• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.82-88
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• 2023

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) causes numerous changes that destabilize homeostasis, of which anemia is one of its important complications. Anemia significantly reduces the quality of life in children with CKD and plays a crucial role in the progression of cardiovascular disease such as left ventricular hypertrophy, a major cause of mortality in those with advanced CKD. The treatment of anemia is a pivotal factor in reducing morbidity and mortality rates in children with CKD, representing one of the methods for enhancing patients' quality of life.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.4127-4131
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• 2015

Background: For HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC), continuing anti-HER2 therapy beyond progression is associated with improved outcome. However retreatment with trastuzumab after lapatinib progression is controversial. We retrospectively analyzed the efficacy of trastuzumab-based chemotherapy in HER2+ metastatic breast cancer patients whose disease progressed after lapatinib. Materials and Methods: Between October 2010 and May 2013, 54 patients whose disease progressed after lapatinib were retreated with trastuzumab-based chemotherapy. Efficacy and toxicity results were evaluated retrospectively. Results: The median age of patients was 46 (range 27-67). Fourteen patients (26%) had metastases at the time of diagnosis. All of the patients had received trastuzumab in an adjuvant or metastatic setting, while 16 (30%) had received two lines of trastuzumab. All patients had received lapatinib plus capecitabine. The median chemotherapy line for the metastatic setting was 2 (range 1-7). Cranial metastases were identified in 27 (50%) patients. 53 patients received trastuzumab-based chemotherapy following lapatinib progression while one patient received trastuzumab monotherapy. Combination chemotherapy consisted of navelbin (n=33), taxane (n=10), gemcitabine (n=2), platinum (n=2) and platinum with taxane (n=6). The median treatment cycle was 5 (range 1-44). Among 49 patients assessed for response 2 (4%) showed CR, 12 (25%) PR, 11 (22%) SD and 24 (49%) disease progression. Asymptomatic cardiotoxicity was reported in 2 (4%) of the patients. At a median follow-up of 9 months (1-39), median progression-free survival was 5 months (95% CI 4.1-5.9) and median overall survival was 10 months (95% CI 6.9-13.0). PFS and OS were not affected by the absence/presence of cranial metastases. Conclusions: Retreatment with trastuzumab-based therapy after lapatinib progression showed efficacy in heavily treated MBC patients.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2019

The pathogen Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) is the most common cause of nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease worldwide. The decision to initiate long-term antibiotic treatment is difficult for the physician due to inconsistent disease progression and adverse effects associated with the antibiotic treatment. The prognostic factors for the progression of MAC pulmonary disease are low body mass index, poor nutritional status, presence of cavitary lesion(s), extensive disease, and a positive acid-fast bacilli smear. A regimen consisting of macrolides (clarithromycin or azithromycin) with rifampin and ethambutol has been recommended; this regimen significantly improves the treatment of MAC pulmonary disease and should be maintained for at least 12 months after negative sputum culture conversion. However, the rates of default and disease recurrence after treatment completion are still high. Moreover, treatment failure or macrolide resistance can occur, although in some refractory cases, surgical lung resection can improve treatment outcomes. However, surgical resection should be carefully performed in a well-equipped center and be based on a rigorous risk-benefit analysis in a multidisciplinary setting. New therapies, including clofazimine, inhaled amikacin, and bedaquiline, have shown promising results for the treatment of MAC pulmonary disease, especially in patients with treatment failure or macrolide-resistant MAC pulmonary disease. However, further evidence of the efficacy and safety of these new treatment regimens is needed. Also, a new consensus is needed for treatment outcome definitions as widespread use of these definitions could increase the quality of evidence for the treatment of MAC pulmonary disease.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2005

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to investigate that the stages of change in smoking cessation behavior among coronary artery disease patients for six months progressed following the stages of change suggested by the transtheoretical model. Method: Subjects for this descriptive survey were 59 coronary disease patients who were smoking or who had stopped smoking for less than six months. Result: In the baseline, the distribution of the subjects’ stages of change was as follows: pre-contemplation stage 25.4%, contemplation stage 25.4%, preparation stage 22%, and action stage 27.1%. After six months, more subjects in the contemplation(33.3%) and preparation stages(30.8%) progressed to the action stage than those of the pre-contemplation stage(0%). Eighty-one percent of the subjects in the action stage at baseline progressed to the maintenance stage. The relationship between the numbers of smoking cessation attempts for six months and stages of change at baseline was significant(p=.001). However, the relationships between self-efficacy and nicotine dependence at baseline and progression in stages of change after six months were not significant. Conclusion: Progression in the stages of change for six months among subjects corresponded to the stages of change suggested by the transtheoretical model. Hence, future development and evaluation of intervention programs should be tailored individually considering each patient's stage of change.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.201-207
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• 2021

The 2019 coronavirus outbreak poses a threat to scientific, societal, financial, and health resources. The complex pathogenesis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus centers on the unpredictable clinical progression of the disease, which may evolve abruptly and result in critical and life-threatening clinical complications. Effective clinical laboratory biomarkers that can classify patients according to risk are essential for ensuring timely treatment, and an analysis of recently published studies found cytokine storm and coagulation disorders were leading factors of severe COVID-19 complications. The following inflammatory, biochemical, and hematology biomarkers markers have been identified in COVID-19 patients; neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, c-reactive protein, procalcitonin, urea, liver enzymes, lactate dehydrogenase, serum amyloid A, cytokines, d-dimer, fibrinogen, ferritin, troponin, creatinine kinase, and lymphocyte, leukocyte, and platelet counts. These factors are predictors of disease severity and some are involved in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. CRP is an acute-phase, non-specific serological biomarker of inflammation and infection and is related to disease severities and outcomes. In the present study, CRP levels were found to rise dramatically among COVID-19 patients, and our findings suggest CRP could be utilized clinically to predict COVID-19 prognosis and severity even before disease progression and the manifestation of clinical symptoms.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 2022

There is an increasing interest in monitoring of specific biomarker for determining progression of a disease or efficacy of a treatment. Conventional method for quantification of specific biomarkers as enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has high material costs, long incubation periods, requires large volume of samples and involves special instruments, which necessitates clinical samples to be sent to a lab. This paper reports on the development of an electrochemical biosensor to measure total immunoglobulin E (IgE), a marker of asthma disease that varies with age, gender, and disease in concentrations from 0.3-1000 ng/mL with consuming 20 µL volume of whole blood sample. The sensor provides rapid, accurate, easy, point-of-care measurement of IgE, also, sequential monitoring of total IgE with ovalbumin (OVA) induced mice is another application of sensor. Taken together, these results provide an alternative way for detection of biomarkers in whole blood with low volumes and long-term ex-vivo assessments for understanding the progression of a disease.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.48-57
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• 2012

Acute viral encephalitis caused by neurotrophic viruses, such as mosquito-borne flaviviruses, is an emerging and re-emerging disease that represents an immense global health problem. Considerable progression has been made in understanding the pathogenesis of acute viral encephalitis, but the immune-pathological processes occurring during the progression of encephalitis and the roles played by various molecules and cellular components of the innate and adaptive systems still remain undefined. Recent findings reveal the significant contribution of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and regulatory $CD4^+$ T cells in the outcomes of infectious diseases caused by neurotrophic viruses. In this review, we discuss the ample evidence focused on the roles of TLRs and $CD4^+$ helper T cell subsets on the progression of acute viral encephalitis. Finally, we draw attention to the importance of these molecules and cellular components in defining the pathogenesis of acute viral encephalitis, thereby providing new therapeutic avenues for this disease.

• BMB Reports
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.173-180
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• 2020

Galectin-3 is a carbohydrate-binding protein and regulates diverse functions, including cell proliferation and differentiation, mRNA splicing, apoptosis induction, immune surveillance and inflammation, cell adhesion, angiogenesis, and cancer-cell metastasis. Galectin-3 is also recommended as a diagnostic or prognostic biomarker of various diseases, including heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. Galectin-3 exists as a cytosol, is secreted in extracellular spaces on cells, and is also detected in nuclei. It has been found that galectin-3 has different functions in cellular localization: (i) Extracellular galectin-3 mediates cell attachment and detachment. (ii) cytosolic galectin-3 regulates cell survival by blocking the intrinsic apoptotic pathway, and (iii) nuclear galectin-3 supports the ability of the transcriptional factor for target gene expression. In this review, we focused on the role of galectin-3 on translocation from cytosol to nucleus, because it happens in a way independent of carbohydrate recognition and accelerates cancer progression. We also suggested here that intracellular galecin-3 could be a potent therapeutic target in cancer therapy.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.86-93
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• 2024

The development of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has significantly contributed to mapping brain functions and understanding brain networks during rest. This paper proposes a CNN-LSTM-based classification model to classify the progression stages of Alzheimer's disease. Firstly, four preprocessing steps are performed to remove noise from the fMRI data before feature extraction. Secondly, the U-Net architecture is utilized to extract spatial features once preprocessing is completed. Thirdly, the extracted spatial features undergo LSTM processing to extract temporal features, ultimately leading to classification. Experiments were conducted by adjusting the temporal dimension of the data. Using 5-fold cross-validation, an average accuracy of 96.4% was achieved, indicating that the proposed method has high potential for identifying the progression of Alzheimer's disease by analyzing fMRI data.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.313-320
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• 2022

The KoreaN Cohort Study for Outcomes in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease (KNOW-CKD) was launched in 2011 with the support of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The study was designed with the aim of exploring the various clinical features and characteristics of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Koreans, and elucidating the risk factors for CKD progression and adverse outcomes of CKD. For the cohort study, nephrologists at 9 tertiary university-affiliated hospitals participated in patient recruitment and follow-up. Biostatisticians and epidemiologists also participated in the basic design and structuring of the study. From 2011 until 2016, the KNOW-CKD Phase I recruited 2238 adult patients with CKD from stages G1 to G5, who were not receiving renal replacement therapy. The KNOW-CKD Phase II recruitment was started in 2019, with an enrollment target of 1500 subjects, focused on diabetic nephropathy and hypertensive kidney diseases in patients with reduced kidney function who are presumed to be at a higher risk of adverse outcomes. As of 2021, the KNOW-CKD investigators have published articles in the fields of socioeconomics, quality of life, nutrition, physical activity, renal progression, cardiovascular disease and outcomes, anemia, mineral bone disease, serum and urine biomarkers, and international and inter-ethnic comparisons. The KNOW-CKD researchers will elaborate a prediction model for various outcomes of CKD such as the development of end-stage kidney disease, major adverse cardiovascular events, and death.