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BACKGROUND: We compared the BACTEC Peds Plus (Becton Dickinson, USA) and BacT/Alert PF (bioMerieux, France) pediatric blood culture bottles in the context of recovery and time to detection (TTD) of bacteria and fungi from pediatric patients. METHODS: Blood samples were collected for culture from pediatric patients who were hospitalized during 2010 at a university hospital. BACTEC Peds Plus and BacT/Alert PF bottles were placed in the BACTEC FX and BacT/Alert 3D blood culture system, respectively, and tested for 5 days. Bottles flagged by instruments as positive were removed from the instruments and the TTDs were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 5,018 sets (1 set, 1 BACTEC Peds Plus and 1 BacT/Alert PF) were evaluated. Overall, the recovery proportions for BACTEC Peds Plus and BacT/Alert PF bottles were 57% (134/195) and 69% (112/195), respectively. There was a significant difference between the 0.38% contamination rate in BacT/Alert PF bottles and the 0.16% contamination rate in BACTEC Peds Plus bottles (P=0.035). The average TTD for all microorganisms was significantly decreased for the BACTEC Peds Plus bottles (P=0.021), but was increased for Candida parapsilosis compared to the results for the BacT/Alert PF bottles (P=0.028). CONCLUSION: We conclude that the rate of detection and contamination is higher when BacT/Alert PF bottles are used than when BACTEC Peds Plus bottles are used for pediatric blood culture. The BACTEC Peds Plus bottles detect nearly all enrolled microorganisms significantly faster than do the BacT/Alert PF bottles.
Bacteria ; Candida ; Fungi ; Humans

Background/Aims: Using a nationwide cohort, we investigated the cancer risk in Korean patients with gout. Methods: Data were obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance Service Database. Patients with gout were defined as those aged ≥ 20 years who were diagnosed with gout and received anti-gout medication (allopurinol, colchicine, and benzbromarone) between 2008 and 2010. Patients with nail disorders were randomly assigned to a control group (1:1 ratio) after frequency matching for age and sex. Cancer incidence was then investigated between 2012 and 2018. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to investigate the association between gout and cancer after adjusting for concomitant diseases. Results: This study included 179,930 patients with gout and an equal number of matched controls. The incidence of overall cancer was higher in patients with gout than in controls (incidence rate ratio, 1.08). Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that gout was associated with a hazard ratio of 1.053 (95% confidence interval ,1.031 to 1.077) after adjusting for concomitant diseases. Conclusions Gout was associated with a significantly high risk of cancer, especially esophageal, stomach, colon, liver, pancreatic, lung, ovarian, renal, and bladder cancers.

Panax ginseng roots have long been used as a medicinal herb in oriental countries. We have investigated anti-proliferative effects of lipid soluble Panax ginseng components on human renal cancer cell lines. Petroleum ether extract of Panax ginseng roots (GX-PE) or its partially purified preparation (7:3 GX) was added to cultures of three human renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cell lines, A498, Caki-1, and CURC II. Proliferation of RCC cells was estimated by a [3H]thymidine incorporation assay and cell cycle distribution was analyzed by flow cytometry. GX-PE, 7:3 GX, panaxydol and panaxynol inhibited proliferation of all three RCC cell lines in a dose dependent manner in vitro with an order of potency, 7:3 GX > panaxydol > panaxynol = GX-PE. Additive effect of interleukin 4 was also demonstrated, most prominently in Caki-1 which responded poorly to GX-PE alone. Analysis of cell cycle in CURC II and Caki-1 treated with GX-PE demonstrated increase in G1 phase population and corresponding decrease in S phase population. The present study demonstrated that proliferation of human RCC cell lines were inhibited by lipid soluble components of Panax ginseng roots by blocking cell cycle progression at G1 to S phase transition.
Alkanes ; Alkynes/therapeutic use ; Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use ; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic/therapeutic use* ; Carcinoma, Renal Cell/drug therapy* ; Cell Cycle/drug effects ; Fatty Alcohols/therapeutic use ; Ginseng/therapeutic use* ; Ginseng/chemistry ; Human ; Interleukin-4/therapeutic use ; Kidney Neoplasms/drug therapy* ; Plant Extracts/therapeutic use ; Plant Roots/therapeutic use ; Plant Roots/chemistry

BACKGROUND: Midazolam has been reported to have a spinally mediated antinociceptive effect. In this randomized, double-blind study, we evaluated whether a small dose of midazolam added to fentanyl-ropivacaine mixture for PCEA (patient controlled epidural analgesia) improves epidural analgesia in patients underwent elective subtotal gastrectomy. METHODS: Forty five patients, ASA physical status I and II, undergoing subtotal gastrectomy were randomly allocated to receive 0.2% ropivacaine mixed with fentanyl 4microg/ml or 0.2% ropivacaine mixed with fentanyl 4microg/ml and midazolam 0.2 mg/ml. The infusion rate was set to deliver 4 ml/hr of the study solution, with a bolus of 2 ml per demand and a 20 minutes lockout time. RESULTS: Infused volume (P < 0.05) and VAS scores (P < 0.05) was significantly lower in the patients receiving midazolam. However, there were no differences in requiring rescue analgesics, PONV (postoperative nausea and vomiting), sedation scores, urinary retention, and pruritus between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Small dose of midazolam could augment analgesia without adverse effects when added to thoracic epidural infusion of fentanyl and ropivacaine.
Amides ; Analgesia ; Analgesia, Epidural ; Analgesics ; Double-Blind Method ; Fentanyl ; Gastrectomy ; Humans ; Midazolam ; Nausea ; Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting ; Pruritus ; Urinary Retention

Thermodynamically immiscible poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) were blended and solution-cast by adding the 3% compatibilizer (tributyl citrate, TBC) of the PCL weight. In the PLA/PCL composition range of 99/1–95/5 wt%, mechanical properties of the PLA/PCL films with TBC were always superior to those of the films without TBC. The tensile strength of 42.9 ± 3.5 MPa and the elongation at break of 10.3 ± 2.7% were observed for the 93/7 PLA/PCL films without TBC, indicating that PCL addition is effective for strength and ductility. However, the tensile strength of 54.1 ± 3.4 MPa and the elongation at break of 8.8 ± 1.8% were found for the 95/5 PLA/PCL with TBC, indicating that the effect of co-addition of PCL and TBC on mechanical properties of the films is more pronounced. No cytotoxicity was observed for the PLA/PCL films regardless of TBC addition.
Cell Proliferation ; Citric Acid ; Tensile Strength

Background: There are limited data on the accuracy of cloud-based speech recognition (SR) open application programming interfaces (APIs) for medical terminology. This study aimed to evaluate the medical term recognition accuracy of current available cloud-based SR open APIs in Korean. Methods: We analyzed the SR accuracy of currently available cloud-based SR open APIs using real doctor–patient conversation recordings collected from an outpatient clinic at a large tertiary medical center in Korea. For each original and SR transcription, we analyzed the accuracy rate of each cloud-based SR open API (i.e., the number of medical terms in the SR transcription per number of medical terms in the original transcription). Results: A total of 112 doctor–patient conversation recordings were converted with three cloud-based SR open APIs (Naver Clova SR from Naver Corporation; Google Speech-toText from Alphabet Inc.; and Amazon Transcribe from Amazon), and each transcription was compared. Naver Clova SR (75.1%) showed the highest accuracy with the recognition of medical terms compared to the other open APIs (Google Speech-to-Text, 50.9%, P < 0.001; Amazon Transcribe, 57.9%, P < 0.001), and Amazon Transcribe demonstrated higher recognition accuracy compared to Google Speech-to-Text (P< 0.001). In the sub-analysis, Naver Clova SR showed the highest accuracy in all areas according to word classes, but the accuracy of words longer than five characters showed no statistical differences (Naver Clova SR, 52.6%; Google Speech-to-Text, 56.3%; Amazon Transcribe, 36.6%). Conclusion Among three current cloud-based SR open APIs, Naver Clova SR which manufactured by Korean company showed highest accuracy of medical terms in Korean, compared to Google Speech-to-Text and Amazon Transcribe. Although limitations are existing in the recognition of medical terminology, there is a lot of rooms for improvement of this promising technology by combining strengths of each SR engines.

PURPOSE: Reactive oxygen species have been recognized as a common signaling mediator in diverse stimuli-induced apoptosis and hydrogen peroxide is a natural one of those reactive oxygen species. This study was performed to investigate the role of caspases in hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis of HL 60 cells. METHODS: Apoptosis was induced in HL 60 cells by treating 50microM hydrogen peroxide for 2, 4, and 6 hrs and induction of apoptosis was confirmed by flow cytometry and DNA fragmentation analysis. Caspase substrate assay was used to show the activity of caspases and then protein levels of caspase and its substrate were analyzed using immunoblotting. RESULTS: During the apoptosis, caspase substrates assay showed the increased activity of caspase-3, -7, -10, but not that of caspase-8 nor caspase-9, and immunoblotting analysis showed decreasing procaspase-3 protein with the progression of apoptosis. Furthermore, with progression of apoptosis, analysis of caspase substrates showed retinoblastoma protein decreased while cleaved 89kD fragment of poly (ADP-ribosyl) polymerase protein increased. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis in HL 60 cells is not associated with the activation of caspase-8 nor caspase-9. Rather, caspase-3 is directly activated and responsible for hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis of HL 60 cells.
Apoptosis* ; Caspase 3* ; Caspase 8 ; Caspase 9 ; Caspases ; DNA Fragmentation ; Flow Cytometry ; HL-60 Cells* ; Humans* ; Hydrogen Peroxide ; Hydrogen* ; Immunoblotting ; Leukemia* ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Retinoblastoma Protein

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. We previously reported the identification of a new genetic marker, cellular retinoic acid binding protein 2 (CRABP2), in lung cancer tissues. The aim of this study was to assess plasma levels of CRABP2 from patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: Blood samples that were collected from 122 patients with NSCLC between September 2009 and September 2013 were selected for the analysis, along with samples from age- (± 5 years), sex-, and cigarette smoking history (± 10 pack-years [PY])-matched controls from the Korea Biobank Network. The control specimens were from patients who were without malignancies or pulmonary diseases. We measured plasma levels of CRABP2 using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. RESULTS: The mean age of the NSCLC patients was 71.8 ± 8.9 years, and the median cigarette smoking history was 32 PY (range, 0–150 PY). Plasma CRABP2 levels were significantly higher in patients with NSCLC than in the matched controls (37.63 ± 28.71 ng/mL vs. 24.09 ± 21.09 ng/mL, P < 0.001). Higher plasma CRABP2 levels were also correlated with lower survival rates in NSCLC patients (P = 0.014). CONCLUSION: Plasma CRABP2 levels might be a novel diagnostic and prognostic marker in NSCLC.
Biomarkers ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Carrier Proteins ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Genetic Markers ; Humans ; Korea ; Lung Diseases ; Lung Neoplasms ; Mortality ; Plasma* ; Smoking ; Survival Rate ; Tretinoin

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the clinical characteristics of men with testosterone replacement therapy (TRT)-induced hypogonadism and its effect on assisted reproductive technology (ART) in infertile couples.METHODS: This study examined the records of 20 consecutive male patients diagnosed with azoospermia or severe oligozoospermia (<5×10⁶/mL) who visited a single infertility center from January 2008 to July 2018. All patients were treated at a primary clinic for erectile dysfunction or androgen deficiency symptoms combined with low serum testosterone. All men received a phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor and TRT with testosterone undecanoate (Nebido®) or testosterone enanthate (Jenasteron®). Patients older than 50 years or with a chronic medical disease such as diabetes were excluded.RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 37 years and the mean duration of infertility was 16.3±11.6 months. At the initial presentation, eight patients had azoospermia, nine had cryptozoospermia, and three had severe oligozoospermia. Serum follicle-stimulating hormone levels were below 1.0 mIU/mL in most patients. Three ongoing ART programs with female factor infertility were cancelled due to male spermatogenic dysfunction; two of these men had normal semen parameters in the previous cycle. After withholding TRT, serum hormone levels and sperm concentrations returned to normal range after a median duration of 8 months.CONCLUSION: TRT with high-dose testosterone can cause spermatogenic dysfunction due to suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis, with adverse effects on infertility treatment programs. TRT is therefore contraindicated for infertile couples attempting to conceive, and the patient's desire for fertility must be considered before initiation of TRT in a hypogonadal man.
Azoospermia ; Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterases, Type 5 ; Erectile Dysfunction ; Family Characteristics ; Female ; Fertility ; Follicle Stimulating Hormone ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Infertility ; Infertility, Male ; Male ; Oligospermia ; Reference Values ; Reproductive Techniques, Assisted ; Semen ; Spermatozoa ; Testosterone