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Vertical transmission from mother to child, the main route of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the East Asia, is considered one of the most important predictors for the response to antiviral therapies as well as its complications such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Therefore, it is critical in both etiologic and prognostic aspects to confirm whether or not chronic HBV infection is acquired vertically. This study investigated whether mother-to-child infection could be proved by the phylogenetic analyses of HBV pre-S/S genes ever since several decades have elapsed in mother-child pairs with presumed vertical transmission. The pre-S and S regions of HBVs were compared and analyzed phylogenetically in a total of 36 adults (18 mother-child pairs) with chronic HBV infection. All of the isolates of HBV were genotype C and serotype adr. The divergence between mothers and offsprings was 0 to 1.5%. Phylogenetic trees revealed that 17 of 18 pairs (94%) with presumed vertical transmission were grouped into the same cluster. Vertical transmission from mother to child could be strongly suggested even in adults with a history of several decades of HBV infection using the phylogenetic analyses of pre-S and S genes. Graphical Abstract Keywords: Hepatitis B Virus, Multilocus Sequence Typing, Mutation, Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical INTRODUCTION Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is considered as a major risk factor of chronic liver diseases including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Parenteral infection during the adulthood is a main route of chronic HBV infection in western countries, whereas vertical (or perinatal) transmission from mother to child is thought of a critical one in the East Asia (1, 2). Of importance, the modes of infection, together with other factors such as viral titer, genotype, genetic mutations of HBV, age and gender of the host may determine the long-term clinical course of chronic HBV infection. The mode of vertical transmission, in particular, is one of the most important determinants for the therapeutic responsiveness to antiviral therapies, or the natural course in terms of hepatitis e antigen seroconversion and even the development of complications (3, 4, 5). Previous studies using a comparison of HBV DNA sequences and phylogenetic analyses have shown that HBV of chronically infected children originates mainly from their respective mothers or fathers (6, 7, 8). Although there has been hitherto a molecular evidence of vertical transmission of HBV in the pairs of mother-young child, it is improbable to identify exactly the mode of infection (especially vertical vs non-vertical) in real clinical settings because medical information from the adults for the source of HBV, relying on history taking alone, is highly obscure and there could be recall bias. There have been, so far, no reports about whether it was possible to demonstrate the molecular evidence of vertical transmission of HBV even after several decades of infection. Taken together, 'Vertical or non-vertical transmission' is so crucially informative that it enables clinicians to manage effectively the patients with chronic HBV infection and also foresee the prognosis or therapeutic responses. Therefore, this study was conducted to prove the vertical transmission by showing the molecular closeness of HBVs between adult patients with clinically presumed vertical transmission and their respective mothers with the phylogenetic analyses of pre-S/S genes of HBV. It must provide valuable information to design a further strategy of management if the mode of HBV infection can be disclosed even after long-term period of infection.

The simultaneous detection of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibody to hepatitis B surface (anti-HBs) is unusual in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, but may be related with more advanced liver diseases. This retrospective long-term cohort study was aimed to investigate whether coexistence of HBsAg and anti-HBs may increase the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in chronic HBV infection. A total of 1,042 non-HCC patients were recruited and followed up for a median 4.3 years (range 1.0–22 years). Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the risk factors for HCC development. The prevalence of coexistence of HBsAg and anti-HBs was 7.0% (73/1,042). In univariate analysis, the 5-, 10-, and 15-year cumulative incidences of HCC were significantly higher in coexistence group than in HBsAg only group (12.7%, 23.4%, 69.4% vs. 4.9%, 13%, 20.6%, respectively; P = 0.008). In multivariate analysis, coexistence of HBsAg and anti-HBs [Hazard ratio (HR), 2.001; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.023–3.912; P = 0.043] as well as male gender [HR, 1.898; 95% CI, 0.31–0.896; P = 0.018], age over 40 years [HR, 14.56; 95% CI, 4.499–47.08; P = 0.0001], and cirrhosis [HR, 7.995; 95% CI, 4.756–13.439; P = 0.0001] was identified as the independent factor for HCC development. Also, the cumulative incidence of HCC increased in proportion to the number of the risk factors. In conclusion, coexistence of HBsAg and anti-HBs may increase independently the risk of HCC development in chronic HBV infection. Therefore, consideration of HCC development is required in patients with coexistence of HBsAg and anti-HBs. J. Med. Virol. 86:124–130, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The simultaneous detection of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibody to hepatitis B surface (anti-HBs) is unusual in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, but may be related with more advanced liver diseases. This retrospective long-term cohort study was aimed to investigate whether coexistence of HBsAg and anti-HBs may increase the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in chronic HBV infection. A total of 1,042 non-HCC patients were recruited and followed up for a median 4.3 years (range 1.0-22 years). Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the risk factors for HCC development. The prevalence of coexistence of HBsAg and anti-HBs was 7.0% (73/1,042). In univariate analysis, the 5-, 10-, and 15-year cumulative incidences of HCC were significantly higher in coexistence group than in HBsAg only group (12.7%, 23.4%, 69.4% vs. 4.9%, 13%, 20.6%, respectively; P = 0.008). In multivariate analysis, coexistence of HBsAg and anti-HBs [Hazard ratio (HR), 2.001; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.023-3.912; P = 0.043] as well as male gender [HR, 1.898; 95% CI, 0.31-0.896; P = 0.018], age over 40 years [HR, 14.56; 95% CI, 4.499-47.08; P = 0.0001], and cirrhosis [HR, 7.995; 95% CI, 4.756-13.439; P = 0.0001] was identified as the independent factor for HCC development. Also, the cumulative incidence of HCC increased in proportion to the number of the risk factors. In conclusion, coexistence of HBsAg and anti-HBs may increase independently the risk of HCC development in chronic HBV infection. Therefore, consideration of HCC development is required in patients with coexistence of HBsAg and anti-HBs.

Although the adrenal gland is a common site of metastasis from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), adrenal metastases are rarely seen in clinical practice because of its lower metastatic potential compared to the other malignancies. Adrenal metastases usually were detected at the time of diagnosis of primary HCC or simultaneously with intrahepatic recurrence after curative management of HCC. It is very rare that only metastatic HCC is detected without evidence of intrahepatic recurrence. Hereby, we report two cases of adrenal metastasis from HCC without intrahepatic recurrence after hepatic resection.

International audience; Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are mainly characterized by deployment of biomedical sensors around human body which transmit vital signs measurements about healthy status to the coordinator. Depending on the relevance between symptoms and diseases, it may not be necessary for every sensor to transmit its measurements for diagnoses. This paper shows how the relevance can be exploited on the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer by utilizing the mutual information. A theoretical framework is developed for sensor scheduling under an operation cost constraint. It is shown that the compact subset of sensors can be found to provide necessary information for timely and correct diagnoses. Based on the theoretical framework, an algorithm combining sensor selection and information gain is then designed. Simulation results show that the algorithm achieves high performance in terms of energy, latency and collision rate.

In this paper, we focus on the problem of constructing an information gain model for stroke prevention in Ubiquitous Healthcare (U-Health) Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). We have constructed an information-based probabilistic relation model among the key indicators and sequenced their data gathering priority and precedence in the WBAN. Then, we constructed a cost function over the energy expenditure involved in their data gathering, and expressed the relationship between utility gain and energy loss as a constrained optimization problem. We also designed an algorithm to carry out the proposed approach. Through simulation study, we demonstrated the validity of some aspects of the approach.

With the increase of the aging society worldwide, hospitals, medical practitioners and health insurers are now increasingly seeking ways to reduce the cost of healthcare while maitaining its quality. One solution subject to attention from gouvernement and healthcare providers is the U-Health Smart Home that aims to provide non-intrusive and non-invasive monitoring and assistance to the elderly directly in their own home. At POSTECH, the U-Health Smart Home project is focused on building a smart home along with an autonomic system to monitor the home as well as the inhabitants to provide intelligent support and assistance in any situation at anytime. This paper presents our initial results from this project. The first contribution is a general framework for the U-Health smart home and the second one is an initial semantic model that can be used in the autonomic system to provide autonomic support to the elderly.