Background: This study compared the effects of hip fractures on mortality according to sex and age in a nationwide cohort of elderly patients with hip fractures and controls. Methods: Patients with hip fractures and matched controls were selected from the National Health Insurance Service-Senior cohort. Time-dependent propensity score matching was estimated from a Cox proportional hazards model with January 1, 2005, as the baseline and hip fracture as an event. Patients were matched by age and sex to participants at risk of developing a hip fracture at time zero. The effect size is presented as hazard ratio (HR) using a Cox proportional hazards model with a robust variance estimator that accounts for clustering within the matched pairs. Results: Altogether, 14,283 patients with incident hip fractures and 28,566 matched controls were identified. The HR of male sex in hip fractures was 1.31 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.22−1.40; Pinteraction<0.01). Moreover, the HR of age group in hip fractures was 0.73 (95% CI, 0.66−0.80; Pinteraction<0.01) between the 65 to 74 and 75 to 84 years groups, 0.76 (95% CI, 0.71−0.81; Pinteraction<0.01) between the 75 to 84 and ≥85 years groups, and 0.55 (95% CI, 0.50−0.61; Pinteraction<0.01) between the 65 to 74 and ≥85 years groups. Conclusions Male sex increases the risk of death in elderly patients with hip fractures versus matched controls, but the increased risk of death with age in hip fractures was decreased compared to that in matched controls.

Background: and Purpose: The Movement Disorder Society-Sponsored Revision of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) is widely used for estimating the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Translation and validation of the MDS-UPDRS is necessary for non-English speaking countries and regions. The aim of this study was to validate the Korean version of the MDS-UPDRS. Methods: Altogether, 362 patients in 19 centers were recruited for this study. We translated the MDS-UPDRS to Korean using the translation-back translation method and cognitive pretesting. We performed both confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses to validate the scale.We calculated the comparative fit index (CFI) for confirmatory factor analysis, and used unweighted least squares for exploratory factor analysis. Results: The CFI was higher than 0.90 for all parts of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis also showed that the Korean MDS-UPDRS has the same number of factors in each part as the English version. Conclusions The Korean MDS-UPDRS has the same overall structure as the English MDSUPDRS. Our translated scale can be designated as the official Korean MDS-UPDRS.

Alterations in sulfur amino acid metabolism are associated with an increased risk of a number of common late-life diseases, which raises the possibility that metabolism of sulfur amino acids may change with age. The present study was conducted to understand the age-related changes in hepatic metabolism of sulfur amino acids in 2-, 6-, 18- and 30-month-old male C57BL/6 mice. For this purpose, metabolite profiling of sulfur amino acids from methionine to taurine or glutathione (GSH) was performed. The levels of sulfur amino acids and their metabolites were not significantly different among 2-, 6- and 18-month-old mice, except for plasma GSH and hepatic homocysteine. Plasma total GSH and hepatic total homocysteine levels were significantly higher in 2-month-old mice than those in the other age groups. In contrast, 30-month-old mice exhibited increased hepatic methionine and cysteine, compared with all other groups, but decreased hepatic S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), S-adenosylhomocysteine and homocysteine, relative to 2-month-old mice. No differences in hepatic reduced GSH, GSH disulfide, or taurine were observed. The hepatic changes in homocysteine and cysteine may be attributed to upregulation of cystathionine β-synthase and down-regulation of γ-glutamylcysteine ligase in the aged mice. The elevation of hepatic cysteine levels may be involved in the maintenance of hepatic GSH levels. The opposite changes of methionine and SAM suggest that the regulatory role of SAM in hepatic sulfur amino acid metabolism may be impaired in 30-month-old mice.
Aging ; Amino Acids, Sulfur ; Animals ; Child, Preschool ; Cystathionine ; Cysteine ; Down-Regulation ; Glutathione ; Homocysteine ; Humans ; Infant ; Male* ; Metabolism* ; Metabolomics ; Methionine ; Mice* ; Plasma ; S-Adenosylhomocysteine ; S-Adenosylmethionine ; Sulfur* ; Taurine ; Up-Regulation

OBJECTIVE: Postural instability and gait disturbance are the cardinal symptoms associated with falling among patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The Tinetti mobility test (TMT) is a well-established measurement tool used to predict falls among elderly people. However, the TMT has not been established or widely used among PD patients in Korea. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Korean version of the TMT for PD patients. METHODS: Twenty-four patients diagnosed with PD were enrolled in this study. For the interrater reliability test, thirteen clinicians scored the TMT after watching a video clip. We also used the test-retest method to determine intrarater reliability. For concurrent validation, the unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale, Hoehn and Yahr staging, Berg Balance Scale, Timed-Up and Go test, 10-m walk test, and gait analysis by three-dimensional motion capture were also used. We analyzed receiver operating characteristic curve to predict falling. RESULTS: The interrater reliability and intrarater reliability of the Korean Tinetti balance scale were 0.97 and 0.98, respectively. The interrater reliability and intra-rater reliability of the Korean Tinetti gait scale were 0.94 and 0.96, respectively. The Korean TMT scores were significantly correlated with the other clinical scales and three-dimensional motion capture. The cutoff values for predicting falling were 14 points (balance subscale) and 10 points (gait subscale). CONCLUSION: We found that the Korean version of the TMT showed excellent validity and reliability for gait and balance and had high sensitivity and specificity for predicting falls among patients with PD.
Accidental Falls ; Aged ; Gait ; Humans ; Korea ; Methods ; Parkinson Disease ; Reproducibility of Results ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Weights and Measures

No abstract available.
Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute*

PURPOSE: Previous studies have shown the role of Sal-like protein 4 (SALL4) as a biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and some studies have shown the relationship between SALL4 and prognosis. Given the debates in study groups differences in terms of etiologic causes between Western and Asian HCC and detection methods, we attempted to verify the features of SALL4 immunoreactivity and its clinical correlation in Korean HCC patients. METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining of SALL4 of tissue microarrays (TMAs) consisting of 213 surgically resected HCC patients' tissue were scored in a semiquantitative scoring system with immunoreactive score and the results analyzed with clinical outcome, in addition to general demographics and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: SALL4 immunoreactivity was expressed in 50 cases. Relevance between SALL4 and α-FP correlated significantly (P = 0.002). Also, the SALL4-positive patients had considerably higher tumor grade (P < 0.001). The survival analysis showed negative correlation with SALL4 immunoreactivity in all HCC patient groups, but SALL4 immunoreactivity in T3 and T4 HCC correlated with poor prognosis. CONCLUSION: Here, we found that positive immunostaining of SALL4 is correlated with poor patient survival outcome in large and undifferentiated Korean HCC. SALL4 expression showed close relationship with clinical outcomes of HCCs in Korean patients.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Demography ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Microarray Analysis ; Prognosis

PURPOSE: Previous studies have shown the role of Sal-like protein 4 (SALL4) as a biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and some studies have shown the relationship between SALL4 and prognosis. Given the debates in study groups differences in terms of etiologic causes between Western and Asian HCC and detection methods, we attempted to verify the features of SALL4 immunoreactivity and its clinical correlation in Korean HCC patients. METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining of SALL4 of tissue microarrays (TMAs) consisting of 213 surgically resected HCC patients' tissue were scored in a semiquantitative scoring system with immunoreactive score and the results analyzed with clinical outcome, in addition to general demographics and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: SALL4 immunoreactivity was expressed in 50 cases. Relevance between SALL4 and α-FP correlated significantly (P = 0.002). Also, the SALL4-positive patients had considerably higher tumor grade (P < 0.001). The survival analysis showed negative correlation with SALL4 immunoreactivity in all HCC patient groups, but SALL4 immunoreactivity in T3 and T4 HCC correlated with poor prognosis. CONCLUSION: Here, we found that positive immunostaining of SALL4 is correlated with poor patient survival outcome in large and undifferentiated Korean HCC. SALL4 expression showed close relationship with clinical outcomes of HCCs in Korean patients.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Demography ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Microarray Analysis ; Prognosis

OBJECTIVES: Leptin, the product of ob gene, is secreted by adipocytes and signals the size of peripheral fat stores to the brain. Several evidences indicate that a polymorphism in the promoter region (-2548A/G) of leptin gene is associated with antipsychotics-induced weight gain. This study aims at investigating the association between the -2548A/G polymorphism of leptin gene and antipsychotics-induced weight gain in Korean schizophrenia patients. METHODS: Seventy one patients with schizophrenia were recruited. All of the subjects were antipsychotics-naive or free of antipsychotic drugs for the previous 3 months. Genotyping was done for the -2548A/G polymorphism of leptin gene. Body mass index (BMI) was measured at baseline, after 4 weeks and after 8 weeks of antipsychotic drug treatment. The subjects were grouped on the basis of the presence or absence of the G allele (AA vs. AG/GG) and two-sided t tests for independent samples was used to analyze the relationship between two genotype groups and BMI change. And a chi-square analysis was conducted to test the association between the allele type and BMI change. RESULTS: We could not find any association between the -2548A/G polymorphism of leptin gene and antipsychotics-induced weight gain. CONCLUSION: Our data do not support the involvement of the -2548A/G polymorphism of leptin gene in antipsychotics-induced weight gain in the acute treatment phase.
Adipocytes ; Alleles ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Body Mass Index ; Brain ; Genotype ; Humans ; Leptin* ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Schizophrenia ; Weight Gain*