Search

Background/Aims The number of foreigners living in Korea has increased more recently, and the survey on chronic hepatitis C among foreigners is still almost nonexistent. The authors wanted to analyze foreign chronic hepatitis C patients to find out their clinical characteristics. Methods From January 2000 to December 2018, foreign chronic hepatitis C patients who visited six hospitals in the Daejeon Chungcheong area were analyzed. Results Total 217 patients were enrolled which is consisted of 90 male patients and 127 female patients. Their mean age was 49.3±12.6 years. By country, China topped the list with 109 people (50.2%), followed by North Korea with 48 (22.1%), Mongolia with 18 (8.3%), Uzbekistan with 10 (4.6%) and Russia with six (2.8%). Genotype 2 were the most common with 99 patients (45.6%) and genotype 1 was the second largest with 91 patients (41.9%). Genotype 3 was the third largest with 14 patients (6.5%), while genotype 6a was found in one patient (0.5%). Of the 217 patients, 154 patients (71.0%) received treatment. Eighty-four patients (54.5%) treated with interferon agents and 70 patients (45.5%) with direct-acting antivirals drugs. Sovaldi+ribavirin (29 patients) was used most, followed by daklinza+sunvepra (16 patients) and zepatier (16 patients). Viekirax+exviera, harvoni and maviret were used in three patients each. Of the 154 patients treated, 103 tested for sustained virologic response at 12 weeks (SVR12) and 83 patients showed positive SVR12. Eighteen patients used interferon agents and one each used daklinza+sunvepra and zepatier, respectively, for 20 patients who failed to achieve SVR12. Conclusions The number of foreign chronic hepatitis C patients has increased significantly, especially since 2013. Unlike Korea, genotype 2 has more than genotype 1 and genotype 3 also takes up a certain portion, which requires publicity and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is to determine asphalt binder performance grades (PGs) of North Korea (N.K.) so that the asphalt pavement can be designed to resist distresses of rutting and cracking that occurred due to seasonal temperature changes. The first step of determining the PG is to establish high and low temperatures for a location because the asphalt binder is a temperature sensitive viscoelastic material. The temperature zoning for developing the PG map were performed by obtaining last 26 year temperature data of 27 cities in N.K. from world meteorological organization. A trend and statistical reliability of the temperature data were analyzed to secure asphalt binder performance. Three air-pavement temperature prediction models of Superpave, South Korea, and Japan were utilized to predict the pavement temperatures. Finally, the reliability levels of 98% and 50% were used to determine the local PGs. Since the Superpave equation includes the dependent variable of latitude that can more reflect geographic locations of North areas rather than the other models, this study finally adopted the SHRP Superpave model to determine the binder PGs. Based on the Superpave models with the reliability analyses, PG maps were drawn. It was found out that the most common grades used for low volume roads are PG 58-22 and 58-28, covering 79% and 93% of the N.K. area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]