• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.477-487
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• 2024

Background/Aims: Risk factors for progression to critical illness in hospital-acquired coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remain unknown. Here, we assessed the incidence and risk factors for progression to critical illness and determined their effects on clinical outcomes in patients with hospital-acquired COVID-19. Methods: This retrospective cohort study analyzed patients admitted to the tertiary hospital between January 2020 and June 2022 with confirmed hospital-acquired COVID-19. The primary outcome was the progression to critical illness of hospital-acquired COVID-19. Patients were stratified into high-, intermediate-, or low-risk groups by the number of risk factors for progression to critical illness. Results: In total, 204 patients were included and 37 (18.1%) progressed to critical illness. In the multivariable logistic analysis, patients with preexisting respiratory disease (OR, 3.90; 95% CI, 1.04-15.18), preexisting cardiovascular disease (OR, 3.49; 95% CI, 1.11-11.27), immunocompromised status (OR, 3.18; 95% CI, 1.11-9.16), higher sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score (OR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.28-1.96), and higher clinical frailty scale (OR, 2.49; 95% CI, 1.62-4.13) showed significantly increased risk of progression to critical illness. As the risk of the groups increased, patients were significantly more likely to progress to critical illness and had higher 28-day mortality. Conclusions: Among patients with hospital-acquired COVID-19, preexisting respiratory disease, preexisting cardiovascular disease, immunocompromised status, and higher clinical frailty scale and SOFA scores at baseline were risk factors for progression to critical illness. Patients with these risk factors must be prioritized and appropriately isolated or treated in a timely manner, especially in pandemic settings.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.211-223
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• 2001

Background : Rhinovirus infection of the airways results in increased permeability of the airway vascular endothelium with the influx of plasma proteins, including lipids such as LDL. In vitro studies on the effect of oxLDL on leukocytes has shown many pro inflammatory effects on multiple leukocytes. We hypothesized that oxLDL is one mechanism for recruiting granulocytes to the airways during a RV infection. Therefore, chemotaxis and transendothelial migration, in response to nLDL, was determined for these granulocytes. Methods : nLDL was oxidized with 5mM Cu2S04 for 20-24 hours. 3-5 105 cells were loaded into the Transwell filter while the chemotatic agonists were placed in the lower well for chemotaxis. Confluent monolayers on HPMEC were grown on Transwell filters for transendothelial migration. The filters were washed and eosinophils and neutrophils loaded on to the filter with the chemotatic agonist was were placed in the lower well. The wells were incubated for 3 hours. The number of migrating cells was counted on a hemocytometer. Results : OxLDL, but not nLDL, is chemotatic for eosinophils and neutrophils. The level of granulocytes chemotaxis was dependent on both the concentration of LDL and its degree of oxidation. OxLDL stimulates eosinophil and neutrophils migration across HPMEC monolayers (+/-IL-$1{\beta}$ preactivation) in a dose dependent manner. Conclusion : Increased vascular permeability during a RV infection may lead to the influx and oxidation of LDL. The resulting oxLDL. is one possible mechanism for the recruitment of neutrophils and eosinophils to the airway interstitial matrix. Once in the airways, granulocytes can further interact with oxLDL to promote airway inflammation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.6 s.67
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• pp.906-912
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• 2004

Helicobacter pylori infection is highly prevalent, as high as 2/3 of whole population infected, in Korea. H. pylori infection initiates inflammation by induction of interleukin-8 through type IV secretion of CagA. It was recently suggested that induction failure of IL-8 is not associated with defect in cag PAI but associated with cagE locus diversity. This study was designed to investigate ability of 11-8 in-duction according to sequence variation within the cagE gene, cagA TP motifs and vacA m-types in vitro study using AGS cell-line, and to evaluate its association with different clinical outcome. Seventy-four H. pylori stains were isolated from 23 patients with gastric cancer (Ca), 24 subjects with gastritis (G) and 27 patients with duodenal ulcer (Du) in Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, Seoul, Korea. cagE gene diversity was confirmed by the PCR-RFLP methods with MboI/NlaIII and tyrosine phosphate motifs (TPMs) of cagA was determined TPM-A and C by using DdeI/Tsp5091 restriction enzyme and TPM-B was determend by Real time PCR the method of Owen et al. and IL-8 was measured by ELISA assay. IL-8 activity was positively detected in 59 among 74 strains $(79.7\%)$. IL-8 secretion was significantly increased in MboI A and MboI B type compared to MboI C type and in MboI/NlaIII A-C and B-C type than C-C type. 1L-8 activity was not associated with either the number or composition of cagA tyrosine phosphorylation motifs and vacA m-type. There was no significant difference in IL-8 activity among patient groups. cagE gene diversity is thought to be mainly associated with the induction of IL-8 in H. pylori infection.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.156-163
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• 2017

To verify the usefulness of a steam sterilizer equipped with an electronic Bowie-Dick test system, this study was carried out using two methods, utilizing both a steam sterilizer and an electronic Bowie-Dick tester. The first method is to confirm the error detection of the chemical Bowie-Dick test pack and the electronic Bowie-Dick tester in a malfunctioning sterilizer environment. For this purpose, the Bowie-Dick test program for the steam sterilizer was used to test three types of test packs commonly used in hospitals and the electronic Bowie-Dick tester by changing the set values of temperature, time, and vacuum frequency. The second is an experiment to check the sterilizer's normal operation with the electronic Bowie-Dick tester and the usefulness of grasping the cause of the malfunction. The results showed that the sterilization temperature was the same as that of the test pack at a temperature $1{\sim}6^{\circ}C$ lower than the reference temperature of $134^{\circ}C$. In the test with the sterilization exposure time as a variable, there was a normal discoloration at a time difference of 30~90 s. In the experiment using the number of vacuum cycles, the test was correct by performing the normal discoloration only at the normal condition of 3 times. The test results of 30 hospitals were 100 failure tests by a total of 291 Bowie-Dick tests. Of these, the failure factors related to an internal temperature that the chemical test packs could not detect were the greatest, and the four factors related to temperature, including the internal temperature, were found to be 71.18% of total malfunctions. In addition, the Bowie-Dick tester was provided within 30 min after the start of the Bowie-Dick test to confirm the performance of the sterilizer and the detailed cause. A steam sterilizer equipped with an electronic Bowie-Dick test system is used to manage individual sterilizers. In the current steam sterilizer with many temperature-related errors, it is possible to check the malfunction of the temperature difference that the test pack cannot detect, and the cause of error for the sterilizer is immediately detected after the test. The steam sterilizer equipped with the electronic Bowie-Dick test system assists with infection control with accurate sterilizer performance assurance.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.2146-2152
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• 2015

Apios americana Medik (hereinafter Apios) has been reported to treat diseases, including cancer, hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. The therapeutic effect of Apios is likely to be associated with its anti-inflammatory activity. This study was conducted to evaluate the protective effects of Apios in animal models of acute lung injury induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza A virus (H1N1). Mice were exposed to LPS or H1N1 for 2-4 days to induce acute lung injury. The treatment groups were administered Apios extracts via oral injection for 8 weeks before LPS treatment or H1N1 infection. To investigate the effects of Apios, we assessed the mice for in vivo effects of Apios on immune cell infiltration and the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and histopathological changes in the lung. After induction of acute lung injury, the numbers of neutrophils and total cells were lower in the Apios-treated groups than in the non-Apios-treated LPS and H1N1 groups. The Apios groups tended to have lower levels of tumor necrosis factor-a and interleukin-6 in BAL fluid. In addition, the histopathological changes in the lungs were markedly reduced in the Apios-treated groups. These data suggest that Apios treatment reduces LPS- and H1N1-induced lung inflammation. These protective effects of Apios suggest that it may have therapeutic potential in acute lung injury.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.421-427
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• 2016

Acne is known as the most common skin disease. It commonly occurs during adolescents, but it is also present in children and adults because of air pollution, drug abuse and so on. In addition to the hormonal, genetic and environmental factors, Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) have also critical roles in outbreak of acne by inducing inflammatory mediators. Increase of sebum production provides an ideal environment for P. acnes that induce inflammation on the skin by activation of monocytic cells and stimulation of inflammatory cytokines. In this study, natural extracts were investigated for anti-inflammatory effects against inflammatory acne by P. acnes infection in terms of reducing cytokine production. Eucalyptus globulus extracts effectively suppressed mRNA synthesis of inflammatory mediators such as $TNF-{\alpha}$, $IL-1{\beta}$, IL-2, and NLRP3 in P. acnes-activated macrophages. Moreover, Eucalyptus globulus extracts inhibit activation of transcription factors, $NF-{\kappa}B$ and NFAT, which are known as key regulators of inflammatory cytokine production. This study suggests the potential of using Eucalyptus globulus extracts as alternative agents for the treatment of acne.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.52-56
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• 2016

Propionic acidemia (PA) is a rare autosomal recessive metabolic disease caused by the deficiency of propionyl-CoA carboxylase (PCC). PA affects the catabolism of branched chain amino acid and oddchain fatty acid then results in accumulation of propionic acid and other metabolites in plasma and urine. Catabolic stress such as infection, illness or any stress can precipitate cause acute metabolic decompensation, especially in the first years of life. Acute metabolic decompensation commonly calls for emergency treatment or admission and if the patient is in a serious condition, it can lead to coma or death. But frequent admissions or visiting the emergency room are much burden to the patients and their kins. And we experienced the propionic academia with a confirmed novel mutation and the patient suffered from frequent admission and visiting the emergency room. So, we tried the regular home carebased fluid therapy after securing a central venous line. Finally, we succeeded in preventing frequent admissions resulted from acute metabolic decompensation and could contribute to relieving the burden to the patient and their family.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2013

Rice is one of the most important cereal crops as a model plant for functional genomics of monocotyledons and usually transformed using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. However, the transformation's process using previous method is still time consuming and uneconomical, low efficiency. In this study, we established a new method by modifying the general Agrobacterium protocol especially in the infection and co-cultivation, Agrobacterium elimination, infected calli's selection steps using liquid media. We directly inoculated Agrobacterium containing a ZjLsL gene under the control of constitutive promoter into the 1- to 3-week-old rice calli derived from mature seeds. After 3 days of co-cultivation, the infected calli were transferred onto liquid media of Agrobacterium elimination and calli's selection for 3 days. The calli were transferred to calli's growth solid media for 14 days and then the calli transferred to shoot induction and root induction media. Putative transformants were initially selected on the medium containing phosphinothricin, and the PAT protein verified by PAT strip test. This method in this study would lead to reduction of substantial labor and time to generate transgenic plants.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2005

This study investigated external symptoms, behavior characteristics and the distribution pattern of the scuticociliates in the skin, gill and blood vessel of the tiger puffer, Takifugu rubripes, infected with scuticociliates among tiger puffer cultured. The fish infected with scuticociliates did not show any external symptoms, such as change in body color or swimming behavior, in the early infection stage. However, they showed congestion, erosion, and ulcer on the skin and fin at advanced stages. They showed a turning movement, mainly stayed on the bottom, and swam with their mouths open at the surface of water. Some fish showed a sudden swimming movement of zigzag type. The scuticociliates were ovoid in shape and $20\times40{\mu}m$ in size. The scuticociliates had a contractile vesicle and a caudal cilium that ranged 10-12 ${\mu}m$, and reproduced by binary fission. Therefore the scuticociliates were identified as ciliated, belonging to class Hymenostomatia, order Scuticociliatida in morphogenetic character. The gills infiltrated with scuticociliates showed clubbed gill filament due to hypertrophy of gill lamella. Within the blood vessels, scuticociliates were observed one to ten individuals, depending on diameter of the blood vessels. Some of the scuticociliates were observed to have ingested erythrocytes.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.822-826
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• 2007

This study was conducted to determine the effects of a 0.5% sodium alginate eggshell coating, that was applied at two temperatures, 5 and $25^{\circ}C$, by examining the degree of microbial inhibition on the eggshell surface as well as the coating's effects on egg quality during storage. A significant portion of human Salmonella enteritidis infection is traced to food contamination, and eggs are often highly exposed to this type of contamination. The 0.5% sodium alginate coating's effect for inhibiting microbial growth on the eggs, at $25^{\circ}C$ for 7 days, was one hundred thousand times more effective than that of the uncoated eggs. The pH level in eggs increases as the eggs lose $CO_2$ and as the storage temperature increases. We found that the pH of the coated eggs was lower than that of the uncoated eggs. The pH for the uncoated eggs changed from 7.72 to 7.94 over 30 days of storage at $5^{\circ}C$. However, when the eggs were coated with 0.5% sodium alginate, the pH changed from 7.72 to 7.85 over 30 days of storage at $5^{\circ}C$. The Haugh unit was 66.02 for the uncoated eggs and 70.37 for the 0.5% sodium alginate coated eggs after 30 days of storage. The yolk index of the eggs coated with sodium alginate was higher than that of the uncoated eggs after 30 days. These results indicate that a sodium alginate coating on eggs can serve as protection from microbes and is effective in preserving the interior quality of eggs.