Objective: Interpersonal sensitivity, characterized by a heightened awareness of others’ behavior and emotions, is linked to mood disorders. However, current literature lacks a comprehensive analysis of how some items of the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM) interrelate and contribute to the overall construct. This study constructed a network for interpersonal sensitivity symptomatology to identify core IPSM items in patients with mood disorders. Methods: The IPSM, a 36-item self-report scale, was utilized to evaluate interpersonal sensitivity symptoms in 837 participants (major depressive disorder [MDD], n=265; bipolar I disorder [BD I], n=126; and bipolar II disorder [BD II], n=446). We performed exploratory graph analysis, employing regularized partial correlation models to estimate the network structure. Centrality analysis identified core IPSM symptoms for each mood disorder group. Network comparison tests assessed structural differences between the MDD and BD subgroups. Results: Network analysis detected five communities. Item 10 (“I worry about being criticized for things that I have said or done”) showed the highest value in strength. Multiple items on “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency” and “Low Self-Esteem” showed high strength centrality. Network structure invariance and global strength invariance test results indicated no significant differences between the MDD and BD subgroups. Conclusion Our findings emphasize the importance of addressing “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency” and “Low Self-Esteem” in the IPSM network among mood disorder patients based on core items of the network. Additionally, targeted treatments and comprehensive strategies in this aspect could be crucial for managing mood disorders.

Background/Aims: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and obesity are independently associated with an increased risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), the leading cause of mortality in patients with NAFLD. Many NAFLD patients are lean, but their ASCVD risk compared to obese subjects with NAFLD is unclear. Methods: Data from the 2008 to 2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveysdatabase were analyzed (n=4,786). NAFLD was defined as a comprehensive NAFLD score ≥40 or a liver fat score ≥–0.640. ASCVD risk was evaluated using the American College of Cardiol-ogy/American Heart Association guidelines. Results: The frequency of subjects without NAFLD, with obese NAFLD, and with lean NAFLD was 62.4% (n=2,987), 26.6% (n=1,274), and 11.0% (n=525), respectively. Subjects with lean NAFLD had a significantly higher ASCVD score and prevalence of a high ASCVD risk (mean 15.6±14.0, 51.6%) than those with obese NAFLD and without NAFLD (mean 11.2±11.4, 39.8%; mean 7.9±10.9, 25.5%; all p<0.001). Subjects with lean NAFLD and significant liver fibrosis showed a significantly higher odds ratio for a high risk for ASCVD than those with obese NAFLD with or without significant liver fibrosis (odds ratio, 2.60 vs 1.93; p=0.023). Conclusions Subjects with lean NAFLD had a significantly higher ASCVD score and prevalence of high risk for ASCVD than those with obese NAFLD. Similarly, lean subjects with significant liver fibrosis had a higher probability of ASCVD than obese subjects in the subpopulation with NAFLD.

Objective: To explore the indoor air quality of Harbin and its suburbs, and analyze the influence of indoor air quality on the pulmonary function indexes of schoolchildren, and to provide a reference for preventing the related respiratory diseases. Methods: The concentration of CO 2, formaldehyde, benzene, PM 10 and total bacterial count in indoor of 80 residents in Harbin and its suburb were monitored. The IAAH model was used to evaluate the indoor air quality, and the correlation between the indoor air quality and the pulmonary function indexes of schoolchildren was analyzed. Results: The levels of indoor air pollutant in suburb was higher than that in the urban of Harbin, and the concentration of CO 2, PM 10 and total bacteria count in the suburb of Harbin increase significantly during the heating season(t=5.86，4.92，21.16, P<0.05). Among the 40 households monitored by IAAH model in suburb during heating season, 37.5% had moderate air pollution, and 20.0% had severe air pollution. The IAAH was correlated with FVC, FEF75% and FEF25% after excluding the confounding factors by multiple linear regression(β=-0.17, -0.34, -0.43, P<0.05). Conclusion Indoor air pollution is very serious in the suburb of Harbin during heating season, which should be paid attention to by parents to prevent related respiratory diseases of schoolchildren.

PURPOSE: Obtaining brain tissue is critical to definite diagnosis and to furthering understanding of neurodegenerative diseases. The present authors have maintained the National Neuropathology Reference and Diagnostic Laboratories for Dementia in South Korea since 2016. We have built a nationwide brain bank network and are collecting brain tissues from patients with neurodegenerative diseases. We are aiming to facilitate analyses of clinic-pathological and image-pathological correlations of neurodegenerative disease and to broaden understanding thereof. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We recruited participants through two routes: from memory clinics and the community. As a baseline evaluation, clinical interviews, a neurological examination, laboratory tests, neuropsychological tests, and MRI were undertaken. Some patients also underwent amyloid PET. RESULTS: We recruited 105 participants, 70 from clinics and 35 from the community. Among them, 11 died and were autopsied. The clinical diagnoses of the autopsied patients included four with Alzheimer's disease (AD), two with subcortical vascular dementia, two with non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia, one with leukoencephalopathy, one with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and one with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Five patients underwent amyloid PET: two with AD, one with mixed dementia, one with FTD, and one with CJD. CONCLUSION: The clinical and neuropathological information to be obtained from this cohort in the future will provide a deeper understanding of the neuropathological mechanisms of cognitive impairment in Asia, especially Korea.
Alzheimer Disease ; Amyloid ; Aphasia, Primary Progressive ; Asia ; Brain* ; Cognition Disorders ; Cohort Studies ; Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome ; Dementia ; Dementia, Vascular ; Diagnosis ; Frontotemporal Dementia ; Humans ; Korea* ; Leukoencephalopathies ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Memory ; Neurodegenerative Diseases ; Neurologic Examination ; Neuropathology ; Neuropsychological Tests

BACKGROUND: Smad3 linker phosphorylation plays essential roles in tumor progression and metastasis. We have previously reported that the mutation of Smad3 linker phosphorylation sites (Smad3-Erk/Pro-directed kinase site mutant constructs [EPSM]) markedly reduced the tumor progression while increasing the lung metastasis in breast cancer. METHODS: We performed high-throughput RNA-Sequencing of the human prostate cancer cell lines infected with adenoviral Smad3-EPSM to identify the genes regulated by Smad3-EPSM. RESULTS: In this study, we identified genes which are differentially regulated in the presence of Smad3-EPSM. We first confirmed that Smad3-EPSM strongly enhanced a capability of cell motility and invasiveness as well as the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition marker genes, CDH2, SNAI1, and ZEB1 in response to TGF-β1 in human pancreatic and prostate cancer cell lines. We identified GADD45B, CTGF, and JUNB genes in the expression profiles associated with cell motility and invasiveness induced by the Smad3-EPSM. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that inhibition of Smad3 linker phosphorylation may enhance cell motility and invasiveness by inducing expression of GADD45B, CTGF, and JUNB genes in various cancers.
Breast Neoplasms ; Cell Line ; Cell Movement ; Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition ; Humans ; Lung ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pancreatic Neoplasms ; Phosphorylation ; Phosphotransferases ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Sequence Analysis, RNA

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Hyper-IgE syndrome (HIES) is a very rare primary immune deficiency characterized by elevated serum IgE levels, recurrent bacterial infections, chronic dermatitis, and connective tissue abnormalities. Autosomal dominant (AD) HIES involves a mutation in signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) that leads to an impaired T(H)17 response. STAT3 signaling is also involved in the function of RORγt⁺ type 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s) and RORγt⁺T(H)17 cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of innate immune cells such as innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), granulocytes, and monocytes in a patient with HIES. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from a patient with HIES and three age-matched healthy controls were obtained for the analysis of the innate and adaptive immune cells. The frequencies of ILCs in PBMCs were lower in the patient with HIES than in the controls. Moreover, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and IL-17A produced by ILC3s in PBMCs were lower in the patient with HIES than the controls. Compared with the controls, classical monocytes (CD14⁺CD16(low)), which have a high antimicrobial capability, were also lower in the patient with HIES, while non-classical monocytes (CD14(low)CD16⁺) as well as intermediate monocytes (CD14⁺CD16(intermediate)) were higher. Taken together, these results indicate that the impaired immune defense against pathogenic microbes in the patient with HIES might be partially explained by functional defects in ILC3s and inflammatory monocytes.
Bacterial Infections ; Connective Tissue ; Cytokines ; Dermatitis ; Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor ; Granulocytes ; Humans ; Immunity, Innate ; Immunoglobulin E ; Interleukin-17 ; Job Syndrome* ; Lymphocytes* ; Monocytes* ; STAT3 Transcription Factor

BACKGROUND: Insulin-like growth factor II mRNA-binding protein 3 (IMP3) has been reported as a prognostic biomarker in various cancers. To validate IMP3 as a prognostic biomarker in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), we investigated the expression of IMP3, p53, and Ki-67, and their associations with clinicopathologic outcomes. METHODS: We studied 148 clear cell RCCs (CCRCCs) from patients who underwent radical nephrectomy. The expression levels of IMP3, p53, and Ki-67 were assessed by immunohistochemical staining and the clinical and pathologic parameters were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Twenty-nine percent of CCRCCs expressed IMP3. Forty-one percent of IMP3-immunopositive tumors developed metastases, while only 11.4% of IMP3-negative tumors developed metastases (p<.001). A Kaplan-Meier curve showed that patients with IMP3-immunopositive tumors had lower metastasis-free survival and cancer-specific survival than did those with IMP3-immunonegative tumors (p<.001 and p<.001, respectively). Expression of high Ki-67 proliferation index was also associated with a higher metastatic rate. In the multivariate Cox regression analysis, pT stage and IMP3-positivity were independently associated with disease-specific survival. CONCLUSIONS: IMP3 is an independent prognostic biomarker for patients with CCRCC to predict metastasis and poor outcome.
Carcinoma, Renal Cell* ; Humans ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor II ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Nephrectomy ; Retrospective Studies ; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to identify the prevalence of progressive dilation in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) combined with heart failure (HF) and determine the prognostic significance and associated factors with a geometric change of an infarcted heart. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 1310 AMI patients with HF (63.9+/-12.5 years, 70% male) between November 2005 and April 2011 underwent echocardiography at admission and one year later. Left ventricular (LV) remodeling is defined as 20% progression, and left atria (LA) remodeling is 10% compared with the initial volume index. RESULTS: The prevalence of both LA and LV remodeling was 13.9%; LV only was 9.3%, LA only 22.8% and non-remodeling was 55.1%, respectively. In the non-remodeling group, Killip class II was more frequent (83.9%, p<0.001) whereas in other remodeling groups, Killip class III was more frequent. Initial wall motion score index, ejection fraction, maximal cardiac enzyme, high sensitive C-reactive protein, B type natriuretic peptide, and triglyceride serum levels were significantly associated with heart remodeling. All causes of death occurred in 168 cases (12.8%) during the follow-up period. Mortality was the highest in the LV and LA remodeling group (20.9%) and the lowest in the non-remodeling group (11.4%). During the period of follow-up, the cumulative survival rate was significantly lower in the groups of LA and LV remodeling than in others (log rank p=0.006). CONCLUSION: Total mortality was significantly increased in patients AMI with geometrically progressive LA and LV dilatation.
C-Reactive Protein ; Cause of Death ; Dilatation ; Echocardiography ; Follow-Up Studies ; Heart ; Heart Atria* ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Mortality* ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Prevalence ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate ; Triglycerides ; Ventricular Remodeling

To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of Community Health Survey (CHS), we analyzed data from 11,217 participants aged > or = 19 yr, in 13 cities and counties in 2008. Three healthcare utilization indices (admission, outpatient visits, dental visits) as comparative variables and the insurance benefit claim data of the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service as the gold-standard were used. The sensitivities of admission, outpatient visits, and dental visits in CHS were 54.8%, 52.1%, and 61.0%, respectively. The specificities were 96.4%, 85.6%, and 82.7%, respectively. This is the first study to evaluate the validity of nationwide health statistics resulting from questionnaire surveys and shows that CHS needs a lot of efforts to reflect the true health status, health behavior, and healthcare utilization of the population.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Community Health Centers/*utilization ; Female ; *Health Care Surveys ; Humans ; Insurance, Health ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results ; Republic of Korea ; Self Report ; Sensitivity and Specificity