• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.47-54
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• 2024

PURPOSE: This study aimed to identify the potential clinically predictive indicators of the age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass (ALSMM) in middle-aged women. METHODS: The data from a cross-sectional study involving 2,066 community-dwelling female participants aged 40 to 49 years were analyzed. Complex sampling analyses were used to ensure a nationally representative analysis, incorporating the individual weights provided by KNHANES. This approach accounted for the stratified, clustered, and multistage probability sampling design of the survey. The participants were screened for ALSMM, and various potential predictive indicators were assessed, including age, height, weight, body mass index, waist circumference, skeletal muscle mass index, smoking and drinking status, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting glucose levels, triglyceride levels, and cholesterol levels. RESULTS: Significant potential predictive indicators for ALSMM included height, weight, body mass index, waist circumference, skeletal muscle mass index, and fasting glucose (p < .05). The systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride levels triglyceride, and drinking and smoking status were found to be non-significant variables (p > .05). CONCLUSION: The study identified the potential predictive indicators for ALSMM among community-dwelling middle-aged women. These findings enhance the current understanding of ALSMM and highlight the potential predictive indicators associated with its development in middle-aged women.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.1163-1171
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• 2021

Objective: To analyze the correlations between intraoperative ultrasound and MRI metrics of the spinal cord in degenerative cervical myelopathy and identify novel potential predictive ultrasonic indicators of neurological recovery for degenerative cervical myelopathy. Materials and Methods: Twenty-two patients who underwent French-door laminoplasty for multilevel degenerative cervical myelopathy were followed up for 12 months. The Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores were assessed preoperatively and 12 months postoperatively. Maximum spinal cord compression and compression rates were measured and calculated using both intraoperative ultrasound imaging and preoperative T2-weight (T2W) MRI. Signal change rates of the spinal cord on preoperative T2W MRI and gray value ratios of dorsal and ventral spinal cord hyperechogenicity on intraoperative ultrasound imaging were measured and calculated. Correlations between intraoperative ultrasound metrics, MRI metrics, and the recovery rate JOA scores were analyzed using Spearman correlation analysis. Results: The postoperative JOA scores improved significantly, with a mean recovery rate of 65.0 ± 20.3% (p < 0.001). No significant correlations were found between the operative ultrasound metrics and MRI metrics. The gray value ratios of the spinal cord hyperechogenicity was negatively correlated with the recovery rate of JOA scores (ρ = -0.638, p = 0.001), while the ventral and dorsal gray value ratios of spinal cord hyperechogenicity were negatively correlated with the recovery rate of JOA-motor scores (ρ = -0.582, p = 0.004) and JOA-sensory scores (ρ = -0.452, p = 0.035), respectively. The dorsal gray value ratio was significantly higher than the ventral gray value ratio (p < 0.001), while the recovery rate of JOA-motor scores was better than that of JOA-sensory scores at 12 months post-surgery (p = 0.028). Conclusion: For degenerative cervical myelopathy, the correlations between intraoperative ultrasound and preoperative T2W MRI metrics were not significant. Gray value ratios of the spinal cord hyperechogenicity and dorsal and ventral spinal cord hyperechogenicity were significantly correlated with neurological recovery at 12 months postoperatively.

• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.612-624
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• 2024

Background/Aims: The predictive value of the estimated pulse wave velocity (ePWV) for the development of metabolic syndrome has not yet been extensively explored. This study aimed to fill this gap by evaluating ePWV as a potential predictor of metabolic syndrome development in middle-aged Korean adults. Methods: Using prospective data obtained from the Ansan-Ansung cohort database, participants without metabolic syndrome at baseline were studied. ePWV was calculated using specific equations based on age and blood pressure. The primary outcome was the incidence of metabolic syndrome during a median follow-up period of 187 months. Results: Among the 6,186 participants, 2,726 (44.1%) developed metabolic syndrome during the follow-up period. ePWV values were categorized into tertiles to assess their predictive value for the development of metabolic syndrome. An ePWV cut-off of 7.407 m/s was identified as a predictor of metabolic syndrome development, with a sensitivity of 0.743 and a specificity of 0.464. Participants exceeding this cut-off, especially those in the third tertile (8.77-14.63 m/s), had a notably higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome. Specifically, the third tertile exhibited a 52.8% cumulative incidence compared with 30.8% in the first tertile. After adjustments, those in the third tertile faced a 1.530-fold increased risk of metabolic syndrome (95% confidence interval, 1.330-1.761). Conclusions: ePWV is a significant predictor of the development of metabolic syndrome. This finding underscores the potential of ePWV as a cardiometabolic risk assessment tool and can thus provide useful information for primary prevention strategies.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.958-968
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• 2024

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the important role that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play in the immunological process of hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC). An increasing number of studies have shown that certain lncRNAs hold great potential as viable options for diagnosis and treatment in clinical practice. The primary objective of our investigation was to devise an immune lncRNA profile to explore the significance of immune-associated lncRNAs in the accurate diagnosis and prognosis of LIHC. Gene expression profiles of LIHC samples obtained from TCGA database were screened for immune-related genes. The optimal immune-related lncRNA signature was built via correlational analysis, univariate and multivariate Cox analysis. Then, the Kaplan-Meier plot, ROC curve, clinical analysis, gene set enrichment analysis, and principal component analysis were performed to evaluate the capability of the immune lncRNA signature as a prognostic indicator. Six long non-coding RNAs were identified via correlation analysis and Cox regression analysis considering their interactions with immune genes. Subsequently, tumor samples were categorized into two distinct risk groups based on different clinical outcomes. Stratification analysis indicated that the prognostic ability of this signature acted as an independent factor. The Kaplan-Meier method was employed to conduct survival analysis, results showed a significant difference between the two risk groups. The predictive performance of this signature was validated by principal component analysis (PCA). Additionally, data obtained from gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) revealed several potential biological processes in which these biomarkers may be involved. To summarize, this study demonstrated that this six-lncRNA signature could be identified as a potential factor that can independently predict the prognosis of LIHC patients.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.2016-2029
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• 2023

Accurate prediction of critical illness is significant for ensuring the lives and health of patients. The selection of indicators affects the real-time capability and accuracy of the prediction for critical illness. However, the diversity and complexity of these indicators make it difficult to find potential connections between them and critical illnesses. For the first time, this study proposes an indicator analysis model to extract key indicators from the preoperative and intraoperative clinical indicators and laboratory results of critical illnesses. In this study, preoperative and intraoperative data of heart failure and respiratory failure are used to verify the model. The proposed model processes the datum and extracts key indicators through four parts. To test the effectiveness of the proposed model, the key indicators are used to predict the two critical illnesses. The classifiers used in the prediction are light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM) and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost). The predictive performance using key indicators is better than that using all indicators. In the prediction of heart failure, LightGBM and XGBoost have sensitivities of 0.889 and 0.892, and specificities of 0.939 and 0.937, respectively. For respiratory failure, LightGBM and XGBoost have sensitivities of 0.709 and 0.689, and specificity of 0.936 and 0.940, respectively. The proposed model can effectively analyze the correlation between indicators and postoperative critical illness. The analytical results make it possible to find the key indicators for postoperative critical illnesses. This model is meaningful to assist doctors in extracting key indicators in time and improving the reliability and efficiency of prediction.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.64 no.5
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• pp.763-775
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• 2021

Objective : Hemorrhagic transformation (HT) can be occurred after acute cerebral infarction. HT can worse symptoms in severe cases and adversely affect long-term prognosis. As bone and vascular smooth muscle are composed of type 1 collagen, we aimed to identify a potential relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) and HT after acute cardioembolic stroke. Methods : As an indicator of BMD, we used mean frontal skull Hounsfield unit (HU) values on brain computed tomography (CT). Multivariative hazard ratios were calculated using Cox regression analysis to identify whether the osteoporotic condition was an independent predictor of HT after acute cardioembolic stroke. Results : This 11-year analysis enrolled 506 patients who diagnosed as acute cardioembolic infarction. The first tertile of skull HU value was an independent predictor of HT development compared to the third tertile (hazard ratio, 2.12; 95% confidence interval, 1.13-3.98; p=0.020). We observed no interactions between age and skull HU with respect to HT statistically. Conclusion : The results of this study revealed an association between osteoporotic conditions and HT development after acute cardioembolic stroke. A convenient method to measure the cancellous bone HU value of the frontal skull using brain CT images may be useful for predicting HT in patients with acute cerebral infarction.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.167-179
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• 2024

This study addresses the challenge of objectively evaluating the performance of early-stage startups amidst limited information and uncertainty. Focusing on companies selected by TIPS, a leading private sector-driven startup support policy in Korea, the research develops a new indicator to assess technological efficiency. By analyzing various input and output variables collected from Crunchbase and KIND (Korea Investor's Network for Disclosure System) databases, including technology use metrics, patents, and Crunchbase rankings, the study derives technological efficiency for TIPS-selected startups. A prediction model is then developed utilizing machine learning techniques such as Random Forest and boosting (XGBoost) to classify startups into efficiency percentiles (10th, 30th, and 50th). The results indicate that prediction accuracy improves with higher percentiles based on the technical efficiency index, providing valuable insights for evaluating and predicting startup performance in early markets characterized by information scarcity and uncertainty. Future research directions should focus on assessing growth potential and sustainability using the developed classification and prediction models, aiding investors in making data-driven investment decisions and contributing to the development of the early startup ecosystem.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2022

The Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmic Assay(CiPA) project was launched for solving the hERG assay problem of being classified as high-risk groups even though they are low-risk drugs due to their high sensitivity. CiPA presented a protocol to predict drug toxicity using physiological data calculated based on the in-silico model. in this study, features calculated through the in-silico model are analyzed for correlation of changing action potential in the near future, and features are verified through predictive performance according to drug datasets. Using the O'Hara Rudy model modified by Dutta et al., Pearson correlation analysis was performed between 13 features(dVm/dtmax, APpeak, APresting, APD90, APD50, APDtri, Ca_peak, Ca_resting, CaD90, CaD50, CaDtri, qNet, qInward) calculated at 100 pacing, and between dVm/d_{tmax_repol} calculated at 1,000 pacing, and linear regression analysis was performed on each of the 12 training drugs, 16 verification drugs, and 28 drugs. Indicators showing high coefficient of determination(R²) in the training drug dataset were qNet 0.93, AP resting 0.83, APDtri 0.78, Ca resting 0.76, dVm/dt_max 0.63, and APD90 0.61. The indicators showing high determinants in the validated drug dataset were APDtri 0.94, APD90 0.92, APD50 0.85, CaD50 0.84, qNet 0.76, and CaD90 0.64. Indicators with high coefficients of determination for all 28 drugs are qNet 0.78, APD90 0.74, and qInward 0.59. The indicators vary in predictive performance depending on the drug dataset, and qNet showed the same high performance of 0.7 or more on the training drug dataset, the verified drug dataset, and the entire drug dataset.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.35.1-35.16
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• 2023

Defining the molecular dynamics associated with T cell differentiation enhances our understanding of T cell biology and opens up new possibilities for clinical implications. In this study, we investigated the dynamics of CD5 expression in CD8⁺ T cell differentiation and explored its potential clinical uses. Using PBMCs from 29 healthy donors, we observed a stepwise decrease in CD5 expression as CD8⁺ T cells progressed through the differentiation stages. Interestingly, we found that CD5 expression was initially upregulated in response to T cell receptor stimulation, but diminished as the cells underwent proliferation, potentially explaining the differentiation-associated CD5 downregulation. Based on the proliferation-dependent downregulation of CD5, we hypothesized that relative CD5 expression could serve as a marker to distinguish the heterogeneous CD8⁺ T cell population based on their proliferation history. In support of this, we demonstrated that effector memory CD8⁺ T cells with higher CD5 expression exhibited phenotypic and functional characteristics resembling less differentiated cells compared to those with lower CD5 expression. Furthermore, in the retrospective analysis of PBMCs from 30 non-small cell lung cancer patients, we found that patients with higher CD5 expression in effector memory T cells displayed CD8⁺ T cells with a phenotype closer to the less differentiated cells, leading to favorable clinical outcomes in response to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. These findings highlight the dynamics of CD5 expression as an indicator of CD8⁺ T cell differentiation status, and have implications for the development of predictive biomarker for ICI therapy.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.46 no.8
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• pp.811-816
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• 2003

Purpose : Kawasaki disease is an acute systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology with a predilection for the coronary arteries. Vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) is a cytokine which promotes vascular permeability and angiogenesis. We investigated serum VEGF(sVEGF) levels in Kawasaki disease to determine whether sVEGF level can be used as a risk factor to predict the occurrence of coronary artery lesions(CAL) in Kawasaki disease. Methods : We measured sVEGF levels in 11 patients with Kawasaki disease in acute phase(patient group)and 11 normal children(control group) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) method. We investigated the relationship between sVEGF levels and the lumen diameters of coronary artery and other potential CAL risk factors; duration of fever, hemoglobin, WBC counts, platelet counts, ESR, CRP and LDH levels. Results : SVEGF levels of patients in the acute phase of Kawasaki disease(mean $847.9{\pm}495.7pg/mL$) were significantly higher than that of normal controls(mean $279.9{\pm}150.6pg/mL$; P<0.05). SVEGF levels showed significant positive correlation with the lumen diameters of the coronary artery(P<0.05, $r_s=0.75$) in the patient group. There was no significant correlation between sVEGF levels and duration of fever or other laboratory measurements. Conclusion : Our results support the notion that sVEGF level may be considered as a predictive indicator for the occurrence of coronary artery lesions in Kawasaki disease.