PURPOSE: Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a noninvasive optical technology that detects changes in blood volume in the vascular system. This study aimed to investigate the possibilities of monitoring the cardiovascular system status by using PPG. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forced hemodynamic changes were induced using cardiac stimulants; dopamine and epinephrine, and PPG components were recorded by a noninvasive method at the peripheral blood vessels. The results were compared among 6 dogs. Endotracheal intubation was performed after an intramuscular injection of 25 mg/kg ketamine sulfate, and anesthesia was maintained with 2% enflurane. After stabilizing the animals for 15 min, 16 mg/mL diluted dopamine was injected into a vein for 2 min at 20 microgram/kg.min(-1) by using an infusion pump. Thereafter, the infusion pump was stopped, and 1 mg epinephrine was injected intravenously. Fluid administration was controlled to minimize preload change in blood pressure. RESULTS: After stimulant administration, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressures (DBP) increased. The direct current (DC) component, which reflects changes in blood volume, decreased while the alternating current (AC) component, which reflects changes in vascular compliance and resistance, increased. The correlation coefficient between SBP and the foot of the DC component was 0.939 (p < 0.01), while it was 0.942 (p < 0.01) for DBP and the peak of the DC component. The AC component could predict the increase in vascular resistance from a stable pulse blood volume, even with increased pulse pressure. Conclusions: These results support the possibility that PPG components may be used for easy and noninvasive measurement of hemodynamic changes in the cardiovascular system.
Animals ; Blood Pressure/*physiology ; *Blood Pressure Monitors ; Dogs/*physiology ; Humans ; Models, Animal ; Photoplethysmography/*methods

PURPOSE: Dysbiosis of gut microbiota has been reported to participate in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer, but changes in microbiota due to radiotherapy have not been studied. In this study, we tried to elucidate the changes in the microbiome in rectal cancer after chemoradiotherapy using RNA sequencing analysis.MATERIALS AND METHODS: We included 11 pairs of human rectal cancer tissues before and after irradiation between August 2016 and December 2017 and performed RNA sequencing analysis. Mapped reads to human reference genomes were used for pair-wise transcriptome comparisons, and unmapped (non-human) reads were then mapped to bacterial marker genes using PathSeq.RESULTS: At microbiome level, interindividual variability of mucosal microbiota was greater than the change in microbial composition during radiotherapy. This indicates that rapid homeostatic recovery of the mucosal microbial composition takes place short after radiotherapy. At single microbe level, Prevotella and Fusobacterium, which were identified as important causative microbes of the initiation and progression of rectal cancer were decreased by radiotherapy. Moreover, changes in Prevotella were associated with changes in the human transcriptome of rectal cancer. We also found that there was a gene cluster that increased and decreased in association with changes in microbial composition by chemoradiation.CONCLUSION: This study revealed changes in tumor-associated microbial community by irradiation in rectal cancer. These findings can be used to develop a new treatment strategy of neoadjuvant therapy for locally advanced rectal cancer by overcoming radio-resistance or facilitating radio-sensitivity.
Chemoradiotherapy ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Dysbiosis ; Fusobacterium ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Genes, vif ; Genome ; Humans ; Microbiota ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; Prevotella ; Radiotherapy ; Rectal Neoplasms ; Sequence Analysis, RNA ; Transcriptome

PURPOSE: The bedside lung ultrasound in emergency (BLUE) protocol is an excellent diagnostic tool for acute respiratory failures requiring admission to the intensive care unit. We incorporated cardiac ultrasound in the BLUE algorithm because cardiac origin is also necessary to examine in an emergency setting. We studied the usefulness of the emergency department (ED)-BLUE protocol for patients complaining of dyspnea in an emergency department. METHODS: At first, we assessed lung sliding, artifacts (Alines and B-lines), alveolar consolidation and pleural effusion on stage I and II evaluation. Then, we checked heart to detect 3Es (Effusion, Equality, and Ejection fractions). We divided all the possible conditions into 10 categories. We compared it with final diagnosis and examined the agreements using kappa statistics. We compared the physician's level of confidence for the first impression. The 10 categories were: 1) normal or inconclusive, 2) pulmonary embolism, 3) airway disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma), 4) pneumothorax, 5) large pleural effusion, 6) alveolar consolidation, 7) acute pulmonary edema due to systolic congestive heart failure, 8) acute respiratory distress syndrome, 9) chronic interstitial lung disease with exacerbation, and 10) pericardial effusion with/without tamponade. RESULTS: This prospective study was performed for 172 patients over 18-years-of-age with dyspnea during a 25-month period. Kappa value between the diagnosis after ED-BLUE and final diagnosis was 0.812(p<0.001). The mean of physician's full term for LOC for the first impression before and after ED-BLUE was 3.09+/-0.83 and 4.36+/-0.70 (paired t-test, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: ED-BLUE protocol could help the emergency physician make an accurate diagnosis in patients with dyspnea in the emergent setting.
Artifacts ; Dyspnea ; Emergencies ; Heart ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Lung ; Lung Diseases, Interstitial ; Lung Diseases, Obstructive ; Pericardial Effusion ; Pleural Effusion ; Pneumothorax ; Prospective Studies ; Pulmonary Edema ; Pulmonary Embolism ; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult

Mycoplasma Pneumonia is a main cause of primary atypical pneumonia and may present in a variety of ways. One auther has stated that the infiltrate is of a lobar segmental type, while others have found the infiltrates to be mainly reticular or interstitial. We experienced a case of mycoplasama pneumonia, whic h progressed to ARDS pattern rapidly and recovered completely after ventilator care.
Mycoplasma* ; Pneumonia ; Pneumonia, Mycoplasma* ; Ventilators, Mechanical

St. Francisco General Hospital, Seoul, Korea. Although the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis is declining, the number of extrapulmonary tuberculosis has remained constant. Tuberculous Lymphadenitis accounts for over 50% of total inflammatory lymphadenitis and the most common site is cervical lymph node. We report a case of single cervical tuberculous cold abscess associated with multiloculated and septated tuberculous pleurisy. Intracavitary urokinase instillation via percutaneous catheter is indicated in loculated and septated pleural effusion. And our result was satisfactory without complication.
Abscess* ; Catheters ; Hospitals, General ; Incidence ; Korea ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphadenitis ; Pleural Effusion ; Seoul ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Lymph Node ; Tuberculosis, Pleural* ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary ; Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator

Overexpression of HER2 correlates with more aggressive tumors and increased resistance to cancer chemotherapy. However, a functional comparison between the HER2high/HER3 and the HER2low/HER3 dimers on tumor metastasis has not been conducted. Herein we examined the regulation mechanism of heregulin-beta1 (HRG)-induced MMP-1 and -9 expression in breast cancer cell lines. Our results showed that the basal levels of MMP-1 and -9 mRNA and protein expression were increased by HRG treatment. In addition, HRG-induced MMP-1 and -9 expression was significantly decreased by MEK1/2 inhibitor, U0126 but not by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI-3K) inhibitor, LY294002. To confirm the role of MEK/ERK pathway on HRG-induced MMP-1 and -9 expression, MCF7 cells were transfected with constitutively active adenoviral-MEK (CA-MEK). The level of MMP-1 and -9 expressions was increased by CA-MEK. MMP-1 and -9 mRNA and protein expressions in response to HRG were higher in HER2 overexpressed cells than in vector alone. The phosphorylation of HER2, HER3, ERK, Akt, and JNK were also significantly increased in HER2 overexpressed MCF7 cells compared with vector alone. HRG-induced MMP-1 and -9 expressions were significantly decreased by lapatinib, which inhibits HER1 and HER2 activity, in both vector alone and HER2 overexpressed MCF7 cells. Finally, HRG-induced MMP-1 and MMP-9 expression was decreased by HER3 siRNA overexpression. Taken together, we suggested that HRG-induced MMP-1 and MMP-9 expression is mediated through HER3 dependent pathway and highly expressed HER2 may be associated with more aggressive metastasis than the low expressed HER2 in breast cancer cells.
Breast Neoplasms/enzymology/*genetics/*metabolism ; Butadienes/pharmacology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Enzyme Inhibitors/pharmacology ; Female ; Gene Expression ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic/drug effects ; Humans ; MAP Kinase Signaling System ; MCF-7 Cells ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 1/*genetics/metabolism ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 9/*genetics/metabolism ; Neuregulin-1/*pharmacology ; Nitriles/pharmacology ; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases/metabolism ; Protein Kinase Inhibitors/pharmacology ; Protein Multimerization ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/metabolism ; Quinazolines/pharmacology ; Receptor, erbB-2/genetics/*metabolism ; Receptor, erbB-3/*metabolism

OBJECTIVE: The early prediction of acute kidney injury (AKI) in sepsis and the provision of prompt treatment may improve the outcomes. This study investigated the efficacy of the lactate/albumin ratio (LAR) in predicting severe AKI in cases of septic shock. METHODS: This retrospective, observational cohort study was performed on patients integrated prospectively in a critical pathway of early-goal-directed therapy (EGDT)/SEPSIS. Adult patients with septic shock, who were admitted to the emergency department with a normal kidney function or stage 1 disease based on the Acute Kidney Injury Network classification between January 1, 2014 and September 30, 2017, were analyzed. The outcomes were the development of sepsis-induced severe AKI within 7 days. RESULTS: A total of 343 patients were enrolled. An increase in the LAR value at admission (odds ratio [OR], 1.85; P=0.001) was a strong independent predictor of the development of severe AKI. The increasing predictability of AKI was closely associated with a L/A ratio≥0.794 at admission (OR, 14.66; P < 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve value of the L/A ratio (0.821; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.774–0.861; P < 0.01) was higher than that of lactate (0.795; 95% CI, 0.747–0.838; P < 0.01) for predicting severe AKI (P=0.032). CONCLUSION: L/A ratio was found to be an independent predictor of the development of severe AKI in septic shock. The prognostic performance of the L/A ratio for predicting AKI of critically ill sepsis patients was superior to that of lactate measurements.
Acute Kidney Injury ; Adult ; Albumins ; Classification ; Cohort Studies ; Critical Illness ; Critical Pathways ; Emergencies ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Humans ; Kidney ; Lactic Acid ; Prognosis ; Prospective Studies ; Retrospective Studies ; ROC Curve ; Sepsis ; Shock, Septic

Purpose: Access block due to the lack of hospital beds causes crowding of emergency departments (ED). We initiated the “boarding restriction protocol” that limits the time of stay in the ED for patients awaiting hospitalization to 24 hours from arrival. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the boarding restriction protocol on ED crowding. Materials and Methods: The primary outcome was ED occupancy rate, which was calculated as the ratio of the number of occupying patients to the total number of ED beds. Time factors, such as length of stay (LOS), treatment time, and boarding time, were investigated. Results: The mean of the ED occupancy rate decreased from 1.532±0.432 prior to implementation of the protocol to 1.273±0.353 after (p<0.001). According to time series analysis, the absolute effect caused by the protocol was -0.189 (-0.277 to -0.110) (p=0.001). The proportion of patients with LOS exceeding 24 hours decreased from 7.6% to 4.0% (p<0.001). Among admitted patients, ED LOS decreased from 770.7 (421.4–1587.1) minutes to 630.2 (398.0–1156.8) minutes (p<0.001); treatment time increased from 319.6 (198.5–482.8) minutes to 344.7 (213.4–519.5) minutes (p<0.001); and boarding time decreased from 298.9 (109.5–1149.0) minutes to 204.1 (98.7–545.7) minutes (p<0.001). In pre-protocol period, boarding patients accumulated in the ED during the weekdays and resolved on Friday, but this pattern was alleviated in post-period. Conclusion The boarding restriction protocol was effective in alleviating ED crowding by reducing the accumulation of boarding patients in the ED during the weekdays