PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine, using prenatal ultrasongraphy, normal fetal foot length and the femur length ratio during the second trimester of a normal pregnancy in Korean women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From May to July 1999, and in September of the same year, 1018 normal Korean singleton pregnancies showing no abnormality on prenatal sonograms were included in this study. The gestational age ranged from 19 to 30 weeks. Femur and foot length were measured by one radiologist. Regression analysis was performed for foot length and gestational age, and the mean value of the femur/foot length ratio and 95th percentile confidence interval of that mean value were calculated. The data obtained was compared with that obtained from caucasians. RESULTS: Foot length correlated with gestational age (r 2=0.87, p value = 0.0001). The regression formula was as follows; Gestational age (days) = 70.98-2.15 x foot length (mm). Mean foot length at each gestational week was not different from the corresponding figure for Cancasians. The mean (+/-SD) value of the femur/foot length ratio was 0.96 (+/-0.05) and the 95th percentile confidence interval of that mean value was 0.96+/-0.000301, figures which are significantly lower than those for Caucasians. CONCLUSION: Fetal foot length during the second trimester of a normal pregnancy in Korean women is a reliable parameter for use in the assessment of gestational age. In our study the fetal foot length was not different from that of caucasians, while the femur/foot length ratio was lower than the value in that group. The nomogram depicted in of this study will serve as a useful adjunct in the screening of chromosomal abnormality or skeletal dysplasia among Koreans.
Chromosome Aberrations ; Female ; Femur ; Foot* ; Gestational Age ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Nomograms ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second* ; Pregnancy*

Objective: People vaccinated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 [SARS-CoV-2]) mRNA vaccine have reported experiencing various adverse effects. For instance, reproductive-age women have presented with complaints of abnormal uterine bleeding or menstrual cycle changes. We speculated that differences in basal sex hormone levels before and after vaccination may be present in women who experienced irregular bleeding or menstrual cycle changes; thus, this study aimed to investigate the differences in basal sex hormone levels of women before and after two doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination. Methods: This retrospective study included patients who received SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines between January 2021 and February 2022 at a single center. In an outpatient setting, patients were queried regarding their menstrual cycle, the date of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination, vaccination type, and vaccination side effects. Differences in basal hormone levels (menstrual cycle days 2–3, follicle-stimulating hormone [FSH], luteinizing hormone [LH], and estradiol) before and after vaccination were compared. Results: Among the 326 patients, patients with no laboratory records of the hormones were excluded. The median time interval between SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination and the laboratory test day was 79 days (interquartile range, 44 to 127). A comparative analysis of these hormones before and after vaccination revealed no significant differences. Subgroup analyses based on age and reported adverse events also found no statistically significant differences. Conclusion This study showed no significant differences in basal hormone levels (FSH, LH, and estradiol) before and after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination.

Noninvasive prenatal test (NIPT) is a novel screening method for the diagnosis of fetal chromosomal aneuploidies. NIPT is based on technology that detects cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma and analyzes it with massively parallel sequencing technology to determine whether the fetus is at risk of trisomy 21, trisomy 18, trisomy 13 or sex chromosome abnormalities (SCAs). NIPT has been reported to have sensitivity of 99% and a false positive rate of less than 1% for detecting trisomy 21 and trisomy 18. Although extension of the application of NIPT to other SCAs has been attempted, there are concerns in extending NIPT to SCAs because of maternal or fetal mosaicism, undetected maternal SCAs, and multiple pregnancies. Recently, we assessed a pregnancy with the rare Turner syndrome mosaicism 45, X/47, XXX, which was reported as 45, X with NIPT. We present the case here and briefly review the current literatures on NIPT in testing for fetal monosomy X. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the 45, X/47, XXX mosaicism in Korea to be reported as 45, X by NIPT with whole genome sequencing. This case report will provide valuable information for counseling women who want to undergo NIPT.
Aneuploidy ; Counseling ; Diagnosis ; DNA ; Down Syndrome ; Female ; Fetus ; Genome ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Mosaicism* ; Plasma ; Pregnancy* ; Pregnancy, Multiple ; Prenatal Diagnosis ; Sex Chromosome Aberrations ; Trisomy ; Turner Syndrome*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Intracranial Hemorrhages* ; Vitamin K* ; Vitamins*

The purpose of this study was examine the general characteristics of relapsed pulmonary tuberculous patients (i.e. age, sex, weight, occupation, previous forms of treatment, drug sensitivity, and the frequency of relapse) in order to improve future treatments of tuberculosis as well as to perpetuate health education. The data was obtained from the medical records of 186 relapsed pulmonary tuberculosis patients who were registered for treatment at various public health officers in Seoul during the year of 1994. The major findings obtained from the study were as follows; l) The male to female ratio of relapsed pulmonary tuberculous patients was about 7:3, more specifically 23.7% of the men and 30.9% of the women were between 20 and 29 years of age. 2) Comparing initial less aggravated states to relapsed states, patients with minimal x-ray findings later proved moderately advanced X-ray findings. Furthermore, patients with negative sputum AEB findings later proved positive sputum AFB findings. 3) of the l86 patients studied, 91.9% suffered, relapse and 8.1% suffered 2 or more relapses. Of the patients who suffered at least 1 relapse, 54.8% received short-term treatment, 26.9% received long-term treatment, and 18.3% received treatment of an unknown during their initial tuberculosis treatment periods. 4) Fifty five point four percent of the patients had no reaction to the drug treatment(not available), 25.9% of the patients had sensitive reaction to the drug treatment, 18.7% of the patients had resistant reaction to the drug treatment. Drug resistance was higher in patients to exhibited positive X-ray findings as well as in patients that exhibited positive sputum findings furthermore, patients receiving treatment of an unknown nature(35.5%) exhibited higher drug resistance than those receiving short-term treatment(13.6%) and long-term treatment(l7.0%). 5) Of the 160 patients who suffered relapses, 8.8% suffered a relapse within 1 year after treatment and 91.2% suffered a relapse at least 1 year after treatment. Furthermore, our study showed that women, under 30, who received short-term treatment and encounterd complications during their primary treatment suffered relapses faster than any other groups studied. In addition, minimal X-ray findings and sputum AFB findings were not correlated to the time relapse occurred. Therefore, the greater efforts are needed to prevent relapsed pulmonary tuberculosis.
Drug Resistance ; Female ; Health Education ; Humans ; Male ; Medical Records ; Occupations ; Public Health* ; Recurrence ; Seoul* ; Sputum ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the use of health services and health expenditures between non-exercise and exercise groups of diabetic patients and among three groups divided according to exercise intensity. METHODS: Data were obtained from the Korean Health Panel Survey of 2011. The participants of this study were 864 diabetic patients who did exercise (walk, moderate exercise, or vigorous exercise) or not. Data were subsequently analyzed using the SPSS 21 Program. RESULTS: The exercise group showed higher percentages of medication compliance, non-smokers, and regular diet than the non-exercise group. The hospitalization percentage, the number of outpatient hospital visits, and health expenditures were higher in the non-exercise group than in the exercise group. There was no difference among the three groups divided according to exercise intensity in the use of health services and health expenditures. CONCLUSION: These results show that exercise is a way to reduce diabetic patients' use of health services and their health expenditures.
Diabetes Mellitus ; Diet ; Health Behavior* ; Health Expenditures* ; Health Services* ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Outpatients

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are ancient, currently inactive, and non-infectious due to recombination, deletions, and mutations in the host genome. However, HERV-derived elements are involved in physiological phenomena including inflammatory response. In recent studies, HERV-derived elements were involved directly in various inflammatory diseases including autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Sjogren’s syndrome. Regarding the involvement of HERV-derived elements in inflammation, two possible mechanisms have been proposed. First, HERV-derived elements cause nonspecific innate immune processes. Second, HERV-derived RNA or proteins might stimulate selective signaling mechanisms. However, it is unknown how silent HERV elements are activated in the inflammatory response and what factors and signaling mechanisms are involved with HERV-derived elements. In this review, we introduce HERV-related autoimmune diseases and propose the possible action mechanisms of HERV-derived elements in the inflammatory response at the molecular level.

Human-derived materials are a crucial element of research in the life sciences. The Korea Biobank Network (KBN) portal is a shared open platform that provides the nationʼs most extensive disease resources, possessed by Human Bioresource Unit Banks of the KBN, to the public, including those in the fields of industry, academia, and research.This platform was developed to increase the efficient use of national disease resources. In the KBN portal, the current status of disease resources collected in Korea can be checked online. Human bioresources and clinical information are provided to consumers through systematic search and efficient distribution programs. Additionally, by simultaneously operating the KBN Distribution Support Center, we are working to support the rapid and convenient distribution of human resources in response to the needs of consumers. To effectively utilize the open human bioresource sharing platform, it is necessary to introduce an integrated clinical information management system. Currently, the KBN is in the process of establishing standard terminology for data and applying a common data model for the integrated management of various clinical information held by the KBN. We provide communications through the KBN portal, which is interconnected with the distribution support center, regional biobanks, and consumers. In conclusion, the KBN portal will provide open innovation by creating a business or service model by delivering shared open data and internalizing external innovative capabilities.

PURPOSE: There are many known risk factors for a retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). We analyzed the most important risk factors and predictors of ROP among them. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all premature infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), between January 2010 and December 2012 at Gangnam CHA Medical Center, Seoul. . All infants (n=185) were hospitalized for more than 28 days, received eye examination for ROP and showed one of the following criteria: birth weight (BW) below 1,500 g, gestational age (GA) below 32 weeks, or oxygen treatment (> or =40% oxygen for more than 3 days). We divided the infants into the Non-ROP group (n=162) and the ROP group (n=23, more than stage 1) and analyzed group comparisons, risk factors and the importance of each factor of ROP by SPSS 13.0. RESULTS: Risk factors were duration of oxygen uses [Odds ratio (OR): 1.064, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.007-1.125, P=0.028] and intravenous (IV) steroid (OR: 1.234, 95% CI: 1.000-1.523, P=0.049) by multi-factor adjustment. The most important factor was oxygenation duration. The following factors were time to full enteral feedings, and IV steroid duration. CONCLUSION: The incidence of ROP will be decreased if we can reduce the length of oxygen uses, IV steroid use and advance the full feeding achievement.
Birth Weight ; Enteral Nutrition ; Gestational Age ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature* ; Intensive Care, Neonatal ; Medical Records ; Oxygen ; Retinopathy of Prematurity* ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Seoul

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the importance of assessment of fetal cardiac output (CO) for the prediction of complications of pregnancy. METHODS: We evaluated 65 fetuses and all of them had a fetal cardiac scan at 20 to 24 weeks of pregnancy. To measure CO, diameters (d) of the left right ventricle outflow tract were measured just above the valves. Each left CO (LCO) and right CO (RCO) was derived using the following equation: CO = velocity time integral ×π× d²/4 × heart rate. Pregnancy complications included gestational hypertensive disorders, fetal growth restriction (FGR) and preterm birth (PTB) caused from preterm labor or preterm premature rupture of membrane (PPROM). RESULTS: There were 23 cases with one more pregnancy complication (FGR, 9; gestational hypertensive disorders, 8; PTB caused from PTB or PPROM, 12). The LCO was lower in complication group than in normal group (88±53 vs. 117±48 mL/min, P=0.028). The RCO to the LCO ratio (RCO/LCO) was higher in complication group (2.43±1.69 vs. 1.48±0.81, P=0.001). Regression analysis demonstrated that RCO/LCO was a significant predictor of pregnancy complication; Odds ratio was 7.76 (95% CI, 1.15 to 52.21; P=0.029). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for prediction of pregnancy complications from LCO was 0.71. The diagnostic cut-off value of LCO was 80 mL/min. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve from RCO/LCO was 0.68 and cut-off value was 1.41. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that pregnancy complications can be suspected based on fetal CO assessments at a GA of 20 to 24 weeks.
Cardiac Output* ; Echocardiography ; Female ; Fetal Development ; Fetal Growth Retardation ; Fetus ; Heart Rate ; Heart Ventricles ; Membranes ; Obstetric Labor, Premature ; Odds Ratio ; Pre-Eclampsia ; Pregnancy Complications* ; Pregnancy* ; Premature Birth ; Rupture ; Ultrasonography*