A cross-sectional study of colic and rate of return to racing in Thoroughbreds at Seoul Racecourse in Korea between 2010 and 2020

Background@#The incidence of colic and the outcomes of colic surgery have not been surveyed in racetracks in Korea. @*Objectives@#This study examined the incidence, mortality, and case fatality of colic and investigated the effects of age and sex after an exploratory celiotomy on the long-term survival rate (return to racing), subsequent racing performance, and career longevity. @*Methods@#The incidence, mortality, and case fatalities of colic were examined over an 11-year period. The records of 40 horses that had undergone a celiotomy, after participating in at least one race and 75 race-matched control horses were analyzed. The racing performance and career length of the horses that returned to racing post-surgery were compared with a control group. @*Results@#The annual incidence, fatality rate of colic, and annual mortality rate at Seoul Racecourse were 6.5, 2.8 per 100 horse-years, and 0.2 deaths cases per 100 horse-years, respectively. Of the 40 horses that underwent colic surgery, 26 (65%) returned to racing. The likelihood of returning to racing decreased with increasing age of the horses, and geldings had a lower probability of returning. While the performance in the five preoperative races between the two groups was not significantly different, a significant decrease in racing performance was observed after the surgery date (p < 0.01). Horses that underwent colic surgery did not show a significant decrease in career length. @*Conclusions@#Surgical treatment for colic at the age of three and four years had a negative impact on the racing performance. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in career longevity between the two groups.

The effect of bacterial cellulose membrane compared with collagen membrane on guided bone regeneration

PURPOSE: This study was to evaluate the effects of bacterial cellulose (BC) membranes as a barrier membrane on guided bone regeneration (GBR) in comparison with those of the resorbable collagen membranes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: BC membranes were fabricated using biomimetic technology. Surface properties were analyzed, Mechanical properties were measured, in vitro cell proliferation test were performed with NIH3T3 cells and in vivo study were performed with rat calvarial defect and histomorphometric analysis was done. The Mann-Whitney U test and the Wilcoxon signed rank test was used (alpha<.05). RESULTS: BC membrane showed significantly higher mechanical properties such as wet tensile strength than collagen membrane and represented a three-dimensional multilayered structure cross-linked by nano-fibers with 60 % porosity. In vitro study, cell adhesion and proliferation were observed on BC membrane. However, morphology of the cells was found to be less differentiated, and the cell proliferation rate was lower than those of the cells on collagen membrane. In vivo study, the grafted BC membrane did not induce inflammatory response, and maintained adequate space for bone regeneration. An amount of new bone formation in defect region loaded with BC membrane was significantly similar to that of collagen membrane application. CONCLUSION: BC membrane has potential to be used as a barrier membrane, and efficacy of the membrane on GBR is comparable to that of collagen membrane.

Initial Unmeasured Anions on Emergency Department in Critically ill Patients: Can they Predict the Morbidity?

PURPOSE: To determine whether initial corrected anion gap (C(o)AG), base excess caused by unmeasured anions (BEua), and strong ion gap (SIG) can predict the morbidity of critically ill patients admitted to emergency department (ED). METHODS: 138 patients who visited the critical section of the ED and were admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) were enrolled. We calculated the C(o)AG, BEua, and SIG from the initial blood samples of the patients and initial logistic organ dysfunction score (LODS) also. Then we measured the LODS at the last day of ICU stay again. Comparing with the initial LODS, we divided the patients into two groups based on the changes of the values: favorable group and poor group. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the mean AGcorr (p=0.007), BEua (p=0.008), SIG (p=0.037) between favorable and poor group. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curves for morbidity prediction were relatively small: 0.66 (95% CI, 0.56-0.77) for C(o)AG, 0.65 (95% CI, 0.54-0.76) for BEua, and 0.59 (95% CI, 0.49-0.70) for SIG. CONCLUSION: We found the initial unmeasured anions at the ED of the patients who eventually showed improved LODS during ICU period are significantly different to those of the other patients. But they failed to show enough capability of discriminating the morbidities between two groups.

Prognostic Value of an Initial Strong Ion Gap in Critically Ill Patients at the Emergency Department

PURPOSE: This study was performed to determine whether the anion gap, the base excess, the lactate, and the strong ion gap obtained in the emergency department correlate with the prognosis and whether the strong ion gap is the most useful marker compared to the prognostic ability of the anion gap, the base excess, and the lactate. METHODS: We reviewed the records of 106 patients admitted to the intensive care unit via the emergency department. We measured the anion gap, the base excess, and the lactate and we calculated strong anion gap by using a formula. We divided the patients into survivors and nonsurvivors and compared the prognostic abilities of the four variables by using the Student's t-test and receiver operator characteristic curves. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 67+/-14, and the numbers of males and females were similar (58 males vs 48 females). The number of survivors was 92 (86.7%), and that of nonsurvivors was 14 (3.2%). The anion gap ( 24.8+/-8.8 vs. 16.4+/-4.8 mmol/L, p value=0.000), the base excess (-11.9+/-8.7 vs. -3.49+/-6.5 mmol/L, p value = 0.001), the lactate (9.1+/-7.7 vs. 4.5+/-3.1 mmol/L, p value = 0.011 ) and the strong ion gap (16.6+/-3.6 vs. 10.9+/-3.7, p value=0.000) of the nonsurvivors were higher. All of the four varibles were associated with the prognosis, but among them, the strong ion gap discriminated most strongly with an area under the receiver operator characteristic curve of 0.866 (95% confidence interval, 0.787 to 0.92). CONCLUSION: The initial emergency-department acid-base variables, the anion gap, the base excess, the lactate and the strong ion gap have prognostic abilities, but the strong ion gap is the variable that most strongly predicts of mortality.