No abstract available.
Dapsone*

In Korea, two kinds of National oral health surveys have been conducted to develop various oral health indices during the past decade. The system still needs to be improved further in terms of quality control for the examination system, data management, personnel empowerment, etc. Therefore, this study compares the National Oral Health Survey system of the United States (US) with that of South Korea. The US national surveys related to oral health were set from the 1970s, whereas Korea's national surveys have been initiated only recently; consequently, the US system is well organized and systematically managed by the professional personnel in governmental institutes, such as the Division of Oral Health in Centers for Disease Control. Furthermore, this study examines the scope of the examiner training program, and the methods for developing and implementing a standardized examination environment, data quality control, a data input system with automatic error checking, and data back up in the US. Considering the various factors involved in conducting nationwide epidemiological surveys as mentioned above, the structure and implementation methods of oral surveys in Korea clearly need to be improved.
Academies and Institutes ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Information Systems ; Korea ; Oral Health ; Personnel Management ; Power (Psychology) ; Quality Control ; Republic of Korea ; Data Accuracy ; United States

PURPOSE: Although chronic and recurrent rhinosinusitis is prevalent in children, little is known about its causes. Here, we investigated the humoral immunity in children with chronic or recurrent rhinosinusitis. METHODS: We examined 16 children attending the outpatient clinic at the CHA Bundang Medical Center including 11 boys and 5 girls, aged 3.11 years (mean age, 5.6 years), who had rhinosinusitis for >3 months or >3 times per year. The complete blood count with differential and total serum concentrations of Immunoglobulin (Ig) E, IgA, IgD, IgM, IgG, and IgG subclasses (IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4) of all children were measured. All subjects received 23-polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccination (PPV), and the levels of antibodies to 5 serologic types (4, 6B, 14, 18C, and 23F) of pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide antigens were measured before and after vaccination. Post-PPV antibody titers > or =0.35 microg/mL or with a > or =4-fold increase were considered as positive responses. RESULTS: The titers of IgG, IgA, IgD, and IgM were within normal range in all 16 children, whereas the total IgE concentration was higher than normal in 2 children. IgG1 deficiency was observed in 1 patient and IgG3 deficiency in 3. After PPV, 1 patient failed to respond to all 5 serologic types, 2 failed to respond to 4 serologic types, and 2 failed to respond to 3 serologic types. CONCLUSION: Clinicians should consider the evaluation of humoral immune functions in children with chronic or recurrent rhinosinusitis who do not respond to prolonged antibiotic treatment.
Aged ; Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Antibodies ; Antibody Formation ; Blood Cell Count ; Child ; Humans ; Immunity, Humoral ; Immunoglobulin A ; Immunoglobulin D ; Immunoglobulin E ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulin M ; Immunoglobulins ; Reference Values ; Vaccination

OBJECTIVES: This study aims at exploring genetic and clinical characteristics of multiplex Korean families with schizophrenia. METHODS: Thirty-three families having two or more schizophrenics by DSM-IV criteria within the second degree relatives were obtained from the clinics of general hospitals and mental hospitals. Sixty-nine affected and forty-five unaffected subjects from these families were interviewed using Korean version of Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies. Krawieka Rating Scale and The Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome were also applied for further evaluation of psychopathologies of the patients. Patterns of inheritances of the disease were analyzed by the inspection of the pedigrees. Parent-of-origin effect was evaluated by the comparison of the occurrence rate and the clinical characteristics between the subgroups of maternal and paternal origins. RESULTS: There were similar rates of maternal and paternal transmission in the families for which unilineal transmission of the disease was estimated. Only one family showed bilineal transmission. Observed patterns of transmission were not compatible with the recessive single locus model or sex-linked model. The most frequently observed non-schizophrenic disorders in these families were personality disorders/traits of schizophrenia spectrum. We could not find any clinical characteristics which might be unique to the patients from multiplex families. Parent-of-origin effect was not suggested. CONCLUSION: This study provides preliminary clinical and genetic data on the multiplex schizophrenia families which could be used for the determination of the genetic parameters and the boundaries of the phenotype in the linkage analyses.
Appointments and Schedules ; Bile Pigments ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Hospitals, General ; Hospitals, Psychiatric ; Humans ; Phenotype ; Schizophrenia* ; Wills

Tixagevimab/cilgavimab is a monoclonal antibody used to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 among immunocompromised hosts and maintained neutralizing activity against early omicron variants. Omicron BN.1 became a dominant circulating strain in Korea early 2023, but its susceptibility to tixagevimab/cilgavimab is unclear. We conducted plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) against BN.1 in a prospective cohort (14 patients and 30 specimens). BN.1 PRNT was conducted for one- and three-months after tixagevimab/ cilgavimab administration and the average PRNT ND 50 of each point was lower than the positive cut-off value of 20 (12.9 ± 4.5 and 13.2 ± 4.2, respectively, P = 0.825). In the paired analyses, tixagevimab/cilgavimab-administered sera could not actively neutralize BN.1 (PRNT ND 50 11.5 ± 2.9, P = 0.001), compared with the reserved activity against BA.5 (ND 50 310.5 ± 180.4). Unlike virus-like particle assay, tixagevimab/cilgavimab was not active against BN.1 in neutralizing assay, and would not be effective in the present predominance of BA.2.75 sublineages.

Background: Remdesivir is widely used for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but controversies regarding its efficacy still remain. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to evaluate the effect of remdesivir on clinical and virologic outcomes of severe COVID-19 patients from June to July 2020. Primary clinical endpoints included clinical recovery, additional mechanical ventilator (MV) support, and duration of oxygen or MV support. Viral load reduction by hospital day (HD) 15 was evaluated by calculating changes in cycle threshold (Ct) values. Results: A total of 86 severe COVID-19 patients were evaluated including 48 remdesivirtreated patients. Baseline characteristics were not significantly different between the two groups. Remdesivir was administered an average of 7.42 days from symptom onset. The proportions of clinical recovery of the remdesivir and supportive care group at HD 14 (56.3% and 39.5%) and HD 28 (87.5% and 78.9%) were not statistically different. The proportion of patients requiring MV support by HD 28 was significantly lower in the remdesivir group than in the supportive care group (22.9% vs. 44.7%, P = 0.032), and MV duration was significantly shorter in the remdesivir group (average, 1.97 vs. 5.37 days; P = 0.017). Analysis of upper respiratory tract specimens demonstrated that increases of Ct value from HD 1–5 to 11–15 were significantly greater in the remdesivir group than the supportive care group (average, 10.19 vs. 5.36; P = 0.007), and the slope of the Ct value increase was also significantly steeper in the remdesivir group (average, 5.10 vs. 2.68; P = 0.007). Conclusion The remdesivir group showed clinical and virologic benefit in terms of MV requirement and viral load reduction, supporting remdesivir treatment for severe COVID-19.

Background: Remdesivir is widely used for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but controversies regarding its efficacy still remain. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to evaluate the effect of remdesivir on clinical and virologic outcomes of severe COVID-19 patients from June to July 2020. Primary clinical endpoints included clinical recovery, additional mechanical ventilator (MV) support, and duration of oxygen or MV support. Viral load reduction by hospital day (HD) 15 was evaluated by calculating changes in cycle threshold (Ct) values. Results: A total of 86 severe COVID-19 patients were evaluated including 48 remdesivirtreated patients. Baseline characteristics were not significantly different between the two groups. Remdesivir was administered an average of 7.42 days from symptom onset. The proportions of clinical recovery of the remdesivir and supportive care group at HD 14 (56.3% and 39.5%) and HD 28 (87.5% and 78.9%) were not statistically different. The proportion of patients requiring MV support by HD 28 was significantly lower in the remdesivir group than in the supportive care group (22.9% vs. 44.7%, P = 0.032), and MV duration was significantly shorter in the remdesivir group (average, 1.97 vs. 5.37 days; P = 0.017). Analysis of upper respiratory tract specimens demonstrated that increases of Ct value from HD 1–5 to 11–15 were significantly greater in the remdesivir group than the supportive care group (average, 10.19 vs. 5.36; P = 0.007), and the slope of the Ct value increase was also significantly steeper in the remdesivir group (average, 5.10 vs. 2.68; P = 0.007). Conclusion The remdesivir group showed clinical and virologic benefit in terms of MV requirement and viral load reduction, supporting remdesivir treatment for severe COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: From May to July 2015, the Republic of Korea experienced the largest outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outside the Arabian Peninsula. A total of 186 patients, including 36 deaths, had been diagnosed with MERS-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection as of September 30th, 2015. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We obtained information of patients who were confirmed to have MERS-CoV infection. MERS-CoV infection was diagnosed using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 55 years (range, 16 to 86). A total of 55.4% of the patients had one or more coexisting medical conditions. The most common symptom was fever (95.2%). At admission, leukopenia (42.6%), thrombocytopenia (46.6%), and elevation of aspartate aminotransferase (42.7%) were observed. Pneumonia was detected in 68.3% of patients at admission and developed in 80.8% during the disease course. Antiviral agents were used for 74.7% of patients. Mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and convalescent serum were employed for 24.5%, 7.1%, and 3.8% of patients, respectively. Older age, presence of coexisting medical conditions including diabetes or chronic lung disease, presence of dyspnea, hypotension, and leukocytosis at admission, and the use of mechanical ventilation were revealed to be independent predictors of death. CONCLUSION: The clinical features of MERS-CoV infection in the Republic of Korea were similar to those of previous outbreaks in the Middle East. However, the overall mortality rate (20.4%) was lower than that in previous reports. Enhanced surveillance and active management of patients during the outbreak may have resulted in improved outcomes.
Antiviral Agents ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; Coronavirus Infections* ; Disease Outbreaks ; Dyspnea ; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ; Fever ; Humans ; Hypotension ; Leukocytosis ; Leukopenia ; Lung Diseases ; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus ; Middle East* ; Mortality ; Pneumonia ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Republic of Korea* ; Respiration, Artificial ; Thrombocytopenia