OBJECTIVES: We estimated the population prevalence of antibodies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), including unreported infections, through a Korea Seroprevalence Study of Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Retention and Transmission (K-SEROSMART) in 258 communities throughout Korea. METHODS: In August 2022, a survey was conducted among 10,000 household members aged 5 years and older, in households selected through two stage probability random sampling. During face-to-face household interviews, participants self-reported their health status, COVID-19 diagnosis and vaccination history, and general characteristics. Subsequently, participants visited a community health center or medical clinic for blood sampling. Blood samples were analyzed for the presence of antibodies to spike proteins (anti-S) and antibodies to nucleocapsid proteins (anti-N) SARS-CoV-2 proteins using an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. To estimate the population prevalence, the PROC SURVEYMEANS statistical procedure was employed, with weighting to reflect demographic data from July 2022. RESULTS: In total, 9,945 individuals from 5,041 households were surveyed across 258 communities, representing all basic local governments in Korea. The overall population-adjusted prevalence rates of anti-S and anti-N were 97.6% and 57.1%, respectively. Since the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has reported a cumulative incidence of confirmed cases of 37.8% through July 31, 2022, the proportion of unreported infections among all COVID-19 infection was suggested to be 33.9%. CONCLUSIONS The K-SEROSMART represents the first nationwide, community-based seroepidemiologic survey of COVID-19, confirming that most individuals possess antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and that a significant number of unreported cases existed. Furthermore, this study lays the foundation for a surveillance system to continuously monitor transmission at the community level and the response to COVID-19.

Background: The fatality rate of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) varies among countries owing to demographics, patient comorbidities, surge capacity of healthcare systems, and the quality of medical care. We assessed the clinical outcomes of patients with COVID-19 during the first wave of the epidemic in Korea. Methods: Using a modified World Health Organization clinical record form, we obtained clinical data for 3,060 patients with COVID-19 treated at 55 hospitals in Korea. Disease severity scores were defined as: 1) no limitation of daily activities; 2) limitation of daily activities but no need for supplemental oxygen; 3) supplemental oxygen via nasal cannula; 4) supplemental oxygen via facial mask; 5) non-invasive mechanical ventilation; 6) invasive mechanical ventilation; 7) multi-organ failure or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy; and 8) death. Recovery was defined as a severity score of 1 or 2, or discharge and release from isolation. Results: The median age of the patients was 43 years of age; 43.6% were male. The median time from illness onset to admission was 5 days. Of the patients with a disease severity score of 3–4 on admission, 65 (71.5%) of the 91 patients recovered, and 7 (7.7%) died due to illness by day 28. Of the patients with disease severity scores of 5–7, 7 (19.5%) of the 36 patients recovered, and 8 (22.2%) died due to illness by day 28. None of the 1,324 patients who were < 50 years of age died; in contrast, the fatality rate due to illness by day 28 was 0.5% (2/375), 0.9% (2/215), 5.8% (6/104), and 14.0% (7/50) for the patients aged 50–59, 60–69, 70–79, and ≥ 80 years of age, respectively. Conclusion In Korea, almost all patients of < 50 years of age with COVID-19 recovered without supplemental oxygen. In patients of ≥ 50 years of age, the fatality rate increased with age, reaching 14% in patients of ≥ 80 years of age.

The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) is a national program designed to assess the health and nutritional status of the noninstitutionalized population of South Korea. The KNHANES was initiated in 1998 and has been conducted annually since 2007. Starting in the latter half of 2008, ophthalmologic examinations were included in the survey in order to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of common eye diseases such as visual impairment, refractive errors, strabismus, blepharoptosis, cataract, pterygium, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, dry eye disease, and color vision deficiency. The measurements included in the ophthalmic questionnaire and examination methods were modified in the KNHANES IV, V, and VI. In this article, we provide detailed information about the methodology of the ophthalmic examinations in KNHANES in order to aid in further investigations related to major eye diseases in South Korea.
*Epidemiologic Methods ; Eye Diseases/*epidemiology ; Humans ; Nutrition Surveys/*statistics & numerical data ; Ophthalmology/*methods ; Prevalence ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Risk Factors ; *Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to report on preliminary data regarding the prevalence of major eye diseases in Korea. METHODS: We obtained data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nation-wide cross-sectional survey and examinations of the non-institutionalized civilian population in South Korea (n = 14,606), conducted from July 2008 to December 2009. Field survey teams included an ophthalmologist, nurses, and interviewers, traveled with a mobile examination unit and performed interviews and ophthalmologic examinations. RESULTS: The prevalence of visual impairment, myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism in participants over 5 years of age was 0.4 +/- 0.1%, 53.7 +/- 0.6%, 10.7 +/- 0.4%, and 58.0 +/- 0.6%, respectively. The prevalence of strabismus and blepharoptosis in participants over 3 years of age was 1.5 +/- 0.1% and 11.0 +/- 0.8%, respectively. In participants over 40 years of age, the prevalence of cataract, pterygium, early and late age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma was 40.2 +/- 1.3%, 8.9 +/- 0.5%, 5.1 +/- 0.3%, 0.5 +/- 0.1%, 13.4 +/- 1.5%, and 2.1 +/- 0.2%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first nation-wide epidemiologic study conducted in South Korea for assessment of the prevalence of eye diseases by both the Korean Ophthalmologic Society and the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This study will provide preliminary information for use in further investigation, prevention, and management of eye diseases in Korea.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Eye Diseases/*epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nutrition Surveys/*statistics & numerical data ; Prevalence ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Young Adult

Saphena varix is very rare disease that characterized by isolated distention of the saphenous vein below the sapheno-femoral junction. Saphena varix must be differentiated from other medical problems that can cause a groin mass. A 49-year-old man presented with a palpable mass on the right upper thigh and he'd had the mass for 6 months. There was no history of trauma, and the mass was especially noticeable when he was standing. On the physical examination, a 5 cm-sized soft, nontender, compressible mass was detected at the right upper medial thigh near the femoral foramen. Doppler sonography showed a saccular venous dilatation of the great saphenous vein just below the saphenofemoral junction. On computed tomography, there were superficially dilated veins in the right thigh and calf, a focal saccular aneurysm at the proximal segment of the right greater saphenous vein and no evidence of deep vein thrombosis. Aneurymal excision and stripping of the greater saphenous vein were performed. No complication was observed at the 2 week follow-up.
Aneurysm ; Dilatation ; Follow-Up Studies ; Groin ; Hernia, Femoral ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Physical Examination ; Rare Diseases ; Saphenous Vein ; Thigh ; Varicose Veins ; Veins ; Venous Thrombosis

Abdominal vascular injury after blunt trauma does not occur very frequently. Penetrating trauma is the most common cause (90%) of abdominal vascular injury. A 57-year-old male presented with abdominal pain and color change of the right lower leg after blunt trauma. The physical examination showed rigid tenderness in the entire abdomen and no pulse in the right femoral artery. Computed Tomography (CT) demonstrated the acute aortic dissection, which extended from the infrarenal aorta to the iliac artery and there was embolic occlusion below the right common iliac artery. He underwent endarterectomy after thrombectomy, fasciotomy and small bowel segmental resection. A 65-year-old male presented with abdominal pain after an auto-bicycle crash. On the physical examination, there was tenderness and rebound tenderness noted on the entire abdomen. The CT done outside our hospital demonstrated an intramural hematoma around the descending aorta. He underwent small bowel and sigmoid segmental resection and S-colostomy. On day 1 after operation, he complained of sudden abdominal pain. He then developed the signs of acute liver and renal failure. His condition deteriorated rapidly with conservative management, and he died on day 2.
Abdomen ; Abdominal Pain ; Aged ; Aorta ; Aorta, Thoracic ; Colon, Sigmoid ; Endarterectomy ; Femoral Artery ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Iliac Artery ; Leg ; Liver ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Physical Examination ; Renal Insufficiency ; Thrombectomy ; Vascular System Injuries

PURPOSE: To investigate the care patterns for radiation therapy and to determine inter-hospital differences for patients with laryngeal carcinoma in Korea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 237 cases of laryngeal carcinoma (glottis, 144; supraglottis, 93) assembled from 23 hospitals, who underwent irradiation in the year of 1998 and 1999, were retrospectively analyzed to investigate inter-hospital differences with respect to radiotherapy treatment. We grouped the 23 hospitals based on the number of new patients annually irradiated in 1998; and designated them as group A (> or =900 patients), group B (> or =400 patients and <900 patients), and group C (<400 patients). RESULTS: The median age of the 237 patients was 62 years (range, 25 to 88 years), of which 216 were male and 21 were female. The clinical stages were distributed as follows: for glottis cancer, I; 61.8%, II; 21.5%, III; 4.2%, IVa; 11.1%, IVb; 1.4%, and in supraglottic cancer, I; 4.3%, II; 19.4%, III; 28.0%, IVa; 43.0%, IVb; 5.4%, respectively. Some differences were observed among the 3 groups with respect to the dose calculation method, radiation energy, field arrangement, and use of an immobilization device. No significant difference among 3 hospital groups was observed with respect to treatment modality, irradiation volume, and median total dose delivered to the primary site. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that radiotherapy process and patterns of care are relatively uniform in laryngeal cancer patients in Korean hospitals, and we hope this nationwide data can be used as a basis for the standardization of radiotherapy for the treatment of laryngeal cancer.
Female ; Glottis ; Humans ; Immobilization ; Korea ; Laryngeal Neoplasms ; Male ; Retrospective Studies

True aneurysm of the radial artery is very rare, and the false aneurysms are more common. True aneurysms of the radial artery are usually secondary to trauma or iatrogenic injury. A 71-year-old male presented with a several year history of a left forearm-pulsating mass. He suffered from a brain infarct and had received acupuncture for his hemiplegia for the previous year. The physical examination revealed two pulsating masses on the left forearm. The left ulnar and radial arteries were palpable. The laboratory values were normal. Computerized tomography showed two 40x25 and 37x20 mm-sized saccular true aneuryms containing mural thrombosis in the left proximal radial artery with atherosclerotic change. The aneurysms were resected with reconstruction by using the cephalic vein. Distal flow was reestablished by using end-to-end anastomosis. No complications have been observed during the 4 weeks of follow-up.
Acupuncture ; Aged ; Aneurysm ; Aneurysm, False ; Brain ; Follow-Up Studies ; Forearm ; Hemiplegia ; Humans ; Male ; Physical Examination ; Radial Artery ; Thrombosis ; Veins

Stent thrombosis (ST) is one of the major complications that occur in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) with stents. Various factors have been attributed to the development of ST, and several strategies have been recommended for its management. We report the case of a patient suffering from recurrent subacute STs after recurrent PCIs. The patient was treated by coronary artery bypass graft (CABG).
Coronary Artery Bypass ; Humans ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention ; Stents ; Stress, Psychological ; Thrombosis ; Transplants

We evaluated on the calculation accuracy of treatment planning system (TPS) with phantom having convex and concave surface. The TPS is Eclipse (Varian, USA) using both algorithms AAA and PBC for photon dose calculations. PBC algorithms have three corrections of Batho, modified Batho (M-Batho), and equivalent TAR (E-TAR). The field sizes were 10x10 cm2 and 20x20 cm2, and MLC-shaped fields for these fields. We measured doses at three depths 5, 10 and 15 cm in phantom of SSD=90 cm in the condition of inserted farmer chamber. For given conditions, we have calculated dose with these algorithms and compared them with measured doses. In AAA the calculated doses (dose/MU) were agreed to measured doses within +/-1% in flat and convex surface and were under estimated with -1.9% maximum in concave surface. In PBC the calculated doses were over estimated with +1.7% and +4.1% respectively in flat and convex surface and the differences were from -3.1% to +2.1% in concave surface. In comparison of criteria from AAPM and IAEA reports, and statistical analysis for these results, it is found that the AAA's results are in good agreement with measured values and the M-Batho's results are generally good agreed with measured values among PBC algorithms.
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