This manuscript represents the official position of the Korean Society of Echocardiography on valvular heart diseases.This position paper focuses on the clinical management of valvular heart diseases with reference to the guidelines recently published by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association and the European Society of Cardiology. The committee tried to reflect the recently published results on the topic of valvular heart diseases and Korean data by a systematic literature search based on validity and relevance. In part I of this article, we will review and discuss the current position of aortic valve disease in Korea.

This manuscript represents the official position of the Korean Society of Echocardiography on valvular heart diseases.This position paper focuses on the diagnosis and management of valvular heart diseases with referring to the guide‑ lines recently published by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association and the European Society of Cardiology. The committee sought to reflect national data on the topic of valvular heart diseases published to date through a systematic literature search based on validity and relevance. In the part II of this article, we intend to pre‑ sent recommendations for diagnosis and treatment of mitral valve disease and tricuspid valve disease.

No abstract available.
Mitral Valve

Cadmium (Cd), a major component of cigarette smoke, disrupts the normal functions of airway cells and can lead to the development of various pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the molecular mechanisms involved in Cd-induced pulmonary diseases are poorly understood. Here, we identified a cluster of genes that are altered in response to Cd exposure in human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) and demonstrated that Cd-induced ER stress and inflammation are mediated via CCAAT-enhancer-binding proteins (C/EBP)-DNA-damaged-inducible transcript 3 (DDIT3) signaling in BEAS-2B cells. Cd treatment led to marked upregulation and downregulation of genes associated with the cell cycle, apoptosis, oxidative stress and inflammation as well as various signal transduction pathways. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that Cd treatment stimulated the C/EBP signaling pathway and induced transcriptional activation of its downstream target genes, including DDIT3. Suppression of DDIT3 expression using specific small interfering RNA effectively alleviated Cd-induced ER stress and inflammatory responses in both BEAS-2B and normal primary normal human bronchial epithelial cells. Taken together, these data suggest that C/EBP signaling may have a pivotal role in the early induction of ER stress and inflammatory responses by Cd exposure and could be a molecular target for Cd-induced pulmonary disease.
Apoptosis ; Cadmium ; CCAAT-Enhancer-Binding Proteins ; Cell Cycle ; Down-Regulation ; Epithelial Cells* ; Humans* ; Inflammation* ; Lung Diseases ; Oxidative Stress ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; RNA, Small Interfering ; Signal Transduction ; Smoke ; Tobacco Products ; Transcriptional Activation ; Up-Regulation

Although it has been proposed that trace minerals have anti-oxidative functions and are related to the control of blood pressure, only a limited number of studies directly address the issue. Thus, the purpose of our study was to assess the intake of copper and manganese, which are trace minerals, and to clarify their relation to blood pressure. In a cross-sectional study, the blood pressure of 640 normotensive adults, from 19 to 69 year-old (320 males and 320 females), was measured, and its correlation with the intake of copper and manganese was assessed using a 24-hour dietary recall method. The average value of the blood pressure was 126.4/80.2 mmHg for the males and 117.8/75.8 mmHg for the females. The daily copper intake was 1.3 mg/day for the males and 1.2 mg/day for the females. For manganese, the daily intake was 4.2 mg/day for the males and 4.1 mg/day for the females. Although the copper intake of all subjects showed a positive correlation with the systolic and diastolic blood pressures, there was no significant correlation when the potential confounding factors were adjusted. The manganese intake of the male subjects had a significantly negative correlation with the systolic blood pressure after adjusting for gender, age, body mass index, and energy intake. In conclusion, the daily manganese intake of the normotensitve adults showed a significantly negative correlation with the systolic blood pressure indicating a possibility of a positive effect of manganese on blood pressure.
Adult* ; Blood Pressure* ; Body Mass Index ; Copper* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Energy Intake ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Manganese* ; Minerals

BACKGROUND: For the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTB), PCR is known to be sensitive, specific, and rapid compared to the conventional methods of acid-fast-bacilli (AFB) smear and culture. We evaluated a new approach for MTB detection using real-time PCR. METHODS: The specificity of real-time PCR was evaluated using 20 MTB isolates and 37 nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) isolates identified by AccuProbe Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex colony identification test (Gen-Probe Inc., USA) and Myco-ID (M&D, Korea). One hundred sputum specimens (50 AFB smear-positive and 50 negative specimens) were analyzed using real-time PCR and Amplicor Mycobacterium tuberculosis test (Roche, Germany). The results of real-time PCR positives (55 samples) and negatives (598 samples) were analyzed by AFB smear and culture. RESULTS: The real-time PCR assay accurately discriminated between MTB and NTM species. Realtime PCR and Amplicor test yielded the same results in 96.0% (96/100) of the sputum specimens tested. The sensitivity and specificity of real-time PCR based on AFB culture were 97.4% and 88.5%, respectively. Of the 55 real-time PCR positive specimens, 83.6% (46/55) were culture-positive, 30.9% (17/55) were smear-positive, 52.7% (29/55) were smear-negative and culture-positive, and 14.5% (8/55) were both smear and culture-negative. Among the 598 real-time PCR negative specimens, 60 were not tested for AFB smear or culture and 10 were contaminated. Of the remaining 528 specimens, 478 (90.5%) were both smear and culture-negative and 39 (7.4%) were culture-positive. CONCLUSIONS: For the detection of MTB, real-time PCR was sensitive and specific and comparable to conventional methods. It can be used for rapid identification of M. tuberculosis in clinical laboratories.
*Bacterial Typing Techniques ; Computer Systems ; Humans ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis/classification/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Polymerase Chain Reaction/*methods ; Reagent Kits, Diagnostic ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tuberculosis/*microbiology