Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as acetate, propionate, and butyrate are secondary metabolites produced by anaerobic fermentation of dietary fibers in the intestine. Intestinal SCFAs exert various beneficial effects on intestinal homeostasis, including energy metabolism, autophagy, cell proliferation, immune reaction, and inflammation, whereas contradictory roles of SCFAs in the oral cavity have been reported. Herein, we found that low and high concentrations of SCFAs induce differential regulation of intracellular Ca2+ mobilization and expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8, respectively, in gingival fibroblast cells. Additionally, cell viability was found to be differentially regulated in response to low and high concentrations of SCFAs. These findings demonstrate that the physiological functions of SCFAs in various cellular responses are more likely dependent on their local concentration.

No abstract available.
Eosinophilia* ; Proton Pumps* ; Protons*

PURPOSE: Adherence to immunosuppressants is the key to prevent organ rejection in organ transplant recipients. The purpose of this study was to investigate current interventions to improve adherence to immunosuppressants in liver transplant recipients. METHODS: A systemic literature search was done using PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and four Korean databases to identify experimental studies reported in English or Korean up to and including 2015. We identified eight intervention studies on the adherence to immunosuppressants in liver transplant recipients independently reviewed by two reviewers. The quality and risk of bias of the selected studies were assessed. RESULTS: Education, conversion of regimen, and text messaging were identified as intervention techniques to improve adherence. We found positive results in three out of four studies implementing educational strategies, but the results were not sufficient to draw a definite conclusion. Conversion from a twice-daily tacrolimus-based regimen to a once-daily tacrolimus extended-release formula was used in three adult-only studies and its effectiveness was confirmed. One study showed that improved adherence and outcomes were effected by using text messaging with pediatric patients. CONCLUSION: Future research is needed to facilitate interventions to improve adherence to immunosuppressants in various ages of patients including pediatric/adolescent liver transplant recipients.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Education ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents* ; Clinical Trial ; Liver* ; Tacrolimus ; Text Messaging ; Transplantation* ; Transplants

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess hospital nurses' knowledge, importance and performance in keeping nursing records.METHODS: The research design was a descriptive study. The sample for this study was 186 nurses with at least one year of work experience at a hospital with more than 800 beds in Seoul. Knowledge was self-reported using the Nurse Charting Knowledge Scale. Importance and performance were rated on a 4-point scale of 26 items. Data were analyzed by SPSS 21.0 program and IPA.RESULTS: This study showed significant results that knowledge, importance and performance for keeping record are related to each other. The importance and performance of nurse's records were relatively higher than the mean. In the IPA Matrix, there were 2 items requiring improvement, 13 items requiring maintenance, and 11 items with low priority.CONCLUSION: Therefore, awareness of the importance of record keeping and continuous education on nursing record knowledge should be provided so that nurses can improve their record keeping skills.
Education ; Nursing Records ; Nursing ; Research Design ; Seoul

We report the case of a 78-year-old female patient with dementia with Lewy bodies accompanying severe psychotic and parkinso-nian symptoms. The patient's symptoms did not improved with various antipsychotics, and cardiac and pulmonary side effects pre-vented adequate doses of the drugs from being administered. As an alternative approach, we performed electroconvulsive therapy, which can be conducted relatively safely in elderly patients with underlying medical conditions. The patient received 10 sessions of electroconvulsive therapy across a 4-week period. Remarkable improvements in psychotic and parkinsonian symptoms proven with validated scales were observed following the repeating electroconvulsive therapy sessions. This is the first case report describing the use of electroconvulsive therapy in a patient with dementia with Lewy bodies in Korea. This case report may help to establish new guidelines for the treatment of patients with dementia with Lewy bodies, which is still considered a difficult disease to treat.

PURPOSE: Infants and children with cardiovascular diseases often present with respiratory symptoms. However, missed or delayed evaluation for potential airway problem may complicate overall prognosis. The aim of this study is to determine the clinical characteristics of these patients and explore the cause of airway problem. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of 64 patients (M: F=33: 31, mean age: 6.3+/-7.5 months) whose airway problems were proven by computed tomography or bronchoscopy in perioperative periods at the Asan Medical Center from January 1997 to June 2004. Patients were divided into two groups based on the duration of ventilator care: < or =7 days (group 1: 23 cases, M: F=10: 13) and > 7 days (group 2: 41 cases, M: F=23: 18). RESULTS: The patients in group 2 significantly developed more post-operative respiratory symptoms than group 1 (P< 0.001) and had more airway problems including extrinsic obstruction, intrinsic anomaly, and combined problem than group 1 although not significantly different (P=0.082). Among underlying diseases, the most common diseases were vascular anomaly (26.2 percent) and aortic arch anomaly (26.2 percent) in group 1 and pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect (22.4 percent) in group 2. The most frequent respiratory symptoms were recurrent wheezing pre-operatively and failure of ventilator weaning post-operatively. The major types of airway anomaly were tracheomalacia and tracheal stenosis (in each case 18.2 percent). Nineteen patients with persistent airway problems underwent aortopexy or other vascular correction. Of the 19 patients, 13 (68.4 percent) were improved, but 2 failed in weaning ventilator and 4 died of non-airway problems. CONCLUSION: Early evaluation and treatment for potential airway problems may affect natural or surgical prognosis in patients with cardiovascular diseases presenting with respiratory symptoms.
Aorta, Thoracic ; Bronchoscopy ; Cardiovascular Diseases* ; Child* ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular ; Humans ; Infant* ; Medical Records ; Perioperative Period ; Prognosis ; Pulmonary Atresia ; Respiratory Sounds ; Tracheal Stenosis ; Tracheomalacia ; Ventilator Weaning ; Ventilators, Mechanical ; Weaning

Hepatocellular adenoma (HCA) is the most common type of benign liver tumor, and its major complication is malignant transformation to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we report a case of HCC arising in HCA with bone marrow metaplasia in a 24-year-old Korean woman who presented with abdominal discomfort. A huge liver mass was found on abdominal ultrasonography. She underwent surgical hepatic resection, and the resected specimen was entirely involved by a 20-cm-sized tumor. Histological review revealed a well differentiated HCC arising from inflammatory HCA with β-catenin nuclear positivity and bone marrow metaplasia that contained hematopoietic cells. This case was unique because malignant transformation, inflammatory type HCA, β-catenin nuclear staining, and bone marrow metaplasia were simultaneously observed. Additionally, it should be noted that a large HCA with β-catenin activation can undergo malignant transformation and should be surgically resected in a timely manner.
Adenoma, Liver Cell ; Bone Marrow ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Female ; Humans ; Liver ; Metaplasia ; Ultrasonography ; Young Adult

Primary tracheal tumors, especially lipoma, are very rare. Symptoms of tracheal tumor mimic common upper airway diseases. It is important that they may initially be misdiagnosi4 to bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis, resulting in a delay in diagnosis. We report a case of tracheal lipoma who was found 6 months after first noticing symptoms including dyspnea, foreign body sensation, successfully removed by bronchoscopic polypectomy.
Asthma ; Bronchitis, Chronic ; Diagnosis ; Dyspnea ; Foreign Bodies ; Lipoma* ; Sensation ; Trachea

The corpus callosum consists of white fibers connecting the cerebral hemispheres. Agenesis of the corpus callosum is an uncommon congenital anomaly which is easily diagnosed in the postnatal period by ultrasound and computed tomographic scan or MRI, but its prenatal sonographic diagnosis is difficult because of fetal head positioning and limiting trans-axial scans. We experienced a case of agenesis of the corpus callusum with chromosomal anomaly. The prenatal sonographic findings are ventricular abnormalities that demonstrated dilatation of lateral ventricles and disproportionate enlargement of the occipital horns, which were suggestive findings for the corpus callosal agenesis. We could confim the diagnosis of the corpus callosal agenesis with chromosome anomaly by postnatal MRI and chromosome analysis.
Agenesis of Corpus Callosum* ; Animals ; Cerebrum ; Corpus Callosum ; Diagnosis ; Dilatation ; Head ; Horns ; Lateral Ventricles ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Ultrasonography

No abstract available.
Orbit*