OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between serum gonadotropin level and parameters related to insulin resistance in Korean women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). METHODS: This retrospective study included 138 women aged 18 to 35 years who were newly diagnosed with PCOS according to the Rotterdam consensus. Participants were divided into three groups based on the serum luteinizing hormone to follicle-stimulating hormone (LH/FSH) ratio in the early follicular phase: group 1 (LH/FSH <1), group 2 (1.0≤ LH/FSH >2.0), and group 3 (LH/FSH ≥2.0). The correlations between the LH/FSH ratio and various metabolic parameters were evaluated using Pearson correlation coefficients. RESULTS: Patients with higher LH/FSH ratios showed higher total antral follicle counts and higher total ovarian volume. In the comparison of anthropometric and biochemical parameters among the three groups, the waist to hip ratio was the only parameter that differed significantly among the groups (P=0.003). Correlation analysis revealed no significant correlations between serum LH/FSH ratios and biochemical parameters related to insulin resistance. However, after adjustments for age and body mass index, a significant correlation between total cholesterol level and serum LH/FSH ratio was observed (r=0.221, P=0.018). CONCLUSION: Most parameters related to insulin resistance, with the exception of total cholesterol level, are unrelated to the inappropriate pattern of serum gonadotropin secretion in Korean women with PCOS.
Body Mass Index ; Cholesterol ; Consensus ; Female ; Follicle Stimulating Hormone ; Follicular Phase ; Gonadotropins* ; Humans ; Insulin Resistance ; Insulin* ; Luteinizing Hormone ; Polycystic Ovary Syndrome* ; Retrospective Studies ; Waist-Hip Ratio

Contraceptives, Oral, Combined ; Female ; Humans ; Polycystic Ovary Syndrome ; Retrospective Studies ; Ultrasonography

No abstract available.
Bacteremia* ; Female ; Humans ; Pregnant Women*

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of hyaluronan-rich transfer medium on pregnancy and implantation rates in fresh and frozen-thawed embryo transfers in Korean women with previous implantation failure. METHODS: This retrospective study included 283 blastocyst transfers in patients with previous embryo transfer failure at a private fertility clinic. In the study group (n=88), blastocyst transfers were performed using an hyaluronan-rich transfer medium prior to transfer, whereas blastocyst transfers without any treatment served as controls (n=195). According to the type of transfer (fresh elective or frozen-thawed), all the blastocyst transfers were divided into two study and two control groups. RESULTS: The patient's mean age, serum anti-Müllerian hormone level, causes of infertility, embryo quality, and the number of transferred embryos were comparable between the study and control groups. There were no significant differences in clinical pregnancy rate (45.5% vs. 43.1%), implantation rate (28.9% vs. 28.8%), and clinical abortion rate (10.0% vs. 8.3%) between the two groups, and these findings were not changed after subgroup analysis according to the type of transfer. CONCLUSION: The use of hyaluronan-rich transfer medium in the blastocyst transfer does not appear to have any significant effect on the implantation and pregnancy rates in patients with previous implantation failure.
Abortion, Induced ; Blastocyst* ; Embryo Transfer ; Embryonic Structures ; Female ; Fertility ; Humans ; Hyaluronic Acid ; Infertility ; Pregnancy Rate* ; Pregnancy* ; Retrospective Studies

Objective: This study aimed to determine the clinical advantage of spindle-view intracytoplasmic sperm injection (SVICSI; a novel technology) over conventional intracytoplasmic sperm injection (cICSI) in patients with poor ovarian response (POR) and previous implantation failure. Methods: The study included 37 patients who underwent SVICSI followed by fresh embryo transfer (FET) at a single fertility clinic from January to December 2022, 58 patients who underwent cICSI followed by FET at the same fertility clinic from January to December 2021 as a control group. All study participants met the Bologna criteria for POR and had at least three or more previous failed embryo transfers. Results: The number of blastocyst transfers was significantly higher in the SVICSI group than in the cICSI group. A good-quality cleavage embryo rate, blastocyst rate, and good-quality blastocyst rate were also significantly higher in the SVICSI group than in the cICSI group. There were no significant differences in the rates of fertilization, implantation, clinical pregnancy, or clinical abortion between the two groups. Conclusion In patients with POR, those who underwent SVICSI appeared to have better embryos than those who underwent cICSI. However, whether SVICSI improved clinical outcomes such as implantation and pregnancy rates cannot be proven.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with primary frozen shoulder in a Korean population. METHODS: A total of 1,373 patients whose shoulders were diagnosed with primary frozen shoulder across 11 resident-training hospitals were reviewed retrospectively. Various demographic characteristics and clinical characteristics according to gender and presence of diabetes were evaluated. RESULTS: The average age of patients was 55.4 years. Gender proportion was 58.3% females and 41.7% males. The frozen shoulder involved the non-dominant arm in 60.7% of patients and the bilateral arms in 17.6% of patients. The average duration of symptoms was 8.9 months, and 51.3% of patients had experienced nocturnal pain. Comorbidities associated with frozen shoulder in our sample of patients included diabetes (18.7%), cardiovascular diseases (17.7%), thyroid diseases (5.4%), and cerebrovascular diseases (3.6%). The diabetic group was correlated with the following demographic and clinical characteristics: old age, involvement of the dominant arm, nocturnal pain, long duration of symptoms, and no history of trauma. Further, we found that, in males, having a frozen shoulder was significantly correlated with a history of trauma; in females, having a frozen shoulder was significantly correlated with having thyroid diseases. CONCLUSIONS: These demographic data of primary frozen shoulder in the Korean population were consistent with those of previously reported epidemiologic studies. Primary frozen shoulder with diabetes was correlated with old age, bilateral involvement, long duration of symptoms, and nocturnal pain.
Arm ; Bursitis* ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Comorbidity ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Retrospective Studies* ; Risk Factors ; Shoulder ; Thyroid Diseases

Using normal canine embryonic fibroblasts (CaEF) that were shown to be senescent at passages 7th-9th, we established two spontaneously immortalized CaEF cell lines (designated CGFR-Ca-1 and -2) from normal senescent CaEF cells, and an immortal CaEF cell line by exogenous introduction of a catalytic telomerase subunit (designated CGFR-Ca-3). Immortal CGFR- Ca-1, -2 and -3 cell lines grew faster than primary CaEF counterpart in the presence of either 0.1% or 10% FBS. Cell cycle analysis demonstrated that all three immortal CaEF cell lines contained a significantly high proportion of S-phase cells compared to primary CaEF cells. CGFR-Ca-1 and -3 cell lines showed a loss of p53 mRNA and protein expression leading to inactivation of p53 regulatory function, while the CGFR-Ca-2 cell line was found to have the inactive mutant p53. Unlike the CGFR-Ca-3 cell line that down-regulated p16INK4a mRNA due to its promoter methylation but had an intact p16INK4a regulatory function, CGFR-Ca-1 and -2 cell lines expressed p16INK4a mRNA but had a functionally inactive p16INK4a regulatory pathway as judged by the lack of obvious differences in cell growth and phenotype when reconstituted with wild-type p16INK4a. All CGFR-Ca-1, -2 and -3 cell lines were shown to be untransformed but immortal as determined by anchorage-dependent assay, while these cell lines were fully transformed when overexpressed oncogenic H-rasG12V. Taken together, similar to the nature of murine embryo fibroblasts, the present study suggests that normal primary CaEF cells have relatively short in vitro lifespans and should be spontaneously immortalized at high frequency.
Animals ; Catalytic Domain/genetics ; *Cell Aging/genetics ; Cell Line, Transformed ; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic ; Dogs ; Embryo/cytology ; Fibroblasts/*cytology/metabolism ; Gene Expression ; Protein p16/genetics ; Protein p53/genetics ; RNA, Messenger/analysis/metabolism ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Telomerase/genetics/metabolism ; ras Proteins/genetics/metabolism