Pseudohypoparathyroidism(PHP) is an inherited metabolic disorder characterized by hypocalcemia, hyperphosphatemia and an impaired phosphaturic response to exogenous parathormone(PTH), which are caused by end organ resistance to the action of PTH. Most of these patients have, in addition, the skeletal abnormalities of Albright hereditary osteodystrophy. We report two cases of PHP, suspicious type Ia, in sibling who were presented with multiple subcutaneous soft tissue calcification similar to that seen in tumoral calcinosis and had short stature, round face, brachydactyly and metabolic abnormalities(hypocalcemia, hyperphosphatemia, increased serum PTH, and decreased 24hr urinary basal cAMP)
Brachydactyly ; Calcinosis ; Humans ; Hyperphosphatemia ; Hypocalcemia ; Pseudohypoparathyroidism* ; Siblings*

Subepidermal calcified nodule, a form of calcinosis cutis, usually occurs as a solitary lesion and develops in early childhood. We report a 20-month-old boy with an unusual form of subepidermal calcified nodules on both palms and soles which were multiple and present at birth. Interestingly, his uncle had similar lesions during infancy which had shown spontaneous remission.
Calcinosis ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Parturition ; Remission, Spontaneous

PURPOSE: The study examined the Chinese and Japanese consumers' preference for Korean home meal replacement (HMR) product package designs using conjoint analysis. METHODS: The questionnaire survey was completed by 270 consumers living in Beijing, China and Osaka, Japan, over the age of 20 years old, who had previously purchased or consumed a Korean HMR. Based on the attributes and levels within each attribute related to the Korean HMR product package design, 54 profiles were constructed. Of the 54 profiles, 11 combinations were selected using an orthogonal design, and the participants were asked to rank the 11 combinations in order of preference from top to bottom. RESULTS: The relative importance of the Korean HMR product package design attributes were analyzed. Chinese consumers regarded illustration, ingestion form, concept, and brand name, in that order, to be most important. In the case of Japanese consumers, illustration, concept, ingestion form, and brand name, in that order, were most important. For the illustration attributes, in order of importance, Chinese consumers preferred raw materials, characters, and celebrities, and Japanese consumers preferred characters, raw materials, and celebrities. For the concept attributes, Chinese consumers favored, witty, traditional Korean, and modern concepts, whereas Japanese consumers favored witty, modern, and then traditional Korean concepts. For the ingestion form attributes, both Chinese and Japanese consumers preferred Ready To Eat (RTE), followed by Ready To Heat (RTH), and then Ready To Cook (RTC). For the brand name attributes, both Chinese and Japanese consumers preferred the localized brand name over the Korean brand name. CONCLUSION: Differences in the relative importance of Korean HMR product package design attributes were observed among Chinese and Japanese consumers, and there were differences in preference according to the levels within each attribute. These results are expected to provide useful basic data to assist in the future development of differentiated HMR package designs and marketing strategies to meet consumer needs in the market for Korean HMR in China and Japan.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Beijing ; China ; Eating ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Japan ; Marketing ; Meals*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The myocardial protective effect of ischemic preconditioning is well known. However, the mechanism is remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to determine the role of adenosine, protein kinase C, KATP channel and the change of monophasic action potential duration on cardioprotective effect of ischemic preconditioning in cat. Materials AND METHODS: In this experiment, 66 cats were allocated into 7 groups:control (n=10), ischemic preconditioning (n=10), adenosine pre-treated (n=10), SPT (8-p-sulfophenyl theophylline) pre-treated (n=9), polymyxin B pre-treated (n=9), glibenclamide pre-treated (n=9) and nicorandil pre-treated (n=9) groups. Ischemic preconditioning was performed in ischemic preconditioning, SPT pre-treated, polymyxin B pre-treated and glibenclamide pre-treated groups by 3 episodes of 5 minutes ischemia and 10 minutes reperfusion. All animals were subjected to 40 minutes of ischemia and 40 minutes reperfusion. Monophasic action potential duration at 50% repolarization (MAP50) was measured in the ischemic and non-ischemic area respectively by epicardial probe throughout the experiment. The effect of ischemic preconditioning was determined by infarct size (% area at risk). RESULTS: Ischemic preconditioning, adenosine pre-treatment and nicorandil pre-treatment groups demonstrated a significant reduction in infarct size (26+/-4%, 25+/-4% and 34+/-8% infarction of the risk zone, respectively, p<0.01, p<0.01 and p<0.05 vs. control) with respect to control (41+/-8% infarction of the risk zone). However, pretreatment with SPT, polymyxin B or glibenclamide abolished the effect of ischemic preconditioning. Ischemic preconditioning group exhibited a significant reduction of MAP50 duration in the ischemic area during preconditioning;at the first preconditioning 128+/-11 msec vs. 144+/-10 msec control, at the second preconditioning 110+/-10 msec vs.147+/-10 msec control (p<0.01), at the third preconditioning 114+/-10 msec vs. 145+/-11 msec control (p<0.05). But, pretreatment with SPT, polymyxin B and glibenclamide prevented the reduction of MAP50 in the ischemic area during ischemic preconditioning. During 40 minutes ischemia, the shortening of MAP50 was more pronounced in the preconditioned group than in control group;at 5 minutes 112+/-13 msec vs. 124+/-10 msec control, at 10 minutes 89+/-12 msec vs. 133+/-11 msec control (p<0.05 ), at 20 minutes 93+/-12 msec vs. 136+/-11 msec control (p<0.05), and at 30 minutes 107+/-19 msec vs. 144+/-14 msec control (p<0.05). In adenosine pre-treated group, the MAP50 was significantly shortened than control group throughout 40 minutes occlusion period;at 5 minutes 90+/-8 msec (p<0.05), at 10 minutes 77+/-9 msec (p<0.05), at 20 minutes 92+/-8 msec (p<0.05), and at 30 minutes 103+/-8 msec (p<0.05). Nicorandil pretreatment pronounced the ischemic shortening of MAP50 in ischemic area and the effect was significant during early ischemic period;at 10 minutes 98+/-22 msec (p<0.05 vs. control). In pretreatment groups with SPT, polymyxin B or glibenclamide, the ischemic preconditioning of MAP50 measured in non-ischemic area was not significantly different compared with control group. MAP50 measured in ischemic area during reperfusion was not significantly different between groups. CONCLUSION: Based on this study, adenosine receptor-protein kinase C-KATP channel activation and monophasic action potential duration shortening during ischemia play an important role in myocardial protection during ischemic injury.
Action Potentials* ; Adenosine* ; Animals ; Cats* ; Glyburide ; Infarction ; Ischemia ; Ischemic Preconditioning* ; Nicorandil ; Phosphotransferases ; Polymyxin B ; Protein Kinase C* ; Protein Kinases* ; Receptors, Purinergic P1* ; Reperfusion

OBJECTIVES: This study analyzed Japanese consumers on their sauce consumption, and assessed the relationship between consumer innovativeness and consumption behavior for new sauce products. METHODS: The survey was completed by local consumers visiting Korean restaurants in Osaka, Japan, in September 2018. The demographic characteristics, consumption of sauce, consumer innovativeness, and factors of theory of planned behavior were evaluated. Totally, 150 collected data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 Program (IBM SPSS INC, Armonk, NY, USA). RESULTS: Results of the survey indicate that Japanese consumers purchase a sauce by considering the taste and food utilization. Sauce purchases were maximum at mega markets and supermarkets. The consumer innovativeness for Japanese consumers was based on 3 factors: ‘Purchasing adventurous products (3.51 ± 0.96)’, ‘Active information seeking (4.36 ± 1.11)’, and ‘Interactive information seeking (4.33 ± 1.02)’, where the tendency of ‘Active information seeking’ was the highest innovativeness factor. Furthermore, higher values of perceived behavior control (4.68 ± 1.21), attitude (4.66 ± 1.41) and subjective norm (4.39 ± 1.28) were revealed, when assessing for theory of planned behavior factors. Correlating the variables of consumer innovation and factors of planning behavior theory, ‘Active information seeking’ is a positive attribute for attitude (p<0.016), subjective norm (p<0.001), and perceived behavior control (p<0.002). These 3 factors also had significantly positive effects on purchase intention for new sauce product (p<0.000, p<0.000, and p<0.002, respectively). Attitude was determined to be another very influential variable for purchase intention of a new sauce product (B=0.484, t=6.881). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study determine the consumption patterns of sauce for the Japanese consumer, and the relationship between consumer innovativeness and consumption behavior for Korean traditional sauces. We believe the data generated from this study will help determine a marketing strategy to enter the Japanese market.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Behavior Control ; Humans ; Intention ; Japan ; Marketing ; Restaurants

Croup is an acute upper respiratory disease primarily caused by the parainfluenza virus.Owing to inflammation and edema of the upper airways, children present with barky cough and stridor, and some may experience respiratory distress. We investigated children aged < 5 years with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) admitted to two hospitals in Seoul, South Korea, and observed a spike in croup cases during the omicron surge. Among the 569 children admitted from March 1, 2021 to February 25, 2022, 21 children (3.7%) had croup, and the proportion of croup cases was significantly higher during the omicron wave than that during the delta wave (12.4% vs. 1.2%, P < 0.001). With the immediate administration of corticosteroids and epinephrine via nebulizer, the symptoms improved rapidly. During the current omicron surge, careful monitoring of the symptoms of croup in young children is needed for the diagnosis of COVID-19 and its timely management.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and the adverse events of high dose insulin/euglycemia therapy in acute calcium channel blocker (CCB) poisoning. METHODS: We developed a systematic search strategy and applied it to 4 electronic reference databases. We searched medical journals as well as the bibliographies of relevant articles. All forms of literature relevant to human use of high dose insulin for acute CCB poisoning were included. The literature search was conducted by two investigators in August, 2015 with publication language restricted to English and Korean. Case reports were divided between CCB overdose alone and multi-drug overdose including CCB. The effect and adverse event of high dose insulin and clinical outcome of each case were analyzed. RESULTS: Among 55 searched studies, 20 studies were included. A prospective study, a retrospective study, a systematic review study, and 17 case reports were identified. Case reports consisted of 11 CCB alone and 12 multidrug overdose cases including CCB. Although most cases described significant clinical improvements, one of them showed no beneficial effect. Several adverse events including hypoglycemia and hypokalemia were reported. No significant sequalae from adverse events was reported. CONCLUSION: Although there were many case reports demonstrating successful use of high dose insulin for CCB poisoning, the effect cannot be estimated due to a possibility of publication bias. Therefore, high dose insulin/euglycemia therapy might be considered adjunctive therapy in cases of CCB intoxication refractory for standard therapy.
Calcium Channel Blockers ; Calcium Channels* ; Calcium* ; Humans ; Hypoglycemia ; Hypokalemia ; Insulin ; Poisoning ; Prospective Studies ; Publication Bias ; Publications ; Research Personnel ; Retrospective Studies

The efficacy of hydrocolloid occlusive dressing technique was compared with that of the conventional wet-to-dry gauze dressing technique in decubitus ulcer of stage I and II. Forty-four patients were randomly divided into two treatment groups and each received treatment according to the two different protocols. As a result, 80.8% of the hydrocolloid occlusive dressing group (group 1) and 77.8% of the conventional wet-to-dry gauze dressing group (group 2) healed completely with no statistically significant difference between the two groups. However, the time required for complete healing was shorter in group 1 with 18.9 days compared to 24.3 days in group 2. Ulcer healing speed was also slightly faster in group 1 with 9.1 mm2/day compared to 7.9 mm2/day for group 2. Average treatment time spent by a medical staff member was significantly shorter in group 1 with 20.4 minutes/day compared to 2017 minutes/day in group 2. The hospital cost of the ulcer treatment was higher in group 2 compared to group 1 even without taking into consideration the medical personnel's labor cost. These results indicate that the hydrocolloid occlusive dressing technique offers less time consuming and less expensive method of treatment compared to the conventional technique in stage I andII decubitus ulcers.
Adult ; Aged ; Comparative Study ; Decubitus Ulcer/*therapy ; Female ; Human ; Male ; Middle Age ; *Occlusive Dressings

PURPOSE: To assess whether pretreatment IGF-I SDS and pretreatmental bone age are useful indicators in the response of rhGH therapy in children with GH deficiency (GHD), the relationship between pretreatment IGF-I SDS, delay in bone age and the growth response during the first year of rhGH treatment was analyzed. METHODS: This study included 12 children with GHD. We measured IGF-I levels by RIA after acid-ethanol extraction at pretreatment and then calculated IGF-I SDS as follow: SDS = (IGF-I- mean IGF-I for normal subjects of the same age and sex)/SD of IGF-I for normal subjects of the same age and sex. GH levels were measured by immunoradiometric assay. All patients were treated with rhGH, 0.1IU/kg daily, 6 times a week for 1 year. RESULTS: Twelve patients (6 males and 6 females), age distribution from 4 to 16 years, were studed. The data is reported as the mean +/- SD. Height SDS for chronologic age of the group as a whole as -3.6 +/- 1.0 and bone age was 8.2 +/- 3.4 years. Pretreatment height velocity (HV) was 4.0 +/- 1.7cm/yr and the HV during each 3 months of therapy were 10.1 +/- 4.5cm/yr, 9.6 +/- 4.5cm/yr, 8.5 +/- 4.3cm/yr and 7.8 +/- 1.3cm/yr, respectively and therefore the HV during the first year of rhGH therapy increased to 9.3 +/- 2.9cm/yr (P=0.002). Pretreatmental IGF-I SDS was -2.2 +/- 0.9 (-0.4~-3.6). A significant negative correlation between pretreatmental IGF-I SDS and incremental height gain was obtained (r=-0.40, P<0.05). The height velocity of the group whose pretreatmental IGF-I SDS was below -2 (n= 8) as a whole increased significantly from 3.5 +/- 1.8cm/yr to 10.3 +/- 2.9cm/yr (P=0.001). Pretreatmental bone age delay was 3.1 +/- 1.9 (0.5-7.8) years. The height velocity of the group whose pretreatmental bone age delay above 2 years (n=9) increased significantly from 4.1 +/- 1.1cm/yr to 9.7 +/- 2.9cm/yr (P=0.001). CONCLUSION: The height velocity of GH deficient children whose pretreatmental IGF-I SDS below -2 or pretreatmental bone age delay above 2 years increased significantly after rhGH therapy. It suggests that the pretreatmental IGF-I SDS and pretreatmental bone age may be significant indicatiors in the response of GH therapy in children with GHD.
Age Distribution ; Child* ; Growth Hormone* ; Human Growth Hormone* ; Humans* ; Immunoradiometric Assay ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor I* ; Male

PURPOSE: Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is a term used to describe a number of modalities including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to support cardiac and/or pulmonary systems. The purpose of this study is to review the available evidence regarding the effect of ECLS in patients with acute poisoning. METHODS: Electronic literature searches with PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, and KoreaMed were conducted for identification of relevant studies addressing ECLS in treatment of acute poisoning. The literature search was conducted by two investigators in March, 2016 with publication language restricted to English and Korean. The toxic substance, technique of ECLS, and final outcome of each case were analyzed. RESULTS: The final analysis included 64 articles including 55 case reports. There were no articles classified according to a high level of evidence such as randomized trial and prospective cohort study. ECLS treatment was used in the management of patients poisoned with 36 unique substances. Venovenous ECMO was performed in 4 cases. Among the reported cases, 10 patients died despite treatment with ECLS. CONCLUSION: Evidence supporting ECLS for patients with acute poisoning is inadequate. However, many case reports suggest that early consideration of ECLS in poisoned patients with refractory cardiac arrest or hemodynamic compromise refractory to standard therapies may be beneficial.
Cardiopulmonary Bypass ; Cohort Studies ; Extracorporeal Circulation ; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ; Heart Arrest ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Poisoning* ; Prospective Studies ; Publications ; Research Personnel