Alterations of absolute number or percentage of circulating white blood cell (WBC) subsets are associated with psychological and physical stress. Gender effects on the changes of circulating WBC subsets following surgical treatment have not been determined. Therefore, the current study aimed to determine whether circulating neutrophils, lymphocytes and monocytes, and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (N/L) are different following major surgery according to the gender. We studied 409 male patients and 212 female patients who underwent total or subtotal gastrectomy due to stomach cancer, from 1 January to 31 December in 2005. The WBC count and percentage of its subsets were obtained from database and N/L was directly calculated from the full blood count preoperatively, immediate postoperatively, and postoperative day 1, 3, 5 in a retrospective manner. Compared to preoperative values, neutrophilia, lymphopenia, monocytopenia, and increased N/L were associated with gastrectomy in all patients. In the comparison study between genders, there were significantly increased proportion of neutrophils, decreased lymphocytes and monocytes, and higher N/L in female patients than in male patients after gastrectomy. These findings indicate that female patients showed more immune-compromised response to gastrectomy than male patients.

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Background: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a common sleep disorder, although it has a low prevalence in Asian populations. However, the reported RLS prevalence in ­Korean adults is mostly 4.5–12.1%, which is higher than that reported in other Asian populations. This study aimed to diagnose RLS and exclude mimicking conditions in 2 independent samples of Korean adults, and to compare its prevalence to that from previous studies performed in Asian countries. Methods: Study populations included a (1) nationwide stratified random sample (n = 2,824; age 19–79 years) and (2) community-based cohort (n = 2,685; age 47–79 years). We applied the Cambridge-Hopkins diagnostic questionnaire to diagnose RLS and differentiate it from RLS mimics. Sleep-related symptoms, mood, and medical conditions were compared between the RLS and non-RLS groups. Prior studies of the RLS prevalence in Asia were systematically reviewed and compared to our findings. Results: The adjusted RLS prevalence was 0.4 and 1.3% in populations 1 and 2, respectively. In both populations, subjects with RLS had more depression. The prevalence of RLS mimics was 5.1 and 2.6%, in populations 1 and 2, respectively. The RLS prevalence in Asia was higher when RLS was defined by the presence of essential clinical features and lower when a differential diagnosis was additionally implemented. Conclusions: The RLS prevalence in Korean adults considering RLS mimics is comparable to that in adults from other Asian countries (< 2%). The reported RLS prevalence varies depending on the diagnostic method employed.

To investigate the therapeutic effect of cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) with sleep hygiene in patients with chronic insomnia. Methods: This study was designed as a prospective, doubleblinded, and randomized controlled trial. Twenty-seven patients with chronic insomnia were recruited and randomly allocated to two groups; cranial microcurrent therapy (MC) group and sham group. All patients received sleep hygiene education. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) were measured at baseline (pre-treatment), and 2 weeks and 4 weeks of treatment. Results: In MC group, the PSQI and ISI showed a tendency to decrease consistently until 4 weeks of treatment. In sham group, PSQI and ISI initially decreased during the first 2 weeks, but it increased after 2 weeks of treatment. Conclusions: This study showed that combination treatment of CES and sleep hygiene is more effective in treating chronic insomnia than sleep hygiene only as demonstrated by improvement and maintenance of sleep score for 1 month.

Purposes Although clinical and radiological examinations can be used to diagnose oral cancer, and surgical pathology remains the gold standard, these conventional methods have limitations. We evaluated the feasibility of longitudinal next-generation sequencing-based liquid biopsy for oral squamous cell carcinoma surveillance. Materials and methods Eleven patients were enrolled, and plasma and saliva were collected before, and 1, 3, and 6 months after surgery. Tumor-specific mutations were selected using paired, whole-exome analyses of tumor tissues and whole blood. Genes frequently mutated in head and neck cancer were identified using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) databases to design targeted deep sequencing panels. Results In five of the six patients with recurrent cancer, circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) was detected earlier with liquid biopsy than with conventional monitoring techniques. Moreover, patients without recurrence exhibited decreased ctDNA allele frequency post-treatment. Conclusions Longitudinal liquid biopsy of plasma and saliva may be feasible for detecting somatic mutations associated with oral squamous cell carcinomas. It might be attributable to determine early tumor recurrence through genetic analysis of ctDNA.

The fine structure of sleep electrocortical activity reflects health and disease. The current study provides normative data for sleep structure and electroencephalography (EEG) spectral power measures derived from overnight polysomnography (PSG) and examines the effect of age and sex among Korean middle‐aged and older adults with or without obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). We analysed home PSG data from 1,153 adult participants of an ongoing population‐based cohort study, the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study. Sleep stages were visually scored and spectral power was measured on a single‐channel EEG (C4‐A1). We computed spectral power for five frequency ranges. The EEG power was reported in relative (%) and log‐transformed absolute values (µV2). With ageing, the proportion of N1 sleep increased, whereas N3 decreased, which is more noticeable in men than in women. The amount of N3 was relatively low in this cohort. With ageing, relative delta power decreased and alpha and sigma power increased for the whole sleep period, which was more pronounced during REM sleep in non‐OSA. For men compared with women, relative theta power was lower during REM and sigma and beta were higher during N1 sleep. The differences of relative powers by age and sex in OSA were comparable to those in non‐OSA. In a community‐based Korean population, we present normative data of sleep structure and spectral power for middle‐aged or older adults of a non‐Caucasian ethnicity. The values varied with age and sex and were not influenced by sleep apnea.

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