Journal of Korean medical science
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Oct 2015
Risk Factors of Discharged Against Medical Advice among Adolescents Self-inflicted Injury and Attempted Suicide in the Korean Emergency Department.
Suicide is a leading cause of death among Korean adolescents. Many suicide attempting adolescents often are discharged against medical advice in the emergency department. The aim of the present study was to determine the risk factors for discharge against medical advice (DAMA) after self-inflicted injury or attempted suicide in the emergency department. ⋯ The rate of DAMA from the ED was 22.8%. Independent risk factors for DAMA included female gender (odds ratio [OR], 1.49), older age adolescents (OR, 1.96), residence in a metropolitan/large city area (OR, 1.49), and discharge at night (OR, 1.38). These risk factors should be considered in establishing management and counseling plans for patients discharged against medical advice by community services and EDs.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Oct 2015
Meta AnalysisEffect of Indacaterol on Cough and Phlegm in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Five Randomized Controlled Trials.
We investigated the effects of indacaterol on cough and phlegm in patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We performed a meta-analysis with five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of indacaterol in stable COPD patients. The symptom severity was defined using the St. ⋯ Dyspnea improvement was reported in 39.5% (324/820) of patients treated with indacaterol vs. 31.5% (237/753) patients treated with placebo (RR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.03-1.71; P = 0.001, I(2) = 55.1%). Only dyspnea improvement was significant compared to placebo even at the 300 µg indacaterol dose. Compared to placebo, a 12-week treatment of the long-acting beta-agonist, indacaterol might not have a significant effect on cough or phlegm in stable COPD.
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Currently, in the Republic of Korea, despite the very-low-birth rate, the birth rate and number of preterm infants are markedly increasing. Neonatal deaths and major complications mostly occur in premature infants, especially very-low-birth-weight infants (VLBWIs). VLBWIs weigh less than 1,500 g at birth and require intensive treatment in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). ⋯ About 2,000 VLBWIs from 60 participating hospital NICUs are registered annually in the KNN. The KNN has built unique systems such as a web-based real-time data display on the web site and a site-visit monitoring system for data quality surveillance. The KNN should be maintained and developed further in order to generate appropriate, population-based, data-driven, health-care policies; facilitate active multicenter neonatal research, including quality improvement of neonatal care; and ultimately lead to improvement in the prognosis of high-risk newborns and subsequent reduction in health-care costs through the development of evidence-based neonatal medicine in Korea.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Oct 2015
Randomized Controlled TrialEffect of Propofol and Desflurane on Immune Cell Populations in Breast Cancer Patients: A Randomized Trial.
Several factors can affect the perioperative immune function. We evaluated the effect of propofol and desflurane anesthesia on the surgery-induced immune perturbation in patients undergoing breast cancer surgery. The patients were randomly assigned to receive propofol (n = 20) or desflurane (n = 20) anesthesia. ⋯ NK cells significantly decreased 1 hr after induction in the propofol group (0.41 [0.34-0.53] to 0.25 [0.21-0.33] 10(3)/µL), but not in the desflurane group (0.33 [0.29-0.48] to 0.38 [0.30-0.56] 10(3)/µL). Our findings indicate that both propofol and desflurane anesthesia for breast cancer surgery induce a favorable immune response in terms of preservation of IL-2/IL-4 and CD4(+)/CD8(+) T cell ratio in the perioperative period. With respect to leukocytes and NK cells, desflurane anesthesia is associated with less adverse immune responses than propofol anesthesia during surgery for breast cancer. (Clinical trial registration at https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris number: KCT0000939).
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Oct 2015
Multicenter StudyBaseline Characteristics of the Korean Registry of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.
Despite recent advances in understanding of the pathobiology and targeted treatments of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), epidemiologic data from large populations have been limited to western countries. The aim of the Korean Registry of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (KORPAH) was to examine the epidemiology and prognosis of Korean patients with PAH. KORPAH was designed as a nationwide, multicenter, prospective data collection using an internet webserver from September 2008 to December 2011. ⋯ The 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-yr estimated survival rates were 90.8%, 87.8%, and 84.4%, respectively. Although Korean PAH patients exhibited similar age, gender, and survival rate compared with western registries, they showed relatively more CTD-PAH in the etiology and also systemic lupus erythematosus among CTD-PAH. The data suggest that earlier diagnosis and more specialized therapies should be needed to improve the survival of PAH patients.