To investigate the effect of smoking upon cardiopulmonary function, maximal oxygen uptake, and obesity index, in middle-aged and older workers to propose guidelines on healthcare for these age groups.
This study analyzed medical data from 2,753 white-collar workers aged 50 years or older from workplaces located in Seoul, South Korea. Blood pressure (BP), resting heart rate, maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), and body mass index (BMI) of each subject were measured. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0.
In the smoking group BP and resting heart rate were significantly higher than in the non-smoking and smoking-cessation groups (
Smoking increases the risk of cardiopulmonary disease but obesity may be caused by stopping smoking. Therefore, healthcare guidelines on smoking cessation should also include nutritional advice.
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The present study was performed to determine the seroprevalence of
Serum samples from 383 children ≤ 10 years old, were selected randomly from rural and urban areas of Ilam province and surveyed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.
The total rate of infection with
Given the high prevalence of infection with
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This study was designed to analyze biomarker-related publications and patent trends which biobanks could consider in planning biosample collections for biomarker research.
Publications and patents containing the term “biomarker” in the title published between 1998 to 2017 were retrieved using Scopus database and Google Patents search engine.
Over the last 20 years there has been a steady increase in biomarker-related publications and patents; however this has slowed for patents over the last few years. Publications in 2017 that contained blood, serum, and plasma search terms in the abstract accounted for 50%, and serum as a search term in the title and abstract was more numerous than those containing blood, plasma, tissue, or urine. Blood-related patents were the most common patent in the last 10 years, and accounted for 110 patents in 2017. Biomarker-related publications since 2010 containing RNA and protein search terms in the title and abstract, were more numerous than those containing DNA and metabolite search terms. More than 27% of biomarker-related publications in 2017 and 21% of biomarker-related patents were associated with cancer.
The results of this study will help biobanks establish a biosample collection strategy for clinical application.
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Hand, Foot and Mouth disease (HFMD) is a highly contagious viral disease that affects young children and frequently causes epidemics. A vaccine is available in China (enterovirus 71) and, the Republic of Korea took the first step to develop a new vaccine. New vaccine development requires that disease burden is calculated in advance so the financial cost, morbidity and mortality can be measured.
Data from National Sentinel Surveillance and health insurance systems of 1 million claimants were used. Direct medical and non-medical costs, indirect (caregiving and premature death) costs, cases and related deaths were summarized.
From 2010 to 2014, there were an estimated 3,605 to 9,271 cases of HFMD, with 1 to 3 deaths. The estimated socioeconomic disease burden ranged from 80.5 to 164.2 million USD and was similar to that of hepatitis A (93.6–103.8 million USD). Among each costs, costs of caregiving consisted of highest proportion mainly due to hiring caregivers (50% – 60%) or opportunity costs from day off (62% – 69%).
Considering the social impact of HFMD, the estimated socioeconomic disease burden is not high and government policies need to focus on reducing the loss of work in caregivers.
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In patients who have suffered a stroke, the measurement of center of pressure excursion in all directions including oblique direction, anterior-medial, anterior-lateral, posterior-medial, and posterior-lateral side is important for determining balance instability but no research has been reported.
This study investigated weight shift in all directions to determine balance instability in stroke patients, including the oblique direction, using the multi-directional functional reach test.
Eleven subjects participated. Multi-directional functional reach test consisted of moving the unaffected arm as far as possible in 8 directions. The directions were as follows; anterior, middle of anterior and lateral in unaffected side, lateral in unaffected side, and middle of the posterior and lateral in unaffected side, posterior, middle of posterior and lateral in affected side, lateral in affected side, middle of anterior and lateral in affected side.
Movement was the lowest in the affected posterior-lateral side, followed by affected posterior, affected anterior-lateral, non-affected posterior lateral, affected lateral, non-affected lateral, non-affected anterior-lateral and anterior side (
Center of pressure excursion of the affected posterior-lateral side was the most challenging for stroke patients and their reach was lowest from posterior, to lateral, and anterior directions, whilst patients could move less on the affected side compared with the non-affected side.
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Murine typhus is one of the most prevalent rickettsial infections in the world, caused by the bacterial genus
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The Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine was introduced to the national immunization program in 1985, which has led to a dramatic decrease in the number of reported cases, but JE continues to occur in foreign nationals residing in or traveling to Korea. Although the incidence is low, this study demonstrated that more Koreans were infected with JE than foreign-born expatriates. The incidence rates of Korean-born nationals were between 0.01 and 0.08 cases per 100,000. In contrast, the incidence rates of foreign-born nationals ranged between 0 and 0.26 cases per 100,000. The incidence rates clearly showed that foreign-born expatriates were more at risk, which underscores the importance of vaccination. We recommend heightened surveillance among JE-susceptible individuals and promote vaccination among foreign-born nationals living in Korea.
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The Second Meeting of the National Control Laboratories for Vaccines and Biologicals in the Western Pacific, was jointly organized by the National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in the Republic of Korea, and by the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific.
In the National Lot Release Systems session countries including Canada, China, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Republic of Korea, all shared information on their current Lot Release Systems, including current practices and developments in risk-based official lot release of vaccines.
In the session on Quality Control of Blood Products, experts from the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control shared quality control and research results for; blood coagulation factor VIII products, and the measurement of procoagulant activity in immunoglobulin products. Representatives from Japan proposed a regional collaborative study to test aggregated immunoglobulin free from complement activity. A cell-based Japanese encephalitis vaccine potency assay was proposed by representatives from Korea and they also called for voluntary participation of other National Control Laboratories in a collaborative study, on the first Korean
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