Most screening instruments for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been developed and evaluated in western countries. Therefore, difficulties are often experienced when using these instruments because of the cultural differences in the symptoms of ASD. This paper reviews the screening instruments for ASD used in South Korea and explores a new direction in the screening of ASD in South Korea. Among the many published screening instruments for ASD, the screening instruments with a validated Korean version were chosen and reviewed. A total of nine autism-screening instruments met the criteria for the inclusion criteria. Nine screening instruments were summarized and the direction for the Korean version of screening instruments was discussed.
Autism Spectrum Disorder ; Autistic Disorder ; Korea ; Mass Screening

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the meaning and essence of a mother's experience of hospitalization of her newborn in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). METHODS: This study employed a qualitative research design. An interview was conducted with a mother whose newborn was hospitalized in the NICU, and the data were analyzed using Giorgi's phenomenological method. RESULTS: Five main themes and 19 formulated meanings were indentified. The 5 themes were ‘drowning in pain’, ‘just look outside the glass door’, ‘being a pillar’, ‘a deepening attachment’, and ‘prepare for nurturing with hope’. CONCLUSION: The results of this study provided an in-depth understanding of the experience of a mother with a newborn in the NICU. These results can be used in the development of a nursing intervention program that provides psychological and emotional support to the mother and family.
Glass ; Hospitalization* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal ; Intensive Care, Neonatal* ; Methods ; Mothers ; Nursing ; Qualitative Research

A 43-year-old female was admitted for a laparoscopic surgical procedure. Her past history included two uneventful general anesthesias, but anaphylactic shock due to an unknown drug occurred during her third surgery. Induction was performed with thiopental sodium, but an immediate anaphylactic reaction developed with cardiovascular collapse. We resuscitated the patient and she recovered without any complication.
Adult ; Anaphylaxis* ; Anesthesia, General ; Female ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Thiopental*

PURPOSE: Traumatic lumbar hernia is rare, thus making diagnosis and proper treatment challenging. Accordingly, we aimed to investigate the clinical manifestations and proper management strategies of traumatic lumbar hernias. METHODS: The medical records of patients with traumatic lumbar hernia treated at Gachon University Gil Hospital from March 2006 to February 2015, were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: We included 5 men and 4 women (mean age, 55 years; range, 23–71 years). In 8 patients, most injuries were caused by motor vehicle collisions, including those wherein a pedestrian was struck (5 cases of car accidents, 2 falls, and 1 involving penetrating materials); in 1 patient, the probable cause was severe cough. Eight patients underwent hernia repair surgery (5 open and 3 laparoscopic), and a prosthetic mesh was used in 7 patients. Hernia repairs were elective in 7 patients; emergency hernia repair was performed with right hemicolectomy in 1 patient. No severe complication or recurrence was observed. Only 2 patients had mild complications, such as postoperative seroma. CONCLUSION: Traumatic lumbar hernia is a relatively rare injury of the posteriolateral abdominal wall. Lumbar hernia should be suspected in patients with high-energy injuries of the torso, and all such patients should undergo abdominopelvic computed tomography. After diagnosis, hernia repair can be electively performed without complications in most cases.
Abdominal Wall ; Accidental Falls ; Cough ; Diagnosis ; Emergencies ; Female ; Hernia* ; Herniorrhaphy ; Humans ; Male ; Medical Records ; Motor Vehicles ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Seroma ; Torso

BACKGROUND: The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scoring system and the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scoring system are widely used for critically ill patients. We evaluated whether APACHE II score and SOFA score predict the outcome for trauma patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed trauma patients admitted to the ICU in a single trauma center between January 2014 and December 2015. The APACHE II score was figured out based on the data acquired from the first 24 hours of admission; the SOFA score was evaluated based on the first 3 days in the ICU. A total of 241 patients were available for analysis. Injury Severity score, APACHE II score, and SOFA score were evaluated. RESULTS: The overall survival rate was 83.4%. The non-survival group had a significantly high APACHE II score (24.1 ± 8.1 vs. 12.3 ± 7.2, P < 0.001) and SOFA score (7.7 ± 1.7 vs. 4.3 ± 1.9, P < 0.001) at admission. SOFA score had the highest areas under the curve (0.904). During the first 3 days, SOFA score remained high in the non-survival group. In the non-survival group, cardiovascular system, neurological system, renal system, and coagulation system scores were significantly higher. CONCLUSIONS: In ICU trauma patients, both SOFA and APACHE II scores were good predictors of outcome, with the SOFA score being the most effective. In trauma ICU patients, the trauma scoring system should be complemented, recognizing that multi-organ failure is an important factor for mortality.
APACHE* ; Cardiovascular System ; Complement System Proteins ; Critical Care* ; Critical Illness ; Humans ; Injury Severity Score ; Intensive Care Units* ; Mortality ; Multiple Trauma ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Trauma Centers

Background: Preoperative locoregional treatment (LRT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) often induces intratumoral necrosis without affecting the overall tumor size, and residual viable tumor size (VTS) on imaging is an important clinical parameter for assessing post-treatment response. However, for surgical specimens, it is unclear whether the VTS would be more relevant to prognosis compared to total tumor size (TTS). Methods: A total of 142 surgically resected solitary HCC cases were retrospectively reviewed. The TTS and VTS were assessed by applying the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors method to the resected specimens, and correlated with the clinicopathological features and survival. Results: As applying VTS, 13/142 cases (9.2%) were down-staged to ypT1a. Although the survival analysis results for overall survival according to TTS or VTS were similar, VTS was superior to predict disease-free survival (DFS; p = .023) compared to TTS (p = .08). In addition, multivariate analysis demonstrated VTS > 2 cm to be an independent predictive factor for decreased DFS (p = .001). In the subpopulation of patients with LRT (n = 54), DFS in HCCs with TTS or VTS > 2 cm were significantly shorter than those with TTS or VTS ≤ 2 cm (p = .047 and p = .001, respectively). Interestingly, HCCs with TTS > 2 cm but down-staged to VTS ≤ 2 cm after preoperative LRT had similar survival to those with TTS ≤ 2 cm. Conclusions Although the prognostic impact of tumor size was similar regardless of whether TTS or VTS was applied, reporting VTS may help to increase the number of candidates for surgery in HCC patients with preoperative LRT.

Background: Preoperative locoregional treatment (LRT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) often induces intratumoral necrosis without affecting the overall tumor size, and residual viable tumor size (VTS) on imaging is an important clinical parameter for assessing post-treatment response. However, for surgical specimens, it is unclear whether the VTS would be more relevant to prognosis compared to total tumor size (TTS). Methods: A total of 142 surgically resected solitary HCC cases were retrospectively reviewed. The TTS and VTS were assessed by applying the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors method to the resected specimens, and correlated with the clinicopathological features and survival. Results: As applying VTS, 13/142 cases (9.2%) were down-staged to ypT1a. Although the survival analysis results for overall survival according to TTS or VTS were similar, VTS was superior to predict disease-free survival (DFS; p = .023) compared to TTS (p = .08). In addition, multivariate analysis demonstrated VTS > 2 cm to be an independent predictive factor for decreased DFS (p = .001). In the subpopulation of patients with LRT (n = 54), DFS in HCCs with TTS or VTS > 2 cm were significantly shorter than those with TTS or VTS ≤ 2 cm (p = .047 and p = .001, respectively). Interestingly, HCCs with TTS > 2 cm but down-staged to VTS ≤ 2 cm after preoperative LRT had similar survival to those with TTS ≤ 2 cm. Conclusions Although the prognostic impact of tumor size was similar regardless of whether TTS or VTS was applied, reporting VTS may help to increase the number of candidates for surgery in HCC patients with preoperative LRT.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of the normalized local variance (NLV) ultrasound technique in the assessment of hepatic steatosis, and to identify the factors that influence the NLV value using histopathological examination as the reference standard. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a methionine-choline-deficient diet for variable periods (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 days or 2, 3, or 4 weeks; four rats per group). At the end of each diet duration, magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and NLV examination were performed. Thereafter, the rats were sacrificed and their livers were histopathologically evaluated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to assess the diagnostic capability of the NLV value in the detection of varying degrees of hepatic steatosis. Univariate and multivariate linear regressions were used to determine the factors associated with the NLV value. RESULTS: The areas under the ROC curve for the detection of mild, moderate, and severe hepatic steatosis were 0.953, 0.896, and 0.735, respectively. The NLV value showed comparable diagnostic performance to that of MRS in the detection of ≥ mild or ≥ moderate hepatic steatosis. Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that the degree of hepatic steatosis was the only significant factor affecting the NLV value (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The NLV value of ultrasound demonstrated satisfactory diagnostic performance in the assessment of varying degrees of hepatic steatosis. The degree of hepatic steatosis was the only significant factor that affected the NLV value.
Animals ; Diet ; Evaluation Studies as Topic ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Liver ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Male ; Models, Animal ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; ROC Curve ; Ultrasonography