poses a challenge to the health and nutritional status of the elderly population in Korea and needs proper management. It would be helpful to develop food and nutrition assistance programs to ensure the food stability of the elderly population and assure quality to address gaps in their nutrient intake.

OBJECTIVES: This study compared the differences of postmenopausal women's bone mineral density in relation to the degree of obesity, metabolism index and dietary factors that affect bone mineral density. METHODS: The subjects included in the study are 39 postmenopausal women of normal weight with body mass index less than 25 kg/m2 and 32 postmenopausal who are obese. Anthropometry and biochemical analysis were performed and nutrient intakes and DQI-I were assessed. RESULTS: Normal weight women were 56.03 ± 3.76 years old and obese women were 58.09 ± 5.13 years old and there was no significant difference in age between the two groups. The T-score of bone mineral density was 0.03 ± 1.06 in normal weight women and -0.60 ± 1.47 in obese women and this was significantly different between the two groups (p<0.05). Blood Leptin concentration was significantly lower in normal weight women (6.09 ± 3.37 ng/mL) compared to obese women in (9.01 ± 4.99 ng/mL) (p<0.05). The total score of diet quality index-international was 70.41±9.34 in normal weight women and 64.93 ± 7.82 in obese women (p<0.05). T-score of bone mineral density showed negative correlations with percentage of body fat (r = -0.233, p=0.05), BMI (r = -0.197, p=0.017), triglyceride (r = -0.281, p=0.020) and leptin (r = -0.308, p=0.011). The results of multiple regression analysis performed as the method of entry showed that with 22.0% of explanation power, percentage of body fat (β=-0.048, p<0.05), triglyceride (β=-0.005, p<0.05) and HDL-cholesterol (β=0.034, p<0.01), moderation of DQI-I (β=-0.231, p<0.05) affected T-score significantly. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study showed that obese women have less bone density than those with normal weight women. In addition, the factor analysis result that affect bone mineral density showed that intake of fat is a very important factor. Therefore, postmenopausal women need to maintain normal weight and manage blood lipid levels within normal range. They also need to take various sources of protein and reduce consumption of empty calorie foods that have high calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium.
Adipose Tissue ; Anthropometry ; Biomarkers* ; Body Mass Index ; Bone Density* ; Cholesterol ; Diet* ; Female ; Humans ; Leptin ; Metabolism ; Methods ; Obesity ; Reference Values ; Sodium ; Triglycerides

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to examine the relative role of anxiety sensitivity and hearing loss on the tinnitus symptoms severity in a large clinical sample of patients with tinnitus. METHODS: A total of 1,705 patients with tinnitus who visited the tinnitus clinic underwent the pure-tone audiometric testing and a battery of self-report questionnaires. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to identify the relationship of anxiety sensitivity and hearing loss to tinnitus symptoms severity. RESULTS: Both anxiety sensitivity and hearing loss were a significant association with of annoyance (anxiety sensitivity β=0.11, p=0.010; hearing loss β=0.09, p=0.005) and THI score (anxiety sensitivity β=0.21, p < 0.001; hearing loss β=0.10, p < 0.001) after adjusting for confounding factors. Meanwhile, the awareness time (β=0.19, p < 0.001) and loudness (β=0.11, p < 0.001) of tinnitus was associated with only the hearing loss but not with anxiety sensitivity CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that both hearing loss and anxiety sensitivity were associated with increased tinnitus symptom severity. Furthermore, these associations could be different according to the characteristics of tinnitus symptoms.
Anxiety ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Tinnitus

Molecular mimicry is the most common mechanism that breaches self-tolerance. We previously identified autoantibodies to aquaporin-5 (AQP5) in the sera of patients with Sjögren’s syndrome and found that the aquaporin of Prevotella melaninogenica (PmAqp), an oral commensal, is highly homologous to human AQP5. This study aimed to test whether PmAqp can induce anti-AQP5 autoantibodies via molecular mimicry. From the amino acid sequenceof PmAqp, an immunizing peptide; i.e., PmE-L, was designed, which contained both the B cell epitope “E” and T cell epitope. C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice were subcutaneously immunized with linear or cyclic forms of PmE-L emulsified in incomplete Freund’s adjuvant. The concentrations of the antibodies in sera were measured using enzyme- linked immunosorbent assays. Both linear and cyclic PmE-L induced high levels of antibodies against not only theimmunized peptides but also autoantibodies against AQP5E and antibodies against PmE, a Pm homolog of AQP5E. In C57BL/6 mice; however, the cyclic form of PmE-L was more efficient than the linear form in inducing autoantibodies against AQP5E that contained a cyclic epitope. The levels of anti-PmE antibodies and anti-AQP5E autoantibodies showed a strong positive correlation (r = 0.95, p < 0.0005), suggesting molecular mimicry. Collectively, the mice produced anti-AQP5E autoantibodies in response to a PmAqp-derived peptide. This model proved to be useful for studying the mechanisms of autoantibody production by molecular mimicry.

Salmonella causes a wide variety of diseases ranging from mild diarrhea to severe systemic infections, such as like typhoid fever, in multiple organisms, ranging from mice to humans. A lack of ptsI, which encodes the first component of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) : carbohydrate phosphotransferase system (PTS), is known to cause Salmonella Typhimurium attenuation; however, the mechanisms behind this have not yet been elucidated. In this study, a DNA microarray was performed to determine why the virulence of ptsI mutants is attenuated under low-oxygen conditions in which the ptsI expression is enhanced. Of 106 down-regulated genes, the most repressed were pdu and tdc genes, which are required for propanediol utilization and threonine and serine metabolism, respectively. In addition, half the flagellar genes were down-regulated in the ptsI mutant strain. Because pdu genes are induced during infection and Tdc products and flagella-mediated motility are necessary for the invasion of S. Typhimurium, the invasive ability of ptsI mutants was examined. We found that ptsI mutation reduced the ability of S. Typhimurium to invade into host cells, suggesting that reduced expression of the pdu, tdc, and flagellar genes is involved in the attenuation of ptsI mutants.
Animals ; Diarrhea ; Flagella ; Humans ; Metabolism ; Mice ; Microarray Analysis* ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Phosphoenolpyruvate ; Salmonella typhimurium* ; Salmonella* ; Serine ; Threonine ; Typhoid Fever ; Virulence

Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is a common oral mucosal disorder for which no curative treatment is available. We previously reported that decreased Streptococcus salivarius and increased Acinetobacter johnsonii on the oral mucosa are associated with RAS risk. The purpose of this study was to identify antibiotics that selectively inhibit A. johnsonii but minimally inhibit oral mucosal commensals. S. salivarius KCTC 5512, S. salivarius KCTC 3960, A. johnsonii KCTC 12405, Rothia mucilaginosa KCTC 19862, and Veillonella dispar KCOM 1864 were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility test using amoxicillin, cefotaxime, gentamicin, clindamycin, and metronidazole in liquid culture. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was defined as the concentration that inhibits 90% of growth. Only gentamicin presented a higher MIC for A. johnsonii than MICs for S. salivarius and several oral mucosal commensals. Interestingly, the growth of S. salivarius increased 10~200% in the presence of sub-MIC concentrations of gentamicin, which was independent of development of resistance to gentamicin. In conclusion, gentamicin may be useful to restore RAS-associated imbalance in oral microbiota by selectively inhibiting the growth of A. johnsonii but enhancing the growth of S. salivarius.
Acinetobacter ; Amoxicillin ; Anti-Bacterial Agents* ; Cefotaxime ; Clindamycin ; Gentamicins ; Mass Screening* ; Metronidazole ; Microbiota ; Mouth Mucosa ; Stomatitis, Aphthous* ; Streptococcus ; Veillonella