The Catholic University of Korea (hangul : 가톨릭대학교 hanja : 天主教大學校) is a private Roman Catholic institution of higher education in South Korea. It was established in 1855. The Catholic University of Korea operates campuses in Seoul and in the neighboring Bucheon City. The university's medical school, considered one of the most prestigious in South Korea, has eight affiliated hospitals in major cities of the country.The university has been consistently ranked as one of the premier universities in South Korea and has been regarded in both national and international university rankings. The Catholic University was ranked no. 482 in QS World University 2022 Rankings.The Catholic University of Korea offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees: Theology, Korean Language, Philosophy, History, English Language and Literature, Chinese Language and Culture, Japanese Language and Culture, French Language and Culture, Music, Social Sciences, Social Welfare, Psychology, Sociology, Business Administration, Accounting, International Studies, Law Economics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Biotechnology, Environmental Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Information Systems Engineering, Culture Contents, Media Engineering, Clothing and Textiles, Food and Nutrition, Medicine, and Nursing.
Background/Objectives: Successful cementless total knee arthroplasty (TKA) requires adequate bone quality. However, reliable tools for intraoperative assessment remain limited. This study aimed to introduce a novel visual grading system for evaluating femoral bone during surgery and to assess its correlation with actual bone mechanical properties and suitability for cementless fixation. Methods: We prospectively recruited 193 patients receiving posterior-stabilized TKA. Intraoperatively, femoral cutting surfaces were classified into four visual grades (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor) considering pore appearance and contour integrity. Femoral bone specimens were harvested during box preparation, and bone mechanical properties were measured through indentation testing. Spearman correlation was used to evaluate the relationship between visual grades and bone mechanical properties. Fisher’s exact test was used to evaluate the distribution pattern of cementless suitable and cemented mandatory classifications across visual grading. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate diagnostic accuracy for each visual grade cutoff. Results: Visual grade strongly correlated with bone mechanical properties (Spearman’s ρ = 0.881, p < 0.01). Cementless suitable cases were predominantly distributed in Good/Excellent visual grades, while cemented mandatory cases were mostly found in Fair/Poor grades. However, 8% of Good visual grade specimens exhibited strength warranting cemented fixation, and 18% of Fair visual grade specimens demonstrated adequate mechanical properties for cementless fixation. Using the Good visual grade as a cutoff threshold, ROC analysis showed excellent diagnostic accuracy (AUC = 0.941) with high sensitivity (89%) and specificity (94%). Conclusions: The authors’ novel intraoperative visual assessment system demonstrated significant correspondence to measured bone mechanical properties in the distal femur and showed high accuracy in determining suitability for cementless TKA in Asian individuals. Given the ethnic homogeneity of this cohort, further validation in diverse populations is required to generalize these findings.
Background:Gait speed, a key component of exercise capacity, has been underutilised in COPD, despite its prognostic potential. We aimed to evaluate the association between gait speed and clinical outcomes in COPD using 3-year longitudinal data from the Korean COPD Subgroup Study cohort. Methods:Poor gait speed (<1.0 m·s-1) was defined by usual pace during the 6-min walk test per Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019 criteria. Lung function, symptoms, acute exacerbations (AEs) and mortality were compared between gait speed groups. Analyses included propensity score-matching, quartile classification, subgroup analyses and longitudinal trajectory modelling using random coefficient models. Results:Among 2063 participants, poor gait speed (n=831, 40.3%) was associated with older age, higher symptom burden and more previous AEs despite similar lung function. This group showed higher AE risk and frequency than the normal-speed group: adjusted odds ratios 1.37-1.45 for moderate and 1.64-1.65 for severe AEs; adjusted incidence rate ratios 1.24-1.36 for moderate and 1.63-1.86 for severe AEs. The 3-year mortality was significantly higher in the poor-gait-speed group (adjusted hazard ratio 2.30, 95% CI 1.42-3.73). Longitudinally, the poor-gait-speed group demonstrated persistently worse COPD Assessment Test (CAT) and St George's Respiratory Questionnaire for COPD scores at baseline, with modest CAT worsening over time (+0.44 point/year, p=0.01), while lung function decline was similar. Conclusions:Gait speed provides a simple, integrative marker that independently predicts exacerbation risk, mortality and symptom progression in COPD.
Objective: This study aimed to compare the therapeutic outcomes of no-touch (NT) radiofrequency ablation (RFA) vs. tumor-puncture microwave ablation (MWA) in the treatment of single hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) measuring <= 3 cm. Materials and Methods: This multicenter retrospective study included 304 patients who underwent either NT-RFA (n = 144) or MWA (n = 160) for a single HCC measuring <= 3 cm. Comparative analyses were conducted for the overall cohort, while 81 patients per group were matched using propensity score matching (PSM). The analyzed outcomes included technical success, primary technique efficacy, local tumor progression (LTP), and major complications. Cumulative LTP was estimated using Kaplan-Meier analysis and compared using the log-rank text, while the rate of ablative margin >= 5 mm and ablation time were compared using Chi-squared and Mann-Whitney U tests, respectively. Results: Technical success was achieved in 98.6% (142/144) and 100% (160/160) of in the NT-RFA and MWA patients, respectively before PSM (P = 0.224), and 98.8% (80/81) and 100% (81/81) after PSM (P = 1.000). The primary technique efficacies were 98.6% (142/144) and 100% (160/160) before PSM (P = 0.224), and 97.5 % (79/81) and 100% (81/81) after PSM (P = 0.497), respectively. The 1-, 2-, and 3-year cumulative LTP rates were 1.4%, 1.4%, and 2.3%, respectively, for NT-RFA and 5.1%, 8.6%, and 8.6%, respectively, for MWA before PSM (P = 0.013). After PSM, the corresponding rates were 0%, 0%, and 0% for NT-RFA, and 7.6%, 10.4%, and 10.4% for MWA (P = 0.006). Major complications were not observed. NT-RFA achieved a higher proportion, with an ablative margin >= 5 mm (88.7% [126/142] vs. 71.9% [115/160]; P < 0.001), but required longer ablation times (median, 10.0 vs. 6.0 min; P < 0.001). Conclusion: NT-RFA showed superior local tumor control compared to MWA, despite greater procedural complexity and longer ablation times.
