• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.324-332
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• 2016

Objectives: The annual average of PM10 in Seoul was $45{\mu}/m^3$, which surpasses the WHO annual guidelines ($20{\mu}/m^3$). Most previous analyses of the effects of PM exposure have been retrospective studies using single hospital data, and fewer studies have attempted to address the relationship of PM10 and hospital costs. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of the concentration of PM10 on hospital visits, admissions and hospital costs in patients with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Methods: Medical data from the National Health Insurance Service and the monthly average of PM10 from National Institute of Environmental Research were used to identify the effects of PM10 on hospital visits, admissions and hospital costs. We applied Poisson regression and linear regression to perform the analysis. Results: The relative risks for admissions per $10{\mu}/m^3$ increase in PM10 were 23.11%, 10.2% and 6.9% increases for acute bronchiolitis, asthma and bronchitis, respectively. The relative risk for hospital visits per $10{\mu}/m^3$ increase in PM10 were 10.4%, 6.7% and 5.9% for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and chronic sinusitis, respectively. For cardiovascular disease, the relative risk for admissions per $10{\mu}/m^3$ increase in PM10 were 2.2% and 2.1% increases in angina and acute myocardial infarction, respectively. A $10{\mu}/m^3$ increase in the monthly average of PM10 corresponded to 170,723,000 won (95% CI: 125,587,000-215,860,000 won), 123,636,000 won (95% CI: 47,784,000-199,487,000 won) and 78,571,000 won (95% CI: 29,062,000-128,081,000 won) increases in hospital costs for asthma, acute tonsillitis and chronic sinusitis, respectively. Conclusion: Hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular disease were associated with PM10 levels. PM10 exposure is also associated with increased costs for respiratory diseases.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.47-55
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• 2016

Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate recent clinical studies on the effect of acupuncture on sore throat. Methods Based on the PubMed search with the key search terms of 'sore throat, acupuncture', dated from 1992 to 2015, 7 controlled trials and 8 case series was found, and were analyzed for this study. Results 1. The most commonly used acupoints were Quchi (LI11), and Hegu (LI4). 2. The most commonly used meridians were The Lung Meridian of Hand-Taiyin and The Large Intestine Meridian of Hand-Yangming. 3. Acupuncture treatment was effective for both acute and chronic sore throat. 4. More clinical studies are needed to prove the effectiveness of the acupuncture on sore throat. To be more objective on the study results, we can measure temperature drops on or amount of analgesic consumption for sore throat after acupuncture treatment.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.191-195
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• 2006

Infectious mononucleosis(IM) is a clinical syndrome characterized by fever, exudative tonsillitis, gerneralized lymphadenopathy(90% of cases), splenomegaly(50% of cases), and hepatomegaly(10% of cases). It is mainly caused by Epstein-Barr virus(EBV) and usually recovered completely in the majority of cases. The complications of IM are splenic rupture, pancreatitis, hematologic problems such as hemolytic anemia, aplastic anemia, and thrombocytopenia, neurologic problems such as meningitis, encephalitis, and Guillian-Barr$\acute{e}$ syndrome, myocarditis, parotitis, orchitis, and interstitial pneumonitis, etc. Pulmonary involvement with EBV infection is rare condition reported frequency of 3% to 5%, in addition pleural effusion has been very rarely reported, especially in the pediatric population. We herein report a case of IM with pleural effusion in 3 years old boy with fever, cervical lymphnodes enlargement, and hepato-splenomegaly. And the pleural effusion is spontaneously resolved for a hospitalization period. A brief review of literature is included.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.37-46
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• 2021

Objective : This study aims to examine the effectiveness and safety of herbal medicines in upper respiratory tract infection by conducting systematic review against amoxicillin. Methods : Relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published by December 2020 were searched in PubMED database. Study selection was conducted according to the PRISMA guideline. The Risk of Bias of the RCTs were evaluated based on the Cochrane criteria. Study selection and bias assessment were conducted independently by two researchers, and the third party was involved if there is a disagreement. Results : Three RCTs were included. Meta-analysis was not performed due to different specific disease and outcome measurements among the included studies. Herbal medicine showed statistically significant improvement in symptoms and endoscopic findings compared to amoxicillin in acute rhinosinusitis. In addition, herbal medicine showed statistically significant improvement in symptoms and a smaller dose of additional antibiotics in acute tonsillitis. However, herbal medicine showed no significant effects compared to amoxicillin in chronic sinusitis patients after functional endoscopic sinus surgery. In terms of adverse events, no significant difference was observed between the herbal medicine group and the amoxicillin group in all studies. Conclusion : Herbal medicine might be more effective than amoxicillin in the treatment of upper respiratory tract infection. Nevertheless, it is hard to clear that conclusion due to the fact that the collected studies were conducted on different specific diseases and herbal medicine, and that the included studies had flaws in the research methodology.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.491-497
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• 2007

Hyeonggaeyeongyo-tang (HYT; Jingjielianqiao-tang), is known to be effective in lowering wind-heat blended as a pathogen of kidney. HYT has been traditionally used for the treatment of a syndrome in kidney meridian, due to invasion of pathogenic wind and heat. Nowadays, this prescription is used to treat diseases marked by excessive wind and heat in the kidney meridian, such as acute otitis media, empyema, hypertrophic rhinitis, nasal bleeding, nasal obstruction, acne and tonsillitis. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of HYT on the regulatory mechanism of cytokines and nitric oxide (NO) for the immunological activities in Raw 264.7 cells. After the treatment of HYT water extract, cell viability was measured by MTT assay, NO production was monitored by measuring the nitrite content in culture medium. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2_ and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) were determined by immunoblot analysis, and levels of cytokine were analyzed by sandwich immunoassays. The production of No was significantly inhibited by pre-treatment (1h) with HYT(0.1-0.3 mg/ml) on LPS-activated Raw264.7 cells. The expression of iNOS and COX-2 protein were up-regulated by LPS, but the increased levels of iNOS and COX-2 were inhibited by pre-treatment of HYT (0.3-1.0 mg/ml), respectively. And the level of interleukin-6 (IL-6), cytokine released from macrophage, was reduced by HYT pre-treatment (0.3-1.0 mg/ml). Thus, the present data suggest that HYT may play an important role in adjunctive therapy in Gram-negative bacterial infections.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.118-134
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• 2010

Objective: Yang Geouk San Hwa - Tang (YGSHT) has been widely used in Sasang Constitutional Medicine of Korea for treatment of acute inflammatory symptom, such as palatine tonsillitis, polydipsia, headache, papule, pimple however, the mechanism of its anti-inflammatory activity has not been clarified. In this study, therefore, we investigated the mechanism of the inhibitory effect of YGSHT on LPS-induced inflammation. Materials and methods: The effect of YGSHT was analyzed by ELISA, RT-PCR and Western blotting in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. Results: We found that YGSHT suppressed not only the production of pre-inflammatory cytokines (IL-$1{\beta}$ and TNF-$\alpha$), the generation of nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E (PGE)2, but also the mRNA expression of pre-inflammatory cytokines, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2. Furthermore, YGSHT was shown to inhibit the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and JNK1/2 and the activation and translocation of NF-kB from cytosol to nuclear in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. Conclusions: These results suggest that YGSHT exerts an anti-inflammatory effect through the regulation of the ERK1/2 and JNK1/2 pathway and NF-kB pathway, thereby decreasing production of pre-inflammatory cytokines, NO, and PGE2.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.277-287
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• 2004

I have come to next conclusions in consequence of documentary study about medical books of many generations regarding venesection therapy. 1. Venesection therapy is much used for five sensory organ disease. Besides that internal disease, pain paralysis disease of muscle and joints, sugical disease, disease of woman and children, fever sunstroke CVA emergency case follow that in the order of frequency of use. 2. It is used for swollen tongue, eye pain, pharyngitis, swelling and pain in the throat, bleeding from the eye ear nose mouth or subcutaneous tissue, tonsillitis, aphthae and so on in the five sensory organ disease. Focus, sosang, jinjin yuye, taiyang, baihui are used for five sensory organ disease in the order of frequency of use. 3. It is used for malaria, headache, precordial pain, head-wind, abdominal colic, diseases characterized by acute diarrhea and vomiting, and so on in the Internal disease. Superficial venules and lymph vessesls, taiyang, quze are used for Internal disease in the order of frequency of use. 4. It is used for low back pain, hypochondriac pain, numbness, knee pain, tinea pedis, red swelling pain of hand and arm, flaccidity-syndrome, and so on in the pain paralysis disease of muscle and joints. Weizhong, superficial venules and lymph vessesls, Ashi point, zhigou are used for pain paralysis disease of muscle and joints in the order of frequency of use. 5. It is used for furuncle, tinea capitis, and so on in the sugical disease. Focus, weizhong are used for sugical disease in the order of frequency of use. 6. It is used for inflammatory disease with redness of skin, and so on in the disease of woman and children. Focus, weizhong, yanglingquan, yaoshu, sanyinjiao are used for disease of woman and children in the order of frequency of use. 7. It is used for fever, CVA, sunstroke, cadaverous coma, common cold, and so on in the fever sunstroke CVA emergency case. Sosang, weizhong, chize are used for fever sunstroke CVA emergency case in the order of frequency of use. 8. The urinary bladder channel of foot-taiyang is most used. Next there are the du channel, the stomach channel of foot-yangming, the lung channel of hand-taiyin, the gall baldder channel of foot-shaoyang, the triple-warmer channel of hand-shaoyang, the large intestine channel of hand-yangming, the spleen channel of foot-taiyin, the kidney channel of foot-shaoyin the pericardium channel of hand-jueyin the liver channel of foot-jueyin, the ren channel, the heart channel of hand-shaoyin, the small intestine channel of hand-taiyang in the order of frequency in use. 9. Superficial venules and lymph vessesls, focus, five shu points, extra-point, back point are used in the venesection therapy, those are characteristic of locating an acupuncture point.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.481-489
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• 2005

Lonicerae Flos has antibacterial effects against Staphylococcus aureus, streptococci, pneumococci, Bacillus dysenterii, Salmonella typhi, and paratyphoid. It is an antiviral agent. The herb has a cytoprotective effect against $CCl_{4}-induced$ hepatic injury. It has antilipemic action, interfering with lipid absorption from the gut. Nowadays this herb is used mainly in the treatment of upper respiratory infections, such as tonsillitis and acute laryngitis. It is also used in the treatment of skin suppurations, such as carbuncles, and to treat viral conjunctivitis, influenza, pneumonia, and mastitis. Lonicerae Flos is dried flower buds of Lonicera japonica, L. hypoglauca, L. confusa, or L. dasystyla. But, for the most part, we use whole plant of Lonicera japonica, as a flower bud of it. And, little is known of the original copy of effects of whole plant, except for the 'Bon-Cho-Gang-Mok', which is written the effects of flower of Lonicera japonica are equal to effects of leaves and branch of it. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica on the regulatory mechanism of cytokines, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase (COX-2) for the immunological activities in Raw 264.7 cells. In Raw 264.7 cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to mimic inflammation, flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica water extracts inhibited nitric oxide production in a dose-dependent manner and abrogated iNOS and COX-2. Flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica water extract did not affect on cell viability. To investigate the mechanism by which flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica water extract inhibits iNOS and COX-2 gene expression, we examined the on phosphorylation of inhibitor ${\kappa}B{\alpha}$ and assessed production of $TNF-{\alpha}$, $interleukin-1{\beta}$ $(IL-1{\beta})$ and interleukin-6 (IL-6). Results provided evidence that flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica inhibited the production of $IL-1{\beta}$, IL-6 and activated the phosphorylation of inhibitor ${\kappa}B{\alpha}$ in Raw 264.7 cells activated with LPS. These findings suggest that flower and whole plant of Lonicera japonica can produce anti-inflammatory effect, which may play a role in adjunctive therapy in Gram-negative bacterial infections, respectively.