The use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) to prevent sudden cardiac death is increasing in children and adolescents. This study investigated the use of ICDs in children with congenital heart disease.

This retrospective study was conducted on the clinical characteristics and effectiveness of ICD implantation at the department of pediatrics of a single tertiary center between 2007 and 2011.

Fifteen patients underwent...

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α is thought to contribute to pulmonary hypertension. We aimed to investigate the effect of infliximab (TNF-α antagonist) treatment on pathologic findings and gene expression in a monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension rat model.

Six-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were allocated to 3 groups: control (C), single subcutaneous injection of normal saline (0.1 mL/kg); monocrotaline (M), single subcutaneous injection of monocrotaline...

To investigate the association between necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and red blood cell transfusions in very low birth weight (VLBW) preterm infants.

We studied were 180 VLBW preterm infants who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of CHA Gangnam Hospital from January of 2006 to December of 2009. The subjects were divided into 2 groups: an NEC group (greater than...

Febrile seizures (FS) are seizures that occur between the age of 6 and 60 months, but its pathophysiology still is not fully understood. There is limited information about the correlation between levels of selenium and leptin with FS. This study aimed to determine the relationship between serum levels of selenium and leptin in children with FS.

This case-control study was conducted...

It has been reported that 10% to 20% of children with Kawasaki disease (KD) will not respond to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment. In this study, we aimed to identify useful predictors of therapeutic failure in children with KD.

We examined 309 children diagnosed with KD at the Kyungpook National University Hospital and the Inje University Busan Paik Hospital between January 2005...

To evaluate the effectiveness of new management policies on the incidence of invasive Candida infections

This observational study involved a retrospective analysis of the patients' medical records. In total, 99 very low birth weight infants, who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit at Ajou University Hospital from January 2010 to December 2011, were enrolled for the study. Period I,...

Chronic day-to-day symptoms of orthostatic intolerance are the most notable features of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). However, we have encountered patients with such symptoms and excessive tachycardia but with no symptoms during the tilt-table test (TTT). We aimed to investigate whether POTS patients with chronic orthostatic intolerance always present orthostatic symptoms during the TTT and analyze the factors underlying...

Lymphocyte subset recovery is an important factor that determines the success of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Temporal differences in the recovery of lymphocyte subsets and the factors influencing this recovery are important variables that affect a patient's post-transplant immune reconstitution, and therefore require investigation.

The time taken to achieve lymphocyte subset recovery and the factors influencing this recovery were investigated...

Childhood obesity is associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and it has become one of the most common causes of childhood chronic liver diseases which significant as a cause of liver related mortality and morbidity in children in the United States. The development of simpler and easier clinical indices for medical practice is needed to identify advanced hepatic fibrosis...

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis and affects many organ systems. It often presents sterile pyuria, microscopic hematuria, and proteinuria due to renal involvement. The aims of this study were to define clinical characteristics of acute KD patients with pyuria and to analyze meaning of pyuria in KD.

The medical records and laboratory findings including serum and urine test of...

Precocious puberty is defined as breast development before the age of 8 years in girls. The present study aimed to reveal the diagnosis of Korean girls referred for precocious puberty and to compare the constitutional and endocrinological features among diagnosis groups.

The present study used a retrospective chart review of 988 Korean girls who had visited a pediatric endocrinology clinic from...

For evaluating the immunogenicity of an influenza vaccine, the microneutralization (MN) test has a higher sensitivity and specificity as compared to the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test. However, the MN test is more time consuming and is difficult to standardize. We performed the MN test to determine its usefulness as an alternative or complementary test to the HI test for evaluating...

The purpose of this prospective case-control study was to survey the detection rate of respiratory viruses in children with Kawasaki disease (KD) by using multiplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and to investigate the clinical implications of the prevalence of respiratory viruses during the acute phase of KD.

RT-PCR assays were carried out to screen for the presence of respiratory syncytial...

In this study, we aimed to investigate the perinatal clinical conditions of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants born to mothers with pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) focusing on the effects of early postnatal neutropenia.

We reviewed the medical records of 191 VLBW infants who were born at Konyang University Hospital, between March 2003 and May 2011. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics...

Mucopolysaccharidosis IVA (MPS IVA; Morquio A syndrome) is rare lysosomal storage disorder caused by N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfatase (GALNS) deficiency. Only a few MPS IVA cases have been reported in the Korean literature; there is a paucity of research about clinical or radiologic findings for this disorder. Therefore, we studied clinical findings, radiological features, and genetic data of Korean MPS IVA patients for...

Methods for quick and reliable detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae are needed for the diagnosis of pneumococcal disease and vaccine studies. This study aimed to show that sequential multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is more efficient than conventional culture in achieving S. pneumoniae-positive results.

Nasopharyngeal (NP) secretions were obtained from 842 pediatric patients admitted with lower respiratory infections at Severance Children's Hospital...

We phylogenetically analyzed the Escherichia coli strains isolated from children with urinary tract infection (UTI) in 2 regions of Korea. Virulence factors (VFs) and antibiotic resistance of the strains were also determined to compare the possible differences.

A total of 138 E. coli strains were collected from the 2 regions; Gyeongin (78 strains) and Gyeongnam (60 strains). The phylogenetic groups were...

This study aimed to assess early development in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants with mild intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) or those without IVH and to identify the perinatal morbidities affecting early neurodevelopmental outcome.

Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II was used for assessing neurological development in 49 infants with a birth weight <1,500 g and with low grade IVH (≤grade II) or...

Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers within LIN28B have been reported to be related to the timing of pubertal growth. However, no study has investigated the frequency of genetic markers in girls with precocious puberty (PP) or early puberty (EP). This study aimed to determine the frequency of putative genetic markers in girls with PP or EP.

Genomic DNAs were obtained from 77...

Although benign rolandic epilepsy (BRE) is a benign condition, it may be associated with a spectrum of behavioral, psychiatric, and cognitive disorders. This study aimed to assess the cognitive and other neuropsychological profiles of children with BRE.

In total, 23 children with BRE were consecutively recruited. All children underwent sleep electroencephalography (EEG) and were assessed on a battery of comprehensive neuropsychological...

This single-center study aimed to assess the clinical features and surgical approaches and outcomes of complete transposition of the great arteries (TGA).

TGA patients who had undergone surgical correction at the Kyungpook National University Hospital from January 2000 to December 2010, were retrospectively evaluated for patient characteristics, clinical manifestation, preoperative management, intraoperative findings, postoperative progress, and follow-up status.

Twenty-eight patients (17 boys...

Puromycin aminonucleoside (PAN) specifically injures podocytes, leading to foot process effacement, actin cytoskeleton disorganization, and abnormal distribution of slit diaphragm proteins. p130Cas is a docking protein connecting F-actin fibers to the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) and adapter proteins in glomerular epithelial cells (GEpCs; podocytes). We investigated the changes in the p130Cas expression level in the PAN-induced pathological changes of podocytes...

Short sleep duration is associated with obesity. Urinary 6-sulfatoxymelatonin (6-OHMS), the principal metabolite of melatonin, is closely related with sleep. We evaluated the difference in urinary 6-OHMS levels between obese girls and normal weight girls, and the relationship of urinary 6-OHMS with other hormones regulating body weight and metabolism.

A total of 79 girls (6.3 to 12.4 years) were included in...

Leptin has been considered a link between metabolic state and reproductive activity. Defective reproductive function can occur in leptin-deficient and leptin-excessive conditions. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of centrally injected leptin on the hypothalamic KiSS-1 system in relation to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) action in the initial stage of puberty.

Leptin (1 µg) was injected directly into...

Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of vital capacity (FEF_25-75) are not included in routine monitoring of asthma control. We observed changes in FeNO level and FEF_25-75 after FeNO-based treatment with inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) in children with controlled asthma (CA).

We recruited 148 children with asthma (age, 8 to 16 years) who had maintained...

Aeroallergens are important causative factors of allergic diseases. Previous studies on aeroallergen sensitization rates investigated patients groups that had visited pediatric allergy clinics. In contrast, we investigated sensitization rates in a general population group of elementary school to teenage students in Incheon, Jeju, and Ulsan.

After obtaining parental consent, skin-prick tests were performed on 5,094 students between March and June 2010....

Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) is becoming the treatment of choice for supporting critically ill pediatric patients. However, a few studies present have reported CRRT use and outcome in neonates weighing less than 3 kg. The aim of this study is to describe the clinical application, outcome, and complications of CRRT in small neonates.

A retrospective review was performed in 8...

The authors analyzed the trend from the birth-related statistics of high birth weight infants (HBWIs) over 50 years in Korea from 1960 to 2010.

We used 2 data sources, namely, the hospital units (1960's to 1990's) and Statistics Korea (1993 to 2010). The analyses include the incidence of HBWIs, birth weight distribution, sex ratio, and the relationship of HBWI to maternal...

The aim of this study was to develop an appropriate nursing information guideline according to corrected age, after investigating parents' concerns about the growth, development, and diseases of their premature infants after discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

The parents of premature infants (birth weight, <2,500 g; gestational age, <37 weeks) who went to a neonatal follow-up clinic after...

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is an important cause of neonatal mortality, as this brain injury disrupts normal mitochondrial respiratory activity. Carnitine plays an essential role in mitochondrial fatty acid transport and modulates excess acyl coenzyme A levels. In this study, we investigated whether treatment of primary cultures of rat cortical neurons with L-carnitine was able to prevent neurotoxicity resulting from oxygen-glucose deprivation...