This study was conducted to investigate whether there were any differences in the body image perception, dietary behavior and maternal dietary guidance between an obese group ("OG") and a normal weight group ("NWG"), and furthermore, to provide basic informations for comprehensive educational programs for obese children. For this purpose, the questionnaire method was used. The subjects were 1,501 elementary school children, in the 4th to the 6th grades in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, and Andong, and their mothers (1,459). The percentage of the children who misperceive their body image was higher among the girls (30.4%) than the boys (22.6%). The average scores for balanced dietary behavior as assessed by the children was higher in the OG than in NWG; the average scores for dietary control as assessed by their mothers was higher in the NWG than in the OG. The scores for dietary behavior as assessed by the children was different from those as assessed by their mothers. Assuming that the mothers would give more correct and balanced answers, the development of a reliable questionnaire for dietary behavior that could be more accurately answered by the children is necessary. Maternal dietary guidance for dietary control was more frequently given in the OG as compared with the NWG and more frequently in girls as compared with boys ; while that for balanced diet was more in the NWG as compared with the OG. The worse the mothers estimate of the dietary behavior for their children, the more they tried to guide their children in dietary behavior. It is recommended that the children should be taught to correctly recognize the degree of their obesity, and receive the appropriate educational program accordingly, including the maternal dietary guidance.
Body Image ; Busan ; Child* ; Daegu ; Diet ; Female ; Gwangju ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Mothers ; Obesity ; Seoul ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: Scoring systems such as the Modified Alvarado Score (MAS), Eskelinen score (ES), Lintula score (LS), nd Ohmann score (OS) can be helpful in the early diagnosis of acute appendicitis (AA). We analyze and compare the diagnostic value of each scoring system and investigate the optimal cut off point. METHODS: A total of 62 adult patients admitted for suspicion of acute appendicitis in a tertiary hospital emergency department were analyzed prospectively. Each scoring system was calculated at admission and compared to the final diagnosis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine the appropriate cutoff scores of scoring systems. The sensitivity and specificity, and area under the ROC curve were calculated. RESULTS: The area under curve of the Ohmann score was higher than those of the other scoring systems (OS: 0.79, MAS: 0.73, ES: 0.65, LS: 0.67). In pairwise comparison of the ROC curve of two scoring systems, OS was found to have significantly higher predictive power than ES and LS. However, no difference was observed between MAS and OS. CONCLUSION: No single score may be used alone to dictate or decline surgery. However, the scoring system may provide helpful information for primary or emergency physicians to determine whether the patient should undergo surgical consultation may provide helpful information for use by primary or emergency physicians in determination of whether the patient should undergo surgical consultation.
Adult ; Appendicitis ; Area Under Curve ; Early Diagnosis ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Prospective Studies ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tertiary Care Centers

The highly toxic sodium monofluoroacetate (SMFA) was banned as a rodenticide in this country in the 1980s. The fluoroacetate metabolite, fluorocitric acid blocks cellular metabolism by inhibiting the Klebs cycle, producing widespread clinical effects including respiratory, neurologic, cardiologic, and fluid-electrolyte abnormalities. We report the case of intentional ingestion of a derivative product, beta-fluoroethyl acetate. A 79-yr-old female was brought to the emergency room without any problem. At 2hours post ingestion, she had a generalized tonic-clonic seizure and then, was unresponsive to painful stimuli. At 6hours post ingestion, she died from refractory ventricular fibrillation. We report this patient to increase awareness of beta-fluoroethylacetate toxicity.
Eating* ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Female ; Humans ; Metabolism ; Poisoning ; Seizures ; Sodium ; Ventricular Fibrillation

MR findings of early infectious spondylodiscitis are non-specific and may be confused with those of other conditions. Therefore, it is important to recognize early MR signs of conditions, such as inappreciable cortical changes in endplates, confusing marrow signal intensities of vertebral bodies, and inflammatory changes in paraspinal soft tissues, and subligamentous and epidural spaces. In addition, appreciation of direct inoculation, such as in iatrogenic spondylodiscitis may be important, because the proportion of patients who have undergone recent spine surgery or a spinal procedure is increasing. In this review, the authors focus on the MR findings of early spondylodiscitis, atypical findings of iatrogenic infection, and the differentiation between spondylodiscitis and other disease entities mimicking infection.
Bone Marrow ; Discitis* ; Epidural Space ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Spine

Background: When a sudden outbreak of an infectious disease occurs, emergency medical services (EMS) response could be negatively affected. The poor prognosis of acute stroke may be largely attributed to delays in treatment. This study aimed to identify the impact of the sudden outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on EMS response for patients with acute stroke. Methods: This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in 25 safety centers in Seoul, Korea. We enrolled patients with acute stroke who were transferred to the emergency department by EMS. The study period was from February–April 2020 and the same period in 2019. Patients were divided into two groups, pre-COVID-19 period and early-COVID-19 period, and previously collected patient data were analyzed. We performed comparative analyses of EMS response and clinical outcomes between the groups. Results: Of 465 patients, 231 (49.7%) had an acute stroke during the study period. There was no significant difference between clinical characteristics of patients with acute stroke before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. EMS response times increased significantly during the early COVID-19 outbreak. The intensive care unit admission rate and mortality rate increased during the early COVID-19 outbreak. Conclusion In the initial phase after the sudden COVID-19 outbreak, EMS response times for acute stroke were delayed and the clinical outcomes of patients with acute stroke deteriorated.

BACKGROUND: Infectious complications commonly occur in the survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The aim of our study was to describe the incidence, associated factors and outcome of infectious complications of the survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 75 patients who survived out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. We collected the data on the demographics, the modes of cardiac arrest, the duration of CPR, the dose of epinephrine, the use of hypothermia, new infections, the duration of mechanical ventilation, the length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), recovery of consciousness and the mortality. RESULTS: New infections developed in 46.7% of the patients. Asystole was the most common rhythm (70.7%). The most common infectious complication was pneumonia (40.0%) urinary tract infection developed in 10 cases, vascular catheter local infection developed in 6 cases, primary blood stream infection developed in 3 cases, wound infection developed in 2 cases and pseudomembranous colitis developed in 1 case. The most common pathogens of pneumonia were Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Blood cultures were obtained in 36 patients during the first 24 hr and the pathogen was isolated in three. The patients with infection had a longer duration of mechanical ventilation and a longer stay in the ICU (p < 0.001, p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Infectious complications are common in survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and these infections are associated with a longer duration of mechanical ventilation and a longer stay in the ICU. The most common infectious complication was pneumonia and the pathogens of pneumonia were Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ; Consciousness ; Demography ; Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous ; Epinephrine ; Heart Arrest ; Humans ; Hypothermia ; Incidence ; Intensive Care Units ; Length of Stay ; Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest ; Pneumonia ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; Respiration, Artificial ; Retrospective Studies ; Rivers ; Staphylococcus ; Staphylococcus aureus ; Survivors ; Urinary Tract Infections ; Vascular Access Devices ; Wound Infection

BACKGROUND: Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) infections have become a major healthcare-associated pathogen problem worldwide. Nosocomial VRE infections could be effectively controlled by screening patients at high risk of harboring VRE and thereby lowering the influx of VRE into healthcare centers. In this study, we evaluated factors associated with VRE colonization in patients transferred to emergency departments, to detect patients at risk for VRE carriage. METHODS: This study was conducted in the emergency department of a medical college-affiliated hospital in Korea. Every patient transferred to the emergency department and admitted to the hospital from January to December 2016 was screened for VRE using rectal cultures. In this cross-sectional study, the dependent variable was VRE colonization and the independent variables were demographic and clinical factors of the patients and factors related to the transferring hospital. Patients were divided into two groups, VRE and non-VRE, and previously collected patient data were analyzed. Then we performed logistic regression analyses of characteristics that differed significantly between groups. RESULTS: Out of 650 patients, 106 (16.3%) had positive VRE culture results. Significant variables in the logistic analysis were transfer from geriatric long-term care hospital (adjusted odds ration [aOR]: 8.017; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.378–46.651), hospital days (4–7 days; aOR: 7.246; 95% CI: 3.229–16.261), duration of antimicrobial exposure (1–3 days; aOR: 1.976; 95% CI: 1.137–3.436), and age (aOR: 1.025; 95% CI: 1.007–1.043). CONCLUSION: VRE colonization in patients transferred to the emergency department is associated primarily with factors related to the transferred hospitals rather than demographic and clinical characteristics.
Bacterial Infections ; Colon* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Delivery of Health Care ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Enterococcus* ; Humans ; Infection Control ; Korea* ; Logistic Models ; Long-Term Care ; Mass Screening ; Vancomycin Resistance ; Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate effects of gabapentin in post-stroke reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD). METHOD: To 20 RSD patients after stroke, gabapentin was administrated. We started medication with 300 mg per day and increased dosage by 300 mg per two days up to maximum 900~1,200 mg. We evaluated RSD symptom severities with hand pain, hand swelling and shoulder pain before gabapentin administration. Severity of each symptoms was graded and scored (0: no pain/swelling, 1: mild, 2: moderate, 3: severe). Severities of RSD symptoms were reevaluated on every dose increasing and on 1 week, 2 weeks and 4 weeks later after administrating maximum dosage. We defined as no effect group didn't have any improvement in symptom severity score in comparison with baseline score. Medications other than gabapentin were administrated in no effect group. RESULTS: Among 19 subjects whom we could follow-up, 4 subjects were defined as no effect group. 15 (78.9%) subjects showed improvement in symptom severity score. Statistically significant symptom improvements were observed after 4 weeks in comparison with baseline in hand pain and shoulder pain (p=0.000). From gabapentin 300~600 mg dosage, hand and shoulder pain showed significant pain decrease. Improvement of hand edema was observed after 4 weeks, but it was statistically insignificant. CONCLUSION: We conclude the gabapentin is effective for RSD pain, however further control study is required.
Edema ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hand ; Humans ; Neuralgia ; Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy* ; Reflex* ; Shoulder Pain ; Stroke

BACKGROUND: The AutoVue Innova (Ortho Clinical Diagnostic, Raritan, NJ, USA) is an automatic instrument for blood bank tests, and it has recently been introduced in Korea for the first time at our hospital. This instrument employs column agglutination technology and it performs blood bank tests automatically. We evaluated this instrument and we report on the results. METHODS: We performed ABO/RhD typing and antibody screening for 250 randomly selected samples, and crossmatching for 261 samples with using the AutoVue Innova in parallel with the conventional manual methods. For a sensitivity test, we added 3 samples of A(2)B(3) and 2 samples of weak-D and serially diluted reagent antisera to the test pool and we measured turnaround time (TAT) for the antibody screening test. RESULTS: The concordance rates between AutoVue Innova and the manual methods for ABO/RhD blood typing, antibody screening and crossmatching tests were 99.6%, 100% and 98.9%, respectively. The overall retest rate was 0.5% and the main cause of the discrepancy was revealed to be hemolysis or an inadequate amount of the samples. The overall sensitivity of AutoVue Innova seems to be same as or better than the manual methods. The TAT for the antibody screening test was significantly shorter for the AutoVue Innova (64+/-43 min, n=512) than for the tube method (89+/-57 min, n=99) (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The test results of AutoVue Innova were accurate and sensitive for the ABO/RhD typing, crossmatching and antibody screening tests. The TAT for the antibody screening test was remarkably shortened up to five times more samples could be tested without an increase of manpower.
Agglutination ; Blood Banks ; Blood Grouping and Crossmatching ; Hemolysis ; Immune Sera ; Korea ; Mass Screening

We report a case of group O losing anti-B selectively. A 25-year-old male donated blood; on the donor test an ABO discrepancy was noted, and a further evaluation study was performed. ABO genotyping with an allele specific polymerase chain reaction assay revealed O/O and DNA sequencing of exons 6 and 7 of the ABO gene showed O01/O02. The serum gammaglobulin level was decreased and only 0.2% CD19 pan-B positive lymphocytes were present in a subset of lymphocytes. In a previous donor study, anti-B of the patient was lost from a third donor study and was still not detected.
Adult ; Agammaglobulinemia ; Alleles ; Exons ; Humans ; Lymphocytes ; Male ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Tissue Donors