BACKGROUND: Repair of superior labral anterior to posterior (SLAP) lesion in patients older than 40 years is controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate clinical outcomes of arthroscopic repair of SLAP lesions between younger and older patient groups. METHODS: We reviewed 50 patients with isolated type II SLAP lesions who underwent arthroscopic repair. Patients were divided into 2 groups: group 1 included 20 patients aged <40 years, and group 2 included 30 patients aged > or =40 years. Functional outcome at the final follow-up was assessed using a visual analog scale for pain and satisfaction, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons form, Constant score, University of California at Los Angeles score, and periodic change in range of motion (ROM). Anatomical outcome was evaluated using computed tomography (CT) arthrography at least 1 year after surgery. RESULTS: No significant differences in functional scores or postoperative ROM were observed between the 2 groups. In group 2, later recovery of ROM (forward flexion, p=0.025; internal rotation, p=0.034) and lower satisfaction score (p=0.06) were observed for atraumatic patients (n=16) compared to patients with traumatic injury (n=14). Fifteen patients in group 1 (15/17, 88%) and 21 patients in group 2 (21/26, 81%) demonstrated a healed labrum on postoperative CT arthrography, and this difference was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that arthroscopic repair of type II SLAP lesions can yield good functional and anatomical outcomes regardless of age, if patient selection is adequate. However, the delay in ROM recovery and lower satisfaction, particularly in older patients without traumatic injury, should be considered.
Arthrography ; Arthroscopy ; California ; Elbow ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Patient Selection ; Range of Motion, Articular ; Shoulder ; Visual Analog Scale

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the relationships between the characteristics of nurses’ work schedules, health outcomes, and work–life balance. Methods: This was a secondary data analysis that included 422 nurses in Korean hospitals. Descriptive analysis, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis were used to identify the associated factors. Results: Multiple linear regression analysis showed that work–life balance was lower when atypical work was performed (β = -.14, p = .010). Nurses who did not work overtime showed a higher level of work–life balance than those who worked overtime infrequently (β = -.11, p = .002) or frequently (β = -.28, p < .001). The work–life balance level increased when nurses had better subjective health status (β = .16, p < .001) or higher sleep quality (β = .29, p < .001). It was verified that the work–life balance level was higher for single-person households than for households with two (β = -.18, p = .003), three to four (β = -.16, p = .022), or five or more (β = -.21, p < .001) persons. Conclusion This study suggests that government and hospital organizations should provide high-quality care and consideration to nurses who do atypical or overtime work as well as their subjective health status and sleep quality. Further research should focus on the development of a policy that improves the work–life balance of nurses, especially for those who work during atypical hours.

Background: Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disease and can cause fragility fractures. Despite this, screening utilization rates for osteoporosis remain low among populations at risk. Automated bone mineral density (BMD) estimation using computed tomography (CT) can help bridge this gap and serve as an alternative screening method to dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Methods: The feasibility of an opportunistic and population agnostic screening method for osteoporosis using abdominal CT scans without bone densitometry phantom-based calibration was investigated in this retrospective study. A total of 268 abdominal CT-DXA pairs and 99 abdominal CT studies without DXA scores were obtained from an oncology specialty clinic in the Republic of Korea. The center axial CT slices from the L1, L2, L3, and L4 lumbar vertebrae were annotated with the CT slice level and spine segmentation labels for each subject. Deep learning models were trained to localize the center axial slice from the CT scan of the torso, segment the vertebral bone, and estimate BMD for the top four lumbar vertebrae. Results: Automated vertebra-level DXA measurements showed a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.079, Pearson’s r of 0.852 (P<0.001), and R2 of 0.714. Subject-level predictions on the held-out test set had a MAE of 0.066, Pearson’s r of 0.907 (P<0.001), and R2 of 0.781. Conclusion CT scans collected during routine examinations without bone densitometry calibration can be used to generate DXA BMD predictions.

With the widespread availability of dialysis, the lives of end-stage renal disease patients have been prolonged over the past fifty years. Hemodialysis relies on the diffusion of molecules across a semipermeable membrane along the concentration gradient. In addition to diffusion, movement of waste products from the circulation into the dialysate can occur as a result of convective clearance. Use of high-flux dialyzer has increased the removal of the middle molecules such as beta2-microglobulin. Recently on-line hemodiafiltration which combined the hemodialysis and hemofiltration to increase the convective clearance of the large molecules has been available. About the hemodialysis adequacy, the result of hemodialysis (HEMO) study suggests that increasing the dose to greater than a single-pool Kt/Vurea 1.4 does not improve the survival of the patients. While the technical and scientific improvement in hemodialysis has led to a noticeable improvement in the survival of the dialysis patients, cardiovascular mortality and event rates are extraordinarily high in dialysis population. In addition to hemodialysis treatment, nephrologists taking care of dialysis patients must recognize and treat the diverse complications that can result from the loss of kidney function.
Dialysis ; Diffusion ; Hemodiafiltration ; Hemofiltration ; Humans ; Kidney ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Membranes ; Mortality ; Renal Dialysis* ; Waste Products

With the widespread availability of dialysis, the lives of end-stage renal disease patients have been prolonged over the past fifty years. Hemodialysis relies on the diffusion of molecules across a semipermeable membrane along the concentration gradient. In addition to diffusion, movement of waste products from the circulation into the dialysate can occur as a result of convective clearance. Use of high-flux dialyzer has increased the removal of the middle molecules such as beta2-microglobulin. Recently on-line hemodiafiltration which combined the hemodialysis and hemofiltration to increase the convective clearance of the large molecules has been available. About the hemodialysis adequacy, the result of hemodialysis (HEMO) study suggests that increasing the dose to greater than a single-pool Kt/Vurea 1.4 does not improve the survival of the patients. While the technical and scientific improvement in hemodialysis has led to a noticeable improvement in the survival of the dialysis patients, cardiovascular mortality and event rates are extraordinarily high in dialysis population. In addition to hemodialysis treatment, nephrologists taking care of dialysis patients must recognize and treat the diverse complications that can result from the loss of kidney function.
Dialysis ; Diffusion ; Hemodiafiltration ; Hemofiltration ; Humans ; Kidney ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Membranes ; Mortality ; Renal Dialysis* ; Waste Products

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to study the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on adolescents’ mental health in Korea. METHODS: We used data from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2018-2021 with 227,139 students aged 12-18 years. We estimated the differences in depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and stress perception before (2018-2019) and during (2020-2021) the pandemic, as well as before (2019), the first year (2020) of, and the second year (2021) of the pandemic. We also examined whether COVID-19 is statistically associated with mental health. RESULTS: In both male and female adolescents, the prevalence of depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and stress perception was higher in the “not living with family,” “low household economic status,” and “self-rated unhealthy status” subgroups. The prevalence of depressive symptoms and stress perception was higher in middle school students. Adolescents were less likely to experience depressive symptoms (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83 to 0.89), suicidal ideation (aOR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.76 to 0.83), and stress perception (aOR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.74 to 0.79) in 2020 than in 2019. However, there were more depressive symptoms (aOR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.09), suicidal ideation (aOR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.10 to 1.21), and stress perception (aOR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.16 to 1.23) in 2021 than in 2020. CONCLUSIONS The COVID-19 pandemic had positive impacts on mental health of adolescents in its early stages but has had negative impacts as the pandemic continues. Attention should be paid to adolescents who are particularly vulnerable to the mental health effects of the pandemic.

Purpose: A comprehensive evaluation item was developed to assess adolescent dietary habits and nutritional practices, considering food intake, eating behaviors, and food culture, such as social support and food environment. Methods: The 59 candidate items of the evaluation checklist were obtained based on the results of the eighth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, Korea Dietary Reference Intakes, dietary guidelines for adolescents, Youth Risk Behavior Survey data, national nutrition policies and dietary guidelines, and literature reviews. Four hundred and three middle and high school students residing in metropolitan areas participated in a survey using the 58-item checklist, which was selected through expert evaluation and content validity ratio analysis.The construct validity of the assessment tool for the quality of adolescent diets was assessed by exploratory factor analyses to determine if the checklist items were organized properly and whether the responses to each item were distributed adequately. Results: The Bartlett sphericity test was significant for each area (p <0.001), and the eigen values were greater than one. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and cumulative proportions by areas were food intake (0.765 and 56.8%, respectively), eating behaviors (0.544 and 64.8%, respectively), and food environment (0.699 and 62.4%, respectively). Twenty-two checklists were determined for the final evaluation items for the adolescents’ dietary habits and nutritional practices and were categorized into three distinct factors: food intake (10 items), eating behaviors (4 items), and food environment (8 items). Conclusion The evaluation items for adolescent dietary habits and nutritional practices is a useful checklist for easily and quickly assessing the dietary qualities and reflecting Korean adolescents and their food environmental factors related to a sustainable diet.

Adiponectin (Ad), a 30 kDa molecule, is an anti-diabetic adipokine; although derived from adipose tissue, it performs numerous activities in various other tissues. It binds to its own receptors, namely adiponectin receptor 1(AdipoR1), adiponectin receptor 2 (AdipoR2), and T-cadherin (CDH13). Ad plays several roles, especially as a regulator. It modulates lipid and glucose metabolism and promotes insulin sensitivity. This demonstrates that Ad has a robust correlation with fat metabolism. Furthermore, although Ad is not in direct contact with other tissues, including the skin, it can be delivered to them by diffusion or secretion via the endocrine system. Recently it has been reported that Ad can impact skin cell biology, underscoring its potential as a therapeutic biomarker of skin diseases. In the present review, we have discussed the association between skin cell biology and Ad. To elaborate further, we described the involvement of Ad in the biology of various types of cells in the skin, such as keratinocytes, fibroblasts, melanocytes, and immune cells. Additionally, we postulated that Ad could be employed as a therapeutic target to maintain skin homeostasis.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate changes in health behaviors, including cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, physical activity, dietary behaviors, and obesity, before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic using the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey (KYRBS) database. METHODS: KYRBS data from 2015 to 2021 were used in this study. Differences in health behaviors between before (pre-pandemic period: 2018-2019) and during (pandemic period: 2020-2021) the pandemic were examined. Differences were compared using linear regression and the chi-square test considering the complex survey design after adjusting for grade level. RESULTS: The prevalence of current cigarette smoking and current alcohol drinking significantly decreased in both male and female students during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. However, the prevalence of obesity significantly increased in both male and female students during the same period. When examining physical activity and dietary behaviors closely related to obesity, fast food consumption increased and fruit consumption decreased during the pandemic in both male and female students, whereas no significant changes in physical activity were observed in either male or female students. CONCLUSIONS The deterioration of adolescent dietary behaviors and an increase in the prevalence of obesity can increase the future disease burden, and concerted efforts at the individual and national levels are needed to reduce obesity and promote healthy dietary behaviors.

This study was aimed at investigating the possible effects of phytoceramide (Pcer) on learning and memory and their underlying mechanisms. Phytoceramide was orally administered to ICR mice for 7 days. Memory performances were assessed using the passive avoidance test and Y-maze task. The expressions of phosphorylated cAMP response element binding protein (pCREB), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were measured with immunoblot. The incorporation of 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) in hippocampal regions was investigated by using immunohistochemical methods. Treatment of Pcer enhanced cognitive performances in the passive avoidance test and Y-maze task. Immunoblotting studies revealed that the phosphorylated CREB and BDNF were significantly increased on hippocampus in the Pcer-treated mice. Immunohistochemical studies showed that the number of immunopositive cells to BrdU was significantly increased in the hippocampal dentate gyrus regions after Pcer-treatment for 7 days. These results suggest that Pcer contribute to enhancing memory and BDNF expression and it could be secondary to the elevation of neurogenesis.
Animals ; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor* ; Bromodeoxyuridine ; Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein ; Dentate Gyrus ; Hippocampus* ; Immunoblotting ; Learning ; Memory* ; Methods ; Mice* ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Neurogenesis