Journal of Korean medical science
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Feb 2018
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyThe Effect of Mycophenolate Mofetil versus Cyclosporine as Combination Therapy with Low Dose Corticosteroids in High-risk Patients with Idiopathic Membranous Nephropathy: a Multicenter Randomized Trial.
Appropriate immunosuppressive therapy for patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy (MN) remains controversial. The effect of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) versus cyclosporine (CsA) combined with low-dose corticosteroids was evaluated in patients with idiopathic MN in a multi-center randomized trial (www.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01282073). ⋯ In combination with low-dose corticosteroids, the effect of MMF may not be inferior to that of CsA in patients with idiopathic MN, with similar adverse effects including gastrointestinal symptoms. Trial registry at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01282073).
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Digital replantation has become a well-established technique that has revolutionized hand surgery. One of the most important factors to a successful replantation is less than 12 hours of warm and 24 hours of cold ischemia time. The purpose of this article was to present a concept of door-to-surgery time and test the hypothesis that success in distal digital replantation is associated with this time. ⋯ The overall success rate was 77.6%. Patients with less than 180 minutes of door-to-surgery time had a significantly greater success rate (95.0%) compared to patients with longer door-to-surgery time (65.5%). Further effort must be made to achieve this goal in digital replantation.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Feb 2018
Changing Epidemiology of Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Lung Diseases in a Tertiary Referral Hospital in Korea between 2001 and 2015.
This study investigated the changes in the major etiologic organisms and clinical phenotypes of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease (NTM-LD) over a recent 15-year period in Korea. The increase of number of patients with NTM-LD was primarily due to an increase of Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) lung disease (LD). Among MAC cases, the proportion of M. avium increased compared with M. intracellulare, whereas the incidence of M. abscessus complex and M. kansasii LD remained relatively stable. The proportion of cases of the nodular bronchiectatic form increased compared with the fibrocavitary form of NTM-LD.
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J. Korean Med. Sci. · Feb 2018
Association between Genetic Variations of MERTK and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Koreans.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a debilitating lung disease. To date, a large number of clinical studies have been conducted to investigate the association between genetic variations and COPD. However, little is known regarding the genetic susceptibility of Koreans to this disease. MER receptor tyrosine kinase (MERTK) plays important roles in the inhibition of inflammation and in the clearance of apoptotic cells. Here, we investigated the association between genetic variations in MERTK and the development of COPD in Koreans. ⋯ Our findings indicate that the susceptibility to COPD is not related to the genetic variations or haplotypes of MERTK in Koreans.