Armeniacae semen (AS) has been considered a toxic herb in the Korean medicine as it contains hydrogen cyanide and amygdalin, especially in its endocarp. Therefore, prebrewed AS that is devoid of endocarp has been traditionally used. In the present study, amygdalin content of the prebrewed AS was significantly lower (2.73 +/- 0.32 microg/ml; p < 0.01) than the content in the extract that contained the endocarps (28.50 +/- 6.71 microg/ml); amygdalin content corresponded to 10% of the extract in the present study. Because of single oral dose toxicity of prebrewed AS according to the recommendation of Korea Food and Drug Administration Guidelines (2009-116, 2009), which was based on single oral dose toxicity study of prebrewed AS, mortality due to toxic principles was significantly reduced. In this study, 2,000 mg/kg of prebrewed AS led to death of 1 female rat and 1 male rat at the end of 2 hr of administration. Based on these results, the 50% lethal dose in both male and female rats was determined to be 9279.5 mg/kg. Seizure, loss of locomotion, and increases in respiration and heart rate were observed as prebrewed AS treatment-related toxicological signs; these signs were restrictedly manifested in the prebrewed AS (2,000 mg/kg)-treated rats. In addition, no changes were observed in body weight, organ weight, gross features, and histopathological parameters with 2,000 mg/kg of AS in both male and female rats. These findings serve as direct evidence that amygdalin in AS is the toxic principle, which can be reduced by the traditional prebrewing method involving the exclusion of endocarp.
Amygdalin ; Animals ; Body Weight ; Female ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Hydrogen Cyanide ; Korea ; Locomotion ; Male ; Organ Size ; Rats ; Respiration ; Seizures ; Semen ; United States Food and Drug Administration

Background: Several studies have reported associations between obesity and autonomic dysfunction. However, little research has investigated the effect of bariatric surgery on heart rate recovery (HRR) in the treadmill test and heart rate variability (HRV) in 24-hour Holter monitoring. We investigated the effects of bariatric surgery on HRR and HRV, which are parameters related to autonomic dysfunction. Methods: We retrospectively investigated patients who underwent bariatric surgery in 2019. The treadmill test, 24-hour Holter monitoring, and echocardiography were performed before and 6 months after surgery. We compared the changes in HRR in the treadmill test and HRV parameters such as the time domain and spectral domain in 24-hour Holter monitoring before and after surgery. Results: Of the 40 patients who underwent bariatric surgery, 25 patients had the treadmill test or 24-hour Holter monitoring both before and after surgery. Body weight and body mass index significantly decreased after surgery (112.86±24.37 kg vs. 89.10±20.26 kg, p<0.001; 39.22±5.69 kg/m2 vs. 31.00±5.09 kg/m2, p<0.001, respectively). HRR significantly increased (n=23; 43.00±20.97 vs. 64.29±18.49, p=0.001). The time domain of HRV parameters increased (n=21; standard deviation of the N-N interval 123.57±28.05 vs. 152.57±39.49, p=0.002 and mean N-N interval 791.57±88.84 vs. 869.05±126.31, p=0.002). Conclusions Our data showed that HRR after exercise and HRV during 24-hour Holter monitoring improved after weight reduction with bariatric surgery through improved cardiac autonomic function.

BACKGROUND: As the elderly population is fast growing, the incidence of stroke is also increasing. We studied the clinical characteristics of nonagenarian stroke compared to a population of patients under the age of ninety. METHODS: Subjects included 44 nonagenarian stroke patients and 22,227 control patients aged under ninety. Clinical characteristics including age, sex, risk factors, stroke subtype, and outcome (one-year prognosis, evaluated by a modified Rankin scale) were analyzed. RESULTS: The proportion of nonagenarian stroke accounted for 0.2% of all cases of stroke. Ischemic stroke was more common than hemorrhagic stroke in the nonagenarian group. In addition, the female gender was more frequent (p<0.01). As the patients were older, their admission period was shorter, the discharge against medical advice was increased, and the mortality was higher. Hypertension and atrial fibrillation were significantly higher (p<0.05, p<0.001, respectively) in the nonagenarian ischemic stroke patients. CONCLUSIONS: Nonagenarian stroke patients have unique clinical characteristics compared with stroke patients under the age of ninety.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over* ; Atrial Fibrillation ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Incidence ; Mortality ; Prognosis ; Risk Factors ; Stroke*

Bloodstain pattern analysis is a forensic discipline that reconstruct events of a crime scene by analyzing sizes, shapes, distributions, positions of bloodstains. Bloodstain pattern can be classified into the low velocity, medium velocity, and high velocity system. Velocities in this system represent the velocity of the wounding agent (the force applied) and not to the velocity of the blood in flight. Thus there is no reference system about the velocity of the blood in flight in the existing bloodstain classification system. Applying bloodstain pattern analysis to the real crime case, we needed to have the reference system of velocities of impact spatter, cast-off spatter, and expectorate spatter. Therefore we measured the velocities of these spatters using high speed camera and we analyzed the results. In this experiments the average velocity of impact spatter that generated by swinging a hammer with all experimenter's strength at the pool of blood is about 4.7 times faster than that of swing cast-off spatter that generated by swinging a red-wat hammer with all experimenter's strength, and about 3.9 times faster than that of expectorate spatter that generated by emitting blood from the mouth with all experimenter's strength. The velocities of cast-off spatter and expectorate spatter, however, showed similar distributions. Our experiments that measure the velocities of droplets of blood spatters in flight under the specific conditions that generated at fastest speed can give some reference to the classification system of velocities of bloodstains which is not distinct up to now, as well as some real bloodshed crime cases.
Crime ; Enzyme Multiplied Immunoassay Technique ; Mouth