Post-marketing Surveillance of a Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine (Vaxigrip Tetra) in South Korea.

Introduction: In 2017, a quadrivalent inactivated split-virion influenza vaccine (QIV; Vaxigrip Tetra, Sanofi) was licensed in South Korea for active immunization against influenza A and influenza B viruses in individuals aged 3 years or older, which was subsequently extended to individuals aged 6 months or older in 2018. Post-marketing surveillance trials are mandatory in South Korea to retain drug licensure. Here, we assessed the safety of QIV in routine clinical practice in South Korea.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis is associated with a higher risk of advanced colorectal neoplasm.

Background & Aims: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is known to increase the risk of adenomatous colonic polyps. However, the role of screening colonoscopy in patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD in detecting advanced colorectal neoplasm is not clearly evidence-based. Therefore, we investigated whether the histological severity of NAFLD is associated with advanced colorectal neoplasm.

Stress and sleep quality in doctors working on-call shifts are associated with functional gastrointestinal disorders.

Aim: To investigate the role of sleep quality and psychosocial problems as predictors of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) in doctors that work 24 hour-on-call shifts.

Methods: In this cross-sectional observation study, using the Rome III Questionnaire and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), we analyzed 170 doctors with 24 hour-on-call shifts.

Results: Among the participants that had experienced a 24 hour-on-call shift within the last 6 mo, 48 (28.

The Loop-Tip Wire for Selective Cannulation during ERCP in Patients with Billroth II Anastomosis: A Preliminary Feasibility Study.

Background/aims: Selective cannulation of common bile duct remains technically challenging in patients with Billroth II anastomosis due to an altered anatomy. We aimed to determine the feasibility of performing wire-assisted cannulation using a loop-tip wire during ERCP in patients with Billroth II anastomosis.

Methodology: We retrospectively analyzed a database of nine patients with Billroth II anastomosis who underwent ERCP using a loop-tip wire from January 2009 to July 2013 in the Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital.

[Changes in serum vitamin D assay usage and the need for evidence-based recommendations].

Result of renewed interest due to the large amount of literature that reported numerous epidemiological data demonstrating the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, the number of prescriptions of serum vitamin D assays has grown exponentially in recent years with a cost for health insurance that increased almost fivefold in four years. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of assays carried out from 2007 to 2011 in a French university adult short-stay hospital shows changes in practices not only quantitatively but also qualitatively resulting in an overtime increase in the frequency of prescriptions in patients younger, less vitamin D deficient and more frequently male. In the absence of French guidelines, this development cannot be qualified as deviant but justifies the urgent need to establish evidence-based recommendations for good prescriptions and adequate assays of blood vitamin D.

Inhibition of FGF signaling converts dorsal mesoderm to ventral mesoderm in early Xenopus embryos.

In early vertebrate development, mesoderm induction is a crucial event regulated by several factors including the activin, BMP and FGF signaling pathways. While the requirement of FGF in Nodal/activin-induced mesoderm formation has been reported, the fate of the tissue modulated by these signals is not fully understood. Here, we examined the fate of tissues when exogenous activin was added and FGF signaling was inhibited in animal cap explants of Xenopus embryos.

Plasma homocysteine measurement with ion exchange chromatography (Jeol Aminotac 500): a comparison with the Abbott IMx assay.

Objective: We evaluated ion exchange chromatography (IEC) on the Jeol Aminotac 500 analyzer for total homocysteine (tHcy) determination and compared it with an immunoassay method using fluorescence polarization on an Abbott IMx analyzer.

Methods: IEC method validation (linearity, limit of detection, precision, interference) was made according to the French Biology Society guidelines (Société Française de Biologie Clinique). Moreover, during a 2-month period, 55 plasma samples from patients scheduled for routine tHCy measurement were assayed by both methods for determining correlation.

Identification and characterization of murine mHAUSP encoding a deubiquitinating enzyme that regulates the status of p53 ubiquitination.

Recently, it was discovered that herpesvirus-associated ubiquitin-specific protease (HAUSP) in human interacts with p53 protein, and removes the ubiquitin from ubiquitinated p53. Thus, human HAUSP stabilizes the status of p53, induces p53-dependent cell growth repression and apoptosis. In this study, we isolated and characterized a mouse orthologue of HAUSP, mHAUSP.