Journal of Korean medical science
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Aug 2022
Breakthrough COVID-19 Infection During the Delta Variant Dominant Period: Individualized Care Based on Vaccination Status Is Needed.
The clinical features of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in the COVID-19 vaccination era need to be clarified because breakthrough infection after vaccination is not uncommon. ⋯ In the hospitalized setting, vaccinated and unvaccinated COVID-19 patients showed different clinical features and risk of oxygen demand despite a relatively high proportion of patients in the two groups. Vaccination needs to be assessed as an initial checkpoint, and chest X-ray may be helpful for predicting severe progression in vaccinated patients.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Aug 2022
Case ReportsSuccessful mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination and Colonoscopy After Oral Desensitization in a Patient With Polyethylene Glycol Allergy.
Anaphylaxis to polyethylene glycol (PEG) is rare and mainly occurs with the use of laxatives containing PEG. Recently, an increasing number of PEG allergies have been reported, particularly those related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines. mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, such as the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) vaccines, contain PEG2000 as an excipient and are contraindicated when allergy to a vaccine component exist. ⋯ Allergy to PEG was diagnosed based on clinical history, skin test results, and basophil histamine release testing. Oral desensitization effectively suppressed histamine release from basophils in response to PEG stimulation, suggesting that oral desensitization using PEG-based laxatives may be an effective treatment option for patients with allergy to the substance.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Aug 2022
Operational Definition Identifying Osteoporotic Vertebral Fractures in the Claims Database.
We analyzed the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICD-10) diagnostic codes, procedure codes, and radiographic image codes for vertebral fracture (VF) used in the database of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) of Korea to establish a validated operational definition for identifying patients with osteoporotic VF in claims data. ⋯ Our findings demonstrate the validity of our operational definitions to identify VFs more accurately using claims data. This algorithm to identify VF is likely to be useful in future studies for diagnosing osteoporotic VF.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Aug 2022
IntraBrain Injector (IBI): A Stereotactic-Guided Device for Repeated Delivery of Therapeutic Agents Into the Brain Parenchyma.
To deliver therapeutics into the brain, it is imperative to overcome the issue of the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). One of the ways to circumvent the BBB is to administer therapeutics directly into the brain parenchyma. To enhance the treatment efficacy for chronic neurodegenerative disorders, repeated administration to the target location is required. However, this increases the number of operations that must be performed. In this study, we developed the IntraBrain Injector (IBI), a new implantable device to repeatedly deliver therapeutics into the brain parenchyma. ⋯ Precise and repeated delivery of therapeutics into the brain parenchyma can be done without performing additional surgeries via IBI implantation.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Aug 2022
Meta AnalysisRelationship Between Androgen Deprivation Therapy for Prostate Cancer and Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Several cohort studies have explored the relationship between androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study aimed to characterize the relationship between ADT and the severity of COVID-19 in patients with prostate cancer. ⋯ Qualitative and quantitative analyses of previous studies revealed no significant effect of ADT on COVID-19. However, more studies with higher quality that explore biochemical and immunological factors involved are needed to confirm this finding in the future.