Objectives: This qualitative study explores the perspectives of dental hygienists and examines factors influencing payment structures in a community home-based oral health care intervention program. Methods: Focus group interviews were conducted on October 26, 2023, in a quiet study room over 120 minutes. Intervention providers who participated in the older adults medical care integration support program were included in this study. Their ages ranged from 25 to 57 years, with experience in home-based oral healthcare spanning from 1.5 to 5 years. Voice recordings of the interviews were transcribed using Clova Note and Naver’s AI transcription tool. Subsequently, the ‘Word Cloud Generator 3.7’ program was employed to extract, visualize, and analyze frequently mentioned words and key concepts from the responses. Results Semantic analysis identified 61 significant keywords and 10 subcategories, categorized into four main themes: ‘oral health challenges in the elderly,’ ‘work system of home-based dental hygienists,’ ‘needs and realities of home-based oral care,’ and ‘payment and compensation frameworks.’ Conclusions: To address the demands of a super-aging society, it is imperative to establish a standardized oral healthcare cost system for home-based interventions, supported by clear laws and regulations.

Objectives: This qualitative study explores the perspectives of dental hygienists and examines factors influencing payment structures in a community home-based oral health care intervention program. Methods: Focus group interviews were conducted on October 26, 2023, in a quiet study room over 120 minutes. Intervention providers who participated in the older adults medical care integration support program were included in this study. Their ages ranged from 25 to 57 years, with experience in home-based oral healthcare spanning from 1.5 to 5 years. Voice recordings of the interviews were transcribed using Clova Note and Naver’s AI transcription tool. Subsequently, the ‘Word Cloud Generator 3.7’ program was employed to extract, visualize, and analyze frequently mentioned words and key concepts from the responses. Results Semantic analysis identified 61 significant keywords and 10 subcategories, categorized into four main themes: ‘oral health challenges in the elderly,’ ‘work system of home-based dental hygienists,’ ‘needs and realities of home-based oral care,’ and ‘payment and compensation frameworks.’ Conclusions: To address the demands of a super-aging society, it is imperative to establish a standardized oral healthcare cost system for home-based interventions, supported by clear laws and regulations.

Objectives: This qualitative study explores the perspectives of dental hygienists and examines factors influencing payment structures in a community home-based oral health care intervention program. Methods: Focus group interviews were conducted on October 26, 2023, in a quiet study room over 120 minutes. Intervention providers who participated in the older adults medical care integration support program were included in this study. Their ages ranged from 25 to 57 years, with experience in home-based oral healthcare spanning from 1.5 to 5 years. Voice recordings of the interviews were transcribed using Clova Note and Naver’s AI transcription tool. Subsequently, the ‘Word Cloud Generator 3.7’ program was employed to extract, visualize, and analyze frequently mentioned words and key concepts from the responses. Results Semantic analysis identified 61 significant keywords and 10 subcategories, categorized into four main themes: ‘oral health challenges in the elderly,’ ‘work system of home-based dental hygienists,’ ‘needs and realities of home-based oral care,’ and ‘payment and compensation frameworks.’ Conclusions: To address the demands of a super-aging society, it is imperative to establish a standardized oral healthcare cost system for home-based interventions, supported by clear laws and regulations.

Purpose: Optimal treatment for stage IIIA/N2 non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is controversial. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of adjuvant pembrolizumab for stage IIIA/N2 NSCLC completely resected after neoadjuvant concurrent chemoradiation therapy (CCRT). Materials and Methods: In this open-label, single-center, single-arm phase 2 trial, patients with stage IIIA/N2 NSCLC received adjuvant pembrolizumab for up to 2 years after complete resection following neoadjuvant CCRT. The primary endpoint was disease-free survival (DFS). Secondary endpoints included overall survival (OS) and safety. As an exploratory biomarker analysis, we evaluated the proliferative response of blood CD39+PD-1+CD8+ T cells using fold changes in the percentage of proliferating Ki-67+ cells from days 1 to 7 of cycle 1 (Ki-67D7/D1). Results: Between October 2017 and October 2018, 37 patients were enrolled. Twelve (32%) and three (8%) patients harbored EGFR and ALK alterations, respectively. Of 34 patients with programmed cell death ligand 1 assessment, 21 (62%), nine (26%), and four (12%) had a tumor proportion score of < 1%, 1%-50%, and ≥ 50%, respectively. The median follow-up was 71 months. The median DFS was 22.4 months in the overall population, with a 5-year DFS rate of 29%. The OS rate was 86% at 2 years and 76% at 5 years. Patients with tumor recurrence within 6 months had a significantly lower Ki-67D7/D1 among CD39+PD-1+CD8+ T cells than those without (p=0.036). No new safety signals were identified. Conclusion Adjuvant pembrolizumab may offer durable disease control in a subset of stage IIIA/N2 NSCLC patients after neoadjuvant CCRT and surgery.

Objective: Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a large-vessel vasculitis that primarily affects elderly individuals. However, data regarding Korean patients with GCA are scarce owing to its extremely low prevalence in East Asia. This study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of Korean patients with GCA and their outcomes, focusing on relapse. Methods: The medical records of 27 patients with GCA treated at three tertiary hospitals between 2007 and 2022 were retrospectively reviewed. Results: Seventeen (63.0%) patients were females, and the median age at diagnosis was 75 years. Large vessel involvement (LVI) was detected in 12 (44.4%) patients, and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) was present in 14 (51.9%) patients. Twelve (44.4%) patients had fever at onset. The presence of LVI or concurrent PMR at diagnosis was associated with a longer time to normalization of the C-reactive protein level (p=0.039) or erythrocyte sedimentation rate (p=0.034). During follow-up (median: 33.8 months), four (14.8%) patients experienced relapse. Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that relapse was associated with visual loss (p=0.008) and the absence of fever (p=0.004) at onset, but not with LVI or concurrent PMR. Conclusion Concurrent PMR and LVI were observed in approximately half of Korean patients with GCA, and the elapsed time to normalization of inflammatory markers in these patients was longer. The relapse rate in Korean GCA is lower than that in Western countries, and afebrile patients or patients with vision loss at onset have a higher risk of relapse, suggesting that physicians should carefully monitor patients with these characteristics.

Objectives: This qualitative study explores the perspectives of dental hygienists and examines factors influencing payment structures in a community home-based oral health care intervention program. Methods: Focus group interviews were conducted on October 26, 2023, in a quiet study room over 120 minutes. Intervention providers who participated in the older adults medical care integration support program were included in this study. Their ages ranged from 25 to 57 years, with experience in home-based oral healthcare spanning from 1.5 to 5 years. Voice recordings of the interviews were transcribed using Clova Note and Naver’s AI transcription tool. Subsequently, the ‘Word Cloud Generator 3.7’ program was employed to extract, visualize, and analyze frequently mentioned words and key concepts from the responses. Results Semantic analysis identified 61 significant keywords and 10 subcategories, categorized into four main themes: ‘oral health challenges in the elderly,’ ‘work system of home-based dental hygienists,’ ‘needs and realities of home-based oral care,’ and ‘payment and compensation frameworks.’ Conclusions: To address the demands of a super-aging society, it is imperative to establish a standardized oral healthcare cost system for home-based interventions, supported by clear laws and regulations.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the accuracy of the visual estimation of blood loss between medical personnel (MP) and non-medical personnel (NP) and to evaluate how it varies with changes in the bleeding volume and environment. Methods: A total of 78 MP and 132 NP were recruited for the study and asked to evaluate nine artificial blood stations and three different volumes of artificial blood (192 mL, 384 mL, 768 mL) in three different environments (floor, diaper, and commode). Statistical analysis and the two-way repeated measures analysis of variance test were used for data analysis. Results: There were significant differences between MP and NP regardless of the actual bleeding loss in all the bleeding environments-floor (F=25.332, P<0.001), diaper (F=9.942, P=0.002), and commode (F=29.588, P<0.001). NP consistently had higher estimates of bleeding volume compared to MP. The interaction effect between group and volume was statistically significant for the floor and diaper-floor (F=9.708, P<0.001) and diaper (F=5.420, P=0.013), but there was no significant difference for the commode (P=0.087). Additionally, the standard deviation of bleeding volume estimates was higher for NP. Conclusion Visual estimation of blood loss differed significantly between MP and NP, with NP consistently overestimating and demonstrating lower accuracy and reliability compared to MP. These findings underscore the need for caution when relying on estimates by NP as a diagnostic tool for assessing blood loss.

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. It can lead to damage of the nerve. Although the incidence of leprosy is very low in South Korea, a large number of people are immigrating to South Korea from countries with a high prevalence of leprosy. We report a case of leprosy confirmed by nerve biopsy. The patient was from Nepal who presented with progressive and asymmetric sensory loss. Leprosy can be considered as a differential diagnosis in patients with progressive and asymmetric sensory loss, especially when patients are from leprosy endemic countries.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated whether Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKis) raise the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), venous thromboembolism (VTE), and cancer in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: We conducted a real-world retrospective observational study using data obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database. Two data sets were analyzed: tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi)/JAKi-naive RA patients (set 1) and all RA patients who used TNFis or JAKis (set 2). The incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and hazard ratios (HRs) for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, cardiovascular (CV)-related mortality, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), VTE, arterial thromboembolism (ATE), cancer, and all-cause mortality were compared between the JAKi and TNFi groups. RESULTS: Set 1 included 1,596 RA patients (JAKi group: 645; TNFi group: 951), and set 2 included 11,765 RA patients (JAKi group: 2,498; TNFi group: 9,267). No adverse events (AEs) showed significantly higher IRRs in the JAKi groups than in the TNFi groups of sets 1 and 2. The HRs for MACE in the JAKi groups of sets 1 and 2 were 0.59 (95% confidence [CI], 0.35 to 0.99) and 0.80 (95% CI, 0.67 to 0.97), respectively. The JAKi group of set 2 showed a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality (HR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.32 to 2.20), but the other AEs did not demonstrate increased risks in the JAKi groups. CONCLUSIONS In this study, JAKis did not increase the risk of AMI, stroke, CV-related mortality, MACE, VTE, ATE, or cancer in Korean RA patients relative to TNFis.