1.Changes in Clinical Characteristics among Febrile Patients Visiting the Emergency Department before and after the COVID-19 Outbreak
Seung Joon LEE ; Arom CHOI ; Hyun Wook RYOO ; Yun-Suk PAK ; Hyeon Chang KIM ; Ji Hoon KIM
Yonsei Medical Journal 2021;62(12):1136-1144
Purpose:
Considering the risk of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) transmission through infected droplets, emergency department (ED) operations in response to febrile patients should be planned. We investigated the general and clinical characteristics of febrile patients visiting the ED and changes in admission rates via the ED during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Materials and Methods:
We performed a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected patients who visited 402 EDs in the Republic of Korea with febrile symptoms between January 27 and May 31, 2020 and compared them to those enrolled before the COVID-19 outbreak. The primary outcome was admission rate; the secondary outcome was length of stay (LOS) in the ED.
Results:
In total, 266519 patients had febrile symptoms at ED presentation after the COVID-19 outbreak. In 2019, before the outbreak, there were 437762 patients. The rate of ED visits among pediatric patients (aged <15 years) decreased to 21.4% after the COVID-19 outbreak, compared with 41.8% in 2019. The proportion of patients admitted after ED management was higher after the outbreak (31.3%) than before (25.2%). The adjusted odds ratio for admission was 1.04 (95% confidence interval: 1.02–1.05) after the outbreak. Compared to before the COVID-19 outbreak, the median ED LOS increased by 16 min after the outbreak.
Conclusion
This study confirmed that admission rates and ED LOS increased for febrile patients visiting the ED after the COVID-19 outbreak. This could provide evidence for developing ED-related strategies in response to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and other infectious disease pandemics.
2.Decreased Serum Cocaine- and Amphetamine-Regulated Transcript Level in Internet Gaming Disorder
Ara CHO ; Heejin LEE ; Dong Huey CHEON ; So Young YOO ; Arom PYEON ; Ji-Won CHUN ; Ji Hyun BACK ; Yae Eun PARK ; Dai-Jin KIM ; Ji Eun LEE ; Jung-Seok CHOI
Psychiatry Investigation 2024;21(7):755-761
Objective:
Vulnerability to internet gaming disorder (IGD) has increased as internet gaming continues to grow. Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) is a hormone that plays a role in reward, anxiety, and stress. The purpose of this study was to identify the role of CART in the pathophysiology of IGD.
Methods:
The serum CART levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the associations of the serum CART level with psychological variables were analyzed in patients with IGD (n=31) and healthy controls (HC) (n=42).
Results:
The serum CART level was significantly lower in the IGD than HC group. The IGD group scored significantly higher than the HC group on the psychological domains of depression, anxiety, the reward response in the Behavioral Activation System and Behavioral Inhibition System. There were no significant correlations between serum CART level and other psychological variables in the IGD group.
Conclusion
Our results indicate that a decrease in the expression of the serum CART level is associated with the vulnerability of developing IGD. This study supports the possibility that CART is a biomarker in the pathophysiology of IGD.