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 (p < 0.05). In addition, VO₂max was lower in the smoking group compared to the other 2 groups. BP closely correlated with resting heart rate, abdominal fat ratio, and BMI. BMI was the highest in the group that stopped smoking and, BMI and abdominal fat ratio negatively correlated with VO₂max.

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.

The present study was performed to determine the seroprevalence of Toxocara in children ≤ 10 years old, from rural and urban areas of Ilam.

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 Toxocara was 22% (31% with a history of contact with dogs and cats, and 14% without a history of contact). Of those infected, 23% were male and 18% were female, 36% lived a rural life and 20% had an urban life. A significant correlation was found between the incidence of disease, and urban and rural life, as well as exposure to dogs and cats. There was no correlation between prevalence and gender or age.

Given the high prevalence of infection with Toxocara amongst children in Ilam province, preventive work in the community such as education in risk management and periodic treatment with anti-parasitic drugs and elimination of stray dogs and cats is an appropriate measure.

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.

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.

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 (p < 0.05).

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.