OBJECTIVE: We investigated serum lipid levels in asymptomatic HBsAg carriers and the general population using the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). METHODS: We analyzed the data of patients aged ≥30 years from the KNHANES 2007-2014 datasets. Subjects with diabetes mellitus, triglyceride levels >1000 mg/dL, a history of heavy alcohol consumption, or lipid-lowering medication were excluded. HBsAg carriers were divided into “unknown HBsAg carrier” and “known HBsAg carrier” according to previous self-recognition of HBsAg status using a questionnaire. RESULTS: Compared with control subjects (n=24,880; male 33.9%; mean age 52±14 years), HBsAg carriers (n=1,061; male 40.6%; mean age 50±13 years) showed significantly higher AST and ALT levels, lower platelet counts and higher body mass index (BMI) (all p<0.001). HBsAg carriers revealed lower total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels (all p<0.001) compared with control subjects, irrespective of previous awareness of HBsAg positivity. Hypertriglyceridemia and low HDL cholesterolemia were less prevalent even in the “unknown HBsAg carrier” group compared with control subjects [age, sex and BMI-adjusted odds ratio, 0.566 (95% confidence interval, 0.468-0.684) and 0.822 (0.708-0.956), respectively]. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, HBsAg carriers exhibited low total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels compared with control subjects. Hypertriglyceridemia and low HDL cholesterolemia were also less frequently detected in HBsAg carriers even after adjustments for age, sex, and BMI.
Alcohol Drinking ; Body Mass Index ; Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, HDL ; Cholesterol, LDL ; Dataset* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens* ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Hypertriglyceridemia ; Male ; Nutrition Surveys ; Odds Ratio ; Platelet Count ; Triglycerides

In the early 2000s, the prevalence of diabetes in adults aged ≥30 years in Korea was about 9% to 10%, and it remained stable. However, a nationwide survey showed that this prevalence increased over the past few years. After age-standardization using the Korean population of the year 2010, the prevalence of diabetes in adults aged ≥30 years was 10.0% to 10.8% between 2001 and 2012, which increased to 12.5% in 2013 and 11.6% in 2014. During that period, there have been changes in the gender- and age-specific prevalence of diabetes in Korean adults. The prevalence of diabetes in the elderly population increased significantly, while this prevalence in young adults, especially in young women, did not change significantly. The contribution of each diabetic risk factor, such as obesity, β-cell dysfunction, sarcopenia, and socioeconomic status, in developing diabetes has also changed during that period in each gender and age group. For young women, obesity was the most important risk factor; by contrast, for elderly diabetic patients, sarcopenia was more important than obesity as a risk factor. Considering the economic burden of diabetes and its associated comorbidities, a public health policy targeting the major risk factors in each population might be more effective in preventing diabetes.
Adult ; Aged ; Comorbidity ; Diabetes Mellitus* ; Epidemiology* ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Obesity ; Prevalence ; Public Health ; Risk Factors ; Sarcopenia ; Social Class ; Young Adult

No abstract available.
Population Characteristics* ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroiditis*

OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to develop the Korean version of Wahler Physical Symptom Inventory (WPSI), to examine the reliability and validity of it, and to investigate usefulness for diagnosing somatization. METHODS: The normal group was composed of 242 persons consist of middle and high school students, university students, and adults living in Seoul, Puchon, and Suwon. The two clinical groups consisted of 33 persons with somatic symptoms and 38 diabetic patients. RESULTS: Internal consistency (Cronbach alpha=.91) was very high. Test-retest reliability was calculated from 46 university group, and it's correlations was also high (.87). And the total score of K-WPSI was significantly and positively correlated with subscales of SCL-90-R. There was significant difference between the normal, psychiatry group, and diabetic group of K-WPSI (F=15.48, p<.001). Especially, K-WPSI was very useful to differentiate between the somatization group and diabetic group. CONCLUSION: K-WPSI was found to be a reliable and valid instrument for diagnosing somatization, and for differentiating somatization and diabetic groups. K-WPSI is a brief and economical questionnaire, which may curtail medical expenses of patients. It is also expectated that K-WPSI can be used for identifying somatization and providing information which may contribute to ascertain diagnosis. The limitation of this study is the small normative data, and not distinguishing sex differences. This limitation should be supplemented by future studies.
Adult ; Diagnosis ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results ; Seoul ; Sex Characteristics

No abstract available.
Atrophy ; Pityriasis* ; Tinea Versicolor*

Background: We investigated the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in patients with undiagnosed diabetes through a nationwide survey, compared to those with known diabetes. Methods: Among the participants of the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANES) from 2017 to 2018, individuals aged ≥40 years with diabetes and fundus exam results were enrolled. Sampling weights were applied to represent the entire Korean population. Newly detected diabetes patients through KNHANES were classified under “undiagnosed diabetes.” Results: Among a total of 9,108 participants aged ≥40 years, 951 were selected for analysis. Of them, 31.3% (standard error, ±2.0%) were classified under “undiagnosed diabetes.” The prevalence of DR in patients with known and undiagnosed diabetes was 24.5%±2.0% and 10.7%±2.2%, respectively (P<0.001). The DR prevalence increased with rising glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels in patients with known and undiagnosed diabetes (P for trend=0.001 in both). Among those with undiagnosed diabetes, the prevalence of DR was 6.9%±2.1%, 8.0%±3.4%, 5.6%±5.7%, 16.7%±9.4%, and 42.6%±14.8% for HbA1c levels of <7.0%, 7.0%–7.9%, 8.0%–8.9%, 9.0%–9.9%, and ≥10.0% respectively. There was no difference in the prevalence of hypertension, dyslipidemia, hypertriglyceridemia, or obesity according to the presence or absence of DR. Conclusion About one-third of patients with diabetes were unaware of their diabetes, and 10% of them have already developed DR. Considering increasing the prevalence of DR according to HbA1c level was found in patients with undiagnosed diabetes like those with known diabetes, screening and early detection of diabetes and DR are important.

Background: The pain caused by local anesthetic injection can lead to patient anxiety prior to surgery, potentially necessitating sedation or general anesthesia during the excision procedure. In this study, we aim to compare the pain relief efficacy and safety of using a digital automatic anesthetic injector for local anesthesia. Methods: Thirty-three patients undergoing excision of a benign soft tissue tumor under local anesthesia were prospectively enrolled from September 2021 to February 2022. A single-blind, randomized controlled study was conducted. Patients were divided into two groups by randomization: the experimental group with digital automatic anesthetic injector method (I-JECT group) and the control group with conventional injection method. Before surgery, the Amsterdam preoperative anxiety information scale was used to measure the patients’ anxiety. After local anesthetic was administered, the Numeric Pain Rating Scale was used to measure the pain. The amount of anesthetic used was divided by the surface area of the lesion was recorded. Results: Seventeen were assigned to the conventional group and 16 to the I-JECT group. The mean Numeric Pain Rating Scale was 1.75 in the I-JECT group and 3.82 in conventional group. The injection pain was lower in the I-JECT group (p< 0.01). The mean Amsterdam preoperative anxiety information scale was 11.00 in the I-JECT group and 9.65 in conventional group. Patient’s anxiety did not correlate to injection pain regardless of the method of injection (p= 0.47). The amount of local anesthetic used per 1 cm 2 of tumor surface area was 0.74 mL/cm2 in the I-JECT group and 2.31 mL/cm2 in the conventional group. The normalization amount of local anesthetic was less in the I-JECT group (p< 0.01). There was no difference in the incidence of complications. Conclusion The use of a digital automatic anesthetic injector has shown to reduce pain and the amount of local anesthetics without complication.

OBJECTIVE: Ovarian angiogenesis plays an important role in folliculogenesis. However, little is known about the expression of angiogenic factors during follicular development according to female age. Stromal cell derived factor-1alpha (SDF-1alpha) plays a role in granulosa cell survival and embryo quality as an angiogenic chemokine. Leptin is also involved in folliculogenesis and angiogenesis. This study examined expression of SDF-1alpha and leptin, and their effects on the expression of angiogenic factors in the ovary during follicular development according to female age. METHODS: Ovaries were collected from C57BL mice of two age groups (6-9 weeks and 24-26 weeks) at 6, 12, 24, and 48 hours after 5 IU pregnant mare's serum gonadotropin (PMSG) injection. The expression of ovarian SDF-1alpha and leptin mRNA was evaluated by RT-PCR. In the organ culture experiment, the ovaries were cultured in transwell permeable supports with Waymouth's medium treated with various doses of SDF-1alpha (50-200 ng/mL) or leptin (0.01-1 microg/mL) for 7 days. Then, mRNA expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and visfatin were examined in the cultured ovaries. RESULTS: Expression of SDF-1alpha and leptin in the ovary was significantly lower in the aged mouse group compared to the young mouse group (p<0.05). Expression of these two factors increased with follicular development after PMSG administration. SDF-1alpha treatment stimulated visfatin expression in a dose-dependent manner, while leptin treatment significantly increased eNOS expression. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that decrease of ovarian SDF-1alpha and leptin expression may be associated with aging-related reduction of ovarian function. SDF-1alpha and leptin may play a role in follicular development by regulating the expression of angiogenic factors in mouse ovaries.
Aged ; Aging ; Angiogenesis Inducing Agents ; Animals ; Chemokine CXCL12 ; Embryonic Structures ; Female ; Gonadotropins ; Granulosa Cells ; Humans ; Leptin ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase ; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III ; Organ Culture Techniques ; Ovary ; RNA, Messenger ; Stromal Cells ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

OBJECTIVE: Alendronate, a widely used bisphosphonates, acts to inhibit bone resorption by interfering with the activity of osteoclasts. Recently, it has been reported that alendronate also may increase bone proliferation and osteoblastic differentiation. However, little is known about mechanism of the action of alendronate on osteoblast differentiation, especially in transcription level. Inhibitors of DNA binding/ differentiation (Ids) are helix-loop-helix (HLH) transcription factors and play an important role in BMP-induced osteoblast lineage-specific differentiation. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the effect of alendronate on osteoblast differentiation and expression of Id-1 and Id-2. METHODS: MC3T3-E1, pre-osteoblast cell line, were treated with alendronate of various concentrations (10(-9) M-10(-4) M) and time periods (24, 48 and 72 hours). And then, the effect of alendronate on osteoblast differentiation was examined by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and RT-PCR for osteoblast differentiation markers such as ALP, type 1 collagen (Col 1), and osteocalcin (OCN). The expressions of Id-1 and Id-2 were measured by RT-PCR. RESULTS: Alendronate treatment increased not only ALP activity, but also expressions of ALP, Col 1, and OCN. Also, alendronate treatment up-regulated the mRNA levels of Id-1 and Id-2 genes. This alendronate-induced osteoblastic differentiation is more effective in lower doses rather than high doses. CONCLUSION: This study shows that the expression of transcription factor Id-1 and Id-2 was increased in a dose-dependent manner during alendronate-induced osteoblast differentiation.
Alendronate ; Alkaline Phosphatase ; Antigens, Differentiation ; Bone Resorption ; Cell Differentiation ; Cell Line ; Collagen Type I ; Delta Sleep-Inducing Peptide ; Diphosphonates ; DNA ; Osteoblasts ; Osteocalcin ; Osteoclasts ; RNA, Messenger ; Transcription Factors

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We investigated the effect of an isolated low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level on the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) in a prospective cohort. METHODS: The Ansung-Ansan cohort was established for inclusion in a prospective, large-scale, community-based epidemiologic study to investigate chronic diseases in Korea. The data from a baseline survey performed from 2000 to 2001 and two subsequent prospective biennial surveys were analyzed. We included subjects without diabetes mellitus or a history of CAD at the baseline. RESULTS: Among 8,438 total subjects, 0.8% reported newly developed CAD events during 4 years of follow-up. The subjects who experienced CAD events were significantly older (p < 0.001), had a higher body mass index (p = 0.003), and had a higher prevalence of hypertension (p = 0.005) and hypertriglyceridemia (p = 0.045) at the baseline. However, there was no significant difference in the baseline HDL cholesterol level between subjects with or without CAD events. Furthermore, although the baseline triglyceride level was significantly correlated with the baseline HDL cholesterol level (r = -0.404 in men and -0.460 in women; p < 0.001 in both), and Cox regression analysis showed that hypertriglyceridemia at the baseline was significantly associated with an increased hazard ratio for CAD events (hazard ratio, 1.822; 95% confidence interval, 1.029-3.225), low HDL cholesterolemia was not associated with a risk of CAD events. CONCLUSIONS: Low HDL cholesterolemia did not independently increase the subsequent 4 years' risk of CAD events in this community-based Korean cohort.
Body Mass Index ; Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, HDL ; Chronic Disease ; Cohort Studies ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Vessels ; Data Collection ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hypertriglyceridemia ; Korea ; Lipoproteins ; Male ; Prevalence ; Prospective Studies