Toxoplasma gondii preferred for this test was "Anyang strain" from Veterinary Research Laboratory, Anyang, Korea. Sabin and Feldman's Methylene Blue Dye Test for toxoplasmosis was carried out upon 24 cases, of whom 14 outpatients in this clinic from June to August in 1966 had uveal lesions and 10 blinds were thought to be resulted from uveitis. The results were as follows: 1. 3 out of 24 cases were positive in each titers of 1:4, 1:16 and 1:64 respectively. 2. One rabbit was positive in titer 1:64, which rabbit was 30 days after intraocular innoculation of the Toxoplasma gondii.
Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Korea ; Methylene Blue ; Outpatients ; Toxoplasma ; Toxoplasmosis ; Uveitis*

PURPOSE: High-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) involves pragmatic impairment of language skills. Among numerous tasks for assessing pragmatic linguistic skills, idioms are important to evaluating high-functioning ASD. Nevertheless, no assessment tool has been developed with specific consideration of Korean culture. Therefore, we designed the Korean Autism Social Language Task (KASLAT) to test idiom comprehension in ASD. The aim of the current study was to introduce this novel psychological tool and evaluate idiom comprehension deficits in high-functioning ASD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The participants included 42 children, ages 6-11 years, who visited our child psychiatric clinic between April 2014 and May 2015. The ASD group comprised 16 children; the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) group consisted of 16 children. An additional 10 normal control children who had not been diagnosed with either disorder participated in this study. Idiom comprehension ability was assessed in these three groups using the KASLAT. RESULTS: Both ASD and ADHD groups had significantly lower scores on the matched and mismatched tasks, compared to the normal control children (matched tasks mean score: ASD 11.56, ADHD 11.56, normal control 14.30; mismatched tasks mean score: ASD 6.50, ADHD 4.31, normal control 11.30). However, no significant differences were found in scores of KASLAT between the ADHD and ASD groups. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that children with ASD exhibit greater impairment in idiom comprehension, compared to normal control children. The KASLAT may be useful in evaluating idiom comprehension ability.
Autism Spectrum Disorder/*diagnosis/psychology ; Child ; *Comprehension ; Female ; Humans ; Language ; Language Development Disorders/*diagnosis/psychology ; Language Disorders/*psychology ; Language Tests/*standards ; Male ; Reproducibility of Results

PURPOSE: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social communication impairments and repetitive behaviors or restricted interests. Impaired pragmatic language comprehension is a universal feature in individuals with ASD. However, the underlying neural basis of pragmatic language is poorly understood. In the present study, we examined neural activation patterns associated with impaired pragmatic language comprehension in ASD, compared to typically developing children (TDC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was applied to 15 children with ASD and 18 TDC using the Korean pragmatic language task. RESULTS: Children with ASD were less accurate than TDC at comprehending idioms, particularly when they were required to interpret idioms with mismatched images (mismatched condition). Children with ASD also showed different patterns of neural activity than TDC in all three conditions (neutral, matched, and mismatched). Specifically, children with ASD showed decreased activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) (Brodmann area 47) in the mismatched condition, compared with TDC (IFG; t(31)=3.17, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that children with ASD face difficulties in comprehending pragmatic expressions and apply different pragmatic language processes at the neural level.
Autism Spectrum Disorder* ; Autistic Disorder* ; Child* ; Comprehension* ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neurodevelopmental Disorders ; Prefrontal Cortex

Purpose: Persistent levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a poor prognostic factor for recurrence after radical prostatectomy (RP). We investigated the impact of the percentage of residual PSA (%rPSA) [(post-/preoperative PSA)×100], representing a biochemical residual tumor, and the first postoperative PSA (fPSA) level on metastasis-free survival (MFS) in men with persistent levels of PSA after RP. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively identified male patients within a single tertiary referral hospital database who harbored persistent (≥0.1 ng/mL) vs. undetectable (<0.1 ng/mL) PSA levels 4 to 8 weeks after RP. Kaplan–Meier analyses and Cox regression models were used to test the effect of persistent PSA levels, the fPSA level, and %rPSA on MFS. Results: Of 1,205 patients, 178 patients with persistent PSA levels were enrolled. Seven-year MFS rates were 60.5% vs. 84.3% (p<0.001) for patients with a %rPSA ≥6% and <6%, respectively. Multivariable Cox regression models of the overall cohort revealed that persistent PSA levels (hazard ratio [HR], 3.94; p=0.010), extracapsular extension (HR, 4.17; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06–16.41; p=0.041), and pathological Gleason grade group (pGGG) (HR, 3.69; 95% CI, 1.32–10.27; p=0.013) were independent predictors of metastasis. Multivariable Cox regression models in men with persistent PSA levels revealed that the %rPSA (HR, 8.92; 95% CI, 1.74–45.71; p=0.009) and pGGG 4–5 (HR, 4.13; 95% CI, 1.22–13.96; p=0.022) were independent predictors of distant metastasis, but not the fPSA level after surgery. Conclusions Persistent levels of PSA were associated with worse MFS after RP. In men with persistent PSA levels after RP, the %rPSA is a valuable predictor of MFS unlike the fPSA level.

OBJECTIVES: Since the awareness of autism spectrum disorders(ASD) is growing, as a result, it is increasing numbers of infants and toddlers being referred to specialized clinics for a differential diagnosis and the importance of early autism spectrum disorders detection is emphasized. This study is to know the difference between ASD and intellectual disability(ID) from comparison of the demographics, clinical characters and obstetric complications. METHODS: The participants are 816 toddlers who visited the developmental delay clinic(DDC) in National Health Insurance Ilsan hospital. The number of toddlers diagnosed as ASD and ID was 324 and 492. 75 toddlers out of 114 who returned to DDC were diagnosed as ID at the first visit but 7 of them had changed diagnosis to ASD at the second visit. After compared ASD with ID from the first visit, we analyzed characters of toddlers who had the changed diagnosis to ASD at the second visit. RESULTS: As a result, the comparison between ASD and ID at the first visit shows that the boys have higher ratio, lower obstetric complication and lower language assessment score in ASD. The toddlers who had the changed diagnosis at the second visit were all boys and they had more cases of family history of developmental delay and had lower score of receptive language developmental quotient. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that sex, language characteristics and obstetric complication could be useful in the early detection of ASD.
Autism Spectrum Disorder* ; Autistic Disorder* ; Demography ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Infant ; Intellectual Disability* ; Language Development ; National Health Programs

OBJECTIVE: It was proposed that the ability to recognize facial emotions is closely related to complex neurocognitive processes and/or skills related to theory of mind (ToM). This study examines whether ToM skills mediate the relationship between higher neurocognitive functions, such as reasoning ability, and facial emotion recognition. METHODS: A total of 200 healthy subjects (101 males, 99 females) were recruited. Facial emotion recognition was measured through the use of 64 facial emotional stimuli that were selected from photographs from the Korean Facial Expressions of Emotion (KOFEE). Participants were requested to complete the Theory of Mind Picture Stories task and Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM). RESULTS: Multiple regression analysis showed that the SPM score (t=3.19, p=0.002, beta=0.22) and the overall ToM score (t=2.56, p=0.011, beta=0.18) were primarily associated with a total hit rate (%) of the emotion recognition task. Hierarchical regression analysis through a three-step mediation model showed that ToM may partially mediate the relationship between SPM and performance on facial emotion recognition. CONCLUSION: These findings imply that higher neurocognitive functioning, inclusive of reasoning, may not only directly contribute towards facial emotion recognition but also influence ToM, which in turn, influences facial emotion recognition. These findings are particularly true for healthy young people.
Facial Expression ; Humans ; Male ; Negotiating ; Theory of Mind*

Vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been acknowledged as an effective mean of preventing infection and hospitalization.However, the emergence of highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) has led to substantial increase in infections among children and adolescents. Vaccineinduced immunity and longevity have not been well defined in this population. Therefore, we aimed to analyze humoral and cellular immune responses against ancestral and SARSCoV-2 variants after two shots of the BNT162b2 vaccine in healthy adolescents. Although vaccination induced a robust increase of spike-specific binding Abs and neutralizing Abs against the ancestral and SARS-CoV-2 variants, the neutralizing activity against the Omicron variant was significantly low. On the contrary, vaccine-induced memory CD4+ T cells exhibited substantial responses against both ancestral and Omicron spike proteins.Notably, CD4+ T cell responses against both ancestral and Omicron strains were preserved at 3 months after two shots of the BNT162b2 vaccine without waning. Polyfunctionality of vaccine-induced memory T cells was also preserved in response to Omicron spike protein.The present findings characterize the protective immunity of vaccination for adolescents in the era of continuous emergence of variants/subvariants.