Objectives: Korea is one of the fastest-aging societies, and a large proportion of its older population lives alone. This study examined the impact of family interaction frequency on the association between living alone and depressive symptoms among older adults aged ≥80 years using nationally representative survey data. Methods: Among the 229 099 participants of the 2019 Korea Community Health Survey, 15 672 participants aged ≥80 years who either lived with close family or lived alone were included in the analysis. Participants living alone were classified according to the frequency of family interaction, ranging from less than once a month to more than once a week. The outcome variable was moderate to severe depressive symptoms, defined as a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score of ≥10. Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was higher among older adults living alone (9.4–14.1%, depending on the frequency of family interaction) than among those living with close family (6.5%). Older adults living alone who interacted with family less than once a month were more likely to report depressive symptoms compared with those living with close family (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.71; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.36 to 2.15). Weekly family interaction mitigated the impact of living alone on the prevalence of depressive symptoms (aOR 1.10; 95% CI, 0.84 to 1.42). The influence of family interaction on the association between living alone and depressive symptoms remained consistent across subgroups of men, women, and those with difficulty in daily activities. Conclusions Encouraging regular interaction among family members could serve as an effective strategy to protect the mental health of older adults.

PURPOSE: Real-time compound imaging obtains multiple coplanar tomographic ultrasound images and combines them into a single compound image, reducing acoustic artifacts and noise. The purpose of this study is to determine if real-time compound imaging improves evaluation of breast cancer compared to conventional sonography. METHODS: From May 2000 to July 2001, we scanned the same axial plane with conventional sonography and real-time compound imaging in 520 patients with solid breast nodules. Twenty-eight cancers in 25 patients which were confirmed pathologically were included in this study. Twenty-five of 28 cases were invasive ductal carcinoma and the remaining three were ductal carcinoma in situ. Each image pair consisted of a conventional ultrasound and a real-time compound image with a stationary probe, to maintain an identical projection. The evaluating points were 1) contrast between cancer and normal breast tissue, 2) depiction of margin, 3) clarity of internal echotexture, 4) clarity of posterior echo pattern, and 5) clarity of internal microcalcifi-cation. Two radiologists graded for quality of images on a 5-point scale and in a blinded fashion and Wilcoxon rank test was used for comparison between conventional and real-time compound images. RESULTS: For reviewer 1/reviewer 2, compound image showed grade improvements in 1) contrast (1.4?0.5/1.4?0.7), 2) margin (1.4?0.5/1.8?0.4), 3) internal echotexture (1.0?0.5/1.4?0.7), 4) posterior echo pattern (?0.9?0.7/?0.8?0.7), and 5) internal microcalcification (1.8?0.5/1.8?0.5). In all evaluating points, there was statistically significant difference between conventional and compound images (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Real-time compound imaging improves contrast, depiction of margin, and clarity of internal echotexture and internal microcalcification of the breast cancer. But compound image is not effective to evaluate posterior echo pattern of the breast cancer.
Acoustics ; Artifacts ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Carcinoma, Ductal ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating ; Humans ; Noise ; Ultrasonography

PURPOSE: Neonatal immune hemolytic jaundice due to blood group incompatibility is important to treat properly because of an early rise and a high peak of serum bilirubin level and a risk of kernicterus. The conventional therapeutic modalities for neonatal immune hemolytic jaundice due to blood group incompatibility are phototherapy and exchange transfusion. We evaluated the effect of intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) therapy on hyperbilirubinemia due to ABO incompatibility. METHODS: This study included 6 infants with hyperbilirubinemia due to ABO incompatibility who were admitted to the nursery of Eulji Medical Center, Nowon Hospital, from January 2000 to February 2001. All 6 infants had a positive direct Coombs test. Their serum bilirubin levels were above 12 mg/dl within 24hours of age and above 20 mg/dl after 24hours of age. They were treated with intensive phototherapy and IVIG. RESULTS: We classified the effective group when a decline in serum bilirubin level was more than 2 mg/dl in 3-4 hours after IVIG therapy, and the ineffective group when there was a decline in serum bilirubin level less than 2 mg/dl, a re-rise after the initial response to IVIG, or a decline after the combined therapy with intensive phototherapy and IVIG equal or less than that after intensive phototherapy alone. In the effective group (n=2), the average decline in serum bilirebin level was 4.1 mg/dl in 3-4 hours and 8.1 mg/dl in 12-16 hours after IVIG therapy, while in the ineffective group (n=4), the average decline was 1.9 mg/dl and 2.7 mg/dl, respectively. Five among 6 infants were treated with IVIG therapy and 1 infant was treated with exchange transfusion. No serious side effect was detected during and after IVIG therapy. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated the effectiveness of IVIG therapy in 2 infants out of six who were treated with intensive phototherapy and IVIG for hyperbilirubinemia due to ABO incompatibility. IVIG therapy could be considered if hyperbilirubinemia due to ABO incompatibility does not respond to intensive phototherapy alone. Further prospective and randomized studies would be needed.
Bilirubin ; Blood Group Incompatibility ; Coombs Test ; Humans ; Hyperbilirubinemia ; Immunoglobulins, Intravenous* ; Infant ; Jaundice* ; Kernicterus ; Nurseries ; Phototherapy

BACKGROUNDS: Living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) has been established as an efficacious option to resolve the shortage of cadaveric donor organs for pediatric recipients. This surgical innovation has significantly reduced the pretransplantation mortality for children, but the crisis of increasing scarcity of donor organs in our hospital has led us to extend LDLT to adult recipients. However, the extension of LDLT from pediatric recipients to adult recipients has been made only with limited success largely because of the inability of a relatively small-size left-lobe graft to meet the metabolic demands of an adult recipient. It has been postulated that a left-lobe graft smaller than 40% of the recipient's standard liver volume will not result in a successful adult-to-adult LDLT in chronic parenchymal liver disease. METHODS: From February 1997 to October 1997, 10 LDLTs, using 9 extended left-lobe grafts and 1 right-lobe graft, were performed on patients with end-stage parenchymal liver diseases (9 cases of B-hepatitis-induced cirrhosis with or without an associated hepatocellular carcinoma and 1 case of alcoholic cirrhosis) at the Department of Surgery, Asan Medical Center. The ratios of the graft to the standard liver volume of the recipients were in the range of 30% to 55%. RESULTS: All grafts showed immediate function, but delayed normalization of the serum total bilirubin was demonstrated in all recipients receiving left-lobe grafts. There were no mortalities and serious complications in donors. Two recipients died of sepsis 21 days and 40 days after transplantation, and 8 recipients (80%) are alive with good liver function at a median follow-up of 5.1 months (range 2~10 months). CONCLUSIONS: The aim of this article is to report our experience with adult-to-adult LDLT shows that a graft size greater than 30% of the recipient's standard liver volume is able to meet the metabolic demands of adult recipients with chronic parenchymal liver disease and that LDLT might open a new donor pool for adult recipients when the supply of cadaveric organs is severely restricted.
Adult ; Alcoholics ; Bilirubin ; Cadaver ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Child ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Fibrosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Liver Diseases ; Liver Transplantation* ; Liver* ; Living Donors* ; Mortality ; Sepsis ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants

No abstract available.
Atrioventricular Block*