Myung Kul Yum

Rotavirus infection in neonates at a university hospital in Korea.

To develop measures to prevent neonatal rotavirus infection, we carried out rotavirus surveillance testing on all the newborns who were admitted to a newborn nursery in Korea during 1 year. We investigated the characteristics of neonatal rotavirus infection and found that it occurred throughout the year with the G4P[6] strain exclusively. Most newborns were infected nosocomially and showed no symptoms. We concluded that rotavirus might be transmitted from asymptomatic infected newborns who were born outside the hospital. We recommend isolation and rotavirus surveillance testing for all transfer patients.

Dynamics of the minority game for patients

We analyze the minority game for patients, and the results known from the minority game are applied to the patient problem consulted at the department of pediatric cardiology. We find numerically the standard deviation and the global efficiency, which is discussed similar to the El Farol bar problem. After the score equation and the scaled utility are introduced, the dynamical behavior of our model is discussed for particular strategies. Our results presented will be compared with recent numerical calculations.

Change of complex and periodic heart rate dynamics with change of pulmonary artery pressure in infants with left-to-right shunt lesion

Abstract We studied how complex and periodic heart rate dynamic changed as pulmonary artery pressure elevated in 32 infants with ventricular septal defect. In addition, we tested the possibility that the dynamical change could be used to predict the pulmonary artery pressure noninvasively. During cardiac catheterization, mean pulmonary artery pressure was measured and, at the same time, 5-min segments of continuous electrocardiographic recording was stored into computer files. High- (>0.15 hertz) and low- (0.03–0.15 hertz) frequency components of heart rate variability were computed using spectral analysis. The overall complexity of heart rate time series was quantified by its approximate entropy. Pulmonary hypertensive infants (mean pulmonary artery pressure >20 mm Hg, n =17) have significantly lower low- ( p p p n =15). The mean pulmonary artery pressure is significantly correlated not with the spectral powers but with the approximate entropy ( r =−0.71, p =0.0001). It can be concluded that, in infants, pulmonary hypertension induced by left- to-right shunt lesions suppresses both periodic and complex heart rate oscillation and that mean pulmonary artery pressure can be predicted by calculating the approximate entropy of heart rate variability.

Low resolution electromagnetic tomography analysis of ictal EEG patterns in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the difference in the spatial distribution of scalp initial ictal discharge (IID) patterns in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (HS-MTLE). METHODS Scalp ictal EEG data in 22 seizure-free patients after temporal lobectomy with amygdalo-hippocampectomy were classified as follows: a regular 5-9Hz rhythm with a restricted temporal/subtemporal distribution (type 1, 11 patients), or an irregular 2-5Hz rhythm with a widespread fronto-temporal distribution (type 2, 11 patients). EEG data were fragmented into segments of 1.28s, both at ictal onset and at baseline. The LORETA solution of three frequency bands was compared between ictal and baseline using statistical non-parametric mapping (p<0.01). RESULTS The LORETA solution of 5-9Hz in type 2 had wider cortical activity in the ipsilateral fronto-temporal area, compared to type 1 with activation of the ipsilateral focal mesial and lateral temporal regions. The LORETA solution of 10-13Hz in both types showed increased activity in the fronto-temporal area, which was wider in type 2 than type 1. Increased cortical activity of <5Hz was not observed in type 1, whereas increased cortical activity was observed in the bilateral anterior frontal area in type 2. CONCLUSIONS The cortical source distribution in HS-MTLE may depend on scalp IID frequency. The neural generators of 5-13Hz may be important for the formation of the ictal onset zone in both ictal patterns. SIGNIFICANCE Spatial distributions in HS-MTLE patients differ with scalp IID frequency.