• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.15-21
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• 2009

Hearing loss is one of the most common birth defects among infants. Most of hearing-impaired children are not diagnosed until 1 to 3 years of age - which is too late for the critical period (6 month) for normal speech and language development. If a hearing impairment is identified and treated in its early stage, child's speech and language skills could be comparable to his or her normal-hearing peers. For these reasons, hearing screening at birth and throughout childhood is extremely important. ABR (Auditory brain-stem response) is nowadays one of the most reliable diagnostic tools in the early detection of hearing impairment. In this study, we have developed the system that automatically detects if there is hearing impairment or not for infants or children. For future studies, it will be developed as a portable system to be able to take a measurement not only in sound proof room but also in nursery for neonates.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.158-162
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• 2010

Purpose : Turner syndrome (TS) is a disorder in which various anomalies can be accompanied, especially cardiovascular, renal, thyroid and auditory problems. The aim of this study is to identify the incidence of these disorders in patients with TS according to karyotype. Methods : We reviewed medical records of 90 patients with TS diagnosed by chromosomal analysis in 4 hospitals from Jan 1998 to Dec 2007. We evaluated these cases by prepared protocol of 4 medical problems.Results : The distribution of karyotype was 45,X (47.8%), mosaic pattern (34.4%) and structural aberration group (17.8%). Renal anomalies, cardiovascular anomalies, thyroid disorders and auditory problems are accompanied in 4.4%, 10.0 %, 11.1% and 5.6%, respectively. 45,X group had renal anomalies (7.0%), cardiovascular anomalies (18.6%), thyroid disorders (9.3%) and auditory problems (11.6%). Mosaic group had renal anomalies (3.2%), thyroid disorders (12.9%), no cardiovascular anomalies and auditory problems. Structural aberration group had cardiovascular anomalies (6.3%), thyroid disorders (12.5%) and no other 2 problems. Patients with 45,X group had a significant higher incidence of cardiovascular anomalies (P =0.025). Conclusion : Our results indicate that there are differences clinically according to karyotype of TS, especially in incidence of cardiovascular anomalies.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.366-373
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• 2017

Urinalysis is considered to be easier and simpler than other tests. It has been known to cause no burden to patients, while offering important information on diagnosing, treating, and determining the prognoses of kidney and urinary tract diseases. Urinary sediments are usually performed by microscopic examination of centrifuged urine by technologist. The guidelines proposed by the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service are actually different from those actually practiced by medical institutions and taught to biomedical students in textbooks. Therefore, we verified whether different sediment preparation methods lead different test results. Specimens that tested positive from the occult blood and leukocyte esterase in the urine dipstick test were randomly selected for a microscopic examination. The differences in the urine sediment preparation affected the sediment concentrations, which influenced the cell grade and cell number per HPF. The first factor in determining the sediment concentration is the centrifugal force. Many medical institutions use 1,500 rpm as the centrifugal speed without considering the radius of the centrifuge; such a value may not be accurate for 400 G. Consequently, there were differences in urine concentrations, which influenced the results. The second factor is the amount of sediment in urine. Different amounts of the remaining supernatant led to different sediment concentration factors, again, causing different results. Furthermore, not only by using a pipette to obtain an accurate amount as stipulated, but also by roughly obtaining a drop, the microscopic examination using such a volume of sediment examined affected the results. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of standardization of urine sediment preparation procedures to promote consistency and accuracy across institutions.

• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.154-162
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• 1999

The laryngopharyngectomy for tumor ablation is the most common indication for pharyngoesophageal reconstruction in our country. Most of these cases are advanced laryngeal cancer that has spread beyond the larynx, pharynx and cervical esophagus. Such patients are obviously unable to breathe, swallow, or speak in the normal manner. The ideal reconstruction would restore normal anatomy, permitting patients to breathe and swallow without aspiration, and would not require a permanent tracheostomy. Reconstruction of the pharyngoesophageal defect traditionally been carried out with tubed local random flap, deltopectoral or musculocutaneous flap. Another approach is the pedicled enteric flap. But microsurgical reconstruction of the pharyngoesophagus, using either the free jejunal or the tubed radial forearm flap, have now become the preferred technique. Among them, we used jejunal free flap in 39 cases, tubed radial forearm free flap in 5 cases, patched radial forearm free flap in 2 cases and pectoralis major myocutaneous island flap in 2 cases from December 1990 to Febrary 1999. In this paper we illustrated that both forearm and jejunal free flap is a usful alternative in reconstruction of hypopharynx and cervical esophagus.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.18-27
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• 2020

The correct distinction of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and ccarbapenemase producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) and the rapid detection of CPE are important for instituting the correct treatment and management of clinical infections. Screening protocols are mainly based on cultures of rectal swab specimens on selective media followed by phenotypic tests to confirm a carbapenem-hydrolyzing activity, the rapid carbapenem inactivation method, lateral flow immunoassay, the matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight test and molecular methods. The CPE is accurate for detection, and is essential for the clinical treatment and prevention of infections. A variety of phenotypic methods and gene-based methods are available for the rapid detection of carbapenemases, and these are expected to be routinely used in clinical microbiology laboratories. Therefore, to control the spread of carbapenemase, many laboratories around the world will need to use reliable, fast, high efficiency, simple and low cost methods. Optimal effects in patient applications would require rapid testing of CRE to provide reproducible support for antimicrobial management interventions or the treatment by various types of clinicians. For the optimal test method, it is necessary to combine complementary test methods to discriminate between various resistant bacterial species and to discover the genetic diversity of various types of carbapenemase for arriving at the best infection control strategy.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.239-243
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• 2010

Even though clinical use DRE, PSA and TRUS for screening while diagnosing prostate cancer early, however, we cannot achieve to diagnose it accurately by one method. Thus, mutual supplements are strongly required in diagnosis. It means that we should identify relationship between prostate volume and serum PSA under different ages for better diagnosis. The subjects(405 men) visited the department of diagnostic radiology in a general university hospital from January 2008 to December 2008, who was going to take the prostatic evaluation by TRUS. 13 men, who did definite diagnosis of prostate cancer before through biopsy, were excluded in this study. All data were expressed as mean and standard deviations by using SPSS 14.0 package programs and were analyzed by using one-way ANOVA to evaluate the effect of different ages. And Scheffe Post hoc comparison is accomplished in order to make significant difference in prostate volume, PSA and PSAD according to ages. Pearson correlation was used for ages, prostate volume, PSA and PSAD. According to examination, the subjects' prostate volume and serum PSA level increase as person's age. We can see significant difference between group over 70 years and group from 40 and 50 years. Moreover, age, prostate volume and serum PSA have significant positive correlation. Even though we can get variations in serum PSA level by changing prostate volume according to ages, it is worthwhile to mention that more strong association for prostate volume is observed than ages in elevation of serum PSA. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to consider prostate volume weightly when it comes to evaluate for men with elevated PSA level. Finally, TRUS is an excellent extra equipment to diagnose prostate cancer because it can contribute to early diagnose and pertinent treatment of prostate cancer.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.645-652
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• 2019

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has the infamous distinction of being the leading cause of global cancer-related death over the past decade, and novel molecular targets are urgently required to change this status. We previously conducted a microarray analysis to investigate the association of transcription factor activating enhancer-binding protein 2C (TFAP2C) with NSCLC and revealed its oncogenic roles in NSCLC development. In this study, to identify new biomarkers for NSCLC, we focused on several oncogenes from the microarray analysis that are transcriptionally regulated by TFAP2C. Here, the cell division cycle 20 (CDC20) and tribbles pseudokinase 3 (TRIB3) were subsequently found as potential potent oncogenes as they are positively regulated by TFAP2C. The results showed that the mRNA and protein levels of CDC20 and TRIB3 were down-regulated in two NSCLC cell lines (NCI-H292 and NCI-H838), which were treated with TFAP2C siRNA, and that the overexpression of either CDC20 or TRIB3 was responsible for promoting cell viability in both NSCLC cell lines. In addition, apoptotic levels of NCI-H292 and NCI-H838 cells treated with TFAP2C siRNA were found to be suppressed by the overexpression of either CDC20 or TRIB3. Together, these results suggest that CDC20 and TRIB3 are positively related to NSCLC tumorigenesis and that they should be considered as potential prognostic markers for developing an NSCLC therapy.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.351-359
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• 2019

Neurocognitive testing commonly uses the MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination) to evaluate the overall cognitive function of patients at outpatient clinics, but the MMSE has recently been extensively used in the SNSB II (Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery II) for making diagnoses. We retrospectively investigated the results of routine neurocognitive tests and the results of the blood tests of 120 elderly patients who had been referred to a South Central Medical Center from 2017 to 2018 and who had been examined at a public health center. These subjects' space-time capability was high on the sub-region of the global deterioration scale (GDS). GDS showed a significant increase as the Na decreased on the electrolyte analysis. The subjects' concentration, their language-based orientation for space and time, their memory, and their scores for the frontal lobe function on GDS showed statistically significant reductions (P<0.001) For the normal and abnormal groups according to the ALT and creatinine levels, the frontal/execute function areas showed statistically significant differences (P<0.001) as well as negative correlation between GDS and ALT (P<0.01). In conclusion, this study provides basic information to develop test items that are important for patient screening and diagnosis, and several routine blood chemistry factors provide basic information for diagnosing and assessing the status and progress of cognitively impaired patients.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.227-236
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• 2018

This study was conducted to define hippocampal volume differences between a stress-laid group and normal individual group via meta-analysis. This investigation included studies that contained hippocampal volume measurements in association with stress from 1990 to 2016. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements of hippocampal volumes were used to determine the mean size, standard deviation and sample size. The pooled effect size was measured by the standardized mean difference (SMD) with a 95% confidence interval. This meta-analysis included 13 studies comprising 374 stress subjects and 439 normal subjects. Eight studies targeted war-related veterans and holocaust survivors, while five targeted personal trauma associated with childhood abuse, rape, accident or financial hardship. The overall mean effect size (Hedges' g) was -0.70 (-1.04; -0.37). Overall, the SMD value was -0.70, with a moderate effect size, but high heterogeneity. Depending on the characteristics of the stressor, studies were divided by subgroups of war-related veterans and subjects with personal trauma and then analyzed again. In the war-related subgroup, the Hedges' g was -0.47 (-0.78; -0.16), while in the personal stressor-related subgroup it was -0.91 (-1.57; -0.26). These results indicate that there was a significant negative correlation between psychological stress and hippocampal volume.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.46-53
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• 2022

Objectives : This study aimed to assess the possible association of dental pain with suicidal ideation among adolescents by analysing data from the 2018 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a nationwide online survey. Methods : Of 62,823 adolescent middle and high school students in Korea, 60,040 participants were selected for analysis, after excluding cases with missing values. Participants were given a questionnaire about their self-evaluation of health including dental pain and suicidal ideation. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated the relationships between dental pain and suicidal ideation after controlling for potential confounding factors. Results : The proportion of Korean adolescents reporting suicidal ideation was 13.3%. The proportion of adolescents who experienced dental pain was 23.4%. Compared to adolescents who did not report dental pain, adolescents who reported experiencing dental pain were significantly more likely to experience suicidal ideation (OR=1.94, p<0.001). In two multivariate models, the relationships between dental pain and suicidal ideation (AOR=1.24, p<0.001) were statistically significant. Conclusions : Dental pain was associated with increased risk of suicidal ideation among Korean adolescents, even when controlling for sociodemographic factors and other health conditions. It is necessary to consider screening adolescent patients who present with dental pain for suicidal ideation.