BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: In the Republic of Korea, “Healthy Restaurant for Sodium Reduction (HRSR)” project have been designated as one of the representative policies for sodium intake reduction. However, as of 2021, only 879 restaurants, less than 0.1% of all restaurants, had been designated. Therefore, to increase the participation of restaurants in this policy, it is necessary to examine the in-depth perception and experience of participants and non-participants in the HRSR.MATERIALS/METHODS: Two focus group discussions were conducted for HRSR project participants and non-participants. RESULTS: A total of 260 semantic units were derived from the 2 groups. The units were further classified into 5 upper categories and 11 subcategories. All the study participants knew the importance of low sodium intake, but they had little information on HRSR project.Various attempts have been made to encourage low sodium practice in restaurants, and the participants reported that the amount of salt used in their restaurants currently is reduced compared to that used in the past. However, they were worried about customers’ complaints about the low sodium in their diet and the insignificant beneficent associated with the policy, which makes restaurant owners reluctant to participate in this policy. All the participants agreed on the urgent need for the improvement of public awareness of low-sodium diets and for substantive government support for HRSR. CONCLUSION This study concluded that strategies such as more active publicity for the practice of sodium reduction in restaurants, identification of approaches to dispel the perception that low-salt diet is not tasty, and development of plans to increase the sale of food in of HRSR, are needed.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of intervention policies on coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) dissemination. Materials and Methods: An age-structured compartmental model for the COVID-19 outbreak was proposed to predict the impact of control measures in the Seoul/Gyeonggi region. The model was calibrated based on actual data and realistic situations, including daily vaccine doses, proportion of delta variant cases, and confirmed cases by age. We simulated different scenarios for non-pharmaceutical interventions by varying social distancing and school attendance strategies. Results: Two-step mitigation of social distancing without in-person classes would result in a rapid increase in confirmed cases up to 10000 but would keep severe cases within the manageable range of the health care system. The overall impact of taking down the distancing level by one step with twice the increase in contacts at school was comparable to the above scenario. Implementation of two-step mitigation of social distancing along with a two-fold increase in contacts among the school-age group would dramatically increase confirmed and severe cases by over 80000 and 100, respectively, as early as the beginning of December. This policy would cause the situation to spiral out of control, considering the scale of the response and time to prepare. On the other hand, the burden on the current healthcare system caused by two-step mitigation of social distancing and 40% increased contacts in the school-age group was manageable if prepared. Conclusion A compromise between social distancing and school attendance policy and timely preparations for the spread of COVID-19 are required.

A seven-year-old, castrated male, Korean domestic shorthair cat was referred because of a kidney abnormality. Radiography revealed left renal agenesis and right kidney enlargement. Ultrasonography and computed tomography (CT) showed amorphous calcified materials in a cyst-like lesion of the right kidney. In the excretory phase of the CT images, the lesion was opacified with contrast material, indicating communication with the collecting system. Based on these findings, the cat was diagnosed with a calyceal diverticulum. A calyceal diverticulum may cause various clinical symptoms related to the urinary system. The excretory phase of CT is useful for diagnosing a calyceal diverticulum.

A seven-year-old, castrated male, Korean domestic shorthair cat was referred because of a kidney abnormality. Radiography revealed left renal agenesis and right kidney enlargement. Ultrasonography and computed tomography (CT) showed amorphous calcified materials in a cyst-like lesion of the right kidney. In the excretory phase of the CT images, the lesion was opacified with contrast material, indicating communication with the collecting system. Based on these findings, the cat was diagnosed with a calyceal diverticulum. A calyceal diverticulum may cause various clinical symptoms related to the urinary system. The excretory phase of CT is useful for diagnosing a calyceal diverticulum.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the social perceptions of nurses in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak through analysis of media articles. Methods: Among the media articles reported from January 1st to September 30th, 2020, those containing the keywords ‘[corona or Wuhan pneumonia or covid] and [nurse or nursing]’ are extracted. After the selection process, the text mining and topic modeling are performed on 454 media articles using textom version 4.5. Results: Frequency Top 30 keywords include ‘Nurse’, ‘Corona’, ‘Isolation’, ‘Support’, ‘Shortage’, ‘Protective Clothing’, and so on. Keywords that ranked high in Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) values are ‘Daegu’, ‘President’, ‘Gwangju’, ‘manpower’, and so on. As a result of the topic analysis, 10 topics are derived, such as ‘Local infection’, ‘Dispatch of personnel’, ‘Message for thanks’, and ‘Delivery of one’s heart’. Conclusion Nurses are both the contributors and victims of COVID-19 prevention. The government and the nurses’ community should make efforts to improve poor working conditions and manpower shortages.

Background: Pure mucinous carcinoma (PMC) is a rare type of breast cancer, estimated to represent 2% of invasive breast cancer. PMC is typically positive for estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) and negative for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). The clinicopathologic characteristics of HER2-positive PMC have not been investigated. Methods: Pathology archives were searched for PMC diagnosed from January 1999 to April 2018. Clinicopathologic data and microscopic findings were reviewed and compared between HER2-positive PMC and HER2-negative PMC. We also analyzed the differences in disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival according to clinicopathologic parameters including HER2 status in overall PMC cases. Results: There were 21 HER2-positive cases (4.8%) in 438 PMCs. The average tumor size of HER2-positive PMC was 32.21 mm (± 26.55). Lymph node metastasis was present in seven cases. Compared to HER2-negative PMC, HER2-positive PMC presented with a more advanced T category (p < .001), more frequent lymph node metastasis (p = .009), and a higher nuclear and histologic grade (p < .001). Microscopically, signet ring cells were frequently observed in HER2-positive PMC (p < .001), whereas a micropapillary pattern was more frequent in HER2-negative PMC (p = .012). HER2-positive PMC was more frequently negative for ER (33.3% vs. 1.2%) and PR (28.6% vs. 7.2%) than HER2-negative PMC and showed a high Ki-67 labeling index. During follow-up, distant metastasis and recurrence developed in three HER2-positive PMC patients. Multivariate analysis revealed that only HER2-positivity and lymph node status were significantly associated with DFS. Conclusions Our results suggest that HER2-positive PMC is a more aggressive subgroup of PMC. HER2 positivity should be considered for adequate management of PMC.

PURPOSE: Rufinamide (RFM) is known to be effective for children with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS). The aim of this study is to evaluate its efficacy and tolerability of Korean children with LGS. METHODS: This is a single center, open label, retrospective study. Patients with LGS who received rufinamide as adjunctive therapy were enrolled in this study. Their baseline clinical characteristics, the percent change in the seizure frequency per 4 weeks, and adverse events were evaluated. RESULTS: Among 32 children, 20 were males and the mean age was 11.3±6.6 years. After 1 month of rufinamide medication, the frequency of seizures was reduced by more than 50% in 31.3% of patients and 6.3% of patients had no seizures. After 6 months of rufinamide administration, patients with a 50% or less decrease in seizure frequency remained in a state of reduced seizure frequency and 3.1% of patients had no seizures. Side effects such as nausea, vomiting, anorexia, less active, somnolence, aggression, drooling were noted in 28.1% of patients. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that rufinamide can be considered as an effective and safe treatment option for intractable epileptic children such as LGS.
Aggression ; Anorexia ; Child* ; Epilepsy ; Humans ; Male ; Nausea ; Retrospective Studies ; Seizures ; Sialorrhea ; Vomiting

OBJECTIVE: Dyslipidemia is recognized as a prominent risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases but it is manageable through therapeutic and lifestyle intervention. Interpreting the latest guidelines is essential for an application of recommendation from guidelines into clinical practice. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the most recent guidelines on dyslipidemia treatment recommendations in Korea and USA. METHODS: This study analyzed and compared 2015 Korean guidelines for the management of dyslipidemia, 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) guideline and 2016 supportive guidelines from ACC. RESULTS: A comparison was made focused on the following: target patients based on cardiovascular risk assessment, target goal, and treatment strategies including statin and non-statin therapies. Four target patient groups by risk were suggested in 2015 Korean guideline and cardiovascular risk factors were also considered for initiation of lipid lowering therapy. Titrated statin regimen was recommended by Korean guideline to reach LDL cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol target level. In 2013 ACC/AHA guideline, four statin benefit group was introduced considering ASCVD risk and high intensity statin or intermediate intensity statin use were recommended without dose titration. 2016 update was to support non-statin therapy based on updated evidence and new consideration of ezetimibe, PCSK9-inhibitor and bile acid sequestrant was brought up. CONCLUSION: Guidelines are continuously updating as new and important clinical data are constantly released along with the advent of newly approved drugs for lipid disorder. This article provides resources that facilitates uptake of these recommendations into clinical practice.

BACKGROUND: With increasing use of medical radiologic procedures, wearing proper protector should be emphasized to reduce occupational radiation exposures. This research describes the rates of lead apron wearing for radiation protection and assessed occupational factors related to wearing rates for various types of healthcare professionals. METHODS: We conducted a self-administered questionnaire survey through a website, on-site visits, fax, and mail. Of the 13,489 participants, 8858 workers who could not completely separate themselves from radiological procedure areas. Their general characteristics (sex and age), work history (job title, duration of employment, and hospital type), and practices (frequency of radiation procedures, ability to completely separate from radiation, and frequency of wearing protective lead aprons) were examined. RESULTS: The mean rate of lead apron wearing during radiologic procedures was 48.0 %. The rate was different according to sex (male: 52.9 %, female: 39.6 %), hospital type (general hospital: 63.0 %, hospital: 51.3 %, clinic: 35.6 %, dental hospital/clinic: 13.3 %, public health center: 22.8 %), and job title (radiologic technologist: 50.3 %, doctor: 70.3 %, dentist/dental hygienist: 15.0 %, nurse/nursing assistant: 64.5 %) (p < 0.001). By logistic regression analysis stratified by job title, use of lead aprons by radiologic technologists and nurses/nursing assistants was associated with hospital type and exposure frequency score. For doctors, apron wearing was associated with employment duration. For dentists/dental hygienists, apron wearing was associated with the exposure frequency score. CONCLUSIONS: To improve working environments for healthcare professionals exposed to radiation, it is necessary to consider related factors, such as job title, duration of employment, and hospital type, when utilizing a planning and management system to prevent radiation-related health problems.
Delivery of Health Care* ; Employment ; Female ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Postal Service ; Public Health ; Radiation Protection

2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) can induce drug transporter genes such as the ATP-binding cassette G member 2 (ABCG2), which contributes to multidrug resistance. We investigated the effect of TCDD pretreatment on drug transporters induction from cancer cells of various origins. Cell viabilities after treatment of cisplatin were measured to evaluate acquiring cisplatin resistance by TCDD. Acquring cisplatin resistance was found only in cisplatin senstivie cancer cells including gastric SNU601, colon LS180, brain CRT-MG and lymphoma Jurkat cells which showed a significant increase in cell viability after combined treatment with TCDD and cisplatin. High increase of ABCG2 gene expression was found in SNU601 and LS180 cells with a mild increase in the expression of the ABCC3, ABCC5,and SLC29A2 genes in SNU601 cells, and of major vault protein (MVP) in LS180 cells. The AhR inhibitor kaempferol suppressed the upregulation of ABCG2 expression and reversed the TCDD-induced increase in cell viability in LS180 cells. However, in CRT-MG cells, other transporter genes including ABCC1, ABCC5, ABCA3, ABCA2, ABCB4, ABCG1, and SLC29A1 were up-regulated. These findings suggested the acquiring cisplatin resistance by TCDD associated with cancer cell-type-specific induction of drug transporters.
ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters/genetics/*metabolism ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Survival/drug effects ; Cisplatin/*pharmacology ; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm/drug effects ; Equilibrative-Nucleoside Transporter 2/genetics/metabolism ; Humans ; Jurkat Cells ; K562 Cells ; Kaempferols/pharmacology ; Multidrug Resistance-Associated Proteins/genetics/metabolism ; Neoplasm Proteins/genetics/*metabolism ; RNA, Messenger/metabolism ; Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon/metabolism ; Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin/*pharmacology ; Up-Regulation/*drug effects ; Vault Ribonucleoprotein Particles/genetics/metabolism