Background: Problem drinking increases the incidence of all-cause mortality and specific cancers, and persistent drinking is associated with cardiovascular disease in certain cancer survivors. This study analyzed the cardiovascular risk factors before and after diagnosis in Korean cancer survivors. Methods: Data for the period between 2002 and 2013 were collected from the National Health Insurance Service Health-Examinee Cohort Database. Among the 27,835 patients included, those with moderate alcohol consumption before and after cancer diagnosis were excluded. Problem drinking was defined as males under 65 years consuming over 14 glasses a week, and males over 65 years or females consuming over seven glasses a week. A t-test, chi-square test, and linear regression analysis were performed for differences in cardiovascular risk factors and differences according to cancer types. Results: There was a difference in the body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol among patients who became moderate drinkers after diagnosis, but fasting blood glucose did not show any significant changes. Risk factors for cardiovascular disease were analyzed in patients with liver, stomach, rectal, and breast cancer with improved drinking behavior, and there were significant differences in body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, and total cholesterol in stomach cancer patients. Conclusion Moderate drinking can lower cardiovascular risk in cancer survivors, and among the many drinking-related cancers, stomach cancer patients demonstrated significantly reduced cardiovascular risk factors.

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have greatly advanced and become a reality in many areas of our daily lives. In the health care field, numerous efforts are being made to implement the AI technology for practical medical treatments. With the rapid developments in machine learning algorithms and improvements in hardware performances, the AI technology is expected to play an important role in effectively analyzing and utilizing extensive amounts of health and medical data. However, the AI technology has various unique characteristics that are different from the existing health care technologies. Subsequently, there are a number of areas that need to be supplemented within the current health care system for the AI to be utilized more effectively and frequently in health care. In addition, the number of medical practitioners and public that accept AI in the health care is still low;moreover, there are various concerns regarding the safety and reliability of AI technologyimplementations. Therefore, this paper aims to introduce the current research and application status of AI technology in health care and discuss the issues that need to be resolved.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare differences in perception and knowledge of child abuse and child disciplinary practices according to the history of child abuse victimization. METHODS: A questionnaire survey on child abuse was conducted with 491 adults raising children. We compared the perception and knowledge of child abuse and child disciplinary practices between two groups of adults with and without a history of childhood abuse victimization. RESULTS: The group with a history of childhood abuse had lower levels of knowledge of child abuse (F=6.990, p<0.01) and engaged in more negative disciplinary practices (F=5.974, p<0.05) than those without. However, no differences in the perception of child abuse were observed between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that adults with a history of childhood abuse have lower levels of knowledge of child abuse and use more negative disciplinary practices in raising their children. This highlights the need to administer not only educational but also more direct hands-on interventions to vulnerable parents in order to foster healthy parenting and disciplinary practices.
Adult ; Child ; Child Abuse ; Child ; Crime Victims ; Humans ; Parenting ; Parents

Clinical practice guidelines for gynecologic cancers have been developed by many organizations. Although these guidelines have much in common in terms of the practice of standard of care for uterine corpus cancer, practice guidelines that reflect the characteristics of patients and healthcare and insurance systems are needed for each country. The Korean Society of Gynecologic Oncology (KSGO) published the first edition of practice guidelines for gynecologic cancer treatment in late 2006; the second edition was released in July 2010 as an evidence-based recommendation. The Guidelines Revision Committee was established in 2015 and decided to produce the third edition of the guidelines as an advanced form based on evidence-based medicine, considering up-to-date clinical trials and abundant qualified Korean data. These guidelines cover screening, surgery, adjuvant treatment, and advanced and recurrent disease with respect to endometrial carcinoma and uterine sarcoma. The committee members and many gynecologic oncologists derived key questions from the discussion, and a number of relevant scientific literatures were reviewed in advance. Recommendations for each specific question were developed by the consensus conference, and they are summarized here, together with other details. The objective of these practice guidelines is to establish standard policies on issues in clinical areas related to the management of uterine corpus cancer based on the findings in published papers to date and the consensus of experts as a KSGO Consensus Statement.
Committee Membership ; Consensus* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Drug Therapy ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; Evidence-Based Medicine ; Female ; Humans ; Insurance ; Korea* ; Mass Screening ; Sarcoma ; Standard of Care

OBJECTIVE: Assisted reproductive technology has been associated with an increase in multiple pregnancies. The most effective strategy for reducing multiple pregnancies is single embryo transfer. Beginning in October 2015, the National Supporting Program for Infertility in South Korea has limited the number of embryos that can be transferred per in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle depending on the patient's age. However, little is known regarding the effect of age and number of transferred embryos on the clinical outcomes of Korean patients. Thus, this study was performed to evaluate the effect of the number of transferred blastocysts on clinical outcomes. METHODS: This study was carried out in the Fertility Center of CHA Gangnam Medical Center from January 2013 to December 2014. The clinical outcomes of 514 women who underwent the transfer of one or two blastocysts on day 5 after IVF and of 721 women who underwent the transfer of one or two vitrified-warmed blastocysts were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: For both fresh and vitrified-warmed cycles, the clinical pregnancy rate and live birth or ongoing pregnancy rate were not significantly different between patients who underwent elective single blastocyst transfer (eSBT) and patients who underwent double blastocyst transfer (DBT), regardless of age. However, the multiple pregnancy rate was significantly lower in the eSBT group than in the DBT group. CONCLUSION: The clinical outcomes of eSBT and DBT were equivalent, but eSBT had a lower risk of multiple pregnancy and is, therefore, the best option.
Blastocyst* ; Embryo Transfer* ; Embryonic Structures ; Female ; Fertility ; Fertilization in Vitro ; Humans ; Infertility ; Korea ; Live Birth ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Rate ; Pregnancy, Multiple ; Reproductive Techniques, Assisted ; Retrospective Studies ; Single Embryo Transfer

Lichen planus is a chronic papulosquamous disease that affects the skin and mucous membranes. It is characterized by pruritic violaceous papules that are most commonly seen on the extremities of middle aged adults, but the elderly are rarely affected. Hypertrophic lichen planus usually occurs on the extremities and especially on the shins, and it tends to be the most pruritic variant. An 82-year-old female presented with severe pruritic multiple papules and plaques on the both the upper and lower extremities for 1 year. At first, the lesions began as small, polygonal papules that formed verrucous plaques over several months. Histopathologic examination showed marked hyperkeratosis, irregular acanthosis and wedge-shaped hypergranulosis. The vacuolar alteration and the lymphocytic inflammatory infiltrate were accentuated at the base of the rete ridge. From these findings, we diagnosed these lesions as hypertrophic lichen planus. The lesions were treated with topical steroid and intralesional injection of steroid, and they were slightly improved after 2 months of therapy.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Extremities ; Female ; Humans ; Injections, Intralesional ; Lichen Planus ; Lichens ; Lower Extremity ; Middle Aged ; Mucous Membrane ; Skin

OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to identify the socioeconomic factors, health behavior factors and dietary patterns that have an influence on the fasting blood glucose in adults. METHODS: This study used data collected from the 2007, 2008, 2009 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The final sample included 4163 subjects who were 30-59 years old and who had completed the necessary health examinations, the health behaviors survey and nutrition survey. RESULTS: Eleven dietary patterns emerged from the factor analysis with different factor loading. After controlling for potential confounders, multiple regression analysis of the dietary patterns showed that 'fruits', 'alcohols', and 'starchy foods' affected the fasting blood. Lower consumption of 'fruits' and higher consumption of 'alcohols' and 'starch foods' were significantly associated only with an increased risk of high blood glucose. CONCLUSIONS: In the light of the results of this study, it appears pretty likely that the risk of developing high blood glucose can be reduced by changing a person's dietary patterns.
Adult ; Age Factors ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Blood Glucose/*analysis ; Body Mass Index ; *Diet ; *Fasting ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nutrition Surveys ; Republic of Korea ; Sex Factors

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the significant factors for risk estimate of aspiration and to evaluate the efficiency of the dysphagia assessment tool. METHODS: A consecutive series of 210 stroke patients with aspiration symptoms such as cough and dysphagia who had soft or regular diet without tube feeding were examined. The dysphagia assessment tool for aspiration was compared with videofluoroscopy using Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis. RESULTS: In CART analysis, of 34 factors, the significant factors for estimating risk of aspiration were cough during swallowing, oral stasis, facial symmetry, salivary drooling, and cough after swallowing. The risk estimate error of the revised dysphagia assessment tool was 25.2%, equal to that of videofluoroscopy. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that the dysphagia assessment tool developed and examined in this study was potentially useful in the clinical field and the primary risk estimating factor was cough during swallowing. Oral stasis, facial symmetry, salivary drooling, cough after swallowing were other significant factors, and based on these results, the dysphagia assessment tool for aspiration was revised and complemented.
Adult ; Aged ; Cough ; Deglutition ; Deglutition Disorders/complications/*diagnosis ; Facial Asymmetry ; Female ; Fluoroscopy/methods ; Humans ; Inhalation ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Risk Assessment ; Stroke/*complications/radiography/therapy

BACKGROUND: This study was performed to investigate the efficacy and safety of intrathecal autologous bone marrowderived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) treatment for patients with ALS. METHODS: After a lead-in period for 3 months, 22 patients were treated with MSCs twice at an interval of 1 month. After initial MSCs injection, all patients were followed up for 3 months and their disease course, clinical characteristics were assessed. Disease status of patients were analyzed with ALS functional rating scale-revised (ALSFRS-R) for primary outcome measure, and additional clinical findings after treatment were all collected for secondary outcome measure and safety. Age and disease-duration matched patients with ALS were selected as a control group. RESULTS: During the follow-up period, MSCs treatment yielded a significant lesser change of ALSFRS-R score, compared to control group (1.54 vs 3.56, p<0.01). Moreover, the slop of decline of ALSFRS-R was significantly lower during the follow-up period, compared to the lead-in period in MSCs treatment group (2.68 vs 1.54, p=0.04), whereas the slopes during the two periods were not different in the control group (3.15 vs 3.56, p=0.37). MSCs treatment was well tolerated except for occurrences of transient headache, low back pain, and myalgia. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that intrathecal MSCs injection can slow disease progression and might be used as a disease modifying modality as an alternative treatment choice in patients with ALS.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ; Disease Progression ; Follow-Up Studies ; Headache ; Humans ; Low Back Pain ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care)