Background: The post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Checklist (PCL)-5, originally a 20-item self-questionnaire, has provided abbreviated versions of the checklist. This study aimed to test the diagnostic utility and validity of four brief versions of PCL-5 in a sample of adults seeking treatment at a psychiatric outpatient unit in a South Korean university-affiliated hospital. Methods: The sample comprised 97 adults diagnosed with PTSD and 130 diagnosed with other psychiatric disorders seeking treatment. Each abbreviated scale was examined with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive power. Additionally, internal consistency, correlation with full scale, convergent validity, and concurrent validity were investigated. Results: All four versions demonstrated excellent discriminative power, with AUC values of >0.9. Suggested cut-off scores were 6, 8, 11, and 16 for the short four-item version (S4), PCL4, PCL6, and PCL8, respectively. Internal consistency was adequate or good except for S4. Additionally, brief scales demonstrated good convergent validity with depression and anxiety scales and excellent concurrent validity with other PTSD scales. Conclusion This study confirms the excellent diagnostic utility and adequate validity of four abbreviated versions of the Korean translation of PCL-5 in the clinical trial.

Hemiplegic patients with an ankle foot orthosis (AFO) has a tendency to show external rotation of affected side foot. External rotation inhibiting shoes (ERIS) were designed to inhibit excessive rotation of hemiplegic foot. ERIS were applied to two hemiplegic patients who were able to walk independently with a plastic AFO. Both of them showed an excessive external rotation of hemiplegic foot after AFO apply. Each patient tried to walk with a pair of common shoes first and ERIS later. The external rotation angle, step length, stride length, cadence, speed were measured by footprint method. The external rotation angle of hemiplegic foot was significantly decreased with ERIS than with common shoes. However they did not show consistent improvement in the step length, stride length, cadence and speed. We reported that hemiplegic patients who walked with ERIS showed remarkable reduction in excessive external rotation of hemiplegic foot.
Ankle* ; Foot Orthoses* ; Foot* ; Humans ; Plastics* ; Shoes*

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the usefulness of the scintigraphic swallowing study in selecting the patients with low risk of aspiration pneumonia among those who showed small amount of laryngeal aspiration in videofluoroscopy. METHOD: Scintigraphic swallowing study was performed in 22 patients with brain injury who showed small amount of laryngeal aspiration in videofluoroscopy. Oral feeding was tried in the patients who showed airway clearing function or no aspiration in scintigraphic swallowing study, and they were followed up for possible aspiration pneumonia. RESULTS: Total of sixteen patients showed no aspiration in scintigraphic swallowing study. Five patients showed laryngeal aspiration, but preserved airway clearing function. One patient showed impairment of airway clearing function. Oral feeding was tried in 21 patients. Oral feeding was successful in 18 of 21 patients but not in 3 patients because of dysphagia or cough. Only 1 patient developed pneumonia after 246 days of follow up. CONCLUSION: Scintigraphic swallowing study is useful to select the patients with low risk of aspiration pneumonia among the patients who showed small amount of laryngeal aspiration in videofluoroscopy.
Brain Injuries* ; Brain* ; Cough ; Deglutition Disorders ; Deglutition* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Pneumonia ; Pneumonia, Aspiration ; Radionuclide Imaging

Objectives: An accurate and easy-to-identify form is needed for the early evaluation of suicidal ideation in high-risk patients. Therefore, this study examined the validity and reliability of a Korean version of the Ultra-Short Suicidal Ideation Scale (K-USSIS). Methods: A total of 161 psychiatric university-affiliated general hospital patients completed the K-USSIS. The data were analyzed using correlation, internal consistency, and confirmatory factor analyses. Results: First, the scale had good internal consistency with a Cronbach’s α of 0.94. Second, the confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the single-factor model had a reasonable fit (comparative fit index=0.99, Tucker–Lewis index=0.98, standardized root mean squared residual=0.01, and root mean square error of approximation=0.10). Finally, the convergent validity analysis revealed a significant positive correlation with depression, anxiety, and hopelessness. Conclusion The findings suggest that the K-USSIS has good psychometric properties and can serve as a valuable tool for screening for suicidal ideation to ensure early intervention in Korean psychiatric patients.

Regulation of proper gene expression is important for cellular and organismal survival, maintenance, and growth. Abnormal gene expression, even for a single critical gene, can thwart cellular integrity and normal physiology to cause diseases, aging, and death. Therefore, gene expression profiling serves as a powerful tool to understand the pathology of diseases and to cure them. In this study, the difference in gene expression in Flammulina velutipes was compared between the wild type (WT) mushroom and the mutant one with clogging phenomenon. Differentially expressed transcripts were screened to identify the candidate genes responsible for the mutant phenotype using the DNA microarray analysis. A total of 88 genes including 60 upregulated and 28 downregulated genes were validated using the realtime quantitative PCR analysis. In addition, proteomic differences between the WT and mutant mushroom were analyzed using two–dimensional gel electrophoresis and matrixassisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF). Interestingly, the genes identified by these genomic and proteomic analyses were involved in stress response, translation, and energy/sugar metabolism, including HSP70, elongation factor 2, and pyruvate kinase. Together, our data suggest that the aberrant expression of these genes attributes to the mutant clogging phenotype. We propose that these genes can be targeted to foster normal growth in F. velutipes.