Objectives: Cognitive impairment is a fundamental symptom of schizophrenia, an often-overlooked aspect of the disorder that has gained recent attention due to its direct relation with functional outcomes and implications for medical and social costs. This study aims to investigate gender differences in cognitive function among patients with schizophrenia using Korean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (K-WAIS-IV). Methods: Data were collected from inpatients and outpatients treated at Presbyterian Medical Center between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2023. Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia underwent evaluation with the K-WAIS-IV. Multivariate analysis of variance was utilized to assess cognitive differences between men and women participants, while correlation analysis was performed to explore associations between cognitive performance and clinical data. Results: Among 101 candidates, 26 male and 26 female patients were selected for analysis of their K-WAIS-IV scores and clinical data. The results revealed no statistically significant differences in cognitive function between male and female patients concerning Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ) and the four index scores: Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI), Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI), Working Memory Index (WMI), and Processing Speed Index (PSI). A trend indicating preserved verbal intelligence relative to performance intelligence was observed. Additionally, the VCI exhibited a positive correlation with age, while both FSIQ and PSI demonstrated positive correlations with years of education. Conclusion The findings of this investigation suggest that there are no significant differences in cognitive function between male and female patients with schizophrenia via K-WAIS-IV. Given the heterogeneity of the sample and potential limitations of the neurocognitive assessments employed, further research utilizing more targeted methodologies and sensitive measures is warranted.

Benign abducens nerve palsy is rare in children. Identifiable causes of abducens nerve palsy include neoplasm, elevated intracranial pressure, infection and trauma. Isolated abducens nerve palsy with unknown etiology is classified as benign or idiopathic. The diagnosis is made by excluding underlying pathologies. Prognosis is favorable. Most patients have been found to recover spontaneously within 6 months. Recurrent palsy is observed in some patients and is more pronounced in younger girls with left-sided palsy. Even the recurrent cases, however, are still benign. We report a case of benign abducens nerve palsy presenting diplopia and headache with normal results from MRIs and microbiologic studies. The patient underwent rapid, spontaneous recovery.
Abducens Nerve ; Abducens Nerve Diseases ; Child ; Diplopia ; Headache ; Humans ; Intracranial Hypertension ; Paralysis ; Prognosis

The Vietnamese-Koreans, especially offspring between a Vietnamese mother and a Korean father constituted the highest proportion (64.2%) of total Kosian population according to a census in 2014. To evaluate genetic characteristics in the Vietnamese-Koreans, a total of 25 alleles from CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, CYP3A4, and CYP3A5 were genotyped using SNaPshot method with DNA samples of 127 Vietnamese-Koreans. The previous reports on the CYPs of Korean and Vietnamese populations were also analyzed for the comparative studies for the frequencies of CYP alleles. The statistical significances in allele and genotype frequencies among the ethnics were analyzed by Chi-square or Fisher's exact probability test. Although most of variants analyzed in 5 CYPs did not reach the statistically significant difference between the Vietnamese-Koreans and Vietnamese, some alleles were only found in Vietnamese-Koreans. Compared with Korean population, frequencies of CYP2D6*1 and CYP2D6*10B were statistically different from Vietnamese-Koreans (p<0.05). This is the first report to describe the CYP genotype profiles of Vietnamese-Koreans, which may provide important insight for the genotype based prediction of CYP activities of this admixture of Korean and Vietnamese.
Alleles ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Censuses ; Cytochrome P-450 CYP2D6* ; Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System ; DNA ; Fathers ; Genotype ; Humans ; Mothers ; Polymorphism, Genetic*

Cytokeratin 18 (CK18) protein was identified as an airway epithelial cell autoantigen associated with nonallergic asthma. Cleavage of CK18 protein by caspase-3 is a marker of early apoptosis in epithelial cells. It has been shown that the expression of active caspase-3 was increased in bronchial epithelial cells of asthmatic patients, when compared with healthy controls. To investigate the antigen-binding characteristics of IgG autoantibodies to CK18 protein in nonallergic asthma, the bindings of IgG autoantibodies to the fragments of CK18 protein cleaved by caspase-3 were analyzed by Western blot using serum samples from three patients with nonallergic asthma. Recombinant human CK18 protein was treated by caspase-3 and cleaved into N-terminal fragment (1-397 amino acids) and C-terminal fragment (398-430 amino acids). The binding capacity of IgG autoantibodies to N-terminal fragment of CK18 was maintained in one patient and reduced in other two patients. IgG autoantibodies from all three patients did not bind to C-terminal fragment of CK 18. In conclusion, IgG autoantibodies to CK18 protein from patients with nonallergic asthma seems to preferentially bind to the whole molecule of CK18 protein and their antigen-binding characteristics were heterogeneous among the patients with nonallergic asthma.
Protein Binding ; Peptide Fragments/immunology/metabolism ; Male ; Keratins/chemistry/*immunology/metabolism ; Immunoglobulin G/blood/*immunology/metabolism ; Hydrolysis ; Humans ; Female ; Epitopes/immunology/metabolism ; Caspases/metabolism ; Caspase 3 ; Blotting, Western ; Autoantibodies/blood/*immunology/metabolism ; Asthma/*blood/immunology ; Antigen-Antibody Reactions ; Antibodies, Monoclonal/immunology/metabolism ; Aged ; Adult

The picosecond lasers have shown to effectively treat tattoo pigments that are intractable to previous multiple Q-switched (QS) laser treatments. Therefore we hypothesized that a picosecond laser would show better efficacy with minimal adverse events in the treatment of melasma and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) that are difficult to treat with conventional QS lasers. Two patients with melasma and one patient with PIH were treated with a Picosecond 755-nm Alexandrite Laser (Cyanosure, USA). All patients were Korean with skin type IV and no longer responding to QS laser treatments. Laser treatment was well tolerated in all the patients. Adverse events such as PIH were not reported during 8 weeks of follow up period. After the multiple treatment sessions, one patient reported fair improvement and two patients reported good improvement. Consistent with the clinical results, ex vivo skin model irradiated with a Picosecond 755-nm Alexandrite Laser also showed decreased epidermal keratinocyte necrosis compared with the 532-nm QS Neodymium-Doped Yttrium Aluminium Garnet Laser (Lutronic, Korea) yet decreased melanin content. In conclusion, the Picosecond 755-nm Alexandrite Laser may be useful for effective treatment of intractable melasma and PIH with fewer adverse events in dark Asian skin.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hyperpigmentation* ; Keratinocytes ; Lasers, Solid-State* ; Melanins ; Melanosis* ; Necrosis ; Skin ; Yttrium

The isolated idiopathic finger flexor tenosynovitis is a rare condition, related to diversed etiologies. The traditional treatment of flexor tenosynovitis includes medications and injection of steroids. If the conservative treatment is not effective, surgical management is usually recommended. And alcohol installations have been rarely performed. We are reporting an extremely rare case of a 56-year-old man who had chronic idiopathic isolated finger flexor tenosynovitis which was treated through alcohol injections. The patient had not yet been treated despite of medication and serial injections of steroid. We performed 1 mL of 50% ethanol injection for the initial treatment and the second injection was done in the same way 10 months later due to the improvements of the patient's clinical symptoms and images of the follow-up ultrasonography. As a result, the authors suggest alcohol installation as an alternative non-surgical treatment for flexor tenosynovitis when other conservative managements are not effective enough.
Alcohols ; Ethanol ; Fingers ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Steroids ; Tenosynovitis

Thyroid antibodies are frequently observed in urticaria patients, but their roles in urticaria are not clearly elucidated. We investigated the role of serum specific IgE to thyroid peroxidase (TPO) in patients with aspirin intolerant acute urticaria (AIAU) and aspirin intolerant chronic urticaria (AICU). We recruited 59 AIAU and 96 AICU patients with 69 normal controls (NC). Serum specific IgE to TPO was measured by manual direct ELISA, and CD203c expressions on basophil with additions of TPO were measured to prove a direct role of TPO in effector cells. The prevalences of serum specific IgE to TPO were significantly higher in AIAU (15.2%) and AICU groups (7.5%) compared to NC (0%, P=0.018: P=0.013, respectively). Flow cytometry showed CD203c induction in a dose dependent manner with serial additions of TPO in some AIAU and AICU patients having high specific IgE to TPO. Our findings show that the prevalence of serum specific IgE to TPO was significantly higher in both AIAU and AICU patients than in NC. It is suggested that specific IgE to TPO play a pathogenic role in AIAU and AICU.
Adult ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal/adverse effects ; Aspirin/*adverse effects ; Autoantibodies/immunology ; Basophils/drug effects/*immunology ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E/blood/*immunology ; Iodide Peroxidase/blood/*immunology ; Urticaria/*chemically induced/*immunology/pathology

No abstract available.
Anaphylaxis* ; Basophils*

Objective: The endothelial inflammatory response plays an important role in atherogenesis by inducing nuclear factor (NF)κB-dependent cell adhesion molecule expression and monocyte recruitment. Here, we screened for natural ligands and investigated the ability of shinjulactone A to inhibit interleukin-1β (IL-1β)-induced endothelial inflammatory signaling. Methods: The natural compound library included 880 single compounds isolated from medicinal plants by the Korean Medicinal Material Bank. Primary endothelial cells were pretreated with single compounds before stimulation with IL-1β to induce endothelial inflammation. Endothelial inflammation was measured by assaying NFκB activation and monocyte adhesion. The endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) was evaluated using cell type-specific marker protein expression and morphology. Results: Shinjulactone A was identified as an efficient blocker of IL-1β -induced NFκB activation, with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration of approximately 1 µM, and monocyte recruitment in endothelial cells. However, it did not affect lipopolysaccharideinduced NFκB activation in macrophages. Compared to Bay 11-782, a well-known NFκB inhibitor that shows considerable cytotoxicity during long-term treatment, shinjulactone A did not affect endothelial cell viability. Furthermore, it also significantly inhibited the EndMT, which is known to promote atherosclerosis and plaque instability. Conclusion We suggest that shinjulactone A may be an effective and safe drug candidate for atherosclerosis because it targets and inhibits both endothelial inflammation and the EndMT, without impairing NFκB-dependent innate immunity in macrophages.

BACKGROUND: Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer. Surgical excision is commonly used as the therapeutic modality. However, there is insufficient data on the prognosis of Korean patients who have undergone surgical excision for basal cell carcinoma. OBJECTIVE: We therefore retrospectively analyzed the effectiveness of surgical excision in patients with basal cell carcinoma and compared it with previous studies. METHODS: From 2009 to 2015, we enrolled 138 patients with primary basal cell carcinoma who underwent surgical excision and analyzed the recurrence rate, clinical features, surgical procedures, and histopathological subtypes. RESULTS: The case series comprised 138 patients (M:F=1:1.51) with a mean age of 68.7 years. Recurrence after surgical excision was diagnosed in 0 of the 138 patients with a mean follow-up period of 47.5 months (12~93 months). The mean tumor diameter and surgical margin were 0.9 cm and 3.1 mm, respectively. Most tumors (85.5%) were of the nodular subtype. Primary closure was used most often to repair the surgical defects (44.9%). CONCLUSION: Surgical excision may be a satisfactory method for the treatment of primary basal cell carcinomas, especially in non-high-risk cases.
Carcinoma, Basal Cell* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Methods ; Prognosis ; Recurrence* ; Retrospective Studies ; Skin Neoplasms