• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.139-146
• /
• 2009

This study was designed to examine the effect of aroma massage therapy on lower extremity edema of terminal cancer patients. Methods: A total of thirty-six terminal cancer patients with lower extremity edema were divided into two groups: the aroma massage group received massage with blending oil which was applied from toes to 10 cm above the knee of the subject for 15 to 20 minutes in each turn, while the control group received sham aroma massage (applied with carrier oil only). The circumferences of the fore-foot, ankle and calf were measured before massage and 30 minutes, 2 hours, and 12 hours after massage. The blood pressure, pulse and body temperature were also measured to find the change of subject's physiologic conditions. Results: There were no significant differences in blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature and lower extremity circumferences between two groups. However, edema at each site was slightly improved in the treatment group after the aroma massage therapy, compared to baseline data (P<0.05). In addition, the reduction of lower extremity circumference was maximal at 2 hours in foot, 30 min in right ankle and 12 hours in right calf after aroma massage therapy (P<0.05). Conclusion: Our results suggest that aroma massage therapy is not effective on the lower extremity edema of terminal cancer patients.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.5-13
• /
• 2012

I-cell disease (mucolipidosis type II; MIM 252500) and pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy (mucolipidosis type III; MIM 252600) are disorders caused by abnormal lysosomal transport in cells. The presence of numerous inclusion bodies in the cytoplasm of fibroblasts, a lack of mucopolysacchariduria, increased lysosomal enzyme activity in serum, and decreased GlcNAc-phosphotransferase activity are hallmark. Here, we attempted to investigate phenotypical and biochemical characteristics of the knockoutmouse of GlcNAc-phosphotransferase ${\alpha}/{\beta}$ subunits; in addition, we also attempted to determine whether the lysosome enriched fraction derived from placenta can be beneficial to phenotype and biochemistry of the knockout mouse.We found that the knockout mouse failed to thrive and had low bone density, as is the case in human. In addition, skin fibroblasts from the animal had the same biochemical characteristics, including increased lysosomal enzyme activity in the culture media, in contrast to the relatively low enzyme activity within the cells. Intravenous injection of the lysosome rich fraction derived from placenta into the tail vein of the animal resulted in a gain of weight, while saline injected animals didn't.In conclusion, our study demonstrated the phenotypical and biochemical similarities of the knockout mouse to a mucolipidosis type II patient and showed the therapeutic potential of the lysosome enriched fraction. We admit that a larger scale animal study will be needed; however, the disease model and the therapeutic potential of the lysosome enriched fraction will highlight the hope for a novel treatment approach to mucopolipidosis type II, for which no therapeutic modality is available.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.33-42
• /
• 2004

Purpose : Children with nephrotic syndrome(NS) are under high risk for metabolic bone disease(MBD) as a complication of long-term glucocorticoid therapy. We prospectively evaluated the effect of oral bisphosphonate(alendronate) therapy in children with NS, which has proven efficacy in adult patients with glucocorticoid induced MBD. Methods : Among 58 children with NS, aged 5 to 8 years and haying a disease duration of more than 2 years, 30(51.7%) were enrolled to meet the selection criteria, less than -1.0 Z-scores of lumbar spine bone mineral density(BMD) by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). These 30 children were divided into three groups and each were assigned to receive alendronate, calcitriol, and no-medication, respectively for one year. Lumbar spine BMD was followed up every 6 months and the biochemical indexes were measured before and 1 year after the treatment. There were no significant difference among groups with respect to the average age, the initial BMD, and the cumulative steroid doses. Analysis of the treatment efficacy was done by the % change of BMD and by the changes in Z-scores of lumbar spine BMD. Results : Mean age and disease duration of patients at the initial lumbar spine BMD evaluation was $7.4{\pm}1.7$ years and $2.2{\pm}1.2$ years, respectively. Twenty-three of 30 children(76%) had osteopenia, and seven(23%) had osteoporosis. There was no difference in the biochemical values among the groups, before and 1 year after the treatment(P<0.05). Twenty two children(73.3%) with frequent relapsing or steroid dependant NS had more frequent MBD, compared to the 8 children(26.6%) with infrequent relapsing NS. The one year % changes of BMD were 8.56 in alendronate group, 5.79 in calcitriol group, and 1.9 in no-medication group. The changes in Z-score of lumbar spine BMD increased in the alendronate group and the calcitriol group, but not in the no-medication group. One year % changes of BMD were different among groups(P=0.0002). Significant differences were found between the alendronate and the no-medication group, and between the calcitriol and the no-medication group(P<0.05). There was no difference between the alendronate and the calcitriol group. No serious adverse effect was observed in the alendronate group. Conclusion : Children with NS receiving high dose steroids are under the high risk of BMD and should undergo regular BMD evaluation. Z-score of lumbar spine BMD was a useful parameter in diagnosing low bone mass in children. Alendronate weekly oral therapy was effective and relatively safe in increasing the lumbar spine BMD in children with NS having steroid induced MBD.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.241-248
• /
• 2009

Kaolinite was synthesized from amorphous $SiO_2$ and $Al(OH)_3{\cdot}xH_{2}O$ as starting materials by hydrothermal reaction conducted at $250^{\circ}C$ and $30\;kg/cm^2$. The acidity of the solution was adjusted at pH 2. The synthesized kaolinite was characterized by XRD, IR, NMR, FE-SEM, TEM and EDS to clarify the formational process according to the reaction time from 2 to 36 hours. X-ray diffraction patterns showed after 2 h of reaction time, the starting material amorphous $Al(OH)_3{\cdot}xH_{2}O$ transformed to boehmite (AlOOH) and after the reaction time 5 h, the peaks of boehmite were observed to be absent thereby indicating the crystal structure is partially destructed. Kaolinite formation was identified in the product obtained after 10 h of reaction and the peak intensity of kaolinite increased further with reaction time. The results of TGA and DTA revealed that the principal feature of kaolinite trace are well resolved. TGA results showed 13 wt% amount of weight loss and DTA analysis showed that exothermic peak of boehmite observed at $258^{\circ}C$ was decreased gradually and after 10 h of reaction time, it was disappeared. After 5 h of the reaction time, the exothermicpeak of transformation to spinel phase was observed and the peak intensiy increased with reaction time. The results of FT-IR suggested a highly ordered kaolinite was obtained after 36 hours of reaction. It was identified by the characteristic hydroxide group bands positioned at 3,696, 3670, 3653 and $3620\;cm^{-1}$. The development of the hydroxyl stretching between 3696 and $3620\;cm^{-1}$, depends on the degree of order and crystalline perfection. TEM results showed that after 15 h reaction time, curved platy kaolinite was observed as growing of (001) plane and after 36 h, the morphology of synthetic kaolinite exhibited platy crystal with partial polygonal outlines.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.51 no.4
• /
• pp.337-342
• /
• 2009

The feasibility of reutilization of magnesium ammonium phosphate (MAP) or struvite slurry recovered from the process through microwave irradiation was studied in this experiment. For this purpose, 4 different operations were performed with or without Mg source addition and different levels of MAP recycled in a batch reactor. Dissolution rate of MAP, ${NH_4}^+$ elimination pattern and physicochemical changes of MAP during microwave irradiation were also studied. The result showed that only 33% orthophosphate ($PO_4-P$) and 27% $NH_4-N$ removal occurred without adding any external Mg source (run A), whereas 87% $PO_4-P$ and 40% $NH_4-N$ removed when 1.0 M ratio of $MgCl_2$ (run B) was added based on $PO_4-P$ in influent. Although the addition of 1.0 molar ratio of microwave irradiated MAP (Run C) removed lower $PO_4-P$ and $NH_4-N$ than 1.0 M $MgCl_2$ (run B), $PO_4-P$ removal was double when compared with no Mg addition (run A). Addition of half MAP and half $MgCl_2$ (run D) showed the similar removal efficiency (88% $PO_4-P$ and 35% $NH_4-N$) with sole $MgCl_2$ addition (run B). Based on these results, the reutilization of MAP irradiated by microwave would be a feasible way to enhance the removal efficiencies of N and P, as well as curtail the Mg chemical usage. Track study showed that $NH_4-N$ gradually increased at initial stage of microwave irradiation of MAP, and then started eliminating from liquor as temperature increased over $45^{\circ}C$. Dissolution rate of ${PO_4}^{-3}$ during microwave irradiation was proportional to the initial MAP concentration, having $0.0091x^{0.6373}$ mg/sec. It was found from the scanning electron microscope (SEM) study that physical structure of MAP crystal started breaking down into small cube granules within very short time by electromagnetic vibration force during microwave irradiation and then gradually melted down into solution.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.174-181
• /
• 2005

Purpose: Reduction of respiratory motion artifacts in PET images was studied using respiratory-gated PET (RGPET) with moving phantom. Especially a method of generating simulated helical CT images from 4D-CT datasets was developed and applied to a respiratory specific RGPET images for more accurate attenuation correction. Materials and Methods: Using a motion phantom with periodicity of 6 seconds and linear motion amplitude of 26 mm, PET/CT (Discovery ST: GEMS) scans with and without respiratory gating were obtained for one syringe and two vials with each volume of 3, 10, and 30 ml respectively. RPM (Real-Time Position Management, Varian) was used for tracking motion during PET/CT scanning. Ten datasets of RGPET and 4D-CT corresponding to every 10% phase intervals were acquired. from the positions, sizes, and uptake values of each subject on the resultant phase specific PET and CT datasets, the correlations between motion artifacts in PET and CT images and the size of motion relative to the size of subject were analyzed. Results: The center positions of three vials in RGPET and 4D-CT agree well with the actual position within the estimated error. However, volumes of subjects in non-gated PET images increase proportional to relative motion size and were overestimated as much as 250% when the motion amplitude was increased two times larger than the size of the subject. On the contrary, the corresponding maximal uptake value was reduced to about 50%. Conclusion: RGPET is demonstrated to remove respiratory motion artifacts in PET imaging, and moreover, more precise image fusion and more accurate attenuation correction is possible by combining with 4D-CT.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.237-251
• /
• 2011

This study presents a review on the recent climate change over the Korean peninsula, which has experienced a significant change due to the human-induced global warming more strongly than other regions. The recent measurement of carbon dioxide concentrations over the Korean peninsula shows a faster rise than the global average, and the increasing trend in surface temperature over this region is much larger than the global mean trend. Recent observational studies reporting the weakened cold extremes and intensified warm extremes over the region support consistently the increase of mean temperature. Surface vegetation greenness in spring has also progressed relatively more quickly. Summer precipitation over the Korean peninsula has increased by about 15% since 1990 compared to the previous period. This was mainly due to an increase in August. On the other hand, a slight decrease in the precipitation (about 5%) during Changma period (rainy season of the East Asian summer monsoon), was observed. The heavy rainfall amounts exhibit an increasing trend particularly since the late 1970s, and a consecutive dry-day has also increased primarily over the southern area. This indicates that the duration of precipitation events has shortened, while their intensity became stronger. During the past decades, there have been more stronger typhoons affecting the Korean peninsula with landing more preferentially over the southeastern area. Meanwhile, the urbanization effect is likely to contribute to the rapid warming, explaining about 28% of total temperature increase during the past 55 years. The impact of El Nino on seasonal climate over the Korean peninsula has been well established - winter [summer] temperatures was generally higher [lower] than normal, and summer rainfall tends to increase during El-Nino years. It is suggested that more frequent occurrence of the 'central-Pacific El-Nino' during recent decades may have induced warmer summer and fall over the Korean peninsula. In short, detection and attribution studies provided fundamental information that needed to construct more reliable projections of future climate changes, and therefore more comprehensive researches are required for better understanding of past climate variations.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.569-578
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study was to clarify the palatal arch length, width and height in the primary and permanent dentition. Samples were consisted of normal occlusions both in the primary dentition(50 males and 50 females) and in the permanent dentition(50 males and 50 females). With their upper plaster casts were used and through 3-dimensional laser scanning(3D Scanner, DS4060, LDI, U.S.A.), cloud data, polygonization, section curve and loft surface, fit and horizontal plane were based to measure the palatal arch length, width and height(Surfacer 10.0, Imageware, U.S.A.). T-tests were applied for the statistical analyze of the data. The results were as follows : 1. In the measurement values, the values of the male were higher than those of the female except primary anterior palatal height. There were not only statistically significant differences in anterior palatal width(p<0.05) and posterior palatal width(p<0.01) in primary dentition but palatal width(p<0.05), anterior palatal length(p<0.01), middle and posterior palatal length(p<0.05) in permanent dentition between male and female. 2. In the indices of palate, there were statistically significant differences in height-length index(p<0.05) and width-length index(p<0.01) between male and female in primary dentition. In permanent dentition, there was statistically difference between male and female. 3. In the measurement values, posterior palatal width was increased most greatly. Posterior palatal height, anterior palatal width and anterior palatal length were followed by descending order. On the other hand, anterior palatal height and posterior palatal length were decreased. 4. In the indices of palate, the height-length index, the width-length index and posterior height-width index were increased, but the others were decreased.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.806-814
• /
• 1997

The incidence, type and distribution of polyneuropathy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were assessed and also analyzed the causative factors. Forty-four patients, mean age 66.1 years (42 male, 2 female), have been investigated with arterial gas analysis, pulmonary function test, clinical and electrodiagnostic studies. None of them had conditions known to affect the peripheral nervous system such as metabolic disorders or drugs. In a selected group of 44 patients, electrophysiological findings of polyneuropathy were found in 22 patients(50%), clinical polyneuropathy were diagnosed in 13 patients(9 patients were diagnosed by electrophysiological studies, 4 patients were normal by electrophysiological studies). These findings indicate that subclinical polyneuropathy(13 patients, 30%) more commonly occurs than clinical polyneuropathy(9 patients, 20%) in associated with COPD. In the patients with polyneuropathy, the lesions were predominant axonal degeneration, the changes were more involved in leg than arm, more frequently affected sensory fibers. We could not find etiologic factor to cause polyneuropathy in COPD patients.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.51 no.7
• /
• pp.713-721
• /
• 2008

Purpose : This study aims to describe the clinical characteristics of severe meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS) which required mechanical ventilation over 48 h and to delineate the progress of respiratory failure and radiographic findings in severe MAS. Methods : Twelve infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital diagnosed with severe MAS from January 2004 to July 2007 were analyzed retrospectively. Results : The presence of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) is the only independently significant risk factor for a longer hospital stay and longer duration of mechanical ventilation. Surfactant replacement therapy (SRT) was not randomized but only performed in infants with radiographic findings for respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). In the presence of radiographic findings for RDS, the duration of high-frequency oscillatory ventilation was significantly longer. PPHN developed in 8 infants (75%). The PPHN group had a significantly longer duration of mechanical ventilation. All infants who received SRT showed radiographic improvement within 12 h, but there was no significant change in the severity score during the same period. Infants without the PPHN complications showed significant decrease in the severity score within 12 h after SRT, whereas infants with PPHN complications did not. Conclusion : The clinical course of severe MAS differed significantly depending on the development of PPHN. SRT conferred radiographic improvement in infants who showed radiographic findings for RDS, but did not influence the clinical course of MAS significantly.