Decontamination ; Disinfection ; Manikins ; Protective Clothing ; Personal Protective Equipment ; Health Personnel

Humans ; Protective Clothing

Since mid-December of 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection has been spreading from Wuhan, China. The confirmed COVID-19 patients in South Korea are those who came from or visited China. As secondary transmissions have occurred and the speed of transmission is accelerating, there are rising concerns about community infections. The 54-year old male is the third patient diagnosed with COVID-19 infection in Korea. He is a worker for a clothing business and had mild respiratory symptoms and intermittent fever in the beginning of hospitalization, and pneumonia symptoms on chest computerized tomography scan on day 6 of admission. This patient caused one case of secondary transmission and three cases of tertiary transmission. Hereby, we report the clinical findings of the index patient who was the first to cause tertiary transmission outside China. Interestingly, after lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra, AbbVie) was administered, β-coronavirus viral loads significantly decreased and no or little coronavirus titers were observed.
China ; Clothing ; Commerce ; Coronavirus ; Fever ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Pneumonia ; Thorax ; Viral Load

The calcium phosphate coating on various pretreated metals was prepared by soaking in modified simulated body fluid (m-SBF) solution. The coating structure and its surface morphologies were determined by x-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The results revealed significant differences in morphology and composition of the calcium phosphate coatings with and without chitosan and NaOH-pretreated commercially pure titanium (cp-Ti) substrate. The calcium phosphates formed on chitosan coated-Ti pretreated with NaOH were ~ 350 nm-sized resulting in strong bonding of the apatite layer with the substrates and a uniform gradient of stress transfer from coating materials to the Ti-substrate. After NaOH pretreatment, the hydroxyl groups bind to Ca²⁺ to attract PO₄³⁻ anions, eventually resulting in a continuous layer of calcium phosphate on chitosan coated-Ti substrate during immersion in m-SBF solution. The chitosan coated-Ti showed hydrophobic surface while NaOH pretreatment resulted in maximum hydrophilicity to the Ti substrate. Due to improved wettability of Ti by NaOH pretreatment before chitosan coating, aggregation of calcium phosphate was prevented and size-controlled composite materials were obtained.
Anions ; Body Fluids ; Calcium Phosphates ; Calcium ; Chitosan ; Clothing ; Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions ; Immersion ; Metals ; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning ; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared ; Titanium ; Wettability ; X-Ray Diffraction

BACKGROUND: To investigate whether human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs) seeded on multilayered poly (L-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) (PLCL) sheets improve bladder function in a rat model of detrusor smooth muscle-removed bladder. METHODS: Male rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: Normal, injury (detrusor smooth muscle-removed bladder), PLCL (detrusor smooth muscle-removed bladder implanted with PLCL sheets), and PLCL + ADSC (detrusor smooth muscle-removed bladder implanted with PLCL sheets seeded with hADSCs). Four weeks after the treatment, physiological, histological, immunohistochemical, and immunoblot analyses were performed. RESULTS: hADSCs were compatible with PLCL sheets. Further, the physiological study of PLCL + ADSC group showed significant improvement in compliance and contractility suggesting the functional improvement of the bladder. Histological, immunohistochemical and immunoblot analyses revealed the uniform distribution of hADSCs in between PLCL sheets as well as differentiation of hADSCs into smooth muscle cells (SMC) which is illustrated by the expression of SMC markers. CONCLUSION: hADSCs seeded on the multilayered PLCL sheets has the potential to differentiate into SMC, thus facilitating the recovery of compliance and contractility of the injured bladder.
Animals ; Clothing ; Compliance ; Humans ; Male ; Models, Animal ; Muscle, Smooth ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle ; Rats ; Stem Cells ; Tissue Engineering ; Urinary Bladder

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to observe the cartilaginous matrix production in SRY (sex determining region Y)-box 9 (SOX9)- and/or telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT)-transfected chondrocytes from monolayer to three-dimensional (3D) culture.
Alcian Blue ; Cartilage ; Chondrocytes ; Clothing ; Coloring Agents ; Eosine Yellowish-(YS) ; In Vitro Techniques ; Proteoglycans ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Regeneration ; Telomerase ; Tissue Engineering ; Transfection

GLUT1 deficiency is a rare neurometabolic disorder that can be effectively treated with ketogenic diet. However, this condition is underdiagnosed due to its nonspecific, overlapping, and evolving symptoms with age. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical course of nine patients diagnosed with GLUT1 deficiency, based on SLC2A1 mutations and/or glucose concentration in cerebrospinal fluid. The patients included eight boys and one girl who initially presented with seizures (44%, 4/9) or delayed development (44%, 4/9) before 2 years of age, except for one patient who presented with apnea as a neonate. Over the clinical course, all of the children developed seizures of the mixed type, including absence seizures and generalized tonic–clonic seizures. About half (56%, 5/9) showed movement disorders such as ataxia, dystonia, or dyskinesia. We observed an evolution of phenotype over time, although this was not uniform across all patients. Only one child had microcephaly. In five patients, ketogenic diet was effective in reducing seizures and movement symptoms, and the patients exhibited subjective improvement in cognitive function. Diagnosing GLUT1 deficiency can be challenging due to the phenotypic variability and evolution. A high index of clinical suspicion in pediatric and even older patients with epilepsy or movement disorders is key to the early diagnosis and treatment, which can improve the patient's quality of life.
Apnea ; Ataxia ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Child ; Clothing ; Cognition ; Dyskinesias ; Dystonia ; Early Diagnosis ; Epilepsy ; Epilepsy, Absence ; Female ; Glucose ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Ketogenic Diet ; Microcephaly ; Movement Disorders ; Phenotype ; Quality of Life ; Retrospective Studies ; Seizures

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is currently used in the clinical setting for targeted therapies and diagnosis of hematologic malignancies. Accurate detection of somatic variants is challenging because of tumor purity, heterogeneity, and the complexity of genetic alterations, with various issues ranging from high detection design to test implementation. This article presents guidelines developed through consensus among a panel of experts from the Korean Society for Genetic Diagnostics. They are based on experiences with the validation processes of NGS-based somatic panels for hematologic malignancies, with reference to previous international recommendations. These guidelines describe basic parameters with emphasis on the design of a validation protocol for NGS-based somatic panels to be used in practice. In addition, they suggest thresholds of key metrics, including minimum coverage, mean coverage with uniformity index, and minimum variant allele frequency, for the initial diagnosis of hematologic malignancies.
Clothing ; Consensus ; Diagnosis ; Gene Frequency ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Population Characteristics

BACKGROUND: The detection rate of hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is very low in South Korea compared with other countries. The absence of uniform consensus and guidelines for diagnosing HAVS has been presumed to be one of the reasons. The HAVS has various manifestations including cold intolerance and its severity can be measured using the cold intolerance symptom severity (CISS) questionnaire. This study aimed to determine whether the CISS questionnaire, being used as a screening tool, can aid in the early detection of HAVS. METHODS: A total of 76 male workers with vibration-induced symptoms were enrolled as the final study participants. To compare the CISS score of healthy individuals, 41 men who had never been exposed to local vibration were included in the study. In addition to the former medical questionnaire, the participants answered the CISS questionnaire. A statistical analysis was conducted to identify the association of CISS scores with vibration induced symptom and to determine its cut off value. RESULTS: The reliability of the CISS questionnaire was proven to be good, with a total Cronbach's alpha of 0.922. The mean CISS score of the exposed group increased in every vascular stage [stage 0 = 42.6 (18.5); stage 1 = 59.4 (14.1); and over stage 2 = 60.2 (21.6)]. They were significantly higher than that of the non-exposed group. The result was fairly consistent with those in the sensorineural stage. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and area under curve (AUC) of 30 were 88.5, 65.3, 76.1, 82.1 and 0.769, respectively. From the result of logistic regression, the adjusted odds ratio of both components increased by the CISS score grouped by 30s. CONCLUSIONS: The self-reported CISS questionnaire, used to measure the degree of cold intolerance, showed high agreement with the Stockholm classification of HAVS. Hence, we recommend the use of this questionnaire to assess the level of cold intolerance among vibration-exposed workers and detect individuals who are at risk of vibration-induced impairment with a cutoff value of 30. TRIAL REGISTRATION: IRB No. 2018–07–040-001. Registered on 4 September 2018.
Area Under Curve ; Classification ; Clothing ; Consensus ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome ; Humans ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Odds Ratio ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Vibration

Uniform mixing of liquid substances is difficult to attain. Recently, mixtures of fat and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) have been used extensively in autologous fat transfer. Although various methods have been utilized to mix the fat and PRP involved in this procedure, these methods still carry disadvantages in the time taken and the potential for cell damage, and it is questionable whether effective mixing can occur using these techniques. To facilitate mixing that is as uniform as possible, the authors of this study invented a special cannula. Use of the conventional luer-lock-to-luer-lock connector method has been found to cause cell damage and makes it difficult to achieve uniform mixing, while random injection-type mixing has been shown to have limited accuracy and effectiveness. We expect that the newly designed cannula will solve the problem detailed above.
Catheters ; Clothing ; Methods ; Platelet-Rich Plasma ; Stress, Mechanical