Changes to Blood-Sampling Protocol to Reduce the Sampling Amount in Neonatal Intensive Care Units: A Quality Improvement Project.

(1) Background: This study aimed to evaluate whether the implementation of a modified blood-sampling protocol, which focused on need-based laboratory testing and minimized venous sampling by replacing it with point-of-care testing (POCT) via capillary puncture, successfully reduced iatrogenic blood loss, incidence of anemia, and the frequency of blood transfusion among extremely low-birth-weight infants (ELBWIs) without negatively affecting neonatal outcomes. (2) Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 313 ELBWIs with a gestational age (GA) of between 23 and 28 weeks and born between 2013 and 2019. The infants were divided into two groups corresponding to the periods before (period I) and after (period II) the implementation of the modified blood-sampling protocol in January 2016.

The Role of Diffusion-Weighted Imaging Based on Maximum-Intensity Projection in Young Patients with Marked Background Parenchymal Enhancement on Contrast-Enhanced Breast MRI.

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) utilizing maximum-intensity projection (MIP) was suggested as a cost-effective alternative tool without the risk of gadolinium-based contrast agents. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether DWI MIPs played a supportive role in young (≤60) patients with marked background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) on contrast-enhanced MRI (CE-MRI). The research included 1303 patients with varying degrees of BPE, and correlations between BPE on CE-MRI, the background diffusion signal (BDS) on DWI, and clinical parameters were analyzed.

Antioxidants prevent particulate matter-induced senescence of lung fibroblasts.

Particulate matter (PM) contributes to human diseases, particularly lung disease; however, the molecular mechanism of its action is yet to be determined. Herein, we found that prolonged PM exposure induced the cellular senescence of normal lung fibroblasts via a DNA damage-mediated response. This PM-induced senescence (PM-IS) was only observed in lung fibroblasts but not in A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells.

Association Between Non-invasive Diagnostic Methods of Liver Fibrosis and Type 2 Diabetes in Pediatric Patients With Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Background And Purpose: The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in children has been increasing associated with insulin resistance. However, there is a scarcity of related studies in children with NAFLD with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) compared to adults. We conducted this study to investigate the association between non-invasive diagnostic methods of liver fibrosis and T2DM in pediatric patients with NAFLD.

Cerebral phaeohyphomycosis: a rare cause of brain abscess.

Cerebral phaeohyphomycosis (CP) is a very rare but serious form of central nervous system fungal infection that is caused by dematiaceous fungi. It is commonly associated with poor prognosis irrespective of the immune status of the patient. In this study, the authors describe the first case of CP in Korea that occurred in a 75-year-old man without immunodeficiency and showed favorable outcome after surgical excision and antifungal therapy.

Emerging surgical strategies of intractable frontal lobe epilepsy with cortical dysplasia in terms of extent of resection.

Objective: Cortical dysplasia (CD) is one of the common causes of epilepsy surgery. However, surgical outcome still remains poor, especially with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE), despite the advancement of neuroimaging techniques and expansion of surgical indications. The aim of this study was to focus on surgical strategies in terms of extent of resection to improve surgical outcome in the cases of FLE with CD.

Effect of electromagnetic navigated ventriculoperitoneal shunt placement on failure rates.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of electromagnetic (EM) navigation system on ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt failure rate through comparing the result of standard shunt placement.

Methods: All patients undergoing VP shunt from October 2007 to September 2010 were included in this retrospective study. The first group received shunt surgery using EM navigation.

Reduction of CO2 to CO at low overpotential in neutral aqueous solution by a Ni(cyclam) complex attached to poly(allylamine).

Less is more: Nickel cyclam complexes are known as efficient catalysts for the electrochemical reduction of CO(2) to CO, despite having overvoltages of more than 0.6 V. Incorporating [Ni(cyclam)](2+) into poly(allylamine) through axial coordination of pyridine enables the electrochemical reduction of CO(2) to CO near the thermodynamic potential of -0.

Discrimination of tuberculous spondylitis from pyogenic spondylitis on MRI.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of MRI for discrimination between tuberculous spondylitis and pyogenic spondylitis.

Materials And Methods: MR images of 52 patients who had MRI of the spine and confirmed spondylitis were retrospectively reviewed. After review of medical records, we compared MRI findings in 20 patients with tuberculous spondylitis and 20 patients with pyogenic spondylitis.