BACKGROUND: Cryopreservation can cause mechanical and chemical stress, ultimately leading to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress. ROS inhibits the expression of antioxidant enzymes in cells, resulting in increased DNA fragmentation and apoptosis. In this paper, we used a vitrification method that has the advantage of producing less ice crystal formation, cost-effectiveness, and time efficiency during cryopreservation. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the degree of protection of ovarian tissue against oxidative stress when N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and Klotho proteins are treated in the vitrification process of ovarian tissue. METHODS: The control group and the cryopreservation groups were randomly assigned, and treated NAC, Klotho, or the combination (NAC ? Klotho). The cell morphological change, DNA damage, senescence, and apoptosis of each group after the freeze–thaw process were compared using transmission electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and western blot analysis. RESULTS: Both NAC and Klotho were found to be more effective at protecting against DNA damage than the control;however, DNA damage was greater in the NAC ? Klotho group than in the group treated with NAC and Klotho, respectively. DNA damage and cellular senescence were also reduced during the vitrification process when cells were treated with NAC, Klotho, or the combination (NAC ? Klotho). NAC increased apoptosis during cryopreservation, whereas Klotho inhibited apoptosis and NAC-induced apoptosis. CONCLUSION This study highlights Klotho’s benefits in inhibiting DNA damage, cell senescence, and apoptosis, including NAC-induced apoptosis, despite its unclear role in vitrification.

Background: Radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) has been accepted as an efficient therapy for tachycardia, and substantial improvement in the outcomes of RFCA in pediatric patients has been seen. However, there is not enough data on the clinical outcomes of RFCA for ventricular tachycardia (VT) in pediatric patients. The objective of this study was to elucidate the efficacy and safety of RFCA for VT in pediatric patients. Methods: We performed a retrospective study involving 35 consecutive pediatric VT ablation procedures in 28 patients at a single institution. Results: The median age at ablation was 14.0 years (range 6.9–19.2 years). There were 24 patients with a structurally normal heart and four patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). The left ventricular posteroseptal area was the most common site of VT origin (22/28, 78.6%). However, there was an unusual case of VT which involved a papillary muscle as its origin. Acute success was achieved in 30 (85.7%) of 35 procedures. The recurrence rate after successful RFCA was 14.2% (5/35) at a median follow-up of 6.7 years (range 1.0–16.7 years). There were five procedural failures due to the inability to induce VT for complete mapping. Ultimately, long-term success was achieved in 27 patients (96.4%) after repeated procedures and no major complications occurred. Long-term success was associated with VT inducibility (p = < 0.001). Conclusions Difficulty in inducing VT for precise mapping was a significant obstacle to successful RFCA. RFCA was identified as safe and effective therapy to eliminate VT in the selected pediatric VT patients.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Markers of inflammation have been associated with outcomes in various cancers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether systemic inf lammatory markers and their f luctuations can predict survival and chemotherapy response in patients with metastatic gastric cancer (mGC). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 502 patients who received first-line palliative chemotherapy for mGC between 2007 and 2013. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and modified Glasgow prognostic score (mGPS) were assessed before and after chemotherapy to evaluate their association with survival. The NLR values were categorized into two groups based on a cut-off value of 3; mGPS values were classified as high versus low. RESULTS: High prechemotherapy NLR was significantly associated with poor overall survival on univariate analysis (p = 0.002). On multivariate analysis, high prechemotherapy NLR (hazard ratio, 1.43; p < 0.001) was an independent prognostic factor for poor overall survival. However, the prechemotherapy mGPS was not significantly associated with survival. Continuously high NLR or a shift to high NLR postchemotherapy was associated with poor chemotherapy response as well as survival, while NLR reduction was associated with a good response (linear by linear association, p < 0.001) and a favorable prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Prechemotherapy NLR can be used as a prognostic factor in mGC, while the postchemotherapy NLR value may predict the chemotherapeutic response and prognosis. In contrast, mGPS has limited prognostic utility in mGC.
Biomarkers ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neutrophils ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach Neoplasms*

A 32-year old male came to our hospital with chief complaint of paraplegia. He had symptom of radiating pain to right leg 3 months ago before paraplegic symptom appeared. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging from outside hospital showed intramedullary mass involving from T8 to T10 level of spinal cord. According to the imaging result, tumor removal with total laminectomy was performed between T8 and T10 level in our hospital. Pathologic result was compatible with germinoma. Spine radiation (39.6 Gy/22 fx) from T7 to T12 level without chemotherapy was performed 3 weeks later since tumor removal. Follow-up MR imaging showed no recurrence without any distant metastasis. And our patient's neurologic symptom had been improved. According to this case, postoperative radiotherapy is thought to be effective to primary spinal germinoma.
Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Germinoma* ; Humans ; Laminectomy ; Leg ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Paraplegia ; Radiotherapy ; Recurrence ; Spinal Cord* ; Spine

¹⁸F–fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is widely used for staging, evaluating treatment response, and predicting prognosis in malignant diseases. FDG uptake and volumetric PET parameters such as metabolic tumor volume have been used and are still used as conventional PET parameters to assess biological characteristics of tumors. However, in recent years, additional features derived from PET images by computational processing have been found to reflect intratumoral heterogeneity, which is related to biological tumor features, and to provide additional predictive and prognostic information, which leads to the concept of radiomics. In this review, we focus on recent clinical studies of malignant diseases that investigated intratumoral heterogeneity on PET/CT, and we discuss its clinical role in various cancers.
Electrons ; Population Characteristics ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; Positron-Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography ; Prognosis ; Tumor Burden

¹⁸F–fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is widely used for staging, evaluating treatment response, and predicting prognosis in malignant diseases. FDG uptake and volumetric PET parameters such as metabolic tumor volume have been used and are still used as conventional PET parameters to assess biological characteristics of tumors. However, in recent years, additional features derived from PET images by computational processing have been found to reflect intratumoral heterogeneity, which is related to biological tumor features, and to provide additional predictive and prognostic information, which leads to the concept of radiomics. In this review, we focus on recent clinical studies of malignant diseases that investigated intratumoral heterogeneity on PET/CT, and we discuss its clinical role in various cancers.

To investigate the prevalence of intestinal parasite infections in Yanbian Prefecture, Jilin Province, China, epidemiological surveys were conducted on a collaboration basis between the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Yanbian Center for Disease Control and Prevention. A total of 8,396 (males 3,737 and females 4,659) stool samples were collected from 8 localities and examined with the formalin-ether sedimentation technique, and additionally examined with the cellotape anal swab to detect Enterobius vermicularis eggs. The overall rate of intestinal parasites was 1.57%. The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides was the highest (0.80%), followed by Entamoeba spp. (0.23%), heterophyid flukes (0.15%), Clonorchis sinensis (0.08%), Enterobius vermicularis (0.07%), hookworms (0.06%), Trichostrongylus spp. (0.06%), Giardia lamblia (0.04%), Paragonimus spp. (0.02%), Diphyllobothrium spp. (0.02%), Trichuris trichiura (0.02%). The prevalence by sex was similar, 1.58% (n=59) in males and 1.57% (n=73) in females. By the present study, it is partly revealed that the prevalences of intestinal parasite infections are relatively low among the inhabitants of Yanbian Prefecture, Jilin Province, China.
Ancylostomatoidea ; Ascaris lumbricoides ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; China* ; Clonorchis sinensis ; Cooperative Behavior ; Diphyllobothrium ; Eggs ; Entamoeba ; Enterobius ; Female ; Giardia lamblia ; Humans ; Male ; Ovum ; Paragonimus ; Parasites* ; Prevalence ; Trematoda ; Trichostrongylus ; Trichuris

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated whether emergency medical service (EMS) use was associated with early arrival and admission for definitive care among intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) patients. METHODS: Patients with ICH were enrolled from 29 hospitals between November 2007 and December 2012, excluding those patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage, traumatic ICH, and missing information. The patients were divided into four groups based on visit type to the definitive hospital emergency department (ED): direct visit by EMS (EMS-direct), direct visit without EMS (non-EMS-direct), transferred from a primary hospital by EMS (EMS-transfer), and transferred from a primary hospital without EMS (non-EMS-transfer). The outcomes were the proportions of participants within early (<1 hr) definitive hospital ED arrival from symptom onset (pS2ED) and those within early (<4 hr) admission from symptom onset (pS2AD). Adjusted odds ratios were calculated to determine the association between EMS use and outcomes with and without inter-hospital transfer. RESULTS: A total of 6,564 patients were enrolled. The adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) for pS2ED were 22.95 (17.73–29.72), 1.11 (0.67–1.84), and 7.95 (6.04–10.46) and those for pS2AD were 5.56 (4.70–6.56), 0.96 (0.71–1.30), and 2.35 (1.94–2.84) for the EMS-direct, EMS-transfer, and non-EMS-direct groups compared with the non-EMS-transfer group, respectively. Through the interaction model, EMS use was significantly associated with early arrival and admission among direct visiting patients but not with transferred patients. CONCLUSION: EMS use was significantly associated with shorter time intervals from symptom onset to arrival and admission at a definitive care hospital. However, the effect disappeared when patients were transferred from a primary hospital.
Cerebral Hemorrhage* ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Medical Services* ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Intracranial Hemorrhages ; Observational Study* ; Odds Ratio ; Patient Admission ; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Traumatic

BACKGROUND: Hand eczema is one of the most common skin disorders and negatively affects quality of life. However, a large-scale multicenter study investigating the clinical features of patients with hand eczema has not yet been conducted in Korea. OBJECTIVE: To identify the prevalence of various hand diseases, which is defined as all cutaneous disease occurring in hands, and to investigate the clinical features of patients with hand eczema and the awareness about hand eczema in the general population and to compare the prevalence of hand eczema between health care providers and non-health care providers. METHODS: To estimate the prevalence of hand diseases, we analyzed the medical records of patients from 24 medical centers. Patients were assessed by online and offline questionnaires. A 1,000 from general population and 913 hand eczema patients answered the questionnaire, for a total of 1,913 subjects. RESULTS: The most common hand disease was irritant contact dermatitis. In an online survey, the lifetime prevalence of hand eczema was 31.2%. Hand eczema was more likely to occur in females (66.0%) and younger (20~39 years, 53.9%). Health care providers and housewives were the occupations most frequently associated with hand eczema. Winter (33.6%) was the most common season which people experienced aggravation. The 63.0% and 67.0% answered that hand eczema hinders their personal relationship and negatively affects daily living activities, respectively. CONCLUSION: Hand eczema is a very common disease and hinders the quality of life. The appropriate identification of hand eczema is necessary to implement effective and efficient treatment.
Activities of Daily Living ; Dermatitis, Contact ; Eczema* ; Female ; Hand* ; Health Personnel ; Humans ; Korea* ; Medical Records ; Occupations ; Prevalence ; Quality of Life ; Seasons ; Skin ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) causes various acute and chronic diseases. Chronic active EBV infection (CAEBV) is characterized by infectious mononucleosis-like symptoms that persist for more than 6 months with high viral loads in peripheral blood and/or an unusual pattern of anti-EBV antibodies. Severe CAEBV is associated with poor prognosis with severe symptoms, an extremely high EBV-related antibody titer, and hematologic complications that often include hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. However, CAEBV which led to the development of aplastic anemia (AA) has not been reported yet. A 73-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with intermittent fever, general weakness and elevated liver enzymes. In the serologic test, EBV-related antibody titer was elevated, and real-time quantitative-PCR in peripheral blood showed viral loads exceeding 10(4) copies/microg DNA. Liver biopsy showed characteristic histopathological changes of EBV hepatitis and in situ hybridization with EBV-encoded RNA-1 was positive for EBV. Pancytopenia was detected in peripheral blood, and the bone marrow aspiration biopsy showed hypocellularity with replacement by adipocytes. AA progressed and the patient was treated with prednisolone but deceased 8 months after the diagnosis due to multiple organ failure and opportunistic infection. Herein, we report a rare case of severe CAEBV in an adult patient accompanied by AA and persistent hepatitis.
Aged ; Anemia, Aplastic/*complications ; Carbapenems/therapeutic use ; Chronic Disease ; DNA, Viral/blood ; Epstein-Barr Virus Infections/complications/*diagnosis/pathology ; Female ; Hepatitis/*complications ; Herpesvirus 4, Human/*genetics/isolation & purification ; Humans ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Severity of Illness Index ; Urinary Tract Infections/drug therapy