OBJECTIVE: We firstly defined the Healthcare Information Technology Industry as the new industry and then analyzed it's National Economic Effects based on the Meta-phase Investment of Public Finance Plan. METHODS: We took the In/Output Analysis of Inter-industry Relationships as the quantitative analysis method to analyze the affect on the Healthcare Information Technology Industry. RESULTS: The EPI(Estimated Production Inducement) and the VAI(Value-Added inducement) were amounted to KRW 1.99 trillion and KRW 1.73 trillion each between 2006 and 2010. Moreover, the TEI(Total Employment Inducement) was estimated at about 2.9 thousand jobs during the same periods of time. CONCLUSION: We found the Economic Effects of the Healthcare Information Technology Industry contributed to the Core Growth Power of the overall a nation. In other words, it satisfied the desire of consumption on the healthcare and improved the quality of the life.
Delivery of Health Care* ; Employment ; Investments

PURPOSE: To analyze the results of the foreign body reaction to polyethylene, polymethylmethacrylate, and metal debris and effect on bone by comparing histopathologic finding of pseudomembrane (interface membrane) which was obtained from failed cemented or cementless THA by aseptic loosening. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Of total 50 cases, we analyzed results between 25 cases of cemented THA and 25 cases of cementless THA. Follow-up period between primary and revision THA was average 8 years 5 months. Tissue specimens were harvested, stained with Hematoxylin-Eosin, and examined by light microscope. Histologic study of various items was done. RESULTS: The fibrous membrane between bone-to-cement or bone-to-metal could be roughly divided into three distinct histological layers in cross section histopathology. These tissues were characterized by histiocytes, infiltration of foreign body giant cells and fibrosis in all specimens, and infiltration of lymphocytes and plasma cells was relatively rare, and aggregation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes was invisible. CONCLUSION: Although there were no significant differences in histologic findings between the regions of ten tissue specimens, there was significant difference between the degree of polyethylene or cement debris in numbers and the degree of foreign body reaction associated with increased infiltrations of giant cells, and foreign body reaction to polyethylene debris seems to be main cause of aseptic loosening of prosthesis.
Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip* ; Fibrosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Foreign-Body Reaction ; Giant Cells ; Giant Cells, Foreign-Body ; Histiocytes ; Lymphocytes ; Membranes ; Neutrophils ; Plasma Cells ; Polyethylene ; Polymethyl Methacrylate ; Prostheses and Implants

Eosinophilic myocarditis is a disease characterized by eosinophilic infiltration of the myocardium, consisting of acute necrotic stage, thrombotic stage, and fibrotic stage. Although T1 mapping has been increasingly used in various cardiac pathologies, there has been no report of T1 mapping in eosinophilic myocarditis. We report a case of 75-year-old female with eosinophilic myocarditis, whose cardiac magnetic resonance imaging included native T1 mapping, in which apical thrombi were distinctly seen as areas with decreased T1 values, next to areas of inflammation seen as increased T1 value in subendocardium.
Aged ; Churg-Strauss Syndrome* ; Eosinophils* ; Female ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Myocarditis* ; Myocardium ; Necrosis ; Pathology ; Thrombosis

PURPOSE: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of diffusion-weighted steady-state free precession (DW-SSFP) in comparison to diffusion-weighted echo-planar imaging (DW-EPI) for differentiating the neoplastic and benign osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The subjects were 40 patients with recent vertebral compression fractures but no history of vertebroplasty, spine operation, or chemotherapy. They had received 3-Tesla (T) spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including both DW-SSFP and DW-EPI sequences. The 40 patients included 20 with neoplastic vertebral fracture and 20 with benign osteoporotic vertebral fracture. In each fracture lesion, we obtained the signal intensity normalized by the signal intensity of normal bone marrow (SI norm) on DW-SSFP and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) on DW-EPI. The correlation between the SI norm and the ADC in each lesion was analyzed using linear regression. The optimal cut-off values for the diagnosis of neoplastic fracture were determined in each sequence using Youden's J statistics and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses. RESULTS: In the neoplastic fracture, the median SI norm on DW-SSFP was higher and the median ADC on DW-EPI was lower than the benign osteoporotic fracture (5.24 vs. 1.30, P = 0.032, and 0.86 vs. 1.48, P = 0.041, respectively). Inverse linear correlations were evident between SI norm and ADC in both neoplastic and benign osteoporotic fractures (r = −0.45 and −0.61, respectively). The optimal cut-off values for diagnosis of neoplastic fracture were SI norm of 3.0 in DW-SSFP with the sensitivity and specificity of 90.4% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 81.0–99.0) and 95.3% (95% CI: 90.0–100.0), respectively, and ADC of 1.3 in DW-EPI with the sensitivity and specificity of 90.5% (95% CI: 80.0–100.0) and 70.4% (95% CI: 60.0–80.0), respectively. CONCLUSION: In 3-T MRI, DW-SSFP has comparable sensitivity and specificity to DW-EPI in differentiating the neoplastic vertebral fracture from the benign osteoporotic vertebral fracture.
Bone Marrow ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential* ; Diffusion ; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Drug Therapy ; Echo-Planar Imaging* ; Fractures, Compression* ; Fractures, Spontaneous ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Osteoporotic Fractures ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Spine ; Vertebroplasty

PURPOSE: Thyroid tumor is one of the most common endocrine tumors, and yet little is known about its molecular process of development and progression. Cyclooxygenase (COX)-2, the inducible form of the COX enzyme for prostaglandin synthesis, is up-regulated in gastrointestinal cancers and is a key mediator of epithelial cell growth. Regular intake of aspirin or other nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is associated with a decreased incidence of colorectal, esophageal, gastric, and lung cancer. We sought to determine the involvement of COX-2 in human thyroid cancer. METHODS: COX-2 protein was assayed in thyroid tissue of 64 which were inflammatory disease and benign tumor and malignant tumor with or without metastasis patients by using immunohistochemistry and Western Blot analysis. RESULTS: COX-2 protein was not expressed in normal thyroid tissue. But COX-2 protein was expressed strongly in inflammatory tissue. Expression of COX-2 was very high in both benign and malignant tumor. There is no difference in pathology and malignant potential or existence of metastasis. CONCLUSION: There was no correlation between clinicopathological characteristics of thyroid tumor and intensity of COX-2 protein expression. In addition, there was no difference of expression of COX-2 between inflammatory thyroid disease and thyroid tumor. This study indicates that COX-2 protein over expression may contribute to an early event of gastric cancer development, and it further suggests that selective inhibition of COX-2 may provide a chemopreventive effect against thyroid cancer.
Aspirin ; Blotting, Western ; Cyclooxygenase 2* ; Epithelial Cells ; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms ; Humans* ; Immunohistochemistry ; Incidence ; Lung Neoplasms ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pathology ; Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Thyroid Diseases ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms

BACKGROUND: Recently, VE1, a monoclonal antibody against the BRAFV600E mutant protein, has been investigated in terms of its detection of the BRAFV600E mutation. Although VE1 immunostaining and molecular methods used to assess papillary thyroid carcinoma in surgical specimens are in good agreement, evaluation of VE1 in thyroid cytology samples is rarely performed, and its diagnostic value in cytology has not been well established. In present study, we explored VE1 immunoexpression in cytology samples from ex vivo papillary thyroid carcinoma specimens in order to minimize limitations of low cellularity and sampling/targeting errors originated from thyroid fineneedle aspiration and compared our results with those obtained using the corresponding papillary thyroid carcinoma tissues. METHODS: The VE1 antibody was evaluated in 21 cases of thyroid cytology obtained directly from ex vivo thyroid specimens. VE1 immunostaining was performed using liquid-based cytology, and the results were compared with those obtained using the corresponding tissues. RESULTS: Of 21 cases, 19 classic papillary thyroid carcinomas had BRAFV600E mutations, whereas two follicular variants expressed wild-type BRAF. VE1 immunoexpression varied according to specimen type. In detection of the BRAFV600E mutation, VE1 immunostaining of the surgical specimen exhibited 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity, whereas VE1 immunostaining of the cytology specimen exhibited only 94.7% sensitivity and 0% specificity. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that VE1 immunostaining of a cytology specimen is less specific than that of a surgical specimen for detection of the BRAFV600E mutation, and that VE1 immunostaining of a cytology specimen should be further evaluated and optimized for clinical use.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Immunohistochemistry ; Mutant Proteins ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms*

PURPOSE: Breast cancers frequently undergo distant metastasis during the early phase, on which the survival of patients is greatly dependent. It has been suggested that the occurrence of micrometastasis relates with other prognostic features of breast cancer, such as lymph node metastasis and the presence of vascular invasion. The aim of this study was to examine the presence of keratin-19 and mammaglobin mRNA in bone marrow aspirates obtained from breast cancer patients, and their possible correlation with tumor staging and disease free survival. METHODS: Bone marrow samples were obtained from 254 breast cancer patients at the time of surgery. We separated the mononuclear fraction from the samples and carried out nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for the detection of keratin-19 and mammaglobin mRNA using two different pairs of primers. We also studied the possible correlations between the tumor size, nodal involvement, stage, and distant metastasis. RESULTS: Seventy-five of the 254 samples were studied for cytokeratin 19 and the others for cytokeratin and mammaglobin. The median follow-up time was 21.1 months. Sixty-five (26%) of the 254 samples were cytokeratin 19 positive and 25 (14.3%) of the 175 were mammaglobin positive. Eight cases (12.3%) in the cytokeratin positive group showed a recurrent disease in distant organs. Whereas, six (3.2%) out of 185 cytokeratin negative patients had distant recurrences. Mammaglobin positivity was not correlated with distant metastasis. The stage, nodal status, and estrogen receptor were independent of bone marrow micrometastasis. CONCLUSION: Bone marrow micrometastasis, detected by nested RT-PCR for cytokeratin 19, could be a useful predictive marker for the distant metastasis of breast cancer.
Bone Marrow* ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Disease-Free Survival ; Estrogens ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Keratin-19* ; Keratins* ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm Micrometastasis* ; Neoplasm Staging ; Recurrence ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA, Messenger

The aim of the study is to investigate the association between cerebral white matter hyperintensity (WMH) and the functional improvement using the Korean version of Modified Barthel Index (K-MBI) score during inpatient stroke rehabilitation. One hundred sixty participants were divided into 2 groups based on the severity of WMH according to Fazekas scale: Mild WMH group was defined as patients with Fazekas scale 0 and 1, and severe WMH group was defined as Fazekas scale 2 and 3. Functional status was assessed using the K-MBI score, and functional gains were calculated from the K-MBI score. The absolute functional gain in mild WMH group was significantly higher compared to severe WMH group (p < 0.05). In addition, patients in mild WMH had higher absolute functional efficiency, rehabilitation effectiveness, and relative functional efficiency. In the generalized linear model analyses, there was an association between functional outcomes and severity of WMH. In this study, the severity and extent of WMH are significantly correlated with poor functional improvement in patients with ischemic stroke. The WMH could be considered as one of many factors that can influence functional recovery during rehabilitation of stroke.
Humans ; Inpatients ; Linear Models ; Recovery of Function ; Rehabilitation ; Stroke ; White Matter

Because of repeated failures of clinical trials, the concept of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been changing rapidly in recent years. As suggested by the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association Research Framework, the diagnosis and classification of AD is now based on biomarkers rather than on symptoms, allowing more accurate identification of proper candidates for clinical trials by pathogenesis and disease stage. Recent development in neuroimaging has provided a way to reveal the complex dynamics of amyloid and tau in the brain in vivo, and studies of blood biomarkers are taking another leap forward in diagnosis and treatment of AD. In the field of basic and translational research, the development of animal models and a deeper understanding of the role of neuroinflammation are taking a step closer to clarifying the pathogenesis of AD. Development of big data and the Internet of Things is also incorporating dementia care and research into other aspects. Largescale genetic research has identified genetic abnormalities that can provide a foundation for precision medicine along with the aforementioned digital technologies. Through the first international conference of the Korean Dementia Association, experts from all over the world gathered to exchange opinions with association members on these topics. The Academic Committee of the Korean Dementia Association briefly summarizes the contents of the lectures to convey the depth of the conference and discussions. This will be an important milestone in understanding the latest trends in AD's pathogenesis, diagnostic and therapeutic research and in establishing a future direction.

The Korean Dementia Association (KDA) has been organizing biennial international academic conferences since 2019, with the International Conference of the KDA (IC-KDA) 2023 held in Busan under the theme ‘Beyond Boundaries: Advancing Global Dementia Solutions.’ The conference comprised 6 scientific sessions, 3 plenary lectures, and 4luncheon symposiums, drawing 804 participants from 35 countries. Notably, a Korea– Taiwan Joint Symposium addressed insights into Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Plenary lectures by renowned scholars explored topics such as microbiome-related AD pathogenesis, social cognition in neurodegenerative diseases, and genetic frontotemporal dementia (FTD). On the first day, specific presentations covered subjects like the gut–brain axis and neuroinflammation in dementia, blood-based biomarkers in AD, and updates in AD therapeutics. The second day’s presentations addressed recent issues in clinical neuropsychology, FTD cohort studies, and the pathogenesis of non-AD dementia. The Academic Committee of the KDA compiles lecture summaries to provide comprehensive understanding of the advanced dementia knowledge presented at IC-KDA 2023.