Objective: This study aimed to assess whether the conventional treatments administered in the emergency department (ED) for hypertensive urgencies (observed or peroral [PO]-controlled) in severe high blood pressure (BP) patients with epistaxis increase the incidence of epistaxis recurrence and the mortality rate as compared to immediate BP control using intravenous (IV) antihypertensive medication Methods: A retrospective study over 7 years was conducted at the ED of a tertiary university hospital. Among adult patients with spontaneous epistaxis, subjects with severe high BP (systolic BP ≥180 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥120 mmHg) were included in the study. Participants were divided into three groups determined by the methods used to control BP: non-controlled, PO-controlled, and IV-controlled groups. The incidence of epistaxis recurrence and mortality rate within 6 months were compared. Results: Among the 380 patients enrolled, 238 were discharged from the ED without any pharmacological antihypertensive treatment (non-controlled group), 83 received PO antihypertensive medication (PO-controlled group), and 59 received IV antihypertensive medication (IV-controlled group). Of these, 29 (12.2%), nine (10.8%), and seven (11.9%) patients from the non-controlled, PO-controlled, and IV-controlled groups, respectively, experienced epistaxis recurrence within 24 hours, which was statistically not different among the three groups (P=0.948). The 6-month mortality rates were determined to be 0.8%, 2.4%, and 3.4% in the non-controlled, PO-controlled, and IV-controlled groups, respectively. The difference was also not significant among the groups (P=0.294). Conclusion The conventional treatments of hypertensive urgencies (observed or PO-controlled) in patients with severe high BP with epistaxis in the ED did not increase the incidence of epistaxis recurrence and short-term mortality rate when compared to immediate BP control using IV antihypertensive medication.

Purpose: We investigated the effects of cold water immersion (CWI) treatment during half-time break on performance related physiological indices during second half soccer match. Methods: Twenty-two collegiate soccer players participated in the study. Subjects undertook 3 minutes head out seated with whole body immersion at 19 o C to 21 o C. Total four venous blood samples were collected and analyzed for markers of ionic regulations and inflammatory (interleukin [IL]-1b, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-α , and vascular endothelial growth factor) and immune functions (immunoglobulin [Ig] G, IgG2, IgG2, IgG3, IgG4, IgA, and IgM). Results: Partial oxygen concentration and %SO 2 level was lowered in CWI. Hemoglobin and hematocrit values were not significantly different between experimental groups. While there was no notable effect was shown in Na ＋ and Ca 2＋ , K ＋ concentration was higher in CWI during second half match. There were no effects in any of inflammatory and/or anti-inflammatory cytokines and Ig. Conclusion These results suggest that CWI during half time break exert positively affects in buffering capacity and promote oxygen delivery to the actively recruited skeletal muscle, possibly results in improve soccer performance during second half match.

Objective: Recent studies have shown that repetitive peripheral magnetic stimulation (rPMS) reduces pain in various conditions. This pilot study aimed to investigate the effects of rPMS depending on the pain characteristics. Method: Adult patients aged 19∼85 years evaluated at our institution between September 1, 2017 and February 28, 2018 for subacute to chronic musculoskeletal pain equivalent to a numeric rating scale of 3 or higher for at least one month were enrolled. Pain scores as determined using a numeric rating scale at baseline and at the end of treatment were set as the primary outcome. Additionally, we classified the pain into nociceptive, intermediate, or neuropathic pain using the PainDETECT questionnaire and compared the responsiveness to rPMS according to the type of pain. Results: The average pain scores significantly decreased after the 2-week rPMS treatment in all enrolled subjects (p＜0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in pain reduction between groups divided by PainDETECT questionnaire. Conclusion This study suggests that rPMS could safely relieve various types of pain.

Objective: Recent studies have shown that repetitive peripheral magnetic stimulation (rPMS) reduces pain in various conditions. This pilot study aimed to investigate the effects of rPMS depending on the pain characteristics. Method: Adult patients aged 19∼85 years evaluated at our institution between September 1, 2017 and February 28, 2018 for subacute to chronic musculoskeletal pain equivalent to a numeric rating scale of 3 or higher for at least one month were enrolled. Pain scores as determined using a numeric rating scale at baseline and at the end of treatment were set as the primary outcome. Additionally, we classified the pain into nociceptive, intermediate, or neuropathic pain using the PainDETECT questionnaire and compared the responsiveness to rPMS according to the type of pain. Results: The average pain scores significantly decreased after the 2-week rPMS treatment in all enrolled subjects (p＜0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in pain reduction between groups divided by PainDETECT questionnaire. Conclusion This study suggests that rPMS could safely relieve various types of pain.

BACKGROUND: The hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level is widely used to diagnose and monitor glycaemic control in people with diabetes mellitus, and various methods are used for its determination. The D-100 hemoglobin testing system (Bio-Rad Laboratories, USA) is a fully automated, high-throughput glycohaemoglobin analyzer based on an ion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatographic method. Here, we evaluated the analytical performance of a newly developed HbA1c analyzer. METHODS: Precision, linearity, and comparison to the Variant II Turbo analyzer (Bio-Rad Laboratories, USA) were evaluated according to the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. Carryover, bias from the value assigned by the HbA1c Network Laboratory of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the vulnerability to interference by hemoglobin variants frequently found in Korea were also assessed. Statistical analyses were performed using Excel 2010 (Microsoft Co., USA) and MedCalc ver. 14.12.0 (MedCalc Software bvba, Belgium). RESULTS: The coefficients of variation for repeatability and within-device precision were less than 1.08% in National Glycohaemoglobin Standardization Program (NGSP) unit and less than 1.68% in international system of unit at all three levels. The calibration curve was linear, with R²=0.996 in the range of 4.6% to 15.4% in NGSP unit. The results highly correlated with those produced by Variant II Turbo (r=0.998). The 95% confidence interval for differences from the assigned values was -3.3% to 2.9%. No significant interferences of haemoglobin variants were observed except for Hemoglobin Yamagata. CONCLUSIONS: The D-100 hemoglobin testing system showed excellent precision, linearity, and good correlation with the Variant II Turbo analyzer and agreement with the assigned values. Therefore, its analytical performance is satisfactory for diabetes diagnosis and treatment monitoring.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Calibration ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diagnosis ; Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated ; Korea ; Methods

BACKGROUND: The hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level is widely used to monitor glycemic control in diabetes mellitus patients, and various methods are used for its determination. The CAPILLARYS 2 FLEX Piercing (Sebia) is a fully automated, high-throughput glycohemoglobin (HbA1c) analyzer based on capillary electrophoresis. METHODS: The analytical performance of the CAPILLARYS 2 FLEX Piercing analyzer was evaluated for its precision, linearity, correlation with the Variant II Turbo (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.) analyzer, and its vulnerability to interference by carbamylated hemoglobin. We also investigated its agreement with National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program (NGSP) targets. All evaluations were performed according to CLSI guidelines EP05, EP06, and EP09. RESULTS: The coefficients of variation (CVs) for within-run and total imprecision were 1.7% and 1.8% at low concentrations and 1.2% and 1.3% at high concentrations, respectively. Linearity was excellent, with R2=0.9882 in the range of 5.13-13.83%; these results highly correlated with those produced by Variant II Turbo (R2=0.9978). The 95% confidence interval (for differences from the NGSP target) was -0.3618-0.3343%. No significant interference of carbamylated hemoglobin was noted. CONCLUSIONS: The CAPILLARYS 2 FLEX Piercing analyzer showed excellent precision and linearity. Its results correlated with those obtained by the Variant II Turbo analyzer, and were agreement with the NGSP target. Therefore, its analytical performance is satisfactory for diabetes diagnosis and treatment monitoring.
Capillaries ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Electrophoresis, Capillary ; Hemoglobins ; Humans ; Organothiophosphorus Compounds

No abstract available.
Candida albicans* ; Candida* ; Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions*

BACKGROUND: Early diagnosis of HIV infection reduces morbidity and mortality. Fourth-generation HIV detection assays are more sensitive because they can detect p24 antigen as well as anti-HIV antibodies. In this study, we evaluated the performance of a new fourth-generation ADVIA Centaur HIV antigen/antibody combo (CHIV) assay (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc., USA) for early detection of HIV infection and reduction of false positive rate. METHODS: Four seroconversion panels were included. The third-generation ADVIA Centaur HIV 1/O/2 enhanced (EHIV) assay (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc., USA) and fourth-generation CHIV assay were used to test each panel for HIV infection. The presence of antigen was confirmed using HIV p24 antigen assay. To evaluate false-positivity and specificity, 54 HIV false-positive and HIV-negative serum samples from 100 hospitalized patients and 600 healthy subjects were included. RESULTS: Compared to the EHIV assay, the CHIV assay had a shorter window for three of the seroconversion panels: a difference of 10 days and two bleeds in one panel, and 4 days and one bleed in the other two panels. Only 34 of the 54 (63%) samples known to yield false-positive results by EHIV assay had repeatedly yielded reactive results in the CHIV assay. One of the 600 healthy subjects had a false-positive result with the CHIV assay; thus, the specificity was 99.85% (699/700). CHIV accurately determined the reactive results for the HIV-confirmed serum samples from known HIV patients and Korea Food & Drug Administration (KFDA) panels. CONCLUSIONS: The new fourth-generation ADVIA Centaur HIV assay is a sensitive and specific assay that shortens the serological window period and allows early diagnosis of HIV infection.
False Positive Reactions ; Female ; HIV Antibodies/*blood/immunology ; HIV Core Protein p24/*blood/immunology ; HIV Seropositivity/*diagnosis ; Humans ; Male ; Pregnancy ; Reagent Kits, Diagnostic ; Republic of Korea ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Time Factors

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a machine learning-based model (eXtreme Gradient boost [XGBoost]) that can accurately predict the severity of acute cholangitis in patients. The model was designed to simplify the classification process compared to conventional methods. Methods: We retrospectively collected data from patients with cholangitis who visited the emergency department of a secondary medical institution in Seongnam, Korea from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019. The patients were divided into three groups (Grade I, II, III) based on severity according to the Tokyo Guidelines 2018/2013 (TG18/13) severity assessment criteria for cholangitis. We used algorithms to select variables of high relevance associated with the grade of severity. For the XGBoost models, data were divided into a train set and a validation set by the random split method. The train set was trained in XGBoost models using only the top seven variables. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) and the area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC) were obtained from the validation set. Results: 796 patients were enrolled. The top 7 variables associated with the grade of severity were albumin, white blood cells, blood urea nitrogen, troponin T, platelets, creatinine, prothrombin time, and international normalized ratio. The AUROC values were 0.881 (Grade I), 0.836 (Grade II), and 0.932 (Grade III). The AUPRC values were 0.457 (Grade I), 0.820 (Grade II), and 0.880 (Grade III). Conclusion We believe that the developed XGBoost model is a useful tool for predicting the severity of acute cholangitis with high accuracy and fewer variables than the conventional severity classification method.

External quality assessment (EQA) is important for evaluating clinical laboratories and enhancing their testing quality. EQA schemes are variable; thus, it is crucial that the EQA organizers share their experiences to continuously improve the EQA scheme. The Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service (KEQAS) has been the leading, authorized EQA institute for the standardization and quality management of laboratory testing in Korean medical institutions since 1976. The EQA scheme underwent a major change in 2016, and the number of EQA programs increased significantly since then. The key changes implemented in EQA scheme include a fully computerized assessment to accelerate feedback and unification of the testing and reporting methods. We provide an overview of the EQA schemes and performance evaluation criteria of the KEQAS and suggest directions for achieving the global harmonization of EQA.