Journal of Korean medical science
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Apr 2021
Entecavir versus Tenofovir for the Prevention of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Treatment-naïve Chronic Hepatitis B Patients in Korea.
The occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major concern during antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis B. There are conflicting opinions regarding the effects of entecavir (ETV) and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) on HCC prevention. We assessed these two antiviral medications for preventing HCC in treatment-naïve patients with chronic hepatitis B. ⋯ In patients with chronic hepatitis B, the ETV treatment did not result in a higher rate of HCC than the TDF treatment.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Apr 2021
Effect of Opioids on All-cause Mortality and Opioid Addiction in Total Hip Arthroplasty: a Korea Nationwide Cohort Study.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of opioids before and after total hip arthroplasty (THA), to find out the effect of opioid use on mortality in patients with THA, and to analyze whether preoperative opioid use is a risk factor for sustained opioid use after surgery using Korean nationwide cohort data. ⋯ In THA patients, the use of opioids within 6 months before surgery and within 3 months after surgery does not affect postoperative mortality, but a past-use history of opioid is a risk factor for sustained opioid use. Even after THA, the use of strong opioids is observed to increase compared to before surgery.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Apr 2021
Interaction Effects between COVID-19 Outbreak and Community Income Levels on Excess Mortality among Patients Visiting Emergency Departments.
The objective of this study was to examine the effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak on excess in-hospital mortality among patients who visited emergency departments (EDs) and to assess whether the excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic varies by community income level. ⋯ During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was excess in-hospital mortality among patients who visited EDs, and there were disparities in excess mortality depending on community socioeconomic positions.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Apr 2021
Mortality and Morbidities according to Time of Birth in Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants.
Although the overall quality of high-risk neonatal care has improved recently, there is still concern about a difference in the quality of care when comparing off-hour births and regular-hour births. Moreover, there are no data in Korea regarding the impact of time of birth on mortality and morbidities in preterm infants. ⋯ Efforts to improve the overall quality of NICU are required to lower the early mortality rate in off-hour births. Also, other sensitive indexes for the evaluation of quality of NICU care should be further studied.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Apr 2021
ReviewRecent Clinical Update of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Focus on Epigenetic Therapies.
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a complicated disease characterized by genetic heterogeneity and simultaneous alterations in multiple genes. For decades, its only curative method has been intensive induction chemotherapy with or without allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and this approach cannot be applied to elderly patients, who make up more than 50% of AML patients. ⋯ As epigenetic dysregulation is an important carcinogenic mechanism and some epigenetic changes are reversible, these epigenetic alterations have become targets for novel drug development against AML. This review summarizes the recent advances in epigenetic therapies for AML and discusses future research directions.