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Objective: To investigate the protective effects of Haeganjeon on a thioacetamide (TAA)-induced liver fibrosis mouse model and to determine the Haegan-jeon signaling pathway.Methods: Mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: Normal group (Nor), TAA-induced liver fibrosis group (Con), TAA-induced liver fibrosis group administered 50 mg/kg silymarin (S50), TAA-induced liver fibrosis group administered 200 mg/kg Haegan-jeon (H200). The liver fibrosis mouse model was established by intraperitoneal injection with TAA three times a week for 8 weeks. During the 8 weeks, mice were orally administered silymarin and Haegan-jeon every day. At the end of the study, serum was collected to measure the levels of AST, ALT, ammonia, and myeloperoxidase (MPO). Liver tissue was harvested and analyzed by western blotting and Masson's trichrome staining.Results: Administration of Haegan-jeon suppressed the increase in serum levels of AST, ALT, ammonia, and MPO due to TAA-induced liver fibrosis. Compared to the Con group, the H200 group showed increases in antioxidant-related factors (Nrf2, HO-1, catalase, and GPx-1/2) and decreases in inflammatory-related factors (NF-κB p65, p-IκB-α, Cox-2, iNOS, TNF-α, and IL-1β) in western blots. The H200 treatment inhibited the expression of α-SMA and Collagen I.Conclusions: Haegan-jeon showed a hepatoprotective effect induced by activation of antioxidant-related factors, such as Nrf2, and it regulated the inflammation response by suppression of NF-κB.

The aim of this study was to compare the long-term implant survival and outcomes in patients with high-flexion cruciate-retaining (CR) or high-flexion posterior cruciate-substituting (PS) knee implants. A total of 253 knees (CR group: 159 vs. PS group: 94) were available for examination over a mean follow-up of 10 years. Clinical outcomes were assessed including the Hospital for Special Surgery score, Knee Society score and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index score at the final follow-up. Radiologic measurements were also assessed including the hip-knee-ankle angle and radiolucent lines according to the KSS system at the final follow-up. The survival rate was analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method. At the final follow-up, the mean total HSS scores were similar between the two groups (p = 0.970). The mean hip-knee-ankle angle at the final follow-up was similar between groups (p = 0.601). The 10- and 15-year survival rates were 95.4% and 93.3% in the CR group and 92.7% and 90.9% in the PS group, respectively, with no significant difference. Similar clinical and radiographic outcomes could be achieved with both the high-flexion CR and high-flexion PS total knee designs without a difference in survival rate after a 10-year follow-up.

As silver nanowires (Ag NWs) are usually manufactured by chemical synthesis, a patterning process is needed to use them as functional devices. Pulsed laser ablation is a promising Ag NW patterning process because it is a simple and inexpensive procedure. However, this process has a disadvantage in that target materials are wasted owing to the subtractive nature of the process involving the removal of unnecessary materials, and large quantities of raw materials are required. In this study, we report a minimum-waste laser patterning process utilizing silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) debris obtained through laser ablation of Ag NWs in liquid media. Since the generated Ag NPs can be used for several applications, wastage of Ag NWs, which is inevitable in conventional laser patterning processes, is dramatically reduced. In addition, electrophoretic deposition of the recycled Ag NPs onto non-ablated Ag NWs allows easy fabrication of junction-enhanced Ag NWs from the deposited Ag NPs. The unique advantage of this method lies in using recycled Ag NPs as building materials, eliminating the additional cost of junction welding Ag NWs. These fabricated Ag NW substrates could be utilized as transparent heaters and stretchable TCEs, thereby validating the effectiveness of the proposed process.

PURPOSE To analyze the effects of increased medial proximal tibial angle (MPTA) on the clinical outcomes and cartilage deterioration in the lateral compartment after a mean follow-up period of 4 years following open-wedge high tibial osteotomy (OWHTO) using propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. METHODS Among 376 knees treated with OWHTO for medial unicompartmental osteoarthritis with varus deformity, 36 knees with MPTA increase of > 95° and 108 knees with MPTA increase of

Solvent-additive engineering has been demonstrated to be an effective strategy for preparing highly crystalline organic semiconductors. Here, we investigate how the physicochemical properties of a ...

Silver nanowire thin films are attractive materials for flexible electrodes as an alternative for conventional tin-doped indium oxide films. An appropriate patterning process is required to apply nanowire-based transparent electrodes into the optoelectronic devices. In this paper, we report the optical property change in silver nanowire transparent electrodes during laser ablation process. We discovered that, when silver nanowires were patterned by nanosecond pulsed lasers at infrared wavelength, their optical properties were changed. The change of optical properties was caused by nanoresidues remaining on the surface. It was analyzed that the color and transparency of thin films were changed because the residual nanoparticles absorbed the visible light wavelengths where silver nanoparticles possess their peak values in the absorption spectra. The nanoparticles were derived from insufficient vaporization of silver nanowires during infrared laser ablation. In the case of using an excimer laser for patterning, the nanoparticles were not left more on the surface due to complete removal of silver nanowires, since silver has higher absorption coefficient at the wavelength of excimer laser. As a result, high-quality patterning of silver nanowire thin films could be obtained without any deterioration of optical properties in transparent electrodes.

Chondroitin sulfate (CS) is the most abundant glycosaminoglycan (GAG) in articular cartilage and the loss of CS-GAG occurs early in OA. As a major component of perichondral matrix interacting directly with chondrocytes, the active turnover of CS can affect to break the homeostasis of chondrocytes. Here we employ CS-based 3-dimensional (3D) hydrogel scaffold system to investigate how the degradation products of CS affect the catabolic phenotype of chondrocytes. The breakdown of CS-based ECM by the chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) resulted in a hypertrophy-like morphologic change in chondrocytes, which was accompanied by catabolic phenotypes, including increased MMP-13 and ADAMTS5 expression, nitric oxide (NO) production and oxidative stress. The inhibition of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) or TLR4 with OxPAPC (TLR2 and TLR4 dual inhibitor) and LPS-RS (TLR4-MD2 inhibitor) ameliorated these catabolic phenotypes of chondrocytes by CS-ECM degradation, suggesting a role of CS breakdown products as damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). As downstream signals of TLRs, MAP kinases, NF-kB, NO and STAT3-related signals were responsible for the catabolic phenotypes of chondrocytes associated with ECM degradation. NO in turn reinforced the activation of MAP kinases as well as NFkB signaling pathway. Thus, these results propose that the breakdown product of CS-GAG can recapitulate the catabolic phenotypes of OA.

Dip-coating is a useful technique to prepare a thin film of an organic semiconductor; however, achieving homogeneous film properties is sometimes challenging because of the experimental configurati...

While hypersensitivity reactions (HSR) to intravenously administered iodinated contrast media (ICM) have been well studied, not much is known about HSR to intra-arterially administered ICM.A prospective observational study was performed to evaluate coronary angiography (CAG)-induced ICM hypersensitivity in patients who underwent CAG using ICM including ioversol, a low-osmolar non-ionic monomer, and iodixanol, an iso-osmolar non-ionic dimer. The HSR were investigated through in-patient monitoring after CAG and telephone interview after discharge.A total of 714 patients were enrolled during the observation period, of whom 26 (3.6%) showed immediate HSR and 108 (15.1%) showed delayed HSR. With regard to severity, proportion of immediate HSR grades 1, 2, and 3 was 57.7%, 38.5%, and 3.8%, respectively, whereas that of delayed HSR grades 1, 2, and 3 was 85.2%, 13.9%, and 0.9%, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that previous intra-arterial exposure to ICM was an independent risk factor for immediate HSR (odds ratio (OR) 2.92, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.22-6.96; p = 0.015). Iodixanol was a significant risk factor for delayed HSR (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.07-2.43; p = 0.024) and correlated with a higher incidence of delayed HSR within 24-h post-ICM administration compared to ioversol.The incidence rate of immediate and delayed HSR in intra-arterially administered ICM was 3.6% and 15.1%, respectively. Previous exposure to intra-arterially administered contrast media was a significant risk factor for immediate HSR. Compared to ioversol, iodixanol was associated with relatively earlier and more frequent delayed HSR.• In this prospective study, the incidence of immediate and delayed hypersensitivity in intra-arterial injection of contrast media during coronary angiography was 3.6% and 15.1%, respectively. • Delayed hypersensitivity reactions were more common but less severe than immediate hypersensitivity reactions during coronary angiography. • Previous exposure to ICM via intra-arterial route was a significant risk factor for immediate hypersensitivity to intra-arterial contrast medium.

Growing interest in healthcare has promoted the use of symptom checkers, which are online health applications that provide diagnostic information on users' health. However, their diagnostic accuracy remains low because the existing symptom checkers rely on manually constructed knowledge models through labor-intensive processes or perform diagnoses based on simple pairwise relationships between diseases and symptoms without considering personal health conditions. In this paper, we propose an intelligent health diagnosis technique that exploits automatically generated ontology and Web-based personal health record services. The proposed technique first automatically generates a human disease diagnosis ontology by exploiting two well-established ontologies for diseases and symptoms: a large-scale medical bibliographic database and an open biomedical repository. When a user enters the symptom-based queries, possible diagnoses are identified by analyzing the user's queries and their health record data via semantic inferences of the automatically generated ontology. Subsequently, the ranked diagnostic results are provided to the user via ranking methods that consider the user's symptoms, personal health attributes, and multi-level diagnosis. The proposed technique also provides the user's diagnostic progress information, which can be used to track or monitor the progress of diseases by considering changes in symptoms over time. The proposed technique was evaluated through a comparison with the existing well-known symptom checkers and other related approaches. The evaluation results show that the proposed technique can feasibly help to improve diagnostic accuracy and deliver appropriate diagnostic information for healthcare action by users.

A facile, reliable, fast-response poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT)-based humidity sensor was developed by introducing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), HKUST-1, into the semiconducting layer. HKUST-1 displayed an excellent ability to capture water molecules, thereby generating and attracting charge carriers derived from the water molecules present in the active layer. The HKUST-1/P3HT hybrid film showed excellent device sensitivity with an enhanced electrical current and a threshold voltage shift as a function of the relative humidity due to the superior gas capture properties and the porosity of HKUST-1. The surface energy of the substrate altered the distribution and location of HKUST-1 in the active layer, which improved the sensitivity of the hydrophilic surface. A dynamic gas sensing test revealed that the hybrid film displayed a reliable and stable performance with fast response and recovery times. The introduction of MOFs into a conjugated polymer stabilized and sensitized the devices, providing a facile method of improving gas sensor technologies based on organic semiconductors.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to elucidate kinematic change according to the implant’s specific femoral rotation by using orthosensor implant with three degrees external rotation of femoral rotation rebuilt and traditional TKA implant without rebuilt of the femoral rotation .Methods Twenty-eight patients (34 knees) underwent TKA using traditional TKA implant and 16 patients (22 knees) underwent TKA using implant with three degrees external rotation of femoral rotation. Patients were followed up for at least 1 year. Mean age of patients was 71.1 years (range, 60 to 80 years) at the time of surgery. After implantation of femur and tibial components, we applied the orthosensor system, to evaluate femoral rollback of the new artificial joint. Femoral rollback was analyzed using digitized screenshot function of orthosensor system.Results Overall femoral tracking proportion regardless of implants was significantly higher on the medial compartment compared to that on the lateral compartment (13.3 ± 8.4% vs. 6.3 ± 5.0%, p < 0.001). Regarding femoral tracking according to each compartment, externally rotated femoral prosthesis and traditional prosthesis showed 12.1 ± 8.2% and 14.2 ± 8.6% (p = 0.371) on the medial compartment and 8.0 ± 5.8% and 5.2 ± 4.2% (p = 0.059) on the lateral compartment, respectively.Conclusion Our study showed reverse femoral roll-back movement with higher tracking distance on the lateral compartment during TKA. externally rotated femoral prosthesis TKA system with femoral component 3-degree rebuilt showed less roll-back difference between medial and lateral compartments compared to traditional TKA system. Fortunately, both TKA systems had excellent short-term clinical outcomes without having significant difference between the two. With longer follow-up and larger cohort, the advantage and effectiveness of femoral component rotation can be elucidated in the future.

The aim of this study was (1) to compare the clinical and radiological outcomes of robotic, navigational and conventional total knee arthroplasty with a minimum follow-up of 10 years, (2) to evaluate the survival rate, (3) and to estimate the accuracy of the three techniques by analyzing the outliers of the total knee arthroplasty (TKA) patients.Methods From January 1992 to December 2008, We evaluated 515 knees who underwent robotic TKA, navigational TKA, or conventional TKA with minimum follow-up of 10 years. Finally, this study including 92 patients (103 knees) who underwent robotic total knee arthroplasty using ROBODOC® , 197 patients (225 knees) who underwent navigational total knee arthroplasty using Orthopilot, and 175 patients (187 knees) who underwent conventional total knee arthroplasty. Hospital for special surgery(HSS) score, Knee Society Score(KSS), Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC), and Range of Motion(ROM) were used for clinical evaluation. Mechanical alignment, implant radiological measurements and outliers were analyzed for radiological results. Complication related with surgery was also evaluated. Data were analyzed using SPSS Version 24.0 software and descriptive statistics, paired t‑test, one‑way ANOVA, and Wilcoxon tests. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed for survival rate.Results All clinical assessments including HSS, KSS, WOMAC, and ROM at final follow-up showed excellent improvements in three groups (all, p0.05). In radiologic data, sagittal inclination of femoral implant in robotic group showed better result than another groups with significant difference(pConclusion Our study showed excellent survival with robotic, navigation and conventional TKA and similar clinical outcomes at long-term follow-up. However, in terms of radiological outcome robotic TKA showed accurate position of femoral component. With longer follow-up and larger cohort, the accuracy and effectiveness of robotic TKA on implant survival rate can be elucidated in the future.

Aims To evaluate: (1) objective quantification of ligament balancing in total knee arthroplasty, (2) types and effectiveness of additional procedures to compartment pressure, and (3) change of pressure values in both compartment throughout the range of motion in total knee arthroplasty.Methods Eighty-four patients underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) using VERASENSE Knee System. TKA was performed by two techniques. Compartment pressure was recorded through the range of motion (ROM) initially, after each additional procedure, and after final implantation. Balanced knees were defined as when the compartment pressure difference was less than 15 pounds.Results Thirty patients (35.7%) showed “balanced” knee on initial pressure measurement. Modified gap balancing TKAs showed significantly higher proportion of “balanced” knee than measured-resection TKAs (P = 0.004). Both medial and lateral compartment pressure were generally decreased on both TKA methods. Linear correlation showed statistically significant through ROM on both compartment. Total 66 additional ligament balancing procedures were performed.Conclusion Using the objective orthosensor, we were able to obtain 94% of well-balanced total knee arthroplasty finally. Furthermore, acquired objective data can lead to proper ligament balancing for both experienced and young surgeons and consequently reduce the complications associate with soft tissue imbalance in the future.