Jaihoon Yoon

Pancreatic cancer, a highly lethal cancer, has the lowest 5-year survival rate for several reasons, including its tendency for the late diagnosis, a lack of serologic markers for screening, aggressive local invasion, its early metastatic dissemination, and its resistance to chemotherapy/radiotherapy. Pancreatic cancer evades immunologic elimination by a variety of mechanisms, including induction of an immunosuppressive microenvironment. Cancer-associated fibroblasts interact with inhibitory immu

GOALS: We evaluated the efficacy of initial and follow-up hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG), models of end-stage liver disease (MELD), and MELD-Na for predicting the survival of patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis (LC). BACKGROUND: MELD with/without Na score and HVPG have been important predictors of mortality in patients with LC. STUDY: Between January 2006 and 2011, a total of 57 patients with decompensated LC, all of whom underwent >2 HVPG measurements for the confirmation of pr

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between obesity and infected bile or bacteremia in patients with acute calculous cholecystitis. METHODS: Authors analyzed the medical records of 139 patients who had undergone cholecystectomy for the treatment of acute calculous cholecystitis from January 2007 to June 2013 in a single teaching hospital. Association of body mass index (BMI) with bactibilia and bacteremia was assessed using univariate and multivariate analysis. Clin

BACKGROUND: There are limited studies focusing on liver abscess with negative microbiological cultures. This study evaluated the clinical and prognostic differences of patients with culture-negative liver abscess (CNLA) compared to those with a positive culture (CPLA) and compared these factors between K. pneumoniae liver abscess (KLA) and E. coli liver abscess (ELA). METHODS: A retrospective study of the patients who admitted with a liver abscess at two tertiary hospitals in Korea from 2012 to

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Obesity is a chronic inflammatory condition and is strongly linked to raised levels of pro-inflammatory factors and may lead to fatty infiltration of multiple internal organs including the gallbladder and liver, causing organ dysfunction. This study was performed to evaluate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and acute and chronic cholecystitis, and cholecystitis and cholesterolosis. We investigated the clinical implications of BMI as a predictive factor of cholester

Background: Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is not only a common aetiology but also accompanying comorbidity of non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (bronchiectasis). However, the association between GORD and the disease burden of bronchiectasis has not been well evaluated. Our study aimed to evaluate whether GORD is associated with increased healthcare use and medical costs in patients with bronchiectasis. Methods: We analyzed the data from 44,119 patients with bronchiectasis using a lar

Obesity and metabolic syndrome affect ~40% of individuals in the United States alone. They are significant conditions that can cause severe economic problems. Obesity is also a global issue, with ~400 million obese adults worldwide. Moreover, the number of overweight children is increasing. Bariatric surgery is the gold standard treatment for obesity; however, endoscopic approaches may have a significant role in improving metabolic syndrome and achieving weight loss. Many endoscopic methods have

Carcinoid tumors are slow growing submucosal tumors with metastatic potential that arise from enterochromaffin cell. The annual incidence of carcinoid tumor is 2 to 3 per 100,000. Carcinoid tumor of duodenum is very rare with an incidence of about 8% among gastrointestinal carcinoid tumor. As a endoscopic examination and immunohistochemical stain are developed, an rate of detection is increasing. Among the possible factor of metastatic prediction, tumor size >10 mm, central depression or ulcer,

Cholesterol gallstone disease is one of the most common digestive diseases, with an overall prevalence of 10–20%. Although a common and economically-relevant problem in developed countries, its pathogenesis remains undefined and is the subject of ongoing investigation.1 Cholesterol gallstone disease appears to be influenced by both genetic predisposition and environmental factors,2 and ethnic and geographical differences have indeed been found.3 Currently, there is active investigation regarding