Background: With growing elderly populations, management of patients with acute stroke is increasingly important. In South Korea, the Acute Stroke Quality Assessment Program (ASQAP) has contributed to improving the quality of stroke care and practice behavior in healthcare institutions. While the mortality of hemorrhagic stroke remains high, there are only a few assessment indices associated with hemorrhagic stroke. Considering the need to develop assessment indices to improve the actual quality of care in the field of acute stroke treatment, this study aims to investigate the current status of human resources and practices related to the treatment of patients with acute stroke through a nationwide survey. Methods: For the healthcare institutions included in the Ninth ASQAP of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), data from January 2022 to December 2022 were collected through a survey on the current status and practice of healthcare providers related to the treatment of patients with acute stroke. The questionnaire consisted of 19 items, including six items on healthcare providers involved in stroke care and 10 items on the care of patients with acute stroke. Results: In the treatment of patients with hemorrhagic stroke among patients with acute stroke, neurosurgeons were the most common providers. The contribution of neurosurgeons in the treatment of ischemic stroke has also been found to be equivalent to that of neurologists. However, a number of institutions were found to be devoid of healthcare providers who perform definitive treatments, such as intra-arterial thrombectomy for patients with ischemic stroke or cerebral aneurysm clipping for subarachnoid hemorrhage. The intensity of the workload of healthcare providers involved in the care of patients with acute stroke, especially those involved in definitive treatment, was also found to be quite high. Conclusion Currently, there are almost no assessment indices specific to hemorrhagic stroke in the ASQAP for acute stroke. Furthermore, it does not reflect the reality of the healthcare providers and practices that provide definitive treatment for acute stroke. The findings of this study suggest the need for the development of appropriate assessment indices that reflect the realities of acute stroke care.

Background: With growing elderly populations, management of patients with acute stroke is increasingly important. In South Korea, the Acute Stroke Quality Assessment Program (ASQAP) has contributed to improving the quality of stroke care and practice behavior in healthcare institutions. While the mortality of hemorrhagic stroke remains high, there are only a few assessment indices associated with hemorrhagic stroke. Considering the need to develop assessment indices to improve the actual quality of care in the field of acute stroke treatment, this study aims to investigate the current status of human resources and practices related to the treatment of patients with acute stroke through a nationwide survey. Methods: For the healthcare institutions included in the Ninth ASQAP of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), data from January 2022 to December 2022 were collected through a survey on the current status and practice of healthcare providers related to the treatment of patients with acute stroke. The questionnaire consisted of 19 items, including six items on healthcare providers involved in stroke care and 10 items on the care of patients with acute stroke. Results: In the treatment of patients with hemorrhagic stroke among patients with acute stroke, neurosurgeons were the most common providers. The contribution of neurosurgeons in the treatment of ischemic stroke has also been found to be equivalent to that of neurologists. However, a number of institutions were found to be devoid of healthcare providers who perform definitive treatments, such as intra-arterial thrombectomy for patients with ischemic stroke or cerebral aneurysm clipping for subarachnoid hemorrhage. The intensity of the workload of healthcare providers involved in the care of patients with acute stroke, especially those involved in definitive treatment, was also found to be quite high. Conclusion Currently, there are almost no assessment indices specific to hemorrhagic stroke in the ASQAP for acute stroke. Furthermore, it does not reflect the reality of the healthcare providers and practices that provide definitive treatment for acute stroke. The findings of this study suggest the need for the development of appropriate assessment indices that reflect the realities of acute stroke care.

Background: With growing elderly populations, management of patients with acute stroke is increasingly important. In South Korea, the Acute Stroke Quality Assessment Program (ASQAP) has contributed to improving the quality of stroke care and practice behavior in healthcare institutions. While the mortality of hemorrhagic stroke remains high, there are only a few assessment indices associated with hemorrhagic stroke. Considering the need to develop assessment indices to improve the actual quality of care in the field of acute stroke treatment, this study aims to investigate the current status of human resources and practices related to the treatment of patients with acute stroke through a nationwide survey. Methods: For the healthcare institutions included in the Ninth ASQAP of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), data from January 2022 to December 2022 were collected through a survey on the current status and practice of healthcare providers related to the treatment of patients with acute stroke. The questionnaire consisted of 19 items, including six items on healthcare providers involved in stroke care and 10 items on the care of patients with acute stroke. Results: In the treatment of patients with hemorrhagic stroke among patients with acute stroke, neurosurgeons were the most common providers. The contribution of neurosurgeons in the treatment of ischemic stroke has also been found to be equivalent to that of neurologists. However, a number of institutions were found to be devoid of healthcare providers who perform definitive treatments, such as intra-arterial thrombectomy for patients with ischemic stroke or cerebral aneurysm clipping for subarachnoid hemorrhage. The intensity of the workload of healthcare providers involved in the care of patients with acute stroke, especially those involved in definitive treatment, was also found to be quite high. Conclusion Currently, there are almost no assessment indices specific to hemorrhagic stroke in the ASQAP for acute stroke. Furthermore, it does not reflect the reality of the healthcare providers and practices that provide definitive treatment for acute stroke. The findings of this study suggest the need for the development of appropriate assessment indices that reflect the realities of acute stroke care.

Background: With growing elderly populations, management of patients with acute stroke is increasingly important. In South Korea, the Acute Stroke Quality Assessment Program (ASQAP) has contributed to improving the quality of stroke care and practice behavior in healthcare institutions. While the mortality of hemorrhagic stroke remains high, there are only a few assessment indices associated with hemorrhagic stroke. Considering the need to develop assessment indices to improve the actual quality of care in the field of acute stroke treatment, this study aims to investigate the current status of human resources and practices related to the treatment of patients with acute stroke through a nationwide survey. Methods: For the healthcare institutions included in the Ninth ASQAP of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), data from January 2022 to December 2022 were collected through a survey on the current status and practice of healthcare providers related to the treatment of patients with acute stroke. The questionnaire consisted of 19 items, including six items on healthcare providers involved in stroke care and 10 items on the care of patients with acute stroke. Results: In the treatment of patients with hemorrhagic stroke among patients with acute stroke, neurosurgeons were the most common providers. The contribution of neurosurgeons in the treatment of ischemic stroke has also been found to be equivalent to that of neurologists. However, a number of institutions were found to be devoid of healthcare providers who perform definitive treatments, such as intra-arterial thrombectomy for patients with ischemic stroke or cerebral aneurysm clipping for subarachnoid hemorrhage. The intensity of the workload of healthcare providers involved in the care of patients with acute stroke, especially those involved in definitive treatment, was also found to be quite high. Conclusion Currently, there are almost no assessment indices specific to hemorrhagic stroke in the ASQAP for acute stroke. Furthermore, it does not reflect the reality of the healthcare providers and practices that provide definitive treatment for acute stroke. The findings of this study suggest the need for the development of appropriate assessment indices that reflect the realities of acute stroke care.

Background: To investigate the association of glycemic control and retinal microvascular changes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) without diabetic retinopathy (DR). Methods: This retrospective, observational, cohort study included patients with T2DM without DR. The patients were categorized into intensive control (IC; mean glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1c] ≤7.0%) and moderate control (MC; mean HbA1c >7.0%) groups. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and swept-source OCT angiography (OCTA) image parameters were compared between three groups, including healthy controls. Results: In total, 259 eyes of 259 participants (88 IC, 81 MC, and 90 controls) were included. The foveal avascular zone area was significantly larger in the MC group than IC and control groups (all P<0.05). The IC group had lower vessel density in the superficial retinal layer and deep retinal layer than the controls (all P<0.05). The choriocapillaris (CC) flow deficit (FD) was significantly greater in the MC group than in the IC and control groups (18.2%, 16.7%, and 14.2%, respectively; all P<0.01). In multivariate regression analysis, CC-FD was associated with the mean HbA1c level (P=0.008). There were no significant differences in OCT parameters among the groups. Conclusion OCTA revealed that early CC impairment is associated with HbA1c levels; the CC changes precede clinically apparent DR. The OCTA parameters differed among the groups according to the degree of glycemic control. Our results suggest that microvascular changes precede DR and are closely related to glycemic control.

HBeAg seroconversion is an important process during antiviral therapy for patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB), while the first-line antiviral drugs, such as entecavir and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, tend to have low HBeAg clearance rate and/or seroconversion rate, and at present, there is still a lack of effective radical treatment regimens. Latest studies have shown that fecal microbial transplantation (FMT) can induce HBeAg clearance in HBeAg-positive CHB patients receiving long-term antiviral therapy. This article reviews the research advances in the role of FMT in inducing HBeAg clearance in HBeAg-positive CHB patients and points out that FMT may become a new treatment regimen for HBeAg-positive CHB patients.

The discovery and use of antibiotics is one of the most important breakthroughs in medical history.However, the uprising and spread of the drug-resistance bacterial pathogens have posed a great threat on human health once again.There is an urgent need to develop new antibiotics.Traditional Chinese medicine contains a large volume of bioactive substances suited for novel antibiotic development.However, clinical use of antibiotics of Chinese medicine originis are very rare despite the fact that Chinese medicine has been used for infectious diseases for many years.In this paper, we propose a new mechanism of action for Chinese medicine in treating infectious diseases based on our experimental data.Unlike conventional antibiotics which kill pathogens or inhibit their growth, the traditional Chinese medicine probably function through repressing bacterial pathogenicity.That is, they are actually “antipathogenic drugs”.There are several advantages these antipathogenic drugs possess over traditional antibiotics, including that pathogens are less likely to develop resistance and the drugs have less effect on normal members of the human microbe.

To obtain a better understanding of the progression of atherosclerosis and identify potential biomarkers, proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR)-based metabonomics was used to study the metabolic changes in the plasma of hamster fed with a high-fat/cholesterol diet. Plasma samples were collected at different time points during the progression of atherosclerosis and individual proton NMR spectra were visually and statistically assessed using multivariate analyses. NMR results for all samples showed a time-dependent development from physiological to pathophysiological status during atherosclerosis. Analysis of the identified biomarkers of atherosclerosis suggests that lipid and amino acid metabolisms are significantly disturbed, together with inflammation, oxidative stress, following cholesterol overloading. The results enriched our understanding of the mechanism of atherosclerosis and demonstrated the effectiveness of the NMR-based metabonomics approach to study such a complex disease.

We designed and constructed an antibiotic screening system by using antibiotic responsive genes as reporters. Plasmid pCS26 carrying a promoterless luminescence reporter, luxCDABE, was used as the vector and the promoter regions of antibiotic responsive genes/operons from Escherichia coli were cloned upstream of the lux reporter to form the first part of the screening reporter array. Random promoter library of Salmonella enterica and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were screened for antibiotic responsive clones which consist of the second part of the screening array. The selected final reporter array responded to different antibiotics in distinct patterns and enabled in vivo high-throughput screening for antibiotics. Unknown antibiotics could, in general, be classified by analyzing the response patterns. This screening system is both sensitive and efficient and should prove to be a useful tool for screening new antibiotic compounds.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; pharmacology ; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical ; methods ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; drug effects ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; genetics ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; drug effects ; genetics ; Salmonella enterica ; drug effects ; genetics

Objective To investigate the variance of expression of bcl-2 and bax genes in the genesis of gastric carcinoma as well as their relationship. Methods Thirty-five cases of early-stage gastric carcinoma and Twenty-four cases of chronic atrophic gastritis were studied by immunohistochemical method. Results There were no statistical differences of bcl-2 expression levels between gastric carcinoma and atypical hyperplasia or paracancerous intestinalepithelial metaplasia(IEM)(P＞0. 05). There were statistical differences of bcl-2 expression between normal epithelial tissues (or non-cancerous IEM) and the other three groups (P＜0.05),but no statistical difference between the normal epithelial and the non-cancerous IEM group was observed (P＞0. 05). The expressions of bax protein were found in the normal epithelial and the other groups in varying degrees,but there were no statistical differences between either two of the groups (P＞0.05). The bcl-2/bax ratio was higher in early-stage gastric carcinoma,atypical hyperplasia and paracancerous intestinai-metaplasia than in the non-cancerous intestinal-metaplasia (P＜0. 05) and normal epithelial tissues(P＜0. 01). Conclusion The abnormal expression of bcl-2 protein and bax protein ,especially the increased bcl-2/bax ratio, probably play an important role in the course of carcinogenesis of gastric carcinoma.