No abstract

Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate whether point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) for intussusception screening streamlines the workflow of clinically nonspecific intussusception (CNI), an intussusception presenting with only 1 manifestation of the classic triad, and/or vomiting. Methods We reviewed 274 consecutive children with intussusception, aged 6 years or younger, who visited a tertiary care hospital emergency department between May 2012 and April 2016. This period was dichotomized by May 2014 (the “PRE” and “POST” groups), starting point of implementation of the POCUS protocol for intussusception screening. All children with CNI who had positive results on or forwent POCUS underwent radiologist-performed ultrasound (US). We measured and compared emergency department length of stay (EDLOS), the sum of door-to-reduction and observation times, and the frequency of POCUS and positive US results between the 2 groups. Results Of 160 children with CNI, 93 visited the emergency department since May 2014. The POST group showed a shorter median EDLOS (856 vs 630 minutes, P < 0.001), door-to-reduction time (137 vs 111 minutes, P = 0.002), and observation time (700 vs 532 minutes, P < 0.001). The POST group had a higher frequency of POCUS (12% vs 60%, P < 0.001) with positive US results (33% vs 59%, P < 0.001). The PRE group had a higher frequency of severe bowel edema (16% vs 1%, P < 0.001). No significant differences were found in the severity, recurrence, admission, and surgery. One child had a false-negative result on POCUS. Conclusions Point-of-care ultrasound could streamline the workflow of CNI via decrease in EDLOS and unnecessary referrals for US.

Pediatric appendicitis with appendicolith often presents with prolonged abdominal pain and severe clinical conditions with a high risk of perforation.

LT should be performed only after it is proven that ALF is not caused by HLH, if a child with ALF shows the differential clinical features of ALF caused by HLH. Further research with larger sample sizes, however, is needed.

Gochujang is a Korean fermented hot pepper paste beneficial to human health by providing various nutrients. In this study, its physicochemical characteristics were identified, and its microbial communities were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing. The interrelationship between physicochemical characteristics and microbial composition was investigated to reveal the properties of gochujang before and after fermentation. After fermentation, all samples showed decreased salt concentration, pH, and reducing sugar content, while the acidity and amino-type nitrogen increased. The water content, salt concentration, amino-type nitrogen, and reducing sugar differed according to the batches of samples. Bacillus, Aerosakkonema, and Enterococcus were identified as the predominant bacterial genera. Furthermore, Aerosakkonema was the most abundant genus before fermentation; however, it was replaced by Bacillus as it decreased after fermentation. For the fungi, Aspergillus dominated before fermentation, whereas Zygosaccharomyces and Millerozyma dominated after fermentation. The high level of amino-type nitrogen in gochujang was related to the relative abundance of B. haynesii/B. licheniformis before fermentation. Additionally, the high abundance of Z. rouxii after fermentation was related to the flavor of gochujang. This comprehensive analysis of the microbial community associated with the physicochemical properties of gochujang could help in understanding the factors affecting the quality of the product.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major type of liver cancer caused by the hepatitis B and C viruses, alcohol and exposure to aflatoxin. For HCC treatment, anticancer drugs have been widely used, but drug resistance in advanced HCC is an important problem, resulting in a continuous need for novel therapeutic targets. Therefore, in this study, we established a screening pipeline based on RNA-seq to screen novel therapeutic/prognostic targets in HCC and identified PRMT1 (Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 1). In the prognostic analysis, the overexpression of PRMT1 was clearly associated with poor prognosis in a number of HCC patient cohorts. Moreover, after PRMT1 knockdown, HCC cell lines exhibited cell growth and spheroid formation suppression, an increase in Sub-G1 cells by FACS analysis, and enrichment of the cell cycle pathway via functional enrichment analysis. With these results, we demonstrated that PRMT1 could be a novel prognostic marker and therapeutic target for HCC therapy.

Molecular classifications of breast cancer (BRC), such as human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), luminal A and luminal B, have been developed to reduce unnecessary treatment by dividing patients with BRC into low- and high-risk progression groups. However, these methods do not cover all of the pathological characteristics of BRC, and investigations into novel prognostic/therapeutic markers are thus continually required. In this study, we identified the overexpression of the histone methyltransferase, euchromatic histone-lysine N-methyltransferase 2 (EHMT2) in BRC samples (n=1,222) and normal samples (n=113) derived from the TCGA portal by performing a BRC tissue microarray. EHMT2 overexpression was clearly associated with a poor prognosis in multiple cohorts of patients with BRC (total, n=1,644). Furthermore, the knockdown of EHMT2 expression affected cell apoptosis via the downregulation and re-localization of heat shock protein family D (Hsp60) member 1 (HSPD1). In addition, a statistically significant positive correlation between EHMT2 and HSPD1 expression was revealed in the clinical cohorts. On the whole, the findings of this study may assist the development of novel therapeutic strategies and provide a prognostic marker (EHMT2) for patients with BRC.

The objective of this study was to investigate the quality and environment properties of traditional Gochujang produced by 56 rural farms in 8 regions of Korea for evaluating the relationship between the components and environmental factors. Based on the regional means at the initiatory and after fermentation, the ranges of moisture content, salinity, pH, and acidity of Gochujang were determined to be from 46.87±7.09% to 43.80±7.17%, from 7.52±2.21% to 8.53±2.57%, from 5.01±0.30 to 4.63±0.34, and from 1.13±0.50% to 1.43±0.58%, respectively. The mean contents of reducing sugar and amino-type nitrogen were from 16.46±7.63% to 20.48±7.57% and from 140.06±78.00 mg% to 198.68±87.11 mg%, respectively. Hunter color values (L, a, and b) of Gochujang were from 26.16±9.27 to 22.49±9.02, from 21.87±6.31 to 20.14±7.58, and from 19.43±11.94 to 19.18±12.06, respectively. Total aerobic number was increased from 6.50±1.29 log CFU/g to 8.15±0.88 log CFU/g, while the fungal number was steadily decreased after fermentation. Next generation sequencing analysis to investigate the microbial communities revealed that