• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.435-441
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• 2022

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the treatment modality on post-procedural acute kidney injury (AKI) and other clinical outcomes in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease who underwent surgical or transcatheter aortic valve replacement (AVR). Methods: A total of 147 patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (stage 3 to 5) who underwent isolated surgical AVR (SAVR group; n=70) or transcatheter AVR (TAVR group; n=77) were retrospectively studied. Postprocedural AKI was defined according to the RIFLE definition (an acronym corresponding to the risk of renal dysfunction, injury to the kidney, failure of kidney function, loss of kidney function, and end-stage kidney disease). Factors associated with postoperative complications and mortality were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression models and Cox proportional hazard models. Results: Postprocedural AKI occurred in 17 (24.3%) and 6 (7.8%) patients in the SAVR and TAVR groups, respectively (p=0.006). Multivariable analyses demonstrated that the SAVR group had higher risks of AKI (odds ratio [OR], 5.63; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.85-17.73; p=0.002) and atrial fibrillation (OR, 16.65; 95% CI, 4.44-62.50; p<0.001), whereas the TAVR group had a higher risk of permanent pacemaker insertion (OR, 5.67; 95% CI, 1.21-26.55; p=0.028). The Cox proportional hazard models showed that the occurrence of AKI, contrary to the treatment modality, was associated with overall survival. Conclusion: In patients with chronic kidney disease, the risk of postprocedural AKI might be higher after SAVR than after TAVR.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.244-251
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• 2023

Background: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been widely used in patients with cardiorespiratory failure. The serum albumin level is an important prognostic marker in critically ill patients. We evaluated the efficacy of using pre-ECMO serum albumin levels to predict 30-day mortality in patients with cardiogenic shock (CS) who underwent venoarterial (VA) ECMO. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 114 adult patients who underwent VA-ECMO between March 2021 and September 2022. The patients were divided into survivors and non-survivors. Clinical data before and during ECMO were compared. Results: Patients' mean age was 67.8±13.6 years, and 36 (31.6%) were female. The proportion of survival to discharge was 48.6% (n=56). Cox regression analysis showed that the pre-ECMO albumin level independently predicted 30-day mortality (hazard ratio, 0.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.11-0.59; p=0.002). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of albumin levels (pre-ECMO) was 0.73 (standard error [SE], 0.05; 95% CI, 0.63-0.81; p<0.001; cut-off value=3.4 g/dL). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the cumulative 30-day mortality was significantly higher in patients with a pre-ECMO albumin level ≤3.4 g/dL than in those with a level >3.4 g/dL (68.9% vs. 23.8%, p<0.001). As the adjusted amount of albumin infused increased, the possibility of 30-day mortality also increased (coefficient=0.140; SE, 0.037; p<0.001). Conclusion: Hypoalbuminemia during ECMO was associated with higher mortality, even with higher amounts of albumin replacement, in patients with CS who underwent VA-ECMO. Further studies are needed to predict the timing of albumin replacement during ECMO.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.242-251
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• 2024

Background: This study compared the outcomes of surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) in patients aged 50 to 70 years based on the type of prosthetic valve used. Methods: We compared patients who underwent mechanical AVR to those who underwent bioprosthetic AVR at our institution between January 2000 and March 2019. Competing risk analysis and the inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) method based on propensity score were employed for comparisons. Results: A total of 1,580 patients (984 patients with mechanical AVR; 596 patients with bioprosthetic AVR) were enrolled. There was no significant difference in early mortality between the mechanical AVR and bioprosthetic AVR groups (0.9% vs. 1.7%, p=0.177). After IPTW adjustment, the risk of all-cause mortality was significantly higher in the bioprosthetic AVR group than in the mechanical AVR group (hazard ratio [HR], 1.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07-1.80; p=0.014). Competing risk analysis revealed lower risks of stroke (sub-distributional hazard ratio [sHR], 0.44; 95% CI, 0.28-0.67; p<0.001) and anticoagulation-related bleeding (sHR, 0.35; 95% CI, 0.23-0.53; p<0.001) in the bioprosthetic AVR group. Conversely, the risk of aortic valve (AV) reintervention was higher in the bioprosthetic AVR group (sHR, 6.14; 95% CI, 3.17-11.93; p<0.001). Conclusion: Among patients aged 50 to 70 years who underwent surgical AVR, those receiving mechanical valves showed better survival than those with bioprosthetic valves. The mechanical AVR group exhibited a higher risk of stroke and anticoagulation-related bleeding, while the bioprosthetic AVR group showed a higher risk of AV reintervention.

• Korean Circulation Journal
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.744-755
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• 2023

Background and Objectives: Aortic valve replacement (AVR) is considered a class I indication for symptomatic severe aortic stenosis (AS). However, there is little evidence regarding the potential benefits of early AVR in symptomatic patients diagnosed with normal-flow, low-gradient (NFLG) severe AS. Methods: Two-hundred eighty-one patients diagnosed with symptomatic NFLG severe AS (stroke volume index ≥35 mL/m², mean transaortic pressure gradient <40 mmHg, peak transaortic velocity <4 m/s, and aortic valve area <1.0 cm²) between January 2010 and December 2020 were included in this retrospective study. After performing 1:1 propensity score matching, 121 patients aged 75.1±9.8 years (including 63 women) who underwent early AVR within 3 months after index echocardiography, were compared with 121 patients who received conservative care. The primary outcome was a composite of all-cause death and heart failure (HF) hospitalization. Results: During a median follow-up of 21.9 months, 48 primary outcomes (18 in the early AVR group and 30 in the conservative care group) occurred. The early AVR group demonstrated a significantly lower incidence of primary outcomes (hazard ratio [HR], 0.52; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.29-0.93; p=0.028); specifically, there was no significant difference in all-cause death (HR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.23-1.16; p=0.110), although the early AVR group showed a significantly lower incidence of hospitalization for HF (HR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.19-0.95, p=0.037). Subgroup analyses supported the main findings. Conclusions: An early AVR strategy may be beneficial in reducing the risk of a composite outcome of death or hospitalization for HF in symptomatic patients with NFLG severe AS. Future randomized studies are required to validate and confirm our findings.

• Korean Circulation Journal
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.63-75
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• 2024

Background and Objectives: Evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) for guidance during transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is limited. This study aimed to compare the clinical efficacy and safety of ICE versus transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) for guiding TAVR. Methods: This prospective cohort study included patients who underwent TAVR from August 18, 2015, to June 31, 2021. Eligible patients were stratified by echocardiographic modality (ICE or TEE) and anesthesia mode (monitored anesthesia care [MAC] or general anesthesia [GA]). Primary outcome was the 1-year composite of all-cause mortality, rehospitalization for cardiovascular cause, or stroke, according to the Valve Academic Research Consortium-3 (VARC-3) definition. Propensity score matching was performed, and study outcomes were analyzed for the matched cohorts. Results: Of the 359 eligible patients, 120 patients were matched for the ICE-MAC and TEEGA groups, respectively. The incidence of primary outcome was similar between matched groups (18.3% vs. 20.0%; adjusted hazard ratio, 0.94; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53-1.68; p=0.843). ICE-MAC and TEE-GA also had similar incidences of moderate-to-severe paravalvular regurgitation (PVR) (4.2% vs. 5.0%; adjusted odds ratio, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.23-2.82; p=0.758), new permanent pacemaker implantation, and VARC-3 types 2-4 bleeding. Conclusions: ICE was comparable to TEE for guidance during TAVR for the composite clinical efficacy outcome, with similar incidences of moderate-to-severe PVR, new permanent pacemaker implantation, and major bleeding. These results suggest that ICE could be a safe and effective alternative echocardiographic modality to TEE for guiding TAVR.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.149-153
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• 2017

Objective: This study was to determine the relationship between estimated breeding value and phenotype information after farrowing when juvenile selection was made in candidate pigs without phenotype information. Methods: After collecting phenotypic and genomic information for the total number of piglets born by Landrace pigs, selection accuracy between genomic breeding value estimates using genomic information and breeding value estimates of best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) using conventional pedigree information were compared. Results: Genetic standard deviation (${\sigma}_a$) for the total number of piglets born was 0.91. Since the total number of piglets born for candidate pigs was unknown, the accuracy of the breeding value estimated from pedigree information was 0.080. When genomic information was used, the accuracy of the breeding value was 0.216. Assuming that the replacement rate of sows per year is 100% and generation interval is 1 year, genetic gain per year is 0.346 head when genomic information is used. It is 0.128 when BLUP is used. Conclusion: Genetic gain estimated from single step best linear unbiased prediction (ssBLUP) method is by 2.7 times higher than that the one estimated from BLUP method, i.e., 270% more improvement in efficiency.

• Atmosphere
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 2007

The station relocations, the replacement of instruments, and the change of a procedure for calculating derived climatic quantities from observations are well-known nonclimatic factors that seriously contaminate the worthwhile results in climate study. Prior to embarking on the climatological analysis, therefore, the quality and homogeneity of the utilized data sets should be properly evaluated with metadata. According to the metadata of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), there have been plenty of changes in the procedure computing the daily mean values of temperature, humidity, etc, since 1904. For routine climatological work, it is customary to compute approximate daily mean values for individual days from values observed at fixed hours. In the KMA, fixed hours were totally 5 times changed: at four-hourly, four-hourly interval with additional 12 hour, eight-hourly, six-hourly, three-hourly intervals. In this paper, the homogeneity in the daily mean temperature dataset of the KMA was assessed with the consistency and efficiency of point estimators. We used the daily mean calculated from the 24 hourly readings as a potential true value. Approximate daily means computed from temperatures observed at different fixed hours have statistically different properties. So this inhomogeneity in KMA climate data should be kept in mind if you want to analysis secular aspects of Korea climate using this data set.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.804-810
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• 1984

Two hundred twenty one cases of open heart surgery were done in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Pusan National University Hospital from July, 1981 to October, 1984. 1.There were 154 cases [73%] of congenital anomalies and 57 cases [27%] of acquired valvular heart diseases. Among the congenital cases, 128 cases were acyanotic and 26 cases were cyanotic. Among the 57 cases of acquired valvular replacement surgery, 3 cases had open heart commissurotomy, one had Kay annuloplasty. 2.The age distribution of the congenital acyanotic anomalies ranged from 5 to 32 years with mean age of 12.8 years, the congenital cyanotic anomalies from 3 to 29 years with mean age of 14.2 years and the acquired valvular diseases from 9 to 51 years with mean age of 30 years. The difference of sex distribution was no significance. 3.Three methods for debubbling process were used in our institute, in 133 cases, the vent was inserted into the left ventricular apex, in 61 cases inserted into the left atrium through right superior pulmonary vein and in 17 cases used needle aspiration only. 4.For cardioplegia, the GIK solution was infused repeatedly from 30 to 40 minutes interval and brought excellent results for myocardial protection during open heart surgery. 5.Overall mortality was 7.6%. The mortality along with each disease is 1.56% in congenital acyanotic cases, 26.9% in congenital cyanotic cases and 12.3% in acquired valvular disease.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.185-190
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• 1989

Semicontinuous alcohol fermentation of Jerusalem Artichoke by K. fragilis CBS 1555 was performed to investigate the effect of the effective dilution rate and influent sugar concentration to the ethanol concentration and alcohol productivity at steady state. When the time interval for the replacement of fresh influent with fermentation broth was less than or equal to 1 hr, the effective dilution rate was found out to be equal to the specific growth rate. Wash out was not occurred until the effective dilution rate, 0.425 hr-1, and the maximum alcohol productivity was around 5.5 g/1·hr. In this case, the effective dilution rate was 0.25 hr-1 and the influent sugar concentration was distributed from 85 g/l to 135 g/1.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.151-159
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• 2018

Maintenance activities are regarded as a key part of the repairable deteriorating system because they maintain the equipment in good condition. In practice, many maintenance policies are used in engineering fields to reduce unexpected failures and slow down the deterioration of the system. However, in traditional maintenance policies, maintenance activities have often been assumed to be performed at the same time interval, which may result in higher operational costs and more system failures. Thus, this study presents two non-periodic preventive maintenance (PM) policies for repairable deteriorating systems, employing the failure rate of the system as a conditional variable. In the proposed PM models, the failure rate of the system was restored via the failure rate reduction factors after imperfect PM activities. Operational costs were also considered, which increased along with the operating time of the system and the frequency of PM activities to reflect the deterioration process of the system. A numerical example was provided to illustrate the proposed PM policy. The results showed that PM activities performed at a low failure rate threshold slowed down the degradation of the system and thus extended the system lifetime. Moreover, when the operational cost was considered in the proposed maintenance scheme, the system replacement was more cost-effective than frequent PM activities in the severely degraded system.