Effectiveness and Safety of Acupotomy Treatment on Shoulder Pain: 25 Multicenter Retrospective Study.

Objective: Shoulder pain is a common complaint in outpatient clinics and can result in an inability to work or perform household activities, leading to significant socioeconomic burden. Acupotomy, as one kind acupuncture that has flat knife-shaped tip, has been widely used for treating shoulder pain. However, despite the widespread use of acupotomy in primary medical institutions, large sample size clinical trials have not sufficiently been performed.

Assessment of Korean rice lines for their reaction to rice yellow mottle virus in Ghana.

Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) is the most damaging viral disease of rice in Africa and can cause yield losses of up to 100%. The objective of this study was to characterize newly introduced rice lines from Korea into Ghana for their reaction to RYMV infection. One hundred and seventy-two rice lines from Korea were screened for their level of resistance RYMV in a screen house at Fumesua, Ghana.

Multiscale Modeling Reveals the Cause of Surface Stress Change on Microcantilevers Due to Alkanethiol SAM Adsorption.

Experimental results show that the adsorption of the self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on a gold surface induces surface stress change that causes deformation of the underlying substrate. However, the exact mechanism of stress development is yet to be elucidated. In the present study, multiscale computational models based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are applied to study the mechanism governing surface stress change.

Electrochemical Properties of HA Coated Titanium Dioxide Nanotubes.

CP Grade II titanium was first anodized in order to form TiO2 nanotubes, and then the TiO2 nano- tubes were coated with hydroxyapatite using the sol-gel method. The electrochemical properties of pure Ti, anodized TiO2 nanotubes, and HA-coated TiO2 nanotubes were investigated using poten- tiodynamic polarization and impedance tests. The sol-gel-coated HA nanoparticles were observed to sufficiently penetrate into the TiO2 nanotubes, and the polarization resistance of the HA-coated titanium nanotubes was higher than that of those that had just been anodized.

Effect of Viscosities on the Surface Morphology and Crystallographic Properties of Hydroxyapatite Coated Titanium Dioxide Nanotubes.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) coating on biomaterials is crucial for bone growth. TiO2 naotubes having a larger specific area can also improve an osseointegration. In this study, anodized TiO2 nanotubes were coated with HA using sol-gel method with different viscosities of solution.

Agronomic and genetic analysis of Suweon 542, a rice floury mutant line suitable for dry milling.

Background: Producing rice flour of good quality by dry milling is necessary to reduce milling costs and promote the processed rice food industry. This study was conducted to evaluate the dry milling properties of Suweon 542, a floury endosperm mutant, and identify the chromosomal region responsible for the floury endosperm characteristics.

Results: Compared with the wild type, after dry milling process, the grain hardness of Suweon 542 was significantly lower because of its round and loosely packed starch granules.

Histomorphological factors in the risk prediction of lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Aims: Few clinicopathological parameters have been identified as independent predictive factors for lymph node metastasis. This study evaluated the predictive ability of three histological characteristics of PTC in lymph node metastases: hobnail features, loss of cohesiveness/polarity (LOCP) and micropapillary structures.

Methods And Results: Tissue specimens from 153 patients with histologically confirmed PTC including 112 cases of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) were enrolled in this study.

An RNA aptamer-based microcantilever sensor to detect the inflammatory marker, mouse lipocalin-2.

Lipocalin-2 (Lcn2) is a biomarker for many inflammatory-based diseases, including acute kidney injury, cardiovascular stress, diabetes, and various cancers. Inflammatory transitions occur rapidly in kidney and cardiovascular disease, for which an in-line monitor could be beneficial. Microcantilever devices with aptamers as recognition elements can be effective and rapidly responsive sensors.

Oral muscle relaxant may induce immediate allergic reactions.

Eperisone and afloqualone act by relaxing both skeletal and vascular smooth muscles to improve circulation and suppress pain reflex. These drugs are typically prescribed with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) as painkillers. However, there have been no reports on serious adverse reactions to oral muscle relaxants; and this is the first report to describe three allergic reactions caused by eperisone and afloqualone.

Aptamer functionalized microcantilever sensors for cocaine detection.

A cocaine-specific aptamer was used as a receptor molecule in a microcantilever-based surface stress sensor for detection of cocaine molecules. An interferometric technique that relies on measuring differential displacement between two microcantilevers (a sensing/reference pair) was utilized to measure the cocaine/aptamer binding induced surface stress changes. Sensing experiments were performed for different concentrations of cocaine from 25 to 500 μM in order to determine the sensor response as a function of cocaine concentration.

Design of a Pep-1 peptide-modified liposomal nanocarrier system for intracellular drug delivery: Conformational characterization and cellular uptake evaluation.

In order to facilitate the intracellular delivery of macromolecules, Pep-1 peptide-modified liposomal (Pep1-Lipo) nanocarriers were designed and examined for their in vitro cell translocation capability. Pep-1 peptides were coupled via thiol-maleimide linkage to small unilamellar vesicles composed of phosphatidylcholine, Tween 80, and N-[4-(p-maleimidophenyl)butyryl]-phosphatidylethanolamine (MPB-PE). The amount of Pep-1 peptide conjugated to the vesicle was effectively controlled by the amounts of maleimide groups on the vesicular surface, ranging from 70 to 700 molecules per vesicle.

Increase in serum haptoglobin and apolipoprotein M in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea.

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a common syndrome, which is associated with a number of medical problems that impact morbidity and mortality. Although the precise mechanisms that underlie these associations are not fully understood, previous studies have suggested that patients with OSA show elevations of several biomarkers that are associated with cardiovascular risk. This study was undertaken to identify serum proteins associated with OSA by using a proteomics technique and to examine changes in identified protein levels after continuous positive airway pressure treatment.

Association of snoring with chronic bronchitis.

Background: Snoring is more prevalent in patients with chronic bronchitis than in persons without it. Few studies have examined the effect of snoring on chronic bronchitis. We prospectively investigated the association between snoring and the incidence of chronic bronchitis.

Aspiration pneumonia due to polyethylene glycol-electrolyte solution (Golytely) treated by bronchoalveolar lavage.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-electrolyte solution (Golytely), is most commonly used for bowel preparation before colonoscopy, as well as for barium enema and colon surgery. In this case, a 70-year-old man developed ARDS following the administration of Golytely by mouth before a scheduled colonoscopy. Aspiration of PEG-electrolyte solution was suspected, and the patient was successfully treated by BAL.

Endoscopic thyroidectomy for thyroid malignancies: comparison with conventional open thyroidectomy.

Background: Endoscopic techniques have recently been applied to thyroid surgery. We developed the bilateral axillo-breast (BAB) approach for total thyroidectomy. The aims of this study were to evaluate the completeness of this approach for total thyroidectomy and to compare complications between endoscopic thyroidectomy and conventional open thyroidectomy.

Biological imaging of HEK293 cells expressing PLCgamma1 using surface-enhanced Raman microscopy.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) imaging has been used for the targeting and imaging of specific cancer markers in live cells. For this purpose, Au/Ag core-shell nanoparticles, conjugated with monoclonal antibodies, were prepared. The procedures to label live cells with those bimetallic nanoprobes have been developed and used for highly sensitive SERS imaging of live cells.

Association of habitual snoring with glucose and insulin metabolism in nonobese Korean adult men.

Habitual snoring is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and metabolic abnormalities such as impaired glucose homeostasis. Many studies were performed in obese Western populations. The purpose of this study was to examine the association of habitual snoring with glucose and insulin metabolism in nonobese Korean men who were free of diabetes and hypertension.

Relation of epidermal growth factor receptor expression to mucus hypersecretion in diffuse panbronchiolitis.

Study Object: Diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB) is a hypersecretory airway disease, and the mechanism of mucus hypersecretion in DPB is poorly understood. Moreover, mucin synthesis in the airways has been reported to be regulated by neutrophilic inflammation-induced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression, and the degranulation of goblet cells is known to be mediated by neutrophilic elastase. In this study, we examined the relationship between EGFR expression in the bronchiolar epithelium with neutrophilic inflammation and mucus hypersecretion in the tissues of DPB patients.

Prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing in middle-aged Korean men and women.

With many epidemiologic studies made to establish the prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in Western countries, no such data have been reported in Korea. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of SDB and OSAS, and their related factors in Korean adults aged 40-69 years. Among the total of 5,020 participants at the baseline examination of the Korean Health and Genome Study, a random sample of 457 men and women was studied with employment of overnight full polysomnography to determine the prevalence of SDB and OSAS.

Selective cyclooxygenase-1 and -2 inhibitors each increase allergic inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness in mice.

Nonselective cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibition during allergic sensitization with ovalbumin in a murine model leads to an increase in the Type 2 cytokines interleukin-5 (IL-5) and IL-13; however, the effect of selective COX-1 and COX-2 inhibitors on these cytokines is unknown. We found that COX-1 protein was constitutively expressed in lung tissue. Expression of COX-1 protein did not increase with ovalbumin sensitization, but expression of COX-2 protein did.