Longer sitting time and low physical activity are closely associated with chronic low back pain in population over 50 years of age: a cross-sectional study using the sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Background Context

There is increasing evidence supporting an association between sitting time and low back pain (LBP). However, the degree of the association between the total daily sitting time and LBP in the general population is poorly understood.

Relevancy between liver injury, serum HBV-DNA, and intrahepatic HBcAg in young male chronic HBV carriers]

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Although the viral load is correlated with HBcAg, liver injury was not correlated to viral load in HBeAg positive patient. We aimed to study the inter-relationship of clinical parameters such as the level of HBV-DNA, the level of aminotransferase, intrahepatic expression of HBcAg and severity of histological liver damage in the young male chronic HBV carriers according to HBeAg status. METHODS: The study group included 85 young male patients (mean age: 19.8) with biopsy-proven chronic hepatitis B (HBeAg-positive group: n=60, HBeAg-negative group: n=25). RESULTS: Serum levels of HBV-DNA and the expression of intrahepatic HBcAg in the HBeAg-positive group were significantly higher than in the HBeAg-negative (p<0.001), but fibrosis score was lower (p<0.01). Serum levels of HBV-DNA positively correlated with lobular activity, portal/periportal activity, biochemical activities in the HBeAg-negative group but negatively correlated in the HBeAg-positive group. There were no significant differences in histological activity according to the pattern of expression of intrahepatic HBcAg in both groups. The lobular activity correlated positively with biochemical activity in both groups, and portal/periportal activity correlated with biochemical activity only in the HBeAg-positive group. CONCLUSIONS: There are close correlations among liver injury, intrahepatic expression of HBcAg, and detectable HBV-DNA in the young male chronic HBV carriers with HBeAg-negativity, but in the HBeAg-positive group, the correlations are diversified.     

Chronic hepatitis B virus infection and risk of dyslipidaemia: A cohort study

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has been associated with a decreased prevalence of dyslipidaemia in cross‐sectional studies, but cohort studies are limited. We investigated the longitudinal effects of chronic HBV infection on the development of dyslipidaemia. We performed a cohort study of 62 287 non‐cirrhotic adult men and women free of dyslipidaemia who underwent serologic testing for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and were followed annually or biennially for an average of 4.46 years. A parametric proportional hazard model was used to estimate the adjusted hazard ratio with 95% confidence interval (CI) for incident dyslipidaemia according to HBsAg seropositivity status. We identified 12 331 incident cases of hypercholesterolaemia during 278 004.4 person‐years of follow‐up (incident rate 44.4 per 1000 person‐years). In models adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, year of screening exam, smoking status, alcohol intake, regular exercise and education level, the adjusted hazard ratios (95% CIs) for incident hypercholesterolaemia, high LDL cholesterolaemia; hypertriglyceridaemia, high non‐HDL cholesterolaemia and low HDL cholesterolaemia comparing HBsAg‐positive to HBsAg‐negative participants was 0.71 (0.64‐0.79), 0.83 (0.78‐0.89), 0.61 (0.54‐0.70), 0.69 (0.63‐0.75) and 1.10 (0.98‐1.24), respectively. An inverse association between HBsAg positivity and incident high apolipoprotein B were also identified, with a corresponding a hazard ratio of 0.63 (0.55‐0.72). In a large cohort of apparently healthy Korean adults, HBsAg seropositivity was associated with lower risk of development of dyslipidaemia, suggesting a role of HBV infection in lipid metabolism.     

Health-promoting behaviors of elderly korean immigrants in the United States

The purpose of this study was to explore health-promoting behaviors among elderly Korean immigrants, and to examine the relationships of their health-promoting behaviors with self-efficacy and perceived health status. One hundred ten elderly Korean immigrants residing in the United States were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The mean score of health promoting behaviors of elderly Korean immigrants was 2.54 on the 5-point Likert scale. Nutrition was the subdomain with the highest mean score (M=3.01) and exercise was the subdomain with the lowest mean score (M=1.92). Both self-efficacy (r=0.49, p=0.01) and perceived health status (r=0.19, p=0.043) were significantly related to health-promoting behaviors. Education (F=3.61, p=0.016) and economic status (F=3.01, p=0.034) were significantly associated with health-promoting behaviors. This study showed poor practices of healthy lifestyles of elderly Korean immigrants. Low exercise scores indicated the need for community based exercise and health promotion programs for the elderly Korean immigrants population.     

Emerging need for vaccination against hepatitis A virus in patients with chronic liver disease in Korea

Vaccination against hepatitis A virus (HAV) is recommended for patients with chronic liver disease (CLD), but this has been deemed unnecessary in Korea since the immunity against HAV was almost universal in adults. However, this practice has never been reevaluated with respect to the changing incidence of adult acute hepatitis A. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 278 patients with acute hepatitis A diagnosed from January 1995 to November 2005 and prospectively tested 419 consecutive CLD patients from July to December 2005 for the presence of IgG anti-HAV. The number of patients with acute hepatitis A has markedly increased recently, and the proportion of adult patients older than 30 yr has been growing from 15.2% during 1995-1999, to 28.4% during 2000-2005 (p=0.019). Among 419 CLD patients, the seroprevalences of IgG anti-HAV were 23.1% for those between 26 and 30 yr, 64% between 31 and 35 yr, and 85.0% between 36 and 40 yr. These data demonstrate that immunity against HAV is no more universal in adult and substantial proportion of adult CLD patients are now at risk of HAV infection in Korea. Therefore, further study on seeking proper strategy of active immunization against HAV is warranted in these populations.     

Pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of carbovir, a carbocyclic nucleoside active against human immunodeficiency virus, in rats.

Carbovir is a novel carbocyclic nucleoside which has been shown to have potent in vitro activity against human immunodeficiency virus, the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Sprague-Dawley male rats were used to investigate the pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of carbovir. Six rats received carbovir (20 mg/kg of body weight) through the jugular vein, and blood samples were collected through the femoral vein 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 120, 150, 180, and 240 min after the dose. Four of these rats also received a 60-mg/kg oral dose of carbovir, and a similar blood sampling schedule was followed. Whole-blood samples were prepared by solid-phase extraction, and the carbovir concentration in the samples was analyzed by reversed-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography. The profile of carbovir concentration in blood versus time after the intravenous dose was biexponential, with a very rapid distribution phase. Terminal elimination half-life was 21.4 +/- 4.37 min, and total body clearance was 55.2 +/- 13.8 ml/min per kg, which was within the range of the hepatic blood flow. The volume of distribution at steady state was 1,123 +/- 250 ml/kg. The blood/plasma ratio and the plasma protein binding of carbovir in rat blood were determined in vitro by ultrafiltration. The plasma protein binding of carbovir was only 20% and was not concentration dependent. However, the blood/plasma ratio decreased significantly as concentration increased, indicating saturable binding sites in erythrocytes. After the oral dose, the terminal half-life was 81.0 +/- 67.6 min, indicating that oral carbovir followed "flip-flop" kinetics, with absorption being much slower than elimination of the drug from the body. Oral bioavailability was 0.101 +/- 0.035. Double peaks were present in the concentration-time profile for each rat receiving the oral dose, indicating either a delay in stomach emptying of the drug or slow dissolution of precipitated carbovir in the stomach and upper small intestine.     

Evaluation of MRI resolution affecting trabecular bone parameters: Determination of acceptable resolution

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of MR image resolution on trabecular bone parameters and to determine the acceptable resolution that can be accurately analyzed to assess structural parameters. Ten distal femoral condyle specimens of 1 × 1 × 1 cm³ were scanned with a 4.7‐T Bruker BioSpec MRI scanner using a three‐dimensional fast large‐angle spin‐echo sequence with various iso‐cubic voxels sizes (65, 130, 160, 196, 230, and 260 μm). Otsu thresholding was applied to identify voxels containing bone. Conventional bone parameters, structural bone parameters, and skeleton‐based local trabecular thickness (slTB.Th) were evaluated. The Bland–Altman method and correlation indicated that the conventional and structural bone parameters were preserved with an iso‐cubic voxel size up to 230 μm (r > 0.932 and r > 0.843, respectively). In addition, slTB.Th derived from the highest resolution images (65 μm iso‐cubic voxel size), correlated well (r > 0.833) with the values computed from lower resolution images, up to 230 μm, which is twice typical human trabecular thickness range (100–150 μm). The outcome of this study suggests that the various bone parameters were well preserved up to 230 μm images. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Effects of epidural TNF-α inhibitor injection: analysis of the pathological changes in a rat model of chronic compression of the dorsal root ganglion

Objectives  

To evaluate the efficacy of a single direct epidural injection of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α inhibitor to reduce the pathological changes in nerve fiber injuries in a rat model of chronic compression of the dorsal root ganglion (CCD).