The 12-Item General Health Questionnaire as an Effective Mental Health Screening Tool for General Korean Adult Population

Objective

The 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) has been used extensively in various settings across different cultures. This study was conducted to determine the thresholds associated with optimum sensitivity and specificity for the GHQ-12 in Korean adults.

Methods

Data was acquired from a sample of 6,510 Korean adults, ages 18 to 64 years old, who were selected from the 2005 Census (2,581 men and 3,929 women). Participants completed the GHQ-12 and the Korean Composite International Diagnostic Interview (K-CIDI). Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted.

Results

The mean GHQ-12 score for the total sample was 1.63 (SD 1.98). The internal consistency of the GHQ-12 was good (Cronbach''s α=0.72). Results from the ROC curve indicated that the GHQ-12 yielded greater accuracy when identifying mood and anxiety disorders than when identifying all mental disorders as a whole. The optimal threshold of the GHQ-12 was either 1/2 or 2/3 point depending on the disorder, but was mainly 2/3.

Conclusion

The Korean version of the GHQ-12 could be used to screen for individuals at high risk of mental disorders, namely mood and anxiety disorders.     

Osteogenesis Imperfecta Type VI with Severe Bony Deformities Caused by Novel Compound Heterozygous Mutations in SERPINF1

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) comprises a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by bone fragility, frequent fractures, and low bone mass. Dominantly inherited COL1A1 or COL1A2 mutations appear to be causative in the majority of OI types, but rare recessively inherited genes have also been reported. Recently, SERPINF1 has been reported as another causative gene in OI type VI. To date, only eight SERPINF1 mutations have been reported and all are homozygous. Our patient showed no abnormalities at birth, frequent fractures, osteopenia, and poor response on pamidronate therapy. At the time of her most recent evaluation, she was 8 yr old, and could not walk independently due to frequent lower-extremity fractures, resulting in severe deformity. No clinical signs were seen of hearing impairment, blue sclera, or dentinogenesis imperfecta. In this study, we describe the clinical and radiological findings of one Korean patient with novel compound heterozygous mutations (c.77dupC and c.421dupC) of SERPINF1.     

Effect of mesenchymal stem cell transplantation on the engraftment of human hematopoietic stem cells and leukemic cells in mice model

We investigated the effect of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells on engraftment of human umbilical cord blood CD34⁺ cells and acute myelogenous leukemia cells and also assessed the homing capability of MSCs. Forty-two NOD/SCID mice were administered sublethal irradiation followed by various cell doses of intravenous UCB CD34⁺ cells with or without MSCs. Another 12 NOD/SCID mice were also sublethally irradiated followed by intravenous injection of AML cells with or without MSCs. In ten of these mice, MSCs were genetically modified with an adenoviral vector encoding eGFP gene for tracking purpose. Cotransplantation of UCB CD34⁺ cells and MSCs resulted in a significant increase in bone marrow engraftment after 6 weeks, and the engraftment promoting effect of MSCs was proportional to the dose of MSCs and obvious when low doses of UCB CD34⁺ cells were given. There was no effect of MSCs on AML cells engraftment. All of the ten mice transplanted with eGFP-transfected MSCs showed positive for eGFP in their major organs. These data demonstrate that MSCs promote engraftment of UCB CD34⁺cells in bone marrow, but exert no effect on engraftment of AML cells, and are capable of homing to the major organs including bone marrow following intravenous infusion. This investigation was supported by a CMB Yuhan Research Grant of Yonsei University College of Medicine for 2003.     

Influence of diabetes mellitus on clinical outcomes following primary percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction

Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have a worse outcome after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) than nondiabetic patients. The purpose of this study was to compare rates of stent thrombosis, myocardial infarction (MI), target lesion revascularization (TLR), and death in diabetic and nondiabetic patients treated with primary PCI for ST-segment elevation MI (STEMI) in Western Denmark. From January 2002 through June 2005, 3,655 consecutive patients with STEMI treated with primary PCI and stent implantation (316 patients with DM, 8.6%; 3,339 patients without DM, 91.4%) were recorded in the Western Denmark Heart Registry. All patients were followed for 3 years. Cox regression analysis was used to compute hazard ratios (HRs), controlling for potential confounding. Three-year rates of definite stent thrombosis were 1.6% in the DM group and 1.5% in the non-DM group (adjusted HR 1.15, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.50 to 2.67). The rate of MI was 12.3% in the DM group versus 5.6% in the non-DM group (adjusted HR 2.56, 95% CI 1.81 to 3.61). Rates of TLR were 12.1% in the DM group and 8.7% in the non-DM group (adjusted HR 1.55, 95% CI 1.14 to 2.11). All-cause mortality was 23.7% in patients with DM versus 12.7% in patients without DM (adjusted HR 2.03, 95% CI 1.59 to 2.59). In conclusion, stent thrombosis rate was similar in patients with and without DM and STEMI treated with primary PCI, whereas the presence of DM increased the risk of MI, TLR, and death.     

Ionic cellulose-stabilized gold nanoparticles and their application in the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol

A novel strategy for the synthesis of highly stable gold nanoparticles (GNPs) was designed by reducing HAuCl₄ with NaBH₄ in an aqueous solution of water-soluble ionic cellulose composed of dimethylimidazolium cations and phosphite-bound cellulose anions. NMR and UV-Vis analysis along with the measurement of the zeta potential suggest that the exceptionally high stability of GNPs originates from the strong interaction of GNPs with the phosphite groups of the ionic cellulose. The thus prepared GNPs exhibit excellent catalytic activity for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol, a model hydrogenation reaction.

Gold nanoparticles (GNP) were highly stabilized by water soluble ionic cellulose by the strong interaction of GNP with the phosphite groups and showed extremely high catalytic activity for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol.     

Induction of cancer-related microRNA expression profiling using excretory-secretory products of Clonorchis sinensis

Clonorchis sinensis is a carcinogenic human liver fluke by which chronic infection is strongly associated with the development of cholangiocarcinoma. Although this cholangiocarcinoma is caused by both physical and chemical irritation from direct contact with adult worms and their excretory–secretory products (ESPs), the precise molecular events of the host–pathogen interactions remain to be elucidated. To better understand the effect of C. sinensis infection on cholangiocarcinogenesis, we profiled the kinetics of changes in cancer-related microRNAs (miRNAs) in human cholangiocarcinoma cells (HuCCT1) treated with C. sinensis ESPs for different periods. Using miRNA microarray chips containing 135 cancer-related miRNAs, we identified 16 miRNAs showing differentially altered expression following ESP exposure. Of these miRNAs, 13 were upregulated and 3 were downregulated in a time-dependent manner compared with untreated controls. Functional clustering of these dysregulated miRNAs revealed involvement in cell proliferation, inflammation, oncogene activation/suppression, migration/invasion/metastasis, and DNA methylation. In particular, decreased expression of let-7i, a tumor suppressor miRNA, was found to be associated with the ESP-induced upregulation of TLR4 mRNA and protein, which contribute to host immune responses against liver fluke infection. Further real-time quantitative PCR analysis using ESP-treated normal cholangiocytes (H69) revealed that the expressions of nine miRNAs (miR-16-2, miR-93, miR-95, miR-153, miR-195, miR-199-3P, let7a, let7i, and miR-124a) were similarly regulated, indicating that the cell proliferation and inhibition of tumor suppression mediated by these miRNAs is common to both cancerous and non-cancerous cells. These findings constitute further our understanding of the multiple cholangiocarcinogenic pathways triggered by liver fluke infection.