The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused a worldwide pandemic. Less than 6 weeks after the first confirmed cases in Korea, the patient number exceeded 5,000, which overcrowded limited hospital resources and forced confirmed patients to stay at home. To allocate medical resources efficiently, Korea implemented a novel institution for the purpose of treating patients with cohort isolation out of hospital, namely the Community Treatment Center (CTC). Herein, we report results of the initial management of patients at one of the largest CTC in Korea. A total of 309 patients were admitted to our CTC. During the first two weeks, 7 patients were transferred to the hospital because of symptom aggravation and 107 patients were discharged without any complication. Although it is a novel concept and may have some limitations, CTC may be a very cost-effective and resource-saving strategy in managing massive cases of COVID-19 or other emerging infectious diseases.

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PurposeIn Korea, the results of bariatric surgery have not been compared with those of nonsurgical treatment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of bariatric surgery vs. conventional nonsurgical treatment in severely obese Koreans.MethodsIn this retrospective cohort study, we reviewed the medical charts of 261 consecutive subjects who underwent bariatric surgery and 224 subjects who were treated with weight control medication and lifestyle modification therapy between January 2008 and February 2011. Measures of clinical effectiveness, including change in weight (%) and comorbid diseases, and occurrence of complications, were investigated for 18 months after bariatric surgery.ResultsBody mass index (BMI) was higher in the surgery group than in the conventionally treated group (mean ± standard deviation, 39.0 ± 6.2 vs. 34.3 ± 3.8). Diabetes was more prevalent in the surgery group than in the conventionally treated group (39.1% vs. 12.9%). The change in weight (%) between baseline and 18 months posttreatment was significantly greater in the surgery group (22.6%) than in the conventional therapy group (6.7%). While 57%, 47%, and 84% of subjects recovered from diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, respectively, in the surgery group, 10%, 20%, and 24% of subjects recovered from these conditions in the conventional group. Fifty-one subjects (19.5%) in the surgery group reported 61 complications (23.4%).ConclusionBariatric surgery in Korea was significantly more effective than conventional treatment for weight loss and recovery from comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, with a reasonable complication rate.

Inorganic pyrophosphatase (PPase) catalyzes the hydrolysis of pyrophosphate to form orthophosphate. Pyrophosphate can substitute for ATP under certain circumstances. We previously conducted a proteomic analysis to investigate tumor-specific protein expression in gastric cancer, and PPase was identified as a potential gastric tumor-specific marker; it was therefore selected for further study. Clinicopathological analysis, using proteomic analysis and immunohistochemistry, was used to validate PPase as a prognostic marker in gastric cancers. Proteomic analysis showed that PPase was overexpressed in patients with lymph node (LN) metastases and high tumor node metastasis (TNM) stages (p < 0.05). Based on immunohistochemistry, patients whose tumors overexpressed PPase had higher T stages, LN metastasis, a higher TNM stage, a higher cancer recurrence rate, and shorter survival times than patients whose tumors exhibited PPase underexpression (p < 0.05). Gain-of-function and loss-of-function approaches were employed to examine the malignant phenotypes of PPase-overexpressing or PPase-depleted cells. A decrease in PPase expression caused a significant decrease in gastric cancer cell migration and invasion in vitro, whereas forced overexpression of PPase enhanced migration but not invasion. Our findings indicate that PPase is involved in gastric tumor progression and that PPase may be a useful marker for poor prognosis of human gastric cancers.