Diagnostic Utility of Serum Glycated Albumin for Diabetes Mellitus and Its Correlation With Hyperlipidemia.

Background: Glycated albumin (GA) is a better marker of short-term glycemic control than glycated hemoglobin (A1c). Dyslipidemia is the main cause of cardiovascular complications in diabetes mellitus (DM). Studies on the correlation of GA with lipid indices are sparse.

Clinical usefulness of bronchoalveolar lavage cellular analysis and lymphocyte subsets in diffuse interstitial lung diseases.

Background: Diffuse interstitial lung diseases (DILDs) form a part of a heterogeneous group of respiratory diseases. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) analysis has been used for differential diagnosis of DILDs, but their clinical usefulness is controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical usefulness of BAL cellular analysis with lymphocyte subsets for the differential diagnosis of DILDs.

Emergence of Escherichia coli sequence type ST131 carrying both the blaGES-5 and blaCTX-M-15 genes.

Escherichia coli clinical isolate BD07372 of sequence type ST131 recovered from a bed sore specimen exhibited high-level resistance to ceftazidime and cefotaxime but exhibited susceptibility to imipenem and meropenem. The isolate harbored two β-lactamase genes, the bla(CTX-M-15) gene carried by an ∼250-kbp plasmid carrying the FIA and FIC replicons and the bla(GES-5) gene carried by a class 1 integron in the chromosome.

Comparison of 3 phenotypic-detection methods for identifying plasmid-mediated AmpC beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Proteus mirabilis strains.

Background: Plasmid-mediated AmpC beta-lactamases (PABLs) have been detected in the strains of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Proteus mirabilis, and Salmonella spp. PABLs may be difficult to detect and might interfere in the therapeutic and infection-control processes.

Comparison of leaching characteristics of heavy metals from bottom and fly ashes in Korea and Japan.

The objective of this research was to compare the leaching characteristics of heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, etc., in Korean and Japanese municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) ash. The rate of leaching of heavy metal was measured by KSLT and JTL-13, and the amount of heavy metals leached was compared with the metal content in each waste component.

The adsorption characteristics of heavy metals by various particle sizes of MSWI bottom ash.

The incineration rate of municipal solid waste (MSW) has been increased because of difficulty in securing a proper disposal site for MSW in Korea. The advantage of incineration is reduction of the volume of waste; however, significant amounts of bottom ash and fly ash were generated in the incineration process. Their treatment has attracted growing interest because of the potential toxicity of hazardous heavy metals.