Shin MJ, et al. World J Mens Health. 2018 Jan;36:e14. https://doi.org/10.5534/wjmh.180001

Current evidences continue to support the clinical application of bone turnover markers (BTMs) in the management of postmenopausal osteoporosis. The limitations of bone mineral density measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiomet especially emphasize the beneficial roles of BTMs, such as serum C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen and serum procollagen type I N-propeptide, as monitoring tools to assess the responses to treatment. Therefore, the proper application and assessment of BTM in clinical practice is very important. However, their use in Korea is still insufficient. Therefore, the BTM committee has set up by the Korean Society for Bone and Mineral Research have been constituted and provided a position statement which will suggest on the clinical application of BTM for the management of postmenopausal osteoporosis in Korea.

Circulating apolipoprotein J (ApoJ) is closely associated with insulin resistance; however, the effect of exercise on circulating ApoJ levels and the association of ApoJ with metabolic indices remain unknown. Here, we investigated whether a combined exercise can alter the circulating ApoJ level, and whether these changes are associated with metabolic indices in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus were randomly assigned into either an exercise (EXE, n=30) or control (CON, n=15) group. Participants in the EXE group were enrolled in a 12-week program consisting of a combination of aerobic and resistance exercises. At baseline, 4, 8, and 12 weeks, body composition and metabolic parameters including homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and serum ApoJ levels were assessed. In the EXE group, ApoJ levels decreased 26.3% and 19.4%, relative to baseline, at 8 and 12 weeks, respectively. Between-group differences were significant at 8 and 12 weeks (P<0.05 and P<0.001, respectively). In the EXE group, 12 weeks of exercise resulted in significant decreases in body weight, percent body fat, and HOMA-IR indices. Concurrently, weight-adjusted appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM/wt) was increased in the EXE group compared with the CON group. Importantly, changes in the ApoJ level were significantly correlated with changes in ASM/wt. Exercise training resulted in a significant decrease in the circulating ApoJ level, with changes in ApoJ associated with an improvement in some insulin resistance indices. These data suggest that circulating ApoJ may be a useful metabolic marker for assessing the effects of exercise on insulin resistance.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate differences between children and young adult patients in presentation, clinical course, and outcome of well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 61 children and young adults (50 female and 11 male; aged <25 years) with DTC who were treated with radioiodine (RI) and followed up between June 2002 and May 2010. All patients had undergone total thyroidectomy with lymph node dissection if enlarged lymph nodes were present and had been referred for initial radioiodine ablation. Recurrence-free survival was evaluated with the Kaplan-Meier method. At diagnosis, extrathyroidal extension of DTC was more prevalent and mean tumor size was bigger in children than in young adults (P = 0.045 and P = 0.002, respectively). However, there was no significant difference between the 2 groups with regard to the presence of lymph node or distant metastases (P = 0.885 and P = 1.000, respectively). During follow-up, the recurrence in the thyroid bed or cervical lymph nodes occurred in 6 children (20.7%) and in 3 young adults (9.4%; P = 0.323). The recurrence-free survival rate was similar in children and in young adults (log-rank test, χ1 = 2.424, P = 0.120). Our result shows that, although the presentation of DTC at the time of diagnosis was more aggressive in children, intensive management elicited a similar clinical outcome in children and in young adults.

Kim WJ, et al. J Korean Med Sci. 2015 May;30(5):586-590. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2015.30.5.586