The combined clinical impact of red blood cell distribution width and vascular calcification on cardiovascular events and mortality in patients with endstage kidney disease.

Background: Little is known about how the interaction between red blood cell distribution width (RDW) and vascular calcification (VC) affects cardiovascular (CV) events and mortality in end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients. This study investigated the combined prognostic effect of RDW and VC in ESKD patients starting dialysis.

Methods: A retrospective single-center study of 582 ESKD patients was conducted.

Effect of shared decision-making education on physicians' perceptions and practices of end-of-life care in Korea.

Background: Evidence of the ethical appropriateness and clinical benefits of shared decision-making (SDM) are accumulating. This study aimed to not only identify physicians' perspectives on SDM, and practices related to end-of-life care in particular, but also to gauge the effect of SDM education on physicians in Korea.

Methods: A 14-item questionnaire survey using a modified Delphi process was delivered to nephrologists and internal medicine trainees at 17 university hospitals.

Relationships between monocyte count to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio and cardiovascular outcomes in patients commencing dialysis.

Objective: High monocyte to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (MHR) is known to be a risk factor for cardiovascular (CV) complications. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between MHR and CV outcomes in patients commencing dialysis.

Methods: The medical records of patients who started maintenance dialysis between January 2006 and July 2017 were reviewed.

Fully automated identification of cephalometric landmarks for upper airway assessment using cascaded convolutional neural networks.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the accuracy of a cascaded two-stage convolutional neural network (CNN) model in detecting upper airway (UA) soft tissue landmarks in comparison with the skeletal landmarks on the lateral cephalometric images.

Materials And Methods: The dataset contained 600 lateral cephalograms of adult orthodontic patients, and the ground-truth positions of 16 landmarks (7 skeletal and 9 UA landmarks) were obtained from 500 learning dataset. We trained a UNet with EfficientNetB0 model through the region of interest-centred circular segmentation labelling process.

Development of donepezil-induced hypokalemia following treatment of cognitive impairment.

Donepezil is a cholinesterase inhibitor used extensively to treat Alzheimer disease. The increased cholinergic activity is associated with adverse effects, therefore gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, are common. Hypokalemia is a rare adverse event that occurs in less than 1% of donepezil-treated patients.

The Impact of Obesity on the Severity of Clinicopathologic Parameters in Patients with IgA Nephropathy.

Several studies reported the effect of obesity on the progression of IgA nephropathy (IgAN). However, the impact of obesity on the clinicopathologic presentation of IgAN remains uncertain. This is a retrospective cross-sectional study from eight university hospitals in South Korea.

The combined prognostic significance of alkaline phosphatase and vascular calcification in patients with end-stage kidney disease.

Background And Aims: Little is known about the interaction between serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and vascular calcification (VC) affecting cardiovascular events (CVE) and mortality in end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients. This study investigated the combined effect of ALP and VC on prognosis in ESKD patients starting dialysis.

Methods And Results: Data from 587 ESKD patients treated at a single center between January 2006 and July 2017 were retrospectively evaluated.

A pilot trial to evaluate the clinical usefulness of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in predicting renal outcomes in patients with acute kidney injury.

Objectives: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) enables the assessment of real-time renal microcirculation. This study investigated CEUS-driven parameters as hemodynamic predictors for renal outcomes in patients with acute kidney injury (AKI).

Methods: Forty-eight patients who were diagnosed with AKI were prospectively enrolled and underwent CEUS at the occurrence of AKI.

Sex-specific relationship between vascular calcification and incident fracture in patients with end-stage renal disease.

Background: Vascular calcification (VC) is a major component of mineral bone disorders in patients with endstage renal disease (ESRD). Bone metabolism is affected by various factors, including sex hormones. This study investigated whether there was a sex-specific relationship between VC and incident fracture in patients with ESRD.

Effect of heat treatment on the antioxidant activity of extracts from citrus peels.

The effect of heat treatment on the antioxidant activity of extracts from Citrus unshiu peels was evaluated. Citrus peels (CP) (5 g) were placed in Pyrex Petri dishes (8.0 cm diameter) and heat-treated at 50, 100, or 150 degrees C for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 min in an electric muffle furnace.

Effect of far-infrared radiation on the antioxidant activity of rice hulls.

After far-infrared (FIR) radiation onto rice hull, a methanolic extract was prepared for the determination of antioxidant ability. After 30 min of FIR treatment, the radical scavenging activity and total phenol contents of rice hull extracts increased from 47.74 to 79.