OBJECTIVE: Focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) is used routinely for evaluating patients with major trauma. After a primary survey, the existence of hemoperitoneum or hemopericardium must be searched using FAST. Traditionally, hemopericardium can be assessed through the subcostal approach with the curved probe for the abdomen. On the other hand, satisfactory images (four chamber view) are difficult to obtain with this approach. METHODS: This was a prospective, single-center pilot study of an academic tertiary medical center. When FAST is performed on the patients, traditional FAST (subcostal approach with the curved probe) is generally conducted. During a FAST examination, the time consumed, numeric rating scale (NRS) for pain, and success rate of satisfactory images are recorded. After the traditional FAST was used, we used the curved probe like echo probe. The curved probe was positioned beside the left nipple with the probe marker opposite-sided (modified FAST) like the parasternal long-axis view of echocardiography. Finally, the existence of hemopericardium is confirmed using an echo probe. In this study, the consumed time, NRS, and success rate of satisfactory images were compared. RESULTS: The consumed time was shorter (57.4 vs. 71.2 seconds, P<0.001) and the pain score was lower (0.1 vs. 1.8, P<0.001) with the modified FAST compared to the traditional FAST. Satisfactory images were obtained in 23 cases (51%) with traditional FAST, whereas satisfactory images were obtained in 37 cases (82%) using modified FAST. CONCLUSION: Mvodified FAST is more accurate for the detection of hemopericardium than traditional FAST. The pain is less severe and the time consumed is shorter.
Abdomen ; Advanced Trauma Life Support Care ; Echocardiography ; Hand ; Hemoperitoneum ; Humans ; Nipples ; Pericardial Effusion ; Pilot Projects ; Prospective Studies ; Ultrasonography

Several studies revealed that low calcium intake is related to high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension. The prevalence of hypertension is high in Koreans along with their low dietary calcium consumption. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the status of calcium intake between the hypertension and normotension groups and to investigate the correlation between dietary calcium intake and blood pressure, blood lipid parameters, and blood/urine oxidative stress indices. A total of 166 adult subjects participated in this study and were assigned to one of two study groups: a hypertension group (n = 83) who had 140 mmHg or higher in systolic blood pressure (SBP) or 90 mmHg or higher in diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and an age- and sex-matched normotension group (n = 83, 120 mmHg or less SBP and 80 mmHg or less DBP). The hypertension group consumed 360.5 mg calcium per day, which was lower than that of the normotension group (429.9 mg) but not showing significant difference. In the hypertension group, DBP had a significant negative correlation with plant calcium (P < 0.01) after adjusting for age, gender, body mass index (BMI), and energy intake. In the normotension group, total calcium and animal calcium intake were significantly and positively correlated with serum triglycerides. No significant relationship was found between calcium intake and blood/urine oxidative stress indices in both groups. Overall, these data suggest reconsideration of food sources for calcium consumption in management of the blood pressure or blood lipid profiles in both hypertensive and normotensive subjects.
Adult ; Animals ; Biomarkers ; Blood Pressure ; Body Mass Index ; Calcium ; Calcium, Dietary ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Energy Intake ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Oxidative Stress ; Plants ; Prevalence ; Triglycerides

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the eating behavior toward processed foods among college students who live in different types of residence. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study targeting a total of 476 college students living at home with their family, living in a rental house with self-boarding, living in a lodging house, and living in a dormitory. Eating behaviors, including preference and the frequency of processed food intake were surveyed and compared according to the type of residence. RESULTS: The rate of skipping a meal was significantly higher among students who reported self-boarding than those living in other types of residences. The main reason for skipping meals was that they got up late. In the entire study population, the main reason for consuming processed food was easy-to-cook (33.8%) and the primary consideration for choosing processed food was the price (54.0%). The processed food the most favored by college students was the processed noodles; those living at home with their family or living in a dormitory preferred milk products; those living in a rental house with self-boarding or in a lodging house preferred confectionery, retort pouch, convenience food, and canned/bottled food. The frequency of processed food intake was significantly higher in the students who reported self-boarding than those living in other types of residences (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Students' preference toward processed foods differed according to their type of residence. The frequency of processed food intake was significantly higher in students who reported self-boarding indicating that the type of residence of student is associated with their choices and consumption of processed foods.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Eating* ; Fast Foods ; Feeding Behavior ; Humans ; Korea ; Meals ; Milk

The purpose of this study was to examine the dietary attitudes and meal management of married immigrant women according to residence period in Korea. The study was conducted by administering a questionnaire survey to 220 married immigrant women in Korea. More than one third of the immigrant women who stayed in Korea less than 3 years tended to eat a limited variety of foods. Irregularity of meal time decreased as residence time period increased (P<0.05). As immigrant women stayed longer in Korea, they became more responsible for the diet of their family (P<0.001) and had more time to share breakfast and dinner with all family members (P<0.05). Nearly half of immigrant women in all residence periods indicated their husband's family as the most influential factor in acquiring Korean foods (P<0.05). Immigrant women became more familiar with Korean cooking and recognition of nutritious foods (P<0.001) the longer they lived in Korea and more enjoyable meal times with family (P<0.05). In summary, as the period of residence in Korea increased, the dietary attitudes of immigrant women became more positive towards Korean food and diet culture. Further, immigrant women became more responsible for guiding children's dietary habits and offering healthy foods to their family as residence period increased. Therefore, the government and social programs should conduct constant and organized lessons on Korean culture and cooking according to residence period for immigrant women to build up stable and positive dietary attitudes.
Breakfast ; Cooking ; Diet ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Female ; Food Habits ; Humans ; Korea ; Meals ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: To ananlyze the direct effect of nitric oxide (NO), generated from sodium prusside (SNP) on the embryo developments in reproductive process. DESIGN: ova from mouse were treated to allow fertilization in in vitro culture. And the samples of fertilized ova were alloted into five alliqutos. Each alliquot was cultured in media treated with either concentration at 0 (n=92), 25microM (n=84), 50microM (n=80), 100microM (n=77), 500microM (n=54) of SNP. Main Outcome MEASURE: Rates of embryonal cell cleavages, viability and cell morphology were assessed during in vitro fertilization and culture. RESULTS: As analyse the cell cleavage at 24 hours after in vitro culture of fertilised egg in variuos NO concentration, all of egg cells of each alliquot were developed to 2~4 cell stage. But the alliquot of egg cells treated with 500microM, which were totally degenerated. And also all embryonal cells of each alliquot were developed to 8 cell stage and morula stage on culture continuosly. And the embryonal cells of each alliquot were analysed at 24 and 48 hours following the in vitro culture. The rates of cell fragmentation and fusion were 4.2+/-3.4% in control group which is not treated with NO, while experimental groups was high, as rated 23.4+/-6.2% in 25microM, 28.2+/-5.7% in 50microM and 32.1+/-6.4% in 100microM concentration of NO. Accordingly the rate of abnormal morphology of embryonal cell in control was lower significantly than that in each alliquot of experimental groups (p<0.05). And the degenerated rates of embryonal cells were 0% in control, 17.8+/-6.7% in 25microM, 23.6+/-4.7% in 50microM and 26.8+/-11.2% in 100microM at 8 cells and morula on culture of 48 and 72 hours. On the examination of embryonal cells developed to blastocyst through in vitro culture, the rates of degenerated cells were 16.8+/-7.2% in control, 37.5+/-6.2% in 25microM, 73.4+/-4.6% in 50microM, 100% in 100microM. CONCLUSION: This results suggeted that the No in any concentrations is harmful on embryos in view of morphology as well as viability of cell, and the toxicity of No on embryo is stronger at condition in higher concentration of NO.
Animals ; Blastocyst ; Embryonic Structures ; Fertilization ; Fertilization in Vitro ; Mice* ; Morula ; Nitric Oxide* ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Ovum ; Sodium

In this study, the authors investigated whether death of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) had a pathological pertinence. Conditioned media obtained from rat aorta smooth muscle cell (SMC) that were induced death by expressing FADD in the absence of tetracycline (FADD-SMC) triggered death of normal SMC. DNA fragmentation and caspase-3 activation were observed in dying SMC by conditioned media. FADD-SMC showed transcriptional activation of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. Conditioned medium contained TNF-alpha, indicating secretion of the cytokine from dying FADD-SMC. It was investigated if secreted TNF-alpha was functional. Conditioned medium activated ERK and p38 MAPK pathways and induced MMP-9 expression, whereas depletion of the cytokine with its soluble receptor (sTNFR) remarkably inhibited induction of MMP-9 by conditioned medium. These findings suggest that TNF-alpha in conditioned medium seems to be active. Then, contribution of TNF-alpha on death-inducing activity of conditioned medium was examined. Depletion of TNF-alpha with soluble TNF-alpha receptor decreased the death activity of conditioned medium by 35%, suggesting that TNF-alpha play a partial role in the death activity. Boiling of medium almost completely abolished the death-inducing activity, suggesting that other heat labile death inducing proteins existed in conditioned medium. Taken together, these results indicate that SMC undergoing death could contribute to inflammation by expressing inflammatory cytokines and pathological complications by inducing death of neighboring cells.
Animals ; Aorta ; Apoptosis ; Caspase 3 ; Culture Media, Conditioned* ; Cytokines ; DNA Fragmentation ; Hot Temperature ; Inflammation ; Muscle, Smooth* ; Muscle, Smooth, Vascular ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle* ; p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases ; Rats ; Tetracycline ; Transcriptional Activation ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

PURPOSE: p27Kip1 protein is an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases and is thought to be a potential prognostic indicator for numerous human cancers. We investigated the expression of p27Kip1 in gastric cancer in order to estimate its clinical utility. METHODS: Immunohistochemical assay for p27Kip1 protein was performed in 64 patients with primary gastric cancer. The correlation between p27Kip1 and clinical-biological parameters including patient survival was analyzed. RESULTS: p27Kip1 expression was suppressed in 40 (62.5%) of 64 gastric cancer patients. Expression of p27Kip1 was significantly reduced in poorly differentiated cancers (82.1%, 23/28; P=0.015) and was also reduced in tumors with a high S-phase fraction as compared with tumors showing a low S-phase fraction (86.7%, 26/30, 41.2%, 14/34; P=0.0002). In univariate analysis, the extent of the disease (P<0.001), and reduced expression of p27Kip1 (P=0.0006) were statistically significant to predict the patient's outcome, however depth of invasion (P=0.008) and pathologic stage (P=0.009) emerged as significant prognostic indicators in the multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: The expression of p27Kip1 is closely linked with cell proliferation and differentiation of human gastric cancer. p27Kip1 appears to have potential as a prognostic marker in the management of gastric cancer patients.
Cell Proliferation ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p27* ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinases ; Humans* ; Immunohistochemistry ; Multivariate Analysis ; Prognosis ; Stomach Neoplasms*

OBJECTIVES: Dietary life is closely associated with dietary attitude and diet-related knowledge. Particularly, dietary habit such as sodium intake can be affected by various dietary behaviors such as food choices, dietary attitude toward salty food and a preference for salty taste. The purpose of this study was to assess sodium-related nutrition knowledge and to identify sodium-related attitude and behaviors according to the level of sodium-related knowledge of university students. METHODS: Anthropometric measurements were provided by 408 students who participated in this study. The study participants answered questionnaires to provide information on general dietary behaviors, sodium-related dietary attitude and other behavioral factors. A total score of nutrition knowledge was used to categorize study participants in to two groups, namely, low level in sodium-related knowledge (LNaK) or high level in sodium-related knowledge (HNaK) and the attitude and the behaviors of students toward sodium intake were compared between these two groups. RESULTS: The ratio of female students in HNaK group was higher than that in the LNaK group. HNaK group had a higher score in checking nutrition label of processed food than the LNaK group. Total score of sodium-related attitude and behaviors of HNaK group were 34.81 and 32.75, respectively and these scores were significantly higher than that of the LNaK group whose scores were 32.57 and 30.57, respectively. Total energy intake was not different between two groups but the intakes of calcium, vitamin B2 and folate were higher in HNaK group than in the LNaK group. Correlation analysis adjusted for age and gender revealed that total score of sodium-related nutrition knowledge was positively correlated with total score of sodium-related attitude and behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, students who had high level of sodium-related nutrition knowledge had desirable attitude and behaviors toward sodium intake and these results can be considered in nutrition education for university students.
Calcium ; Education ; Energy Intake ; Female ; Folic Acid ; Food Habits ; Humans ; Riboflavin ; Sodium

Objective: This study aimed to determine whether there is a difference in mortality and medical resource utilization between geriatric (aged ≥65 years) and super-geriatric patients (aged ≥80 years) with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: We obtained comprehensive data (demographics, injury characteristics, injury severities, and outcomes) of geriatric and super-geriatric TBI patients from an emergency department-based injury surveillance system database from 2011 to 2016. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to compare the mortality and nonroutine discharge (NRDC) status between both groups. Results: Among 442,533 TBI patients, 48,624 were older than 65 years. A total of 48,446 patients (37,140 geriatric and 11,306 super-geriatric) without exclusion criteria were included in the final analysis. Both overall in-hospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio, 1.88; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.28 to 2.74; P=0.001) and NRDC (adjusted odds ratio, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.71; P=0.011) were significantly higher in the super-geriatric group. In the stratified analysis, there were no significant differences in NRDC rate for all stratifications of treatment timing (emergency department vs. ward admission), but mortality remained to be significant for all stratifications. Conclusion Super-geriatric TBI patients showed a significantly higher risk-adjusted overall mortality and more inadequate medical resource utilization than did geriatric TBI patients. However, super-geriatric patients were more likely to undergo NRDC after admission; thus, further research about age-related health inequalities is needed in the treatment of super-geriatric patients.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the interpersonal violence (IPV) epidemiology and mortality according to the violence victim-perpetrator relationships. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was done using the comprehensive data of the emergency department (ED)-based Jeju Injury Surveillance System from all EDs in Jeju Island. The demographic characteristics of the victims, the types of perpetrators (spouse, family members, acquaintance, and stranger), injury characteristics and clinical outcomes from the injury were collected. The IPV epidemiology was reported by descriptive statistics. Multivariate Poisson regression was used to analyze the association between the mortality and violence victim-perpetrator relationships. RESULTS: Among the 23,508 violent injury patients enrolled from January 1, 2008, and December 31 of 2016, 19,879 (84.6%) were analyzed; 16 (0.08%) died at the ED. The types of perpetrators were the spouse (10.1%), family members (3.9%), acquaintances (43.4%), and strangers (42.7%). The mortality of the violence victims was increased significantly by the spouse (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 6.336; P=0.043) or family members (IRR, 11.089; P=0.016) compared to strangers. On the other hand, there was no difference between the acquaintances and strangers. CONCLUSION: The epidemiology and mortality of IPV were associated with the violence victim-perpetrator relationships. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and apply prevention programs considering these differences, particularly for intimidate/ family violence because of its high fatality.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Domestic Violence ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Epidemiology ; Friends ; Hand ; Humans ; Interpersonal Relations ; Mortality ; Retrospective Studies ; Spouses ; Violence