K-Means Clustering-Based Safety System in Large-Scale Industrial Site Using Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks.

A large number of workers and heavy equipment are used in most industrial sizes, and the prevention of safety accidents is one of the most important issues. Therefore, although a number of systems have been proposed to prevent accidents, existing studies assume that workers are gathered in some areas. These assumptions are not suitable for large-scale industrial sites in which workers form as a group and work in a large area. In other words, in a large-scale industrial site, existing schemes are unsuitable for the timely notifying of warnings of threats, and excessive energy is consumed. Therefore, we propose a k-means clustering-based safety system for a large-scale industrial site. In the proposed scheme, workers deployed over a large area are divided into an appropriate number of groups, and threat notification is delivered by a multicasting tree toward each cluster. The notification to workers is delivered through local flooding in each cluster. The simulation results show that the system is able to deliver the notification within a valid time, and it is energy efficient compared to the existing scheme.

Prevalence of depression and its associated factors in bronchiectasis: findings from KMBARC registry.

BACKGROUND: With the emergence of bronchiectasis as a common respiratory disease, epidemiological data have accumulated. However, the prevalence and impact of psychological comorbidities were not sufficiently evaluated. The present study examined the prevalence of depression and its associated factors in patients with bronchiectasis. METHODS: This study involved a multicenter cohort of bronchiectasis patients recruited from 33 pulmonary specialist hospitals. The baseline characteristics and bronchiectasis-related factors at enrollment were analyzed. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). RESULTS: Of the 810 patients enrolled in the study, 168 (20.7%) patients had relevant depression (PHQ-9 score ≥ 10), and only 20 (11.9%) patients had a diagnosis of depression. Significant differences were noted in the depressive symptoms with disease severity, which was assessed using the Bronchiectasis Severity Index and E-FACED (all p < 0.001). Depressive symptoms inversely correlated with quality-of-life (r = - 0.704, p < 0.001) and positively correlated with fatigue severity score (r = 0.712, p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that depression was significantly associated with the modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale ≥ 2 (OR 2.960, 95% CI 1.907-4.588, p = < 0.001) and high number of exacerbations (≥ 3) in the previous year (OR 1.596, 95% CI 1.012-2.482, p = 0.041). CONCLUSIONS: Depression is common, but its association with bronchiectasis was underrecognized. It negatively affected quality-of-life and presented with fatigue symptoms. Among the bronchiectasis-related factors, dyspnea and exacerbation were closely associated with depression. Therefore, active screening for depression is necessary to optimize the treatment of bronchiectasis. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered at Clinical Research Information Service (CRiS), Republic of Korea (KCT0003088). The date of registration was June 19th, 2018.

Energy-Efficient and Reliable Face-Routing Scheme in Wireless Networks.

Face-routing is one of the reliable recovery schemes when geographic routing fails to transmit data packets. Although studies on face-routing can overcome the failure of the data transmission, they lead to much energy consumption due to frequent data transmissions between adjacent nodes for carrying out the rule of face-routing. To avoid the frequent data transmissions, several face-routing schemes have been recently proposed to transmit data packets to the farthest-neighbor node. However, they happen with many data retransmissions because the farthest-neighbor node has a relatively low transmission success ratio. To solve this problem, we propose a new face-routing scheme that determines the most appropriate neighbor node to balance the trade-off between energy efficiency and transmission reliability with two viewpoints. The first viewpoint focuses on how to increase the distance progress of the data delivery in one-hop range to enhance energy efficiency. After that, the second viewpoint focuses on how to increase the success ratio of the data delivery to enhance the transmission reliability. As a result of the simulation, it was confirmed that the proposed method achieves better performance in terms of energy efficiency than existing face-routing research, and it is better than recent face-routing research in terms of reliability and retransmission.

The association of delta neutrophil index with the prognosis of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND: Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) is associated with infective triggers including bacterial or viral in many cases, and pneumonia is a major contributor to hospitalization for AECOPD and has a close relationship with poor outcomes. Increased delta neutrophil index (DNI) can be useful in the detection of COPD patients with pneumonia. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was performed to investigate the mortality rate of the patients who were re-admitted within 6 months after discharge from the hospital due to AECOPD with or without CAP. We analyzed the difference of cumulative survival rate according to serum DNI level and readmission duration. RESULTS: Finally, 140 AECOPD patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and 174 AECOPD patients without CAP were enrolled during 6 months, respectively. The mean age was 72.2 ± 9.4 year-old, and 240 patients (76.4%) were male. When comparing the cumulative survival rate according to readmission duration (≤ 30 vs >  30 days) and DNI level (< 3.5 vs ≥ 3.5%), AECOPD patients with readmission ≤30 days and DNI ≥ 3.5% showed the lowest cumulative survival rate compared to other groups (P <  0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed readmission duration ≤30 days (HR 7.879, 95% CI 4.554-13.632, P <  0.001); and serum DNI level (HR 1.086, 95% CI 1.043-1.131, P <  0.001) were significantly associated with the mortality of AECOPD patients during 6 months. The area under the curve for readmission (≤ 30 days) + DNI level (≥ 3.5%) was 0.753 (95% CI 0.676-0.830, P <  0.001) with a sensitivity of 73.7% and a specificity of 67.3%. CONCLUSION: AECOPD patients who were readmitted ≤30 days and DNI ≥ 3.5% showed higher mortality. DNI level can be used as a predictor of prognosis in AECOPD patients who were readmitted after discharge.

Pleural fluid ADA activity in tuberculous pleurisy can be low in elderly, critically ill patients with multi-organ failure.

BACKGROUND: Adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity is typically elevated in patients with tuberculous pleural effusion (TPE), but low ADA has occasionally been reported in patients with TPE. The characteristics of these patients are not well-known, and erroneous exclusion of the possibility of TPE can result in a delayed diagnosis. This study investigated the characteristics of patients with TPE who had low ADA activity. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed patients with microbiologically or pathologically confirmed TPE between 2012 to 2018 in a tertiary hospital in South Korea. Patients were categorised into two groups: high ADA (≥40 IU/L) and low ADA (< 40 IU/L). Clinical characteristics and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores were compared between groups. RESULTS: A total of 192 patients with TPE were included; 36 (18.8%) had ADA < 40 IU/L with a mean ADA activity level of 20.9 (±9.2) IU/L. Patients with low ADA were older (75.3 vs. 62.0 years, p < 0.001) and had a lower mean lymphocyte percentage (47.6% vs. 69.9%, p < 0.001) than patients with high ADA. Patients in the low ADA group had a significantly higher mean SOFA score (2.31 vs. 0.68, p < 0.001), and patients with organ dysfunction were significantly more common in the low ADA group (p < 0.001). Patients with 2 or ≥ 3 organ dysfunctions constituted 19.4 and 13.9% of the patients in the low ADA group, whereas they constituted 7.1 and 1.3% of the patients in the high ADA group (p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that older age (odds ratio = 1.030, 95% confidence interval 1.002-1.060, p = 0.038) and a higher SOFA score (odds ratio = 1.598, 95% confidence interval 1.239-2.060, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with low ADA activity in patients with TPE. CONCLUSIONS: ADA activity can be low in patients with TPE who are elderly, critically ill, and exhibit multiorgan failure. Low ADA activity cannot completely exclude the diagnosis of TPE, and physicians should exercise caution when interpreting pleural fluid exams.

An Energy Efficient Sink Location Service for Continuous Objects in Wireless Sensor Networks.

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), detection and report of continuous object, such as forest fire and toxic gas leakage, is one of the major applications. In large-scale continuous object tracking in WSNs, there might be many source nodes simultaneously, detecting the continuous object. Each nodes reports its data to both a base station and mobile workers in the industry field. For communication between the source nodes and a mobile worker, sink location service is needed to continuously notify the location of the mobile worker. But, as the application has a large number of sources, it causes a waste of energy consumption. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose a two-phase sink location service scheme. In the first phase, the proposed scheme constructs a virtual grid structure for merging the source nodes. Then, the proposed scheme aggregates the merging points from an originated merging point as the second phase. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is superior to other schemes in terms of energy consumption.

Acute Cholecystitis in Elderly Patients after Hip Fracture: a Nationwide Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Because acute cholecystitis in elderly hip fracture is not easily distinguishable from other gastrointestinal symptoms and involves atypical clinical behaviors, it may not be diagnosed in the early stage. However, the exact incidences could not be reported. We utilized data from a nationwide claims database and attempted to assess the incidence of acute cholecystitis in elderly hip fracture patients and how cholecystitis affects mortality rates after hip fracture. METHODS: Study subjects were from the Korean National Health Insurance Service-Senior cohort. From a population of approximately 5.5 million Korean enrollees > 60 years of age in 2002, a total of 588,147 participants were randomly selected using 10% simple random sampling. The subjects included in this study were those who were over 65 years old and underwent surgery for hip fractures. RESULTS: A total of 15,210 patients were enrolled in the cohort as hip fracture patients. There were 7,888 cases (51.9%) of femoral neck fracture and 7,443 (48.9%) cases of hemiarthroplasty. Thirty-six patients developed acute cholecystitis within 30 days after the index date (30-day cumulative incidence, 0.24%). Four of the 36 acute cholecystitis patients (11.1%) died within 30 days versus 2.92% of patients without acute cholecystitis. In the multivariate-adjusted Poisson regression model, hip fracture patients with incident acute cholecystitis were 4.35 (adjusted risk ratio 4.35; 95% confidence interval, 1.66-11.37; P = 0.003) times more likely to die within 30 days than those without acute cholecystitis. CONCLUSION: Incidence of acute cholecystitis in elderly patients after hip fracture within 30 days after the index date was 0.24%. Acute cholecystitis in elderly hip fracture patients dramatically increases the 30-day mortality rate by 4.35-fold. Therefore, early disease detection and management are crucial for patients.

Early readmission and mortality in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with community-acquired pneumonia.

Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) are important causes of hospital admission and mortality. Pneumonia is a major contributor to hospitalization for AECOPD and has a close relationship with poor outcomes. We performed a prospective cohort study to evaluate the prognosis of AECOPD patients with or without community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) who hospitalized from January 2012 to December 2015. We investigated mortality and readmission rates within 6 months after the first admission between two groups and analyzed the difference of survival rate according to readmission duration (≤30 vs. >30 days) or intensive care unit (ICU) treatment. Total 308 AECOPD patients (134 with CAP and 174 without CAP) were enrolled. The mean age was 72.3 ± 9.5 years old, and 235 patients (76.3%) were male. The 180-day mortality was higher in AECOPD with CAP than without CAP (24.6% vs. 13.2%; hazard ratio (HR): 1.982; 95% CI: 1.164-3.375; p = 0.012). However, readmission rate showed no significant difference between two groups (51.5% vs. 46.6%; HR: 1.172; 95% CI: 0.850-1.616; p = 0.333). It showed a significantly lower survival rate in AECOPD with CAP rather than without CAP when were readmitted within 30 days (HR: 1.738; 95% CI:1.063-3.017; p = 0.031). According to ICU treatment, survival rate was not significantly different between two groups. Multivariate analysis revealed the readmission within 30 days ( p < 0.001), serum hemoglobin concentration ( p = 0.010), and albumin level ( p = 0.049) were significantly associated with 180-day mortality of AECOPD with CAP. AECOPD with CAP showed lower survival rate than AECOPD without CAP during 6 months. Early readmission within 30 days was significantly associated with an increased risk of mortality.

Transfer-Efficient Face Routing Using the Planar Graphs of Neighbors in High Density WSNs.

Face routing has been adopted in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) where topological changes occur frequently or maintaining full network information is difficult. For message forwarding in networks, a planar graph is used to prevent looping, and because long edges are removed by planarization and the resulting planar graph is composed of short edges, and messages are forwarded along multiple nodes connected by them even though they can be forwarded directly. To solve this, face routing using information on all nodes within 2-hop range was adopted to forward messages directly to the farthest node within radio range. However, as the density of the nodes increases, network performance plunges because message transfer nodes receive and process increased node information. To deal with this problem, we propose a new face routing using the planar graphs of neighboring nodes to improve transfer efficiency. It forwards a message directly to the farthest neighbor and reduces loads and processing time by distributing network graph construction and planarization to the neighbors. It also decreases the amount of location information to be transmitted by sending information on the planar graph nodes rather than on all neighboring nodes. Simulation results show that it significantly improves transfer efficiency.

Extrapyramidal Signs and Cognitive Subdomains in Alzheimer Disease.

OBJECTIVE: Extrapyramidal signs (EPS), commonly observed in Alzheimer disease (AD), predict cognitive impairment and functional decline. This study investigated the association between EPS and five cognitive subdomains in a large number of participants with AD. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analyses of the nationwide Clinical Research of Dementia of South Korea (CREDOS) study, 2005-2012. SETTING: Multicenter clinical settings. PARTICIPANTS: 1,737 participants with AD drawn from the CREDOS study. MEASUREMENTS: The EPS group was defined by the presence of at least one EPS based on neurologic examination. We assessed five cognitive subdomains: attention, language, visuospatial function, memory, and frontal/executive function using the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery-Dementia version. The associations of EPS with each cognitive subdomain were analyzed with a multiple linear regression model after controlling for confounding factors: sex, age, years of education, severity of dementia (Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes), and white matter hyperintensities. RESULTS: 164 AD participants (9.4%) had EPS. AD participants with EPS showed lower performance compared with those without EPS in two cognitive subdomains: attention and visuospatial function. The language, memory, and frontal/executive subdomains did not differ between the EPS-positive and the EPS-negative groups. In addition, we found a significant moderating relationship between EPS and deep white matter hyperintensities on visuospatial function score. CONCLUSIONS: EPS in AD are associated with severe cognitive impairment in attention and visuospatial function. Careful screening for EPS in patients with AD may assist in prediction of cognitive profile.

Factors related to prevalence, persistence, and incidence of depressive symptoms in mild cognitive impairment: vascular depression construct.

OBJECTIVE: Depression is prevalent among elders with cognitive impairment. Cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMH) have consistently been implicated in late-life depression and in cognitive impairment. This study aims to clarify the factors related to prevalence, persistence, and new onset of depressive symptoms in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS: As part of a multicenter prospective study, the Clinical Research Center for Dementia of South Korea (CREDOS) Study, we enrolled 590 subjects diagnosed with MCI and with no prior history of depression. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale short form (SGDS-K) at baseline and at follow-up visits. Brain magnetic resonance imaging was performed at baseline to quantify WMH using a visual rating scale. RESULTS: The baseline prevalence of clinically significant depressive symptoms (SGDS-K ≥5) was 51.4%, and this feature was associated with younger age, lower educational achievement, and higher Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) scores. Persistence of depressive symptoms across the study period was significantly associated with baseline CDR-SB and depression scores. New onset of depression (SGDS-K ≥8; incidence 15.7%) among subjects free of depressive symptoms (SGDS-K <5) at baseline was associated with severe deep subcortical, but not periventricular, WMH. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with MCI aged 50 years or older, depressive symptoms were highly prevalent. Cognitive status was closely related to both prevalence and persistence of depressive symptoms, while new onset of depression was associated with deep subcortical WMH severity in this MCI cohort. Our findings provide prospective evidence consistent with the vascular depression hypothesis. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effects of Educational Interventions for Chronic Airway Disease on Primary Care.

Education has been known to essential for management of chronic airway diseases. However the real benefits remain unclear. We evaluated the effectiveness of an organized educational intervention for chronic airway diseases directed at primary care physicians and patients. The intervention was a 1-month education program of three visits, during which subjects were taught about their disease, an action plan in acute exacerbation and inhaler technique. Asthma control tests (ACT) for asthma and, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) assessment tests (CAT) for COPD subjects were compared before and after education as an index of quality of life. Educational effectiveness was also measured associated with improvement of their knowledge for chronic airway disease itself, proper use of inhaler technique, and satisfaction of the subjects and clinicians before and after education. Among the 285 participants, 60.7% (n = 173) were men and the mean age was 62.2 ± 14.7. ACT for asthma and CAT in COPD patients were significantly improved by 49.7% (n = 79) and 51.2% (n = 65) more than MCID respectively after education (P < 0.05). In all individual items, knowledge about their disease, inhaler use and satisfaction of the patients and clinicians were also improved after education (P < 0.05). This study demonstrates the well-organized education program for primary care physicians and patients is a crucial process for management of chronic airway diseases.

Gender differences in risk factors for transition from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease: A CREDOS study.

BACKGROUND: Women are subject to a disproportionate burden from Alzheimer's disease (AD) and sex differences exist in treatment response and prognosis of the disease. Yet gender-specific risk factors have not been widely studied. We aimed to investigate gender-specific risk factors for AD in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS: Participants (n=294) with MCI were recruited from a nationwide, prospective cohort study of dementia and were followed for a median (range) of 13.8 (6.0-36.0) months. Sex-stratified associations of progression to AD with baseline characteristics were explored. RESULTS: Seventy-four individuals (25.2%) developed incident dementia (67 AD) during follow-up. Significant risk factors for probable AD differed by sex. In men, the significant risk factors were severe periventricular white matter hyperintensities, and poorer global cognitive function. In women, older age, clinically significant depressive symptoms at baseline, and positive APOE ε4 alleles were the significant risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Risk factors for progression from MCI to probable AD differed in men and women. These results may translate to gender-specific preventative or therapeutic strategies for patients with MCI.

Periventricular white matter hyperintensities and the risk of dementia: a CREDOS study.

BACKGROUND: Cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMH) are prevalent incident findings on brain MRI scans among elderly people and have been consistently implicated in cognitive dysfunction. However, differential roles of WMH by region in cognitive function are still unclear. The aim of this study was to ascertain the differential role of regional WMH in predicting progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to different subtypes of dementia. METHODS: Participants were recruited from the Clinical Research Center for Dementia of South Korea (CREDOS) study. A total of 622 participants with MCI diagnoses at baseline and follow-up evaluations were included for the analysis. Initial MRI scans were rated for WMH on a visual rating scale developed for the CREDOS. Differential effects of regional WMH in predicting incident dementia were evaluated using the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: Of the 622 participants with MCI at baseline, 139 patients (22.3%) converted to all-cause dementia over a median of 14.3 (range 6.0-36.5) months. Severe periventricular WMH (PWMH) predicted incident all-cause dementia (Hazard ratio (HR) 2.22; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.43-3.43) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) (HR 1.86; 95% CI 1.12-3.07). Subcortical vascular dementia (SVD) was predicted by both PWMH (HR 16.14; 95% CI 1.97-132.06) and DWMH (HR 8.77; 95% CI 1.77-43.49) in more severe form (≥ 10 mm). CONCLUSIONS: WMH differentially predict dementia by region and severity. Our findings suggest that PWMH may play an independent role in the pathogenesis of dementia, especially in AD.

Predictors of Asthma Control by Stepwise Treatment in Elderly Asthmatic Patients.

The geriatric population is increasing, and asthma severity increases with age. We determined the predictors of asthma control, exacerbation, and the factors that affect asthma-specific quality of life (A-QOL) in elderly asthmatic patients. This was a prospective, multicenter, real-life study for 6 months with stepwise pharmacologic treatment based on the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guideline. A total of 296 asthmatic patients aged ≥ 60 yr were recruited from 5 university centers in Korea. The improved-asthma control group was defined as the group of patients who maintained well-controlled or improved disease and the not-improved asthma control group was defined as the remaining patients. Fewer number of medications for comorbidities (2.8 ± 3.3 in the improved vs. 4.5 ± 4.4 in the control) and higher physical functioning (PF) scale (89.8 ± 14.2 in the improved vs. 82.0 ± 16.4 in the control) were significant predictors in the improved-asthma control group (OR = 0.863, P = 0.004 and OR = 1.028, P = 0.018, respectively). An asthma control test (ACT) score of ≤ 19 at baseline was a significant predictor of asthma exacerbation (OR = 3.938, P = 0.048). Asthma duration (F = 5.656, P = 0.018), ACT score (F = 12.237, P = 0.001) at baseline, and the presence of asthma exacerbation (F = 5.565, P = 0.019) were significant determinants of changes in A-QOL. The number of medications for comorbidities and performance status determined by the PF scale may be important parameters for assessing asthma control in elderly asthmatic patients.

Short-acting ß2-agonist prescriptions in patients with asthma: findings from the South Korean cohort of SABINA III.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Despite short-acting ß2-agonist (SABA) overuse being associated with poor asthma outcomes, data on SABA use in South Korea is scarce. Herein, we describe prescription patterns of SABA and other asthma medications in patients from the South Korean cohort of the SABA use IN Asthma (SABINA) III study. METHODS: This study included patients with asthma aged ≥ 12 years, who had ≥ 3 consultations with the same healthcare provider, and medical records containing data for ≥ 12 months prior to the study visit. Patients were classified by investigator-defined asthma severity (per 2017 Global Initiative for Asthma recommendations) and practice type (primary or specialist care). Data on disease characteristics, asthma treatments, and clinical outcomes in the 12 months before the study visit were collected using electronic case report forms. RESULTS: Data from 476 patients (mean age, 55.4 years; female, 63.0%) were analyzed. Most patients were treated by specialists (83.7%) and had moderate-to-severe asthma (91.0%). Overall, 7.6% of patients were prescribed ≥ 3 SABA canisters (defined as over-prescription). In patients prescribed SABA in addition to maintenance therapy, 47.4% were over-prescribed SABA. Most patients (95.4%) were prescribed a fixed-dose combination of an inhaled corticosteroid and a long-acting ß2-agonist as maintenance therapy. Although asthma was well-controlled/partly-controlled in 91.6% of patients, 29.6% experienced ≥ 1 severe asthma exacerbation. CONCLUSION: SABA over-prescription was reported in nearly 50% of patients prescribed SABA in addition to maintenance therapy, underscoring the need to align clinical practices with the latest evidence-based recommendations and educate physicians and patients on appropriate SABA use.

SleepMI: An AI-based screening algorithm for myocardial infarction using nocturnal electrocardiography.

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a common cardiovascular disease, the early diagnosis of which is essential for effective treatment and reduced mortality. Therefore, novel methods are required for automatic screening or early diagnosis of MI, and many studies have proposed diverse conventional methods for its detection. In this study, we aimed to develop a sleep-myocardial infarction (sleepMI) algorithm for automatic screening of MI based on nocturnal electrocardiography (ECG) findings from diagnostic polysomnography (PSG) data using artificial intelligence (AI) models. The proposed sleepMI algorithm was designed using representation and ensemble learning methods and optimized via dropout and batch normalization. In the sleepMI algorithm, a deep convolutional neural network and light gradient boost machine (LightGBM) models were mixed to obtain robust and stable performance for screening MI from nocturnal ECG findings. The nocturnal ECG signal was extracted from 2,691 participants (2,331 healthy individuals and 360 patients with MI) from the PSG data of the second follow-up stage of the Sleep Heart Health Study. The nocturnal ECG signal was extracted 3 h after sleep onset and segmented at 30-s intervals for each participant. All ECG datasets were divided into training, validation, and test sets consisting of 574,729, 143,683, and 718,412 segments, respectively. The proposed sleepMI model exhibited very high performance with precision, recall, and F1-score of 99.38%, 99.38%, and 99.38%, respectively. The total mean accuracy for automatic screening of MI using a nocturnal single-lead ECG was 99.387%. MI events can be detected using conventional 12-lead ECG signals and polysomnographic ECG recordings using our model.

Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Obstructive Sleep Apnea Among Korean Pulmonologists: A Nationwide Survey.

BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) significantly impacts cardiovascular, metabolic, and respiratory health. In Korea, OSA patients are treated by specialists in internal medicine, otolaryngology, neurology, and psychiatry, but the participation rate of pulmonologists in OSA management is relatively low compared to other specialties. This study investigated the knowledge and attitudes about OSA among Korean pulmonologists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An online survey was conducted, targeting respiratory specialists listed in the Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases directory. The survey used the validated "Obstructive Sleep Apnea Knowledge and Attitudes" (OSAKA) questionnaire, which consists of questions about knowledge and attitudes on OSA. To maximize participation, email invitations were sent three times to the target audience. RESULTS: Out of 634 queried pulmonologists, 127 (20%) responded to the survey. The mean age of respondents was 45.4 ± 8.6 years. The respondents' years of specialty acquisition ranged from the 1980s to the 2010s. Additionally, 74 (58.3%) held a doctor's degree, and 96 (75.6%) worked in hospitals with a sleep center. Furthermore, 71 (55.9%) of the pulmonologists reported having experience with OSA patients. Pulmonologists with experience managing OSA patients had significantly higher knowledge and attitude scores compared to those without such experience. Interestingly, older respondents and those who completed their pulmonology training earlier had higher attitude scores. In addition, the knowledge score significantly correlated with responses to the five items of the attitude questionnaire. CONCLUSION: This study provides valuable insights into the knowledge and attitudes of Korean pulmonologists regarding OSA. The findings indicate that their knowledge levels are comparable to or better than those in previous studies. These results underscore the need for targeted educational programs and practical training, especially for younger pulmonologists, to enhance their proficiency in managing OSA and to encourage a more active role in its treatment.

Incidence, Prevalence, and Mortality of Eosinophilic Granulomatosis With Polyangiitis in Korea: A Nationwide Population-Based Study.

PURPOSE: Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) is a rare form of vasculitis with multiorgan involvement. The incidence and prevalence of EGPA vary geographically and ethnically. This study investigated the incidence, prevalence, and mortality of EGPA in a nationwide population-based cohort in Korea. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study used data from the National Health Insurance database that covers almost all Korean residents. EGPA was identified using relevant diagnostic codes from 2007 to 2018. Newly diagnosed EGPA cases since 2007 and patients who visited outpatient clinics for EGPA at least three times were included. Age- and sex-adjusted standardized incidence and prevalence rates were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 843 patients with EGPA were identified. The mean annual standardized incidence between 2007 and 2018 was 1.2 (per 1,000,000 individuals). The incidence of EGPA has increased from 1.1 (per 1,000,000 individuals) in 2007 to 1.6 (per 1,000,000 individuals) in 2017. The standardized prevalence of EGPA has increased from 1.1(per 1,000,000 individuals) in 2007 to 11.2 (per 1,000,000 individuals) in 2018. The incidence and prevalence of EGPA were higher in women than in men. The standardized mortality rate was 1.61 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.34-1.93) in total population, 1.59 (95% CI, 1.23-2.02) in males, and 1.63 (95% CI, 1.22-2.13) in females. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of EGPA has increased over the past decade. Incidence and prevalence rates were higher in females than in males. The overall mortality rate associated with EGPA was higher than that in the general population.

Inhaled Corticosteroids May Not Affect the Clinical Outcomes of Pneumonia in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

BACKGROUND: Although inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) is reportedly associated with a higher risk of pneumonia in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the clinical implications of ICS have not been sufficiently verified to determine their effect on the prognosis of pneumonia. METHODS: The electronic health records of patients hospitalized for pneumonia with underlying COPD were retrospectively reviewed. Pneumonia was confirmed using chest radiography or computed tomography. The clinical outcomes of pneumonia in patients with COPD who received ICS and those who received long-acting bronchodilators other than ICS were compared. RESULTS: Among the 255 hospitalized patients, 89 met the inclusion criteria. The numbers of ICS and non-ICS users were 46 and 43, respectively. The CURB-65 (confusion, uremia, respiratory rate, blood pressure, age ≥65 years) scores at the initial presentation of pneumonia were comparable between the two groups. The proportions of patients with multilobar infiltration, pleural effusion, and complicated pneumonia in the radiological studies did not vary between the two groups. Additionally, the defervescence time, proportion of mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit admission, length of hospital stays, and mortality rate at 30 and 90 days were not significantly different between the two groups. ICS use and blood eosinophils count were not associated with all pneumonia outcomes and mortality in multivariate analyses. CONCLUSION: The clinical outcomes of pneumonia following ICS use in patients with COPD did not differ from those in patients treated without ICS. Thus, ICS may not contribute to the severity and outcomes of pneumonia in patients with COPD.