• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.48 no.3
• /
• pp.260-265
• /
• 2005

Purpose : During epidemics, influenza induces a high mortality and morbidity, and when influenza is prevalent, it is revealed by increased pneumonia, hospitalization due to influenza-like illness, and mortality in community. We aimed at the isolation of influenza virus and prevalence period in Busan from 2000 to 2002. Methods : For 3 years from 2000 to 2002, we analyzed the patterns of influenza virus, the occurrence distribution of influenza by age and sex and the prevalence period after cultivating the examined materials from throat smears and snivel, collected from patients in St. Benedict Hospital Pediatrics Department, from 10 monitoring hospitals, and from 16 public health centers. Results : For three years, a total of 209 strains of influenza virus were isolated. In 2000, there were A/sydney/05/97(H3N2)-like, A/Beijing/262/95(H1N1)-like and B/Harbin/07/94-like. In 2001, there were A/Panama/2007/99(H3N2)-like and A/Newcaledonia/20/99(H1N1)-like. In 2002, there were A/Panama/2007/99(H3N2)-like, A/Newcaledonia/20/99(H1N1)-like, B/Beijing/243/97, B/Honkong/22/2001 and B/Sichuam/379/99. The occurrence distribution by sexes were 14 males and 25 females in 2000, 23 males and 33 females in 2001, 57 males and 57 females in 2002. As for the occurrence distribution by ages, 0-10 years made up 48.4 percent in 2000, 11-20 years 33.93 percent in 2001, and below 10 years was 64.91 percent in 2002. As for the occurrence distribution by month, the rate was once high in January and somewhat high in April and by June, when there happened to be various viruses, though there was a low rate in 2000. On the other hand, the virus was concentrated in February and March in 2001. And in 2002, it happened high twice, in March and November. Conclusion : Influenza virus revealed frequent antigenic changes and infect children, especially those below 10 years of age from late fall to early spring. So we should consider appropriate prevention in children.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.436-445
• /
• 2008

Stroke is a serious disease despite recent improvements in the medical treatments available. Thirty-six stroke patients were interviewed as case and 36 non-stroke patients were interviewed as controls between February 2005 and August 2005 at Daegu S Medical Center. Information regarding the subjects' food habits was collected using the recall method from 5 years before the onset of stroke. Using interview techniques, we investigated how dietary habits and attitude influence nutrient intake. These results were analyzed by the $X^2$, Student's t-test and Chi-square test using the SPSS 12.0 program. This case-control study was performed to demonstrate the relationships among general quality factors (BMI, WHR, and family history of stroke) and lifestyle factors (smoking, exercise and alcohol drinking). The results were as follows. Analysis of the percentage of nutrient intake in terms of meal pattern showed that WHR was significantly higher in the case group than in the control group. Hypertension and diabetes were the most common preceding diseases associated with the risk of stroke. The frequencies of smoking, alcohol consumption (p<0.001) and exercise (p<0.05) were higher in the cases than in the controls. Thus, the findings of this study are consistent with those of previous studies and suggest that people should be advised to control hypertension, smoking, alcohol drinking and obesity in order to prevent the occurrence of stroke as these factors are major risk factors for stroke.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.49 no.5
• /
• pp.614-623
• /
• 2000

Background : Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) is rare but often fatal. To determine the clinical manifestations of DAH, its etiology, clinical course and prognosis were studied. Method : A retrospective analysis was performed in 21 patients that were diagnosed as DAH. Diagnosis of DAH was based on the presence of the "classical triad" of hemoptysis, anemia, and rapidly progressive infiltrates on chest X-ray and a finding of bronchoalveolar lavage or lung biopsy. Results : Thirteen patients (61.9%) had collagen vascular diseases (CVDs) as underlying disease and 10 patients had systemic lupus erythematosus. Females were more prevalent in CVD than in non-collagen vascular disease (NCVD). Otherwise, there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of clinical manifestations. Dyspnea (95.2%), cough (76.2%), hemoptysis (61.9%), and fever (33.0%) were frequent symptoms. The initial creatinine level was higher in CVD than in NCVD ($3.27{\pm}3.15$ mg/dl vs. $1.19{\pm}0.94$ mg/dl, p=0.030). The corresponding drop in hemoglobin level was $2.69{\pm}1.26$ g/dl. Maximal drop in hemoglobin preceded the progression of infiltrates on the chest radiograph by $1.38{\pm}4.22$ days. The mortality rate was higher in the patients with NCVD than in those with CVD (50.0% vs. 23.1%). Conclusion : The DAH can occur not only in patients with CVD but also in those with NCVD. Higher creatinine level CVD in patients is associated with renal involvement in conjunction with DAH. The maximal drop in hemoglobin preceeding the progression of infiltrates on the chest radiograph suggests that the drop in hemoglobin is important for diagnosing DAH.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.64 no.6
• /
• pp.445-450
• /
• 2008

Background: As the number of older-aged people increases, the number of elderly patients who receive critical care services is expected to increase substantially. The objective of this study was to examine the clinical characteristics and outcomes of elderly patients who receive mechanical ventilation for more than 30 days in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) at a university hospital. Methods: We retrospectively examined forty-one elderly patients (${\geq}65$ years old) who were receiving mechanical ventilation, from April 2004 to March 2007, for periods exceeding 30 days at the MICU at Eulji University Hospital. Results: The MICU and hospitalmortality rate were 60.9% and 65.9%, respectively. The mean length of the ICU stay was 57.5 days and the mean duration of mechanical ventilation was 49.3 days. The most common reason for MICU admission was acute respiratory failure (73.2%), followed by sepsis (12.2%), neurological problems (9.8%), and gastrointestinal bleeding (4.9%). The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scores were higher for the nonsurvivors than for the survivors (28.0 vs. 25.0, respectively, p=0.03). The nonsurvivors received more red blood cell (RBC) transfusions during their ICU stay than did the survivors (84.0% vs. 43.8%, respectively p=0.007). The factors associated with hospital death were the APACHE II score and if the patient had received a RBC transfusion. Conclusion: The APACHE II score and a RBC transfusion were predictors of increased hospital mortality for the elderly patients who were on prolonged mechanical ventilation. These predictors may assist physicians to make clinical decisions for this patient population.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.477-484
• /
• 2001

Background: Initial symptoms for esophageal perforation have not been clarified, but when there is no early diagnosis and proper treatment to follow immediately after the diagnosis, it is fatal for the patients. Therefore, this study attempted to discover the factors that influence the prognosis of esophageal perforation to contribute to the improvement of the treatment result. Material and Method: The subjects of this study are 32 patients who came to the hospital with esophageal perforation from October, 1984 to June, 2000. This study examined the items for clinical observation such as patients' sex, age, cause of the perforation, perforation site, the time spent until the beginning of the treatment, symptoms caused by the perforation and its complication, and treatment methods. This study tried to find out the relationship between the survival of patients and each item. Result: There were 24 male and 8 female patients and their mean age was 49.7+16.4. For the causes of perforation, there were 14 cases(43%) of iatrogenic perforation, which ranked first, caused by the medical instrument operation and surgical damage. As for the perforation sites, thoracic esophagus was the most common site(26 cases of 81.2%) and chest pain was the most frequent symptom. The complication caused by esophageal perforation showed the highest cases in the order of mediastinitis, empyema, sepsis and peritonitis. After the treatment, there were 23 cases of survival and 9 cases of mortality. The total mortality rate was 28.1% and the main causes of mortality were sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS). As for the treatment, 8 cases(25.0%) treated the perforation successfully using conservative treatment only. As for the surgical treatment, there were 5 cases(15.6%) of cervical drainage, 7 cases (21.8%) of primary repair and 12 cases(37.5%) of esophageal reconstruction after performing an exclusion-diversion. There were 18 cases(56.2%) of complete treatment of esophageal perforation at its initial treatment and in 14 cases(43.8%) of treatment failure at its initial treatment, patients were completely cured in the next treatment stage or died during the treatment. The cases of perforation in thoracic esophagus, complication into severe mediastinitis or sepsis and the cases of failure at initial treatment showed a statistically significant mortality rate (p<0.05).

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.247-256
• /
• 2018

3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins) are widely used drugs for lowering blood lipid levels and preventing cardiovascular diseases. HMG-CoA reductase is a key enzyme to control the biosynthesis of cholesterol. We have tested HMG-CoA reductase-inhibitory activity on the flavonoids of 98 species in vitro. The anti-hypercholesterolemic activities of flavonoids were studied using an HMG-CoA reductase assay equipped with a 96-well UV plate. This assay was based on the spectrophotometric measurement of the decrease in absorbance, which represents the oxidation of NADPH by the catalytic subunit of HMG-CoA reductase in the presence of the substrate HMG-CoA. Among the clinically available statins, pravastatin was used as a positive control. Among the tested compounds, kuraridin, morin and sophoraflavanone G showed strong inhibition activities. In particular, morin and sophoraflavanone G inhibited HMG-CoA reductase by 45.0% and 54.6% at a concentration of $10{\mu}g/ml$, and the $IC_{50}$ values were calculated to $13.31{\mu}g/ml$ and $7.26{\mu}g/ml$ respectively.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2014

Purpose: The aim for this study was to investigate clinical manifestation of seasonal influenza A and B during the 2012 winter season in Wonju, South Korea. Their clinical and laboratorial characteristics and effect of oseltamivir were compared and analyzed. Methods: Children under the age of 18 years who visited the Wonju Severance Christian Hospital with fever or acute respiratory symptoms and who were diagnosed with influenza A or B by rapid antigen test from nasopharyngeal swab were selected for the study. The medical records of patients were retrospectively reviewed. Results: Influenza A was detected in 374 patients (83.7%), and influenza B in 72 (16.6%). The incidence of influenza A was highest in February (n=186), while that of influenza B was highest in March (n=36). The most common symptoms were fever (n=434, 97.1%) and cough (n=362, 81.0%). No significant differences were observed between influenza A and B in symptoms and laboratory data. Patients who had used oseltamivir within 2 days showed statistically lower admission rate, shorter admission duration, and lower incidence of pneumonia. Conclusion: This study found no statistical difference between influenza A and B, in symptoms, progression, and laboratory test, but those who were treated with oseltamivir given within 2 days of the onset of fever experienced more positive outcomes.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.15 no.8
• /
• pp.389-396
• /
• 2015

The liver fibrosis is a disease we often see in clinical medicine, and the persistence and repeatition of inflammation and necrosis of liver cells continue for several years, and it is proceeded to cirrhosis. So decrease of death rate and prevalence rate by complications of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma is main task of clinical medicine by protection of chronic liver ailment patients from proceeding to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. So this study tried to represent the ultrasonic image, blood test, the relationship with liver stiffness of diffuse liver ailment patients as numbers. This study was performed with patients from whom the image was taken by ultrasonic and 141 people who were treated by fibroscan, the basic data for blood test was obtained from the test results at the time when ultrasonic image and liver fibroscan was performed. The statistical analysis was performed by One-way analysis of variance(ANOVA) to verify difference between groups. The value of liver stiffness was increased in the order of normal, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. As a results, ALT and Albumin have no statistical difference between object groups, and there are statistical differences in the results of ultrasonic decoding at age, AST, ALP, Bilirubin, PLT, PT, and kPa, and they are statistically meaningful(p<0.005). And the value of liver stiffness of chronic liver ailment was presented only as over 12.5kPa in other study, but it was represented as numbers for quantitative diagnosis by presenting average kPa threshold value according to disease in this study. And by presenting relationship of diagnosed results, it is considered that it could be used as first tool to diagnose chronic liver ailment patients according to their disease.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.205-212
• /
• 2017

Chronic diffuse hepatopathy is one of the important clinical tasks to reduce mortality and morbidity due to liver cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the criteria for predicting liver and chronic liver disease using Fibroscan based on ultrasound diagnosis. Serum and liver stiffness measurement(kPa) were analyzed in 280 patients and cut-off values of liver stiffness measurement for predicting fatty liver and chronic diffuse hepatopathy were determined using ROC curve analysis. Bilirubin and PT(prothrombin time) were not related to disease prediction(p=0.243, p=0.115). Serum glucose and triglyceride levels were significantly higher in the liver (p<0.05). The cut-off value for predicting chronic diffuse hepatopathy was determined as 10.3 kPa(AUC 0.98, sensitivity 94.94%, specificity 94.93%) in the order of control group, fatty liver and chronic diffuse hepatopathy. Therefore, it will be used as a primary tool for the diagnosis of chronic liver disease patients with quantitative evaluation.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.73-82
• /
• 2000

Two Psyllidae species of Cacopsylla pyricola (Foerster) and C. pyrisuga (Foerster)damaging pear trees have been reported in Korea. However, their ecological characteristics and damagepatterns have not been evaluated yet. To establish basic control measures of C. pyricola, field phenology,overwintering ecology, seasonal fluctuation and temperature-dependent development of C. pyricola wereexamined. C. pyricola overwintered under the bark scale of pear trees as winter form adults and theymoved to fruiting twigs from mid-February. Honeydew produced by C. pyricola nymphs and adults asthey feed caused serious black sooty mold on leaves and fruits. The seasonal occurrence of C. pyricolawas different every year. In 1993, characterized by cold temperature and heavy precipitation, C. pyricolapopulation was maintained highly during growing season. However, the population was decreased rapidlyfrom early July in 1994, year of hot and dry weather condition. In 1995, year of average temperature, thedensity of C. pyricola population was decreased during hot months of July and August, and rebuilt up inSeptember and October. The development periods of C. pyricola eggs were 13.33 days at 15"C, 9.32 daysat 20$^{\circ}$C, 7.82 days at 25"C, 6.60 days at 30$^{\circ}$C, and 7.75 days at 35$^{\circ}$C. The development periods ofnymphs were 33.75 days at 15OC, 23.77 days at 20$^{\circ}$C, 15.21 days at 25"C, and 17.40 days at 30$^{\circ}$C. Theirdevelopment periods and mortalities were increased in higher temperatures. The parameters of nonlineardevelopment model, Weibull and linear development models of Cacopsylla pyricola were estimated.models of Cacopsylla pyricola were estimated.